Foreword

when our research proceeded, we heard a lot of interesting stories about gods' signs, we roughly put them in order as follows:

A folktale told by Youchang gentleman Sen-Gong Lin

Because lots of people from other places come to Youchang, the range of Youchang community has been expanding.

Gentleman Sen-Gong Lin said:
"When I was about 17 or 18 years old( 1938A.D.), I followed the teams of the patrol at that time. when the teams walked on somewhere of 'Gold Way', a psychic shouted loudly suddenly, he said:
' Anywhere you see will build buildings and houses all over.'
I standing aside didn't believe it, because the places where the gold way passed through at that time were all paddies except one or two houses.

After several decades; the psychic's prediction have come true; A large number of population from other places come to Youchang, the puddies had fallen away and were substituted by buildings or houses.

A folktale told by Gentleman Shih-Rong Yang

If oil sounded from the cauldron, it hints there is devil here, and then the gods will seize it.

Several years ago, before the our gods' patrol, we heard one man set up private temple and worshipped the bad god; then , he began to happen some terrible things, his undertaking didn't succeed, his children often fell ill and etc,. So he came to Yuan-Shuai Temple and asked the gods to help. At that day of patrol, when the patrol teams walked to the Youchang fruits market, suddenly , the oil cauldron which prepared at every patrol for seizing devil was ignited by miracle, and then the gods seized the devils successfully. Next day, this man came back to Yuan-Shuai Temple to thank gods and invited a Taiwanese (folk) opera to perform on the front stage of the temple for thanking gods.

A folktale told by Gentleman Jin-Jyu Lin

Mr. Jin-Jyu Lin told us the history of Yuan-Shuai Temple.

A long time ago, some fishermen who lived in Hongmao Harbor(southern Kaohsiung) fished at sea, they caught a people's bone and threw it back into the sea. The next day, they happened the same situation, and they threw the bone again back into the sea. After going home, they happened something unsafe, so they prayed to gods of Yuan-Shuai Temple for blessing. The gods helped them and blessed them safe. For thanking the gods' great favor, the fishermen built a temple in Hongmao Harbor and worship the same gods in Yuan-Shuai Temple.

A folktale told by Youchang local Huang AGong(grandfather)

The uncle worshiped the deities and asked for help in patrol.

When I was young, one day I went 'Shueidiliao (the name of a place)' to buy oxen, I walked a whole day then arrived. While sleeping, I dreamed someone told me my hometown would happen something and he hoped me go home quickly. After waking up, I felt puzzled very much, but didn't take notice of it. After a while, the same sound sounded again, I felt strange, so I returned home with my companions. while went home on the way, we ran into the patrol teams of Yuan-Shuai Temple, and the team was preparing to seized a devil frog monster, so, I thought that the voice which sounded from the gods was to call me back to seize the monster together. Certainly, the gods seized the devils successfully at the end.

A folktale told by Mr. Ye

Mr. Ye informed us of folktale about the worship of Yuan-Shuai Temple.

I often take a walk to Yuan-Shuai Temple to have a rest with my mother at dusk, I always sit on a low bench in atrium and watch lots of believers worship in the main hall. Sometime, I heard them told about anecdotes of gods, for example:

There are three glasses of water are placed on the main altar for worshipping, After worshipped, the water offer believers freely to drink, It is said these water which are sacrificed for gods are very efficacious, especially the one which is placed in the middle is the best, so they always attract a lot of believers to vie for drinking.

In addition, when we worship, we are always used to holding a handful of joss sticks and then knock slightly on the censer to get each sticks neat. But one A-Mo(grandmother) in the temple, she said: "It is not respectful to gods that believers make the light joss sticks knock on the censer, because this behavior seems to be attacking gods' body." So, now Yuan-Shuai Temple stipulates that believers can't have that behavior any more.