::: Home > Visiting > Exhibit Info
Print
Forward
Text size :
A
A
A

Permanent Exhibition

The Flow of Time : A Brief History of Chiayi
The Flow of Time : A Brief History of Chiayi
Extension：Permanent Exhibition
Showroom： S302
Exhibition Description
Exhibition Space

 

Exhibition Description

 

  • Introduction

    Permanent Exhibition / S302

    Through the Annals of Time: A Brief History of Chiayi

    Chiayi, which was formerly called Zhuluo, situated on the northern part of the Chianan Plain where the Tropic of Cancer passing through this area. The various natural landscapes and rich historical background create the vivid and multi-cultural charms of this area.

    There are several rivers winding through this area toward the sea and form a large alluvial delta, this plain have been built up gradually over time. The winding rivers and the estuary, fertile plains, the hills, and the mountains feature a geographically diverse environment that has nurtured peoples from different places and foster civilization.

    Since prehistoric times, the changing coastline formed an area protected from prevailing winds which became a new port settlements . In the Age of Sail, European sailors and traders as well as new immigrants from mainland China, Southeast Asia all influence over the area, resulting in a constant flux of exchange among the aboriginal and new comers by the seas and on the plains as well as in the mountains. After the twentieth century, Chiayi constantly kept up with the times, modernizing along the way to exhibit even further dynamism in religious beliefs, culture, arts and crafts, industry, and even sports. The National Palace Museum is exhibiting a combination of historical documents, precious artifacts, and new media interactive displays to narrate these vivid and interesting stories of Chiayi.

    Using new media technology for video production, the history of Chiayi is being presented chronologically in three sections: “The Break of Dawn: Geography,” “The Rise of Urbanity: Development,” “The Human Touch: Culture.” Together, they narrate the history of Chiayi from prehistoric to modern times, including its geographic and cultural aspects. Visitors can delve into the rich and diverse aspects of Chiayi through this exclusive theme display and the interactive new media chronology display.

 

  • Part 1

    Through the Course of History: From Zhuluo to Chiayi

    The old name of Chiayiis called Zhuluo, which originated from the name of indigenous settlement “Zhuluoshanshe”. Many early settlers came to this area for the fertile earth on the hills and plains. Under the Dutch and then the Ming loyalist ruler Koxinga in the seventeenth century, this region already became quite cultivated, and there were increasing numbers of Chinese settlers arrived this island after Taiwan became part of the Qing dynasty empire. In 1786, the largest and most serious revolt took place in Taiwan led by Lin Shuangwen, and the Taiwan Regional Commander, Chai Daji, was even held up in the city of Zhuluo. This revolt not only shook the Qing court but also made a great impact to the Taiwanese society.

    The Qing court then send Fu Ankang to lead the rescue troop across the Taiwan Strait. However, strong prevailing winds forced his ships to take refuge in Xiamen. Sensing the urgency of this situation, the Qianlong emperor deployed a Buddhist ritual instrument, the Right-spiraling Conch (also known as the Wind-quelling Treasure), to settle the winds and finally enable the ships to make their passage. After Fu Ankang arrived in Taiwan, his first job was to resolve the crisis of the siege on Zhuluo and then organizing various groups to fight a common enemy, bringing peace to Zhuluo once again. In gratitude to the people of Zhuluo for their dedication to this cause, the Qianlong emperor gave an order to rename Zhuluo to Chiayi (meaning “Commendable Righteousness”). From this time on, the name “Chiayi” became part of Taiwanese history.

  • Right-spiraling conch Qianlong reign (1736-1795), Qing Dynasty

  • Right-spiraling conch Qianlong reign (1736-1795), Qing Dynasty

    The conch shell is inlaid with gilded mouthpiece and protective board, and the mouthpiece is decorated with lotus petals and scrolling vegetation decor. The protective board is fastened on the opening of the shell and the bottom. Its inner panel is made of silver with a Tibetan eulogy and “Made in the Qianlong reign of the Great Qing” in Chinese, Mongolian, Manchu and Tibetan. Its outer panel is plated with gold and decorated with a five-bud floral pattern, a cast adulatory Tibetan inscription and scrolling vegetation decor. Its rim is inlaid with coral, turquoise and lapis lazuli with rings on the bottom. It is appended with a painted lacquer box and a regular-script eulogy in calligraphy on a white brocade. The interior of the box contains inscriptions in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan.


