Pirate Jeng Ju-Long 鄭芝龍 Was A Complex Character

Pirate Jeng Ju-Long 鄭芝龍 (1604-1661) inherited Lee Dan's pirate empire and became a godfather himself in 1625. Jeng was a genius of language and he had many other skills. Besides Mandarin, Jeng also mastered Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. He also played Spanish guitar. The Europeans called him Iquan because this was the name when Jeng was baptized with the Catholics religion.

The relationship between Dutch and Iquan was uneasy. They fought war in 1633 but without any win or loss on either side. Iquan agreed to give Dutch a port at Fu-Jou 福卅 in exchange of giving Iquan monopoly of sea-transportation between China and Taiwan.

During 1633 and 1635, there was a famine in China while the Dutch needed Chinese labor to develop her new colony. Iquan's fleet then transported Chinese laborers to Taiwan and made a good fortune himself.

These Chinese laborers were not human slaves because at the time the Dutch gave them great incentive to come to Taiwan to develop agriculture. However, Dutch squeezed them with hefty tax which resulted in Kuo Huei-I's 郭懷一 rebellion in 1652.


Iquan himself made a huge political gamble by accepting Ming emperor's invitation to become an Ming's minister while ending his pirate career. With his new minister position in the Ming's court, he took his Japanese wife 田川氏 (たがわ まつ) (1601-1646), and his oldest son Jeng Chung-Kung 鄭成功 or the Koxinga back to China and gave his son Chinese-style education. Iquan further expanded his naval fleet power by attacking other pirates who were not under his control.

As Ming's 明 government and troops got weaker and weaker when Ching's 清 troops advanced and took control huge territory from the Ming 明, Iquan betrayed Ming 明 and surrendered to the Ching 清. It was an irony. As Ching threw a big party accepting his surrender and as the banquet came to an end and as Iquan was isolated from his own troop, the Ching清 handcuffed Iquan and escorted Iquan to Peking. There, he was imprisoned for 22 years.

There was one thing Iquan finally did it right. He refused to persuade his son to surrender on Ching's 清 behalf. For that refusal, he was executed. At the execution, he finally made peace with himself and with his son.