The Scarlo and Luo Mei Incident: The Silent Taiwanese History, and the Story After That

First of all, this is an article that throws a piece of the puzzle, because I don't have enough confidence to think that I can write this history well. But in the process of crawling and combing historical materials, I found that it was quite scattered and messy, and then I came up with the idea of arranging it. After all, my problem is that after reading a certain piece of history, I can't help but want to understand everything vertically and horizontally. , If it is not comprehensive, it will be as uncomfortable as peering into the sky.

As a small country and a commoner who is still understanding his own historical background, it is my tiny expectation that I can help many like-minded people to see and pursue it. At the same time, I hope that people who have more research and experience in this matter can share the precious stories or knowledge you know.

Luo Mei (Luo Fa) incident

Here's a summary of the outline, which is also a brief perspective of what a search keyword will read:

In March 1867, an American merchant ship ROVER hit a reef at Qixingyan and abandoned the ship to land. The aborigines of Guizailushe killed the entire crew in revenge for the past white genocide, and only one survived. One survivor fled to Dagou (now Kaohsiung) to inform the government, which attracted the attention of Li Xiande, the US consul in Xiamen. The US sent troops to punish the aboriginal people but they were defeated and retreated. Li Xian had to ask the Qing court to send troops to deal with it, but the Qing court was reluctant. Li Xiande and the aborigines chief Zhuo Qidu reached a peaceful consensus, and decided the alliance of Nanjiao: if similar incidents occur in the future, the aborigines will protect and help foreigners.

In the above summary, I omitted a lot of proper nouns. The story seems to be easy to understand, but there are many interesting details, and even unexpectedly affect the process of Taiwan's future history...

Scarlo and ethnic relations on the Hengchun Peninsula

If you are interested in backgrounds and ethnic groups, you can watch the children's documentary on the top of the Public Television Society, which has a very detailed introduction! (Free, you can watch it when you apply for an account)

Scarlo: A branch of the Beinan ethnic group from Taitung, with 18 Fan Clubs under its jurisdiction, and later gradually merged with the local Paiwan ethnic group. The Langjiao Eighteen Society serves as a common leader, that is, Zhuo Qidu, the big boss in the play. The leadership is hereditary, and the Guizai Law Society, which killed the crew of the Luomei, is also a branch of the Langjiao Eighteen Society.

Makadao Pingpu people (living in Sheliao): Pingpu people are the general name of the plateau inhabitants with the degree of Sinicization (Huang Shuyu's "Taihai Envoy Chalu"). Sheliao is close to the sea, so it has access to imported materials, and it has also become a trading place for all nearby settlements and even the aborigines to acquire firearms and other resources.

Hok Lao (living in Chaicheng) and Hakka (living in Baoli): From the late Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, after the Han people from Fujian and Guangdong came to Taiwan one after another, due to the need for reclamation, although the Qing Dynasty stipulated that the Han people could not cross the border into the land of the aborigines, the Han people still used The lease method rents land from the aborigines. For example, in the play, the Hakka people rent the Tonglingpu from Scarlo. However, Chaicheng was attacked by the Fujianese by force, and they did not need to rent from Scarona, but because of this, they did not have friendly relations with the aborigines.

 Fuke Gundou is also often called Fujian-Guangdong Gundou (but according to the investigation, Hengchun should be the standard for the name of Fuke Gundou divided by language family). As the name implies, people who speak Fuzhou dialect and those who speak Hakka dialect fight back and forth to grab water and land. The cause was the Zhu Yigui incident in 1761. Simply put, the Fuzhou people and the Hakka people jointly protested against the local officials' accumulation of money, but in the process, their faces were torn apart and the two ethnic groups were at odds. But is it necessary not to synthesize this? There are actually several complicating factors in the middle:

1. After the extermination of Ming Zheng, the Qing Dynasty distrusted Taiwan even more, and promulgated a ban on crossing Taiwan. Visitors to Taiwan could not bring their family members. The ratio of males and females was seriously unbalanced.
2. The Qing court knew that the people of Taiwan were not easy to manage, and they held an attitude of non-stop or even encouragement towards armed fights, and they were happy to see the two races in conflict.

