Case file · Folklore / legend
The legend of Wu Feng
Wu Feng, a Qing interpreter, is said to have let the Tsou kill him so they would give up headhunting in remorse; Japanese and ROC textbooks taught it for decades.
1769 CE · 23.41, 120.53 · status: legend
The account
Tsou protests, including the toppling of his statue at Chiayi station in 1988, led to its removal from schoolbooks in 1989. His temple at Zhongpu remains.
The sceptical view
Historians regard the self-sacrifice story as a later colonial and Han fabrication; the real Wu Feng died in 1769 in a dispute with the Tsou.