Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

The Dianji Temple: Renovation

Whereas both the Qing'an and Chenghuang Temples had Xu Zisang as their manager, the Dianji was led by a series of members of a local Lin family, who passed the role of temple manager from father (Rongqin) to sons (Guanshi and Dexin). (Xu became a representative on the Dianji's management committee.) In 1921, Lin Guanshi launched the first major renovation of the temple's structures since it had been established. Some minor repairs were completed in 1897, but after almost 50 years of operation, the Dianji had fallen into disrepair. After an economic cycle of wartime boom, post-war decline, and subsequent recovery swept Japan's empire during the latter half of the 1910s, the moment arrived to restore the temple. By the time the project was completed, the temple had been completely transformed, with new front and back buildings and a second floor in the main structure, at the cost of some 40,000 yen. The temple's prominence within Jilong and its attachment to local society was seen in the list of prominent donors--Xu Zisang and the mining magnate Yan Guonian, most notably--as well as in the inscription on the stone tablet erected to mark the finished renovation in 1923:

Calamities cannot invade a place with a bright spirit, and animals will not experience disease. That being the case, the temple’s appearance must be dignified. How can it be only for the sake of admiring it that it is built?

Indeed, the temple gained its lands thanks to a grant from Lin Benyuan, a prominent commercial elite of northern Taiwan and leader of the well-known Banqiao Lin family. Therefore, although principally a local institution, the Dianji had material links to other parts of Taiwan, as well as spiritual roots across the Taiwan Strait.

This page has paths:

This page references: