Chapter One: Introduction (part III)
Dutch Colony:
In 1622, led by Kornelis Peyersoon, the Dutch came to the Pescadores (small islands situated between Taiwan and China) but were driven away in 1624. However, the Chinese Ming Government allowed them to stay in Taiwan. Thus the Dutch built Fort Orange, later called Fort Zeelandia, at Tayouan (now Anping District) and Fort Providentia at Saccam (now Tainan) on the southwestern coast of Taiwan and became the temporary rulers of the island (Chen Chi-lu 1972:120). The mercantilistic Dutch traders ruled by the Dutch East India Company encouraged Chinese immigration into Taiwan to work as labourers and to produce sugar for export and rice for local consumption (Wu Lien-chin 1987:111). As it was recorded in the Batavia Diary (April 2, 1631), the Dutch East India Company even sent her own ships to transport Chinese labourers to Taiwan (Chen Chi-lu 1972:121). Due to this type of encouragement, the Chinese population in Taiwan increased constantly. They had already exceeded several tens of thousands by the middle of the seventeenth century (Chen Chi-lu 1972:122).(note.12)
As the Chinese population increased, they began to form their own communities and practise the traditional Chinese religions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism as well as the Chinese popular religion (Chiu 1987:253). In the meantime, the Plain Tribes, who lived on the western coastal plains, were conciliatory to the Dutch and to their Christian missions. Many of them accepted Christianity (i.e. the Dutch Reformed Church), and others were influenced by Chinese religions. The chief Plain Tribes nearby were the Siraya (Sydeyan), although it seems that as many as five distinct linguistic groups were ministered to as a few fragments of the devotional works prepared by the Dutch missionaries in the languages still remain today (Herz 1986:19).
On April 31, 1661, a Ming Dynasty loyalist resisting the Qing Dynasty, Admiral Zheng Chenggong - known as Koxinga in Western languages - led the main body of his forces from Jinmen (Quemoy) to Taiwan. On Feb. 1, 1662, Fort Zeelandia was surrendered to him. This brought the Dutch colony and its missionary work to an end (Herz 1986:27). Thus, as no native ministers had been trained, the Siraya Christian Church was left without pastoral oversight for more than two centuries. Indeed, it all but ceased to exist, though a romanised catechism in the Siraya language remains (Herz 1986:27). Eventually, most Plain peoples came to adopt Chinese habits of speech, dress, religion, and social custom following Koxinga's conquest of the island (Herz 1986:20). (note.13)
The most distinctive survival of Sirayan religious practice is the worship known generically as the Worship of A-lip. This is a cult of sacred jars, today usually of Chinese manufacture, among the Siraya, a cult related to certain others in Borneo and the Philippines (Herz 1986:19f). Among the highly sinicised descendants of the Siraya, the jar cult is still followed by non- Christians today. An account tells us that in preparation for the imposing and the lifting of the "Xiang" (i.e. a spirit), a human head was to be taken to please the gods. Under pressure from the Qing Government to cease head-hunting, the Siraya substituted the skulls of wild boar and deer.
Moreover, some scholars argue that the jars are of genital symbolism. Their argument is based on the unique altar of the A- lip temple at Beitouyany. No skulls are hung at this altar; rather the vases are joined on the raised altar by cylindrically shaped stones which they readily interpret as phallic in contrast to the pregnant jars (Shepherd 1984:39).
To the east and south, respectively, of the Siraya are the Paiwan and Rukai Mountain Aborigines. Among these groups jars have a great deal of religious significance (Shepherd 1984:38). The jars played a similarly prominent role among the traditional Siraya which our sources fail to describe (Shepherd 1984:39).
Koxinga Dynasty:
Koxinga, son of a Japanese mother and a Chinese pirate father (Proksch 1984:14), made a last-ditch stand in south China against the invading Manchu armies. He retreated to the Pescadores and Taiwan where he laid siege to the Dutch forts. He expelled the Dutch and changed the name of the island to Taiwan and made Tainan the capital. Soon massive Chinese migrations to Taiwan from the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong began, although the Chinese emigration to Taiwan had started before that time.
