Tainan Confucian temple

Dear Editor,

Reading through your supplement on architecture (September issue, North American edition) I spotted two minor errors in the captions of the article "Gene King Expounds on Architecture," and would like to take this opportunity to clear them up.

Page 4: Tainan Confucian temple

According the the book Historical Walks in Tainan I (edited by Huang Ching-yi and Wang Ming-hsueh, published by Yuan-Liou Publishing), in 1683, when the Qing dynasty first had contact with Taiwan, the ancient Confucian temple in Tainan had already mostly collapsed. In 1684 the Qing court dispatched governor Zhou Chang and local official Jiang Yuying to rebuild the temple, renaming it Xianshi Temple. The following year, the Taiwan Provincial Academy was established in the temple, and from then until the beginning of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan this school was regarded by Taiwanese as the most prestigious one on the island. The school was also known in Chinese as Taiwan shouxue, which was translated as "the first school for the children of Taiwan," but which should have been "the top academic institution of Taiwan."

Pages 4 and 5: Captions

In the captions of one photo, the stone structure shown is labeled as a chastity arch. It is, in fact, the Pan Kung stone gate which sits in front of the Tainan Confucian temple, as evidenced by the characters for "Pan" and "Kung" carved into the gate, still clearly visible despite years of weathering. According to Historical Walks in Tainan I, when local official Jiang Yuanshu was rebuilding the Confucian temple during the 1700s, he noticed that the Tacheng Hall nearby had a large building to its northeast (namely Wenchang Pavilion), so he decided that "in order to strengthen the temple," he would build a large gate to the southeast. Of all the Confucian temples in Taiwan, only the one in Tainan has this feature. The Pan Kung gate is the outermost gate of the temple, but during their occupation of Taiwan the Japanese split the gate from the rest of the temple structure when they built Nanmen Road between them. Since the gate was split from the temple proper, its real purpose has gradually faded from collective memory, so it's not surprising so few people realize it's actually part of the temple.