Study On Han People's Immigration & Cultivation At The Er'Cenghun Stream Basin Of Taiwan In Ming And Qing Dynasties

This article first describes the important position of Er'cenghun Stream, the study subject region, from the perspectives of history, social economy and cultural geography. As recorded in relevant literature and engraved on the ancestral tablets, there had been ancient people migrating and cultivating here before Taiwan was occupied by Dutch, which indicates that Er'cengxing Stream basin was one of the earliest regions in Taiwan where Han people migrated to cultivate.During Dutch's occupation, Han immigrants migrated to Taiwan to cultivate mainly out of socio-economic and environmental reasons. During this period, most Han people's migration and cultivation were concentrated at the middle and lower reaches. As limited by manpower scale and technology, no large-scale facilities such as irrigation, reservoir and pool and village settlements were found. Most religious rituals were just sacrifices in private residences and thatched cottages.The survey on the clan genealogies shows that most ancestors of the Han immigrants came to Taiwan along with the army during the period when Taiwan was ruled by Zheng Family in Naming Period. Due to the influences of Zheng Family's policy to exploit virgin land by troops, Han people followed the trend to expand their cultivation towards the middle and upper reaches. The survey also indicates that the construction of irrigations, reservoirs and pools and the formation of village settlements started to spread at the middle and upper reaches of the basin when Taiwan was in the rein of Zheng Family. Scattered public village temples appeared.During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, it was a peak when ancestors of Fujian and Guangdong provinces migrated to Taiwan to cultivate. From the survey of Han people's migration and cultivation in Qing Dynasty it was found that village temples had appeared. As the Han immigrants increased, village temple became the place for immigrants to together offer sacrifices to the god migrated from homeland to Taiwan, so as to comfort their soul. What is more, it is often found that village temple was the self-governing center to agglomerate villagers' group mental consciousness. Meanwhile, by observing from the village public temples' construction evolution, construction time and principal divinities, it can more faithfully reveal the development course and distribution of the formation of village settlements and the original geographical characters of the Han immigrants.