Shengwang Temple ( zh, t=聖王廟, p=Shèngwáng Miào) is a temple located in

Changhua City Changhua (Hokkien POJ: ''Chiong-hòa'' or ''Chiang-hòa''), officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. For many centuries the site was h ...

Changhua County Changhua County (Mandarin Pinyin: ''Zhānghuà Xiàn''; Wade-Giles: ''Chang¹-hua⁴ Hsien⁴''; Hokkien POJ: ''Chiang-hòa-koān'' or ''Chiong-hòa-koān'') is the smallest county on the main island of Taiwan by area, and the fourth smallest ...

, Taiwan. The temple is dedicated to Kaizhang Shengwang or Tan Goan-kong, a

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

official who was instrumental to the founding and development

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (), alternately romanized as Changchow, is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and surrounding the prefect ...

Fujian Province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

, a region where many have migrated to Taiwan from.

History

Shengwang Temple was built in 1761 by Zhangzhou migrants near the west gate of Changhua's city walls and became the cultural center of the Zhangzhou population. In 1795, there was a rebellion against

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

officials organized by

Quanzhou Quanzhou, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metropolitan region, with an area of and a populat ...

Tiandihui The Tiandihui, the Heaven and Earth Society, also called Hongmen (the Vast Family), is a Chinese fraternal organization and historically a secretive folk religious sect in the vein of the Ming loyalist White Lotus Sect, the Tiandihui ...

leader . Since Zhangzhou settlers are often at odds with Quanzhou settlers, residents around Shengwang Temple aided the Qing counter-attack through the west gate. Unfortunately, Shengwang Temple was heavily damaged in the process and was not repaired until 1807. Later, there were two major renovations done in 1860 and 1912. After World War II, Shengwang Temple was briefly used by the military for storage. Beginning in 1971, Shengwang Temple was used as a privately owned

child care Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

center until 1982, when the owners closed it due to concerns about the building's structural integrity. On 27 November 1985, Shengwang Temple was protected as a level two

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

in Taiwan, which allowed for more renovation work to be done. The rationale for the temple's protection was because of its cultural importance among Zhangzhou settlers and architectural significance.

Architecture

Shengwang Temple is considered a rare surviving example of Qing dynasty

Hokkien architecture Hokkien architecture, also called Hoklo architecture or Minnan architecture, refers to the architectural style of the Hoklo people, the Han Chinese group who have historically been the dominant demographic of the Southern Chinese province of Fujia ...

. The main hall is dedicated to Tan Goan-kong, while the rear hall is dedicated to his wife. Notably, the temple contains multiple Qing era stone sculptures, including the two bazi walls (八字牆) on the exterior forming a 45 degree angle with the building, the pair of

guardian lions Chinese guardian lions, or imperial guardian lions, are a traditional Chinese architectural ornament, but the origins lie deep in much older Indian Buddhist traditions. Typically made of stone, they are also known as stone lions or shishi (). ...

, and the two stone columns with dragons sculpted on them. The temple also contains a plaque with the names of those who helped establish and repair the temple. In 2020, researchers discovered that the painted

menshen Menshen or door gods are divine guardians of doors and gates in Chinese folk religions, used to protect against evil influences or to encourage the entrance of positive ones. They began as the divine pair Shenshu ( ) and Yulü () under the ...

on the doors have two additional layers underneath, the earliest of which dates from at least 1912.

References

{{reflist 1761 establishments in Taiwan Changhua City National monuments of Taiwan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1761 Temples in Changhua County

History

Architecture

See also

References