Townships: Rural and Urban; 鄉 and 鎮

Focused as it is on the origins and meanings of Taiwan's place names, this blog is largely disinterested in the adminstrative division of local governments into counties, cities, towns, districts, vilalges and so on. Indeed, more so since every decade or two there is a seismic shift, such as in 2010 when Taipei County (台北縣), for example, was reclassified as a Special Municipality (直轄市) to be called New Taipei City (新北市; lit. "New Northern City"), and its urban and rural townships all became city districts (區; Mdn. qu).

Only occasionally are such changes of toponymic interest, such as when 安平鎮 (Mdn. Anping Zhen; lit "Peaceful Township"), then in Taoyuan County (now City), changed its name to 平鎮庄 (Mdn. Pingzhen Zhuang; lit. "Flat Garrison Village") during the Period of Japanese Rule (1895~1945).

鎮 (Mdn. zhen; Hoklo. tin), which in Taiwan is used to designate Urban Townships, largely derived from 街 (Jpn. gai, "town(s)") of the Japanese colonial era. The character 鎮 originally meant "to guard / garrison", and so perhaps derived from either:
i) the Zheng-family Tongning Kingdom (1662-1683) when Koxinga invaded southwestern Taiwan, ousted the Dutch, and sent his soldiers to live on farm-garrisons [MC: but these tend to have led to place names with 營 (Mdn. ying; "military camp"; e.g. Kaohsiung's Zuoying, or perhaps 屯 (Mdn. tun; "to station soldiers in the countryside"), though these seem to be a late transformation of 墩 (Mdn. dun); e.g.-- needs further clarification];
or ii) later in the Qing dynasty when Taiwan was something of a wild frontier, and intercommunal strife (Han vs. Han & Han vs. Aborigine & Aborigine vs. Aborigine) required the stationing of soldiers in rural areas to cut down on the endemic banditry.

鄉 (Mdn. xiang; Hoklo. hiong), is used to designate Rural Townships, and largely replaced 庄 (Jpn. jō, "village(s)") of the Japanese colonial era. The character 鄉 was originally a pictograph of two people facing each other, perhaps with a food vessel between them, and meant "two people facing each other". Later, either through i) phonetic borrowing or ii) semantic shift, it came to mean "village". (For those with a special interest in this type of thing, there are many more details here.)



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Lieyu (烈嶼) Township, Kinmen, Fujian Province, ROC; the "Lieyu Massacre" and the lifting of four decades of Martial Law

Lieyu (烈嶼; "Strong Islet(s)") Township is a group of three main islands and many small islets in Kinmen County, Fujian Province, of the ROC, albeit lying just a few kilometers off Xiamen in the PRC, and technically within the boundaries of Xiamen Port. Also known as Lesser Kinmen (小金門), it is located just to the west of the county's main island, Greater Kinmen.

Although inhabited by Han-Chinese from the Central Plains since the Tang dynasty (7th-10th centuries), the reason behind its current name is not known.

According to local folklore, however, Lieyu was originally connected with Greater Kinmen by a land bridge meaning it wasn't necessary to cross the sea between them. Subsequently, an immortal being, seeing how troublesome it was for navy boats having to turn back and forth before being able to enter port, announced that it would be easier for shipping if the peninsula with the port road could be opened up to create an island. No sooner had the immortal spoken, than the islet (嶼; Mdn. yu) slowly split (裂; Mdn. lie) apart, gradually taking it further from Greater Kinmen. Over time, this character was changed for today's simiarly pronounced 烈 (Mdn. lie; "strong / intense / violent). [source: Lieyu Township Village Administration]

If such a character-switch might seem unlikely, one needs look no further than the ROC's other outlying islands in Fujian, that is, Matsu (馬祖), where 馬 (Mdn. ma in the 3rd tone; "horse") has replaced 媽 (Mdn. ma in the 1st tone; "mother").

In 1950, ROC forces on Lieyu's Dadan Island (大膽島), repulsed an attack by a larger number of PRC soldiers who had landed on the island.

In 1987, Lieyu itself was the site of a massacre (三七事件; lit. "March 7th Incident") of Vietnamese boat people. Apparently this was in line with the ROC's policy under martial law of executing on the spot anyone attempting to land on the islands (Chinese fishermen and would-be refugees were regularly shot as they approached).
Despite initial denials by military and civilian officials and even by then-President Chiang Ching-kuo, pressure from politicians of Taiwan's newly established opposition Democratic Progressive Party, as well as from foreign governments and NGO human rights activists, perhaps meant that this event was one of the final straws that led to the lifting of martial law in July of the same year.

