起
Beginnings
“Bao Guang” refers to the lineage of Elder Pan Hualing of the Bao Guang Altar in Shanghai; “Shao Xing” honours Senior Elder Lin’s hometown, Shaoxing in Zhejiang.
On 18 August 1946 Elder Pan sent Senior Elder Lin and Senior Elder Zhou from Shanghai; after fifteen days at sea they reached Keelung. Unable to speak Taiwanese, they began their mission in Luodong, entrusted the work in Yilan to Senior Elder Zhang in 1949, and moved on to Keelung. As the Tao took root there, four Transmitting Masters — Li Qingxiang, Guo Hao, Fu Furong and Huang Zhaoxian — were sent to Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Taichung and Changhua. In 1952 the elders settled in Taichung, which became the centre of the work, while Chiayi, Dounan and other places grew at the same time.
承
Continuation
When Senior Elder Lin passed away in 1967, Senior Elder Zhou carried on the work. From 1969, following the instruction of the Holy Mother (Shimu), spirit-writing was discontinued and members were guided instead through teaching the truth. The mission then reached overseas: the first overseas temple opened in Thailand in 1981, followed by public temples in Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Canada and Japan.
展
Unity and Vision
When Senior Elder Zhou passed away in 1987, the work was entrusted to Elder Ko, then pioneering in Singapore. That same year I-Kuan Tao became legal in Taiwan, and Elder Ko set about uniting the temples: private family temples were brought together into public temples, and in 1988 the first island-wide lecturer training was held in Longtan, Taoyuan, ending the old practice of each area training its own people. In 1997 the Tao Affairs Centre in Nantun, Taichung was completed, and a structured sequence of classes for members, staff, speakers and lecturers followed.
Guided by “move Heaven with sincerity, transform people with virtue”, Bao Guang Shao Xing now has temples throughout Taiwan and in Southeast Asia, North America, Japan, Spain and El Salvador. In 2001 the I-Kuan Tao Bao Guang Shao Xing Chong Hwa Saint Tao Foundation was established with the approval of the Ministry of the Interior and registered as a legal entity — a government-registered religious organisation.
