RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000
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communities outside mainland China, and also local non-Fukienese Chinese in the vicinity of Hangzhou, sometimes individually, alone on an altar or together as a pair.

Frequently confused both by devotees and professional god carvers, the two deities are known to Chaozhou-speaking devotees as the Civil and Military Lords of Peace (Wenwu An Zunwang) or individually, Zhang Xun as Wen'an Zunwang and Xu Yuan as Wu'an Zunwang. They are also known by titles respectively [possibly within Chuanzhou communities only] as Baoyi Zunwang 保儀尊王 and Baoyi Dafu 保儀大夫. Both deities hereafter will be referred to as Zhang and Xu, and in a number of temples an individual, lone deity of either Zhang or Xu is known as the patron of local Zhang or Xu clans.

The most common story of the two heroes as related by a great number of temple keepers describes how Zhang and Xu were loyalists opposed to the rebel An Lushan. They died heroically defending the provincial city of Suiyang in Henan province in AD 757, which fell to the enemy after a siege of 49 days. Most temple keepers claim that they died by their own hands rather than fall into those of the enemy, though some claim that the heroic defenders were betrayed by cowards after the food gave out.

Zhang was born in Henan on either the 10th of the fourth or the 12th or 29th of the fifth lunar months in AD 709 and died with Xu on either the 15th of the second or the 9th of the tenth lunar months in 757. These are now celebrated annually with temple festivals in Zhang's honour.

Zhang was the military mandarin in Suiyang and is occasionally referred to in temple records as Zhang Suiyang. He had been employed in military operations in Central Asia before being posted to Suiyang, where his discipline was legendary. In 756, during the rebellion of An Lushan, he fought many battles, was wounded on a number of occasions, and performed prodigies of valour. The climax was reached by his heroic defence of Suiyang against the army of An Lushan's son. He refused to yield and even sacrificed his favourite concubine to no avail. The enemy broke in, and as he scorned to offer allegiance to his conqueror, was immediately put to death. It is said that during the siege
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n
168

their aid.12 Thus it was that although neither of the two deities had ever set foot in the Chaozhou area during their human existence, yet their divine spirits helped the native Chaozhou people and became their patrons. Chaozhou emigrants to Taiwan bore their cult from their local cult centre at Chaoyang, together with images, over to the new lands where at present there are some ten or so temples dedicated to the pair.

Several versions of the tales of their heroism during the siege of Suiyang are related by temple keepers and devotees. Individual stories about Zhang and Xu are well known to Chaozhou devotees, describing how they dug holes to catch rats during the siege, and about Zhang slaughtering his beloved concubine, either to spare her being taken by the enemy or, more morbidly, to be eaten by the starving defenders. Each of the stories highlights their heroism in the face of starvation with no hope of relief from the siege, and their choice of death rather than surrender.

The two deities are revered together on the main altar in at least five temples in Taiwan. Zhang has some eight temples dedicated to him alone in Taiwan, whilst Xu has a further nine. A further fifteen temples contain one of these two deities under their other titles, with both deities, again under their true names of Xu and Zhang, being noted as the main deity on secondary altars.

A Chuanzhou immigrant named Chen brought an incense pot with him from the cult centre of Baoyi Dafu [Zhang Xun] in Fujian and set it up as a branch temple in Shen Keng village near Taipei. According to temple lore, the deified Zhang Xun proved very efficacious in helping villagers with both good fortune and excellent harvests. Later, as the cult developed, it emerged from dream messages that Baoyi Dafu was also very effective in coping with the ravages of insect pests and, moreover, had won local renown by helping Chinese immigrants overcome the original hill tribesmen.

However, in the centre and south of the Taipei Basin, Xu and Zhang together were known by Chuanzhou Fukienese by the single title of Wang Gong 尪公, Wang Yuanshuai 尪元帥 or Wang Wang 王王. Their local legend claims that Wang Gong appeared to a temple keeper in a dream, warning him and the local inhabitants of the San Hsia, Mucha, and Hsintien areas of an intended raid by head-hunting tribesmen from
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