Ever heard of a tree that distinguishes between good and evil? Well, you can find one such tree at the Beijing Temple of Confucius! But first, a bit of background information: The Beijing Temple of Confucius is the second largest Confucian temple out of many throughout China, after the Qufu Confucius Temple in Shandong Province. Built in 1302, the temple covers 22,000 square meters. According to online sources, The Beijing Temple of Confucius holds 198 stone tablets with the names of 51,624 advanced scholars from the Ming, Qing, and Yuan Dynasties, as well as 14 stone-steel pavilions from the Ming and Qing dynasties that are inscribed with prized information about ancient China.
The Beijing Temple of Confucius, along with all the other temples spread across China, is named after and dedicated to the great philosopher, political figure, and teacher, Confucius. Widely recognized as China’s philosophical leader, his teachings, also known as Confucianism – focusing on kindness, justice, knowledge, and loyalty – became the basis of philosophy in China for thousands of years to come. Confucianism made people realize that philosophy was a part of everyday life. By now, you’re probably thinking: What’s the deal with the all-knowing tree?
Well, the tree is called 触奸柏 Chujian Bai, or Touch Evil Cypress in English, and it is well over 600 years old! It was given this name because of a legend that dates back to the Ming Dynasty, between 1521 and 1567. While under the reign of the neglectful and cruel Jiajing Emperor, the government was under the command of Yan Song, the Grand Secretary. He was given this position by the Emperor but was infamous for being corrupt and was said to be as rich as the Emperor himself. One day, Yan Song came to the temple to worship Confucius on behalf of the Emperor, but as he was walking by the tree, one of the branches knocked his official hat – or 康冠liang’guan in Chinese – off.
Since Yan Song was known to be corrupt and just an unpleasant person overall, stories started to go around that the tree had the ability to tell the difference between people with good intentions and people with bad intentions. It wouldn’t be the first time in history that people have ascribed human qualities to inanimate objects based on superstition, and it certainly won’t be the last. Wouldn’t you be interested to see how the tree reacts to you when you walk past it?
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Images: Unsplash
