Taiwanese Isolation

[Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ]

Why was Taiwan largely ignored by the Chinese prior to European colonization? It took Dutch colonies to attract Chinese immigrant labor and the fall of Ming Dynasty rule in the Mainland China to prompt a Chinese invasion under Koxinga.

The island is very close, Chinese did posses naval means to reach it easily, their numerical and technological superiority over the aboriginal populace was overwhelming. Worldwide, many similar places like this were ignored, however they tended to have either harsh climate, soil not suitable for decent cultivation, no apparent natural resources or the combination of these traits. Taiwanese climate is similar to Southeast China and the terrain of the western part, the one facing Chinese mainland, is flat an suitable for agriculture.

[LaMuerte]

I can share this bit from the book Barbaren,Rebellen en Mandarijnen by Aad van Amstel. It's not available in English I'm afraid. So here's a rough translation from a relevant part. I hope it sheds some light on the matter. The book itself is about the attempt of the VOC to gain a foothold in Formosa and their war with China.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Until the arrival of the Europeans, Formosa had always been an independent island. Before that time however, it had been regularly visited by the Chinese.The imperial court actually deemed the island as 'wild', inhabited by a people the Chinese had, for the sake of convenience, put in the 'Eastern barbarians ' category, among others like the Japanese and the Koreans. That way the world remained coherent for the Chinese, as they merely had to know in what direction a nation lived to put it in the proper category.The term 'barbarian' did not imply a qualitative judgement about the people mentioned in the different categories. Chinese merely wanted to indicate that a people had not (yet) accepted Chinese culture.

The Chinese were indifferently disposed towards wether a people accepted their culture or not. The Chinese never had any enthousiasm towards converting a populace into a more confucian-infused way of life, nor had they any for sending missionaries to oversea territories. Neither have the Chinese ever tried to colonize oversea territories to increase the prosperity of their country, like the Europeans did on a grand scale. The Chinese , mostly from Fiujian, did however move out, mostly on a private base to settle in South East Asia.

At the beginning of the 7th century, according to the history books from the Sui dynasty(589-648), a general was sent out to investigate which people and nations lay to the east, because on clear days dust clouds or smoke could be observed.The general arrived on an island, which is assumed to have been Formosa. He and his men could not understand the language of the local population, so they kidnapped one of the inhabitants and returned to China.

The year after that, the general was sent to the the island again, this time accompanied by soldiers, and the assignment to conquer the island. The population resisted, upon which the general burnt down houses, and there is word of a few thousand captives. The general then returned to China.

The famous eunuch-admiral Zheng He also visited the island ... On the return voyage of one of his seven expeditions, he anchored at Formosa, being driven there by a storm. He went ashore and made contact with the locals and proposed for them to submit to the Chinese emperor, and to visit him in Peking to offer tribute. The locals refused. After gathering some medicinal herbs, Zheng left the island.

More detailed information about the way of living of the inhabitants was obtained by the Chinese in 1603. In that year the admiral Shen Yourong(the same admiral who would one year later force Van Warwijck's fleet to depart from the Pecadores) led an expedition to Formosa to combat the wokou's.(Chinese-Japanese pirates) One of the commanders of this expeditionary force, Chen Ti, investigated the local customs and wrote a short report about them.

"... there are people who have no knowledge of days or months, no officials nor administrators, who go naked and use the quipu (editor note: Dutch describe these as assegaai)...isn't that remarkable! And further, they live in the middle of the ocean and don't fish. Men and woman live together, yet they are not licentious regarding sexual relations. Up to this day they have no calender nor writing - indeed highly remarkable...They are a carefree people like during the times of the great emperors."

"...In the winter of 1602 the wokou's once again attacked the island. Both the locals and Chinese merchants bore the consequences. General Shen of Wuyu went there to destroy them, and me, having an opportunity to get to know the sea, went with him. After we destroyed the wokou's, we anchored at Tayouan, where barbarian chieftain Damila, together wirh a few dozen men paid us a visit. They brought venison and drink, happy to be rid of the pirates."

Did you know that the diaries of all the successive Dutch governors on Taiwan.have been published? They're called De dagregisters van het kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan 1629-1662.There are some great illustrations in there.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Castle Zeelandia

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Things not going so well at castle Zeelandia.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You can find them here.

[Roma_Victrix]

While I can agree with some of what Aad van Amstel says, it wouldn't fully explain why the Chinese weren't interested in fully colonizing Taiwan before the 17th century. That's especially since the Chinese, going back to the 3rd century BC, had regularly attempted the colonization of Hainan Island in the South China Sea, an island that is almost as big as Taiwan. They were finally able to subjugate and assimilate the Li people living there during the Northern Song dynasty in the 11th century AD, but the Man peoples living there remained a headache in terms of staging revolts and acts of banditry. Perhaps they viewed Taiwan as another headache and weren't interested in doubling their overseas efforts, especially since the Chinese were primarily concerned with containing and confronting the Mongolic nomads of the northern steppe and the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts.