Koxinga laid the foundations for the establishment of Chinese society in Taiwan. After his arrival in Taiwan, the Chinese population increased very rapidly. His soldier-farmer policy along with the adequate system designed by the Dutch, on which all subsequent Chinese administration was based, established the principal foundations of Chinese success in opening up new territory, and the immigrants gradually spread out over the flat area which was most suitable for intensive farming. As their towns and cities grew in number, they also built many shrines, temples, and monasteries to house the gods they brought with them from mainland China. Often the temples became the centres of Chinese communities (cf. Chuang Ying-chang 1987:182). Besides, the pioneering farmers built shrines of the Land God to protect their agriculture and against demons and aborigines.
But the Koxinga family controlled Taiwan for only 22 years (1661-1683). Just one short year after Koxinga drove the Dutch from Taiwan he fell ill and died. The Qing Government made repeated attempts to crush the rebels, and the Dynasty which he had established ended when his grandson surrendered the island to the Qing Government in 1683. From that time on China obtained dominion over Taiwan (Proksch 1984:14f).
Qing Dynasty:
As part of China, Taiwan began to attract not only peasants and fishermen, but all classes of Chinese including scholars who came seeking a less restrictive intellectual atmosphere (Proksch 1984:15). Little by little, they displaced indigenous tribes from the lowlands, and pushed them further into the mountains. Steady emigration from China raised the population of Taiwan from a few thousand in 1600 to more than two million by 1895 (Wu Lien-chin 1987:112) and Chinese popular religion, which will be our main concern in the following chapters, for the first time became the dominant religion in the island.
Taiwan was still a marginal part of China, so the development of the island was not a high priority for the government. The new government's control of Taiwan produced few improvements (Copper 1990:75). For example, though in 1884 Peking reorganised its political administration in Taiwan, appointing Liu Mingchuan, a very capable official, as governor, and two years later made Taiwan a province, as late as 1871, when some Japanese castaways were killed by tribesmen in Taiwan, China's government felt justified in disclaiming authority over all but Taiwan's western seaboard (Long 1991:14). After China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, China ceded Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan in perpetuity as a prize under the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki.
Japanese Colony:
Taiwan's modern economic development began in the early part of this century, soon after it became a Japanese colony. The Japanese colonial government, intending to make Taiwan a stepping stone in its advance toward Southeast Asia, promoted Japanese education and industries in Taiwan. Besides this, the Japanese introduced Shinto religion and Japanese Buddhism into Taiwan, and the indigenous tribes and Taiwanese natives were forced to take part in Shinto worship. 63 grand shrines and 116 local shrines were built by the government all over the island (cf. Chiu 1987:254). Meanwhile, the leaders of traditional Chinese religions suffered oppression, and many temples were closed by the government.
Japanese control over the island came to an abrupt end at the conclusion of the Second World War. The Japanese colonial government surrendered Taiwan, and with American support China again took possession in 1945. Thus Shinto Religion also ended on the island. However, the influences of Japanese Buddhism are still visible in Taiwan.
Nationalist Government and its Religious Attitudes:
In 1949, when the Chinese Communists defeated the Nationalist armies on the mainland and assumed control of China, the Nationalist Government soon established its capital in Taipei and a new wave of nearly two million immigrants arrived in Taiwan with the Government. Because they hailed from various parts of China, they were generally known as mainlanders, or "Waishengren" ("outside province people").(note.14) Although being immigrants and a minority, they hold the majority of positions in the top ranks of the national government, in the education and academic systems, and in the military (Copper 1990:9).
In the meantime, because of the Chinese Communist Government's hostility to religion, many religious leaders were among those who took refuge in Taiwan. These included Kong Decheng, a descendant of Confucius; Ven. Yinshun, an eminent Buddhist abbot; the Thirty-seventh Heavenly Master of Taoism; Lama Kangyurwa Hutukhtu, the nineteenth reincarnation of the Living Buddha of Kangyur monastery; and Archbishop Joseph Kuo and Cardinal Tian of the Roman Catholic Church. Altogether about twenty thousand Muslims and innumerable Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Taoists, and Confucians came to Taiwan, turning this island into a rich showcase of world religions (Chiu 1987:254).
