【Tainan, Taiwan】Puji Temple 普濟殿

Please refer to the audio introduction with this link.

Introduction

Welcome to this tour of Puji Temple, home of the famous Puji Lantern Festival.

One of Tainan’s oldest halls of worship, Puji Temple has a long and complex history.

The main gods worshipped in the temple today have variously been adopted from other temples, left behind by travelers, or removed and then later re-instated.

The temple was first Buddhist, then Daoist, and then finally both.

On our tour today, we will introduce the layout of the temple and describe some of its architectural details and treasured artifacts.

We will also explore the temple history and learn about the gods that are worshipped here.

We will begin our tour in the temple courtyard.

The courtyard

First, let’s take a look at the tablets that line the walls on the right side of the courtyard.

These are the temple’s 11 renovation stele.

Each of these tablets marks a temple expansion or renovation.

They provide the date of the rebuilding project and record the names of those who contributed the funds and supplies that made the renovation possible.

Tablets such as these can be found at most temples, and are an important source of historical information.

The earliest of the tablets you see here was erected during the reign of the Jiaqing emperor, around 1800.

Other tablets date from the Tongzhi reign, the Guangxu reign, the Japanese occupation, and into modern times.

Puji Temple was originally built some 350 to 400 years ago.

The three halls in the temple today were all built at different times.

A look up at the rooftops of these three halls will give you some idea of their different ages, and even the religions they are dedicated to.

The roof of the oldest building, Daitian Hall, is decked out in the ornate and colorful southern Chinese style.

Heroes and fairies ride colorful dragons and phoenixes along the swallowtail roof ridge and across the roof-tops upswept corners.

In the center of the roof stand the three Star Gods. You will find these three deities presiding over most local temples.

Together, they confer good fortune, prosperity, and long life on the temple and its worshippers.

The highly decorated rooftop of Daitian Hall contrasts sharply with the simple yin/yang 陰陽 symbol that tops Faju Hall.

The newest of Puji temple’s three halls, it is far simpler in its decoration.

The rooftop of the 40-year-old Guanyin Hall is topped with a Buddhist Wheel of Life.

The front of this hall opens onto the street on the other side of the temple.

From here in the courtyard, you are looking at the back wall of the hall.

Let’s now visit each of these three halls in turn, starting with the oldest, Daitian Hall.

At the entrance of Daitian hall

Daitian Hall stands on the site where Puji Temple was first built.

One of the most interesting areas of this, or any, temple, is its front entry.

Many of Puji Temple’s most ancient artifacts can be seen here.

Among the oldest of the temple’s treasures are the two temple plaques.

One, made of stone, hangs right here over the entrance to the hall.

It dates from the reign of the Jiaqing emperor, around 1800.

The second of the plaques hang inside the hall.

You will see it when we enter the building.

Older and more fragile than the first plaque, it is made of wood, and probably dates to around 1750.

The temple’s dragon columns are also very old.

Unusually, the pair just outside the entrance is inscribed with a date — 1818.

The interior columns are likely even older, but there is no date to prove their age, and their origins have been lost to history.

You can recognize the antiquity of these temple columns by the relatively shallow depth of the carving.

Early columns such as these are beautiful in their austere simplicity.

Another treasured artifact of this temple is the 19th-century carving of the Eight Immortals that you can see above the middle door of the temple.

The Eight Immortals represent all classes of society: men and women, rich and poor, young and old, and noble and low-born.

It is an indication that all are welcome here.

Now, you may find yourself wondering why a carving of Eight Immortals includes nine figures, but in a temple, everything is done with a purpose in mind.

In this case, the ninth figure, in the center, is Nanji Xianweng, who represents longevity.

He is there primarily to round up the number of figures in the carving to nine.

In Chinese numerology, even numbers are Yin numbers, while the odd numbers are Yang numbers.

Nine is the most auspicious of all the Yang numbers.

And so you will see groups of nine frequently in Chinese temples.

The carvings on the temple walls also have specific purposes.

For example, you will notice that on the right wall is a carved panel of a dragon.

