Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has said that neither President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) nor Vice President William Lai (賴清德) should continue to worship the sea goddess Matsu (媽祖), the god of war Guan Gong (關公), the god of medicine Baoshengdadi (保生大帝), the Sage King Kaizhang (開漳聖王) or even local earth gods (Tudigong, 土地公) because they all come from China, and are therefore, according to Ko’s estimation, “fellow travelers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Historically speaking, none of these gods are Chinese per se, and have no relation to what we now refer to as China.
Guan Gong was a military general in the Eastern Han Dynasty about two millennia ago; Sage King Kaizhang’s personal name is Chen Yuanguang (陳元光), a Tang Dynasty general; Matsu, also known as Lin Moniang (林默娘), was from a small fishing village in the Song Dynasty; and Baoshengdadi’s real name is Wu Tao (吳?), a Song Dynasty doctor.
It is important to know history, and if Ko really has an IQ of 157, he should think more before he opines on a subject.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the CCP use similar methods to distort history, trying to give the impression that “China” has existed for a long time, even though as a concept it really only dates to the early 20th century.
Do not buy the idea that China has a 5,000-year-long history. The Qin, Han, Cao Wei, Jin, Tuoba Wei, Northern Zhou, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were all discrete empires in East Asia. Which one of them is “China”?
After toppling the Qing Empire in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Republic of China (ROC) was founded. In Chinese it was called “Zhonghua Minguo” (中華民國), coined by Qing Dynasty revolutionary Zhang Taiyan (章太炎), although ROC founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) also said that he came up with the name.
Chinese reformer Liang Qichao (梁啟超) suggested calling it “Zhongguo” (中國, China) for short, and used the name “Zhonghua Minzu” (中華民族, Chinese nation) to refer to a political entity, to encompass everyone living in the territory.
Therefore, the word “China” did not exist until the 20th century.
In the last half-century, Taiwanese have been indoctrinated into the false ideas of country, nationality, founding mythology and the KMT’s former glory.
If Taiwanese do not uncover the truth of Chinese nationalism and do not review the historical facts that East Asia has been occupied by different empires, how can they address the future of their own country?
Pan Chi-sheng
Taipei
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