A military leader and political ruler of the late Ming and early Qing periods. Born in Hirado to Zheng Zhilong, a maritime trader and military leader from Fujian, China, and a Japanese woman of the Tagawa clan, he spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to China, where he studied at the Ming imperial academy. After the fall of the Ming regime in Beijing in 1644, he supported the Southern Ming regime and continued resistance against the Qing dynasty. He came to be known as "Koxinga" (Lord of the Imperial Surname) after being granted the imperial surname Zhu by the Longwu Emperor. In 1661, he launched an expedition to Taiwan and attacked the strongholds of the Dutch East India Company. After forcing Fort Zeelandia to surrender in 1662, he laid the foundation for the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan. Later that same year, he passed away while planning an expedition to the Spanish Philippines. He is a key figure spanning Taiwanese, Chinese, and Japanese history, and is remembered in Taiwan as a hero who brought an end to Dutch rule.

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