Shi Lang

Also known as Zun Hou

Shi Lang came from Jinjiang in Fujian and began as an officer under Zheng Zhilong, with whom he submitted to the Qing in 1646. When Zheng Chenggong held out on the coast and tried to win him back, Shi refused, was seized, and escaped, and Zheng had his father, brother killed. Fighting the Zheng forces for the Qing, he became admiral of Fujian in 1662, but his 1668 plan to invade Taiwan was shelved and he was kept in Beijing for over a decade. After Zheng Jing died in 1681, Li Guangdi recommended him and he returned as admiral; in the sixth month of 1683 he used the summer southerly winds to crush Liu Guoxuan's fleet at Penghu; two months later Zheng Keshuang surrendered. Shi was made Marquis Jinghai with hereditary rights. When some at court proposed abandoning Taiwan and moving its people to the mainland, he memorialized that the island must be kept and garrisoned. He died at his post in 1696 aged seventy-six and was named Xiangzhuang.