[ { "id": 204306, "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-1961", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n70\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n(P'u-hsien), and Avalokitesvara (Kuan-yin). Only certain Buddhas of the Tantric Sect, such as Cundi (Chun-t'i) and Vairocana (P'i-lu-chê-na) are mentioned as \"saints from the West\"; but even these are given Taoist-sounding titles like tao-jên. In this way, the mainly Taoist framework of the novel is preserved. This amalgamation of Buddhist and Taoist deities is highly interesting and may have influenced actual religious practice in China. The practice of worshipping Taoist gods side by side with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas seems to have started after the publication of the novel, for in earlier Taoist literature we find no Buddhist deities mentioned among Taoist gods. For instance, in the Yün-chi ch'i-ch'ien, chüan 103, we find an account of the Taoist pantheon as it was in the eleventh century, which contained no Buddhist deities or fictional gods. But after the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, various Taoist gods mentioned in the novel came to be worshipped together with Buddhist ones. What is more, most of the temples which apparently first adopted such practice were situated in northern Kiangsu, near Hsinghua, the native district of Lu, the author of the novel. It is therefore not unreasonable to suggest that the novel influenced the composition of the Chinese pantheon and contributed to the amalgamation of Buddhist and Taoist gods in popular belief.\n\nThe amalgamation of Buddhist and Taoist gods seems to have been achieved purposely by the author of the Fêng-shên. As a concrete illustration, I propose to describe how Vaisravana (P'i-sha-mên Tien-wang), one of the Four Heavenly Kings in Buddhist belief, and his third son Nata (Na-cha or No-cha), became important characters in this novel. Vaisravana was of course an Indian god, but during the T'ang and Sung periods he became identified with the Chinese general of the T'ang dynasty, Li Ching. But stories about him were disconnected before the novel Fêng-shên Yen-i was compiled. In various prompt-books which existed before the novel, such as the Nan-yu-chi (\"Prince Hua-kuang or The Voyage to the South\") and the Hsi-yu-chi (“Pilgrimage to the West”, the prototype of the famous novel of the same name) in the Ssu-yu-chi (\"The Four Travels\"), there were already stories about this god and his son. But in the hands of the author of the Fêng-shen these fragmentary and disconnected stories were reorganized and transformed into a vivid tale which can almost stand on its own as an interesting story apart from the whole\n\n* For illustrations of some of these temples, such as the Kuang Fu Monastery in Tai-hsing, Yangchow, and the Tu Tien Temple in Hai-men, Kiangsu, see Père Henri Dore, Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, (10 vols., Shanghai, 1913-38), Bk. 9, Pt. 2, in Vol. 6.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204310, "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-1961", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Vol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n74\n\nR\n\nThe historical figure of Li Ching had long been admitted into the Taoist pantheon. He was, in the year 760, enshrined with Chiang T'ai-kung (B★A or Chiang Shang) as one of the ten famous historical generals. In the anonymous work, Li Wei-kung Pieh-chuan (A4), it is said, \"When Li Ching was poor, he took a journey in the valleys and stayed in a cottage. When it was mid-night there came a woman who handed him a vase and said, 'Heaven has instructed you to pour down rain ...' and as we know in the Buddhist legends that it is Virupaksha (not Vaisravana) who is the king of the nagas, we understand that even in the T'ang dynasty the popular mind could not properly distinguish the function of these guardians of Mt. Sumeru. In an inscription on a tablet erected in the Temple of Vaisravana in Ning-hwa District (LM), Fukien, dated about 920, we read,\n\nP'i-sha-mên (Vaisravana) is a Sanskrit word which means \"universal or much hearing\" (to-wên SH). He dwells on the north of Mt. Sumeru, in the crystal palace, and is the chief of yakshas,10\n\nFrom this narrative we see why in so many Chinese records it has become an undeniable fact that yakshas are believed to live at the bottom of the seas with the dragon-kings in marvellous crystal palaces loaded with wonderful treasures. The legends of these two heavenly kings have long been mixed in the popular mind.\" As Li Ching was such a famous historical hero, the Taoist priests could not forgive themselves if they failed to utilize his prestige. It is said in an anonymous work of the T'ang dynasty, Yuan Hsien Chi (E), that Li Ching was still alive in the epoch of Ta Li (766-779) and became a Taoist immortal, In addition to the book on military strategy attributed to him in the Bibliography of the Hsin T'ang-shu (MEBOXZ), the Taoist priests also ascribed to him some canonical texts dealing\n\n12\n\n• Hsin T'ang-shu (), Ch. 15, Li-yüeh Chih (M), 5.\n\n• Ku-chin Shuo-hai (546), Shuo-yüan Pu (R), Vol. chi (2) Also Tsung-shu Chi-ch'êng Ch'u-pien (£).\n\n10 See Ninghwa Hsien-chih (\"Annals of the Ninghwa District\") of the Ming dynasty, quoted in Ku-chin T'u-shu Chi-ch'êng (4), Shên-1 Tien (R), chüan 54. The essay was composed by Huang T'ao () for Wang Shen-chih (E).\n\n11 In the Ta-Tang San-tsang Ch'ü-ching Shih-hua (ERR), chüan 1, “...A\" (\"To-day, Vaisravana of the Indra Heaven, the Guardian of the North, will feed Buddhist priests in the Crystal Palace.\")\n\n12 Quoted in Chiu Hsiao-shuo (R), 2nd Series, Shanghai, Commercial Press Ltd., 1910.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204322, "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-1961", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n86\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nThe prince Siddhartha thereupon asked, \"Is there any good bow in this city which will suit my strength?\" The father, King Suddhodana was very glad and said, \"Yes, there is.\" \"Where is it then, Your Majesty?\" asked the prince. \"Your grandfather Simhahanu (the lion's cheek) had a bow which is now kept in the temple and flowers are offered to it. No man has ever been able to bend it.\" The prince urged the king to send for it, and when it had been fetched, all the Shakya nobles were allowed to have a trial, but no one could string, nor draw it. Then the minister Mahanama was given an opportunity. He exhausted all his energy yet he could not move a single inch of the string and so he presented it to the prince. The prince remained seated without moving. He seized the bow with his left hand and bent the string with a single finger of his right hand. A startling noise broke out throughout the city Kapilavastu which made all the people frightened. \"What noise is it?\". \n\n+\n\n28\n\nIn Ch.2 of the Pei-yu-chi, the king of the Kingdom of Ko-ko () received a tribute from the Western tribes. It was a bronze drum twelve inches thick. Upon the challenge of the tributary messenger, no one in the court, not even the generals, could pierce its surface with an arrow. The prince, \n\nThe prince, who was only seven, claimed that he could shoot through it. \"He seized the bow with his left hand and put on the arrow with his right hand. The arrow darted off and pierced the surface with the feather of the arrow left outside.' \n\nThe age of No-cha and that of the said prince were seven years. We can see that No-cha's story is derived partly from the Pei-yu-chi and both originated from the story of the Buddha.\n\nNo-cha's arrow darted off to a far distance and accidentally killed a Taoist disciple of Madame Shih-chi (ENR), who was a goddess of the Intercepting Sect. Shih-chi sent the Athlete of the Yellow Turban to bring Li Ching to her grotto in the K'u-lou Shan (Mt. Skeleton) and pressed him for an explanation, Li Ching vowed his innocence and was set free so that he could investigate the matter. No-cha again admitted to his father what he had done, and followed Li Ching to Shih-chi's place to settle the matter. At the entrance to the grotto he had a desperate clash with the goddess, and though he hurled all his precious weapons they fell into her hands and sleeves. No-cha fled to Mt. Ch'ien-yüan for protection. His master, the Immortal T’ai-I had a violent quarrel with Shih-chi on his behalf, and the quarrel\n\n28 No. 190, The Tripitaka in Chinese, translated by Jfianagupta; also Sister Nivedita & Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists, Harrap, 1914, pp. 261-2.\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204341, "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-1961", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n105\n\nBecause of their limited resources monasteries in Hong Kong have never been able to act as is'ung lam, that is, public monasteries which on the mainland made it their obligation to accept all wandering monks. There has been and is no religious obligation for Hong Kong monasteries to receive refugees or visitors. They are private institutions and a stranger, even though he is an ordained monk in good standing, can be refused admission. There have, however, been some monasteries here (notably the Tung Pu Toh) that did manage to shelter hundreds of refugee monks in the years immediately following 1950, and they have been much admired for so doing. Most of these monks have since emigrated to Taiwan.\n\nOne of the problems facing the Sangha in Hong Kong is how to maintain its size. While the number of lay Buddhists is growing, the Sangha is not. Only the Po Lin Tsz performs ordination. Other monasteries do not have the equipment and personnel required. The South China Buddhist Academy (at the Wong Faat Tsing She), which was the only seminary in the Colony, has ceased to function because there were not enough candidates for the rigorous training it offered. It may be that the atmosphere in Hong Kong does not favour the development of the attitudes that best lead a young man to take refuge in the Three Jewels. If his only reason for accepting the hardship of monastery life is to escape greater hardship outside the monastery, he is unlikely to have the diligence necessary for seeking enlightenment or to contribute much in the way of helping others to seek it. The Sangha faces the danger of decline both in size and quality.\n\nIV. GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION\n\nThe Chinese Temples Ordinance, passed in 1928 to protect the public from extortion and fraud which were then becoming more prevalent in the urban areas, deals with places of Chinese worship open to the public where fees or other charges are levied. Such temples are placed under the control of a statutory Chinese Temples Committee, consisting of leading Chinese citizens with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as the chairman and the only government member. The Committee can require the transfer of any temple falling within the provisions of the Ordinance and all its property, without compensation, to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' titular ownership. Five old temples are specifically excluded from the operations of this Ordinance; a sixth one, the Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road, often used by film companies, has for over 50 years had a separate Ordinance of its own placing it under the control of the Tung Wah Hospitals; the administrative and financial supervision of seven others is delegated by the Temples Committee to the Tung Wah Hospitals. The Temples Committee at present directly administers 36 temples,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204342, "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-1961", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch \n\nRASHKB and author \n\n106 \n\nVol. 1 (1961) \n\nISSN 1991-7295 \n\nwhich include nearly all those not specifically exempted in the urban areas and the majority of better known temples outside the urban areas. The day to day operation of the Committee's temples is annually farmed out to the highest bidders, who collect as much as they can from the public on the sale of incense, fortune-telling tallies etc., and (as and when they can) by attempting to charge fees for admission. From these takings they have to pay quarterly rent, in advance, to the Committee and can pocket the rest. A keeper is not responsible for the maintenance of the building, but only for vacating it at the end of his twelve-month agreement, together with all furnishings in the same condition as he received them, normal wear and tear excepted.\n\nThe Chinese Temples Committee pools the rents from the temples it controls and is required by law to apply the proceeds first to the \"due observance of customary ceremonies\" (i.e., certain annual festivals) and second to the maintenance and repair of temple premises and property. They may then transfer surpluses from rents received and interest on invested capital to their General Chinese Charities Fund, from which they customarily make disbursements at their discretion to various Chinese charities in Hong Kong. In the year ending March 31, 1960 the Committee made grants totalling HK$304,270 in support of a wide field of educational, medical, cultural and welfare activities, after spending $75,800 on temple ceremonies and repairs.\n\nTheoretically, any Buddhist monastery or nunnery could be taken over by the Temples Committee in the same fashion as a temple to T'in Hau or T'aam Kung A. In practice,\n\nA however, this has never happened. Buddhist places of worship are registered under the Chinese Temples Ordinance (or, in a few cases, as societies or corporations), but are allowed to control their premises and administer their property without government interference. If one of them were to collect large sums from the public either in an improper manner or for improper purposes, it might well be taken over, and knowledge of this fact curbs the greed of the few \"slick operators\" in the Hong Kong Buddhist world. On the other hand, since most Buddhist institutions are away from centres of urban population and do not countenance the money-making practices of Chinese temples, their problem is a shortage of money rather than ill-gotten gains.\n\nNot only has there been little or no government interference in Buddhist activities, but there have been traditionally good relations between the Colonial Government, particularly the office of the Secretary of Chinese Affairs, and the leading Buddhist groups in the Colony. The two sides are in regular contact and cooperate on a number of welfare enterprises, as will become clear below.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204415, "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-1962", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "38\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nelement of the many-sided popular religion. I shall be talking about the small percentage who were consciously Buddhist.\n\nThe first stage of the Buddhist career was that of a lay devotee, the chü-shih ±. He was someone who was interested in Buddhism, studied it, and perhaps joined a devotees' club, that is, a chu-shih lin ½±✯. There were many such clubs in China, particularly in the large cities. He might attend lectures there once a week, at which an eminent monk would come to talk about the sutras. He might learn from the monk to chant the basic liturgy and to handle the liturgical instruments, the gong, clapper, and so on. He might even learn to expound the sutras himself, although an ordained monk was always supposed to be present to attest to what he said.\n\nThe second stage of the Buddhist career was taking the Refuges, kuei-i. The layman went to a monk and repeated the formula: \"I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha (i.e., the congregation of monks); and I acknowledge herewith that such and such a monk is my master.\" Afterwards he would get a certificate of this master-disciple relationship. One could take the Refuges over and over again, that is, one could have several masters.\n\n11\n\nThe third stage was to take the Five Vows, shou wu-chieh 1. This was normally done only once, perhaps at a small temple, but more probably at a big monastery in conjunction with an ordination of monks. Sometimes laymen would participate in the very first part of the ordination ceremony, which included the Five Vows, and then they would watch the ordinands go through the rest of it. Taking the Five Vows meant that a Buddhist was probably quite serious about his religion. Specifically it only committed him not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to drink wine, and not to indulge in illicit sexual intercourse. But many a layman who had taken the vows would recite a sutra every morning before breakfast in his household shrine, perhaps the Heart Sutra. On the first and fifteenth of the lunar month he would probably abstain from eating meat and he would also fast during the whole of the sixth month. But he was still a layman and likely to remain one.\n\nThe fourth step was to enter the novitiate. This was termed \"leaving home\" ch'u chia. It solemnized the layman's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204416, "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-1962", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n39\n\nintention to become a monk under the auspices of a master (not necessarily the same one with whom he might have taken the Refuges). \"Leaving home\" was a simple ceremony. The layman went to a barber, had his head shaved, except for a patch of hair on top, and repaired to his future master's temple, where he burned some incense and kowtowed first to the Buddha image and then to the master. Thereupon the latter shaved off the remaining patch of hair in the presence of witnesses and at this moment the layman became his disciple. There are several kinds of master-disciple relationships, but when a Buddhist monk speaks simply of his \"master\" or shih-fu, he means his tonsure-master, or t'i-tu en-shih #1824p, that is the one who shaved his head.\n\nBy leaving home he became a novice, or sha-mi, which is the Sanscrit word sramanera (not to be confused with a sha-men, that is, the sramana, or advanced monk). Notice that he had not received the novice's ordination (as he would have at this stage in a Theravadin country), but he was already called a novice and lived as one; that is, he wore a monk's robe, ate vegetarian food, and observed all the Ten Vows. These vows are, besides the first five mentioned above, not to attend theatricals or dancing parties, not to wear perfume or adornment, not to sleep on a high or large bed, not to accept gold or silver, and not to take food after noon (this last prohibition was ignored by most monks in China on the grounds that the climate was too cold). The disciple lived with his tonsure master in the latter's small temple for a period of training that, according to the rules, lasted three years, but was often shorter in practice. He learned not only ritual and liturgy, but also what it was like to be a monk. It was a trial period, from which he could withdraw at any time without embarrassment, and some did withdraw. At the end he was taken by his master to a big public monastery, shih-fang ts'ung-lin, for ordination. If he lived in the north, he might go to the Kuang-chi Ssu in Peking. If he lived in the south, he might go to Pao-hua Shan, which is not far from Nanking. These two were very strict and he could be sure that if he were ordained there, it had been done correctly. At Pao-hua Shan four or five hundred novices would come to be ordained every autumn and in the spring another four or five hundred would come. Sometimes as many as a thousand came", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204417, "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-1962", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "40\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nand, as there were two hundred monks living on the premises all year round, you can imagine what an enormous place it was. According to the rules, ordination lasted fifty-three days and included an intensive period of study, repentance, and purification, as well as three rites, that is, first the novices' ordination sha-mi chieh; then about ten days later the bhikkhus' ordination pi-ch'iu chieh; and finally the bodhisattvas' ordination, or p'u-sa chieh.\n\nAt the end of the latter, six to eighteen pieces of moxa were placed in two rows on the ordinand's shaven head and set afire. They burned down to the scalp and left permanent scars. If you ever want to tell a monk from a layman, look at his head. If he has the marks, he is a monk. If there are no scars, he may still be a monk, but he was not ordained in China.\n\nOrdination meant a complete break. One no longer had his mother and father, wife and children. One had instead his master and brother disciples. All former responsibilities were dissolved. There was only one responsibility: to seek out salvation with diligence. Ordination was usually irrevocable. A monk could not be released from his vows except for some very good reason, as, for instance, if he were an only son and his parents fell ill. In practice very few monks returned to lay life.\n\nI said at the beginning that one seldom went through all stages of the Buddhist career. Most lay devotees did not go on to become monks; and many monks entered the Sangha without having first taken the Three Refuges or the Five Vows. This happened, for example, in the case of the person who \"left home\" in childhood. Usually he was given to a temple by his parents, sometimes because he had fallen ill and they had made a vow that if he were healed, he would become a monk, sometimes because they were too poor to raise him or took a pessimistic view of human life. I know of one monk, for instance, who was given to a temple when he was ten years old because his father had repeatedly failed his civil service examinations and did not want his son to be exposed to the same disappointments. I can think of another ten-year-old who was literally kidnapped by a wandering mendicant, but who lived to bless him for this act of anomalous charity.\n\n44\n\nSome \"left home\" in their late teens or twenties and of their own volition. They did so for a variety of reasons.\n\nOften", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204424, "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-1962", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n47\n\n(in the big monasteries one had to get permission every time he left the premises). Talking was permitted during meals and people could go to bed when they felt like it. Some small temples were centers of institutionalized laziness--and worse.\n\nBut small temples were very necessary, not only to provide a break from the rigor of life in the big monasteries, but also as a link between the clergy and the laity. The big monasteries were often remote in the mountains, whereas in most Chinese cities there was a small temple “just around the corner.\" More important than this, however, was the fact that a monk could not accept tonsure disciples \"in his capacity as officer or resident of a big monastery, but only in his capacity as officer or resident of a small temple. The novice during most of his training prior to ordination could not live in a big monastery, but only in a small temple. Thus small temples were the channel through which all new recruits had to enter the Sangha.\n\n55\n\n**\n\nThe crowning stage of a monk's career was being the old monk lao ho-shang, a term usually applied to an ex-abbot. He lived either in his own small temple or in special quarters of the big monastery that he had headed. He had no obligations, although he probably still carried on with his work of teaching. In fact, this might be the most productive part of his life, when he had the widest following and exerted the greatest influence, particularly on the laymen who came in great numbers to listen to him expound sutras and to take the Refuges with him. It is extraordinary how old some old monks got to be. The most famous case of recent times is Hsü-yün, who died at the age of a hundred and twenty in 1959. Now we have T'an-hsü, who is eighty-eight and still preaches on the Surangama Sutra every Sunday evening at nine o'clock. I recommend that you go to the Buddhist Library, 144 Boundary Street, and listen to him some Sunday, for he is a wonderful person.\n\n77\n\nHere in Hong Kong, I have often wondered why certain monks lived to be so old. They would attribute it, perhaps, to the peace that comes with enlightenment. A more prosaic explanation might be that they have a low cholesterol count. Dr. C. A. Wang, who will return to Hong Kong in 1962, tested a number of monks two years ago and found that, presumably because they ate vegetarian food, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204751, "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-1964", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE\n\n43\n\nas a humble amateur I appeal humbly to the professionals for assistance; and, much less humbly, to other amateurs to take over the gathering of data on Hong Kong before the Chinese.*\n\nBy Hong Kong, I mean that southern part of the district now known as Po On,1 previously known as San On,122 and still earlier included within Tung Kwun,31 or partly within Tung Kwun and partly within Kwai Shin,60 which today comprises the Colony and leased territory of Hong Kong. By Chinese, I mean such of the inhabitants (and ancestors of the inhabitants) of that territory as would not have been described in a contemporary official document by one of the terms used for non-Chinese, i.e. I Ti Jung Man.67 If this definition appears negative it cannot be helped, since Chinese literature itself does not, until modern times, contain any word which corresponds to our word \"Chinese\", but has always had several terms for what might be called \"Non-Chinese\". Although one Chinese-type grave, said to date from the Han151 Dynasty, has been found in New Kowloon, and although one small Buddhist temple has behind it the foundation of a previous structure said to date from the Tsin158 Dynasty, there is no evidence of Chinese settlement before the end of the Tang.139 Up to and including the Tang Dynasty all the inhabitants, and up to the Yuan Dynasty most of the inhabitants of what is now the Colony and leased territory of Hong Kong are described, if described at all, as Man.88 The two Chinese clans with the longest records of continuous local residence (the Tang44 of Kam Tin,56 Lung Yeuk Tau7 and Ping Shan; and the Man of San Tin125 and Cha Hang11) go back indisputably to early Sung;132 and their traditions, to which I shall be referring again, speak of two other clans (Mo5 and Chan17) having been before them. The oldest building, except the temple previously mentioned, of which there is evidence, is the fort of Tuen Mun141 built in the Nan Han99 (Canton) Dynasty in A.D. 958. Another document refers to the appointment of a military commander of Tuen Mun in A.D. 954. I cannot be assailed if I say \"Anything before A.D. 900 is, for this territory, before the Chinese.\"\n\nThe Frame. The natural question to be asked is \"Before the Chinese, who?\" Before I attempt to answer this question, there\n\n*All local place names are given in the Cantonese pronunciation. Notes giving Chinese characters and romanization in the Barnett-Chao system are given at the end of the article.—Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204754, "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-1964", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "46\n\nK. M. A. BARNETT\n\nour map describes as Laffan's Plain27 was then a swamp, probably with one or two navigable channels; which explains why there is in that region a Tin Hau135 temple, which is now miles from the highest point which even sampans can reach.\n\n96\n\nAlthough the first fortification was dated A.D. 958, the name, if it means what it says, indicates that this channel or mun must have had a fortification on it before. Among all the channels which are called by this name mun— all the important channels are so called - no one is going to single out one to be described as \"the fort (or garrison) channel\" unless it previously had a fort or garrison. However, evidence is still lacking of the nature of this previous fortification. Here a word of conjecture may be permitted. The San On Yuen Chi123 mentions that in the year ✯✯ 6 (A.D. 331) of the Tsin158 Dynasty the hsien of Po On3 was first set up, to be abolished under the Sui22 Dynasty. Since it was in the Tsin158 Dynasty that the first Buddhist temple was said to have been built, the establishment and abolition of the hsien may indicate an unsuccessful attempt at settlement during this period, say from A.D. 330 to 590.\n\nFrom the Nan Han99 Dynasty onwards, it was settled government policy in these parts to encourage soldiers of each garrison to take up grants of land and to settle there after completion of their military service. The land they occupied was known as tuen-tin142 and was charged land tax at a lower rate than normal. Taxation at this favourable rate continued up to the last edition of the San On Yuen Chi123. The favourable rate was the same as the special rate for monasteries.\n\nIt is pretty clear from local tradition and from the location of the pieces of land which paid tax at the preferential rate that the reclamation of mangrove swamp in and around the present Yuen Long was done by these soldiers and their early descendants. The Man94 clan now settled at San Tin125 have been winning land in this fashion for 500 years on their present location, to which they moved from their first settlement at Lo Fu Hung85 about half way down what was then a creek. The latter lies between the original Tuen Mun141 fort and the present shore of Castle Peak Bay15. Just north of that location, at the foot of the small group of hills on one of which stands the present Ping Shanlit Police Station, there was a village called Nga Tsin Tsuen settled\n\nļ", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205130, "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": 86, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\nRelations with Tibet\n\n81\n\nJust as Buddhism was used by the Japanese to serve political ends in China, so it was used by the Chinese to serve political ends in Tibet. After the collapse of the Ch'ing Dynasty the Tibetans considered themselves to be an independent nation. Successive Republican governments therefore endeavoured to persuade them that they were one of the five races of China and that Tibet was Chinese territory. In a rather poor hand Buddhism was one of the better cards. That is, the Chinese could argue that Tibet was bound to China by a common religion. This was not altogether factitious. For example, one of the rites for the dead most commonly performed by Chinese monks, the fang yen-k'ou, was partly of Tibetan origin. Mountains like Omei and Wu-t'ai Shan had long been equally sacred to Chinese and Tibetan pilgrims, and had provided the venue for a Sino-Tibetan syncretism. A visitor to Wu-t'ai Shan in 1911 wrote: \"The most curious feature of Buddhism on the Wutaishan is the amalgamating of Chinese Buddhism and Lamaism... doctrines borrow from one another in habits and arrangements... The structure of the temple is, for the greater part Chinese, but the form of the pagodas is mostly Indo-Tibetan. The interior, too, forms a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan. Chinese and Tibetan idols stand side by side, Tibeto-Mongolian inscriptions are next to Chinese ones, Tibetan butter lamps, praying cylinders, also boards on which the monks throw themselves for prayers, all such things are seen here in Chinese temples. In their services, too, one style blends with another.\"24\n\nBoth\n\nAlthough lama temples enjoying Manchu patronage were to be found in Peking and a few other Chinese cities, the indigenous Chinese Tantric sect had been suppressed in the Ming Dynasty. During the Republican period some Buddhist devotees became interested in reviving it, or rather in reintroducing Tantrism from Tibet and Japan, where it had been preserved intact. To them, as to some Europeans of that time, Tibet was a land of precious secrets, which they resolved to learn. It is difficult to ascertain the relationship between this personal interest and government policy. Which came first? How did each stimulate the other?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205133, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "84\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nTT\n\nalso Mahayanists, to have a close relationship. The same did not apply to the Theravadins of Southeast Asia of Burma, Ceylon, Thailand, and Indo-China. Not only did they have a different kind of Buddhism (which many of them regarded as \"pure\" in contrast to the \"corrupt\" Mahayana), but there was a much greater language barrier than between China and Japan, which both used the same ideograms. Until Dharmapala's abortive visit to Shanghai in 1893, there had been virtually no contact between Chinese and Theravada Buddhists for many hundreds of years.\n\nIt was therefore a significant event when in 1930 Huang Mao-lin (Wong Mou-lam) was sent to Ceylon by the Pure Karma Association in Shanghai. His mission was to study Theravada and explain Mahayana or, as we might say today, to start a dialogue. In 1934 the Ceylonese bhikkhus Soma and Kheminda returned his visit. Unfortunately when they reached Shanghai they found no facilities for study and went on to Japan. Nonetheless, during their brief stay they spoke on the Buddhist radio station, XMHB, and met many Chinese devotees. They were followed the next year by Narada, another bhikkhu from the same temple (that is, the Vajirarama in Colombo). Narada visited Shanghai, Hangchow, Soochow, Hankow, and had a meeting with T'ai-hsü. In 1946 Soma and Kheminda again went to China, this time accompanied by Pannasiha, to start a Pali college in Sian at T'ai-hsü's invitation. When they arrived they found that the civil war had broken out in Shensi and that Sian was inaccessible. After spending three months in Shanghai they returned to Ceylon.\n\nWhereas Asian Buddhist visitors to China came mostly from Ceylon, Chinese Buddhists went not only to Ceylon, but to Thailand, Burma, India, and Indo-China. Usually they went as pilgrims or for re-ordination or to minister to the overseas Chinese, but sometimes their purpose was to study the Pali language and Theravada doctrine. This did not always work out too well.\n\nIn December 1935 four Chinese monks left for such study in Thailand, where they were welcomed by the Supreme Patriarch and lodged in a royal temple.33 Shortly thereafter five other monks were sent to Ceylon, where they received a Theravada", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205135, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "86\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\npurely ritualistic activity and to devote a higher proportion of their time to preaching and meditation. For all these reasons and also because of the desire to join forces with the Theravadins in spreading Buddhism in the West, Buddhist exchanges between China and Southeast Asia grew in number during the 1930's, only to be cut off by the Japanese occupation in 1937. In the final two years not only were students sent abroad, but the Chinese donated four sets of the Tripitaka (two for India) and acquired a plot of land to build a Chinese Buddhist temple at Nalanda (the great Indian Buddhist university of the seventh century). A “propaganda group\" was organized to correspond and exchange news with Buddhists in the West. In Chinese monasteries there was developing a certain vogue for Theravada practices. For example, in the new Pure Land center at Ling-yen Shan meals after noon were taken in a \"room for medicinal eating\" rather than in the refectory, and many of the monks who lived there ate only in the morning. It became slightly less uncommon than it had been to observe the summer retreat (vassa), to recite the Pratimoksa twice a month, and to insist that a monk be twenty years old before he took the bhikkhu vows. All these rules had been observed in early Indian Buddhism and perpetuated in the Theravada countries.\n\nSome of the Chinese monks who had gone abroad for Theravada reordination made it a point, when they returned, to wear a saffron robe rather than their usual black, grey, or brown. Since it still had a Chinese cut, it symbolized, as one of them told me, their desire to reunite the two main divisions of Buddhism. Such an ecumenical spirit exemplifies the Chinese instinct to reconcile differences in a higher synthesis rather than to take an exclusive position on one side or another.\n\nRelations with Christians\n\nThis instinct can also be seen at work vis-à-vis Christianity. Many Chinese Buddhists regarded Christ as a bodhisattva (a buddha-to-be) whose life and teachings exemplified Buddhist principles.38 Several syncretistic sects had come into being between 1850 and 1950 that purported to combine Buddhism with Christianity and other beliefs. In the mid-nineteenth century when Christian missionaries had begun to appear at Buddhist", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205140, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n91\n\nAustrian, the women outnumbering men by about two to one. After he had given them a few months' training at his small temple in Shanghai, he looked about for a monastery that would ordain them. Arrangements were finally made at Ch'i-hsia Shan near Nanking, which agreed to hold a special ordination for their benefit in the autumn of 1933. About 140 Chinese were ordained at the same time. The ceremony lasted over forty days. It was not an \"easy\" ordination, such as those given to foreigners in Taiwan during the 1960's. Aided by an interpreter, Chao-k'ung's disciples went through most of the same training exercises as their fellow ordinees. The retired abbot of Chin Shan, Ch'ing-ch'üan, came to preside. Members of the diplomatic corps attended. \"Tens of thousands\" of lay visitors watched the rites, and many newspapers in Nanking and Shanghai published accounts of it.\n\nDespite this auspicious beginning Chao-k'ung never seemed to be able to shake off misfortune. Two of his disciples committed suicide, one died, others he expelled. Although three of them eventually returned to Europe and worked intermittently as Buddhist missionaries, they did not bring back more Europeans to be ordained, as many Chinese monks had hoped. Nonetheless the latter still speak of Chao-k'ung with affection and pride. For all his checkered career (of which they are largely ignorant) it was he who at the end of a century of Christian privilege had enabled them to turn the tables on the missionaries.\n\nRelations with Chinese Overseas\n\nThe overseas Chinese tended to be more conservative than their cousins at home. They did not face the task of modernizing China. The anti-religious movements that swept the mainland during the 1920's found few echoes in Singapore and Penang. Also, their roots lay not in the official classes, which had a commitment to Confucianism, but among the poor and uneducated. For both reasons they were more religiously inclined. In fact, except for food, clothing, and shelter, they spent more of their income on religion than on anything else.47 This was not only because of their religious inclinations, but also because of their cultural pride, which was all the stronger for residence in an alien environment. As some overseas Chinese families prospered,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205142, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n93\n\ninstitutional relationships developed. The most important of these relationships involved the overseas sub-temple. Sub-temples were wholly-owned branches of a large monastery. Most were in mainland China, but Ku Shan near Foochow had its main sub-temple overseas. This was the Chi-le Ssu in Penang, the origins of which go back to 1885. In that year a delegation of Ku Shan monks were sent to Penang to raise money. One of them, Miao-lien, won a large following among the laity there. This enabled him to construct between 1891 and 1904 an immense, rather garish temple that still covers a whole hillside outside Penang. It is, in fact, the largest Chinese temple in Malaya. Under local law it was an independent institution, but in Chinese Buddhist eyes it was a branch of Ku Shan. That is, the parent institution had the right to appoint its abbots and to audit its accounts. There was frequent intercourse between the two, since not only were there officers going out to take up their appointments, but there were novices and devotees from Penang going back to Ku Shan to receive ordination.55 The Chi-li Ssu provided Ku Shan with a base for raising funds overseas, but also benefited financially itself. For example, Yüan-ying stayed there in 1939 when he was raising funds for the sangha ambulance corps; but such was his eminence that the temple enjoyed a sharp increase in the donations for its own improvement and repair56.\n\nOne of the reasons for the success of the Chi-le Ssu was that most of the residents of Penang originated in Fukien.57 They could understand the dialect of the monks sent out by Ku Shan and were proud of the fact that it was the largest monastery in their native province. Penang, one might say, was in Ku Shan's sphere of influence. Another such sphere was Taiwan, also settled by immigrants from Fukien. Although there was no sub-temple there, Ku Shan lay just across the straits from Tamsui, so that travel to and fro was quick and convenient. Some Taiwanese monks (an elite, perhaps) went to Ku Shan to be ordained and to receive a few years of training. Their names are given in the Ku Shan ordination yearbooks, as are the names of many Taiwanese upasakas and upasikas. According to one informant, the Japanese authorities encouraged this religious traffic with the mainland and facilitated entry and exit procedures. Perhaps they saw a new way of using Buddhism for their own ends.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205143, "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": 99, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "94\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nI have not heard of other monasteries in China that had such wide-spreading or deep-rooted connections overseas as Ku Shan. It may have been unique. But it was extremely common for monks and lay pilgrims to go back and forth between overseas Chinese communities and the \"famous mountains” at home. Even at Wu-t'ai Shan near the Inner Mongolian border, one could find pilgrims from Singapore. In 1936, when Tai Chi-t'ao was on his way back from Europe, he stopped in Manila to lay the cornerstone of a new Buddhist temple sponsored by a group of overseas Chinese who, since 1930, had been serving as Philippines distributor for a Buddhist publishing house in Soochow. Here as elsewhere in southeast Asia, Buddhism was a link with the motherland.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 James Troup, \"On the tenets of the Shinshiu or 'True Sect' of Buddhists,\" Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 16 (June 1886), 14-16.\n\n2 Takada, Giko, Chusi shukyo daido renmei nenkan (Yearbook of the Great Harmony Religious Alliance of Central China), Shanghai, 1943, p. 10. I am obliged to Dr. Ho Kuan-chung for making this book available to me.\n\n3 Yang Jen-shan, Yang Jen-shang chü-shih i-chu (Works of upasaka Yang Jen-shang), Peking, 1923, 1:5. This temple appears to have gone out of existence at some later date, since the Nanking branch of Honganji mentioned by Takada (see preceding note) was set up in 1938. A Japanese temple in Changsha was noted by Hackmann in 1911 (German Scholar in the East, London, 1914, p. 108). This is also unlisted by Takada.\n\n4. Franke, “Die Propaganda des japanischen Buddhismus in China”, Ostasiatische Neubildungen, Hamburg, 1911, p. 159. This article by Franke is the source of most of the information given in the text, pp. 2-4.\n\n5 This episode is also referred to in Yin-shun, T'ai-hsü tashih nien-p'u, Hong Kong, 1950, p. 35-36, where thirteen monasteries in Hangchow alone were said to have become affiliated with the Honganji. More investigation is needed.\n\n6 Takada, p. 14.\n\n7 There were twenty-six Chinese delegates, according to Yin-shun, T'ai-hsü, p. 203. The official head of the Chinese delegation and Chinese vice-chairman of the conference was Tao-chieh, under whom T'ai-hsü had studied twenty years before (Yin-shun, T'ai-hsü, p. 26 ff). T'ai-hsü may be pardoned, perhaps, for giving people the impression that he was himself the chief of the delegation. (See, for example, Young East 1.6 (November 8, 1925), 177; T'ai-hsü Lectures on Buddhism, Paris, 1928, p. 14,\n\n8 Young East 1.6 (November 8, 1925), 179-180.\n\n9 This and other information given here on the East Asian Buddhist Conference comes largely from Young East 1.6 (November 8, 1925), 176-177.\n\n10 Tokiwa Daijo, Shina bukkyo shiseki kinen shu (Buddhist Monuments in China, Memorial Collection), Tokyo, 1931, p. 203.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205144, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n11 Yin-shun, T'ai-hsü, p. 213.\n\n12 Eastern Buddhist 3.2 (July-September, 1924), 190.\n\n95\n\n13 Chinese lay devotees went to Japan to learn Tantric Buddhism from Shingon masters. Chinese monks went for academic study (two in 1936 and two more in early 1937; see Chinese Year Book 1937, Shanghai, 1937, p. 73.\n\n14 That is, the Chung-jih fo-chiao hui. At about the same time the Sino-Japanese Tantric Association (Ching-jih mi-chiao hui) was established. See Chinese Year Book 1937, p. 73.\n\n15 Takada, p. 14.\n\n16 Takada, p. 24-36, lists a total of eleven temples established between 1876 and 1937, but on p. 14 he speaks of ten temples having been set up before 1937 and of forty-nine (not forty-six) being in operation as of December, 1942. It seems clear that he does not include temples that have gone out of operation, like those in Nanking and Changsha (see note 2), and possibly those in Fukien. The only temple outside Shanghai that survived from the era before 1937 was the Honganji temple in Hankow, established 1906, which in 1942 had 1,200 Japanese and 150 Chinese parishioners.\n\n17 For example, in 1942 at the original Honganji temple in Shanghai the number of Japanese parishioners was 4,930 and the number of Chinese was zero. This temple was obviously not engaged in missionary work, but exclusively in serving the Japanese community.\n\n18 Two officers of the Ching-an Ssu in Shanghai are said to have been arrested and in Canton the abbot of the Liu-jung Ssu, T'ieh-ch'an, was executed.\n\n19 H. G. Quaritch Wales, \"Buddhism As an Instrument of Japanese Propaganda\" Free World 5.5 (May 1943), 428.\n\n20 Takada, p. 1, states that the alliance was set up in April 1937 in accordance with the policy formulated in October 1938. Perhaps the first date is a misprint.\n\n21 Takada, pp. 1, 4, 5. The changes in the bureaucratic status of the Great Harmony Religious Alliance appear to have been as follows. After being set up under the military authorities, it was transferred to the liaison office of the Central China Liaison Office of the Office for the Resurgence of Asia (Koain), which had been set up in December 1938 directly under the Cabinet in order to formulate policy on and handle relations with China. In April 1942 the Alliance was placed under the supervision of the Foreign Ministry through its representatives in Shanghai. In November 1942 it seems to have been returned to the Office for the Resurgence of Asia, when the latter was integrated into the Ministry for Great East Asian Co-Prosperity.\n\n22 Takada, pp. 24-36.\n\n23 The most significant absentee was Yüan-ying, the national head of the Chinese Buddhist Association (Shanghai, 1929).\n\n24 H. Hackmann, A German Scholar in the East, pp. 118-119. John Blofeld, who visited Wu-t'ai Shan in 1937, describes a monastery with several hundred monks where \"the main pavilion... was arranged in the Chinese way, but many services were held in a smaller building where purely Tibetan rites were performed\" (Jewel in the Lotus, London, 1948, p. 97).\n\n25 Fa-p'u, a disciple of Ta-yung, is stated to have reached Lhasa and earned a ko-hsi degree. Yin-shun, T'ai-hsü, p. 17.\n\n26 Chinese Year Book 1937 (Shanghai, 1937), p. 73.\n\n27 Shirob Jaltso, for example, was a member of the People's Political Council (1938-1949); an alternate member of the Kuomintang Sixth Super-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205146, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n97\n\n38 I have heard this from many informants. See also Reichelt, The Transformed Abbot, London, 1954, p. 156, and J. B. Pratt The Pilgrimage of Buddhism, New York, 1928, p. 311. A Buddhist monk once explained to me that although it was true that Jesus had risen after three days, no one should think he had done this \"just by becoming a Christian\". He had performed religious exercises (hsiu-hsing) and that was how he had achieved resurrection. There was no attempt on the part of this monk to deny the miracle of resurrection, only to fit it into the Buddhist scheme.\n\n39 Rev. Joseph Edkins, The Religious Condition of China, London, 1859, p. 75. In 1875 Timothy Richard, when he was baptising converts in Shantung, found that there was no building convenient to the river where they could change their clothes before and after. He explained his problem to the monk in charge of the Buddhist temple there who \"readily consented\" to lend some of its rooms for this purpose. See Richard, Forty-five Years in China, New York, 1916, p. 95. In 1879 the largest lama temple in Peking allowed a colporteur of the National Bible Society of Scotland to run a bookstore within the temple, where on several days a week Christian books were sold. See C. F. Gordon Cumming, Wanderings in China, London, 1888, pp. 4-9.\n\n40 Harry A. Franck, Roving Through Southern China, New York, 1925, pp. 575-576.\n\n41 In the early 1890's De Groot reported: \"It has often happened to the author of these lines that when he was taking his meal in one of the monasteries where he was staying, he was visited by monks who were curious to see how he ate and what he ate: but it was enough for them to smell the odour of his roast of pork or his leg of mutton and they would be forced to make a hasty exit from the room: they felt overcome by nausea. Such strict vegetarianism, it goes without saying that when non-vegetarian lay people came to stay sometimes in a monastery they are not allowed to have their food prepared in the monks' kitchen. There are small separate kitchens for them, where their own servants can stew things up for them.\" (Le Code du Mahayana en Chine, Amsterdam, 1893, p. 103). In 1908, when Boerschmann stayed on P'u-to Shan, he grew tired of the vegetarian fare and sent his cook to smuggle in some chickens (Pu-t'o Shan, Berlin, 1911, p. 166). In these and other instances the monks are portrayed as tacitly or even gleefully cooperating in getting meat onto the foreigner's bill of fare. It seems more likely that their cooperation, when it was forthcoming (and often it was refused), was reluctant and indignant. There was a compelling practical reason for this. If Chinese pilgrims saw meat being eaten on the premises of a monastery, many of them would take their patronage elsewhere. This was understood by early Western travellers like A. J. Little (Mount Omi and Beyond, London, 1901, pp. 75, 81, and 83). Little also provides an example of the Westerner's tendency to haggle (pp. 68, 83). The meanest bit of haggling was probably perpetrated by Mrs. C. F. Gordon Cumming. In 1879 she visited the Tien-t'ung Ssu, one of the model monasteries of China. After she and her party had enjoyed an \"excellent dinner,\" they were asked to give the equivalent of English tenpence, Mrs. Cumming offered eight pence. When the offer was accepted, she tipped the waiter tuppence halfpenny, and noted that he \"grinned with delight. Can I give you a better proof that we have reached a spot where foreigners are almost unknown?\" (Wanderings in China, London, 1888, p. 291). Mrs. Cumming was quite mistaken, of course, about foreigners being unknown: probably more had stayed at T'ien-t'ung than at any other monastery.\n\nEven today Westerners with plenty of dollars in their pocket take pride in doing the poor Chinese shopkeeper out of a few cents, partly to show their savoir faire and partly out of fear of being cheated themselves. But the monastery was not a shop, and this sort of behaviour was regarded as most inappropriate there.\n\n42 W. E. Soothill, Timothy Richard of China (London, 1924), pp. 162-163.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205147, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "98\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\n43 Reichelt quotes a warning by the late Ming monk, Hsi-ming, against \"being deceived into joining the Catholic church or some other outside sect,” and states that it was often reprinted (Truth and Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai, 1927, pp. 157-158).\n\n44 It was in 1920 that Reichelt first proposed an \"institute for special work among the Buddhists.\" He wanted to make contact with monks whose hearts were filled with bitterness towards Christianity because some Christians were \"so fatally lacking in a sympathetic and gentle attitude towards others.\" It was to be \"a half-way house\" with many of the features of a Buddhist monastery, including a wandering monks' hall, a meditation hall, a bell tower, a crematorium, and a hall for the aged. See K. L. Reichelt, \"Special Work among Chinese Buddhists\" Chinese Recorder 51.7 (July 1920), 491-497. When it finally went into operation, under the name of the \"Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" in the autumn of 1922, it had only a \"very small, semi-foreign house.\" After a year and a half, it moved to somewhat larger quarters which included a dining room, where vegetarian meals were served, and the all-important \"pilgrims hall\" where monks were allowed to put up for three days (as they would be at a Buddhist temple) and stay longer if they were interested in serious study. The layout was \"just as in monasteries with two long platforms where they can spread their bedding, and, above them, shelves where they can place their things. Between the two platforms, there is an altar with an incense burner and two candlesticks and above all an impressive crucifix.\" Even more significant was the arrangement of the chapel, to which they were summoned for worship twice a day (as they would be in a monastery) by \"a Chinese bell with deep tones.\" The altar was of red lacquer \"in a true Chinese style,\" adorned with gilt designs that included the following: \"the lotus lily symbolizing the purity, the fire, and the water of the cleansing spirit” (but also, of course, symbolizing the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land), \"the swastika of peace and cosmic union\" (but also one of the Buddha's sacred marks and a general symbol for Buddhism), and the cross over a lotus, which was the Mission's emblem.\n\nJust as in a Chinese temple, plaques with parallel inscriptions were hung on the walls. One bore a quotation from the Gospel according to St. John: \"The true light that enlightens every man has come into the world.\" The other legend was more Buddhist in flavour than Christian: \"[Join in] the great vow compassionately to help people across to the other shore\" (ta-yüan tz'u-hang).\n\nThese efforts to make Buddhist monks feel at home attracted a large number of them as visitors (about a thousand annually) but in the first four and a half years of operation, only seventeen male Chinese were converted and baptized. See Notto Normann Thelle \"The Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" Chinese Recorder (September 1927), 571-575. A photograph of four of the Buddhist and Taoist novices, whom Thelle says were enrolled in the boys' school opened by the Mission, appears in the Chinese Recorder 54.11 (November 1923), facing p. 671. When the permanent headquarters of the Mission were constructed at Tao-fung Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong during the 1930s, the approximation of a Buddhist monastery became almost as close as Dr. Reichelt had originally envisaged it. Some missionaries were afraid that he was being too broad-minded in his use of Buddhist motifs and even that he might be fostering a kind of Buddho-Christian syncretism. He and his colleagues maintained, however, that their only purpose was to \"lead these people into a living faith in Jesus Christ.\" (Thelle, p. 571).\n\n45 Maha Bodhi, 41.3.4 (March-April 1933), 133,\n\n46 Most of the information on Chao-k'ung up to this point is taken from David Lampe and Laszlo Szenasi, The Self-made Villain, London, 1961.\n\n47 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1951, p. 47.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205256, "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-1967", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "HONG KONG MAMMALS\n\nPATRICIA MARSHALL\n\n11\n\nIntroduction\n\nZoologically the world may be divided into 5 regions, the Holarctic (Eurasia and North America; once connected across the Bering Straits), Oriental (South East Asia), Australasian (Australia and New Guinea), Ethiopian (Africa south of the Sahara) and South American regions. These regions are distinguished from one another by the different assemblage of animals which each contains.\n\nHong Kong is situated on the borders between the Holarctic and Oriental regions, and its fauna is of interest in that it contains animals from both the Holarctic, such as the fox, and from the Orient such as the pangolin and the civets,\n\nHistorical\n\nIn the 10th century, Hong Kong was covered in dense tropical rain forest, with tall trees, and a fairly rich soil.\n\nIn the early Sung dynasty Chinese people began to settle in this region and to farm in the traditional style of lowland cultivation. They drained the valleys to grow wet paddy, and kept cows, pigs and chickens. In doing so they were harassed by pirates from the sea and by wild beasts such as elephants, rhinos, tigers, leopards and wolves from the forest. Particularly the herds of elephants did great damage to the crops, and in 962 A.D. the Buddhist farmers, to placate the wild elephants, collected together all the elephant bones they could find, buried them, and erected a stone pagoda. Today a temple stands on this site which is said to be just north of the Sino-British border, and a stone tablet inscribed with a prayer to the elephants is still present.\n\nNot only were there wild beasts in the forests but there were crocodiles and dugongs in the rivers.\n\nFor fuel and to discourage the wild animals, the villagers burnt down and logged vast areas of forest. This had the desired effect\n\nDr. Patricia Marshall has been lecturing in Zoology at the University of Hong Kong since 1962.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205351, "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-1967", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "106\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nTo the North of Deep Bay is Chik-wan Bay, on the shore of which is situated the renowned temple of Tien-hau. To the South is the Bay of Toon-mun-wan, near Castle-peak. The open sea forms the Southern and Eastern boundary of the district.\n\nMirs Bay, the most remarkable of those which indent the Eastern shore of Sanon, is called by the Chinese \"Ti-po Hoi\" 大步海.\n\nIt is worthy of notice, that when the question of ceding Hong-kong to the British crown was brought before the Emperor Tau-kwang, it was asserted that the island had never really belonged to China; and it appears remarkable that, in an official geographical and statistical account of Sanon, in 8 volumes, published about 40 years ago, no mention of Hongkong is made, although islands much more insignificant are accurately included. However, in the list of villages of the Sanon District, the names of Shek-pai-wan (Aberdeen) and Check-chu (Stanley), are found. Among the numerous Straits between the different islands the most worthy of notice are:--\n\n1. The Cap-sui-mûn between Lantao and the two small Islands of Tsing-yeu and Ma-wan; Kai-check-mûn, between the two last mentioned islands and the mainland itself, and Ly-yue-mûn and East-tong-mûn, which constitute the Eastern passage from Hongkong harbour. According to Chinese authorities, the greater diameter of the district, from North to South, measures 380 le, and the lesser, from East to West, 270 le. But it must be remembered that the measurement from North to South extends to the southermost of the small islands which are reckoned as belonging to the district. The district is generally mountainous, and the mountain ridges extend nearly to the shore, leaving only small plains at their feet, which are occupied by villages and hamlets. These mountains have usually a dreary and barren aspect, and resemble those of Hong-kong and the opposite mainland. The granite rocks are scantily covered with soil, and are overgrown with grass. A luxuriant underwood is found in the ravines, but trees are seldom met with, though groves of them, evidently planted, are generally found in the neighbourhood of villages, Buddhist monasteries, and temples. The Chinese are accustomed to burn down the grass on the tops.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205354, "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-1967", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n109\n\nThe third remarkable mountain lies a few miles south of the district town, and is called \"Nam-shan\" — 南山 the Southern mountain. In a bay at the foot of this mountain is the famous temple of \"Teen-h'aou” — the Queen of Heaven at Chek-wan; and to the right and left of the entrance to this bay are two forts, now in ruins and unoccupied. A tolerably broad highway leads from the district town to this temple, and four or five rest-houses are erected along the road for the convenience of its devotees. Several altars exist on different parts of the mountain, and to these the Mandarins resort, to worship in times of scarcity or danger,\n\nLastly, is mentioned the mountain of Castlepeak, called by the Chinese \"Poe-lou-shan\" ✯✯J, on the western borders of the province, near the bay of Tun-wan. This mountain, remarkable for the fine view it affords, has near its summit a monastery occupied by Tauist priests. The mountain is reckoned one of the eight wonders of the Canton province. Some of its large granite boulders are said by the priests to represent various mythological monsters; and several springs well-up near the top, which are also esteemed supernatural wonders by the Chinese. The mountain is often visited by students and literati, and its wonders and beauties have been celebrated by them in many verses. The legends connected with the mountain seem not to be very clearly understood. The most remarkable of them is the following, which gave it the name it now bears: Hundreds of years ago there lived a renowned Buddhist priest who went by the name of \"Poi-tow,\" the Tea-cup Navigator. One night he took up his quarters in a certain house, and went away the next morning carrying with him the golden idol belonging to his host. This man started out in pursuit; but though he could see the priest before him, travelling on foot, apparently very leisurely, he could not, though he was on horseback, overtake him; and presently he saw the holy man carried over a river in a Tea-cup, and so gave up the pursuit as useless.\n\nSome time afterwards this priest effected the cure of a woman of rank, merely by writing a charm; often she had applied in vain to many doctors and sorcerers. Gratitude attached the whole family of the patient to him. Not long after this he died on his travels. Five years after his death he again appeared, and declared that he should now go into the Canton province, and accordingly he took up his residence on Castlepeak mountain; and being seen", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205377, "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-1967", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "132\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nTo the left of the temple of Confucius, is the temple of “Kwan-kung”關公—the God of War; and on the right another one dedicated to \"Man-tai\", the God of Literature. Behind the latter is the hall Ning-lun, in which the public examinations are held. The literati and elders meet here on special occasions. In the vicinity of these edifices is the temple of “Sha-nung”神農—the God of Agriculture; and before it extends a piece of ground, on which the chief magistrate has to plough a few furrows at the beginning of spring, in accordance with an ancient custom. Near the sea-shore is a large space of ground, which serves for drilling the military, and on which the military examinations are also held. On it also a hall is erected for the accommodation of the officers.\n\nNot far from this place is a Buddhist temple, which contains images of the three Buddhas, and of the eighteen Lo-hou, which are Buddhist demi-gods. In front of the three Buddhas is a tablet, before which the devotees worship the reigning dynasty. On this tablet is the inscription \"Ten Thousand years!\" Farther above this is another tablet with the characters \"Protect my black-haired people.\" The chief magistrate is obliged to repair here once a month, and to prostrate himself before these tablets.\n\nOther edifices worthy of notice are, a five-storied pagoda, a temple to the well-deserving mandarins Wong and Lau, and an altar to the Gods of Land and Grain. Outside the town is the execution ground, and here, in 1854, many rebels were decapitated, and there might be seen at times the heads hung up in baskets as a warning to the people.\n\nThe fort and city of Kowloong are sufficiently known, and there is but little to say of them. The low walls and miserable forts have often been visited by foreigners. The environs of Kowloong contain some curious mementoes of history, of which the rest of the district is destitute. Ping-tai, the last of the Southern Emperors of the Sung dynasty, fled with the remnant of his faithful adherents to the province of Canton. Near Kowloong he attempted to build himself a palace, which however he was unable to complete, and the situation is now marked by a temple to \"Pak-tai”北帝—the God of the North. One of his high officers died here, and his tomb is situated on a hill, which is called to this day Sung-wang-tai. These three characters are engraved on\n\n+", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205488, "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-1968", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION\n\n25\n\nnumbers of laymen interested in reform established study centres and even began to take the first five vows of the clergy, conducting some of the religious performances formerly reserved to the priesthood. But this lay-movement flourished mainly in the urban areas.31\n\nOne might expect Buddhism as an organization to be more active in towns perhaps. Communications among members would be easier and there would also be more unattached wishing to avail themselves of its facilities. Even today in Malaya the contrast between Buddhist activities in the towns and rural areas is quite marked. In towns the social life of \"kinsmen\" is very active and includes visits to different establishments on anniversaries of birth and death of \"kinsmen\"; visiting for \"ancestor\" worship (part of the rituals of \"kinship\") and for popular Chinese festivals of the kind which demand family get-togethers. Not only are there many vegetarian halls but there are large numbers of inmates consisting of both those using them as a pied-à-terre during working life and those living in permanently in old age. In the rural areas the numbers attached to vegetarian halls and other establishments based on residence is small, as is the number of such establishments themselves, and the social life much less intense.\n\nIn providing a home and other social and economic benefits for those in need, however, Buddhist organization might perform a valuable function in the rural area. For a poor village without any other strong forms of aid for the poor and unattached strong kinship system, well-financed ancestral hall association or temple organization, for example a monastic establishment in the area could draw off some at least of the individuals likely to be most troublesome in village life.\n\nTaoism\n\nWe know less of the religious activities and organization of monastic establishments of Taoism and their relation to rural communities in the nineteenth century than in the case of Buddhism, but again the religion is said to have been poorly financed. Where its establishments provided both residence and a professional training they might have recruited, partly at least, from among the poor and unattached as with Buddhist establishments; although some of Taoism's goals for the individual increased physical vigour, super-human skills, and long-life appear from\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205501, "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-1968", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "38\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\nAncestor worship in lineage villages could be built into an extended and extensive organization making for more efficient control for the village unit. The mono-lineage village with a strong ancestral organization was probably the best regulated in China, but there were built-in limitations. Promotion of the cult depended on wealth and scholarship, and both worship and management tended to be gentry affairs. This left ordinary peasants open to form other associations and join religious groups cutting across village boundaries. The power generated by an ancestral hall association could also effect village stability in another way. It could lead to conflict with other communities coveting or opposing its control over land and property and also to State intervention.\n\nOrganizations associated with temples to popular deities with significance for a whole community could provide some control over village affairs also. Mono-lineages could use them to back up their own ancestral cult but they probably exercised a greater control in villages with no competitive community-scale religious organizations: multi-lineage villages without extended ancestral hall associations. Similar kinds of persons, the rich and educated, tended to be involved in matters of promotion and management, as those in ancestral hall associations. Again, as with the halls, because such temples depended much on the wealthy and educated (but not for ritual affairs as with the halls), conflicts could arise between different families involved in a temple's more secular affairs, management of property for example. In highly differentiated villages, moreover, social differences might be mirrored in multiple temple organizations providing cohesion for special groups rather than whole communities. Divisions could take place in differentiated mono-lineage villages also, with the wealthy starting their own branch hall association; but they tended to preserve some common interests and activities nevertheless: worship of the founding ancestor for example.\n\nThe ideological and other satisfactions provided by Buddhism and Taoism tended to attract particular types of persons as full-time members: in Buddhism, those not fully integrated into other social institutions of the village - particularly widows, and the unhappily married or unmarried. Buddhism might discourage such persons from becoming a problem for a village by providing them with special residential institutions, and the satisfactions of a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205610, "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-1968", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n147\n\nIt is in connexion with worship of “Mother” that the lay-out of the shrine rooms in vegetarian halls of the sect is important. Mother must be placed higher than any other deity and should occupy a room to herself (or occasionally shared with Kuan-yin with whom, as we have said, she is sometimes identified). This means that halls of the sect should whenever possible be built on two storeys, with \"Mother's\" room on the upper storey. This was so in the case of all the halls visited. Usually, one of the popular triads is housed in the main downstairs shrine-room (occasionally one finds an image downstairs of the many-armed Chun-t'i: “Goddess of Dawn\" supposedly of Buddhist origin, but she was not present in the halls visited).\n\nUpstairs besides the room dedicated to “Mother\" there is often a shrine also for the soul-tablets of past members.\n\nMembers of the Society were fortunately permitted to visit all shrine rooms (some halls do not permit outsiders to enter the \"Mother\" room).\n\nRelations between the Halls and the Ngau Chi Wan Village\n\nThere is a certain amount of inter-action between the halls at Ngau Chi Wan and the village of this name which, though on the fringe of urban Kowloon and augmented by neighbouring squatter huts and factions, is still largely inhabited by the descendants of founding Hakka families who came to this spot in the mid-eighteenth century and after. The annual festival of the god of the main village temple (said to be a Ch'iu Ch'au deity whose image was brought up from the sea off Ngau Chi Wan by village fishermen a long time ago) occurs on the 25th of the 2nd lunar month. At this time the inmates of the halls visit the opera performance that is held in a matshed on open ground in front of the KAM HA CHING SHE and worship at the portable shrine that is brought on these occasions from the temple half a mile away. Our visit took place just before this festival and already the bamboo structure on which the matshed for the opera was to be built, was being erected. A large temporary cooking stove had also been constructed for the occasion for serving vegetarian food (which Marjorie Topley gathered in conversation with some of the inmates was contracted for by the village temple association from the vegetarian halls).\n\nAgain, at the Festival of Hungry Ghosts on the 7th of the 7th moon, it is “traditional” practice for about 100 students from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205790, "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-1969", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "90\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nLike Sakya-muni who became Gotama Buddha, he left the rich life of the Palace for the austerity of monkhood. His head and eyebrows were shaven, his dress was the yellow robe, his dwelling a cell in a city monastery. He shared the simple life of the most humble. Each morning he went into the streets to receive in a metal alms bowl gifts of food from the people. Each day the monks chanted the Pali sutras, studied, or practised meditation. It was a life of abstinence. No worldly wealth is allowed in the Order. It is absolutely forbidden to tell lies, to take any form of life, to gossip, to steal, to have any contact with women, to handle money, or to eat after mid-day. A monk's demeanour is important - how to stand, sit, walk, how to address people, and how to maintain that composure which is revealed in the face of Buddha's image in every Wat in Thailand.