Zheng Xin
Zheng Xin was a Chenghai man who founded the Thonburi dynasty in Siam. The Thais call him Phraya Taksin and honour him as King Taksin the Great. His father was a Chaoshan merchant who sailed south from Zhanglin on a red-headed junk.
Origins身世
Zheng Xin (1734–1782) was of Huafu village in Chenghai, in what is now Chenghai district, Shantou. His father Zheng Yong — one account gives Zheng Da — sailed from Zhanglin port to Siam in the early Yongzheng years to make a living, and married a Siamese woman. Zheng Xin was born in Siam, was taken in childhood as a foster son by a Siamese minister, and later entered palace service.
This much ties three things together: the shipping lane out of Zhanglin, the Chaoshan merchant network, and the politics of the Siamese court. He is not an isolated case but an extreme one thrown up by that lane.
Restoring the kingdom復國
In 1767 the Burmese army broke into Ayutthaya and the Ayutthaya kingdom ended. Zheng Xin cut his way out with his troops, gathered forces along the south-east coast, retook the capital the same year, and then made his capital at Thonburi and took the throne; the dynasty is named after it. In his reign he brought the rival powers under one hand and pushed outward, laying the ground for the territory the Bangkok dynasty would hold.
In 1782 a coup at Thonburi forced him to abdicate, and he died soon after. The same year the general Chakri founded the Bangkok dynasty as Rama I.
Today今日
Thailand honours him as King Taksin the Great; Bangkok has Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn, and 28 December is his memorial day. In Chaoshan his native village of Huafu in Chenghai lies in the same district as the old port of Zhanglin.
Two things to keep apart兩處要分清
The first is native place and birthplace: his ancestry is Chenghai, he was born in Siam. There is no contradiction, and neither fact cancels the other — being born in Thailand does not undo the Chenghai origin, and a Chenghai origin does not make him a Chaoshan birth.
The second is the source base. In Chinese the account rests largely on local historical writing and on studies of overseas migration; Thai and Western scholarship form a separate system. Only the plain facts are set out here, with no judgement, and a formal entry would need checking against the Thai material.
Related關聯
The lane is treated under Zhanglin port and the red-headed junks; the migration background under migration and qiaopi letters.
Sources來源
People’s Daily Overseas Edition, ‘Red-headed junks record the hardships and joys of Chaoshan merchants’, which carries the statement that Zheng Xin’s father Zheng Da sailed south from Zhanglin in the early Yongzheng years; dictionary entries on Thai history; local historical material from Chenghai.
Last revised: 5 November 2026
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