Taiwan's Spiritual Home--Yushan's Place in History

One evening at dusk as the year 2003 drew to a close, a tourist bus filled with some 20 artists and intellectuals drove along the New Central Cross-Island Highway, more than 2000 meters above sea level, on its return from the main peak of Yushan (Jade Mountain). Outside the windows of the bus the ubiquitous clouds, the high mountains and towering peaks gradually faded from view as the sun set on the horizon. Writer and tour leader Lu Han-hsiu, rose from his seat and asked his companions to talk a bit about their feelings on what they had just experienced. They had all arisen early that morning to climb to the peak of Yushan, and the eight-to-nine-hour trek up the steep mountain pass had left them exhausted and seemingly unable to rejoice in their return or share with one another what they had learned during their "baptism of fire."

In recent years those in literary and cultural circles have been encouraging people to climb Yushan. At the same time as they enjoy this leisure activity, people from all walks of life have been drawn into enthusiastic participation in getting to know and understand the human, historical and ecological facets of the mountain.

Fondness starts with knowledge

In his seventies, musician Ma Shui-lung, said the past two days, filled with views of mountain valleys, varied topography and the majesty of Yushan, had moved him deeply. Writer Li Ang wasn't bothered that she was unable to make it to the top this time. She figured this was a perfect foreshadowing of a future trip up the mountain when the azaleas would be in bloom. "I've traveled all over the world. I never imagined that the most beautiful spot was right here under my feet." Li Jo-ying, a teacher at Kaohsiung Normal University, revealed that she had had a heart examination before the trip, the results of which showed her state of health did permit her to go-but just barely. If she missed this "Jade Mountain pilgrimage" prospects were dim for a second try. Come what may, she had been determined to go.

"'Jade Mountain studies' is an attempt to raise the climbing of Yushan from a purely leisure activity to the level of a philosophy of ecological ethics," says Lu Han-hsiu, promoter of Jade Mountain studies and vice general secretary of the National Cultural Association. In recent years the slogan "love Taiwan" has gained tremendous prominence, but if this love lacks emotional roots and has no deep understanding, solely relying on some ideal, then it is without substance. A love of Taiwan must proceed from a myriad of concrete details. Taiwan's No. 1 mountain peak, Yushan, has thus taken on symbolic meaning, and a personal trip to the mountain has become the perfect route for getting to know and understand the country.

In 2000 plans began for Jade Mountain study activities that focused on different groups of people, like "parents' and children's tours" and "full mountain tours." Students who signed up had to take six or seven courses to acquire a knowledge base in such areas as Yushan's flora and fauna, ecology, topography, cultural history, and mountaineering ethics before they ascended the mountain. The number of those participating in these activities has risen each year. In hopes of enriching the meaning of Jade Mountain studies, people from the world of literature and arts are invited for a "cultural tour" of Yushan, for when writers and poets return from their climb they give artistic expression to their feelings and sing the praises of the beautiful scenery.

Summit of perfection

The first indications of this enthusiasm for Yushan actually appeared some ten years ago. Having been closed to tourists for over year because of the Chi-chi earthquake, Yushan reopened in September 2000 with a new stone tablet at the peak. "May we have a heart as pure as jade and a sense of righteousness as solid as the mountain," it reads. This tablet bears witness to the Jade Mountain movement.

In 1994 the head of New Idea magazine, Kuo Cheng-feng, was the first to propose that Yushan and the butterfly be used to fashion the traits of the "new Taiwanese."

"The mess in Taiwan today is mostly the result of narrow-mindedness, there is no openness of spirit." In his writings, Kuo argues that to open the mind, one must open the mountains and forests, open the seas, open the air and "let people freely develop an intimate relationship with their own land. Only in this way will they identify with Taiwan, will they love this piece of earth. Only when there is love will the mind be able to develop in a pure and healthy way." He wants people to go through a metamorphosis like a butterfly, and sees Yushan as the spiritual home of all Taiwanese, symbolizing a new image of steadfastness, fearlessness and purity.