\n\nThe discipline was not irksome to Mongkut, and it became him as easily as the luxury of the Palace. He immersed himself in Buddhist studies and acquired a good knowledge of Pali, the language of the scriptures. He found in his research that there were serious gaps in the collections of texts and commentaries in Siam. At the young age of thirty-three, he had been in the Order three years. Mongkut became the Abbot of Wat Bowaniwate. He ordered many Pali books from Ceylon to repair the omissions in the Buddhist writings. But the most important part of his work as a monk was the reform and revitalising of the Order of monkhood itself.\n\nPrince Mongkut, the Abbot, found the observance of the code of conduct too slack. Some monks in Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, were even gambling and handling money. He set a new standard of discipline in his own Wat and then established a new sect within the Order. This was the Dharmayuta, the Followers of the Law, which survives today. The rules prescribed for this school of monks are far stricter than for the majority group, the Mahanikai, the Great Sect. Mongkut preached to the monks in his Wat and to the people, bringing a fresh interpretation of the Dharma, the Law, in place of what had become atrophied ritual. In creating a new sect among the monks, Mongkut did not bring about a \"Reformation\"; he left no cleavage among the followers of Buddhism. He re-inspired belief and disciplined practice. That this was done by a Priest, half-brother to the King and his likely successor, was doubly significant in a country where", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206085, "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-1970", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "S. F. BALFOUR\n\nto be found. In the pearl sea the local Tan and Man14 live near the oyster beds but they are more wretched and starved than the poorest people and are not allowed to get pearls for themselves.\n\nIt is not possible to locate the parts of the Taipo Sea where this fishing was done. No doubt the appellation Taipo Sea was used, just as T'un Mun, to denote a large indefinite area possibly including most of Mirs Bay. There are, nowadays, oysters on the Canton estuary side only, and these do not give pearls. This text, which can be found in the Topography, gives a picture of the conditions existing when the population of our region was composed mainly of soldiers and aborigines.\n\nNo doubt cultivation was practised in the neighbourhood of these garrisons by the soldiers themselves or by a few families of Chinese peasants, but rice cultivation on a large scale, such as exists now on all the plains, cannot have existed a thousand years ago. Much of the country must have been jungle. The presence of elephants is shewn by an inscription dated A.D. 962 at a Buddhist temple not far from the present frontier. The inscription describes the erection of a pagoda on a site where elephant bones were collected and buried in order to pacify herds of elephants which were doing great damage in the neighbourhood. A description15 of the event runs as follows:\n\nIn Ts'ư Fu Shih, a Buddhist temple in Tung Kun district, a stone pagoda was built in the 5th year of the reign of Ta Pao of the Southern Han dynasty with the intention of pacifying the elephants which at that time were doing much damage to the crops. Elephant bones were collected in a heap, and the pagoda raised over them so as to keep the elephants in control.\n\nWe have already seen that crocodiles were common in South China during the T'ang dynasty, but the presence of elephants as late as the tenth century is a remarkable testimony of the change that the region underwent during less than a thousand years. It seems likely that the nature of the region changed after a process of deforestation.\n\n14 i.e. Tanka and Hoklo.\n\n15 BRÂES, Volume I, page 12.\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206192, "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-1971", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "ترا \n\n11 May \n\n22 June \n\nDr. Hu Shiu-ying \n\n\"Flowering Plants of Hong Kong.” \n\nDr. Chiu Ling-yeong \n\n+4 \n\nTwo Views on the Modernization of \n\nChina.\" \n\n21 September Mr. Kwok On \n\n7 November \n\n12 December \n\n(Talk, Demonstration and Performances) \"Puppet Show.\" \n\nMr. James Hayes (Organiser) \n\nExcursion to Tung Lin Kok Yuen, the Tam Kung Temple, Happy Valley and the Tin Hau Temple, Causeway Bay, \n\nMr. David Gilkes (Organiser) \n\nExcursion to Tao Fong Shan, Shatin. (The Christian Mission to Buddhists). \n\nTaking into consideration the variation in the popularity of subjects and in the availability of lecturers, the lectures last year were on the whole as well attended as could be expected, and this raises two points of special interest to our Society. One is the availability of suitable halls at the times we want them, and the other the choice of subjects. \n\nRegarding the former, it is becoming more difficult to make short-notice bookings of lecture halls in Hong Kong and this is due partly to the increasing demand and partly to long-term block booking by some organizations. This is going to remain a permanent difficulty, and an increasing one too, and the only answer I can see to it is the ultimate acquisition of our own premises, which incidentally would solve one of our library problems as well. \n\nRegarding the choice of subjects, popularity of the subject is not the only point taken into consideration by your Committee when arranging the lecture programmes. Our chief aim is to cater during each year for as many tastes among our members as possible, and hence variety of subjects, rather than popularity, is the main criterion. A glance at the above list will, I think, convince you that that is what we are achieving. Your Committee would therefore welcome suggestions or requests from members", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206403, "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-1971", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nVISIT TO THE TUNG LIN KOK YUEN, TAM KUNG TEMPLE, HAPPY VALLEY, AND TIN HAU TEMPLE, CAUSEWAY BAY, SATURDAY, 7TH NOVEMBER 1970\n\nTung Lin Kok Yuen\n\nThe Tung Lin Kok Yuen(t) is a Buddhist nunnery situated at Shan Kwong Road, Happy Valley, not far from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club stables. It was founded by the late Lady Hotung (1878-1938), wife of that well-known Hong Kong figure, Sir Robert Hotung. The Yuen comprises a Buddhist temple and the Po Kok Vocational Middle School. The main building was completed in mid-1935 when two other institutions founded by Lady Hotung, the Po Kok Free School in Percival Street and a Buddhist seminary in Castle Peak were moved to it. The Yuen is said to be the only place in the Colony which provides a seminary for Buddhist nuns, and the study of Buddhism forms a major part of the curriculum. A new school building was opened in November, 1951 and an extension for teachers' quarters in 1954.\n\nAlthough the Yuen is not very old, it is of special interest in that the religious images, furniture and other fittings survived the Japanese occupation when so much else in the Colony was dispersed or destroyed, so that we can see today, more or less, how the Yuen looked when it was completed in 1935. Readers of Mrs. Jean Gittins' recently published book Eastern Windows Western Skies (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post Ltd., 1969) pp. 106-7, will recall how many of the internal fittings for the Yuen were carried out by Shanghainese craftsmen in Sir Robert Hotung's house on the Peak.\n\nOf particular interest are two halls devoted to the maintenance of memorial tablets for the dead. One of these, named after one of Sir Robert Hotung's sons who died early, there is a painting of him in the hall is part of the original building, whilst an extension was added about 10 years ago. The persons depositing memorial tablets in these halls are said to pay a once-for-all donation to the Yuen. Besides memorial tablets kept under glass-fronted altars, there are also lists of names written on pink paper.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206635, "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-1972", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n177\n\nIn Chinese communities in Malaya and Cambodia, T'ai Sui is prayed to for rain, good crops, fine weather and for all the usual hopes of farmers. Also in South East Asia he is presented with offerings 30 days after the safe birth of a child, to ensure that its full life span had been pre-ordained.\n\nAlternative names and titles\n\na. Yin Yuan Shuai (陰元帥) Generalissimo Yin\n\nb. Yin Tien Chün (陰天君) Heavenly Master Yin\n\nc.\n\nd.\n\nYin Ing No (characters unknown) (Ch'ao Chow speakers) T'ai Sui Ye (太歲爺)\n\ne. Tai Sui Ti Chün (太歲帝君) Emperor Tai Sui\n\nす。\n\nTa Sheng (大聖) The “Great Life,” a nickname in Malacca.\n\ng. Chin Ting Nu (真定奴) His name whilst living with the\n\nh.\n\nhermits\n\nMarshal Yin T'ai Sui (陰太歲) One of the 36 escorting heavenly masters.*\n\nFeast Days\n\nThe only identifiable feast date was one given on four separate occasions, three in present day Malaya and one in Shanghai in 1871, the nineteenth of the seventh lunar month. He was officially sacrificed to on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the Temple of Heaven in Peking.\n\nDescriptions of characteristics of T'ai Sui and Yin Ch'iao\n\nThere are eight basic forms of this deity:\n\na. as a shaven headed youth with a tonsure, in Buddhist monk's robes and sandals, holding either:\n\nb.\n\n(1) a scroll or split-bamboo plaque in both hands\n\n(2) a bell in his right hand\n\n(3) his empty right hand above his head, as though holding a raised sword.\n\n(4) seated with his hands on his knees\n\nas an elderly man in Mandarin's robes:\n\n(1) seated with both hands on his knees or (2) holding a bell in his right hand\n\n5 Doré, Father Henri, Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, (Shanghai 1914-1929, 15 vols.)\n\n6 Grootaers, W. A. Chahar, Peking, Catholic University, Monumenta Serica, 1948).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206636, "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-1972", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "178\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nC. as a fierce, two or six-armed, three-eyed general or two-eyed Taoist priest.\n\nd. as an array of sixty rather characterless seated images, each with a two-character cyclic date on a scroll or tablet (...), or a number between one and sixty painted on the stand or pedestal, or painted over its head. The sixty statues have been seen only in Cantonese and Shanghainese areas though reported on one occasion by Hodous in Foochow. Sometimes all images are identical, sometimes they are a mixture of fierce and gentle, and in one particular Cantonese temple they were beautifully finished. Werner, however, says that the 60 cycle-gods are represented by most grotesque images. (See plate 16).\n\nIn Ningpo in the 1890s the gods of time, gods of the year, months, days and the hours were all represented with long black moustaches. The central one was seated beneath a triple scarlet umbrella, richly embroidered in gold and colours representing the highest emblem of authority. They are also represented in the temple of the Thunder God in the same town. Rev. Henry in Canton saw sixty small images each one to the presiding genius of each year on a minor shrine in the temple of the City God. Some were raised on tiles and some bedecked with gaudy red coats, the gifts of those who had received special favours in their particular years.\n\nC. B. Day says that in Buddhist temples in Chekiang province these are 12 protectors of the Chinese cycle of years. In Suifu, Graham9 saw two images of the 12 rulers of the cyclic year (元甲).\n\nThe Cantonese version of the youth in a. above, is more often than not dressed only in an apron and shoes. The apron is gilt or green, covering the chest and below the waist only, and is secured by a string around the back of the neck and by a girdle around the waist. In several Cantonese temples he is the main deity. The bell he carries has magical properties. Very occasionally he is to be seen with either a sceptre or a silver shoe in his hands; and on still rarer occasions he can be bearded.\n\n7 Henry, Rev. B. C., The Cross and the Dragon (London, Partridge 1883).\n\n8 Day, C. B., Chinese Peasant Cults (Shanghai 1940).\n\n9 Graham, W., \"The temples of Suifu\" in The Chinese Recorder, (vol. LXI, 1930).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206637, "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-1972", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n179\n\nIn c. above, he is two different beings, his benevolent form is as a man with two eyes, “ear pressing\" tufts of hair, three pairs of arms, and hair standing erect on the back of his head. In his malevolent form he is depicted as a man with a leopard's head, three eyes, a lion's nose, a tiger's mouth, a bear's tongue, a boar's tusks, and three pairs of arms. Again, above his ears are \"ear pressing\" tufts of hair, and on top of his otherwise bald head is a headdress called a k'ui ying.\n\nIn the two and a half thousand or so temples visited in South East Asia, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, the basic forms listed above can be grouped into general categories. T'ai Sui/Yin Ch'iao were seen in 48 temples; among which 11 were Fukienese, 28 Cantonese, 2 Hakka, 2 Ch'ao Chow and two inter-community Buddhist temples. Of these, 18 were in Singapore, 15 in Malaya, 9 in Hong Kong, 3 in Macao, 1 in Cambodia and 2 in Taiwan. The 'youths with a scroll' are mainly Cantonese, as are the majority of the 'youths holding a bell.' The ‘elderly man with a bell' was seen in two Hakka temples and one Cantonese community temple. The images of the 'fierce general' was seen only in Fukienese community temples and a few images of 'youths with bells or scrolls' were seen in Fukienese temples.\n\nThe groups of sixty images have been seen in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao, and in Fukien by Hodous. In Singapore and Kuala Lumpur large but odd numbers of T'ai Sui, including a mix-ture of them with scrolls or bells, were seen in two Cantonese community temples.\n\nThese images have not been seen in any Hainanese temples. Only in Cantonese and Hakka temples were these images observed standing on wads of hell money.\n\nThe four charms carried by T'ai Sui, according to a Fukienese god carver, are:\n\na. a seal of office, which, if shaken, causes the heavens to quake.\n\nb. two swords, one male and one female, which are able to destroy demons and wrong-doers.\n\nc. a bell, called Jung Kuei Ch'ung (*) which causes one to lose the way when rung. This bell causes demons to forget their tasks and to wander aimlessly. It is also a magic teller of time.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206640, "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-1972", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "182\n\nCo-location of deities\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nIn Fukienese temples in Singapore and Malaya, the T'ai Sui images are often seen with Hsuan Tien Ta Ti (***) or with the Goddess of Mercy (##). In Cantonese and Amoy temples there, the T'ai Sui images are occasionally to be seen with the medical deities Lu Tung Pin (†) or Hua To ($) and in one temple with T'ai Shang Lao Chün (LB).\n\nIn another Fukienese temple in Singapore a triad occupying the centre altar was said by the temple keeper to be three of the Nine Emperors (g). Two were positively identified, one as the second brother of the main deity Chiu Hwang ( ). He is black skinned, bare footed, with one foot on a fire wheel, has protruding eyes, black beard, and his hair is wound into a top knot. His two arms are at his side, otherwise he is very similar to Fa Chu Kung (✯✯2). The second identified image is on the right of the main deity, and he is, without doubt, Wang Tien Kung (1A). The third unidentified image on the left of the main deity could easily be T'ai Sui. He is black faced and bearded, a standing general in armour, holding a bell in his left hand and a sword in his right; he has three eyes, ear tufts of hair, and wears a Taoist crown.\n\nIn one Fukienese temple in Taipei, Yin Ch'iao was seen together with Ch'ü Kung Chen Jen (AA). (Plate 19)\n\nIn North China in Kalgan his second brother Yin Hung ( *) is a special deity said to save people from the \"fifteen bad deaths\". He sits on the opposite side of the central deity, the Jade Emperor (11), from Yin Ch'iao. Both brothers are naked and, surprisingly, have claws, beaks and wings. Grootaers10 says that Yin Ch'iao is never to be seen except as an attendant to the Jade Emperor. It would appear that either the local god maker in Kalgan did not know the identification features of Yin Ch'iao and has confused him with the Thunder God; or that there is a local legend which we do not know about; or thirdly that Grootaers misidentified the two attendants of the Jade Emperor.\n\nC. B. Day bought a hand-painted scroll in Hangchow, depicting five Buddhist figures and six Taoist ones. This pantheon chart included T'ai Sui Ti Chün ( *#*#) together with the San Kuan\n\n10 W. A. Grootaers, Rural Temples around Hsüan Hua (Folklore Studies vol. 10).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206642, "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-1972", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "184\n\nd.\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nAn image in the form of Yin Ch'iao; with six arms, a blue face covered in spots like warts; two fangs, two banners, a bell, two swords and one arrow.\n\nPossible Misidentifications\n\nThe images of Yin Ch'iao/T'ai Sui can be confused with several deities who have similar characteristics. These are:\n\na. One version of the Fukienese god of actors, Tien T’o Yuan Shuai (*), is a standing general with a sword in his right hand and a hand bell in his left. He has or should have, however, a pink face, and his usual identifying characteristic, a crab painted over his mouth or his forehead.\n\nb. In a Singapore Foochow clan temple of the Hsu (✯) family there is a seated general in armour, with a blue face and fangs, called Liu Chin Sheng Ho (Hr). He holds an axe in each hand and is prayed to for the good health of the clan and for the rapid recovery of the sick.\n\nc. Pu Tu Kung (#2) who releases souls from the Under-world during the seventh lunar month, is often shown as blue-faced and with two fang-like teeth showing. Normally, however, he does not carry anything in his two hands.\n\nd. One of the two attendants of Fa Chu Kung (✯È2) is a general with a sword raised in his left hand and a handbell held in his right. He wears a tiger's head hat and is called Hu Ye (A). He has a pink face and a black beard.\n\nAn image of the Golden Youth (✯✯), one of the assistants to Kuan Yin, could be mistaken under certain conditions with the manifestations of T'ai Sui as a seated youth with the scroll. The Golden Youth has a similar seated pose, the same style head and hair but normally holds a fly whisk in the right hand. If this is lost the image looks at first glance like a T'ai Sui without a scroll.\n\nThe Indian Buddhist deity of death, Mara, could understandably be mistaken for T'ai Sui, Mara (A) in his Chinese form normally has a greenish hue, has a frightful face with two tusk-like teeth, holds a bell in his right hand, but has bare feet, is bare to the waist and wears a fur skirt. He is usually accompanied by two demon attendants, one black and one white, who are the Yamen runners, the Wu Ch'ang Kuei (❀❀Ą), who collect the souls of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206644, "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-1972", "page_number": 192, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "186\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nfeatures, but as with all Chinese images there are local variations of which two major ones observed have been:\n\na. A shiny black Fa Chu Kung with six arms and standing barefoot, holding in his six arms:\n\n(1) a sword held in each of three of them,\n\n(2) a scimitar in one,\n\n(3) a magic ring in one (this is identical to the bracelet of San T'ai Tzu),\n\n(4) the sixth has a hand making the magical sign described above.\n\nHe is dressed in flowing golden robes, and has a small snake entwined around the arm with the hand making the magical sign. (Plate 25)\n\nb. A Ch'ao Chow style carving of Fa Chu Kung has two pillars protruding from the base on either side of his body reaching to his waist height, making two \"side table\" tops on either side of him. On one side, on the \"table top\", stands a vase and on the other stands a bowl. Otherwise he is exactly as described in the basic description.\n\nThe images most likely to be confused with Fa Chu Kung are those of his two brothers which apart from the colour of their faces are identical to his. They have never been observed on an altar without him.* Also possibly confused with Fa Chu Kung is T'ai P'ao or Sha Ho Shang who is described at the end of this article.\n\nTitles\n\nFa Chu Kung is known by various names or titles than by his best known title of Fa Chu Kung. According to Fukien temple keepers, Fa Chu Kung means the Controlling Duke. There is, however, a Buddhist term, Fa Chu, for the Lord of the Dharma, which is the Buddha himself. It is unlikely that this is the origin of Fa Chu Kung's title, even though several informants have suggested that, as he is black, he was an Indian and was formerly a trader from India. The various titles and names by which he is referred to, are:\n\na. Fa Chu Sheng Chün 法主聖君\n\nTitle given in Mutseh near Taipei to the group of the three brothers, all to be seen on one\n\n* See Plate 26. A Fukienese god-carver's sketch of Fa Chu Kung is at Plate 27.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206655, "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-1972", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n197\n\nand his three small survey ships have given their names respectively to Sulphur Channel, Starling Inlet and Plover Cove.\n\nJ. R. JONES.\n\nCHINA'S EARLIEST PRINTING A NOTE\n\nLLL\n\nIn Volume 7 (1967) of this Journal I published a brief note entitled \"Printing, a new discovery.\" This told of a find in a stone stupa, standing in the courtyard of a temple called Pulguk-sa, in Korea, erected in 751, of a printed Buddhist sutra. The find was hailed by the Korean archaeologists as perhaps the oldest example of printing known, although the exact date of the printing still remains a mystery.\n\nRecently I have learned that the Chinese discovered another piece of printing as far back as 1944. (Somehow, perhaps because of the war, news of this had escaped my attention.) Known in Chinese as T'o-lo-ni ching chou (dharani sutra charm), it was unearthed in a T'ang dynasty grave site in Chengtu, Szechwan, inside the silver bracelet of a young woman. As Professor Max Loehr has written, it \"is a charm printed on a single sheet showing a six-armed Bodhisattva figure in the center of concentrically laid out Sanscrit words written in Lantsa letters.\" This is surprising, but not unreasonable. In the last half of the Tang, Chengtu happens to have developed into perhaps the chief center of printing, and, as everyone knows, by the middle of the eighth century Chinese civilization had reached one of its heights. It was the age of Li Po and Tu Fu, Wu Tao-hsüan and Wang Wei, and Buddhism was at the summit of its influence. With the demand for reduplication in every circle - Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist - and with all the tools and techniques at hand, the printing of a highly popular charm seems natural. So it came about that there have come to light charms, printed within a few years of each other, in Korea (751?), China (757), and Japan (764-770).\n\nBibliography:\n\nChung-kuo pan-k'o lü-lu, compiled by the Peking Library (Peking 1961), pl. 1, text Vol. I, p. 7;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206787, "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-1973", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS AND OTHER NATIONALS IN T’ANG CHINA: \n\nTHEIR STATUS, ACTIVITIES AND \n\nCONTRIBUTIONS \n\nCHIU LING-YEONG* \n\nThe rise of Li Yüan in A.D. 618 marked the beginning of a dynasty which was destined to become a model in later ages. The Chinese were and still are proud to be called T’ang-jen1 because it was this dynasty which extended Chinese territory beyond the Pamirs over the states of the Oxus Valley and even over the upper waters of the Indus in modern Afghanistan. The administrative protectorate of An-hsi (Pacify the West) was set up in the Tarim Basin, paralleling the administrative protectorate of An-nan (Pacify the South), which had been set up earlier in North Vietnam and which eventually gave its name to the whole region of Annam. There were also An-pei (Pacify the North) in Mongolia; and An-tung (Pacify the East) in South Manchuria.2 \n\nT'ang Tai-tsung subjugated the Eastern Turks in A.D. 630 and he himself took the title of \"Heavenly Khan\" of the Turks. After a series of campaigns between A.D. 630 and A.D. 648, the Western Turks also yielded their submission to the T'ang Empire. China by then had embraced nearly the whole of Central Asia: or as Sir Aurel Stein called it, Serindia. These are the glories which have long been inscribed in many Chinese minds. \n\nT'ang China enjoyed nearly three hundred kaleidoscopic years. In these three hundred years, envoys, clerics, students, merchants and others from different parts of Asia poured into the main Chinese cities. The greatest envoy to come to T'ang China was perhaps Pērōz, son of King Yazdgard III and scion of the Sasanids.4 With regard to clerics, Indian Buddhists were in abundance. There were also Persian priests of varying faiths: the Magus for whom the Mazdean temple in Ch'ang-an was rebuilt in A.D. 631; the Nestorian, honoured by the erection of a church in A.D. 628; the \n\n* Dr. Chiu is Senior Lecturer in Chinese History in the University of Hong Kong. His article \"The Debate on National Salvation: Ho Kai versus Tsang Chi-tung\" appeared in Volume 11 (1971) of the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206863, "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-1973", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "134\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nof a new building for Queen's College. In January 1877, the Government advertised for sale at public auction the \"materials, bricks, stones, tiles, doors, windows, joists, floors, etc. of buildings on Inland Lots 55, 93, 91 and 91A—known as Rangel's Estate”. Among the properties was \"the Joss House, No. 10 Shing Wong Street\". Soon after, the wreckers moved in and the temple was no more. So passed what was presumably the first community project of the Chinese population of urban Hong Kong.\n\nIt is difficult to establish the exact date for the erection of the Temple from records now available. It is possible that a notice in The Chinese Repository, October 1843, (Vol. XII, p. 549) may refer to the Shing Wong Temple. \"A new Chinese temple is about to be undertaken [in Hong Kong]. Handbills and placards are out, for the purpose of raising money for the erection of the building\".\n\nThe references to Chinese temples in the Hong Kong Blue Books are confusing and difficult to interpret. In 1844 under the heading of Ecclesiastical Establishments there is listed:\n\nBuddhist in Victoria, W.D. [Western District]\n\nBuddhist in Chekchoo [now Stanley]\n\nBuddhist in Shekpaiwan [Aberdeen Harbour]\n\nBuddhist in Sookumpoo\n\nEstablished in 1842 Chinese\n\nIn 1845 it is stated that \"There are 17 Chinese Temples in the colony, dedicated with few exceptions to 'Tee-how-mong-mong' (the Queen of Heaven)\". In 1846 and 1847 it is stated that there are three small Chinese temples in Victoria, and in 1847 it is noted that there is \"a small one in each village\".\n\nUnder the Blue Book schedule of Chinese buildings a Chinese Town Hall is listed in 1845 and 1846. In 1847 two Town Halls are enumerated, with the addition of one Joss House. Was the Shing Wong building listed as a Town Hall? A statement made in a Chinese document entitled \"Information as to the period of the formation of Districts in Hongkong and the alteration of the Character Wan-a bay-to Wan—a circuit” translated and published in The China Review, Vol. I, p. 133 (1872-1873) suggests that the Town Halls were Temples.\n\nThis article also provides a date for the construction of the Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road:\n\nIn 1843 one Sz-man-king opened a place for gambling. . Two years later, traders began to come, and two years after that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207009, "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-1974", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "74\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nChinese writing brushes, the predominant colour used being gold. The gold leaf, bought from China or Europe in packs of one hundred two inch squares, is more expensive than gold paint, but more commonly used as it wears better. These tiny squares of pure gold leaf are applied after gold size has been painted on to the appropriate parts of the image (Plates 23 and 24). The gold size is a highly viscous mixture of varnish and other oils which after about two hours, becomes tacky; the gold leaf is then applied. The gold leaf is removed from its waxed paper with an ordinary camel hair artist's brush and placed on to the treated part of the image. The tiny slivers of gold which fall to one side are collected on to pieces of waxed paper and carefully used to fill in gaps on the less exposed parts of the image and between the two inch sheets. A softer brush is then used to rub down the gilded parts to burnish them (Plate 25).\n\nSome images are decorated with a combination of gold leaf and paint. When particularly ordered, old fashioned colouring may be used. This consists of a home-made mixture of water, a gum medium and crumbly coloured powder brought from China many years ago (Plate 26).\n\nPainted images are varnished with a commercial varnish and allowed to dry. Finally, the bits and bobs are added. Usually this is a woman's task, although the more particular master carvers insert the beard made of horsehair or imported theatrical wig hair themselves (Plate 27). The hair is tightly bunched and inserted into five holes bored into the cheeks and chin of the image and trimmed, the instrument most frequently used for this task being a dentist's probe! The flywhisks, hat-bobbles, swords, rings, sceptres, spears, staffs and maces are carved or made separately and inserted into the image, usually only in the presence of the customer. Many of the smaller protruding parts of the head-dress, flags and weapons are cut from old tin cans. These final operations are carried out with tremendous flourish and panache, and the handing over ceremony is preceded by more tea drinking and conversation.\n\nThe consecration of the image in the temple, monastery or home is carried out by a Taoist or Buddhist priest. If Taoist he may, in a trance, invite the spirit to enter the image or may in a simple ceremony \"open the god's eyes\" by painting in the pupils. In the North and Central China, most commonly at a Buddhist ritual, it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207256, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\nJOHN T. MYERS*\n\nHong Kong possesses scores of temples where traditional deities of the Chinese pantheon are worshipped and petitioned by devotees from the local population. Although the temples differ in structural elaboration and popularity, the majority are host to a common set of individual and group rituals. It is in the very area of ritual, however, that the temple we will discuss in this paper differs from most others. This particular temple exists primarily to provide a setting where worshippers can communicate directly with selected deities through the services of religious practitioners who act as spirit mediums. Unlike their Western counterparts who specialize in contact with the spirits of deceased mortals, the Chinese mediums with whom we are concerned claim possession solely by immortals of the traditional Taoist and Buddhist pantheons.\n\nOur procedure shall be initially to discuss the meaning of spirit-mediumship in general and its more common manifestations within the Chinese cultural sphere. We shall then consider at greater length a particular spirit-medium temple in Hong Kong with special attention to its setting, history, personnel, and ritual. Even though this paper is by design a descriptive account of the temple and its cult, we shall in a final section discuss briefly the basis of the apparent success currently enjoyed by each. Does that success indicate a surge of interest in spirits and their mediums among the general population, or is the explanation to be found elsewhere?\n\nSpirit-mediumship\n\nOnce man posits the existence of a supernatural realm with precisely or vaguely defined inhabitants, he is seldom content with allowing that perception to rest on the cognitive level alone. Almost inevitably there is the further judgement that the supernaturals are\n\n*Mr. Myers was on the faculty of the Sociology Department, New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, during the period of his field work. His research on Chinese spirit-mediumship was supported by a grant from the Harvard-Yenching Institute and administered through the Social Research Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently with the department of Anthropology, Indiana University.\n\nPlates 1-4 at rear of the Journal illustrate this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207556, "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": 324, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "316 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nIn talking about his literary works, it should be noted that the general wrote two books; one being Poems Composed at Leisure (2 volumes), and the other being Journal at Leisure (one volume only). Moreover, as a calligrapher, the general was noted for his fist-writing (*) as well as finger-writing (#). According to his Diary, the method he adopted for fist-writing was to wrap his fist with damp cotton. There still remained, on a big rock at the Ma Kok Temple (M) in Macau an inscription of two big Chinese characters each ten feet in width, with the literal meaning \"the Mirror of the Sea\". In addition, there were also inscriptions there of two poems composed and written by him; one in the autumn of the 23rd year of Tao Kuang reign (✯✯) (1843) and the other in the spring of the same year. In another Buddhist Temple in Macao, the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy by name (***) there was also an inscription of one of his poems, în a special style, of a stanza of 4 lines with 7 characters to a line.\n\nIt is said that his grandson, Ching-san, still kept a scroll written by his grandfather, and that this scroll had been returned to him by an aged gentry in Kowloon Walled City. In the spring of the 29th year of Tao Kuang reign (1849) General Cheung had also written a scroll, a duplicated copy of which is still now hung in the Lok Sin Tong School in Kowloon.\n\nAs far as the calligraphy is concerned, the General wrote in a style that was a combination of two famous schools—the Au-Yeung Sau (1) school and Lau Chung-yuen (#) school.* Although each character was usually as large as 4 to 5 Chinese inches in size, they appeared both energetic and elegant; and if one does not pay attention to what he mentioned by himself in his note, one would hardly know it was written with the fist. It is really a great pity that the original piece of writing was destroyed by fire during the foreigners' invasion into his home town.\n\nThe old residence of Cheung's family was in Wai Yeung District, but it was not named \"Peach Garden” until his grandson Ching-san, in the middle of the Kuang Hsü reign (4), spent a lot of money to renovate and develop the place. According to Ching-san's self-explanation, it had been more than 900 years since their ancestors immigrated from Ku Kiang District (1) and settled down\n\n* 1007-1072 and 773-819 respectively: see Herbert A. Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (London and Shanghai, 1898) pp. 524, 606-607 for these famous literati.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207577, "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": 345, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "336\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nincluding Li E, accepted an invitation of the Ma brothers to go on a joint-tour to visit Chiao-shan, the famous island situated in the middle of the Yang-tze River near the present day Ch'en-chiang in Chiang-su province.24 For this trip, all members wrote some poems which were later put together, and titled as Chiao-shan Chi-yu Shih (hereafter to be abbreviated as Chiao-shan CYS), A Collection of poems Commemorating A Travel to the Chiao Island.25\n\nThose poems inscribed by Chin Nung on leaves 11 and 12 of the Drenowaltz album are, in fact, two poems written by two different poets of this joint-tour. The first poem, \"Watching the Moon on Chiao Island but being required in designing poem rhyme to use the word 'Sheng'\"26 is written by Li E. It is not only to be found in the Chiao-shan CYS but also in Li E's own collection of poems; Fan-hsieh Shan-fang-chi #### (hereafter to be abbreviated as Fan-hsien SFC), A Collection of Poems Composed in the Fan-hsien Mountain Studio.27 Similarly, the second poem which is entitled \"Watching the Moon in the Chiao Island but Required to have the word 'Yueh' in rhyme\"28 is composed by Ma Yueh-kuan. It is found in the Chiao Island Collection29 and also in Ma Yueh-kuan's own collection of poems, “A Small Collection of Poems by An Untrammelled and Elderly figure at A Sandy River\".30\n\nIn Vol. I, from p. 235 to the first line in p. 236, Prof. Li's English translation deals with Li E's poem; and, from line two onwards, the latter portion of the poem in English is Prof. Li's translation of the cited poem by Ma Yueh-kuan. To consider these poems by two identifiable poets as one is certainly incorrect.\n\nWith respect to the second inscription, treated by Prof. Li as a long poem of Chin-Nung, it is in fact, a collection of three different poems once again all written by Li E. In Vol. II Plate LXXXI-L which is a reproduction of the last leaf of the album, from line 1 up to the first four characters in line 8, the content is to be identified as the first poem by Li E and the title of the poem is read as \"Lodged in the Fo-jih Ching-hui Buddhist Temple\".31 In Vol. I, page 236, line 1 to line 12 of Prof. Li's English translation deals with this poem. Similarly, in Plate LXXXI-L, from the fifth character of line 8 up to the first five characters of line 17, this section of the inscription on leaf 12 is to be identified as Li E's second poem associated with the long title \"Getting up at dawn, monk Ch'e\n\nPage 345\n\nPage 346", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207807, "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-1976", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "180\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\ndevelopment from this, a temple built around a solid core. A narrow passage runs around the central core in which is set a niche containing the principal Buddha statue. The hollow temple, with immensely thick walls to support the weight of the vaulted roof, was in its early stages a core with the passage around and an antechamber or nave in front, usually on the eastern side. The stupa rising above the core could be of any shape, the Singhalese bell form or the stepped figured squares topped with a pinnacle, a form inspired by Pala architecture from India (particularly from one of the sacred Buddhist shrines at Bodh Gaya where the transformation of the Buddha took place). A development from this simple shrine is the Greek cross plan exemplified by the magnificent Ananda temple built by Kyanzittha, Anawrahta's son, in 1091. This still has the solid core but a double gallery around and antechambers on the axes of all four sides. A further development of this was where the whole temple was raised a level and the central core shifted slightly to contain and enfold the main Buddha facing east; the Thatbinnyu and Sulamani temples are good examples of this later style.\n\nOf the early buildings the Ananda is undoubtedly the most impressive, and the recent (mid-1975) earthquake, far from apparently damaging the building, has removed in parts the plaster and whitewash and shown the arching to be of bricks of alternating light and dark colours. The four main statues in the teaching posture have with overgilding lost their interest, but they impress by their size and the illumination from the hidden upper windows which show the Mon craftsmen as highly skilled technicians. The numerous glazed terracotta plaques ornamenting the base of the temple tell different Jataka tales (the lives of the hundreds of Buddhas before the Gautama Buddha and often taking the form of morality fables) and the small stone sculptures set in the internal walls tell the story of the life of the Gautama Buddha himself.\n\nThe terracotta plaques (the great invention of Pagan, as the distinguished archaeologist Bernard Groslier indicated in a lecture to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society at Pagan) can be seen at their best at the very late (1284) Mingalazedi temple, a little damaged by the earthquake, and the two Petleiks of the 11th century, where the exceptional series is preserved almost in entirety.\n\nThe early temples near Myinkaba are remarkable for their excellent preservation and for the quality of their decoration. One\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207808, "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-1976", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Ancient Mon-Pagan, Peru & NAKORN PATHOM 181\n\nof the earliest is also one of the most unusual; the Nanpaya has beneath the spire four square pillars of stone each of which on two sides has a figure of Brahma holding lotus flowers in both hands. This is reputed to have been the residence of the captive Mon king Manuha, but this seems unlikely; it could have been his particular temple. The figure of Brahma in what was almost certainly a Buddhist temple is not impossible to explain away; the Brahma carvings face towards the central square pedestal which, originally, would have had a statue of the Buddha, possibly one looking in four directions; Brahma, a representative of Hinduism would be looking towards, and lower than, the Buddha. The temple is exceptionally faced with stone throughout, and the quality of the window pediments very fine.\n\nThe Abeyadana temple, not far away, is attributed to King Kyanzittha but an inscription determines his chief queen as the founder. It has a prominent harmika or bulge on the spire above the central core and a large seated brick Buddha in a recess in the core to the north (the whole temple is oriented to the north). The temple's great importance is in the quality of the paintings it still possesses, with Hindu gods and deities of Mahayanist Buddhism round the core and some excellent Jataka scenes with Mon inscriptions in the walls of the front projecting nave.\n\nAlmost opposite this temple is the Nagayon. It has good proportion and a very dark corridor pierced with five windows running round the central core. The quality of the paintings illustrating Jataka tales with Mon and Pali inscriptions is good.\n\nThe two Seinnyet temples are a little further south; the Ama is a square temple with four main porches, and the Nyima a solid stupa on three terraces. Lastly in this group is the Lawkanada stupa, built in 1059 by Anawratha beside the Irrawaddi, over which a magnificent view is obtained at sunset.\n\nOf the temples in the central area, nothing remains of the bulbous Bupaya stupa which fell into the river in pieces in the earthquake. The Gawdawpalin of the later period suffered severely and its tall finial is no more. In style, however, it resembles the Thatbinnyu which was built in the middle of the twelfth century. Only the eastern porch projects from the main plan, and the first floor where the main Buddha is located is reached by two narrow passage stairways built into the walls. The effect is of considerably greater height than the earlier buildings. As it is still in use it is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207810, "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-1976", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Ancient Mon--Pagan, Peru & NAKORN PATHOM\n\n183\n\ncentury. The main vestibule of Sulamani faces east and the upper storey is reached by two stairways built into the walls; it is almost the same height as the ground floor. Sulamani used to have good paintings but these have been lost and newer ones dating from the 19th century cover the old ones. The Dhammayangyi is a single-storey building rising in stepped levels and closely resembles the Ananda in structure. The quality of the brickwork is excellent.\n\nLastly, of the many temples to be visited in Pagan, there are two not strictly speaking temples. The Pitakat Taik was built as a library by Anawratha in 1058 to house the Buddhist scriptures he took from the sack of Thaton. It is a modest square building with small Mon windows, but the roof, rather elaborate, already bears the traces of baroque flamboyance of later Burmese styles; it was repaired in 1783 by King Bodawpaya and is currently being repaired again. The Upalithein is a long, low ordination hall of the 13th century with a battlemented roof. Inside are paintings of the 17th or 18th century which are bright and arresting, though without the interest and minute detail of the early paintings to be seen elsewhere in Pagan. Only the two temples near Minnanthu are omitted from this list of the major temples in Pagan; these are Nandamannya, which is a small vaulted chamber with one entrance and paintings of a Mahayanist Tantric nature from the middle of the 13th century, and the triple form of the Payathonzu temple, late 13th century, with paintings of a similar character in the corridors and vaults linking the three main cores. The two are difficult to reach without sturdy transport.\n\nIf this catalogue of temples gives the impression that there is nothing else to see in Pagan, it would be false. There is a cottage lacquer industry, another weaving traditional shoulder bags, and making cheroots; one can take boat trips on the Irrawaddy at sunset and make journeys by pony and trap and see the colourful display of fruit and vegetables in the village's markets. But the setting of these scenes of daily life is subservient to the temples, and the arid landscape, for Pagan is the centre of the dry zone of Burma, in which they are placed, is balanced in some measure by the majesty of the river flowing through. One is left with the impression of scrub, sandy tracks, and marvellous brown brick temples arising on all sides as far as the eye can see.\n\nIn Mandalay, to the north, where the evening cool in winter is even more striking than in Pagan, the two most impressive temples", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207811, "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-1976", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "184\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nare those that form a complete contrast with the classical structures of the first major Burmese capital. These are the 19th century temples in wood. The Shwenandaw was built by Thibaw in 1880, five years before he was taken away in captivity by the British and the kingdom ended. Most of the materials came from part of a palace occupied by King Mindon which was dismantled. The elaboration of the carving is overwhelming and one suspects that to like it, after the sober majesty of Pagan, is to border on bad taste. The Shweinbin to the south of the city is even more elaborate, and still being a very active monastery the monks' saffron robes form a strong contrast to the teak wood greying with age, sun and rain on the outside. Like all wooden buildings these temples are raised above the ground on pillars and the space beneath is used for storage.\n\nMandalay has few other temples of note; those on the hill are mostly modern, and the Kuthodaw near its base dates from 1857 and is more important for the 729 stone slabs containing all the Buddhist scriptures which King Mindon had made for the Fifth Synod. The authorized version of the Tripitaka was inscribed on the slabs, each beneath its own vaulted canopy. Atumashi was built in 1880 and resembles more an Italian palace, but as only the base remains after a fire in 1890 it is hard to judge fairly. The Mahamuni was rebuilt after a fire in the 19th century and is architecturally without interest. The gold-covered bronze image is much revered and seen at night with chanting monks and the faithful at its feet is impressive.\n\nThe most interesting thing in the temple, apart from the stalls lining the temple approach, are the six bronze figures in one of the adjacent buildings. They are two of men, one probably a warrior, three of lions, and one of a three-headed elephant (erewar) and are undoubtedly Khmer, possible of the 12th century. They were probably taken by the Siamese at the sack of Angkor in the 15th century and removed to Ayuthia. The Burmese king Bayinnaung took them from Ayuthia when he sacked the city in 1563 to the then capital at Pegu. King Rajagyi of Arakan took them as spoils of war from Pegu and they were taken from Arakan by Bodawpaya in 1784 to Mandalay.\n\nThe journey to Sagaing takes one past the numerous sites of the capitals of the Alaungpaya dynasty which estimated that a new centre would give a new direction to adverse fortune associated with the old. In this way Shwebo was capital from 1752 to 1765, Ava from 1765 to 1783, Amarapura from 1783 to 1823, Ava again", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207815, "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-1976", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "188\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nthe minority dances like those the repetitious groupings of the Karen, but in the pwe, a complicated form of popular opera where the narrative of a traditional story is intertwined with a modern play which, reaching its end about two or three in the morning, then reverts to the rest of the pwe story. Pwe has everything for the villager wishing to take his mind off current cares, for it includes love songs, stories of handsome princes chasing after princesses who can wiggle their bottoms, often in contrary directions, with regal exquisiteness, and the strident orchestra gives the appropriate support to the stage. Mandalay is the great centre for pwe activities.\n\nThe Mon theme can be resumed in Thailand by a visit to Nakorn Pathom, a few hours drive from the city. Like Pegu, Nakorn Pathom is an ancient Mon centre, called Davaravati in Siam, and is thought to date from the 5th century. Just before arriving at the modern city, which was established in the 19th century, is the Phra Pathone; little remains of the original stupa which is probably the oldest Buddhist monument in Thailand. Nearby a kind of grotto has recently been erected by a deceased monk into which are inserted heads and objects found in the temple grounds; they are nearly all Davaravati period and some Buddha heads are of much beauty. Not far from this is the unimpressive brick remains of Wat Chulapathone which has however yielded considerable artistic riches in the form of terracotta bas-reliefs which were originally placed around its base. These illustrate Mon versions of the Jataka tales and are to be seen in the new museum to the south of the giant chodi in the town. Wat Pramane is a much-excavated brick ruin to the south of the city giving but a faint idea of its early importance. But the chief pride is the 19th century stupa erected over the original stupa that was Phra Pathom. The work of building the enormous tiled cupola was started by King Mongut, who discovered the original stupa when still a monk, and was continued by his son Chulalongkorn. The stupa may be higher than the Shwe-dagon in Rangoon but it cannot begin to compare in interest. At its base, on the upper terrace, are twenty-four small turrets with bronze bells for the faithful to ring. The projecting chapel to the north contains a venerated statue in the Sukhotai style, and in a detached prayer hall to the east is an excellent Davaravati stone Buddha seated in the European fashion. Also of interest in Nakorn Pathom is the Sanam Chan palace built by King Vachiravuðh", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207919, "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-1976", "page_number": 307, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "292\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nCHINESE PRESERVED MONKS (肉身塑像)\n\nThe preservation by both Taoists and Buddhists of the bodies of famous monks and abbots by lacquering, varnishing or coating and embalming in clay was not as uncommon as one would think. It is only too easy to see how after the death of a particularly wise and beloved abbot, his presence would be badly missed throughout the monastic community. They would begin to venerate his memory and perhaps even a cult might emerge. Again we can visualise that his contemporary detractors, should there have been any, would eventually die and their prejudice, jealousy or even dislike perhaps, would fade in time. The opposite however, would be true of the memory of his wisdom, piety and gentleness. Another major motive for the preservation of such saints and very religious monks was the very mundane desire to obtain more funds for the religious institution by exhibiting the body to the faithful. In some monasteries such mummies were kept in private apartments hidden from public gaze. They had been members of a community, so their brethren claimed, and only other members had the right to see them. Most monks were cremated after death and their ashes retained in reliquaries in their monastery.\n\nSome of the more famous \"preserved monks\", or 'fleshy bodies' which is a direct translation from the Chinese, displayed or kept for personal reverence, were to be found in the following temples and monasteries:\n\nPai Sui Kung on Chiu Hua Shan, Anhui\n\nTsu Shih T'ien on O Mei Shan, Szechuan\n\nTien T'ai Ssu in the Western Hills near Peking\n\nYuch Lin Ssu in Chekiang\n\nNan Hua Ssu in Northern Kwangtung\n\nTien An Fu below T'ai Shan in Shantung\n\nHui Chu Ssu in Pao Hua Shan, Kiangsu.\n\nThere is also one such in the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas above Sha Tin, Hong Kong.\n\nA Danish architect, J. Prip Møller1 spent a considerable time in the early thirties touring around many monasteries throughout China in his research into monastery construction. He referred on several occasions to 'fleshy bodies' set up as images in monastery", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207920, "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-1976", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n293\n\nhalls, noted how common they were in Central China and continued \"they may almost be said to abound in Szechuan\". He suggested that the custom sprang from the belief that the benevolent influence exercised by the deceased during his lifetime would still be active if his body was preserved and set up. These mummies were placed in a hall on their own and even in the main hall beside the Buddha's image directly in front of the main altar. The \"images\" were usually gilded, though several on O Mei Shan were made up in fresh colours and dressed in silken robes which sometimes produced quite a monumental effect. The finest example he saw was in a wayside monastery on Chiu Hua Shan at the Ts'ui Yun An where the features of a monk who had died about the turn of this century had been gilded and “stood out as though carved in oak”.\n\nThe Chinese appear to have used two ways of preserving corpses. The usual method consisted first of evisceration; the body was then pickled in salt for a considerable period of time, afterwards being placed in a sealed urn and left for several years. If, when opened up, the urn was found to contain an undecayed body a subscription list was opened for the gilding and enshrining of the relic. The body was thickly gilded or varnished and, if not exposed to the elements or to great extremes in temperature and humidity, it would then last for centuries. The second method was for the dying monk, if he felt divinely inspired, to fast before death and in the process dry himself out, so that after death little was required to finish off drying the body into a leathery, hard mass of skin and bone3.\n\nThe following short notes on the better known \"fleshy bodies\" provide a clearer picture of how widespread the practice was. In May 1975 a preserved body, just emaciated skin and bones, seated in a cross-legged position was returned from Japan to Taiwan. The relic, the body of the monk Shih Tzu-kung (#4) known as the Stone Monk (GI✯✯), had been in Japan since World War II when it had been secretly shipped there by a Japanese military dentist. The body, more than a thousand years old, was of a T'ang Buddhist leader born about 700 AD in Kwangtung into a family named Ch'en (#). His title during life was Wu Chi Ta Shih (AR), which is the title he is still known by. He has now been returned to his original monastery in Taiwan.\n\nAn embalmed body exhibited in the eastern part of the Great Hall of the Yueh Lin Temple in Chekiang was claimed to be that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207921, "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-1976", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "294\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nof the Cotton Bag Monk, Pu Tai (), an incarnation of Mi Lo Fu. Pu Tai was said to have died at that temple at the beginning of the tenth century.\n\nAnother preserved body was that of a Shantung peach seller who dropped dead at the altar and was embalmed in mud and became a deity, Wu Yu Hsien (†), around whom a local cult sprang up and flourished during the fourteenth century. Yet another was the skeleton of an old and holy abbot overlaid with gold foil on Chiu Hua Shan at the Pai Sui Kung“.\n\nA preserved body in the Nan Hua Shan Monastery in northern Kwangtung was that of the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Buddhism (A.D.). It appears to be the earliest recorded \"fleshy body\". The Sixth and last of the Chinese Patriarchs, Hui Neng (#), died in A.D. 712. His corpse is said to have remained incorrupt and even to exhale a sweet fragrance. His chest maintained its natural position and the skin appeared glossy and flexible. In A.D. 1236 when the Mongol troops pursued the last emperor of the Southern Sung and defeated him in Kwangtung, it is said that Mongol soldiers violated the tomb of the Patriarch and even went so far as to rip open the abdomen with a sword thrust. On seeing that the heart and liver were still in a perfect state of preservation, they were filled with fear and went no further in their sacrilege. Several replicas are to be seen in Hong Kong; a good example is on the altar of Huang Ta Hsien (黄大仙) in the San Yuan Temple (三元宫) in T'ai P'ing Shan Street, Hong Kong. (See plate 27). Incidentally, smaller images of Hui Neng, often seen in curio shops, are easily recognisable by the small dragon in his begging bowl. He is considered to be the founder of the Vegetarian Sects of Buddhism, Ch’ih Su Chiao ( vegetarian ).\n\nAnother mummy, black faced, covered in lacquer and gilded, sat in a lotus position in a place of honour in the T'ien T'ai Temple south-west of Peking, wearing Buddhist robes but of Imperial yellow. He wore a vairocana five-leaf crown on his head, his face was smooth and full fleshed and his skin black with age. Many thought that he was a wooden image and legend, since disproved, claimed him to be Fu Lin, the first Manchu Emperor of China (1638-1661) better known as Shun Chih who died at the age of 30. The story probably grew from the known fact that he wished to become a monk. The mummy was refurbished annually at a minor ceremony and was a great attraction for pilgrims.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207922, "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-1976", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n295\n\nThere was a 'fleshy body' in Anking in Central China. It had been placed in a large earthenware k'ang filled with willow charcoal and left for three to four years. The corpse was then gilded and set up beside an image of the Buddha, Sakyamuni7.\n\nThe shrivelled and varnished body of a Taoist priest named Sun (), who died in 1703 aged 94, was enshrined in a glass case in the Grotto of the Immortals in the east side of the lower Court of the Temple of either the Jade Emperor or, as stories vary, of the Three Sovereigns on T'ai Shan in Shantung. He had lived in the temple nearby for some sixty years under the religious title of Chen Ch'ing and was known as \"the Immortal\". Apparently he felt divinely inspired, and slowly starved himself to death; he became just skin and bone sitting cross-legged. He had requested his fellow priests not to inter him but instead to leave him in a vacant room. This they did, and he remained withered but not decayed as a relic for future generations of believers. One could see, apparently, only the bare bones of his arms and legs. His face had been replaced by a mask in his likeness and all that remained on his hands was skin and nails.\n\nIt was not only monks who had their bodies preserved. In 1878 Reverend MacKay, a missionary in Taiwan, wrote of a Chinese girl who died of consumption not far from Tamshui, North of Taipei. Someone in the neighbourhood more gifted than the rest announced that a goddess was present, and her wasted body immediately became famous. She was given the title of the Virgin Goddess, (Sien Lu Niu in Fukienese) and a small temple was erected and dedicated to her. Her body was immersed in salt and water for some time, and then placed in a sitting position in an armchair with a red cloth around her shoulders and a wedding cap on her head. Seen through the glass of the case in which she was placed she looked to MacKay, with her black face and teeth exposed, very much like an Egyptian mummy. Before many weeks had passed, hundreds of sedan chairs were to be seen bringing worshippers, especially women, to her shrine, and rich men sent presents to adorn the temple. Another preserved body of a female was exhibited in a temple near Fenchow in Szechuan. She was a Buddhist devotee who died there in a sitting position: being Tibetan she was particularly worshipped by the local aborigines?.\n\nThe most recent example of a 'fleshy body' has been the mummification of the corpse of the Buddhist monk, Yueh Chi Fa Shih", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207923, "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-1976", "page_number": 311, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "296 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n(A✯✯) who founded the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple above Sha Tin in the New Territories, Hong Kong in 1951 (erroneously recorded as 1961). He was a widely known and admired monk who at the age of 24, according to the Temple broadsheet, had been named Buddha Simba in recognition of having perceived the cause of the Universe. He was born in Yunnan in 1878 into the Wu (A) family and was educated in Shanghai and Peking. In the latter place, the record states, he was a \"professor of philosophy\" at Yenching University at the early age of 19 in 1897 before he became a monk. He preached throughout his life and died in April 1965 at the age of 87 in his temple in Sha Tin.\n\nThe story of his interment, exhumation and preservation is described in the temple brochure. The body was placed in a seated position, cross-legged in a wooden box and buried on the hillside behind the temple. There it remained for eight months. Yueh Chi, during his latter days, had instructed that his body should be exhumed after such a period of time, and when uncovered it was found that very little decomposition had taken place. A mark on the lower side of the right ribs excited comment as it appeared to be an image of a tiger, and another on the breast that of a human head. The body was then gilded, dressed in a salmon pink robe and a five-leaf vairocana crown, and enthroned in May 1966 in front of the large image of Amida Buddha which towers some twenty-five feet above him (plate 28). Another image, carved ostensibly in his likeness, is enshrined in a glass case in the rear of a Buddhist nunnery on a spur some two miles from the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple. This carving, one suspects, is stylized. It is gilded, apart from a heavy beard and a head of hair painted shiny black. The image holds a fly whisk, and has a pair of slippers before his throne, but has no crown.\n\nOther forms of image based on human remains, usually of laymen rather than of monks, such as those seen in Singapore and Ipoh made of a mixture of concrete, sand and human ashes, have not been included in this article. Whereas most wealthy devotees achieve recognition by having their donation details carved on the monastery wall, a few, however, will their ashes to be mixed and made into an image in their likeness, warts and all, in addition to donating a final large sum to the establishment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207959, "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-1976", "page_number": 347, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "租呂\n\nPlate 27. A replica of the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Buddhism, Hui Neng on the altar of Huang Ta Hsien in the San Yuan Temple in Tai P'ing Shan Street, Hong Kong.\n\n(Plates 27-28 supplied by Mr. K. G. Stevens)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208023, "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-1977", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "46\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nhere, the surveillance is curiously haphazard and capricious. We could not see that we were followed on leaving; perhaps they have given up checking on foreigners\". We had also been to a large reception given by General Chou En-lai on January 7th which was attended by General Marshall and, from the Kuomintang; Chen Li-fu, Feng Yu-hsiang and Dr. H. H. Kung, together with the Chungking establishment of Ambassadors, Consuls etc.\n\nThe Journey There\n\nThe route followed is shown in Fig. 1.* The convoy finally set out on a misty morning on January 21st intending to cross the Yangtse by the upper ferry. Disaster overtook us within four kilometres. Going down a steep slope the driver of the leading truck missed his gear change and ran off the road into a paddy field. The truck finished up on her side (Plate no. 6). With help from the base garage, she was hauled out, (Plate no. 7), the Garage Manager directing. The convoy returned to base, spent a day straightening and reloading and set forth again on January 23rd. The route went through Sui Ning, San Tai, Mien Yang over the Chien Men Kuan or Sword Gate Pass to Kwang Yuan and then over another Pass, Ch'i P'an Kuan or the Gate of Shensi, in the Mi Ts'ang Mountains to Pao Ch'eng.†\n\nNorth of Mienyang the 'new' motor road follows the route of the old Imperial Highway to Ch'eng-tu. Impressive “pai lo's”, fine trees and stone bridges mark the route (Plates 8 & 9). Just after Pao Ch'eng is the famous Buddhist temple Miao-T'ai Tzu, where we stopped for a visit. A place of peace and beauty to which one might dream of retiring for a while.\n\nIn Pao-ch'eng the scene is very different from the Szechuan towns over the mountains to the south. This was the southern limit of the camel trains coming down from Sinkiang and Kansu, some with loads of dried Hami melon. Perhaps some of the flavour of the place is given in a quotation from a letter home: \"We spent one night in Pao-ch'eng and as we came up across the bridge in the late afternoon, the long flatness of the Han-hui Ch'u valley behind us, lines of camels drinking at the river side were mirrored\n\nP.54 Plates 6-19 at rear illustrate the article.\n\n+ The romanisation of place names is that used in the Times Atlas of China since this is the detailed reference most easily available to Western readers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208072, "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-1977", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n95\n\nGod of Loyalty and patron of businessmen, soldiers, detectives and firemen. When represented, this stands near the entrance to his temple and is held on a short rein by a standing groom. The second is the paper horse used for carrying messages to the dead ancestors during the Yu Lan festival (15th of the seventh lunar month). These white or red horses look very similar to the Green Horse and are burnt during ancestral rituals. The third is the White Horse of the monk Hsuan Chuang, Tripitaka, who brought the Buddhist Sutras back from India in the 7th Century, and is only to be seen in one temple in Macau and not at all in Hong Kong.\n\nAn interesting observation which would appear to have no special significance, and one which surprised many Chinese temple keepers, is the sighting of the Green Horse on the altar of the maids and attendants of Chin Hua, the Goddess of Childbirth, in some thirteen temples.\n\nOfferings, Charms and Messages\n\nApart from the force feeding of the White Tigers at the festival in Spring, an offering of a large slab of cooked fatty pork is frequently placed on the Tiger's head, and sometimes several ounces of Chinese yellow wine is then poured over it. Charms, printed on yellow or red paper, are pinned to the Local Wealth God and incense and candles are burnt before the whole Under Altar. Offerings of paper money on the \"Bank of Hell\" are piled onto some Local Wealth Gods, as are paper taels of gold and silver. On occasions particular to the individual devotee and connected with calamities in their lives, he or she may place five yellow paper charms, purchased from the temple keeper, beneath each of five oil lamp saucers with glowing wicks. These, together with fresh eggs, are offered to the spirits in the Under Altar.\n\nIndividual devotees who wish to report their particular misfortune to the Disaster Spirits obtain slips of paper from the temple keeper. These are normally some four inches long and two inches wide, in either red or green, with a regular pattern of diamonds and circles cut out by folding and snipping in a special way. In a few cases, temple keepers require details of the \"disaster\" to be written on them, with dates and names of the people involved. The slips of paper are then burnt in the temple incinerator. In rare cases where devotees confuse the message papers with charms, they are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208076, "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-1977", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n99\n\nStatistics\n\nApproximately one seventh of all temples in Hong Kong (that is 35 out of some 260) and almost half in Macau (12 out of 25) have Under Altars.\n\nIn Macau, all the Under Altars are in temples in the town itself, or in the main town of each island, and all are within three hundred yards of the present seacoast. All Under Altar temples in Hong Kong are within a stone's throw of the original seacoast, and apart from the temples on the two islands of Peng Chau and Cheung Chau and the one at Shatin, all are within a radius of four miles from Tsim Sha Tsui. All these temples were built or rebuilt during the nineteenth century.\n\nNo Under Altars are to be found in monasteries or nunneries, nor have any been found in Hoklo and Ch'ao Chow community temples. 24 of the Under Altars are in the 117 fisherfolk temples along the coasts of Hong Kong and Macau, and all of these are in what are now built-up areas.\n\nThe other six sevenths, folk religion temples and Buddhist monasteries without Under Altars, include all temples in remoter areas, a picture which suggests that in pre-British Hong Kong, temples did not have such altars. It has been disappointing that no informant has been found who can recall whether Under Altars existed in Canton and the provincial towns and rural areas in Kwangtung province and, if they did, the extent of their spread prior to 1949. There is a strong but undependable connexion between Under Altars & the Boat People.\n\nThere is however an inexplicable factor. In both Hong Kong and Macau, within a stone's throw from temples with Under Altars, are temples without Under Altars which are similar in all other aspects to those with them. They are also of approximately the same vintage. There seems to be no obvious reason for the limited pattern of location of Under Altars. All appear to have been incorporated during the building or rebuilding of the temple between 1840-1880, and the only common factor is that temples with Under Altars are in areas which were, at that time, centres of thriving communities whose main populations were Cantonese, Hakka and Boat People.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208098, "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-1977", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "\"LITTLE FUJIAN (Fukien)\"\n\n121\n\nindirect though that power may be. In general, though, and especially when compared to other Chinese \"overseas\" communities, neither the Commercial nor the Province Association dominates the Fujianese community.\n\nLittle Fujian as Community: The Social Networks\n\nEthnicity and community are also expressed in less formally structured ways than associations and organizations. Informal patterns of economic, religious and social behavior have arisen and guide life in Little Fujian to a significant degree. Of these three areas perhaps it is the economic and business aspects of Little Fujian that are most visible to outsiders, more visible because they are public.\n\nIn the retail \"Fujianese markets\" of Chun Yeung and Mercury Streets, Little Fujian as a sub-neighborhood intersects with Little Fujian as social community. Each market street is located along an artery of the Fujianese sub-neighborhood and caters to Fujianese tastes in everything from food to jewellery to clothes. Non-Fujianese (Guangdongese, Chau Zhou and/or Shanghaiese) markets adjoin these Fujianese business areas but are socially as well as physically distinct; most Fujianese women prefer to shop on Chun Yeung or Mercury Street where they can be sure of finding people who sell Fujianese specialties prepared in the right manner and who will bargain with them in a familiar tongue. To younger Fujianese, though, language is not so great a barrier and they will often just as comfortably shop on the adjoining but “Fujianese-less” markets of Marble Road or elsewhere in search of a bargain. Yet even for these frugal shoppers the buying habits of childhood and the chance to meet Fujianese friends pulls them repeatedly back to Chun Yeung and Mercury Streets to buy things Fujianese style.