After Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 defeated the Dutch in 1662, large numbers of Han Chinese began migrating to Taiwan. In July 1683, the Qing general Shi Lang 施琅 vanquished Zheng's army in Penghu. Thus was Taiwan newly and formally integrated into the Qing dynasty's territory. In 1684, the Fujian governor began issuing new ordination certificates for Buddhist monks and Taoist priests, in order to replace the certificates issued under Zheng's rule and re-authorize their identity. In 1684, the first governor of Zhuluo District was Ji Qiguang 季麒光, who had just moved to Taiwan from Qi County in Fujian. He wrote, ＂Taiwan's culture is rudimentary and lacks credible historical literature. Jiang, the county guard, started the work of compilation. Then both Yang Fangsheng 楊芳聲, the governor of Fengshan County, and Ji Qiguang, the governor of Zhuluo County collected historical data widely.＂ In 1685, Ji resigned and left the historical compilation of the Taiwan fuzhi臺灣府志unfinished. All of his works including Taiwan junzhi gao 台灣郡志稿, Shanchuan kaolue 山川考略, Haiwai ji 海外集, and Rongzhou wengao 蓉洲文稿have been lost. In 2006, the Rongzhou wengao with a supplemental section entitled ＂Dongning zhengshi ji＂ 東寧政事集 was discovered at the Shanghai Library. It now provides us with credible historical materials for research on the early Qing's activities relating to Buddhism in Taiwan. The historical scope of this article begins in 1685, when Jiang Yuying 蔣毓英 began compiling the Taiwan fuzhi 台灣府志, and ends in 1717, when the Zhuluo xianzhi 諸羅縣志 was published. The geographical scope is limited to the Qing administrative units in Taiwan: Taiwan Prefecture 臺灣府, Taiwan District 臺灣縣, Fengshan District 鳳山縣, and Zhuluo District 諸羅縣. The main themes deal with Buddhist figures and their activities during these thirty years.
