台灣由於地理位置特殊，兼具海洋性與國際性雙重優勢，自十七世紀以來，曾歷經荷據、明鄭、清朝、日據等時期，主權時有變動，文化發展多元。
本書作者洪健昭，學養豐富，他廣泛蒐集歷史資料，記錄許多台灣人仍不知道的台灣歷史，例如，台灣第一場獨立戰爭，是在西元一八九五年甲午戰爭後台灣將割讓給日本時，與日本人打的一場台灣建國戰爭，由丘逢甲幕後推動，台灣巡撫唐景崧擔任總統，並宣布獨立，可惜獨立建國十二天就結束。這段歷史無關統獨，卻是台灣人都應該知道的台灣史事。
以史料為依託，強調台灣的地位，有台灣地位論，與連橫《台灣通史》遙相呼應，本書見解獨到，資料豐富，是讓外國人了解台灣源流的英文版台灣史。
Taiwan, though close to China, played no part in Chinese history until the seventeenth century. There was sporadic Chinese emigration to the island, which the West used to call Formosa, in the earlier centuries, but otherwise the island had remained home almost exclusively to the aborigines.
The history of Taiwan began with a Dutch colonization effort in 1624. The island had remained a Dutch colony for 38 years before Cheng Ch’eng-kung, better known in the West as Koxinga, seized it as the base of his Ming irredentist movement against the Ch’ing or Manchu in 1662. Sincization of Taiwan started with massive Chinese emigration to the island. His son and grandson continued to rule Taiwan as a state until the Ch’ing conquered and annexed it as part of China in 1683.
Taiwan was made a province of Ch’ing China in 1887, more than two centuries after it had been annexed as a prefecture. Peking ceded the island and the Pescadores or Penghu to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.
Taiwan, Asia’s first republic, declared independence on May 23, 1895. The republic was short-lived, lasting only 12 days. No foreign powers recognized Taiwan. The republic army, however, fought the Japanese occupation force for months in the desperate war of independence.
During their half century of rule, the Japanese started Taiwan on the road to modernization. Their colonial rule was harsh but efficient, albeit their Japanization attempt failed. After Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies in 1945, Taiwan was restored to China.
Taiwan was made a province of China again on October 25, 1945. China’s reoccupation of Taiwan was a fiasco, however. The people of Taiwan rose against the corrupt Chinese provincial authorities on February 28, 1947. The massacre of people that followed so alienated Taiwanese that they considered independence as an alternative.
作者簡介：
洪健昭（HUNG CHIEN-CHAO）
美國喬治城大學歷史博士，現任中央社董事長、輔仁大學外語學院特聘教授，曾任記者、駐義大利代表。
章節試閱
FOREWORD
Frederick Lewis Allen, the celebrated American journalist, wrote Only Yesterday,an informal history of the United States in the 1920s.
It is the best history book about that remarkable decade of American progress. The ratification of Amendment XIX to the Constitution made women’s suffrage national in 1920. The United States formally began its Pax Americana, replacing Great Britain as the world’s policeman, though the decade closed with the New York stock market crash that signaled the advent of the Great Depression.
Taiwan experienced a great upheaval during the eight years while President Chen Shui-bian was at the helm of state. He rejected a modus vevendi President Lee Teng-hui had achieved with China. The economy stagnated. Unemployment hit a historical high. The gap between the rich and the poor sharply widened, making Taiwan an M-shaped society with the middle-income earners suffering the most.
The country became a house divided, while tensions continued to mount across the Taiwan Strait as his policy of creeping independence was forcefully implemented. China adopted an anti-secession law in 2005, justifying an automatic invasion of Taiwan when Taipei declares independence, de facto or de jure.
Chen stepped down as president on May 20, 2008. Ma Ying-jeou took over. His landslide victory over Chen’s anointed heir Frank Hsieh in the presidential election on March 22 seems to signal a reconciliation between the native islander majority and the mainlander Chinese minority torn asunder since the February 28 Incident of 1947. Democracy prevailed again. Communal harmony was set to be restored.
