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▪History
The process of building the Hsinchu City Chenghuang Temple in Hsinchu City is inseparable from the establishment of Zhú qiàn City. The original meaning of City God is "city wall" and "moat", and then evolved into the patron saint in folk belief, which is the current Cheng Huang Lord. The plan of the Hsinchu City God's Temple is a typical continuous gabled three-hall temple, which is a long-standing traditional form in southern Fujian. The undulation of the gable wall has become the biggest feature of its shape. It is often called the Hsinchu City God Chenghuang Temple among the people. The main josses that the people in Hsinchu City worship are Chenghuang Lord and his wife.
▪Building
In 1875, Zhú qiàn was renamed into Hsinchu County. Taipei Prefecture, which was located in Měng xiá at that time, had not yet been established. Tamsui Department was set temporarily as the seat of Taipei Prefecture. In 1891, local gentry donated more than 312.38 USD to rebuild it again. During the Japanese colonial period, the temple was unfortunately damaged again. Hsinchu official and gentry Zheng Zhaoji donated a huge sum of money to initiate the renovation. The project started in 1924 and was completed in 1926.
Most of the existing stone carvings on the front hall walls are the representative works of this period. The Hsinchu City God's Temple faces east to west and slightly north. It is a temple building with three bays, three entrances and two corridors, with the Guanyin Hall on the left. There is a pair of blue stone lions with classic simplicity in front of the middle door of the front hall, and an octagonal caisson is installed on the ceiling inside the door. The main hall is consecrated to the City God, and the back hall is consecrated to the City God's wife.
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▪Field research
Hsinchu City Chenghuang Temple’s “Cheng” means the city wall, and “huang” means the river runways. Left dragon and right tiger, left clock and right drum, in the form of gods’ sitting posture, people will go into the temple from the left, and come out on the right side. When you get into the temple, you must be careful not to step on the threshold. Straddle through the threshold means to be respectful to the gods. At the top left of the temple, there are four crabs whose claws take four things - writing brush, inkstone, ingot, and roundabout. The writing brush and inkstone means to be knowledgeable. Roundabout means that being a person, you need to be harmonious. The ingot means that you need to be calm to do anything.
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▪Mythology
The seventh master is also known as General Xie, commonly known as Xie Bi'an, and the eighth master is also known as General Fan, commonly known as Fan Wusheng. General Xie is one foot four tall and General Fan is five feet tall. Legend has it that they were all from Min County, Fujian, and they had been brothers since childhood, and one day they went out to Nantai Bridge, the day is about to rain, the seventh master asked the eighth master to wait for him to go home to get the umbrella, but unexpectedly, after a while, the heavy rain poured into the basin, the river rose violently, the eighth master abided by the agreement, so he was unwilling to leave the bridge. However, because of his short stature, he was drowned in the water. When the seventh master took the umbrella to rush, the eighth master had been swept away by the flood, the seventh master was in great pain so that he threw himself into the river. Unexpectedly, he couldn’t end his life in the river because his stature is too tall. As a consequence, he hung himself under a tree near the river. After the Emperor learned about this touching story, he sent them to be the subordinates of the Chenghuang Lord, and take the responsibilities for arresting Yang Shi as a traitor to accept the trial of the Chenghuang Lord.
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