Indeed. I don't know much Korean at all so it is more or less a rough translation by the English book author. In whatever correct translation it would come out as Holy or Spiritual Lake
Ming of the West, Koxinga Goes East
- Thread starter Malta
- Start date
Indeed. I don't know much Korean at all so it is more or less a rough translation by the English book author. In whatever correct translation it would come out as Holy or Spiritual Lake
Fall of the Ming!
The discovery of Yeguo may have been a great boon to a well managed state with clear priorities on how manage and make efficient use of its income in a modern economy. In certain parts of their history the Ming Dynasty did display these tendencies but all too fatefully the the state within eventually became rotten and corrupt. The silver so greedily imported from both their colonies and puppets in Though, not all of it can come to acts of man purely. There were of course the issue of over reliance on silver currency, the government was all too happy to get rid of its paper money almost entirely due to the almost choking amount of silver coming in. The problem with this eventually was the result of hyper inflation due to the fact that when exchanged enough overtime the silver coinage of the Ming literally rubbed down and out in worth. The expensive and lavish projects of the Ming court, more focused toward royal pleasures the. State efficiency was also a crucial factor of course. Though, not everything could be completely blamed on the Ming. Nature itself was eventually against them, with the effects of the Little Ice Age by the end of their reign in the 17th century they experienced famines, earthquakes and floods! Galore!
Not that the Jurchen tribes from Manchuria swept in with ease. Initial efforts by Nurhaci were met with resistance by Ming forces but even the massive manpower of the Ming were spread thin by outright rebellion in Shaanxi and Sichuan. With the successful capture of Beijing by the Shaanxi Warlord Li Zincheng the Emperor Chogzhen hanged himself in Nanjing and the border General Wu Sangi allied with Li Zincheng. Manchu forces would eventually manage to pass through the Great Wall and contest northern China. Divided between four different factions the power of the Ming in China were broken and the remnants fled southward to the arms of their greatest admiral and former pirate: Koxinga.
The discovery of Yeguo may have been a great boon to a well managed state with clear priorities on how manage and make efficient use of its income in a modern economy. In certain parts of their history the Ming Dynasty did display these tendencies but all too fatefully the the state within eventually became rotten and corrupt. The silver so greedily imported from both their colonies and puppets in Though, not all of it can come to acts of man purely. There were of course the issue of over reliance on silver currency, the government was all too happy to get rid of its paper money almost entirely due to the almost choking amount of silver coming in. The problem with this eventually was the result of hyper inflation due to the fact that when exchanged enough overtime the silver coinage of the Ming literally rubbed down and out in worth. The expensive and lavish projects of the Ming court, more focused toward royal pleasures the. State efficiency was also a crucial factor of course. Though, not everything could be completely blamed on the Ming. Nature itself was eventually against them, with the effects of the Little Ice Age by the end of their reign in the 17th century they experienced famines, earthquakes and floods! Galore!
Not that the Jurchen tribes from Manchuria swept in with ease. Initial efforts by Nurhaci were met with resistance by Ming forces but even the massive manpower of the Ming were spread thin by outright rebellion in Shaanxi and Sichuan. With the successful capture of Beijing by the Shaanxi Warlord Li Zincheng the Emperor Chogzhen hanged himself in Nanjing and the border General Wu Sangi allied with Li Zincheng. Manchu forces would eventually manage to pass through the Great Wall and contest northern China. Divided between four different factions the power of the Ming in China were broken and the remnants fled southward to the arms of their greatest admiral and former pirate: Koxinga.
Imperial Flight
With the North being overrun by rebels or barbarians the status of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be in the red as Ming forces were pushed southward in the wake of the capture of Beijing and the Suicide at Nanjing. Ming Court officials looking for an official leader to put up in the face of critical destabilization as officials and military leaders began to desert their ranks they quickly chose the Prince of Fu as the Huanggong Emperor upon his arrival to Nanjing in June of 1644. The Ming General Shi Kefa lead an initial movement of resistance to Li Zincheng but as their forces clashed around Suzhou the Manchu finally managed to break across the Great Wall and turn their forces against Ming remants and rebels in the North. With his position coming under rapid assault, Li Zincheng and Wu Sangi turned their forces to face them giving the Ming under Huangong space and time to begin moving military units around Nanjing and even go on the offensive against the rebels. It is said that the Ming government sent forth several diplomatic feelers to the Qing Manchus on the subject of co-opting against the various rebel groups in the North.
