Taipei Xia Hai Town God's Temple

Taipei Xia Hai Town God's Temple, founded in 1859, is an important faith center in Da Tai Cheng area of Datong District. It is the three grade historic site in Taiwan. The temple site is very narrow, with an area of only 46 Ping. It is an important people's belief center in Dadaocheng area. Every year, May 13 of the lunar calendar is the Christmas day of the City God. On that day, believers will hold all kinds of God greeting contests to thank the City God for his protection. It is the most lively temple fair in Taipei. Now it is also held as the "xiahai City God sacrifice" religious and cultural festival. There are related activities throughout the month.

Taipei Xia Hai Town God's Temple

Taipei Xia Hai Town God's Temple is located in Datong District, Datong District, Taipei. It is the three grade historic site in Taiwan. The City God is an important deity in the religious culture of the Chinese nation. Most of them are heroes who have made great contributions to the local people. They are the deities that Chinese folk and Taoism believe in guarding the city. The temple site is very narrow, with an area of only 46 Ping. It is an important people's belief center in the area of Dadaocheng. Together with the Zhenjun temple and Mazu Temple of Cisheng palace, it is also one of the most important temples in greater Taipei.

brief introduction

Taipei Xia Hai Town God's Temple is located in Datong District, Datong District, Taipei. It is the three grade historic site in Taiwan.

The temple site is very narrow, with an area of only 46 Ping. It is an important people's belief center in the area of Dadaocheng. Together with the Zhenjun temple and Mazu Temple of Cisheng palace, it is also one of the most important temples in greater Taipei.

Generally speaking, the religion of Xia Hai Town God's Temple should be Taoism or the belief of Cheng Huang in folk beliefs of Taiwan, which is polytheism. In addition to xiahai City God, the temple also worships his wife, the old man under the moon, eight officers, civil and military judges, general fan Xie (seven masters and eight Masters), eight generals, Ma Shi Ye and Yiyong Gong. In addition, the small temple now contains more than 600 various statues, which is one of the characteristics of the temple.

On the day of the Qixi Festival, thousands of unmarried men and women will enter Taipei, Town God's Temple, and pray for good marriage. It only succeeded in bringing more than 6500 couples to marriage last year and returning them to the temple's wish cakes.

origin

In 1821, more than 100 Quanzhou Tongan people moved to Taipei by boat. After arriving at the destination smoothly, Chen Jinrong, one of the new immigrants, offered a statue of xiahai City God in his home in bajiazhuang (near Laosong primary school) to facilitate the sacrifice of Tongan people. In 1853, a serious classification fight took place in the area. During the conflict, the residents of Sanyi, Quanzhou, covering Jinjiang, Hui'an and Nan'an counties, designed to burn and cross the ancestral temple of the Anxi people's faith, and launched a rapid raid to attack the Tongan people. As a result, the defeated Tong'an people had to give up their residence and move to Dadaocheng to avoid disaster. The statues of the City God, which survived the turmoil at that time, were still sacrificed to the Chen family after they moved to Dadaocheng. In 1856, the Tongan people of Da Dao Cheng began to build Town God's Temple. Supported by Lin Yu, Chen Haoran and Su Feiran, Town God's Temple was officially completed in March 18, 1859 on the South Street (the site of today's Dehua Street). Because of the narrow street in the South Street, the temple is very crowded. Excluding Miaocheng in front, the temple is only 46 Ping in size. The small temple of the City God, which is not officially worshiped here, is named "xiahai" because it mainly worships the statue of xiahai City God, which originally came from the linhaimen Temple by the sea in Xiacheng (Xiadian township), Tongan County, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China.

In addition, in the sacrifices of gods, the big rice Chengxia Haicheng temple not only worshiped the statues of the City God, which came from the summer town of Tongan County, but also like other Town God's Temple's same wives, eight officers, civil and military magistrates, general fan Xie (seven masters and eight Masters), and so on, eight. What's more special is that the side hall of the temple is dedicated to the 38 strong men in Tongan Township who died in the classified fighting in 1853, and they are called "volunteers".

faith

The City God in Chinese Taoist belief is a God who is in charge of both yin and Yang, and also a God who guards the city in Chinese mythology. The City God is responsible for the record, notification, trial and transfer of human good and evil. The temple is now enshrined in Town God's Temple. The worship of City God prevails in Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Singapore. The existing City God belief in Taiwan is a folk belief of Taoism combined with Buddhism and Confucianism. The city god of Taiwan is the only major deity in Taiwan with class division. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of Ming Dynasty, had a special respect for the City God. He was granted four levels of City God, namely, the capital, the government, the prefecture, and the county. The city god of all levels had different titles and costumes, and the highest officials of all regions had to be sacrificed regularly.

Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty once ordered officials at all levels to take an oath to the City God when they came to office. The City God was divided into classes. In 1369, the city god of Jinling in Kyoto was granted the title of "fuming Lingwang", and the city god of bianzhou, Haozhou, Jiuzhou, Hezhou, Chuzhou and other Zhu Yuanzhang's "land of Longxing" was also granted the title of "zhengyipin wangjue". The rest of the city gods were given titles respectively: the city god of Fu was "the second grade weilinggong", the city god of Zhou was "the third grade lingyouhou", and the city god of Xian was "the fourth grade xianyoubo". However, in 1370, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the title of City God and only called him the God of a certain Prefecture, county or City God. After the Ming Dynasty, the people generally classified the city gods into the following categories: the City God (Duke, Duke of Wellington): in charge of the province. City God of Fu (Marquis, appeasement Marquis): in charge of Fu. County City God (count, xianyoubo): in charge of the county. In the Qing Dynasty, the sacrifice to the City God was also included in the sacrificial ceremony, and the status of the City God was more noble. Whenever a new local official arrives, he needs to go to the local Town God's Temple for shelter. On the day of his appointment, he must complete the sacrifice before the City God. From this point of view, with the change of times, the function of City God has changed from a God who responded to every request at the beginning to a national and local patron god with aloof status. Because the City God is mainly the God of the city, the City God belief is mostly distributed in the metropolis, such as the county seat of the administrative center, such as Taipei, Taichung City and Tainan City, which are the administrative and economic centers of all regions, and Town God's Temple. It is worth noting that the Haicheng God of the great rice Chengxia county is a city god of the people of Southern Fujian who does not worship the emperor. So its name does not have jurisdiction over the names of the cities and counties of the province, nor does the city god have a title. This is quite different from other Town God's Temple.

Address: No.61, Section 1, Dihua Street, Datong District, Taipei

Longitude: 121.51016829448

Latitude: 25.055598610163

Tel. + 886-02-25580346

Official website: http://www.tpecitygod.org

Tour time: 2 hours

Traffic information: MRT:

1. Take MRT to exit 2 of Shuanglian station, turn left and take bus 518 (Mackay Hospital Station) to Nanjing West Road station, walk for 3-5 minutes.

2. Take MRT to Taipei station, go straight along citizen Avenue, turn right to Tacheng street, walk for about 30 minutes.

3. Take the MRT Luzhou line to the second section of Yanping North Road at daaotou station, and walk for about 20 minutes.

bus:

1. Take Chongqing line 250 or 304 to Yanping first station (Nanjing),

2. Take Chongqing line 250, 255, 274, 304, 639, 641, 704, 518 to Nanjing West Road.

Ticket information: Free

Opening hours: 6:16-19:47, all year round (except typhoon and other natural disasters).

Chinese PinYin : Tai Bei Xia Hai Cheng Huang Miao