Ministers › Provincial Governors
Yao Qisheng
Shaoxing adventurer turned Qing governor-general of Fujian who drove the Zheng forces from Xiamen and Jinmen and supplied the 1683 conquest of Taiwan
A walled hilltop city with a tall brick gate tower stands above a pine-covered cliff, its wall running along the ridge, while a long wooden bridge crosses a wide river below and plains, islets and layered mountains stretch into the distance, with no person in view.
Also known as Zi Xizhi
Yao Qisheng, courtesy name Xizhi, came from Kuaiji in Zhejiang and was a student under the late Ming. Enrolled in the Chinese Bordered Red Banner, he came first in the banner provincial examination of 1663 and became magistrate of Xiangshan in Guangdong, but lost the post for breaching the sea ban. When Geng Jingzhong rebelled in 1674 he and his son Yao Yi raised volunteers for Prince Giyesu, and his service carried him from county magistrate to financial commissioner of Fujian. Appointed governor-general of Fujian in 1678, he ransomed more than twenty thousand captives with his own money, and in 1680 recovered Jinmen and Xiamen. After Zheng Jing's death he used bribes to sow division among the Zheng commanders, and in 1683, when Shi Lang took the Penghu islands and Zheng Keshuang surrendered, he ran the supply effort from Xiamen. He died of an abscess soon after returning to Fuzhou, and the emperor waived the repayment of overspent shipbuilding funds that the board demanded the following year.
Life and times
Dates 1621 CE–1683 CE (birth by another account 1623)