T'ai-wan

The Chinese now call Formosa 臺灣 Tʻai-wan which is properly the name of the capital of the island, situated on the western coast. But Tʻai-wan is mentioned also in the Ming-shi as a place of Ki-lung-shan, where about A.D. 1620 the red-haired barbarians (the Dutch) settled.

The hilly topography restricts the cultivated area mainly to the valleys of the Hsi River and of its tributaries in Kuang-hsi and Kuang-tung and the lowlands of T'ai-wan and Hai-nan. Western T'ai-wan and the Hsi River delta have extremely high population densities.

In addition to SEADAG, I am also indebted to the University of Chicago, Committee on Far Eastern Studies, for supporting a year of additional language study in T'ai-wan and to the Inter-University Program for Chinese Languages Studies in T'ai-pei (administered by Stanford University) for round trip travel assistance to T'ai-wan.

Taiwan Province is abbreviated "T'ai" [0669]. It is situated in the sea in the southeastern part of the east China area, facing the Pacific Ocean to the east. In^([sic]) includes T'ai-wan Island, the Pescadores, the Tiao-yu Islands, Ch'in-wei Hsu [Islet], P'eng-chia Hsu, Lan Hsu, Huo-shao Island, and other ancillary islands and islets. It covers an area of 36,000 square kilometers, and has a population of 12,040,000. T'ai-wan Island is China's largest island.

The Beijing Review, 46, November 16, 1979, p. 17, reported a population of 975 million including T'ai-wan and describes programs designed to attain zero population growth by the year 2000.

This left Taels 379,000 and odd as the total to be collected under the three heads abov named, plus the amount of Taels 18,500 newly added as extra duty and lekin for the Prefecture of T’ai-wan (Formosa.)

CHINA PROPER was divided in the K'ang-hsî reign (1662-1722) into eighteen provinces ; from 1887 to 1895, when it was ceded to Japan, Formosa, detached from Fû-chien, was a separate province under the name of T'âi-wan ;[…]

In 1886, T’ai-wan 臺灣, known as Formosa, became a new province (ceded to Japan 1895-1945).

Consternation and despair seized the district, and great numbers of sectaries and their families flocked together for the defence of their hearths and homes. Ch'ai Ta-ki abandoned Chang-hwa, and retired into T'ai-wan 臺灣, the chief city of the island....The rapid success of the insurgents was party owing to the circumstance that the Formosa cities in those days were unwalled, and merely surrounded by fences of living bamboo, no masonry being proof against the earthquakes frequently occurring in the island. T'ai-wan, likewise protected by a bamboo fence, was harried both from the north and the south, but successfully defended by Ch'ai Ta-ki...He called back the population, but with these many insurgents swarmed in, surprised the town again on the 10th of the third month (Apr. 27), and drove Hoh Chwang-yiu back to T'ai-wan.

He chose Banka as the seat of his provincial government and named it T’ai-pei (Taipei) or the North of Taiwan. T’ai-wan fu was renamed T’ai-nan (Tainan) or the South of Taiwan.