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into Tainan and nearby Yenshui to purchase building materials. After one deal had been completed in a timber yard in Tainan the shop owner, intending to show the old man the best way out of town, came out of his shop to find that the old man had completely disappeared. A short while later the Spirit showed himself more frequently in several nearby towns where, as carts were not available, he employed some sixty people with bamboos to transport stone to the temple site. One stone merchant promised a pair of sculpted stone lions when the task of transporting the stone was finished and was amazed by the speed with which the sixty people managed to complete the task and then realised that they were spirit-labourers.
The spirit of General Lei again revisited the temple during the invasion of Taiwan by the Japanese in 1895 when he turned peas into soldiers. He gave orders through the temple's divination blocks for three baskets of peas and one basket of hemp-seed to be thrown into the open court in front of the temple. On the following morning all the peas and hemp-seed had disappeared, replaced by red-coated soldiers some three foot tall standing on the tops of trees or on the tips of bamboo canes. These undertook the defence of the town which suffered no damage nor anyone injury from the Japanese.
Although many of his devotees believe that he is the General Lei revered elsewhere as the spirit of Lei Wanchun, a subordinate of Zhang Shun, his image in their temple depicts him as a standard soldier, sitting, dressed in armour and with a long black beard. He has no unique characteristics such as gold spots, and is prayed to not only for protection but also for general benefits [Photograph 9]. Until 1915 General Lei was the sole deity on the temple altar. However, that year following a long drought devotees decided to introduce the image of Qingshui Cushi on to the altar to be prayed to for rain. Almost immediately the drought was broken and the image of Qingshui Cushi then became the main deity on the altar. Again, in 1924, after devotees wished to test the power of General Lei following complaints from devotees that his power was waning, it was proved through extensive tests that General Lei was as powerful a spirit as ever though by that time an image of another Wangye, that of Li Wangye, a local Pestilence Wangye1 had also been added to the altar.
Wen Yüan-shuai, a deity noted on temple altars across southern China from Zhejiang to Sichuan, has been identified by some religious specialists as Wen Qiong or . Wen was the Vanguard General
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into Tainan and nearby Yenshui to purchase building materials. After one deal had been completed in a timber yard in Tainan the shop owner, intending to show the old man the best way out of town, came out of his shop to find that the old man had completely disappeared. A short while later the Spirit showed himself more frequently in several nearby towns where, as carts were not available, he employed some sixty people with bamboos to transport stone to the temple site. One stone merchant promised a pair of sculpted stone lions when the task of transporting the stone was finished and was amazed by the speed with which the sixty people managed to complete the task and then realised that they were spirit-labourers. The spirit of General Lei again revisited the temple during the invasion of Taiwan by the Japanese in 1895 when he turned peas into soldiers. He gave orders through the temple's divination blocks for three baskets of peas and one basket of hemp-seed to be thrown into the open court in front of the temple. On the following morning all the peas and hemp-seed had disappeared, replaced by red-coated soldiers some three foot tall standing on the tops of trees or on the tips of bamboo canes. These undertook the defence of the town which suffered no damage nor anyone injury from the Japanese.
Although many of his devotees believe that he is the General Lei revered elsewhere as the spirit of Lei Wanchun, a subordinate of Zhang Shun, his image in their temple depicts him as a standard soldier, sitting, dressed in armour and with a long black beard. He has no unique characteristics such as gold spots, and is prayed to not only for protection but also for general benefits [Photograph 9]. Until 1915 General Lei was the sole deity on the temple altar. However, that year following a long drought devotees decided to introduce the image of Qingshui Cushi on to the altar to be prayed to for rain. Almost immediately the drought was broken and the image of Qingshui Cushi then became the main deity on the altar. Again, in 1924, after devotees wished to test the power of General Lei following complaints from devotees that his power was waning, it was proved through extensive tests that General Lei was as powerful a spirit as ever though by that time an image of another Wangye, that of Li Wangye, a local Pestilence Wangye1 had also been added to the altar.
Wen Yüan-shuai, a deity noted on temple altars across southern China from Zhejiang to Sichuan, has been identified by some religious specialists as Wen Qiong or . Wen was the Vanguard General
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