A Study of the Zhi Shan Yan Incident and the Transformation of the Zhi Shan Yan Spirit in Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule

• Main Authors: Masakazu Hayashi, 林正和
• Other Authors: Shao-li Lu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/8qu5y7

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 歷史學研究所 === 105 === During the early years of Japan’s colonial rule in Taiwan, members of the resistance against the Japanese came together to attacked the Taipei Castle, one unit also attacked Zhi Shan Yan, and killed individuals who became known as the “Six Martyrs”. This incident is called the “Zhi Shan Yan Incident”. Minister of Education Izawa Shuji used the word “spirit”, to emphasize that the Six Martyrs did not simply meet with misfortune but suffered martyrdom. The martyrdom spirit of the Six Martyrs became the “spirit of the Six Martyrs”, and was later called the predecessor of “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit”. After that, Izawa Shuji carried out a deities movement, having made a request that the souls of the Six Martyrs should be enshrined together within the Yasukuni Shrine, making them deities of martyrdom. The Taiwan Educational Association took over the deities movement of Izawa Shuji from the “Zhi Shan Yan Incident” to the end of the Pacific War. They held a Zhi Shan Yan ceremony every year. Starting with the ten-year anniversary ceremony, the association began to have the souls of deceased educators enshrining together at Zhi Shan Yan. By the twentieth anniversary ceremony, Buddhist elements were erased, which led to the gradual increase of a Shinto element. In commemoration of the Emperor Showa Hirohito''s ascent to the throne, they established the Zhi Shan Yan Shrine in 1929. It became the holy land of education of Taiwan, including the Six Martyrs and deceased educators, who became the guardian deities. About twenty years after the Zhi Shan Yan Incident, the Taiwan Educational Association used symbols inside of Zhi Shan Yan to develop “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit” incorporating ceremonies, stone monuments, and a shrine. The Zhi Shan Yan Shrine can be said to be the climax and last constructed symbol to develop “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit”. After the 1920s, the average person gradually forgot about the “Zhi Shan Yan Incident” along with the Six Martyrs and deceased educator’s contributions. Through books, magazines, newspaper and other media, the Taiwan Educational Association used opinions on public affairs to develop “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit”. This spirit was taken over, made, and handed down by deceased educators enshrining together in Zhi Shan Yan. Starting in the 1910s the number of people enshrined together gradually increased, including Taiwanese deceased educators. By 1945 that number reached 650 people in total, among them were seventy-four Taiwanese people, making up thirteen percent of all people enshrined there. Several books, magazines and newspaper articles relating the story of the Zhi Shan Yan Incident appeared after the 1920s, and then continued to increased. Mentions of the incident appeared 234 times in total. The definition of “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit” in the 1920s was tied to ideas such as “persist until death” and a “spirit of sacrifice”, most definitions linked to the notion of death. However from 1940s the meaning of this spirit carried on past definitions, yet with the rise of the Pacific War, the term increasingly became coupled with a “spirit of Japanization” or a “spirit of patriotism and loyalty to the throne”. Writers gave their own definitions, further diversifying the terms meaning. After the Pacific War, the definition of “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit” on the stone monuments in the tombs of the Six Martyrs in Japan and “the Zhi Shan Yan spirit” in the Six Martyrs family’s consciousness, caused certain changes in its meaning. The stone monuments and the shrine were destroyed in Zhi Shan Yan following the end of the Pacific War, and its position is different from that of its years under Japanese colonial rule. The description of the stone monuments built around the Pacific War have changed since Taiwan’s democratic transformation. Now that some stone monuments in years Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule have been restored, and stand alongside the stone monuments that were built after Pacific War, bringing together a complicated Taiwanese history.