| dc.description.abstract | The sea battles of 1683 at Peng-Hu Islands played a deciding role in
Qing-Zheng fighting. The Zheng regime demised right after the battles and the Qing
became consolidated in China and moved to the High Qing period. Liu Guoxuan, the
leader of Zheng’s naval force, and Shi Lang, the naval general of the Qing, mobilized
more than 400 ships with the naval forces about 40,000 men to engage in these two
major sea battles. The size and intensity of the sea battles were unprecedented in
Chinese history.
The Manchu people conquered China with the supremacy of their cavalry.
However, they could not gain any advantage in the fighting against Zheng’s navy.
They had been in stalemate for several decades. Later, the Qing government
employed Shi Lang, a former general of Zheng regime, to command the Qing navy.
Shi, with the effective use of military strategy, intelligence, psychological warfare,
and naval tactics, devastated the Zheng navy at Pescadores. The Zheng regime in
Taiwan could no longer resist the Qing and subsequently surrendered to the Qing. The
significance of the sea battles for the Qing Dynasty cannot be overlooked.
This thesis will approach this topic from the analysis of military strategies
based on the principle outlined by Sun Zi’s Art of War and by Clausewitz’s On War.
The first part of the thesis will analyze the military establishment and deployment of
the both sides. The following part will examine their fighting and the employments of
military strategies and tactics. The third part will analyze Shi Lang’s arrangements to
stabilize Taiwan after Zheng’s surrender. Finally, I shall discuss the major factors,
both of Zheng’s and Shilan’s, in determining the outcome of the war.
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