Magong Chenghuang Temple () is a temple in

Magong Magong ( POJ: ''Má-keng'') is a county-administered city and seat of Penghu County, Taiwan. Magong City is located on Penghu's main island. Name The settlement's temple honoring the Chinese Goddess Mazu, the deified form of Lin Monian ...

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 ...

. This temple mainly serves Chenghuangye, means ''the lord of City''. (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 城隍爺;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Chéng-huáng-yé''), a taoist God, who is in charge of the underworld of an administrative district ( a little similar to

Hades Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...

), so it was translated to ''the City God'' usually.

History

By tradition way, there is only one Chenghuang Temple in each county or city, and is next to the city hall always. But there are two Chenghuang temples in Penghu County you can see in the present. The original city hall of Penghu (澎湖廳署) was located at Wenao (文澳) district, so the Chenghuang Temple was built in there as well. But Wenao Chenghuang Temple was too narrow to express the residents' respect enough. Hence, In 1777, XIE Wei-Qi (Chinese: 謝維祺; pinyin: ''Xiè wéi qí'' ),an officer of Penghu (澎湖海防糧補通判) during

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 ...

, who suggested establish another one in Magong harbour area. The new one was completed in 1779. This temple was ever damaged during the

Sino-French War The Sino-French War (, french: Guerre franco-chinoise, vi, Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. The Chinese arm ...

in 1885. That moment, many people said they saw Chenghuangye appearing for protecting them from war and insecurity. After the war was over and French navy retreated in the autumn of 1885, Chenghuang Temple finished repairing in the next year, according to folk story of miracle,

Guangxu Emperor The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, wi ...

promoted Magong Chenghuangye's religious rank. Afterwards, Magong Chenghuangye named ''Lin Ying Hou'' (Chinese: 靈應侯; pinyin: ''líng yīng hóu'' ) as well. The meaning of Lin Ying Hou, its first character Lin (靈) means "spirit"; and the second character Ying (應) means "feel" or "answer"; the third character Hou (侯), means " one of ranks of Chinese nobilIty". So, Lin Ying Hou (靈應侯) means that this lord of god who will show its spirit to answer you, or you can feel the spirit appear.

Architecture

In addition, Magong Chenghuang Temple also collected a plenty of beautiful wooden carvings, colorful paintings, historic sign boards or steles, very worthy to take time to discover. File:媽宮城隍廟正門.JPG, The Gate of the Temple. File:馬公城隍廟．木雕彩繪.jpg, The Painting of Beams File:馬公城隍廟．正殿．靈應侯.jpg, Main Hall File:馬公城隍廟．正殿．靈應侯像（城隍爺）.jpg, Chenghuangye (City God) File:馬公城隍廟．匾額．悔者遲.jpg, Sign Board: Repentance comes too late. File:馬公城隍廟．匾額．你來了.jpg, Sign Board: You come. File:馬公城隍廟．大算盤.jpg, Abacus: for calculating your deed of kindness and guilty when you were alive. File:媽宮城隍廟拜亭吊桶、彩繪.jpg, The Painting of Architecture.

References

{{commons category, Magong City God Temple 1779 establishments in Taiwan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1779 Taoist temples in Taiwan Temples in Penghu County

History

Architecture

See also

References