Koxinga and Chinese Nationalism: History, Myth, and the Hero PDF
Preview Koxinga and Chinese Nationalism: History, Myth, and the Hero
HARVARD EAST ASIAN MONOGRAPHS 67 KOXINGA AND CHINESE NATIONALISM HISTORY, MYTH, AND THE HERO KOXINGA AND CHINESE NATIONALISM HISTORY, MYTH, AND THE HERO by Ralph C. Croizier Published by East Asian Research Center Harvard University Distributed by Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England 1977 ° Copyright, 1977, by The President and Fellows of Harvard College The East Asian Research Center at Harvard University adminis ters research projects designed to further scholarly understand ing of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Inner Asia, and adjacent areas. These studies have been assisted by grants from the Ford Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Croizier, Ralph C Koxinga and Chinese nationalism. (Harvard East Asian monographs ; 67) Bibliography: p. 99 Includes index. 1. Koxinga, 1624-1662. 2. Generals—China—Biography. 3. Taiwan—History. 4. Nationalism—China. I. Title. II. Series. DS753.6.K6C76 951’.249*030924 [B] 76-30404 ISBN 0-674-50566-2 CONTENTS PREFACE vii I. History, Myth and Nationalism 1 II. In Search of the Historical Koxinga 6 III. Myth, Model, and Archetype in the Traditional Chinese Hero 28 IV. The Nationalist Configuration 50 V. His Undisputed Legacy in a Divided China 63 VI. History and the Hero * 79 NOTES 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY 99 INDEX 111 ILLUSTRATIONS opposite page 1 following page 49 PREFACE This is a study of how the perception and manipuladon of histori cal symbols change in response to new historical circumstances. It is appropriate therefore to note how a particular set of historical circumstances of the last two decades—the availability of Taiwan as the only authentic Chinese cultural area open to foreign stu dents of Chinese history—shaped the origins of this study. Like others of my generation, my first direct exposure to a real China was in Taiwan, first as a graduate student in 1963- 1964, later as a professor (but still very much a student) in 1969- 1970. During the first stay my attention was initially drawn to Koxinga—but not so much to Koxinga as to how his image re flected changing perceptions of the foremost historical hero on Taiwan, and not so much to Taiwan as to how Taiwan rep resented and fit in with larger patterns in Chinese history. During my second stay I plunged into the questions of historical con sciousness and its modern uses which had distracted me from my thesis writing five years earlier. In a society so obviously undergo ing rapid socioeconomic change yet pervaded by historical sym bols and associations, some of which were obviously being ma nipulated for political ends, questions of historical continuity, na tional identity, and cultural change took on a poignancy and an immediacy lacking when studied in American university libraries. Whether my perception would have been substantially altered had I been living in that other Chinese society across the Taiwan Strait, I cannot say. Perhaps I would not have hit upon Koxinga as my subject for studying the transformation of historical symbols. But I think it will be clear from this study that I see Koxinga’s significance in much broader terms than just Taiwan, and that I believe that many of the same issues of historical consciousness are important in both Chinas. In other words, if the origin of this study was Taiwan, I hope it will go beyond Taiwanese history into Chinese history in general. The origins of this study also go back to two remarkable, but very different, teachers at the University of California. Joseph Levenson first sensitized me to problems of historical process, identity, and consciousness. Wolfram Eberhard helped show me how historical consciousness operates at the level of popular cul ture. My debt to both is incalculable. In addition, I was fortunate enough to have friends such as Laurence Schneider, who shares my taste for the ambiguides of historical symbols, and Frederic Wakeman, another connoisseur of historical ambiguides and also a bona fide seventeenth-century specialist. Both gave me very helpful readings of this study. Other friends and colleagues, notable Jack Wills, Andrew Nathan, and Sue Fawn Chung, provided advice and encouragement. I also am grateful to the University of California, Center for Chinese Studies, and especially Jo Pearson, for moral and clerical support and to the University of Rochester East Asian Center for similar help at an earlier stage. Finally, as my earlier paragraphs indicate, this study could not have taken its present shape without direct experience of a Chinese culture area. The Joint Committee on Contemporary and Republican China of the Social Science Research Council supported my research on Taiwan and Hong Kong in 1969-1970 and the East Asian Center of the University of Rochester enabled me to make a shorter follow-up trip in 1971. To all the above named individuals and institutions, and to countless unnamed faces and impressions on Taiwan, my deepest thanks. Ralph Croizier Rochester, New York June, 1975
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