A statistical report of Taiwan (Grichting 1971; qtd. in Wu Lien-chin 1987:105f) shows that between 40.8 and 46.2 % of the total population identifies itself as Buddhist. Between 35.9 and 41.3 % identifies itself as belonging to Chinese popular religion. Between 8.3 and 11.5 % claims no religious affiliation. 2.5 and 4.1 % identifies itself as Protestant, and 1.9 and 3.3 % as Catholic. Around 1 % of the total population identifies itself as Taoist,(note.15) and around 1 % as Confucian.
The religious attitudes of the Nationalist Government can be seen in textbooks used during the nine-year national compulsory education. These textbooks are standardised for the whole country by the Ministry of Education and must be used by all schools in Taiwan, even private ones, such as Catholic and Buddhist schools. The contents of the textbooks obviously represent the official viewpoint and also play the most powerful role in the education system. The nine-year textbooks have been properly analyzed in an article by Jeffrey Meyer (1987:45-50). In the following I only summarise this paper to show what the religious attitudes have been taught in/by them.
To the viewpoint of the textbooks, the "true" religions are those that support the social order, public opinion, morality and law, and there are therefore viewed as valuable (Meyer 1987:46). "The teachings of religion all stress avoiding evil and doing good, cherishing universal love. Pious believers generally speaking rarely offend against social order" says one of the textbooks (Meyer 1987:47).
In the textbooks, the Confucian tradition, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity are presented as positive religious traditions. The Taoist and Buddhist contributions to Neo-Confucianism are acknowledged, as is the latter's interest in the method of cultivating the inner mind of the individual.
The textbooks suggest that some religions do preserve important values, especially in upholding morality and public order (Meyer 1987:50). However, many religious practices such as Taoism alchemy and elaborate Baibai (i.e. traditional Chinese popular religious festival) are wasteful and superstitious, and ought to be discarded. Yet the teachings of true religions all stress avoiding evil, doing good, and cherishing universal love. One who follows the principle of these teachings will thus find they are good for one's personal interior life. On the contrary, with its institutional structure and vast canon, the religious Taoism would seem to qualify as a true religion, but because of some of its practices and since it does not have a clear-cut moral code, the textbooks consider it "superstitious" (Meyer 1987:47-8).
There is obviously no sense of the human being as homo religiosus in the textbooks. There is no sense of the transcendent element in the various expressions of religion presented, so it can be said that the understanding of religion conveyed by the textbooks is certainly rationalised and secularised. The textbooks do not think this infringes on the religious rights of Buddhists, Christians, etc., nor that it conflicts with the principle of separation of religion and state (Meyer 1987:47).
In brief, the overall impression of religion which the textbooks give would be something like this: religion is a part of the history of China and other great world cultures. The real religion is clearly one of the great traditions institutionalised, possessing a corpus of sacred writings and a clear moral code. Thus it is the foundation for all moral training in the school system, and on occasion they allude to a basic unity of these great religions, although this point is not made definitely clear (Meyer 1987:46).
As a result, most of the educated and even some researchers on religions have considered the popular religious traditions (or even religious practice in general) as a "social problem" and "superstition" in need of "improvement" or even "abandonment", echoing official concerns about the rationalization and institutionalization of religious practice (cf. Cohen 1987:293; Jordan 1994:137).
Popular Religion in Taiwan:
As far as Chinese popular religion in Taiwan is concerned, most believers often have little notion of what religion they practise. They merely say that they are "worshipping (baibai)" or "worshipping the deities (baishen)". If asked the name of their religion, people sometimes give an easy (and high-status) answer and identify the religion as "Buddhism" or "Taoism", even though the temple where they worship may not have any Buddhist statue in it and they may not know any Taoist deities (cf. Harrell 1977:56; Proksch 1984:19).