President Ma has instilled hope in the people. They know full well Taiwan has to reinstitute the modus vivendi President Chen scrapped, if it wants to get out of its long economic doldrums and avoid being marginalized in the world economy. Fortunately, China seems responsive. While the presidential campaign of 2008 was drawing to an end in Taiwan, Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, went on the record by stating Beijing was ready to sign a peace accord to preserve the status quo between the two sides of the strait. The accord is a starter, which must be followed up by necessary arrangements to set up a new modus vivendi to usher in a new era of peaceful cooperation between Taiwan and China.
The turbulent eight years and the two more that followed constitute a decade lost for Taiwan on its long journey from its Dutch colonization to a prosperous modern democracy. Hindered by the financial tsunami of 2008 and what with Taiwan’s worst flood disaster in history in August 2009, President Ma has failed to carry out what he planned to do for the country. The 2000s, which should be considered a lost decade
in Taiwan’s history, is discussed briefly in the closing pages of this book, a revised version of A History of Taiwan published in 2000. It is not as in detail as Allen’s treatment of the second ten years of the twentieth century in the United States, but will hopefully be still informative to readers.
Declaration of Independence
One most important advisor to Tang Jing-song in his bid to become the president of the republic was Chen Ji-tong, an expectant colonel and former military attaché at the Chinese embassy in Paris who was well versed in the theory and practice of republican government owing to his training and long sojourn in France. Chen arrived in Taipei from Shanghai in mid-May at Tang's invitation. Chen was the first to propose the use of Western political concepts at a time when Tang was desperately seeking to offset the influence of Qiu and his stirring self-rule pronouncements. Under Chen's influence, Tang grew more aware of the fact that a republic in Taiwan could strengthen his own position and enhance his chance of gaining Western support from abroad. He made the decision to head the new republic on May 21.
Chen took part in a meeting at the Chou-fang-ju (an ad hoc defense bureau) in Taipei on the same day. Qiu Feng-jia, Lin Chao-dong and other gentry leaders met in council at the bureau to decide on the fate of Taiwan. Chen vigorously promoted at the meeting the idea of a republic, which was endorsed in the end by Qiu, the most influential leader who advanced a version of representative government based on his own strong predilection for self-rule in Taiwan. Earlier, on the other hand, Chen visited the commander of a visiting French warship, the Beautemp-Beaupre, and delivered a letter from Tang. In return, the French officer called at the governor's yamen, and allegedly urged that Taiwan be turned into an autonomous state so as to attract help from France. Following the visit, Chen circulated news that Taiwan was to declare independence and French protection was to be expected. Qiu reportedly was swayed by the hopeful tidings spread by Chen. Ultimately he was persuaded to concede control of the new government to Tang in hopes of obtaining French assistance. Finally, it was decided that a republic with a parliament, with Tang as head of state, should be established on Taiwan.
Two days later, on May 23, a declaration of independence was proclaimed in Taipei. It reads:
Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Taiwan
The Japanese have insulted China by annexing our territory of Taiwan. The People of Taiwan, in vain, have appealed to the Throne. Now, the Japanese are about to arrive.
If we, the People of Taiwan, permit them to land, Taiwan will become the land of savages and barbarians. If, on the other hand, we resist, our state of weakness will not be for long, as Foreign Powers have assured us that Taiwan must establish its independence before they will assist us.
Therefore, we, the People of Taiwan, are determined to die rather than be subdued by the Japanese. This decision is irrevocable.
The leaders of the People of Taiwan, in Council, have decided to constitute Taiwan as a Republican State, and all administration, henceforth, shall be in the hands of officials, elected by the People of Taiwan.
Tang Jing-song, Governor of Taiwan, has been appointed President of the Republic of Taiwan.
The official ceremonies of inauguration of the Republic will take place on the second day of the fifth moon at the Si hour (at noon), at which, all persons, those of rank, merchants, farmers, artisans, and tradesmen, will assemble at the Tuan-fang (Militia) Hall.
This is a Declaration of the People of Taiwan
On May 25 Tang was inaugurated as president of the Republic of Taiwan, just four days before a Japanese occupation force began to land at Aodi near Yilan. Qiu Feng-jia himself led a parade of gentry and merchant leaders from Banka to Tang's yamen to attend the inaugural ceremonies. A large attendance at the ceremonies attested to an island-wide support for Tang and the new republic. Tang was given a seal of the president of the Republic of Taiwan and a national flag bearing a tiger in the dark blue background. The national flag was hoisted in front of the yamen, while an eleven-gun salute was fired to inaugurate Tang as president of the Republic of Taiwan. But he took pains to stress his loyalty to the Qing and indicate the subordinate position of his republic by announcing that the period name for his term as president would be styled Yong Qing or Forever Qing. Only in his representations to the Westerners did he make use of his title as president. However, not a single Western nation extended formal recognition to the new republic or advanced aid to the beleaguered island defenders. Nor did Tang receive any substantial support from Zhang Zhi-dong and other regional leaders on the mainland of China.
