Taiwan's Yue Lao Map: Choose the Right Temple Before Finding a Partner, Because This Island Hosts at Least Ten Yue Lao with Different Specialties

At 7 p.m., on Dihua Street in Dadaocheng. A queue winding into the alley forms before Xiahai City God Temple, mostly women aged 25–35, some holding wedding candy, others reciting partner requirements written on red paper strips.¹

That same evening, at the Sacrificial Official God of War Temple beside Chihkan Tower in Tainan. A man stands before the Crutch Yue Lao praying to "cut peach blossoms" — the Crutch Yue Lao specializes in handling cases of romantic infidelity among Tainan's Four Great Yue Lao.²

That same evening, on the 8th floor of No. 50, Jing'an Road, Zhonghe, New Taipei City, at Weimingtang. A gay couple burns incense before the Rabbit God, because this is one of the few temples in the world explicitly dedicated to same-sex matchmaking, since its founding in 2006.³

Three people worshipping "Yue Lao" at the same time. Three deities. Three completely different sets of rules.

30-second overview: When Taiwanese people say "worship Yue Lao," it's a plural concept. Tainan alone has the so-called "Four Great Yue Lao of the Prefectural City" dividing responsibilities for seeking marriage, seeking stability, cutting peach blossoms, and seeking reconciliation; the north has Dadaocheng Xiahai, Songshan Xiahai (two temples sharing the same name but different locations), Mengjia Longshan Temple, and New Taipei's Weimingtang Rabbit God (same-sex matchmaking); the central-south has Taichung Legong Temple, Lukang Tianhou Temple, and Kaohsiung Guan Di Temple; the east has Hualien Sheng'an Temple and Taitung Tianhou Temple. Each has its own "specialty." Worshippers are taught: the more detailed the partner requirements, the better, because leaving blanks gives Yue Lao loopholes to exploit — from the Tang Dynasty Dinghun Dian (Betrothal Shop) red cord design to today's customized spec sheets, this belief has quietly turned into a matchmaking outsourcing contract over a thousand years.

Yue Lao Is Not One Person: From Tang Dynasty Red Strings to Taiwan's Division of Labor

The name "Old Man Under the Moon" (月下老人) first appears in the Tang dynasty writer Li Fuyan's Xu Xuan Guai Lu (《續玄怪錄·定婚店》).⁴ In the story, Wei Gu encounters an old man at an inn south of Songcheng who, by moonlight, reads a book recording the marriages of all under heaven; a red string in his cloth bag ties the feet of destined couples. The old man tells Wei Gu his future wife is the three-year-old girl in the arms of a blind vegetable-seller in the market. Wei Gu refuses to accept this and sends an assassin, who only manages to slash the girl's brow. Fourteen years later Wei Gu marries the daughter of the Prefect of Xiangzhou; his wife always wears a flower patch on her forehead covering the knife scar.

This narrative prototype fixed several symbols for Yue Lao: red string, marriage register, moonlight, unchangeable spouse. The twelfth-century setting persists today, but in Taiwan the premise of "unchangeable" has been circumvented by believers.

The method of circumvention is division of labor. A single island hosts more than a dozen Yue Lao, each from north to east specializing in a different domain; believers choose a temple first, which amounts to choosing a topic first. Those seeking new romance, those wanting a stable relationship, those hoping for reconciliation, those needing to cut taohua (桃花, unwanted romantic entanglements), those seeking same-sex marriage — different troubles report to different deities. From the outside it looks like superstition; from the perspective of faith structure it is eminently pragmatic: believers no longer "entrust" themselves to a single deity, but route their needs to the corresponding professional window.

Four Temples to Yue Lao in Northern Taiwan, Four Narrative Rhythms

Taipei Dadaocheng Xiahai City God Temple, built in 1859, is one of Taipei's most famous Yue Lao (matchmaker deity) temples. ⁵ Yue Lao has a separate space; worshippers report their name, lunar birthday, address, and partner preferences, then cast jiaobei (divination blocks) to seek the red thread. The temple's famous "hundred years of harmony" red paper strips and wedding candy give Xiahai a reputation for "speed" — many devotees describe the Yue Lao here as "highly efficient," and bringing wedding candy when fulfilling vows is an unspoken understanding.

