Study on the Religious Belief in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County, Taiwan—Via Renshougong, the Temple

• Main Authors: CHU, CHING-LIANG, 朱清亮
• Other Authors: HUANG,YUN-HSI
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2x9cwv

碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 宗教學系碩士在職專班 === 102 === The temple, “Renshougong”, is a religious center in Dayuan area, Taoyuan County. It is Taiwan’s number one and the grandest temple that enshrines Reverent Hsu Hsun. Villagers here started to believe in Reverent Hsu Hsun (The Kan Tien Great God) ever since 176 years ago. It can be said that Renshougong is one inseparable part in Dayuan’s folk culture. Aimed at Renshougong, this research carried out a multi-aspect discussion from the temple’s establishing history, enshrined gods, festive ceremonies, and temple architectures to obtain a thorough understanding on the temple’s cultural characteristics. In addition, by quantitative research practice, this research also conducted in-depth interviews with temple followers to collect information and analyze the reason that arisen Renshougong follower’s holy believe. After summarizing and analyzing the collected interview data, the research discovered three main causes that affected temple follower’s belief, that are I) social factors, such as guide from family members; II) medical and health factors; and III) religious experiences. Ching Min Tao, one of the major sects in Chinese Taoism, venerates Reverent Hsu Hsun as the founder. Chin Min indicates that the pure origin of man is bright and clean and can always connect to the nature. However, in reality, man betrays the pure origin to indulge passions and follow desires, thus disconnects with nature and fails to be man. Thus, Ching Min Tao promotes filial piety and receives the teaching of Reverent Hsu Hsun: loyalty, filial piety, honesty, solemnity, generosity, affluence, adaptability and forbearance as the eight precious to guide the lost. Renshougong becomes local people’s religious center in Dayuan area right after it was built. Local people consider Renshougong as the major temple in Dayuan area. Besides keeping general religious affairs and functions, Renshougong also regularly holds festive ceremonies to cohere and maintain villager’s emotions. In addition, the temple also tries to contribute to the society by promoting charity activities to purify human hearts. In the other way, its aggressive promotion of Reverent Hsu Hsun’s believing, loyalty and filial piety, can also enhance Renshougong’s temple image.