Taiwan Religious Culture Map

Xingling Temple is located in Changhua's Zhutang Township. Built in the 3rd year of the Taishō era (Japanese colonial period; 1914 CE), the temple is dedicated to Guansheng Dijun (more commonly known as Guan Yu) after local farmer Tsai Teng-tsai (dates of birth and death unknown) carried a statue of the deity from Miaoli's Xingshi Temple. Xingling Temple serves as the center of faith for Hakka people in Changhua's Chijie region (intersection of Erlin, Zhutang, and Beitou). Eighty meters to the left of the main hall is a roughly two-story tall Shengji Pavilion (a furnace used for burning literary pieces on paper strips) completed in 1955 CE. The pavilion is a quadrangular, five-tiered brick structure with a mostly pebbledashed exterior. Not only is it one of the few Shengji Pavilions that has preserved to this day Gongsong Shengji ceremony (the practice of storing ashes from burned papers inscribed with literary pieces and then scattering them at the sea), but it also performs the largest ceremony of its kind in Taiwan. The bottom layer of the Shengji Pavilion of Zhutang's Xingling Temple is where paper ashes are stored. From the second-layer up, the pavilion is decorated with masterful reliefs made from four layers of colored ceramics and intricate sculptures of dragons and phoenixes. The pavilion also houses calligraphy works that are well worth preserving, written by notable political figures such as former Control Yuan President Yu Yu-jen (1879-1964 CE), former Legislative Yuan President Huang Kuo-shu (1905-1987 CE), and former Examination Yuan President Chia Ching-teh (1880-1960 CE).