Tainan Longqi: President Chen Zhansong looks like the god of longevity
Tainan Longqi: President Chen Zhansong looks like the god of longevity
Tainan Longqi, located in the southeast of Tainan City, is an offshoot of the Mount Ali, most of which are covered by hills ranging from 100 meters to more than 300 meters. It maintains primitive ecological environment with valleys interlaced with streams. There are many beautiful mountains and water landscape, and it is a good destination for tourism and vocation. Longqi Wenheng Temple is situated in this beautiful place.
Chen Zhansong, chairman of Longqi Wenheng Temple, has rosy face and is full of energy although he is over sixty. His pure face gives us a feeling that he worrys nothing. Now he gains another title: president of China Taoism Guan Yu Promotion Association.
Perhaps Chen Zhansong, the President of Longqi
district of Tainan, is the god of longevity
Guan Yu icon enshrined in the hall of Tainan Longqi Wenheng Temple
Guan Yu icon enshrined in the hall of Tainan Longqi Wenheng Temple
Cornices of Longqi Wenheng Temple
In the early summer of 2016, I went to Taiwan again to visit the Wenheng Temple and when I arrived there, President Chen had waited me in the hall for a long time. The meeting with President Chen evoked a childhood dream buried in my deep heart: my mother served as the manager of Dongfeng Tea and Wine Shop at Yuxi Town, Dangyang County when I was five years old and this tea house was the most luxurious building at that time. When my mother was on night duty, I always slept with my mother on the second floor of the teahouse. I dreamed around five o’clock in a morning that a white beard longevity grandpa, with his Chinese dragon-head crutch under his arm, floated to me from the second floor and said to me while stroking my head: “Child, don’t be afraid no matter what you will encounter, we will protect you…”. After his words, the longevity grandpa stroked my head again and waved to me, smiling and drifting back to the balcony. I ran over and pulled his hand hoping to say a few more, but the grandpa was floating higher and higher… I suddenly waked up and realized it was a dream! I could not sleep that morning any more and recalled the kind smile, loving touch, and the mysterious blessing of that grandpa.
Over the years, I have been looking for the appearance of this longevity grandpa in the present world. The sight of President Chen Zhansong gave me the impression that he looks most like longevity grandpa. I held his hand firmly and said “longevity brother, what you need is only a Chinese dragon-head crutch.” President said with a smile, “I am still young, so I do not need it!” I said, “From today, I will call you longevity brother!” President Chen smiled happily.
President Chen smiles happily at the celebration with tens of thousands of people at present
Culture scholar Zhu Zhengming presenting works from well-known painter Kang Feng to Wenheng Temple at the celebration attended by tens of thousands of people
Wenheng Temple magnificently stands between the mountains and rivers in Longqi. Guan Yu is enshrined in the hall together with the Guan Yu icon from Shanxi Yuncheng’s Ancestral Temple who has traveled to Taiwan for 3 years nine years ago gurding the main temple hall. Prince Guan Ping, General Zhoucang, God Ford, Goddess Zhusheng are all enshrined in the hall and Goddess Guanyin and Fengniang are in the real court.
In January 2013, Mr. Chen Zhansong took office as president of the China Taoism Guan Yu Promotion Association and then did a great thing that attracted great attention across the Taiwan strait-carrying out Guan Yu icon cruise to spread the Guan Gong culture across the strait. Precious cultural relics like Guan Yu icons, broadswords, sedans from Guan Yu Ancestral Temple in Haizhou of Yunchen, Shanxi province toured 160 temples in Taiwan. 10 “loyalty and justice” shows were held and more than 4 million people in the island participated in the parades, worships and prayers.