Abstract：
The present article examines the third edition of “national language” (Japanese) textbooks used in the elementary schools of colonial Taiwan. ”National language” was the core course of the primary education during the colonial period, and this set of textbooks, used from 1923 to 1937, enjoyed the longest duration among all editions. They were richer than the previous two sets in quality and greater in quantity. Evidence indicates that it had a far-reaching influence on the Taiwanese. In my analysis, a great portion of the readers is devoted to “practical/scientific knowledge” and “homeland themes”; lessons listed under these two categories surpass in number those of “matters related to Japan” and “patriotic messages.” I discuss the emphasis on practical/scientific knowledge in Taiwan’s colonial education against the background of educational developments in Meiji Japan. Local flavor (homeland knowledge) is looked at from perspectives such as educational policies and the homeland education movement in Japan proper. This article offers detailed analyses of the contents of lessons concerning “practical/scientific knowledge” and “homeland theme.” In sum, “practical/ scientific knowledge” pays great attention to everyday life, while lessons of “homeland theme” offer intimate and concrete knowledge about one’s home place. However, the history of Taiwan is conspicuously missing in the reader. Given the close and mutual-reinforcing relationship between modern education and national identity, I offer a thesis concerning the origins of the so-called “Taiwanese consciousness” in colonial Taiwan in light of my research results.

Abstract：
To avoid confusion caused by the complex and abstract aspects of feng-shui, this article intends to apply a historical perspective on the effort of analyzing and revealin g the various origins and evolutions of feng-shui ideas. It finds that with these various theories and thoughts of feng-shui, there have always been spirit of old-time Chinese” funerary and commemorative solemnities” in the practice of ancestral worship, inherent in its basic concept. With such concepts of the “gathering of Chi and echoing of utterances” and the “resonances within the same sort,” ancient fathers and then latter-day off springs were able to be brought together within their lineage context, hence develop into ‘a recognition of the same descending bloodline’ i.e. a heritable familial ethic. In Taiwan, early immigrants from the areas of Fujian provinces tended to critically regard the erection of their ancestral halls, the observation of the pilgrimage to the ancestral sites, the keeping of the ancestral bury grounds, and the passing down of the genealogical records, etc. By setting such a cosmic order for their environment, these customaries kept close ties with feng-shui practices. The formation of the physical environment is understandably influenced by the existence and the practices of the feng-shui value system which is alive and well in the context and the tradition of the lineage ethic. Because the concept of feng-shui has come to dwell on the relations between the natural and the clan ethic, for an ancestral hall used in the clan worship, it is only natural that its relation to feng-shui has been regarded so much. While the space where people live in and the space where thy worship the ancestors are to become one, the courtyard houses they live are likely covered in the feng-shui discourse as is the way in how the ambient current of Chi in these house courtyards come to be in terms with the shape and force of the Earth. The “dragon god” situated underneath the house altar in a residential main hall, however, is the concretization of this conceptual practice. “Dragon god” is the representation of the point of continuation and mediacy between the man-made and the natural. Therefore, it is not surprising that the ethic order of the deceased forebears and the precedential arrangement of the house rooms of the living are not only in complete correspondence and perfect match, but also in an interlinking relation.

Abstract：
This essay aims to provide a survey of historical records related to disease and mortality in Taiwan up to the decade of 1920s that marked an important period of transition in the social history of Taiwan. It is attempted to sketch the condition of human diseases before the health transition took place in Taiwan. With qualitative data gathered from various historical records, we try to describe endemic and epidemic diseases suffered by the people in Taiwan since the seventeenth century. With some statistics available in the early twentieth century, we try to understand the health conditions of the Taiwanese and trace major causes of death. We also touch upon various methods for preventing diseases, superstitious customs or effective medicine, social enforcement or epidemiological treatment, that have been adopted in Taiwan during the past few hundred years. Further studies are no doubt required for all these aspects and for details of specific diseases and their social, cultural and historical implications.