Hsinchu City God Temple新竹都城隍庙

Type

Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)

Location

Taiwan, China · Taiwan · North District, Hsinchu City · No. 75 Zhongshan Road

Coordinates

24.8045, 120.9661 Map ↗

School

Daoism in Taiwan

First built

1748 (13th year of the Qianlong reign of Qing) · Zeng Riying, sub-prefect of Danshui Sub-prefecture, memorialized the throne requesting its construction in 1747, and it was completed the following year; the temple land was donated by Wang Shijie, a land-reclamation householder of Zhuqian. Its present layout was established by the major renovation of 1924, funded by donations raised by Zheng Zhaoji

Heritage status

Hsinchu City Monument (1985)

Overview

The Hsinchu City God Temple holds the highest rank among the City God temples of Taiwan. It was built on the memorial of Zeng Riying, sub-prefect of Danshui Sub-prefecture, in the thirteenth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing (1748); the temple land was donated by Wang Shijie, a land-reclamation householder of Zhuqian, and the temple’s affairs were maintained with the rents of shophouses on Beimen Street. City Gods in Taiwan are graded according to administrative level as Capital City Gods, Prefectural City Gods, County City Gods and so on; the Hsinchu City God was originally a Sub-prefectural City God. According to the tradition transmitted by the temple, in the seventeenth year of Guangxu (1891) the Celestial Master Zhang of Mount Longhu observed the celestial signs and memorialized the throne for a ritual assembly to avert calamity; the Guangxu Emperor thereupon bestowed by imperial hand the plaque “Bulwark of the Golden Gate” and elevated the deity to “Duke of Awesome Numen, Capital City God of Hsinchu,” decreeing that a great ritual assembly for the protection of the state and the blessing of the people be held the following year (1892). Qing official documents, however, date the bestowal of the plaque to the fourth day of the eighth month of the fourteenth year of Guangxu (1888), the occasion being the efficacy of the rain-prayers offered by the county magistrate Fang Zuyin during the great drought at Hsinchu in the thirteenth year of Guangxu; the temple thereby became the highest-ranked in all Taiwan. Its present layout was established by the major renovation of 1924, for which Zheng Zhaoji raised donations of more than one hundred thousand yen; it takes the form of three halls with continuous gables, with a Guanyin Hall (Falian Temple) attached on the left. The stone lions before the temple are carved from qingdou bluestone from Yuchang Lake at Huangtang, Hui’an, in Quanzhou, long since oxidized to a dark green. The “Zhuqian Zhongyuan City God Festival” of the seventh lunar month, in which the City God himself makes a territorial procession (raojing) to relieve the orphaned souls, is an important folk observance of Hsinchu. It was declared a historic site on 19 August 1985 and is presently listed as a municipal historic monument.

Highlights

• The imperial plaque “Bulwark of the Golden Gate”
• The highest-ranked City God in all Taiwan
• Qingdou bluestone lions from Hui’an
• The Zhuqian Zhongyuan City God Festival