In the last several years the Jade Mountain movement has been joined by people from all walks of society and the enthusiasm has spread to industry where many companies have borrowed the name-Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, E. Sun Commercial Bank, Jade Mountain Society, etc. In various sectors they all operate with great success. During President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration ceremony in 2000 composer Hsiao Tyzen's tone poem "Jade Mountain Hymn Symphony" was performed together with a recitation of an ode to the mountain by poet Li Min-yung, pushing the symbolism of Yushan to a high point.

Professor Tai Pao-tsun teaches at National Central University's Institute of History and specializes in the relationship between land and the sense of group identity of the people who live on it. He says that "Yushan has silently become a solid 'rock of support' for Taiwan's new leaders, while the Kunlun Mountains and Mt. Everest have gradually faded into the background. It is increasingly obvious that in the mind of Taiwanese it has become 'our country's tallest mountain.'"

Rising almost 4000 meters above sea level, Yushan is not only the tallest peak on Taiwan, it is also the source of the three major river systems that provide water for the island, has the most intact ecological system, verdant forests, varied flowers and fauna plus the nearby historical relics of Patungkuan and the rich cultural history of the Aborigines. "It is natural that this area is a topographical symbol of Taiwanese identity, just like Mt. Fuji in Japan or the Alps in Switzerland," says Professor Tai.

In the last ten to 20 years, the issue of national identity has attracted broad interest and concern in Taiwan society. But the development of the Jade Mountain movement over the past decade and the overemphasis on the significance of a sense of national identity has led to the downplaying of other aspects of people's lives. Why must the love of nature bleed over into politics? For many people who climb Yushan or maybe just feel that they ought to take a climb up Yushan in the years remaining to them, perhaps it's the idea of going on a pilgrimage, or perhaps it's a self-challenge, or maybe it's simply searching for a life experience-and Yushan will never disappoint them.

"Tracing the history of Yushan, different groups of people ascribed varying significance to the mountain depending upon the understanding and goals each had," says Sun Ta-chuan. But neglected all along throughout the vicissitudes of history were the needs and the voice of the Aborigines.

Neolithic traces

For tens of thousands of years the great mountain has quietly stood apart from the surrounding world and has silently looked down at the changes taking place beneath it, both in nature and among the people who lived there. Let's change our perspective and open up the pages of history to look for a different angle from which to see Yushan.

Human activity on Yushan began very early. According to investigations carried out by famed anthropologist Torii Ryuuzoo during the Japanese occupation period and archeological research by Academica Sinica after the restoration of Chinese sovereignty, stone tools, pot shards and the remains of ancient dwellings from the Paleolithic period unearthed in the vicinity of Yushan show that at least 1000 years ago human beings lived and were active in the area.

Chen Chung-yu, a researcher at Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology who was the first to discover the "Chuping ruins" in the mountains of Nantou, says early human habitation in the Yushan area was very widespread and included to the north the upper reaches of the Chuoshui River, the Chunta and Laonung Rivers and to the southeast reaches of the Lakulaku River. These primitive people practiced both agriculture and hunting.

Just how did people live in the foothills of Yushan live all those thousands of years ago? A century ago when the mountains of Taiwan were still isolated and had not yet suffered the inroads of civilization, the firsthand observations made by many Japanese explorers of Yushan and the nearby Central Mountain Range can perhaps offer people of a later age a good outline of what life was like for their predecessors.

The Yushan National Park was created in the 1980s and because of ecological conservation reasons work on the section of the "New Central Cross-Island Highway" that was to go through Yushan was forced temporarily to halt. The picture shows the scenic "husband and wife trees" on the New Central Cross-Island Highway (Route 21).

