Xingji Temple, Tainan台南祀典兴济宫（顶大道公庙）

Type

Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)

Location

Taiwan, China · Taiwan · North District, Tainan · No. 86, Chenggong Road, adjoining the Daguanyin Pavilion

Coordinates

22.9984, 120.2063 Map ↗

School

Daoism in Taiwan

First built

1679 (33rd year of the Yongli reign of Ming) · Built by officers and soldiers of the Zheng loyalist forces from Tongan, Quanzhou; during the late Qing campaigns of "opening the mountains and pacifying the aborigines," its medicinal oracle slips were repeatedly reported efficacious, and the matter was submitted to the court, leading to its inclusion in the official sacrificial rites register.

Heritage status

Tainan Municipal Monument (jointly registered with the Great Guanyin Pavilion, 1985)

Overview

The Xingji Temple, Tainan, popularly known as the "Upper Dadaogong Temple," was built in the thirty-third year of the Yongli era of Ming (1679) by officers and soldiers of the Zheng loyalist forces from Tongan, Quanzhou, and principally enshrines Baosheng Dadi (the Great Emperor Who Protects Life). The temple site was chosen on the north bank of the Deqing Stream, in the auspicious position of "mountain to the south, water to the north," and stands immediately beside the Daguanyin Pavilion built the year before (1678); a Buddhist temple and a Daoist temple have stood linked together since their founding, jointly managed by the same organization — a distinctive religious landscape in Tainan. During the late Qing "opening the mountains and pacifying the aborigines" campaigns, soldiers heading deep into the mountains, where they were prone to miasmic disease, often came here to pray and draw medicinal oracle slips before departure; because these were repeatedly reported efficacious, the matter was submitted to the court and the temple was included in the official sacrificial rites register, with spring and autumn sacrifices — making it the only Baosheng Dadi temple in all of Taiwan included in the official sacrificial rites. Between the two temples survives an "official hall" building, where officials changed clothing and rested when attending the sacrifices — a rare surviving structure of this kind among Taiwan's temples. Its most recent renovation was in 2017, and the temple's painted decoration has been registered as a cultural asset. It was jointly designated, together with the Daguanyin Pavilion, a third-grade historic monument on November 27, 1985, and was later reclassified as a municipally designated historic monument.

Highlights

• The only officially sanctioned Baosheng Dadi temple in Taiwan
• The surviving "official hall" structure
• Linked with the Daguanyin Pavilion — a Buddhist and a Daoist temple standing side by side
• Medicinal oracle slips from the era of "opening the mountains and pacifying the aborigines"