曾為法醫的陳教授建議重新以科學來檢驗宮廟種種不可解的現象,以超自然的觀點來代替迷信的偏見,其實就與不可知論的哲學理念類似.筆者在Podcast節目琉璃心中提及過不可知論(Agnosticism),為1869年英國倫敦生物學家Thomas Henry Huxley所提出:「試著去學一點皮毛,和某些皮毛的一切。」(Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.)也就是我們對於一些無法知道的不可解的理論與想法,只是虛心去學習,也不需要刻意去否認神的存在,只是當下我們無法知道或確認.
Tainan is the beginning of Taiwanese city-Praise Tainan and Praise Yongfu
This lecture was invited by Shen Mingxian, chairman of the Yongfu Elementary School Alumni Association. Professor Chen Yaochang returned to his elementary school. At the beginning of his speech, Professor Chen mentioned the beginning of the Taiwan city of Tainan, and it was also the beginning of Taiwan’s standing on the international stage, from the 4,000-year history of Silaya, a Formosa, to the arrival of the Dutch to cover the city of Zeelandia. Forty years of trade, 400 years of immigrants during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, Tainan has always been a representative of pluralistic symbiosis and pluralistic beliefs.
Mr. Yeh Shyr-Tao (葉石濤), a contemporary Taiwanese literary writer who was a teacher of Yongfu Elementary School. He is an important native writer in Taiwan. Professor Chen quoted that "This is a good place for people to dream, love, get married and leisurely pass the time." This sentence was Yeh Shyr-Tao's personal impression of his experience in Tainan City.In addition, Mr. Yeh Shyr-Tao's book, Jian Atao, a Taiwanese man, is actually describing himself.
When all cities are fighting for the economy, only Tainan chose culture first. This also proves that the flowers of culture are fragrant, the butterflies come, and the economy naturally develops. If you want to understand the history of fine arts, the Tainan Art Museum is the most complete place to introduce the history of fine arts in Taiwan. National Museum of Taiwan Literature also fully introduces literary history. Tainan Waterworks Museum explains the 100-year history of the Japanese era, National Museum of Taiwan History explains the 400-year history of Taiwan’s immigrants, and Museum of Archaeology,Tainan Branch of NMP in Nanke contains the history of 5,000 years ago. The Dazukeng Cultural Site, the Zuozhen Fossil Museum, which is worth mentioning, also introduces the 10,000-year history of Taiwan’s geography. These are a diverse system of Tainan museums, which makes people feel like being in London. If you want to learn about British history, you should come to London to explore the major museums in London, such as the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, etc. .
About ten years ago, Professor Chen mentioned the strategy of moving the capital to Tainan, because the north-south balance should be something beyond politics. Tainan belongs to the history of Taiwan’s development, from the Taiwanese Plains Indigenous Peoples‘ culture 5,000 years ago to the Dutch and Mingzheng periods. The Kanlou, Luermen, etc., are elegant, and are more like a good environment for the government to study and trade the country. It can freely plan the ideal building of Congress and Executive Yuan to create a new pattern because large tracts of land. Such as Canberra in Australia, which is very sparsely populated. A natural city with a comfortable life is deliberately designed to provide a refreshing and pleasant environment. Moving the capital to Tainan, slightly better than Canberra, is to enhance Taiwan's impression of an ancient international cultural capital.
Professor Chen Yaochang mentioned that in the second grade of elementary school, the classroom was moved to the high ground behind Yongfu Elementary School. In 1693, the Fei Pavilion was created during the Kangxi period, and a high platform was built on the left corner to see the sea, hence the name "Chengtai". Listening to the sea waves in the Fei Pavilion, watching the sea at Chengtai and the Anping evening ferry, tide of deer ears, dawn in the east, and sunset on Xiyu are listed as "Taiwan Eight Scenic Spots." It has always been a place for officials of the Qing Dynasty Dao Administration and eunuch literati who came to Taiwan to listen to the waves and watch the sea. Fei Pavilion and Chengtai are the places where literati's elegant gatherings are located.
