Pacification of Taiwan (VII) - Arrest of Lin Shuangwen

"Pacification of Taiwan" is a record of the Lin Shuangwen and the Heaven and Earth Society Incident (1787-1789), an anti-Qing uprising that spread through central and southern Taiwan. The Qing court sent General Fukangan and forces to quell the rebellion. Sketches were made major engagements and battlefield geography and submitted to the Qing Qianlong emperor. The emperor subsequently ordered seven official court painters—Yao Wenhan, Miao Bingtai, Yang Dazhang, Jia Quan, Xie Sui, Zhuang Yude, and Li Ming—to create 12 paintings based on the sketches, including poetry written by the emperor himself. The scenes were engraved in copper, and after inspection by the emperor, were opened to public viewing in 1793. Following rebel leader Lin Shuangwen's capture, Qing forces turned southward in pursuit of Zhuang Damu, another insurgent leader, attacking Fangliao by land and setting up a naval blockade to prevent rebels from escaping by sea. In this scene, Lin Shuangwen's troops on Jijipu and Xiaobantian Mountain (in today's Nantou County) flee in defeat, falling captive at Laoquqi (today's Zhunan Township in Miaoli County) in the first month of the lunar new-year, 1788. In the lower left, the man with a rope around his neck, ambushed and apprehended by government forces, is probably Lin Shuangwen. Lines from the emperor's poem—"to finally take (Lin) alive is the greatest good; eradicate the rest, root and branch"—resonate with the depiction of a large force of Qing troops rubbing out the last pockets resistance.