肉身擋軍隊的校長

●「吾臺人初無中學，有則自本校始。」——臺中一中創校紀念碑首句

1915年，臺中一中創立，為當時全臺仕紳集資辦學的成果。自1900年臺灣總督府頒布臺中「市區改正」以來，當時臺中市內已滿是房舍，故將城市東北角水源地旁的大片樟腦樹園，由霧峰林家捐出一萬五千坪土地，將昔時土地上的樟樹林闢除後興築校舍，捐予臺灣總督府，為第一所由臺灣人設立之公立中學校，時稱「臺灣公立臺中中學校」。1922年，臺灣總督府頒布實施臺灣教育令，展開「日臺共學」，更名為「臺中州立臺中第一中學校」，以招收日籍學生為主之「臺中州立臺中第二中學校」並稱，皆為五年制，保障臺籍子弟升學、求知，是當時臺灣學子之重要升學管道。

位於校門東側立有一座「創校紀念碑」，以五位仕紳：辜顯榮（鹿港辜家）為首、林烈堂（霧峰林家）、林熊徵（板橋林家）、林獻堂（霧峰林家）、蔡蓮舫（清水蔡家），並稱「創校五先賢」。校內西側留有樟園，感念諸人初時辦學之貢獻，爭取本地人的受教權利。日治時代校內建有木造學寮，使遠居學子免於通勤之苦。校園北方有農園，供住校學生自耕、自食。若從校園南側正門進入，有一座兩層樓建物，以灰泥白色與紅磚色相間，慣稱為「紅樓」，有一份厚重的威嚴感，是臺中一中創校伊始的主要校舍，辦公、教室、圖書室等均列期間，至1969年拆除前，是許多老校友對臺中一中的共同記憶。

臺中一中紅樓在1969年於段茂廷校長任內拆除，鄰地興建「莊敬樓」作為行政辦公大樓；住校生的學寮，如今已是操場。創校初始建築，僅校內西南側的大講堂留存至今，為日治時代校內學生共同集會場所，2015年因臺中一中百年校慶時由校友鄭崇華董事長捐資修復至今，作為「校史館」再利用，見證日治時期臺人創建第一所學府的重要歷史。

●炊事事件與全校學生大罷課
臺中一中的設立，隱然為對日人教育的抗議，也可視為臺灣民族運動的一節。捐給日本政府的臺中一中，校內校長為官方派任，教職員也多為日籍，衝突時有所聞。如1927年5月曾引發之全校罷課，起因為校內宿舍的中村廚師獲准將家眷攜入宿舍同住，卻違反規定，與住校臺籍學生間也屢起爭執，日籍校長下村虎六郎卻對此行為予以偏袒，更取消住校學生自治，採絕對服從舍監管理，引起學生的憤怒。

同年5月11日，學生組織了「罷課作戰委員會」，列舉八大戰略目標，其中，除串連全島臺籍學生同情罷課、和社會各界團體密切聯繫、呼籲支援，更「促使罷課鬥爭發展成民族鬥爭」，最後要求「撤廢日、臺學生的差別待遇」。同日夜間，學校當局急召警察和憲兵包圍學校，並要求五年級學生集體搬出，不從者強制退宿，卻造成其餘臺籍住校學生跟進、集體退宿抗議，更演變為全校學生的集體罷課，最後有六十餘名學生被退學，下村校長也遭調職。這次的罷課事件被稱為「炊事事件」，不只是一中學生權益受損的維權行動，亦為殖民時代臺人反抗日本歧視統治的縮影。

●金樹榮校長與二二八事件下的臺中一中
金樹榮（1903-1982），字陶欣，別號陶倖，福建省福州市人。國立北平師範大學畢業，曾任江西省建設工作人員訓練所教育長，福建省長江中學校長。1945年12月，金樹榮校長奉臺灣省行政長官公署教育廳之命，為二戰後臺中一中首任校長，至1954年卸任。

