There is a majestic Chegong Temple, which is full of incense and filled with smoke all year round. During the Chinese New Year, especially on Che Kung’s birthday on the third day of the new year, more than 100,000 devotees from all over Hong Kong and Kowloon came to Che Kung Temple to worship. Because some people could not squeeze into the temple to worship, they burned paper and incense in a nearby open space. You can imagine the grand scene.
According to legend, Che Gong was a fierce general in the late Southern Song Dynasty. His native place was Wufu, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. He was awarded the title of Grand Marshal for his contribution in quelling the rebellion in the south of the Yangtze River. Later, the Mongolian army pressed forward and drove in. The Song army was unable to resist and retreated steadily. The Emperor of the Song Dynasty fled to Hong Kong under the escort of the left prime minister Lu Xiufu. At that time, Marshal Che also escorted him to the south, but he died of illness on the way. The villagers remembered him for his loyalty and bravery, and worshiped him as a god after his death.
The Che Kung Temple in Tai Wai is famous far and wide. It was built in the late Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 400 years. Together with the Hollywood Man Mo Temple, Wong Tai Sin Temple and Fo Tong Mun Temple, it is also known as one of the Four Great Temples in Hong Kong. One of the great temples.
There are two versions of the reason why this ancient temple was built. One is related to suppressing the plague, and the other is said to be related to the Feng Shui of the villagers in Tianxin Village.
During the Chongzhen period of the late Ming Dynasty, an epidemic suddenly occurred in various parts of the New Territories. Because medicine was not yet advanced at that time, people did not know what kind of epidemic it was. It was actually cholera; cholera is an infectious disease, and its causative agent is Tigerella. They move around in the water, so the infection spreads very quickly. At that time, the Sha Tin area was the most popular.
Later, the villagers studied history books and county annals and found that there was a Marshal Che in the Song Dynasty. He not only had great achievements in defeating thieves, but also stopped epidemics wherever he went, so he asked someone to build a statue of Marshal Che. , built a Chegong Temple here to suppress the epidemic. On the day the temple is built, epidemics will cease to spread.
Another theory is that when the villagers of Tianxin Village founded the village in the past, they hired Master Kanyu to survey the village and found that three rivers converged here in front of the village. At the same time, with the green hills in the back to the north, the Feng Shui is excellent. It is most suitable to build a temple and a town at Shuikou, and you will be prosperous in the future. Therefore, the villagers actively donated money to build the Chegong Temple there to worship Marshal Che.
Later, a plague happened in Liyuan, and many people contracted the disease and died for no apparent reason. The villagers were all panicked, thinking that it was evil spirits. At that time, medicine was not yet developed, so the villagers had no other choice but to pray to God for blessing.
The villagers can only place their hopes entirely on Che Gong. In order to ward off diseases and evil spirits, they carried the statue of Che Gong around various villages, beat gongs and drums, and burned firecrackers. Later, the plague disappeared as expected. The villagers believed that Che Gong was very efficacious, so they invited monks and Taoists to set up an altar and build a memorial ceremony to pray for Che Gong's protection and good weather for the people and the country. He also made a wish in front of the Chegong Temple and held a grand ceremony to establish a memorial ceremony every ten years to repay God's grace. Since then, the ritual ceremony held once every ten years has become a major event in Sha Tin District. Che Gong has also become famous far and wide, and many people come to pay homage to it.