Whatever the outcome of that, Qing forces managed to decisively defeat Li Zincheng and begin a rapid advance to the south. When this news arrived the Emperor and his court fled southward toward Sichuan when the Emperor was captured and killed by bandits on the road out of Wuhu. Once more the Ming leadership was tossed in the air, leading the remaining Officials to put the Prince of Tang the Longwu Emperor on the throne. Longwu fled south to Fuzhou where for a time it was hoped that the famous pirate-admiral Zheng Zhilong would be able to defend the rugged and largely hard to pass coastline into Southern China. Unfortunately, rather then defend Longwu, he defected to the Qing instead. When news of this betrayal arrived the options of the Longwu Emperor had become decidedly grim in 1646. Luckily, the defector's son, Zheng Chenggong aka Koxinga, remained loyal to the Ming and managed to spirit Longwu away and further south. From there Koxinga would be able to launch attacks against Qing forces slowly advancing southward but he was unable to defend any new territories he managed to acquire through amphibious assaults. With more and more territory falling the Longwu Emperor and Koxinga eventually agreed that they would have to go much further abroad to take up the resistance.
Thus they looked to Yeguo.
In the timeframe of these events the Jin Family looked on in a state of refined detachment. While Koxinga had demanded aid to retake China from the Qing the Jin Family had only sent naval forces to assist Koxinga but never any large army contingents. From a logistical perspective this of course would have been impractical, but the tendency for Jin Jing the Governor-General to begin making use of the title "Prince of Ye" certainly points to a very purposeful lack of concern for Ming resistance in China. This was rather unsurprising. By this time frame the population of Da Yeguo had became largely self sufficient and increased on its own naturally, though certainly was receiving a fair share of refugees from China proper (which began to taper off once Qing officials began to seize or destroy all ocean traveling vessels in their ports). The Jin Family no longer sent their sons and daughters back to China to learn from the best teachers and endear themselves to Middle Kingdom's gentry or bureaucracy. By this time frame Da Yeguo was fully accepting the attitudes that Confucian officials had pushed on them:A land with no concern for the Middle Kingdom.
With the War for China lost, Koxinga and the Longwu Emperor and a large fleet of what remained of Ming Forces departed for Manila in the middle of 1660. It is said that apart of the fleet, Koxinga had recreated one of Zheng He's famous Treasure Ships to facilitate the transportation of so many people and goods. Their arrival in Manila was certainly seen with the greatest of alarms and even sparked a short lived panic that Koxinga had finally lived up to his threat of invading the city. Sabiniano Manrique de Lara the Governor-General of the Philippines fearing a revolt by the city's large Chinese population ordered a ill fated massacre of the population and for Longwu's emissaries to be rebuffed. This misunderstanding quickly lead to the Ming siege and seizure of Manila when they had only wanted to take on more supplies before their departure over-sea. The expenditures made by Koxinga in taking the city coupled with the new refugees from the city itself eventually forced him to abandon the territory, the refugees, and part of his army forces in the city once it was taken. Leading to one of the abandoned military officers to establish a short Chinese kingdom in the Philippines before a combination of the natives and Spanish and later Dutch destroyed them.
The reduced Ming fleet arrived off the coast of Da Yeguo in 1661 to the surprise of the Jin Family and many of the people. As the small fleet moved down the coast toward the Golden Gate the Jin Family tripped over themselves to provide a welcome for the Longwu Emperor and Koxinga.
With the North being overrun by rebels or barbarians the status of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be in the red as Ming forces were pushed southward in the wake of the capture of Beijing and the Suicide at Nanjing. Ming Court officials looking for an official leader to put up in the face of critical destabilization as officials and military leaders began to desert their ranks they quickly chose the Prince of Fu as the Huanggong Emperor upon his arrival to Nanjing in June of 1644. The Ming General Shi Kefa lead an initial movement of resistance to Li Zincheng but as their forces clashed around Suzhou the Manchu finally managed to break across the Great Wall and turn their forces against Ming remants and rebels in the North. With his position coming under rapid assault, Li Zincheng and Wu Sangi turned their forces to face them giving the Ming under Huangong space and time to begin moving military units around Nanjing and even go on the offensive against the rebels. It is said that the Ming government sent forth several diplomatic feelers to the Qing Manchus on the subject of co-opting against the various rebel groups in the North.