據《中一中八十年史》所載，金樹榮校長確為有心辦好校務，但自中國而來的觀念和措施，和曾受日本教育之學生不盡相同，不全為當時臺中一中學生所接受，甚至曾以罷課抗議之，而金樹榮校長作風嚴厲，動輒退學處分。

1947年2月27日，臺北兜售私菸的婦人林江邁於查緝中不幸受傷，引發二戰後積累已久的本省人和外省人間之族群衝突，後又有國民政府軍隊進駐全臺各地鎮壓、掃蕩，是為「二二八事件」。衝突期間，臺中一中學生將金樹榮校長及教師移至學寮中寮，學生則住宿於北、南寮，維護師長安全，免受衝突波及，金樹榮校長因此深為學生見義勇為之舉感動。

二二八事件發生二十多天後，廿一師軍隊進駐臺中市，當時許多臺中名望人士遭捕，周邊學校如臺中商業學校（今臺中科技大學）眾多學生亦被捕。一日，軍人駛卡車、架重機槍闖入校園後門欲搜捕學生，金樹榮校長阻擋卡車並說：「我校無任何人參加非法活動，我可擔保！」軍人才知難而退，臺中一中學生免於軍隊的抓捕、搜查；而金樹榮校長與當時學生的相知相惜，傳為佳話。

●「爭取第一、保持第一」的毋負今日碑
二二八事件後，金樹榮校長一改嚴厲作風，廣開與學生溝通管道，並四處聘請優秀教師，提升教學品質。1948年國民政府教育部部長朱家驊率團抵臺視察，評定臺中一中為全國三十九所優良學校之一（臺灣被評為全國優良學校者另有北一女中），並頒發獎金二千元。當時師生歡欣雀躍，金樹榮校長則言：「爭取第一，保持第一。」其意是說已經爭取到了第一，今後應該保持第一；而臺中一中作為全臺唯一在日治時代，為臺籍子弟就讀的「一中」（他地臺籍子弟須就讀二中），更應將民族精神傳承下去。

二戰後第二屆立「毋負今日碑」於光中亭前，後因麗澤樓改建，現今立於校園內西南隅。碑文中銘曰：「事在人為，天幸何有？先生之風，爭光泰斗。」字句感謝金樹榮校長與校內師長的教育，也勉勵後輩應以此日榮耀為榜樣而努力。(2,000字完整版)

A Principal and A Protector - the Shield Against Military Forces

“There was previously no high school for Taiwanese to study at, and Taichung First Senior High School was the first one.” - This is the first sentence inscribed on the memorial stone that was established to commemorate the foundation of Taichung First Senior High School.

Taichung First Senior High School was established in 1915. The school was funded and operated with the pooled resources of gentry from all over Taiwan. Ever since the Taiwan Office of the Governor-General proclaimed the “Downtown Restructuring Project” in 1900, Taichung city has been crowded with houses. Therefore, the Lin Family, gentry from Wufeng, donated a piece of land measuring about 15,000 ping (about 49,650 m2) to the Japanese Government. The land was originally a camphor tree farm near a water source in the city’s north-eastern corner. The camphor trees were removed in order to build the school campus, which became the very first public senior high school in Taiwan that exclusively accepted Taiwanese students. At the time, the school was named “Taiwan Public Taichung Middle School”. In 1922, the Taiwan Office of the Governor-General enacted the “Japanese -Taiwanese Co-study Policy”, and the school was renamed “Taichung State Taichung First Middle School” and was ranked in the same tier as the “Second Middle School” which only recruited Japanese students. Both schools adopted a five-year high school curriculum system. The Taichung State Taichung First Middle School was then able to guarantee a path for Taiwanese students to pursue further education and knowledge; it became one important path for Taiwanese students in their study.

