Taiwan Island

1653 Dutch Fort Provintia site transformed into classical Chinese pavilions with imperial bixi steles.

Taiwan's first Confucius Temple and imperial academy founded in 1665, known as the First Academy of Taiwan.

Nearly 700,000 treasures of Chinese imperial art and historical archives fill the National Palace Museum, a celebrated treasure house in Taipei.

Ancient red cypress forests cloak the high mountains of Alishan, and nearby Zhushan offers famous sunrises over a sea of clouds.

Part of Taiwan Island's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Cao Wei general and regent who held off Zhuge Liang's northern campaigns and seized power in the Gaopingling coup of 249, laying the ground for his grandson's Jin dynasty

Part of Taiwan Island's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Shu Han chancellor who planned the alliance with Sun Quan, governed for Liu Bei's heir, and led repeated northern campaigns against Wei

Part of Taiwan Island's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Founder of the state of Wu who took over his brother's command in the lower Yangzi, allied with Liu Bei at Red Cliff, seized Jing province and later proclaimed himself emperor

Part of Taiwan Island's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Founder of Shu Han, a distant Han kinsman who won Zhuge Liang's service, took Yizhou and proclaimed himself emperor at Chengdu in 221

Part of Taiwan Island's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. First emperor of Cao Wei, who accepted the Han abdication in 220, adopted the nine-rank system and wrote the critical essay Discourse on Literature

Part of Taiwan Island's history: High Qing Era. Fifth Qing emperor, of the Yongzheng reign, who merged the poll tax into the land tax, replaced native chieftains with appointed officials, and created the Grand Council

Part of Taiwan Island's history: High Qing Era. Sixth Qing emperor, of the Qianlong reign, who conquered the Dzungars and the Tarim oases, commissioned the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, and abdicated after sixty years

Three Kingdoms Divide

Cao Pi founded Wei, Liu Bei founded Shu Han, and Sun Quan ruled Wu as three courts contested Jingzhou, Hanzhong, and the frontier.

In 230 CE, Sun Quan sent Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi by sea toward Yizhou; the expedition returned with several thousand local inhabitants.

In 1661, Zheng Chenggong crossed the strait to attack Dutch strongholds and besieged Taiwan City until the Dutch surrender in 1662.

High Qing Era

Across the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns, fiscal reform and cultivation supported growth while mounting population and governance pressures accumulated.

In 1684, the Qing established Taiwan Prefecture within Fujian, with Taiwan, Fengshan, and Zhuluo counties.