This is matched by a tiger on the opposite side. Traditionally, temple-goers always enter on the dragon side and exit on the tiger side.

One note: never walk through the middle door of a temple. Doing so is considered to be a major faux pas, since this door is strictly reserved for the god effigies.

In the temple

Now let us step through the dragon door and into the temple.

As you head past the door, take a good look at the door gods.

Do their eyes seem to be following you? This effect is achieved by making the direction of the face slightly different from the direction of the eyes.

The unsettling result is that the door guardians’ gaze is constantly upon every visitor in the temple at once, ensuring good behavior by all.

We are about to meet the gods of Puji Temple, but before we do, take a quick look up at the ceiling.

Over your head, you will see an exquisite nine-dragon caisson, or ceiling well.

Entirely hand-carved in nine pieces and then fitted together like a puzzle, this unique, intricate work of art is unlike almost any other caisson that you will see.

It is well worth taking a few moments out to study this beautiful piece.

You will find caisson wells in all Daoist temples.

Like domes in western churches, they reach upward toward heaven.

The holy incense rising up into the well is the vehicle through which worshippers’ prayers and pleas are carried upwards to the gods.

Now that we are standing in front of the main shrine, it is time to meet Chihfu Qiansui, the chief god of Puji Temple.

According to some legends, Chihfu Qiansui is the deified form of Chen Wen-kui, a Tang dynasty soldier.

One night in his sleep, Chen had a vision that the well water in the village had been poisoned, and everyone would die if they drank it.

With no time to lose, he ran to the well and drank the water himself, remaining there until he died as a stark warning to the people of the town.

Chen began to be worshipped as a hero who had sacrificed his own life to save the people of his village.

He was eventually deified and raised to the position of Wang Ye, or Emissary of the Gods.

The large mural painted on the wall outside the temple depicts Chen Wen-kui in his military outfit.

There are several Wang yeh deities.

Tasked with communicating the prayers of the people to the gods and hunting down ghosts who bring plague and pestilence to the mortal world, they are among the most widely worshipped deities in Taiwan, and this is one of Taiwan’s earliest Wang Ye temples.

Surprisingly, though, Puji Temple was not originally built to enshrine this god. In fact, the name ‘Puji’ comes from Pusa 菩薩, or Buddha.

And indeed, when the temple was founded, it was originally dedicated to the worship of Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy.

However, sometime during Taiwan’s Dutch period, in the mid-1600s, a merchant trader from China carried an effigy of Chihfu Qiansui across to Taiwan, hoping for the god’s protection during his journey.

Back in those days, temples were safe lodging places, and the trader, whose name has been lost to history, resided here during his stay in Tainan.

No one is entirely sure what happened next.

Some say that on his return to China, the merchant forgot the effigy, leaving it behind in the temple. Others claim that, when he used the temple’s moon blocks to respectfully ask the deity if it was ready to leave, he repeatedly got ‘no’ for an answer.

And so, the effigy stayed put.

One way or another, Chihfu Qiansui proved to be a very efficacious deity — so much so that he replaced Guanyin as the main god of the temple.

But Chihfu Qiansui isn’t the only deity you will see in this hall.

The smaller shrine on the right holds Zhusheng Niang Niang, the goddess of fertility and childbirth.

On the left, you will see the shrine of FudeZhengsheng, the god of land and wealth, one of the most common of all Daoist deities.

Look underneath his shrine and you will find the General Tiger.

In this temple, like most others, the General tiger is placed on a low altar.

This is partly because he is a god of children, and also because he is an animal and not human. In front of the General Tiger you will see a stack of yellow paper.

In the old days, if children came down with the mumps, they would come to the temple to pray for a cure at this altar, putting a piece of yellow paper on each cheek to make the mumps go away.

Two of the most imposing deities in the hall are the Generals Fan and Xie, known as Black and White Impermanence.

These two guardians of the gods can be found in temples all over Taiwan, and are often seen out and about in temple parades.

Like Chihfu Qiansui, the two generals were originally real people who were later deified.

It is said that they were friends and sworn brothers who one day made plans to meet at a bridge by a river.

