Formosa boasts of a lake-in-the-clouds, and a towering, snow-capped mountain, and both are known by foreign names-Candidius and Morrison. What do we Islanders think of these names, and how did they come into use in this our Emerald Isle of the Far East?
We take pride, in them; not merely at the thought of our heavenly mirror lake and our majestic mountain having attracted men of note from the far Western World, but chiefly because these are the names of heroes of European culture who gave their lives to China.
George Candidius was the pioneer missionary to Formosa of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was sent out as a chaplain for the Dutch East India Company and arrived in the Island in 1627. On arrival, with the fervour characteristic of missionaries of his church, he set about to make himself familiar with the language of the natives. He did this as a first step in the work of leading them in the true way of salvation. From the very first he was impressed with the potentialities of the native people and he therefore expected great things to come from his labours. He was a humble minded man and filled with high ideals for the work in which he was engaged. In 1631 he was called to Batavia, where he remained for some time; but still remembering the needs of Formosa, he returned in 1633 to the scene of his former labours. He joined with his immediate successor, the Reverend Robertus Junius in the work he had previously begun. He lived with Mr. Junius in the village of Sakam which afterwards developed into the large Chinese city of Taiwan-fu, the present Tainan, now noted as the centre of the English Presbyterian Mission with its Theological College, schools and growing Formosan Church. After ten years of further labour throughout the west, centre and north of the Island he paid another visit to Batavia in April 1637, and then returned to his homeland, Holland.
Many years were to pass before the name Candidius was to be connected with our now famous mountain lake. How did this connection come to be made? In 1873, two hundred and forty-six years after George Candidius left the Island and three years after Reverend William Campbell had arrived in Formosa from the English Presbyterian Church, the latter on a missionary exploration trip made the discovery of the lake and named it after his predecessor.
Campbell's discovery of the lake was made near the end of a long journey around the Island; by boat around the south cape, then up along the Pacific Coast on the east, and on to Tamsui at the north west. In Tamsui he spent eight days with Reverend George MacKay who recently arrived from Canada to represent the Canadian Presbyterians. The two then journeyed overland on foot down the west coast, three days, to see Sinkam, the village that bore the name of the Dutch township of colonial days. There they parted and Campbell turned his steps into the inner mountains. On April 23rd he arrived at Po-li-sia after spending three weeks in Aboriginal or semi-Aboriginal villages in the plains or foot-hills on the west. Of his visit to the lake and how he came to name it, let his own notes tell the story:
"I left Po-li-sia early on the morning of the 16th May. There was some little difficulty in inducing a party to accompany me by the seldom-travelled road I arranged to come out by. I had heard so often about the Tsui-hwan or water savages, and their lake that the present seemed as favourable an opportunity as I could get for visiting that part of the country. We accordingly came out from Po-li-sia across the southern range of mountains, and reached the settlements of the Tsui-hwan on the evening of the day we set out, there to feast our eyes by gazing on the only good-sized lake in Formosa. It is doubtless the one referred to in Consul Swinhoe's Notes, and as the present was the first European visit to it, my inclination to find a name for this beautiful expanse of calm, sweet, life-giving water could not suggest one more suitable than that of Candidius. He was the pioneer Dutch missionary to Formosa during the first half of the seventeenth century, and we still know enough about him to desire that he should be held in respectful and loving remembrance. Like, then, the waters of Lake Candidius, may that pure Gospel he preached yet become a source of much blessing to the people of this lovely region."
On that first visit to the lake, Campbell spent about a week in the vicinity. According to his writings, his discovery led to visits by Consuls Bullock and Allen" referred to in reports of the Royal Geographical Society in 1877 and 1878. Later he himself, along with Mr. Henderson, the American Consul at Amoy, paid another visit to Lake Candidius and took occasion to paddle around it in one of the native canoes. He was anxious to find out more about the outlet of the lake and also about the drain age system away towards the cast and west. At the Formosa Industrial Exhibition in Taipeh in 1916, Campbell was a lecturer on the history of the Island. In his lecture he is reported, to have given an interesting description of the structure and carving of native canoes and saw in these some connection with Totemism as among North American Indians. So, we see that on these visits the missionary not only preached the Gaspel to the Aborigines but also he had an eye for exploration and scientific investigation.