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Siwei Road (四維路) and Bade Road (八德路); as well as Xinsheng Road (新生路); and Zhongxiao (忠孝), Ren-ai (仁愛), Xinyi (信義) and Heping (和平) Roads.

Siwei (四維; "four bonds") Road is a common street name, with examples in many cities and townships around Taiwan. These include Taipei (臺北); the Banqiao (板橋), Xinzhuang (新莊) and Wugu (五股) Districts all in New Taipei City; Hsinchu (新竹); Wuqi (梧棲) District in Taichung; Douliu (斗六); Chiayi (嘉義); Kaohsiung (高雄); Taitung (臺東); and Neipu (內埔) and Chaozhou (潮州) Townships, both in Pingtung County.
The reasons for this high frequency are historical, philosophical and cultural but, primarily, political.

四 (Mdn. si) means "four" and 維 (Mdn. wei) means "to tie / fasten" and, therefore, nouns such as "tie(s) / fastening(s)" or, in this case, "bond(s)", specifically the "four things that bind society together".
More commonly, by extension, they are called the Four Cardinal Principles / Values or similar.

This phrase si-sei (四維; Hoklo: su-ui) derives from the "Herdsmen" (牧民) chapter of the ancient Guanzi (管子; "[Teachings of] Master Guan {Zhong; 管仲}]") text, some of which possibly dates back to the 7th-century BCE minister of that name who served Duke Huan (桓公) in the state of Qi (齊; in today's Shandong Province, China), though most, if not all, was added later, probably between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE.

These four bonds (principles) are:
禮 (Mdn. li; "rites", usually rendered as "propriety")
義 (Mdn. yi; "righteousness")
廉 (Mdn. lian; "incorruptibility", usually rendered as "integrity" or "honor")
恥 (Mdn chi; "sense of shame"; but also sometimes rendered as "honor", confusingly)

The Guanzi states:
何謂四維？一曰禮、二曰義、三曰廉、四曰恥。禮不踰節，義不自進，廉不蔽惡，恥不從枉。
"What are these four cardinal values? The first is propriety, the second is righteousness, the third is integrity, the fourth is a sense of shame. Propriety consists in not overstepping the bounds of proper restraint. Righteousness consists in not pushing oneself forward [at the expense of others]. Integrity consists in not concealing one's faults. Having a sense of shame consists in not following those who go awry." (*translation from: wiktionary)

Of course, over the following centuries, as different philosophical schools, religious creeds and political factions came and went, a great deal of time and brain juice was expended on debating exactly what Master Guan may have meant by these four somewhat abstract words and, more importantly perhaps, what he should have meant by them.

Thus, over 2,000 years later, they were once again taken up in 1934, this time in a speech promoting his New Life Movement (新生活運動)*, by Chiang Kai-skek, later ROC president but at that time chairman of the Military Affairs Commission. The Four Virtues were to be central in reinvigorating Chinese society and promoting Neo-Confucian social morality in the hope of uniting the nation in a single centralized ideology in defiance of the emergence of new ways of thinking, in particular, in combating the New Culture Movement (新文化運動) of the previous two decades that rejected traditional, classical Chinese ideas, as well as countering the growing influence of Communist ideologies, at a time when CKS's own administration was floundering in nepotism, bribery and corruption.

In doing so, CKS was probably seeking to imitate his mentor and predecessor as KMT leader, Sun Yat-sen, (as he often did, such as in changing his name to Zhong-zheng 中正 which imitated / paid homage to one of Sun's own: Zhong-shan 中山).

In a 1920 speech discuassing the Three Principles of the People (三民主義; Mdn. San-Min** Zhu-yi) underlying the Chinese Nationalilst Party (KMT) founded the previous year, SYS had also challenged the new and "foreign" ideologies, proposing a return to traditional values. Foremost among these, he mentioned the Confucian "Eight Virtues" (八德; Mdn. Bade) similarly grouped into four pairs:

"What are China's time-honored virtues? Loyalty and filial piety [忠孝] come first. Then we have love [仁愛], faithfulness [信義], and love of peace [和平]. Some who crave the new form of civilization want to throw away these virtues. They say that these old relics have no place in modern civilization. They are wrong, however; because China can ill afford to lose these previous virtues." (Translated by Lee, Baen; 1928)

From these, therefore, are named streets and districts and townships &c., such as Taipei's Bade Road (八德), beneath which heading south are Zhongxiao (忠孝), Ren-ai (仁愛), Xinyi (信義) and Heping (和平) Roads.