Whatever the outcome of that, Qing forces managed to decisively defeat Li Zincheng and begin a rapid advance to the south. When this news arrived the Emperor and his court fled southward toward Sichuan when the Emperor was captured and killed by bandits on the road out of Wuhu. Once more the Ming leadership was tossed in the air, leading the remaining Officials to put the Prince of Tang the Longwu Emperor on the throne. Longwu fled south to Fuzhou where for a time it was hoped that the famous pirate-admiral Zheng Zhilong would be able to defend the rugged and largely hard to pass coastline into Southern China. Unfortunately, rather then defend Longwu, he defected to the Qing instead. When news of this betrayal arrived the options of the Longwu Emperor had become decidedly grim in 1646. Luckily, the defector's son, Zheng Chenggong aka Koxinga, remained loyal to the Ming and managed to spirit Longwu away and further south. From there Koxinga would be able to launch attacks against Qing forces slowly advancing southward but he was unable to defend any new territories he managed to acquire through amphibious assaults. With more and more territory falling the Longwu Emperor and Koxinga eventually agreed that they would have to go much further abroad to take up the resistance.
Thus they looked to Yeguo.
In the timeframe of these events the Jin Family looked on in a state of refined detachment. While Koxinga had demanded aid to retake China from the Qing the Jin Family had only sent naval forces to assist Koxinga but never any large army contingents. From a logistical perspective this of course would have been impractical, but the tendency for Jin Jing the Governor-General to begin making use of the title "Prince of Ye" certainly points to a very purposeful lack of concern for Ming resistance in China. This was rather unsurprising. By this time frame the population of Da Yeguo had became largely self sufficient and increased on its own naturally, though certainly was receiving a fair share of refugees from China proper (which began to taper off once Qing officials began to seize or destroy all ocean traveling vessels in their ports). The Jin Family no longer sent their sons and daughters back to China to learn from the best teachers and endear themselves to Middle Kingdom's gentry or bureaucracy. By this time frame Da Yeguo was fully accepting the attitudes that Confucian officials had pushed on them:A land with no concern for the Middle Kingdom.
With the War for China lost, Koxinga and the Longwu Emperor and a large fleet of what remained of Ming Forces departed for Manila in the middle of 1660. It is said that apart of the fleet, Koxinga had recreated one of Zheng He's famous Treasure Ships to facilitate the transportation of so many people and goods. Their arrival in Manila was certainly seen with the greatest of alarms and even sparked a short lived panic that Koxinga had finally lived up to his threat of invading the city. Sabiniano Manrique de Lara the Governor-General of the Philippines fearing a revolt by the city's large Chinese population ordered a ill fated massacre of the population and for Longwu's emissaries to be rebuffed. This misunderstanding quickly lead to the Ming siege and seizure of Manila when they had only wanted to take on more supplies before their departure over-sea. The expenditures made by Koxinga in taking the city coupled with the new refugees from the city itself eventually forced him to abandon the territory, the refugees, and part of his army forces in the city once it was taken. Leading to one of the abandoned military officers to establish a short Chinese kingdom in the Philippines before a combination of the natives and Spanish and later Dutch destroyed them.
The reduced Ming fleet arrived off the coast of Da Yeguo in 1661 to the surprise of the Jin Family and many of the people. As the small fleet moved down the coast toward the Golden Gate the Jin Family tripped over themselves to provide a welcome for the Longwu Emperor and Koxinga.
Well. Since you asked nicely.
Democracy Spread Thin: The Socio-Political Development of the Gold Coast/Ye Guo
By Henry Lassiter
By the arrival of the last of the Ming in the Golden Gate City the small colony founded by Jin Ma had grown far and wide across a good portion of the North American continent. Koxinga and the Ming Emperor would soon find that the development of the American Chinese would be quite different from what they may have expected. The reason for this being the development of a American Chinese/American Asian or "Yeguo Person" thought among the people that would distinctly and very importantly put them at a distance on a growing level of national thought. That is to say a form of proto-nationalism that at this time frame was somewhat exsistent in other parts of the world but would still take centuries to develop into a more modern Nationalism as we know it.
Though before we go into what this would mean for a Chinese Emperor and his fleeing court we must discover the how and why did the American Chinese who had settled much of the Western half of the continent grow a separate national character. Anthropologists and historians alike would draw many similar parallels between the development in the Gold Coast and that of settlers on the Eastern Coast of the North American continent and elsewhere. Distant subjects do not make very good subjects to a distant monarch.
I propose that the mixture to this development had several key ingredients: the people, the government, the land, the past, and the present.
