[ { "id": 204937, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "38\n\nSIR JOHN BOWRING\n\nhaving been nursed and reared by tigers.\" \"Where should we have been,\" he asks, \"if our grandmothers and mothers had been drowned in their infancy?\" And he quotes two instances of the punishment of mothers who had destroyed their infants, one of whom had a blood-red serpent fastened to her thigh, and the other her four extremities turned into cow's feet.* Father Ripa mentions, that of abandoned children, the Jesuits baptized in Peking alone not less than three thousand yearly. I have seen ponds which are the habitual receptacle of female infants, whose bodies lie floating about on their surface.\n\nIt is by no means unusual to carry persons in a state of exhaustion a little distance from the cities, to give them a pot of rice, and to leave them to perish of starvation when the little store is exhausted. Life and death in China, beyond any other region, seem in a state of perpetual activity. The habits of the people, their traditions, the teachings of the sages all give a wonderful impulse to the procreative affections. A childless person is deemed an unhappy, not to say a degraded, man. The Chinese moralists set it down as a law, that if a wife give no children to her husband,\n\n*Doubt has been sometimes expressed as to the practice of Infanticide in China on any great scale; but abundance of evidence of the extent of the usage may be found in Chinese books. The following is a translation of a Decree of the Emperor Kanghi, entitled,-\n\n\"Edict prohibiting the drowning of children.\" \"When a mother mercilessly plunges beneath the water the tender offspring to which she has given birth, can it be said that it owes its life to her who thus takes away what it has just begun to enjoy? The poverty of the parents is the cause of this wrongdoing; they have difficulty in earning subsistence for themselves, still less can they pay nurses and undertake all the necessary expenses for their children; thus driven to despair, and unwilling to cause the death of two persons to preserve the life of one, it comes to pass that a mother to save her husband's life consents to destroy her children. Their natural tenderness suffers; but they at length determine to take this part, thinking themselves at liberty to dispose of the life of their children, in order to prolong their own. If they exposed these children in some unfrequented spot, their cries would move the hearts of the parents; what then do they? They cast the unfortunate babe into the current of a river, that they may at once lose sight of it, and in an instant deprive it of life. You have given me the name of Father of the People: though I cannot feel for these infants the tenderness of the parents to whom they owe their being, I cannot refrain from declaring to you, with the most painful feelings, that I absolutely forbid such homicides. The tiger, says one of our books, though it be a tiger, does not rend its own young; towards them it has a feeling breast, and continually cares for them. Poor as you may be, is it possible that you should become the murderers of your own children? is to shew yourselves more unnatural than the very beasts of prey.”— Lettres Edifiantes, vol. xix, pp. 101-2,\n\nIt\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205214, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "164\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nand transcribed in a variety of ways by native-speakers of Cantonese.\n\nThe origins of words such as amah are hidden in the obscure labyrinths of time but are still as fresh as a new-born babe. Such words contain the elements of English mammy, ma, French maman, Latin mater and so on, for they represent the infant mouth opening to bawl and sometimes the closing of the tiny lips over the mother's teat. Such words exist in all languages even as a rejecting, spitting series for the father: pater (in Latin), English daddy, Cantonese papa mimic the child's rejection of his father's milkless breasts.\n\nIt is unnecessary to derive Cantonese amah from an Arab source. Similar forms, demonstrably not of Semitic origin, occur in many languages; in those of the Iberian peninsula, ama may or may not be an Arabism. In India, it was one of the common Indo-Portuguese words for a children's nurse. It is this word which came to Canton either in the Portuguese lingua franca which preceded pidgin English as the jargon of the China coast or in pidgin English itself. The documents of the nineteenth century are rich in derivatives of this word and even today wash-amah and baby-amah are widely used expressions in Hong Kong. Chow-amah (wet-nurse) disappeared at the introduction of patent infant formulae.