Impression of NCKU and Zheng Cheng-Gong - Reply

Dear Dr. Da Hsuan Feng:

Thanks for this article and pictures.

鄭成功 is the highly revered hero among Taiwanese people. There are many legendary stories about this hero of Taiwanese people.

I grew up in 鶯歌鎮 in Taiwan. There are at least two legendary stories associated with 鄭成功 in my hometown of 鶯歌鎮.

The first one is鶯歌石 which is a huge rock in the shape of 鶯歌 (bird) on the mountain side very close to the railway track in the town of 鶯歌鎮. Everybody riding the train can see this 鶯歌石 when the train is going through 鶯歌鎮. 成為鶯歌地理的指標。(因北面 山脈斜坡翠嵐屹立一大岩石，其形似鶯，古稱鶯哥石，清代改稱鶯歌石」。台灣 光復後正式命名為鶯歌鎮。)
The legendary story is:

“鶯歌石是鶯歌鎮最傳奇色彩的名勝，穿鑿附曾的傳說更增添神秘性，較廣為人知的傳說是鶯歌石會吐霧食人，瘴氣蔽天，迷人去路。延平郡王鄭成功率軍擊敗荷蘭人後，行經該處被瘴氣所阻，士卒被鶯歌石吐霧所吞食，上兵於是開巨砲斷其頸，瘴氣才逐漸地散去。
更 聳動的傳說則為相傳西元一八六一年，鄭成功率兵擊敗荷蘭人後，安撫各地歸順的原住民，經過此地聽聞有一隻巨島為害百姓，乃原住民凱達格蘭族的酋長所飼養， 為了替百姓除害，鄭成功便用弓箭射穿巨鳥的咽喉，巨鳥中箭後，長鳴一聲衝到山頭上，眾人四處找尋，只見山頭有一個像鸚鵡的巨石，喉嚨間百一個空洞，顯然是 被箭射穿的傷痕，眾人才知道這塊巨石就是那隻為非作歹的巨鳥，因此便管叫它『鶯歌石』。 “

Pictures of鶯歌石 can be seen on the following websites:

http://yingko.tacocity.com.tw/cuch/images/yingko.gif

or

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.yingge.tpc.gov.tw/pho/Vie...

The second legendary story is about a small conical shaped mountain in south side of鶯歌鎮. The legend has it that:

【尖山之傳說】尖山位於本鎮西南方，是一座獨立的小山，高度為海拔386.4公 尺(1,288台尺)，形狀宛如倒懸的扇子。相傳此山原本為平地，明朝鄭成功的部隊曾住紮當地，士卒括除、丟棄沾在草鞋上的泥土，因數量很多而堆積成這座 山。這純屬傳說，歷史上並沒有記載；尖山的土質顏色呈黑褐色，山腹有白色砂土。

There are probably many other legendary stories related to 鄭成功in many other towns in Taiwan. It just show the strong feeling of Taiwanese people about their hero 鄭成功.

Briton took Hong Kong from China. Portuguese took Macau from China. 荷蘭人 took Taiwan from China. But鄭成功 led his army to get rid of荷蘭人 from Taiwan. Therefore, 鄭成功 should be a highly revered hero not only to Taiwanese people, but also to all Chinese people.

Sing Lin