This area was formerly known as the Taijiang Inland Sea, a large lagoon in southern Taiwan in the 17th century, known as Taijiang. The lagoon was located along the coast of Tainan, and was surrounded by a sandbar off the coast of Tainan City, with a length of about 10 kilometers. The largest island on the Inland Sea was known as Dayuan.
When the Dutch arrived in the 17th century, the southwestern part of Taiwan was still a cluster of lagoon coastlines. During the Qing Dynasty, the lagoon was gradually silted up due to factors such as the diversion of the Zengwen River. After the original Taijiang Inland Sea was silted up, the most common use was to convert the space into fish farms. During the Japanese colonial era, bamboo rafts were still needed to reach the Ekunshen Fortress (Eternal Golden Fort,億載金城) on the waterfront. However, the Tainan City Government developed the Fifth Redevelopment Area in the 1990s, filling in fish farms and relocating the city government to this area, which has now become an urban area up to the Eternal Golden Fort.
The larger relics of the Taijiang Inland Sea are Sicao Lake (四草湖) and Kunshen Lake(鯤鯓湖). The former converges the Yanshui River, the Zhufa Harbor(竹筏港), the Ancient Salt Transport Canal, and the Chianan Canal before exiting to the sea between Anping and Bei Shanwei. It was also the site of the old Anping Port in the past; the latter was transformed into the new Anping Port after WWII.
§Study into Taijiang Place Names
According to the map of Dayuan Harbor illustrated by Westerners in 1623, "Wankan, Jialaowan, Dayuan..." are the sand swamps surrounding the west coast of present-day Tainan City, and the inner sea surrounded by these sandy swamps form a "big bay" resembling the back of a whale or the shell of a turtle, which becomes a port of refuge for mariners. This bay was named Taijiang only during the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, and was first recorded in a 1722 book "Dongzhengji"(東征集) written by Lan Ding Yuan.
In the 11th year of the Qianlong reign (1744), Fan Xian's "Revised Gazetteer of Taiwan Prefecture" (重修臺灣府志) officially included the name "Taijiang" in the provincial records, which stretched south from Qikunshen(七鯤鯓) to Xiaolong(蕭壠) and Maogangwei(茅港尾) in the north. Source: Excerpts from Wu Mao-Cheng's "Taijiang Inner Sea and its Villages" (臺江內海及其庄社).
§Taijiang River Systems
There are many streams and rivers that flow to Taijiang.
The rivers include the Zengwen River, the Yanshui River, and the Lu’ermen River, and the most beautiful of them all is the canal system.With a total length of 87 kilometers, the land is nourished in all directions and is often hailed as the “Great Wall of the Taijiang”.
In July of the third year of the Daoguang reign (1823), the Zengwen River, then known as the Wanli River, was diverted for the first time from Zijianliao due to a heavy rainfall and flooding. Xinfupu River is the remnant of the first diversion of the Zengwen River.
The drainage channels of Tseng Wen River, which originated in today's Jianliao and Hailiao, passes southwest through Gongchinliao and Xinliao, and then passes through the Shi’er Dian, and then turns southward to the east of Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory of National Cheng Kung University, and runs diagonally through the wetlands and fish farms in front of Benyuanliao and Haiweiliao, where it converges the drainage channels of Benyuanliao, Xizhong, and Haiweiliao. After passing through today's West Coast Highway, they merge together at Liufen, Jiufenzi, and Yuanwen on the west side of Haiweiliao before discharging at Sicao Lake, which is the harbor area.
The drainage channel of Zengwen River turns southward on the east side of the Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory of National Cheng Kung University, forming a large curved flow that is nearly ninety degrees. A short distance to the northwest on North Shanwei Road is Lu’ermen River, which used to be separated by salt fields.