\n\nThe only problem is whether amah, which sounds as exotic in Cantonese as kowtowing once did in English, entered the dialect directly from a Portuguese dialect or was introduced by way of English. My understanding is that amah is seldom used by the Hong Kong Portuguese in the sense of servant and that the word, though Portuguese in origin, is an early English loan to Cantonese, the forerunner of pa-si (bus), mhodhang nreoezir (modern girl), bheazao (beer) and the hundred and one other loans found in the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong today.\n\nUntil more evidence is forthcoming, the derivation of sz tsai and sz tau will seem far-fetched. Nor is there enough proof to convince that fa wong is a calque (translation) of Urdu malik, even though the semantic extensions of wong and malik appear to coincide. I cannot tell which are the foreign words from which we are supposed to derive kwuntim, sz-naai and tai pan and have yet to be convinced that Cantonese natuk is in fact the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207547, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 315, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n307\n\ncommitted suicide'.... \"This spirit, honoured at Foochow under the name of Wu Tai Yuan Shuai is the same as Lei Hai-Ch'ing (*) of the T'ang dynasty worshipped in several cities in Fukien. The character Hsieh (), crab, has approximately the same sound locally as Hai () the sea, and the willow branches symbolize Verdure, Ch'ing (†). Lei Hai-Ch'ing was a musician and is popularly referred to in the district as Marshal. He died cursing robbers, and for that reason temples were erected to him. Thus the young scholar become apotheosized owing to this play on words having the same or similar sounds. He is represented as attended by two male and two female instrumentalists holding respectively a mandolin, a lute, a violin and a tambourine. To evoke the spirit, his image is placed on a raised platform, its forehead is dabbed with red, it is prayed to and candles and incense burnt before it. The priests kneel in front of it, and then rise, skipping about with dishevelled hair and staring eyes. Crying out that the Spirit has come they scratch their tongues and write charms with the blood. When incense has been lit in the four corners of the room everyone can ask the spirit for what he wants, and the answer is explained by the accompanying musicians. He is frequently prayed to remove abscesses, boils etc. from children'. \n\nI can confirm the latter from medium practices in Singapore, and looking back to the sighting in Ipoh referred to earlier he is also a deity worshipped for a cure for mental diseases in children. \n\nThe following legends were told to me by devotees :— \n\na) Tien is the deification of a rich patron of actors in Foochow city (or Soochow) who lived in the fifteenth century. b) As a handsome child, the youngest son of three, he constantly played pranks on others. An ugly sister-in-law in a fit of pique drew a crab around his open mouth whilst he was asleep, and as a result his soul which had left his body to roam was unable to return. He complained to the Jade Emperor (1) who out of pity adopted him and allowed his soul to inhabit his body again. His mouth was open, incidentally, because he was an unwanted child, thrown out as a babe and suckled by animals! \n\nc) Prince T'ien of Foochow lived for pleasure. He was once sleeping with the wife of a local businessman and awoke to \n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213275, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "77\n\nEuropeans and Chinese have commented that, on entering, one senses a feeling of tranquillity.\n\nOne Chinese lady was keen to live in Realty Gardens. She paid her deposit in 1972, shortly before the flats were completed, and she was allocated a flat in another block. On learning the fung shui in the second block was not so good as the flat examined in this case study she promptly withdrew her application. Even though she could ill afford it she relinquished her deposit,\n\nIn today's world much is happening at a rapid pace. Yet the powers of the natural environment are still important. Psychologists, sociologists and environmentalists warn of the dangers of alienation of people from nature. The Eight Chinese Elements of Nature are: fire, thunder, heaven, water (the ocean), water (rain), wind, earth and the hills. A valley with favourable fung shui is considered good for farming. A village should preferably be situated at the foot of a hill so that the vitality of fung shui flows down. Also, paths leading to or from a hamlet should meander or zig-zag so that evil spirits, which travel in straight lines, cannot follow people walking along them.