ABSTRACT
Corresponding to the division of policy stages in Chapter 2, this chapter discusses the Qing’s aboriginal land policies in Taiwan in three periods: 1684–1795, 1796–1874 and 1875–1895. The government was generally protective of aboriginal land rights in the first period but, over the century, the policies experienced a development from the gradual awareness of aboriginal land ownership and the commencement of protection during the Kangxi reign, to relaxing the restriction against reclaiming aboriginal land during the Yongzheng reign, and then to the repeated efforts to solve Han encroachment problems during the early to mid-Qianlong reign. The establishment of fantun (番屯 aboriginal colonies) in the late Qianlong reign, which was a combination of the Chinese tuntian 屯田 system and the Qing banner (qi 旗) system, provided the plains aborigines with land and preserved their social structure and identity. The government and officials became proactive in intervening in aborigines’ land matters in the second period; this approach was continued and extended in the third period. Overall, the public law nature, as opposed to proprietary rights, of the government’s ownership over land, especially over wasteland, determined that the Qing largely recognised aboriginal land rights in Taiwan, but the protection diminished over the three periods. The key principles of Confucian legal tradition shaped the policy orientation, methods and effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the protection of aboriginal land rights.