Actually, one of the characteristics of Chinese popular religion is its de-emphasis of the religious boundaries between various faiths, that is "syncretism". Popular deities come from a wide variety of sources. Some deities are found in Taoism or Buddhism, some are historical personalities, while still others are even the heroes of classical pseudo-historical fiction (Tsai Wen-hui 1979:26; Cohen 1987:289). Thus, the religion comprises elements from ancestor worship and the cult of the dead, from nature worship, local cults, popular Taoism, popular Buddhism, and Confucianism.
There is no single sacred text or set of documents that contains all the basic beliefs, doctrines, and values. These basic ideas must be sought instead in many different places and forms: in sacred books, votive art, rites, temple murals, family worship, myths, exemplar tales, popular theatre, puppet shows, fiction (Feuchtwang 1974b:124; Cohen 1987:289), comic books, and television series in Taiwan today (cf. Sangren 1993:8).(note.16)
When scholars describe the religion in English, it is named "popular religion" (e.g. Smith (1899) 1969; DeGlopper 1974; Feuchtwang 1977; Cohen 1987:289), "peasant religion" (e.g. Granet (1922) 1975), "diffused religion" (e.g. Yang 1961), "folk religion" (e.g. Berkowits et al. 1969; Grichting 1971; Jordan 1972; Harrell 1977), "Chinese religion" (e.g. Freedman 1974), "local religion" (e.g. Sangren 1988) or even "local cults" (e.g. Katz 1992). In brief, there is no consensus for the naming of the religion among scholars (cf. Wu Lien-chin 1987:104).
In fact, since Robert Redfield (1956; qtd. in Sangren 1984:1) introduced the terms "great tradition and little tradition", debate over their formulation and utility has constituted an important arena for competing conceptualizations of society and culture, especially in South and Southeast Asia (Bell 1989). Today, many scholars would probably agree that dichotomies such as great tradition/little tradition(s), urban/rural, and elite/folk greatly oversimplify complex historical spatial patterns of cultural interaction (Bell 1989).
In order to avoid these dichotomies, Katz (1992) uses the term "local cults" to represent the religion he researches, which excludes organised religions like Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. This also excludes systematicised religions such as sectarianism and Confucianism. Similarly, Sangren (1988) uses the term "local religion" to mean the institutions of local territorial-cult ritual. In short, the terminological choices directly reflect the various viewpoints on this religion (cf. Bell 1989:41).
However, I try not to use the term "local cults" or "local religion" because even though the specifics of ritual and particular spirits chosen as objects of worship or propitiation may vary widely from locality to locality within the Chinese world, people share, at least, some general religious ideas. For example, A.P. Wolf's description of the tripartite division of the supernatural into gods, ghosts, and ancestors seems nearly universally applicable (cf. Sangren 1984:6). Generally speaking, people believe that three types of beings inhabit the supernatural world. Deities are those in a supernatural bureaucracy headed by the Jade Emperor. Ancestors are the spirits of each household's own agnatic forbears and their wives. Ghosts are those who died by violence or without descendants and without virtuous deeds to their credit (Wolf 1974). Human beings burn incense and present offerings and spirit money: to beseech deities for help and protection, sustain their ancestors in the next existence, and propitiate potentially malicious ghosts (Harrell 1977:56).
In this thesis, I shall use the term "popular religion" to indicate the religion on which I did my field research.(note.17) It is a religion in which both local leaders and common people participate, no matter whether they believe the deities or not. Local leaders (difang touren) are traditional upper middle class such as politicians, entrepreneurs, and others. They usually act as temple building initiators, organisers, or founders. In this thesis, they play important roles in soliciting to sponsor deities' festivals, in narrating temple history, and in promulgating the Almanac etc.
Local leaders are usually well educated by Chinese ruling ideologies associated with Confucianism. Therefore, they are more rationalised and secularised, if not agnostical and sceptical (Creel 1935; Watson 1985; Meyer 1987:49).(note.18) However, common people need local leaders to sponsor and manage temple affairs such as birthday festival, temple construction, or pilgrimage. These leaders are zealous to spend money and time on these affairs as a way of gaining status. Therefore, they serve as channels to let the ruling ideologies reach downward and let common people's culture penetrate upward (cf. Bell 1989:49-50).