What is the Qing Dynasty busy with? Taiwan under the Qing Dynasty

Let the scene go back to 1858. Under the Second Opium War, the Qing Dynasty signed the Tianjin Treaty with Britain, France, the United States, and Russia, but the war was not over, and the coalition forces entered Beijing all the way. In 1860, the Qing Dynasty signed with Britain, France, and Russia. Beijing Treaty, where did the United States go? In the same year, the Civil War broke out, and the United States went back to deal with its own civil war. However, the United States also enjoyed the privileges of other victorious nations due to the benefit-sharing clause in the Tianjin Treaty (below).

If the Qing government agrees or concludes a contract with another country on the issue of the envoy stationing in Beijing, the United States enjoys the same rights at the same time.
Afterwards, any favors, graces, and benefits of the Qing Dynasty extended to other countries and their businessmen and citizens shall apply to the United States as a whole.

From the above, it can be seen that the Qing Dynasty has been very busy in recent years. While fighting wars, it is also busy pacifying civil strife (the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the reversal of Shaanxi and Gansu), and there is really no time to manage a remote island. Therefore , officials stationed in Taiwan often embezzle money and do not actively manage it. . When Li Xiande suggested that the aborigines should be punished because of the Luomei incident, the Qing Dynasty only rejected it on the grounds that "Shengfan is not under my jurisdiction". This argument gradually sprouted and grew in Li Xiande's heart .

Articles 11 and 13 of the (Sino-US) Treaty stipulate that, within the jurisdiction of the imperial court, whether on shore or at sea, if any American is bullied, civil and military officials shall do their best to punish them; People were not killed in Chinese territory or waters, but in a place where aliens gathered. According to the treaty, China should not be asked for relief. ──Taocha's Notes from Southern Taiwan, Taiwan Daotai's reply to Li Xiande.

Li Xiande: The Key to Mastering Taiwan's Destiny

Li Xiande was actually a Frenchman. He immigrated to the United States only after his marriage. He won honors for his bravery in the Civil War, and was later assigned to Xiamen as a consul (Li Xiande set out from New York, USA to Liverpool in July 1866, and crossed the Eurasian land route. , arrived in Xiamen in December, it took a full half a year), and the Luomei incident happened the following year after taking office.

Li Xiande recorded the whole process of communicating with the Qing Dynasty and the aborigines in detail. From his notes, it can be seen that Li Xiande did not think that the US military was really defeated by the aborigines . "It's just that the leaders did not listen to my advice. , landing in a strange place, just unfamiliar with the terrain", and the reason why they were able to reach an agreement with Zhuo Qidu is also because "the aborigines found that we could also launch artillery attacks from a distance, they were terrified, and they admired our heroic charge. , that we are as brave as the Aboriginal people.”

Many of his observations on corruption in the Qing Dynasty can also be seen in the notes:

In his opinion (the Hakka leader), the Qing army would never be able to conquer the aboriginal settlements, because the Qing army could not follow the aborigines into the mountains; even if they followed the Qing court to attack the aborigines, they would suffer: the army would destroy them. They took away their farmland, stole their livestock, and when the army retreated, the aborigines would go down the mountain and loot all the unfinished army because they were not on the side of the aborigines, and perhaps burn down their houses and take them away. Not a single one was killed. If the Qing army wins and gains jurisdiction over this area, everyone will not be better off. Everyone would rather be under the jurisdiction of the aborigines, as long as they pay meager tribute, the aborigines will not intrude on them; on the other hand, if it is under the jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty, taxes and other extractions will be endless. ──Talking through the notes in southern Taiwan, Li Xiande consulted the Fujian and the guests on their thoughts on starting a war.

