chapter 3 National Lineage Reinvented In the early 1940s, Nishikawa shifted his attention to Taiwanese history. From “The Red Fort” (Sekikanki 赤嵌記), which focused on the shifting fortunes of the family of Zheng Chenggong (郑成功 1624–1662), to Tale of the Dragon’s Pulse (Ryūmyaku ki 竜脈記) in which Nishikawa describes the difficulties that Liu Mingchuan (刘铭传 1836–1896), the first governor of the province of Taiwan, encountered during the Qing dynasty when he undertook the build- ing of a railway, to his Railway across Taiwan (Taiwan jūkan tetsudō 台湾縦貫 鉄道), which describes Japan’s railway construction after the colonists occu- pied Taiwan, Nishikawa’s works mainly took the form of novels about historical events in Taiwan.1 According to his biography, in 1941, entrusted by the colonial government, Nishikawa even started writing a new story exclusively on Zheng Chenggong.2 Why did history become important to him at this juncture, and to what extent was his identity further revealed in this shift in literary emphasis? Answers to these questions can be gained through a reading of “The Red Fort”, which is Nishikawa’s first attempt to explore Taiwanese history and colonial realities, and at the same time, his foray into historical fiction created to serve the real political propaganda of Japanese imperialism in the 1940s. “The Red Fort” was the author’s attempt to justify Japan’s colonisation of Taiwan and its further incursion into Southeast Asia. It demonstrated how local history was re-imagined as a part of Japanese history and how local history helped Nishikawa identify with the Japanese empire. “The Red Fort” and Rising Colonial Power “The Red Fort”, written in 1940, had been published in Nishikawa’s Literary Taiwan before it was compiled along with five other short stories into a book 1 Zheng Chenggong (1624–1662) was the national hero of the Ming defeat at the hands of the Manchu conquerors. He was the founder of Chinese hegemony in Taiwan. After Zheng Chenggong defeated the Dutch, he was addressed by the honorific title Kokusenya (国姓爺 Ch. Guoxingye), which is better known in the West as Koxinga or Coxinga. It literally means “Lord of the Imperial Surname”. It signifies the honour of being entitled to use the same sur- name as the nation. In this book, I use the English word Koxinga. 2 Kondō, “Xichuan Man zhaji (Shang),” 23. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi ��.��63/9789004�74���_005 national lineage reinvented 123 published in Tokyo in 1942. It narrates the experiences of Zheng Chenggong’s family. The scenario develops around the trip that the narrator, a famous Japa- nese writer, takes to the southern part of Taiwan. When the story begins, the writer is visiting the Red Fort where he encounters a young Taiwanese named Chen, who provides the writer with a detailed history of the site. In a bid to inspire the writer to write a novel on the Red Fort, Chen promises to take him to a pleasure house. In the evening, on his way to meet the young Taiwanese, the writer stops at a picture frame shop, which specialises in selling prints and paintings of old Taiwanese folktales. He is attracted by a painting of a couple, the daughter of Chen Yonghua (陈永华 1634–1680) and her husband Zheng Kezang (郑克藏 1664–1681). Zheng Kezang was the eldest son of Zheng Jing (郑经 1643–1682), who in turn was the eldest son of Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Kezang’s father-in- law, Chen Yonghua, was one of Zheng Jing’s most important ministers. How- ever, for certain superstitious reasons, the Japanese writer is refused outright when he expresses his wish to buy the painting, despite his offer of a great amount of money. The writer then proceeds to meet the young Taiwanese, who in the meantime has changed his mind and takes the Japanese writer to the home of a beautiful Taiwanese woman rather than to a pleasure house. Although there are language barriers between the Japanese writer and the young Taiwanese woman, he nevertheless has an enjoyable conversation with her about poetry, accompanied by tea served in an exotic setting. One of the poems the woman recites makes the writer recollect the painting he wanted to buy in the frame shop. Then, the Taiwanese pair tells him a very different version of the tale of Zheng Chenggong’s family. The conventional narrative of Zheng Kezang, the eldest grandson of Zheng Chenggong, is that he was an adopted son. However, the two locals insist that Zheng Kezang was murdered by his brother Zheng Keshuang (郑克爽 1669–1707), who had been corrupted by the easy life in Taiwan.3 Several days after the writer returns to Taipei, he receives from Chen a book titled Unofficial Record of Taiwan (Taiwan waiji 台湾外记), which contains a detailed description of the bloody struggle between the two grandsons, Zheng Kezang and Zheng Keshuang. After a thorough reading, the writer decides to pay an additional visit to Chen. However, mysteriously, he cannot find Chen’s house by following the address on the back of the package. Instead, he mistak- enly enters a temple in which the spirit tablets of Chen Yonghua and his wife 3 Zheng Keshuang was the younger son of Zheng Jing. He succeeded to power in 1681 and sur- rendered Taiwan to Qing in 1683, only two years later. .