Reprinted (Indonesia) Wang Hong
At that time, the pioneers of the Chinese people, the sages went south to Indonesia, overcame all kinds of difficulties and hardships, made a simple and thrifty entrepreneurship and livelihood, painstakingly operated alone, and promoted the all-round development of Indonesia with various specialties and established a city. Engaging in grass-roots construction, imparting all kinds of handicrafts, planting rice and sugarcane, intensive cultivation, and helping Indonesia's economic and social development are really indispensable, which can be described as singing and weeping, and there are countless people who have left a name in history, which is remembrant. Here is an example: under the ruling system of the Dutch colonial government's East India Company, Batavia (formerly known as Jakarta) was the first to serve as the first "Chinese Kapitan" Su Minggang in Indonesia at that time. At the age of fourteen, he traveled south to Indonesia from Fujian.
Modern Jakarta city
According to the 1939 edition of the "Overview of the Dutch East Indies", the "Modern History of Indonesia" by Wang Renshu, the first ambassador of the Chinese ambassador to Indonesia, the "Chronicle of People" published by indonesian Chinese culture as a historical data collection center, the Indonesian historical sociologist Da Si Naka and the relevant Dutch expert Pi Huding, the Indonesian historical sociologist Da Nash Naka and the relevant Dutch expert Pi Huding, etc., the Indonesian historical sociologist Da Nash Naka and the relevant Dutch expert Pi Huding are summarized as follows.
Su Minggang was born in 1580 (8th year of the Ming Wanli calendar), a native of Tong'an, Fujian (now Tong'an District, Xiamen), and according to Su Minggang's epitaph, he was "brilliant in heaven, rarely has long-term ambitions, can write long, and is good at martial arts". Around 1604, when he was only 14 years old, he and a few friends went to Haikou, Xiamen, and traveled south to Indonesia to reach the most prosperous harbor town in West Java at that time (more than 100 kilometers west of Jakarta, the seat of the Sultanate of Banten at that time), and the Chinese who had come and gathered there to cultivate and dig water conservancy projects such as drainage ditches.
Later, with sincerity and credibility, hard work and thrift, and Phi Xing Dai Yue business, gradually succeeded in his career, not only by the local Chinese trust and support, but also for the Sultan King is very important, famous, many Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spanish merchants have come to trade with him, at that time the export of popular pepper and other spices native products. He owns an extensive pepper garden and has another relative in the city of Genta near Semarang to buy products. Therefore, everything is in short supply. In addition, he was in contact with his younger brother Su Zhenshuang in China, who traveled between Indonesia and Chinese mainland and Taiwan on ships laden with local spices. Banten Harbour was thus bustling, thriving and prosperous.
In view of the above, both the Sultan of Banten and the Dutch East India Company agreed that Su Minggang could bring profit and prosperity to its controlled area. Therefore, it has become the object of vigorous struggle and co-optation by both sides, and has made many efforts and persevered in this regard. The Sultan of Banten even issued an order prohibiting the Chinese from leaving the area under his control.
Street view of the old town of Jakarta
At the beginning of 1619, the Dutch East India Company sent a large army to try to capture Batavia, but the military forces of Prince Chayakarda stubbornly resisted, but they could not succeed, so on May 30 of that year, they carried out a scorched earth strategy to conquer it, resulting in the evacuation of various ethnic groups in Batavia and the relocation of them to the small towns within the borders of other countries. In order to rebuild this dead city, which had become a scarred and ruined city, the Dutch governor at that time, Yan Pi de Sunkun, wanted to borrow Su Minggang's appeal and prestige to win over the Chinese to help.
The Dutch colonialists did not deviate from their true colors and carried out their ruling strategies, and formulated and implemented various harsh policies, such as not allowing the Chinese to build properties in the coastal areas, and ordering the demolition and relocation of their former residents, which made the Chinese extremely resentful and dissatisfied, and took various boycott actions, and when they reached the peak, they boycotted and traded with the Dutch side, and even the shoemakers supported them with practical actions and refused to repair the shoes and boots for the Dutch army.