On the eastern side of the campus, there was established a “memorial stone of school funding.” It recorded the top five gentry including Lin Lieh-Tang, Lin Hsien-Tang (Wufeng’s Lin Family), Lin Hsiung-Cheng (Banqiao’s Lin Family), Tsai Lien-Fang (Cingshui’s Tsai Family), and Ku Hsien-Jung (Lugang’s Ku Family) and all other donors. The top five supporters were called “the Five Scholars at the time of the school’s foundation”. A camphor farm is still preserved on the west side of the campus to commemorate founders devotion to the school and their efforts to fight for Taiwanese students’ rights for further education. During the Japanese Colonial Period, there were wooden dormitory buildings on the campus so that students from distant areas did not have to commute. On the north side of the campus, there was farmland that provided boarding students with a place to grow food to eat. On the east side of the campus, there was a shrine, the “In-Campus Shrine” and a few ball courts were scattered around the campus. If entering from the south, one could see a two-story grayish white and red brick building, which was known as the “red building”. This stately edifice was the original main campus building that contained offices, classrooms, and a library since the foundation of Taichung First Senior High School. It was a common memory for many old schoolfellows of the Taichung First Senior High School before it was demolished in 1969.

Taichung First Senior High School’s Red Building was demolished in 1969 when Mr. Tuan Mao-Ting was principal. A new building, “ZhuangJinLou,” was constructed next to the old location as the administration and office building. The In-Campus Shrine was destroyed by schoolfellows after the war, and the pavilion, “GuangZhongTing” was established in the same place. The current boarding students’ dormitory used to be the playing field. Buildings constructed at the time of the school’s foundation were almost all demolished except for the auditorium on the south-west side of the campus. The auditorium during the Japanese Colonial Period was used as an assembly place for students. During the 100th year anniversary celebration in 2015, an alumnus, Mr. Cheng Chung-Hua, who was chairman of a company at that time, donated funds to repair the auditorium. The auditorium was not re-utilized until its recent establishment as a “School Historical Gallery” with the aim of witnessing the important history of setting up the very first middle school by Taiwanese during the Japanese Colonial Period.

●The “Cook Issue” & Students’ Strike Incident

The establishment of Taichung First Senior High School was implicitly a protest against the Japanese discrimination against the education of Taiwanese, and it can also be considered as one paragraph in the history of Taiwan’s national movements. When Taichung First Senior High School was donated to the Japanese Government, the school principal was appointed by the government and most of the staffs were Japanese. Hence, conflicts often arose. One example was in May 1927, when there was a students’ strike that involved all of the school’s students. The cause was the school’s cook, Mr. Nakamura. Nakamura lived in the school’s dormitory and was given permission to also bring in his family. However, Nakamura violated the school rules and also frequently quarreled with the Taiwanese students that were also living in the dormitory. The Japanese Principal, Mr. Shimura Korokuro, however, sided with Nakamura and ignored his misbehavior. The principal went even further, cancelling the boarding students’ self-ruling management policy, instead hiring a dorm manager and requesting students to strictly follow the dorm manager’s rule. The students raged at this.

On May 11th of the same year, the students organized a “Strike to Fight Committee” and listed eight strategic goals that included linking up all the island’s students to strike, connecting closely with all the circles in society, asking for support, calling upon them “to develop the strike into a national fight”, and lastly requesting that “the differentiated treatment of Japanese and Taiwanese students be cancelled”. At night on the same day, the school urgently called policemen and military policemen to surround the school, and requested all 11th grade students to move out of the school dormitory. If there was anyone that disobeyed, the school forced him to move out of the dormitory. This action resulted in the rage of all Taiwanese students. They followed to move out from the dormitory to protest such an act. The incident further evolved into a strike of all of the students in the school. In the end, more than sixty students were kicked out from school and Principal Shimura was posted away too. The strike incident was called “the Cook’s Issue”. It was not only a rights-protection movement by senior high school students, but also epitomized the fight by Taiwanese against Japanese’s discriminative acts during the Colonial Period.