Tranquil and simple society

The Japanese official Mori Ushinosuke was a man who went into the mountains for more than 30 years studying the Aborigines and gained the nickname "big chief of the Taiwan barbarians." He described the people he met: "I personally have gone into the primitive mountain areas and have seen just how tranquil and pure the daily life of the people is. Those on the outside are quick to call them savage barbarians, yet in truth they are simple, honest folk." Comparing these people with those who lived on the lowland plains who were distant and untrustworthy, Mori felt he was entering a paradise each time he went into the Aboriginal areas. "As night fell a group of Aboriginal girls with garlands in their hair gathered in front of the headman's house where we were staying for the night, singing and dancing. The flowers attached to their hair gave off a heavy perfume and comforted the travelers with their fragrant smell." Nelson Yang's annotated translation of collected essays by Mori Ushinosuke contains many such descriptions. Mori established a relationship of mutual trust with the Bunun people and discovered that the Aborigines possessed a great deal of knowledge of the mountains and forests, and what outsiders looked upon as superstition and taboos were actually beliefs that undergirded a normative social order.

Another Japanese naturalist, Kana Tadao, studied the biogeography of Taiwan's mountains and also became fond of local Aboriginal life and culture. "He assiduously studied the Bunun language and, like the hunters themselves, he ate raw deer blood and raw deer liver," says Nelson Yang, who is a specialist on ancient travel routes and has translated Kana Tadao's representative work Mountains, Clouds and Barbarians into Chinese. Kana eventually didn't even take flatland food with him but ate all three meals the same as the Bunun-sweet potatoes and millet congee taken with salted hot peppers chewed and passed around from person to person.

The call of Yushan tugs hard at the hearts of the Taiwanese people. After a grueling test of their physical abilities and determination, a group of artists and writers finally reaches the main peak of Yushan at 3952 meters above sea level.

The Mutan Village Incident

Taiwan's soaring mountains encircled in clouds and mists, whether in Mori's eyes the scene of a simple life or in the writings of Kana places of primitive beauty, were gradually changing by the end of the Qing dynasty and during the period of Japanese occupation. The age of written history had also begun.

In 1874 the Qing dynasty official Shen Baozhen memorialized the court to follow a policy in Taiwan of "opening up mountain regions and pacifying the barbarians" thus staging the opening scene for the penetration of the outside world into Yushan and its environs. This was also a year that brought historical change to Sino-Japanese relations. The flashpoint was the "Mutan Village Incident" that had occurred three years before on the Hengchun peninsula.

A group of traders from Okinawa ran into a storm and were blown ashore near Pingtung. After landing they stumbled unwittingly into Mutan Village and more than 50 were killed by the Aborigines. The Japanese had always considered themselves to have suzerainty over Okinawa and, additionally, had long harbored designs on the island of Taiwan. They soon sent out an expeditionary force to Taiwan, making representations to the Qing court with the excuse that the Chinese had done nothing about the incident. After the Japanese landed the "barbarian" villages surrendered one after the other. The Japanese troops set up camp nearby and planned on a long stay. This small campaign shook the Qing court as much as the Opium War had. On the one hand the court protested to the Japanese while at the same time it deeply understood the gravity of the Taiwan problem. It then sent Shen Baozhen, director-general of the Fuzhou Navy Yard, known as a capable and experienced administrator, as an imperial envoy to Taiwan with full powers to deal with the situation and make plans for the military defense of the island.

Upon arrival, Shen Baozhen discovered that the military defenses of the island were totally concentrated "in front of the mountains" (to the west of the Central Mountain Range), but there was no knowledge at all of the eastern side of the island, "beyond the mountains." There were not even any roads cutting through to the east side, and knowledge of that part of the island only came via the occasional vessels that sailed there. "One can only plan to resist the tiger in front of the mountains. It is difficult to resist the wolf that enters from the back" was certainly an accurate assessment of the situation. If an east-west route joining both coasts were not set up, it would be difficult to achieve the goal of defending the island. The famous Patungkuan Trail was born of the plan Shen submitted to the Qing court to "open the mountain regions and pacify the barbarians."

