This is a shot of the central courtyard at Sun Moon Lake's WenWu Temple. My son Kevin pointed out that WenWu Temple(文武廟) literally means Culture/War Temple. Culture is represented by Confucius who is the epitome of scholars and officials, the litterati: hence culture. The war part is represented by GuanGong the redfaced general popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Here is a detailed description from the official site:
The architecture of the temple has the palace style of northern China. It is of a large and imposing structure, with three separate halls. On the second floor of the front hall is a shrine devoted to the First Ancestor Kaiji and the God of Literature; the central hall is devoted to Guan Gong, the God of War, and the warrior-god Yue Fei; the rear hall is dedicated to Confucius. This is the only Confucius Temple in Taiwan that keeps its central door open. Temple officials say that they do this because the temple is on the bank of Sun Moon Lake and has many tourists, so they keep the door open for the convenience of the visitors. The bronze statue of a seated Confucius makes this also the only Confucius temple in Taiwan that contains an image of the sage. In addition to Confucius, there are also statues of his disciples, Mencius and Zihsih. These three images originally came from Mainland China. They were taken to Japan to escape the Boxer Rebellion near the end of the Cing Dynasty; later on, they were reproduced and brought to Wenwu Temple.
My image was processed with a technique called HDR or high dynamic range. It makes the details "pop" or stand out more. I was very happy with the shot and end result and hope you are too. If you can make it to Taiwan please make sure to include Sun Moon Lake and the WenWu Temple to your travel plans.