Professor Chen mentioned that a female classmate whose family name is Hu. Her father was imprisoned for political issue, which made everyone afraid to approach. The period of white terror in Taiwan started from 1949 to 1992. What is called "white terror" today refers to the nation's systematic search and suppression of political protesters. Originated during the French Revolution, it was represented by the government forces of the Third French Republic with white (the emblem of the Bourbon dynasty-"White Lily"). Therefore, "white terror" refers to the suppression and destruction of the rulers of the regime using the direct violent means of the state apparatus to target those who resist the existing system. Hu's father, Dr. Hu Xinlin, was originally the director of the Department of Ophthalmology at National Taiwan University Hospital. He was imprisoned in 1950 for left-wing thinking. He affected a person and how old a family is, and you can probably feel it from the word of mouth from his classmates. Ms Cai Caiwei of Yongfu Elementary School let Hu be the class leader. The wisdom of the teacher cleverly made Hu without being excluded by the other children. After Dr. Hu Xinlin returned from Ludao Prison, he had a son, violin musician Nai-Yuan Hu.
President Tsai Ing-wen attended the "2016 World Human Rights Day" event and once said: "A country or a society must restore history and find out the truth before telling everyone: "Let it pass in the past." Moreover, it is not enough that everything is over. We must prevent national violence from happening again. "
In the lecture, Ye Bowen who studied in Yongfu Elementary School was also mentioned, and Professor Chen also provided the last photo of Ye Bowen in his lifetime, wearing a people-in-chief coat, overlooking the February 28th Memorial. The truth of the February 28th year was restored by Ye Bowen after he became the founding curator of Taipei 228 Memorial Museum and unearthed it from more academic institution literature and oral narratives from his family. I think of his asceticism around the island in the 2009 National Nuclear Referendum Promotion Committee, and now the nuclear referendum will be held on December 18, 2021.
The development of a writer is definitely related to watching movies. Professor Chen specifically mentioned the weekend movie time during the weekly family gatherings. He also humbly said that he was not a master student and did not learn the phonetic spelling well, but he was still ranked first. There is also the honor of ninth place in the provincial composition competition. He was destined to be a writer.This Japanese movie shared by Professor Chen. The city Yurakucho is in Tokyo. It is a story about love. The content of the Japanese theme song: The street lamp is shining gently, ah! Bet on the flower of life for love! Go ahead and drive! Forever, forever and ever, the secret words of you and me, meet in Yurakucho.
From the white terror to the February 28 incident,Taiwanese were full of depression and sadness, but this song was loved by the Taiwanese at that time. Many people commented on the Japanese rule. This is the heyday of Taiwan's tragic literature. The generation born after the war is suppressed. Is it true that only tragedy remains? The perseverance of the Taiwanese should be the flower of giving their lives for democracy, which will continue to bloom with enthusiasm forever. It is like Professor Chen Yaochang's enthusiasm for Taiwan's history, writing the society of Taiwan at that time from the standpoint of various ethnic groups, and writing the history of Taiwan. Leave history for Taiwan, write down Taiwan for history.
The book called Sun of the Island was written by Professor Chen Yaochang is a sincere gift for the centenary of the Taiwan Cultural Association. Taiwanese intellectuals who had stayed in Japan in 1921 founded the "Taiwan Cultural Association" headed by Jiang Weishui, which expanded the horizons of the Taiwanese people from the perspective of culture and education to fight against the Japanese power. The Sun of the Island described an outstanding Tainan couple a hundred years ago. The male protagonist Bing-Ding Lu was Jiang Weishui’s assistant and an intellectual of "Taiwan consciousness". In the most prosperous era of Taiwanese social movements, he borrowed the stories of the singer Lin Shi-Hao . It brought out the pomp of popular music in the 1930s songpan period, vividly depicts the era of the budding and awakening of Taiwan's democracy, and brought hope and the dawn of the island’s rebirth.
