Before the gate stands a low stone pillar, carved with characters: "Civil and military officials, dismount here." No matter how high one's rank, beyond this…
Multilingual AI audio guide exhibit on WOUDiO (PWA). WOUDiO pioneered the world’s first audio guide platform with built-in donation: listeners can support the cultural venue without leaving the listening experience. The text below is the localized description, details, and narration script for this audio guide stop.
Before the gate stands a low stone pillar, carved with characters: "Civil and military officials, dismount here."
No matter how high one's rank, beyond this point one must go on foot. You, too, have already met that condition.
In 1665, a man named Chen Yonghua proposed the building of this place. It was the era of Koxinga's son. His reasoning was this: this is not merely a temporary military outpost. If it is to become a nation, it needs a school.
Only a few years after a military regime had landed on this island, it built a place of learning. This was a choice not of conquest, but of settlement.
Pass through the gate and look for the plaque above. "Quan Tai Shou Xue" — it means "Taiwan's first school of learning."
The grounds here feel different from other temples. There is no ornate, mineral-bright decoration, little color, and only a faint scent of incense. For this was not a place to have wishes granted, but a place whose work was to sit and read.
Stand once in the middle of the courtyard and listen to the sounds around you. The motorbikes on the street just beyond should seem, here alone, a little more distant. The walls and the trees enclose three hundred and fifty years' worth of stillness.
A place made for reading must be quiet. The one who knew this decided where these walls would stand.
