Taipei City’s Songshan District (松山區) has neighborhoods (里) called 三張 (Sanzhang; lit. “three stretches”) and 三犁 (Sanli; lit. “three ploughs”).These both derive from the expression 三張犁 (Sanzhangli; lit. “three stretches ploughed”), similar to 六張犁 (Liuzhangli; lit. “six stretches ploughed”), which is more widely known as it has been the name of an MRT station since 1996.
A tenant farmer equipped with a plough was reckoned to be able to cultivate an area of about five jia (甲, ca. hectare), and so the place names三張犁 and 六張犁 referred to farmland of about 15 and 30 jia respectively.
(c.f. 甲 in place names such as 六甲 Liujia, Tainan).
Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011
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