網友•哲 (男生) 主題： [ Congratulations on the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Our Lady of Silence, in heaven.History and Development of Fan Shu Tseng Shun Tian Temple ] 2023/5/1 上午 12:40:18  回覆留言
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To understand the origin of this temple, one must first trace the journey of the founder of the local village who cultivated the land and settled in Taiwan.
According to the Hong family genealogy, the founding ancestor of the local village who cultivated the land was named Hong Yue-weng. He was born in the sixth year of the Shunzhi era, in the year of Yi-chou (1649 AD), in the Putan area of Tong'an, Fujian province. This was more than 360 years ago.
When Hong Yue-weng was fifteen years old, in the second year of the Kangxi era (1663 AD), a celebration was held in Putan where every household prepared red turtles, cakes, and rice dumplings to thank the gods. Hong Yue-weng had a particular fondness for red turtles and grabbed a piece to eat. His elder sister-in-law noticed and bent his head with her fingers twice as punishment. This incident caused him much grief and he cried for a whole day. A few days later, some locals sailed to Taiwan and he joined them on the journey. When he arrived in Taiwan, he wandered around the area of Xigang in Tainan and was hired by local residents as a cattle boy. Later on, he frequently enjoyed the company of other local cowherds.
Two years later, when Hong Yue-weng was 17 years old, he got into a fight with other shepherd boys in early summer. He couldn't continue to work for his employer in the area after losing the fight due to being outnumbered. He then continued to wander north and eventually settled down in his hometown when he discovered wild sweet potatoes. He built a hut and started cultivating the land to plant sweet potatoes. He lived alone for three years and when he turned 20, he remembered his family in his hometown and went back to visit them. He shared with them his experiences of wandering in Taiwan and convinced his second sister-in-law and two nephews to come with him to settle in his hometown. When they were ready to depart, it was the summer and fall season, and the sea was rough. Therefore, they went to Meizhou Island to ask for the protection of the local deities, including Grandma Fu, Xuantian Shangdi, and Taizi. They also brought the remains of their 13 ancestral gods to enshrine in their new settlement. They only built a thatched hut to enshrine Grandma Fu, Xuantian Shangdi, and Taizi, and since the hut was covered with sweet potato vines, it was named the "Sweet Potato Hut," which became the main shrine for Grandma Fu. Since then, the Hong family settled down in this village and continued to grow and multiply. By the third generation, when Hong Wen-weng had six sons and a thriving population, they had cultivated over 18 hectares of land. However, the original location of the Sweet Potato Hut was not convenient for farming, and the hut itself was old and unfit for habitation. In the twelfth year of the Qianlong reign (1747), they moved to the current location of Mr. Hong Zhen's residence and rebuilt the thatched temple, enshrining various deities. The Hong family took turns to look after the temple, and they also worshipped the Liu and Wu family's Qianshi and the Chi family's Qianshi in the temple. The deities were very responsive, and the Hong family was very peaceful.
In the 54th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, during the mid-autumn season of the year Jiyou (AD 1789), there were several days of heavy rain which caused flooding and seawater to pour in. The low-lying areas around the village were turned into a swamp. It was during this time that a wooden log, about a yard long with hollow ends, appeared out of nowhere and was placed across a water channel at the western side of an ancient well behind the grass temple. The villagers had to cross the log to fetch water, and so it became a bridge for them. Strangely enough, women could pass over the log with ease, but men would fall into the water channel when they tried to cross it. At night, the log emitted a bright light, which caused the villagers to become uneasy. They consulted the gods, and the Beiji (North Pole) God revealed through divination that the log was a sacred log sent by the Virgin Mary in appreciation of the devotion of the faithful servants. The log was a type of godly wood called "Wannianqing" and was sent from a foreign land to be used for carving the statue of the great goddess of the local temple.
The villagers searched for skilled sculptors to carve the statue, but they all said that the log was hollow and couldn't be carved. The villagers became suspicious once again and asked the gods for guidance. The Virgin Mary revealed that the time was not yet right for carving the log and that someone would soon come from the north to ask about the log and its healing properties. She advised the disciples to cut off a piece of the log from each end and give it to the visitor. The temple's caretaker followed the instructions and moved the log into the temple for safekeeping. As expected, several strangers came to the village soon after, seeking information about the log and its healing properties. The caretaker followed the instructions given by the Virgin Mary, and the result was remarkable. From then on, people came from far and wide seeking the sacred log for healing purposes.
