An Introduction to Resources for the Study of Taiwan History

-90An Introduction to Resourcesfor the Study of Taiwan History Wang Shih-ch'ingWilliam M. Speidel Special Lecturer in Taiwan HistoryDirector Tamkang CollegeInter-University Program for Tamsui, TaiwanChinese Language Studies in Taipei When one examines the field of Taiwan history, the predominant impression is that there is an abundance of writings, primary and secondary, but that the quality of research so far has been highly uneven. On the one hand, scholarly production has been great in quantity; but on the other, many important problems have not been examined. As will be shown below, the quantity of scholarship lies primarily in Japanese work before 19U5 and Chinese efforts since then. In contrast , Western scholarship has been limited in amount, and unless wider interest is stimulated, this will continue to be the case. Geographical and historical reasons can be cited for not including Taiwan in the expansion of Western interest in Chinese history during the past generation. Being small and physically detached from the rest of China, Taiwan is easily ignored when scholars investigate the major problems of Chinese history. In addition, the political separation of the island from the mainstream of Chinese history during the past eighty years—first as a Japanese colony and then as the This essay is a revision and condensation of two papers prepared for the Conference on Taiwan History held at Asilomar, California in September 1972 under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, ^he two papers are Wang Shih-ch'ing J, -tf- ml· » "T'ai-wan shih-liao ti tiao-ch'a yü chieh-shao" ifr;^íJ?f(n|fl$Í*í-/fr^''Jí [An introduction to and an investigation of Taiwan historical materials] and William M. Speidel, "Ch'ing Taiwan: the State of the Field." Although both authors have contributed to this revision, Mr. Speidel is responsible for any errors. Mr. Wang has written the Chinese characters. -91seat of a government hostile to the communist revolution—has discouraged scholars in recent times from studying its past. It is unfortunate that the examination of Taiwan's history has been deterred by these and other factors because such study clearly can illuminate certain issues in Chinese history as well as modern Japanese history and the study of colonialism. In addition to a rich bibliography there are valuable human resources (scholars and descendants of important figures) that Western scholars have hardly begun to use, not to mention access to historic sites, a rare privilege for today's Western scholars of China. It is the hope of the authors that this presentation will encourage scholars to consider directing their attention 2 toward the study of Taiwan and the use of these materials . I. A Survey of Scholarship. A. Until 1895. Although references to Taiwan in Chinese writings reportedly date from the fifth century, the earliest primary source material was a personal travelogue, Tung-fan-chi ¡jt-^ gE, completed by Ch'en Ti j$K '%) in 1603. During the periods of control by the Dutch (l62l»-l662) and by the Cheng family (1662-I683) , little scholarship was attempted. What sources remain from those early periods will be discussed in Part II below. During the Ch'ing period most historical writing about Taiwan was included in local gazetteers. In addition to gazetteers of Fukien which included discussion of Taiwan, twenty-five gazetteers specifically concerned with Taiwan or a part of the island were produced during the time of Ch'ing control (l683-l895), the first one being T1 ai-wan fu-chih ¡%/tJh ,^- edited by Kao Kung-ch'ien iïj 4£ ?tl ln I692. Two hundred years later, the final one, T'ai-wan t'ung-chih **? 'ì ÌA. ifÄ ^???? , a legal authority at Kyoto University. The scope of this commission was extensive and included surveys of all the legal codes of the Ch'ing dynasty, the collection of legal case precedents, administrative regulations, edicts, stone inscriptions, official documents, old contracts, and ledgers. As a result of this compilation, several multi-volume collections were published, such as Rinji Taiwan fcyukan chosa hokoku sho f&S^^y^%j¡1HEÍ'ÍSÍ^'J^ » Taiwan shihg ¡??7F*?\ yfö , and several detailed studies of aborigine society.^ In 1922, the Governor-general's office establish^ a Committee for the...