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Updated Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:38 am TWN, By Steven Crook, Special to The China Post



	Shanhua's most famous temple is kept in perfect condition. (By Steven Crook, Special to The China Post) More Photos (2)

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On the trail of Taiwan's Confucius

Mazu occupies the place of pride in the main hall. The five icons of Wenchang Dijin, in the chamber at the very back, are by no means ignored. If you visit before a major examination, you will see dozens of copies of student IDs on the altar, put there by students or their parents, petitioning the god for good grades.

On the complex's second floor, on the right as you enter the temple, there is an exhibition room containing an icon of Shen (regarded locally as the “sixth facet of Wenchang Dijin” because of his educational efforts), some information about the man, and several works of calligraphy by local artists.

Between 1645 and 1651, Shen traveled extensively in the southeastern part of the mainland, staying one step ahead of the advancing Qing forces. At the end of this period he relocated to Taiwan, staying in Yilan (宜蘭) for approximately a year before moving on to the Tainan area.

In 1662, the year in which Koxinga established himself as Taiwan's new chief (or, at least, the ruler of the island's Han Chinese population), Shen was teaching Chinese script to lowland aborigines.

Between 1665 and 1674 he spent much of the time in Luohanmen, a small frontier settlement that has since grown into the Kaohsiung County town of Neimen (內門). He then moved yet again, this time to Shanhua, where he spent more than a dozen years teaching literature and medicine.

Shen is memorialized elsewhere in the township. On the campus of Shanhua Junior High School there is a Guangwen Building. And a few meters from where Guangwen Road crosses the main north-south railway line, the Shen Guang-wen Memorial can be found at the end of a short lane. A concrete obelisk squeezed between a factory and an electricity sub-station, it is an unremarkable tribute to a man who led a long and colorful life.

GETTING TO QINGAN TEMPLE

Shanhua is 20 kilometers northeast of Tainan City. The temple is on Zhongshan Road (中山路), between Zhonghua Road (中華路) and Jinxue Road (進學路). If you arrive by train, you need to walk at least 10 minutes; follow the road straight ahead of the station. If you arrive by bus from Tainan City, you can get off close to the temple – tell the driver that the temple is your destination.

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