The spirit of Taiwan, moulded by special historical and geographical factors, is actually only one form of the Chinese spirit. A Taiwanese is a Chinese, but he is at the same time a pioneer, a revolutionary, a production worker, and a mariner. In his veins runs the blood of all these four. What we call the spirit of Taiwan is a combination of these four characteristics.
Except the 100,000 odd aboriginal tribesmen living in the hills (now all naturalized), all the Taiwanese people, over 7,000,000 in number, are settlers or their descendants who had their origin on the mainland. Mass migration flourished at the end of Ming Dynasty when thousands and thousands of people followed Cheng Chen-kung (Koxinga) to settle on this island. They drove out the Dutch colonists and gave Fort Zeelandia a new name—An Ping, which is actually the name of a place in Fukien. As the American pioneers called their settlement New York, in honor of York, England, it was very natural for the settlers here to use the name of a place of their native province for their new home. In Lien Ya-tang's History, many instance are given about the continental origin of place-names in Taiwan.
There were two main currents of the migration into Taiwan: one was from South Fukien—including Chuanchow, Changchow, and other coastal cities west of the Taiwan Strait; the other was from East Kwangtung—the mountainous region in the upper valley of the Han River, inhabited mostly by the Hakkas. Since the Southern Sung Dynasty established its capital in Hangchow, the two southern provinces, Chekiang and Fukien, became the center of Chinese civilization. Philosopher Chu Hsi, himself a Fukienese, once said, "Isn't it that heaven and earth have changed their places so that Fukien and Chekiang should become the center of the civilized world?" Both South Fukien and East Kwangtung were highly civilized areas at that time, which accounts for the high-grade civilization of the settlers in Taiwan.
South Fukien, being the center of sea-trade in China, was especially prosperous since the thirteenth century, Marco Polo in his Travels called Chuanchow "the first sea-port of the world." As to the Hakkas, they were originally inhabitants of Hunan in the north, who moved to the south probably before the tenth century. They kept some of the ancient Chinese customs: for instance, the Hakka women never bound their feet, though foot-binding was the curse of their sisters in the other parts of China for many centuries since the Sung Dynasty. About one-fifth of the settlers in Taiwan are Hakkas; the other four fifths are South Fukienese. As the South Fukienese originally lived near the sea, so they also chose the coastal pans of Taiwan as their settlement. And the Hakkas still preferred to build their homes near the hills.
The settlers still speak the dialects of their native provinces. Before Kuo-yu (Mandarin) was introduced here, South Fukienese (Amoyese) was the dialect used here by four-fifths of the population. It was Lien Ya-tang's work to remind the Taiwanese that their language was actually one of the Chinese dialects. He wrote another book called Taiwan Dialect in which he found out the words for the sounds and rectified the pronunciation. His book is a great help to anyone who wishes to learn the Taiwanese dialect even today.
From many instances in world history, we know that the settlers often represent the best part of their original stock. The pioneers that founded the United States are a notable example. The spirit that inspired their ancestors to cross the perilous sea and settle on the strange island is also one of the important traits of the Taiwanese people. The pioneers lived on very peaceable terms with the aborigines. Love and mutual trust was manifested everywhere. They showed themselves no unworthy followers of Confucius. They came here to teach the sage's doctrines, so they must be careful of their own words and deeds. They believed that no place was unfit for habitation, for as Confucius pointed out, "If a gentleman chooses to live in that place, can it be a bad one?" It is the greatest service of the pioneers that the tribesmen came gradually to accept our culture and be naturalized.
One of the pioneers especially worshipped by the tribesmen today is Wu Fung who, in his time, was a great friend of the aborigines but who, in order to correct their inhuman habit of headhunting, let his own head be cut off by an unsuspecting tribesman. When his death was discovered, the tribesmen were all struck with horror and pain. They repented, and since then they would never go out hunting human heads. Wu Fung's noble sacrificial spirit has been compared to the staunch patriotism of Cheng Chen-kung. In both resides the spirit of Taiwan as well as the best of the Chinese cultural tradition.
Lien Ya-tang has something more to say about the character of the Taiwanese. "Neither the man," he says, "nor the woman here will be a slave." Indeed, pride and self-respect are the outstanding characteristics of the Taiwanese people. For instance, the maid-servant we see in Taiwan today treats herself as an honorable worker; she respects her own profession and never thinks herself in any way inferior to her master or mistress.
Such an independent spirit can be traced back to the pioneer fathers who would not submit themselves to the Manchu rule. They fled the mainland and established themselves on this island where they could enjoy freedom and from which they hoped they would fight back and bring back freedom to their mother country. Such a patriotism and love for freedom, as the guiding principle of all the pioneers, has passed on to their descendants, so that there were few Taiwanese that were not brought up in a revolutionary spirit.
Take, for example, the family of Lien Ya-tang himself. The Liens were originally from Lung Chi, Fukien. They moved to Taiwan at the time of the Manchu conquest, and our historian belonged to the seventh generation after the migration. It was their family tradition that the Liens would never attend the Civil Service Examination under the Manchu regime; that they would never allow themselves to be employed in any capacity by that regime; and that they would dress up their dead in the costume of the Ming Dynasty before they buried them. They would never cooperate with Government; they would never yield.