First, let us look at the kind of people that traveled across the Pacific Ocean to explore and settle down in what was undoubtedly a untamed and dangerous new land. Men and women like the founder Jin Ma were definitely without a doubt risk takers, it was hope and ambition that first lead Jin Ma astray across the the northern Pacific-desire to build his family's fortunes. Likewise it would be those willing to follow the lure of gold eastward when discoveries were made and it would take similar minded men and women to look for new sources of wealth. Granted, not everyone who traveled to the Gold Coast went so willingly, penal ships carrying malcontents and equally debtors was common but still these people do fit into the same mind set of desiring to be outside of the common rules of law and society.
The oppressed though are also a very common group of people who made their way to the Gold Coast. Fleeing either times of revolt or harsh rule under the Ming or for many Japanese fleeing the civil wars that wracked the island nation. The first Christian communities were founded by Japanese Christians who were driven out by extremist Buddhist/Shinto factions within Japanese society that had grown as a result of the civil war of the 16th century.
The second factor would also have to be the rule of government, first in the form of the rule of the governor-generalship of the Jin family and again in the ad hoc style establish on the ground as setters spread out. The powers granted to the Jin Family aided by the sheer distance, which I will also get into shortly, ensured that in the Gold Coast the ministers that spied and bothered for the Imperial Emperor would not be able to have the same degree of influence of control as they did in China. Here the Jin family found that the Imperial government simply did not care what they did and so they felt completely at ease at writing their own laws -very little consulting the Emperor or the Ministers- and kow towing only when necessary. Likewise the ability of the Jin Family to establish its own complete authority in the territories they administered were a mixed bag their efforts sluggish or half hearten which lead to widespread local leadership in the settlements that sprung up eastward. These communities were self-establishing and at first primarily catered to a defined ethnic set up before necessity eventually brought about a mixed and much more flexible social makeup on the dangerous frontier.
The third factor would be the land itself. The territory the American Chinese settled was immense, but interestingly much of their settlements were compact. Far flung towns and cities on the coast while marching into the interior the geography or mountains and deserts forced the settlers into the narrow confines of river valleys as they squeezed into the Central Valley and Qi Shi Valley, across the Hebi (Snake) Valley and around the Mojave toward the Rocky or Duohua Mountains. Settlements further south in the Southwest were sparse due to the blazing and discouraging terrain. Nonetheless this molded and stretched the people out, weakening the central authority and founding new authority, creating cross cultural ties, and completely new culture as they spun tales and stories of the land which was their homeland-more so then the even distant lands their ancestors had sprang from.
The fourth factor was the past in that they were very aware that their survival and "winning" of their land was very much due to their own blood, sweat, and tears. Where was the Ming Emperor when the Spanish attacked or the Maidu revolted? Where was the Ming when Red Fever spread like wild fire? Where was he when they built and carved their own lives across the landscape? No where. They were all too aware that the Ming Emperor was just some distant figure that in a practical sense they really didn't have much care for, some veneration yes but much too far away to really matter in their day to day lives.
Was the events of the present and soon to be future. At the stage of this budding national conscious the Ming Dynasty had completely lost the ancestral homeland to Manchu Invaders. Now they were coming like beggars to their doorstep, demanding rather then asking for aid. The first messages sent by Koxinga ahead of the Imperial arrival were of a rather abrasive tone and was not well accepted by the people on the street. In the years to come the opinion of the Ming Emperor would plummet like a stone dropped in the well leading to the final gasp of the Ming Dynasty across an ocean from where it had begun.
As a trained eye can see I advocate that it was very much the geography that had a major shaping to the development of culture among the American Chinese. I propose this is very similar to how desert societies create very tribal culture structures due to their harsh and sparseness of their environment or how temperate and agricultural rich regions are able to develop complex societies. The American continent has in essence always shaped the people who have arrived on her shores to rebel against foreign and distant rule...
Democracy Spread Thin: The Socio-Political Development of the Gold Coast/Ye Guo
By Henry Lassiter
By the arrival of the last of the Ming in the Golden Gate City the small colony founded by Jin Ma had grown far and wide across a good portion of the North American continent. Koxinga and the Ming Emperor would soon find that the development of the American Chinese would be quite different from what they may have expected. The reason for this being the development of a American Chinese/American Asian or "Yeguo Person" thought among the people that would distinctly and very importantly put them at a distance on a growing level of national thought. That is to say a form of proto-nationalism that at this time frame was somewhat exsistent in other parts of the world but would still take centuries to develop into a more modern Nationalism as we know it.
