Zheng Keshuang
Last Prince of Yanping
Kingdom of Tungning
1670–1707
Zheng Keshuang, born in 1670 as the second son of Zheng Jing, was the third and final ruler of the Kingdom of Tungning and the last representative of the Zheng family's independent rule over Taiwan. His mother was Lady Huang, a formally recognized consort of Zheng Jing, in contrast to the irregular parentage of his elder brother Zheng Kezang. He was married while still a child to a daughter of the influential officer Feng Xifan, a bond that would prove decisive in the dynastic crisis of 1681. When his father Zheng Jing died in January 1681 and his elder brother Kezang assumed the throne, Feng Xifan and the royal clansmen quickly orchestrated a coup against Kezang and installed the twelve-year-old Keshuang in his place. He reigned as a figurehead under the regency of his father-in-law Feng Xifan and the senior commander Liu Guoxuan, with no independent authority over major policy. The court was fatally divided: Feng's faction insisted on continued resistance, while pragmatic officials began to weigh accommodation with the Qing. The Qing dynasty had meanwhile completed its consolidation of the mainland and, under the Kangxi Emperor, decided to settle the Tungning question by force. In July 1683 Liu Guoxuan's navy was destroyed by the Qing admiral Shi Lang at the Battle of Penghu, and most of the Tungning fleet was lost. With no military option remaining, Zheng Keshuang accepted the advice of his advisors and offered formal surrender to the Qing court in August 1683. The Qing court treated him generously, awarding him the hereditary noble title Duke of Haicheng and resettling him together with his family and senior officials in Beijing. He lived out the rest of his life in the Qing capital under court patronage and died there in 1707 at the age of 37. Zheng Keshuang is generally remembered not as an independent actor but as the boy-king whose surrender closed twenty-two years of Zheng family rule and inaugurated Taiwan's first incorporation into a Chinese imperial polity.
Surrendered Taiwan to the Qing dynasty (1683), ending the Kingdom of Tungning
Last Prince of Yanping
Zheng Keshuang
Era
Kingdom of Tungning
Lifespan
1670–1707
Zheng Keshuang, born in 1670 as the second son of Zheng Jing, was the third and final ruler of the Kingdom of Tungning and the last representative of the Zheng family's independent rule over Taiwan. His mother was Lady Huang, a formally recognized consort of Zheng Jing, in contrast to the irregular parentage of his elder brother Zheng Kezang. He was married while still a child to a daughter of the influential officer Feng Xifan, a bond that would prove decisive in the dynastic crisis of 1681. When his father Zheng Jing died in January 1681 and his elder brother Kezang assumed the throne, Feng Xifan and the royal clansmen quickly orchestrated a coup against Kezang and installed the twelve-year-old Keshuang in his place. He reigned as a figurehead under the regency of his father-in-law Feng Xifan and the senior commander Liu Guoxuan, with no independent authority over major policy. The court was fatally divided: Feng's faction insisted on continued resistance, while pragmatic officials began to weigh accommodation with the Qing. The Qing dynasty had meanwhile completed its consolidation of the mainland and, under the Kangxi Emperor, decided to settle the Tungning question by force. In July 1683 Liu Guoxuan's navy was destroyed by the Qing admiral Shi Lang at the Battle of Penghu, and most of the Tungning fleet was lost. With no military option remaining, Zheng Keshuang accepted the advice of his advisors and offered formal surrender to the Qing court in August 1683. The Qing court treated him generously, awarding him the hereditary noble title Duke of Haicheng and resettling him together with his family and senior officials in Beijing. He lived out the rest of his life in the Qing capital under court patronage and died there in 1707 at the age of 37. Zheng Keshuang is generally remembered not as an independent actor but as the boy-king whose surrender closed twenty-two years of Zheng family rule and inaugurated Taiwan's first incorporation into a Chinese imperial polity.
Surrendered Taiwan to the Qing dynasty (1683), ending the Kingdom of Tungning