The Inheritance Of Confucianism In Taiwan And Its Influence During The Period Of Japanese Occupation

For the people of Taiwan,50-year Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan (1895-1945is referred to as period of Japanese occupation) was an era of foreign reign with regime change, when the Japanese colonial government abandoned academy of classical learning and school in Taiwan, shut down old-style private school, so as to establish a set of colonial education administrative system to replace the traditional Chinese education system gradually. Colonial education was partly based on the experience in modernization (westernization) after the Meiji Restoration in Japan, attempting to transform and assimilate Taiwanese into new Japanese from all aspects of politics, society and culture. Under the oppression of Japanese colonists’powerful assimilation policy, and under the impact of new culture and new student protests, Confucianism in Taiwan was beset with troubles internally and problems externally. Intellectuals resisted vigorously, trying every way to inheriting the traditional culture, which is Confucianism. They strove to preserve the only place to teach Chinese, in the meantime, they made Confucianism secularized and religionized to rival Japanese colonists’assimilation policy, thus making traditional Confucianism inherit and develop in this rough time.Based on massive classics and a wide range of data, this paper illustrated in detail how Confucianism in Taiwan was preserved in the tough period of Japanese occupation, and what was the impact brought by the Confucians’cultural choice and culture identity, thus we can get a thorough grasp of the continuity and development of Confucianism during this period. This will contribute to the denouncement of Cultural Independence of Taiwan by Separatists in Taiwan and their act of attempting to cut off the relationship with our motherland; It also has vital significance to enhance sovereign consciousness of Chinese nation, safeguard national unity, and rouse national spirit...