\n\nMost Chinese feel they are part of nature, and, everywhere they turn, they try to imagine things are alive. Consequently, most do not move into a flat blind to fung shui principles. It is important to 'examine the earth and taste the water'. One of the 'tests' is to take a babe-in-arms into a house and see how it reacts to its surroundings. Does it cry or does it lie peaceably?\n\nUntil the late 1960s, the gracious old Foreign Correspondents' Club stood on the site where the housing complex, Realty Gardens, now stands. Many of the old features in its communal garden, such as steps, retaining walls, rainwater catchment channels and pavilions with green, sweeping, glazed tile roofs, are still there.\n\nJust as alongside a path on the edge of a village an earth god shrine is usually positioned, so, as you enter the flat in this case study you are faced by a figurine of Chung Kuei, the eighth-century physician. Wearing a maroon and white robe he stands, smiling, on a ledge by the front door. In his hand is a fan on which a bat perches. Chung is a protector against evil and an expert at catching ghosts. He may be likened to a guardian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214266, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "87\n\nubquitous whilst Lei Tsu, the Ancestor of Thunder is rare. These two forms tend to be confused by devotees, with a concensus accepting that Lei Shen is another name for Lei Kung, whilst Lei Tsu is an entirely separate deity, the major deity who has two aides, Lei Kung and his consort, Tien Mu [the Goddess of Lightning]. Numerous differing views offered by temple keepers, devotees, god carvers and even Taoist religious specialists claim that Lei Kung himself under several different titles is a member of the Five-deity Board of Thunder but subordinate to the President, Lei Tsu.\n\nThe Thunder God, is an early Chinese nature deity, a stern god who, though generally speaking benevolent, is one who averts evil. He is also feared as being particularly merciless towards those who kidnap children and oppress widows and orphans. He was revered in the very early days because of the mystery and powers of nature he and his consort controlled. The list within temples of the evil doers against whom he takes action is seemingly endless. It used to be that the list only included capital crimes, nowadays however it includes the filial impious, liars and cheats, and physical discomfort for truants and lazy scholar students. Children were told that he would not harm them unless they told lies. On the other side of the coin he has the power to obtain pardons for anyone who genuinely repents, and for many centuries Lei Kung has answered people's prayers and requests for cures for all diseases, injuries and sickness. However, during the early part of this century in and around Peking it was believed that he would not cure anything more severe than scratches and bruises. He has developed into a deity whose charms cure minor wounds, stomach aches and perhaps hasten the delayed birth of a babe.\n\nLei Kung causes damage to property and fields with his thunderbolts whilst Tien Mu, the Lightning Goddess, merely flashes her mirrors to cause the lightning. During the late Ming and the Ch'ing dynasties images of Lei Kung were situated on high places, a roof of a temple, for example, to ward off lightning.\n\nHis standard image is unique and the most easily identifiable deity in the Chinese pantheon. Represented as half-man half-bird, a human body and arms, chicken's feet and claws, a monkey's head apart from his bird-like beak, he is also occasionally portrayed with a third eye. He holds a hammer and chisel13, has a string of drums slung around", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216228, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 527, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "In camp Mary mentioned that 'sound travels fast.'\n\nAt six the next morning we had peace at last!\n\nי\n\nDid Nicholas try to abandon his wife?\n\nDid he say to the driver 'Now drive for your life'?\n\nDid he know that his Lorene had been left behind?\n\nI'm sure that he didn't - he's not that unkind!\n\nAngus hails from Scotland,\n\nwhere real men go bare, forsooth.\n\nIf he takes his kaftan off,\n\nall you'll see is - hair? The truth\n\nis only known to Bebe, his clever lawyer wife.\n\n(She's the one whose expertise is matrimonial strife!)\n\nNational Workforce gangs sit breaking stones;\n\nat the end of the day they must have aching bones.\n\nAh yes, that reminds me - Sir David, our knight,\n\nwould like to see Bhutan tourism more bright,\n\n461", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]