\n\nAs with business, so too has religion developed along ethnic lines in North Point.12 Twenty years ago there were no specifically Fujianese Buddhist temples in North Point and early arrivals frequented the one convenient temple in the area: the predominantly Guangdongese Yuet Fei temple on Electric Road.* During the first decade of Fujianese settlement in North Point the percentage\n\n* The origins of this temple are given in a Hong Kong Government file (Secretariat for Chinese Affairs 1/631/1948) which contains a minute dated 3rd April 1948 by the then Secretary for Chinese Affairs, Mr. R. R. Todd:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208099, "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-1977", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "122\n\nGREGORY E. GULDIN\n\nof Fujianese attending the Yueh Fei temple gradually rose until today perhaps 70-80% of the worshippers there are Fujianese. Even so, the temple is not a Fujianese temple; both the people who run the temple and the deity itself are Guangdongese.\n\nThis arrangement was less than satisfactory to the Fujianese. Since Fujianese and Guangdongese ritual practices and religious concepts are not always isomorphic, arguments over what food was properly offered to Guan Yin (Kuan Yin) or what was expected of a medium, etc., frequently erupted. Such disputes, complicated by the language barrier, made many Fujianese feel uncomfortable about worshipping in a \"barbarian\"-run temple.\n\nTen years ago this situation began to change as the Cultural Revolution in China increased attacks on the old religious organizations back in Fujian. Temple personnel such as Buddhist monks and nuns began to arrive legally and illegally in Hong Kong and served to staff a new type of temple, a form particularly suited to Hong Kong's crowded situation. Apartments were rented to serve as temples in many of the apartment buildings which contained a heavy Fujianese population. North Point branches of Sai Ying Poon temples were likewise also begun in this manner.\n\nEach apartment-temple is dedicated to a particular god; sometimes it is a pan-Chinese spirit such as Guan Yin but it can also be a specifically local one such as Sheng Gung of Fujian Province's Nan An county. Sheng Gung's original temple is now in disrepair back in Nan An but the god's statue and objects were brought to Hong Kong a few years back. Hong Kong may thus have the only Sheng Gung temple left functioning in the world.\n\n\"I have visited this little Temple, or joss-house, and have discussed its history with one of the local Kaifong, Mr. Lo Ho Ching, of 129 Electric Road, Ground Floor.\n\n\"The little Temple is dedicated to the God of Warriors, Ngok Fei, and has been in existence about 40 years. According to Mr. Lo it was built by the late Kwok Shut Ting, Compradore of the Asiatic Petroleum Company (A.P.C.), at the time when the A.P.C.'s installation at North Point was built. At present the little Temple is looked after by an old woman appointed by the Kaifong.\n\n\"The little Temple is a picturesque little structure, half embedded in a large boulder and covered by a tree. The Kaifong and I too would be reluctant to see it removed, but if it has to be removed I do not think the Kaifong will object provided that an alternative site for it can be found in the vicinity and if it is re-erected by Government at the time when the new Police Station at Bay View is built.\"\n\nThis information was provided by the Hon. Editor of this Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208336, "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-1978", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "44 \n\nKEITH STEVENS \n\n1871) offered sacrifices at the City God temple and reported, in writing, that he and the whole family with gratitude had made an image of the Duke Wei which he presented to undergo the rite of consecration, so that it would protect all members of his family and all his domestic animals and poultry. The image is of a seated soldier, dressed in armour and military cap, his right hand is clenched and rests on his right knee. His left hand, the first and fifth fingers only, pointing vertically, is held at waist height in a magical sign. Wei had a gilded face, traces of which can still be seen, five tufts of black beard, the stubble only remaining and gilt armour covered by a red and blue robe again only traces of which are still visible. This image was blackest and greasiest of all and is quite surprisingly handsome now that the film of filth has been removed. Wei could possibly be Yu-ch'ih Ching-te (*), the Door Guardian who according to Mathews' dictionary is well-known as one of the two door guardians on temples and is “depicted with a black face and the fingers of one hand twisted up\". The image, dressed in loose robes over armour and chain mail, has a gilded face but otherwise, has his fingers twisted up. In reality Yu-ch’ih was a general who served the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung in his wars against rebels and died in 659 A.D. \n\nThe fourth image (Plate 5), also from Shan Men district, Wu Kang county in Hunan and dedicated in 1938 is of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. The image, easily identifiable as such by her five-leafed bodhisattva crown, beads and vase, is seated cross-legged on a lotus, and dressed in gilded robes, The slip of paper in Kuan Yin's back relates that Petitioner and worshipper Mrs. Yin Wu-chi together with her five sons, four daughters-in-law, and one grandchild, on the 21st of the 6th moon of the 27th year of the Chinese Republic (18th July 1938) offered sacrifices to the Earth God at the City God temple in Lao Chai, presented and installed a new image of Kuan Yin. This has been done, the slip said, so that this Buddhist deity can be resorted to in her natural form and can kindly bestow good luck and eternal protection and prosperity on the Yin family and its future generations. In words of glowing praise, the petitioner described the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the soul, the gall, the eyes, teeth, the bones, the bowels and the spirit of Kuan Yin, as 'the liver of a green dragon', 'lungs of a white tiger', ‘kidneys \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208337, "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-1978", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "ALTER IMAGES FROM HUNAN AND KIANGSI\n\n45\n\nof a scarlet bird', 'bowels like (or as long as?) nine rivers', 'as many as 84,000 teeth' and etc.\n\nThe fifth image (Plate 6) dedicated in 1799, from Kiangsi, is of a different style. It is very similar to certain of the Ch'ao Chow and Fukienese carvings, and particularly like certain Japanese Buddhist temple guardians such as Jikoku Ten. He was less dusty or greasy than the others, though he has been badly kippered by incense smoke and repainted with a cheap gold paint at some time. His original fine gilt lacquer is just visible in places on his lower back. He has lost his weapons, and his beady eyes, guaranteed to frighten when new, have been lost into the general contours of his face. The slip of paper from his back is best preserved of all six. It is recorded as a \"Viscera Statement\" (it) and relates that devotee Chen Ta-chiang, living in Lu Ling County, Chi An prefecture together with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, on this lucky day of the 10th moon of the fourth year of Chia Ching (November 1799) presented the image of the Heavenly General (** ) with a Viscera Statement enclosed, and prayed saying \"Your Most Reverend Spirit of the Chief General and Heavenly Ruler, having become perfect and entered Nirvana during the Shang dynasty, your reputation is as high as the heaven; you have the ability of suppressing all demons and spirits, the power of deciding on all matters of disasters and blessings in the human world without the slightest partiality, the ability to recommend the choosing and establishment of construction sites with favourable geomantic influences, and of leading right people to prosperity. I therefore most respectfully present this new image for eternal worship by us and our future generations under your protection”. \n\nThe sixth image (Plate 7), also from Chi An in Kiangsi and dedicated in 1870, is a multi-image object consisting of a two foot three inches high piece of wood carved in the round, into a series of grottoes and caverns, steps and paths up to a small temple at the summit. This contains the only moveable and identifiable deity, a miniature Tou Mu (44) with her six arms and crown, seated cross-legged and with the cavity in her back which contained the identifying slip of paper. The other immovable thirteen images are of Taoist worthies, unidentified immortals, ten of them standing, one on horseback, the two more holding tablets before them standing beside the temple, probably the guardians or aides to Tou Mu.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208363, "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-1978", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n71\n\nAll this is guess work, but as guess work goes it seems to account for the given data in a systematic way. As I see it, the only way to challenge this interpretation (given, of course, that my understanding of the source material is correct) is for those who doubt to produce an alternative way of thinking on this matter, and to provide a new and different explanation which could account better for the data discussed here—and any additional data—in a more interesting way.\n\nFinally, the top branches planted on the graves could be interpreted also as a kind of beacon. Biao means not only 'top branch' but also 'beacon' or 'mark'; such an implication does not necessarily contradict our earlier hypothesis. But if the bamboo arrangements led the way to the graves by marking them and making them conspicuous, we must ask who benefitted from the presence of such signs? Here is another guess. It may be that the yang ancestors are led to the graves of their bones, but I cannot substantiate this at all. It may be mentioned here as a possible interpretation, a vague hypothesis which could be tested at some future stage.\n\n6. Rice Wine\n\nAnother prominent feature of the visit to the graves was the offering of food and wine. The worshippers ate and drank also. The general term used for offerings is ji, or in some notes si. In some cases libations are indicated by the use of the words dian and jiao. Rice wine was an important sacrificial gift used in many contexts. Apart from general wine drinking on various festive occasions, and medical use of wine when it was drunk mixed with herbs and spices on particular days, wine was used in sacrifices. So for instance, on the 24th day of the twelfth moon in offerings to the spirits of the kitchen and the fields in Baling,55 and Jiangling;56 on New Year Eve to the ancestors in Jingshan; On the Lantern Festival in the first moon it formed part of the ji offerings in Jiangling;58 and in the offerings to spirits and ancestors on the Buddhist festival of Zhongyuan, the 15th of the seventh moon, wine was part of the sacrificial gifts, as in Wuling,59 Hangzhou,60 Chongyang,61 and Yingshan.62 Wine was used also in sacrifices to gods like 'General Goan' (Goan Di) in his temple in Mianyang on the 13th day of the fifth moon,63 and to ‘Shui Goan'64 on his birthday on the 15th day of the tenth moon in Zhongxiang;64 Two words", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208471, "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-1978", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "# WOODBLOCK PRINTING\n\n179\n\nthan eight thousand volumes together with the world's oldest wood-block printed book are now kept by the British Museum in London. In 1908 a Frenchman, Professor Paul Pelliot, took away two thousand five hundred more volumes. What remained in the library, around eight thousand volumes, were sent to Peking in 1911 and are now kept in the Peking Library.\n\nBuddhism came to China along the Old Silk Road first from Central Asia at the end of the last millennium BC and again in 67 AD when a mission sent to India by the Han Emperor Ming Ti (***) returned with two learned Indian scholars. Chinese pilgrims, notably Fa-hsien (3); §) 399-424 AD and Hsuan-tsang (✯✯) 625-645 AD, used the Old Silk Road. All went through Tun-huang,\n\nBy the time of the Tang Dynasty, 618-905 AD, woodblock printing had already developed to a high state of artistry. Buddhists made full use of the printing technique to popularize their religion. Buddhism was very prosperous at that time. There were more than five thousand temples in existence, and around three million people became monks or nuns. The temple authorities and their followers engaged in publishing Buddhist texts or sutras with great enthusiasm, as they believed that the more texts or sutras that could be published and circulated the more merit would be rewarded. Most of the sutras were printed with images and illustrations so that they could be better understood by those followers with only little education.\n\nIn the year 931 AD the government of Late Tang (k) set up a special printing section under the Education Department (§76) to engage scholars, carvers, and printers to make woodblocks to print all classical texts copied from the stone texts, the first official textbook printing in Chinese history. It took twenty-two years to accomplish the whole series, consisting of nine classical texts totalling one hundred and thirty volumes and finished in the year 953 AD, Late Chou (£§).\n\nThe great advance in wood engraving skill should be credited to Northern Sung Dynasty (a). In the period of the tenth or twelfth centuries, the production of both classical texts and illustrated novels, including imprints of stone and woodblock folk prints, increased in quantity and quality. Books of fiction printed in the Sung Dynasty 960-1179 AD were amply illustrated, with illustrations\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208562, "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-1979", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "which drew a great deal of stimulating discussion: Leadership and Ideas in Singapore since 1945. Altogether then, there were twelve lectures during the year.\n\nExcursions\n\nDuring June, Dr. James Hayes, the very busy Town Manager of Tsuen Wan, and editor of your Journal, organised an excursion to his district. During preparatory work for the redevelopment of Northern Tsuen Wan various religious institutions came to the notice of his department, which was also able to discover more information about others. The group attending the excursion visited a Buddhist monastery, where they had a vegetarian lunch; another religious establishment for the so-called \"Three religions\"; the Holy Mother Yiu temple, in a squatter area; and a temple to a sect established to help opium addicts and which has branches also in Singapore. Another local excursion is planned for March 29 to Macao, with the help of Dr. Leigh Wright of your Council. It plans to take in visits to places not on the usual itinerary of tourist visits, such as the Theatro Pedro V. There will be a Portuguese lunch and information on the places visited will be given by Father Texeira who has helped us on past occasions. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking him for his generous help to the Society. This visit should be a 'must' for those who like old architecture, churches, cobblestone streets as well as archives and libraries.\n\nExcursions to neighbouring territories and states also remain an important part of the Society's activities each year. Some twenty-two members visited Kashmir and Kathmandu (with an unscheduled but very interesting overnight stop at Amritsar) during last Easter, under the leadership of your Hon. Secretary, Dr. Brian Shaw; and it was possible to make a refund to each participant of over two hundred dollars as a result of various economies. A further group of twenty will be leaving this Easter for Darjeeling and Sikkim; and in July a smaller number will go to Ladakh (“Little Tibet”). Some members expressed interest in proposed visits to Central Java and to sites in Thailand, but the numbers were not sufficient to make the trips feasible last year.\n\nOur requests to Peking concerning visits to cultural sites in Central China have unfortunately not yet received a favourable response, but our efforts will continue during the coming year. For\n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208720, "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-1979", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "150\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nficant scale (17th century) till the period of Japanese control (1895-1945), one can see three successive waves of temple-building, each characterized by its own cult-symbols or deities. This phenomenon is in fact a manifestation of the relationships between the groups of settlers: competition between various groups of immigrants is reflected in the competition of their gods.\n\nDuring the first period of temple-building, the choice of universalistic gods, worshipped by various groups of settlers, points to a spirit of cooperation between them. This was a time of external pressures necessitating cooperation in order to face common threats. Examples given are the Matsu temple in Kuantu (1661), the Shennung temple near Feit'ou (1669) and the Kuan-yin temple whose location is not identified (1660-70).\n\nDuring the second period of temple building, there was a shift in cult-symbols: the choice of more particularistic deities goes hand in hand with strife and competition, or even hostility between groups of settlers of different geographical origins. Examples of such gods with a narrower appeal are K'ai-chang sheng-wang, Ch'ing-shui tsu-shih, Ting-kuang Fo, and the so-called Wang-yeh gods.\n\nThe third period of temple-development was occasioned by new political changes in Taiwan: the threat of foreign invasion (Sino-French war in 1885), and the Japanese occupation (1895-1945). A new consciousness unites the Taiwan population against these foreign threats. While some of the old universalistic gods regain popularity, new cult-symbols arise, such as the Taipei city god cult, \"emerging as the center of a consciousness that transcends particularistic interests\" (p. 40). During the Japanese occupation, great changes take place in the pattern of religious activity. Cut off from its roots on the Chinese mainland, and pressured by the Japanese rulers to undergo a process of acculturation, Taiwan religion follows a development of its own. Local cults and practices are often discouraged (e.g., second burial, spirit medium cults) and Buddhism enjoys a privileged position. Out of twelve temples built in the Peit'ou-Tamsui area during 1895-1945, ten are Buddhist.\n\n(Perhaps the author should have added a fourth period of religious activity: after 1945. The picture has been changing considerably and still is nowadays, especially since the author's research took place about ten years ago. Religious freedom has been restored: but moreover, the influx of a new wave of mainland im-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208721, "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-1979", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n151\n\nmigrants, the arrival of a record number of Christian missionaries and new government regulations concerning religious festivals, all contribute to great changes. One more factor not so strongly felt ten years ago, but very active ever since, is the economic prosperity of the island, which has resulted in a new temple-building boom, perhaps unequaled in the past).\n\nSo far the author has identified the temples as either Taoist, Buddhist or Confucian, but now raises the question as to the usefulness and adequacy of these terms: \"Of what significance are these terms (as well as the term 'temple' itself) to our understanding of the development and character of religion in Taiwan?” (p. 52).\n\nIn Chapter II, \"The Use of Government Gazetteers in Scholarly Research\" (pp. 54-84), the traditional way of dividing the religions of China is rejected as inadequate. This terminology was used in official gazetteers but is not always reliable. Moreover, the gazetteers, although of importance for researchers, are often biased: there are omissions of a large number of smaller temples or so-called unorthodox temples; and the relative importance of various temples is ignored. Therefore the gazetteers have to be used with great apprehension and should be complemented with field-work information.\n\nThe confusion of the temple names—I’d rather use temple 'appellations'—certainly makes it very difficult to classify temples according to the three religions model, if one goes by these appellations only. But the author's conclusion on p. 72 is unwarranted: \"For this reason I do not believe that the three religions classification is a useful tool for uncovering the system of Taiwanese religious beliefs.\" Even if temple appellations are partially interchangeable (e.g. a kung may refer to a Taoist or Buddhist temple) their identity is not only based on their names. Besides—and here I only anticipate a major criticism to be discussed later—the \"system of Taiwanese religious beliefs\" is not only embodied in the temples but goes beyond temples and temple rituals.\n\nThe chapter concludes with a criticism of the classical division of the Chinese religions. Everyone must admit that this model does not work any longer: it is a simplification. The author's attempt to propose a set of new criteria to identify the essential nature of Chinese religion in Taiwan is the necessary consequence of his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208726, "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-1979", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "156\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nmonastic temple are not the same at all. A monastery is a residence for monks or nuns usually not open to the public, whereas a monastic temple is usually a public worship hall built on the monastic premises, but open to outsiders. Of great importance here is the difference between the large monasteries and the hereditary temples controlled by a small number of monks (or nuns), as discussed by Holmes Welch (The Practice of Chinese Buddhism). Both types do not operate in the same manner, and although Welch's observations do not necessarily apply to Taiwan, the distinction has to be kept in mind. What is a 'bone temple' and how is it different from a pagoda? The term 'bone temple' is peculiar: does it mean that bones are stored in the temple hall? From my own field work experience, I know that there are pagodas in which urns are stored, containing the ashes of Buddhist devotees who have been cremated. Is such a pagoda a bone temple? The word 'bone' does not seem appropriate. In Buddhist temples I also have seen side altars with large numbers of name-tablets of Buddhist believers, but no ashes or bones are to be found in these places. So I do not quite understand what 'bone temple' refers to. Bones are often placed in large urns after cleaning them for second burial but as far as I know, they are then reburied in a graveyard.\n\nBesides this lack of precision of terms, some inaccuracies have to be pointed out. The author states (p. 114) that a monk by leaving home, eliminates the fundamental difference between his own ancestors and those of others. This enables him \"to perform many services which might not otherwise be possible...\" How is it then that Taoist priests, who are \"fire dwellers”, are able to perform the same services? Further, the author says that \"Because the monk has cut off his family ties, he becomes available as a surrogate descendant for others, and is able to take over their ancestral services. Because he has fundamentally broken the Confucian code of filiality, he needs not obey its sanctions against worshipping other people's ancestors.\" (p. 117). The two sentences are very distorted. The idea of causality, twice expressed by 'because' is a mere assumption and in fact unwarranted. The Buddhist monk shares these functions with Taoist priests and even with married Buddhist masters; moreover he does not become a surrogate descendant, he only performs the ancestral services in the place of the family, which is ultimately responsible. When families invite him to perform his services, it is not because he has broken the Confucian code: that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208727, "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-1979", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n157\n\nwould not be a recommendation; besides, he does not 'worship' other people's ancestors: he prays for their salvation. The author has overlooked a very important dimension of the cult for the dead, which shows that anthropology and sociology cannot explain all the aspects of phenomena such as these. I refer to the historical dimension. That Buddhist priests and nuns perform services for the deceased is historically conditioned. Ever since the T'ang dynasty, Pure Land Buddhism has had a strong impact on the Chinese population. Scared to be assigned to one of the dreadful courts of hell (or purgatory), devotees wished to be reborn in Amita's paradise (Sukhavati) and in imitation of rituals attributed to Monk Mulien, as expressed in a very popular legend, would ask the Buddhist priests to perform these rituals. Since the Chinese concepts of the after-life drastically changed after contact with Buddhism, and since the Pure Land school enjoyed such a universal popularity, it was only natural that the monks belonging to that school became the specialists in funeral rites. In other words, the custom of Buddhist personnel to perform funeral and memorial rites for the dead in China is not a result of their \"leaving home\" as the author claims.\n\nTo end chapter 3, the author establishes a series of temple types which cuts across the three religions and is based on different criteria, especially particularism vs. universalism. Here again there are great difficulties. The series for one thing is too symmetrical and looks therefore almost like an a priori and artificial construction. To be more specific, however, I feel that in the set of three primary types (group a) the Confucian temples are missing. In the set of derived types (or group b) I do not see the essential difference between the ancestral temples (group a) and the pseudo-ancestral temples. The differentiation between the monastery (group a) and the so-called bone temple (group b) again is arbitrary: bone temples are frequently attached to Buddhist monasteries; and are, in my opinion, just an alternative funeral ground. Families often have their private burial spots or graveyards. After cremation was introduced to China, storage of urns in pagodas became a fashionable way to substitute for graves, but that does not make those 'bone temples' a distinct type of temple. Finally the medium-shrines are also missing, although many of them are real temples, although privately owned.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208728, "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-1979", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "158\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nAs I see the situation, Chinese temples can be grouped under various criteria, for instance, (i) religious affiliation; (ii) nature of deities enshrined; and (iii) ownership. Let us try this proposal and see how it works out.\n\n(i) Temples according to their religious affiliation:\n\nFirst, there are temples that must be considered as essentially Confucian: in Taiwan only a small number located in most of the district capitals: Taipei, Tainan, Tai-chung, Changhua, Hsinchu, Kaohsung, Hualien, Chiayi, Taitung. These are the temples erected in honor of Confucius himself. A number of temples enshrining Kuan Ti or other deities do not fall under this category.\n\nSecond, a great number of temples are distinctly Buddhist: they are built by the Buddhist community (monks and/or nuns) or by a distinctly Buddhist group of lay people or even by an individual Buddhist believer or Buddhist family. They enshrine Buddhas and/or bodhisattvas, and are in most cases attached to monastic establishments. Temples enshrining bodhisattvas Kuan-Yin or Ti-tsang are not necessarily of this type.\n\nThird, there are temples in Taiwan that may be called Taoist. Their numbers on the mainland tend to be much larger: they were in some cases attached to Taoist monastic institutions, just like their Buddhist counterparts. Taoist monasteries (as the author also mentions, p. 113) do not seem to exist in Taiwan nowadays (although a revival is taking place, e.g., the Tao Te Yuan in Kao-hsiung) but Taoist temples can still be recognized as such, although it is not easy to formulate practical criteria.\n\nNegative criteria are: temples designated as Taoist either in government publications and official lists or by the temple administration itself are not necessarily Taoist. In those cases \"Taoist\" temple means any temple which is not Confucian, Buddhist or ancestral. Furthermore, a Taoist temple is not necessarily one that enshrines Taoist deities (cf. Buddhist temples). Positively speaking, a Taoist temple is one founded and/or administered by a distinctly Taoist", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208730, "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-1979", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "160\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nThe third type of folk religious temples are the private temples other than ancestral halls (and distinct from privately owned temples of Buddhist or Taoist designation). Here perhaps the greatest confusion exists: the boundaries between these temples and other types are not well established and may change considerably as time goes on. Baity has well pointed out this nature of fluidity. What constitutes a private temple of this kind is their origin and control; although the gods enshrined may belong to any religious affiliation (Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, folk religion), and thus often are 'universalistic' gods, the fact that those temples are built and controlled by private individuals or families, makes them private rather than community temples. In many cases these temples are open to a limited public: either geographically (they then resemble neighbourhood temples) or by virtue of the worshippers they attract. A number of medium-temples are of that type. These temples are built for various reasons: sometimes just as a means to generate income (often in the case of medium-cults), but also from sincere devotion to a particular deity, e.g. as a result of a vow made in a time of emergency. In cases of a successful appeal to the public, these temples may be rebuilt on a larger scale and even be reorganized as community temples. Conversely, very often these smaller shrines lose their original stimulus and attraction, and may just become private home shrines. Like in other businesses, temples flourish and decline following the degree of success in gaining a clientele.\n\nA considerable number of private home shrines, called shen or discussed by Baity as 'tan', cannot be grouped under the category of private temples, since they are not temples at all. They are rather ‘offices' of various spiritual practitioners: Taoist priests (officially ordained or not), diviners of all sorts, women who merely practice 'spirit-restoration' rituals, and mediums.\n\nOne final sub-category of the folk religion temples may be designated as sectarian temples. These may be private, semi-private or even public, although in some cases the type of worshippers is restricted. Membership in these temples or cults is often restricted (and perhaps can be compared to membership in secret societies) and the emphasis of the cult is sectarian, that is limited to the cult of particular deities and/or to the practice of certain ritual activities, especially divinatory ritual. To give examples of this type from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208731, "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-1979", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n161\n\npresent day Taiwan, I may point out the cult of the Golden Mother of the Jade Pool and the cult of Kuan Ti focussing on divinatory writing and the publication of morality books.\n\nHaving discussed the great variety of temples according to the first criterium: religious affiliation, the other two criteria mentioned (nature of deities enshrined, and ownership) do not need much attention, since they have already been co-discussed. However, the second criterium needs some elaboration: distinction of temples according to the nature of the deities enshrined. In a few cases there can be no mistaken identity although this criterion by itself is insufficient to determine the temple type. The clearest cases are when the Buddhist Holy Ones are the main objects of worship; Buddhas Sakyamuni, Amitabha or Amita, the Buddha of Healing (rather than 'Medical Buddha' as Baity calls him on p. 126), bodhisattvas Kuan-yin (Avalokitesvara), P'u-hsien (Samantabhadra), Maitreya, Wen-shu (Manjusri), to name the principal ones. In most instances these temples are essentially Buddhist. However, one has to be very careful: the mutual absorption of cult objects by various religions has often blurred the origins; in many Matsu temples (community temples of the folk religion) there is a secondary shrine behind the central hall, in which Kuan-yin is enthroned on the central altar. However, the iconography has been changed: this Kuan-yin does not have the appearance of traditional Buddhist sculpture but appears as another deity of the folk religion. Therefore such temples are still essentially folk religious temples, and the dissonant appearance of Kuan-yin should not deceive the observer.\n\nThe same principal applies to the cult of Ti-tsang (Ksitigarbha). Although originally a bodhisattva, his cult has become so popular that he has been absorbed into the folk religion: his image can be found in many community temples throughout Taiwan, mostly on a secondary altar in the central hall. But once again he has lost the typically Buddhist iconographic appearance.\n\nWhat is the difference between Taoist and popular deities? The most distinctively Taoist Holy Ones are those one does not often see in the temples: their images, painted on scrolls, are in the possession of Taoist priests and brought to the temples or temporary roadside shrines by them for special occasions: such as rituals for the dead or the great chiao festival. Besides those there", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208732, "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-1979", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "162\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nare, of course, an enormous number of deities mentioned and described in Taoist ritual texts, of whom the common people do not even know the names. They belong to the esoteric tradition of Taoism and are only known to Taoist priests. But besides those, the majority of deities worshipped in the temples belong to the popular religion, although many border cases may exist of mutual absorption between the three traditional religions and the popular religion. Some of the most ‘popular' deities of Taiwan religion belong to the popular or community religion: examples are Matsu, Kuanti, the earth god(s), the Wang-Yeh gods, the city god(s), Prince Nat'o or T'ai-tzu, Pao-sheng ta-ti and even the so-called supreme god of Taoism, Yü-huang Ta-ti. A number of originally Taoist or Buddhist deities have been absorbed into the folk religion and have become part of it: Kuan-yin and Ti-tsang wang for the Buddhist side; the kitchen god, Yü-huang (Jade Emperor), the 8 Immortals for the Taoist side.\n\nAccording to the third criterium mentioned above, ownership of a temple, several categories exist greatly coinciding with the division based on the other two criteria. Temples may be government-owned (Confucian temples); owned by the local community on the neighborhood or town levels (these are the community temples); or privately owned, either by individuals, families, sectarian groups or monastic institutions.\n\nFinal sub-section of Chapter Three. After this long digression, I had better return to my book review. In this last part of Chapter Three the author discusses the 'genesis of temples'. Although strictly speaking there is a difference between temple and cult, between temple and deity worshipped in it, still the two should be discussed together. In fact there is a special chapter on the Genesis of Gods. However, since the author prefers to discuss the genesis of temples separately, we had better follow him. He distinguishes several ways of temple development:\n\n(A) by process of fen-shen or \"splitting bodies\" (p. 125). The reason of the spread and construction of new temples is the god's efficacy.\n\n(ii) by process of proselytization or a conscious effort on the part of the believers to spread the cult. This applies to Buddhist temples (and Christian churches).\n\n(iii) by transformation of a private home or temple into a community temple.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208733, "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-1979", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n(iv) by transformation of a ghost shrine into a temple. The author might have added one more group :\n\n163\n\n(v) construction of temples for deity statues washed up on Taiwan shores. Many cases of famous gods are mentioned\n\nin the literature and folk traditions. Once a temple is built, the cult may spread by virtue of the god's efficacy,\n\nIn fact, the author does not explain the initial stimulus why a cult becomes popular and a god efficacious. Cult-formation should be treated before 'genesis of temples'.\n\nChapter IV, \"Purity and Pollution, Life and Death” (pp. 136-188) is on the one hand easy to summarize, but on the other hand difficult to judge. It seems to me that the author has mixed together a great amount of factually correct observations with logically incoherent interpretations; in other words, this chapter suffers greatly from 'subtle distortions', due perhaps to his exclusively anthropological method, with neglect of philosophical analysis and especially of historical perspective.\n\nLet me first summarize the main ideas expressed in this chapter. First of all, the author states that the idea of yin and yang, with its ritual application of impure (or polluting) and pure, or of rituals for the dead and rituals for the living is \"probably the major theme which runs throughout the folk religion” (p. 136). Also important is the distinction and separation between private and public, family and community interests (p. 137).\n\nMan alive lives in a world between the two extremes: the yang world of the gods and the yin world of the ghosts (p. 138). He tries to increase his yang power, which generates wealth, offspring and longevity, but also tries to maintain the \"balance of the universe through his ritual actions in worshipping the spirits\" (p. 140). Because of the ritual separation of pure and polluted, no temple can offer services to all categories of spirits but tends to specialize its services for special groups. It seems that community temples tend to offer services for the benefit of the living: such are the ch'iu-p'ing-an, li-tou and chiao rituals, whereas rituals for the dead are performed in ancestral halls (chin-chu) and Buddhist temples (chin-r'a). However, the author clearly states that there is no \"exclusive association of Taoism with life-oriented services, or (of) Buddhist with death\" (p. 173).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208735, "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-1979", "page_number": 192, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n165\n\nthe possibility of a popular religious world view that is not clearly developed and consistently structured. The popular concept of \"soul\" is an example: the division of yin “soul” and yang “soul” does not work in a consistent way and often exasperates the logical mind. If one proceeds in a logical way one arrives at misinterpretations. If the differentiation of temple types is linked with concepts of pollution vs purity, one comes to wrong conclusions.\n\nI can point out several examples where the author's reasoning goes astray. On p. 142, he writes that \"Ancestral temples are off-limits to all ghosts except ancestors\". This is a tautology if one keeps in mind why ancestral temples are built in the first place. \"In community temples the converse (the opposite?) tends to be the case, ..\n\n\"This again is obvious: the community temple is built as a centre for community worship. The cult of the dead is considered a private matter that belongs to the family, and as the author elsewhere acknowledges, only those ghosts who may be a threat to the community as a whole, are pacified through community rituals.\n\n+\n\nOn p. 144: \"The bones of the deceased are never kept in the home with the spirit tablet. . .”: an obvious and unnecessary statement. The bones as in all cultures belong in the grave, and only in some cultures where cremation is practiced are they stored in special depositories as, e.g. pagodas. These, author says, \"are carefully segregated from the deity altars or the tablet halls.\" This is of course so, since pagodas must be seen as extensions of graveyards or cemeteries.\n\nOn p. 148-149 it is said that “bone temples\" are not appropriate temples for enshrining community gods\". This again is obvious: \"bone temples\" are not meant to be community temples in the first place. Buddhas on the other hand, are not believed to be contaminated: they are beyond the duality of life and death or do not suffer death, having attained nirvana. This reasoning is unconvincing. Buddhas are enshrined in \"bone temples\" for totally different reasons: putting the tablets in their presence symbolizes the Buddha's welcoming his devotees to his Pure Land. Moreover, what about bodhisattvas? They have not entered nirvana like the Buddhas. We have here to do with a great ideological difference between Buddhism and the folk religion: Buddhas and bodhisattvas transcend this impure world. Although living in this world, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208736, "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-1979", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "166\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\ncannot be touched by its defilements. The gods of the folk religion are seen as more human in this (and other) respects. They need worship and offerings for their continued existence. They are susceptible to dangers and impurities. This shows that these concepts have been created by the common people in a simple fashion. Neither the higher deities of Taoism nor the Buddhist Holy Ones share this vulnerability. Unless, perhaps, even here there is a wrong interpretation by the author. Is it correct to say that the gods can be polluted? I have some doubts. If gods are really efficacious, they do not have to fear human pollution, or pollution by evil spirits. I believe that gods are kept away from the presence of evil spirits as a sign of honour; it would be an insult to their sacredness (just as the common people are not brought into the presence of emperors). Wherever there is a special need of bringing the two together, as in cases of exorcism, the gods are called down to chase the evil spirits away. Why is that not polluting as well? In such cases, the element of irreverence is absent (as when criminals are brought into the presence of high mandarins for judgment and sentencing).\n\nThe same sense of respect for the hierarchical status is present in the chronomantic ordering of sacrifices. The higher the status of the gods, the earlier in the day they are served (p. 154).\n\nOn pp. 168-169, several confusions occur: Taoist priests are said to perform in Buddhist temples, while Buddhist monks are invited to Taoist temples. The examples cited do not warrant this, for the so-called Buddhist temple is not really a Buddhist temple, while the Matsu temples cited are not Taoist either. The author conveniently follows the official appellation from the gazetteers, which he has criticized in a previous chapter.\n\nOn p. 174, there is another example of 'sublime distortion'. The author tries to explain the folk saying that \"Taoists do not offer the service for feeding the hungry ghosts, and Buddhist monks do not offer the li-tou service\", already quoted on p. 165. Factual observations contradict the saying. The author's explanation is that “individual ancestral services such as chin-chu and chin-t'a are only offered... in \"Buddhist\" bone temples, and by Buddhist priests (p. 174), whereas the community temples do not allow this to take place: the god's purity must be safeguarded. First, the statement is incorrect as far as chin-chu services are concerned; these normally", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208737, "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-1979", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n167\n\ntake place at the home or in ancestral temples, less frequently in \"bone temples\". But secondly, community temples are not intended to offer funeral rites: their whole significance lies elsewhere. Funeral rites from very early times on used to be a family or clan affair and had no direct relationship with the community as a whole. With the coming of Buddhism and the growing success of their eschatology, monks started to take over or at least participate in funeral services. The author has overlooked a very simple alternate explanation: the proverb may have been coined at a point in history where the Ullambana ritual (or hungry ghost festival) was purely Buddhist, whereas the li-tou from its inception was a Taoist creation and in earlier times only performed by Taoist priests. Later changes occurred, but the saying continues.\n\nOn p. 175 author states that (Buddhist) \"bone temples” “cannot be used as a site for the popular chiao festivals\": the gods are not willing to descend in a death-polluted location (p. 176). This may not be the true reason. Those \"bone temples\" are not real temples (they are pagodas) and certainly not community temples: therefore they obviously will not do as sites for the chiao festival which is the community celebration par excellence. It seems to me, however, that Buddhist temples are organizing great rituals parallel to or equivalent to the chiao, which they call ta fa hui (great dharma meeting). This is a substitute ritual for their own Buddhist devotees, and a ritual for the living at that.\n\nOn p. 180 the author distinguishes two groups of worshippers in Buddhist temples, so-called the “living” and the “dead”. (As long as quotation marks are used, these expressions although not ideal, can be accepted, but on p. 182 the author speaks of dead worshippers, without the marks). The two groups do not meet at the same times and participate in different rituals. This whole passage is informative but does not clarify or further substantiate the author's thesis. The so-called “dead worshippers” do not belong to the real congregation of the temple: they place the urn or tablet once and for all, often to rid themselves of an awkward responsibility. The monks have received their lump sum payment and do not expect them back therefore they are almost forgotten on purpose. The \"living worshippers\" are cultivated because they provide the regular temple income.\n\nOn p. 185, the author speaks of the \"Taoist\" Matsu deity. This is a wrong identification as author should be aware of. Further", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208738, "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-1979", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "168\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\n\"the worship of Kuqn-yin is not unknown in Matsu temples either” (p. 185). This is a gross understatement: as I already mentioned, many famous Matsu temples (and perhaps even most) have a secondary hall dedicated to Kuan-yin.\n\nTo summarize my comments on Chapter IV: although there is a great amount of correct factual materials, their interpretation is rather shaky: a critical analysis undermines the author's theories. His neglect of a sound historical and philosophical basis leads him to many fallacies and contradictions.\n\nChapter V, \"Ritual Services in Temples\" (pp. 189-237) comes as a surprise: the author has already dealt with these services in Chapter IV. After a while it becomes clear that he now considers them from the aspect of generating income. The main thesis of this chapter, as I see it, is to point out that the two types of temples (here reduced to community temples and \"bone temples\") have each a different center of gravity in their ritual life; community temples, deriving their main income from li-tou rituals are oriented toward life, whereas the \"bone temples\" are death-oriented: their main source of revenue are the rituals for the dead. I do not understand what the author intends to prove: there is no need to prove the obvious: community religion is naturally oriented towards protection of the living and also naturally (but secondarily) tends to protect itself from evil influences, such as for instance the threats posed by revengeful ghosts. That Buddhism emphasizes services for the dead is both historically conditioned and a simplification. A great number of Buddhist temples have found in these services a means of livelihood, but there is more to Buddhism than being a national undertaker.\n\nOn p. 191, the author examines the income of a group of temples in the Tamsui-Peit'ou area. I wonder why he uses the \"official classification\" system: it is incorrect and totally misleading. For example, the Ch'ing shui Lung-shan temples are not Buddhist; the three Matsu temples are not Taoist, and the Hsing Tien T'ang is not really a Confucian temple.\n\nIn a previous context I have pointed out the author's strange sense of causality: another example is given on p. 196:\n\n\"Because the gods in the temples have well defined areas of control over which they extend their protective influences, par.\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208739, "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-1979", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n169\n\nticipants in the (li-tou) festival usually come from within the protective area of the deity.”\n\nIn my opinion this is a tautology: community temples are defined by their geographical areas: the word \"because\" does not explain anything.\n\nOn p. 197 we have a case of logic in reverse: gods are said to be ranked on the basis of their wealth and by extension of their luck and efficacy. The opposite is true: gods first prove their efficacy to the worshippers; if they prove their spiritual powers, the worshippers will flock to them in great numbers and the temple's finances will prosper.\n\nWith regard to li-tou rituals in \"bone temples\" it is said (on p. 200) that they attract far fewer worshippers than those held in community temples. This again is obvious, although not for the reasons indicated: \"the presumed efficacy of the Buddhas... and the pollution of the temple\". The reasoning here is doubtful, but Buddhas and bodhisattvas should be taken together as one group and Kuan-yin is admittedly an exception. The pollution of the Buddhist temple cannot be taken too seriously, for as the author states on p. 180, \"bone pagodas\" are kept separate from tablet halls and Buddha altars. If a li-tou ritual takes place in a Buddhist temple, it is not held in the \"bone temple\".\n\nMoreover, the reason for the smaller number of Buddhist participants in the li-tou ritual is due to the particular nature of a Buddhist temple community in which membership is on a voluntary basis and is stricter than in the popular religion. Worshippers are often from different geographic areas and are in many cases exclusively Buddhist. Therefore the li-tou rituals are not community events in the same way as in the community temples.\n\nOn p. 206, author discusses the chin-t'a (entering the pagoda) ritual and identifies it with the final act of second burial. However, the chin-t'a most frequently takes place at a different time altogether: after cremation following death the ashes are put in an urn and stored in the pagoda.\n\nThe chapter concludes with a rather long informative description of the p'u tu rituals to liberate the lonely ghosts. The author perhaps over-emphasizes the community's concern with the rituals for the living, while it \"pays mostly lip service to its responsibility", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208740, "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-1979", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "170\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nto the hungry gods\" (p. 235). This statement is contradicted by the custom of ending great festivals with a huge banquet offered to the ghosts: at the end of a chiao festival there always is this p’u-tu ritual. I have seen it performed as well at the conclusion of a temple consecration, of an installation of new deity statues, etc. I feel that the author over-states his case in order to strengthen his thesis.\n\nIn Chapter VI: \"The Genesis of Gods” (pp. 238-269), the author formulates a new theory of how the gods, or cult-symbols, are created by the community. Since the gods, per definition, are symbols of community cohesion, they must appeal to the community as a whole. Ancestors are naturally excluded as candidates, and so the author decides that \"gods evolved from hungry ghosts\" (p. 239). Such a theory comes as a shock: it goes against the grain of most religious traditions, in which candidates for sainthood and deification are chosen from among the highest models of virtue, reflecting ideals of human perfection to be imitated by all men. Here, however, gods are born on the \"garbage piles” of society; they are among the outcasts who have no known family, no known descendants. That this theory is at first alarming does not necessarily undermine its validity. However, before it can be accepted, we must carefully scrutinize it.\n\nFirst of all, it is clear that the author only talks about the deities of the community religion. A great number of \"supernatural” beings are therefore not included: for example: the higher gods of Taoism, the Buddhist Holy Ones; their genesis is quite different. Also excluded are the gods of the \"state religion\" of ancient times, still worshipped nowadays: Heaven, Earth, the nature gods like the spirits of thunder, of rain, of mountains and rivers, etc. These are rather personifications of natural phenomena. The author also excludes the Taoist immortals, although in legend and literature they are often close to the people. It seems therefore that only one group remains to develop into cult symbols, the hungry ghosts. The fact of their evil origins is later on camouflaged.\n\nA priori I do not see any serious reason to reject this theory even if it appears to be shocking. However, I want to see solid arguments brought forward. And I find that the author does not provide them, except for one case (see later). When the author takes up the Matsu cult as an example he undermines his own thesis when he says that it is possible that her cult \"began as the cult...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208749, "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-1979", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN\n\n179\n\n2. The Participants\n\n(a) Confucianism\n\nWhether it ever was a religion or not, is no longer relevant and depends largely on the assumption that Confucianism can be identified with the state cult, the imperial cult of ancient and imperial China. Today it is no longer a religion in that sense although the old system of ethics is still adhered to and has been partially absorbed by the folk-religion.\n\nThere has been, however, an increase in the construction of temples: in the cities of Taichung and Kaohsiung large new temples have been built in the middle seventies. The old temples in Tainan and Changhua have been completely restored (1977-78), and since these enterprises are financed by the municipal governments, this movement of renewed attention for the great sage is sometimes interpreted as a reaction against the recent campaign of denigration of Confucius in China.\n\nActivities in the Confucian temples are, however, still minimal: they are rather memorial halls than centers of worship. Only once a year, on the birthday of the sage (since the republican period fixed on Sept. 28), a great sacrifice takes place in the temple premises. It is a grandiose event, based on ancient rites, but performed by government officials in the early hours of the morning.4\n\nOutside this yearly event, the temples are visited by tourists (especially in Taipei and Tainan), although other cultural activities are organized by the local temple committees: for instance, in Taichung a series of lectures was given on the interpretation of the I Ching.\n\n(b) Buddhism\n\nAlthough Buddhism has infiltrated folk religion in several ways, it is easier to define Buddhism as a distinct religious tradition. The revival of Buddhism, already started in China some decades ago, continues in Taiwan, but it seems to happen along traditional patterns rather than as break-away new religions.5\n\nAccording to a pamphlet about Taiwan published in May 1978 by the Chunghua Information Service, \"Followers of the Buddha are estimated at 8 million. More than 2,500 temples are attended", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208750, "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-1979", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "180\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nby nearly 7,500 monks and nuns.” (A study published in 1971 says that between 40 and 46 percent of Taiwan's population affiliated themselves with Buddhism.)6\n\nAs usually these statistics have to be handled with care and as the word \"Taoist\" has become a \"source of perplexity\", so are the words \"Buddhism\" and “Buddhists” often used in a very unorthodox manner. Buddhism is most easily to be recognized as such in the monastic institutions: Buddhist temples, monasteries and pagodas (sometimes built as storage places for urns or so-called \"bone-temples\") are clearly distinct from all other temples and shrines with some exceptions. Monks and nuns are living a celibate life; most of them are engaged in making a living by performing rituals for the dead, either at private homes (funeral rites) or at their own temple. Apparently very few are practicing ch'an-meditation. Some informants told me that there is no exclusive ch'an-center in the whole of Taiwan.\n\nAn important distinction seems to be necessary when discussing Buddhism in Taiwan: clerical vs. lay Buddhism. The former is related to the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China and is well organized. Visually it is very flourishing with many recent constructions of new temples. But, according to serious lay Buddhists, this whole movement is rather external: it emphasizes superficial rituals and often caters to the needs of the folk religion. An example is the performance of p'u-tu rituals (rites of ‘universal salvation') now almost identified with folk religion and equally performed by Taoist priests.\n\nLay Buddhism, on the other hand, is a smaller movement but makes great efforts to deepen the understanding of the orthodox principles of Buddhism; instead of being devotional, it tends to be more philosophical. It attracts a great number of university students: each campus in Taiwan has a local Buddhist association with regular study and discussion sessions.\n\nSome important centers of clerical Buddhism are: Kaohsiung, Fo-kuang shan, and Yang-ming-shan; Institute of Buddhist Studies (established in 1965 by the Institute of Chinese Culture). A very active center of lay-Buddhism is located in Tai-chung directed by a 90-year-old lay-Buddhist, Li Ping-nan.\n\nThese two types of Buddhism try in different degrees to dissociate themselves from the folk-religion and should therefore be seen as a distinct religious system.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208751, "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-1979", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN\n\n(c) Taoism\n\n181\n\nTaoism, as a religion nowadays, is hard to define; it is much more than Buddhism caught up in popular religion and very often identified or confused with it, not only by students of Chinese religions but by believers as well. Examples are lists of temples in Taiwan, where temples are identified either as Taoist or Buddhist, with the rare exceptions of Confucian temples and ancestral halls. If we see the folk-religion as a separate category, then Taoism as such should be stripped of all the folk-religious elements and seen in its purity. In that case, only a few temples can be identified as Taoist, and the Taoist religion has thus basically to be identified with the various sects of Taoist priests. The matter has become more complicated since the institution of a Taoist Association in 1950. This is organized and run by Taoist laymen but has requested and obtained membership among many temples of the folk religion (in many temples, one can see the metal membership plates on the wall).\n\nThe Taoist priesthood is divided into 3 (or 4) sects: the ling-pao, cheng-yi, or t'ien-shih and san-nai sects. The cheng-yi sect, or the sect of the Heavenly Master, has been trying for a long time to control the Taoist priesthood of all sects to unify them (and collect their dues). The 64th successor to Chang Tao-ling, living in Taipei, confers ordinations and promotions all over the island. However, as over the centuries, candidates to the priesthood (often hereditary) are not well trained in Taoist philosophy: they start their instruction as apprentices of a particular master, but throughout their training, they usually do not go beyond learning to recite the sacred texts and performing the various rituals. There are, happily, exceptions to the rule, and a fascinating example is Master Chuang of Hsinchu city, who is not only a master of rituals but performs the esoteric meditations of inner alchemy as well.\n\nIn Taiwan, there are no Taoist monasteries where priests live as celibate monks, although there seems to be a movement of return to the ancient model: in one temple in Kaohsiung, the Tao-Te-Yuan, a group of young women have been ordained as Taoist priests and have made the vow of celibacy. The same temple also organizes study sessions for laymen to foster a deeper understanding of Taoist philosophy. As in Buddhism, the laymen again are promoters of a more serious involvement in Taoism.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208753, "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-1979", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "In cases of chain-misfortune, the family will consult a medium who evokes the spirits of their deceased ancestors until settlements of complaints result in a more peaceful existence.\n\nThe duty of filial piety and related family virtues are still strongly emphasized in education and traditionally derive from Confucianism. They have, however, become part and parcel of the Chinese tradition as a whole and of the family religion in particular. Although in Taiwan families tend to be more often than not nuclear, the duty of filial behaviour is taken seriously. Several temples have used modern techniques to instill and propagate traditional virtues by putting the 24 stories of heroic filial piety on animated puppet shows (e.g., Changhua, Hsinchu).\n\n(ii) The Community: for the majority of the rural population and to a large extent of the city dwellers, religious life centers around (home and) the community temples. Traditionally, each neighborhood, hamlet, or village has its own temple, and this temple is the focal point of the whole group, around which social life is organized. Although some details discussed here also apply to Buddhist and Taoist temples, the average community temple is quite distinct from both of them. Most community temples in Taiwan are neither Buddhist nor Taoist: the gods enshrined and worshipped are of popular creation or of popular choice; they are non-denominational and are community \"property\". Only in a few cases can it be said that the gods derive from one or the other of the voluntary religions: more often, the secondary gods are of Taoist or Buddhist origin. Examples are Kuan-yin: rarely a primary deity, and formed more often of secondary importance in Matsu temples. Ti-tsang-wang is another case. He is the Chinese adaptation of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha of Buddhism; although few temples enshrine him as their principal deity, he seems to be ubiquitous all over Taiwan as a deity on one of the main side-altars. On the Taoist side, Lü Tung-pin can be mentioned as a secondary deity, whereas Hsüan-t'ien Shang-ti is an example of a well-spread cult of a primary Taoist god. But in the majority of the cases, the most frequently worshipped deities are of purely popular origin: Matsu, Kuan Ti, the gods of pestilence, Pao-sheng Ta-ti, T'ai-tzu yüan-shuai, etc.15\n\nWhat determines the community and folk-religious character of these temples even more is their actual origin: these temples are\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208754, "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-1979", "page_number": 211, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "184\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nusually built by the people of the local community by means of public subscription. Consequently, they are ruled by a locally selected committee headed by a chairman. Although on special occasions Taoist priests or Buddhist monks and nuns are invited to perform the appropriate rituals, still, these priests are outsiders and have no authority in running the temple affairs. They are paid for their services and once the rituals are over, they return home or to their own temple.16\n\nA large number of (smaller) temples in the cities and in the countryside have their own mediums, used by the locally worshipped gods. Their function in the local community varies, but is often very significant for the well-being of the whole group or of individual families.\n\nEach temple has its own yearly celebration (paipai) and occasionally a grandiose sequence of rituals: the chiao (rite of cosmic renewal). The latter takes place more often nowadays: some temples have it every 5 years. Many (usually smaller) temples organize yearly pilgrimages (chin-hsiang) to their mother-temple. Large temples, on the other hand, specialize in receiving these groups and have built accommodation facilities for their numerous pilgrims.\n\nBesides these special temple rituals, people may go and visit the temple at will. Some days there are numerous visitors (1st and 15th day of the month); at other times, the noise of falling divination blocks is only rarely heard in the shrine. The worship performed by individuals is standardized and appears as a purely ritualistic performance. Not often one sees people kneeling down and concentrated in mental prayer.\n\nTemple visits very often include consultations of the temple oracles or a person-to-person interview with a divination specialist having a small desk on the temple premises.\n\nAlthough the rise of an industrial society has greatly influenced all aspects of life in Taiwan, religious life in the countryside and in many urban centers still involves the whole local population. However, in many city temples, temple activities continue to flourish, but the people involved in worship are not necessarily living in the neighbourhood. The devotees of a Buddhist temple may be spread out in an even wider area: they visit the temples of their choice rather than the one that happens to be their own community temple.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208759, "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-1979", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN\n\n189\n\ndifferent in objectives and methods, but their common ground is that both believe in divine possession of a human medium (man or woman) to communicate divine messages to the people, either individuals or groups. The writing cults even make great efforts to reach the public at large by publishing the oracles in the so-called shan-shu (morality books).20 An increasing number of them are printed by temple committees or even individuals. Some periodicals were founded for the sole purpose of printing the divine messages on a monthly basis. Whereas the mediums who handle the willow-branch (fu-luan) are obviously more moderate in their operations, the other type or 'divining youths' are more spectacular and appeal to the popular mind because of their dramatic performances. During temple festivals and pilgrimage trips their ecstatic trances reach a level of delirium. Scenes of self-torture astonish the bystanders and make the people believe in the efficacy of the possessing gods. Mediums are cherished by many temple-goers and often attract visitors from far away: their advice often proves to be correct and effective and very likely the financial advantages gained by the mediums attract a number of charlatans and throw discredit on the whole profession. There are several cases of recent government intervention to control and moderate this type of medium-cult.\n\nFinally, I wish to mention one more characteristic of Chinese religion, discussed by many scholars in the past: its ethical character. Perhaps I did not do justice to this very real phenomenon when I discussed the utilitarian aspect. The ethical character seems somehow to contradict this. But I believe this is not so. Ethics, ethical prescriptions and behaviour are a very ‘useful’ component of a society; it even emphasizes more strongly the fundamentally humanistic character of Chinese religion. It also is in harmony with the stubbornly prevailing concept that Confucianism is after all a religion. That the religion of the people is ethical-oriented does perhaps not need further demonstration. Here I want to add some examples from my Taiwan experience. When people in Taiwan — from educated people to taxi drivers — learn of the reason of my stay there: to study Chinese religion — their spontaneous reaction invariably is: \"Religions are all the same: they teach you to do good, to avoid evil”. Religious doctrines are of minor importance: most people hardly know the difference between Buddhism and Taoism; they know that both have a set of moral prescriptions to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208761, "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-1979", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN\n\n191\n\n10 See M. Saso, The Teachings of Master Chuang. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978.\n\n11 Journal of Buddhist Culture, Fo-Chiao wen-hua hsüeh-pao,*** published by the Institute for the Study of Buddhist Culture since 1972. Articles are in Chinese or English.\n\n12 Journal of Taoist Culture, Tao-chiao wen-hua,Maxit published by the Taoist Culture Journal Association since 1976. Articles are in Chinese.\n\n13 Examples are: Fo-kuang hsüeh-pao,1*£* published by the Buddhist monastery on Fo-kuang mountain near Kaohsiung, since 1975 or 1976; Boahedrum, Pw-ti-shu,### Taichung: Hui-châ, & Torch Wisdom, Taipei; Hal Ming-tao, published in Tounan (Yünlin district).\n\nof\n\n14 See E. Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973.\n\n15 See L. G. Thompson, \"Notes on Religious Trends in Taiwan\", Mon. Ser., vol. 23 (1964), 319-350.\n\n16 See A. P. Cohen, \"Fiscal Remarks on some Folk Religion Temples in Taiwan\", Mon. Ser., vol. 32 (1976), 85-158.\n\n17 See Liu Chih-wan, Taipei-shih Sung-shan ch'i-an chien-chiao chi-tien (Great Propitiatory Rites of Petition for Bene-ficence at Sungshan, Taipei, Taiwan), Taipei: Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology, (monographs no. 14), 1967, Liu Chih-wan, Chung-kuo min-chien hsin-yang lun-chi (Essays on Chinese Folk Belief and Folk Cults), Taipei: Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology (monographs no. 22), 1974.\n\nM. Saso, Taoism or the Rite of Cosmic Renewal, Washington State University Press, 1972.\n\n18 See St. Harrell, \"Modes of Belief in Chinese Folk Religion\", in JSSR, vol. 16 (1977), 55-65.\n\n19 See D. Jordan, Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors. Folk Religion in a Taiwanese Village, University of California Press, 1972, G. Seaman, Temple Organization in a Chinese Village (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, vol. 101), Taipei: Chinese Association for Folklore, 1978,\n\n20 See D. Overmyer, \"The Saying of Master Lu\", Unpublished paper, given at the joint panel of the CASA and the CSSR on Chinese Religion at the Conference of the Learned Societies in Saskatoon, May, 1979.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208774, "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-1979", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "204\n\nJ\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTo the east of the Temple of the Supreme Ruler was the former Sung Wong Toi, a rock from which has been preserved in the Sung Wong Tooi garden. The land for several miles around used to be arable plain and contained rice fields watered by streams. This would have been an agreeable place for the hard-pressed emperor Tuen Chung to stop. Traces may well be left in the neighbourhood of halts made by the Emperor and his ministers in their retreat before the Mongols, and the former Temple of the Supreme Ruler may indeed be one of these traces and thus provide a link in the history of Kowloon.\n\nThe temple itself fell into ruin long ago leaving only the lintel of its main door which was here found intact. In commemoration the Hong Kong Government has made this Rest Garden which, like the nearby Sung Wong Toi Garden, provides in its reminder of past history more than a place of rest.\n\nMr. Kan Yau Man of Sun Wui was the first to recommend to the Hong Kong Government the preservation of the ancient temple lintel and the creation of this Rest Garden.\n\nMr. Yiu Chung Yee, whose name is also spelt Jao Tsung I, of Chiu On prepared the Chinese account of the history of this place. The garden was completed on September 15, 1962 and opened by Doctor R. H. S. Lee MBE.