Russian reconnaissance on Taiwan post Mudan incident

[hansioux]

There is apparently 144 year-old Russian military reconnaissance document on the island of Taiwan stored in St. Petersburg’s naval library.

Using the death of Ryukuan fishermen as an excuse, Japan invaded Southern Taiwan in 1874 on a punitive expedition against the Paiwan people in general. Several Paiwan tribal villages formed an alliance to fight against the Japanese. The the leaders of Mudan village fought the Japanese to their death, with several other Paiwan villages massacred. The incident caused world wide condemnation on the Japanese’s actions.

As a result of the incident, Russian navy sent Estonian Pavel Ivanovich Ibis on a reconnaissance mission to Taiwan. Ibis boarded a boat in Hong Kong and arrived at Takao on January 22 1875.

For the 2 months he was here, Ibis traveled to 13 aboriginal villages, recorded many Taiwanese customs and became the first outsider to visit Mudan village after the Japanese withdrew.

Ibis’ accounts could also offer a third party view on what caused and what happened during the Mudan incident.

They are planning to translate his records into Chinese.

獨家》歷史大發現！塵封144年文獻揭露俄軍官來台秘探軍情 - 生活 - 自由時報電子報

[slawa]

@hansioux

Интересно. Где можно купить копию этой книги?

More reading on this

S. Malkov and F. Labutin following his path in Taiwan
https://taipanorama.tw/news.php?unit=141&post=75892

Экскурсия на Формозу: По следам Павла Ибиса

Экскурсия на Формозу: По следам Павла Ибиса

Unfortunately Ibis died not long after returning from his trip to Taiwan. Otherwise he would have made his journey more widely known.

[slawa]

PAUL IBIS’S RESEARCH TRIP TO TAIWAN IN 1875 AND THE ETHNOGRAPHIC INSTRUCTIONS OF THE IMPERIAL RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Valentin Ts. Golovachev

American natural-science scholar Joseph Bill Steere (1842–1940) made a six-month research trip to Formosa (Taiwan) in October 1873 — March 1874. Nine months later, a Russian Naval Corps ensign Paul Ibis (1852–1877) also undertook a lone 1.5-month cross-island “ethnographic trip” in January — February 1875. After their expeditions, Steere published two articles on the Formosan aborigines in 1874 and 1876; and Ibis, too, published two articles on his “excursion to Formosa” in Russian and German in 1876–1877. As a comparison of their papers reveals, Ibis’s articles are in no way inferior to the general academic level of Steere’s articles (though the latter was a seasoned professional scholar) and even surpass them in some aspects. This paper attempts to answer a curious question: how could a Russian naval officer, professionally remote from any ethnological studies, achieve a scholarly result quite equal to all “modern types and requirements of the science of ethnography” in the 19th century? Presumably, Ibis was able to accomplish this mission by properly applying special ethnographic instructions issued in 1852 inside a printed volume of the Set of Instructions for the Kamchatka Expedition, Undertaken by the Russian Geographical Society.

Source: (PDF) ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ П. И. ИБИСА НА ТАЙВАНЕ В 1875 г. И ЭТНОГРАФИЧЕСКИЕ ИНСТРУКЦИИ ИМПЕРАТОРСКОГО РУССКОГО ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА | Valentin Golovachev - Academia.edu

or here

Paul Ibis (1852-1877), the Russian Navy Navigation Corp’s ensign, undertook a lone “ethnographic trip” to Formosa (Taiwan) in January-February 1875. During the limited 1.5 month’ time, as Ibis proceeded from Takao to most Southern and, thereafter, to Northern end of the island, he collected, arranged and published many unique ethnological materials on aborigines and Chinese immigrants of Formosa. However, Paul Ibis was not the fi rst researcher to carry out such a complex and daring scientifi c trip. The prominent American natural-science scholar Joseph Bill Steere (1842-1940) visited the island prior to Paul Ibis in October 1873 – March 1874. During the 6 months’ expedition he collected numerous species of local fl ora and fauna, as well as many ethnographic and linguistic materials for the University of Michigan. This article contains a comparative general review of fi eld materials, research methods, process and results of the ethnological work conducted by two explorers, who visited Formosa and studied it almost synchronously and independently of each other. As a comparison of their papers reveals, Paul Ibis’ articles (2 pieces published in 1876-1877) are in no way inferior to the general academic level of J.B. Steere’s articles, and even surpass it in some aspects.

https://www.comparativepolitics.org/jour/article/viewFile/990/687

Apparently Ibis also published it in German!?

Here is where they have the Russian versions:

Ибис П. Экскурсия на Формозу // Морской сборник. 152-I: неофициальный отдел. СПб., 1876a.
С. 111–149 [Ibis P. An Excursion to Formosa // Marine Collection. 152-I: unofficial section.
Saint Petersburg, 1876. Pp. 111–149 (in Russian)].

[hansioux]

@slawa

Интересно. Где можно купить копию этой книги?

It’s all Greek to me… wait… interesno… kopy…

[slawa]

More info about the book

Головачёв В.Ц. «Экскурсия на Формозу». Этнографическое путешествие П.И. Ибиса. М.: ИВ РАН, 2019. 276 с. С приложениями и иллюстрациями. ISBN: 978-5-7777-0781-9

Can’t find it anywhere online though…

Here is Wikipedia page of the author

Головачёв, Валентин Цуньлиевич