Zhimuliu was an eighteenth-century chieftain of the Saisiyat indigenous people of the Hsinchu-Miaoli mountain borderlands. During a period when Han settler expansion was pressing into the foothills of northwestern Taiwan and Qing officials were seeking to regulate the 'savage boundary,' Zhimuliu navigated the complex ethnic frontier as a tribal leader — defending Saisiyat territory from encroachment while engaging in pragmatic diplomacy with Qing authorities. The Saisiyat occupy an ecologically and politically squeezed position between the larger Atayal to the north and the advancing Han frontier to the west, and Zhimuliu's leadership represented the delicate balancing act required for a smaller mountain group to survive in this competitive environment.

• Served as Saisiyat chief in Hsinchu-Miaoli mountains, navigating the aboriginal-Han frontier

• Represented Saisiyat survival strategy between Atayal and Han pressures