Wong Tai Sin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Chinese deity known as Wong Tai Sin.
- For the area in Hong Kong, see Wong Tai Sin, Hong Kong.
- For the administrative district in Hong Kong, see Wong Tai Sin District.
- For the famous temple in Hong Kong, see Wong Tai Sin Temple.
Wong Tai Sin (黃大仙; Pinyin: Huáng Dàxian), literally translates to the Great Immortal Wong.
According to Self-Descriptions of Chisongzi (赤松子自述) located in Wong Tai Sin Temple, in Hong Kong, Wong Tai Sin was born Wong Cho Ping (黃初平 Huang Chuping) in 338 in today's Lanxi City, Jinhua County (金華縣蘭溪市), Zhejiang Province, China. He started practicing Taoism at fifteen. Forty years later, he was able to transform stones into sheep. He is also known as Immortal Chisong (赤松仙子), named after his hermit mountain. August 23 (lunar calendar) is Wong Tai Sin's birthday.
In the early 20th century, Leung Renyan (梁仁庵) spread the influence of Wong Tai Sin from Qiaoshan (樵山), Guangxi province of China to Wan Chai, in Hong Kong.
Leung arrived in Hong Kong in 1915. He rented an apartment in Wan Chai, and set up an altar to Wong Tai Sin in the apartment. Later he opened a herbal medicine shop nearby and moved the altar to the back of the shop. Customers coming to his shop could pray at Wong Tai Sin's altar and seek advice for their ailments. Leung would then fill their prescriptions. We can assume that healing did take place, as the popularity of Wong Tai Sin began to grow.
However in 1918, Leung's shop was destroyed by fire. In 1921, Leung received a message from Wong Tai Sin instructing him that a new shrine should be built. The message said that the god had chosen a site that was 3,600 paces from a pier. Leung soon found the spot at the foot of Lion Rock Mountain, near Chuk Yuen village, which was the right distance from the Kowloon City pier.
Leung continued to receive messages from the god dictating the orientation, and dimensions of the temple to be built. Wong Tai sin also told Leung that the shrine should be called Puyi Tan, and that the temple compound should be called Sik Sik Yuen (嗇色園).
Today, Sik Sik Yuen is an educational and charitable foundation, that true to Leung's origins as a healer, runs a free clinic.
The Wong Tai Sin area and Wong Tai Sin District of Hong Kong are named after the Wong Tai Sin Temple located there.
