Chapter 5 Section 2 The foundation period of Taiwanese Han culture (Ming Zheng era)

In April 1661 (the 15th year of Yongli in the Ming Dynasty and the 18th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), Zheng Chenggong, a national hero, led 25,000 soldiers and landed in Luermen, Taiwan on 200 warships. He quickly defeated the Dutch army and occupied the city of Proventia. (now Chixian Building).As the news spread, the people of Taiwan cheered and rushed to welcome the righteous teacher from the mainland.The Dutch colonists were terrified and huddled in the city of Zeelandia (now Anping Castle) to resist stubbornly. On March 20, 1662 (the first day of February in the first year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty), the Dutch army, which had been trapped in an isolated city for a long time and had no foreign aid, abandoned the city and surrendered under the pressure of Zheng Jun's powerful offensive, and evacuated Taiwan with their tails between their legs.Taiwan returned to the embrace of the motherland.

After Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, he changed the name of Taiwan to "Dongdu" (after his son Zheng Jing succeeded to the throne, he renamed it "Dongning"), took Chixian City as "Mingjing", set up Chengtianfu, Wannian County on the south road, and Tianxing on the north road. The county was set up with officials and guards, and a pacification department was set up to govern Penghu. For the first time, a relatively complete political institution was established in Taiwan and Penghu. The Zheng regime abolished the "king land" in the Dutch colonial era, and established the feudal land ownership system of "official land", "private land" and "yingpan land", which promoted the feudal production relations throughout the island and promoted productivity. development of.He also promulgated the land reclamation regulations, implemented the policy of "combining soldiers in agriculture", and ordered the troops to go to various places. eleven).In Taiwan's wilderness, giant pythons are infested, miasma is prevalent, and the grass roots are several feet deep. Under extremely difficult conditions, the generals of Zheng's army overcame thorns and thorns, shed blood and sweat, fought tenaciously with nature, and reclaimed patches of fertile land.So far, there is a village called "Shaanxi Village" in Xiushui Township, Changhua County, Taiwan Province. More than 200 local residents are from Shaanxi. The native general named Ma Xin was ordered to lead Shaanxi soldiers here to carry out reclamation, forming a village and multiplying from generation to generation. In order to express their nostalgia for their hometown in the mainland, they called the village "Shaanxi Village".

In order to speed up the development of Baodao, the Zheng regime actively recruited coastal people from the mainland to emigrate to Taiwan.Tens of thousands of poor people in Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other provinces "returned with boats" and joined the army of reclamation, and large areas of wasteland and bushes "gradually became settlements".They also sent experienced farmers of the Han nationality to go deep into the aboriginal villages to teach the aborigines cattle farming techniques. Each village distributed a cattle, a pair of iron plows, and a pair of harrows to help them develop agricultural production.On the land that has been reclaimed, farmers are encouraged to build water conservancy projects, improve farming methods, and develop diversified operations, such as planting hemp, sugarcane, sugar, fish farming, drying salt, logging, burning tiles, etc.The level of agricultural production in Taiwan has been continuously improved, with abundant grain harvests year after year, more than self-sufficiency, and prosperity in various industries.

Zheng's regime also focused on the development of industry, commerce and foreign trade, "sold foreign island ships, loaded with deerskin and other things, went to Japan, made copper, Japanese swords, armor, and cast Yongli coins; sold Siam, Jiaozhi, etc. , Tokyo and other places are rich countries" (Jiang Risheng: "Taiwan Wai Ji" Volume 13).Due to the painstaking efforts of the Zheng regime, when the Qing Dynasty unified Taiwan 23 years later, the development of Taiwan had reached a considerable scale.According to data, in 1684 (the 23rd year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty), the area of ​​land reclaimed in Taiwan reached 18,450 square meters, covering from the point to the surface, from the north to the south of Tainan. In the past 30 years, the population of the Han nationality has increased to 150,000 to 200,000, which is two to three times that of the original Han nationality, and has surpassed the population of the indigenous population (about 100,000).At that time, the western plains of Taiwan and even the mid-mountain areas in the middle of Taiwan were already "fireworks connecting each other, opening up barren land, and making it rich." (Zha Jizuo: "Dongshan Mandarin·Taiwan Postscript")

Economic development has promoted the progress of cultural and educational undertakings. In 1665 (the fourth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty), Zheng Jing, the successor king, adopted Chen Yonghua's suggestion and chose a place to build Minglun Hall in Ningnanfang.In the first month of spring of the following year, the first Confucian Temple in Taiwan's history was completed in Chengtianfu (now Tainan City).The completion of the Confucius Temple marks a new page in Taiwan's cultural history. Zheng Jing appointed Chen Yonghua as the "College" (equivalent to the Minister of Education), and Ye Heng as the "Teaching Assistant of Chinese Studies" to be fully responsible for cultural and educational work.They set up "Tai Xue" in the Confucian Temple in Tainan, set up schools all over Taiwan, hired many Confucianists from the mainland to teach in Taiwan, and formulated a complete education system with reference to the imperial examination system in the mainland. Articles on classics and history; a "state examination" is held every three years (after Zheng Jing succeeded to the throne, Wannian and Tianxing counties were changed to prefectures); those selected in the state examination will then go through the government examination and hospital examination, and those who pass the examination will enter Taixue; There is a big test every year, and those with excellent grades are selected to enter the court as officials.This is the beginning of the mainland's feudal education system transplanted to Taiwan.

As a result, Taiwan's literary style gradually developed, and a large number of famous Confucian scholars and wise men came to Taiwan from the mainland.They not only devoted themselves to educating the common people of Han nationality, but also worked hard to "explore" Taiwan's cultural education. They also formed poetry clubs, chanted poems, wrote books and wrote books, and produced a large number of excellent works, which made the Central Plains culture begin to spread in Taiwan. Shine brilliantly.At that time, the most famous literary figure in Taiwan was Shen Guangwen, a survivor of the Ming Dynasty. "The Poetry Society was initiated by Shen Guangwen.Because of his contribution to pioneering Taiwan's culture and education, he was honored as Taiwan's "first ancestor of literature" by later generations.

Under the hard work of the Zheng regime, the development of Taiwan has indeed taken shape, laying a solid foundation for the rapid development of Taiwan's economy and culture after the Qing Dynasty unified Taiwan.