頭城鎮 Toucheng Township, Yilan County

Toucheng (頭城; lit. “head city”) was the “head” (頭; i.e. first) base established by Han Chinese after arriving to colonize the Lanyang (蘭陽) Plain.

In 1796, Wu Sha (吳沙; 1731-98), a native of Fujian’s Zhangzhou Prefecture who immigrated to northern Taiwan in 1773, led more than 1,000 people from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Guandong, arriving at today’s Wushi Port (烏石港). To withstand attacks by local Kavalan (噶瑪蘭) Aborigines, they first built a defensive enclosure (圍; wei) of earth and bamboo. From this derived the name頭圍 (Touwei; lit. “first encirclement”), which was later changed to頭城 (Toucheng; 城 means originally a wall, and hence the city within its encircling wall; see Tucheng).

Trouble between the Aborigines and Chinese eased from 1797 onwards after Wu provided medical assistance to indigenous people following an outbreak of smallpox. Of course it is more than likely the immigrants brought the disease, indeed some historians claim the epidemic was started intentionally. The Kavalan then agreed to partition of the land into tribal and Han areas.

Wu died the following year and settlement of Yilan was continued by his nephew Wu Hua (吳化), resulting in five wei (圍; settlements with 城圍 “walled encirclements”) and ten jie (結; communities composed of ten 佃 tenant farmers). Both words are common in Yilan place names today, including the townships Zhuangwei (壯圍) and Wujie (五結).

Jie (結; Hoklo: xx) common in Yilan place names, historically composed of ten 佃 (Mdn: dian; tenant farmers). c.f. wei (圍; settlements with 城圍 “walled encirclements”)

Wei (圍; settlements with 城圍 “walled encirclements”), common in Yilan place names.

Wushi (烏石; lit. “crow/black stone”) Port is named after black rocks near the harbour entrance. This was the arrival point in 1796 for the first Han colonizers of today’s Yilan County.




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