Early history First inhabited by the
Hoanya aborigines, the region was named
Tirosen (variants
Tirocen,
Tiracen). With the arrival of
Han Chinese immigrants in southwestern Taiwan, the name evolved to become
Tsulosan () in
Hokkien. Eventually, Tsulosan was shortened to simply Tsulo. Because of the choice of the characters, it has been mistakenly suggested that the origin of the name came from the expression "mountains surrounding the east". "Peach City" is another name for Chiayi City due to its peach-shaped territory in ancient times. The tip of the peach is around Central Fountain and was called "Peach-tip" by citizens. Tsulosan was once the foothold to which people from the mainland immigrated. In 1621,
Yan Siqi, who came from
Zhangzhou,
Fujian Province, first led his people to cultivate this land after they landed at
Ponkan (modern-day
Beigang).
Dutch Formosa Records from the
Dutch era, beginning in 1624, show Tirosen as the usual form of the name; it also occurred as
Tirassen,
Tirozen,
Tilocen,
Tilossen,
Tilocen, and
Thilocen. The place was north of Mattau (modern-day
Madou, Tainan) and south of Favorlang (
Huwei, Yunlin).
Kingdom of Tungning In 1661 (the 15th year of
Yung-Li,
Ming dynasty),
Koxinga defeated the Dutch based in Taiwan and founded the
Kingdom of Tungning. He established one province, , and two counties, and , demarcated by the Hsin-Kang River (, now the
Yanshui River). Chiayi was under the jurisdiction of the Tien-Hsing County.
Qing dynasty In 1683, when Qing rule began, the island was governed as
Taiwan Prefecture under the administration of
Fujian Province. In 1684,
Tsulo County was established and initially encompassed the underdeveloped northern two-thirds of Taiwan. (Taiwan and Hongsoa counties were divided from Wan-Nien County during the
Kingdom of Tungning, which was changed from Tien-Hsing County.) In 1704, the county seat was moved to Tsulosan, the site of modern-day Chiayi City, and had wooden city walls. In 1727, the county magistrate, Liu Liang-Bi rebuilt the gatehouses and set a gun platform for each gatehouse. The four gatehouses were named: "Chin Shan" () for East, "Tai Hai" () for West, "Chung Yang" () for South, and "Kung Chen" () for North. In 1734 (the 12th year of Yongzheng), magistrate Lu-Hung built piercing-bamboo to better protect the city. In 1786, the
Lin Shuangwen rebellion was an attempt to siege Tsulosan but failed to overcome the defense of the inhabitants. Consequently, on November 3 of the next year, the Qing Emperor conferred the name
Kagee (; ) to praise the citizens' loyalty. In the mid-1800s, a custom of annual riotous mass
stoning developed in the city. In 1887, a separate
Taiwan Province was declared and the island was administratively divided into four prefectures; the city of Kagee belonged to
Tainan Prefecture.
Japanese rule In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to
Japan in the
Treaty of Shimonoseki. The
1906 Meishan earthquake devastated the entire city wall except the Eastern Gate. The Japanese authorities reconstructed the city. Industries and trades started to flourish. According to the census taken in 1904, Kagi was the fourth most populous city in Taiwan, with a population of over twenty thousand. The
Great Kagi earthquake (later also known as the 1906 Meishan earthquake) struck the city in mid March 1906. In 1907, the construction of
Alishan Forest Railway to
Mount Ali was begun. In 1920, the city became an autonomous group as , Kagi District, within
Tainan Prefecture, which included modern-day
Tainan City,
Chiayi County and
Yunlin County. In 1930, the town was upgraded to an autonomous city under the same prefecture.
Republic of China in 1946–1950 After the
handover of Taiwan from Japan to the
Republic of China in October 1945,
Chiayi City was established as a
provincial city of
Taiwan Province. The city consisted of 8 districts, which were Bajiang, Beimen, Beizhen, Nanmen, Tungmen,
Tungshan, Ximen and Zhuwei
Districts. In 1946, the districts was reorganized to 6 districts in which Bajiang and Nanmen were merged to become Xinnan, Beimen and Beizhen were merged to become Xinbei, Tungmen and Tungshan were merged to become Xindong, Ximen and Zhuwei were merged to become Xinxi District and there were 2 addition of districts from
Tainan County which were
Shuishang and
Taibao Districts. Chiayi saw some of the most violent events during the
228 Incident. In early March, local militas surrounded the
Shueishang Airport and fought against the
KMT military. There were over 300 casualties. On 12 March 1947, negotiators for peace, including
Tan Teng-pho and , were arrested after arriving at the airport and were executed on 25 March. The Kuomintang also executed many civilians in Chiayi. On 16 August 1950, because of the re-allocation of administrative areas in which Taiwan was divided into 16 counties, five provincial cities and a special bureau, Chiayi City was downgraded to a
county-administered city and merged with
Chiayi County to be the
county seat. As a result, a shortage of capital hindered its development. On 1 July 1982, Chiayi City was elevated again to a
provincial city as a result of pressure from local elites. On 6 October 1990, the
East District and
West District were established. ==Geography==