Taipei Songshan Xiahai City God Temple is located at No. 439, Sec. 4, Bade Rd., Songshan District. It shares the same name but is a different temple from Dadaocheng Xiahai. The main deity is the City God (Chenghuang Ye), with Yue Xia Lao Ren (Old Man Under the Moon) as a secondary deity. The temple's famous "marriage lamps" can be placed before the Yue Lao hall; believers trust that lighting a lamp accelerates the arrival of a good match. ⁶ The Liberty Times once compared the two in a feature titled "Two Xiahai City God Temples in Taipei: Seeking Wealth and Marriage Are Very Different": Dadaocheng Xiahai is known for its "hundred years of harmony" red paper strips and wedding candy, while Songshan Xiahai features the "marriage lamp" ritual and the co-worship of the Five Wealth Gods. The coexistence of two Xiahai temples in Taipei reflects how the same deity system has grown its own localized ritual vocabulary in different administrative districts.

Mengjia Longshan Temple, built in 1738 with 290 years of history, is a national second-class historic site. However, the Yue Lao hall was only added as a separate space in 2001. ⁷ The temple explicitly states: "Please worship the deities inside the temple in order; do not go directly to the Yue Lao hall to seek the red thread — this is impolite." — At Longshan Temple, there is a default rule for seeking Yue Lao: first worship Guanyin Bodhisattva, then other deities, and only last go to the Yue Lao hall. To obtain the red thread, one must cast three consecutive sheng jiao (holy blocks); casting any yin jiao or xiao jiao means "the time has not yet come."

New Taipei Zhonghe Weimingtang Rabbit God Temple was founded in 2006 by Lu Wei-ming and is one of the few temples worldwide explicitly dedicated to same-sex marriage fate. ⁸⁹ The story of the Rabbit God Hu Tianbao first appears in the Qing-era Zi Buyu by Yuan Mei; in the early Qing, Hu Tianbao fell for a young imperial censor, was beaten to death, and was thereafter appointed in the underworld as the Rabbit God, specifically overseeing same-sex affection among mortals. Weimingtang is on the 8th floor of a building near Jing'an MRT Station; the temple describes its positioning as: "Most religious groups in the world are unfriendly to LGBT people, leaving LGBT friends unable to find solace in religion." Although the original text only governs male homosexuality, the temple explicitly writes "regardless of sexual orientation, the Rabbit God is willing to protect," and lesbians and other LGBT groups are also welcome to worship.

Four temples, four narrative rhythms. Dadaocheng Xiahai is the fast rhythm of tourist crowds; Songshan Xiahai is the lingering rhythm of lamp-lighting rituals; Longshan Temple is the slow rhythm of ritual sequence; Weimingtang is the special rhythm of identity politics.

The "Four Great Yue Lao of the Prefectural City" Were Named: There Were Originally Five in 1933

When visiting Tainan to worship Yue Lao, almost every travel guide lists the "Four Great Yue Lao of the Prefectural City": the Wide-Mouthed Yue Lao at Da Guanyin Ting, the Fate-Powder Yue Lao at Da Tianhou Gong, the Crutch Yue Lao at Sidian Wumiao, and the Vinegar-Jar Yue Lao at Chongqing Temple.¹⁰

But the academic basis for this "Four Great" title is actually quite interesting. The Tainan Prefecture Shrine and Temple Directory published in Shōwa 8 (1933) during the Japanese colonial period records that there were actually five temples in the prefectural city enshrining Yue Lao at the time: Da Tianhou Gong, Taiwan's First Temple Tiantan, Chongqing Temple, Da Guanyin Ting, and Puji Dian. In 2015 (ROC year 104), Professor He Pei-fu of National Cheng Kung University directly stated that the title "Four Great Yue Lao of the Prefectural City" has no historical precedent; he himself wrote an article reporting on it first, and others later bestowed the title upon it.¹⁰

In other words: the "Four Great" label used consistently today by the Tourism Administration, temple authorities, and travel guides is a circulated version that grew out of a single scholar's article after 2015. The title itself was coined, but the division of labor among the deities is real.

📝 Curator's Note: Folk beliefs are often imagined as "ancestral traditions," but many details are actually the result of modern selection, naming, and circulation. The interesting thing about the "Four Great Yue Lao of the Prefectural City" case is that the namer himself came out in 2015 and said "there's no historical precedent, I wrote it first" — the belief history here is transparent. For worshippers, knowing whether "Four Great" was coined doesn't affect the genuineness of seeking a romantic match.

Tainan's Four Great Yue Lao (Matchmaker Deities): Their Respective Domains

The Wide-Mouthed Yue Lao of Daguan Yin Ting handles "seeking romantic destiny." The deity's statue has a broad, thick mouth and large, thick ears; the temple explains this signifies "the ability to listen to devotees' needs and speak favorable matches into existence." ¹⁰ Worshippers must first pay respects to the main deity → cast moon blocks → request red marriage thread and yuan fen (fate powder) → pass through the incense burner. The temple suggests writing one's partner criteria on red paper and placing it before the Yue Lao.

