抄録
Recently a large-sized Gazetteer of Taiwan Plece-Names was published by the Fu-Min Geographical Institute of Economic Development. It is a by-product of our 14-year study of Taiwan. Now, this article is in turn a by-product of that gazetteer. In the course of the place-name study, we have come upon many interesting facts of geograhical significance. The one regret is that the place-name study is more of national character than any other geographical studies; therefore, many findings, when expressed in Chinese or Japanese for the supposed Chinese or Japanese readers, can be appreciated by them, but if one is bent on rendering them into a Western language, one will not only find that the job is cruelly exacting, but will also find the rendering disappointedly insipid. What we are coming to in the following pages are only some things of minor importance, for which we have always an aching void in our hearts.
Let us use the 1:50, 000 topographic map to calculate the different placenames of Taiwan. We get 7, 700. If repetitions were taken into account, the number would be 17, 800. The distribution of such place-names has almost a tendency to fall in with that of the population in a high degree. The type of rural settlements has also something to do with the number of place-names. The number of place-names varies with maps of different scales, and the difference thus produced is usually greater in the case of an area where scattered villages are than in a region dominated by compact villages. The Ilan Plain and the Taipei Basin are, for instance, very typical areas of scattered villages. On a 1:50, 000 topographic map one can find that there are only 56 place-names distributed over the 100-square-kilometer square north of Lo-tung on the Ilan Plain, averaging 0.6 place-name per square kilometer; yet on a 1:25, 000 topographic map, the place-names in the same area increase to 100. The difference is as great as 79%. All the villages on the Penghu Islands or the Pescadores are compact ones; on a map of 1:50, 000 there are 64 place-names on Penghu proper and on a topographic map of 1:25, 000 the number slightly increases to 68. The difference is only 6%. In the case of the Keelung Volcanic Group at the north-eastern corner of Taiwan, only one Ts'ao Shan (Grass Mountain) is found on the 1:50, 000 topographic map, yet there are three Ts'ao Shan's on a 1:25, 000 one.
Many repetitions appear in the place-names of Taiwan. At the time of calculation, the authors discovered 42 Hsing Chuang's (New Village, ) 30 Shan Chiao's and Shan Tzu Chiao's (Hill Foot), 28 San K'uai Ts'o's (Three-house Village), 23 Chu Wei Tzu's (Bamboo-surrounded Village), 20 Fan Tzu Liao's (Aborigines' hut), 17 shui Wei's (Water End), 15 Ch'iao T'ou's (Bridge Head) 14 Niu Pu's (Ox Ranch), 8 T'ien Chung Yang's (Field Center), 7 Shih Men's (Stone Gate) and 4 Mu Cha's (Wooden Castle). Therefore, if all the repetitions were taken into consideration, the recorded place-names of Taiwan might well be over 30, 000; and if those place-names not recorded and these old ones were all counted, the total number would be greater still.
Owing to the peculiar location of Taiwan, the cultural contacts of the island are rather complicated. Before the Chinese immigrants came over to the island, there had already been aborigines. Logically, there should have been place-names too, only they were not recorded. Although Taiwan was possibly known to the Chinese at a very early time, yet it was not until the early part of the 17th century that the Chinese began to settle in Taiwan. At that time, the places where the Chinese were stirring about were some coastal and river ports only, and most of them were engaged in trading or fishing. The best and earliest record of Taiwan is Tung Fan Chih (A Note on the Eastern Aborigines), written in 1603 in which the recorded place-names numbered only 12.
Between the 90 years 1603-1694, i.e.,