Professor Chen also mentioned that Taiwan’s temple culture combines art with Taiwan’s history. For example, the Marshal of Zhenhai and Chen Dejutang worshipped by the popular temple in Tainan should be Chen Ze during the Ming and Zheng period. Yongkang Erwang Temple worships Zheng Jing, the son of Zheng Chenggong. The three generations of the Zheng family worshiped by the Dongmen Master, and the historians commented on the three generations of the Zheng family in Dongning. The representative figures are Zheng Chenggong, Zheng Jing, and Zheng Ke Zang, not the prodigal Zheng Keyun. Tainan's top prince is beside the temple grounds of Shatao Palace, which has a deep connection with this temple. Every year on the 9th day of the lunar calendar, the third prince’s birthday is legendary among the people. However, when Professor Chen wrote "The Three Clans of Formosa", based on the allusions of the Shatao Palace researched by Professor Shi Wanshou, he knew that the top prince was not worshipping Nezha San. The prince is Zheng Ke Zang, the eldest prince of Zheng Jing who died unjustly. If the prince Zheng Ke Zang did not die too early, what would be the fate of Dongning Kingdom in Tainan?
Professor Chen, who had been a forensic doctor, suggested that science should be used to examine the various unsolvable phenomena in the palace and supernatural views to replace superstitious prejudices. In fact, this is similar to the philosophical concept of agnosticism. I mentioned Agnosticism in my podcast: The Mindful Heart twince. The English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word Agnosticismin 1869, and said "It simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe." Thomas Henry Huxley said "Try to learn something, and everything about some fur." That is, for some unsolvable theories and ideas that we can't know, we just learn with an humility, and we don't need to deliberately deny the existence of God. It's just that we can't know or confirm at that moment.
In addition, in the lecture, Professor Chen Yaochang mentioned that his role model is Mr. Hu Shih. Hu Shih believed that the relationship between father and child should be "the tree has no intention to make a knot, and I have no favor to you." Just like planting a plant, planting a seed and taking good care of it are all social responsibilities and obligations. He also hoped the person will "be a dignified person, not a filial son." It is more important to be a useful person in our society.
Professor Chen Yaochang mentioned in a tale of three tribes in Dutch Formosa: With the morning star to write this book, I can be worthy of our hometown and our ancestors who are worthy of this life, but I am ashamed of my own children. I did not have enough time to accompany, but I am always proud of my children. The book I wrote is written to the new generation of Taiwanese children. Professor Chen is in line with Hu Shih's philosophy. The touching fatherly love always to love unconditionally without expecting in return.
During the Qing dynasty, Dr. Hu Shih lived with his parents in the highest Tainan office of the Qing Dynasty, which is now the Yongfu Elementary School. In 1891, Hu Shih’s father, Hu Chuan, was transferred to Taiwan and served as the general patrol of the entire Taiwanese camp affairs office. He also served as the commissioner of the Tainan Salt Bureau. On December 26, 1949, Hu Shih returned to Yongfu Elementary School and was warmly welcomed by Ye Tinggui, the mayor of Tainan at that time. Hu Shih planted a small banyan sapling in front of his former residence and wrote the poem which means that when planting trees, people should be respectful. Hu Shih gave this calligraphy to the collection of Yongfu Elementary School.
Now the tree is seventy years old, and the current condition of the tree needs to be treated. Icontacted the Taiwan Old Tree Rescue Association but they suggested to find another helper. If there is no man-made or natural damage, or pests and diseases, the banyan tree can live for thousands of years. The banyan tree has a phenomenon of growing into a forest and has extremely strong vitality. It is like Taiwan being born in the midst of suffering. In the face of repression, it still continues the value of freedom and democracy, raising its head and striving to grow upward. May this tree of life full of historical significance be able to thrive.