In 1904, the dividing line between Tainan and Yanshui Harbor was supposed to be along the Xinfupu River. The river between Gongchinliao and Shi’erdian flowed along Gong-Syue Road, except for Shi’erdian and Zhonglun, which were within Tainan City (Tainan Chō), while Jianliao, Hailiao, Xinjiliao, Gongwen, Xinanliao, and Xuejialiao were all within the boundary of Yanshui Port Hall (Ensuikō Chō), which was on the northern bank of the old Zengwen River.
Another branch of the Xinfupu River flows westward into the Haomai Harbor(蠔売港). Judging from the water level in the vicinity of Xigang in the "Taiwan Topographic Map"(臺灣堡圖), this new river should be what we call Qigu River today.
The new river follows the harbor channel of Xigangzai and Xigang, from the south of Xigang and the north of Haomai Harbor, and flows westward to join the Gangqian River. Together with the Xinfupu River and Zengwen River to the south, the new stilted land area of southern Qigu enclosed the present-day Qigu Lagoon.
At that time, the first right diversion was the "Deqing River", which was located in Suizaiwei (水仔尾), behind the today’s Jin’an Temple on Chenggong Road, and the second right diversion was the "Xingang River", which entered the sea at Chai Tou Harbor. Xingang River was renamed Yanshui River in the eighth year of the reign of theTongzhi Emperor (1869).
The third right diversion of Tainan is Zengwen River. The river landscape below Zengwen Creek from Jianliao appears bifurcated, similar to a dendritic, meandering river, which has entered the siltation area and is prone to flooding, forming a flood plain.
As to the topography of the river mouth and harbor channel at the downstream of Zengwen River and Xingang River, after the third year of the reign of the Daoguang Emperor, the tides at Lu’ermen was only two to three feet deep, allowing only bamboo rafts to come and go, and the Anping Port was also shallow, with a small tide of five to six feet deep and a large tide of seven to eight feet deep.
In the 22nd year of the reign of the Daoguang Emperor (1842), because of the sea surge, the estuary outside the west county gate formed into a sandbar, and a straight road led straight to Anping. Anping Harbor moved all the way south, and the wetlands of this sandbar also kept moving westward, becoming today's Fifth Redevelopment Area and the Anping Industrial Park.
Source: Excerpts from Wu Mao-Cheng's "Taijiang Inner Sea and its Villages" (臺江內海及其庄社).
§Taijiang Shiliuliao
Shiliuliao (台江十六寮) was the precursor to Annan District we see today. The origin of this term is the best evidence of the changes and vicissitudes of the Taijiang Inland Sea. The coastal area formed between the ancient Zengwen River and Tainan Plateau is known as the "Taijiang Inland Sea", or "Taijiang" for short.It is a lagoon surrounded by sandbars and land along the shoreline, and has played a pivotal role in the historical development of Taiwan. In accounts from the Dutch in 1626 of the ports of Formosa and in official local chronicles of the Qing administration, there are topographical maps and textual descriptions related to the Taijiang Inland Sea. For example, in the 1747 (12th year of the Qianlong reign) Revised Gazetteer of Taiwan Prefecture(Fanzhi, 范志), it is written: "Outside the west gate of the county, the sea enters through the Lu’ermen Gate, and the water from various mountain streams converges here. From Qikunshen(七鯤身) to the south, it extends north to Xiaolong(蕭壠) and Maogangwei (茅港尾)" (Volume 1 / Territories / Mountains and Rivers / Taiwan Prefecture). The ocean currents outside the Taijiang Inland Sea comes under the influence of the Kuroshio tributaries from the south to the north and the coastal currents, as well as the sand dunes formed by the monsoons, forming a world of inland sea and outer oceans. The outer ocean is the Kuroshio and the strong currents of the Pescadores Channel formed by the submarine topography.