"Shen Baozhen's plans were a heroic undertaking, not only for the time but even by today's standards," writes Ma I-kung, environmental protectionist and Control Yuan member.

A thoroughfare for the ages

In 1875 Shen Baozhen dispatched 3000 soldiers from Fujian and Guangdong, organizing them into southern, central and northern contingents to open up cross-island routes joining the front and back sides of the island. The "northern road" went from Suao to Hualien, the precursor of today's Suao-Hualien Highway. The "southern road" went eastward from Laiyi in Pingtung County to Chinlun in Taitung.

The "central road," the most difficult of all, was personally supervised by Brigade General Wu Guangliang. From Chushan in Nantou it traversed Tungpu and Patungkuan and snaked its way through the Central Mountain Range to reach Yuli in Hualien. This is the Patungkuan Trail, known as the "thoroughfare for the ages" and designated as a Class 1 Historic Site.

When the road was finished the Qing government accepted Shen Baozhen's proposal to recruit people to cultivate the east coast. Finally, the long-standing prohibition against people from the mainland of China crossing the strait to Taiwan was lifted. Enticements such as free tickets, food and land attracted many immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong to brave the passage and join the ranks of those bringing the land under cultivation. Unfortunately, the roads in the mountains were rugged and rough. There were very few people living on the east coast, which was overgrown and disease-ridden. The policy of settlement and cultivation thus did not enjoy great success. Soon the Qing government abolished the incentives and the Patungkuan Trail, built amidst such suffering and hardship, fell into complete ruin within 20 years.

A paradise for scientific explorers

After the Qing dynasty was defeated in the Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan and there was a major turnaround in the picture for Yushan and the surrounding area. After 20 years of being coveted by the Japanese, Taiwan finally fell into their hands. It was also the age of "scientific exploration," and this passion for discovery very quickly found its way to Yushan.

In 1896, the second year of Japanese occupation, infantry lieutenant Nakano Yoshitora was sent into the mountains to investigate natural resources and the mountain tribes who lived there. In a journey lasting 17 days he crossed the Central Mountain Range and climbed from the Patungkuan Trail to the peak of Yushan for the first time. According to his report, although the road was overgrown with weeds, it was possible to see that the construction work that had been done so many years ago was still in good shape.

Following Nakano's climb, Japanese of every stripe struck off deep into the mountains to conduct all manner of research and investigation, leaving behind a rich treasure trove of information on flowers and fauna, topography and anthropology and establishing a knowledge base for many scholarly disciplines. In the mountainous regions of Taiwan today there are over 20 species of common plants that bear as part of their designation the name "Mori," such as the "Mori azalea" and "Mori sedum." These are all plants that were first collected and discovered by Mori Ushinosuke, who headed the Japanese administration's "research department for useful plants."

As for anthropology, some brilliant achievements were made as a result of the investigations and research of such men as Torii Ryuuzoo, Mori Ushinosuke and Inoo Kanori. They divided the Aborigines into nine ethnic groups according to differences in physique, language and social structure, leaving a legacy of thousands of front and side portrait photographs of Aborigines that became important data for later studies of clothing, ornaments and tattoos. In addition, investigations of prehistoric sites, the collection and collation of myths and legends and the collection and study of ethnographic data, taking photograph after photograph of the actual living conditions of the Aborigines in the densely forested mountain regions-tilling and planting, winnowing grain, weaving cloth, relaxing-all this left a precious record of the Aboriginal peoples.

Bitter resitance

Apart from the wave of scientific exploration that took place, the Aborigine management policy of the Japanese occupation period transformed the quiet and peaceful Yushan area into a battlefield.

The "five-year barbarian management plan" was instituted in 1910. This was a major shift in the policy of the Japanese governor-general toward the Aborigines of the mountain regions. In the beginning, the Japanese had adopted a policy of conciliation toward the Aborigines. The reason for the gradual change was pressure from domestic Japanese commercial groups.

As Nelson Yang notes, a great many commercial firms had been cutting timber, extracting minerals, refining camphor and planting tea in the mountain regions and could not avoid clashes with the local inhabitants. Also, because the Japanese government used the "strategic pass line" system to cut off the Aborigines and keep them in their own area, each time the line was moved deeper into the mountains there were clashes, causing many casualties. The Japanese administration succumbed to the pressure of the companies and the civil police force and finally propounded a new policy that centered on disarming the Aborigines and carrying out a policy of supression.

"For the Bunun people, firearms symbolized honor and life," says Nelson Yang. Confiscation of their weapons, basically hunting rifles, came like a bolt out of the blue for the Bunun, and they reacted violently. In 1915 the villages along the Lakulaku River southeast of today's Yushan National Park erupted when private stashes of rifles were confiscated. A series of serious resistance attacks broke out, including the famous Qasibanan and Tafen incidents. The brave Bunun warriors, fierce headhunters, succeeded in lopping off the heads of 18 Japanese policemen for their pe-gaga ceremony.

The peak road

After the Qasibanan and Tafen incidents, the Japanese authorities realized they needed to take more active measures-repairing the garrison road and making a frontal assault on the Tafen area. Only in this way could they effectively suppress the Bunun resistance.

In 1919 work formally began on the eastern and western sections of the "Patungkuan traversing road." The eastern section went from Yuli in Hualien to Tashuiku, while the western section ran from Hsinyi in Nantou to Tashuiku. Many police stations and related educational and health installations were set up along the route. In 1921 the Patungkuan garrison line was completed, but counteroffensives by Bunun leaders like Laho Ahmei (a.k.a. Raho Ari) led to continued Japanese deaths. Intending to prevent a recurrence of Bunun resistance and because it was difficult to keep the garrison roads in good repair in the deep mountain areas, the Japanese government went a step further and forced a mass displacement of the Bunun down the mountain to the lower reaches of the Lakulaku River on the Huatung Valley plain. Through contact with the Han Chinese and the Amis people living there, the unique characteristics of Bunun mountain culture were gradually lost.

In contrast to the bloodbath that characterized the eastern side of Yushan, the Alishan (Mt. Ali) area to the west enjoyed a different kind of development. In the 1910s the Alishan Mountain Railway was finished, and huge Taiwan red cypress and Taiwan yellow cypress trees were cut down and shipped out. Thus began the destruction of the Alishan forests.

In 1926 the mountain footpath linking Alishan to Yushan was opened, cutting down the time it took to ascend Yushan from the west side from 19 hours to nine. As the Japanese government also encouraged mountain climbing, from this time onward Yushan was not restricted to only scientists and explorers. Mountain climbing groups vied with one another to make the climb and young students regarded a climb up Yushan as a challenging graduation exercise. Society was gripped in a climbing fever.

"The Japanese admiration for Yushan continued totally unabated even after the occupation period. In the 1950s and 1960s an endless stream of Japanese climbers came to Taiwan to make the ascent," says Chen Pei-chou, author of The Legends of Mountains in Taiwan. For many Japanese, climbing what was once known as "the highest peak in the Japanese empire" was akin to making a sacred pilgrimage.

Ancient peak

In the more than 40 years of martial law following the move of the Nationalist government to Taiwan in 1949, people were unable freely to move about the island for reasons of national security. However, because there was a forest recreation park in the Alishan area to the west of Yushan, it was known worldwide that "Taiwan has a mountain called Alishan." By contrast, Yushan was deserted, but precisely because of this its precious virgin forest ecology was preserved.

During this period the most important event for Yushan was the establishment of a national park. After more than 20 years of effort developing the economy, and in light of the damage to the natural environment caused by industrial pollution, the government began to turn its attention to the question of environmental protection. In 1985 the Yushan National Park was formally established. To preserve the ecology, the "New Cross-Island Highway" was forced to make a detour to avoid the area, which was a model achievement in the struggle between ecology and development that was going on at the time.