[Hitai de Bodemloze]

Hainan is much closer to the coast, which is worth bearing in mind. More importantly though, it was part of the Han dynasty. Native Chinese dynasties tended not to expand their borders that much, and when they did, such as the Sui-Tang invasions of Korea, the later Tang expeditions to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia, and, if I'm not mistaken, the Ming invasion of northern Vietnam, it was often done to 'reclaim' the previous territories of the Han*. It was a good legitimisation strategy, and often occurred when a new dynasty took power. Taiwan was never colonised in the Han, so you could argue that's a reason why they never bothered to go over there in force. It was under foreign dynasties that China actively sought to expand her borders, and it was then that Taiwan became an object of interest: depending on how you parse certain Classical phrases, the Yuan Mongols did attempt to conquer the island in the thirteenth century - the problem is the word 'Taiwan' wasn't used then, so we don't know for sure if the island(s) they attacked were actually Taiwan or somewhere else like the Ryukyus.

*That is, of course, if you accept that the Sui and Tang were native dynasties, which is a different kettle of fish. It was still the reason they gave though to justify those conquests.

[Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I can share this bit from the book Barbaren,Rebellen en Mandarijnen by Aad van Amstel. It's not available in English I'm afraid. So here's a rough translation from a relevant part. I hope it sheds some light on the matter. The book itself is about the attempt of the VOC to gain a foothold in Formosa and their war with China.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Until the arrival of the Europeans, Formosa had always been an independent island. Before that time however, it had been regularly visited by the Chinese.The imperial court actually deemed the island as 'wild', inhabited by a people the Chinese had, for the sake of convenience, put in the 'Eastern barbarians ' category, among others like the Japanese and the Koreans. That way the world remained coherent for the Chinese, as they merely had to know in what direction a nation lived to put it in the proper category.The term 'barbarian' did not imply a qualitative judgement about the people mentioned in the different categories. Chinese merely wanted to indicate that a people had not (yet) accepted Chinese culture.

The Chinese were indifferently disposed towards wether a people accepted their culture or not. The Chinese never had any enthousiasm towards converting a populace into a more confucian-infused way of life, nor had they any for sending missionaries to oversea territories. Neither have the Chinese ever tried to colonize oversea territories to increase the prosperity of their country, like the Europeans did on a grand scale. The Chinese , mostly from Fiujian, did however move out, mostly on a private base to settle in South East Asia.

At the beginning of the 7th century, according to the history books from the Sui dynasty(589-648), a general was sent out to investigate which people and nations lay to the east, because on clear days dust clouds or smoke could be observed.The general arrived on an island, which is assumed to have been Formosa. He and his men could not understand the language of the local population, so they kidnapped one of the inhabitants and returned to China.

The year after that, the general was sent to the the island again, this time accompanied by soldiers, and the assignment to conquer the island. The population resisted, upon which the general burnt down houses, and there is word of a few thousand captives. The general then returned to China.

The famous eunuch-admiral Zheng He also visited the island ... On the return voyage of one of his seven expeditions, he anchored at Formosa, being driven there by a storm. He went ashore and made contact with the locals and proposed for them to submit to the Chinese emperor, and to visit him in Peking to offer tribute. The locals refused. After gathering some medicinal herbs, Zheng left the island.

More detailed information about the way of living of the inhabitants was obtained by the Chinese in 1603. In that year the admiral Shen Yourong(the same admiral who would one year later force Van Warwijck's fleet to depart from the Pecadores) led an expedition to Formosa to combat the wokou's.(Chinese-Japanese pirates) One of the commanders of this expeditionary force, Chen Ti, investigated the local customs and wrote a short report about them.

"... there are people who have no knowledge of days or months, no officials nor administrators, who go naked and use the quipu (editor note: Dutch describe these as assegaai)...isn't that remarkable! And further, they live in the middle of the ocean and don't fish. Men and woman live together, yet they are not licentious regarding sexual relations. Up to this day they have no calender nor writing - indeed highly remarkable...They are a carefree people like during the times of the great emperors."

"...In the winter of 1602 the wokou's once again attacked the island. Both the locals and Chinese merchants bore the consequences. General Shen of Wuyu went there to destroy them, and me, having an opportunity to get to know the sea, went with him. After we destroyed the wokou's, we anchored at Tayouan, where barbarian chieftain Damila, together wirh a few dozen men paid us a visit. They brought venison and drink, happy to be rid of the pirates."

Did you know that the diaries of all the successive Dutch governors on Taiwan.have been published? They're called De dagregisters van het kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan 1629-1662.There are some great illustrations in there.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Castle Zeelandia

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Things not going so well at castle Zeelandia.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You can find them here.

