Analysis of claims by other countries

2. Qing’s strategy for the defense of Taiwan as described in A Tour of Duty in the Taiwan Strait

　Let us start with A Tour of Duty in the Taiwan Strait. The present subject is based on the first issue of Taiwanese documents which was published in 1957 compiled by Economic Research Office of the Bank of Taiwan. In this section, first, I will explain the background behind the creation of this book, and subsequently, the part which mentions “Diaoyu Tai,” starting from the related passages prior to it. By following the contextual flow, we can naturally identify the location that the geographic name of “Diaoyu Tai” points at.

(1)A Tour of Duty in the Taiwan Strai
― A guide to governing Taiwan written by a Qing official in the 18th century

　A Tour of Duty in the Taiwan Strait was written by Huang Shujing, a Qing bureaucrat, sometime later than 1722.
　In 1683, Qing overthrew the Zheng clan, who ruled western Taiwan, and then steadily solidified control over Taiwan, where the armed confrontations over land, called xie dou, continuously happened between the Austronesian natives, the Fulao from southern Fujian Province (Minnan) and the Hakka from eastern Guangdong Province. The land disputes in Taiwan were caused by overpopulation in the underdeveloped island due to the inflow of people who had difficulties living in Fujian and Guandong and had secretly crossed the sea in search of a new place to live. It was impossible to establish a firm rule over Taiwan without first controlling and restricting the people who secretly traveled to Taiwan.

　In the meantime, major military challenges lay in Taiwan at the time. Taiwan is so distant from Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty where the nomadic Manchus and Mongols held power, that the armed forces deployed there were of lesser quality. At the same time, the bitter memories of the ravages of Japanese pirates in the time of the Ming Dynasty had been shared among the bureaucrats under the imperial examination system and people in the coastal areas at that time, and there was a need to be prepared for the next possible assaults by Japanese pirates (in fact, since the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the activities of the Japanese pirates had already ceased, and Japan had limited its relationship with Qing to the comings and goings in Nagasaki. Therefore, there was a recognition, as was shown by Lan Dingyuan, an official who was involved in the rule of Fujian in the first half of the 18th century, that it would not be a trouble as far as the Japanese did not come at all).

　Under these circumstances, the Zhu Yigui rebellion occurred mainly in today's Kaohsiung and Tainan in 1721, which threatened Qing’s rule over Taiwan. This was an armed uprising by people who were angry at the increasing oppression by Qing local officials on the impoverished under the leadership of Zhu Yigui, who claimed to be a descendant of the imperial family of Ming, in order to overthrow Qing and restore Ming. Qing sent in reinforcements from Fujian Province via the Penghu Islands and managed to suppress this rebellion. However, Qing was confronted with an extremely challenging task of how to rule this chaotic island far from the mainland.

　Therefore, Qing sent Huang Shujing, a high-ranking official who had passed the Jinshi exam in the imperial examination system, to inspect Taiwan shortly after the turmoil. These records were compiled into A Tour of Duty in the Taiwan Strait, which includes citations from Chinese geographic and military materials referring to Taiwan after the Ming period as reference. Huang Shujing explains in detail the management of ports as a cornerstone of Taiwan’s defense, and detailed descriptions is found in a part of Vol. 2 Chikan Notes: Military Preparations (Chi Kan Bi Tan Wu Bei) [赤嵌笔谈 武备], in which “Diaoyu Tai” appears.

　This part of the book first cites The Essentials of Historical Geography (Dushi Fangyu Jiyao) [读史方舆纪要]（→Material 1）about the management of the Penghu Islands during the Ming period. It points out that, to cope with Japanese and other pirates, and the possibility of Toyotomi Hideyoshi targeting Taiwan following the dispatch of his forces to Korea, Penghu Island with its calm bay mouth and Taiwan’s Beigang (today's Beigang Township, Yunlin County), located southeast of Penghu Island, should be defended, which had a critical impact on the defense of the coastal areas of Fujian Province, but records that Taiwan was seized by Hongmao (the Netherlands) during the Tianqi era in the first half of the 17th century in the late Ming Dynasty.

　Subsequently, the description in the book is followed by a quotation from Collection of Administrative Documents from Dongning (Dong Ning Zheng Shi Ji) [东宁政事集]（→Material 2） written by Ji Qiguang, a bureaucrat at the onset of Qing’s rule over Taiwan. Starting from around today’s Gangshan District, Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan, it describes as the “North Route” the names of places appearing northwise (clockwise) on the west coast and as the “South Route” those appearing southwise (counter-clockwise) on the west coast. A description about the North Route goes, “As for Jilong and Danshui, they are the northernmost islands in Taiwan, jutting out of the sea and connecting fanshe (番社, indigenous villages).” Jilong [鶏籠] and Danshui [澹水] are today's Keelung City and Tamsui District, New Taipei City, respectively. This represents that since the late 17th century, there had been a recognition among officials in charge of Taiwan that this area lay in the northernmost part of Taiwan. This book goes on to suggest that the various ports on the North Route be tied with the ports of Fujian Province facing across the Taiwan Strait to encourage Fujian merchants to trade with Taiwanese ports on the other side of the Strait, thereby to strengthen commercial and military ties with Taiwan.　

　Next, the book, goes on to cite On Rule of Taiwan (Li Tai Mo Yi) [理台末议] written in 1728 by Xia Zhifang after inspecting Taiwan, describes the deployment of defense forces in Taiwan（→Material 3）. Regarding the defense on the ground, it advocates the implementation of the farmer-soldier system, in which farmers are to engage in agricultural work on a daily basis and take up arms in emergencies, from the viewpoint of costsaving in consideration of the vastness of the land. In terms of maritime defense, it follows the well-established naval defense theory in the period of the Ming dynasty, stating “the navy avoids fighting in the open sea, and heads for ports to take up arms; therefore, the ports shall be battlefields. Accordingly, a good understanding of ports is essential for good command of the navy. The port is to the navy what the castle is to the army.”

　The viewpoints expressed in the above-mentioned quotations indicate that Huang Shujing, author of A Tour of Duty in the Taiwan Strait, intended to raise awareness of the necessity to have a grasp of ports on the Penghu and Taiwan Islands as commercial bases and battlegrounds, and to build up the military forces there.　

　Moreover, Huang Shujing enumerated the following: past records of patrols around Penghu Island; criticism against the plan shortly after Qing’s acquisition of Taiwan to concentrate the deployment of the arms in Penghu by shifting those in Taiwan, the deployment of naval forces in Anping (Tainan) and the instruction manual of their annual patroling; increasing use of Takau Port (today's Kaohsiung) by civilian vessels; the expansion of the rules over the northwestern coastal areas of Taiwan during the Kangxi era; and a need to improve the quality of the military personnel deployed in Taiwan（→Material 4）.　

　Following these summaries of the background, the current state, challenges and others from the viewpoint of the strategy on Taiwan for the mainland Qing, a description of “Diaoyu Tai” appears in the section of the book.