The most interesting thing is Li Xiande's thinking on "who can control Taiwan's leadership":

I told them (the Qing government) that if they had the mentality that Fandi was not under the jurisdiction of the empire, and failed to establish a permanent government in the aborigines areas that needed to establish a government, such as the Nanwan, then other countries that wanted to gain a stronghold in the East, even Adventurers, once they have the consent of the local native leaders, have the right to establish permanent and independent territories on the east coast; at that time, disputes over border jurisdiction will certainly bring considerable trouble to the Chinese government.

Under public law, a half-civilized government has the right to occupy and hold the lands of the savages in its immediate vicinity; it does not have to worry about the opposition of the savages or others. This is like the American government occupying Indian land, or the British government occupying the land rights of the natives in Australia and New Zealand, allowing the natives to enjoy the benefits of civilization, thereby depriving them of their claims to sovereignty.

From a modern point of view, this passage is of course debatable, or even fundamentally wrong, but this is his interpretation of Taiwan's sovereignty in the context of the circumstances at that time, and this interpretation will deeply affect the future of Taiwan's destiny.

Another Shipwreck, Different Results: The Bayao Bay and Peony Club Incident

Four years after the Luomei incident, in 1871, the same story was copied and pasted, except that the protagonist of the shipwreck was replaced by a Ryukyuan. A total of 54 crew members who drifted to Bayao Bay were killed by the aborigines of the Gauss Buddhist Society, and 12 survived.

Li Xiande, who learned about this, tried to communicate with Zhuo Qidu and expanded the scope of the agreement to all foreigners. During the banquet, he found that Zhuo Qidu's jurisdiction was too large to control the behavior of all the clansmen, and he was even complained by the clansmen. Li Xiande turned to the Qing government for help, but there was no clear result. He only built a lighthouse (now Eluanbi Lighthouse), but he still thought about it.

The following year, Li Xiande left the post of consul in Xiamen and passed through Yokohama, Japan on his way back to the United States. It happened that the US ambassador to Japan mentioned that Japan was paying attention to the Bayao Bay incident, so Li Xiande stayed in Japan and continued his unfinished dream.

If the plan I have submitted to the Japanese cabinet is carried out, not only will my long-cherished desire to be shipwrecked on the coast near the natives be safe, but also the establishment of the broadest and most secure system in the East The foundation of the promotion of Western civilization, science and art. ──Tourist Notes from Southern Taiwan

The scene goes back to 1867, the same year as the Luo Mei. Japan was going through a major transformation. The Edo Shogunate era ended under the "Return of the Great Government", the emperor returned to power, and the Meiji Restoration was promoted the next year. Cause a large number of old nobility (samurai) to lose their jobs. At this time, fighting is the best solution to divert attention and consume manpower, but where to fight? South Korea, one of the original targets, took too much manpower to attack... Li Xiande brought a good remedy for Japan in distress: to attack Taiwan, 2,000 troops are enough.

At that time, Ryukyu paid tribute to Japan and China at the same time, and there was no clear ownership. Japan adopted Li Xiande's suggestion and sent troops to Taiwan in 1874 on the grounds of "protecting the people" and punished the aborigines (and took the most powerful Peony Society at that time as the Target). Because of Li Xiande's detailed geographical and ethnic information, Japan was in a state of collapse, and the aborigines finally surrendered.

But is that the end of it?

The Japanese who had the upper hand, because after Li Hongzhang protested to the United States, the US military no longer provided assistance (and arrested Li Xiande), and the Japanese could not bear the hot and humid climate in Taiwan and they got malaria and proposed peace, Shen Baozhen (right) The Taiwanese governor finally made his debut in May of the same year) and Li Hongzhang both saw that the Japanese would not be able to last...

However, Japan asked the British ambassador to intervene and signed a contract with Beijing. Although the content is not as imbalanced as other contracts signed by China, because of the first article:

What Japan did this time was originally for the sake of protecting the people and righteousness , and China does not think it is wrong.

It gave Japan a reason to reclaim Ryukyu into Japanese territory , and in 1879 it was restructured into Okinawa Prefecture.