In the spirit of the long-established good relations, Su Minggang and several Chinese sages advised Governor Yan Peterson Kun. It is called for the elimination of the above-mentioned irrational and harsh administration. Despite his chagrin, the Governor also moderately relaxed various regulations to improve the unfriendly attitude of the Chinese. Received assistance and support from the Chinese in the construction of various parties. In addition, he also painstakingly persuaded Su Minggang to support him, calling on Chinese people, including Chinese workers, to leave Banten and rebuild Batavia, and to shelter and resettle the unemployed vagrants displaced by the scorched earth strategy. For the sake of long-term interests and for the sake of Becoming an important metropolis in Batavia, Su Minggang successfully called on more than 200 Indonesian Chinese craftsmen and technicians, and later recruited more than 2,000 Chinese workers to cross Batavia in Guangdong and Fujian, China (another source said 4,000), and finally after they worked hard, they initially completed the urban infrastructure in the east and west districts of Jakarta, such as roads, government office buildings, canals, flow pipes and castles. After the completion of the construction, the Dutch colonists named it Batavia after their national names, the Chinese began to call it Baguo, and later changed its name to Bacheng, while Guangzhou, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and other Chinese coastal residents did not have a good livelihood, in order to make a living, they "went over" to Batavia, where the Number of Chinese people increased dramatically from hundreds to thousands. After Indonesia's independence in 1945, the city was used as its capital and changed its original name to Jakarta.
In order to praise Su Minggang's merits and to manage chinese affairs more effectively through him, Viceroy Yan Piderson Kun proposed to the Central Royal Government of the Netherlands to reuse Su Minggang. On October 11, 1619, about six months after the Dutch conquest and rule of Batavia, Su Minggang was promoted to "Chinese Lieutenant Colonel", and in 1625 he was promoted to "Chinese Captain Quasi-Commander JiaBidan". He was then officially appointed as the "Chinese Kapitan" in 1628. Not only did he become Batavia and even the first "Chinese Kapitan" (overseas Chinese leader) living in the East Indies (Indonesia) of the Dutch colony.
For the first time, "Chinese Kapitan" benefits the Indian and Chinese people
At the same time, Su Minggang also served as the chairman of the overseas Chinese organization "Baguo Gongtang". He used these two functions to deal with the Dutch rulers, did his best to lighten the burden on the Chinese, safeguard the interests of the Chinese, solve problems for the overseas Chinese, handle all kinds of large and small affairs, resolve disputes and trial lawsuits for the Chinese, and also handle difficult issues such as the aftermath and inheritance of the ancestors of the overseas Chinese who were far away from their homeland. During his term of office, he successfully persuaded the Dutch colonial side to gradually relax a number of policies and regulations on the treatment of Chinese, improve the living environment and health care conditions of Chinese, etc., which won the love and support of overseas Chinese. In addition, he brought a large number of skilled carpenters, craftsmen and blacksmiths from China to smoothly rebuild and expand Batavia. In addition, the technology of cultivating rice and sugarcane was also passed on to local farmers, and the harvest increased dramatically, and the living standard was greatly improved, and even later Indonesia developed into one of the world's top two sugar producers. These are not exhaustive. A sentence is exactly as his epitaph inscription reads: "With Su Gongren's great phthalate strategy, he has circled among various nationalities, goodwill and peace, and believes in China and abroad." In other words, Su Minggang has indeed done a lot of useful work for the Chinese, and has also made a lot of contributions to Jakarta and the people. Without the assistance of Su Minggang and the Chinese, Batavia would never have been able to rebuild and prosper, nor would it have made great progress in all aspects of Jakarta's construction today.
Jakarta History Museum
It may be mentioned that Su Minggang himself owned 3-4 ships, opened several blockages, a copper coin establishment, and supervised the chinese trade in local products and pounds, and also supervised the construction of the official residences of Dutch officials. As a result, he became the first construction engineer. Of course, most of the above-mentioned functional opportunities were due to close contacts with Governor Yan Peterson Kun and "the first to get the moon near the water".
In 1628, when Sudanese Argonne attacked Batavia after the Battle of Batavia, both the Sultan of Banten and the Dutch side requested assistance and support from Su Minggang. Because he has always maintained good relations with the above two parties, Su Minggang is in a dilemma, and he has always been indifferent to his political stance and the principle of focusing on handling Chinese affairs, so he resolutely refused the requests made by the above two parties.
On June 3, 1636, Su Minggang resigned from the chinese Kabidan and went to develop business in Taiwan under the Dutch occupation at that time, according to another source, it was also to obtain the persuasion and request of Yan Peterson Kun to help the subordinates, because of the internal turmoil and political turmoil of the Dutch East India Company, Su Minggang's "mission" and business competition did not obtain huge profits, and finally withdrew from the business there and returned to Batavia in 1639. During his time in Taiwan before his departure, he left a vacancy in his position, promoted by another selected personnel of the Dutch East India Company, who also lived and operated in Banten and had already converted to Islam, named Lin Lu (known as Lin Lu Ge in Dutch sources), who succeeded him (1636-1639) as the second Chinese Kabidan of Batavia.
Beiji mourned the construction of a grand cemetery
Su Minggang died on April 8, 1644, in a luxurious residence on Batavia Digrahe Street (now Post Street, Jakarta). His death not only deeply mourned the Chinese people in the city, but also expressed their deep condolences to the Dutch government. The parties specially performed a generous funeral ceremony for him, and thousands of people carried out coffins to deliver his funeral, and accompanied him through the last part of his life to the final resting place in a vast green forest full of coconut trees, now known as the Mangkaduya region, which was given to him earlier by the Dutch government.
The mausoleum building of Su Minggang took more than two months to complete, and its scale was more than 500 years ago, which can be called the most magnificent and gorgeous at that time. From the side of the road to build a trail passage, and named Su Minggang Lane, that is, today's Jakarta Prince Street, Daluna Lane entrance stands the "Su Minggang Cemetery" archway, surrounded by green coconut groves, is indeed extraordinary, from the beginning of the construction to 1940 years, has always been very well protected, from time to time or every Qingming Festival, there are endless people with reverence to hang, incense sacrifice. Su's mausoleum was completed in 1644 and rebuilt by the young paternal church chairman Xu Jin'an in 1929.
When Suharto's "New Order" government came to power, Kayari Shadikin, the first governor of the Jakarta Capital Region, protected the historic mausoleum by erecting special signs prohibiting anyone from violating and destroying it. Sadly, after the resignation of Governor Ari Shadikin, the cemetery has been occupied by many large and small illegal wooden bamboo houses, and even a crude wooden house has been built on the mausoleum, and the wooden ladder upstairs has crossed the only remaining granite tombstone with the epitaph engraved in Chinese and Dutch on both sides. Because the authorities concerned have paid no attention at all. By 2003, the surrounding 200-square-meter cemetery had been covered with dense illegal buildings, the entire cemetery had disappeared without a trace, and the tombs of overseas Chinese ancestors who had established great achievements had disappeared.
Seeing that the sages were so humiliated, several professors who taught Daruma Naikala University and learned people from all walks of life were indignant! Although they are not descendants of the Su clan, they also feel responsible. It just so happened that Xiong Deyi, the then chairman of the Indonesian Association of Hundred Families, was also very concerned about this matter, and the two sides agreed to visit the site and work together to try to make this historic mausoleum come back to light.
Efforts were made to restore the mausoleum
Modern Jakarta city centre
"That's the tomb of your ancestors of the previous generation!" Why not take care of it and fix it? KRT.HENDARMINSUSILO, who always heard his words and felt compassion for it, set up the Su Minggang Foundation. On the other hand, the most enthusiastic concern on this issue is the IR.HENDRALUKITO, a professor at Daruma Naikala University, who is also the most active in going around collecting information and publishing it in the press, seeking supporters and collaborators. Suddenly remembering that Su Xianming, a student who had just established the su clan association advisor, contacted it and obtained support, and under his needle and lead arrangement, met with Su Shenghui, chairman of the Su clan Jakarta branch, and Su Yongfa, chairman of the Medan branch. After everyone sat down, the descendants of the Su clan were of course obligated and immediately agreed to join hands to prepare for the restoration of the Su Minggang Mausoleum.