Sun-Moon Lake (File photo)
The name of the Lake in Chinese is, Sun moon-lake. It is said to have been thus named because its placid water mirrors the sun by day and the moon by night. Shut out from wide horizons by the surrounding mountain peaks, the lake has daily contact with the sky.
In more recent years Sun-moan-lake has become noted, not only in connection with missionary life and work, but also as the centre of the Island's great hydro-electric system. The development of this project began in 1919 but had to be suspended due to the lack of funds. Later a loan was raised in the U.S.A. by the Japanese Government and the construction was completed in 1934, Water that tumbled down for countless centuries through mountain gorges from the lake's elevation of more than 1000 feet above the plains now became the source of power for the electrification of the whole Island. The raising of the level of the lake for the electrification project inundated the beautiful Pearl Islet at the south-western end and thus forced the Tsui-hwan tribe to move. But they found another place on the shores and there took up their abode. There they continue to entertain visitors with canoe trips and musical performances on their famous rice-pounding pestleorgan - as they no doubt did to welcome Campbell in his time.
Beyond Lake Candidius, off to the, south-east rises Mount Morrison into the higher levels of Formosan clouds. To a visitor standing at the edge of the Lake and looking off in the direction of that towering mountain peak, the names of these two missionaries from the Western World, Candidius and Morrison, must come with refreshing memory. Who was Morrison and how came the mountain to be named after him?
Robert Morrison (1782 - 1834) was the pioneer. Protestant missionary to China. He arrived in Canton in 1807. His father was an elder in the Church of Scotland. Robert was born in the Scottish village of Morpeth and brought up to learn his father's trade, that of boot maker. He became a scholar; was sent by the London Missionary Society to China, and has the distinction of having compiled a Chinese dictionary and grammar. After 27 years' labour as a missionary and part-time official interpreter for the East India Company at Canton, he died at the early age of 52. His grave is at Macao but we might say that the monument which outstandingly bears his name is Macao's nearest high mountain, our Mount Morrison.
Admiral Collinson of the British Far Eastern fleet was a man who held Robert Morrsion in high esteem. He had heard much about him from British and American merchants and the Chinese people around Canton and Macao. After wards, he met him personally and-they became friends. Therefore, after the Admiral had sailed around, or past Formosa, on different occasions and looked with admiration on the towering mountain peak in the centre of the Island, and especially after the completion of his survey of the Pescadores Islands between Formosa and the mainland when he fixed the height of the mountain, he named it "Morrison" after his friend. Mistakes have been made by writers on Far Eastern events by connecting the name of Mount Morrison with that of another person of the same name, but reliable sources indicate to the contrary that our majestic mountain truly bears the name of this pioneer missionary to our country. In these post war years when our Island has again become part of China, we take pride in the monumental nature of this landmark.
To Formosans in general, Mount Morrison is known by another name. It is called Giok San, or gem mountain. This striking, snow-capped peak, highest of the Formosan chain, looked, to those who named it, like a special white gem on a beautiful necklace. The Aboriginal tribes, however, called it Pat-tong-koan San or quartz mountain, because of the nature of its rock. In 1895, when Formosa was ceded to Japan, the Japanese Government sent a party to the Island to investigate the forestry resources of the central mountain area. Dr. Honda, who made their report made out the peak to be 14,450 feet high, the highest in the Japanese Empire. In 1891, the Japanese Emperor Meiji named it Niitaka San, or New High Mountain. Recently, with the restoration of the Island to China and under the governorship of Dr. Wei Tau Ming, the name has been changed back to its former Chinese one. Many people, however, and especially those familiar with the history of Western civilizing influences in China know the mountain as "Mount Morrison" in honour of the pioneer missionary to China. And they shall continue to give it this name, for when they do so they think of the melting snows around its white crown and of the streams flowing through the Candidius Lake and power house, and pray that in like manner the whole Island may become full of the light of the Gospel that these two pioneers brought to us.
'If a man takes no thought for the future,
he will find sorrow in the present.' Confucian Analects
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'Propriety is reciprocal; if there is giving, but no receiving, this is not propriety, if there is receiving, but no giving, neither is this propriety.' Li-Chi-'The Book of Rites'