After the inauguration, Tang required all Qing officials and military personnel to choose by May 27 either to leave Taiwan or stay. Those who stayed were given double pay but by far the majority left. Thirteen of the 18 magistrates left, creating a governing vacuum. Yang Qi-zhen, Fujian commodore, and Wan Guo-ben, brigade general at Anping, also crossed over to the mainland together with their troops. Tang made Liu Yong-fu grand marshal of the Republic of Taiwan. No vice president was created, while Qiu Feng-jia remained commander-in-chief of the volunteer corps in charge of defense in the central part of Taiwan. Tang also created a new administration with three ministries. They included the Ministry of the Interior under Yu Ming-zhen, the Foreign Affairs Ministry with Chen Ji-tong as minister, and the Ministry of War under Li Bing-rui. All three were Tang's close aides, while he also assigned them to concurrent vice ministerial positions in each of the other two ministries. Under this arrangement they carried on overlapping duties, and were expected to submit all matters to Tang for final approval. He thus governed through a highly centralized apparatus which he completely dominated. He sent one of his aides to Beijing as a representative of the Republic of Taiwan. Otherwise, he relied on telegraphed messages and personal contacts with Western representatives to carry on his quest for outside support.
Lin Wei-yuan, head of the Lin Ben-yuan family, was elected speaker of Taiwan Parliament. Lin, however, declined to accept the job, and slipped away to Fuzhou. The Parliament sat in session for a couple of days without the speaker. Undoubtedly, the Parliament was devised to serve as the center of gentry and merchants of influence in the new republic. Besides Lin, a number of other Taipei inhabitants of eminence and wealth were made members of Parliament. These prominent local figures were selected in a manner Chen Ji-tong once described as "representation without election." The local administration of the new republic remained the same as during Qing rule: three prefectures, 11 districts, three sub-districts except Penghu which was under Japanese occupation, and one special sub-prefecture of Taitung. Those who held civil and military posts on the island continued to use the old titles and seals of office. In short, the republic proved to be merely a facade by which Tang and his close associates dominated both civil and military affairs in northern Taiwan. The republic collapsed in only 12 days, when Tang himself and his associates fled from Taipei. Qiu Feng-jia also left Taiwan.
Liu Yong-fu in the south, however, continued Taiwan's war of resistance, although he did not accept the now vacant office of president. Liu himself fled Tainan for Amoy later without confronting the Japanese. The Republic of Taiwan without the head of state came to an end on October 21, when Tainan fell into the hands of the Japanese.
FOREWORD
Frederick Lewis Allen, the celebrated American journalist, wrote Only Yesterday,an informal history of the United States in the 1920s.
It is the best history book about that remarkable decade of American progress. The ratification of Amendment XIX to the Constitution made women’s suffrage national in 1920. The United States formally began its Pax Americana, replacing Great Britain as the world’s policeman, though the decade closed with the New York stock market crash that signal...
目錄
PREFACE
FOREWORD
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
I INTRODUCTION
II TAIWAN UNDER THE DUTCH
III INVASION FROM CHINA
IV TAIWAN UNDER THE ZHENG
V TAIWAN UNDER THE QING
VI ASIA'S FIRST REPUBLIC
VII TAIWAN UNDER THE JAPANESE
VIII TAIWAN AFTER 1945
IX THE LOST DECADE
X EPILOGUE
GLOSSARY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
PREFACE
FOREWORD
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
I INTRODUCTION
II TAIWAN UNDER THE DUTCH
III INVASION FROM CHINA
IV TAIWAN UNDER THE ZHENG
V TAIWAN UNDER THE QING
VI ASIA'S FIRST REPUBLIC
VII TAIWAN UNDER THE JAPANESE
VIII TAIWAN AFTER 1945
IX THE LOST DECADE
X EPILOGUE
GLOSSARY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
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