臺海使槎錄

Táihǎi shǐchá lù 臺海使槎錄

Records from the Embassy-Raft to the Tái-hǎi by 黃叔璥 (Huáng Shūjǐng, 1666–1742) — zhuàn 撰

About the work

An 8-juan early-Qīng monograph on Taiwan, composed by Huáng Shūjǐng during his term as the first Imperial Censor (xúnshì Táiwān yùshǐ, 巡視臺灣御史) in 1722–1724 — the office having been freshly created by the Yōngzhèng emperor in Kāngxī rényín (1722) following the Zhū Yīguì uprising on Taiwan (1721). Title shǐchá alludes to the Hàn-period Zhāng Qiān legend of the embassy-raft to the Heavenly River. Juan 1–4 are the Chìkǎn bǐtán 赤嵌筆談 (notes from Chìkǎn / modern Tainan); juan 5–7 are the Fānsú liùkǎo 番俗六考 (six investigations of the customs of the indigenous peoples); juan 8 is the Fānsú zájì 番俗雜記 (miscellaneous notes on indigenous customs). The work is the foundational early-Qīng systematic monograph on Taiwan from on-the-ground observation, and one of the principal documentary sources for the early-eighteenth-century Pingpu / píngpǔ indigenous peoples of western Taiwan, with detailed material on language, customs, kinship, ritual, and folklore. Together with Yú Yǒnghé 郁永河’s Bìhǎi jìyóu 裨海紀遊 (1697) and Lán Dǐngyuán 藍鼎元’s Píng Tái jìlüè 平臺紀略 (1723), it is one of the three core early-Qīng Taiwan texts.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Táihǎi shǐchá lù in eight juan is by Huáng Shūjǐng of our state. Shūjǐng, hào Yùpǔ 玉圃, native of Dàxīng 大興; Kāngxī jǐchǒu jìnshì (1709); rose to ChángZhènYáng tōngdào. This compilation is from when Shūjǐng, in Kāngxī rényín (1722), as Censor, was sent to inspect Taiwan; hence titled shǐchá (embassy-raft).

Juan 1 to 4 are the Chìkǎn bǐtán; juan 5 to 7 are the Fānsú liùkǎo; juan 8 is the Fānsú zájì. Taiwan since Kāngxī guǐhài (1683, the year of Shī Láng’s conquest of Taiwan from the Zhèng family) first entered the registers; the various works’ records are sometimes omissive, sometimes too brief, sometimes inaccurate from hearsay. Shūjǐng gathered the old works and compared with what he saw, and so produced this compilation. Of mountain-rivers, customs, and products it speaks rather thoroughly; of mountain-rivers’ strategic narrows, the strategy of kòngzhì (military control), and the maritime winds and signals he is also fully informed; on terrain especially comprehensive. Although what is recorded is limited to one corner, what previous yújì writers had not detailed has been gathered and compiled with sources clearly traced — surely not without scholarly utility. Respectfully proof-read in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).

Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Táihǎi shǐchá lù is the foundational early-Qīng monograph on Taiwan and the principal documentary source for the eighteenth-century Pingpu indigenous peoples of western Taiwan. It was composed by Huáng Shūjǐng 黃叔璥 (1666–1742; CBDB 30673; zì Yùzhāi 玉齋, hào Yùpǔ 玉圃; native of Dàxīng 大興 in Zhílì) during his service as the first xúnshì Táiwān yùshǐ (Imperial Censor for Taiwan, Kāngxī rényín 1722 to Yōngzhèng 2 = 1722–1724), an office freshly created in the wake of the Zhū Yīguì uprising of 1721 to bring closer Qīng administrative supervision to the recently incorporated frontier prefecture.

The work falls into three parts: (i) the Chìkǎn bǐtán (4 juan) treats Taiwan administrative geography, history, climate, products, military defence, and Hàn-Chinese settler society; (ii) the Fānsú liùkǎo (3 juan) treats the indigenous peoples in six categories — customs, food, dress, dwellings, marriage and burial, song and dance — drawing on the contemporary fānshè (indigenous-village) reports submitted by frontier officials; (iii) the Fānsú zájì (1 juan) is a miscellany of additional indigenous-related material. The Fānsú liùkǎo is the principal early-eighteenth-century source for Pingpu language and culture, recording over 250 indigenous-language songs and word-lists with parallel Chinese characters phonetic transcriptions — the largest single pre-modern Chinese-language record of Taiwanese indigenous languages.

The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 592.6).

Translations and research

• John Robert Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600–1800 (Stanford, 1993). The principal English-language synthesis using Huáng Shū-jǐng as a major source.
• Emma Jinhua Teng, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683–1895 (Harvard, 2004). Includes substantial discussion of the Tái-hǎi shǐ-chá lù and partial translations.
• Joshua A. Fogel, ed., Sagacious Monks and Bloodthirsty Warriors: Chinese Views of Japan in the Ming-Qing Period (Norwalk, CT, 2002), comparative.
• For the Pingpu indigenous-language material: Henning Klöter, Written Taiwanese (Wiesbaden, 2005); Paul Jen-kuei Li 李壬癸, Tái-wān yuán-zhù-mín shǐ: Yǔyán piān 臺灣原住民史：語言篇 (Taipei: Wén-jiàn-huì, 1999).
• Critical Chinese editions: Tái-hǎi shǐ-chá lù, Tái-wān wén-xiàn cóng-kān no. 4 (Taipei: Tái-wān yín-háng, 1957); reprinted with annotations.

Other points of interest

The 250+ indigenous-language songs and word-lists in the Fānsú liùkǎo (juan 5–7) are a primary linguistic source for several now-vanished or critically endangered Pingpu languages of western Taiwan (Siraya, Hoanya, Taokas, Pazeh, Papora, Babuza, Favorlang) — making the work one of the most important pre-modern documentation of Austronesian Formosan languages.

Links

• Wikidata
• Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier (Stanford, 1993)
• Teng, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography (Harvard, 2004)