Zhang Shixiang Family’s Migration To Taiwan In Qing Dynasty

After Shi Lang’s recovery of Taiwan in 1683,the Qing government moderated its imperial examination policies in Taiwan.Taking the examination in Taiwan was therefore be taken as an easier way to enter the official system by many Fujian candidates.In the41 st year of Kangxi’s reign,Zhang Shixiang came to Taiwan as an immigrant and passed the test.After that,Zhang Shixiang’s family produced several intellectuals and was known as a family of scholars in Quanzhou and Taiwan.After claiming its social status,Zhang family made profit from the agricultural development,becoming a powerful family in Taiwan.Out of the traditional clan concept and the nature of agricultural economy,the separated family members in Quanzhou and Taiwan of Zhang’s clan managed to run their family assets jointly,which demonstrated the integrating power of this immigrant family.Supported by the family members from the two lands,the Zhang family made a great success in Taiwan’s reclamation.The social and economic status gave the Zhang family opportunity to participate in the local social business.They made contributions to compiling the local chronicles,donated the construction of Confucian temples and academies,by doing which further raised their social status in Taiwan.Noteworthy,even after they moved to Taiwan,Zhang’s family members still maintained strong social and economic relations with their homeland.Binding by the ties of land and blood,they frequently returned to Quanzhou to purchase property,compile genealogy and repair their ancestral hall.As a representative of the migrated families from Fujian to Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty,the Zhang Shixiang family had the following characteristics.First,their experience of sailing to Taiwan to take the imperial examinations was not alone but shared by many families of the same time.Secondly,with the growing of fortune,the family divisions and the differentiation of internal duties,an effective cross-territory property managing system was established.Thirdly,title documents concerning the economic activities were well preserved by the family members.Fourthly,a strong tie of blood and tradition with the family’s source land was carefully maintained.Last,Zhang family funded the culture,education and social businesses,making it a great sponsor of the local construction and development.The history of Zhang Shixiang family’s migration to Taiwan and their prosperity fully represents the economic contact and blood tie between Taiwan and the mainland during these three centuries.