The island of Taiwan is situated in the western Pacific, and lies across the Taiwan Strait from mainland China and the coast of Fukien province. During the early Ch'ing dynasty (A.D. 1644-191 1) Taiwan was considered an administrative district within Fukien province, but in the latter decades of the dynasty, from 1885 onwards, it became a province in its own right.

During the 200 million years since Taiwan was first formed as an island by movements of the ocean floor in the late Palaeozoic era, there have occurred several geological changes in the earth's crust which have resulted in Taiwan at different periods either coming into contact with continental China or becoming isolated again as an island. The presence in Taiwan of many fossilized remains of large mammals such as mammoths, rhinoceroses, deer and sabre-tooth tigers are suff icient evidence that one million years ago Taiwan was literally part of continental China. In addition, Taiwan's situation between the eastern and southern seas off the Chinese coast places it at the crossroads of cultural exchange between the ancient oceanic and continental cultures. The primitive culture of Taiwan naturally enough includes elements both of pure continental culture and of oceanic culture.

Thus whether from the viewpoint of geology, topography, geophysics, biogeography, anthropology or archaeology, it is clear not only that Taiwan was once a physical part of the Chinese mainland, but also that its flora, fauna and human inhabitants for the most part arrived in the first place through a process of eastward migration from continental China.

Prehistoric culture

Taiwan's prehistoric culture has long been considered by authoritative scholars to be intimately linked with the ancient cultures of the Chinese mainland. For example, the burnished black pottery from Tahu, Kaohsiung county, has been identified as forming part of the Lungshan culture and connected with the black pottery of the Chekiang region. Burnished black pottery has also been recovered from Yingpu, Taichung county, together with tripod vessels and stone adzes which further confirm the view that the prehistoric culture of Taiwan was deeply influenced by that of continental China. Painted pottery recovered at Feng-pi-t'ou, Kaohsiung county, is virtually identical to painted pottery from T'an-shih- shan in Fukien. Thus there can be little room for doubt butthatTaiwan'sprehistoricculture originally sprang from the ancient cultures of mainland China.

In recent years archaeologists have investigated a number of prehistoric sites in various part of Taiwan. Their excavation and study of the cultural remains from these sites have done much to further our understanding of Taiwan's ancient history. The following list summarizes some of the most notable finds:

(1) Human skeletons and Palaeolithic stone cutting implements from a cave at Ch'ang-pin, Taitung county.

(2) Stone coffins from Pei-nan, Taitung county.

(3) Palaeolithic cutting implements from 0- luan-pi, Pingtung county.

(4) Pottery and jade from Yuan-shan, Taipei.

(5) Stone implements and pottery jars from the Botanical Garden, Taipei.

(6) Painted pottery sherds from Jy-shan- yen, Taipei.

All these are remains of human culture predating the emergence of written records. their salient characteristics place them firmly in the same categories as the Palaeolithic an neolithic cultures of continental China.

The stone slab coff ins excavated from the site at Pei-nan, Taitung county, total over 1,000 in all. The accompanying grave-goods consititute one of the finest finds in South-East Asia, whether in point of their quality as artifacts or their sheer quantity. They may be divided broadly into artifacts of pottery and artifacts of stone or jade. The pottery artifacts include various types of vessels which may have held wine or food. The jade or stone grave-goods are of a great many types. These include pendants, bracelets and chcjeh jade rings from which a segment has been removed, all of which were used for personal adornment. They also include utensils such as stone adzes and awls, and weapons such as spearheads and arrowheads. All of these show a high degree of technological skill in their manufacture and indicate that Taiwan possessed quite an advanced culture three thousand years ago.

Evolving terms for Taiwan

A variety of geographical terms in ancient Chinese texts are thought to refer to Taiwan. These occur in the Book of Documents (Shang-shu), the Lafter Han History (Hou Han-shu), the Three Kingdoms Chronicle of Wu (San Kuo Wu-chih) and the Sui History (Sui-shu). There were also a number of alternative traditional names in use.The name 'Taiwan'itself can betraced backtothe Ming dynasty (1368-1644), although the official use of the name dates from 1684. It was in that year that the Ch'ing dynasty forces quashed the last Ming resistance on Taiwan and changed its official name from Tung-ning to Taiwan, upon which the island became an administrative district under Fukien province.

Taiwan's ancient peoples

On the basis of the ancient descriptions of Taiwan in the Record of Seas and Lands of the Coastal Region (Lin-hai shui-t'u-chih), which datesfrom thethree Kingdoms period (A.D. 220-280), and in the Sui History (Sui- shu), which coversthe period A.D. 581-618, it is possible to make a comparison between the culture of Taiwan and that of the ancient southern Chinese state of YGeh. Similarities abound in the styles of habitation, food, clothing and decorative arts which were cur- rent among both these ancient peoples. These cultural parallels suffice to indicate that the material culture of today's Taiwanese aborigines has much in common with that of the ancient inhabitants of Taiwan. The aboriginal peoples of Taiwan consist of indigenous inhabitants and immigrants. Many of the primitive inhabitants of Melane- sian and Polynesian stock, whether in- digenous or immigrant, have long since died out. As for the immigrant inhabitants of relatively later date, most of these make up the nine aboriginal peoples of Taiwan (omit- ting the many plains aborigines who are already sinicized). In descending over of populousness, these nine aboriginal peoples are: the Ami, the Atayal, the Paiwan, the Bunun, the Puyuma, the Rukai, the Tsou , the Saisiat and the Yami. These peoples live in village communities and their ancestry is in the main of a common origin with the southern Chinese peoples of YCieh, having made their way to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland and South-East Asia. The period of this migration can be approximately dated to between 2,700 and 4,000 years ago.

The most recent immigration was of ethnic Han Chinese. Ancient records indicate traces of Chinese migration to Taiwan and Penghu from long ago. The population of Fukien and Chekiang provinces increased greatly in the later Sung period due to the incursions of the Liao & the Hsia and the invasion of the nor- them part of the empire by the Kin tatars, upon which the Sung capital was moved to the South. At this time, Penghu was created an administrative district of Chin-chiang, Fukien province. When Wang Ta-yu ruled Ch'Oan-chou, Fukien province, he had over 200 houses built on Penghu and despatch- ed an armed force there to protect the set- tlers. Furthermore, the discovery in the early Ch'ing period of Sung dynasty coins and a Sung cave at Peikang lends additional sup- port to the view that Chinse immigrants had arrived in Taiwan by the Sung period (A.D. 960-1279). This then is the earliest evidence of the colonization of Taiwan by ethnic Han Chinese.

By the Chih-cheng period (1 341-1367) of the Yuan dynasty, a military inspectorate was officially established on Penghu, linked ad- ministratively to T'ung-an in Ch'Cian-chou, Fukien province. This constitutes the first of- ficial presence of the Chinese empire in Taiwan. However, it was only in the Ming dynasty (1 368-1644) that Taiwan was open- ed up on an appreciable scale. As was the case in comparable movements of Chinese overseas in the past, these initial colonizing enterprises were typically carried out purely by private individuals, with the imperial government tagging along behind. By the late seventeenth century there were something like twenty or thirty thousand Chinese households settled on Taiwan pro- per, indicating a total Chinese population of about 100,000 of whom the majority had emigrated from the provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung.