Asia in the Making of Europe Volume III Book Four

主題 Topic	世紀發展：東亞 A Century of Advance: East Asia
書刊名 Title	《由亞洲建構歐洲》第三卷第四冊 Asia in the Making of Europe Volume III Book Four
作者 Author	Donald F. Lach
出版社 Publisher	The University of Chicago Press
出版年 Year	1993
語言 Language	英文 English
裝訂 Binding	□ 平裝 Paperback　　　　■精裝 Hardcover
頁數 Pages	436
ISBN (10 / 13)	ISBN-10: 0226-46753-8
Bibliography Reference	(STC, Duff, GW . . .)
來源網址 Web Link
劇本簡介撰稿者	李祁芳、林柏豪
撰寫日期 Date	11 Sept. 2015

A.   簡介 Introduction (within 100 words, Chinese or English)

此書為《由亞洲建構歐洲》第三冊第三卷之延續。上冊的討論範圍是東南亞及海洋的烈嶼及群島，然而本書則將目標移至亞洲大國「中國」、中國周邊地區、日本等地。首章以明朝晚期開始，先是介紹明朝的歷史背景，佐以耶穌會和各式旅行遊記、再以人種歷史學的觀點切入。其後又介紹了中國的地理環境及氣候，當時明朝的施政措施及國家管理也是本章之重點。明朝的社會制度、習俗、知識分子的發展、宗教及哲學思想，皆在本章有所討論。第二章將時間前進至了清朝，以滿族入侵中原，驅趕明朝漢族至南方，建立大清帝國。征服中原後，滿族對於中原的也有所紀錄，除了參考耶穌會的紀錄外，清朝對於中國的文獻紀錄也是相當重要。這些紀錄透露了外族如何看待漢民族及這片土地、也記錄了當時的人文、宗教、哲學等發展。下一章節討論的是中國周邊地區的發展，包含了東北九省(Manchuria)、蒙古、西伯利亞、西藏、韓國等，然而更為重要的是，我們所處的台灣(Formosa)也在其中，其篇幅更是不容小覷。對於台灣地理、歷史、文化、人種之研究，實為重要之參考文獻。

B.   文本摘錄 Extracts (4-6 Pages)

                              THE PERSIANS
 
                             Formosa (Taiwan)
  The European image of Formosa during the seventeenth century was based almost entirely on Dutch reports. Although the Portuguese named it Ilha Formosa (“Beautiful Taiwan”) and reportedly established a settlement on its northern coast in 1590, there are no early, published, Portuguese or Spanish descriptions of it. A settlement, if there actually was one, must have been quickly abandoned. The Dutch came in 1624 after unsuccessfully trying to force the Chinese to trade with them in the Amoy area or on P’enghu. They built a fort, called Fort Zeelandia, on the small island of Tayouan off the southwest coast of Formosa near modern Tainan. From this base they traded with Chinese merchants who came from the mainland. Gradually the Dutch extended their authority over Formosan aborigines until by 1636 they controlled most of the western plain from the center to its southern tip. Dutch domination of the western lowlands in the northern half of the island was completed in 1642 when they drove Spanish from Fort Santo Domingo at Tamsui on the northern coast of the island where they had been established since 1626.
  Under Dutch control, Taiwan’s product－mainly rice, deerskins, and sugar－were exported to China, Japan, and even Persia. Chinese were settled as tenants on VOC lands, greatly expanding agricultural productivity and the Chinese population. Immigration from mainland China increased still more rapidly after 1644 as Ch’ing armies pacified the south. By 1660 the Chinese population on Formosa numbered about twenty-five thousand armed men, and probably between forty and fifty thousand, counting women and children. The Dutch also sent missionaries to evangelize the Formosan aborigines and large numbers of them were converted to Reformed Christianity. But they did not attempt to evangelize the Chinese. The VOC taxed everyone and everything: there were export taxes, farm taxes, hunting taxes, and poll taxes. The Dutch colony on Formosa came to an end in 1662 when Fort Zeelandia finally capitulated after a long siege to Chen Ch’eng-kung (Koxinga) and his Ming loyalist army.
  The earliest Dutch descriptions of Formosa were the two insert in Seyger van Rechteren’s Journael (1635) which had been taken from a 1629 report written by Pieter Nuyts, the third governor of Formosa (1627-29). The one insert, entitled “Kort verhael van Tayovang” is only a few pages long. It briefly describes Fort Zeelandia, the product of Formosa, the Taiwanese people, their livelihood, their marriage and family customer, and their religion. The other is a report concerning Dutch trade with China and Japan. It contains little description of Formosa, apart from Dutch trade at Fort Zeelandia, the Spanish settlement at Keelung, and the troubles between the Dutch and the Japanese in Taiwan. Nuyts thought Sino-Dutch trade at Taiwan was seriously hurting the trade between China and he Spanish in Manila, because many of Chinese junks which used to go to Manila had begun trading at Taiwan instead. He worried that the new Spanish settlement at Keelung, however, might reverse the trend and recommended immediate forceful action against it. The Japanese, Nuyts reports, contend that they traded in Taiwan before the Dutch advent and refuse to pay taxes to the VOC for doing what they had done freely before. Nuyts recommended tact and patience in handling the Japanese. Although not mentioned in the published letter, relations between the Dutch and the Japanese merchants became very strained during the summer of 1628. The merchant appealed to shogun for redress and at one point even held Governor Nuyts hostage. Nuyts reminds this superiors that trade with China is the key to Dutch success in Formosa, Japan, and elsewhere in east Asia, the he sees the elimination of their Iberian rivals within grasp. Now that they have easy access to Chinese goods at Taiwan, the VOC lacks only sufficient capital to achieve its old goal of monopolizing the China trade.
  Probably the best and by far the most influential description of Formosa during the seventeen century was written by the pioneer missionary, George Candidius, who served in Formosa from 1627 to 1631 and from 1633 to 1637. Candidius wrote his “Discours ende cort verhael, van’t eylant Formaos” already in 1628, although it was not published until its inclusion in the Begin ende voortgangh edition of Van Rechteren’s Journael in 1646. Almost all subsequent seventeenth-century descriptions of Formosa were based on it. For example, the descriptions of Formosa in Frederick Coyett’s ’t Verwaerloosde Formosa (1675), Wouter Schouten’s Oost-Indische voyagie (1676), and Johann Nieuhof’s Zee- en lant-reize (1682) were all taken almost entirely from Candidius, as were large parts of that found in Olfert Dapper’s Gedenkwaerdig bedryf (1670).