\n\nMORE NOTES ON TSUEN WAN\n\nMembers of the Society visited Tsuen Wan on 1st December, 1978 and visited a number of places connected with various aspects of Chinese religion. The visit took in:\n\n(a) a long-established Buddhist monastery,\n\n(b) a small post-war temple established by newcomers from another part of Kwangtung,\n\n(c) a structure serving as a shrine for one of the lesser known later sects of Chinese religion, the Chun Hung Kau (*2),\n\n(d) another large pre-war religious house founded by a group of persons associated with the three main religions of China,\n\nThe notes which follow are printed, with some additions, for the benefit of members who took part of the tour, and for other interested persons who may not have been able to come that day,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208775, "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-1979", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "(a) Tung Po Tor \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n205 \n\nAn article written in 1961 by a well-known writer on Chinese monastic life then resident in Hong Kong (Holmes H. Welch) stated, \"Most Hong Kong monasteries are in the New Territories, built on hill sides, often with a fine view. They usually have an extensive set of buildings, capable of accommodating a much larger number of persons than are actually in residence (a reminder of greater prosperity in times past)\". He continued \"The largest of the colony's monasteries is the Tung Po Tor (4) in Tsuen Wan which has 14 monks, 16 nuns and 30 lay women*.\" \n\nThe Tung Po Tor monastery was founded by a monk from China in November, 1933. The buildings, initially extensive, have been added to over the years, and a guide book of 1954 states: \"There are many small temples and pavilions on the compound around the monastery including the temple of Veda, the temple of the Deva guardians, the temple of the Vihara, the Ng Kwun hall, the guests' hall, the founder's hall etc.\" \n\nThe founder, Mou Fung, was a celebrated abbot of his time. Personal details are given in the biographical section of a 1941 centenary publication on Hong Kong, in English and Chinese, entitled A Century of Commerce. His inclusion, rather surprising at first sight though at least one Chinese Christian clergyman is listed among all the businessmen, gives an idea of his eminence. Also, of the type of Buddhist leader entering Hong Kong in the pre-war years because of unsettled times in China; able to collect funds to buy land and construct large premises for religious use. \n\nThe English version is much shorter than the Chinese text, but gives the salient facts: \n\n\"Buddhist Monk Mao Fung, is 54 years of age. He entered the Buddhist Monastery at Po Wa Shan (†) near Nanking. He then went to the Koon Chung Kong Chi Monastery (✯✯**) near Ningpo. He has studied deeply the Buddhist religion. At present he is in Tsun Wan on the Kowloon side, and is the head of the Tung Po Tho Chi.” \n\n* Mr. Welch explains that \"nuns and lay women devotees may be found in the same institution, living and worshipping separately from the monks. One reason for this type of 'co-educational' arrangement is that only monks can be dharma masters, qualified to teach.\" \n\nHis article, entitled \"Buddhist Organizations in Hong Kong”, is at pp. 98-114, JHKBRAS vol 1 (1961).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208776, "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-1979", "page_number": 233, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "206\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nHe named the new temple the 'Pu To' (Po Tor in Cantonese) in the East, meaning Kwangtung. There is a much older 'Pu To in the South' at Amoy in the Fukien province.* The original 'Pu To' is the famous island of that name off the Chekiang coast. It is covered with temples and is one of the homes of Chinese Buddhism.†\n\nApart from seeing the relics associated with its founder and visiting his grave and those of later abbots, the purpose of our visit is to walk round the premises and to note the wealth of presentation boards (§§§) to be found on them. These combined examples of calligraphy and Buddhist sentiment are cut on wood and mostly painted in gold characters on a red ground. Many are from the brush of the several abbots, especially the founder who clearly took a delight in naming and commemorating the different buildings and gateways.\n\nThe Monastery occupies a considerable area and its grounds were previously much larger, taking in a wooded area in front which has since been resumed by the Government for development. There has been considerable re-building and much new building, but overall the influence of the founder is still plainly evident.\n\nChinese calligraphy has always been a highly—indeed perhaps the most—respected and prized art form. Dun J. Li in his The Essence of Chinese Civilization (New York, Van Nostrand Co., 1967) writes (p. 414):\n\nOf all the talents the Chinese emphasized, none was more important than the literary talent. Such emphasis was evidenced by the fact that prior to the modern period the Chinese produced more books than the rest of the world combined. As for fine arts, the art form which the Chinese cherished most was calligraphy, and the works of such great masters as Wang Hsi-chih (321-379), Liu Kung-ch'üan (d.A.D. 865), and Chao Meng-t'iao (d.A.D. 1322) were imitated throughout history.\n\nHe then gives biographies of several famous calligraphers, taken from the standard dynastic histories, which illustrate this esteem. Emperor Mu-tsung of T'ang (821-824) was not considered an able, enlightened ruler.\n\n* P. W. Pitcher, In and About Amoy (Shanghai and Foochow, The Methodist Publishing House in China, 1909) p. 78 and illustration at p. 161. † See the extensive account in Reginald Fleming Johnston, Buddhist China (London, John Murray, 1913) pp. 259-389.\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208779, "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-1979", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n209 \n\nThe original temple thus belongs outside Hong Kong, though admittedly not far off: but it would not have been established here unless Pok Law people with a reverence for the goddess (and a firm belief in her efficacy) had settled locally and decided they must establish a local shrine. \n\n(c) Temporary Structure at San Tsuen Pai (***) serving as a shrine and meeting hall for disciples of the Chun Hung Kau (††*). \n\nThe Chun Hung Kau was founded by the great teacher, Liu Tae-ping (*) of Chin Wu (44), Kiangsi (žr&). Liu was born in 1827. He was married, but his wife died a few years later. When he was 31 years of age, he decided to become a Buddhist monk. Reportedly, in a trance he learnt the Truth, quitted the Buddhists and founded the Chun Hung Kau in 1862. \n\nEarly followers \n\nLiu founded a church in Chin Wu, and passed on his teachings to his brothers, Liu Taei-chor (†), and Liu Taei-chiu (★*). Later he had 3 disciples, Lai Yan-cheung (M1-‡), Ling Pong-pik (凌邦璧), and Cheung Sing-kin (張聲見), \n\nDeath of Liu \n\nIn 1892, Liu was arrested by the prefectural authorities on the ground that he was a heretic. Two of his disciples, Cheung and Lai, were also arrested. Liu died in prison in 1893 when he was 66 years of age. \n\nEarly Propagation and Distribution in China \n\nDisciple Cheung started preaching in various places in China in 1890. \n\nHowever, the most effective preachers were disciples Lai and Ling, who were freed from prison in 1894. They managed to obtain some followers from among the intelligentsia and officials. \n\nThis section comprises a summary of Professor Lo Hsiang-lin's book on THE ORIGIN AND DOCTRINES OF THE CHUN HUNG KAU AND ITS PROPAGATION IN SOUTH CHINA AND OVERSEAS. \n\nI owe this section to my colleague Mr. Valentine Yim (KA) who painstakingly (and very kindly) produced this summary instead of the two paragraphs I had requested!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208867, "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-1980", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES AND ALTARS IN HONG KONG AND MACAU\n\nKEITH G. Stevens*\n\nSeveral works on Hong Kong Chinese temples have been published over the past few years, notably the Hong Kong Government's publication This is Hong Kong: Temples1 which surveyed in detail twelve of Hong Kong's hundreds of temples. Also, during most of 1980 and 1981, a series of short articles in Chinese have appeared on alternate days in a vernacular daily.2 These turned out to be over-amplified essays contributed by readers on specific aspects of temples, their keepers, deities and furnishings but which contained numerous gross, inexcusable and even inexplicable errors. A further book as yet unseen, but referred to in at least one bibliography, is Chinese Temples in Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong by Chuang Shen, a University of Hong Kong monograph, dated 1978 but still in mid-1981 not yet published.\n\nIn this article I have recorded my impressions of Chinese temples3 in Hong Kong and Macau together with facts gathered during fifteen years of research into Chinese iconography. As I am neither an architect nor an interior decorator, nor yet an anthropologist, the decoration and construction of the interior and exterior of temples, and the symbolism of the items the temples contained, have been described from a lay viewpoint.\n\nUnlike Western churches and Moslem mosques, Chinese folk religion temples are the residences of the Gods, and are not centres of conducted group worship. In Buddhist temples and monasteries group worship is a daily routine, but only for a limited number of people usually resident monks and nuns. Apart from the one day each year when the main deity's feast day is celebrated and devotees descend on the temple in their hordes, temples attract, in the main, very few devotees who wish, for their own personal reasons, to offer worship, reverence or supplication to individual images or tablets on temple altars.\n\n* The author is well-known to readers of this Journal from previous notes and articles on the gods of China.\n\nPlace names can be found in the Hong Kong Government's official publications. A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and The New Territories.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208868, "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-1980", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "KEITH G. STEVENS\n\nTemples and monasteries can be classified as follows:--\n\na. By religious belief-Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian and traditional folk religion,5\n\nb. By the contents of the altars - deities, ancestral tablets or charms.\n\nc. By their typological features such as the size and shape of their plans (square or rectangular); by their elevation into floors; by divisions and sub-divisions; whether free-standing or not; and whether the courtyard is enclosed or in front of the main building.\n\nd. Whether residential or non-residential.\n\ne. Whether permanent or temporary.\n\nf. By ethnic grouping (regional traditional types),6\n\nWithin Hong Kong and Macau, there are about four hundred and fifty Buddhist, Daoist, and folk religion temples, Buddhist and Daoist monasteries and nunneries, and ancestral temples. A few pre-date the advent of the British and Portuguese whilst the majority, built since 1840, have been established as specialised temples with a specific deity on their altars well known for a unique function such as destroying demons, protecting seafarers, foretelling the future, protecting mothers during childbirth and children during childhood, and the like.\n\nIt is unfortunate, out of interest in such historic places, that neither Hong Kong nor Macau have the large national temple or temples at which the official state religion was worshipped. This is due to the fact that before the arrival of the British and Portuguese, neither territory contained a county town and were primitive rural areas. Nor are there in Hong Kong or Macau the large City God temples which in Imperial China were to be found in all provincial and county capitals.\n\nWhereas the Chinese government in 1928 closed many temples throughout China during their campaign to suppress superstition,* the practices condemned by the Chinese authorities continued in Hong Kong and Macau where British and Portuguese administrators treated native susceptibilities with great caution. Hong Kong and Macau temples therefore, retained deities and practices which have probably long since disappeared on the Chinese mainland.\n\n* described in some detail by C. B. Day in his Chinese Peasant Cults (Nanking Theological Seminary English Publications, 1938), pp. 190-195.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208869, "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-1980", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\nen\n\n3\n\nThey have however continued in S.E. Asia and Taiwan; and in some of the remoter areas of Malaysia there are altars in temples, preserved and much the same as they were a hundred years ago.\n\nIt is often difficult to obtain a clear answer from devotees themselves whether a particular temple belongs to Daoism, Buddhism or popular religion because, in the main, devotees simply do not understand the question. The majority of Chinese are not concerned with legendary or historical explanations and, if remotely religious, claim to be Buddhist irrespective of which temple they visit or which deity they venerate. In a few temples it is quite obvious that the deities are all of one religion, either Buddhist or Daoist, but the altars in most temples bear a mixture of Buddhist, Daoist and folk religion images side by side on altars.\n\nCommon usage by both Buddhists and Daoists of temple titles and religious terms also tends to mislead. It is therefore unwise to ascribe, automatically, specific terms to Buddhism or Daoism, though a few have a generally accepted and common meaning. The majority of Buddhist temples for example, are called “Si” and Daoist “Guan”, with “Miao” a common term for either. However, Miao is also the common term for folk religion temples and for certain shrines. \"Tang,\" a usual term for Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, is also used for Daoist or clan ancestral halls and for certain Guan Yin temples. \"Dong\", a cave, is a Buddhist title very frequently used for squatter temples, suggesting perhaps that the immigrant founder liked to think of himself as a hermit.*\n\nWhereas Buddhist and Daoist temples and monasteries bear flowery titles, usually obscure religious phrases or names unconnected with the main deities, folk religion temples tend to be dedicated to one or a pair of specific deities, the main god or gods on the main altar, and his, her or their names or titles are cut in stone or painted over the entrance to the temple.9\n\nIn Hong Kong temple building tends to reflect the wealth of a community (unlike in India where it reflects the class of the devotees). There are large establishments where monks and priests live; smaller establishments with a resident or day-time only keeper; and non-residential structures, the smaller of which are usually referred to as shrines.\n\n→\n\n* The characters referred to in this paragraph are ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208871, "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-1980", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\nfortune slips and interpret the fortune slips.\n\n5\n\nth\n\nCompetition between Buddhists and Daoists for the support of devotees led to grander and bigger temples. Small village shrines and temples, not in the same league, did not need to compete. Competition for devotees also led to the present circumstances in which rural shrines and temples are comparatively small and unkempt whereas their urban equivalents, though not much larger, have had to be made more attractive, usually by offering unique deities and services in order to wean devotees to their particular altars.\n\nIn Hong Kong and Macau there are a number of temples patronised primarily by people of a particular class, sub-ethnic group or occupational calling. Devotees tend to patronise their local temple irrespective of who the deities are, though they may be attracted to a more distant temple by a particular deity famous for his specialised power and efficacy. The latter might be a god whose cult is long standing and whose characteristics are unique and pertinent to the devotee's requirements. He might however be a new star, rising suddenly amid great publicity, only to wane again but not necessarily to disappear completely.\n\nLocation of temples\n\nPrior to the anti-superstition campaign in China in 1928, traditional temples were scattered across China in their tens of thousands. Not quite so abundant in Hong Kong, they are to be found squeezed in among high-rise buildings in the city and among houses in villages, and may be free-standing or joined to other structures. But apart from monasteries, rarely does one appear beyond the village bounds and when it does it is usually derelict or almost so. Buddhist, Daoist and popular religion temples do not usually materialize as full-blown two-court buildings with numerous images, large and small. Their development has been a natural progression from the small shrine on a hillside, probably beneath the overhang of or attached to a living rock, at the base of a large old tree, or in many cases inshore from a sandy beach of a bay with an easy landing for boat people. If the shrine is well attended, the protective construction around the small shrine will grow as years pass, until eventually it reaches the maximum size that devotees can afford to build and maintain.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208872, "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-1980", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "6\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nAn example of the latter is the very recently established open-air shrine on a hillside, half way up, and some 120 steps above, the tarmac road of Black's Link on Hong Kong island. It consists of a small row of three shrines in one long concrete construction. Each is no bigger than 2' by 1'6\", and contains a printed and framed coloured icon, one Buddhist, and two of the folk religion. The title given to the whole is the Temple of the Three Immortals (49) The final character \"Miao\" (temple) normally gives the impression of roofed halls containing images and icons. However, the concept of the three altars of the Temple of the Three Immortals is no different from other temples with large altars, numerous images, high walls and a roof, which with all their other refinements in no way add to the power of the prayer of the devotee. There are, however, not many examples in Hong Kong of permanent outside shrines being referred to as a miao (temple).\n\nMonasteries were usually built away from the main centres of population, on hillsides backing on to slopes and facing downwards, overlooking wooded landscapes or the sea; whilst Daoist folk religion temples are to be found in population centres (especially where the centres existed a hundred or so years ago) and in sheltered coves at a convenient landing point.\n\nFishermen's folk religion temples may seem at times to be in isolated spots, but in practice they are near safe anchorages and just far enough from the next temple to be economically viable for the temple keeper. The pattern of fisherfolk temples, dedicated predominantly to Tian Hou (A) and Hong Sheng (), when plotted on a map, is quite distinctive, particularly in Wanchai and the centre of Victoria. The temples, now quite far inland, were originally built back a little from the original coastline and faced what then was the nearest stretch of water.\n\nUrban popular religion temples, built in traditional style in the early days of the two settlements, are usually simple folk religion establishments dedicated to the popular cults of Guan Di, Tian Hou and Wen Chang, whilst more modern temples built since the 1880's tend to be dedicated to less well-known deities who offer specialised services such as the plague deity, Sui Jingbo.\n\nOver the years a few temples have been closed down or moved elsewhere, from lack of patronage or because of reclamation, urban redevelopment and street widening. In one fell swoop a fisherman's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208873, "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-1980", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n7\n\nA shrine and two Chaozhou squatter temples on a hillside at Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island were removed during 1979 to permit road widening and the building of new housing estates. Temples, seemingly built to last forever, also disappear. A long destroyed and unidentified Cantonese traditional temple depicted in an old photograph in a published collection of photographs of old Hong Kong, may well be the temple which used to stand in Wong Nei Chong village approximately in the area of the present day King Kwong Street.13\n\nThe population explosion in Hong Kong has surrounded on all sides some of the originally relatively isolated temples by high-rise blocks of flats. Some recently opened temples have even been established in shop houses, in ordinary flats in the high-rise blocks, and in flats and huts in resettlement areas.14 Geomantically such accommodation may be adequate for their purpose, but for ideal conditions the exact orientation of all temple buildings should be determined by geomancy and the feng shui expert's calculations. Traditional temples are often on the best feng shui sites in the vicinity.\n\nAccording to Chinese laymen, temples should, as far as possible, face south. This south-facing orientation would mean that the main god or gods on the altar would also face the \"geomantic South\" which approximates to due south, and thus places the auspicious Yang on the east, and Yin on the west. However, even a casual examination of the temples in both Hong Kong and Macau shows that they can and do face in all directions. The two immediately obvious criteria in the siting of traditional temples, as can be seen from any large-scale map, are that either they back onto a hill (presumably having a powerful and beneficial geomantic influence), or face the sea. Many, of course, do both.\n\nTemples and monasteries are open from around 8 am to 8 pm, the exception being for those individuals whose need is great, and they may call at a monastery at any hour.\n\nBuddhist temples\n\nThere are some one hundred and thirty-five Buddhist temples or monasteries in Hong Kong built or funded by individual monks or nuns, or by individual devotees or groups. In addition to Buddhist temples, there are organizations and services in Hong Kong which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208874, "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-1980", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "KEITH G. STEVENS\n\nserve Buddhist devotees and which have Buddhist images on altars in their halls and offices. These include Buddhist schools, clinics, book-stores and libraries, homes for the aged and vegetarian food shops and restaurants.\n\nBuddhist temples and monasteries are not only more airy, lighter and cleaner than the Daoist folk temples, their images are larger, gold-lacquered and usually distinctive. However, there are the exceptions, few though they be, of small, dark and, because they are old, more drab Buddhist establishments. Some images too can be multi-coloured, though very few are of any material other than wood.\n\nExclusively Buddhist establishments are few and far between, the majority having an altar or two containing folk religion deities. Quite a number of the Buddhist temples were first instituted in Hong Kong by a single wealthy Chinese who recommended or selected the specific deity or deities to be placed on the altars. The donation of funds to help found a monastery is not only a move to obtain merit for the donor, or for perpetual prayers to be said by the monks in the Memorial Hall of the monastery for the donor himself or for his parents or wife, but is often a gesture to display the importance of the donor (it entitles his or her name to be engraved and displayed at the entrance). Once the monastery has been built the flow of funds from devotees enables it to flourish, but when devotees disappear the monastery too withers. Once the decision to found a Buddhist temple has been made, a board of directors is established and executive decisions are then made by them. (The same is true of Daoist and folk religion temples). In Buddhist and Daoist establishments a priest is invited to become the abbot, and nuns, monks and lay men and women are gradually enrolled. Abbots and hermits choose attractive and secluded spots on remote mountain sides to escape from the tumult of life and to devote themselves to quiet meditation. Founded by either fervent monks or wealthy benefactors, they were usually built on sites which were both aesthetic and practical because, in addition to being a place of meditation, in old China travellers in remoter areas found it necessary as well as agreeable to stay overnight in monasteries. (Plate 1)\n\nThree very distinctive areas in Hong Kong's New Territories were all sufficiently remote to satisfy the \"hermit\" in the monks.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208875, "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-1980", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n9\n\nThese are the wooded valley running down from Lantau Peak through Luk Wu to Tai O, the wooded area around Lo Wai to the north of and above the new town of Tsuen Wan, and the oldest of all, the easterly wooded slopes of the hill known to foreigners as Castle Peak. (Plate 2)\n\nBuddhist temples can also be established by a monk wishing to set up an establishment of his own to earn credit. The usual pattern would be first to open a small temple consisting of a Buddha Hall, a living room and kitchen. As others join him, if of course they do and if the temple retains its popularity, so the establishment will thrive and grow. However, should he die prematurely, his establishment usually dies with him.\n\nBuddhist monasteries, nunneries and temples usually follow a pattern based on the origins of the monk who first founded or organized the establishment. Hence, a monk from Shandong will reflect his provincial background in the organization and iconographical features of the establishment.\n\nBuddhists rarely have simple temples. Whereas traditional folk religion temples consist of a single storey, monasteries tend to have an upper and lower hall. Buddhist and Daoist monasteries and temples may best be described as being a series of \"boxes\" which, unlike a very high proportion of traditional temples, do not need to be symmetrical. They tend to run to complexes with their numerous rooms and halls, separate buildings and shrines, each housing one or more images. In each devotional hall the main sanctuary or altar which holds the image or symbol of the deity (or in the case of the Halls of Long Life and Rebirth, the spirit tablets) serves as the focal point of devotions and rites. Some monasteries and a few temples have a separate hall dedicated to the Ten Judges of the Underworld (with Di Zang Wang on the main altar) or the Eighteen Luohan (the disciples of the Buddha Sakyamuni).\n\nThere are, in addition to the devotional halls, monks' and nuns' quarters, kitchens, visitors' halls, refectories, study rooms, reading and meditation halls. Many small images are to be seen in each, though they are not always Buddhist. The occasional state religion cult hero or folk religion deity may be seen usually donated by a not too discriminating devotee. Abbots rarely refuse an image, particularly if it is accompanied by a donation to the establishment.\n\n*路盧遮那寺 in Lo Wai.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208876, "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-1980", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "10\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nInside the library large cases of books cover the walls and some books, used more frequently, are individually wrapped in cloth and lie on tables and altars. The larger monasteries have rooms for the aged, and most have halls where ashes of devotees may be deposited.\n\nIn general, a visit to a Buddhist monastery would take you first past the shrine of the folk religion tutelary deity of the neighbourhood, the Earth God (1✯✯). (Illustration 3) Once through the gates and the entrance hall with its six \"guardians” (Mi Luo Fu, Wei Tuo and the Four Heavenly Kings) the layout follows a fairly standard pattern. The main altar will be straight ahead in the Great Hall which houses the main Buddhas. The main altar may be occupied by a single image, a group of three, or an array of a dozen or so. On and along the secondary altars, altars down the side walls and side halls there are images of other lesser deities. These, in twelve monasteries and temples in Hong Kong and Macau, include the well-known groups of eighteen or five hundred Luohan. Frequently, immediately behind the main altar and back to back with the main deity, stands the most popular and honoured of the Bodhisattvas, Guan Yin, with her two assistants.\n\nMahayana Buddhist temples contain a large number of images of Buddhas and major Bodhisattvas, some of which are considered to be more important than the image of Sakyamuni Buddha himself, unlike the Theravada Buddhist temples of Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Srilanka in which Sakyamuni is the most important.\n\nThere appears to be only one temple in Hong Kong in which Lamaist images are worshipped, although there is one other, above Tsuen Wan, where in a private room, some forty or so Lamaist bronze images are on display.* The temple in which the Lamaist images appear on its altars is a shoddy, fairly modern concrete and corrugated iron construction above a new estate in North Point, where an elderly and now deceased Cantonese gentleman settled after spending some years in Tibet. Most devotees appear to have little idea of the style or origins of imagery, and the rituals and ceremonies performed in the temple by the widow of the founder are identical with those in other temples in Hong Kong.\n\n* Guan Yin temple in Fu Yung Shan,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208877, "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-1980", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n11\n\nThere are a dozen or so temples in Hong Kong the titles of which should leave one in no doubt that they are Buddhist. To highlight the problem of classifying temples by their religious affiliation, let us examine one in Lo Wai above Tsuen Wan which has a typically Buddhist name followed by the characters for \"Buddhist temple\". The staff consists of three laymen who run the vegetarian restaurant below the temple and the deities on the altar from senior to junior are Guan Di, Guan Yin, Lu Dong Bin, Dou Mu and Yao Shi Fo. Guan Yin and Yao Shi Fo are Buddhist, whilst the other three are Daoist folk religion deities. Opposite the main altar, on a secondary altar, are a Kitchen God and a Protector of the Law, both represented by framed prints; the first is a folk religion deity and the second Buddhist. And finally, on the table before the main altar is a red wooden rice bucket containing a peck of uncooked rice in which stand numerous items which have without doubt Daoist and not Buddhist origins. Despite the mixture, the three laymen were surprised that there was any doubt that their temple was Buddhist.\n\nConfucian and Daoist temples\n\nIn Hong Kong and Macau there are no Confucian temples as there were in China and still are in Taiwan. There are, however, Confucian Halls such as the one in a school sponsored by the Confucian Society at Caroline Hill, Hong Kong Island. Several Chinese societies in Hong Kong are understood to have private altars dedicated solely to Confucius.\n\nThe official state religion had its own rites and deities and involved the official bureaucracy and the gentry only. The nearest thing to a State temple in our two territories is the rural school at Fanling where an image of the Yellow Emperor (*) stands on an altar in the main hall, and the side hall of a Macau temple in which a school is held where on an altar there are full-size images of the inventors of ink and writing.\n\n\"Pure\" Daoist temples are rare, there appearing to be none in Macau and some two dozen in Hong Kong of which two are branches of two of the others. These two dozen contain distinct Daoist deities, are run by Daoist bodies represented by a committee, whilst Daoist lay priests and priestesses perform Daoist ceremonies.\n\n* Peng Lai Ge (**M**)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208878, "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-1980", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "12\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nA typical Daoist temple is the very bare flatlet on the fourteenth floor of a high-rise block in crowded Shamshuipo, established by a widow from Fujian province in about 1965. Now in her early eighties, she lives alone in the flat, which has a resounding Daoist temple name, and has services performed once a week by a visiting lay priest. She recalled eight occasions when near death, she was saved by a specific Daoist Immortal, Lou Da Zhen Jun (**★**IA) who died late in the Ming dynasty, in Fujian, but who appeared again in spirit form in the twenties of this century in Amoy successfully to persuade a Bank of China manager to stop gambling. Lou's likeness is the only icon in the temple, and before it, services are held and sand-table prognostications obtained.\n\nA modern major religious complex above Lo Wai, Tsuen Wan, has on its main altar large images of Confucius, Lao Zi, and Sakyamuni, representing the three religions: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Above the altar hall, which is a modern pagoda, there are several buildings dedicated entirely to memorials, and in two of these halls, Daoist services for the dead are frequently performed.\n\nFolk Religion Temples\n\nThere are some two hundred and forty-six folk religion temples in Hong Kong. When sub-divided into architectural groups, approximately two-thirds of them are traditional buildings, two-ninths are modern constructions, legally built with the Hong Kong Government's permission,18 and one-ninth resettlement shacks, huts, or other illegal constructions. These latter fall into those tolerated by the Hong Kong authorities and those not tolerated.* The latter are regularly pulled down, often to be built illegally again nearby.\n\nTraditional temples in rural areas tend to have flourished around a catchment area of a village or two and have been built on the outskirts of one of the villages. Frequently, there is an adjacent open space used primarily for holding elaborate festivities on the main deity's annual feast day.\n\nAlthough most traditional folk religion temples built before World War II have a similar plan and general layout, no\n\n* To be explained by the periodic amnesties given to older, but still not tolerated illegal structures. 1976 saw the last to date, the purpose being to provide a new, realistic baseline for demolition of new structures (Hon. Editor).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208879, "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-1980", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n13\n\ntwo temples are alike. The interior decoration and content of temples tend to reflect their keeper's foibles, whims and beliefs, and whilst some temple keepers offer special rituals, others are thoroughly disinterested and their temples often bare and ill-kept and bereft of any spark of life. Rural temples are considerably barer than their urban equivalents. In some, poverty is stark and all that can be seen is a well-nigh empty hall, with an ash container for incense sticks and perhaps a paper plaque or two, with possibly an image and, if it is at all possible, electric illumination even in fairly remote areas. At the other end of the scale some of the urban temples are cluttered with objects of every kind, with the cool courtyard being used as a social gathering place. Incongruities abound such as, not uncommonly, sweaty vests drying on hangers suspended from the front edge of the altar, and the blaring gramophone record of church bells which greeted several surprised Westerners when they entered a small temple in Kowloon. Many temples have private courtyards for use by the keeper and his family.\n\nVisitors touring the Far East frequently compare the spacious, light and clean Thai Buddhist temples with Chinese folk religion's dark and grimy temples. Many Chinese Buddhist monasteries and temples, not usually on the itinerary of tourists, are also bright and clean whereas the religious edifices in which folk religion deities dwell and which are visited by tourists in Hong Kong central and Kowloon, appear quite forbidding. Traditional folk religion temples consist of a single-storey building with windowless outside walls and one large dark, cavernous entrance, through which one can see oil lamps flickering in the gloom. Inside the temple the altars at the far end of the dimly lit halls may contain a single deity, a small group of deities or hosts upon hosts of them. Clouds of incense with its soft fragrance adds to the eerie dimness and in time blackens the gods. It also makes one's eyes water! One aspect obtrudes during certain seasons - open drains in the older traditional temples.\n\nThe basic urban, village and coastal traditional temple is a one-roomed “box”. It can be a traditional building (Illustration 4) or a simple old cottage. It might even be an old two or three bedroomed two-storey house or, if the founder has been fortunate with his sponsors, it will be a purpose-built construction.\n\nThe main doorway of the basic traditional temples at the front is normally the only entrance. It has large inward-opening doors", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208884, "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-1980", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "18\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nmain altar, with a further three altars down the side walls. In the centre, a long altar divides the upper part of the hall from the lower. A side hall to the west, dedicated to one goddess, is also used as a workshop for the construction of paper items to be burnt in ceremonies for the dead. Behind this side hall is a courtyard beyond which is a separate hall containing three more altars. To the east of the main hall is a secondary hall, dedicated, not altogether surprisingly even in a traditional temple, to the Buddhist Trinity. This hall contains just the one large altar and behind it are the living quarters for the staff.\n\nSome traditional temples have had a secondary temple built alongside, as an annex or as a separate temple dedicated to a particular deity, and many traditional temples nowadays have had windows knocked into the outside walls, particularly into the rooms in which the keeper and his family reside.\n\nIn villages and hamlets there are two types of temple. The first is the small, often single-room popular folk religion temple or shrine, of the kind we have described above, in which one or two major deities are depicted on the main altar. The second, the clan ancestral hall or temple, may be a comparatively large complex of halls and rooms, the main hall of which contains, by seniority, serried rows of ancestral tablets of the most senior members of the family, the public ancestors of each generation back twenty or more generations.\n\nVillage temples, be they traditional folk religion or clan temples, are more than just religious establishments where prayers and offerings may be made. Side halls and rooms are used as the village storehouse for items like the old rice winnower, large tables and clan crockery*, as the village school, the games room and as the civic and medical centre. They also frequently are homes for one or two of the village needy.\n\nMost walled villages in the New Territories have a very small single-hall folk religion temple called a Shen Ting (神廳), dedicated to one of the national or local heroes (such as Guan Di or Hou Wang) situated in the north wall, facing south, and located at the opposite end of the main lane which bisects the village from the main gate. In most walled villages too, the Tu Di Gong (the Earth...\n\n*\n\nLineage or village properties that can be borrowed by families on festive occasions.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208886, "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-1980", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "20\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nAlthough clan or ancestral halls and temples are usually handsome buildings located near the centre of a village, many now old and rarely used have been permitted to fall into disrepair and are derelict. These memorial halls contain only the ancestral tablets of the senior member of each generation of the clan whose surname appears over the main entrance of the hall or complex. Some villages have two and even three such temples, dedicated to each of the clans dwelling within their bounds. (Plates 10 and 11).\n\nThe memorial and ancestral tablets of the man-in-the-street (personal ancestral tablets) are placed on either the private household altar of the family or the shelves of the memorial halls of Buddhist or Daoist monasteries and temples. Personal ancestral tablets are rarely retained for more than three generations, whereas the tablets of the public ancestors of the clan are retained as far back as the first ancestor who moved to the area in which they are presently situated.\n\nLike the small temples, the clan halls are usually cluttered with agricultural equipment used only when the season comes around. None of the clan halls is spotless, and often the plaques, panels, mirrors and other decorations are so covered in accumulated filth that they are hard to decipher. The excuse given is that the lineage is too poor to employ a temple keeper and by implication there is no one else who should keep it clean, so the halls remain decrepit and forlorn.\n\nFamily and clan temples very rarely contain images, particularly as Cantonese do not carve images of their ancestors as did the people of Hunan and Fujian provinces. When family and clan temples do contain deities, these are represented by either a framed print usually of the bodhisattva Guan Yin or a small image of a popular deity placed there by a devotee who either had no place for it at home or had a misguided notion to donate such an image to the clan (Plate 12). This happened in a small clan temple near Sheung Shui where the tolerant members of the clan have ignored the deity and have left it there to avoid hurting the donor's feelings.\n\nShrines\n\nShrines almost certainly pre-date temples and in their basic form have remained essentially unchanged for hundreds, if not, thousands of years. A considerable percentage of Chinese ritual is performed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208887, "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-1980", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n21\n\nbefore them in both rural and urban areas. In round terms, they are miniature unmanned temples or open air altars often called in Chinese \"small temples” (1). They fall into two categories. The first is the roofed, open-fronted, doorless structures which protect a public deity or deities. The second is an unroofed area surrounding a natural rock, tree, stone or marker which is considered a spirit and is offered incense and other minor offerings. (Illustration 13).\n\nThe first can be as large as a single room the size of a small garage (but with a low roof), as small as a dog kennel or even smaller, a miniature temple some 1'6” high, 1' wide and some 2” to 3\" deep. All shrines house a deity and an incense pot. A wooden plaque, a framed print or an uncut or undressed rock or stone may represent the deity. In the case of shrines dedicated to the Earth God, probably the undressed rock is the most common representation. Very occasionally the Earth God is joined by his consort, and quite frequently by one or two unidentified and usually unconnected images placed there by devotees.\n\nLarge street shrines (Illustrations 14 and 15) of a more temporary nature are now few and far between in Hong Kong21 and are referred to officially, as we have already seen, as “illegal temples\". They generally consist of a large altar with numerous often unconnected folk religion and Buddhist images and several dozen framed prints of various gods. The jumble is arranged in an open-fronted shed, or in an open-fronted lean-to in a side alley and is cared for by one or two very elderly, often infirm men or women. In Macau none have been found however, though there are some two to three dozen in Hong Kong.\n\nSmall shrines are to be seen at the side of streets, footpaths, at crossroads or outside temples and monasteries, inside temples and monasteries in ones or groups of two or more, in homes and also in shops and factories.\n\nHousehold or family shrines, very common in Hong Kong, particularly in peasant and urban working class homes, are probably not always quite what foreigners expect. They often consist of a tiny shelf or alcove, painted vermilion, bearing or containing an incense pot (often the ubiquitous red-painted cigarette tin), before a representation of one or two deities.\n\nThe more elaborate household shrines have miniature doors,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208893, "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-1980", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n27\n\nthan not they were allowed to remain unscathed by the demolition gangs. This was how the apparent plethora of Chaozhou temples was explained by a Chaozhou policeman.\n\nTemple Management and Staffing, and Hong Kong Government Controls\n\nUntil the gazetting of the Hong Kong Government Chinese Temples Ordinance of the 27th April, 1928,* required all temples to be registered, temples were managed by individuals, by groups or organizations and quite often devotees were exploited. A section of the Home Affairs Department of the Hong Kong Government keeps records of property, listed under temples and shrines, private institutions, houses converted into special temples and guild properties.\n\nIn some temples in Hong Kong which come directly under Hong Kong Government control the keeper's post was tendered out periodically, with the highest bidder having the right to sell joss sticks, candles and paper offerings, and to perform rites and ceremonies for devotees for a fee. This was discontinued in 1967 when the Government began employing its own temple managers. Such managers are now employed at seventeen temples throughout Hong Kong.\n\nMany temples are under public control, managed by neighbourhood community committees, by religious groups or by a larger group such as the Tung Wah Hospital Group, with detailed regulations to control the duties of the temple keeper (Si Ju**). The Tung Wah Group runs seven temples and receives a considerable charitable income from, amongst others, the Wongtaisin Temple in North Kowloon. Some temples are managed by private individuals, and a few of the monasteries and temples are private, run for the religious benefit of the small number of occupants. These latter do not encourage visitors though the residents will courteously welcome the occasional one or two. A few of the private Buddhist\n\n*(\"To suppress and prevent abuse in the management of Chinese Temples\"). Although enacted in 1928 it has been revised periodically.\n\n+This practice followed that long adopted by many bodies or communities owning temples, especially in towns. Hon. Editor.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208894, "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-1980", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "28\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\ntemples are willed from generation to generation to adopted sons. In religion, whilst private folk religion temples are bequeathed to sons, nephews and even daughters. Buddhist temples, willed from generation to generation, are all only very small ones with a minimal monkhood.\n\nAt least several thousand people in Hong Kong alone, earn a living in some way connected with folk religion practices, many in or connected with temples though by no means all. A small number of these earn a comparatively reasonable income due to their expertise, energy and intuitive business acumen. Although few would admit it, their competition for business from devotees, though not fierce, exists. One keeper, washing his temple floor, said that he knows that the devotees who use his temple appreciate its cleanliness; another met two elderly ladies at the entrance, escorted them in and presided over the rites they required performed. He made it clear that these ladies came regularly and that the service he performed for them was well rewarded. This explained, he said, why he had gone beyond the norm in going to the entrance to welcome them.\n\nIn the fifties, according to one temple's records, the pay for the temple keeper was made up of subscriptions of one sheng of rice from each family annually and HK$30 monthly from the village public fund.\n\nCertain temples are centres for societies formed by devotees around one particular deity. These societies, registered with the Hong Kong Government, have rules and subscriptions and have been established for the welfare and advancement of the devotees. An example is the Society centred around the Living Buddha Zhi Gong in a hillside squatter temple constructed illegally above Shamshuipo. The Society comprises some 450 members, mostly Chaozhou immigrants from Swatow, who have settled and set up small shops and businesses in Shamshuipo. Their subscriptions help keep the temple clean and well run by the staff employed by the Society. The staff consists of a keeper, sometimes known as the secretary as he controls the sale of incense and oil and takes fees for his professional assistance; an odd-job man who tends the garden and sweeps up; and the apprentice who does the chores and runs messages. The Society meets on festival days connected with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208895, "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-1980", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n29\n\nZhi Gong and over Lunar New Year, and has a \"red-pig\" fund30 for the feast at each occasion.\n\nCertain lands in rural areas in Hong Kong are designated as 'temple property',() and the income from them is devoted to the upkeep of the temple and its deity as well as providing financial support for the temple keeper. In many cases the deed of ownership is made out in the name of the principle deity, whilst selected elders of the village act as trustees.\n\nA foreign missionary once described how funds were raised in China for religious purposes.31 An old Buddhist temple to the north of Tak Hing, west of Guangzhou which had been allowed to fall into ruin, was to be rebuilt in 1903 because a geomancer discovered that the floods and crop failures of 1902 were due to the neglect of the deity who formerly had occupied the temple. The deity had come back, according to the geomancer, and had been seen in the form of a woman. Villages and cities even as far distant as forty miles sent processions to help subscribe towards the rebuilding. The missionary described the local collections as \"frequently barefaced extortion”. He explained that \"women went round to collect the money and asked every man for a sum based on what they knew him to be worth. If their demand was not complied with, they would refuse to take anything at all and threatened to post the family name all over the city walls as niggards who refused to help towards the public weal\". Perhaps too, in Hong Kong this may still go on to some extent.\n\nStatistics — Temples in Hong Kong and Macau\n\nHousehold altars and unmanned sea-side and streetside shrines have not been included in the statistics, except in the case of the streetside shrines which are roofed buildings large enough to entertain several humans standing up. These have been included under temples. The unmanned smaller public shrines run to about several hundred in Hong Kong with a further eighty in Macau.\n\nThere are about three hundred and ninety-six temples and monasteries in Hong Kong. Of these as many as ninety-eight are (or were before reclamation projects were completed) coastal temples dedicated to gods or goddesses of the seas; one hundred and thirty-five are Buddhist monasteries or nunneries; two hundred and forty-six are folk religion temples and two dozen are Daoist temples", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208896, "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-1980", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "30\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nor halls.32 Nearly 70% of all nunneries are on Lantau island, whereas only 10% of the monasteries are; and three hundred and fifty-three temples and monasteries have resident staff.\n\nThere are thirty-two temples in Macau, of which two are well-nigh derelict. Of the thirty-two temples, six are coastal, twenty-four are urban, and two rural. The majority of temples contain a mixture of Buddhist and folk religion images (no temples contain only Buddhist images), and the remainder contain only folk religion deities.\n\nDegrees of popularity of the major deities in temples and shrines\n\nThe total number of temples dedicated to a specific deity throughout the two areas reflects the importance of that deity to devotees. In Hong Kong and Macau, forty-four different gods each have at least one temple dedicated to him (or her), whilst only seven gods have more than five temples to him (or her). The seven, in order of precedence (based simply on them being the main deity of a temple or monastery), are Tian Hou (seventy-eight) (*), Sakyamuni Buddha (thirty-nine), Guan Yin (thirty-eight), Guan Di (twenty-one), Hong Sheng (twenty), Bei Di, who is better known as the Northern Emperor, (ten), and Lu Zu or Lu Dongbin (seven). Although this gives only a very rough guide, the number of images of Guan Yin throughout Hong Kong and Macau vastly outnumbers those of Tian Hou. However, when the criterion is the number of temples in Hong Kong and Macau in which a particular deity is to be found (on any altar and not necessarily as the main deity), then the first five are Guan Yin, whose image appears in at least seventy-five temples, Tian Hou (114), Guan Di (88), Qi Tian Da Sheng (Monkey) (61), and Di Zang Wang (59).\n\nThe Kitchen God, most frequently depicted by a reddish-orange paper pasted on the chimney above the stove, is the most common deity to be seen on the household altar, followed closely by Guan Yin, whose image, as we have noted, is also to be seen in 70% of all temples. The most common deities outside the home are Tu Di Gong, the Earth God (the local tutelary deity), in both urban and\n\n* The totals are not the number of images seen but the number of temples in which the deity is the main image in both Hong Kong and Macau.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208897, "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-1980", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n31\n\nrural areas, and the very ancient agrarian cult, the God of the Harvest, Soil and Grain, She Ji(4) whose shrines are found usually at the edge of villages and, like those of the Earth God, are too numerous to count.\n\nThe only general conclusion to be drawn from all this suggests that the vitality of the cults of deities has in general declined, whereas a limited number, in squatter resettlement areas, continue to thrive by acting as a focus for the minority Chaozhou, Hakka and Minnan immigrants.\n\nNOTES AND REFERENCES\n\nThis is Hong Kong: Temples. By Joyce Savidge, Hong Kong Government Printer, 1977.\n\n2 Dong Fong Ri Bao.\n\n* In this article the English word \"temple\" is used to include uniquely Buddhist and uniquely Daoist temples and monasteries; popular or folk religion temples (which may or may not contain Buddhist and Daoist deities); community temples (both private and public), and ancestral or clan temples. A shrine is an open-fronted room or box-like construction, either at the wayside, under a tree, outside a temple or monastery or hanging on a wall. Outside permanent shrines are referred to in Hong Kong as \"Exposed temples\" (露天廟). They are by definition unmanned.\n\nA \"community temple\" is one built by funds raised within a limited community and administered by a committee, either of a city, village or suburb, or of an ethnic group of expatriates. Private temples are built by private bodies such as:\n\n(a) A family or clan.\n\n(b) An individual monk or nun who raises funds by subscription and who leaves the temple to an acolyte at his or her death.\n\n(c) A trade or profession.\n\nPrivate temples, despite being private and closed to outsiders, are also usually controlled by a committee. A few private temples continue to remain so but gradually most become public, particularly as the number of devotees and images of deities within the temple increase. Some Buddhist temples, privately owned with the affairs and finances in the hands of the owners, are usually also the home of the owners and the ancestral tablets of the owner's family appear on the altars with or beside the deities. Privately owned is not the same as being open or closed to the public. Some indeed may be closed, but the majority are open to the public.\n\nOnly very occasionally are icons or images of deities to be found in clan temples, whereas ancestral tablets are frequently to be seen in community temples. Advantage is taken in the latter of the duties performed by the temple keeper (which clan temples do not have) which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208898, "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-1980", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "32\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\ninclude the burning of incense every day. This amongst other things saves the individual having to perform the rite before his ancestral tablets daily.\n\n4 There are no Confucian temples in either Hong Kong or Macau.\n\n5 Although there are obvious and major differences between Daoism, Buddhism and Folk religion, their beliefs and practices are so interwoven and syncretized beyond description, that in practice there is almost a single religious scheme of things. A handful of folk religion temples, mostly in Chaozhou and Min An community resettlement areas, are also centres for spirit medium activity. Chaozhou and Min An people customarily communicate with the major gods through minor gods and spirit mediums, Folk religion is very occasionally referred to as \"Spirit worship” (Shen jiao), albeit more by foreigners than by Chinese.\n\nChaozhou and Min An spirit mediums are usually males who speak with the more junior gods, whilst Cantonese spirit mediums are normally female and speak with the spirits of the dead.\n\n* The natives in both Hong Kong and Macau are Cantonese. Immigrants over the centuries who brought their own cultural heritage with them are the Hakka, Min An, Hoklo, and Chaozhou. The Chaozhou are speakers of the Chaozhou (sometimes called Swatow) whose native area is eastern Guangdong province. In folk religion the Chaozhou have more in common with their immediate neighbours to the north, the Min An and other Fukienese rather than with their Cantonese neighbours.\n\nThe total of 450 temples reflects the number found and visited by the author. The total given by the Hong Kong Government Temples Committee of the Home Affairs Department of over 500 private temples registered in Hong Kong is misleading in that their total includes to the author's knowledge quite a number of small temples which have been destroyed, removed or closed down. The author's number of 450 is also inaccurate as there are bound to be a number of very small temples hidden away in residential blocks of flats which would defy discovery without a visit to every floor of every apartment building.\n\n* County towns were the centres for official, commercial and religious activities. Villages within present day Hong Kong before the arrival of the British came under the jurisdiction of the mandarin at the county town of Hsin An (present day Pao An), north of the Sino-Hong Kong border.\n\n* However, an engraved title can easily be superseded when a more popular deity has been promoted to the main altar, without the title over the entrance being changed.\n\n10 Images on, beside, before and under altars can be categorised into the deities themselves, and their disciples, guardians and attendants. There are also two other categories of figures, seen only on separate altars in some Buddhist temples. These are the likenesses of the founding Abbot and of major donors and their wives.\n\n11 Urban and rural are terms used for the areas where the temples were established, and many a rural temple is now lost in the centre of a vast modern housing estate. Urban temples do not include village temples, they do however include the temples of the market towns such as Taipo and Yuen Long.\n\n12 These \"pensioners\" are normally the most needy and worthy elderly males or females of the community, voted or appointed into the post and supported there by subscription.\n\n13 See Hong Kong 100 Years Ago (Hong Kong City Hall, 1970) on the sixth page of photographs, though under another titling.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208899, "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-1980", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n33\n\n14 Because of the exorbitant rents for such accommodation, temples in shop houses and flats in Hong Kong are few and far between. In Singapore and Malaysia, temples in shop houses are very common indeed, though they are becoming less so as the years pass and rents in urban areas rapidly rise.\n\n15 Occasionally such a temple may be a converted private house, as in the many examples in Lo Wai village, Tsuen Wan, but more often it is a purpose-built but inexpensive hut.\n\n18 Temples containing images of the Buddhist deities Di Zang Wang, Milofu, and Guan Yin are not necessarily specifically Buddhist, as all three of these deities nowadays are also extremely popular deities in folk religion temples.\n\n17 Mahayana is Northern Buddhism and Theravada or Hinayana is Southern Buddhism.\n\n18 \"Illegal\" is a Hong Kong term for buildings which have been built on Crown Land often by squatters without Government land control or planning permission, but which have been permitted to remain standing under sufferance. In practice, they are temporary structures put up without permission, occasionally ramshackle though more often they are well-built timber, weather-board, and corrugated iron buildings, clean and well-proportioned. (Illustration 17). Some have stood for such a length of time as to have been gradually converted to concrete and brick. All are labelled on the side in rough daubs of paint with the bureaucratic abbreviations and digits prefixed by \"TEM\" (= temporary) affixed by squatter control staff of the Housing Department.\n\n19 Demons are well known to Chinese to be unable to go around corners and must travel in straight lines, hence these inner doors to prevent the demons from entering the temple. The inner doors originally were opened exclusively for influential people.\n\n20 See also James Hayes' information at JHKBRAS 6 (1966): 129-130.\n\n21 In overseas Chinese areas, this kind of large street shrine is still very common and, in Singapore alone, some four to five hundred exist in all kinds of nooks and crannies. For a Hong Kong example, see JHKBRAS 14 (1974): 203.\n\n22 Chu is one of the 28 Constellations (= xiu).\n\n** See pp. 111-113 of the Hong Kong Government's publication Rural Architecture in Hong Kong (1979) for this pagoda.\n\n24 In Imperial times, such masts were always to be seen outside the local magistrate's yamen.\n\n25 Chinese bells have no internal tongue clapper, being tolled by an external blow with a wooden mallet.\n\n26 For the Evacuation of the Coast, see Lo Hsiang-lin and others, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1963) Chapter VI.\n\n27 For background, see Jen Yu-wen's article \"The Southern Sung stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang\" in JHKBRAS 5 (1965): 65-68.\n\n28 Government action is through the Chinese Temples Committee, serviced by the Trust Funds Section of the Home Affairs Department.\n\n29 Temples according to this Ordinance include Miao (廟), Si (寺), Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, Guan (觀) and Dao Yuan (道院), and nunneries An (庵).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208955, "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-1980", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "FUNG SHUI: ILLUSTRATED BY KAT HING WAI, N.T.\n\n85\n\nThe basic premise of geomancy is the location of ch'i, the cosmic breath, of the site in question. This ch'i is dispersed by wind and carried by watercourse; too much of each or both will drive the site's good influences away, and too little movement will cause stagnation of the influences. An ideal site should be south-facing and constitute the following topographical features: The hills should have the formation of an armchair; those in the rear should fence off evil spirits brought in by the cold bitter northerly wind, those on the left and right should flank it like embracing arms, and the front should be opened or unobstructed such that view, airiness, and sunlight can be brought in by the yang spirit. These features are represented by the four numinous animals: the azure dragon on the left, the white tiger on the right, the red bird in the front, and the black tortoise in the back. Thus, the point where the two forces meet, and in a proportion of three to two of the azure dragon and the white tiger in elevation, is the perfect location for burial and building. As to water, a site with confluence of streams brings good influences; conversely, branching does the opposite. \"Sharp bends are bad since they make straight arrow-like lines, meander being the natural path of good influence...\" However, favourable and auspicious sites are not always readily available, and less desirable ones are remediable by means of tree planting, or building a fung-shui pagoda at proper places, or removing contours and watercourses according to geomantic principles. As fung-shui can bring good influences to people if dwellings are properly placed, so can it cause ill fate if they are placed otherwise. According to a geomantic professor I interviewed in Hong Kong, inauspicious fung-shui can induce illness or even death in the family if, for example, windows or doors or kitchen stoves are mislocated. The same fatality may occur if a beam of a house is erected directly over one's head in a sleeping area. Or a house is in a baleful location if it is situated at the crossroad of a Y-junction. My investigations concur with the Yang Dwelling Classics, which says in the opening paragraph: “All dwellings should not be at the mouth of a thoroughfare, or in a monastery (Buddhist temple grounds), nor come near to a shrine, nor be where plants and trees do not grow (to screen and protect), nor in an old battleground ... nor at the gate or opening of a large wall, nor opposite a prison gate.\"12 In Maurice Freedman's research\n\nyang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209027, "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-1980", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nANOTHER (MISSING?) LIBRARY\n\n157\n\nIn 1935, after two years' travel and study in China, Gerald Yorke's book China Changes was published by Jonathan Cape of London. In Chapter Eight, entitled \"In Search of a Hermitage\", the following extract (p. 159) refers to a library at, it would appear from the final paragraph, \"the temple of the Mountain Cave (Tung Yuan) above Lanchi.\" This is county in Chekiang Province.\n\n\"In the meantime Li [Li Yuen-tzu, his companion, interpreter and friend, to whom the book is dedicated] had heard of a temple in the hills behind the town. It was not easy to find, and at first sight proved disappointing; for a family of peasants were in charge. But a draper's assistant, whose master had failed, was staying there to study. I had stumbled on a library presented by a scholar (Chao Ke-lao) in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. A tablet in his handwriting still bears witness to the gift. The books are in their original bindings and as fresh as if printed yesterday. Several appear to be of great age. This is hardly surprising, as the Tripitaka, the Bible of Chinese Buddhism in over one thousand volumes (the San Ts'ang), was first struck off wood blocks in the nine hundred and seventy-second year of Our Lord.\n\nThe draper's assistant knew his way about and picked out for me volumes with exquisite woodcuts as frontispieces. Unfortunately, he never distinguished between the dynasty in which a book had been written or translated, and the century in which it had been printed. I longed for a bibliophile to enlighten me. Over two thousand books printed before the year 1500 survive in as clean a condition as anyone could wish. Before taking them from their cases, sticks of incense and candles are lit by the peasant in charge. It gave me a real thrill to find such a treasure so respected in the hills. The veneration in which learning is held in China has no counterpart in the West.\n\nThere were too many people living at the temple of the Mountain Cave (Tung Yuan) above Lanchi. I decided to return to the Ch'ientang gorges, where the temple of the Master of the Water Rushes (Lu Su Chen Kung) had attracted me with its name.\"\n\nDoes anyone know if this library still exists?\n\nHong Kong. January, 1981.\n\nJAMES HAYES", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209085, "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-1980", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "Plate 1.\n\nA small rural monastery above Tsuen Wan.\n\nf\n+\nTHE\n\nPlate 2. A modern Buddhist temple in Lo Wan (The Western Monastery),\nThe Buddha Hall is on the first floor.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209160, "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-1981", "page_number": 63, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO MODERNIZATION IN TAIWAN THE CASE OF I-KUAN TAO 49\n\nNot much is known about the history of popular religious lay-communities in the twentieth century11. While in comparison with the last century their popularity may have faded they are far from having perished. They still play a significant role in the religious life of present-day Taiwan.\n\nIt is convenient to distinguish analytically three types of popular religious community even if in practice it is often impossible to separate them clearly. First, there are groups of people which centre around the person of a specially-gifted woman or man, who may be a spirit healer able to cure sickness or a medium who can communicate with the spiritual world and reveal future, hidden or mysterious things. In most cases people who consult such persons form not a community but a clientele, i.e., they do not relate to one another but only to the healer or the medium, much like the clientele of a doctor. Sometimes, however, a healer or a medium is able to organize a cult in which his followers come together and jointly receive blessings or instructions or perform certain practices12. In such cases the clientele may turn into a community whose members share a common stock of beliefs and habits and develop a feeling of belonging together. Normally the person of the leader remains the centre of the cult and the community may retain the traits of a clientele for a long time.\n\nSecond, there are religious communities which are not primarily related to the person of a leader but are connected with a particular temple or - what normally amounts to the same thing - the worship of one or several particular gods. These temple-communities are probably the most common religious community in Taiwan. In most cases they consider themselves orthodox Buddhist or Taoist, while actually they are strongly syncretic in character. It might happen that in the religious life of the temple-communities spirit-mediums do play a part, but normally they do not hold the central position. Occasionally, however, a medium may be able to gain a leading role and to turn the community into a dynamic movement whose influence extends far beyond the local or regional level13.\n\nThe third type of popular religious community in Taiwan is the sect-like movement. In contrast to cults and temple-communities these movements have or at least try to develop a country-wide organization. Furthermore, they are often explicitly syncretic, combining elements of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and in this way consciously distinguish themselves from those religions. Since in traditional China such sects were in danger of being regarded as...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209179, "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-1981", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "68\n\n1968).\n\n \n\nHUBERT SEIWART\n\nCf. Holmes Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China. (Cambridge, Mass.\n\nCf. Y. Raguin, \"Buddhismus auf Taiwan\", in Buddhismus der Gegenwart, ed. by H. Dumoulin (Freiburg 1970) pp 113 – 116.\n\na \"Taoism' (by A. K. Seidel), in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, p 1042.\n\nFor example, the Taoist Association of the Republic of China is run mostly by laymen who try to get rid of many of the more \"vulgar\" practices of religious Taoism and to restore the intellectual tradition of former times. These efforts seem not to be supported by many of the Taoist priests, possibly since they make their living by performing these practices.\n\n10\n\n \n\nSee for example G. G. H. Dunstheimer, “Religion et magie dans le mouvement des Boxeurs”, in T’oung Pao, 47 (1959) pp 323 - 367; G. Miles, \"Vegetarian Sects\", in The Chinese Recorder, 33 (1902) pp 110; D. H. Porter, \"Secret Sects in Shantung\", in The Chinese Recorder, 17 (1886) pp 1 – 10, 64 – 73; M. Topley, \"Chinese Religion and Rural Cohesion in the Nineteenth Century\", in JHKBRAS 8 (1968), pp 9 - 43.\n\n11\n\nCf. Wing-tsit Chan, Religioses Leben im heutigen China, (München, 1955) pp 109-156.\n\nT'ai-pei-shih\n\n12 Such a healing-cult is treated by Wang Chih-ming Chi-lung-lu ti i-ko min-su i-sheng he t'a-ti hsin-t'u-men (unpublished B.A. thesis, National Taiwan University, Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1971)\n\n13 An example of this is the Sheng-hsien-t’ang community in Taichung. The publications of the revelations of the mediums of this temple are distributed and read everywhere in Taiwan.\n\n14\n\nSome sects (e.g. Li-chiao), however, are copying Buddhist or Taoist ceremonies and dress so that it is difficult to decide whether the performers are priests or laymen.\n\n16 Some of the \"new religions” are treated in Hsiao Ching-fen, “The current situation of new religions in Taiwan\", Theology and the Church, 10:2 – 3 (Tainan, 1971) pp 1 -- 28;\n\n10 I-kuan is actually derived from a passage in the Confucian Analects (IV, 15).