Taiwan in late Ming and Qing China

The selected title for this chapter – ‘Taiwan in late Ming and Qing China’ – might strike a sensitive nerve with some academics and intellectuals, based on the argument that the connotation ‘late Ming’ especially implies that the Taiwan entity as we know it now was part of Ming China (1368–1644). This can be, and by some is being, interpreted as the basis for continuity of belonging to Greater China, even if there are no records that such was the case, as the island was not officially incorporated until 1684, by what was then Qing (Manchu) China. On the other hand, conveniently speaking, the periodization of late Ming and Qing offers a useful and workable metaphor for the advancement of historical scholarship. ¹ A classification of Taiwan in the late Ming and Qing era is grounded in a national history written through a dynastic perspective, encompassing a geographical demarcation and a temporal outlook. This specific orientation has its origins in a tradition of Western historiography of Chinese history that parallels Chinese historiography.