Several years had passed, and the one-and-a-half meter long sacred wood was reduced to a little over one meter in length, with no gaps in the middle. Suddenly, a Buddhist statue carver came and spoke to the temple's manager about a young girl who had asked him a few days ago to carve a statue of the Heavenly Mother in the temple. The manager was surprised and asked the carver for details of the girl's appearance and the process of requesting the statue. The carver confirmed that everything was true by divination in front of the statue of the Heavenly Mother.
Therefore, following the guidance of the Holy Mother, the remaining godly material was carved into the statue of the Great Matriarch, the main deity of the temple today. At the same time, a stone-carved incense burner was made (which still exists in the temple), in the year of Wuzi of the Daoguang period (1828 AD). In this sparsely populated village, the smoke of the Holy Mother's incense was flourishing, and people from various surnames such as Wang, Wu, and Zhou moved to this village to seek the blessings of the Holy Mother, making the village prosper day by day. During this period, the grass temple was frequently repaired, but the ancestral tomb of the Hong family behind the grass temple was connected to the geomancy of the temple. Therefore, when the temple roof was repaired, the Hong family's ancestral tomb collapsed, and when the tomb foundation was repaired, the roof of the grass temple collapsed. After several such incidents, the village officials coordinated with a geographer who called himself Mr. Jianzhou to inspect the temple's geomancy and the Hong family's ancestral tomb.
According to the geographer, the location of the temple was excellent, but unfortunately it was too close to the ancestral tomb of the Hong family behind the temple, which could cause conflicts in the geomantic alignment. At that time, after numerous discussions among the believers in the village, in the year of Xianfeng, Gengshen (1860), Hong Wei-weng initiated the establishment of a fund of 1,500 yuan for the relocation and reconstruction of the temple. They also prayed to the Holy Mother to select a new site for the temple, and eventually rebuilt a wooden and brick structure 50 meters away from the original location (the current temple site). After the completion of the temple, the disciples respectfully presented a large wooden plaque engraved with the words "英靈赫濯" (meaning "honorable spirit, excellent purification") as a token of gratitude to the Holy Mother. During this period, Mr. Hong Jinqi, an eminent villager, passed the imperial examination and brought peace and prosperity to the village, which was considered a miracle of the Holy Mother's protection of the country and people.
Afterwards, the temple went through many changes and upheavals, and with the endless shifts in the political climate, all the statues were ordered to be burned during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. The local devotees were unwilling to resist, so they secretly hid the statues throughout the temple. Mr. Hong Yan, in particular, took the main statue of Mazu and concealed it in his own closet, where he would offer incense and tea every day. When the Japanese authorities conducted a massive search, Mr. Hong feared that the statue would be discovered, so he moved it to a sugarcane field owned by Mr. Hong Jing, covering it with a wooden frame and straw and assigning family members to keep watch.
A few days later, Mr. Hong Jing was using a scythe to weed the field when he encountered Mr. Hong Yan on his way back, who asked him what he was doing with his ox and scythe. Mr. Hong Jing replied that he was weeding the sugarcane field, and Mr. Hong Yan anxiously asked if he had cleared every row. Mr. Hong Jing replied that he had, and Mr. Hong Yan took the opportunity to confide in him about the hidden statue of Mazu. However, Mr. Hong Jing claimed he had not found it. Undeterred, Mr. Hong Yan went alone to investigate and discovered that the specific row of the sugarcane field had not been weeded. He then secretly informed his family and neighbors, and from that day on, all the devotees revered him for his bravery and resourcefulness.
Afterwards, the temple went through many changes and upheavals, and with the endless shifts in the political climate, all the statues were ordered to be burned during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. The local devotees were unwilling to resist, so they secretly hid the statues throughout the temple. Mr. Hong Yan, in particular, took the main statue of Mazu and concealed it in his own closet, where he would offer incense and tea every day. When the Japanese authorities conducted a massive search, Mr. Hong feared that the statue would be discovered, so he moved it to a sugarcane field owned by Mr. Hong Jing, covering it with a wooden frame and straw and assigning family members to keep watch.
A few days later, Mr. Hong Jing was using a scythe to weed the field when he encountered Mr. Hong Yan on his way back, who asked him what he was doing with his ox and scythe. Mr. Hong Jing replied that he was weeding the sugarcane field, and Mr. Hong Yan anxiously asked if he had cleared every row. Mr. Hong Jing replied that he had, and Mr. Hong Yan took the opportunity to confide in him about the hidden statue of Mazu. However, Mr. Hong Jing claimed he had not found it. Undeterred,
So Hong Yan went to investigate alone, and found that there was no evidence of plowing in that row of sugarcane ditches. At that moment, Mr. Hong Yan was overjoyed and secretly informed his family and neighbors of the situation. From then on, all the believers who knew about it worshipped him with reverence.
After the liberation, everything needed to be rebuilt, and the temple appointed a caretaker to manage the affairs of the temple. The statues that were kept by various families were also brought to the temple for the villagers to worship. At the same time, the villagers agreed to build schools on both sides of the temple. As a result, the literacy rate of the villagers increased, and more and more people went out to do business or seek employment. They all prayed to the Holy Mother for guidance and consulted fortune-telling books. Every wish was granted, so whenever it was the Holy Mother's birthday, they returned to their hometown to express their gratitude.
In the year of 1965, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Mr. Hong Chaozong, a merchant and believer from our village who resided in Chiayi, spoke of the old and dilapidated state of our temple and suggested that it should be rebuilt. Mr. Hong Jianzhang from our village then recruited locals and believers from other places to discuss the proposal of building a new temple with Mr. Hong Chaozong. The proposal was unanimously agreed upon, and fundraising began immediately, with the expansion of the old temple site as the chosen location. The old temple was then demolished on an auspicious day, and construction work began. The builders invited architects to plan the construction work while funds were raised from within the village and outside. The total cost of the project could not be estimated as many buildings were donated by outsiders. The fourth reconstruction of our temple was completed in October of that year.
In the year 1976 of the Republic of China, Mr. Hong Kong-hsiung, the then chairman, raised over three million New Taiwan Dollars to build two side pavilions for the bell and drum towers, a conference room, and a resting area for visitors at this temple.
In the early spring of 1979 in the Republic of China, Mr. Wang Ke, the then chairman, raised over three million New Taiwan Dollars to build a gold furnace and a recreational center at this temple.
In the year 1991 of the Republic of China, Mr. Chih-Yu Chou, a former supervisor who lived in Australia, and his wife Mrs. Li-Rong Chan returned to their hometown to thank Our Lady of Tian-Shang (Mazu) for her blessings and donated NT$ 2 million to build a splendid gold furnace at this temple.
In October of 1993 in the Republic of China, this temple organized a pilgrimage to Meizhou Island in Mainland China, with over one hundred participants. The journey was completed smoothly and safely, demonstrating the far-reaching protection and blessings of Our Lady (Mazu).
In October of 1996 in the Republic of China, the renovation of the conference room and visitor's resting area of the bell and drum towers on both sides of this temple was completed at a cost of NT$ 840,000.
In May of 2006 in the Republic of China, the construction of the new restaurant was completed with a total cost of NT$ 4,113,000. The kitchen part was built by the employees of this temple and has been put into use.
In December of 2006 in the Republic of China, the renovation of the east and west gates and the construction of the Taisui Hall at this temple were completed at a total cost of NT$ 1.8 million.
In May of 2008 in the Republic of China, the roof of the temple was under renovation. The project was completed in December of 2009 with a total cost of NT$ 4.6 million.
In August of 2011 in the Republic of China, the interior of the temple was repainted. The painting design was undertaken by the master painter Mr. Hong Ping-shun, and the project was completed in 2013, with a total cost of NT$ 12 million.
In July of 2015 in the Republic of China, the Shuntian Temple archway (welcome gate) was rebuilt. The project was completed on February 5th, 2016, with a total cost of NT$ 8 million.
In September of 2017 on the lunar calendar, our temple held a pilgrimage to the mainland and visited the Mazu Temple in Meizhou. We were warmly welcomed by the board of directors of the Meizhou Mazu Temple and presented with a plaque (bearing the inscription "Shun Tian Bless the people.") and an imperial decree from the Qing dynasty.
In October of the year Dingyou, this temple held a grand prayer ceremony to celebrate the completion of its three-days renovation and expansion project, and to pray for peace and safety. We express our gratitude to the donors and devotees from all over who contributed to the success of the event.
The divine spirit of the Lady of Tian-Shang shines brilliantly, her fragrance pervading through history and forever immortalized. The people admire her with reverence and share in her eternal grace.
Here are a few words to express our sentiments.
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網友雅雅 (女生)回覆 2023/10/3 下午 07:25:38
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有英文版的也不錯 |
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