\n\n17\n\nThe popular name is Ya-tan chiao. Other names are Tien Tao chiao, K'ung-tzu chiao, Ta Tao chiao, Lao-mu chiao\n\n4. Cf. Tung Fang-yüan, Tai-wan min-chien tsung-chiao hsin-yang (Taipei 1976) p 123.\n\n18 Tung, op. cit., p 123f. According to Su Ming-tung, T'ien-tao kai-lun (Kaohsiung, 1979) p 197, there are more than 300,000 followers of I-kuan Tao in Taiwan today.\n\nLi Shih-yü, Hsien-tsai Hua-pei mi-mi-tsung-chiao (Chengtu, 1948, repr. Taipei, 1975) p 32.\n\n20 It seems certain, however, that the I-kuan Tao has followers outside Taiwan, esp. in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. In contrast to Taiwan, in these places the sect is not forbidden by the government and can operate openly (cf. Su Ming-tung, op. cit., p 198f). For the propaganda of the Communist government", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209180, "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-1981", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO MODERNIZATION IN TAIWAN THE CASE OF 1-KUAN TAO 69\n\nagainst I-kuan Tao see L. Deliusin, “The I-kuan Tao Society\", in Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840 – 1950, ed. by J. Chesneaux, (Stanford, 1971) pp 225-233.\n\n21 In orthodox Buddhism San Pao stands for Triratna, i.e. Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (W. E. Soothill and L. Hodous: A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, Reprint Taipei 1970, p 63)\n\n22 Cf. for example Ching-fen Hsiao, loc.cit., p 17.\n\n23 Cf. Shih Wen-tu *, \"Wo tsen-yang t'uo-li I-kuan Tao” #, in Chuch Shih #(Kao-hsiung, Sept. 1977) pp 20 -- 32.\n\n24 Since these accusations can neither be proved nor refuted by the observer it is very difficult to give a fair description of the sect.\n\n25 Cf. Chao Wei-pang, \"The Origin and Growth of the Fu-chi\", in Folklore Studies, 1 (1942) pp 9 — 27; Hai Ti-shan #, Fu-chi mi-hsin ti yen-chiu *****(Taipei 1966).\n\n26 Cf. G. Seaman, Temple Organization in a Chinese Village, (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, No. 101 Taipei 1978) pp 20 – 35.\n\n27 Cf. Halao, loc. cit., pp 12 – 16. For a case-study ref. Seaman, op. cit.\n\nThe members trace the origin of the sect back to Fu Hsi and have an elaborated list of the transmission of the Tao through the centuries. The historical evidence for the existence of I-kuan Tao as a separate tradition does not reach beyond the last century, however.\n\n29 The ordinary fu-luan cults have sessions much more often, in general eight or twelve times every lunar month.\n\n30\n\nObviously many teachings of the fu-luan cults have their origin in the popular \"Buddhist” tradition which is also a main source of the I-kuan Tao teachings. It is difficult, however, to assess to which degree there is a direct influence of I-kuan Tao on these cults in Taiwan today. Probably there is a mutual influence since many followers of I-kuan Tao participate also in ordinary fu-luan cults. Actually, some fu-luan cults seem to be reservoirs of potential I-kuan Tao proselytes.\n\n31 Tian-jan *, 2 (Hsinchu Febr. 1980) pp 2 - 3.\n\n32 Cf. K. Ch'en: \"Anti-Buddhist Propaganda During the Nan-Ch'ao\", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 15 (1952) pp 166 - 192.\n\n33\n\nFor examples see J. Chesneaux ed. Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840-1950, (Stanford 1972).\n\n34 Of course, Mohammed is not regarded as a god in Islam. The knowledge of Islam in China, however, is rather poor and Mohammed is thought to be a divine person much like the Chinese \"historical\" gods or for that matter – Jesus.\n\n36\n\nThe medium belonged to the Sheng-hsien t'ang in Taichung.\n\n36 W. Grootaers, \"Une société secrète moderne, I Kuan Tao: Bibliographie annotée\", in Folklore Studies 5 (1946) p 332f.\n\n37 Tian Tao Kai Lun (1979 2nd printing), p 61.\n\n38 ibid., pp 61 – 62.\n\nby Su Ming-tung (Kaohsiung, 1978)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209747, "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-1983", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPage\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT viii\n\nTREASURER'S REPORT xv\n\nLIBRARIAN'S REPORT xvii\n\nOBITUARY xviii\n\nARTICLES:\n\nField Trip to Maryknoll House, Stanley by the Hong Kong Royal Asiatic Society Dec. 8, 1984 - M. MCKIERNAN 1\n\nSo Kon Po: Notes for the Visit Made by Member of the Society, 26th November 1983 — J. W. HAYES 7\n\nNotes on the So Kon Po Valley and Village - REVD. CARL T. SMITH 12\n\nDisfunction of Chinese Rural Society - RAMON H. MYERS 18\n\nThe Self-Perception of Buddhist Monks in Hong Kong Today - BARTHOLOMEW P. M. TSUI 23\n\nNotes on Some Chinese Customs in the New Territories - B. D. WILSON 41\n\nOf Hongs and Tongs and All That Jazz: A Note on Lexical Borrowing from Chinese in English with Special Reference to H.K. - MIMI CHAN 62\n\nThe Islands Around Hong Kong — W. SCHOFIELD 91\n\nSecular Non-Gentry Leadership of Temple and Shrine Organisations in Urban British H. K. - J. W. HAYES 113\n\nBusiness Ideology of Chinese Industrialists in Hong Kong - WONG SIU-LUN 137\n\nVariation Technique in the Formal Structure of the Music of Taoist Jiao-Shi in Hong Kong - PEN-YEH TSAO 172\n\nV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209751, "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-1983", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "of the charitable work done by the Kadoorie family in this field. A cheque for $500 was sent in appreciation to Mr. Horace Kadoorie on behalf of the Society.\n\nK\n\n26th November 1983 about 35 members took part in a visit to the Soo Kon Poo district of Hong Kong Island where we visited the Buddhist Memorial to victims of the Race Course fire in 1918, the Tung Wah Eastern Hospital and the Confucian Middle School.\n\nDecember 1983 and March 1984 - two separate groups of members visited the Narcotics Museum of the Narcotics Bureau, RHKP, in Police Headquarters, Arsenal Street, under the kind arrangements of Mr. K. W. J. Lloyd, Chief Inspector of Police.\n\n28th January 1984 about 70 members went by boat to the Ch'ing Dynasty fort on Tung Lung Island, and passed by the Tin Hau Temple at Fat Tong Mun and the former Chinese customs station at Junk Island on the return journey.\n\nLectures\n\n29th March 1983 Mr. Nigel Cameron, the author and art critic, gave an interesting illustrated talk on \"Hong Kong Art: the Quiet Revolution\".\n\n14th April 1983 — Ms Elizabeth Sinn of the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong spoke about \"The Strike and Riot, Hong Kong 1884\", an interesting local side effect of the Sino-French war over Vietnam.\n\n25th April 1983 Professor Daffyd Evans, Head of the Department of Law, University of Hong Kong, spoke about the wills made by some Chinese in early British Hong Kong in an interesting talk entitled \"Fearing Verbal Words, or Chinese Testaments in British Hong Kong\".\n\n25th May 1983 Professor Daniel Kwok, professor of History at the University of Hawaii and visiting professor, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, gave a stimulating talk entitled \"Confucianism and Modernization: Reflections of Antipathies and Sympathies\". This dealt with\n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209779, "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-1983", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "The area is bounded to the east by King's Road, to the west by Leighton Road, to the north by Tung Lo Wan Road, and to the south by Caroline Hill Road and Cotton Path.\n\nA prospectus for the new company was issued in August 1897, with J. J. Bell-Irving of Jardines as Chairman of the Board and a capital of $1,200,000. The mill began operation on 1 June 1899 with 12,000 spindles, with an anticipated full capacity of about 50,000 spindles. The company, however, was plagued by set-backs. It closed at the end of 1910. After a time, it was revived only to be forced to close again permanently in 1914, when its machinery was removed to Shanghai and the land and buildings sold for $400,000. The purchasers were the French Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.\n\nThe Order had come to Hong Kong in 1848 and located in Wanchai, where they opened the \"Asile de Sainte Enfance\" to receive abandoned children. As the years passed, the Wanchai location became increasingly undesirable. In 1908 the Sisters opened a Hospital in Wong Nei Chung valley. In 1914, when they bought the cotton mill premises, they converted some of the mill buildings for their own purposes and later built new and more adequate accommodation for a convent, St. Paul's Convent School, an orphanage, a hospital, and a church.\n\nThe same year that Keswick transferred IL 1018 to the cotton mill, he conveyed the remaining part of the valley to Sir Robert Jardine. In time, the land came into the possession of the Government, which used it as sites for the Hong Kong Stadium, the South China Stadium, and a recreation ground.\n\nOn the Caroline Hill side of the valley was a large Chinese cemetery. Gravestones and other reminders of the cemetery can still be found among the trees and underbrush.\n\nFive trustees for the Japanese Community acquired a site in So Kon Po Valley in 1911 (Inland Lot 1879). The trustees transferred the site to the Japanese Benevolent Society in 1918. In 1920, the Benevolent Society was merged with the Japanese Education Society to form the Japanese Residents Association. A plot plan of the lot shows buildings that appear to be a temple. The lot is probably the same as that now occupied by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association School.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209789, "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-1983", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "26\n\nthe problem of space was solved and the ancestors acquired additional merit by sharing that gained by the monks' prayers. Thus, the ancestors' hall (1) has become a rich source of revenue in many Hong Kong monasteries. The affluence of the sangha is most easily seen in the many very spacious and ornate temples built or rebuilt in recent years. These magnificent buildings in turn become centres of attraction for devotees and tourists. As we shall see below, these temples do not really serve the direct needs of the sangha, which has diminished in number. (Very often, only a handful of monks live in a monastery which could accommodate hundreds.)\n\nThe affluence of the monks is again seen in the proliferation of small temples and houses of cultivation (#4). There are altogether about 400 big and small temples and the significance of this large number is self-evident if we bear in mind that there are altogether only about 200 to 250 monks and about 1,000 nuns in Hong Kong. It is estimated that there are about a dozen big monasteries each of which holds in excess of ten monks, and a significantly larger number of nunneries containing about that number of nuns. It appears then that a small temple has on the average only one monk or two or three nuns. If a monk is wealthy enough, there is a great attraction for him to own a temple himself, for then he can avoid the difficulties of living in common with other monks or of subjecting himself to an abbot. The impact of this development on the monk's religious cultivation is yet to be investigated.\n\n4.\n\nAnother development during this period was the establishment of Buddhist centres within the urban areas. Many of the small temples mentioned above are situated within high-rise blocks of flats in the crowded areas of the city. Thus, the monks make themselves readily accessible to the populace whether for the purpose of spreading the Buddha's teaching, doing social work, administering to the schools or performing Buddhist ceremonies. The old centres in the New Territories were not given up. With the expansion of the population and the development of new towns, these old centres have in turn become readily accessible. Constant streams of devotees and tourists are a normal happening nowadays. The net effect has been that contact between monks and ordinary people has become very considerably increased.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209795, "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-1983", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "32\n\nWith regard to temple property, Pai Shen proposed the abolition of existing systems of inheritance, most of which lead to nepotism and abuse. He favoured the turning over of all Buddhist property within a political boundary to a single common property holding authority under a centralized authority. The latter would determine which temples to keep, which to abolish. The properties which were not attached to temples would be used for Buddhist social enterprises such as education, cultural research, welfare activities and industry and agriculture.\n\nOther proposals were concerned with the education of monks, the abolition of the traditional system of transmission, and changes in the manner of living such as details of clothing, time of eating and rules for living in temples. Since these have little bearing on the present article, they will not be reported.\n\nAnother monk who was convinced that the old system had gone forever proposed that the entire Buddhist organization be turned into a business enterprise.12 This enterprise would have responsibility for the training, counselling, providing welfare and medical care for and employment of the monks. Meanwhile, these would be trained to take up employment in Buddhist institutions like schools, welfare agencies, cultural studies. The employment would become the source of support for the monks.\n\nThe necessity of active involvement with society at large seen from the above two proposals was also felt by a third account. This monk contrasts prayers with active service to the community,\n\nThe Buddhist empty form of prayer has long been incompatible with the practical needs of society. The survival of the fittest has the strength of iron logic. What the practical demands of society want from Buddhist monks is no longer the archaic shells of prayer, but the descent from the monastic door into human society and direct dedication to the service of mankind.13\n\nNot all monks felt that changes as drastic as this were necessary. While all agreed that a complete return to the old ways was impossible to implement and not altogether desirable, some monks thought that the basic celibate monk-hood should not be changed. The current malaise and low reputation of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209796, "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-1983", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "33\n\nsangha could be healed and raised by strict adherence to the old rules. 14\n\nBut how can adherence to old rules be encouraged when monks are living in vastly changed conditions, and when nearly every monk has his own temple? It seems that supporters of the old system had not faced the challenge of the changed condition of the time. Some realized that verbal exhortation alone would have little effect in bringing back a better observance of the old rules, and so proposed a centralization of authority into a hierarchical structure. How to reconcile this with the traditional egalitarian ideal was not discussed. Despite this talk of retaining the old system, all the discussions also encouraged active participation in social life, especially in the form of rendering social service to the community.\n\nThe full implication of these discussions of the reorganization of the sangha for the understanding of the monks' changing self-perception is very great and will be discussed later. Here, one may note that one common agreement of these discussions is that monks should be more than just monks. They should acquire skills which will equip them to render social service to the community.\n\nC. Education of the Monks\n\nThe agenda planned for the Conference of Chinese Monks also contained an item on the education of monks. The responses to this item were numerous and quite unanimous. Basically, it was felt that all monks should receive a secular education in addition to the traditional Buddhist schooling in doctrine, rituals, precepts, and cultivation. In the words of one monk who responded, the monk's education should consist of two parts: internal education, comprising the traditional education of the monk with the exception of outmoded matters, and an external education, which was the same as a secular education. The latter was judged necessary for the propagation of the faith and for active service to the community.1 Another proposal divided education into four categories: 1. Fundamental education; 2. professional education, i.e., a secular training preparing the monks to take up jobs which render service to the community; 3. education for the propagation of the faith, which trains eligible monks for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209863, "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-1983", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "100\n\nFurther to the west is Shalowan (\"Sand Snail Bay\") a big village with a fine beach and a fine wood behind it for “fungshui”. The villagers defend their beach against sand diggers with firearms; it guards their paddy fields behind. There is a settlement of early man on the headland near the village; old fields just behind the site are, apparently, for dry crops.\n\nIn a suitable light ancient log slides can be seen, running straight down the steepest hills, on this stretch of coast.\n\nBetween Shalowan and Tai O the only place of note is Sham Wat (\"Deep Dene\"), a narrow valley with two or three tiny hamlets.\n\nJust to the east of Tai O is Po Chu Tam (“Precious Pearl Pool\"). The name may either preserve the memory of a pearl fishery or enshrine a local legend: pearl oysters were once to be found in Hainan only 200 miles away. Po Chu Tam is the back door to Tai O, from it a navigable creek runs down to Tai O town. Po Chu Tam has a big temple with a shed for dragon boats; the head and tail are kept in the temple. On a low headland nearby is a ruined Chinese fort: its work is now done by an Indian guard, put there after a piracy in 1926. Another protection is an old wall with a gate, which stands across the path from Po Chu Tam just outside Tai O. Any active man could out-flank it by going up the hill.\n\nTai O (\"Big Haven\") is the biggest town in Lantau, with over 2,000 people. It was recently building an electric light and power station, run on oil. The town straggles along the shores of its creek, and has a small agricultural plain behind it. About 3 miles up into the hills is a big Buddhist temple, with a number of \"fasting halls\"; these have lately built a bridge and widened the path going up hill. Tai O salt is made in big salt pans, but is of poor quality, and only fit for salting fish. The creek cuts off the hills on which the Police Station stands from the town: it is crossed by a sampan ferry which is leased by auctions held by the elders of the place. In the wider part of the creek is a substantial settlement of boatpeople. They live in huts built on piles driven into the creek bed. These piles are often of stone, but often also of wood or bamboo. The huts are lashed to the piles with wire.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209889, "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-1983", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "126\n\nmatters only. It was not a kaifong that looked after the general affairs of the area. This duty seems to have been performed in the early period by a committee of merchant and trade guild elite figures drawn from a wider area. This body sat in the Man Mo Temple in nearby Hollywood Road, and a special kung sor (kung so) or 'public affairs office' was built for its meetings in the first year of the T'ung Chih reign (1862-1863). This is the date of the inscription above the door of the building, which is still in existence. This Kaifong was later (from 1871) effectively subsumed in the Tung Wah Hospital Committee.”1\n\nThe Earth God Shrine at Li Po Lung Path, Kennedy Town\n\nThere was another, lesser Fuk Tak Kung shrine in an adjoining, equally old urban area at Li Po Lung Path, Kennedy Town. When I made enquiries in 1974, no one could tell the whole history of the shrine or in which year it was established.\n\nAccording to an old kaifong Mr. Chow Kwok-kwan, one of the former managers of the shrine, who was 90 years old in 1974, the shrine was already located on the slope behind 14 Li Po Lung Path when he first came to live in the district in 1914. At that time the shrine was only a wooden hut measuring about 12' x 5' with a height of about 8'. He was told by some elderly kaifongs that the shrine had been there for more than twenty years, which may link its origins to the great plague of 1894, as with the altar at Sheung Fung Lane. At first the shrine only housed the Sam Shing Kung, the deities representing Heaven, Earth and Man, the three Powers of Nature; another deity was added to the shrine: the Fuk Tak Kung or earth god (To Tei) who is responsible for the peace and prosperity of the district. Finally, an image of Kwun Yam, Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, was also placed there. In view of its shabby state, Mr. Chow himself reconstructed the temple as a brick structure of more or less the same size about the year 1940.\n\nLater\n\nIn June 1966 it was destroyed by torrential rain, but up to 1974, when I made my enquiries, none of the interested parties had come forward with a reconstruction or resiting project.\n\nSince 1940, it had been the regular practice for the residents of Kennedy Town to celebrate at the shrine annually, usually on...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209946, "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-1983", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "References Cited\n\n183\n\nCh'en Kuo-fu\n\n1963 Tao-tsang yüan-lin k'ao. Peking: Chung hua Press.\n\nKeupers, John\n\n1977 \"A Description of the Fa-ch'ang Ritual as Practiced by the Lü Shan Taoists of Northern Taiwan,\" in Michael Saso and David W. Chappel, eds., Buddhist and Taoist Studies (Hawaii: The University Press of Hawaii).\n\nLiu Chih-wan\n\n1974 Chung-kuo min-chien hsin-yang lun-chi. Academia Sinica Special Monograph no. 22. Taipei: Academia Sinica.\n\nSaso, R. Michael\n\n1972 Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal. Pullman: Washington State University Press.\n\nStein, Rolf A.\n\n1979 “Religious Taoism and Popular Religion from the Second to Seventh Centuries\", in Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press).\n\nAPPENDIX\n\n1983 Cheung Chan Bun Festival\n\n長洲一九八三年(癸亥年)建太平清醮\n\nDate: May 16-20, 1983.\n\nPlace: Playground in front of the Bai-di temple\n\nA.\n\nTaoist Team: five Fukienese-speaking dao-shi, with Wei Guo-xin as the head dao-shi; five musicians, also Fukienese-speaking.\n\nMay 16\n\n13:00 Greeting the Gods\n\n20:00 First operatic performance begins on temporary stage adjacent to the Taoist altar.\n\nMay 17\n\n1:00 Beginning of Jiao-shi\n\nResidents of Cheung-chau begin the three-day fast\n\nOperatic performances continue, afternoon and evening shows.\n\nMay 18\n\nOperatic performance continues, two shows per day.\n\n12:00 Offering to the Gods\n\n15:00 Dotting of eye\n\nMay 19\n\n12:00 Vegetarian diet ends.\n\nMay 20\n\n10:00 Divide the Buns\n\n14:00 First day of Procession 第一天會景巡遊\n\nOperatic performance continues, two shows per day.\n\n14:00 Second day of Procession\n\nOperatic performance continues, two shows per day.\n\nFast ends.\n\nMay 21-22 Operatic performance.\n\nBeginning on May 17 and ending on May 22, Jiao-shi were conducted in three sessions each day, generally in the morning, afternoon, and evening.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209995, "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-1983", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "232\n\np. 109. Yang, C. K., Religion, pp. 16-17.\n\np. 110. Tawney, R. H., Land and Labour in China, London, 1932, p. 77.\n\np. 114. Levy, Howard, S., Chinese Footbinding: the History of a Curious Erotic Custom, Tokyo, 1966, p. 56.\n\np. 116. Doolittle, Social Life, Vol II, p. 198.\n\np. 116. Little, Mrs. Archibald, In the Land of the Blue Gown, London, 1912, p. 209.\n\np. 121. Yang, Martin C., A Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province, London, 1948, pp. 239-240.\n\np. 130. Smith, Arthur H., Characteristics, p. 254.\n\np. 130. Huc, M., The Chinese Empire, London, 1859, pp. 298-299.\n\np. 136. De Groot, Religious System, Vol II, p. 793.\n\np. 137. Arlington, Dragon's Eyes, p. 158.\n\np. 140. Smith, Arthur H., Characteristics, p. 275.\n\np. 141. Graham, David Crockett, Folk Religion in Southwest China, Washington, 1961, p. 123.\n\np. 146. Forster, L., Echoes of Hong Kong and Beyond, Hong Kong, 1933, p. 52.\n\np. 147. Peplow and Barker, Around and About, pp. 176-177.\n\np. 150. Smith, D. Howard, Religions, p. 102.\n\np. 152. De Groot, Religious System, Vol I, p. 271.\n\np. 152. Welch, Holmes, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950, Harvard, 1967, p. 343.\n\np. 152. Ng Shing Kup, The Great Events of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, Hong Kong, 1973, pp. 40-41.\n\np. 156. Cormack, Birthday etc. Customs, p. 26.\n\np. 158. Bredon and Mitrophanow, Moon Year, pp. 427-428.\n\np. 158. Doolittle, Social Life, Vol II, p. 70.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210066, "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-1984", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "16\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\nFrom Sung times on, the blockprint method made the spread of temple oracles much easier. I also believe that once one temple started using the oracles, the practice must have spread as quickly as fire to other temples to attract worshippers and increase temple revenue. Nowadays the great majority of temples in Taiwan have sets of bamboo lots for the use of visitors. Few temples, mostly those of Buddhist affiliation, can afford not to include them in their paraphernalia, and even then many Buddhist temples do make use of them. Taking over a successful practice, however, does not necessarily mean downright imitation. Personal inspiration and possibly competition amongst the temples resulted in an incredible variety of oracle texts. These texts, written by diviners, priests and even poets share the same basic orientation or purpose: to give answers to people in distress or uncertainty. It is believed that when the worshipper shakes the container, the divine influence will make the right answer appear. Besides this one universal characteristic, each set of oracles has its own individual traits, as will be shown below.\n\nThe oldest set of oracles discovered so far probably dates from the Sung dynasty (ca. 1250) and was reprinted in 1958.1 In W. Banck's text edition, oracle no. 78 of that blockprint series has been reproduced; it is interesting to notice that in the interpretation given, the character kua | is used: this immediately links this oracle to the diagrams of the I Ching which are always called kua.\n\nLocal influences, individual tastes and the talents of their creators must have given each series its own particularities. Obviously competition among various shrines must have also influenced the authors. In modern times the rich variety of oracle sets is amazing: in W. Banck's collection 55 different sets are photographically reproduced: 46 sets were collected in Taiwan temples, the remaining ones are from Hong Kong (3), Macao (1), Malaysia (3), Bangkok (1) and even California (1). Besides these, I collected in Taiwan some other sets not included in Banck's collection. One wonders how many more sets were once in use in mainland temples, since the varieties found in Taiwan mostly reflect the situation in Fukien and in a more limited way in Kuangtung.\n\nThe Taotsang, the collection of sacred writings of the Taoists17 has preserved 7 or 8 oracle series, probably derived from other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210070, "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-1984", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "20\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\n1980, I received photocopies of the new additions to the register. The 1976 register lists 107 temples: they are numbered according to their location within the city. By the end of 1980, the number had gone up to 154. The main reason for such a drastic increase was the inclusion of churches. As a matter of fact, the new list with handwritten additions so far contains 21 Christian churches (2 Roman Catholic, 19 Protestant), 1 mosque, one Ta-t'ung and one Tenrikyo shrine (two new religions).\n\nThe Taichung city hall list provides for each temple the following details: district, name of the temple, the main deity worshipped, the religious affiliation, the correct postal address, the person in charge (Kuan-li jen) and the number given by the city. I presume that much more data is contained in the city's files, for I looked at the local file in Kaohsiung and found that many more details regarding temple properties, income, and regular activities are contained in the full register. But the Taichung city hall list is a useful, practical document, making it possible to go and visit the temples for interviews. I visited roughly half of the listed temples myself, while the other half were taken care of by assistants and college students as a field work project. One of the purposes of the visit was to collect samples of their oracles. Each different type of oracle has been given a number, preceded by B: this is the numbering found in W. Banck's text edition, which I adopt here (see Footnote 15). He allotted numbers according to the frequency of the oracles he found: in most cases this frequency coincides with my field work experience, but there are occasional discrepancies.\n\nThe categorization of temples as \"Taoist\" or \"Buddhist” is found in the listings of Taichung City Hall. I have reservations about the category of “Taoist” temples, as the official lists simplify the affiliation of temples: whatever is not a Confucian or Buddhist temple, is said to be a Taoist temple. That is stretching the concept too far; most of these temples are community temples and belong more properly to the folk religion.\n\nThe table shows that at least 85 out of 115 temples make use of temple oracles, which is almost 74%. There are certainly more temples using them, for the group \"not available\" contains a number of temples where we could not obtain samples, because", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210071, "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-1984", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "21\n\nTable 1: Registered Temples in Taichung City\n\n(112 temples with 115 oracles)\n\n \n \n B-1\n B-2\n B-6\n B-9\n Not Avail.\n Other\n Total\n \n \n (Confucian)\n \n \n \n \n 1\n \n 1\n \n \n Taoist\n 43\n 15\n \n 11\n \n \n 69\n \n \n Buddhist\n 14\n 6\n 6\n \n 18\n \n 44\n \n \n \n 57\n 21\n 6\n 11\n 19\n 1\n 115\n \n\noccasionally the temple management was unwilling to oblige. The other \"not available\" temples are the ones where no oracles are being used: six are of Buddhist affiliation; two are folk religion temples, but closely related to the state cult, and therefore, as in the case of the Confucius temple, no oracles are used; one is an earth-spirit shrine, (T’u-ti-kung miao) not using any oracles; in ten Buddhist temples no oracle samples could be obtained, because the personnel were unwilling to give them out; two other temples were not visited: one was a Buddhist monastery; the other, an earth-spirit shrine which do not always carry oracles.\n\nFinally two temples presumably have B-2 oracles, but are not included in the results. Five temples, one Buddhist and four Taoist, had been moved to other locations, mostly because of urbanization but sometimes because a larger building was needed and the original site was not spacious enough.\n\nThe above Table 1 clearly indicates that the temples in Taichung show very little diversity: among the 85 temples where oracles were found, 67% use the B-1 type (“Matsu\" oracle); 24.7% use the B-2 type (\"Kuan Ti\" oracle), while only 7%, all of Buddhist affiliation, use the B-6 type (\"Kuan Yin\" oracle). The only other type is unique in the city: the B-9 type. It is a variety of oracles found in temples dedicated to the legendary deified doctor, Pao-sheng Ta-ti; other varieties of this god's oracles were spotted out-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210072, "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-1984", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "22\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\nside Taichung, especially in Tainan City.\n\nThe majority of temples using the B-1 oracle (Matsu) are not dedicated to the goddess Matsu, but to a variety of gods and goddesses of the popular cult. In most cases Matsu has her image in these temples as well, but many deities do not have a particular set of their own and borrow the most commonly used one. Most of these oracle slips are printed in Taichung by a local printing shop, which also publishes the Matsu, Kuan Ti and Kuan Yin oracles in booklet form. (See Appendix I and bibliography).\n\nBesides the above listed temples, duly registered in the city hall of Taichung, I discovered during my marathon walks crisscross through the city, a considerable number of smaller temples, often essentially private family shrines to which the public are allowed access, which also contain temple oracles for the use of worshippers. These temples are not found in the City Hall list since the owners do not wish government interference in their operations. Moreover, there is no strict rule that these semi-private shrines have to be registered. It is also possible that these smaller shrines do not fully satisfy some of the conditions outlined by the government.\n\nTable 2: Non-registered temples or shrines in Taichung City (36 temples: 37 oracles)\n\n \n \n B-1\n B-2\n B-6\n B-43\n Not Avail.\n Total\n \n \n Taoist\n 26\n 6\n 1\n \n 1\n 28\n \n \n Buddhist\n 7\n \n \n 1\n \n 7\n \n \n \n 1\n \n \n \n 1\n \n \n \n Total\n 34\n 3\n \n \n 37\n \n \n\nThe grand total of Tables 1 and 2 combined are as follows:\n\nTable 3: Registered and Non-registered Temples in Taichung City\n\n \n \n B-1\n B-2\n B-6\n B-9\n B-43\n Other\n Not Avail.\n Total\n \n \n Confucian\n \n \n \n \n \n 1\n \n 1\n \n \n Taoist\n 69\n 21\n 1\n \n 1\n 11\n 1\n 104\n \n \n Buddhist\n 16\n 7\n \n 6\n \n 18\n \n 47\n \n \n \n 85\n 28\n 7\n 1\n 1\n 0\n 30\n 152", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210073, "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-1984", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "23\n\nIn this 2nd table all temples have oracles since I left out the very few cases of a non-registered temple where no oracles are being used. Moreover, it appears that almost no Buddhist shrines omit official registration: therefore I found only three shrines of Buddhist affiliation in this category.\n\nThe relative frequency of the oracles in Taichung City is that the 60-slip Matsu oracle (B-1) is used three times as much as the runner up: B-2: 85 vs 28; on the other hand, B-2 is used three times as often as all the remaining ones combined: 28 vs 9. There is, of course, no guarantee that the city of Taichung is representative of Taiwan as a whole. To determine the relative spread of the temple oracles in the whole of Taiwan would be an enormous task, even if only representative samples were taken in each area. My own field work was not done systematically enough in this regard but I shall indicate the results for what they are worth: I collected 207 oracle samples from 195 temples around the island. The selection was rather casual, only on five occasions did I visit a temple mainly to collect their oracle set, (after I had found the information in Banck's publication); this was the case for B-6, -17, -24, -32, and -40; all the other ones I discovered myself.\n\nTable 4: Temples in Taiwan, not including Taichung City (195 temples with 207 oracle sets)\n\n \n \n B-1\n B-2\n B-3\n B-4\n B-6\n B-7\n B-8\n B-9\n Other-B\n Not in B\n Total\n \n \n Confucian\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Taoist\n 89\n 50\n 8\n \n 12\n \n 3\n \n 2\n \n 101\n \n \n Buddhist\n 53\n 8\n \n 3\n 1\n \n \n \n 1\n \n 53\n \n \n \n 3\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 3\n \n \n \n 6\n 6\n 3\n \n 1\n \n 1\n \n \n \n 21\n \n \n \n 5\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 5\n \n \n \n 187\n I\n 2\n 19\n 3\n 23\n 6\n \n 207\n \n \n \n\nThe overall picture of Taiwan oracles shows that B-1 and B-2 still carry the great majority: B-1 reaches almost 50%, B-2 ca. 25% with no other serious contenders competing. However, a great diversity can be noticed; many more different sets are to be found than in Taichung City, even if many sets are only found in one temple (B-5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 24, 27, 31, 32, 34, 40, 43, 44,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210074, "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-1984", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "24\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\n46, and 54) or in two temples (B-12, 38 and 55). In a few older cities or towns one finds the richest variety:\n\nTainan: Taipei: Lukang:\n\n5 different sets (cp. Banck, who has 9) 8 different sets (cp. Banck: 12)\n\n3 different sets (cp. Banck 6)\n\nIn Banck's collection are also included the Pescadores (P'eng-hu) islands: he has 6 sets from there, whereas I did not collect there at all. The great variety in older centres of immigrant settlements indicates that those sets were very likely brought to Taiwan from different \"mother-temples” (tsung-miao) in the mainland; whereas in later times newly constructed temples took over the more popular sets available in Taiwan itself. In Taiwan, the more popular a cult, the larger the number of “daughter-temples” (fen-miao) it produced: that would explain the popularity of B-1 and B-2.\n\nTo summarize my findings, I'd like to combine the data shown in tables 3 and 4 and then conclude with some final considerations:\n\nTable 5: Joint Survey of Temple Oracles in Taiwan\n\n \n B-I\n 2\n 3\n 4\n 6\n 7\n 8\n 9\n Other B\n Not in B\n Not Avail.\n Total\n \n \n Confucian\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 1\n \n \n Taoist\n 1\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 1\n \n \n Buddhist\n \n 2\n \n 6\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 2\n \n \n \n 158\n 71\n 8\n 2\n 1\n 3\n 6\n 4\n 22\n \n 28.10\n \n \n \n 5\n 11\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 291\n \n \n \n 1\n 2\n \n 18\n \n 18\n \n \n \n \n \n 18\n \n \n \n 186\n 81\n 8\n 2\n 7\n 3\n 6\n 4\n 24\n \n \n \n \n \n 6\n 30\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 357\n \n\nOne important remark concerns the representative value of this survey: in my view, the sample taken cannot be considered to have general validity, except with regard to table 1 (and perhaps tables 2 and 3). A more detailed and carefully prepared research would produce a more accurate knowledge of the spread of the oracles. Taiwan nowadays counts between 4,000 to 5,000 registered temples, and a large number of non-registered shrines. Among the latter group are literally thousands of T’u-ti-kung shrines, sometimes small roadside chapels or altar-like structures, which have no oracle sets available.\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210091, "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-1984", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "41\n\netym, (variant); } = cracks; 1= || scapula !) (K. 1192) enquire by divination; auspicious, good, virtuous; firm, solid; and !! diviner's fee?) { Kui (K. 462) tortoise, divination by aid of the cracks in heated tortoise shell to draw lots; a lot [this character is a strange mixture; enclosure or “border prairie” with possibly 2 sets of stalks on top of a tortoise: 2 types of divination mixed together] * (K. 894; M. 5763) to divine by stalks of milfoil; (from K magic and \" bamboo-stalks) * shih (M. 5801) milfoil (“achillée”) [the character suggests a plant, and elder person, and a mouth: oracle of old sage?]\n\nCharacters derived from 4: A hands manipulating divining sticks on a table to perceive name of king, Kao, a diviner to learn to teach (to learn + whipping)\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The Chinese text of this oracle is found in Sheng-ch'ien chu-chieh (see bibliography)\n\n2 While this article was already in press, I obtained new information stating that there is a still older example of Chinese oracles, dating from the 5th century A.D: “The earliest example of a Buddhist oracle-sequence can be dated to the middle of the fifth century, and is found in the printed Buddhist Canon. It forms the tenth book in a work entitled The Book of Consecration (Kuan-ting ching, T. 1331).” Although this text is not necessarily a temple oracle, yet it is so far the earliest book containing 100 oracle stanzas in a style similar to the later temple oracles. (Michel Strickmann, “Chinese Oracles in Buddhist Vestments”, p. 27 of an unpublished paper delivered at the Berkeley Conference on Chinese Divination and Portent-lore, June 20-July 2, 1983).\n\n3 See for example L. Vandermeersch, \"De la Tortue à l'Achillée\", p. 46. Fung Yu-lan, in his History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 1 (1952), pp. 27-28: quotes the Ch'ien Han Shu, which in its turn refers to the Shuching. “The divina-tion plant (shih ) and the tortoise shell (kuei #k) are used by the Sages. The Shu says: \"when you have doubts about any great matter, consult the tortoise shell and divination stalks'. . . .\n\n** See also J. Needham, Science & Civilization in China, vol. 2 (1956), pp. 347-349. On page 348 there is a reproduction of a drawing dating from the late Ch'ing dynasty, which shows the legendary emperor Shun and his ministers consulting the oracles of the tortoise-shell and the milfoil.\n\n7 & Miyazaki Ichisada (1966), p. 161.\n\n8 Miyazaki (1966), p. 162.\n\n9 Webster's New 20th century Dictionary of the English Language (1979), p. 765.\n\n10 Andree Richard (1906).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210285, "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-1984", "page_number": 256, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "20\n\n235\n\nhand-gestures implying that he was going to replace the ghosts who were suffering in Hell.\" After that, he threw six Man Taus as if he was offering millions of bread to the hungry ghosts who had been released from Hell. All three representative worshippers of the committee, each holding a small incense stick, attended each night offering ritual. During the last ‘Offering', the Tao Ch'ang area was crowded with worshippers who were mainly family members and relatives of the 'Newly Dead'. Everyone attending the last ‘Offering' held a small incense stick. According to the informants, the ‘Last Offering', different from the other offerings, was especially for the ancestors of the worshippers.\" After the ritual, all the paper-made figures, Chos, and Ming-ches were burnt with paper-made gold and silver hills, bundles of paper money, and fire crackers. As each Ming-che was burning, the family members and the relatives of the 'Newly Dead' bowed down to send it off. For most of the worshippers, the festival had now ended, and only the committee members attended the rituals held on the last morning.\n\nOn the last day, there was a ritual to (i) thank the temple god, Kwan-ti, (ii) thank Heaven, and (iii) give offerings to those handicapped ghosts who were supposed to have come late. For the first time in the whole festival, meat was presented at this ritual.” The festival ended with the priests' departure after the rituals. The Association held a feast in the afternoon of the last day to celebrate the successful completion of the festival.\n\nIII. Composition of the Participants\n\nFour categories of the participants should be specially mentioned. They are: (a) the priests, (b) the common worshippers, (c) the families of the \"Newly Dead,” and (d) the committee members and workers.\n\nA team of nine priests, including eight monks and one nun, were employed from the Huang Po (## Obakku in Japanese) Buddhist sect from the Wan Fu temple (万 Manfukuji in Japanese) in Uji (宇治), Kyoto.23 Although (as at least two informants told me) in the past the priests in this temple were mainly Chinese, they are now all Japanese. They used to have\n\n4:2", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210289, "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-1984", "page_number": 260, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "239\n\nseveral employed Japanese workers.\" The committee members were chosen from the Hokkienese Association. It is said that the head of the Association represents all the Chinese (in Japan) by 'leading' them in the festival.2\n\n28\n\nThe role of the Hokkienese is significant. It is said that only the Hokkienese represent and lead all the Chinese to serve the gods and to offer to the ghosts. The name list presented to Heaven had only the names of the Hokkienese, and the three representative worshippers of the daily rituals were all Hokkienese; moreover, only the Hokkienese attended the Lantern Floating ritual.\n\nIV. The Objects of Worship\n\nAccording to the committee members, the festival has no relationship with the gods of the temple. The reason it took place there was because there was space there. However, during the night rituals and the prayers for reincarnation the priests had to walk through the whole festival area and the chief priest had to bow to every altar and statue including those in the main temple. The purification ritual also included the main temple. On the last day, the committee thanked the gods of the temple with a half-cooked pig (Pai-chuu 白豬), raw meat, fish, and 10 bowls of vegetarian food. Moreover, during the festival, worshippers never forgot to present incense sticks to the temple gods, and the committee offered five cups of tea, five cups of wine and ten bowls of vegetarian food to the temple gods twice a day. The same treatment was given to the Japanese Earthgod (Chizo 地蔵). Although every statue, Chinese or Japanese, Buddhist or Taoist, within the festival area was not regarded as related to the festival they were treated equally by the worshippers and the committee members alike.\n\nThere were thirteen Ming-ches for the 'Newly Dead and a Cho (written as \"Ancestral Hall of the Chinese in Japan”#12 29 for the ancestor tablets of the families who donated money, in the Ming-che area. There were a total of 266 tablets. The tablets in the \"Ancestral Hall\" were different from the Ming-che which is for the 'Newly Dead', and included the ancestors of all generations of the family. Every Ming-che had a photo and a board with the surname of the dead.30 Plenty of paper money was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210293, "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-1984", "page_number": 264, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "243\n\nThe content of the invitation card is: \"The overseas Chinese in Japan will hold a 3-days-4-nights Pu Tu, for the sake of establishing luck by offering and helping all the imprisoned spirits of the water and the earth. The meeting will take place at the Kwan T'i Temple in Kobe city. Please come to the \"Tan\" (altar) to present incense sticks during the 14th, 15th, and 16th of the 7th moon. (1st, 2nd and 3rd of September 1982).” The card was red in colour.\n\n9\n\nThe 13th day and the 17th day of the 7th moon were not mentioned in the invitation card.\n\n10 The Lantern Floating ritual in Japanese is \"To Ro Nagashi', which means to float lanterns(s) (to the sea). During the Japanese Obon, lanterns are sent off on the last day of the festival. Through this, the ghosts and the ancestors are all sent back. During the Kobe festival, the ritual, according to the committee members, was to send off the \"wandering ghosts or those who are not worshipped by anyone (= Mu Zhi Kuai)\". However it seems confusing because after the floating ritual, they continued to give offering to the hungry ghosts as well as to the ancestors for two more nights, and the tablets of the wandering spirits were still inside the Tao Ch'ang. A similar ritual practised in Hong Kong during the Chiao festival is called 'Fong Shui Dang' (t, sending off the water lanterns), which is parallel with the 'Fong Luk Dang\" (PW10, put on the street lights) ritual. The rituals are to invite all the water and earth spirits to attend the offering during the Pu Tu or 'Sai Tai Yau* (*9A, to worship the numerous spirits) of the Chiao festival). The prayer book the Obaku Buddhists used for their morning and night rituals is \"Obaku Zenlin Choobo Kashoo\" (R). The priests called this daily work \"Zenlin Kashoo\" (M).\n\nSee below.\n\n12\n\nPlate 21.\n\n13\n\nPlates 22, 23.\n\n14 The \"Pang' was a book-form name-list in yellow. It had 8 pages with an introduction explaining the reason for holding a Pu Tu. (The introduction is printed in the Appendix).\n\n15 See the introduction to the Pang printed in the Appendix.\n\n16 The beach is at the western end of the Prefecture.\n\n17 Plate 24.\n\n18\n\nSee footnote 10.\n\n19\n\n20\n\nPlate 25.\n\nThe book used for the ritual was \"Yoga Enkoo Kahan\" (1⁄2μÅμ) which is similar to that used in Hong Kong during the 'Sai Tai Yau' ritual. According to an old taoist in Hong Kong, Mr. Lam Pui ( ), the gesture is called \"Poh Yuk” (Z, to break Hell), and through this the ghosts are released and able to come for reincarnation and cross over.\n\n21 Plates 26, 27, 28.\n\n22\n\nNo meat was allowed in the festival area. However, meat was presented at the Ming-che VII. One informant explained that it was because the dead like meat, and one committee member sighed and told me that \"We have no way, because they are from the other Provinces (of China) (##A)\".\n\n20 The sect started from Monk Yin Yuan (C) of Fu-ch'in (Mili), Hokkien. He was invited by the General of the Tokugawa Bankufu (UK) in 1654, In the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210776, "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-1986", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "110 \n\nNICHOLAS TAPP \n\nof the Xishuang Banna area of Southern Yunnan (the Dai account for 59 of Yunnan's 130 counties), almost all Buddhist temples were destroyed in 1965 and 1966, or converted into store-houses, mainly by the people themselves acting under policy directives. In 1980 a similar revival of religiosity took place among the Dai as the new policies of liberalisation began to penetrate the minority areas. Almost every village built a new temple, traditionally the focus of religious and much secular sentiment and exchanges in the Dai communities, and moreover despatched novices of 7-8 years old to be ordained in them. Recently, however, this intensity of fervour has slackened somewhat: fewer novices are being ordained, there are less bun-(merit) making activities undertaken by the villagers, and in general less religious enthusiasm among the young. \n\nHowever, there is no doubt that under the impact of these and similar policies, religiosity has been greatly reinforced among the Buddhist Dai as among the Christian A Hmo, while in the Naxi areas of Northwest Yunnan, locally sponsored Lamaist temples have been re-opened and practising priests may be visited. It is appropriate to point out here the great importance attached to literacy (and hence to education) by many of the national minorities, and the close connection this often has with religious, and therefore ethnic, sentiments. The extraordinary pictographic writing of the Naxi, for example, of which we have good records from the last century, is still in use and very much revered as the repository of the sacred wisdom of these people, in which blessings and spells are still inscribed. The Christianity of the A Hmo, as I have described at length elsewhere (Tapp 1985), originated from the importance they attached to the missionary-invented script for their language, which was the first they had known. As with their Christian faith today, it is often denied that the script has not always been their possession, and it remains in many ways at the core of their faith today. Particular social conflicts have arisen owing to the use of the Pollard script, as the original script is known, and other forms of script introduced later for the language. These different scripts are used by different groups owing to their previous affiliations with different Christian denominations. Again, among the Dai there has recently been a return to the old, Mon script, in which temple records and historical chronicles are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211059, "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-1987", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "95\n\nHong Kong as Wong Tai Sin. Her informant claimed that\n\nOne day he was found dead sitting in a Buddhist meditation position at the base of a cliff and covered with earth from a land-slide. When his body was removed it was found to be sweet-smelling and uncorrupt. (Topley and Hayes, 1966:129)\n\nThis version conflicts sharply with the temple's version of the hermit's life on earth, a version based on classical literary sources. Obviously Topley's Cantonese informant had not had access to the official account. But such unusual details as she related are unlikely to have been fabricated on the spot by the informant herself. Where then did the informant get her version of the story? It was not long before we discovered the probable source: a similar story would have been circulating in Hong Kong in 1966 concerning the monk Yuet Kai, who had died in 1965 at the age of 87 after presiding over a Buddhist temple and pagoda in Sha Tin, New Territories, since the early 1950's. After he died,\n\nHis body was placed in a sitting position in a square box. It was then buried in the hillside behind his temples, and, after eight months, the body was exhumed. People who were there have recorded that there was hardly any sign of decay, and that the body had a phosphorescent glow. (Savidge, 1977:107)\n\nThe coincidence of details between the two cases — the individual was buried in a sitting position on [or at the base of] a hillside, and when exhumed his body had not decayed — suggests that the Cantonese lady was transferring a miracle story she had heard about an obscure monk to explain the origins of a famous god who was once an equally obscure hermit.\n\nThis process of the adoption of a miracle story originating in another context to embellish a narrative or fill gaps in one's knowledge may or may not be deliberate. Doubtless in some cases it results from faulty memory. While these \"errors\" seldom leave identifiable traces in literary sources, occasionally they can be detected, as for instance in the apparent assimilation of deeds\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211392, "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-1988", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "84\n\nit T's ing Wan Kwun (EU) \"green cloud Taoist temple,\" At first many people visited it, but its popularity did not last long, and eventually it became deserted.\n\nIn 1918 a Buddhist came to Castle Peak, and established the present Buddhist monastery, adding to the buildings and becoming the first abbot.\n\nAny one visiting Castle Peak now, will find much of interest. About half-way up the path leading to the monastery there is a handsome gate that was erected in 1929. On the front of it are the characters Heung Hoi Ming Shaan (9) \"Hong Kong Sea Famous Mountain\" which were put there by Sir Cecil Clementi. On the reverse side is written Wui T'au Shi Ngon (1004) meaning, the shore is just behind you, i.e. you can mend your ways easily. This is a Buddhist saying and was written on the gate by Tit Shim (HP) a famous abbot in Canton. The gate was erected by twenty Chinese benefactors, and their names are written on the left hand side of the front of the gate.\n\nThe monastery itself consists of several buildings, the Abbots Lodge, the Pooi To pavilion and a garden with an arbour called Hoi Yuet T'ing (H) \"Sea Moon Arbour\" which was placed there for the delightful purpose of looking at the moonlight on the sea. The Fishers Tomb is an object of interest. The Buddhists who believe that no form of life should be taken are in the habit of buying fish from the fishermen and releasing them in the sea again. If, however, the fishes are dead, they bury them in this Tomb so that no one will eat them.\n\nJust above the buildings there is a small cave with the remains of a whale's bones in it. This whale is supposed to have crushed the mountain in remote times, but there is more appearance of the whale having suffered than the mountain! Unfortunately a lot of the bones have been taken away by unscrupulous visitors, and only one very worn vertebra and some ribs are left. Near this cave is the little shrine with Pooi To's figure in it.\n\nIf the path leading up to the summit of the mountain is followed a little summer house with stone benches by it is found near the top. This is called \"Clementi Arbour\", and was erected by a Chinese gentleman, who visited Castle Peak with Sir Cecil one day, and heard him remark\n\n: \n:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211441, "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-1988", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "133\n\nthe truck, Uncle hired drivers to take the produce to Honolulu. I had many rides on the truck to pick up bananas which Okinawa immigrants grew on what used to be pineapple fields. Uncle prospered and was dubbed *Mayor of Kaneohe*. When it was time for him to retire from farming, he bought a piece of Cobb-Adam's land on Kamehameha Highway, one lot removed from Lilipuna Road. Uncle was extended credit from C. K. Ai, who was a friend of my parents, so that he could buy lumber from City Mill Company to build a simple but spacious home and a large garage for his trucking business.\n\nWhen Uncle was struggling to make ends meet, Father would try to help with small loans. During the First World War, when the price of guano was rising fast, Father bought a ton of the fertilizer and stored it under our School Street home. Uncle would pay the current price for each bag he took, and when the ton was used up, the profit was divided between Father and Uncle. Because the price of animal feed was also rising, Mother would wake Ruth, Helen and me at early dawn, competing with a neighbour, to gather algaroba beans from a back lot for Uncle at one dollar a bag.\n\nThere was little social life in those days. Uncle was a member of a fraternal society in Heeia, namely, the Bow Yee Tong, established in 1903. Mother told me that this was a Triad society, where members were initiated and sworn in as 'blood brothers' by secret rituals, so secret that they were not revealed even to their wives. In later years, after the death of Aunt, Uncle became a devout Buddhist and frequently visited a temple in Honolulu.\n\nUncle registered seven of his ten children with the Board of Health on 15 October 1918. At that time, he gave his name as Cheung Yau and Aunt's as Wong Fung, and his age at 38 and hers 33. Their children are:\n\nAnnie Ah Hoon (21 Apr 1902-1936) married Henry Auyoung\n\nMary Ah Moy Hiki (9 Oct 1904-) married Joseph Liu\n\nHelen Ah Sam (11 Dec 1906-) married Robert Zane\n\nAlice Ah Lin (15 Dec 1909-) married Frank Carpino (died 1982) 1927\n\nReuben Ah Kau (17 Jun 1911-) married Eunice Ching\n\nAaron Ah Mung (13 Oct 1913-8 Oct 1985)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211629, "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-1989", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "19\n\n2\n\nGoullart in his description of the monastery in Kiangsi in which he spent several holidays, describes in one hall 'Shang Ti smiling benevolently and enigmatically from his canopied throne'. He then refers, in his description of another temple, to the Jade Emperor and speaks of him as Shang Ti. There are various explanations offered as to why this deity is called the Jade Emperor. One suggests that the reference in the Book of Changes to '. . . heaven being the ruler, and is... jade' is its origin; Goullart however gives, in translation, an invocation from the abbot to Shang Ti in which he refers to him by title as 'the Mightiest Emperor over all Heavenly Kings, who lives in the Jade Hall of the Western Heaven'. This, surely, is a clue. The supreme deity, Shang Ti, lives in the Jade Hall, hence his title the Jade Emperor. This title is a relatively recent development in Chinese chronology having only become prominent during the 11th century AD. However, popular recognition of and interest in the cult became apparent during the Manchu (Ch'ing) dynasty.\n\nThe title of the sovereign divinity of the Chinese State religion until 1911 was Huang T'ien Shang Ti, the First Rank Supreme Deity in the 17th century regulations of the Ch'ing dynasty. Shang Ti, as the All-highest, was never portrayed in image form, and in a number of temples in South-East Asia the title of Huang T'ien Shang Ti is still given for the supreme deity, usually carved on plaques, and in one temple in Singapore an image of the Jade Emperor even bore a vertical slip of paper inscribed with this title.\n\nMany Chinese myths and legends involve the Jade Emperor; those surrounding his origins are shrouded in mystery and probably his genesis will never be known. China has a rich popular tradition incorporating local tales from every corner of the vast empire, and it is no wonder that numerous and varied explanations have been given by devotees of how and when the Jade Emperor became the senior deity. The earliest known reference to him is from the T'ang but he could have existed long before that. Since then it has commonly been believed that he was either an incarnation of, or given the task of Supreme Deity by Yuan Shih T'ien Chun, the senior deity of the Taoist trinity, the Three Pure Ones (San Ch'ing). His popularity declined somewhat during the Ming. Although a Taoist deity, his image is to be found on altars in several Buddhist temples and some Buddhists even claim that he is really just an adaptation of Indra. To the man in the street all Buddhist, Taoist and folk religion deities are his subordinates, and well timed worship will", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211630, "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-1989", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "20 \n\nsecure a writ of pardon for a soul in the Underworld. Buddhists have occasionally accused the Taoists of stealing him from their pantheon. The Buddhist Indra, known as Yu Ti (**玉帝**), literally The Jade Emperor, was, they say, adopted by Taoists to counter Buddhist power. Others suggest that the Jade Emperor was a creation of a Chinese emperor to help maintain the authority and stability of his rule. In one popular version the Sung emperor Chen Tsung (**宋真宗**) in AD 1012, in order to divert his ministers from an unfortunate treaty he had been obliged to sign with some barbarian tribes, announced with great pomp that he had been visited in a dream by an immortal with a letter from the Jade Emperor. In the letter the Jade Emperor explained that he was sending one of the emperor's ancestors in person. The Sung emperor then claimed that a dazzling deity appeared before him in a dream and informed him that he was the Jade Emperor, Master of Heaven and Earth, and the Incarnation of Tao. Later the emperor, having announced that the visit had taken place, ordered that thereafter the Jade Emperor, “one of his ancestors\", was to be treated as a major deity. The next year, in 1013, the Jade Emperor's image was cast and placed in a special temple, the Jade Palace (**玉皇殿**) where it was worshipped by the whole court. One hundred years later, the Sung emperor Hui Tsung (**宋徽宗**) built an even more magnificent temple for the Jade Emperor and thereafter the image was portrayed in imperial robes.\n\nH. Y. Feng3 claimed that the earliest reference to the Jade Emperor was in a poem by Han Yu (768-824), a Confucian scholar who wrote, admiring plum blossom, \"Riding clouds we came together to the home of Yuh Huang', proving, he states, that the Sung emperor's claims were after the fact. However, state recognition by emperor Chen Tsung made the Jade Emperor an important deity in the pantheon.\n\nA Fukienese legend describes the Jade Emperor as being born to a queen who conceived miraculously after a visit by T'ai Shang Lao Chun (Lao Tzu) in a dream. When this prince in due course became king, he ruled with great compassion and concern, and was a model ruler who later devoted part of his life to religion and attained sainthood. This was, however, many centuries before the Sung emperor Chen Tsung popularised the cult.\n\nAnother popular version explains how the Jade Emperor appeared in his visible manifestation to a Sung emperor and told him that he, The Jade Emperor, was the manifestation of the power and thought of Tao,\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211639, "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-1989", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "29\n\ndedicated to Pao Kung, the Lenient Judge, and also in a Buddhist temple in Beverley Hills on Cebu where he has behind him a small image of the Jade Emperor's second son Erh T'ai Tzu (...). The whole group of the Jade Emperor's family, though only the two sons (the second one and the third) are portrayed, is referred to as Chiu Chung T'ien Lao Tsu (LICEEM).\n\nA rural temple on the island of Penang contains three images on its secondary altar identified as the Three Sons of the Jade Emperor. They are referred to as San Yuan T’ai Tzu (SAT).\n\nAnother rural folk religion temple at Bukit Mertajam on the Malaysian mainland opposite Penang contains an image of the Jade Emperor's Fourth Daughter (Ti Ssu Kung Chu Pч2) on one side of the main deity on the altar, the Jade Emperor himself, with an aide to the princess on the other side of the Jade Emperor. The aide is known as Meng Yen Hua (夢燕花),\n\nAn unusual image, of a farmer standing holding a hoe over his shoulder, stands on a private altar belonging to a Hakka petty businessman in Kranji, Singapore. The businessman explained that it portrayed one of the sons of the Jade Emperor and had been brought from eastern Kuangtung province last century; it has been prayed to for good crops ever since. He is known as Li Po Kung Kung (#22).\n\nIn one group in Singapore, on a Taoist altar in Lorong How Sun, the Jade Emperor is attended by four of his seven daughters. The first is Hsien Chi Niang Niang (瑄姬娘娘), the second is Kuan Yin, the third is T'ien Hou and the fourth is Nu Wa. All but the eldest are well known deities from early Taoism and Buddhism in their own right. Hsien Chi Niang Niang has only been noted twice, both times in Singapore, on altars where she is said to be the eldest daughter of the Jade Emperor. She is portrayed standing on rocks, holding a fly whisk in her right hand.\n\nAgain in Singapore, on a private altar, a Buddha figure, gilded and seated in a lotus position, was identified as Han Hsien Fu Tsu (#\n\nbili), and said to be a daughter of the Jade Emperor (see Plate 8). She has three identifying features apart from her Buddhist five-leaf crown. These are a small dragon crawling over her left knee, a vase balanced on her right knee and her palms held facing together before her chest with her fingers making a mystic sign. This image has also been seen", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211641, "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-1989", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "31\n\naides and guardians. His two major aides, according to a Taiwanese temple keeper, are major deities in their own right:\n\nT'ai I Chiu K'u T'ien Tsun (AZREF) and Lei Yin P'u Hua T'ien Tsun (LEO).\n\nHe has a senior deity as his personal messenger, Teh Chih Chiangchun (特赤將軍)\n\nA Buddhist priest guiding a visitor around his temple in Chia I county in Taiwan, in which the Jade Emperor was the main deity on a side altar in a side hall pointed out that he had four bodyguards:\n\nThe Marshals Wen (溫), Ma (馬), K'ang (康) and Chao (趙) with blue, white, red and black faces respectively.\n\nThe full title of the Jade Emperor is:\n\nHao T'ien Chin Kuan Yu Huang Shang Ti (昊天金阙玉皇上帝) or T'ien Ti San Chieh Shih Fang Wan Ling Chen Tsai (天帝三界十方万灵真宰). This is possibly best translated as The True Lord of Heaven, Earth and Mankind, in all areas and of the Mystical Spirits.\n\nThe following are the short titles by which the Jade Emperor is known:\n\nYu Ti (玉帝)\n\nYu Huang T'ien Kung (玉皇天公)\n\nT'ien Kung (天公)\n\nT'ien Kung Tsu (天公祖)\n\nT'ien Kung Yeh Yeh (天公爷爷)\n\nT'ien Shang Ti (天上帝)\n\nTien Ti (天帝)\n\nHe is also known as:\n\nYu Huang Ta T'ien Tsun Hsuan Ch'iung Kao Shang Ti (玉皇大天尊玄穹高上帝)\n\nYu Ch'ing Shang Ti (玉清上帝)\n\nHao T'ien Shang Ti (昊天上帝)\n\nShang Ti (上帝)\n\nLao T'ien Yeh (老天爷) North China", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211731, "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-1989", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "121\n\nCHEUNG SHAN KWU TSZ (長山古寺), AN OLD BUDDHIST NUNNERY IN THE NEW TERRITORIES, AND ITS PLACE IN LOCAL SOCIETY\n\nThe Plan of the Nunnery\n\nP. H. HASE*\n\nHong Kong has dozens of Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, mostly located in the New Territories. Almost all are recent foundations. The majority were founded by monks or nuns fleeing from one of the three major disturbances to Buddhist life in China in the last 80 years - the 1911 Revolution, and the chaos of the Warlord years which succeeded it; the Anti-Superstition Campaign mounted by the Kuomintang from the mid 1920s; and the Communist Revolution of 1949-1952.\n\nThese monasteries and nunneries mostly share a single common plan, which distinguishes a Buddhist place of worship from the ordinary temple of the traditional village religion. The ordinary temple consists of a windowless rectangular hall, with the altar to the God against one of the short walls, and entered through the opposite short wall. The hall usually has a Tin Tseng (天井), or lightwell, in the centre for the escape of incense smoke. Often two subordinate similar halls are placed one on either side of the main hall, interconnecting by arches.\n\nMost Buddhist institutions are built to a different plan. They are centred on a Buddha Hall (A, 大殿), which is also a rectangle, but one entered through the centre of one of the long walls, and the altar is not against the opposite long wall, but free-standing a little in front of it. These Buddha Halls usually have windows, and do not have Tin Tseng. In large monasteries or nunneries, the Buddha Hall is a free-standing structure surrounded by a portico, placed in the centre of an enclosed courtyard-garden on a raised podium, with the other buildings forming ranges along the edges of the courtyard. The whole complex is enclosed: the monastery or nunnery, unlike the ordinary temple, is\n\n* The author would like to thank those Ta Kwu Ling elders who gave him the information on which much of this article is based, and also the staff of the District Office, North, who assisted in setting up the interviews. He would also like to thank the staff of the District Land Registry, North, for their unfailing courtesy and assistance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211732, "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-1989", "page_number": 147, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "122\n\nusually considered private in character, and hence the entrances are such that the general public can be excluded as desired.2\n\nIn smaller institutions, the buildings tend to form only a single range, and the Buddha Hall is built in the middle of it. Even here, however, the range of buildings will usually front an enclosed courtyard-garden, and the Hall will be raised up a few steps higher than the other buildings.\n\n1\n\nAlthough the great majority of Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in Hong Kong were founded in the last 80 years, a few are older, founded by indigenous groups before the coming of the British. Five are known to me in the mainland New Territories3 — the Ching Shan, or Pooi To (#4 · *) monastery at Tuen Mun, (certainly in existence in the fifth century*), the Ling To () monastery at Ha Tsuen (probably founded or refounded in the Ming Dynasty), the Ling Wan () nunnery at Shek Kong (an early Ming foundation4), the Lung Kai () nunnery near Lung Yeuk Tau (probably an early Ch'ing foundation5), and the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz (££‡), near Man Uk Pin on the old road from Sha Tau Kok to Sham Tsun (Shen Zhen).\n\nThe subject of this article.\n\nOf these ancient foundations, the Ching Shan monastery was rebuilt in 1918 and several times since, and the Ling Wan nunnery was rebuilt between 1919 and 1927. These now show the standard Buddhist plan mentioned above. The Lung Kai nunnery is a total ruin, following abandonment and the stripping of the roof during the last War. The Ling To monastery was rebuilt in 1928, and again (from the foundations up) in 1970. It is believed that both rebuildings used the foundations from the 1861 rebuilding, but the interior layout of the present structure is only a shadow of the original. Only the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz survives unreconstructured and undamaged as an example of a Buddhist institution in the area from before the twentieth century influx of immigrant monks and nuns. Because of this it seemed worth studying the monastery in some detail.\n\nThe old road from Sha Tau Kok to Sham Tsun ran more or less along the line of the present Sha Tau Kok road from Sha Tau Kok to the Wo Hang Au above Sheung Wo Hang. It then cut to the north-west of the present road, passing Man Uk Pin village, and thence on through the mountains by a low pass called Miu Keng (M, \"Temple Pass''), past Ping Yeung village, to cross the Sham Tsun river by the bridge", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211753, "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-1989", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "143\n\nwere maintained throughout the area. How long the watch on the Ta Kwu Ling was maintained is unclear, but a watch of some sort on the entrances to the area was kept up for a long time.\n\n33\n\nThe Shing Ping She was probably managed by a management committee, composed of one representative from each of the six Yeuk. The names of the committee appointed in 1924 survive. Below the management committee, there seems to have been a manager or managers for day-to-day activity.\n\n14\n\nThe villagers wanted spiritual protection as well as physical protection for the area. The Ping Yuen temple at Ping Che watched over the Ping Che road, and the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz over the Miu Keng road. The Shing Ping She established a third temple, the Kim Ho Temple, between the two bridges, where the Sham Tsun road passes through the gorge. This temple was built where the extinct Cheung market had been, and may have been a re-foundation of an older temple, since most markets in the area had temples. The re-foundation or foundation would, in any case, have marked very clearly the ending of Cheung power in the area. The Kim Ho temple was a Tin Hau temple, and the divinity was invited to the new temple from the Ping Yuen temple. This linked the new temple with the old one. In addition, a nun was appointed to live in the Kim Ho temple and conduct Buddhist rituals in a side-hall. Thus the three main entrances to the Ta Kwu Ling area were well defended spiritually, and ritually connected together into one system.