City God of the Palace of Felicitous Tranquillity 城隍境主
City God of the Palace of Felicitous Tranquillity
or
慶安宮城隍境主 (Qingan Gong Cheng Huang Yeh) in Xigang, Tainan
The City God of the Palace of Felicitous Tranquillity in resides in the Cheng Huang Hall (城隍殿) which is to the left of the Main Hall Dai Tian Fu entrance and is commonly called the tiger entrance.
Worship of the City God began during the Zhou Dynasty and is commonly believed to be the protector of cities and the god who controls the Yin and Yang (the realm of the living and dead). His duties are twofold, the protector of a geographic area and as a judge who decides the fate of departing souls. There are City Gods at the provincial level, county level and city level. Following the Ming and Ching dynasties the City God was elevated from common god and granted a celestial post that could be held by those that possessed exemplary qualities when living. The city god worshipped at Qingan Temple is the very same city god that Koxinga prayed to in 1661 when he sailed into the Taijiang Inland sea to defeat the Dutch rulers.
Two celestial judge statues are to the left and right of the Qing An temple’s city god. The white faced ‘civil’ judge holds the ledger of life and death. This judge is in charge of recording the lifespan, the good and bad fortune, and the good and bad deeds one has accrued in their lifetimes.The other is the martial judge who metes out judgements in accordance with the evidence in the civil judge’s ledger
The City God celebrates a birthday on the eleventh day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar