The Kingdom of Tungning or Dongning (東寧王國; pinyin: Dōngníng Wángguó ) was the first Han Chinese state to exist on Taiwan, between 1661 and 1683. The kingdom was founded as Tungtu / Dongdu by Koxinga, after the destruction of the Ming Dynasty by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Koxinga was a former pirate who styled himself as a Ming Dynasty loyalist; he hoped to marshal his troops on Taiwan and use it as a base to regain Mainland China for the Ming Dynasty. The kingdom was renamed to Tungning / Dongning in 1664.
History
In 1661, Koxinga led his troops to a landing at Lu'ermen to attack Taiwan. By the end of the year, he had expelled the Dutch, who had controlled Taiwan for the past 38 years. Koxinga proceeded to devote himself to building Taiwan into an effective base for anti-Qing sympathizers who wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty to power.
At the age of 39, Koxinga died of malaria, although speculations said that he died in a sudden fit of madness upon hearing the death of his father under the Qing. His son, Zheng Jing, succeeded him as the King of Taiwan.
For the next nineteen years, Zheng Jing tried to provide sufficiently for the local inhabitants and reorganize their military forces in Taiwan. Contact with the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty from the mainland through ambassadors was frequent. Under Qing pressure, Zheng Jing struggled to defend Xiamen, Quemoy and the Pescadores islands, which he had eventually lost over the years, mainly due to his minuscule forces which were insufficient to defend from the Qing. Zheng Jing committed suicide in 1681 in a battle with the Qing empire. His son, Zheng Ke-Shuang, succeeded him.
In 1683, Taiwan fell to Qing forces and was incorporated into the Qing Empire until 1895.
Legacy
The Kingdom of Tungning existed for just over 20 years, but due to its parallels to the current political status of Taiwan, it continues to hold great symbolic value.
After its defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Republic of China (ROC), led by the Kuomintang, retreated to Taiwan, leaving Mainland China to the newly established People's Republic of China (PRC). For the next several decades, the ROC was devoted to regaining the mainland, by maintaining island bases in close proximity to the mainland (e.g. Quemoy). Although the ROC has since democratized and is no longer singularly devoted to reconquering the mainland, the political and territorial arrangement has remained unchanged. In this respect, there is a striking parallel between the Qing/Koxinga situation and the current PRC/ROC situation.
The Kuomintang of the ROC have, unsurprisingly, focused on the goals of Koxinga, i.e. to use Taiwan as a base for restoring the rightful government to Mainland China. The PRC has generally focused on the fact that Koxinga gained Taiwan for the fatherland from Dutch colonialism for Chinese colonialism. Advocates of Taiwanese independence have, in turn, focused on the fact that the Kingdom of Tungning was the first independent Taiwanese state.
See also
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Tungning under GFDL
