苗栗嘉盛庄村廟的空間配置及其內

Abstract

For the purpose of interpreting the meanings of the village temples' spatial arrangement at “Chiasheng Chuang (嘉盛庄)” Miaoli area, this study has reached to conalusions as follows by fieldworks and hermeneutic method of Humanistic Geography: 1. The main temple of “Chiasheng Chuang (嘉盛庄)" is known as “Wu Wenchang Temple (五文昌廟)”. In view of the building scale, location, bearings of fengshui (風水) sacri-ficial circle, and cultural landscape of this temple, it is indeed qualified as the center of the village, the axis of villagers' lifeworld, and the pivot of the existential space of the village. 2. With the spatial pattern of “core& four peripheries (中心─四方)", “Tutikung Temples (土地公祠)" have taken shape of the village's boundary and territory. Their locations and cultural landscapes reveal the meanings of “Tutikung Temples(土地公祠)” as follows: a. The god's duty for guarding the frontiers of the village. b. The religious role of the area's corner (角頭) at the village. c. Manifesting the spiritual contents of lower cultural tradition in the villagers’ daily life. 3. The locations of “Wuku Temple (五穀廟)" at the north and “Shihmu Temple (石母祠)" at the south of “Chiashen Chuang (嘉盛庄)" represent the operational meanings of “Chien (乾)” (the Heaven) and “Kun(坤)" (the Earth) in the existential space of the village with the symbol of flourishing agriculture. 4. The writings sculptured on the walls or pillars of the temples sufficiently manifest the valuations and the ethical norms in the Chinese Culture, for instance, the writings in the main temple teach us both loyalty and filial piety; the writings in the “Tutikung Temple (土地公祠)" tell us to pay our highest respect to the virtues of the Earth; meanwhile, the writings in “Wuku Temple (五穀廟)" and “Shihmu Temple (石母祠)" praise the profound connotation of both the Heaven and the Earth. All these show that lower cultural tradition represented by the village's temples contains the spirits of higher cultural tradition. 5. According to the ages of establishments of the temples, there're 3 stages for the develop-ment of “Chiasheng Chuang (嘉盛庄)”. At the first stage, it had neither main temple nor other temples been built but “Tutikung Temple (土地公祠)". That revealed the village was still in the unsteady condition of colonical cultivation; at the second stage, "Wuku Temple (五殼廟)" had been created and considered as the center of the village, indiating it was a plain cutivated society; at the third stage, “Wu Wenchang Temple (五文昌廟)” had been established as the center of “Chiasheng Chuang (嘉盛庄)”, revealing the accomplishment of cultural space at the village.