Historical Background             Kinmen is first attested in history in the Six Dynasties (220-589) period. It is the Kinmen that came to be seen as a land of the immortals in myth and legend. It is also the Kinmen that, following the Tang dynasty (618-906), came to be a base for people fleeing away from the mainland, a place where many immigrants from China settled.     In the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), it was a place where learning flourished, where the people received the teachings of the great Song Confucian Zhuxi (1130-1200). In successive generations, Kinmen was to produce forty-three recipients of the prestigious jinshi civil service degree, and over one hundred and thirty recipients of the degree at the provincial level, the highest in the whole of China. Also called by its ancient name of Wuzhou, Kinmen earned the reputation of being a place of great learning.