The Celebration of Heavenly Master Xu's Birthday on the 25th Day of the 10th Lunar Month

The five deities in the Johor Ancient Temple are worshipped by the five major clans in Johor Bahru, namely Zhao Da Yuan Shuai (Persatuan Hainan Johor Bahru), Hua Guang Da Di (Johor Bahru Kwong Siew Wai Kuan), Gan Tian Da Di (Hakka Association), Hong Xian Da Di (Hokkien Association), and Yuan Tian Shang Di (Teochew Eight Districts Association).

While not all Hakka people worship Heavenly Master Xu, who is venerated by the Johor Bahru Hakka Association, he is regarded as the main deity among Malaysian Hakka people and is one of the five deities associated with the five major clans in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

The 25th day of the 10th lunar month is the birthday of the Heavenly Master Xu. This provides an opportunity to gain further insight into the origins of this deity.

The Origin of Heavenly Master Xu

According to historical records, Xu Xun, the Heavenly Master Xu, with the courtesy name Jingzhi, was a famous Taoist priest in the Jin Dynasty. He was also known as Xu Jiu Lang, Xu Jing Yang, the Ancestral Master of Jingyang, Gan Tian Da Di. He is one of the four great immortal masters of Taoism, known as Xu Tian Shi, Xu Zhen Jun.

According to legend, Xu Xun was gifted and intelligent from an early age, with a comprehensive knowledge of history and economics, as well as astronomy, geography, medicine, and the five elements of yin and yang. He was particularly interested in Taoist cultivation techniques. In the year of Taikang (280) of the Western Jin Dynasty, Xu Xun was 42 years old. He accepted the magistrate post of Jingyang County in Sichuan due to his inability to avoid the court's repeated orders.

During his time as magistrate of Jingyang, he carried out many policies that benefited the country and the people. There was a year when Jingyang was plagued by heavy floods and the low fields failed to produce a crop, he had a large number of peasants work on the government fields, substituting labour for taxes so that the victims could be rescued. The plague was widespread at the time, so Xu Zhenjun used his own medicine to cure the disease, and the people were so grateful that they highly honoured him.

At that time, a folk song was sung in Jingyang to praise Xu Xun's merits. The lyrics included the following: “No one steals, no official is treacherous, no one is deceived, the King lives and there is no illness.” People from neighbouring counties came to join him, and the number of households in Jingyang increased greatly. Xu Zhenjun served as an official in Jingyang for ten years and was known as “Xu Jingyang” for his honesty and excellence.

During the year of Taixi (290), because of the great chaos in the Jin Dynasty, and knowing that the country would not last forever, Xu Xun resigned from his post and returned to the East. When he left, there were devotees everywhere; some built a shrine for him, painted statues for him and worshipped him all year round; some followed him thousands of miles to the West Mountain, gathered and lived with Xu Xun, even changing their surnames to Xu, known as the “Xu Family Camp”. It is said that Xu Xun lived to the age of 136, and on the first day of August in the second year of Ningkang (374) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, 42 members of his family flew into the sky and became immortals, and the world honoured him as “Xu Xian”.

Xu Xun, Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan and Sa Shou Jian are the four main deities of the Jade Emperor's Tongming Palace. They are the Four Great Heavenly Masters of Taoism. Xu Zhenjun is often regarded as a protective deity. In Taiwan, the Lushan sect of Taoism also worships Xu Xun as the Lushan Master.

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