| Ta-pa-ni Incident | |||||||||||
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| Taiwanese captured after the Ta-pa-ni Incident being taken from the Tainan jail to court | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 噍吧哖事件 | ||||||||||
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| Other names | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 西來庵事件 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 西来庵事件 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Silai Temple Incident Yu Ching-fang Incident |
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The Ta-pa-ni Incident in 1915 was one of the largest armed uprisings against Japanese rule in Taiwan. Alternative names used to refer to the incident include the Silai Temple Incident (西来庵事件 Sairai-an jiken), after Silai Temple where the revolt began, or the Yu Ching-fang Incident, after the leader Yu Qingfang.
Modern Taiwanese historiography attempts to portray the Ta-pa-ni Incident as a nationalist uprising, either from a Chinese (unification) or Taiwanese (independence) perspective, whereas Japanese colonial historiography attempted to portray the incident as a large scale instance of banditry led by criminal elements. However, the Ta-pa-ni Incident differs from other uprisings in Taiwan's history due to the elements of millenarianism and folk religion, which enabled Yú Qīngfāng to raise a significant armed force whose members believed themselves to be invulnerable to modern weaponry.[1]
The similarities between the rhetoric of the leaders of the Ta-pa-ni uprising and the Righteous Harmony Society of the recent Boxer Rebellion in China were not lost on Japanese authorities, and subsequently, the colonial government paid more attention to popular religion, and took steps to improve on colonial administration in southern Taiwan.