According to archaeologists the new stone age culture, which is represented by thick rope pottery, flourished in Penghu five thousand years ago. This proves that our ancestors were living in this area at least five thousand years ago.

 

exploration

In the general history of Taiwan by Lian Yatang it was written that: ’Penghu was inhabited as early as the period between the Chin and Han dynasties, or between the period when Chu dynasty destroyed Yue dynasty, and the people of Yue moved to the Fukien area, lived on the sea, or moved to Penghu.

During the Song dynasty, the name Penghu appeared officially in the history books and in records. In history books, the real record of people living in Penghu started during the Nan-Song dynasty in 1225. in the book "Records of All Luxuriants" by a member of the royal family, Zhao RuGua, it was specifically pointed out that "with springs and the sea, the island is called Penghu, and it belongs to the county called Jin-Jiang".

 
Yuan dynasty establishing Patrol Examine officer In November, 1281, the Patrol Examine officer was officially established in Penghu, and was under Fukien Tong-an. This made Penghu 403 years earlier than Taiwan to become part of China. Until 1388, with the serious pirate problems along the southern-east coast, and with the government catching no one, Penghu had become the nest and base of the pirates. Therefore, officer Tang-he’s request, people in Penghu had been moved to Chuan and Chang state and the Patrol Examine officer in Penghu was abolished.
 

 

The period when pirates and robbers were causing disorders

After the Ming dynasty abolished the Patrol Examine officer, Penghu had become an even bigger base for pirates and robbers to rob the coast area. The famous robbers such as Ling-dao-chien and Lin-fong both took Penghu as their base. From 1626-1658, the famous Chen-chi-long had occupied and ruled Penghu,too.
The Ming government attacked Penghu for a few times to destroy these pirates and robbers, and in 1563, the officer Yu-da-io had severely defeated the pirated and robbers who occupied Penghu and stayed in Penghu to request the government to establish the Patrol Examine officer in Penghu again. But after Yu retired, the Patrol Examine officer was abolished again. And from 1388 when the Patrol Examine officer was abolished to 1661 when officer Cheng-chen-kong had taken Penghu back, the period of 251 years of pirate occupation, Penghu was left completely deserted.

 

 

The Netherland occupation of Penghu

After the Ming dynasty has abolished the Patrol Examine officer, the area had been through almost 300 years of pirated occupation chaos. Therefore, noticing this chance, the Netherland officer Wei-ma-lang had driven 3 big ships into the Penghu harbor on 12th ,July, 1604, and landed without any of the Ming army. The Netherland group includes half businessmen and half army and they opened business stands right away to sell things. On October 25th, 1604, the government had sent officer Sheng-yu-zong to pursued Wei-ma-lang to leave Penghu. This was also recorded on the stone stele and is now reserved in the Tien-hao Palace.
In 1609, the Netherland business ships shipped toward Penghu and had to leave because of the troops there. On July 1st, 1622, the Netherland General Lei-er had led 12 battleships with 1024 soldiers to attack Magong harbor and landed at Fong-guei-wei. Thousands of Penghu people fought and 30 more were killed.

After the Netherland occupation, the people in Penghu had used stones to build castles for longterm guard against the Netherland. They built Hong-mao castle, and cannon towers in fong-guei-wei, jing-guei-tao, shi-li and si-jiao-yu to protect sea waterways. Afterwards, Netherland ships sailing in and out through
there and had casted great influence to sea transportation and businessmen. In 1624, the Fukien officer Nan-ju-yi requested the government to attack the Netherland in Penghu and had caught 12 people including Kao-wen-lu and drove them away. After this victory, officer Nan-ju-yi build Tien-chi castle at An-ao (now wen-ao), in this castle there were 3000 soldiers with cannon towers to protect the area.