Cheng Chen-kung and his son and grandson after him fought for forty years for the restoration of the Ming Dynasty. Though they did not succeed in achieving that goal, yet their movement went underground, gathered strength, and had an intimate relation with the later revolutionary movement led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. According to Lien's History, the secret organization Tien Ti Hui ("Heaven-Earth Society") was started by Cheng's followers who were seeking a more effective way to restore the Ming regime. So Tien Ti Hui was an organization of revolutionaries. With its origin in Taiwan, it soon spread to the mainland and gathered a large following first in Fukien and Kwangtung, and then among the overseas Chinese too, for most of them were originally from these two provinces. When Dr. Sun Yat-sen launched his revolutionary movement, he did not get many followers in China at first. The most enthusiastic responses he received were from the members of the secret societies among the overseas Chinese. They were easy to be convinced for they could not forget the purpose of their own societies. It was largely with their support that Dr. Sun accomplished his task of revolution. Can we not say it was also the spirit of Taiwan that, indirectly, made the revolution possible?
Among the Taiwanese today, there is still a custom of observing the nineteenth of the third moon as the Sun's Day. That day is set apart to worship light, symbolized by the lanterns which are hung up in every house. Light actually stands for the Ming Dynasty (Ming in Chinese means light), and the nineteenth of the third moon is the day when Emperor Chung Cheng of the Ming Dynasty killed himself. So that day once had a special revolutionary significance.
When the Manchus finally conquered Taiwan, they met with great public opposition. Uprising broke out every few years. In the official history compiled by the Manchu Government, the rebels are all called "bandits," but in Lien's History, they are called "Army or Patriots". Afterwards, when Taiwan was ceded to Japan after the conclusion of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, the Taiwanese rose up in revolt and declared themselves in dependent. Though the "Republic" they established soon tumbled down under the Japanese military might, it is noteworthy because it was the first republic in Asia.
In the same year, Dr. Sun Yat-sen set up his first revolutionary organization in Honolulu. That was the Hsin Chung Hui; one plank of its platform was "to recover Taiwan and to reconstruct China". Lien Ya-tang was then a young man eighteen years of age, but he began to collect all the documents issued by the abortive "Republic" and note down the names and the deeds of the martyrs that died in the resistance against Japanese invasion. In such historical materials, he believed, also lay the revolutionary spirit of the Taiwanese. If these could be preserved, the Taiwanese would never forget their origin and how hard their fathers had fought for freedom. So long as the Taiwanese kept their revolutionary spirit alive, the restoration of Taiwan would be only a matter of time. From such a point of view, he began to write his History of Taiwan. General Omar Bradley once said that the North Atlantic Pact as a weapon is more powerful than the atomic bomb; in a similar way we may say that Lien's History is more powerful than all the Japanese military strength. For the Japanese troops might be able to occupy the island, but they could never win over the heart of the Taiwanese. With its thorough-going study of Cheng Chen-kung and other revolutionaries in Taiwan, his book will always he an inspiration to every Chinese that reads it. The principle of liberty is the principle of his history. Lien did not live long enough to see his province restored to its mother country, but his wishes have been realized.
It is significant that the chapter about Cheng Chen-kung is called "Chronicle of Reconstruction" in Lien's History. He uses "construction" not only in the political sense, but also in the economic sense. For without economic reconstruction, no constructive work in politics is possible. Lien Ya-tang's History spared no words to recount the achievements in economic reconstruction of the pioneers. One special economic policy in practice at Cheng Chen-kung's time was the "soldier farmer policy." Each soldier was allotted a certain amount of land so that agricultural pro duce could be increased, and the army would not become financially a burden to the government. The result was that large areas of land were cultivated and irrigation systems established. There are many places in Taiwan which are called Ying ("camp") or Pao ("fort") today. These are traces of settlements where soldiers once did the farming.
The development of Taiwan began from the south and then gradually moved northward. The west coast was developed earlier than the east. The economic development of the island was progressing at a steady pace, with new districts (hsien) established one after another.
Rice, sugar, tea and camphor are the chief products of this Island. The development of their productions is fully dealt with in Lien's History. For instance, the town Chi Chi on the highway between Taichung and Sunmoon Lake was a "boom town" that became prosperous because of the camphor industry.
