Year-end Gathering at Baihua Hall—The Classical Chinese Poetry Salon for Taiwan’s Scholar-Gentry
 
Poetry and lyric lie at the heart of traditional Chinese literature. During the Qing dynasty, Taiwan, though located at the periphery, saw a relatively high level of prosperity among its people. Primary amid the concerns of well-to-do, educated Chinese on the island was to train their descendents and clansmen in the Confucian classics; the widespread establishment of private schools instituting a Confucian curriculum was mainly dictated by this concern. In addition, among the Chinese settlers in Taiwan were a substantial number of older mainland gentry and imperial officials and their retainers, who, by constantly seeking metaphors to express their thoughts and feelings, soon turned chanting and recitation into a new vogue. Such literary movement can be traced back to the middle of the Qing dynasty, during which verse exchanges among local scholar-gentry had been frequently conducted by poetry societies specifically established for the purpose of intellectual exchange and cultivation.
 
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War, Confucian classics became a criterion for distinguishing ethnic Chinese from foreigners. In order to pass on Chinese culture, the talented literati in Taiwan increased their efforts to set up literary societies. With the emergence of printed newspapers as a new communication medium, literary academies and poetry societies rapidly increased in number.
 
In Japan, after the samurai class was abolished under the Meiji Restoration, some of the warriors, abruptly deprived of their emoluments, began to make a living by founding private schools to teach the Four Books and Five Classics. In doing so they helped spread Chinese education to the masses all over Japan, which in turn served as a catalyst for widespread popularity of Chinese poetry. Emperor Taishō, for example, was known for having written over a thousand Chinese poems during his lifetime.
 
The shared admiration for Chinese verse inevitably became common cultural ground between Japanese society and Taiwan’s scholar-gentry, and thus, on this basis, gradually became tied to interpersonal exchange in the fields of politics, economics, and so on. Many Japanese Governors-General and ministers of civil affairs in Taiwan, who regarded poetry as highly important, sought to ingratiate themselves with the literati. Two Governors-General of Taiwan, Kodama Gentarō and Den Kenjirō, were best known for their patronage of poetry: the former often hosted poetry readings at his private residence, while the latter held banquets at his official residence and composed verse himself to win the sympathy of his literary guests. 
 
Under such favorable conditions, throughout Taiwan sporadic gatherings of poets reciting poems, which had begun in the late Qing dynasty, eventually evolved into grand assemblies drawing poets from around the island. Participants of such poetry assemblies included the Ying Society from Taihoku Prefecture, the Tao Society and Zhu Society from Shinchiku Prefecture, the Li Society from Taichung Prefecture, the Nan Society and Jia Society from Tainan Prefecture, etc. (Prefecture names as used in the Japanese colonial era). These poetry societies provided mutual support and took turns conducting group readings to which poets from all corners of Taiwan were invited.  
 
 
The spring gathering of poets from the Li Society, held during the Chinese Lantern Festival, 1942. At the time the Li Society was the largest poetry society in central Taiwan. Dressed in a plain gown and seated in the center of the photo is the president of the society, Fu Xiqi. Seated in the front row, shown third from the left, is Lin Hsientang. (Photo courtesy of Special Collections, National Tsing Hua University Library)
 
The 1932 Island-wide Assembly of Poets was hosted by the Ying Society at the Confucius Temple in Taipei. Aside from a customary recital of The Poem to the Confucius Temple, this two-day event included group recitation of four verses; day one first featuring “Spring Chill,” followed by “Midday Broadcast”; the second day featuring “Tun Mountain under Snow,” followed with “Celebrating Flowers”; and an improvisational poetry contest held at the Peng Lai Pavilion. At the end of the contest, two judges selected a number of outstanding improvisational poems, which, along with a canon of past works by over a hundred poets from across the island, were later collected by Lin Qinci, a member of the Ying Society, into a single compilation entitled Poetry of Yingzhou. This poetry compendium was published by the assembly in February of the following year. 
 
 
The preface to Poetry of Yingzhou: A report on the Island-wide Assembly of Poets held in the year of Ren Shen (1932), written by poet Xu Baoting.
(from Poetry of Yingzhou, edited by Lin Qinci in the eighth year of the Shōwa period [1933].)
 
On the title page of Poetry of Yingzhou are handwritten inscriptions by two prominent figures of the time: Kamiyama Mannoshin, Governor-General of Taiwan, and Taira Shidehara, Principal of the Taipei Imperial University. The foreword, written by Xie Ruquan, president of the Ying Society, recounts the origin of the Island-wide Assembly of Poets. Following the foreword is the main text, which contains not only the latest poem manuscripts selected by the assembly, but also over a hundred clear photos of poets. These images have carried forward the likenesses of a great number of people of the time, significantly enhancing the value of this book.
 
Some of the collected works were authored by Japanese poets and Taiwanese female poets. Most famous among these are Hotsuma Ozaki, long serving chief editor of Taiwan Daily News, best known for his thirty-year residence in Taiwan and his passion for its historical and cultural legacy; Kubo Tokuji, a prolific writer and professor of literature at the Taipei Imperial University; Zhang Li De-He, both a legendary heroine who was accomplished in poetry and painting and a leader in the world of arts and literature in southern Taiwan; among others. 
 
 
Six improvised poems on the subject, “The Mark of the Moon and Flowers,” excerpt from the manuscript preserved at the Tan Poetry Society.
(Photo courtesy of the Department of Taiwanese Literature, Providence University)
 
A collection of classical Chinese poetry from Taiwan can also be found on the Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program website, which includes the Tan Poetry Society’s poem manuscripts preserved by the Department of Taiwanese Literature at Providence University, and Yeh Jungchung’s manuscript of Splendor in the Grass—A Venture of Poetry stored by the National Tsing Hua University Library.
 
References:
Lin Qinci, ed. 1933. Poetry of Yingzhou. Taipei: Lin Qinci.
 
Wang Youhua. 2009. Cultural Transition during the era of Japanese Empire and Colonial Taiwan: A Case Study of Ying Society. Research in Taiwan Studies 7: 29-49. 
 
Hsieh Chungyao. 2010. The Development and Research of Han Poetry’s Culture Space in Taipei State during the Japanese’s Government. Ph.D. diss., Department of Chinese Literature, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi County. 
 
Related Collections:
 
 
Subject and Keywords: Biographies and related historic photos
Item Title: Members of the Li Society photographed in front of a stele commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Li Society, 1957
 
 
 
Subject and Keywords: Photos of the Li Society in early times
Item Title: Plan for reuse of the Lin Mansion in Wufong, a second class historical site
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