Folks in my line of work don't like being sent to Penghu.
How come? We're not worried about the weather. What scares the living daylights out of us are the "stones."
These stones usually have three Chinese characters carved on them: shih kan tang. They're all over the place there--on walls, beside doorways, and at crossroads--and they form a kind of supernatural defense system to protect people's homes and property. What they protect against is us. A coworker of mine tried to step past one once and wound up battered and bruised, beating a hasty retreat.
When you run up against something as hairy as that, the only thing you can do is to play it safe and keep your distance.
Our problems with these stones go back a long way, and the whole thing takes some explaining. To put it in a nutshell, several thousand years ago some bad apples among us didn't play by the rules. They got carried away and caused a lot of trouble, and they didn't fix things up when they were finished. That's when somebody got the bright idea of carving the words shih kan tang on a stone tablet and setting it up in the neighborhood.
Bummer! When word got around, people all over the place started doing the same thing (monkey see, monkey do!), and it really "diminished the scope of our activities," if you know what I mean.
There are so many shih-kan-tang stones on Penghu you wouldn't believe it. An architect named Yang Jen-chiang went there with five assistants to count them and found that there are 1.7 stones per square kilometer: that's a higher concentration than anywhere else in the Taiwan area, wouldn't you know it.
How'd the situation get so serious?
It's all the fault of some old-timers of ours in Tungan and Quemoy, in Fukien Province, who were a bit too "rambunctious." People there got fed up with them and starting setting up stones, and they brought the idea along with them when they settled in Penghu.
Actually, the fault's not entirely ours. Places like Quemoy and Penghu don't have a very good climate or environment: they're exposed to strong winds and the soil is poor, so they're subject to typhoons, floods, and crop failures, not to mention the pirates of the past. Now we're not responsible for all that kind of stuff, but they blame it all on us. Tell me what's fair.
Even Inou Yoshinori, an anthropologist who comes all the way from Japan, had this to say when he saw how many shih-kan-tang stones there are on Penghu: "According to long-established custom, the islanders on Penghu have feared the destruction caused by strong winds and blamed it on evil forces. To overcome those forces they have to set up a series of shih-kan-tang stones around the island.... The number of them is not inferior to that on Taiwan itself, and rarely seen even on the mainland."
Most of the shih-kan-tang stones on Penghu are made of granite, basalt, or black coral. They all have about the same powers.
At first they used to carve on just the words shih kan tang, but later some people thought they should add other stuff, like "stop wind stop evil," "t'ai chi and the eight trigrams," "sword lion," and so on. Some even dragged in the "36 celestial deities and the 72 earthly powers" for good measure.
The largest shih-kan-tang stone in Taiwan Province is the one in Houliao Village in Paisha. Its inscription reads "demons, goblins, ghosts, and ghouls." Some stones come in the shape of a Buddhist bell or a "wooden fish" clapper.
In whatever shape or form, there are at least 219 of these stones on Penghu altogether, forming solid defense network. Tough to make a living these days, isn't it?
Well, as a famous general once put it, "no matter how good the defense, there's always a gap." According to the latest intelligence reports, some villages have thrown away their stones during the course of construction, and Hsuchia and Lungmen don't have any at all. So watch out Penghu. There are still some cracks in your armor for us to weasel our way in..
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
Penghu's Supernatural Stones （Photo by Arthur Cheng）