- - Sun Yat-sen (seated) and Chiang Kai-shek (photo wikipedia)

Not surprisingly, CKS brought his own interpretation of the si-wei to suit that era's particular historical and political circumstances, stating:
禮是規規矩矩的態度，義是正正當當的行為，廉是清清白白的辨別，恥是切切實實的覺悟。
"Propriety is a well-regulated attitude, righteousness is proper behavior, integrity is clear-sighted discrimination, and a sense of shame is a thorough realization [of the truth]." (tr. MC)

Later, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (中國抗日戰爭; 1937–1945), CKS redifined these as:
禮是嚴嚴整整的紀律，義是慷慷慨慨的犧牲，廉是實實在在的節約，恥是轟轟烈烈的奮鬥
"Propriety is strict and orderly discipline, righteousness is generous [self-]sacrifice, integrity is real economies, and a sense of shame is vigorous struggle." (tr. MC)

- - Chiang Kai-shek (left) and Mao Zedong, 1945 (photo from Wikipedia)

In the postwar period, with Mao Zedong's CCP in China promoting a "Destroy the Four Olds" policy (破四舊; Mdn. Po Si Jiu) to weed out "old ideas (舊思想), old culture (舊文化), old habits (舊風俗) and old customs (舊習慣)" on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, the KMT-led ROC government on Taiwan counteracted by continuing to promote traditional ideas.
Hence, presumably, the proliferation of Siwei Roads in Taiwan



*Taipei and other cities / towns also have a Xinsheng (新生) Road, often translated as "New Birth" or even "Rebirth", but surely within the context of Taiwan's other street names, this must be a reference to the New Life Movement.
** There is also a Sanmin (三民) Road in Taipei (as well as Sanmin districts, Sanmin villages and even a Sanmin Bat Cave around Taiwan) as well as Minzu (民族; "nationalism", Minquan (民權) and Minsheng (民生) roads, but these will all be dealt with elsewhere (here).

; Text and photo copyright Jiyue Publications

Disused and unorthodox romanizations of Taiwan place names



Over the last couple of decades alone, systems used to spell Taiwan's county, city, town, village, district, street and many other place names (not to mention random usages and accidental misspellings) have undergone frequent transformations.

The main systems used recently include: Post Office system (邮政式拼音: PO), Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音; TP) and Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音; HP). Sadly, this author's favoured system, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (國語羅馬字: GR) has never been used (not just for place names, but for pretty much everything).

The postal romanization (PO) was a variation of Nanking Syllabary developed by Herbert Giles in 1892 and adopted by the Chinese Imperial Post under the Chinese Maritime Customs Service led by Irishman Robert Hart. It is based on Southern Mandarin pronunciation, that is, the Jianghuai regionalect widely spoken in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, including Nanjing.(source: wikipedia)

The default used in this blog is Hanyu Pinyin but, in line with central government usage at time of publication, accords with various notable exceptions. These include most of the larger cities and counties, such as Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, Changua,Chiayi, Hualien, Taitung, Keelung &c.

Even earlier romanizations, such as spellings adopted during the local Dutch and Spanish colonies of the 17th century, Zheng family's Kingdom of Tongning (東寧王國; 1661~83), Manchurian / Chinese Qing dynasty (1683~1895), and Period of Japanese Rule (1895~1945), as well as those of other foreigner visitors and residents, muddy the water even further.

Yixian Road (逸仙路) on the east side of Natrional Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館) in Taipei's Xinyi District must have been pretty much unique, however, in having its street sign in Mandarin ("Yixian") at one end of its short length, and Cantonese ("Yat-sen") at the other, albeit for the same Chinese characters. These have since been unified.

Hsinyi: former PO spelling of Xinyi
Jen'ai: former PO spelling for Ren-ai
liehhsu: [MC: is this perhaps Fujianese (Minnan 閩南語) influence on Lieyu (烈嶼; Hoklo su)]
Quemoy: a very unusual romanization, this was for a long time the standard English spelling for Kinmen (HP/TP Jinmen) but, in this case, it is perhaps derived from a Spanish or Portuguese transcription of the Zhangzhou Fujianese (Minann 閩南語) pronunciation of the name Kim-mui.(source here)
Taibei: largely unused HP spelling of Taipei
Xinzhu: largely unused HP spelling of Hsinchu
X:

[MC: This list will be continually updated during the life of this blog. Whether the examples will make any resulting book will depend on space and cost.]

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Ximending (西門町), Wanhua District, Taipei City

Today a center of fashion and youth culture, Ximending (西門町; Jpn. Seimon-chō; "West Gate Sub-ward") developed from the entertainment district promoted early in the Period of Japanese Rule (1895~1945) on wasteland outside the walled Qing-dynasty Taipei City's western gate, officially known as 寶成門 (Mdn. Baocheng Men; literally c. "Precious Becoming Gate"), even though the gate itself had already been demolished in 1904.

