National Tsing Hua University chair professor of philosophy Yang Rur-bin (楊儒賓) has donated to the university’s museum his personal collection of more than 2,000 historical pieces collected by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during its retreat from China to Taiwan in 1949.
Yang and his wife, Fang Sheng-ping (方聖平), who is also a chair professor at the university, on Saturday last week donated the relics, whose themes include war, politics, religion and economy. The couple has taught at the university for more than 30 years
The relics are to be on display at Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) until Dec. 29.
Photo courtesy of National Tsing Hua University
The university said that the museum, which is under construction, would open to the public in 2022.
The collection includes correspondence by major politicians and religious leaders on issues such as victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the evacuation of citizens from the Ta-chen Islands (大陳群島), the retreat of the KMT government to Taiwan and the subsequent cross-strait situation.
Residents of the Ta-chen Islands, off the east coast of China, retreated to Taiwan with KMT troops in 1955.
A letter written by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in late May 1949 to general Tang Enbo (湯恩伯) is also part of the collection.
In the letter, Chiang ordered that only the minimum amount of gold required to maintain the city finances was to stay in Shanghai, with the rest to be shipped to Taiwan.
Communist troops took over Shanghai only four days after Chiang wrote the letter, making it proof of the urgent need to transport the gold to Taiwan. The gold later became an important source of funds to drive Taiwan’s economic development.
In another letter, Master Wu-shang (無上法師) said he hoped to install the sarira — bead-shaped objects purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters — of legendary monk Xuanzang (玄奘) in Hsinchu City’s Lingyin Temple (靈隱寺).
Xuanzang traveled overland from China to India in search of Buddhist sutras, a story that has been immortalized in the classic novel Journey to the West.
In the second half of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army reportedly found Xuanzang’s sarira during construction. It was split into three parts, which were stored in Beijing, Nanjing and Japan.
After the war, Japan agreed to return the part in its possession to the KMT government, sparking a contest between Buddhist leaders in Taiwan. The sarira was eventually sent to Hsuanguang Temple (玄光寺) near Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) at Chiang’s insistence.
“My salary comes from the university and [as it is a state-funded institution] it is taxpayers’ money, so the donation is simply putting the money back where it came from,” Yang said, adding that he hopes the relics would become treasured parts of the museum’s collection.
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