●Principal Jin Shu-Rong & the Taichung First Senior High School at the 228 Incident

Jin Shu-Rong, who styled himself as “Tao-Hsin”, was from Fuzhou City, Fuzhou Province, Mainland China. He graduated from National Beijing Normal University and once served as the Education Chief of Jiangxi Province Construction Workers’ Training Center and the Principal of the Fujian Changjiang Middle School. In December 1945, Principal Jin Shu-Rong was appointed by the Department of Education of the Public Administration Official of Taiwan Province to serve as the first Principal of the Taichung First Senior High School after WWII. He continued in this post until 1954.
According to “The Eighty Years History of the Taichung First High”, Principal Jin Shu-Rong was really devoted to school affairs. However, his conceptions were mainly influenced by China’s education system and his manners were unable to be completely accepted by students who had been educated under the Japanese system. Students once boycotted classes to protest. However, with strict educational principles, Principal Jin Shu-Rong always expelled students involved in such defiance.

On Feb. 28, 1947, a woman wanted by the government due to her illegal act of privately selling cigarettes in Taipei was killed during a security check. The incident stirred up ethnic conflicts that had existed since WWII. After that, the national government entered and garrisoned all of the major cities in Taiwan to suppress and wipe out the conflicts. This is known as the “228 Incident”. At the time of this conflict, students of the Taichung First Senior High School urged Principal Jin Shu-Rong and other teachers to move to the dormitory located in the central area while the students spread out around the south and north side dormitories to protect the Principal and teachers from being affected by the conflict. Principal Jin Shu-Rong was deeply touched by the students’ act.
More than twenty days after the 228 Incident, the Twenty One Armed Forces entered and garrisoned in Taichung City. At the time, many people from the “Public Security Committee” that was established by the gentry of Taichung were arrested. Many students of nearby schools like Taichung Commercial School (today’s National Taichung University of Science and Technology) were also arrested. One day, military policemen drove a heavily armed military truck onto the campus with the aim of arresting students in the school. Principal Jin Shu-Rong took a sudden big step forward to stop the truck and said, “There is no one participating in any illegal activities. I can guarantee that.” The military policemen listened and retreated. Among all the senior high schools in Taiwan, Taichung First Senior High School was the only one that had no students arrested or inspected by military policemen at the time. The close relationship between Principal Jin Shu-Rong and his students became a favorite tale.

●The “Never Disappoint Today” stele with the school motto: “Fight to be first, keep being first.”

After the 228 Incident, Principal Jin Shu-Rong changed his strict style and widely opened up communication channels with students and tried to hire as many outstanding teachers from all over the country as possible in order to promote the school’s teaching quality. In 1948, the Minister of Education of the National Government, Chu Chia-Hua, came to Taiwan for an inspection visit. He appraised Taichung First Senior High School as one of the 39 best schools in the nation (one other school which received such appraisal in Taiwan was Taipei First Girls High School) and gave a 2,000-dollar prize to the school. All the teachers and students were very happy, and Principal Jin Shu-Rong said: “Fight to be first, keep being first,” which means that Taichung First Senior High School obtained the first position and aimed to maintain that position. As Taichung First Senior High School was the “only and the first middle school” that provided Taiwanese students with a chance to pursue higher education during the Japanese Colonial Period, the students were obliged to inherit the national spirit.

The graduates of that year (the 2nd year after WWII) donated the prize to set up the stele in front of the pavilion. Later on, due to the re-structuring of the LiZeLou building, the stele was moved to the south-west side of the campus where it stands today. The inscriptions carved on the stele included four sentences meaning, “Where there is a will, there is a way. There is no such thing as fortune given by God. The instruction of the masters helps students win glory.” The inscriptions were written in appreciation of Principal Jin Shu-Rong and other teachers’ instruction, and also to encourage younger generations to take it as an example to strive for study.