Nicholas Iquan Gaspard (aka 郑一官 aka 郑芝龙1604–1661), grandfather of Taiwan
This man was a
- Linguist and Portuguese to Chinese translator
- businessman
- Catholic
- Pirate
- Father of 1st King of Taiwan, Koxinga (郑成功)
- Admiral of Ming Dynasty
- Marquess of Qing Dynasty
- Defeated Dutch in Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the largest naval warfare between China and white man before Opium War
- A Quanzhou native like Lux the Veritas
Zheng was born in Nan'an, Fujian. He left home as a teenager, jumping aboard a merchant ship. Zheng went to Macau where his mother's brother lived (his uncle). He was baptized as a Catholic in Macau, receiving the Christian name Nicholas Iquan Gaspard.
Pirate and Admiral
His uncle asked him to take some cargo Nagasaki, Japan, where he met a rich old Min man named Li Dan, also known as "Captain China", who became his mentor and possible homosexual lover. Li Dan had close ties with the Europeans and he arranged for Zheng to work as an interpreter for the Dutch (Zheng spoke Portuguese which the Dutch could also speak). In 1622, when Dutch forces took over the Pescadores archipelago off the Taiwan Strait, Li Dan sent Zheng to the Pescadores to work with the Dutch as a translator in peace negotiations. Before leaving Japan he met and married a local woman named Tagawa Matsu. He impregnated her with Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga), leaving Japan before she gave birth in 1624. After Li died in 1623, Zheng acquired his fleet of ships.
After joining the Ming navy, Zheng and his wife resettled on an island off the coast of Fujian, where he operated a large armed pirate fleet of
over 800 ships along the coast from Japan to Vietnam.
He was appointed by the Chinese Imperial family as "Admiral of the Coastal Seas". In this capacity he defeated an alliance of Dutch East India Company vessels and junks under renegade Shibazhi pirate Liu Xiang (劉香) on October 22, 1633 in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay.
Ending
In 1646, Zheng decided to defect to the Manchus leaving the passes of Zhejiang unguarded, allowing Manchu forces to capture Fuzhou. As a result of the Manchu victory, Zheng was greatly rewarded and retired very wealthy. However, he would later be executed by the Qing government in 1661, as a result of his son's (Koxinga) continued resistance against the Qing regime.
Nicholas Iquans gave his son a large fleet of navy. His son conquer Taiwan by kicking the Dutch out. Without his son's Koxinga (郑成功), Taiwan will be white man land.
Without conquering Taiwan, Koxinga will be just another pirate like Wang Zhi or Xu Hai. The conquest of Taiwan make Koxinga a great hero in the history of China.
