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The Distribution of Taiwan's Aborigines in the 18th Century
Illustrations of Taiwan's Aborigines of the 18th Century
Ch'ing Archival Materials on Taiwan's Aborigines
Life through the Camera: Western Photographers in Formosa
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The Distribution of Taiwan's Aborigines in the 18th Century

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The work showcased in this section features the traditional Chinese landscape approach to map drawing. The full length of the scroll is used to show the prefects of Heng-ch'ün, P'ing-tung, Feng-shan, and Tainan, as well as the county towns of Chu-luo and Chang-hua, the cities of Chu-ch'ien, Ha-tsai-lan, and Ta-chi-lung, and so on. Not only does it present the lie of Taiwan's land in its entirety, road distances, cities and aquatic sites, garrisons and forts, but also the distribution of the aborigines on the island in the 18th century, as can be seen in the Yellow-thatched cottages and the list of tribal names.

With the scroll unfolded, we find 117 tribes distributed in Heng-ch'ün and P'ing-tung (such as Paiwan), 6 communities in Koahsiung and P'ing-tung (such as Siraya, Paiwan, and Rukai), 36 aboriginal groups in the east of the Shuang-tung-shan Mountain of present-day Nan-t'ou (such as Thao, Atayal and Bunung). We also see 12 Amis communities and 36 Kavalan villages.

In total, the map lists 331 aboriginal communities, represented by the yellow thatched cottages. It is a representation of what the Ch'ing court knew about Taiwan's aborigines and their distribution in the 18th century.

Taiwan map
Taiwan map
Chien-lung reign (1736 to 1795), Color drawing on paper
46cm × 667cm