A New Beginning: Koxinga

Culminating our series on Chinese national heroes, we tell the history-changing story of Zheng Chenggong, known in Western sources as "Koxinga," literally "Lord Imperial Surname." Born in 1624 to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father who happened to be the greatest pirate in the Pacific, Koxinga was just old enough to stand and be counted when, in 1644, the Ming Dynasty began collapsing all around him. With the Chongzhen Emperor dead in Beijing and the Manchu cavalry having breached ...