Liu Jinzhong

Overview

Liu Jinzhong was a military general in the early Qing Dynasty, a native of Liaoyang, originally serving under the Ming general Ma Degong. In the second year of the Shunzhi reign, he surrendered to the Qing in Wuhu with the army, and later served under the Prince of Jingnan, holding military positions in Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong. In the eighth year of the Kangxi reign, he was appointed General of Chaozhou. As a general commanding an entire garrison, and with Chaozhou situated in eastern Guangdong, close to Fujian, his position influenced the various factions' efforts to win him over during the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories. In the thirteenth year of the Kangxi reign, Geng Jingzhong raised an army in Fujian, and Liu Jinzhong contacted him, imprisoning officials in Chaozhou before turning against the Qing; later, he allied himself with Zheng Jing. The *Qing History Biographies* uses the pseudonym Zheng Jin, a variant of historical records concerning figures of the Zheng family; the main text uses the more common name Zheng Jing. The Rebellion of the Three Feudatories and the Zheng family were not the same organization; Liu Jinzhong's experiences of aligning himself with different forces should be chronologically distinguished. In the sixteenth year of the Kangxi reign, Liu Jinzhong returned to the Qing, and the court briefly reinstated his position in Chaozhou and appointed him General Who Subdues Rebels. He was later suspected of maintaining contact with Wu Sangui's forces, summoned to Beijing for trial, and ultimately executed for related cases. The "Biographies of Qing Dynasty Officials" categorizes him under specific political evaluations; this arrangement reflects the compiler's stance. The narrative allows for verification of the events, rather than simply replacing the biography with a derogatory term.