A plaque from President William Lai (賴清德) has been delivered to Tainan’s Confucius Temple and would be unveiled in a ceremony in November, which Lai is to personally attend, the temple said on Thursday last week.
Lai’s plaque would be the 16th to grace the temple’s eaves, alongside plaques from Qing Dynasty emperors and Taiwan’s presidents, making it a truly unique cultural asset.
From the Qing Dynasty to the present day, rulers and presidents have observed the tradition of presenting the temple with plaques honoring Confucius’ ideals to teach everyone, regardless of status, who came to him wishing to learn.
19.Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei
The temple’s Da Cheng Hall houses all the plaques given to the temple since Emperor Kangxi (康熙) of the Qing Dynasty from 1683, except for the plaque of Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi, or Emperor Xuan Tong (宣統), Tainan Confucius Temple Culture Foundation director Shih Mu-min (石牧民) said.
Xuan Tong ascended the throne in 1909 after the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki ceded Taiwan to Japan. He was the final emperor of the Qing Dynasty, which ended in 1912.
The plaques are even more precious, as they were only preserved thanks to the Fang (方) family, who had moved them to rural areas before the bombing of Tainan by the US Air Force during World War II.
The plaques from the Qing emperors were hung on the eaves over the center of the temple, while the plaques from the various presidents were hung on either side, Shih said.
The temple has eight plaques from Qing emperors — Kangxi, Yongzheng (雍正), Qianlong (乾隆), Jiaching (嘉慶), Daoguang (道光), Xianfeng (咸豐), Tongzhi (同治) and Guangxu (光緒), Shih said.
From the Republic of China government, the temple holds plaques from former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦), Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Shih added.
Shih said that customarily, the plaque from the current president was always placed in the upper right corner, as the position, from the vantage point of the cartouche representing Confucius in the temple’s center, was considered the “dragon side” (龍邊) by feng shui principles.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS