Typhoon is the most destructive natural force in the island of Taiwan. The destructiveness is due to its strong winds, heavy rainfalls and storm surges.
The Chinese name for typhoon is chu-fen, meaning "strong wind from all quarters", it is also called colloguially hong-tai in the areas of Fukien and Taiwan.
The records of typhoons during the period of C'hing dynasty are very hard to collect, but one can find lot of gazetteer and private diaries roughly illustrating the disasters of typhoons, covering the period from 1691 to 1894 (Emperor Kang-shi to Emperor Kwang-hshi), these materials show the major typhoon occured in different region of Taiwan.
After tranfering the reocrds in the luner to solar callender, an analizing then, it is found that the monthly frequency of typhoon in Tqiwan during the period of C'hing dynasty is very similar to that period of modern iustrumental observation, and that the annual frequency of typhoon is mosty associated with weak soler activity.