Zhenwu Temple

Wuqi Zhenwu Temple (Chinese: 梧棲真武宮; pinyin: Wúqī Zhēnwǔ Gōng) is a Taoist temple located in Wuqi District, Taichung, Taiwan. The temple is dedicated to the Taoist deity, Xuantian Shangdi.

Zhenwu Temple
真武宮
Exterior of the temple
Religion
AffiliationTaoism
DeityXuanwu
Location
LocationWuqi, Taichung
CountryTaiwan
Geographic coordinates24.2567°N 120.5290°E / 24.2567; 120.5290
Architecture
Completed1849
Direction of façadeWest

History

Wuqi has a large population belonging to the Tsai clan (蔡), which originally came from Liantang Village in Quanzhou, Fujian. In 1849, Zhenwu Temple was built in by the owners of a trading company named Jíshùnhào (集順號) owned by the Tsai clan in accordance to their traditions in Quanzhou. The temple became an important meeting place for the clan and was also used for trade and educational purposes. The 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake severely damaged Zhenwu Temple and was repaired in 1953 and 1976 into its current form. On 28 March 2003, Zhenwu Temple was designated as a city-level monument.[1]

Architecture
Temple interior

Zhenwu Temple is built in a traditional Hokkien architectural style with few alterations since its establishment.[1] Wuqi was historically a port city, and before Zhenwu Temple was built, the land around it was used by trading companies as storage space for wood and stone imported from China. Zhenwu Temple heavily used these imported materials in its construction, including fir wood from Fuzhou and granite from Quanzhou, which are still standing today.[2]

The interior of the temple contains sculptures of carp leaping into the air, while the swallowtail roof is decorated with dragon sculptures. In Chinese mythology, a carp turns into a dragon if it leaps across Longmen, a ravine on the Yellow River; the sculptures are a metaphor for Tsai clan descendants to mature and prosper. The temple also contains a plaque dating from 1864 that was gifted by Changhua county magistrate Wang Zhen (王楨) for the deity's assistance in quelling the Tai Chao-chuen incident.[2]

Worship

Every eighteen years, Zhenwu Temple holds an exceptionally festive Zhong Yuan Festival celebration known as the "Eighteenth-year Ghost Festival" (十八年普). The practice originated from when the Tsai clan was still in Mainland China, where the twenty-one neighborhoods in Liantang Village took turns hosting the event and cycling every eighteen years.[3][4]

References
  1. "梧棲真武宮". National Cultural Heritage Database Management System (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Bureau of Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  2. "梧棲真武宮". 臺灣宗教文化資產 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  3. 張子銘 (7 August 2006). "大普渡！席開千桌　流傳百餘年" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). TVBS. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  4. "梧棲真武宮出書 蓮塘蔡傳承18普". Merit Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 4 December 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
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