Abstract：
Existing legal history research on division of family property in Taiwan focuses mainly on the Great Qing Legal Code (hereinafter, the Code) with the equal inheritance principle for succession by each son/sub-family. With reference not only to the Code but also historical data from wills in Qing-Taiwan and the Tan-Hsin Archive, this paper analyzed the role and impact of family elders’ wills in the division of family properties. Firstly, the Code emphasized the elders’ authority to teach, instruct and discipline the juniors. While the elders had the final say on how family properties were to be divided, the Code also upheld the principle of equal inheritance among all sons. Secondly, in contrast to allotment agreements made on the basis of consensus or consent among all (male) heirs, wills were drawn up purely in accordance with the elders’ wishes and executed in the manner of “seniors dictate, juniors obey”. Hence, in social practice, the elders’ decisions had greater binding on asset allotment among heirs. Records of the Tan-Hsin Archive reveal that magistrates took wills seriously and had great respect for the elders’ wishes, sometimes even overriding the equal inheritance principle. In addition, (widowed) grandmothers and mothers’ wills and decisions were also influential in division of family property, indicating that women also had control over asset allotment in Qing-Taiwan. Overall, the legal order of property transfer in present-day Taiwan still upholds both the equal inheritance principle and the binding power of elders’ will.

Keywords：Traditional Chinese Law, Qing-Taiwan, Wills, Tan-Hsin Archives, The Distribution of Family Property, Women, Property

Abstract：
This article focuses on the development of Japanese military medicine in the early Meiji era, exploring the role and effectiveness of military medicine in the two invasions of Taiwan, and analyzing the relationship between military medicine and colonial medicine. First, this article traces the development and characteristics of Japanese military medicine before 1895, and its initial implementation in the 1874 Japanese invasion of Taiwan. It then goes on to explore the problem of endemic diseases prevalent among Japanese troops during the battles leading up to the Japanese conquest of Taiwan in 1895, discussing the origin of the diseases and how the military medicine responded. Concurrently, this article focuses on the measures for prevention of cholera and malaria during the battles in 1895, and analyzes the connection and transition between military medicine and colonial medicine.

Keywords：Military Medicine, Colonial Medicine, Japanese Invasion of Taiwan in 1874, Japanese Conquest of Taiwan in 1895, Meiji Era, Taiwan under Japanese Rule

Abstract：
Previous historical studies on imperial medicine tended to focus on “the colonization of body,” which usually assumed that the colonized were the main target of public health interventions in colonial infectious disease control. This study explores this issue in the light of syphilis prevention in colonial Taiwan under early Japanese rule; examining whether the epidemic of syphilis was imported, which gender or race group was identified as the major target for compulsory inspection, as well as why and how the colonial policy changed. Firstly, the claim of imperial medicine that local Taiwanese women were the sources of syphilis infection was unfounded. In fact, those subjected to compulsory inspection were actually Japanese unlicensed prostitutes rather than Taiwanese ones. Colonial measures of epidemic control were developed along the lines of gender rather than race. Secondly, the then Government-General of Taiwan formulated policies to expand the prevention targets from licensed prostitutes to include unlicensed ones out of concern for venereal disease outbreaks. However, such policy was suspended after a short period of implementation, due to “human rights disputes” raised by Isogai Seizou, the then Tainan Magistrate. Nevertheless, analysis at the local level did not support this official account archived by the central government. Instead, “inactive governance” was evidenced in local governance of banditry and epidemic in southern Taiwan. That is, the reluctance of local government to implement central government policy was not due to human rights concerns but administrative incompetence of the local health department. This finding suggests that adopting a local governance approach, with emphasis on local differences and governance adaptations to local conditions, could lead to better understanding of the Japanese colonial governmentality.

Keywords：Colonial Medicine, Local Governance, Tainan County, Unlicensed Prostitutes, Syphilis Inspection, Human Rights

Abstract：
Within the context of Taiwan’s socio-cultural development, this paper examines the predicaments and challenges for compilation of local gazetteers over the past two decades (1999-2019) and reflects on how local gazetteers progressed from tradition to innovation and revitalization. Reviewing the 40-year culturalization in Taiwan (1977-2019) reveals that public participation in local studies has gradually become the mainstream, particularly with the emergence of participatory construction of local knowledge in the past 20 years. Contrary to the traditional practice of local gazetteers compiled mainly by experts and scholars, the bottom-up and diverse approaches to local knowledge construction, promoted by both the government and the public since the 1990s, has become the current convention. Compilation of local gazetteers in the past two decades encountered predicaments including limited budget, weak motivation of local participants, constraints under the Government Procurement Act, deficient administrative resources for local units, and challenges of web search engine. Future development of local gazetteers must cater for demands of the Internet era and needs of the users. While encouraging public participation in collaborative writing and introduction of more local information, the framework and contents of local gazetteers should still be handled by professional teams to ensure comprehensiveness and rigor. Moreover, digital platforms should be constructed for the public to access and update information. Local gazetteers should become public-oriented, with increasing social responsibility under popular demands and with professional compilers leading public participation. Convenience brought by digital technology should facilitate the collection and enhance extensive application of the local knowledge. Nevertheless, it is easier to establish a website than to maintain it; hence, there should be due and thorough assessment on long-term maintenance before establishing a digital platform or knowledge base.

Keywords：Local Gazetteers, Local Knowledge, Participatory Construction, Local Study, Co-writing, Collaboration, Database, Digital Platform