Common people are those who often have a limited notion about whom they are worshipping (cf. Jordan 1985:103). However, they come to offer incense and clean the environment of the temple regularly. They also donate money to the temple, even though in small amount. Common people partly accept the authority of local leaders, but have their own authorities to follow. We will see these authorities in the following chapters.(note.19)
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China permits the practice of "religions" such as Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, while the Chinese popular religion is regarded as "feudal" and as "superstition." Therefore, until the 1980s, when there was some limited relaxation of government suppression, it was not practised publicly, and most of the local temples were converted into public buildings such as government offices, museums, or schools. Thus, the present-tense descriptions of the popular religion in this thesis refer to China Mainland before 1949 and also to some extent since the 1980s, and to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the overseas areas up to present times and, thus, I will use the field data collected from other Chinese areas by other scholars for reference of the studies of the divine stones and trees in Taiwan.
Popular Temples:
In Taiwan, a deity may be housed and worshipped at a family altar. However, there is often an impetus for the construction of a temple to house the deity both for the convenience of the public and as an indication that the deity truly belongs to the community and not to some private family (Baity 1975:284f). A temple is a deity's "home" and "office" and therefore is often called a "palace" ("gong" or "miao"); it can range in size from a tiny roadside shrine to an enormous complex of buildings covering several acres. When the temple develops, several deities will be housed together and these are freely accessible to the general public for worship, prayer, festival, and requesting favours of the gods (Wu Lien-chin 1987:122).
In almost every part of Taiwan, local temples stand out from their drab surroundings in bursts of polychromatic splendour. In villages, the largest and most impressive buildings are often temples (Wu Lien-chin 1987:121). If a community has no public temple, outsiders might think it is because the community is too poor or there was no person of sufficient intelligence in the village to take the initial steps (cf. Smith (1899) 1969:137). But a temple is more than a home for a deity. It is often the centre of community affairs both sacred and secular where people meet and rest while their children play in the courtyard. The courtyard, flat and spacious, is used to dry rice during the harvest season. The temple is also a repository of the community's values: the elaborate decor in the temple is used to teach proper moral and social values to the young. Consequently, a temple is a symbol of its community. It is the centre of community activity and its symbol of unity (Cohen 1987:292); and it is a demonstration of common beliefs and common interests (Yang 1961:96; Diamond 1969:84; Wu Lien-chin 1987:132).
However, most of the temples for the divine stones and trees are too humble to be community centres. Some of them are even difficult for people to find. No matter how humble the physical structure of the shrine is, it nevertheless serves as a place where common people talking and doing something religious will not be explained as superstitious. For this reason, all the divine stones and trees that I selected for field research are those that are located in shrines or temples.(note.20)
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(note.1)
I am grateful to my supervisor Dr. Stewart McFarlane for advising me to do so.
(note.2)
For much of the Mandarin Chinese terminology, the author has chosen to use the Pinyin romanization system, because it is clearest and most convenient for me and is becoming more and more widely used by scholars. However, I have kept the Yale or Wade- Giles systems in the quotations cited from other scholars' works.
For romanizing Hollo words and names I follow the system outlined in Nicholas C. Bodman, Spoken Amoy Hokkien (Kuala Lumpur: 1955).
(note.3)
Ling Shun-sheng is the founder of the Institute of Ethnology of Academia Sinica and a late professor of National Taiwan University. In August, 1955, when Academia Sinica set up a preparatory office for the initiation of the Institute of Ethnology, he was appointed as its head to oversee advancement of research. In April, 1965, the Institute of Ethnology was formally founded, with Ling Shun-sheng as its first director. In the same year, he was appointed by the National Council on Science Development as National Research Professor. In July, 1978, Ling passed away. In August, 1985, when the Institute relocated to its new building on the campus of Academia Sinica, it was named "The Ling Shun-sheng Hall" in memory of the founder who was a pioneer Chinese ethnologist.
