What is the "King Sending Boat" at Qingan Palace in Xigang, Taiwan?

The "King Sending Boat" ceremony at the Qingan Palace in Xigang, Taiwan is held once every three years, usually in the middle of the fourth month of the lunar calendar.

The burning of the king's boat is the culmination of the entire ceremony. The ceremony is a part of traditional Chinese culture, and its beliefs and practices have flourished with tens of thousands of believers due to its long history.

Sending the king boat, also known as the "king boat festival", this custom can be traced back to the early Ming Dynasty, "sending the king boat" ceremony in the order of the manufacture of the king boat, out of the warehouse, offerings, tours, burning and so on.

Sending the king's boat is to send the king who "patrols and hunts on behalf of the sky". The legend of the king is inconclusive, and mostly refers to Prince Yue. Every year on the 16th day of the 4th month of the lunar calendar, Taiwan and all parts of Fujian and Zhejiang will hold the "Tribute to the King" activity to honor Prince Yue and pray for peace. Yue Wangjia that is the Song Dynasty national hero Yue Fei, he was loyal to the country, repeatedly built a miraculous achievement, after being killed by the Jade Emperor as "on behalf of the heavenly patrol hunting" Yuefu Wangjia.

Yue not only on behalf of the sky to audit the good and evil on earth, but also the management of the souls of the dead at sea, so Yue also for the folk navigation of the God of protection. Therefore, Prince Yue has been honored and worshipped by the majority of good believers since ancient times.

The coastal people of Yue Fei worship and faith originated more than 800 years ago: according to legend, a long time ago, the plague along the coast of southern Fujian, rampant piracy, the people do not want to live.

That year, a village has a bride from her mother's home to return, brought a King Yue's bag of incense, this bag of incense on the day of the manifestation of the spirit and dream to the village after the patriarch, said he is the King Yue spirits, by the Jade Emperor, "on behalf of the heavenly hunting" to come to the village of Zhenjingjing, in order to protect the villagers of the peace.

The local patriarch did not dare to take the matter lightly, and immediately asked the original king through the medium to confirm that Prince Yue had indeed led the troops into the territory of the village, and then asked the Taoist priests to hand over the responsibility of the township to Prince Yue according to a certain ritual.

Since then, the local people have been worshipping Prince Yue as the village's town deity, and he has become the protector of the coastal people.

Later, in addition to Yue Fei, "the king" added other characters, the earliest can be traced back to the early Ming Dynasty, the latest to the Qing Dynasty, the Yongzheng period. Early Qing Dynasty Taiwan fishermen in memory of Zheng Chenggong's great achievements, to the king as a god on behalf of the heavenly patrol and worship, and build "king boat" sent to the sea, although not explicitly and understand the spirit. Therefore, the king is not on behalf of the "God of Plague", but instead of the emperor to tour the four directions, reward the good and punish the bad, and bless the wind and rain, the country and the people in peace.