\n\nThe Shing Ping She also rebuilt the temple at Ping Che. It was rebuilt as a temple in two parts, the main worshipping hall, with the altar to Tin Hau, and its side-halls, and a second worshipping unit consisting of a Heroes Shrine, to commemorate the young men who had died in the fighting with Wong Pui Ling. After the rebuilding, the temple was returned to the Ping Yuen Hap Heung for management. The Heung continued to own the main worshipping hall, but the Shing Ping She owned the Heroes Shrine, as a couplet in the Shrine, commemorating a repair in 1915, confirms.\n\n15\n\nThe Shing Ping She worshipped communally at the Heroes Shrine at Ping Che at the Spring and Autumn Rituals, followed by a communal vegetarian meal in front of the temple. Similar rituals then took place at the Kim Ho temple.\n\n36", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211757, "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-1989", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "147\n\nThe Magistrate's influence seems to have deferred the success of the Tsat Yeuk in by-passing the Tai Po ferry from about 1840 to 1892, but otherwise it does not seem to have played any significant part. The Magistrate seems to have played absolutely no role at all in the dispute between the Luk Yeuk and Wong Pui Ling.\n\nThe main gentry organisations in the area were the Po Tak Temple Old Alliance and the Community School (1) in Sham Tsun, which was managed by the Tung Ping Kuk (T5, \"Council for Peace in the East\"), consisting of all the Punti degree holders in the Sham Tsun area, who sat in the school in rotation to adjudicate disputes. The political effectiveness (as opposed to their effectiveness in settling inter-personal disputes) of these gentry bodies in ordinary times was slight. The predominant membership of the Community School rota was from Sheung Shui, Lung Yeuk Tau, Wong Pui Ling and Sham Tsun itself, and their mutual enmities rendered it helpless in most major local political crises. The Po Tak Temple was similarly divided. The Sham Tsun Community School was, furthermore, ignored by the Hakka degree-holders, who had a similar, but weaker, body connected with the school in Sha Tau Kok, and known as the Tung Wo Kuk (†1⁄2, “Council for Peace in the East”).\n\n41\n\nThe Nuns and Their Background\n\nThe nuns of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz were local Punti girls. This was a common feature of the pre-British Buddhist institutions in the area. The Ta Kwu Ling villagers believe that all the nuns, at all dates, were Punti. They were \"women who refused to marry\".\n\nThis was the same at all the indigenous nunneries in the New Territories. The Tang lineage owned three nunneries: the Ling To nunnery being owned by the Ha Tsuen branch of the lineage, the Ling Wan nunnery by the Kam Tin branch, and the Lung Kai nunnery by the Lung Yeuk Tau branch. Village elders of all three villages say that, before they were taken over by immigrant monks (or, in the case of the Lung Kai nunnery, became ruined), they were all houses of nuns,\n\nand that, while girls from other places were not debarred from becoming nuns there, effectively all the nuns were Tang girls from the branch of the lineage owning the monastery in question, girls, that is, who “refused to marry\". Similarly, the nuns of the Kim Ho monastery at the Law Fong bridge were, according to Law Fong village elders, girls from Punti", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211947, "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-1989", "page_number": 362, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "337\n\nThe Jau and Wong Temple also used to house spirit tablets to \"heroes\". The tablets (three in total, without names) were moved to the Yau-Leun Tong from the side altar in the temple about 50 years ago because they were siu-yan (“small people”), and it was unseemly to house them in the same temple as the two great men (daai-yan). As mentioned before, villagers agreed that the “heroes” were those who had died in fighting (da-saat) between Kam Tin and its enemies.\n\nKam Tin has quite a number of other temples. There are the Man-Cheung Temple and Hung-Sing Temple in Shui Tau, and the Tin-Hau Temple in Shui Mei. Many of the other villages, e.g. Kam Hing Wai, Tai Hong Wai, Kat Hing Wai, Tsi Tong Tsuen, and Wing Lung Wai, which do not have “standard” temples, have a san-teng, a house with an altar for a spirit tablet for about ten popular temple gods. The gods of some of the vanished temples, which include a Yeung-Hau Temple and a Bou-Dak Chi in Shui Mei, and the Hung-Fan Taam Temple of Shui Tau, are still worshipped in the jiu festival, as are the gods of two nunneries, in Shui Mei and Tai Hong Wai respectively, which no longer exist.\n\nThese temples and nunneries hold tablets or images of some 20 different gods, if we are to include the Earth God for temples, and Wai-To for Buddhist establishments. The other 18 include the popular temple gods Yeung-Hau, Tin-Hau, Bak-Dai, Man-Cheung, Gwun-Yam, Gwaan-Dai, Hung-Sing, the God of Wealth, Gam-Fa, Taai-Seui, the Dragon King, and the Buddha. The Bou-Dak Chi housed spirit tablets for Jau and Wong. There is not much information about this other temple dedicated to Jau and Wong, but it was worshipped probably only by the villagers of Shui Tau, where it was situated.\n\nFui-Sing, and Fa-Gung Fa-Mou are probably respectively responsible for success in imperial examinations and the health of children. Hoi-Saan Suk-Lou is a title found in some other local temples as well, and represents the earliest settlers of the place. Hong-Wong is a title that I have not seen elsewhere in the New Territories.\n\nThe titles of localized gods found in most of the Kam Tin villages include the God of Earth and Grain, the Water God of wells, and the Earth God for the gates of the walled villages. There are, in some of the villages, a Tree God and Earth Gods for bridges and for the gate to a complex of houses. In addition, there are Ngau-Wong and Pun-Gu,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211949, "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-1989", "page_number": 364, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "339\n\nbut moved the Dei-Jong Wong inside the Buddhist hall instead.\"7 After the building of the Buddhist hall two of the nuns were added to the managers of the trust, and since then the Dangs did not have much to do with the nunnery except that the related ritual associations go annually to worship at the charitable grave.\n\nB. Household and village worship\n\nEveryday worship is local and is mainly performed by women. Such is the case of a family of Tsi Tong Tsuen who gave me information on this point. This family seldom worshipped in any temple. For weddings they worshipped at the Mau-Ging Tong ancestral hall, where the head of the family also went when he was small for the annual worship, and to get his shares of the ritual pork. This he no longer does, having stopped a few years ago. In some years he also joins the ancestral grave worship in Tsuen Wan. On Ching Ming and Chung Yeung his family went to worship their own near ancestors. On festivals his family worshipped at Tsi Tong Tsuen's shrines to the Earth God and the God of Earth and Grain and the place for the Well God.\n\nI was able to talk with some of the older women. One Tai Hong Wai woman born in the 1910s told me that ordinarily her family worshipped at home. They went to neither the Jau and Wong Temple nor the Hung-Sing Temple. They had no share in the Hung-Sing Temple. They did go to the Daai-Wong Temple at Yuen Long, early in the first month of the lunar calendar, but it is the business of their men only: the temple belonged to their distant ancestor. Similarly, an elderly Kat Hing Wai lady told me that Pak Wai Tsuen (i.e., Shui Tau and Shui Mei) people worshipped at the Hung Sing Temple. I have witnessed part of a waan-san (“thanksgiving”) ritual in Kat Hing Wai, which took place at the san-teng. I was told that for impromptu religious activities such as divination, some of the Kat Hing Wai women went to a temple at Tai Shue Ha [which is, as far as I know, not otherwise of interest to the Dangs of Kam-Tin] and some went to Ling-Wan Ji. They went to the Jau and Wong temple mainly during the jiu, and the temples at Shui Tau and Shui Mei were for their respective villagers alone.\n\nA san teng was probably considered to be of central importance to its village. When I walked with an elder to his house we passed the san-teng of Tai Hong Wai. He explained to me that it was the wai-jyu, and he compared its status in the village to that of the most senior and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211984, "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-1989", "page_number": 399, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "374\n\nwhich has been copied in an untitled manuscript in the possession of Mr. Dang Yu-Hing).36 Dang Kei-faan Genealogy in the Baker Collection of New Territories genealogies in the British Library.\n\n37 The elder was Dang Wing-Sau, the head of the lineage. I do not know which generation he was in. See Taga (1982:92).\n\n38 Translated in Sung (1974:177-179).\n\n39\n\n40 See table above and the genealogy in Kam Tin Historical Documents, vol. 1.\n\nProbably Dang Hei-Seui. See Sung (1974:166-168) and a genealogy of his segment included in Hugh Baker's Collection of Genealogies.\n\n41 Patrick Hase has drawn my attention to the importance of the monastery as central to the establishment Hung-Yi's descendants in Kam Tin, just as Ling To nunnery is to the Dangs of Ha Tsuen. The monastery and the earlier temple are a major element in the fung-seui of the Pat Heung valley and Kam Tin. The rivers important to irrigation in the area all flow from the mountain on which the monastery stands.\n\n42\n\n41\n\n44 I have not tried to find further information on this man in gazetteers.\n\nSee Sung (1973:112-113) for the Hung Sing Temple.\n\nThis was one of two stories. They were thought of as alternatives although there is no contradiction between them. I shall relate the other one later.\n\n45 I was told that the Juk-Yun Am used to be at the present site of the Gwaan-Dai Temple of Shing Mun San Tsuen, and San-Sin Fu near Shui Mei.\n\n46 Two items in Kam Tin Historical Documents vol. 2 were probably intended for this very grave. These were among the papers of Dang Ting-sam from the year 1873. The first was a request for donations towards the establishment of a charitable grave. The second was intended for a stone inscription. There is strong evidence that the charitable grave was established before the British came, although many present-day Dangs believe that those buried in the grave were those who died fighting against the British. The jiu festival record for 1895 included the Dei-Jong Wong of Tung-Fuk Tong among the gods to be invited, and an elder in his nineties remembered seeing gam-taap jars for bones when he was very small. He deduced that those must have been the remains of people who died before 1898, because one had to wait for many years he suggested ten — until the bones could be extracted after a first burial.\n\n47 A bin-ngaak (horizontal inscribed board) presented to the Buddhist altar at its completion included ten names who were believed to be the share-holders of the Tong. They were three Wan-Guk jiu descendants of Shui Mei: Baak-Cheung, Daat-Hung, and Jik-Hing; three brothers Yat-Wa, Seui-Chuen, Gam-Wa and two of their nephews, and Baak-Yi, all descendants of Wan-Gaan; and a Hin-Yiu of Kam Tin Shi.\n\n48 Plus a inscribed stone on the ground saying Naam-mo O-Mei-To-Fat, set up to offset the bad influences that caused traffic accidents near the stone.\n\n49 Hoi-dang for a village did not always take place at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. In the Shui Mei case it took place at the Tin-Hau Temple.\n\n50 The elders made it clear that gu here does not mean “shares\".\n\n51 The subjects for these paper images were specified in the contract made with the craftsmen. The contract was included in the general record for the festival and was copied from the previous ones. But neither the organizers nor the contractor seem to have paid much attention to the details of the prescription.\n\n52 The object is probably more commonly known by the name dong 'an and is more often installed over the central area of the Taoist altar rather than in the backstage room. See", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212129, "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-1990", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "48\n\nby the conversion to Christianity of a number of important Turkish steppe tribes, including the Kerait, the Naiman, and the Ongut. These successes were achieved despite competition from Buddhist, Moslem, and Manichean missionaries. But although the Nestorian church made considerable headway among the tribes whose territory lay between Persian Khurasan and the northern borders of China, little evidence has yet been produced to suggest that many converts were made within China itself.\n\nThere is abundant evidence for Christians in China during the Yüan period. It is quite clear that, while many churches and monasteries were built in China, there were few Chinese Christians. Nestorian and Latin priests competed for the allegiance of the Ongut' tribe, Turkish Christians who lived within the Great Bend of the Yellow River, and John of Montecorvino, the Franciscan archbishop of Khanbalik from 1308 to 1328, struggled to keep Alan Christian mercenaries in the Mongol imperial guard firm in the orthodox faith and safe from the errors of Nestorius: but we do not hear of either church preaching the Gospel to the Chinese. John of Montecorvino had the Bible translated into Latin, Turkish, and Persian, the languages of Khanbalik's foreign residents, but not into Chinese. Christian priests in Yüan China probably guessed that the Chinese would be unreceptive to a foreign religion associated with the unpopular rule of the Mongols, but their own behaviour was not always a good advertisement for their religion. We know of a Nestorian Christian administrator, Mar Sargis, who abused his position as governor (darugha) of Chinkiang to build Christian monasteries on land which he had confiscated from a Buddhist temple. Christians were resented, and it is therefore scarcely surprising that in 1368 both Latin and Nestorian Christians were driven from China along with their Mongol protectors.\n\nAlthough the earlier wave of Nestorians was not disadvantaged by such an association with a foreign occupying power, the few Nestorian churches known to have existed in T'ang China also seem to have been mainly there to serve the religious needs of foreigners resident in China. Syrian and Persian traders could be found in both capitals, Ch'ang-an and Lo-yang, and the number of Nestorians in China was probably at its largest during the reign of Kao-tsung (649-683), when this merchant community was augmented by an influx of refugees from Sassanian Persia. The Sassanian empire was overthrown by the invading armies of Islam at the battles of Qadisiya in 636 and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212165, "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-1990", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "84\n\nprotective deities, small portable images of the deity himself are kept in the shrine and loaned to devotees to take home for private reverence when the devotee has a personal problem requiring spiritual assistance.\n\nIn a temple in Madras Street in Singapore images of a Mr Ch'en and his wife, again without personal names, are revered by elderly ladies for boons and protection. No one within the temple has any idea who the Ch'ens are or where the images now on a side altar came from.\n\nIn a second temple in Singapore yet another image of a Mr Ch'en stands on a side altar. This time we know his personal names, Yueh-k'un, and that his image was donated in the 1960s by an unidentified old lady, thought to be his widow, who left a sum of money to maintain regular offerings before it. Its history and identification died with her. The image, of a stylised general, is prayed to by devotees who believe him to be a protective deity.\n\nLiang Chin-chung was killed by lightning in Singapore, in a kampong in Tanglin, in 1946 at the age of seventeen. Shortly after the incident ladies in the kampong in which Liang had lived attributed remarkable events to his spirit and whenever they prayed before his tablet their wishes were fulfilled. A cult quickly developed and devotees came from all around. An attap hut already dedicated in the kampong to a Hainanese fertility goddess was altered to make room for a small altar dedicated to Liang, on which a rough portrait image of the boy was placed. The cult disappeared when the kampong was razed for building development in the seventies.\n\nAn image of a Miss Liu stood on a folk religion temple side altar next door to the big Buddhist temple in Kim Keat, Singapore. In 1962 she was known as 'Liu-hsiu Ku-niang', though this full name disappeared within the next ten years. Her image, swathed in silken yellow robes, always had incense sticks smouldering before it. She had no festival and no special identifying features. She did, however, have the occasional packet of face powder placed before her by girls who believed that she could make them more physically attractive. Also slung around her arm were two or three very small handbags or purses. According to an elderly nun, Miss Liu was a vegetarian who had lived in the nunnery, and when she died her old...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212166, "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-1990", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "85\n\nfather who had owned the land on which the temple stood had consulted the deities and found that his daughter had been deified. He had an image of her carved and placed on the altar. This was transferred some time during the mid 1960s to another small shrine within the same temple and again her image stood alone but this time she had under her shrine a cardboard box which contained, according to the temple keeper, an embalmed parrot. The elderly nun claimed that it was Miss Liu's pet. The image and parrot remained until 1983 when the temple was refurbished and the image disappeared for a while. In 1986 it reappeared on the family altar in the rear of the large Buddhist temple next door, dedicated to the Liu family. Her image was now draped in red silken robes and somewhat strangely was labelled Miss Lin. She still held the miniature handbags but the parrot was nowhere to be seen, and the temple staff denied ever having seen or heard of a stuffed parrot. They confirmed that her name was Lin and not Liu but were unable to say why she was now on the Liu family altar in the Buddhist temple. And there she remains, last noted in 1989 still on the Liu family altar.\n\nA cult, that of 'the Prince descended from the Dragon', Lung-shih T'ai-tzu, was established in the mid-1960s in the northern suburbs of Kowloon before being transferred to Lo Wai above Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. It is a piggy-back cult dependent upon the local Cantonese major cult of the Dragon Mother, Lung Mu. The story begins with a boy, Huang Hsin-tsai, born in Shamshuipo, Kowloon, in 1949, the son of refugees from Canton. His parents died soon after they arrived in the Colony leaving him in the hands of the lady who now runs the new cult temple. In 1960 the youth, now 11 and still living with the lady in Shamshuipo, fell ill with swollen legs and abdomen. She nursed him carefully back to health but in 1962 he was thought to have eaten something which did not agree with him and, despite a visit to the Wong Tai Sin Temple, he died. Accused by her neighbours of neglecting the youth she was exonerated by him when he appeared to her in a dream to explain that he was now the stepson of the major deity, Lung Mu, and had the power to cure on her behalf. Once a year thereafter he provided the lady with a large basin of very tiny pills for her to distribute to cure people's ills; he also appeared to her in dreams to help solve difficult problems put to her by devotees. The lady, now the temple keeper, has a number of elderly ladies to help run the corrugated iron and brick temple which she has had built near his grave.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212208, "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-1990", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "127\n\nThe Taoist temple, a centre of superstition, visited by the people of the village at certain seasons and particularly popular with the old women, is usually larger than the ancestral hall. It can be distinguished from the rarer and finer Buddhist temples by its walls of red. The Buddhist colour is yellow. Both Taoist and Buddhist temples prefer remote sites, often amidst the crags of tree-clad hills, but their colour apart are difficult to distinguish the one from the other. They are equally filled with images, from the fearsome spirits that guard the entrance hall, and the divers gods in the succeeding halls, to the Great Buddhas in the main hall, behind which there will be a very demoniacal representation of the Buddhist hell.\n\nThe temples to Confucius contain no images. They are to be found in the larger towns, amidst ancient trees and stately courtyards. They are now generally used to shelter government offices or schools. Wherever there are troops, the temples are their barracks; and they provide convenient cover for forlorn travellers.\n\nOn the second evening we reached Kanchow, the wealthy city in south Kiangsi, where the Generalissimo's elder son has been appointed Commissioner in charge of a group of magistracies. While in Russia, where he spent a number of years, he had married a blonde Russian wife. The two have set themselves to converting their district into a model area. No mercy is shown to opium smokers: they are executed. Dishonest officials are inexorably punished. Wealthy merchants, who have profited by holding stocks for a rise, are made to contribute heavily for the benefit of local services, and the sons of the influential are not allowed to dodge conscription. The dispensation is popular with the poorer classes, but not with the privileged. The Generalissimo is proud of his son's work, and one day sent a foreign reporter, who had been critical of Chinese administration, to investigate. He returned with a glowing report. Would that there were more districts in China, where honesty is the rule! Unfortunately, since 1937, there has been a relapse. The improvisations of war have left increasing spheres of administration in the hands of the military, and graft is again the order of the day. It is another of those Chinese anomalies that the Generalissimo, the relentless opponent of Communism, should be proud of a son who unquestionably is influenced by Russian ideology.\n\nConscription in China is not applied in our sense of the term. There\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212379, "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-1990", "page_number": 321, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "298\n\nHeaven's Authority', T'ien Ling, and has his left hand at waist height making a mystical sign, the middle three fingers pointing vertically with the thumb and little finger bent over to touch each other.\n\nIn some places the scholar's robes are gilded and decorated with pa kua signs, in others the robe is plain. Other very minor variations, mostly in the carving of the creature, have also been noted. Also, in several instances, the scholar has a small sword or dagger tied suspended from his left hand.\n\nThere would appear to be no particular pattern to the donations which have spread far and wide throughout Taiwan during the years since '84; the temples include Buddhist and Taoist major and minor temples, and folk religion temples in small towns and cities.\n\nSo far none of the staff in the temples in which these images have been seen has been able to identify the deity. Without exception they have explained that the image has appeared on one of their altars without explanation and without seeing from where and how it arrived. One or two have had the courage to throw out the image only to find that another has replaced it within weeks. In most temples they have been accepted as just another deity and have been moved by the temple staff elsewhere within the temple, often to a rear position on a major side altar or to the small altar table before the main altar.\n\nThe questions are: Who is the scholar and what does he represent? Who donates these images and why? And is there an individual or cult behind the carving, donation and worship of this image?\n\nCan any Member or reader help enlighten me and, for that matter, this Journal, please?\n\nKEITH G STEVENS\n\nALTAR IMAGES FROM HUNAN\n\nIn my article on Altar Images from Hunan and Kiangsi (This Journal Volume 18, 1978 [pp 41-48]) I explained that Hunanese spirit images (rather than tablets) appeared to be unique in Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212392, "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-1990", "page_number": 334, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "311\n\nspite of his deep love for his motherland.\n\nNaturally, his pictures take pride of place in the 'Overseas Chinese Museum' which has over 6,000 exhibits portraying the Ming and Qing diaspora. The building was completed in 1956, endowed by Tan and other overseas donors. Like most similar establishments in China, information is available in Chinese only. If the People's Republic really wishes to attract overseas visitors, is it too much to ask that literature and captions be printed in English as well?\n\nThe Group also made a visit to Huli Shan Fortress, completed in 1823, which protected the entrance to the fine, deep-sea port in the lead-up to the First Opium War. The island of Quemoy, from which the Nationalist Government relayed propaganda with loudspeakers during the 'cold war', lies only 2.4 kilometres off the Communist China Mainland near this fortress.\n\nThe RAS Party later went to the Nanputuo Temple, under the towering 'Five Old Men Peak', which is an architectural masterpiece and crammed with Buddhist statuary. Renovations were in progress. It was encouraging, too, to see the local People's Patriotic Church had recently been given a facelift by the provincial government.\n\nBut impressions lie in the senses of the beholder. Some RAS Members may especially remember Xiamen for its reasonably priced seafood available, with over 600 varieties of fish compared to Hong Kong, or the edible frogs or fine noodles. There was even champagne available with the buffet breakfast!\n\n―\n\nNevertheless, for the author, the most treasured recollections are of banyans and buildings. Some of the former, with labyrinths of contorting, twisting roots, were probably growing a century-and-a-half ago, before the island became a Treaty port. The town is also a 'museum' of vernacular and colonial architecture.\n\nWhether the vantage point is Bill Job's workshop or the hotel window, a vista of old, mellowed, orange, Chinese 'roll and trough' roof tiles, with some roofs of interlocking tiles, blend in reasonably well with new structures erected often from overseas remittances. Although the more ornate, gently sloping, swallow-tail roofs were traditionally reserved for temples, official buildings, and residences", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212574, "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-1991", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "108\n\nAlthough one of the above six destinations is the normal fate of a person's heavenly soul, earthly souls reside in graves or ancestral tablets to be worshipped by descendants. Terrestrial souls can even be divided between tablets on altars in family members' homes and in ancestral halls. Views vary on this 'multiple-soul' principle. As do those from theologians, regarding life after death for a Christian.\n\nFor the Chinese, ancestral spirits, gods, devils and ghosts play important roles. Supernatural intervention and magical powers have to be reckoned with. Malevolent, wandering spirits that have no male descendants to worship them must be appeased or they can bring bad luck, sickness and death. Makeshift altars are sometimes set up in streets, joss sticks are burned and offerings made, especially on the 15th day of the Seventh Moon at the Hungry Ghosts Festival (Yu Lan). With the fundamental dualism of Chinese cosmology, devils and their cohorts are yin, ‘inauspicious and gloomy'. Conversely gods, idols and the like are yang and 'lucky and bright'.\n\nIn this study, father died in 1959. When windows rattled, doors opened mysteriously, or troubles befell the family, his spirit, rightly or wrongly, was at one time suspected. This had to be propitiated by visits to the temple. When death strikes, a family tends to become even more superstitious. Scissors and knives are hidden to avoid children cutting themselves and thereby inadvertently hurting the corpse. This is termed lei hei (##) meaning an edged tool or weapon which can injure.\n\nIn this study, a Buddhist prayer in plastic holders was placed in strategic positions around family members' homes, including on the eldest daughter's bedside table. Although a person is a Christian, there is nothing like hedging protection. One granddaughter who had yam ngaan (dark eyes), namely psychic powers, heard a woman ghost wailing at night. When she placed the prayer on her bedside table, it kept quiet. This prayer could be rendered ineffective if taken into a church. Chinese always seem much closer to the spirit world than the average Westerner. For example, some of the older drivers on late-night buses travelling along the Pok Fu Lam Road stop and open the door whether anyone is waiting there or not. This is said to be to allow wandering spirits to get on and go back to the cemetery for the night.\n\nChinese dislike people dying at home as it is considered 'unclean'. If they do, the body is removed as soon as possible, often in a woven,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212589, "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-1991", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "the Buddhist hall. After this was finished close mourners changed into everyday, brightly coloured clothes. A meal was held in a restaurant. There were seven courses. About 50 people attended. Meat was served.\n\nThe immediate family members then went home and took a second bath with pomelo and wampee (variant spelling wampi) leaves to purify the water. Lucky packages were opened. Besides money they contained pieces of hibiscus, foo paak (†), a homonym also meaning wealth or riches. Another packet contained, in addition to money, a needle and thread, and a lady's hairpin, described as kat lei ( ). This is interpreted as pierce or sharp, also as lucky or profit. Anything that could bring bad luck, such as black objects, had been burned. Things that were brought home, for good luck, included white mourning shoes and white attire. These were known as tsoi paak (ĦĦ ), for ‘good luck'. The large photograph used at services was later hung in the dead woman's home. Some maintain it should be packed away or it can bring bad luck.\n\nAshes\n\nThe day after the fifth tsat the immediate relatives went to the funeral parlour to collect the ashes. Everyone expressed pleasure that these were 'fairly white'. They are often blackish. There was a short ceremony. Joss sticks and ‘gold bars' were burned, together with a rosette made up with yellow papers with blessings printed on them.\n\nAt Ching Chung Koon (Temple) permission to enter was requested from the two door (earth) gods. Everyone bowed three times. An orange was placed on each shrine. The niche selected two weeks earlier to hold the ashes of the dead woman, together with another alongside for her husband, was not too high so it was accessible. His remains were moved from another niche. The cost for each, in 1988, was $10,800, increased from $600 in 1966. (Business is thriving and extensions are continually being built to the columbarium.) The mother's niche number is '17' which can be interpreted, 'certainly you will get it.' The father's niche is '18', read as 'definitely will prosper'.\n\nThe mourners bowed three times to 'spirit neighbours' of father and mother and burned single incense sticks in all vases in that room. An effort was made not to offend and not sit on ledges in front of other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212590, "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-1991", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "124\n\nniches. If this happened, one bowed and apologised aloud to the spirits.\n\nThe ceremony was conducted by a Taoist brother who carefully poured the ashes through a white cloth folded in the neck of a funnel. The deceased's gold bracelet together with a piece of jade were also deposited in the urn. The top was tied on with red ribbon. Her name was written on the outside of the urn with red paint, 'free hand' (without butt of hand resting on anything). The Taoist painted fine characters although he professed to have had little schooling. After mourners bowed three times flowers were arranged in vases. Paper rosettes were burned. Also, two tables were placed in front of the two niches and a feast, including fruit, cakes and rice wine, was laid out. The two urns, each covered in white cloth, were then inserted in their respective niches, the doors were sealed with plaster and more joss sticks and yellow rosettes were burned. The six mourners then lined up, recited Buddhist prayers and received lucky packets. It was necessary for the Chinese candles to burn out before bowing goodbye and leaving the columbarium for a late, 4.00 pm, vegetarian 'lunch'.\n\nSixth Tsat\n\nAlthough official ceremonies ended with the fifth, the family paid a further visit to Ching Chung Koon, where the ashes are kept, on the sixth tsat. Joss sticks in clusters of three (one each for heaven, earth and mankind), paper 'gold bars' and a large rosette made up of coloured paper were burned. These eight-inch squares of yellow paper had been 'blessed' by an old woman. She meticulously burnt a hole in the centre of each single sheet with a joss stick. Also, single joss sticks were placed in all vases for other souls in that room of the temple.\n\nCharity\n\nAt this stage, the three daughters were informed by a fortune teller that, for their mother to enter kik lok shai kaai (extremely happy world) it would help if they performed some charitable deeds. A donation of $2,000 was made to a poor, elderly watchman to help with medical expenses. 'Give to a charitable organisation, with heavy overheads, there is no telling where the money goes,' one daughter said.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212592, "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-1991", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "126\n\nThere are different versions.\" Leung suggests that the sharing of pork between ancestors and descendants renews the symbolic union in two worlds. The living know that to receive blessings they must continue to worship. Some do not share ritual pork with outsiders thus redefining membership of clan or family.\n\nIn this study, even after mourning ended there were visits. These could be to the temple where the ashes are kept, at Ching Ming ('Chinese Easter'), the day for grave cleaning in the spring; or at Chung Yeung, the ninth day of the ninth moon (in Hong Kong, until 1967, when graves were visited firecrackers were let off to frighten away malevolent spirits). Visits were also made by the family to the soul tablet at the Buddhist Hall in Kowloon, or to the shrine at the second daughter's home. Visits took place on her sz kei (FEE), the anniversary of her death, and her shaang kei (EE), the anniversary of her birthday. On one visit to the second daughter's home she recited a Buddhist prayer 80 times over water which was later drunk by all present.\n\nThe eldest daughter was still unsettled, unable to sleep at nights and not feeling secure when watching television alone. Apprehensive about accidents, she instructed the maid to wash the car with water over which she had said a Buddhist prayer.\n\nThe deceased herself used occasionally to attend seances of foo kei (AL) seeking guidance at a small Buddhist Association hall in Western District. In this Chinese version of 'planchette' a spirit medium receives messages from the dead. These are written with a pointed willow stick in a bed of sand or sawdust.\" Foo kei is also practised at the temple where the ashes of the deceased lie. However, relatives have not so far tried to contact the dead woman using divinatory means.\n\nDreams\n\nDreams played an important part in this study. The third daughter had given her mother a jacket and, after she died, the daughter retrieved it. The following night a friend dreamed the deceased complained of feeling cold. The jacket was promptly returned and hung in mother's wardrobe.\n\nAn associate dreamed the face of the deceased was black, covered with soot and her right arm was red like raw meat. It was concluded the dead person's spirit tablet in the temple was too close to the furnace", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212608, "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-1991", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "142\n\nChinese troops in India was no new one. Sir Henry Wade, who was British Minister to the Imperial Court at Peking in the 1870's had the same idea, frequently pressed, but without success.\n\nSun Yat Sen, if one is to judge from what he writes in the \"Three Principles\", claimed that Burma should belong to China. For several centuries, it is true, though maybe spasmodically, the Court of Ava sent a decennial tribute mission to Peking, and this continued even after the British occupation, until 1896, in much the same way as Siam, for instance, sent a mission every four years; but there seems little doubt that the Burmese considered the mission more in the nature of a cultural courtesy than as a token of submission. Any reassertion by China to a claim to tribute would undoubtedly be resented.\n\nThe Burmese, like the Indians, take religion seriously. Every Burmese young man spends a period, even if only a few days, in a Buddhist temple. The monks, or pongyis, as they are called, number about 1% of the Buddhist population. Their shaven heads and yellow robes are a common sight, particularly in the morning hours when they go around with the wooden bowl, begging for the day's share of rice. In recent years they have taken an active part in politics, and there was some evidence that the Japanese were using them as a fifth column. The Chinese troops, during the fighting, were so convinced of this that they shot any they caught. The political activities of the pongyis are not approved of by many true Buddhists, and opinion should be reserved on this aspect, until more is known about the facts.\n\nThe Burmese enjoyed a large measure of self-government. Unfortunately the sense of responsibility in their politicians was insufficient to overcome the native propensity for intrigue and corruption. The graft in the administration stank to high heaven: it was a situation in which Japanese money could talk. The Prime Minister himself, U Saw, slipped up and had to be arrested for high treason; as it happened, while passing through Honolulu, only a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbour.\n\nMeanwhile, Germany had invaded Russia, the British entered Syria, the Japanese entered Indo-China, General Tojo formed a new government, the U.S.A. decided to arm her merchant ships, and the Bush Warfare School staged a demonstration for Mr. Duff Cooper and the Governor of Burma. On the edge of the jungle a small fort had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213067, "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-1993", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "116\n\nwho watches over the health and welfare of the community, though one story claims that he was originally worshipped by agriculturists probably due to his acclaimed ability to cause rain during droughts. Although revered in temples dedicated to him he is, however, nowadays more widely worshipped in other temples where he is a secondary deity. The cult which developed around the memory of a long dead Buddhist monk, a Sung dynasty Ch'an Master, has now become interdenominational with him being worshipped in folk religion temples using Taoist rituals.\n\nCh'ing-shui Tsu-shih is consulted by devotees to obtain treatment for and cures from their infirmities, and is also offered regular reverence for the protection of health by the hale and hearty, and for peace of mind and tranquillity. In some places he is believed to be particularly efficacious for the treatment of deafness, insanity and blindness. In a great number of folk religion temples in which his image is housed there are mediums who speak with his voice providing answers to queries, prescriptions and protective talismans. Exorcists also operate before images of Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. He is moreover revered as a loyal Chinese, violently anti-Mongol [claimed so even to this day!], tales being told of his loyalist activities against the usurpers.\n\nHis image, despite being a popular folk religion deity, is easily identifiable firstly by the robes and hat of a Buddhist monk, and secondly by his black face and in particular, by his comparatively large hooked nose and jutting chin. His face is pinched and drawn, looking remarkably like the preserved bodies of certain monks seen on Buddhist altars, and also looking for all the world as if he has lost all his teeth. His images, depicting him sitting cross-legged, are usually swathed in silken robes donated by devotees annually on his birthday. He is also portrayed holding a fly switch or a bowl and rattle staff. In several temples, all near to Hsikang just north of Tainan, three images side by side represent this one deity: they are said to be three brothers, of whom the eldest represented the deity with his black face, the other two, without individual names, having red and yellow faces, but all three together are believed to be a Unity. There did not appear to be any legend supporting this concept, though the three each has a separate annual festival [There appears to be a possible confusion here with the cult of San Tai Tsu-shih : see below].\n\nCh'ing-shui Tsu-shih's cult centre is located at his major temple in P'englai in Anhsi county in Fukien province. He is also the patron of\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213068, "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-1993", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "117\n\nCh'uanchou immigrants overseas, and in particular those from Yangchun. There are more than seventy-three temples in Taiwan dedicated to the deity, mostly in the Yunlin area, and as would be expected, he is very popular in Southeast Asian Fukienese communities where his images are to be seen in a great number of temples. However, his image has not been noted in either Hong Kong or Macau, nor had the local carvers in the two colonies heard of the deity.\n\nIn Taiwan and Fukienese communities in Southeast Asia, many small images are grouped in comparatively large numbers on the main altar tables of Ch'ing-shui temples. These are borrowed by the sick or by close relatives who beat them home, where they are venerated, often to diagnose sickness before prescribing a remedy. This is done through a medium, though occasionally a villager who has never been in a trance before may suddenly voice the advice of Ch'ing-shui. Some families purchase their own image of Ch'ing-shui for their family shrine, usually after the deity has approached a member of the family in a dream and suggested the idea to him or her. Very rarely do laymen approach the god directly; he is consulted through a medium who recites incantations and receives instructions at a séance during which the deity determines the cause of the problem and prescribes the remedy.\n\nIn Penang, Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih is the main deity in the famous snake temple, where a great number of vipers hang from beams and branches and are known as the lieutenants of Ch'ing-shui or 'blue dragons', being referred to by devotees simply as 'dragons'. In another Penang temple, four images of soldiers in armour flank the image of the main deity, Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih, with all four having surnames and together being known as the Four Great Marshals (of Ch'ing-shui) [Ssu Ta Yuan-shuai].\n\nLegends about Ch'ing-shui are numerous and varied. One or two temple custodians have tried to place him amongst the mythological heroes of the Feng-shen Yen-i, including Purcell, but nowhere in the legends of the early dynastic era is there any reference to Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. In general, he appears to have been a Buddhist monk, born in Yangchun during the Sung dynasty, in AD 1044, and to have died in ca. 1124. Amongst the various claims, one custodian suggested that he was a Sung military adviser, Ch'en Ming-chao, who fought a losing battle against foreign invaders and then fled south with the defeated dynasty and settled.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213071, "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-1993", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "120\n\ndrought. He is also renowned for his supernatural involvement in the construction of major bridges.\n\nIn some villages when a person dies, an image of Ch'ing-shui is taken from the temple for a fourteen or twenty-one day stay, to help pass on prayers and supplications of the relatives to the Underworld on behalf of the newly deceased soul.\n\nThe dates of his annual festival vary considerably from temple to temple. The most popular dates are the 6th of the first lunar month and the double sixth. In Singapore it is celebrated more often than not on the 7th of the first, with the second and fourth days of the twelfth lunar months being quite popular too in Malaysia and Taiwan. In a few places he is revered on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month, the anniversary of his death. In Singapore his cult followers claim that his festival is not celebrated with processions as other cults do with their deities.\n\nSan P'ing Tsu-shih\n\nThe identity of the third cult deity, San P'ing Tsu-shih, has proved controversial as a number of temple keepers in Singapore and Malaysia have claimed that he is identical with Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. The majority, however, believe him to be simply an influential Buddhist priest whose name is now lost. He was generally known by his name in religion, I-chung and, according to T'ang inscriptions, was considered to have been a patriarch of Chinese Buddhism, a local claim which failed. Nowadays he is revered by devotees in the popular religion temples where his image stands on its own altar and where he is prayed to, especially, for his ability to cure sickness.\n\nHis cult centre is some twenty miles south west of Changchou in P'ing-ho district where his temple is popular with pilgrims from Amoy and Changchou who travel to the remote site by bus in large numbers. Very small images of the deity are to be seen hanging from the rear-view mirrors in taxis in Amoy where he is claimed to be the most popular of all protective deities.\n\nLegend claims that he lived in Changpu in Fukien province, a learned man who was able to predict the patterns of lives and the dates of individuals' deaths. According to a temple keeper in Nantou in Taiwan,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213072, "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-1993", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "121\n\nhe was a hero who helped pacify the San P'ing area of Changchou who then had settled in the area, and when the T'ang philosopher, Han Yu, was banished to Ch'aochou in AD 819 he and I-chung saw much of each other.\n\nHis legends are so similar to those told about Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih that it is more than likely that they have been confused and adapted by devotees. His image portrays him as a seated Buddhist monk, holding a fan in his right hand, but without any unique identifying characteristics. His festival is generally celebrated on the double sixth. It is also celebrated on two other dates, lesser festivals, the 26th of the sixth, being the anniversary of his enlightenment, and the 26th of the tenth, the anniversary of him being borne off to Heaven.\n\nThree temples in Taiwan are dedicated to him, two in Taman and one in Nantou, though his image also appears on a number of secondary altars elsewhere in Taiwan. In a large temple in central Taman his image is the centre one of a triad flanked by Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih on his right hand, and San Tai Tsu-shih on his left. They are said to have been sworn blood brothers.\n\nHis image has not been seen in Hong Kong or Macau, and has only been noted on one altar in SE Asia, in Singapore where he is said to have been an incarnation of Ti-ts'ang Wang. They claimed that he died in Amoy where he sank into the ground and disappeared. He is portrayed on the Singapore altar as a standing gilded figure wearing a Buddhist mitre, and holding a rattle stick in his right hand and a bowl in his left.\n\nSan Tai Tsu-shih\n\nAnother separate southern Fukienese cult appears to be confused with Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. Three individual images have been noted on two altars, both in Yunlin county in central Taiwan, under the title of The Three Generations of Patron Saints or, as it was explained in one of the temples, that the three images represented one deity, The Third Generation Patron Saint, San Tai Tsu-shih. The main deity of the three is said to be the Second Buddha of the 31st kalpa. Some Taiwanese hagiographies claim that Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih and San Tai Tsu-shih are one and the same deity, though one of the two temple keepers refuted this and explained that Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih is the deputy to San Tai Tsu-shih.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213073, "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-1993", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "122\n\nshih. The latter has not been noted in any altars in southern Fukien province, nor in SE Asia, though it is almost certainly a local Fukienese cult. However, in one of the temples in Singapore containing the image of San P'ing Tsu-shih it was claimed that there was a trio of sworn blood brothers, San Tai Tsu-shih, San P'ing Tsu-shih and Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. This group logically ties together the concept of a trio, with Ch'ing-shui being involved as a junior deity and with a black face.\n\nThe confusion arises presumably due to the similarity of the images. San Tai Tsu-shih is also depicted as a standard image of a monk, sitting cross-legged, wearing the five-leaf bodhisattva crown, but with a pink face. He is also depicted holding a fly whisk in his right hand and his left hand in a Buddhist mystical sign. Legend, as related in one of the temples, claims that the three generations, the father, grandfather and son, were fortune tellers of great renown who lived a thousand years ago in Ankur in Fukien, who cured the sick. In several successive years of desperate drought and famine, so the legend continues, they disposed of all their worldly wealth, giving it away to the poor and needy. Revered predominantly by emigrants from the Ankur region the triad is prayed to for a cure for all forms of sickness. They are also revered by local people who bear the same surname, Lin, with people referring to the old grandfather for advice on land purchase and before starting up a new business.\n\nThese three cult deities are revered separately and on their own altars in different temples both in the Amoy region and elsewhere, and are regarded as important cult units. Ostensibly the latter two, the deified Buddhist monks, would seem to be Buddhist deities; however, in practice all three cults are to be seen nowadays only in popular religion temples though never together. As with virtually all popular religion cults, they are not revered in isolation and stand on their own altars in temples beside altars bearing other deities of unconnected cults.\n\nNOTES\n\nOthers claim that it was the Lord of the North Star (Pei-tou Hsing-chun) who introduced this deity to mankind.\n\nThis is one of the instances when he appears to be being confused with Sun Ssu-miao.\n\nChang Sheng-che was identified in a rural temple in Chin-mei, on the mainland across the strait from Amoy island as the 'magician' Fa-chu Kung [qv]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213298, "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": 120, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "The author's informant said that, according to his sources, about 50 per cent of Chinese buyers in Canada are concerned about fung shui, although they may not engage a master. They may bring along a knowledgeable friend to advise or the buyer will request pertinent information from the agent.\n\nAuthor Sarah Rossbach, who lives in the United States, was a fung shui student of Beijing-born Lin Yun. He founded the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist Temple in Berkeley, California. Rossbach is now a fung shui consultant. Yet she admits many people prefer to be billed for 'design services' rather than for 'geomancy'. The title, 'environmental consultant', too, is often used (Konclus, 1991:6).\n\nThe author's Chinese godson, who lives in the United States, says that there is more interest in fung shui in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. In such places a few Westerners employ fung shui at official openings of shops and stores.\n\nAmong Caucasians, the aim in the West is usually for fung shui to provide 'tranquility' and Westerners make adjustments to buildings and their interiors so that 'good order' prevails. Everyone, inwardly, needs to live in balance with their environment and the universe. Fung shui appeals to many because it is a form of cosmology within the grasp of common man. As one lady responded to the author: 'Yes I'm a Scot, a Celt. I believe in that sort of thing.'\n\nConclusions\n\nNow is the time to try to pull some of the themes discussed in this paper together, even if, with much fung shui doctrine, what some people call 'jungle sensitiveness' can be seen to prevail. Many principles cannot be measured with a tape measure or weighed with a balance.\n\nAlthough forms of geomancy are not uncommon in countries around the world, Chinese fung shui is more complex than most geomantic doctrines. While much may not be amenable to scientific explanation, as Bard writes, Chinese fung shui is certainly not the superstition of an unsophisticated people (Bard, 1988:104). The aim is, basically, to harmonise elemental forces and create environments, in the home, workplace or in the afterlife, free of discord. A great deal is based on the\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213320, "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": 142, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "123\n\nCasualties suffered by the Chinese were estimated at some twelve to fifteen hundred, with a powder factory and several arsenals destroyed.\n\nThe incident which has left its mark in regimental histories is now known as the Battle of the Joss-house. A small detachment of the Royal Irish were held up by some three hundred Manchu Tatars who, having seen their retreat cut off by the Naval Brigade, had taken cover in a small Buddhist temple, the Temple of Reverence for Heaven, between two hills, one of which was Kuan Yin Shan, with a single entrance guarded by an internal 'spun wall'. The stubborn valour of the Tatar soldiers cost the Royal Irish dear. After an initial sortie, their detachment commander, Lieutenant A. Murray, drew off his men to wait for reinforcements. The next assault by a small number of men from both the Royal Irish and the 49th (Hertfordshires) had already been repelled with at least one killed and several wounded. A company of the Royal Irish, commanded by Captain Edwards, was intercepted in its advance and, accompanied by Colonel Tomlinson, who had heard what was passing, proceeded to the valley and joined the small body blockading the joss house. While the platoon of the Royal Irish waited for the rest of the battalion to come up, Lieutenant Murray was approached by the Hertfordshire's battalion commander who, having been warned that the temple was strongly manned, was understood to have made \"an injudicious and undeserved remark\" which was overheard by Colonel Tomlinson. They were now a force considered strong enough by Tomlinson to carry the building at the point of the bayonet, and Tomlinson's reaction to what he must have taken as a slur on Irish courage, his regiment or himself, was immediately to call for the men of the Royal Irish and the Hertfordshires to follow him and storm the temple. He rushed in at the temple door where he was shot dead with two bullets through the neck and all who had accompanied him were either killed or wounded. After Tomlinson had fallen, it became almost impossible to prevent the Royal Irish from rushing madly at the temple, for the men burned to avenge their Colonel, whom they described as \"the best officer who ever said 'Come-on' to a grenadier company\". In more formal language, General Gough recorded the same opinion, saying in his despatch that Tomlinson fell \"in full career of renown, honoured by the troops, and lamented by all\". The defenders, who were determined to fight to the bitter end, held out against assaults by the Royal Irish and part of the Naval Brigade, until Sappers under a Captain Pears finally used a 50-pound bag of powder to bring down the thick walls, after a party of Gunners commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Knowles who had brought...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213324, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "127\n\n1\n\n# NOTES\n\nThe Manchus established the Ch'ing dynasty in AD 1644, having overthrown the native Chinese Ming rulers. The Manchus were related to the central Asian group speaking a language akin to Mongol who settled in Manchuria many centuries earlier. They were usually referred to by Europeans as Tatars.\n\n2. Lach garrison town, including Chapu, contained a Tatar walled city separate from the Chinese city.\n\nIn 1840 HMS bug Algerine paid a flying visit to Chapu and was fired upon from some batteries near the town. During the attack on Chapu in 1842, these batteries were quickly put out of action by the Royal Navy.\n\n4. Under command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker.\n\n*The Westmorland Regiment was granted the China Dragon superscribed “China” for service during the China War of 1840-42.\n\n*The Nemesis was the first iron steamer to round the Cape of Good Hope. She was never commissioned as one of HM's vessels of war, yet was generally commanded by Royal Navy officers. She was of the greatest use throughout the First China War and after the Treaty of Nanking returned to Bombay.\n\nA joss-house is the Victorian name for a Chinese temple or shrine, the house where the joss (god, from the Portuguese \"Deos\") was situated. From contemporary sketches and descriptions, the joss house in question would appear to have been a medium-sized Buddhist establishment, and although there were no references to priests, monks, or nuns, it had residential accommodation in addition to the usual altar halls.\n\nLung Fu was a company commander, Iso-ling (grade 4a), of one of the Eight Manchu Banners.\n\n*Parker, L. II. Chinese Account of the Opium War.\n\nA Tao-tai was an imperial Circuit Intendant, a member of the hierarchy controlling several prefectures.\n\nI-li-pu (1770-1847) was a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner and an Imperial Clansman. He was banished for disobedience in 1841 but recalled and appointed acting assistant military lieutenant-governor at Chapu in early 1842, his predecessor having died of wounds during the British attack. Chapu was still occupied by the British, and I-li-pu had to remain in Hangchou, where he received orders to move to Soochou as it was understood that he was respected by the British, and the Court wished him to be on hand to carry out negotiations.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213612, "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-1995", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "181\n\nSINGAPORE'S DISAPPEARING TEMPLES AND THE DECLINE AND APPARENT DEMISE OF A POPULAR RELIGION CULT\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nI first passed through Singapore in the mid-1940s and scarcely noticed Chinese temples even though, as I later discovered, they were everywhere. Then, during my first comparatively lengthy stay on the island in the early 1960s, during a carefully planned tour of each of the squares on the Street Guide, I found that there was hardly an area without at least one and often two or three, ranging from small single hall temples to the largest multi-hall and airy Buddhist temples. The majority were popular religion shrines and temples, relatively small and certainly far removed from the comparatively spotless cleanliness of the Buddhist temples. However, the atmosphere and the friendliness of the devotees more than made up for it.\n\nIf we look back at dynastic China there has been a rigid continuity of tradition in temples and temple life and even today we can be in the present and yet in temples in communion with the past. Nothing changed over the ages despite temple contents being comparatively flimsy. Roofs remain the same, vermilion pillars have kept their colour and shape, images have varied little apart from the liberal use today of bright chemical paints and monks wear the same garb. Unlike the edifices of Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Sumer, built to last forever, temple contents and structures have remained century after century being rebuilt as and when necessary and are still in use, though often in mainland China the images are in a parlous state and covered in dust.\n\nEach of the popular religion temples in Singapore had some unique aspect, something which rewarded my diligence. This might not necessarily be part of worship. It could be the tales told about the deities, or the origin and development of the temple. At that time I was primarily interested in identifying the deities and sorting them into categories. It took some time to find the most convenient way to record the information I was collecting. Eventually it began to fall into place and, of course, the more I discovered the more questions I raised, and so it went on,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213618, "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-1995", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "187\n\nTWO GROUPS OF CHINESE DEITIES RARELY SEEN ON CHINESE ALTARS\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nImages of Chinese deities on altars either stand alone, with their aides and assistants where applicable, or in groups of two, three, five, eight, ten, eighteen as dictated by their legend or custom. There are many such groups, most of which are to be seen on a number of temples. However, two groups, though quite frequently referred to in scripture and legend have only been noted once. The first, the Six Patriarchs of Buddhism, stand on three altars, side by side, in a secondary hall of a popular religion temple run by Ch'aochou devotees in Chonburi, a city just south of Bangkok. The second, the Taoist Seven True Ones (of the Northern School), the disciples, enlightened ones, of Wang Chung-yang can be seen in a separate side hall dedicated to them of a temple at the base of Hua Shan in Shensi province.\n\nThe Patriarchs of Buddhism, Tsu\n\nThere are two separate groups of Buddhist patriarchs, those of the West, that is, with Indian and Hindu origins, and those of the East, that is, Chinese. Indian patriarchs of Western Buddhism totalled twenty-eight, a few of whom were still revered in mainland Chinese temples during the earlier part of this century.\n\nThe Chinese patriarchs of Eastern Buddhism, a total of six, the Tung-tsu Liu(1), belong to a relatively late stage in the development of Buddhism in China of which one, the last and Sixth, Liu Tsu, is still regarded as a major deity in his own right by the Cantonese. However, images of Liu Tsu, together with the other five Patriarchs are to be seen in Chonburi, in a large combined Buddhist-Taoist temple.\n\nThe first patriarch of Chinese Buddhism is Bodhidharma who was also the 28th and last Patriarch of Indian Buddhism. He left India when already an old man and in about AD 520 after travelling for about three years he reached Canton bringing with him the sacred alms bowl of the Indian Patriarchate. He died some ten years later and, according to different schools of thought, is buried either near Loyang or near...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213620, "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-1995", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "The Sixth, Liu Tsu (NL) and last Patriarch of the Ch'an sect of Chinese Buddhism lived during the 7th century AD and is best known by his name in religion, Hui Neng (E). He is commonly called Ch'an-tsung Liu Tsu Hui Neng (AE). Hui Neng studied under the Fifth Patriarch, Hung Jen, in Hupei province, was chosen by him to be his successor and, as the Buddhist Law was by that time well established in China, Liu Tsu did not feel the need to proclaim his successor, in particular. He founded the “Sudden Enlightenment School\". He was born into the Lu family in Hsin-hsing county in Kuangtung province in 637. Stories are told about his upbringing in the province by poverty-stricken parents and as an illiterate youth his employment as a common labourer in the kitchen of the Fifth Patriarch. Also, whilst still a youth he amazed monks and nuns with his miraculous ability to understand the chanted sutras.\n\nIn 676 he took holy orders in the Kuang-hsiao Ssu in Canton, the temple where Ta Mo had stayed on his arrival from India some 150 years earlier, and insisted on working in the fields until old age prevented it. He was a great proponent of the saying he first created \"One day no work, one day no food\". A special pagoda was erected in the grounds of the temple and the hair shaved from the head of Hui Neng was stored there as a relic.\n\nHe died in 713 in the Kuo-en Monastery in Kuangtung where his corpse, which proved to be incorruptible, was enshrined. It was lacquered and looked for all the world as it did whilst still living. His mummified body is still kept in the Nan-hua Monastery, built by Hui Neng on Nan-hua mountain, a prime site some twenty miles from Shaoguan, north of Canton.\n\nThe Ch'an cult developed in the Nan-hua Monastery. Liu Tsu has been adopted by Buddhists as the protective genius of the province of Kuangtung and was, for example, successfully prayed to for rain in 1900 during a prolonged drought. His image still stands in the temple of the Six Banyans in Canton city, and has been seen on altars in Cantonese communities in SE Asia and in Hong Kong and Macau, and also in one of Hong Kong's clan associations as the patron of the Lu clan, with his image amidst slips and tablets dedicated to the departed Lu's.\n\nThe standard image of Liu Tsu, in the likeness of the mummified body, portrays him as an elderly monk, sitting cross-legged, head bent forward with his hands resting palms upward on his lap. In one or two images he is portrayed wearing the bodhisattva's five-leaf crown. One of the best-known Shekwan potters, Ch'en Wei-yen [18th century] had been ill for some time. His mother prayed to Liu Tsu and promised that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213621, "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-1995", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "190\n\nher son would produce two images of the Patriarch if the son was cured. The son then produced the now famous Liu Tsu image, copying the mummified body, one small and one large, which have now been copied by most temples.\n\nThe Taoist Seven True Ones\n\nThe Taoist Patriarch Chung-yang founded the Taoist Ch'üan-chen sect during the Southern Sung dynasty. His seven disciples, enlightened ones, were known as the Seven True Ones (of the Northern school), though in some places, notably in Taiwan, it is believed that he and Ch'iu Ch'ang-ch'un were both only members of the group of Seven, and not the founder and senior member respectively. He and his seven disciples lived during the eras of the Southern Sung and Yüan dynasties, the 12th and 13th centuries AD. The Seven taught that meditation and exercises were the path to perfection through internal transformation of mind and body. Most of the Seven have not been noted in image form on altars, though tales of their lives, struggles and attainments to achieve the Tao are written up and available in a number of southern Chinese Taoist temples, though none have been encountered in Taiwan. The monastic headquarters of the Sect was first established in Shantung province, later moving to the Pai-yün Kuan in Peking. The tenets of the sect advocate the path to Tao through meditation and the transformation of mind and body rather than through physical exercises and the use of medicinal herbs. The secondary title of the Sect is the Golden Lotus Orthodox Belief, Chin-lien Tseng-tsang, reflecting the influence of Buddhism on the Sect.\n\nImages of Wang Chung-yang and of all Seven were noted in a major monastery in Shansi early this century, and are still to be seen in the temple at the base of Hua Shan in Shensi province.\n\nThese Seven Disciples or Taoist Masters, known as Chen-jen, were:\n\nThe first of the disciples is Ch'iu Ch'ang-ch'un, Ch'iu, the Perfect One of Eternal Youth. A master of alchemy and now a Taoist saint and Immortal, he lived towards the end of the twelfth century, the period of Tatar rule over China, and is renowned as the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213623, "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-1995", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "192\n\nAnother claim suggests that Ch'iu was the adviser to the Yuan emperor Shih Tsu [better known as the Great Kublai Khan] though as Ch'iu is said to have died in AD 1227 this would be impossible; yet another claim which is again fanciful, Ch'iu is said to have been the author of the dramatic version of the \"Journey to the West\" the well-known story in which Monkey [Ch'i-t'ien Ta-sheng] aids a famous monk to carry Buddhist scriptures to China from India.\n\nHis mausoleum was in the influential Taoist White Cloud Monastery, the Sect centre, in Peking. Temple records in the Pai-t'a Dagoba in the Pei Hai in Peking noted that he died at the age of 80 in AD 1227.\n\nHis image is to be seen on two altars in Hong Kong, both in Taoist monasteries where he is portrayed as a seated Taoist figure dressed in robes, blue in one monastery and golden in the other, with a black beard. He is wearing the tiny Taoist crown and holds a fly switch in his right hand. He has no unique identifying characteristics, though in private images he is often depicted with his blue robes decorated with pa-kua signs. His image, in both monasteries, is on a secondary altar in a main hall dedicated to Wang Ch'ung-yang, with Lu Tung-pin being the sole deity in the other secondary altar. These three Immortals are known collectively as the Three Generations, with Lü the eldest, Wang the second generation and Ch'iu the third generation and the junior.\n\nHis great weakness, which he had to overcome, was his impatience. He was renowned for his propensity to butt in and offer his opinion, often after reaching conclusions prematurely.\n\nIn Peking, his image in the Tan-chi Kung depicted him as a young man without eyebrows or whiskers and with a whey-coloured face. In Singapore, his old gilded image stands on an altar in an old temple in Telok Blangah where he shares a shrine on an altar with Lu Tung-pin, one of the Eight Immortals, with the other shrine occupied by images of Ho Hsien-ku, another of the Eight Immortals, and Sun Fu-jen, an unidentified matron.\n\nCh'iu was deified by the Yuan dynasty emperor Shih Tsu [Kublai Khan, ca AD 1260] as: Ch'ang-ch'un Yen-tao Chu-chiao Chen-jen (MIÈ3⁄4Ç^). Later, at the time of Yuan Wu Tsung [ca. AD 1308],", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213778, "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-1996", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "101\n\nSouthern China, as the Liannan document saying the Lü Shan Jiu Lang (written Lu Shan Jiu Lang) buried his father on a mountain in Gaozhou.\n\nOne major source of information of religious practice during the Song is the Southern Song work of anecdotal literature, the Yi Jian Zhi. It made frequent mentions of the well-known styles of Daoist magic such as the Thunder Magic and the Tian Xin Zheng Fa, the Buddhist Weize spell related to the Yujia style of exorcism, as well as various popular gods, and magicians who were neither Daoist or Buddhist. Some of these lay magicians practiced magic of the Daoist and Buddhist varieties mentioned above. Noticeably some of those lay magicians blew the horns [of animals] in their rites, and some were practicing what is called Mao Shan magic. It curiously made no mention of Lú Shan Jiu Lang or his immediate disciples found in Bar's passage.