The Yuan Fen Yue Lao of Datianhou Gong handles "seeking stability." Before the Yue Lao's altar sit rouge and face powder, a pun on "yuan fen" (緣粉, fate powder). The requested powder is applied around the eyebrows (the "marriage palace" in face reading): women apply it to the cheeks, men behind the ears and on the neck, then circle the incense burner three times clockwise. Devotees believe this boosts peach-blossom luck. ¹¹ Datianhou Gong is one of Taiwan's earliest Mazu temples; the Yue Lao here is a secondary deity, yet media reports say the temple matchmakes "hundreds of couples" annually.

The Crutch Yue Lao of Sidian Wu Miao handles "severing romantic entanglements." This Yue Lao wears a stern expression and leans on a crutch, specializing in "abandoned families, emotional infidelity, and spouses or lovers who are unfaithful and irresponsible." ¹⁰ This division of labor is distinctive: it addresses existing problems rather than new prospects — unfaithful partners, messy third-party situations all fall under the Crutch Yue Lao's purview.

The Vinegar-Jar Yue Lao of Chongqing Si handles "seeking reconciliation." A cu gan is a vinegar crock; devotees stir it three times to pray for the return of a changed heart. The stirring method clearly distinguishes two intents: stir three times clockwise to pray for lifelong harmony, three times counter-clockwise to pray for the other party's change of heart. ¹²¹³ The vinegar-jar custom existed by the Daoguang–Xianfeng era of the Qing dynasty — according to Liu Jia-mou's annotations, the crock originally sat beneath the Bodhisattva's seat; to salvage a relationship one had to pray sincerely and wind one's own hair around a bamboo stick before stirring. The procedure has since been simplified, but the physical act of "stirring vinegar" remains.

Four domains, four concrete objects (mouth / fate powder / crutch / vinegar jar). All are Yue Lao, but when you worship you must first be clear: do you want to find someone new, stabilize an existing bond, cut off an entanglement, or return to the way things were?

Other Yue Lao Temples in Central, Southern, and Eastern Taiwan: History and the Present Coexisting

Taichung Legong Temple was founded in 1753 (the 18th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty), with Mazu (Hanxi Mazu) as its primary deity; the building is designated a third-class historic site by the Taichung City Government.¹⁴ However, the Yue Lao Hall was only added after 2005.¹⁵ Despite its youth, it has spread widely on social platforms such as PTT and Dcard for being "efficacious for seeking reconciliation." The contemporary influence of Legong Temple's Yue Lao has nothing to do with the temple's age and everything to do with social media — a 270-year-old Mazu temple, because of a Yue Lao hall added within the last 20 years, has been repeatedly recommended among young people in the 2020s.

Lukang Tianhou Temple (Mazu Temple) is another example. The Yue Lao was established in 2007; the shrine is less than 20 years old, but the enshrined "standing Yue Lao" is famous for the speed at which he ties the red thread, and the temple has a marriage tree where wish cards can be tied.¹⁵ In this 400-year-old Mazu temple, worshippers are actually venerating a Yue Lao offshoot established within the last 20 years — the belief structure itself is accumulating new windows.

The Yue Lao worship process at Kaohsiung Guandi Temple (Martial Temple) is unique: when making a donation, one receives a marriage petition document, Yue Lao incense, two red threads, and candy. The procedure is to worship the deities in sequence, then place the petition document and offerings on the Yue Lao table; after 10 minutes, the petition document and one red thread are burned, while the other is taken home and placed under the pillow. One burned, one kept — this is the distinguishing ritual of Kaohsiung Martial Temple's Yue Lao.¹⁶

Heading east across the Central Mountain Range, the density of Yue Lao temples drops sharply. Hualien Sheng'an Temple, located in Ji'an Township, enshrines the Queen Mother of the West as its primary deity; the Yue Lao enshrined within makes this the only temple in Hualien that worships Yue Lao.¹⁷ Taitung Tianhou Temple, meanwhile, has a 120-year history and enshrines Mazu as its primary deity; the tradition of worshipping Yue Lao there has been passed down by word of mouth among eastern believers. The structure reflected by these two eastern Yue Lao temples is consistent with the central and southern regions: the primary deity is not Yue Lao, but the Yue Lao halls added in the 21st century have been established, promoted, and amplified by social media until they stand nearly on par with the primary deities. The contemporary expansion of Yue Lao has grown out of the existing temple infrastructure of Mazu temples, Guandi temples, and Queen Mother of the West temples.

Conditions Must Be as Detailed as Possible: Believers Fear Yue Lao Might Exploit Loopholes

If there are this many Yue Lao with such fine division of labor, how do believers "place an order" with Yue Lao at the temple?

