Hundreds of local and foreign visitors crowded the Taipei Confucius Temple early yesterday morning to watch the traditional bayi (八佾) dance and eat wisdom cakes in celebration of Confucius’ (孔子) 2,560th birthday.
The dance, a ritual performed to pay respect to emperors, was performed by 64 students and was only the second such performance in Taiwan in 12 years.
The temple sparked controversy when it performed the ritual two years ago to welcome President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) attendance at the ceremony, attracting criticism from opposition parties that the temple was “worshiping Emperor Ma” with the dance.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma attended the ceremony again yesterday to pay his respects to the philosopher by burning incense and watching the bayi dance. The temple also opened the Lingxing Gate, the main entrance of the temple that is usually closed during the ceremony, and arranged for the president to enter the temple via the route traditionally taken by emperors.
Shih Su-li (施淑梨), the temple’s secretary, declined to confirm whether the temple performed the dance and opened the main entrance specifically for the president and insisted that all rituals and arrangements followed ancient traditions.
The temple usually performs the liuyi (六佾), a ritual performed to pay respects to feudal barons, to celebrate Confucius’ birthday.
Addressing the ceremony after the two-hour ritual, Ma cited the Analects to emphasize the importance of politicians taking a righteous path and said he chose to attend the ceremony to promote Confucianism.
“I have attended this ceremony twice because I think Confucianism and the rituals should be part of our lives ... Confucius taught us that a politician must take the righteous path, and if you take that path, your subordinates would not dare to take an evil path,” he said.
Ma is the first president to participate in the ceremony at the temple. Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) visited the temple one day before the ceremony in 1968, Shih said.
The ceremony was presided over by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
The temple is one of the few Confucius temples that still performs ancient rites that strictly follow the ancient rules with 37 steps in the ceremony sequence.
After the performance of the ritual, some visitors rushed to the center plaza of the temple to “pull” writing brushes from an artificial cow’s back as part of the “pulling of wisdom hair” ritual, creating a chaotic scene when some ran into each other and fell down.
Shih said the temple had 2,000 brushes at the ceremony, and it did not expect to have so many people participate in the activity.
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