Still prominent in the area today, for example, is Red House Theater (紅樓劇場), though this was originally built in 1908 as a covered market.

Taipei's West Gate, built in the 1880s as part of the city's walls and demolished in 1904.

As the entertainment and commercial area expanded, it absorbed other neighboring chō (町; sub-wards), such as Shinki-chō (新起町), Wakatake-chō (若竹町), Suehiro-chō (末廣町), Kotobuki-chō (壽町) and Tsukiji-chō (築地町).
[MC: another source also mentions Hama-chō[浜町?] and Izumi-chō.]

Ximending is one of very few examples of 町 retained in use in Taiwan place names today. This is perhaps because it has a very different meaning in Chinese from the Japanese "sub-ward", instead indicating the boundary of a field or the raised walkway between fields.

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Interesting paper on postwar naming of Taipei City streets (and more)

Onoma 51
Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences
ISSN: 0078-463X; e-ISSN: 1783-1644
Journal homepage: https://onomajournal.org/
From Cairo to the nationalistic geography of China: Street-naming in Taipei City immediately after WWII (here)
DOI: 10.34158/ONOMA.51/2016/4

Peter Kang
Dept. of Taiwan and Regional Studies
National Donghwa University
TAIWAN

To cite this article: Kang, Peter. 2016. From Cairo to the nationalistic geography of China: Street-naming in Taipei City immediately after WWII.
Onoma 51, 45–74. DOI: 10.34158/ONOMA.51/2016/4
© Onoma and the author.

Abstract: This paper examines the outcome of two street-renamings in Taipei, the largest city of Taiwan, immediately after World War Two when the Chinese Nationalists, representing the victorious Allied forces, took over Taiwan from Japan. The Taiwan Administrative Office conducted the first street-renaming in June 1946 and the second street-renaming in January 1947. The first wave was characterized by the themes of local reminiscence and cityscape, anti-Japanese significance, and the ethos of Chinese nationalism. The second instance of renaming predominately features Chinese nationalistic ideas in that the streets were renamed after geographical names of China proper, we well as Tibet, East Turkestan (or Uyghurstan), Mongolia and Manchuria. This was a common practice in 1947, and one that persists in present times. The paper discusses the state ideologies behind the aforementioned two types of street-naming by examining the ideas and the spatial layouts of the two naming practices.

Keywords: Taipei, street-naming, Chinese nationalism, Taiwan.

Administrative units during Period of Japanese Rule of Taiwan 1895~1945

This is a little complex, firstly because there were many changes during the five decades of Japanese colonial rule, and secondly becuase administrative units of similar levels sometimes had a varety of names.

One example of the latter are the words translated into English as "prefecture" (similar to Taiwan's counties today), which included:
縣 (Jpn. ken; "county")
州 (Jpn. shū; "state")
廳 (Jpn. chō; "hall")
民政支部 (Jpn. minseishibu; "civil affairs branch")

Regarding the former:
i) there were six re-organizations of administrative divisions between 1895 and 1901;
ii) another change before the end of 1901, with some simplifications in 1909;
iii) and finally in 1920, following the Dōka (同化; "assimilation") policy which considered Taiwan to be separate but equal to Japan, an new system of political divisions was introduced in Taiwan that were similar to those those of Japan proper.

Governor-General's Office (now the Presidential Office Building), completed in 1919.

Following the final re-organization, subdivisions used between 1920 and 1045 included:
州 (Jpn. shū; Hoklo: chiu) prefecture
廳 (Jpn. chō; Hoklo: thiaⁿ) prefecture
市 (Jpn. shi; Hoklo: chhī) city
郡 (Jpn. gun; Hoklo: kūn) district
支廳 (Jpn. shichō; Hoklo: chi-thiaⁿ) sub-prefecture
街 (Jpn. gai; Hoklo: ke) town
庄 (Jpn. jō; Hoklo: chng) village
Among units smaller than these were 大字 (Jpn. ōaza, literally "large words") and 小字 (Jpn. koaza, "small words") for large and small administrative sections of a village, as well as 町 (Jpn. chō; Mdn. ding) indicating a "part of a ward".
This last was very widespread throughout urban parts of Taiwan, but almost entirely disappeared in the postwar period after retrocession to ROC rule, perhaps since this has the very different meaning of "boundary of / between fields" in Chinese (Mdn. ting).
Probably the most notable of few examples to survive is Ximending (西門町) in Taipei's Wanhua District.

Tainan Air Group



[Info and photos for this page were largely edited from wikipedia
This text copyright Jiyue Publications 2022]