Wong Tai Sin Temple (Hong Kong)
This is the sighted version that was marked on February 27, 2021. There is 1 pending change that needs to be sighted.
The Wong Tai Sin Temple (Chinese 黃大仙祠 / 黄大仙祠, Pinyin Huáng Dàxian Sì, Jyutping Wong4 Daai6sin1 Ci4, English Wong Tai Sin Temple) is a Daoist place of worship in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is dedicated to the "Great Immortal Wong" - Wong Tai Sin 黃大仙 / 黄大仙 - a Daoist saint from the 4th century AD. It gave its name to the district of the same name on the Kowloon Peninsula. Despite its Daoist origins, the temple complex is also dedicated to saints of Buddhism and Confucianism. This is a distinctive feature among Hong Kong's sacred places of worship and is known in Chinese culture as the Three Teachings. The temple is said to have always received an answer from the oracle - 求籤問卜 / 求签问卜 - of the temple visitors when making requests and asking astrological questions - 有求必應. Wong Tai Sin Temple is among the temples in Hong Kong with the most visitors. It is popular as a tourist destination with out-of-town visitors as well as among the city's locals. Especially during traditional festivals like Chinese New Year, the temple is open almost 24 hours a day in shifts to accommodate the rush of worshippers due to the heavy influx of visitors.
Designation and management
Hong Kong's Wong Tai Sin Temple is just one of several temples around the world. There are also temples in the cities of Foshan, Guangzhou, Jinhua, Sydney and Miami, for example. The sponsoring organization Sik Sik Yuen, which is responsible for the operation and administration, belongs like many other temples of Hong Kong to the member of the "Chinese Temples Committee" - 華人廟宇委員會 / 华人庙宇委员会, English Chinese Temples Committee - of the city. Therefore, the temple is also known by Hong Kong citizens as "Siki-Sik-Yuen Wong-Tai-Sin Temple" - 嗇色園黃大仙祠 / 啬色园黄大仙祠.
Etymology
Wong Tai Sin
Wong-Tai-Sin's (黃大仙 / 黄大仙, Huáng Dàxian, Jyutping Wong4 Daai6sin1) civil name was Huáng Chūpíng (黃初平 / 黄初平, Cantonese Wong Cho-Ping; ca. 328-386), a young shepherd from the city of Jinhua - historically Jinhua County 金華縣 / 金华县, who lived during the Eastern Jin period (317-420) and is the namesake of the Daoist temple. The latter later became a Daoist hermit and after his death was revered as a "great" saint - "Da Xian", Cantonese "Tai Sin". In the legend, the 15-year-old shepherd met a Daoist master at the northern "Red Pine Hill" - 赤松山 of his hometown, who gave him instructions and directed his way. Hence, he was later referred to in the Daoist circle as the "Saint of Red Pine Hill" - 赤松仙子. The temple is therefore also known by its full name as "Chekchung Wong-Tai-Sin Temple" (赤松黃大仙祠 / 赤松黄大仙祠 - "Red Pine Wong-Tai-Sin Temple, thus roughly: Temple of the Great Daoist Saint Wong of Red Pine Hill").
Sik Sik Yuen
Sik Sik Yuen (嗇色園 / 啬色园, Sèsè Yuán, Jyutping Sik1sik1 Jyun4) was officially founded in 1921 and is the name of the charitable sponsoring organization of the Wong Tai Sin Temple. The term Sik Sik - 嗇色 / 啬色, sè, Jyutping sik1 sik1 - literally means something like "to be stingy with the superficial beautiful things of this world". Meaningfully, it means something like "to restrain oneself in worldly desires" and "to be moderate in the pursuit of worldly pleasures and not to exaggerate," that is, not to go to extremes. The term yuen - 園 / 园, yuán, Jyutping jyun4 - is usually translated as garden or park, but here it also has the meaning of a public place or a fenced place for recreation.