There is a prevalent erroneous notion that it was all due to the Japanese rule that Taiwan has become more "modernized" in material reconstruction than most of the mainland provinces. But great also is the Chinese contribution to economic reconstruction in Taiwan. For instance, the facilities of electricity and water supply that we enjoy today in Taipei were the achievements of Chinese economic reconstruction before 1895. The iron bridge spanning the Tam-sui River was also built by the Chinese. The plan for the Keelung-Kaohsiung Railway was entirely a Chinese one, and we could have completed the whole line but for the cession. Nevertheless, the sector between Keelung and Hsinchu is still to our credit. In 1875 Taipei was promoted to be a Fu ("special municipality"); ten years later, Taiwan was made a "province", so it was no more regarded as a sort of colony by the Manchu Government. During that period, Taiwan, under the governorship of Shen Pao-tsen and later Liu Min-chuang, was on its way to becoming the most modernized province of China. For the Manchu Government was then making experiments in Taiwan so that the other provinces could be westernized after the pattern. The greatest service was done by Governor Liu Ming-chuang, who, with his foresight and persistence, won remarkable achievements in introducing Western technique and methods into this province. Production and export were boosted under the government's encouragement; railways and harbours were constructed. Everything he did had a plan and thoroughness so that Taiwan soon became China's "model province". Then the Japanese came along. What the Japanese did was mostly to continue what Governor Liu had left unfinished. Liu's contribution to the reconstruction of Taiwan was indeed great, but without the cooperation he found in the zealous public spirit and diligence of the Taiwanese, he could not have accomplished so much. Industry, indeed, is one of the outstanding virtues of the Taiwanese.
The services rendered to his nation by Cheng Chen-kung, according to Liu Hsien-tien (a 17th century scholar), were even greater than those by Wen T'ien Hsiang, who in the 13th century, after the Sung Dynasty was overthrown, resisted, though unsuccessfully, the Mongols for three years, with the mountainous regions of the South China as his base. But the Chengs resisted the Manchus for about forty years, counting from the time when Cheng Chen-kung first raised his army in Amoy. He conquered Taiwan and drove out the Dutch. Since then, the name "Koxinga" spread far and wide overseas and won a renown even among European seafarers. (Koxin means literally the imperial surname. King Tang of the Ming Dynasty gave Cheng, as a distinguished honor, the imperial surname, hence the title Koxinga.)
Marine activities under the Chengs' government, with An Ping Port as their center, were spectacular. Defended by a fleet of thousands of naval vessels, Taiwan stood as a formidable menace to the Manchus on the Chinese main land. Merchant ships of Taiwan sailed as far as to Japan in the north and Java in the south. The boom of sea-trade brought great wealth to the Chinese in the South Seas as well in Taiwan. So a vast army could be supported on this island without bringing financial difficulties to the government.
The central and northern parts of Taiwan prospered gradually. Lukang (a seaport west of Changhwa in the central part) and Tamsui challenged An Ping as centers of sea-trade. Big, armed merchant-ships of Taiwan travelled all the sea-routes in the Western Pacific. The export of rice and sugar made Taiwan a very rich province; the people were wealthy and also highly civilized. After Tamsui was made a port, Taiwanese merchants like Chen Fu-chien set up business concerns in such remote places as Yokohama and London, and carried on a very prosperous international trade. At the time when Liu Min-chuang was governor, our traders set up a steamship company in ·Singapore. Such facts are all dealt with in details in Lien's History.
Lien Ya-tang also collected poems written by Taiwanese poets and compiled an Anthology of Taiwanese Poets (with annotations). Those poets constantly bathing in the sea-breezes did have broader view of life. We do not want to discuss their poetical technique here, but reading their works, we really have the feeling expressed in the following lines, (by Tso Szu in the 3rd. century A. D.):
"Unruffling the garment on a thousand-jen-high precipice;
"And washing the feet in the current running to ten-thousand li away."
Personally I feel that the Chinese literary artists should have at the same time the solidity and matter-of-factness associated with the continent, and also a lively and far-reaching imagination that only a life on sea can inspire.
The Chinese are often regarded by the more sea-conscious people as a nation of land-lubbers. That is not the fact. Cheng Ho in the Ming Dynasty, for instance, made seven voyages to the South Seas. So vast were his fleets and so big his vessels that few expeditions made by the European countries at that time could be compared with these voyages. If Chen Chen-kung had accomplished his task of recovering the mainland, then the marine spirit of Taiwan would have been transfused into the heart of every Chinese and China might have already become one of the sea powers.
In Cheng Chen-kung's time, about ten waves of migration carried thousands of pioneers to this Island. Today since the mainland has been overrun by the Communists and Taiwan has become the only base left in our war against Communism, more than 1,000,000 patriotic people have moved from the mainland to this island. These "landlubbers" must have changed their view of the world and learned the importance as well as the beauty of the sea. Indeed, the 7,000,000 odd people now living in Taiwan should all look further into the horizon and realize what a new world situation we are in. Strategically, Taiwan is the center of the defense line in the Western Pacific; it commands the vast land now under the control of the Reds. If the present world conflict is interpreted as a contest between democracy and totalitarianism, between sea· power as represented by the Western Allies and land-power as represented by Soviet Russia, then Taiwan is playing a very important role. The recovery of our nation depends on the sea; China will have a new life when we have built up a navy and developed the sea-trade. The spirit of Taiwan must be called up to a greater activity.
The spirit of Taiwan, as we have pointed out, is the spirit of a pioneer, a revolutionary, a production worker, and a mariner. Such a sprit is what we need most today. To get over the present crisis, to reconstruct our nation and culture, we need the recognition and revivifying of the spirit of Taiwan.
(Translated by C. Y. Liu)