Abstract：
In 1604, the Ming general Shen Yourong ordered the fleet of the Dutch East India Company, led by Wybrandt van Waerwyck, to withdraw from the Penghu Islands. Previous research on this event has emphasized the Dutch occupation of Penghu and portrayed Shen Yourong, commanding a force of 50 warships, as successfully compelling the Dutch retreat through personal courage, diplomatic skill, and military strength.
Although grounded in historical sources, this narrative has been shaped by the laudatory writings of local literati and later reinforced by Twentieth-century nationalist historiography. As a result, it tends to magnify Shen Yourong’s individual agency while underestimating the broader geographical and political context in which the event unfolded.
This article reexamines the episode by reassessing the respective roles of Shen Yourong and Wybrandt van Waerwyck, as well as the positions and strategic objectives of the Fujian provincial authorities and the Dutch fleet. It argues that greater consideration should be given to the early operational model of the Dutch East India Company and to the seasonal monsoon patterns in East Asia. These factors, rather than Shen Yourong’s personal intervention alone, were crucial in shaping the decision of the Dutch fleet to depart.

Keywords：Dutch East India Company, Shen Yourong, Penghu Islands, Maritime Trade, Fujian Naval Force

Abstract：
This article reexamines the pacification policies implemented by the Government-General of Taiwan in the early Japanese colonial period, focusing on the Jianan (嘉南) foothills and the role of local elites. Existing scholarship has largely framed this period through a binary opposition between the colonial government and armed anti-Japanese resistance. By contrast, this study adopts the perspectives of colonial war and militarized society, positioning local elites as a third set of historical actors alongside the colonial authorities and the so-called “bandits.”
Following the Yunlin Incident (雲林事件), the Government-General’s policies toward “bandits” (土匪) underwent a significant transformation. What was broadly described as a “pacification policy” in fact comprised two distinct strategies. The first, negotiated surrender (招降), involved ad hoc negotiations targeting specific bandit leaders. The second, induced submission (歸順勸誘), was a more institutionalized policy directed at groups and accompanied by mechanisms of surveillance and disciplinary control. After Kodama Gentarō and Gotō Shinpei assumed office, these measures were reorganized around a key distinction: “bandits of Japan’s own making” were to be managed through negotiated surrender or induced submission, whereas “genuine criminals,” were to be eliminated through punitive military force.
This article examines negotiated surrenders involving figures such as Huang Guozhen (黃國鎮), Lin Tianding (林添丁), and Ruan Zhen (阮振) in the Qian-Dapu (前大埔), Hou-Dapu (後大埔), and Zhongpu (中埔) areas, as well as the induced submission of the Fanzaishan (番仔山) group. Local elites including Lin Wuchen (林武琛), Mao Rongsheng (毛榮生), and Chen Xiangyi (陳向義) played pivotal roles in these processes. By mobilizing their armed forces and kinship networks, they not only mediated negotiations but actively shaped the terms of surrender. Negotiated surrender typically entailed troop withdrawals, promises to establish local administrative offices (公局), and monetary payments. Induced submission relied primarily on financial compensation combined with the mediation of local disputes. In both cases, negotiations were conducted through non-public channels. In the Fanzaishan case, local elites even resorted to armed intimidation to compel Lin Qichun (林其春) to submit.
Overall, this study argues that the Government-General’s surrender policies functioned as a ceasefire-like governing technique at a moment when colonial rule had yet to fully penetrate local society, colonial war remained unresolved, and social disarmament was incomplete. The result was a distinctive form of armed symbiosis among the colonial state, local elites, and “bandits,” enabling the latter to temporarily reenter local society while remaining within a deliberately maintained gray zone of the foothills. Marked by the instability of regime transition and the marginal geography of the foothills, this liminal condition not only left “bandits" suspended between the categories of “outlaws” (匪) and “law-abiding subjects” (良), but also drew local elites into the same liminal predicament.

Keywords：“Bandits”, Local Elites, Militarized Society, Colonial War, Chiayi, Tainan

Abstract：
This article examines the transformation of the Sozan area in Taipei from mountainous forestland into a suburban villa district during the Japanese colonial period. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that integrates urban and environmental history, it analyzes how the Government-General of Taiwan systematically reconfigured the area’s spatial functions and social stratification through institutional consolidation, spatial planning, and capital mobilization.
The transformation rested on three interrelated pillars. First, the consolidation of land rights provided the essential foundation. Following the opening of the Sozan Public Bathhouse in 1913, land ownership gradually shifted from local lineages to Japanese residents and the Taiwan Land and Building Co., Ltd., thereby establishing the institutional and financial basis for subsequent development. Second, colonial governance strategies centered on park development and urban planning. From Umetani Mitsusada’s 1920 proposal to Honda Seiroku’s 1928 plan, Sozan was envisioned as a “grand park” for Taipei. The 1935 Sozan Urban Plan formally designated the area as an urban facility, while the establishment of Daiton National Park in 1937 further incorporated it into a broader metropolitan framework. Third, the villa district’s spatial character was shaped by Japanese summer retreat culture and Kuroya Ryotaro’s “Forest City” ideals. The 1941 Taipei Urban Planning Zoning Specification classified Sozan as a “high-end residential area,” explicitly aligning its development with the lifestyle aspirations of the urban upper-middle class in colonial Taiwan.
Sozan’s evolution exemplifies a paradigm shift in colonial urban boundaries from “geographical continuity” to “functional connectivity.” Through transportation linkages and functional complementarity, the area became an integral part of Taipei’s urban system despite its physical distance from the city center. This study challenges the binary oppositions of “urban-rural” and “development-conservation,” offering key insights into colonial urbanization in East Asia.

Keywords：Sozan (Yangmingshan), History of Hot Springs, Urban Planning, Suburb, Colonial Urbanization, Spatial Stratification

Abstract：
This study examines the dissemination of temperance knowledge from Europe and the United States to East Asia in the early 20th century, focusing on its impact on Taiwanese society, family life and bodily health. The research finds that anti-alcohol knowledge and modern drinking culture were simultaneously introduced to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. Under the influence of Japanese culture, traditional drinking habits of Han Chinese gradually transformed. Alcohol consumption became increasingly widespread, and a culture of indulgent drinking permeated daily life in Taiwan. At the same time, inspired by Japan’s Minor Drinking Prohibition Act, the temperance movement gained momentum in Taiwan.
The dissemination of anti-alcohol knowledge unfolded in three stages. After the 1910s, medical knowledge concerning alcohol was extensively introduced to Taiwan, and drinking was increasingly framed as a health threat, even referred to as “alcohol harm” (shuhai). Subsequently, the concept of “alcohol harm” was emphasized to meet evolving social and national development needs. In the 1920s, as child-rearing and family values gained attention in Taiwanese society, the family became a central site for temperance education. After 1938, under a wartime regime, the Minor Drinking Prohibition Act was implemented. Public celebrations and government-sponsored events, in line with Japan’s spirit of total mobilization, recast citizens’ bodies as national resources subject to surveillance and discipline. The dissemination of temperance knowledge reshaped Taiwanese perceptions of bodily health, family harmony, and everyday life during wartime. Ultimately, under the coexistence of Japanese drinking culture and temperance ideology, Taiwanese society was caught in an enduring tension between indulgence and abstinence, pleasure and discipline.

Keywords：Temperance Movement, Discipline, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Japan, Lin Hsien-tang, Huang Wang-cheng