Guanxi (關西) Township, Hsinchu County

Guanxi (關西; lit. "[Mountain] Pass West") was formerly known as 鹹菜甕 (Mdn. Xian-cai-weng; lit; "Salted / Pickled Vegetable Urn"). Some sources refer to it as having been 鹹菜棚 (Mdn. Xian-cai-peng; lit. "Salted Vegetable Awning /Shed") or 鹹菜硼 (in which the "shed" is presumably now made of stone 石 rather then wood 木; possibly a local Hakka or Hoklo usage, as the dictionary definition of 硼 is "boron").

In 1920 during the Period of Japanese Rule, this was changed to 關西 (Jpn. Kansai) as this was similar to the Hakka pronunciation of 鹹菜 [MC: though the Japanese pronunciation of this is just as close, so presumably 鹹菜 was considered inelegant, moreover, the Japanese authorities were cutting Taiwan's place names down to two characters at this time].

Before both of these, the area had a succession of names for short periods. The first attempt by Han-Chinese to cultivate these aboriginal lands was in the 1790s by Quanzhou Fujianese, who called the village 美里 (Mdn. Mei-li; lit. "Beautiful Neighborhood"). Due to harrassment by Atayal aborigines, however, they gave up their land rights almost immediately. Next to try were members of the Wei familiy (sinicized aborigines from Hsinchu who took the Chinese surname Wei 衛), who recruited potential tenant farmers in Xinpu (新埔). They called the village 新興 (Mdn. Xin-xing; lit. "New Rising"), and when the land reclamation was complete and the village grew into a town, this was changed to 鹹菜甕 (and different but similarly-pronounced characters) and, as noted, 鹹菜硼.



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Jianshi (尖石) Township, Hsinchu County

Jianshi (尖石; Hailu Hakka: ziam-shag; lit. "Sharp Stone") is as its label suggests, there being a large pointed rock rising from the riverbed near the confluence of the 那羅溪 (Mdn. Naluo River) and 嘉樂溪 (Mdn. Jiale River).

The indigenous Atayal (泰雅) people called the area Nahuy, which meant 火之地 ("Land of Fire") or 火炭之地 ("Land of Charcoal") (source here). The Atayal of this area, like in many others, resisted incorporation into the Qing-dynasty Chinese state and were only subdued during the Period of Japanese Rule (1895~1945).



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Guan Yu (關羽)

Guan Yu (關羽) was a Chinese general who lived at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty (東漢; 25~220 CE). He fought primarily for warlord Liu Bei (劉備), to whom, along with Zhang Fei (張飛), he swore allegiance, and assisted him to found the state of Shu (蜀) during the Three Kingdoms Period (三國時代; 220~280). He was eventually captured by Sun Quan's (孫權) forces of the state of Wu (吳) and executed.

He was reputed for his loyalty and worshipped as a deity, being formally inducted into the Daoist pantheon some 400 years after his death in 220 CE, as well as being adopted by folk Buddhism as a boddhisattva.

Over subsequent centuries, the myths surrounding Guan Yu's exploits proliferated, culminating in the 14th-century novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (三國演義), and leading to his further enhancement as a paradigm of loyalty and righteousness.

He is worshipped by Chinese people around the world, often by the names of Guan Gong (關公; "Duke Guan"), Guan Di (關帝; "Emperor Guan") and so forth. As the patron deity of business people, small statues of him are found in shops and restaurants. At folk / Daoist temples, he frequently appears as a door god to ward off evil spirits, often with Zhang Fei. Guan Yu is easily recognized by his beard and often red face, and by his weapon of choice a 偃月刀 (Mdn. yanyuedao; lit. "supine [cresent] moon blade"), which is more commonly known as a 關刀 (Mdn. Guan dao; lit. "Guan's blade").



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Checheng (車城) Township, Pingtung County

Checheng (車城; lit. "Vehicle City") was formerly Paiwan aboriginal territory known as Kabeyawan, which was transliterated by Han-Chinese immigrants as 龜壁灣（Hoklo: Ku-piah-wan; Mdn. Guibiwan; lit. "Turtle Wall Bay").

After Koxinga ejected the Dutch from southwestern Taiwan and established the Zheng-family Tongning Kingdom, his son, Zheng Jing (鄭經; r.1662~81) sent soldiers to set up a garrison-farm in this area. Over time, this attracted other immigrants and gradually became a village known as 統領埔 (Mdn. Tonglingpu; lit. "Commander's Plain").

During the Qing dynasty (1683~1895) as aborigines sought to take back their lands, wooden fences were built, for which the township became known as 柴城 (Mdn. Chaicheng; lit. "Firewood Wall"). As to how this transformed into 車城 is not clear, a couple of possible explanations are (source here):
i) carts (車) filled with charcoal were used to defend the town against aboriginal attack; or [MC: more plausibly, surely]
ii) 柴城 was pronounced something like Tsa-siaⁿ in Hoklo Taiwanese, which was similar to the pronunciation of 車城 in the Hakka language used by many families in this area.




