Return to the Confucius Temple

Yesterday the Chinese Language Center sponsored a field trip to the Confucius Temple in Tainan. I had been to the Temple many times and had reads some descriptions but this time we had an English speaking tour guide. It was like seeing something familiar but this time with "new eyes". She had all kinds of details and stories and background that I had not known before.

Here are some of my new found information.

Here is the Japanese built Fire Station near the Confucius Temple, before I though the 119 was the street address but it turns out that in all of Asia 119 is the equivalent of 911 on the telephone. The students from Korea and Japan said it was so in their countries too.

The Confucius Temple in Taiwan was one of 18 official highest level temples built during the Qing Dynatsy. It is the only one still in existence because the other 17 were destroyed during Mao Zedong's "Cultural Revolution". It's ironic that Communist China is now trying to expand it's "soft power" around the world with "Confucius Institutes" teaching the Chinese language and Confucius principles.

Below is the original outside gate for the Confucius Temple, it follows the standard Chinese model of 4 pillars and 3 openings. If it doesn't have these two requisites, it's not a Chinese gate.

Here is the inside gate for the Confucius Temple notice it has the same 4 pillars(2 on either side are off camera) and 3 openings. In this case everyone enters from the outside openings as the middle opening is reserved for the Emperor.

Through out the Temple there are these stella of proclamations from the Emperor. This one is from the early Qing Dynasty and in Chinese on one side it said everyone should stop here to worship Confucius. The other side says the same thing but this time it is written Mongolian script. The Qing Dynasty was not actually Chinese but they conquered the Chinese in 1644. By the time they were overthrown in 1911 they were as much Chinese as those they had conquered.

When the temple was built the builders left this stella behind. It is a "blueprint" in stone of what the Temple was to look like. With all the typhoons and earthquakes in Taiwan the Temple would have to be rebuilt from time to time and this was the layout of the temple for future reconstruction. Not much chance for modifications.