Implements and Storehouse

Beside serving as a unit of measurement, “Li” (犁, plow) itself is an agricultural

implement. Nan-tun District was one of the earliest developing areas in Taichung, and it was called “Li-tou Dien Street” (犁頭店街), for there was a street where all shops sold plows. Another implement related word is “Shui-zhui” (水碓). It referred to an

instrument using water to pound rice, and there used to be a Shui-zhui in the stream in Nan-tun District, so the place was named after that.

Cows also played a very important role in the cultivating period. Thus place names

like “Niu-chou” (牛稠, “Gu-diao” in Hoklo pronunciation, barn), “Niu-pu” (牛埔,

“Gu-bo” in Hoklo, a farm to keep cows), and “Niu-xu” (牛墟, a place for cow exchange) can be found all over Taiwan. In central Taiwan, there are “Niu-xu” (牛墟,

in today’s Miao-li County), “Ha-gu-bo” (Hoklo pronunciation of 下牛埔, in today’s Ching-shui Township 清水鎮) and many others containing the word “Gu-bo” (牛埔).

As for ”Gu-diao” (牛稠), there are “Ha-gu-diao” (下牛稠, in today’s Da-cheng Township 大城鄉), “Gu-diao-a” (牛稠子, in today’s Chang-hwa County), etc. Also note that 「芙朝」or「扶朝」(pronounced as “fu-diao” in Hoklo) is a variation of the Hoklo pronunciation of 牛稠.

“Gu-ting” (古亭) was a kind of storage facility. It should be the shortened form of

“Gu-ting Ben” (古亭笨) (Hong, 1980). Gu-ting Ben’s shape was like a drum, made by

weaving bamboo sticks and then spreading mud outside as a cover, which was very common in old villages. For example, in Ji-ji Township (集集鎮) there was a place called “Gu-ting Ben” (Chen, 1998). Besides Gu-ting, “Tu-ku” (土庫) was another

kind of storage and defense facility. Both Taichung City and Chang-hwa County have places named “Tu-ku”. There is even a township in Yun-lin County (雲林縣) named

“Tu-ku”.

2.2.1.6 Workshop

　 Taiwan is in the sub-tropics, and consequently sugar production is an important

industry. Taiwan has long been the sugar supplier for Japan. Before sugar production was mechanized, brown sugar was the main product of Taiwan’s sugar industry. They were produced in old-fashion workshops, which were near sugar cane fields, called

“Bu-zi” (廍子, “pho-a” in Hoklo). 廍 is pronounced “pho” in Hoklo, but since most Chinese dictionaries do not contain this word, 部 is often used instead of 廍, which

lost its original meaning. In central Taiwan there are quite a few place names containing this word, such as “Pho-a” ( Hoklo pronunciation of 廍子, in today’s Wai-pu Township 外埔鄉 of Taichung County, Taichung City and Pu-yan Township 埔鹽鄉 of Chang-hwa County), “Jia-pho” (Hoklo pronunciation of 蔗廍, in today’s

Da-du Township 大肚鄉 of Taichung County), etc (Chen, 1995).

2.2.2 Trade

　 Trade and transportation are highly related. Railways and roads were not popular in

the past, thus goods exchange mainly relied on water transportation, so big rivers were often used for business. There are four main rivers in central Taiwan: Da-an Xi (大安溪), Da-jia Xi (大甲溪), Da-du Xi (大肚溪) and Zhou-sui Xi (濁水溪).

However, the first trading harbor of Taichung was “Wu-chi” Harbor (梧棲港),

which was in the mouth of Niu-ma Xi (牛罵溪). Wu-chi originally was named

“Gou-tsei” (五汊), for the river split into five smaller streams as it got close to the mouth (Zhao, 1998). Local elites in 1891 transformed the name 五汊 into 梧棲 according to a poem which reads as follows: “鳳非梧不棲、非靈泉不願、非竹實不 食”. From 1770 (the 35^th year of Emperor Qian-long) there had been merchant ships

from Fukien as early as doing business here, exporting rice and camphor to Amoy (廈

門) and Hong Kong and importing cow skin, tung oil, textile and tobacco from Amoy

and Quanzhou. Within fifteen years, Wu-chi Harbor quickly developed into a harbor city. However, due to agricultural cultivation and continuous ditch construction, the water of Niu-ma Xi gradually dried up. The harbor became stagnant and had to be given up in the end. Not until 1970 was there a new harbor built. This harbor, now known as Taichung Harbor, started to be built on the same site, while the river mouth has moved several hundreds meters out into the sea.

　 Tu-ge ku Harbor (塗葛堀港) sat in the mouth of Da-du Xi, “Tu-ge” means “clods

of soil” in Hoklo, for there were many “tu-ge cu” (土角厝), which were houses built

of soil clods. At that time Da-du Xi was quite deep, and many merchant ships having their home base there sailed to Fukien and Amoy from there. So its prosperity was once close to Lu-gang (鹿港). During the reign of Emperor Guang-xu the harbor was

destroyed by a flood, so it was buried in the riverbed of Da-du Xi.

　 Another harbor which experienced the same fate was Da-an Harbor. Da-an Harbor

was in Da-jia, springing up at the same period as the former two harbors. It also was an important merchant harbor in central Taiwan, exporting rice and tea and importing textile and food. Beside business, Da-an harbor also served as a military harbor.

Unfortunately, because Da-jia Xi and Da-an Xi had severe floods around the same time, Da-an Harbor soon ceased to function (Zhao, 1998).

Most harbors in central Taiwan only existed at or near the mouth of a river and almost none of them could support shipping along the river. Lu-gang was the only exception. Lu-gang was in the mouth of Zhuo-sui Xi, which flows through most of Chang-hwa County. In 1784 (the 49^th year of Emperor Qian-long) Lu-gang got the permission to do business with the harbors in Fukien Province, and became prosperous immediately. At the peak of its operation almost all kinds of trading companies can be found there. When big cargo ships berthed at Lu-gang, goods such as silk, opium and seafood would be shipped by small boats along Da-du Xi and then changed to bamboo rafts to enter Da-li Dai (大里杙). Da-li was transliterated from a village name of Pingpu Babuza group, and “Dai” (杙) means wood pillar, for at that

time the water was quite strong, forcing boats and rafts had to be tied to this wood pillar as it anchored. At that time Da-li was an important river harbor, located in the entrance of Nan-tou from Taichung, so it was once a prosperous city. However, because of the famous revolt by “Lin Shuang-wen Incident” (林爽文事件), Da-li was

almost totally destroyed by the Ching government’s army. Da-li then fell into oblivion for almost 200 years, only being brought back to life because of the re-organization of the Taichung area.