(note.4)
The five monographs were written in Chinese with English abridgement. Therefore, most quotations cited in the following chapters are translated by me.
(note.5)
I shall develop the argument in the following chapters.
(note.6)
There is a stone, according to my field interview, which is currently worshipped by Han-Chinese as the Stone God (e.g. #S50, see Chapter Five for details) is originally venerated by Taiwan Aboriginals. However, it was not worshipped as "She".
(note.7)
For example, an upright stone of about 50 cm in height (see figure 107) is worshipped on a family altar beside the Tree God of Lam- huin Ward (#T37) and regarded as the Stone God. Since the worship is not open to the public, I exclude the stone from the current field research.
(note.8)
Different languages as used here means that they are mutually unintelligible.
(note.9)
However, although Mandarin speaking Chinese have accents from their provincial dialects, many of their Taiwan-born offspring have been localised and speak Hollo Language.
(note.10)
Hollo is a language spoken in Southern Fujian Province, China.
(note.11)
Here, we should note that at the moment Taiwan's early history has become a political issue. Both R.O.C. (Republic of China) and P.R.C. (People's Republic of China) governments claiming to represent China today maintain that the first settlers came from China and therefore see the island as an inalienable part of Chinese sovereign territory (Long 1991:2f), and disagree with Taiwan independence from China.
(note.12)
In the early seventeenth century the Spanish also settled in Tamsui at the extreme northern tip of the island. While the Europeans appeared to get along peacefully enough with the Chinese settlers, they did not get on well with each other. In 1642 the Dutch succeeded in driving the Spanish from their northern stronghold and began to strengthen their grip on the entire island through the Dutch East India Company (Proksch 1984:15).
(note.13)
In contrast, the tribes that inhabited Taiwan's mountain fastnesses remained beyond central government control until pacified by the Japanese in the early twentieth century (Shepherd 1984:2).
(note.14)
Because most of them still think they will go back to Mainland China and are unwilling to put down new roots in Taiwan, in this thesis I shall call them Mainlanders.
(note.15)
Taoism, owing to its esoteric nature, is identified only with its priests (Wu Lien-chin 1987:107).
(note.16)
This is to say, to a great extent the basic ideas coincide with beliefs and values that pervade Chinese culture as a whole (Cohen 1987:289).
(note.17)
I am aware that my using of the term "popular religion", in this thesis seems to divide Chinese culture neatly into great/little or elite/popular traditions (cf. Sangren 1988:674). However, there is less consensus on what new term ought to replace it. Besides, as we shall see in the following chapters, the religious concern and interpretation of the worshippers of the stone and tree deities can be distinguished from officials and elites. Therefore, I shall apply the term to emphasise this difference.
(note.18)
The report of Stephan Feuchtwang (1992:85) from his field site gives us a good example of local learders' religious attitude. Feuchtwang describes that one of pharmacists on Mountainstreet (i.e. the pseudonym of his field site in Taiwan) told Feuchtwang that he did not make offerings on the day of the greatest of all procession festivals in Mountainstreet, the one which is organised every five years for the visit of a figure of Mazu from one of the Mazu pilgrimage. The festival was a commemoration of the first visit when an image of her was brought to a nearby hamlet to rid its crops off pestilence. The pharmacist said that it was nonsense to believe the goddess could keep the land clear of pestilence. But he organised a feast on the festival, as did every other household because otherwise people would think he was strange or miserly (Feuchtwang 1992:85).
(note.19)
The term "popular religion" is also to distinguish the religion from the "official religion" which was the system of officially sanctioned sacrifices administered by the imperial government. This "official religion" relates complexly to Confucian philosophy, sharing some underlying premises and values with it, but is more theistic in content and practice than "popular religion" (cf. Sangren 1988:674).
(note.20)
The Grandfather of the Ancient Temple of An-lam District (#S40; see figure 42) is an exception. It is located in a family altar instead of a shrine or temple. However, because the worship is open to the public, I did not rule it out from my field research.