  • Illustration of the Lifting of the Siege of Jiayi

  • Illustration of the Lifting of the Siege of Jiayi

    H: 57.5 cm / W: 92.5 cm

    In 1786, Lin Shuangwen rebelled. Qing sent troops to pacify the riot. General Fukangan lifted the siege of Zhuluo and pacified the rebellion town after town. After the conflict, Emperor Qianlong ordered artists to draft pictures of the battles and create 12 sheets of engraved copperplate prints as the "The Pacification of Taiwan". Pictures in this series were finely drawn and sent to the Workshop of the Imperial Household Department for engraving and printing. A mix of Chinese and European art techniques were used to create these panoramic pictures. Each picture comes with a poem written by the Emperor. The combination of texts and pictures creates an environment that almost brings viewers to the battlefield.

 

  • Part 2

    Portraying Zhuluo:the Changes of Chiayi on the Maps

    With the coming of the Age of Exploration, western cartographers portrayed the terrain of Taiwan’s coastal regions with increasing accuracy. Using these maps, explorers found and stepped foot on the island. In the seventeenth century, a wave of new immigrants from southeastern coast of China came to Taiwan. These new settlers made good use of the rivers and ports along the Chiayi coast to maintain fishing, settlement, and commercial ties with Penghu and Fujian. Some new immigrants cultivated alone up the river and encounter other previous settlers and inhabitants in Zhuluo, including the Tsou and Hoanya aboriginal peoples.

    National Palace Museum had a generous collection of antique maps in the traditional Shan Shui style of landscape painting. These antique maps provide us the clues to assemble an overview of how the Qing dynasty court understood Taiwan. These maps are the conceptual presentation of information; they revealed the general terrain of Taiwan as understood at the time, including its landscape and terrain as well as garrisons, settlements, and indigenous villages, making it a basic microcosm of the land, society, and culture for the island. The map shows us the trajectory of development from tribal villages in Zhuluo to the city of Chiayi.

 

  • Part 3

    Faces Over Time:The Images of Chiayi Inhabitants in Texts

    Taiwan is a melting pot of different cultures and languages. Archaeological evidence had shown that peoples started cultivated on this island about 3,000 years ago; these human activities shaped the local lifestyle and distribution of peoples, and also initiating the process of cultural diversification. The earliest settlers in the Chiayi area first set foot on the plains by the coast and made their way through the hills and into mountain valleys before making their way to the peaks of Alishan. With the influx of new settlers from southeast China in the seventeenth century, increasing contact took place between the officials in Taiwan, the Chinese settlers, and the aboriginal peoples.

    Qing palace memorials and literary anthologies frequently documented these early settlers, including references to the environmental conditions, human relations, and social situation, offering a clear glimpse at the people of Chiayi during this period. Business transactions, tributary goods, the document of locals visited the capital of China are all recorded, and also the governmental officials’ travel journals of their observations all testify to the traces of the early settlers in Chiayi.

 

  • Part 4

    Dust Sealing Off the Past:The Story of Chiayi in Archives

    Chiayi and many of the world’s oldest civilizations straddle the Tropic of Cancer. Prevailing winds along the lagoon terrain and the sediments built up by rivers gradually led to the formation of plains and land reclaiming the sea. With local developments brought by river port and water transport, the arable land and high agricultural productivity made Chiayi played an important role for rice production in the eighteenth century and provided rice for consumption in Fujian.

    The faces of Chiayi appears in archives, the local customs, products, street and village life, waterworks, politics, education, and culture were all recorded in Qing dynasty documents. These archival materials allow modern audiences to further understand what Chiayi was like in the old days.

 

Tab : ExhibitInfo(10)
Back | Home


top