148
NOTES AND QUERIES
village to visit the KAM HA CHING SHE to be given a bowl of rice and other food. This is supposed to "help make them stronger and more diligent". (The sects hold masses at which cooked rice is used and which, in Singapore, is certainly handed out to the poor of the area round a vegetarian hall after the service. It may be that the rice handed out in this case is similarly treated to religious rituals and that it is this which gives it its ability to make students "strong" and "diligent").
It is also reported that leaders of the Village Affairs Office of Ngau Chi Wan village are invited to dinner on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, no doubt to keep up friendly relations between close neighbours.
The vegetarian halls certainly went to great effort to entertain members of the Society on our visit. Each hall provided us with plentiful, and extremely tasty, vegetarian snacks, fruit, cold drinks and Chinese tea. We would like to record our gratitude to them for their generosity. We would also like to record our gratitude to those in charge of the halls for permitting this visit and in letting us wander at will, and to the spiritual advisor of the inmates and to other male members of the sect who came along to answer our many questions; also to Mr. Tsang Sum of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, Hong Kong Government for much assistance with the visit.
SOME WORKS OF REFERENCE
1. The most comprehensive work on sects in general in the nineteenth century and of campaigns against them is J. J. M. de Groot's Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China: a Page in the History of Religions (Amsterdam, Johannes Muller, 1903-4) 2 Vols. It has now been reprinted (legally!) by Literature House Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan, 1963. Many of the sects he mentions are members of the Hsien-tien group. For evidence of this, see:
2. Marjorie Topley, "The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret Religious Sects", in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 2 1963, pp. 362-392. "Great Way" ideology is described in more detail in this article, and also the system of ranks and appointments used by several of the sects. The evidence for linking these sects with the well-known White Lotus organization is also discussed.
3. Further details of several sects of the group are provided in articles appearing in the Chinese Recorder. See for example:
J. Edkins, "Religious Sects in North China", Vol. XVII, 1886. D. H. Porter, "Secret Sects in Shangtung", Vol. XVII, 1886. George Miles, "Vegetarian Sects", Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, 1902. The relationship among the sects discussed was not however known to these writers at the time.
Hong Kong, 1968
MARJORIE TOPLEY and JAMES HAYES
148
NOTES AND QUERIES
village to visit the KAM HA CHING SHE to be given a bowl of rice and other food. This is supposed to "help make them stronger and more diligent". (The sects hold masses at which cooked rice is used and which, in Singapore, is certainly handed out to the poor of the area round a vegetarian hall after the service. It may be that the rice handed out in this case is similarly treated to religious rituals and that it is this which gives it its ability to make students "strong" and "diligent").
It is also reported that leaders of the Village Affairs Office of Ngau Chi Wan village are invited to dinner on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, no doubt to keep up friendly relations between close neighbours.
The vegetarian halls certainly went to great effort to entertain members of the Society on our visit. Each hall provided us with plentiful, and extremely tasty, vegetarian snacks, fruit, cold drinks and Chinese tea. We would like to record our gratitude to them for their generosity. We would also like to record our gratitude to those in charge of the halls for permitting this visit and in letting us wander at will, and to the spiritual advisor of the inmates and to other male members of the sect who came along to answer our many questions; also to Mr. Tsang Sum of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, Hong Kong Government for much assistance with the visit.
SOME WORKS OF REFERENCE
1. The most comprehensive work on sects in general in the nineteenth century and of campaigns against them is J. J. M. de Groot's Sectarian- ism and Religious Persecution in China: a Page in the History of Religions (Amsterdam, Johannes Muller, 1903-4) 2 Vols. It has now been reprinted (legally!) by Literature House Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan, 1963. Many of the sects he mentions are members of the Hsien-tien group. For evidence of this, see:
2. Marjorie Topley, "The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret Religious Sects", in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 2 1963, pp. 362-392. "Great Way" ideology is described in more detail in this article, and also the system of ranks and appointments used by several of the sects. The evidence for linking these sects with the well-known White Lotus organization is also discussed.
3. Further details of several sects of the group are provided in articles
appearing in the Chinese Recorder. See for example:
J. Edkins, "Religious Sects in North China", Vol. XVII, 1886. D. H. Porter, "Secret Sects in Shangtung", Vol. XVII, 1886. George Miles, "Vegetarian Sects", Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, 1902. The relationship among the sects discussed was not however known to these writers at the time.
Hong Kong, 1968
MARJORIE TOPLEY and JAMES HAYES
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