After the meeting of the Preparatory Committee decided to establish an enlarged Su Minggang Foundation, it was tentatively decided that the founders were Xiong Deyi, Lai Yonggui, director of the Indonesian Hundred Family Names, Master Zhan Shi Diwan, Su Yongyou, Su Shenghui, Su Zhong, Su Xianming, Su Jinfeng, Su Shixian, Daruma Naikara University, Dashi Naka, Dr. Lu Fuquan, Zhong Chengkang, Zeng De'ao, Yang Xiuzhen, member of the Council of the Coconut Special Administrative Region, archaeologists Mundarzhido and Ma Na Nadi, and others. Sadisson also expressed his willingness to serve as a consultant.
Earlier, Hantec Anderson and Yu Fuquan had raised Rp 50 million (2002) when they were working hard, and later Su Yongfa donated Rp 250 million. On March 23, 2006, the above-mentioned proceeds were used as a demolition of the illegal wooden house building on the tomb of Su Minggang, and later, under the sponsorship of all walks of life, the second phase of the demolition work was carried out on January 25, 2007.
After several reorganizations and replacement of the substitute party by the directors of the organization, and the proximity of the township mayor and the illegal households of the cemetery to negotiate, except for a few particularly "cattle" residents, the relevant parties generally gave good and accurate response and assistance. The relevant foundation hopes that people from all walks of life will give positive support such as spiritual and material support, complete the restoration project at an early date, and develop into a tourist resort with historical value.
Family affairs are confusing
May be added, is there any descendant of Su Minggang in Indonesia? Unknown, it is still a confusing and unclear question. There is almost no mention of all the relevant information mentioned above, while other sources, such as the relevant writings of the Jakarta Compass Daily, state that Su Minggang has two wives of Heli women who gave birth to two boys for him. In addition, the Chinese-american published monthly Jakarta Operational Dynamics, as mentioned above vaguely refers to Hen SuSilo as a descendant of Su Minggang, as well as the Jakarta Media Daily, which also publishes the exterior of the Su family's descendants' homes when reporting on Jakarta's old history, including a brief introduction to Su Minggang. The most special thing is that in the list of supervisors of the Su Minggang Foundation, there have never been reports of his descendants' names. According to general speculation, since the death of Su Minggang, the noble glory and eminence of the Su family have also disappeared, the family road has declined, and the descendants have disappeared.
Su Minggang's ancestral home was Tong'an, Fujian, and was the main settlement of the Su surname into Fujian at the end of the Tang Dynasty, when Su Yi (also known as the Su Yi brothers), who was stationed in Gushi, Gwangju, Henan, was ordered to be the commander of the capital army and led the army into Fujian with wang Xu of the dynasty. Su Yi later settled in Yongfengli, Quan County, in present-day Tong'an District, Xiamen, and the surname of Xitong An Su was a descendant of Su Yi, almost without exception. Su Yi was the seventh grandson of Wu Zetian and Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. Su Gui's family of Shaanxi Wugong, the tomb of the "Duke of Xu Guo" is in the yangling development zone of present-day Shaanxi. From Su Gui to Su Wu in the Western Han Dynasty, Su Gui is the 25th grandson of Su Wu. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Su Wu on an envoy to the Xiongnu, he was detained in Beihai for 19 years, and after returning to the Han Dynasty, he was given the title of "Guannei Hou", and his tomb was in Longmen Village, Present-day Wugong County. And is Su Minggang indeed a descendant of Su Wu? There are no written records about Su Minggang in the local history and genealogy of southern Fujian, which have yet to be investigated and verified by Chinese and Indonesian Chinese and overseas Chinese historians.
Fujian Tong'an