踏溯台南

踏溯台南

文學院 通識教育課程

Five-Canal Harbor Area: The Water Gods and Import-Export Tradesmen

Route Introduction

 

Jingfu Shrine

No. 44, Renhe Street, Zhongxi District, Tainan City

   Jingfu Shrine is also called the Earth Diety Temple at Fotou Harbor and was built in 1750 according to the legend. It is located at the crossing of three harbor routes – Wangong, Mazu and Guandi Harbors. The three routes reached into three temples in Tainan City: Guanan Temple, The Grand Goddess Temple, and General Guan Yu's Temple. The harbor routes were wider here, so the dragon boat races used to take place annually at this point. It was a great event of Tainan.

  Local residents believed that terrible things would happen if a house was built taller than a temple, so in 1780, a stony plate was set up at Fude Shrine at Fotou Harbor. The government order that no houses in front of the temple could be built taller than the temple was carved on the plate. Yet, the temple was destroyed in a fire in 1807.

  Rich local residents donated money to rebuild the temple and created two plaques "Rebuilding Jingfu Shrine" and "All Creatures Prosper" to witness the event. Later, it was renovated in 1964 and again in 1981 to reach its current look.

  The shrine is a two-segment architecture made of bricks and wood, including a worshipping area and a main hall. Due to the fact that most goods shipped to Fotou Harbor were cedar logs from Fuzhou, many log stores were set up in this area. That is why Puji Street in front of the temple was called "Cedar Store Street" in the ancient time. There were two coolie groups, "Dalun Tsai" and "Qienpu Tsai", who often got into brawls for fighting to carry goods. Hence, local people mocked the event by a saying, "Tsai fights Tsai, breaking the ancestral tablets." 

   In 1985, the Earth God Temple was proclaimed a third-degree ancient heritage, which made it the only one among all Earth God Temples in Tainan as an ancient heritage.
 
 
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