Historical Evolution of Douliu from a Frontier Fortress to a City : Based on the Atlas of Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty

• Main Authors: WONG, CHONG-MING, 翁崇明
• Other Authors: CHEN, I-CHUN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/m8fhny

碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 文化資產維護系 === 106 === The historical atlases created during the Qing Dynasty regarding the cultural and geographical landscapes of Taiwan are of considerable informational value, with administrative and military boundaries and infrastructure, as well as the distribution streets, villages and communes, among other records of note. The consideration of a variety of historical atlases that follow different chronological axes can create a corpus of spatial information not easily found in historical sources of a literary nature. One can also use the literary descriptions and symbols found in historical atlases to further interrogate comparable historical sources. In short, the historical atlas is a source of compelling spatial data of historical importance. Accordingly, this study elicits spatial information from six atlases, including the Taiwan Atlas of Kangxi, the Taiwan Atlas of Qianlong, the Atlas of Taiwan Aborigines in the mid-Qianlong Era, the Map and commentary on prohibitions of agricultural regions in Taiwan, the Atlas of Guangxu with commentary: map of Chiayi, and the Complete Atlas of Guangxu: map of Yunlin County. The elicited spatial information in visual and literary formats are compared with the administrative files of the Ming and Qing Dynasties available from the Taiwan Historical Digital Library (THDL), as well as relevant gazetteers and literary accounts, in order to analyze the toponyms and administrative organizations of the Douliu region. The aim is to present a full picture of the Qing Dynasty’s political control of the Douliu region, including closer analyses on the administrative and military forces that dictated the development of the Douliu region, as well as the factors that caused the functions of settlements in the region to evolve. The result of this study is a full consideration of the long-term and multi-dimensional factors that contributed to Douliu’s attainment as the county seat in the late Qing Dynasty. This study finds that the types of atlas and the contents of the cartography were deeply affected by the policy of pacification dictated by the Qing Dynasty. From the interpretation of the selected atlases we can analyze how administration and military factors impact the historical development of the Douliu region under the Qing empire. Douliumen was situated at the midway point of the county seat of Chuluo County (Chuluoshan) and the county seat of Changhua County (Banxian). It was also the gateway to the northern indigenous territories in the interior mountains (Neishan). The importance of Douliumen’s geographical location becomes apparent through the lens of the Qing Dynasty's ethnic policy, as well as records of social unrest that occurred. Social unrest in particular led to heightened political control on this region by the imperial government. As a result, the attention and buildup of administrative and military infrastructure in the Douliu region intensified, and became an important background that spurred the development of local settlements. The evolutionary process of Douliu from a “Frontier Fortress” (xun) to a “city” (cheng) discussed in this study gives further support that the occurrence of settlements is determined by site, and the growth of settlements determined by position.