The great changes and buildup of land of Taijiang started from heavy winds and rains in Taiwan in July 1823 (the 3rd year of the Daoguang reign), which brought an overabundant amount of water and caused serious landslides.The river was flooded with earth and rocks, and the Zengwen River (called Wanli River in the upper reaches and Ouwang River in the lower reaches) was diverted several times, creating most of the land in the Annan District today. Although the soil had a high salt content, which is not conducive to the growth of crops in general, it still attracted many settlers to build temples, dikes and farms, so that the once vast Taijiang Inland Sea is gradually transformed into fish farms and farmlands. With the increasing number of immigrants, settlements of varying sizes began to appear. This is the "second migration" that moved from the north to the south and from the east to the west, and settlers brought along the religious culture of their homeland and the ideology of ethnic identity to the newly reclaimed land. The culminated in the creation of “Taijiang Sixteen Villages”, which was also known as Jianzaipu (菅仔埔). As a result of the formation of a land-based coastal area, with Themeda plants growing in abundance. It was also the main material for the settlers to build their grass huts, so Jianzaipu (Themeda Village) was the synonym for this large area of new land in Annan District.
The area covered under the Shiliuliao (十六寮) of Taijiang has been widely debated, so in a broad sense, the Shiliuliao are the 51 buroughs of Annan District of Tainan City (see website). A more popular saying for the interpretation of Shiliuliao is thus:
"To settle down build a grass hut first, Taijiang has sixteen famous villages, Zhongzhou, Wukuai, Gongchinliao, Heshun, Nanlu, Chenqingliao, Xidianliao of the Prefecture Hall, Caohu, Budaizui, Xinliao, Zhentouliao of the Military Barracks, Xuejia, Xinan, Xixinliao, Hongyuanliao of the Salt FieldsOffice, and Haiweiliao of the Dao Gong Temple."
In 1920 (9 the year of the Taisho reign), the administrative division were largely the same, and the seven villages and Shiliuliao belonged to Anshun Village(安順庄), Xinfeng County(新豐郡), Tainan Shū (台南州) :
Heshunliao Village (Heshunliao, Wukuailiao, Zhongchouliao), Anshunliao Village (Xidingliao, Nanluliao, Chenqingliao, Caohuliao, Zongtouliao, Xinliao, and Budaizuiliao), Xixinliao Village (Xixinliao), Haiweiliao Village (Haiweiliao), Ma Zu Gong Village(Benyuanliao), Gongchinliao Village (Gongchinliao), and Xuejialiao Village (Xi’nanliao and Xuejialiao). The three villages in the Tucheng area (Tucheng Village, Qingcaolun Village, and Shifenfang Village) were designated as the Qigu Village in Beimen County, Tainan Shū in 1938. In 1945, after the retrocession of Taiwan, Tainan Shū was restored to Tainan County (Note 1), and Anshun Village in Xinfeng County was changed to Anshun Township in Xinfeng District. On March 10, 1946, Anshun Township was administratively placed under Tainan City. To commemorate this, the "An" of Anshun and the "Nan" of Tainan were combined and called "Annan" district.
At present, the Taijiang Inland Sea has shrunk to the present "Qigu Lagoon". The seven lagoons are the last remaining remnants of the Taijiang Inland Sea, located at the mouth of the Zengwen River, separated from the Taiwan Strait by the Shashan Chingshan Harbor(沙汕青山港), Wangtsailiao(網仔寮), and Dingtou’er(頂頭額) etc. Together with Tucheng and Sicao in Annan District, the lagoon has created a high quality ecological environment for water fowls, and the Taijiang National Park, which was designated on December 28, 2009, has continued to pass on the heritage, history, culture, geographical changes, and ecological conservation of the Taijiang Inland Sea. It has also intangibly spread the fame of Taijiang Shiliuliao across Annan District.
§Taijiang in Detail
Taijiang in the Aboriginal Archaeological Period
Taijiang during Dutch colonial rule
Taijiang during the Qing Dynasty
Taijiang during the Kingdom of Tungning
Taijiang during Japanese rule
Taijiang in post-war Taiwan