Almost every Yue Lao temple guide agrees on one discipline: write your partner requirements in as much detail as possible. You must specify height, appearance, personality, occupation, values, religion, geographic preferences — avoid vague adjectives like "a good person."¹⁸¹ Temples instruct believers to write conditions on red paper; some temples even provide standardized forms with fields for name, birth date, address, and partner requirements.

Why such detail? Ostensibly it's "to make it easier for Yue Lao to find a match," but the underlying logic is more direct: leave blanks, and Yue Lao has loopholes to exploit. If you only write "hoping to meet a good person," any kind of "good person" might be sent your way — the term "good person" is too broad, and the believer effectively hands interpretive authority to Yue Lao. Locking down the conditions is equivalent to pre-screening out potential "bad matches."

This logic is almost identical to modern consumers placing orders with platforms. The more precise the order, the closer the delivered product matches expectations. The difference is that the order recipient here is a deity, not an algorithm.

📝 Curator's Note: The folk consensus discipline that "conditions must be written as specifically as possible" appears to be a taboo directed at Yue Lao, but actually reflects contemporary believers' lack of trust in faith. The classical "sincerity moves the divine" assumes the deity knows what you truly want, and the believer need only send forth pure intent; the contemporary "the more detailed the conditions, the better" assumes the deity might misjudge or match arbitrarily, so the believer must lock down the specifications. Over a thousand years of red-cord belief has been retrofitted in 2020s Taiwan into a matchmaking spec sheet.

Temple-Hopping Culture: Treating Multiple Yue Lao Temples Like a Market

Picking temples based on their specialties and conditions in exhaustive detail isn't enough — there's another level: "visiting every Yue Lao temple."

On social platforms like PTT and Dcard, there are countless records of "which Yue Lao temples I visited this month" and "worshipped at every [temple] in northern Taiwan, central Taiwan, and Tainan's Four Great." Media outlets like Klook report that some devotees even temple-hop 2–3 times a week, treating Yue Lao temple visits as a regular routine — even slotting them into trips to other counties and cities. ¹⁹²⁰

The logic of temple-hopping has three layers. The first is "insurance": worship a few more deities to increase the odds of marriage fate arriving. The second is "risk diversification": if this Yue Lao doesn't respond, there's always the next one. The third is "testing": see which one actually "responds," using real results to reverse-verify which Yue Lao suits you best.

Temples generally don't oppose temple-hopping — the spirit of polytheistic faith is inherently "no taboo against worshipping many." But the taboo that "you can only request one red thread" reversely constrains temple-hoppers: you can worship at many temples, but you can't take a red thread home from each one. ¹⁸ Folk saying goes "too many red threads invite bad romantic luck," but the actual logic is: a devotee's commitment to "which Yue Lao I belong to" must be singular.

You can temple-hop at many temples, but only one red thread. This tension reflects the balance contemporary devotees strike between "worshipping broadly" and "singular loyalty."

From Red String to Spec Sheet

Over a thousand years ago in the Tang dynasty, the Old Man Under the Moon whom Wei Gu encountered at an inn south of Songcheng — the books say he managed "all marriages under heaven" — carried a red string in his bag to tie around people's feet. In that version, the matchmaker god held all information and made the sole decision; humans could only accept.

Over a thousand years later in Taiwan, devotees don't worship just one Yue Lao (matchmaker god) — there are more than a dozen, each with their own specialty. The devotees themselves write the conditions as a spec sheet, and if the matchmaking result is unsatisfactory, they can go to the next temple. Within the same "Yue Lao" mythic framework, the power relationship has completely flipped: from the god deciding for humans, to humans placing orders with the god.

This transformation had no single time point — it wasn't that some temple announced a reform of Yue Lao worship in a particular year. It emerged from the layering of four factors: the addition of specialized halls (2001 Longshan Temple Yue Lao Hall, 2005 Le Cheng Gong Yue Lao Hall, 2006 Weimingtang, 2007 Lukang Tianhou Temple), social media recommendations, temple-hopping culture, and increasingly detailed conditions.

In the next decade, will Yue Lao worship continue to fragment into even more specializations? Weimingtang opened a dedicated window for LGBT worshippers in 2006; will there next be a "cross-border marriage Yue Lao," a "divorce and remarriage Yue Lao," an "unmarried partner Yue Lao"? The more precise devotees' matchmaking demands become, the more deities there may be.

That red string stretching from the Tang dynasty to the 21st century now has its other end tied not just to human feet, but to an ever more contract-like list of conditions.

References

Further Reading

• Taiwan Same-Sex Marriage and Gender Equality — The broader social context of the Rabbit God Weimingtang as one of the world's few LGBT-dedicated temples
• Taiwan Volunteer Culture and Civic Participation — The interweaving of folk belief and community culture