Though before we go into what this would mean for a Chinese Emperor and his fleeing court we must discover the how and why did the American Chinese who had settled much of the Western half of the continent grow a separate national character. Anthropologists and historians alike would draw many similar parallels between the development in the Gold Coast and that of settlers on the Eastern Coast of the North American continent and elsewhere. Distant subjects do not make very good subjects to a distant monarch.
I propose that the mixture to this development had several key ingredients: the people, the government, the land, the past, and the present.
First, let us look at the kind of people that traveled across the Pacific Ocean to explore and settle down in what was undoubtedly a untamed and dangerous new land. Men and women like the founder Jin Ma were definitely without a doubt risk takers, it was hope and ambition that first lead Jin Ma astray across the the northern Pacific-desire to build his family's fortunes. Likewise it would be those willing to follow the lure of gold eastward when discoveries were made and it would take similar minded men and women to look for new sources of wealth. Granted, not everyone who traveled to the Gold Coast went so willingly, penal ships carrying malcontents and equally debtors was common but still these people do fit into the same mind set of desiring to be outside of the common rules of law and society.
The oppressed though are also a very common group of people who made their way to the Gold Coast. Fleeing either times of revolt or harsh rule under the Ming or for many Japanese fleeing the civil wars that wracked the island nation. The first Christian communities were founded by Japanese Christians who were driven out by extremist Buddhist/Shinto factions within Japanese society that had grown as a result of the civil war of the 16th century.
The second factor would also have to be the rule of government, first in the form of the rule of the governor-generalship of the Jin family and again in the ad hoc style establish on the ground as setters spread out. The powers granted to the Jin Family aided by the sheer distance, which I will also get into shortly, ensured that in the Gold Coast the ministers that spied and bothered for the Imperial Emperor would not be able to have the same degree of influence of control as they did in China. Here the Jin family found that the Imperial government simply did not care what they did and so they felt completely at ease at writing their own laws -very little consulting the Emperor or the Ministers- and kow towing only when necessary. Likewise the ability of the Jin Family to establish its own complete authority in the territories they administered were a mixed bag their efforts sluggish or half hearten which lead to widespread local leadership in the settlements that sprung up eastward. These communities were self-establishing and at first primarily catered to a defined ethnic set up before necessity eventually brought about a mixed and much more flexible social makeup on the dangerous frontier.
The third factor would be the land itself. The territory the American Chinese settled was immense, but interestingly much of their settlements were compact. Far flung towns and cities on the coast while marching into the interior the geography or mountains and deserts forced the settlers into the narrow confines of river valleys as they squeezed into the Central Valley and Qi Shi Valley, across the Hebi (Snake) Valley and around the Mojave toward the Rocky or Duohua Mountains. Settlements further south in the Southwest were sparse due to the blazing and discouraging terrain. Nonetheless this molded and stretched the people out, weakening the central authority and founding new authority, creating cross cultural ties, and completely new culture as they spun tales and stories of the land which was their homeland-more so then the even distant lands their ancestors had sprang from.
The fourth factor was the past in that they were very aware that their survival and "winning" of their land was very much due to their own blood, sweat, and tears. Where was the Ming Emperor when the Spanish attacked or the Maidu revolted? Where was the Ming when Red Fever spread like wild fire? Where was he when they built and carved their own lives across the landscape? No where. They were all too aware that the Ming Emperor was just some distant figure that in a practical sense they really didn't have much care for, some veneration yes but much too far away to really matter in their day to day lives.
Was the events of the present and soon to be future. At the stage of this budding national conscious the Ming Dynasty had completely lost the ancestral homeland to Manchu Invaders. Now they were coming like beggars to their doorstep, demanding rather then asking for aid. The first messages sent by Koxinga ahead of the Imperial arrival were of a rather abrasive tone and was not well accepted by the people on the street. In the years to come the opinion of the Ming Emperor would plummet like a stone dropped in the well leading to the final gasp of the Ming Dynasty across an ocean from where it had begun.
As a trained eye can see I advocate that it was very much the geography that had a major shaping to the development of culture among the American Chinese. I propose this is very similar to how desert societies create very tribal culture structures due to their harsh and sparseness of their environment or how temperate and agricultural rich regions are able to develop complex societies. The American continent has in essence always shaped the people who have arrived on her shores to rebel against foreign and distant rule...
I hope you update this soon.
I like to see were this goes.
Will the U.S. still exist in this timeline or will it be something different?
I like to see were this goes.
Will the U.S. still exist in this timeline or will it be something different?
Last edited: