section_path: Etymology/Names for the island
section_name: Names for the island
paragraph_text: Names for the island
  
  In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used " Liuqiu " as a name for the island, or the part of it closest to Penghu. Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa specifically; the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.
  
  The name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors noted it on their maps as Ilha Formosa (Portuguese for " beautiful island "). The name Formosa eventually "replaced all others in European literature" and remained in common use among English speakers into the 20th century.
  
  In 1603, a Chinese expedition fleet anchored at a place in Taiwan called Dayuan, a variant of "Taiwan". In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan", after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, possibly Taivoan people.
  
  Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣 / 台灣) became official as early as 1684 during the Qing dynasty with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture centered in modern-day Tainan. Through its rapid development the entire Taiwanese mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".