Tsai Chih-chan (April 28, 1900 – April 21, 1958; ) was a Taiwanese poet and educator known for her work during the Japanese colonial period.

Biography

Tsai Chih-chan was born in 1900 on

Magong Magong ( POJ: ''Má-keng'') is a county-administered city and seat of Penghu County, Taiwan. Magong City is located on Penghu's main island. Name The settlement's temple honoring the Chinese Goddess Mazu, the deified form of Lin Monian ...

in the

Penghu The Penghu (, Hokkien POJ: ''Phîⁿ-ô͘'' or ''Phêⁿ-ô͘'' ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, located approximately west from the main island of Taiwan, covering an area ...

islands, which were occupied by Japan at the time. A studious child, by age 9 she had become a devout

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and a committed

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

. She vowed never to marry and instead to focus on her faith and on supporting her parents, who gave birth to her after a long struggle with infertility. According to biographer Wei Hsiu-ling, she likely did not obtain a formal Japanese education but instead studied Chinese literature with private tutors. Despite her modest background, Tsai became a well-regarded poet during the Japanese colonial period, with her work appearing in various publications from 1923 to 1937. In 1933, her work was featured in the ''Yingzhou Poetry Anthology''. Overall, she produced around 600 poems, frequently dealing with both her own struggles and experiences as a woman as well as Buddhism and

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

. She also became a painter during this period, even traveling to study traditional painting at China's Amoy College of Art, now part of

Xiamen University Xiamen University (; Southern Min: ''Ē-mn̂g-toā-o̍h''), colloquially known as Xia Da (; Southern Min: ''Hā-tāi''), is a national public research university in Xiamen, Fujian, China. Founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, a Chinese patriotic exp ...

, in 1934. Tsai also worked as an educator, starting at the in 1924, becoming the first female Chinese teacher in the Pengu islands. Later that year, she left Pengu to teach in

Changhua Changhua (Hokkien POJ: ''Chiong-hòa'' or ''Chiang-hòa''), officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. For many centuries the site was h ...

, aiming to "make ername known as a woman," as she wrote in a poem before her departure. There, she established a

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

school, which she named Pingquanxuan (平權軒; "Equal Rights Pavilion"). She also worked as a private tutor for the women of the prominent beginning in 1927. In 1932, she moved to

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

to teach there, and she lived for a period in Hsinchu's Lingyin Temple. Tsai's economic independence and social status were unusual for Taiwanese women at the time, although her position as a celibate religious leader helped with her empowerment. She was a firm believer in women's right to education and independence; a 1932 article in a poetry journal described her as having "determination to seek equal rights and freedom for women." After returning to Pengu in 1955, Tsai and her adopted brother sued to regain control of the Chengyuan Temple, which had been taken over by Kuomintang troops. After they won their suit in 1957, she ran the temple's operations until her sudden death of a stroke the following year.{{Cite web, date=2021-04-27, title=「菊島第一才女」蔡旨禪 (4月28日壽星), url=https://vocus.cc/article/60828f9bfd8978000129eebf, access-date=2022-02-08, website=Vocus, language=zh

References

1900 births 1958 deaths Taiwanese women poets Taiwanese Buddhist nuns Taiwanese women painters Taiwanese educators People from Penghu County