Magong Beiji Temple () is a temple in

Magong City Magong (Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: ''Má-keng'') is a county-administered city and county seat, seat of Penghu County, Taiwan. Magong City is located on Penghu's main island. Name The settlement's Mazu temples, temple honoring the Chinese folk r ...

Penghu The Penghu (, Hokkien POJ: ''Phîⁿ-ô͘'' or ''Phêⁿ-ô͘'' ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, located approximately west from the main island of Taiwan, covering an area ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The temple is dedicated to

Xuantian Shangdi Xuanwu () or Xuandi (), also known as Zhenwu (, ) or Zhenwudadi (, ), is a powerful deity in Chinese religion, one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism. He is revered as a powerful god, able to control the elements and capable of great magic ...

. Because the location of temple is at the eastern side of ancient Magong city, so Beiji Temple is more widely known as "Dongjia Temple". (東甲宮; pinyin: ''dōng jiǎ gōng;'' its first character "東 ''dong''" means "east"; the next character "甲 ''jia''" is "a district unit during Qing Dynasty"; the last character "宮 ''gong''" is temple.)

History

The year of establishment is unknown, some said it had existed since the late of

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, some said it founded by Zhao Guang (趙廣) in 1690. However, we can confirm that the earliest recording of repair is after 1791 at least. During the Guangxu years of

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 ...

, there were three "''jia''" (甲), a kind of district unit in the past, which distributed over the Magong harbor area, they were "''Dongjia'' (東甲)", "''Beijia'' (北甲)" and "''Nanjia'' (南甲)", means "East Jia", "North Jia" and "South Jia" in Chinese. By tradition, these local residents would serve their own temple in every single Jia. Magong Beiji Temple belongs to the Dongjia area, it is also the most ancient one among those three according to the chorography of Qing dynasty. Beiji Temples mainly serves "'' Xuan Tian Shang Di'' (Chinese: 玄天上帝)", also known as "''Zhen Wu Shang Di'' (Chinese: 真武上帝)" , like other temples in Taiwan, the temple also housed a lot of god statues as well, including Cundi Bodhisattva, Dark Lady, Lord of the Soil and the Ground, Royal Lord and so on.

References

{{Commonscat, Magong Beiji Temple, Magong Beiji Temple Taoist temples in Taiwan Temples in Penghu County

History

See also

References