From Takow to Kaohsiung

Zhushan Township (竹山鎮), Nantou County

Until the Japanese-era renaming in 1920 due to the dense bamboo forests nearby, Zhushan (竹山; “bamboo mountain”) Township was called Lin Yi Village (林圯埔; Hoklo Lim-ki-poo).

In 1665, Zheng Jing (鄭經), son of Koxinga (a.k.a. Zheng Cheng-gong 鄭成功; who had forced the Dutch out of Taiwan, promulgated a system of tun-tian (屯田; military farms) to open land for Han-Chinese agriculture, extending the earlier jun-tun (軍屯; military garrisons) into Aboriginal territories.

In 1668, Lin Yi (林圯), from Tong’an County in Fujian Province who had arrived in Taiwan with Koxinga in 1661, led 200-plus men from Douliumen (斗六門; today’s Douliu City) to attack Gu-sio-tak-kao 牛相觸口 (today’s Zhonghe Neighborhood 中和里), establishing Zhuweizaizhuang (竹圍仔庄; today’s Zhuwei Neighborhood 竹圍里) as his base, and driving out the original inhabitants of the large Luhtu Community (transliterated as 魯富都) of the Tsou ethnicity (鄒族) to Dongpuna (東埔蚋; today’s Yanping Neighborhood 延平里).

Fierce conflicts continued however, and in the 10th lunar month of 1668 Tsou tribespeople counterattacked at night and besieged this base, killing Lin Yi and more than 100 soldier/farmers.

After reinforcements had overcome the Tsou, the settlement was named in Lin Yi’s honour, and went on to become the first Han-Chinese development in the Nantou Area.

Lin’s grave is still tended on Yuying Road (育英路) in downtown Zhushan.



[MC: Could it be possible that the Japanese colonial authorities changed the township's name because the character 圯 is rare in the Japanese lexicon? It's rare enough in Chinese, most people perhaps do not know its pronunciation. Maybe Zhushan would still be named for Lin if his given name was more of a "vegetable market name".]

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