The Beginning
The story of the exegesis started in 2011. Whilst savoring my dream, two tall and robust guards of the underworld, with their faces painted in white and black respectively, came into my sight and rendered a blue book of poems, “A mission for you !”
In awe and surprise, I woke up knowing that there is something I had to accomplish. A visit to Beigang Chaotian Temple revealed the truth that there was no unified system nor regular principle for interpreting the poems. So, I was assigned the mission of composing an universal, modern version of the sixty sacred poems and hand it to an expert interpreter to further revise the explanations for the updated poems.
Matsu specifically demanded me to cast the moon blocks at my home worship hall in order to get the correctly updated poems. Besides casting the moon blocks for the guidance of Matsu, I also had to verify the details with San Guan. This seemingly simple process took half of an year, during which the poems went through four major revisions. Finally, the Matsu of Chaotian Temple made the final verifications.
During the revision stage, there were a great deal of contradictions between the modern and the original poems. Such differences were feared due to the potential of creating conflicts. There were frequent visits to the temple to verify every single detail with San Guan and Matsu to avoid all possible mistakes. Thankfully, Matsu and San Guan told me to stop being so anxious but be kind and calm. Only a righteous mind can accomplish the mission of composing the new and universal exegesis to be referenced to in the future. Afterwards, inspirations that I had never imagined popped up.
My most profound fear has always been the possible conflicts caused by publishing the updated poems. But, Matsu assigned a specific poem interpreter to further accomplish the full job after casting three positives given by San Guan and Matsu. Despite the reassurance, I never met the assigned interpreter even after several years. The only thing I could do was to leave the encounter to fate.
Until the lunar July in 2016, I was told by Matsu that I had to visit the YDM to pass on the sacred task. It happened, and afterwards, Consultant Shih continued the long-paused process.
Consultant Shih, respectfully, also took the matters cautiously and seriously. Everything was verified with three positives from Matsu. His proactivity paid off. Now, there are already a great number of poems posted on the internet.
Five years apart from the beginning, I feel absolutely honored to be able to participate in such miraculous process and share it with others. I also expect a lot from YMD, responsible and great enough to further develop these poems and interpretations into a form of textbook for all of Matsu’s believers.
|
