Interview

Q：Mr. Sun, can you tell us why you select the temples of Youchang to do your research ?

A： Why I selected them, I originally researched San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple (Temple of the Three Mountain-Kings) in Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung county. It is public knowledge that San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple is Hakka's temple.(Hakka is one of Taiwan ethnicities) There is a San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple in Youchang, it was built in Ming Dynasty(1647A.D.~). But I seldom see Hakka family in the area, I wonder where they are. I asked Miao-Gongs (Person administering the affairs of temple) and Youchang locals at that time, all of the answers were that Hakkas had been driven away by locals. But I didn't agree with the answers. I thought if Hakka were driven away, then San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple should be destroied at the same time, right? Like the Hans, when they immigrated to Indigenous People's area, they drove the indigenous people away, then built their own temples, set up their gods' statues, and threw away indigenous people's gods' statues. But why San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple in Youchang is worshipped continued, and becomes one of major temples here?

　

The following is the statements of my research:
Hakka here assimilated into Minnan.(Minnan is one of Taiwan ethnicities). This discovery was found very luckily. In April 1999A.D., I came to Yuan-Shuai Temple, because it is the biggest and the main temple in Youchang. It happened that it was Marshal Chen's birthday that day, there were many folk performance groups, Song-Jiang-Jhen and traditional Chinese Music performanced lively on the front yard of the temple. On the other hand, Chen family held a memorial ceremony for their ancestor in the temple, their ancestor is just the God, Marshal Chen. I asked them: "Do you know where your ancestor came from?" "Raoping of Guangdong Province" Raoping of Guangdong Province is exactly Hakka's birthplace. Chen family have already propagated for 18 generations in Youchang. If a generation is 25 years, then they have already lived here over 400 years. Before Dutchmans colonized Taiwan, the family had immigrated here. But I did not have a certain evidence to support my discovery until later I visited China on 1999A.D. .

　

Q：Mr. Sun, can you tell us, what are the similarity and the difference between San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple and Yuan-Shuai Temple?

A： The biggest difference is the main God! San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple worships Nature Gods, three mountain Kings, and Yuan-Shuai Temple worships seven Marshals. The similar is that the two temples are the places where the public be reassured and where their souls repose on.

　

Q：Mr. Sun, can you tell us, what are the similarity and the difference between Yuan-Shuai Temple and temples in other places?

A： Compared with other temples, I think some temples in other places offer pork, meat and fish to be sacrifices. Some spend lots money on ceremony, but neither does Yuan-Shuai Temple. Yuan-Shuai Temple's worshipping way is with Buddhism ceremony, it asks the Buddhist monks to pray for blessings, it saves ceremonial money for giving the disadvantaged rice. I also went to consult the documents of Kaohsiung City about each temple's contribution of every year, Yuan-Shuai Temple is always on the top 10. Yuan-Shuai Temple also helps poor schoolchildren to pay their school lunch expenses. One further point to make, Miao-Gong (Person administering the affairs of temple) and volunteers here serve without charge from morning till night. They help people to explain the sign which is written on fortune sticks. They also teach person like me who doesn't know the processes of worship how to do. Finally, the toilet here is very clean, I have been to a lot of temples, all their toilets are very stink.

　

Q:Can you tell us what difficulty did you meet during you researching?

A： Oh! the difficulty……, was I caught a serious disease in 1998A.D., it was probably in July or August. Before making myself research, I had worked for Mr. Huang-Yu Liou who is a famous Native Soil scholar for a long time, my spirit and my strength had totally used up at that time. But I still insisted on doing myself research next. Finally, I fell ill and couldn't help but halted the research. After recovering from illness, I went to China to do the field investigation in 1999A.D. I looked for more materials to continue my research and found the powerful evidences to support the statements of my research. At last I finished my thesis and issued it formally.

In addition, I went to Zuoying to visit a San-Shan-Guo-Wang Temple which was recorded on history literature. But when we arrived there, the temple had already been dismantled for a long time and only had a stone there. I interviewed a resident there, he told us the temple was pulled down by the government. While I interviewed the man, he just dried a lot of pork livers in the front yard of his house. The livers attracted a lot of fleas, some fleas jumped into my foot and bit me. I was painful and spent several weeks in curing.

Besides, I remember one traffic accident. One day, I and my husband came to Youchang for researching, a man who seemed to be drunk rode a motorcycle through our car, he fell suddenly in front of our car. We alighted our car instantly, helped him and asked: "Any harm? Call 911?"
he answered: "Nothing."
We said:"Take our phone number, just in case." After several days, the man called us and extorted 4000 dollars.

Furthermore, we once lost our way in the mountain of Kaohsiung county. I was very scared, because we drove our old car and couldn't move any more on the mountain. Now, we buy a four-wheeled transmission vehicle and can go everywhere. It is quite interesting to meet a lot of difficulties, and they have become wonderful experiences in my life.

　

Q：Can you tell us what do you gain from this research of Yuan-Shuai Temple?

A： knowing its green and economical kindnesses. For example, no Pudu (a universal commemoration of the Ghost Festival in the Lunar 7 Month) ,no burning paper money,etc.