What about Taiwan?

The Qing Dynasty finally discovered the importance of Taiwan after the Peony Club incident, and began a series of strategies to open up the mountains and expand the eastern and western parts of Taiwan.

The next time Taiwan leapt onto the international stage was the Sino-French War of 1883...

Forgotten Voices, and later Scarlo

Reading this, I don't know if you have noticed one thing...

In these records, there is no aboriginal perspective at all.

"Indigenous people have no written language. The written language is the colonial regime or the modern government who intervened to convert the original ethnic language into writing." But the absence of written language does not mean closed or ignorant.

" They don't have words, so they lose the right to speak. Even if they are the protagonists of the event, but because the historical materials are not written by them, but from the perspective of foreigners, they will be biased. So I have always emphasized the need to communicate through different materials, We cannot interpret history only with the values of a single historical material.” ──The Paiwan tribe, who fought off the US military in the 19th century, are big importers? Archaeological Revelation of the Lomei Incident

In Tacha's notes, there is a record of a conversation in which Li Xiande visited Zhuo Qidu and brought many gifts to Zhuo Qidu, showing Zhuo Qidu's conversational character:

"If you bribed me with these," he said, "it would be a lot of trouble, because I'm what I say; but if these gifts are signs of our friendship, then I'll happily accept them. Of course, the words are How can we know what the other person really means?”

What happened to the Scarlo Clan after the Peony Club Incident?

"The Gaoshi Buddhist shrine was captured, what happened after that? All the clansmen fled and relocated, and the place became a taboo place. After the elder I interviewed passed away more than ten years ago, no one knows about Linivuan (the tribe of the tribe when the Japanese attacked) Where is the land?” ──The Paiwan tribe who fought off the U.S. military in the 19th century were big importers? Archaeological Revelation of the Lomei Incident

Zhuo Qidu's adopted son, Pan Wenjie, assisted in appeasing the tribe and coordinating the return of the Fan Society during the Peony Society Incident and the subsequent Qing Dynasty's Fufan period. During the Japanese Occupation, all the aborigines were incorporated into the management of ordinary administrative areas, and the Han people did not need the consent of the aborigines to enter the mountains to cultivate .

The story is over, very fragmented and full of sidelines.

The so-called story, the so-called history, is always multi-linear. When viewed across the world, many things are happening at the same time, and when viewed longitudinally, these events influence each other, like a delicate mechanism. And this multi-linearity can be extracted as a person living in history. The sight that every pair of eyes looks out is true, and even has nothing to do with historical records.

As a Taiwanese, it is embarrassing to live so many years to realize that this island's past is so unfamiliar. how could this be? This is too big a question to answer. It can be said to be the right to speak in history, or the evolution of the island's self-identification (I guess the history textbook catalogue of the National Institute of Compilation and Translation and the catalogue of current history textbooks should be examined closely. , must be quite interesting). In any case, witnessing that everyone seems to be collectively embarking on a journey to find their roots, I am inexplicably excited again.

At the same time, history is also happening, on the far side, on the other side not far away, in the present, penetrating us. In the age of information flooding and disappearing in an instant, writing and recording this ever-changing world slowly is the smallest romance and freedom.

There are still many details and characters to be explored in the Luo Mei incident, such as the roles played by Bi Qilin and Liu Mingdeng.
If there are any errors or omissions in the text, please let me know.

 References:
1. Southern Taiwan Tacha Notes, translated by Li Xiande, Robert Eskildsen, Huang Yi, and Chen Qiukun.
2. The Paiwan tribe, who fought off the US military in the 19th century, was a big importer? The archaeological reveal of the Luomei incident, Lin Tingwei.
3. From the Luomei incident to the Alliance of South Cape: whose conflict? Whose reconciliation? , Guo Suqiu.
4. The significance of the comparative study of Taiwanese Hokkien dialects and their language comparison, Qiu Xiangyun.
5. Wikipedia.

The cover image is taken from the official website of Public Television.