Measurement of Area and Tax Collecting Bureau

“Jia” (甲) has been used as a basic unit for the measurement of area in Taiwan since

Dutch occupation. It should be the transliteration of the Dutch word “acre” (Tsao, 2004). There are many place names containing the word “jia”. For example, “Shi Jia”

(十甲) in Dong District of Taichung City. This place name came from a new

cultivated land which was about ten acres. However, not every place name which contains “jia” refers to measured units. Da-jia Township is famous for its Ma-zhu Temple. But “Da-jia” is transliterated from a Pingpu group, “Taokas,” for Da-jia’s Hoklo pronunciation “Dai-ga” is close to “Taokas”.

“Chang-li” (張犁) is another measure unit. Five acres equals one chang-li. This is

because one chang-li can be used to cultivate a land of five acres (Hong, 1980).

Central Taiwan has many place names containing the word “chang-li”, like “Si Chang-li “ (四張犁, in today’s Taichung City), ”Liu Chang-li” (六張犁, in Today’s Da-ya Township of Taichung County), ”Upper Qi Chang-li “ (上七張犁)、”Lower Qi Chang-li “ (下七張犁)、”Ba Chang-li” (八張犁)、”Jiu Chang-li” (九張犁, in today’s Taichung County), ”San-shi Chang-li” ( 三 十 張 犁 , today’s Bei-tun District of

Taichung City), etc.

Tenant-farmers had to pay a certain amount of their product to the chief cultivator

of the tax collecting bureau, which was often called “Gong-guan” (公館). Gong-guan

had two functions: one was to serve as a protected area to collect grains and the other was to serve as dormitories for officials or tax collectors. In Taiwan Gong-guan mainly functioned as the former one, and place names which contain “Gong-guan”

can be found in many places, such as Gong-guan Township (公館鄉) of Miao-li County, Gong-guanVillage (公館村) of Hou-li Township (后里鄉) in Taichung County, Taichung City, Da-cheng Township (大城鄉) of Chang-hwa County and Xi-luoTownship (西螺鎮) of Yun-linCounty (雲林縣).

2.2.1.4 Irrigation

Rice was the main grain product Han people’s cultivated. It required a large amount of water, and ditches and ponds were basic facilities for irrigation. Ditches of various sizes spread out over central Taiwan, and “Ba-bao Ditch” ( 八 堡 圳 ,

eight-district Ditch) was the most important one. Ba-bao Ditch, dug in the time of Emperor Kang-xi (康熙), was the greatest irrigation facility of Taiwan created during the Ching Dynasty. It was constructed by Shih Shi-bang(施世榜) who came from Quanzhou. Thus it was also known as “Shih-cuo Ditch” (施厝圳). The reason why it

was called “Ba-bao” was because its irrigation scope covered eight districts, including Dong-luo Dong Bao (東螺東堡), Dong-luo Xi Bao(東螺西堡), Wu-dong Bao(武東 堡), Wu-xi Bao (武西堡), Yan-wu Upper Bao (燕霧上堡), Yan-wu lower Bao (燕霧 下 堡 ), Ma-zhi Bao ( 馬 芝 堡 ) and Xian-dong Bao ( 線 東 堡 ), corresponding

approximately to present-day Er-shui (二水), Tien-zhong (田中), Tien-wei (田尾), Yung-jing (永靖), She-tou (社頭), Yuan-lin (員林), Xi-hu (溪湖), Da-tsun (大村), Hua-tan (花壇), Shou-shui (秀水), Fu-xing (福興), Lu-gong (鹿港), Pu-yan (埔鹽), He-mei (和美), Pi-tou (埤頭), Xi-zhong (溪洲) and Chang-hwa (彰化市), eighteen

townships in Chang-hwa County. In terms of area, this amounts to about half of Chang-hwa County. It thus played a crucial role in the development of Chang-hwa.

Although these ditches made great contributions towards cultivating central Taiwan, they sometimes created problems for the area as well. “Shui-nan” (水湳), which is in Bei-tun District (北屯區) of Taichung City, received its name because this area was surrounded by a number of branches of Ba-bao Ditch (八寶圳). The ditches caused

low-lying wetland areas to have great difficulties draining. The waterlogged land thus became constantly muddy and was called “Shui-nan”, the record character of which in Hoklo pronunciation was “L’am”. “L’am” refers to low-lying muddy land. The word

“Nan” (湳) is quite common in place names in this area, “Da-nan” (大湳) of Feng-yun County, “Liu-shu-nan” ( 柳 樹 湳 ) of Wu-feng Township ( 霧 峰 鄉 ),

“Lu-chu-nan” ( 蘆 竹 湳 ) of Wu-ri Township ( 烏 日 鄉 ), “Tsao-nan” ( 草 湳 ) of Ching-shui Township (清水鎮) in Taichung County were good examples in central

Taiwan.

Ditches normally exist in plain areas, where geographical features are relatively

simple. Thus these irrigation ditches were often used to mark a certain place. There are also many place names containing the word “cun” (圳, ditch), like “Cun liao” (圳 寮, in today’s Feng-yun City of Taichung County), “Cun-liao Keng” (圳寮坑, in

today’s Hou-li Township of Taichung County), “Cun du” (圳堵, in today’s Ching-shui Township of Taichung County), “Heng cun” (橫圳, in today’s Da-jia Township of

Taichung County).

Building a ditch was not an easy job. Sometimes due to the uneven geographical

features of the area, special arrangements had to be made. Sometimes because the ditch has to cross over another natural stream, large conduits called “king” (枧) have to be made. Since Hoklo 枧 (king) is pronounced the same as 景 (scenery), many place names related to 枧 (king) were written as 景. For example the place name 景 美 in Taipei was actually written as 筧尾 in earlier records, meaning the end of the

conduit (筧). It was only much later that it was replaced by 景美, meaning a scenic

spot, as part of the effort to make place names sound more elegant. In Taichung City there is also a place called “Shui-jing tou” (水景頭). The place was so named for a

similar reason, i.e., as a large conduit carrying ditch water was built. People started to dwell around the head of the water pipe and this new community became associated with it. Another similar place name is “Shui-ban tou” (水汴頭). It was a name given

to communities located near a ditch division gate.

Besides ditches, ponds used for water storage are another kind of irrigation facility.

Chang-hwa County has a township called “Pi-tou” (埤頭). It acquired its name

because the original community was located around the head of an irrigation pond.

Another township “Zhu-tang” (竹塘) was named because, in the beginning, the

cultivators dug the ponds for water storage, and because at that time there was much bamboo growing around these ponds, the place was called bamboo pond (竹塘). Note that 埤 can also be written as 陂, but 陂 is often changed to 坡, which in its written form looks similar to 陂, but it actually means “a slope” rather than “a pond”.