Xuanwang Temple ( zh, t=宣王宮, p=Xuānwáng Gōng), formerly known as Yunti Academy ( zh, t=雲梯書院, p=Yúntī Shūyuàn), is a temple in

Xihu Township Xihu Township () is a rural township in Miaoli County, Taiwan. Geography Xihu is surrounded by Miaoli City on its east, Houlong to the north, Tongxiao to the west, and Tongluo to the south. In January 2017, its population was estimated at 7,2 ...

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. Established in 1829 as the first privately-owned school (known 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 ...

'') in Miaoli, it was subsequently converted into a

temple of Confucius A temple of Confucius or Confucian temple is a temple for the veneration of Confucius and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism in Chinese folk religion and other East Asian religions. They were formerly the site of the administration of t ...

under pressure from the

Japanese government The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

. In the temple, a tower for

joss paper Joss paper, also known as incense papers, are papercrafts or sheets of paper made into burnt offerings common in Chinese ancestral worship (such as the veneration of the deceased family members and relatives on holidays and special occasions). Wo ...

named Jingshengting and a

Tudigong Tudigong ( "Lord of the Soil and the Ground") or Tudishen ( "God of the Soil and the Ground"), also known simply as Tudi ( "Soil-Ground") is a tutelary deity of a locality and the human communities who inhabit it in Chinese folk religion and Tao ...

shrine are protected as county-level historic buildings.

History

In 1829, Liu En-quan (劉恩寬) moved from

Hui'an County () is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China. It is situated in the middle of the Fujian coast, between Quanzhou and Meizhou Bay. The county has a population of 921,794, as o ...

Fujian 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 capi ...

to Xihu. Liu established Yunti Academy at the current site of Ruihu Elementary school, making it the first ''

'' in Miaoli. In 1840, he moved the ''shuyuan'' to its current site, where he also set up shrines for

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 ...

and the five major literary gods (

Wenchang Wang 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 () ...

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 ...

, ,

Guan Yu Guan Yu (; ), courtesy name Yunchang, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on ...

, and

Lü Dongbin Lü Dongbin (796 CE – 1016 CE) is a legendary Chinese scholar and poet said to have lived during the Tang Dynasty. Whether he actually lived the two hundred and twenty years cannot be determined. Elevated to the status of an immortal in the C ...

). After Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the 1985

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 ...

, the Japanese government pressured private ''shuyuan'' to close in favor of Japanese education. In 1900, Yunti Academy closed and the building was turned into a Confucian temple named Xiusheng Temple (修省堂), but still served as a meeting place for local scholars. In 1976, the temple was rebuilt and renamed to Xuanwang Temple.

Protected structures

On 21 October 2010, 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 two structures within Xuanwang Temple:

Jingshengting

Jingshengting ( zh, t=敬聖亭, p=Jìngshèngtíng) is a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

furnace to burn

. The structure is approximately three meters tall composed of a foundation, a hole for joss paper, and a shrine to

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 ...

on top. This type of structure is known as a "cherish words tower" (惜字塔) which were built because in the past, people considered it a privilege to be educated.

Tudigong shrine

The

shrine is located directly adjacent to Jingshengting. It is a small, rectangular shrine also carved out of sandstone. Inside, a stone table is placed engraved with "Fu De Zheng Shen", a formal honorary title for Tudigong.

References

{{reflist 1840 establishments in Taiwan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1840 Temples in Miaoli County Historic sites in Taiwan Taoist temples in Taiwan