Miaoli Wenchang Temple ( zh, t=苗栗文昌祠, p=Miáolì Wénchāng Cì), formerly known as Yingcai Academy ( zh, t=英才書院, p=Yīngcái Shūyuàn), is a temple in

Miaoli City Miaoli City (Wade–Giles: ''Miao²-li⁴''; Hakka PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-sṳ''; Hokkien POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-chhī'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Miaoli County, Taiwan. Miaoli has a relatively h ...

Miaoli County Miaoli County (Mandarin Pinyin: ''miáo lì xiàn''; Hakka PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-yen''; Hokkien POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-koān'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-koān'') is a county in western Taiwan. Miaoli is adjacent with Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City to the nort ...

, Taiwan. The temple is dedicated to

Wenchang Dijun Wenchang Wang (), also known as Wenchang Dijun (), is a Taoist deity in Chinese mythology, known as the God of Culture and Literature. He is also at times referred to simply as Wen Qu, or Wen. The literal translation of his name would be King () ...

, the deity of culture and literature.

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

Cangjie Cangjie () is a legendary ancient Chinese figure said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities an ...

and

Kui Xing Kui Xing (), originally called 奎星 (also ''kuí xīng''), also known as 大魁夫子 "Great Master Kui" or 大魁星君 "Great Kui the Star Lord", is a character in Chinese folk religion, Chinese religion, the Shen (Chinese religion), Deity of ...

are also worshipped in the main shrine. During the

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 ...

era, the temple also served as the

county magistrate County magistrate ( or ) sometimes called local magistrate, in imperial China was the official in charge of the ''xian'', or county, the lowest level of central government. The magistrate was the official who had face-to-face relations with the ...

's office before a separate county hall was built.

History

Miaoli was originally an agrarian settlement, but in the 19th century, the city's growth saw the rise of a academic society. In 1882, five local scholars proposed that a temple dedicated to Wenchang Wang to be built, and Wenchang Temple was completed in 1885. In 1889, Miaoli County was established but lacked a county hall; therefore, county magistrate set up his office within the temple. The same year, Yingcai Academy was established on temple grounds as a

shuyuan The ''Shuyuan'' (), usually known in English as Academies of Classical Learning or simply Academies, were a type of school in Imperial China. Unlike national academies and district schools, ''shuyuan'' were usually private establishments built away ...

, a type of educational institution. Six years later, Yingcai Academy was shut down by Japanese authorities when Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the 1895

Treaty of Shimonoseki The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...

. Nevertheless, the temple was the congregating place for scholars. In 1927, a group of academics banded together to form Lishe (栗社), which regularly held public

poetry reading A poetry reading is a public oral recitation or performance of poetry. Reading poetry aloud allows the reader to express their own experience through poetry, changing the poem according to their sensibilities. The reader uses pitch and stress, and ...

s in the temple. Temple itself was heavily damaged by the

1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake The 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake occurred with a Richter magnitude of 7.1 (7.0 Mw) in April 1935 with its epicenter in Taichung, Taiwan (then Shinchiku Prefecture). It was the deadliest earthquake in Taiwan's recorded history, claimi ...

and was further damaged when it was used by the Japanese as military barracks and government dormitories. On 19 August 1985, the

Miaoli County Government The Miaoli County Government () is the local government of the Republic of China that governs Miaoli County. History The county government used to be housed in a building next to the current building which is now used as the Miaoli County Ur ...

protected Wenchang Temple as a county-level monument, which allowed for preservation work to be carried out between 1997 and 2002.

Traditions

Usually, the middle door to Wenchang is closed to worshippers and can only be accessed by ''

zhuangyuan ''Zhuangyuan'', or ''trạng nguyên'' in Vietnamese, variously translated into English as principal graduate, primus, or optimus, was the title given to the scholar who achieved the highest score on highest level of the Imperial examination, (i ...

'', or people that get full marks on the

Imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

. In 2007, the Miaoli County Government began hosting ceremonies honoring students for their academic achievements by allowing them to step through the middle door. Participants range from those that obtained

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

s to those that acquired good grades on their high school entrance examinations. This is the only government-hosted event of its type in Taiwan.

References

{{reflist 1885 establishments in Taiwan Miaoli City Religious buildings and structures completed in 1885 Temples in Miaoli County Historic sites in Taiwan Taoist temples in Taiwan