The Taoist God 祖师爷

[xabir2005]

as above...

 

 

清水祖師

Edited May 23, 2011 by xabir2005

[xabir2005]

Ah ok.. found out some info.

 

Was curious as my birth is related to this deity who is worshipped in many Taoist temples. Didn't know he is a Buddhist monk... as he isn't usually seen in Buddhist temples...

 

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Black-Faced Sect Founder

Tuesday, 26 October 2010 06:13 administrator

 

Mahayana Buddhism crossed the Hindukush into China from India at the beginning of the Common Era(CE). At first, all the “deities,” particularly the bodhisattvas, were imports from India. As Buddhism was popularized, new deities were added to the pantheon, but they had to be apotheosized by emperors, who, like the popes in Catholicism, “canonized” Chinese Buddhist as well as Taoist “saints.” One of the relatively new additions is Crystal-Water Sect Founder or Qinshui Zushi (清水祖師), whose following was localized in Minnan or southern part of the province of Fujian and Taiwan, as most of the Hoklo immigrants on the island after its occupation by the Dutch were from that part of southeast China.

 

There are more than three score Buddhist temples dedicated to the sect founder in Taiwan. Of them, two are best known and each of them has plenty of faithful, who call him Zushi-gong (祖師公), or Lord Sect Founder. One is in Tamsui, a once prosperous seaport only 12 miles almost due north of Taipei. The other is located in Wanhua or Banka, the old trading center of Taipei. The sect founder has two other aliases: Wumien-Zhu (烏面祖) because his face is black and Luopi-Zhu (落鼻祖) because his nose habitually falls when he is angry or tries to warn his faithful of a disaster.

 

Legend and myth about Black-Faced Sect Founder abound.

 

We are relatively sure that the black-faced Buddhist monk was born at Xiaoku in the county of Yungchun in Fujian Province (福建省永春縣小姑鄉) on the sixth day of the first moon of the fourth year of Qingli under the reign of the Emperor Renzhong of the Song Dynasty (宋仁宗慶曆元月六日), which corresponds to 1044 CE His family name was Chen (陳). Chao-ying (昭應) was his given name and his Buddhist name was Puzhu (普足) or Common Satisfaction. He was given over to the Dayun-shi (大雲寺) or Great Cloud Temple in his tender age for training as a child novice. After he grew up, he left the temple and went alone to Mount Gaotai (高台山) to practice asceticism. He was a very strict ascetic, but could not attend enlightenment without a guru coaching him. After years of self-training, he went to Mount Grant Tranquility or Dajing-shan (大靜山) to study under a Zen master named Mingsong (明松禪師) or Clear Pine. Three years of study under the Zen master led to satori (悟), or “small” enlightenment, and his master anointed him as the heir.

 

As he assumed the mantle of Clear Pine, the master told his heir the greatest merit a Buddhist priest could earn is to commonly dispense with benevolence. “It is therefore incumbent on you to do what he can to help the people,” the great master intoned. The heir vowed to obey the last instruction from his mentor. He then returned to Mount Gaotai, where his hermit’s lair fell into disrepairs in the three years of his absence and was no longer livable. He moved to nearby Macao (麻草), which literally means Hemp Grass, to start practice medicine.

 

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Black-Faced Sect Founder II

Tuesday, 26 October 2010 06:14 administrator

 

Because Crystal Water Sect Founder (清水祖師) started practicing medicine in Hemp Grass or Macao (麻草), he is also known as Macao Shangren (麻草上人) or Saint Hemp Grass. He was almost like Aesculapius, the son of Apollo, who was taught medicine by Chiron the Centaur, who could cure any sick man, woman or child. In 1083, or the sixth year of Yuanfeng, under the reign of the Emperor Shenzhong of the Song Dynasty (宋神宗元禮元年), Qingxi (清溪), a county now known as Anxi (安溪) in the province of Fujian suffered a long drought.

 

The people of Qingxi, or Clear River, called on Saint Hemp Grass for help. The universal benefactor couldn’t refuse, so he became a rainmaker. As he prayed before an altar at Qingxi, rain poured. More than enough rain fell to end the drought, and the thankful people of Qingxi wanted to build a temple for their benefactor.

 

When he first came to Qingxi, the Chinese Aesculapius was given accommodation at a house at the foot of nearby Mount Penglai (蓬萊山). There is a clear-water lake, named Yangyue (映月) or (Lake) Reflecting the Moon, in the vicinity. When the temple was erected on a little rocky hill there, the people called it Qingshui-yan or Clear-Water Rock (清水巖). That gave the saint his best-known name of Clear-Water Sect Founder. As he lived at the foot of the mountain, he also came to be known as Penglai Da-zhu (蓬萊大祖) or Great Sect Founder of Penglai.

 

The Buddhist saint decided to stay at Clear-Water Rock. He stayed there for 19 years to continue practicing medicine and asceticism required of a Buddhist monk. He also raised funds for charity and built roads and bridges, the shortcut to earning merit to become a bodhisattva. As a result, he secured a large following in Zhangzhou (漳州) and Dingzhou (汀州), two prefectures in the province of Fujian.

 

Whenever there was a natural disaster, such as famine or drought, the people turned to him for help. His timely help, often in the form of supplication for divine succor, often wrought wonders. He died on the thirteenth day of the fifth moon of the ninth year of Daguan under the reign of the Huizhong emperor of the Song Dynasty (宋徽宗大觀三年), which corresponds to 1109. He told his disciples on the day of his death that he would pass away, sat down in meditation, and died. He was 65 sui (years). (There is a difference in counting age between China and the Westerners. A Chinese baby is one year old when it was born. Such a baby in the West is just one day old.) One biography of the sect founder says he died on that day in the ninth year of Jianzhong jingguo (建中靖口), but that reign of the Huizhong emperor’s lasted only two years. The Buddhist saint’s birthday, according to another biography, is the sixth day of the fifth moon rather than sixth day of the first moon. His faithful in Tamsui celebrate the birthday on the former date.

Edited May 23, 2011 by xabir2005

[de_paradise]

Thanks for that, I worked nearby these temples in Danshui and Sanxia, at Chinese New Years had a stand, not knowing the slightest thing about them or Zushigong, except they were really popular places to bai during the New Year.

Edited May 23, 2011 by de_paradise