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Tucheng (土城) District, New Taipei City

Tucheng (土城; lit. "Earthen [City] Wall") derived from exactly what it means, an embankment of earth constructed around a community. In this case, as elsewhere in Taiwan, it was intended to defend immigrant Han-Chinese from aborigines, who presumably were not happy about encroachment into their traditional territories.

Abe Akiyoshi (安倍明義) in his 台灣地名研究 ("Studies on Taiwan's Place Names"; 1938) lists as names deriving from features constructed to protect against attack from aborigines:
i) 土城 (Mdn. tu-cheng; lit. earthen wall");
ii) 土牛 (Mdn. tu-niu; lit. "earthen ox" - because piled up earth looked like a line of oxen sitting down);
iii) 石城 (Mdn. shi-cheng; lit. "stone wall"); see Shicheng (石城), Yilan;
iv) 石圍 (Mdn. shi-wei; lit. "stone enclosure");
v) 木柵 (Mdn. mu-zha; lit. "wooden fence"); see Muzha (木柵), Wenshan District, Taipei City;
vi) 柴城 (Mdn. chai-cheng; lit. "firewood wall", but probably similar to 木柵); see Checheng (車城) Township, Pingtung;
vii) 銃櫃 (Mdn. chong-gui; lit. "gun cabinet"); and
viii) 隘寮 (Mdn. ai-liao; lit. "pass office", which were constructed at each pass where aborigines could enter immigrant areas from the "Barbarian Territories"); see Jiji (集集) Township, Nantou.

The list does not include the very widespread 竹圍 (Mdn. zhu-wei; lit. "bamboo enclosure"), however, which Abe explains as a means of protecting against the wind rather than aborigines.

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Qishan River (旗山溪)

Qishan River (旗山溪; lit. “Flag Mountain River) flows through Chiayi, Kaohsiung and Pingtung for 117 km before entering the Gaoping River (高屏溪). It is also known by its earlier name of 楠梓仙溪 (Mdn. Nanzixian River), though its Hoklo pronunciation of something like Lam-tsu-sian suggests this may be a transliteration of the older Tsou aboriginal name for the river and hence the lands around it in today’s Kaohsiung City and, since 2008, for the local Namasiya District.

The Liberty Times records a Kanakanavu (卡那卡那富; formerly considered a subgroup of the Tsou, now recognized as an individual and independent ethnic group of around 400 people) legend: Hundreds of years ago, a 15-year-old boy named Namasiya finds a giant mottled eel (鱸鰻) blocking the river, endangering his whole tribe. Hurrying back to the village he informs them of the problem but, due to fright he fell ill and died a few days later. Tribespeople join forces with a wild boar to kill the eel, relieve the problem, and for a long time afterwards they gave up hunting boars.



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Namasiya (那瑪夏) District, Kaohsiung City

Being somewhat isolated and inaccessible in the mountains of southern Taiwan, aboriginal Maya Township had managed to maintain its independence and, with that, its traditional name, long after most others had lost theirs.

Thus, even after 17th-century Dutch colonial activities based in not-so-far-away Tayouan (Tainan); Han-Chinese territorial expansion throughout the 17th-century Zheng-family’s Tongning Kingdom and 18th- & 19th-century Qing dynasty; and even the ultimately complete rule over Taiwan by the Japanese, this area had managed to retain its indigenous name of Maya, albeit transliterated into Chinese as 瑪雅 (Mdn. Ma-ya).

This ended in 1957, however, when the KMT-led ROC government decided to bring order and civilization to the “Mountain People” (山地人), which included changing the township’s name to Sanmin (三民; “Three People[‘s Principles]”; see here), based on the political philosophy proposed by “Father of the Nation”, Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Furthermore, its three villages were renamed after each of the principles: Minzu (民族; “People’s Nationalism”), Minquan (民權; People’s Rights) and Minsheng (民生; “People’s Livelihood”).

Despite some Han-Chinese immigration, most inhabitants were still Aborigines (though the previously predominant Tsuo 鄒 ethnicity had been reduced by epidemics and replaced somewhat by Bunun 布農 people). Thus 50 years later, when legal changes under the DPP-led central government allowed them to campaign to change the township’s name, members of the local council voted unanimously to rid themselves of the Sanmin moniker (see Taipei Times).

Instead, from January 1, 2008, the county township (later reorganized as a city district) would be known as Namasiya (那瑪夏) and its three villages as Nanisaru (南沙魯), Maya (瑪雅) and Takanuwa (塔卡努瓦). “Namasiya” was the original Tsou ( or Kanakanvu) name for Nanzihsian River (楠梓仙溪) (now officially 旗山溪 Qishan River) and, therefore, the land around it. In addition, it sounds similar to a Bunun expression meaning “Tomorrow will be better”.



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