Taiwanese Scripture Chanting Lessons
Teacher Zheng Su-Xia
Chant in Taiwanese, one line at a time. Even how to strike the wooden fish and when to come in with the yinqing chime are taught from scratch until you can do it.
Teacher Zheng Su-Xia teaches scripture chanting in Taiwanese literary pronunciation: starting from pronunciation and phrasing, she leads you line by line, and also teaches how to strike the wooden fish, when to come in with the yinqing chime and how to start the melody of hymns and verses. Her teaching covers two traditions: Zhaijiao Longhua liturgy and Buddhist scriptures. To find out how lessons work, add the teacher's LINE Official Account (@722chssi) and ask directly.
Many people can read the text but cannot keep up once they join a chanting group: they strike the wooden fish on the wrong beat, do not know when to come in with the yinqing chime, or cannot start the melody. The teacher teaches all of this.
Understand scripture editions, pronunciation, chanting and ritual instruments through their cultural and ritual context; religious experience is a matter of personal faith, and no medical effect is claimed.
Teacher Zheng Su-Xia teaches scripture chanting in Taiwanese literary pronunciation. Her formal syllabus, lineage, years of experience and teaching record will be published once her signed confirmation or verifiable documents are obtained. For now, no unverified titles are used to recruit students.
The chanting groups of Taiwan's temples are slowly disappearing. The teacher hopes this culture can be passed on and that more young people will want to learn it: building up pronunciation, phrasing, ritual instruments and chanting step by step, so that someone carries scripture chanting forward.
The scriptures actually taught and the editions used will be listed item by item according to a syllabus confirmed by the teacher.
A different tradition from the Buddhist scriptures; the rules for liturgy and chanting are not the same
Many people think chanting in Taiwanese is just a habit of the older generation. In fact, it is a traditional way of chanting that is documented in academic research.
A master's thesis from the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature at National Taiwan Normal University, "A Phonological Study of Chanting the Universal Gate Chapter Sutra and Mantras in Taiwanese at Three Taiwanese Temples", notes that when traditional Taiwanese temples hold regular Dharma services, "most chant in Taiwanese literary pronunciation", singing "according to Middle Chinese literary pronunciation, using the distinctive initials, finals and tones of Taiwanese". The thesis studies precisely the Universal Gate Chapter, which is also the first scripture the teacher teaches.
Lin Zhen-Fu, "A Phonological Study of Chanting the Universal Gate Chapter Sutra and Mantras in Taiwanese at Three Taiwanese Temples" (台灣三處道場以臺語唱誦普門品經咒之語音研究), master's thesis, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature, National Taiwan Normal University, 2011
In "The Formation of Morning and Evening Services in Chinese Buddhism", Shi Datian notes that the beat notation in the Chan Gate Daily Recitation of recent-era monasteries is very simple; chanting comes "entirely from practised memory", and "chanting styles differ from place to place". This is why it is hard to learn just from reading a scripture book or listening to recordings online: the same scripture is chanted differently in different lineages, and someone has to lead you line by line.
Shi Datian, "The Formation of Morning and Evening Services in Chinese Buddhism" (中國佛教早晚課的形成), Buddhist Library Journal, No. 13 Original
The same article notes that the large bowl chime, yinqing hand chime, wooden fish and other instruments used in morning and evening services are all percussion instruments whose "pitches are simple and fixed, and they are easy to strike while chanting, so they play a certain role in controlling the beat", and that the appearance of the bronze large bowl chime and yinqing hand chime "influenced the way morning and evening services are chanted". When people cannot keep up with a chanting group, it is often not that they chant too slowly, but that they cannot catch the instrument's beat.
Shi Datian, "The Formation of Morning and Evening Services in Chinese Buddhism" (中國佛教早晚課的形成), Buddhist Library Journal, No. 13 Original
The ritual services of the Zhaijiao Longhua tradition have been specifically studied by scholars, for example in a master's thesis examining the scriptures chanted, the procedures and the music and instruments used in the Longhua tradition's seventh-day memorial services. The liturgy of this tradition and the Buddhist scriptures belong to different traditions, and everything from chanting to the use of instruments is different, so the two need to be learned separately.
Su Jue-Wen, "A Study of Ritual Music in Longhua Tradition Dharma Services: The Case of Shigu Cimiao" (龍華派法會儀式音樂之探討─以慈妙師姑為例), master's thesis, Department of Music, National Taipei University of Education, 2008
All sources with a URL were actually opened and their passages checked on 2026-08-14; theses without a URL can be found in the National Central Library's Taiwan Theses and Dissertations system. This page only summarises points relevant to chanting instruction; please refer to the original texts for the full arguments.
You do not need to decide whether to take lessons first. Tell the teacher about your situation, and she will tell you which scripture is best to start with.
Ask about lessons on LINE LINE ID: @722chssi
Advertisement This page is advertising content; the information is provided by the advertiser and published after verification and editing by this site's editors.
Many of the first questions people ask the teacher are already answered in these articles. Read them first and you will have a clearer idea of where to start.
