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the news to Tsung-pao.
At this point the commander of the Liao army arrogantly demanded that the Sung forces surrender. Miss Mu, angered by the enemy commander's comment about the Sung general dallying with her and being afraid to fight, fired a single arrow which took the helmet off the enemy commander's head. She then fired a second arrow at his left eye but he had already turned to flee and it struck his armour instead. Her popularity and prestige soared and the Liao Khitan forces' morale plummeted. Miss Mu led her force to victory whilst Yang the Fifth killed one of the Liao commanders and Yang Tsung-pao another, leading their forces in a rolling battle which lasted all of twenty-four hours. The defeated Liao Khitan fled, broken, back north leaving the field to the Sung. Peace reigned for the first time for decades and lasted for the following ten years.
Finally, we have the tales told in temples, individual stories told not only by temple custodians and devotees about members of the Yang family with the father, Yang Yeh, the main character, but also by professional tea-house story tellers. One might expect versions of the lives of the Yang family as related by temple staff and devotees would reflect the religious traditional tales of story tellers and theatrical stories. As will be seen this is not always so.
Yang Yeh, his wife, daughters and sons were deified for their heroism and loyalty to the Sung dynasty. Images of Yang Yeh, alone or with his wife, the Lady Yü, Yü Lao T'ai-chun, also known as Yang Ling-p'o, and with one or more of his seven [eight] sons, can be seen in two temples near the Great Wall in northern China as well as on Fukienese community altars in Taiwan and South-east Asia. Yang Yeh, when portrayed on altars, is also known as The Holy Prince of the Yang Family 楊老令公.
In the majority of Singaporean and Taiwanese temples the staff were quite clear in their own minds that the two major deities of the cult are Yang Yeh, the powerful general and father of the family, and his Fifth Son. Confusion over definitive identifications of images on altars has arisen out of this almost universal belief. The reason for the popularity in temples of the Fifth Son, rather than the greater hero, the Sixth Son, is almost certainly due to the Fifth's religious background.
44
the news to Tsung-pao.
At this point the commander of the Liao army arrogantly demanded that the Sung forces surrender. Miss Mu, angered by the enemy commander's comment about the Sung general dallying with her and being afraid to fight, fired a single arrow which took the helmet off the enemy commander's head. She then fired a second arrow at his left eye but he had already turned to flee and it struck his armour instead. Her popularity and prestige soared and the Liao Khitan forces' morale plummeted. Miss Mu led her force to victory whilst Yang the Fifth killed one of the Liao commanders and Yang Tsung-pao another, leading their forces in a rolling battle which lasted all of twenty-four hours. The defeated Liao Khitan fled, broken, back north leaving the field to the Sung. Peace reigned for the first time for decades and lasted for the following ten years.
Finally, we have the tales told in temples, individual stories told not only by temple custodians and devotees about members of the Yang family with the father, Yang Yeh, the main character, but also by professional tea-house story tellers. One might expect versions of the lives of the Yang family as related by temple staff and devotees would reflect the religious traditional tales of story tellers and theatrical stories. As will be seen this is not always so.
Yang Yeh, his wife, daughters and sons were deified for their heroism and loyalty to the Sung dynasty. Images of Yang Yeh, alone or with his wife, the Lady Yü, Yü Lao T'ai-chun, also known as Yang Ling-p'ot, and with one or more of his seven [eight] sons, can be seen in two temples near the Great Wall in northern China as well as on Fukienese community altars in Taiwan and South-east Asia. Yang Yeh, when portrayed on altars, is also known as The Holy Prince of the Yang Family楊老令公
In the majority of Singaporean and Taiwanese temples the staff were quite clear in their own minds that the two major deities of the cult are Yang Yeh, the powerful general and father of the family, and his Fifth Son. Confusion over definitive identifications of images on altars has arisen out of this almost universal belief. The reason for the popularity in temples of the Fifth Son, rather than the greater hero, the Sixth Son, is almost certainly due to the Fifth's religious background
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