Thanks, that's interesting information. +rep

While I can agree with some of what Aad van Amstel says, it wouldn't fully explain why the Chinese weren't interested in fully colonizing Taiwan before the 17th century. That's especially since the Chinese, going back to the 3rd century BC, had regularly attempted the colonization of Hainan Island in the South China Sea, an island that is almost as big as Taiwan. They were finally able to subjugate and assimilate the Li people living there during the Northern Song dynasty in the 11th century AD, but the Man peoples living there remained a headache in terms of staging revolts and acts of banditry. Perhaps they viewed Taiwan as another headache and weren't interested in doubling their overseas efforts, especially since the Chinese were primarily concerned with containing and confronting the Mongolic nomads of the northern steppe and the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts.

It seems to me that they made a rather sub-par attempts at it. They come and they leave every few centuries, apart of that Sui follow-up landing, without establishing any forts, despite that a coastal fort would have been in a easily re-suppliable position, due to proximity, as well as easily maintained by a garrison, the natives most likely didn't posses any siegecraft against Chinese fortification technology.

Hainan is much closer to the coast, which is worth bearing in mind. More importantly though, it was part of the Han dynasty. Native Chinese dynasties tended not to expand their borders that much, and when they did, such as the Sui-Tang invasions of Korea, the later Tang expeditions to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia, and, if I'm not mistaken, the Ming invasion of northern Vietnam, it was often done to 'reclaim' the previous territories of the Han*. It was a good legitimisation strategy, and often occurred when a new dynasty took power. Taiwan was never colonised in the Han, so you could argue that's a reason why they never bothered to go over there in force. It was under foreign dynasties that China actively sought to expand her borders, and it was then that Taiwan became an object of interest: depending on how you parse certain Classical phrases, the Yuan Mongols did attempt to conquer the island in the thirteenth century - the problem is the word 'Taiwan' wasn't used then, so we don't know for sure if the island(s) they attacked were actually Taiwan or somewhere else like the Ryukyus.

*That is, of course, if you accept that the Sui and Tang were native dynasties, which is a different kettle of fish. It was still the reason they gave though to justify those conquests.

Good points about non-Han dynastic drive for expansion, ironically, Koxinga conquered Taiwan, well a part of it at least, on behalf of isolationist Han Ming dynasty.

[hellheaven1987]

Why was Taiwan largely ignored by the Chinese prior to European colonization? It took Dutch colonies to attract Chinese immigrant labor and the fall of Ming Dynasty rule in the Mainland China to prompt a Chinese invasion under Koxinga.

The island is very close, Chinese did posses naval means to reach it easily, their numerical and technological superiority over the aboriginal populace was overwhelming. Worldwide, many similar places like this were ignored, however they tended to have either harsh climate, soil not suitable for decent cultivation, no apparent natural resources or the combination of these traits. Taiwanese climate is similar to Southeast China and the terrain of the western part, the one facing Chinese mainland, is flat an suitable for agriculture.

Because there was no evil, private, multinational corporations in China?

It seems to me that they made a rather sub-par attempts at it. They come and they leave every few centuries, apart of that Sui follow-up landing, without establishing any forts, despite that a coastal fort would have been in a easily re-suppliable position, due to proximity, as well as easily maintained by a garrison, the natives most likely didn't posses any siegecraft against Chinese fortification technology.

But why would Chinese government want to do that??

Good points about non-Han dynastic drive for expansion, ironically, Koxinga conquered Taiwan, well a part of it at least, on behalf of isolationist Han Ming dynasty.

Which is wrong. Han Chinese dynasty often expanded in a sudden burst under one emperor reign, mostly under the motivation of seeking GLORY, then shifted to stalemate for centuries. Emperor Wu of Han's massive southern expansion campaign was classic example of this expansion model.

[Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ]

Because there was no evil, private, multinational corporations in China?

That's a good answer, only corporations can expand overseas, regular empires can do it only by land. That said, even though the Chinese had no corporation at the time they did have pirates. They just pirated the works of a western corporation.

But why would Chinese government want to do that??

That is a good question, why would one want to conquer a piece of land which is relatively good and easily conquerable, especially when one has a large manpower and stable heartland from which they can drive a wast pool of colonists who can outnumber the natives in a relatively short time?

Which is wrong. Han Chinese dynasty often expanded in a sudden burst under one emperor reign, mostly under the motivation of seeking GLORY, then shifted to stalemate for centuries. Emperor Wu of Han's massive southern expansion campaign was classic example of this expansion model.

I didn't say the original Han Dynasty, but dynasties of Han ethnicity, which can be seen from if one takes context into account. After Qin and the following Han Dynasty, subsequent dynasties of Han-ethnicity mainly expanded in the direction of nomadic lands, in order to prevent their incursion into Chinese heartland. While they did have conflicts with Korea, Tibet and Vietnam they've generally settled for recognition of them being the center of the World and tribute being paid.