Fan arrived first and waited for his friend.

Unfortunately, a flash flood occurred.

Fan, determined to honor his promise, refused to leave the agreed-upon meeting point and was drowned.

Xie, who arrived late, was horrified to find that his friend had died waiting for him and hanged himself in solidarity.

For their unwavering loyalty to one another, the two were honored by being made generals under Yama, the ruler of the underworld.

They are responsible for escorting the spirits of the dead to the underworld to face judgment.

The drowned Fan is always depicted as pale, while Xie, who died by hanging, is shown with a blackened face and his tongue hanging out.

Last in this hall, but certainly not least, are the Zhang Pai Ye (掌牌爺).

These two cheeky fellows standing on either side of the central shrine hold the bamboo crosspieces that are used to block the central door during parades and other important temple events.

However, thanks to a highly imaginative sculptor, the Zhang Pai Ye at Puji Temple are depicted as a couple of slovenly oafs who like to loaf around when they think no one is looking.

If you peek underneath the cloth robes, you will find that the demon on the left has a toe poking through a hole in his shoe, while the one on the right has thrown on his robe in such a hurry that it is hanging completely off of his shoulder.

Word has it that this depiction was the result of the sculptor’s dream, in which Chihfu Qiansui returned unexpectedly, and the unprepared demons were in a rush to get dressed.

The expressions on their faces are simply priceless.
Now, let’s move on to Puji Temple’s Guanyin Hall, which you will find through the door on your right.

Guanyin Hall

As you can see, although it was built some 40 years ago, this hall is still quite a bit more recent than the one we just left.

The main god here is Guanyin, the goddess of Mercy.

Guanyin is perhaps the most frequently seen bodhisattva in Chinese Buddhist temples.

She is accompanied by Sun Wu Kung, or Monkey, the hero of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. Sun Wu Kung is viewed as a protector of children.

Guanyin was originally the chief god of Puji Temple.

However, she was displaced for a couple of centuries by Chihfu Qiansui and resided at another temple before finally returning when this hall was built.

As you can see, there are a great crowd of deities in the hall.

They include Dizhan Wang, or Ksitigarbha, who took a vow not to attain Buddhahood until all humans are delivered from the cycle of rebirth and suffering.

There are also altars dedicated to the Wenshu, whose name means Great Wisdom, and Puxian, or Universal Virtue.

Collectively, these four deities are the most revered bodhisattvas of the Chinese Buddhist pantheon.

So is Puji Temple a Buddhist temple or a Daoist temple? Visitors from monotheistic societies may have trouble wrapping their heads around the religious mixing that goes on in Taiwanese temples.

But in a polytheistic system such as the one here, there simply isn’t any conflict.

Daoism is more of a common man’s religion, in which one prays for good fortune, wealth, and the solution to one’s earthly problems, whereas the goal of Buddhism is spiritual enlightenment.

The two creeds are in many ways complementary, and it is really no wonder that both are often practiced within the confines of a single temple.

Now, let’s head back and across the courtyard to Fazu hall, the newest of Puji Temple’s three halls.

Fazu Hall

Here you will a most unusual god: Fazhugong, the god of tea growers.

Fazhugong helps ensure that the tea crop is abundant, high-quality, and not plagued by pests.

This effigy was originally enshrined in another temple, but that temple was torn down for road construction when Taiwan was under Japanese rule.

The god has then moved around from place to place until it eventually found a permanent home here in Puji Temple.

The pink-faced god on the left is Marshal Tian-du, the patron saint of actors and musicians.
Marshal Tian-du can often be seen marching in parades.

This hall also houses the temple’s drum and bell.

They are sounded as a mark of respect whenever the gods leave the temple or when sister temples bring their god effigies here to pay a visit to the gods of Puji Temple.

Conclusion

We will end our tour of Puji Temple here. We hope you have enjoyed your visit, and we invite you to return during the Lunar New Year holiday when the temple grounds and surrounding streets are covered in a sea of lanterns strung overhead during the famous Puji Lantern Festival.