For thousands of years Yushan was a partner to Taiwan and home to different groups of human beings as they played out their history with one another through changing eras, creating a colorful and rich history. "Sadly, the average person doesn't know very much about this," laments Nelson Yang. Because in the past mountain climbers or naturalists neglected the history of the opening and development of Taiwan's mountain areas, people have focused only on the flatlands and shoreline that make up just one fourth of the total land area of the island. They have little knowledge of the length and breadth of the mountains and are unable properly to understand the development of Taiwan's ethnic and cultural diversity.

Taiwan's sacred mountain

Sun Ta-chuan, Head of the Graduate Institute of Indigenous Development at National Dong Hwa University and a member of the Puyuma tribe, points out that in tracing Yushan's history one can discover that whether it was the Qing government's policy of "opening the mountain regions and pacifying the barbarians" or that of the Japanese colonial government of "managing the barbarians," the mountain was approached from the point of view of the flatlands, so people easily got the idea that the mountains themselves were "wild" and "dangerous." In fact, however, traces of habitation and activity by Aboriginal peoples are evident throughout the entire mountain region. The mountains are by no means "wild," they were simply "forgotten" by people! If we could leave aside our flatland, urban habit of thought and look at Taiwan history from the mountain angle, we would gain a different perspective.

Different cultures bring with them different ways of seeing things. "People's understanding of the mountains differs from period to period in Taiwan history and can be classified into several stages," explains Sun Ta-chuan by way of analysis. In the very beginning the Aborigines' interaction with the mountains was of a religious nature. The high mountains were places where their ancestors lived and they possessed a good deal of spiritual significance. During the second stage, the period of "opening mountain regions and pacifying barbarians," the relationship of people to the mountains became conceptualized in terms of economics and territorial security. The spiritual bond between the mountains and the people was severed. During the Japanese occupation era, aside from the notions of economics and security, there was the goal of administrative control, thus the mountains became objects of scientific inquiry and statistical analysis.

By the third stage, that of the growth of the mountain climbing movement, while scientific interest was still high, the relationship of people to the mountains took on a new character, one of adventure and the search for novelty. This all was a reflection of a global phenomenon at the end of the 19th century. Thereafter a new stage of "tourism" came into being. Because Taiwan promoted "holistic community building" and "local cultural industry" this led people to pay attention to "the cultural image of space." As a result, some county heads took students from Aboriginal youth camps to swear an oath before Mt. Tawu, breaking the mold of the previous conception of the mountain as something to be only developed, consumed and used by people. The fifth stage comprises the last ten years when Yushan has been extolled for its political symbolism in shaping a national consciousness.

The children of Yushan

"Throughout all these changes different government administrations and different groups of people ascribed varying significance to the mountains of Taiwan depending upon the understanding and the goals each had. But neglected all along was the Aborigines' viewpoint and what they had to say," points out Sun Ta-chuan. He gives an example: developing the water resources of the mountain regions was for the benefit of those downstream, while the Aborigines living upstream were frequently without potable water. When the mountain regions were included in national parks, the Aborigines were forced to leave the area, losing their original living space and sacred territory, and they were cut off from their traditional cultural roots.

"This is why every time tourism comes up as a topic of discussion, we all have a negative reaction and are opposed," says Sun. He argues that a better line of thinking would be to regard the Aboriginal culture and the needs of the Aborigines more seriously against the backdrop of all the changes that have taken place in the mountain regions over the centuries.

"I hope that 'Jade Mountain studies' not only meet scholarly, tourist and political demands but that they can also take into account the spirit of humanism and human rights," Sun says.

Caught up in the movement to understand Yushan and pursue its meaning, the Taiwan people, identifying themselves as "children of Yushan," are now hard at work studying the Aboriginal peoples' respectful and humble relationship with the mountain. In the end, movements and policies created by people are only temporary-carefully listening to the silent words of the ancient mountain is the only way to get to the truths that live forever.