Daguan Charity School

Photo taken by ourselves

　Daguan Charity School was evaluated as third grade historical site in Taiwan region by Ministry of Interior Affairs. It has a 150-year history until 2012.

　Daguan Charity School was established by the Lin Family, who had great contribution on the learning and promoting Banchiao culture.

　Why establish charity school? This was the first team thinking. Everyone spoke out their answers.

　People said that the poor families had no money to study, so the Lin Family took the opportunity to perform good deeds. Someone said that the Lin Family first set up own schooling, but hoped that the students could be in contact with all kinds of students, so allowed other students to enter the school.

　The real answer was scripted on the explanatory plate: because Zhangzhou and Quanzhou people had a fight, in order to fuse the people, they came up with a solution to set up charity school. The offspring could be in peace through mutual learning.

　The name of the charity school was extract from DaTun mountain, where Zhangzhou people lived, and Guanin mountain, where Quanzhou people lived, and named it “Daguan.”

　When doing field study, Daguan Charity School was doing renovation. Daguan Charity School not only was the location of Confucius Temple, but also was the location of Daguan Kindergarten. They renovated the school during winter vacation. Inside was a mass with toys stacked beside the door of Confucius Temple.

　There was a workshop inside the charity school. We inquiry the staff whether there have a monument. The staff told us it was on the right of the main entrance. But it obviously was not the historical site, just a explanatory plate.

　We read the explanatory written on it silently and understood the history of the charity school. We took a photo with the explanatory plate.

　When we stepped into the charity school, everything was so new. Wen Chang Di Jun, the God of Learning, and Confucius, the Great Teacher, were worshiped in the charity school. We worshiped them, hoping the study could go smooth.

　When worshiping in Taiwan’s temples, the offerings have their own meanings. The temple staff put the meanings of the offerings on an explanatory plate hang on the wall for people to see.

　Rice cake is for getting improved overtime; scallion and garlic are the similar sound of smart and calculation ability in Chinese.

explanatory plate

wishes hoping

　The column in the charity school was posted with wishing cards, most of which wished for better study.

　We also wrote a few wishes hoping our study could have been improved.

　We thought about where ancient people might study? The bigger space here was the yard of the kindergarten and the Confucius Temple inside the charity school.

　We found a Daguan Charity School monument on the wall. It was quite new and written in ancient words.

　After reading it, we knew this was the charity school monument, not the funding monument. We already knew the funding monument is inside Banchiao Elementary School. Therefore, this independent charity monument was different from the Funding monument.

　On the charity monument it wrote: Zhangzhou people lived in Datun San and Quanzhou people lived in Guanin Shan. Daguan Chairty School was a place for the children of the two tribes to learning; so named as Daguan.

　Daguan Charity School was later renamed as Daguan School, which had the same characteristic, a place to learn.

　Study not only could enhance knowledge but also create peace is what we have been inspired.