Xiangshan Yishan Hall

Originally established around 1884 by the prominent Hsinchu patriarch Zheng Rulan (鄭如蘭) and fellow gentry as a Longhua (龍華) sect zhaitang (齋堂), or fasting hall, of the Zhaijiao (齋教) folk religion. It was intended as a coastal practice space for Zheng’s wife Chen Run (陳潤), who later moved her primary practice inland to the more conveniently sited Jingyeyuan in 1902. This obscure Buddhist monastery was rebuilt at the current site in the aftermath of the 1935 Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake in a Japanese style with funds donated by Zheng Cai Qiuxia (鄭蔡秋霞); construction began in 1936 but it doesn’t seem to have been completed until after the war due to material shortages. The monastery also doubles as an ancestral hall for a branch of the Zheng (鄭) family and is located behind the Xiangshan God of Wealth Temple (新竹香山財神廟) in Xiangshan.