Hundreds of local and foreign visitors crowded the Taipei Confucius Temple early yesterday morning to watch the traditional bayi (八佾) dance and eat wisdom cakes in celebration of Confucius’ (孔子) 2,560th birthday.
The dance, a ritual performed to pay respect to emperors, was performed by 64 students and was only the second such performance in Taiwan in 12 years.
The temple sparked controversy when it performed the ritual two years ago to welcome President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) attendance at the ceremony, attracting criticism from opposition parties that the temple was “worshiping Emperor Ma” with the dance.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma attended the ceremony again yesterday to pay his respects to the philosopher by burning incense and watching the bayi dance. The temple also opened the Lingxing Gate, the main entrance of the temple that is usually closed during the ceremony, and arranged for the president to enter the temple via the route traditionally taken by emperors.
Shih Su-li (施淑梨), the temple’s secretary, declined to confirm whether the temple performed the dance and opened the main entrance specifically for the president and insisted that all rituals and arrangements followed ancient traditions.
The temple usually performs the liuyi (六佾), a ritual performed to pay respects to feudal barons, to celebrate Confucius’ birthday.
Addressing the ceremony after the two-hour ritual, Ma cited the Analects to emphasize the importance of politicians taking a righteous path and said he chose to attend the ceremony to promote Confucianism.
“I have attended this ceremony twice because I think Confucianism and the rituals should be part of our lives ... Confucius taught us that a politician must take the righteous path, and if you take that path, your subordinates would not dare to take an evil path,” he said.
Ma is the first president to participate in the ceremony at the temple. Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) visited the temple one day before the ceremony in 1968, Shih said.
The ceremony was presided over by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
The temple is one of the few Confucius temples that still performs ancient rites that strictly follow the ancient rules with 37 steps in the ceremony sequence.
After the performance of the ritual, some visitors rushed to the center plaza of the temple to “pull” writing brushes from an artificial cow’s back as part of the “pulling of wisdom hair” ritual, creating a chaotic scene when some ran into each other and fell down.
Shih said the temple had 2,000 brushes at the ceremony, and it did not expect to have so many people participate in the activity.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS