本研究是一個歷史地景的考察，研究對象是嘉南平原中的一個農村聚落――土溝，行政區轄屬臺南市後壁區。它和臺灣大多數的農村一樣，被視為「草地」，被人稱為「草地所在」。「草地」是閩南方言中的詞彙，指的是較低度開發的鄉野地區，有別於開發程度較大的都市地區。作者關心的重點在於「草地」地景如何變成我們今天所看到的模樣。這個研究首先遇到的困難是土溝缺乏相關的文獻與史料，因此我從兩方面尋求替代的根據：一、進行居民的訪談及對現場環境的調查，並將所聽、所見標註在我所蒐集到的地圖上；二、參考相關歷史學與地理學方面的著作，把土溝跟臺灣歷史脈絡，以及嘉南平原的環境脈絡作連結，讓土溝不至於成為獨處於周圍環境與時代的個案。本研究拉出的歷史焦距橫跨了清代、日治至戰後一九七○年代，在土溝這個基地上，作者發現，整體而言，地景的變遷是一段由豐富到單調的過程。也就是說，土地特徵趨於均質，居民的土地經驗則趨於平淡。這其中有著自然、人為與國家三方力量在交互作用著，而土溝地景的呈現正是這些力量交互作用的結果。筆者認為，土溝作為一個具體存在的「草地」，它所呈現的地景樣貌與變遷應可作為一個認識鄉村、認識常民生活世界的參考點。

By incorporating fieldwork interview, literature review, and visual
representation, this paper examines the historical changes of Tugou village,a rural village located in the Jia-Nan Plain of Southwestern Taiwan. In local dialect Hokkien, Tugou is named as “Tsau-di” (grass-land), which is a common name for countryside in Taiwan. But how does this rural grass-land becomes a rural village nowadays remains unseen in academic research. To understand the changing landscape in rural Taiwan, the author conducted interviews with local Tugou residents from summer 2007 to spring 2008 and collected information from fieldwork as well as from historical maps.Due to the lack of primary documents from Tugou, such as family tree records, extant land deals, or even photos, this author reconstructs the visual presentation of Tugou’s historical landscape and analyzes the drawings here. The analysis shows that, on the one hand, in transition from Qing Dynasty, Colonial Period to the seventies, the landscape of Tugou has been homogenized as flat and accessible for farming. On the other hand,residents’ relations with local environment have become more alienated than before. To sum up, this historical, visual analysis of Tugou’s landscape and its relationship with local residents offers a crucial contribution to a better understanding of the everyday life in rural Taiwan.