NOTES AND QUERIES
306
h) Feng Huo Yuan T'ien Yuan Shuai (風火院田 元帥)
i) Wu Tai Yuan Shuai (五代元帥)
j) Chung Lich Ta Yuan Shuai (忠烈大元帥)
k) Lei Hai-ch'ing (†)
Various Sightings
Tien the Marshal of the Wind and Fire Ministry
Marshal of the Five Dynasties
The Great and Loyal Marshal
See Werner's story below. I have never seen nor heard this title in any temple in Taiwan and South East Asia, nor in any book on these places.
In Anking on the Yangtze in the thirties, the three gods of the actor's guild were T’ien (□) To (†) and Kuo (#)*
In 1971 there were at least five temples dedicated to Chief Marshal T’ien and the three Tien brothers in Taiwan. One of these was in Taipei and one in Changhua (title 'c' in the list above) and another in Taipei, one in Tainan and one in Yunlin (title ‘a' above).
According to a Penang (Malaysia) temple keeper and a Hsinchu (Taiwan) devotee, prior to 1949 the cult centre of this Taoist heterodox (*) cult used to be at Ch'uanchow (*), Fukien.
Legends
Numerous legends surround Chief Marshal T'ien. One basic story has already been recounted by Miss Werle. Variations and other stories include another recounted by Werner who, like Père Doré, failed to connect Marshal T'ien with Wu Tai Yuan Shuai, Marshal of the Five Dynasties (5#†) whom he calls the 'God of the Musicians'. Werner continued,
"this god had his origin in a practical joke played by his school fellows on a young scholar who lived in the time of the Five Dynasties (907-60 AD). Whilst he was taking a siesta they drew a picture of a crab on his forehead and stuck two willow branches (sometimes represented as pheasant's tail feathers) behind his ears. When he awoke he was so chagrined that he
4 Shryock: The Temples of Anking: Libraire Orientaliste: Paris 1931, p. 163.