\n\nBut as I have mentioned, sources on Chinese religion of ancient times do have many examples of divinities with names of the same form as the Lú Shan Jiu Lang and his colleagues. The latter appear to be part of the trend between Tang and the Five Dynasties during which many of these other divinities are recorded. Some of the popular gods mentioned in Yi Jian Zhi do bear four character names ending with a numeric character and lang, resembling the names of Lü Shan Jiu Lang. Earlier examples include the Zhu Wang San Lang shen mentioned during the Southern Dynasties, which the book alleges to be the name in use at its time of writing in Yielang county in the present Sichuan Province, although in this example San Lang referred to three people rather than one. During the Tang, a work of anecdotal literature recorded that during the Emperor's visit to the mountain god of Huayue, he was told about a San Lang, who appeared to be a son of the god. Another work of anecdotal literature of about the same time recorded a female shaman(?) who specialized in communicating with the Jin Tian Wang (God of Hua Shan) and his son Hua Yue San Lang. This name, and many others, which are closer to Lu Shan Jiu Lang in form, is also found in Tang stories included in the Song compilation Taiping Guang Ji. During the Five Dynasties the Lu Yi Ji recorded a Pan Gu San Lang temple in a Guangdu county of the present Sichuan Province. An early Song work on the history of the Five Dynasties mentioned that in the year 932 the Emperor of Hou Tang conferred a title (styled \"General\") to a Tai Shan San Lang. Early during the Song it is reported\n\n41", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213816, "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-1996", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "140\n\nat the top was another of these tea houses and here we called a halt. I soon got into a chat with an old priest with his clean-shaven head. His temple, or rather hovel, was close there and he got his living by begging. He was stone blind. It was a mendicant Friar, and a wandering Friarð in argument. He freely acknowledged the absurdity of his creed. He is a Buddhist: and offered me on the spot to go with me and learn my creed if I would feed and clothe him. Then I jeered him about his idols, and why he did not get them to help him. The worst of them is, they all acknowledge the absurdity of it, but say it is their custom. Western Foreigners have customs and celestial's have customs, and all creeds are good alike: here the matter ends.\n\nWe again got on our route, and descended the valley. Mr Stringer and myself were so long with the old priest that we were far behind the rest of the party; but we were armed and therefore there was no danger. When we again reached the valley at the bottom, our road lay along a small stream for a few miles. The rest of the party were out of sight, and we went on alone, partly uncertain that we were going right. At last, however, the road suddenly opened into a deep valley on the right, and at last we saw the German Mission House, just under the brow of the hill, and our companions seated very comfortably on the balcony [Ed.: An illustration of the Lilong Station accompanies this article.] So we put our best leg foremost, and at last tired of walking and riding we got in about 5 o'clock. The house is not a very grand affair. But it just has served their purpose. There is only one other house near it for a long way. The situation is beautiful in the extreme, and as healthy as possible. They have a little ground in front, and on the sides of the hills are plantations of tea shrubs, though nothing very bright about them.\n\nThe missionary staff consists of Mr Winnes, who has been in China nearly 20 years, and a fine young German, named Eitel\". I was much struck with him. There is a nobleness and firmness in him which I greatly admire. In fact, there is something almost severe about his look. But the animation with which he speaks, and the natural energy of his character, together with his pleasing and gentlemanly deportment, lead you soon to see he is not an ordinary person. [Ed.: Photographs of Lechler, Winnes and Eitel accompany this article.]\n\nWe took a short walk on the hills, and then came home to dinner, which by the bye I enjoyed with a keen relish. Then we sat a while on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213845, "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-1996", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "170\n\nIn the area surrounding the Houwang Temple, colourful embroidered banners and decorated archways are erected. Before the formal feast day, i.e., the 16th of the eighth lunar month, nuns from Tei Tong Tsai are invited to pray for a successful festival by reciting Buddhist scriptures and burning paper cloth. To raise funds for the ever-expanding scale of the celebration, a party is held on the 17th, where rocket association representatives come to bid for sacred relics, i.e., items such as idols, vases, ornaments, etc. blessed by the deity. This is another opportunity, in addition to the bidding for rockets, for better-off villagers to boast of their wealth.\n\n74\n\nIn recent years, expenses for the festival have increased to around HK$500,000, including $100,000 or more for building the matshed and $200,000 or more for hiring opera troupes. Participating rocket associations increased from about five in the 1960s to more than fifteen in recent years. Showing off their financial capacity, some nouveaux riches since the War have become festival sponsors. They are settlers in Ma Wan Chung, which replaced Tung Chung Street as the local business centre, after a pier was built in the village vicinity in 1958 and a road leading to the pier was constructed in the 1960s. With improvements in water and electricity supply, medical services, etc., two-storey new houses were built in the pier area of Ma Wan Chung, changing the physical and social landscape of Tung Chung.5\n\nWhen Tung Chung Street's economic status was taken over by Ma Wan Chung, the Neighbourhood Association became obsolete and a new body emerged, under the name of the Preparatory Committee for the Houwang's Birthday Festival. The Committee consists of more than ten members, including village representatives and volunteers.76 With chairman, vice-chairman, and treasurer, this organization seems to be a modernized one, though people with economic power—shopowners in the area of Ma Wan Chung this time—continue to hold important positions. Even the location of the bulletin, recording the list of money donors in support of the god's feast day celebration, has changed from the exterior wall of the Yao-ho Store on Tung Chung Street to that of the Shun-ch'ang Store at Ma Wan Chung.\n\nWorth noticing is the effect of demographic change in Tung Chung since the 1950s. A great number of new immigrants moved in and settled in the district, filling the gap left by the male population, who", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213848, "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-1996", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "173\n\nfinancial resources in support of the god's feast day celebration, after the chiao ceremony had finally ceased to take place.\n\nOther religions such as Buddhism and Christianity did present themselves in Tung Chung in the post-War period and were not excluded by the local community, though they were not very popularly received. In the 1950s, a village called Tei Tong Tsai was established on the southern border of Tung Chung when a group of monasteries, nunneries, and Buddhist halls were built to provide monks and nuns with a self-sufficient retreat resort. Although monasteries are customarily institutions outside the village community, and the monks and nuns at Tei Tong Tsai seldom mingle with other villagers, the place is considered, officially and formally, part of the Tung Chung district. To fulfill the obligations of a community member, Tei Tong Tsai has to send its head monk to attend meetings of Tung Chung's Rural Committee. Monks and nuns also make voluntary donations to support the annual celebration of the Houwang's feast day. Before the festival begins, representative monks and nuns are sent from Tei Tong Tsai to chant Buddhist prayers and burn paper offerings at the Houwang Temple. In return for their service, they might receive courtesy recompense from the Preparatory Committee for the Houwang's Birthday Festival. Tei Tong Tsai's participation in the festival activities commemorating the principal local deity, however limited, manifests how essential the Houwang worship is for members of the Tung Chung community.\n\nAnother Buddhist monastery, the Lo-han Monastery (4), was built on the hillside at Shek Pik Au [!] in the 1970s. Outsiders, instead of local villagers, sponsored the construction and participated in worshipping activities there. The influence of the monastery on the religious belief of Tung Chung's residents is negligible. On the other hand, it is one of the regular donors supporting the annual celebration of the Houwang's feast day, as a means of demonstrating its membership in the Tung Chung community.\n\nAs for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant missionaries tried to establish bases in Tung Chung. For example, the Chous, of the San Tau village on the western border of the district, were converted to Catholicism under the influence of priests dispatched from Tai O. Nevertheless, missionary work has ceased since the beginning of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213909, "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-1996", "page_number": 261, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "236\n\nThe rituals performed by both the 'red hat' and the 'black hat' professional religious specialists, often connected in one way or another with mortuary rites, continue as before. The difference being that before redecoration the ritual performances in the half light, by 'red hats' in particular, accompanied by the boom of their ox horns blown at intervals during the rituals, provided an even more exotic and eerie scene.\n\nThe former layout of the temple consisted, as you entered the temple from the street, of the main hall dedicated to the Lord of T'ai Shan. This led through to the rear hall dedicated to the Saviour of the Underworld, the Buddhist deity, Ti-tsang Wang, with a long and comparatively narrow annexe running down the sides of the whole length of the two halls. On the other side of the halls were large rooms dedicated to the ritual services.\n\nThe usual images one would expect in the halls of both the Lord of T'ai Shan and Ti-tsang Wang stand either before or beside the altars, and lining the walls. Many are tamed demons such as Horse Face and Buffalo Head, and the Short Black and Tall White Demons who seize the souls of humans on their due date of death, dragging them before the City God for their primary interrogation. Others include the City God himself and the Goddess of Maternity, Chu-sheng Niang-niang, both of whom occupied their own secondary altars flanking that of Ti-tsang Wang; the Judges of the Ten Courts of the Underworld; and the Civil and Military Secretaries to the Lord of T'ai Shan.\n\nand they have been\n\nHowever, since the refurbishment of the temple, which took some two and a half years, the images down the side annexe which used to stand each in its own shrine have been relocated. The comparatively large image of the local tutelary deity, the Earth God, now has a shrine of his own in the Ti-tsang hall and the other two major images, of the Lord Protector of the Realm, Hu-kuo Tsun-wang Immortal Celestial Physician, Tien-i Chen-jen moved to the Ti-tsang Wang hall where they now sit on the main altar but in front, one on either side of the altar, both newly repainted. These two deities have borne these titles for at least thirty years and during that time the temple staff who appeared to be quite knowledgeable explained that the images down the side wall of the annexe had been brought in from other temples when the latter had been demolished for one reason or another, and their identities had been lost over the years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213911, "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-1996", "page_number": 263, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "239\n\nSUPPLICATING THE DEITIES\n\nIN MAINLAND CHINA'S TEMPLES\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nIt was interesting to note that in recently rebuilt or refurbished Buddhist and Taoist temples in Shanghai city there was no evidence of fortune sticks and blocks or of any equipment such as sand tables used for spirit communication. Temple keepers when questioned about it were quite clear. It was forbidden as superstition [mi-hsin]. In retrospect I have now noted a similar absence of spirit communication paraphernalia on altars on photographs taken in other cities and even in the countryside which I had overlooked during my visits.\n\nIt would appear that devotees in mainland China are permitted to offer incense and oil for the ever-burning lamp, and in some areas they also can burn charm papers before the images of the deities after which they can, orally, though virtually silently, put their pleas and offer prayers to the deity. However, in Shanghai at least, they were not, under any circumstances, able to obtain the immediate response which is the practice in Taiwan, Hong Kong, SE Asia and formerly, in China itself. They have to wait for their wishes to be responded to positively, or otherwise, by the deity. One of the temple keepers added that, as he understood it, 'this was the foreign method of worship'.\n\nIt must be added that outside mainland China possibly the prime reason why many devotees ever visit a temple is to obtain an immediate assurance and response to a question or problem which is worrying them.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214010, "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-1997", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "45\n\nas a Buddhist monk. The problem of identifying which members of the family are portrayed by images on altars has been complicated by temple keepers having their own personal views of the exact identity of each deity on their altars. At least four of Yang Yeh's other sons are individually revered on altars, with the complete family, usually seven sons, revered in at least four temples, though in two of these there are eight sons, together with Yang Yeh's two young daughters and several of his sons' wives.\n\nLegends recounted by tea-house story-tellers claimed that General Yang Yeh defeated the Mongols near Heng Shan in Shansi early in the Sung dynasty becoming one of the most powerful supporters of the Sung. Later he, together with his heroic sons, tried to save the emperor from the invading hordes, and with his wife chose to die rather than surrender. All but two of their sons died with them. The Fifth and Sixth made their separate ways home after many adventures. After falling in battle fighting the enemies of the Sung, Yang Yeh was awarded the title of The Marshal who Protected the Sung, Sung-pao Yüan-shuai*. His body was recaptured from the enemy, so legend relates, by a valorous captain who had used a secret weapon to defeat them. He caused fire to flow from a pot thereby scorching the hillside and then, having exhumed the general's corpse, he returned to the capital at Kaifeng where it was buried in state. A temple keeper in Kowloon Tsai in Hong Kong claimed that General Yang Yeh was killed by the Tatars who hung his body on a gate tower where, daily, Mongol soldiers fired arrows at it to cause pain to his soul.\n\nA popular opera describes how the Commander-in-Chief of the Sung forces, General Yang Yeh, was encircled by the Tatars and seeing no other way out defied capture by knocking out his own brains on a stone monument dedicated to the loyal Su Wu, the unyielding plenipotentiary of the Han dynasty. The Tatars recovered his remains and honouring his bravery built a mausoleum in the Hung-yang cave, but covertly buried his remains in a secret place elsewhere to avoid the Sung forces taking the corpse back to be buried in the family grave. Meng Liang, a junior officer serving with the Yangs [and possibly now represented by the image of the unidentified deity on the temple altar beside the main altar bearing the images of the Seven, near Taichung] bravely recovered the corpse from the false coffin which, as the Tatars had feared, then was buried back home. However, Yang Yeh's spirit", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214011, "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-1997", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "46\n\nappeared to the Sixth Son who was resting, weary and sick with over-work and revealed to him that Meng Liang had recovered the bones of another and gave the Sixth Son details of where his, the father's, body really lay. Meng Liang set out once more, disguised as a Tatar soldier and after a series of episodes the bones were recovered, but not before several of the Sixth Son's comrades had been killed or committed suicide. These deaths led the Sixth Son's condition to deteriorate and for his spirit to wander whilst he lay in a coma. The emperor's nephew on his way to visit him saw a tiger barring his path and shot and grazed it with the arrow. On reaching the bedside of the Sixth Son, who rallied at that point, the Prince was told that the tiger was the spirit of the Sixth Son roaming the hills and was duly appalled at the idea that he had nearly killed the Sixth Son. Despite all efforts, the Sixth Son's condition grew worse and soon he died, vomiting blood.\n\nIn another episode of the tea-house tales the ruler of the Liao Khitan planned to assassinate the Sung Emperor at a meeting to which the Sung Emperor had been invited at Chin-sha Nan. As the plan had been detected by the Eldest Son of the Yang family he disguised himself as the Sung emperor whilst the Second Son went as the Crown Prince, with the other brothers in attendance. In the event they in turn were recognised and in the ensuing fight the Second and Third Sons were killed and, apart from the Sixth and Seventh Sons, the others were captured.\n\nOne of several cult centres dedicated to the Yangs in northern China developed in a temple on the Buddhist holy mountain of Wu T'ai Shan, in northern Shansi province. There are at least three temples in Taiwan in which Yang Yeh is the main deity. And only in Taiwan are the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth sons collectively portrayed together on several altars with the collective title of the San Wang-tsu. In an old temple near Taichung the seven main images on the main altar represent the Seven Sons although, according to the temple keeper, the group did not include the father. However, the smaller portable images of the Seven on the front of the same altar had alongside them several other images which did include the Father, Yang Yeh, and the Mother, Yü Lao T'ai-chün, and a complete outsider, the mythological deity, Yang Chien [Erh Lang] who bears the same surname. The temple keeper explained that in about 1986 all nine main images, carved on the mainland many years ago and brought over to Taiwan, which at that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214014, "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-1997", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "48\n\nThe Fifth Son, Yang Yen-tet known most commonly as Yang the Fifth, Yang Wu LangB, is also known in individual temples as Marshal Yang, Yang Fu Ta-jen and Wu Shih-yeh. He was driven to despair by the occupying Tatar forces and became a monk on Wu T'ai Shan where he secretly performed great deeds in the forlorn hope that he could force the Tatars to leave China. After his death stories of his deeds spread and a separate cult grew up around his memory. There are at least seven temples in Taiwan in which the Fifth Son is the main deity, as well as being the main deity on secondary altars in numerous other temples. The Fifth Son is also known in Taiwan as Wang Kung, as well as by the Buddhist titles of Ta-te Ch'an-shih, Yang Fu Ch'an-shih and Ch'an Shih-kung禪帥公.8\n\nHis image also occupies a secondary altar in a nunnery on Wu T'ai Shan, the Wu Lang Miao where he is depicted as a Buddhist monk and is very popular with visiting Chinese tourists.\n\nHe is a minor deity on side altars in three temples in Macau, three in Hong Kong and in a number of temples in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In Macau a temple keeper explained that the Fifth Son is prayed to everywhere as a protective deity and is not usually a deity from whom people normally sought other favours. However, it had become the custom in the Macanese temple for the deity to be asked for racing tips and for good luck in betting.\n\nThe three temples in Hong Kong were all Ch'ao-chou immigrant squatter temples built on the slopes above Kowloon [and now long gone, the temporary temples being demolished by the Hong Kong Government during rehousing projects] where he was known as the Vanguard General, Hsien-feng Chiang-chünoro.\n\nThe few images of Yang Wu Lang, as he is best known, have no unique identifying characteristics other than when he is portrayed as a Buddhist priest under his Ch'an title, sitting cross-legged and wearing the Buddhist tiara. One image only depicts him astride a horse, the legs of which are bound with numerous red threads by devotees seeking help, possibly due to misunderstanding by devotees as this practice tends to be limited to the Green Horse, the Messenger to Heaven [Lu.Ma].", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214015, "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-1997", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "49\n\nIn one temporary temple run by Chaochou immigrants in Hong Kong the Fifth Son was portrayed simply by a stylised painting depicting him as a ferocious warrior, unarmed, standing on one foot. This likeness was on a secondary altar whilst the main deity, also represented by a portrait, was of the first emperor of the Sung, Sung T'ai Tsu. The temple keeper explained that the Fifth of the eight sons of General Yang Ling Kung, who is better known as Yang Yeh, was a bodyguard to the first emperor of the Sung.\n\nA story related in Tainan county claims that a herdsboy who, having picked up a piece of wood which had the outward appearance of a Buddhist priest, was playing with it. A teacher, having seen him with the odd-shaped wood, requested a medium to clarify whether it was an image of a spirit. He was taken aback when the answer was an affirmative and that the spirit was that of a local man who had been borne off to Heaven in the not too distant past. Furthermore, the deceased had been an incarnation of the loyal Sung \"minister\" [sic], Yang Wu Lang, who had now become a Buddha. The piece of wood was placed on the altar in the village temple where it is prayed to as the spirit of the Fifth Son, and known as Yang Wu Sai Yuan-shuai 吳賽元帥.\n\nAn image of a black-bearded general with protruding eyes, five flags on his shoulder rack, and a magic sword raised in his right hand, stands on the main altar of a rural temple in Muar near Malacca. He is only known as Yang Wu Shih is said to be \"the Fifth Son of a famous general who lived a thousand years ago\".\n\nYang Yen-chao, is known as Yang the Sixth, Yang Liu Lang or Liu Shih-yeh. His image on the main altar in the temple near Taichung is one of two individually identified. The temple near Taichung would appear to be the only temple in Taiwan in which the Sixth Son is the main deity and the temple keeper, proud of his deity's uniqueness, explained that Liu Lang was captured by the Tatars and had even married a Mongol bride. His image has not been seen in any temple in South-east Asia though a story told in Penang claimed that a massacre of Fukienese by an army under a 'cruel general, Yang Liu Lang' continued for several days until, on the 8th of the first lunar month, many were able to escape by hiding in sugar cane fields. Ever since, annually on that date, sugar canes with foliage have been placed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214024, "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-1997", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "58\n\n上\n\nImage of the Fifth Son on a side altar in a temple originally dedicated entirely to him on the holy mountain of Wu T'ai Shan on the northern border of Shansi province. He is portrayed as the Buddhist monk he was.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214230, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "IMAGES OF SINICISED VEDIC DEITIES ON CHINESE ALTARS\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\n51\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe rear halls of two temples in the Western Hills of Peking each contains some twenty-eight images which, though predominantly Chinese in appearance and style, are Vedic deities referred to in English in Chinese temple brochures as the Deva. The main question arising from this unique pantheon asks what led to its arrangement and character?\n\nBuddhism in China numbers among its many deities several score borrowed from Brahmanism and other Indian religions, other words Hindu deities with Chinese appearance and bearing. These tend to be well-known forms, accepted by Chinese devotees as Chinese and with little suggestion that they had an alien Indian origin. The concepts and forms of Buddhist deities on altars in China were almost exclusively brought there from India either by the northern route over the mountains and deserts of North-western China or the Southern route by sea to Kuangtung or Fukien provinces. The transit of South Asian Buddhism and its statuary to China began during the first century AD with the statuary being uniquely Buddhist, taken from Hinduism via Buddhism.\n\nThe Revd. J MacGowan1, during the early days of this century wrote that \"the practical, every-day, common religion of the Chinese is idolatry, pure and simple. Ancestor worship is too profound and too ideal and not quick enough to meet the problems that constantly face the Chinese in their struggle for existence. To provide for this difficulty, idols innumerable have been enshrined in homes and in temples all over the land....and many of these idols are of Indian origin, as can be seen by their faces, as well as by the liturgies that are used, which are certainly adaptations from the ancient Sanskrit.\"\n\nWe are particularly interested here in the specifically Hindu deities referred to in English in Chinese brochures as the Devas, but in Chinese guise, on altars in two temples in the Western Hills, the Ta Pei...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214231, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "52\n\nSsu and the Pi-yun Ssu. They were first placed there some three hundred years ago, towards the end of the last fully Chinese dynasty, the Ming and before the overthrow of the Ming by the non-Chinese Manchus.\n\nThe Two Temples in the Western Hills\n\nThe old Kuan Yin Hall of the Ta Pei Ssu X, the fourth of the Eight Great Places in the Western Hills of Peking, is sealed off and not available to the general public. It contains a modern image of the major deity, the bodhisattva Kuan Yin with a Thousand Arms and a Thousand Eyes together with old but refurbished images of the Deva with their name in Sinicised Sanskrit but without providing any hint as to their origins and legends. The statues of the Deva were originally made during the Ming, ca. 1500 AD, and consist of clay reinforced with hemp. They are referred to in temple literature as the Group of 28 Great Immortals +. The image of the Thousand Arm and Thousand Eye Kuan Yin was replaced by the Japanese after the Second World War in an attempt to make amends for having taken the original and melted it down for the brass content during the War.\n\nThe Kuan Yin Hall in the Ta Pei Ssu contains in addition to the one bodhisattva, Kuan Yin, twenty-eight images, which can be categorised as follows: twenty-six deities with Sanskrit titles including the five T'ien-wang [Guardians] together with two Chinese folk religion deities. Of the twenty-six, five are deities specifically referred to separately in the Eight Classes of Supernatural Beings? [Deva, Mahoraga, Kinnara, Asura and Gandharva]\n\nIt is lamentable that the Kuan Yin Hall is closed to the public; however, fortunately, there is also a Hall of Bodhisattvas in the second temple, the Pi-yun Ssu #, some five kms. to the north of the Ta Pei Ssu, which is open to the general public and it too contains the Twenty-eight Deva; however, the images here have all been made within the past fifteen years, probably replacements for the original images destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and yet again without any signs to indicate that they are anything other than Chinese deities. The fact that all but three were originally Hindu deities brought to China by Buddhism is not explained in temple literature, though the monks un-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214232, "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": 90, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "53\n\nderstood that all twenty-eight of the deities in the hall were followers or disciples of the Kuan Yin with the Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes.\n\nThe twenty-eight images in the Bodhisattva Hall of second temple, the Pi-yun Ssu, (apart from the main deity Kuan Yin), fall into three categories: four bodhisattvas [P'u Hsien, Wen Shu, Ta Shih Chih and Ti-tsang Wang - but not including the main deity, the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin]; seventeen deities with Sanskrit titles [including four T’ien-wang Guardians] and three Chinese native folk religion deities.\n\nThe monks also explained that a stream which ran through the area had attracted imperial favour and several temples had been sited and built by palace eunuchs to enable the emperors to relax during the summer heat or visit the nearby shrines of deities of longevity and prosperity. Amongst these were the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yün Ssu. They also understood that when the decision was taken to set up the images in the Hall each image was specially constructed and given a name or title all in accordance with Buddhist sacred writings.\n\nHowever, these two temples in the Western Hills are not quite unique in that a further 28 deities can be seen in a cave-tunnel in a comparatively modern temple near Taipei in Taiwan, each labelled with a Sinicised Sanskrit or pseudo-Sanskrit name, similar to the deities in the two temples in the Western Hills. Such alien names mean nothing to most Chinese.\n\nIn the Ta Hui Ssu X, a third temple, within the city of Peking, statues referred to in the temple as the Twenty-eight Protectors of the Buddhist Law line the flanking walls of the main hall. These too are very similar in style and appearance to the Twenty-eight Deva in the Ta Pei Ssu in the Eight Great Places and though not individually identified as such in the Ta Hui Ssu they are probably similar Deva.\n\nAccording to Soothill's Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms Deva is a general designation of the gods of Brahmanism, celestial beings whom he lists as the Twenty Deva [+]. The Sinicised Sanskrit titles of the deities seen in the two temples in the Western Hills, compared with the list of twenty in Soothill's dictionary, con-\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214234, "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": 92, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "55\n\nsaddle on his recumbent lion, holding his rattle-stick in his right hand and his pearl in his left. He wears monk's robes and the five-leaf Buddhist crown and is a benign middle-aged monk. However, in the Ta Pei Ssu he is without any unique characteristics, and is portrayed as a middle-aged deity, standing, with palms held together in prayer before his chest; he is dressed in multi-coloured robes and an ornate crown. Without his label it would not have been possible to identify him.\n\nNative Chinese Deities co-located but unconnected with the Deva\n\nTwo of the Twenty-eight deities in the Ta Pei Ssu are not Deva, being native Chinese deities. One is known as the Lord of the Purple Planet, Venus, Tzu-wei Ta-ti and the other, the Lord of the Underworld, Tung Yüeh Ta-ti.\n\nIn the Pi-yun Ssu the additional native Chinese deity, bringing the total to three, is the Spirit of Thunder, Lei Kung, though in practice he might perhaps be regarded as originally Hindu in that he is a form of Garuda, a human with wings, the beak of a bird and clawed feet.\n\nThe great majority, if indeed not all Chinese visitors to these temples, be they devotees or merely sight-seers, tend to assume that the deities were legendary Chinese figures, possibly because the sign-board outside one of the halls describes them as P'u-sa [bodhisattvas], a term Chinese are familiar with considering it to be Chinese. Having said that, a number of the deities have titles on individual tablets before them which, though in Chinese characters, are obviously not Chinese names such as Kan-ta-p'o, the Sinicised version of Gandharva. These names can be somewhat confusing if not bewildering as different Chinese characters for the alien sounds are used. In addition they are not always the full titles provided in Buddhist religious literature.\n\nThere are several major differences between the array in the Ta Pei Ssu and in the Pi-yun Ssu. Primarily, though both groups stand within a hall dedicated to Kuan Yin, the image of the goddess in the closed temple hall stands some fifteen feet tall and is the thousand-arm, thousand-eye Tantric version, standing, with two of her arms resting one each on the heads of her two attendants. The image of Kuan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214236, "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": 94, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "57\n\nis the conservation or preservation of the divine order in the world. Despite being a major deity and having many incarnations, of which Rama is but one, he is not included within the 28 Deva seen in the Ta Pei Ssu. However, his wife Laksmi is included. Another Vedic deity not included in the groups of Devas in the Western Hills is Krishna probably because he is the eighth avatar of Vishnu.\n\nPopular Buddhist figures which, at first thought, we might have expected to see listed among the Deva would, however, not be eligible because they were purely Buddhist without a Brahmanist or Vedic origin, and were Indians who lived and died during the lifetime of the Buddha himself. These include, amongst others, Kasyapa, Ananda and Lochana.\n\nAlthough Ming iconography portrayed Indra and Brahma on many altars as Chinese figures; the question remains why are they, and in particular in these two temples in the Western Hills why are so many Vedic deities, portrayed as Chinese?\n\nTales of the Ta Pei Ssu\n\nAn off-beat description of the Ta Pei Ssu in 1884 describes its picturesque location and whilst not referring to the deities, least of all the Deva, it does provide two colourful vignettes. The first gave the reason for the main entrance to the temple being blocked. It was a punishment for the priests who had permitted a suicide to take place within the temple confines. One of the monks so the story went had greatly insulted a coolie and he, instead of attacking his persecutor, had “with the perverseness of your true Chinaman” had taken vengeance on him by committing suicide. The second told of the usual practice of the era when foreigners rented temples in the cool of the hills for the summer. Having read various bits of graffiti the 'Student-Interpreter' claimed that the temple must have been a favourite resort of members of the Russian Mission between 1828 and 1840.\n\nA Third Temple containing a Group of Deities with Sinicised Sanskrit Names\n\nYet another group of deities with sinicised Sanskrit names can be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214237, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "58\n\nseen in a comparatively modern temple near Taipei. A lengthy tunnel connects the main part of the Kuan Tu temple complex, to the North-west of Taipei, with the front entrance overlooking the Tamshui River. Some twenty-eight images stand in glass-fronted niches carved into the rock down the sides of the tunnel. These large individual images are of the Early Buddhas, the Ku Fo; the Buddhas of pre-history, the Buddhas who came before Sakyamuni, The Buddha. They have no altars and as there is an altar dedicated to the Thousand-arm and Thousand-Eye Kuan Yin P'u-sa at the river end of the tunnel they are not offered incense individually.\n\nSeveral aspects of the hagiography of the images in the cave/tunnel are intriguing. First of all, those holding weapons have them in their left hand. They are mostly dressed in gilded armour, and finally, their titles in Chinese, though Sinicised Sanskrit, have proved impossible to translate into the original Sanskrit and are therefore unidentified. Several of these unidentified deities have been depicted in Taiwanese religious literature but without any explanation apart from being listed under a general title of Supportive Incantations to Buddha, Ta Pei Chou Fo 大悲咒佛.\n\nThe following Vedic deities who have been noted in one or both of the temples in the Western Hills would seem not to be present in the cave/tunnel:\n\nMarici, Pancika, Hariti, Pippala [Bodhidruma], Laksmi, Prthivi, Surya, Candra, Vimalakirti, Nanda Upananda and Skanda/Veda.\n\nOf the scores of books, both the popular illustrated and monastic academic, produced over the last half century in Taiwan describing the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the hundreds of minor deities of Buddhism, one at least has listed what they have called The Celestial Guardians Division. This list includes not only the Four Diamond Kings, the T'ien Wang, [Vaisravana, Dhrtarastra, Virudhaka and Virupaksa] but nine of the Deva seen in the Western Hills. These are Indra [Sakra-devanam], Brahma [Maha-Brahman], Marici, Laksmi [Sri-maha-devi], Sarasvati, Yamaraja, Guhyapati, Skanda [Wei T'o] and Gandharva.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214238, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "59\n\nConclusion\n\nWe have been examining a particular arrangement of Indian Deva within two temples in the Western Hills of Peking. Each group has an image of the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin as the main deity within the Deva hall itself. Although monks explained that the images of deities down the side walls of the hall had been created in accordance with researches in old Buddhist books, there was no explanation why they should all have a Chinese rather than an Indian form. It has been suggested by devotees that the concept of the Deva might have reflected the Manchu dynasty's affinity with Tantric Buddhism, and perhaps Vedic beliefs or been brought by Lamaist monks during the late Ming but there is no evidence that this was so. Yet another devotee thought that when the images were first created during the early sixteenth century, Chinese craftsmen had a somewhat limited idea of the origins of the deities concerned and even, perhaps, no idea what the people of South Asia looked like and therefore made the images in the form of Chinese. An unanswered question is the presence of several deities within the groups of Deva whose origins were entirely Chinese without any connection whatsoever with Vedic Hinduism.\n\nA small number of individual images of deities with a Brahmanist origin have been seen on altars in temples in all Chinese communities; these however have not been at all widespread. Typically they were adopted by immigrant Chinese from native Buddhism. A remarkable example of a syncretic group of Buddhist, Hindu and Chinese folk religion deities is to be seen in a joint Buddhist, Hindu and Chinese folk religion temple in a quiet area of Angsila some sixty miles south of Bangkok. The three altars against the rear wall in the main hall of this temple are the Thai Buddhist altar, stage right with an image of Sakyamuni Buddha in its centre flanked by two other Thai Buddhist images. The central altar, the Hindu altar, contains one large image of Shiva [Siva], holding a trident and dressed in a robe and turban, and with several small unidentified images standing before him. And finally, the Chinese folk religion altar dedicated to T'ien Hou, the patron deity of sailors, with her small image on the altar, stage left, flanked by her usual demonic attendants, Thousand-Mile Eye and Following-Wind Ear. Devotees of all races pray before each altar in turn, usually beginning with the altar of their own culture and cursorily placing incense before the other two. In the temple forecourt are large brightly painted", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214239, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "60\n\nconcrete images of Thai Buddhas, the [Chinese] Jade Emperor and Siva with the tiger. Temple staff of the three religions attend to their own altars and help devotees as and when required.\n\nThe most widespread Buddhist images seen throughout China which are obviously not Chinese deities are the four major guardians in the entrance hall to Buddhist establishments, the Defenders of the Faith. These and other similar minor guardian deities are former gods of Indian folklore and include the giant guardian deities known in Chinese as Wu-shih, such as those whose images stand outside the main hall of the Jinci in Taiyuan. A further two are the traditional guardians of Buddhist temple gates dating from at least the 8th century. The one [facing the gate] on the right hand is opened-mouthed and coloured vermilion, whilst the guardian on the left has a closed-mouth and is the colour of charcoal. Both are made of stucco. In China they are known as the two generals Heng and Ha, the Blower and the Snorter. In legend they fought with secret weapons; one blew a deadly yellow gas from his mouth with a ha! and the second snorted a white beam of light from each nostril with a heng! which vaporised his enemies. They can also be seen guarding the entrances to Japanese Buddhist temples where they are known as Kongo Rikishi. All of these guardians are undeniably foreign in form in comparison with the gilded images of the standard Buddhas which are now not even considered by Chinese devotees to be anything but Chinese.\n\nWe know who the Deva are, when they were placed in their present temples, both in Taiwan and the Western Hills, but not why. From our various sources it would seem that these Sinicised Indian deities are celestial protectors. We can guess that the concept was imported at a comparatively late stage but who, individually, sponsored them and had the images made is now lost in time. It is interesting to note that present day monks in the Western Hills have little idea of their origins and were apparently completely disinterested in the subject.\n\nIn the cave-tunnel in the comparatively modern temple in Taiwan, however, the images were, to the religious specialists there, simply Buddhas of Yore, the principal ones who preceded Sakyamuni.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214244, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "65\n\nhand holding a precious object including a rosary, cudgel, jar, spear, pagoda, golden arrow, halberd, or bell, etc. and it is therefore not surprising that the images of Chun-t'i on the altars of both Buddhist and folk religion temples portray her with eight or eighteen arms and hands, the main two hands being held palms pressed together before the chest in prayer. The uppermost hands hold discs of the Sun and Moon respectively and the remainder, individually, hold various attributes including a seal of office, a sword, shield and fly switch. She is variously represented with three heads though predominantly she is depicted with one head with three faces one of which is that of a sow. Chun-t'i again often has a third eye in the centre of her forehead, usually a Taoist form but attributed to her Indian origin as a metamorphosed caste mark. She is generally portrayed sitting on a lotus throne in the same posture adopted by the Buddha and, in one of her poses, also by Kuan Yin P’u-sa. According to Werner the legend explaining the third face being that of a sow and the creatures supporting the lotus also being pigs relates how one of the abbesses of the Semding monastery in Tibet in whom the goddess Chun-t'i was believed to be successively incarnated, had an excrescence resembling a sow's ear at the back of her head.\n\nIn northern and central China in Tantric Buddhist temples, the Lamaist goddess Maritci, portrayed in a chariot drawn by seven pigs is identified as Chun-t'i; in the south however, where Tantric Buddhism hardly penetrated, images identified as Chun-t'i are said by priests, should devotees enquire, to be the Brahmanic cult of Maritci. However, in Tibetan and Mongol [Tantric] Buddhism Tou-mu is a common deity with her three eyes and many arms; she is considered to be an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva known throughout China as Kuan Yin and this doubtless explains the confusion with Kuan Yin in central and southern China. She has been identified as Tou-mu Yuan-chün, the main deity in the T'ai Sui Hall in the Jade Emperor temple in Tainan, where she is flanked by two Tantric aides, Ch'ieh-ch'ih and Yao Ya.\n\nIn her Taoist form she is portrayed seated on a lotus, again of Indian origin, which in a number of temples rests on the back of a tortoise which in turn rests on three or seven pigs. Most likely this is no more than a reflection of the tale in the Feng-shen Yen-i in which one of the disciples of Tou-mu, Shui-huo Tung-tzu, who changed into a tortoise, bore off Tou-mu to the Western Heavens.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214249, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "70\n\nthe primary one in China being as the Lord of the Underworld known as Yen-lo Wang. In later Brahmanist mythology he is one of the eight Lokapalas, the guardian of the south and judge of the dead. He was the son of the sun, with a twin sister Yamuna - regarded by some Hindus as the first human pair. An image of Yama is present in both the Pi-yun Ssu and the Ta Pei Ssu.\n\nIn northern China images of Yen-lo Wang have been noted in several old temples where he is portrayed as a benign elderly human, dressed in court robes and cap of dynastic China. In the Kuan Yin Hall of the Ta Pei Ssu in Peking his image depicts him thus, with his hands held palms together before his chest. He has no unique characteristics and is known simply as Yen Mo Lo. He is referred to by the temple staff as Yama and appears to have no other title and is looked upon by the monks as the Lord of the Underworld. In the Pi-yun Ssu he is a general wearing armour under his colourful robes and has an axe clutched in his right hand. His left hand is held across his body pointing with two of his fingers. He has dark skin, round eyes, a short black beard and moustache and a scarf swirling behind his head hanging down in front of his body.\n\nThere is also Yen-mo Hu-fa, a Lama Buddhist [Tantric] deity, whose image stands in the Lama Temple in Peking. It is typical Tibeto-Mongol iconography, swathed in silken robes obscuring the body leaving only the fierce head and the raised right arm visible. The head, which looks somewhat like a blue pig with gold eyebrows and red mouth, has a row of skulls across the top of the head mounted on a coronet, with a fiery nimbus behind that. He is holding in the air in his right hand a short rod [a heavenly cane] with a miniature white skull mounted on the top. Without the silken robe the deity is revealed standing on a blue horse or mule which, in turn, is prostrate on a naked human. The deity has another small blue-skinned demonic figure standing before him, facing him and holding its hands up towards the deity in supplication.\n\n14] Sagara known in Chinese as P'o-chie Lung-wang and P'o-chie-lo\n\nSagara is the Naga King of the Ocean Palace north of Mount Meru,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214252, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "73\n\nlarge, wide, gaping mouth has but four small teeth showing, these being normal human-size incisors top and bottom. Finally, he has three small white skulls across his forehead held in place by a pink band.\n\n19] Gandharva known in Chinese as Kan-t'a-p'o\n\nThe Gandharva are one of the eight classes of supernatural beings referred to in the Lotus Sutra. They are Indra's musicians and also in the retinue of Dhrtarastra [they are the same as or similar to the Kinnaras]. They do not eat meat nor drink wine but feed on incense and fragrance.\n\nAn image of the Gandharva is in the Ta Pei Ssu but not in the Pi-yun Ssu. His image portrays him standing, dressed in multi-coloured robes over armour, a helmet over black spiky hair, and is clean shaven. His face is semi-demonic, with large protruding eyes. He has no unique characteristics.\n\n20] Nanda Upananda known in Chinese as Nan-t'o Pa-nan-t'o 跋難陀\n\nLittle seems to be known about Nanda Upananda apart from being a protector of Magadha [near Bihar]. His image has only been seen in the Ta Pei Ssu and not in the Pi-yun Ssu. It depicts him as an elderly man but with a semi-demonic face. He has round eyes, small ugly protrusions on his cheeks, a gaping mouth and fang-like eye-teeth, no moustache but a short pointed beard, and is wearing decorated robes and cap. His hands are held together as if holding a tablet [which may well be missing].\n\n21] Skanda, Viharapala or Veda' known in Chinese as Wei T'o #BE\n\nWei T'o, a Hindu deity, the Deva Protector of the Dharma, guards the sanctuary of virtually all Chinese Buddhist temples. He stands with his back to the main entrance in the inner temple hall facing the main altar and back-to-back with the Laughing Buddha of the Future, Mi-lo Fo, who greets visitors with his smiling welcome. Wei T'o is also to be seen guarding many a folk religion temple, though only very rarely does he appear on a household altar. Because of the prayers offered to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214255, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "76\n\nfact that he is listed in Soothill as one of the Twenty Deva. His image is to be seen in both the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yun Ssu. In both temples he is depicted as a ferocious guardian general with a wide gaping mouth, large round eyes and a highly decorated Buddhist crown. He holds the standard weapon, the vajra, the diamond sword, resting in his left hand and against his left shoulder, and has the swirling scarf behind his head. He is stripped to the waist, has bare legs beneath a highly colourful decorated skirt, and sandals. A mural in the Sakyamuni Pagoda in Ying county in Shansi province depicts Guhyapati in much the same form.\n\nThe Chin-kang as a group are minor deities, guardians belonging to the class of Lokapalas borrowed by Buddhism from Brahmanism. The standard four Chin-kang, the Diamond Kings, are each the ruler of the four continents surrounding Mount Sumeru and though Guhyapati Raja is a Chin-kang he is not one of the usual four. The standard four are the Ssu Ta T'ien-wang [see 23-26 below].\n\n23-26] Ssu Ta T'ien-wang XX The Four Great Celestial Kings\n\nThe Four Deva Kings, known also as the Four Diamond Kings, Ssu Ta Chin-kang X, are the four guardians whose images stand, usually portrayed much larger than life-size, just inside temple entrance doorways, in pairs, two to either side.\n\nWerner points out that these are not gods but guardians, Buddhist protectors who should be thought of as minor divinities. Chinese Buddhists adopted four Hindu Brahmin deities from Indian Buddhism, the Lokapala, the guardians of the four sides of the fabulous Mount Meru [the Guardians of the Four Corners of the World] who, in turn, were later adopted by the Taoists from the Chinese Buddhists. The Four were probably first introduced into China during the T'ang dynasty [6th and 7th centuries AD] and still today are regarded as the grim-faced temple guardian generals, enormous statues in T’ang armour, tamed demons who were redeemed and who now symbolise the seasons and control the elements of fire, water, earth and air. Although the majority of images of the Four stand up to and even over fifteen feet high they can also be as tiny as eighteen inches high. They used to be deities in their own right and offered worship, reverence and offerings. Nowadays however although most devotees solemnly place one smoulder-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214256, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "77\n\ning stick of incense before each with a perfunctory bow, the Four are looked upon as mere soldier guardians with a fifth, Wei T'o [see 21 above], their commander.\n\nThe group of Four are the product of the Mahayana school of Buddhism with additions from the Tantric school. Their original Buddhist title in Sanskrit is usually Dvarapala, though others claim that they are the Chin-kang Shou, derived from the Sanskrit \"Vajrapani', the Thunderbolt Bearer, the Great Protector.\n\nThey are responsible for the security of temples, protecting them from demonic attack and also preventing evil spirits from sneaking in. In Taoist temples, where they have different individual identities, they normally stand in the side wings of the main hall, such as in the Jade Emperor Hall at the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas at Shatin in the New Territories of Hong Kong.\n\nThose in Buddhist temples are the Diamond Kings whilst those in Taoist and folk religion temples are Celestial Kings [T'ien-wang]. They are easily recognisable by their stature, location and by the collocation with the others in the group; also, because each usually holds a unique identifying symbolic object, a furled umbrella or a rodent, etc. They stand with defiant stares and have faces in colours identifying the direction for which they are responsible. The Buddhist Four guardians all wear the bodhisattva's five-leaf crowns with minute Buddhas inscribed on the central leaf, and flying scarves forming a nimbus behind and above their heads and shoulders. Many have demons, thieves, liars and adulterers underfoot. The Taoist Four, who also have demons underfoot, generally wear military helmets.\n\nA manifestation of Vaisravana, the protector of the North and one of the Four Chin-kang, appeared during his journey to aid Hsuan Tsang, the Buddhist monk who trekked from China to India and back to obtain Buddhist scriptures. For this reason Vaisravana was later revered by devotees, alone and in his own right, and over the years became associated with General Li Ching.\n\nAll four of the Mo-li brothers, the Taoist identities of the Four Temple Guardian Generals, are included and represented in the sets of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214267, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "88\n\nHis neck and, uniquely, he has a pair of wings. Normally he is dressed only in a loin cloth or trousers down to just below his knees, and his skin is entirely blue or green. Occasionally, in place of the hammer and chisel he carries a gourd, and in a number of images he is depicted standing on a pair of drums.\n\nHis origins go far back, possibly to animist beginnings, though from the iconographical detail, half-man half-bird, his cult has been strongly influenced by the Garuda, the Hindu mythical being, the eagle who was Vishnu's steed, a concept brought to China by Buddhism. In earlier pictures and images he was portrayed more as a human with a cock's head and feet and with bat's wings. It was only later that he became more like the Garuda which several foreign writers of the 19th century certainly identified from his iconographical detail.\n\nLei Shen in the temple in the Western Hills is dark skinned, dressed in colourful robes over armour and with black spiky hair. He has no unique characteristics and is therefore unlikely to be accepted as the Thunder God by the majority of Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214272, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "93\n\nAppendix D\n\nTHE TWENTY-EIGHT BUDDHAS OF YORE\n\nTwenty-eight images of the Early Buddhas, the Ku Fo; the Buddhas of pre-history, the Buddhas who came before Sakyamuni, The Buddha, are to be seen in the Kuan Tu temple complex, to the north-west of Taipei. These 28 'Old Buddhas' are:\n\nTa Fan T'ien Wang 大梵天王\n\n[Maha Brahman - Brahma]\n\nP'i-p'o Chia-lo Wang 毘婆迦羅王\n\n[Vipasyin: the first of the Seven Buddhas of antiquity]\n\nKan-ta-p'o Wang 乾達婆王\n\n[Gandharva: the gods of fragrance and music: the musicians of Indra]\n\nTi-shih T'ien 帝釋天\n\n[Indra]\n\nTa Pien-ts'ai 大辯才\n\n[Sarasvati]\n\nMa-hsi-shou-lo 摩醯首羅\n\n[Siva: Mahesvara]\n\nTa Hai Lung Wang 大海龍王\n\n[Sagara - Lung Wang]\n\nChien-na-lo Wang 監那羅王\n\n[Kinnara]\n\nWu Pu Ching 五部凈\n\nChin-p'i-lo Wang 金毘羅王\n\n[Yama - as protector of the 1000 arm Kuan Yin]\n\n[Kumbhira - a Yaksha king, who was converted and became a guardian of Buddhism]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214275, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "96\n\nAppendix E\n\nTHE LIST OF TWENTY DEVA\n\n十天\n\n+*\n\nIN SOOTHILL'S DICTIONARY OF CHINESE\n\nBUDDHIST TERMS\n\n \n Maha Brahman\n - Brahma\n \n \n Sakra devanam\n - Indra\n \n \n Vaisravana\n \n \n \n Dhrtarastra\n \n \n \n Virudhaka\n \n \n \n The Four Diamond Kings - Temple Guardians\n of the Four Directions\n \n \n Virupaksa\n \n \n \n Guhyapati\n \n \n \n Mahesvara\n \n \n \n Pancika\n \n \n \n Sarasvati\n \n \n \n Laksmi\n \n \n \n Skanda\n \n \n \n Prthivi\n \n \n \n Bodhidruma or Bodhivrksa\n \n \n \n Hariti\n \n \n \n Marici\n \n \n \n Surya\n \n \n \n Candra\n \n \n \n Sagara\n \n \n \n Yama-raja", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214276, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "97\n\nNOTES\n\nMacGowan J : Men and Manners of Modern China: T Fisher Unwin: London 1912\n\n2 Werner in his Dictionary of Chinese Mythology gives the Eight Classes of Dragon Kings as follows:\n\n3 Deva naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asuras, Garudas, Vinnaras, Mahonagas and Rakshas Soothill in his Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms lists the Eight Classes of Supernatural Beings as follows: Deva, Naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asura, Garuda, Kinnara and Mahoraga.\n\nMajor well known Brahmanist deities not included in the groups of Deva in the Western Hills of Peking include Hanuman, Parbati and Ganesh.\n\n* A Student Interpreter: Where Chineses Drive : English Student Life in Peking Wm Allen & Co : London: 1885\n\n6 As with a number of titles the romanised spelling varies depending upon the form used and, as examples, we have Siva and Shiva, Pancika and Panchika. He is the esoteric cult Deva, a masculine form of the wife of Siva. He is the tutelary god of Mongolian Lama Buddhism, and is also said to be an incarnation of Vairocana for the purpose of destroying demons.\n\n7 Werner, ETC: A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology:\n\n8\n\n9 x stands for an illegible character. Although images iconographically look like the standard Buddhist image of the Temple Guardian, Wei T'o, they have been identified as being one of three Vedic deities. Lessing in his Yung-Ho-Kung [Stockholm 1942] and the Taiwanese guide to The Guan Yin Hall of the Ta Pei Ssu both identify Wei T'o's origin as Skanda whilst Soothill claims that he is Viharapala.\n\n10 Occasionally Yüeh T'ian-wang, that is the 12th century hero Yüeh Fei, takes the place of Li Yüan-shuai.\n\n\"Chin-se are the Five Primary Colours permutated in various ways to represent various ideas; also, a five coloured emblematic cord, a Brahman sign worn on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214303, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "125\n\nnotes on nature and hunting in Manchuria. He founded the first natural history museum in China, at the Anglo-Chinese College and this brought him to the notice of directors of museums in the United States and England.\n\nWe have little idea what he did between his return from the Duke of Bedford's expedition and the start of the next expedition nearly three years later, the Clark expedition of 1908/9, which again sought specimens. This time they again set out from Taiyuan to the west, across the Yellow River into Shensi and then on to the north-west, into Kansu province travelling up the Silk Road as far as Lanchou. It was a well-financed private expedition with Sowerby taken on as the Naturalist and though not spelled out - the interpreter. Their route took them through Yulin, a city in the Ordos desert in Shensi province, noted for its large Buddhist temple. This was selected as the first main stopover where they remained undisturbed within the temple compound. Sowerby, brought up in Taiyuan, spoke the local dialect and was able to converse with the local officials and obtain their co-operation and assistance. They remained in Yulin over the winter during which time the Emperor and the Empress Dowager died in Peking. This event brought the second most senior Chinese official in Yulin to the compound to break the news and warn the party of the general apprehension that the deaths of their Majesties might bring about a revolt against the dynasty. Clark, who was also an amateur astronomer, had been seen by Chinese peering through his telescope at the night sky leading the second most senior Chinese official to ask Sowerby whether Clark had foreseen this calamity? Sowerby's answer that he had foreseen it led the official to demand to know why Clark had not passed on the warning to him. Sowerby was able to answer that the official knew full well that it would have been treason for anyone to even suggest that such a thing would take place before it happened. This satisfied the awed official, though the warning of possible unrest left the expedition in a quandary. They decided that the best move would be to set off at once for Sian [now known as Xi'an], the provincial capital, where they would expect to have better protection. On reaching Yenan, some short distance to the south of Yulin, en route for Sian they were assured that the situation was stable and once more settled down for a while, hunting and prospecting locally. After several weeks of visits to Loyang and Honan Fu [now Chengchou] in a neighbouring province, whilst Clark returned to Shanghai to settle a family matter, they continued on to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214331, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "153\n\nsation to the Released British Prisoners and to the Families of those who were Murdered.\"36\n\nThe 16 February issue had a full page illustration, \"Curiosity-Street, Pekin.\"37 The brief accompanying narrative explains that \"Curiosity Street\" was where \"the British officers got rid of much of their superfluous cash in the purchase of doubtful antiquities and modern enamels. ... The street is densely crowded. Carts, horses, ponies, and wheelbarrows obstruct one's movements at every step, and the confusion is increased by the number of British officers, most of them in Chinese fur coats. Boys, sharp as those of London or Paris, are always at hand ready to carry any possible amount of one's purchases to any distance.\"38\n\nGenre subjects such as this also appeared in following issues. \"Sketches of a Peking Cab,”39 “Amusements on the Ice,\"40 “Teahouse in Peking\"41 and an illustration of \"what I had to sketch throught\"42 (\"A Group of Chinese\" who crowded round the artist, impeding his work).43\n\n41\n\nMore formal general subjects also continued to appear: \"The Russian Mission Church in Pekin,”44 “the Chinese General Prince San-Ko-Lin-Sin,\"45 \"a Portion of the Emperor of China's Summer Palace Near Pekin,\"46 “Part of the Imperial Palace, Pekin,”47 and “View of the Gardens and the Buddhist Temple in the Imperial City, Pekin”.48\n\n49\n\nEven the potentially hostile subject of \"Chinese guns\" is presented in a way that includes a complimentary bow to the Chinese, demonstrating that they had mastered a particular technology earlier than European ordnance-makers. The Illustrated London News published a letter from a Royal Navy surgeon, who wrote, “There has been a great noise made of late years through what has been looked upon by scientific men as a new and grand discovery in the manufacture of iron ordnance... Judge, then, my astonishment when, as I was walking through the Taku Forts, at the entrance to the Peiho, I came upon a lot of cast-off Chinese guns evidently very old, but made almost upon these principles and rejected about the end of the seventeenth century, when the famous Ferdinand Verbrist [sic for Verbiest] taught them to manufacture cast guns of brass and iron.50\n\n** 50", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214341, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "(40)\n\n(40)\n\n(42)\n\n(43)\n\n(44)\n\n(45)\n\n(46)\n\n(47)\n\n163\n\n\"Amusements on the Ice\", \"sketch by our special artist, one third page, The Illustrated London News, 23 February 1861, p. front page.\n\nTeahouse in Peking - From a sketch by our Special Artist”, double page spread, The Illustrated London News, 23 February 1861, p. 170.\n\nThe Illustrated London News, 13 April 1861, p. 330, c. 3.\n\n44\n\n\"A Group of Chinese\", The Illustrated London News, 13 April 1861, p. 331.\n\n\"The Russian Mission Church in Pekin - From a sketch by our Special Artist\", half page, The Illustrated London News, 2 March 1861, p. 187.\n\n\"The Chinese General Prince San-Ko-Lin-Sin – From a photograph by Signor Beato\", The Illustrated London News, 13 April 1861, p. 357, c. 3.\n\n44\n\n\"A Portion of the Emperor of China's Summer Palace, Near Pekin”, half page, The Illustrated London News, 27 April 1861, p. 390. From a photograph taken on 18 October 1860, \"only one day before the Palace was destroyed by fire.\"\n\n\"Part of the Imperial Palace, Pekin\", \"from a photograph taken on 29 October [1860]\", half page, The Illustrated London News, 27 April 1861, p. 390.\n\n(48) \"View of the Gardens and the Buddhist Temple in the Imperial City, Pekin\", half page, The Illustrated London News, 4 May 1861, p. 414.\n\n(49)\n\n(50)\n\n(50)\n\n(52)\n\n\"Chinese Guns\", six figures with narrative, The Illustrated London News, 6 April 1861, p. 325.\n\nThe Illustrated London News, 6 April 1861, p. 325, cc. 2-3.\n\nThe Illustrated London News, 23 February 1861, p. 171, c. 1.\n\n\"A Group of Chinese\", The Illustrated London News, 13 April 1861, p. 331.\n\n(53) The Illustrated London News, 23 February 1861, p. 171, c. 1.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214357, "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": 215, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "180\n\nOne of the many deities canonised by Jiang at the Investiture was Tai Sui, the Ruler of the Year. In the Feng-shen Yanyi he is also known as Yin Jiao and under that title is usually represented on altars by one image. In southern Chinese communities, however, as Tai Sui he is more often portrayed by sixty separate images each representing a year of the sixty-year cycle of the Chinese calendar, and devotees wishing to seek his aid will place spirit money offerings under the image in the group representing the year of the devotee's birth. In a number of the smaller popular religion temples in Hong Kong and Macau several rows of Tai Sui images, depicting all sixty, line one of the sidewalls of the main hall. Although in a few temples each of the sixty images is carved with unique characteristics, in the majority they are merely sixty identical heads, each mounted on a frame concealed under a red cloth robe. Even when the deity is portrayed as a single image, normally he can easily be identified by the pile of spirit money placed under his image.\n\nSome months later, this time in central Shanxi province, we came across a former temple which had been converted into what can only be described as a \"waxworks\" museum of celestial and historical deities. The contents of the former temple had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, whilst the structure had recently, in 1995, been turned into a museum. It stands on the major highway between Taiyuan, the provincial capital, and Pingyao, to the south, but rather surprisingly no attempt seemed to have been made to advertise its presence to passing motorists. The halls had been labelled guiding visitors to Historical Heroes, The Eight Immortals, Mythological Worthies and the Underworld.\n\nThese two examples, and there are probably more, are local provincial or county initiatives to remind Chinese of their cultural, feudal heritage but without offering any opportunity for worship or reverence. Similar refurbishing has taken place of many of the old, larger Buddhist and Daoist monasteries in northern China but with a difference. These too are places where visitors can nowadays pass several hours of pleasurable 'tourism' but a number of them have also reverted to being working temples and monasteries with priests and rituals. The weekend visitors from the cities enjoy the scenery and ambience and in some temples offer up incense without let or hindrance to one or more of the major deities. Although to foreign visitors what we saw", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214363, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "187\n\nTEMPLES ARISE\n\nFROM THE ASHES OF REVOLUTION\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nReturning from each of our tours of temples in Mainland China the question most frequently posed is the extent to which religious freedom exists in China? I find this difficult to answer. I have yet to visit an area where we have observed any form of obvious religious discrimination or evidence of current iconoclasm. At the risk of being accused of being a 'blind' observer in a country with a record of political suppression, I know that constraint of religion by the State exists as I have read numerous articles in the Chinese press about Chinese government calls for crackdowns on illegal temples and superstitious practices, but the extent to which these instructions have been carried out has not been apparent during our tours around the countryside. Indeed, there are few signs of religious suppression in any form. In late 1997 we came across a small rural temple in one of the loess canyons some fifteen or so miles north-east of T'aiyüan in Shansi province and were told by one of the villagers that the local Public Security Police had ordered it be pulled down as it was 'a bad element, a manifestation of superstition'. The small modern shrine, constructed some eight years ago, contained just one deity, a very rough and amateurish, modern baked-mud and concrete image of the local protective spirit, Ts'ai T'ai-yeh. The PSB had passed through the village many times during the two years since they issued the order for the destruction of the image; however, the villagers had simply ignored it and even when crowds of visitors drove in by car during the annual festival on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, the PSB again had simply turned a blind eye.\n\nChina's constitution theoretically protects the freedom of religion in China with party members being dissuaded from practising. Whilst permissive religion is unquestionably allowed within certain bounds I suspect 'tolerance' should be substituted for the word freedom. The Bureau of Religious Affairs under the State Council in Peking permits the five major organised religions to worship as they wish, within reason. These are Taoism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism [known in China as 'Christian'] and Islam. The Bureau does, however, frown on and frequently clamps down on popular religion, [also known as folk religion and even as Taoism by foreigners who have not perceived the difference] and some of the smaller proselytising western", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214365, "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": 223, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "189\n\nIn late 1997 in northern Shansi province whilst touring round village temples as well as those on high mountains it was soon apparent that the Cultural Revolution had laid the majority of village temples low and left them in ruined dereliction. However, Buddhist temples far from the cities had been more fortunate and these still contained undamaged images albeit in a poor state of care. Many of the village temples were being used as squatter residences usually for a single elderly person, with the walls crumbling, the roofs matted with grass and weeds between the roofing tiles, doors and windows agley and hanging on one hinge, and in a few places the images of the old deities still lying on their backs on the floor where they had been flung thirty years earlier by the Red Guards, and awaiting rescue. Villagers were still interested in their temples but have not the funds to do anything about renovation, at least for yet a while. The elderly remembered the gods and the majority had small cheap images, on their household altars or paper icons pasted to their walls, mainly of Kuan Yin and Kuan Kung.\n\nOne temple stood out as a born-again Buddhist establishment, with an in-house priest and several ladies ranging from very old to a young woman in her late twenties who all cared for him and hung on his every word. They were punctilious with their greetings and their constant invocation of O-mi-t'o Fu, as well as with their gentle pressure on their foreign visitors to feel the sanctity of the place and, in particular, of their priest. The temple, a recently refurbished building of wood and tiles on the site of a former temple, had no feel of age nor did it in any way bring to mind its former self, the building which had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Sadly, it was a utilitarian construction with a few religious appendages, and similar in style to many an old village school with little if any of the sense of numinous felt in old temples.\n\nAlso during this visit to northern Shansi we came across the old temple which had been dedicated to Wu Lang. This was described in detail in Volume 37 in an article entitled the Yang family of Generals.\n\nMainland press reports during the years 1995-6 have frequently referred to provincial crackdowns on the construction of 'illegal' religious temples as well as the excessive building of tombs. Some regions, it was reported, had been seeking to promote tourism by engaging in superstitious activities on the pretext of respecting \"the traditional culture of the motherland.\" The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the party, called for a complete ban on Chinese tourists paying homage at temples and monasteries, even though such practices have been tolerated", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214463, "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": 321, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "288\n\n[illustration XX].\n\nThe cab driver from Shanghai who took us to Sungkiang had never heard of Ward and we therefore stopped the first old man we saw and asked whether he had ever heard of the American and if so, where had the temple been? Yes, he had heard of an American but knew no more. He recommended that we visited the local government Historical Department. On arrival we disturbed an elderly lady who was taking her mid-day siesta sprawled across her small upright desk. She shot to her feet and ushered us into the office of the Director/Curator who having heard what we were seeking called for a conference. We sat around a large table for a matter of minutes whilst the Director described the problem, - to find the temple dedicated to ‘Hua-de' - as Ward was described phonetically; whereupon he then announced that he knew where it used to be and that we should repair there straight away. He took the elderly lady on his moped and led our cab through the back streets and finally down a narrow tortuous lane until we came to a pair of large iron gates which we entered and found ourselves facing a modern church. We were led first into the offices nearby where it was explained that the priest was out but the young woman on his staff would show us their church. It proved to be a Roman Catholic church built in 1982 containing the statuary and altars one would expect. The decorated ceiling was pointed out as a speciality; meanwhile, a Dutch lady and her husband who were accompanying me were examining the electric fan covers, all beautifully embroidered with grinning cats! A typical Chinese touch. It was explained that the high altar stood over the grave of Ward and that the foundations of the four walls were the original foundations of Ward's temple, long destroyed even before the Cultural Revolution. So, we thought, that was that. But no, the young woman had a request to make. Would we as foreigners please visit their landlord who was causing them some trouble with his high rents, and try to persuade him to be more lenient. It then transpired that the landlord was the abbot of the local Buddhist monastery, which squares the circle. The grave of Ward, a Protestant, revered as a Chinese Confucian hero, with a temple in his honour, now lies under the altar of a Roman Catholic church, whilst the land itself is the property of the local Buddhist monastery in a Communist state.\n\nThe altar table in the temple raised by Chinese mandarins, bore his tablet, ritual candle sticks and incense pot, and was flanked by scrolls", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214550, "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": 408, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "377\n\ntranslated into Italian, then into French. It was the undated French version that we saw. It had been written, possibly in Macau, on the instructions of the Pope and described the persecution of priests. There was also a massive hand-written \"Tartare-Mantchou French dictionary” 1st edition, Paris 1789, in 3 volumes. Another interesting book was \"Dr Fryer's Travels: A new account of East India and Persia in eight letters, being nine years travels\" by John Fryer MD (Cantab) and Fellow of the Royal Society, published in 1898.\n\nThe more linguistically accomplished of our members interpreted these works for the benefit of all and there was much erudite discussion. This was the Society at its best and we could have spent many more hours, even days, delving into this fascinating collection. [Illustration Two].\n\nOn Saturday afternoon we drove out to Fa Hai (Sea of Dharma) Temple, in the distant western suburbs at the southern foot of Cuiwei Mountain. The temple was begun in 1439 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) with funds raised by Li Tong, a favourite eunuch of the Emperor. It was completed in 1443 and named by Emperor Ying Zhong. The most outstanding features are the frescoes, which completely fill the walls of the main, Mahavira, hall. These reflect a relatively pure Buddhism without Taoist depiction. They are of Buddhas, Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin) and the three other bodhisattvas, devas, wonderful animals, auspicious clouds, flowers and realistic landscapes. There are five Buddhas on either side with the 10 Buddhas together representing the full power of Buddhism, and possibly also the idea of east and west. The colours are subtle and not too faded (although the viewing of a colour-enhanced video prior to touring the Temple helped our appreciation). In the temple grounds are unusual pine trees with silver-white bark; ancient trees, said to resemble dragons, and a bell engraved in Chinese characters expressing Sanskrit teachings. The auspicious clouds inside were matched outside, for misty rain added to the atmosphere of the temple, set in the mountainside woods.\n\nOn Easter Sunday we were up very early to go to the oldest Christian church in Beijing - the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception of Blessed Mary, on Qianmen Avenue. This is also known as Nan t'ang, or South Church. The Emperor bestowed on Matteo Ricci the lands and funds to build the church near the then Calendrical Bureau inside", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214821, "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-1999", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "202\n\nTo this day, services for the departed, whether as newly-deceased souls or as wandering spirits, command the greater part of the time of practitioners from the two religions. Apart from the varied religious services carried out in the homes of the deceased, or in the temples and monasteries where similar rites were held for the departed, both Buddhists and Taoists are prominent in the rituals carried out in public places at the Hungry Ghost Festival.23 This, the most important ritualistic pacification of wandering souls and spirits during the lunar year, is still performed throughout Hong Kong on behalf of the general public by priests of the two religions, hired by local committees and associations.\n\nWhat People Want: Individual Expectations from Acts of Worship\n\nIn approaching the gods, whether in the temples and monasteries, or at the earth god shrines on the street or in the fields, the worshippers had specific requirements in view. Then as now, worshipping itself was principally devoted to obtaining divine assistance in time of trouble or to attain the object of one's desire or supplication. These usually concerned health and wealth, as well as general preservation from all ills, for oneself and for family members, deceased as well as living. There was also the need to obtain protection (because of their great potential for harm) from the general body of those many departed souls without living male descendants to care for them.\n\nUnlike the ritual services, worshipping was not carried out with the help of intermediaries from the two religions. It is a personal act, usually conducted by the individual before the altars in temples, monasteries or nunneries, or at the tombs of deceased family members and ancestors at certain fixed times of the lunar year.\n\nAs Archdeacon Moule says - and it bears repeating because it is so basic to an understanding of how Chinese people think and act - the prayers of the worshippers one sees in the temples are being \"addressed to images representing deities of living and present power.\n\n24 In Hong Kong, a visit to a large city temple like the Wong Tai Sin Temple in New Kowloon at a major festival leaves one in no doubt that the people believe in the ability of the god to grant their requests. Nor is satisfaction kept to oneself. The word soon gets around, and since the worship", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214822, "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-1999", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "203\n\nis result-oriented, clients either multiply or fall away. The more \"miracles\" a god is perceived to have worked, now or in the past, the more popular he or she becomes with the public. Money flows like water to that temple, enabling major reconstructions that can double its size and more. Where there are no miracles, and results cease to flow from that image or shrine, the disappointed, discontented supplicants turn their attention elsewhere. I have frequently come across this attitude in the local temples, among worshippers and temple keepers alike, and it is apparently one of very long standing.\n\n25\n\nThis capacity to discard as well as acquire gods, is due to the very pragmatic attitude adopted by the people. It has been styled the \"shopping approach\" towards religion and the deities because it is so deeply grounded in expectation and its continuation is so much dependent upon results.26 In line with this approach, frustrated devotees sometimes took their disappointment and dissatisfaction a step further. Especially in crises, gods who failed to protect were not only abandoned but sometimes harshly treated. Whilst this phenomenon had been noted by many Protestant missionaries in 19th century China, the practice was observed long before that time. In 1583, the most famous of all Roman Catholic missionaries to China, Father Matteo Ricci, had written that “when these [idols] do not grant them what they [the people] desire, they beat them hard and make peace again with them later on.”??\n\nMany Gods in the Chinese Pantheon\n\nFrom the foregoing, it will scarcely come as a surprise to learn that the gods were legion. The pantheons of both Buddhism and especially Taoism have shown over many centuries the extreme creativity of the Chinese people in the matter of finding extra deities to worship. Over a century ago, Rev. Hampden Du Bose, \"for Fourteen Years a Missionary at Soochow,\" described the very wide range of gods adopted by different professions and groups in the late 19th century.\n\n28 There has, in addition, always been a strong impulse to seek assistance and protection from any new deity or spirit which appeared to have miraculous powers, and this is far from being dead to-day.29", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214823, "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-1999", "page_number": 238, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "204\n\nEarth Gods and Tree Spirits\n\nBesides the gods of Buddhism and Taoism worshipped in the village temples, there were also the gods of each locality. In the villages of the Hong Kong Region, in addition to whatever temples had been erected to the deities, it was usual for there to be several earth gods in each village, and in each of the streets in the local market centres. These animistic spirits were equally sought out by the village people.30 Besides the regular acts of worship performed at the shrines, with their supplications and thanksgivings, it was common practice to place children, especially boys, under the protection of a temple deity, an earth god or a tree spirit during the uncertain years of childhood, in order to secure protection against the many dangers that beset young lives. If a tree died or had to be felled, the protégés were transferred to another protector, with the appropriate ceremonies of disengagement (recognition of and thanksgiving for favours bestowed) and adoption at each place.31 Either Buddhist or Taoist priests were required for such rituals.\n\n31\n\nChinese Women and Religion\n\nFinally, it should be noted that Chinese women are considered to be more religious than their menfolk. As Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison's biographer observed in the last century:\n\n46\n\n'...their nature is much more religious than that of the men...it is they who visit the temples. The incense pots which smoulder before the placid countenance of Buddha are filled and kindled by them; they burn ten sheets of paper to the men's one....The men can do without worship, the women cannot.”32\n\nFrom my observations in Hong Kong and elsewhere, I believe this to be as true of today's worshippers as when it was written one hundred years ago.\n\nNOTES\n\nWilliam Frederick Mayers, The Chinese Reader's Manual (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1874) called them \"The Three systems of Doctrine (or Religion)\" and stated that they “constitute the recognized systems of religion,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214827, "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-1999", "page_number": 242, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "208\n\nfor an excellent, first-hand account.\n\nRev. B.C. Henry, The Cross and the Dragon or Light in the Broad East (New York, Anson D.F. Randolph and Company, 1885), p.85.\n\n21 Ibid, p.106.\n\n22 See Chapter VII, \"Rites for the Dead\", in Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900-1950 (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1967), pp. 179-205.\n\n23 By all accounts, too, the Buddhist and Taoist specialists offering services to the mass of the people were almost identical and interchangeable. One or other were also to be found in local temples, regardless of the supposed origin of the gods in them. I recall the Buddhist monk with an ordination certificate from the famous Ting Wu monastery in Kuangtung who was temple keeper at the Tin Hau temple in Shaukiwan in the 1960s. Also the mentions of the Buddhist priests in charge of the Tung Shan (Kuan Yin) Temple at East Kowloon and the Kam Fa Temple at Tsing Lung Tau, Tsuen Wan in the early years of this century.\n\n24 Moulem, p.212.\n\n25 See Campbell N. Moody, The Heathen Heart, An Account of the Reception of the Gospel among the Chinese of Formosa (Edinburgh and London, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1908).\n\n26 Ibid, pp.102-3, 107.\n\n27 Cited with similar quotations in (translated by Janet Lloyd) Jacques Gernet, China and the Christian Impact, A Conflict of Cultures (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, paperback edition, 1985), pp.82-83.\n\n28 Rev. Hampden C. DuBose, The Dragon, Image, and Demon: Or The Three Religions of China ... (New York, A.C. Armstrong & Son, 1887).\n\n29 One small squatter temple off the route connecting Tsuen Wan with Shek Kong (Route TWSK) is a case in point. The Sin Ha Tong was built about or before 1970, according to the person in charge. The temple is a wooden hut, with a goldfish pond in front, with some open space. Whilst the gods worshipped here include “old faithfuls\" such as Tin Hau, Lui Cho, and Pao Kung, it is intriguing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214888, "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-1999", "page_number": 303, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "276\n\nargued a bit among themselves they were not militant people. Letters to the Editor were, however, written to the English press.\n\nLet us look at the Chinese community that went up to this temple on a daily basis. Many more went up at weekends. Some of them I got to know quite well. The first to arrive every morning was a man and his wife, both in their eighties, who got up at about four o'clock. They then walked up the hill in the dark (there are now streetlights on the lower part of Hatton Road). The old couple would stay up at the temple until late afternoon when they would return to their home in Western District. The temple meant a great deal to them. Their lives were woven around it. They had spent some of their own hard-earned money on repairing it and providing for day-to-day necessities - like joss sticks and oil for the lamps.\n\nDuring the day the old man would spend much of his time meditating. I saw him seated, frequently, swaying in a trance. Some maintain that the ultimate aim of meditation is to get one's soul to leave one's body. The danger is that it may be difficult to coax the soul, suspended in space in front of one's body, to return to its normal abode. All the time the old man was so occupied the wife was engaged in more mundane pursuits. She spent much of her time busying around cleaning the temple and listening to Buddhist music from a cassette player. She also prepared simple dishes such as congee. She made tea. I was frequently invited to drink with them.\n\nMost people came up to the temple early in the morning. Those that had jobs to go to would hurry down the hill, at what was still a reasonably early hour, while the elderly, the retired, would stay in the vicinity of the Temple longer. Often they would remain there for the best part of the day. Many would exercise in styles varying from the different schools of 'hard' and 'soft' Chinese martial arts to quasi-western callisthenics. Others would tend flower beds they had managed to create from the sparse layer of top soil, while others, who were mostly handymen rather than craftsmen, would carry such items as tools, timber or cement up the hillside. In their own time, in stages, a section of trellis or a shelter was added here, and an extension to the Temple there. Of course if one had nothing to do one could chat, relax and while away the time. They played mahjong (especially popular on Sundays), or worshiped the benign, grubby statue of Kwan Yin, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215066, "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-2000", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "119\n\ninside each annual Farmer's Almanac whether it be printed in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Singapore, is of the Spring Ox and the youthful ox herd. The youth, usually armed simply with a willow wand, the symbol of rain, was connected with fertility, good harvests and happiness. Popular belief also claimed that Mang Shen's clothing was intentionally misleading. One shoe meant a balanced rainfall, two shoes meant poor rain, possibly drought and no shoes meant a good and adequate rainfall. If he was dressed in mourning it would be a good year, whereas if he wore light clothing a cold year could be expected. [Similar rituals involving the Spring Ox have been observed as far afield as Inner Mongolia (Wm. Grootaers: Chahar: Peking Catholic University: Monumenta Serica: 1948), Sichuan (Mrs Pruen: The Western Provinces of China: 1906), the Rev. Milne in Beijing and Ningbo in the mid 1840s] and in illustrations within provincial guide books of the 1990s in Shanxi and Shaanxi.\n\nTaisui on Altars\n\nAlthough Taisui is only very rarely the main deity in a temple he has been seen as a lone deity in a wayside shrine, and is frequently the sole deity on a temple's secondary altar. However, in southern Chinese communities, especially Hunan and Guangdong, he is portrayed by sixty individual images in serried rows on a secondary altar, and in one temple in Lukang, on the west coast of Taiwan, all sixty are depicted in a modern temple mural in four rows of fifteen.\n\nNormally Taisui whether as one or sixty images exclusively occupies the altar dedicated to him. However, two temples, provinces apart, have their rows of sixty Taisui, rising row on row, but with different deities, neither apparently connected with Taisui, standing in the superior position on the very top tier of the altar. The first is in Tainan in southern Taiwan where a new hall, built onto the side of the first floor main hall of the large Jade Emperor Temple, is entirely dedicated to Taisui apart from the painted wooden doors and three unconnected images on the top row. The main deity in this instance is Doumu Yuanjun, also known as Zhunti Pusa, the Bodhisattva of Light [or the Dawn]. She is worshipped by Chan [Zen] Buddhists as a merciful goddess and has been assimilated by Chinese religion as the deity Doumu with many of her devotees regarding her as a bodhisattva in her own right, a powerful deity 'who prolongs life and helps avoid", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215069, "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-2000", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "122 etc. are the actual Taisui who perform the functions and duties of the deity. The bells have magical properties and a Hokkien god carver in Singapore explained that all Taisui images should carry one of four specific charms. The main one is the bell which when rung causes the hearer to lose his way and wander aimlessly. Therefore a demon hearing it forgets his task and wanders off. The other three charms are the seal of office which when shaken causes the heavens to quake; and two swords, one male and one female. Another unusual feature is Taisui's footwear. Normally he wears sandals but occasionally only one foot is shod the other being bare. This form is comparatively common on Fukien community altars, an excellent example being in the Buddhist temple in Yen Kiu Road in Singapore. Only one example has been noted in Hong Kong, on an altar on a junk in the Pearl River. The one bare and one shod foot is said to represent the amount of rain expected during the coming season [see above under The Rôle of Taisui for an explanation provided in eastern China]. A similar story has been told about the Immortal Lan Caihe and, as we have seen above, about Mang Shen.\n\nAn unusual large clay image of Taisui in a temple near Kam Tin in the New Territories depicts him with the bell in his left hand, and with a third eye. The bell, according to the temple keeper, has magical properties. Even more unusual is the image in Hung Hom in Kowloon with the usual bell in Taisui's right hand but unusually he has a Tantric necklace of thirteen skulls draped around his neck.\" Other lone image carvings are standard, anonymous seated officials or scholars with no particular characteristic and only identifiable as Taisui by the written Chinese characters on the front face of the base or because they are standing on piles of spirit money which, according to common belief, no other deity does. The lone Taisui image tends to be referred to as the 'Taisui [or Intendant] of the Current Year' EX-\n\nOver the years and in a number of places ranging from Singapore to northern China various informants have explained, mostly contradicting each other, that the images with a bell is the Taisui of the Year, the one with a scroll or tablet is the Taisui of the Month and those without anything are the Taisui of the Day.\n\nIn a small temple in Sepang near Port Dickson in Malaysia, three images on a side altar stand side by side. A typical Taisui image with a\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215085, "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-2000", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "138\n\nThe Binary Titles for the Sexagenary cycle\n\nThe list of the sixty combinations given below also includes the full title of the deity, the Spirit of the Year, the Taisui. Each title begins with the two characters from the 10 stems and 12 branches. These are followed by the two characters Tai Sui, and in turn the next two characters are the individual name of the spirit, followed by the final three characters for the Great General. Therefore, the first is Jiazi Taisui Jinbian Da Jiangjun, Jiazi being the first group of the sixty Taisui, followed by his name Jinbian, and finally the title of the Great General. However, the romanisation gives two words only out of the full title. The romanisation therefore only provides the first two [the stem and branch], followed by the personal name.\n\nThe iconography of the Sixty varies considerably though the individual images in the two modern sets in Taipei do have very similar features. These range from military, civil and Daoist and Buddhist robes and caps to carrying spears, unsheathed swords, kerchiefs, fruit, small bowls of lustral water, tablets, brush pens, pearls and fans.\n\nThe list, apart from the number within the bracket, obtained from the Daoist centre in the Baiyun Guan in Peking, provides sequentially the years of the sexagenary cycle. However, the images of the sixty Taisui in temples seem to be placed haphazardly along the altars. Also, the personal names of the spirits in each temple set can be different or allocated to a different year. A few are the same in every set, for example the first, Jiazi with the personal name of Jinbian, but the majority are different.\n\nThe numbers in brackets are the order in which the images of the Taisui are placed in the folk religion temple in Pudong, Shanghai. Thus, the first item gives us:\n\n[the Shanghai number] Jiazi Taisui Jinbian Da Jiangjun Jiazi Jinbian and the years within the Sixty Year Cycle.\n\n[1] 甲子太歲金辨大將軍\n\n[2] 乙丑太歲陳財大將軍\n\nJiazi\n\nJin bian\n\n1924 1984\n\nYichou\n\nChen cai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215141, "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-2000", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "PATRON DEITY OF PROSTITUTES\n\nZHU BAJIE\n\n豬八戒\n\n195\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nZhu Bajie is better known to Westerners as Piggy or Pigsy. He is one of the three assistants to the Tripitaka [the Chinese monk, Xuanzang] who, in 629 AD, together with the Monkey King [Qitian Dasheng], set out with the monk as his escort and aides on his hazardous and enthralling trek to India to collect the sacred Buddhist scriptures. These were the heroes of the romance the Journey to the West. He is also known by his name in religion - Zhu Wuneng - Seeker after Strength.\n\nIn the story Pigsy was the former Superintendent of Navigation of the Milky Way, banished to be reincarnated on Earth for assaulting one of the daughters of the Jade Emperor. Unfortunately a mistake was made and he entered the womb of a sow and was born half-man and half-pig. He was ordained a priest by Guan Yin and is portrayed on altars and in murals as a composite deity, a human with the head of a pig. He carries a five-toothed rake as a defensive weapon which he used to good effect during the long and arduous journey escorting the pilgrim monk, Xuanzang.\n\nAlthough he is usually regarded China-wide as the epitome of gluttony, in Taiwan he is also revered by prostitutes who call on his divine title Shoushou Ye, offering him incense and chants morning and evening whilst calling on him to bring them rich guests, foolish and witless, to be fleeced. An image, one of a number on loan from devotees, depicts him sitting holding a virtually nude woman in his arms alone on one of the side altars in the City God Temple in Chia I.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215333, "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-2001", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "58\n\nclaiming that the Society used to worship ‘openly' in Hainanese temples before convening a meeting. One hundred and eight is also a Buddhist number, the number of the beads in a rosary, the number of passions and delusions, and the number of tolls of the monastery bell at dawn and dusk. A further connotation of the number 108 is reflected in the number of times temple keepers claimed that the Brothers were the 108 heroes at Liang Shan Po in the classic novel, Shuihu Chuan, 'The Water Margin,' but when pressed, in every case they admitted that this had been no more than a guess.\n\nThe Brothers are also known as:\n\nYibai You Ba Gong 一百有八公\n\nYibai You Xiongdi 一百有八兄弟 and\n\nYibai Lingba Xiongdi Zhonghun 一百零八兄弟忠魂\n\nLu Bode and Ma Yuan are two generals revered in Hainanese temples, often on the same altar, with both bearing the same honorific, the Wave Conquering General, [Fupo Jiangjun13].\n\nThe first general, Lu Bode, subjugated large areas of what today is Guangdong province during the Earlier Han [ca. 120 BC]. A native of Pingzhou, he served with distinction under He Chubing who became the president of the Board of War. In BC 120 he subjugated large portions of what is today Guangdong and Guangxi, and received further honours.\n\nThe second general, Ma Yuan [14BC - AD 49], was also awarded the title of the Wave Conqueror for the pacification of the southern region some hundred years later. Popular in Guangdong province he used also to be particularly honoured in Guangxi where he was revered as a river god, \"The Wave Conquering General - Fupo Jiangjun' and in Hengzhou in Hunan he used to be the main deity in a small temple where he was worshipped as the protective deity at the local river rapids.\n\nMa Yuan, also known as the Vanguard General, Xianfeng14 led a further southern expansion of the Han empire and has been popularly worshipped from about the fifth century AD by Han settlers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215347, "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-2001", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "72\n\nuniquely Hainanese. In practice of the seventeen only one was Hainanese and that bore the odd title. It was Li San Shengmu, literally the Saintly Mother Li the third. This is obviously Li Shan, misheard with the 'san' assumed to be the 'Third'.\n\nThe most widespread claim is that Lishan Shengmu or Lishan Laomu24 was a ferocious lady general of the Tang dynasty known for her love of fighting, and is now a popular character in Chaozhou plays. However, to many Chinese she is better known by the maiden name of Fan Li-shan as merely the wife and mother of two famous generals, Xue. Several stories told about her contain in addition to common factors, others involving unconnected genuine historical heroes, some from entirely different eras. The composite story of the best known legends about Miss Fan25 begins with her warrior father giving her a 'sword to execute Immortals' and a 'whip to beat the spirits' and after she had completed her military training and prior to her going off to help General Xue Dingshan26 to pacify the west. In one version she joined up with him, served and fought alongside winning his trust and favour. In another Xue met and fought her on the battlefield. She defeated him but, because he was a handsome general, and with a bit of persuasion, she married him. A photocopied broadsheet distributed by the temple keeper in a small immigrant settlement shrine above Kowloon claimed that the Lishan cult had been popular in central China, and that her story, described in the 'Conquest of the West,' ostensibly written by Xue Dingshan himself, explained that she had been the wife of Xue, later transformed into an Immortal as a reward for her miracles and achievements.\n\nThere is also a Lishan Laomu who is also a definitive goddess appearing in the great novel The Journey to the West, the story of the fantastic journey made by Xuanzang, together with Sun, the Monkey, Sha the monk and Pigsy. In part of the story it appears likely that Lishan was Monkey's elder sister, a courtesy title rather than a blood relationship. She, together with her three daughters, all Bodhisattvas, named Truth, Love and Pity, transformed themselves into beautiful women in order to tempt the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang and his entourage of Monkey, Pigsy and Sha with their beauty. She changed herself into a widow and proposed to Xuanzang who rejected her. She and her daughters teased Pigsy, who after many adventures found that they were merely figments of his imagination. This goddess would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215470, "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-2001", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "196\n\nto climb up to it.\n\nBeing an official Royal Asiatic Society group, coupled with Brian's immense knowledge, experience and influence, had a number of advantages. One of these was being able to go inside the Kyichu Lhakhang, a 7th century temple, noting the obvious Buddhist nature of the place but also the significant differences from the Chinese temples that most of us were more used to. It seemed to be much calmer, generally less busy.\n\np.m.\n\nThe high valley walls meant that the sun left us at about 4:45 and so photography became a bit of a challenge. But once again the children and older people were very accommodating about being flashed at, or waiting that much longer for correct exposures and shutter speeds to be estimated.\n\nBy the time we hit the shops of Paro High Street it was completely dark. On our way up the valley we had seen the orderly row of shops, about 30 or 40 of them, all looking the same but all looking inviting nonetheless. What was a surprise, however, was that they were virtually all the same - well stocked with the goods they had to offer, but I couldn't help wondering why one would use any one of them as opposed to another. As I still wanted my post cards, I was delighted to find a store that stocked them. I also wanted a small book to write notes in, so I asked the young lady behind the counter, very slowly and clearly: ‘Do you have a writing book?' I was most surprised when she answered in perfect and accent-free English: \"You mean a note book? What about this one here?' I did not want to sound patronising, but I had to ask her if everybody in Paro spoke English as well as she did, to which she replied: 'No, most of them are uneducated.' Well, there you have it.\n\nI was very ready for dinner, after which, on returning to the hotel, I was delighted to find out that some kind soul had already turned on the electric heater in my room.\n\nHa Haa\n\nThe destination for the second day was Haa, the principal town in Bhutan's western Haa Province. The road from Paro would take us", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215488, "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-2001", "page_number": 265, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "214\n\nAs I have pointed out already, the male sexual organ is depicted quite a lot on Bhutanese buildings as a symbol of fertility, or at least as an invocation of longed-for fertility. It so happens that things come to a head, as it were, in this Lhakhang at Chime. Not content with mere pictures, this holy place has replicas that can be picked up and, well, fondled. Personally, I thought they were enormous - but I was told by one of my grinning fellow travellers that they were actually pretty life-like. Young ladies come to the temple to pray for babies if they are having trouble otherwise. There is one particular statue that was donated to the temple by a local official. The statue is unmistakably male and gives the impression of being very pleased to see visitors. The story is that this official had led such a life of sin and debauchery that before he died, he made a donation of this fine upstanding figurine by way of atonement. More likely, in my opinion, is that he merely donated one of his ribald collection of standing ornaments as a way of ensuring it went to a suitable home.\n\nThrough these villages flows a stream, and a particularly fast-flowing one too. We had seen water power being harnessed to drive prayer wheels before, but the speed of this stream meant that they must have had the fastest turning prayer wheel in the kingdom. So fast was it revolving that it was not possible to make out the blur of words that whizzed round. I hope they get a bit more sorted out before they get to heaven, otherwise all that effort may be wasted.\n\nAn every-day story of country folk\n\nLast stop of the day was to admire Wangdi Dzong, which we had seen briefly on our way east. Yet another large, imposing, impressive fortress in a commanding position above the river, this reminded us again of the purpose of a dzong. They were built as defensive fortresses, a centre of government and power, a place of worship and Buddhist learning, and a general focal point for the surrounding area. This one qualified on all fronts, complete with 32 boys in residence studying Buddhism and other monkly pursuits. Not quite so in keeping with this peaceful sounding activity were the ten or so very smartly attired young men who were practicing archery inside the main entrance. The targets had been set up with the standard 150-yard separation, but this time the archers were using not the local bamboo bow, but carbon fibre composite bows, complete with telescopic sights. The results were twofold: firstly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215490, "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-2001", "page_number": 267, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "216\n\nwas commemorating, it was certainly doing so with great Excitement and Atmosphere.\n\nAcross another courtyard, up a dark flight of wooden steps to a square viewing balcony with space for perhaps 40 people to stand next to the railing, looking down into\n\nTemporarily speechless\n\none of the most amazing and moving sights I have ever seen. So much so I had to leave after a few minutes, and go and look at the sunlight and distant mountains before venturing back in, still in a state of some shock. Seated one floor below us, lit only by smoking candles, cross-legged on the wooden floor, were four rows of monks dressed in their dark blood-red habits, two rows facing the other two rows, 48 monks in all. Each had a drum of about two feet in diameter, which was held vertically with the aid of a three-foot pole. They were beating these drums and chanting in the deep-throated growly tones that one only hears in Buddhist temples, all to a set but irregular rhythm without the apparent aid of written music or any other form of instruction. Wandering along the ranks of seated chanters was a sergeant-major or choirmaster with a large and solid-looking stick in his hand. He used this to apply a none-too-gentle rap on the shoulder to any monk whose drum was not held perfectly upright. I regret that my less than classical education made me think of Indiana Jones when he was deep inside the Temple of Doom amongst the thuggees. I apologise if I am upsetting any reader's sensitivities with this comparison, and I freely admit that there could hardly be less similarity than between a gentle Bhutanese monk and a murderous Indian thuggee.\n\nSeated behind these monks, beneath our viewing platform, were countless other monks - some with instruments, some without. Some of these, it seemed to be the young novices, for no apparent reason received three lashes each on the back from a gentle monk carrying a cat-o'-nine-tails. (Parent: 'Did you have a nice day at the temple today dear?' Young Novice: 'Yes thank you mama.' P: 'Did you get thrashed?' YN: 'Yes mama - thrice.' P: 'That's my boy! Your father and I are so proud of you.')\n\nBack to centre stage, where the performers were considerably more", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215695, "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-2001", "page_number": 472, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "425\n\npapers and only uses part of the available space.\n\nThere is the matter of romanization itself. Authors of books of this sort in the English language find themselves having to use a mix of Cantonese names, comprising old renderings of both Cantonese and Mandarin, the frequently encountered various misspellings by Western writers, and now with pinyin street and place names into the bargain. Like many more of us, Mrs. Garrett has also had to mix her romanizations here and there. Having myself been hauled over the coals for perpetuating just such a \"mish-mash\" in one of my books, by my former boss and mentor, the late K.M.A. Barnett (Journal, Vol 24, 1984, pp.329-330), I can greatly sympathize with a dilemma not of her making.\n\nThe disadvantages for author and reader alike come out particularly in Chapter 6, devoted to the local temples, where we encounter the confusions inseparable from using different systems of romanization within paragraphs devoted to the same institution - and compounded where a street named after the temple in question is (and has to be) rendered in pinyin (as at pages 64-65 on the Kwong Hau/Guangxiao Buddhist Temple). Mrs. Garrett has done her best to reduce problems of identification with her useful 'English/Pinyin and Cantonese/Pinyin Glossary' at pp.184-6, but this in itself cannot remove all the puzzles inherent in the mix.\n\nIn a book which is so full of facts, the attempt to write a review tests the reviewer's knowledge as much as the author's, and in truth often beyond it. However, \"history\" itself can sometimes be uncertain, as in the case of Macau's origins. It is widely believed that the Portuguese were permitted to settle there because of their help with the suppression of pirates (pp. 10, 73), but this is still not certain. Also, Macau was not \"granted\" (p.73) to the Portuguese, in the sense of bestowing possession or legal right, their occupation being made subject to various payments, that included customs dues and taxes and (later) payment of an annual ground rent, whilst Chinese were excluded from their jurisdiction, being placed under their own official. (For a useful, fairly recent, compendium, see R.D. Cremer (editor), Macau, City of Commerce and Culture, 2nd Edition: Continuity and Change (Hong Kong, API Press, Ltd., 1991).)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215966, "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": 265, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "199\n\nto justify any kind of violence against that \"other\" as a form of cultural and social self-preservation. \"Foreign demons\" were constructs of a political discourse which played on the common people's fears, even to the point of instituting extensive studies in teratology (the study of monstrous forms of animals and plants) as a way of explaining the foreign \"things.\"\n\n39 In taking a \"China-centred approach\" to studying the implications of Ch'ea's Christian conversion, these factors should be explored in two areas: the teratologisation of Jesus and the whiplash of an earlier imperial racism expressed in Manchurian campaigns against any intellectuals who strongly supported Hàn cultural motifs.\n\n40\n\n41\n\nIn a rare picture of the transmogrification of \"foreign teachings\" in order to mark them out for vilification and destruction, Paul Cohen has illustrated how one Qing scholar, Tián Xingshu (1837-1877), produced a blistering lampoon of Christianity in publicly displayed placards during the 1860s. The \"Lord Jesus\" (Zhu Yésu) was depicted in cartoon-like caricatures as the \"Pig Jesus\" (Ju Yésu), worshipped by \"foreign devils\" in bizarre and salacious rites. Christian \"devils\" are depicted as cannibalizing unsuspecting children and religious seekers, using their religious rites as a cover-up for the most immoral and inhumane forms of treatment that a Chinese person could imagine. Near the end of his book, Bixié jìshí (The Truth about Records of Exorcising Evil Spirits12), Tián depicts a righteous mandarin ordering the \"shooting of Pig [Jesus] and the beheading of the Goats [foreigners].\" But this is not the end. Following long traditions found in many Chinese Buddhist or Daoist temple reliefs, Tián capsulizes the defamation by illustrating the terrible purgatorial punishments deserved by the \"Pig Incarnate\" (jujing) in some lower level of Chinese hells. Any partially literate and sensitive Chinese citizen would obviously want to be rid of such a terrible menace to their own society. How could any Chinese person, convinced that these claims were false and purposefully misleading derisions, seek to redirect mobs angered by these putative evils of \"foreign torturers\"743\n\nYet an even deeper level of antagonism and racism had been instigated from the highest imperial offices during the 17th and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215995, "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": 294, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "228\n\nany rate habitually did not, and those who did, is one of the most significant within the literate realm, perhaps as important as the distinction between those who did and did not have full access to the literary tradition.\n\nThe fact that Ch'a later had others write down what he dictated about his experiences suggests that he was one of these people in the middle: able to read, but not yet able to write well. See the further discussion in David Johnson's article, \"Communication, Class, and Consciousness in Late Imperial China”, in Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, pp. 34-72, here p. 38.\n\n30. EMMC/MM 20 (October 1856), p. 215.\n\n31. EMMC/MM 20 (October 1856), p. 215.\n\n32. This story is part of the collection of vignettes in a typed manuscript entitled Reminiscences (pp. 15-18, quotation from p. 15) held in the Bodleian Library (Ms. Eng. misc. c. 812). Many of these stories show signs of an aging man not remembering particular details of dates and places, but there appears to be no good reason to doubt the authenticity of this encounter between Legge and Ch'ëa itself. It appears nowhere else in Legge's writings, and serves as one of the basic texts for Helen Edith Legge's typescript, \"Che'a Kin-Kwang.”\n\n33. Rambo refers to this as a further motif in conversion initially identified by John Lofland and Rodney Stark. It involves the \"direct, personal experience of being loved, nurtured, and affirmed by a group and its leaders\" (Rambo, Understanding Religious Conversion, p. 15).\n\n34. For a helpful summary of Mary Isabella Legge's life see the section related to \"Mary Isabella Morison\" in Wong Man-kong, \"Hidden in History: London Missionary Society Missionary Wives in Nineteenth Century China (1807-1877)”, in Lí Hànjī, ed., Dú shĩ cúngão (Reading History: Extant Documents) (Hong Kong: Xuéfeng wénhuà Co., 1998), esp. pages 156-160.\n\n35. The timing of Ch'ea's leaving his post at the Poklo temple was not certain in an earlier letter, but Ch'ea himself dictates this fact in a letter translated into English for overseas readers. See EMMC/MM (September 1857), p.207. The following descriptions come from this and another translated statement (pp. 207-209) prepared by another convert led back to Hong Kong by Ch'ea, as will be described below.\n\n36. This is the intent of the seventh of the sixteen edicts, translated by Legge as \"Discountenance and put away strange principles, in order to exalt the correct doctrine” (chủ viduàn vì chống zhèng xuê). Among the “strange principles” regarded as unacceptable were Buddhist and Daoist extremities, rebellious groups like the secret societies of the White Lotus, and the Catholic religion. Legge makes clear that the condemnation of Catholicism \"must be understood simply of Christianity\" as a whole. See James Legge, \"Imperial Confucianism\" (Lecture II), China Review, 6:4 (October 1877), pp. 232-235.\n\n37. In a similar way Hong Xiùquán was seen as \"mad\" by his family and neighbours, but had experienced a physical breakdown after repeated failures in the civil examinations during the time he began having visions. The experience of Ch'ea on this score is quite different, in that he apparently maintained a relative engagement with his local lifeworld until he returned from Hong Kong in the summer of 1856. Compare Hamberg's account taken down from Hong Réngan's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215999, "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": 298, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "232\n\nthe former found in CWM/South China/Personal/Legge/Box 5). There is no written record of Ho's sermons, but one could search certain passages of his commentaries to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark for suggestions.\n\n62. Both the cults of Guanyin and Guandi (or Guangōng) have been very popular in different periods of Chinese history, the former originally a Buddhist bodhisatva and the latter originally a military general made famous in the early Weijin period novel, Three Kingdoms, and later honoured as a warrior spirit. Devotion toward them both is still a regular feature of traditional Chinese practices. For initial information, see articles and cross references on Guanyin [Kuan-yin] and Guandi [Kuan-ti] in Jonathan Z. Smith, ed., The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco: HarperCollins Pub., 1995), p. 647, and a fuller article involving the origins and reverence shown to Guanyin in Raoul Birnbaum, \"Avaloketsvara,\" Mircea Eliade, ed. The Encyclopaedia of Religion (Chicago: MacMillan Pub. Co., 1987), Vol. 2, pp. 11-14. See broader discussions about the influence of the cult of Guanyin in the past and present in John E. C. Blofeld, Bodhisatva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin (Boston: Shambhal, 1988), Wen Guangxi, Guānshìyīn pusà běnjī yinyuán (The Causes of the Various Expedient Manifestations of the Bodhisattva Guānyin) (Hong Kong: Library of the Tripitaka Temple, 1986), Tay C. Y. (M. Zhèng Sēngyǐ), Guānyīn: Bàngè yǎzhōu de xìnyǎng (Guanyin: A Faith [Expressed throughout] Half of Asia) (Taipei: Hui Chu Pub., 1993). Recent studies on Guandi include Hong Shuling, Guangōng mínjiān zàoxíng zhī yánjiù: yǐ Guāngōng chuánshuō wèi zhōngxīn de kǎochá (Studies of the Models Of Guāngōng Found among the People: Investigations taking the Traditional Stories about Guāngōng as the Central Focus) (Taipei: Taiwan National University Pub. Co., 1995).\n\n63. \"Sabbath culture\" is a technical term I developed in Striving for \"The Whole Duty of Man\" in order to describe the Chinese Christian form of life which had been adopted and transformed from Scottish Dissenter precedents. It involved resting from all normal work on the Christian Sabbath, devoting oneself to church worship in Christian community for part of the day, and doing works of charity and witness at other times, whether with family, church friends, or by oneself.\n\n64. In his \"Reminiscences\" Legge tells how Ch'ea at first found the German missionaries being treated meanly by a group of local people, and so he rushed up to the crowd, yelling at them not to disturb them but to listen, because \"they are servants of the Most High God\". See Reminiscences, p. 15.\n\n65. See EMMC/MM 24 (February 1860), pp. 39-40.\n\n66. Days before Ch'ea's murder the two men were together again in a boat, and Legge noted how Ch'ea made it his personal goal to speak to each of the crew members about spiritual matters. His evangelistic approach was thorough and consistent, positively impressing Legge especially during the time when his own reappearance in Poklo was taken as a self-conscious risk (as will be described below). The very same zeal, however, was evaluated in very different terms by Ch'ea's enemies, See Legge, Ch'ea Kin Kwáng, typed manuscript, p. 6.\n\n67. When in the presence of the mandarin Wang, Legge and Chalmers spoke Cantonese, and this was assumably translated into either Mandarin or guanhua by Ch'ea (a more literary form of the Mandarin used among the Chinese gentry)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216023, "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": 322, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "256\n\nMountain, a former small island now joined to the mainland by alluvium, referred to by Victorian travellers as a 'pyramidal rock'. This used to stand out in the Yangzi a mile or so upstream from the city of Zhenjiang, hence their use of its name generically for the city. There is a further island, Jiao Shan Scorched Island, an islet some mile or so downstream from the city with its own ancient temple, Dinghui Si concealed within its tree-covered slopes. It too has its own memorials from the era of the Six Dynasties - two or three ancient cypress trees, whose storm-riven and almost barkless trunks were in the 1920s still held together by iron bands. According to Allom, Silver Island [Mountain], the name formerly given by foreigners to Jiao Shan, is to the westward of Zhenjiang, within sight of the Gold Island [Mountain] [see illustration]. Legend has it that Jin Shan, Gold Mountain takes its name from the time during the Tang dynasty when a certain Bei Totuo was digging into the hill and found a pot of gold; this has long been denied by Buddhists who believe that the name of the hill has a Buddhist symbolic meaning. Although the British Concession was originally laid out with intervening ground between it and the old walled city it did not take many years for the new native city to encroach and reach the Concession boundary. This meant that foreigners wishing to leave the Concession had to battle their way through the main street of the new native city, facing filthy and disease-ridden beggars, open drains and past open spaces which were used as public conveniences, constantly patronised by squatting men.\n\nCaptain Cunynghame, serving with the British force sailing up the Yangzi and about to mount an assault on Zhenjiang, arrived off the city on the 18th of July 1842. The force had been proceeding with great care as it was the first opportunity that western warships had had to penetrate as far inland up the Great River. He described his first sighting of Golden Island as 'the most beautiful little fairy isle imaginable, covered with temples, whose gilt-topped pagodas shone brilliantly in the evening sun'. A week or so later, once the city had been stormed and he was able to walk through it and wrote that \"the walled portion of the town was reckoned about four miles in circumference. The suburbs, extending a long distance to the west, probably occupied an equal extent of ground. The former space was chiefly occupied by streets containing shops, with an occasional blank space of wall within which were the houses of the most wealthy inhabitants. A very large portion, however, was occupied by gardens", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216029, "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": 328, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "262\n\nWar in 218 AD between two of the Three Kingdoms [San Guo], between Sun Quan of Wu and Liu Bei of Shu, led amongst other things to the capture of the city of Qingzhou. One of Liu Bei's generals, Guan Yu, hurried south to defend the city but was ambushed, captured and decapitated by Sun Quan after he refused to change sides. Guan was later deified as is now the immensely popular deity, the Patron of Uniformed Bodies and is known as the God of Loyalty, Guan Di. Thus, the founder of Zhenjiang had the distinction of slaying the consequent Patron deity of Soldiers, Firemen and Detectives and the second most popular god on Chinese popular religion altars.\n\nIn the first years of the 6th century AD the first emperor of the Liang dynasty, Wu Di, who was renowned for his support of Buddhism and the Buddhist clergy, visited Zhenjiang. He had been visited by a divine monk in a dream who urged Wu Di to institute a great fast in order to rescue all sentient beings from the miseries of their existence. The Emperor ordered a new monastery to be built at Tse Hsin [Zexin], known today as Jin Shan to accommodate the Congress held in AD 507, and for centuries within the monastery there was a building known as the Hall of Liang Wang. This tradition is at odds with the date usually given for the founding of the monastery - AD 317.\n\nOur next story involves a deified hero who had nothing to do with Zhenjiang in life but, for some unknown reason, his cult would appear to have become centralised along the Grand Canal and especially at Zhenjiang. He is a canonised hero of the Tang dynasty, but one of a pair whose images elsewhere appear together on popular religion temple altars. These two euhemerised heroes, Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan, ***, have been seen on altars in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-east Asia. These two protective deities are known individually as the Venerable King of Peaceful Pacification, Wen'an Zunwang ✰✰ E [Zhang Xun] and the Venerable King of Military Pacification, Wu'an Zunwang ✯✯ [Xu Yuan] though they will\n\n+\n\nbe referred to hereafter simply as Zhang and Xu.\n\nThe most common history of the two heroes as related by a great number of temple keepers describes how Zhang and Xu, loyalists during the reign of Tang Ming Huang, opposed the rebellion led by An Lushan. They died heroically in AD 757 during the civil war defending the provincial city of Suiyang in Henan province which fell to the enemy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216032, "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": 331, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "265\n\nin 1144, built to the west of the Bridge of a Thousand Autumns, Qianqiu Qiao, beside a small canal with landing places attached. It would seem to have been inside the present city, about where the road from the west gate crosses the canal, before you reached the City God Temple. It was restored in 1271 with a commemorative inscription composed by Liu Xiufu, and the whole establishment was enlarged during the Ming so as to have 109 rooms, with stabling for 80 horses, forty of which had to be kept constantly saddled, presumably for use by imperial messengers.\n\nMoving on to the Yuan [Mongol] dynasty, an interesting account, if indeed it is genuine, claims that Marco Polo mentioned the foundation of Nestorian Christian churches at Zhenjiang (Cinghian fu) by a Nestorian Christian governor, Mar Sargis [or Mar George] from Samarkand. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China during the 13th century employed foreigners within his civil service, one of whom was Marco Polo who spent three years as Governor of Yangzhou, the city a short distance upstream on the northern arm of the Grand Canal immediately across the Great River from Zhenjiang. The story goes that the maternal grandfather of Mar Sargis cured Genghis Khan of a sickness by administering sherbet and his secret recipe. The latter was passed down the family and each generation did good business ensuring their fortune. The story of his appointment as governor would appear to have been confirmed by various entries in the old records of Zhenjiang in which there are references to seven Christian monasteries [i.e. churches] in or near the city, adding that the Zhenjiang Christian population in about AD 1280 amounted to 215. These were started after Mar Sargis had a dream in which he was instructed to construct seven Nestorian churches. Using his fortune he is said to have completed all seven but unwittingly with one on the site of a former famous Buddhist monastery which Mar Sargis was ordered to hand back to the Buddhists. Of the remaining six two were said to have been on the ridge running inland from the former site of the British consulate.\n\nDuring the early days of the Ming, in the reign of the Yongle emperor, various expeditions sailed down the Yangzi from Nanjing, and out into the Eastern Ocean, a commander of several of the expeditions being the renowned eunuch, Zheng He. The policy of despatching such expeditions far beyond China's shores was short-lived. Between 1405 and 1425 Zheng's fleet voyaged through south-east Asia", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216038, "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": 337, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "271\n\nother smaller temples, some well known, others hardly known at all. These include the conspicuous red-walled Dicang Wang Temple not far from the south-west corner of the city wall; the Doutian Miao and the Xiu Wang Miao, both referred to earlier. All were destroyed during the Taiping occupation, though many were rebuilt during subsequent years only to fall into disuse during the Japanese occupation as well as since 1949. The Jin Shan Temple and the Ganlu Temple today are the premier tourist sites in Zhenjiang, with the Dinghui monastery, though less easily accessible, being a good third.\n\nThere used to be an interesting group of memorial temples on the Ganlu headland [Consular Bluff], a favourite resort for native Chinese picnic parties. One of these shrines was dedicated to Zhu Xi, a Southern Song dynasty neo-Confucian philosopher, born in Anhui in AD 1130, and probably best remembered for his commentary on Confucian classics, with his 'Rituals for Family Life' being influential throughout China as the standard authority consulted by high and low alike. He was the Confucian scholar who, whilst prefect at Zhangzhou in Fujian in 1190, attacked Buddhist and Daoist practices and issued orders laying down punishments for those who disobeyed the rules. Despite this he wrote commentaries on the sacred books of Daoism. He retired in 1196 and after his death four years later was posthumously appointed Chief of the Imperial Tutors with the rank of Lord. He has long been deified, with a portrait installed in a temple in Jiangxi province at an early stage during the twelfth century to encourage sacrifices to him by local scholars and gentlemen.14 He was revered in Confucian temples from about 1250, and during the reign of Kang Xi he was elevated to a position just under the 'Ten Noted Men' [The Ten Disciples of Confucius].\n\n[1824-1890],\n\nAnother shrine was dedicated to Peng Yulin the Chinese admiral in charge of the Yangzi Fleet which operated with success against the Taiping rebels. Peng was remembered by foreigners for his incorruptibility as well as his inability to understand the westerners. During the short French war with China in 1884-5, when in Guangzhou as the Imperial Naval Commissioner sent to organise its defences he proposed sending emissaries to Singapore to poison any French officers who might have been enjoying British hospitality there. Beijing frowned on his plan and he was unable to see why. He was also violently opposed to the introduction of iron-clads into the Chinese navy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216040, "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": 339, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "273\n\nsince sought his assistance to calm storms. In yet another legend Yan Gong is claimed to have saved the life of the first emperor of the Ming during a crossing of the Yangzi; and Werner, after relating a complicated story about the presence of a mythical creature being found, noted that Ming Hong Wu, having realized that he had been saved by a spirit called Yan, bestowed the title of Marshal of the Metropolis upon him and ordered a temple to be built in his honour.\n\nImages of Yan Gong have been only noted on altars in the area of Nanchang in Jiangxi, and in the southern maritime provinces of China including Taiwan and Hong Kong, but not within Chinese communities in South-east Asia.\n\nJiang Shen, literally the spirit of the river, is the generic title for a nameless deity on the Yangzi about whom little is known. She is said to have taken on human form and been bathing in the nude when she was stranded by the low tide. A fisherman caught and raped her, and died! The image of the deity seen in the temple near Wuhan on the Yangzi was that of a fish.\n\nJin Shan Si\n\nThe Song emperor Zhen Cong [998-1022] first gave the name of Longyou Dao, the Island of the Imperial Swim, to Jin Shan island after he had had a dream that he had been swimming in the Yangzi from it and then some ten years later gave permission to the monastery on the island to take the name Longyou Chan Si, which indicates that the temple was of the Buddhist Amitabha School of Meditation. It was restored to prominence and imperial patronage in about 1323 following several annual religious congresses.\n\nVisitors nowadays see a hillock, Jin Shan, Gold or Golden Hill, on which the temple stands with its tall octagonal pagoda with galleries marking each of the seven storeys outlined against the sky. This pagoda crowns the buildings and dominates the River and for a small gratuity permission to ascend the spiral staircase may be obtained. Today's pagoda, known as the Cishou Ta, was built in 1900, though according to historical texts there used to be two pagodas. These stood one at each end of the temple, and were first built during the Tang, though reconstructed several times down the centuries.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216041, "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": 340, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "274\n\nThere also used to be an early Buddhist shrine dedicated to the former abbot of renown, Fa Hai, concealed in a cave on the hillock. In recent times the few foreign tourists visiting Zhenjiang have been perplexed by the description of Jin Shan being an island when it is so obviously part of the mainland. The reason is all too obvious. Alluvial silt left by the Yangzi floods down the past hundred and fifty years has not only completely joined the island to the mainland but also reclaimed part of the River, land now used for agriculture. 19th century western accounts of the town usually tended to begin with a description of the view from the Yangzi of the pagoda of the temple on the island of Jin Shan or, during the storming of the town by British forces in 1842, of troops being disembarked on the mainland across the strip of water at that time still separating Jin Shan from the mainland.\n\nAccording to Doré's description of the Jin Shan temple following his visit during the early days of the twentieth century, \"the visitor was confronted on entering with the Falstaffian figure of the Buddha Maitreya [Mile Fo], the Buddha of the Future, squatting in his turret as guardian of the precincts. Behind him opens out a vast vestibule at the sides of which are four gigantic statues - about fifteen feet in height - of the Four Heavenly Kings, Si Da Jingang, inner guardians of the monks and the monastery. Crossing the inner court, one entered the great Hall. On the altar were two Buddhist triads. Facing North are gigantic statues of Sakyamuni, Yao Shi Fo and Mile Fo, the Buddhas of the Present, Past and Future. Beside Sakyamuni in the centre, stand his two disciples, the old Kasyapa and the young Ananda. Right and left of the altar are the two guardians Li, the Pagoda-bearer and Wei Tuo. Facing South is the Triad San Da Shi: Guan Yin, Wen Shu and Pu Xian. Guan Yin rides over the waves on a sea monster; near by are the rocks of her sacred isle, Pu Tuo and, in between these, sundry immortals and Buddhas were housed. The Golden Boy, Shan Cai and the Naga Maiden, Long Nu are conventionally in attendance on Guan Yin whom the authorities in the temple recognise as formerly having been a god - not a goddess\".\n\nThe second large Hall was the Hall of the Yangzi Spirit, Jiang Shen [Spirit of the River]. Serving as a military barracks at the time of Doré's visit “it retained of its former glories only one ordinary-sized statue of the god, in a lateral niche, viz. a fish about three metres in length carved in wood with a copper plaque providing the honorific", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216042, "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": 341, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "275\n\ntitles of the god”. \n\nThe third hall contained Guan Yin, as the 'patron of offspring', with statues of the Buddhist trio Dicang Wang etc., about her. A special little shrine to the left contained the 'thousand-handed' Guan Yin. \n\nDoré added that a visit to a smoky grotto, reeking with the acrid odour of 'joss-sticks' rounds off the tour of the cult buildings. Here there were two ugly statuettes, Guan Yin and Yanguang Pusa, the Bodhisattva of Eyesight: strings of cash hung as ex-votos for the former. In the depths of the grotto, sticks of incense were burning night and day before the statue of one, Pei Toutuo, a Hunanese [so said the monks] who discovered gold in what was then called Fuyu Shan E. He was said to have built the temple with the proceeds of his mining and the temple name was then changed to Jin Shan, Gold Mountain. \n\nA square artificial lake enclosed by a stone balustrade is referred to as the First Spring under Heaven after the waters were declared to be the sweetest for brewing tea. Not surprisingly a tea house offering tea brewed with water from the spring is served to today's visitors. \n\nMy wife, eldest daughter and I visited the Jin Shan Temple during a cold spell one March in the mid-1990s and found to our disappointment that the images were all modern, replacing those destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. However, along the leading edge of the main altar we recognized some twenty or so small images of the Sinicised Vedic deities similar to those I wrote about in Vol. 38 of JHKBRAS. The fact that the great Qing emperor Qian Long had a particular love for the monastery at Jin Shan, referred to earlier, may explain why these Vedic images are also present on the altar in the Jin Shan Si, possibly copied from the images in the temples in Beijing's Western Hills, again connected with the early Qing. \n\nAnother highly visible pagoda, known as the Sengjia Ta, stands on top of the Dingshi Shan, just under a mile south from Zhenjiang's former southern gate. It was built on this site during the Ming having been moved from its former location during temple reconstruction.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216077, "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": 376, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "310\n\nBuddhist temple. The party ended the day at the sunset service at which, in the twilight, before three huge statues of the Buddha, stood the abbot surrounded by serried ranks of robed monks. The whole service was beautifully done with only one incongruity—a small boy walked past with a basket of bean curd wrapped up in a copy of the Los Angeles Daily Herald. The Inspection party continued their journey on to Nanjing that evening.\n\nA typical announcement in the China Inland Mission journal, China's Millions, noted that \"In August 1932 Communist activity in North Anhui had prevented four lady workers of the CIM appointed to that part of the field. They had continued their language training in Chinkiang through the summer\". The policy of the then central government of Chiang Kai-shek placed blame for any banditry on the shoulders of the Communists who were then based in Jiangxi province.\n\nZhenjiang was one of the cities overrun during the Japanese advance on Nanjing in the December of 1937 when the former Concession was largely destroyed in the hostilities between China and Japan. However, Zhenjiang appeared on the international scene at least once more during the run up to the Second World War. In their drive south in April 1938 the Japanese 5th Division crossed the Yangzi at several places including Zhenjiang and pushed on forcing the KMT [Chinese Nationalist] divisions along the River Huai defence line to the south to crumble.\n\nTo frustrate Japanese use of the Yangzi as a route by which to advance into central China the KMT forces sank a number of ships at strategic points including a number near Zhenjiang. To ensure that freight got through Butterfield and Swire transhipped cargo brought down from up-river on to a dedicated boat they kept moored between Zhenjiang city and the entrance to the southern part of the Grand Canal, and then once more transhipped it on to junks which carried the cargo down the Canal south to Shanghai. Parts of Zhenjiang, including the B & S office, were destroyed during the comparatively short period of heavy Japanese bombing preceding the eventual capture of the city and their advance up the River. The small British B & S staff simply moved to the APC installation outside the city.\n\n \n43", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216307, "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-2003", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "15\n\nHOW OLD IS SHANGHAI'S LONGHUA TEMPLE?\n\nERIC N. DANIELSON ·\n\nShanghai's Longhua Temple (Longhua Si) is a functioning Buddhist temple with a large resident monk population belonging to the Chan sect (Chan zong) of Mahayana Buddhism. It is by far the largest one in Shanghai, and probably counts among the largest in China. Located southwest of the Xujiahui shopping district, the main temple complex sits on the north side of Longhua Lu, while its seven-story pagoda stands by itself across the street on the south side. Although it has often been said by many authors that this is supposedly the only pagoda in Shanghai, that is true only if one has a very narrow definition of what Shanghai is. Within the Shanghai Municipality (Shanghai Shi) there are a total of 16 historic pagodas, the other 15 being of equal age and historical authenticity but located out in the surrounding counties of Songjiang, Qingpu, and Jiading.\n\nThe temple's long history\n\nLonghua Si undoubtedly has a long history, but the question is how long? The answer is debatable. In all likelihood, it is about 900 years old, rather than the 1800 years sometimes claimed for it. Very little evidence exists to support the often heard claims that the temple and pagoda were supposedly first built in 242 A.D. and 247 A.D. by Sun Quan, the King of Wu, during the Three Kingdoms (San Guo). Furthermore, maps of Shanghai's geological history contained in Zhou Zhen He's 1999 Shanghai Lishi Ditu Ji show that most of this area was underwater until the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Some sources also make vague claims that the temple was built by the Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Ze Tian sometime during her reign (690-705 A.D.), but later destroyed at some unspecified date during the rebellion of Huang Zhao (879-884 A.D.) against the Tang Xi Zong Emperor (873-888). The first specific year to appear in most accounts is a supposed rebuilding of a new temple on the same site as the earlier San Guo and Tang temples by the Wu Yue regional kingdom in 977 A.D. If these earlier versions of Longhua Temple did in fact exist, they were ephemeral and have left no lasting traces.\n\nSubstantial documented evidence of the temple's origins begins to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216309, "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-2003", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "17\n\nIn the early Qing Dynasty Longhua Temple received considerable attention in the form of repairs to the existing buildings and construction of new ones. A major construction project started in 1647 resulted in the completion of the Abbot or Temple Master's Room (Fang Zhang Shi) and the Wei Tuo Hall (Wei Tuo Dian), as well as the repair of the Scripture Storage Pavilion (Cang Jing Ge).\n\nIt will be recalled that during the Yuan Dynasty the temple experienced a massive expansion in the size of its territory, if not its actual structures. In 1672 the Qing authorities measured the size of the immediate area around the temple halls as occupying 93 mu of land, plus an additional 74 mu of open land in the surrounding area which was used to plant vegetables. It was this later open space which gradually evolved into first Longhua Park, and then the present day Martyr's Cemetery.\n\nDuring a 155 year period in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, from 1672 to 1827, no new construction, reconstruction or repairs were recorded. This begs the question as to why the temple was dormant during such a long period of time. Was it lack of imperial sympathy for Buddhism in general, or simply the absence of wars and destruction requiring later rehabilitation during this relatively peaceful time?\n\nAfter a century and a half of dormancy, the Taiping Rebellion finally provided the opportunity or the need for new construction and repairs. Between 1860 and 1862 the Taiping rebels attacked Shanghai three times, during which records say vaguely that most of the Longhua Temple buildings were destroyed. On August 18, 1860 the Taipings captured Xu Jia Hui, and it was probably then when the nearby Longhua Temple was destroyed. Although no list is provided of exactly which buildings were destroyed, we can infer from later lists of the structures rebuilt afterwards that this included the Great Sadness Hall (Da Bei Dian), the Precious Hall of the Great Hero (Da Xiong Bao Dian), the Heavenly Kings Hall (Tian Wang Dian), the Three Gods Hall (San Sheng Dian), the Maitreya Buddha Hall (Mi Le Fo Dian), the Drum Tower (Gu Lou), the Bell Tower (Zhong Lou), and the Big Buddha Hall (Da Fo Dian). Basically every previously existing key structure is mentioned as having been rebuilt after this period of destruction, with the exception of the die-hard Precious Pagoda (Bao Ta) and the Master's Room (Fang Zhang Shi), raising the possibility that the two structures which stand today are both authentic originals.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216310, "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-2003", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "18\n\nRestoring the damage done by the three years of Taiping destruction required a massive reconstruction project which lasted for nearly 30 years from 1871 to 1899. In addition to rebuilding the previous structures, several new halls which had not existed before were added during this time, including the Guest House (Ke Tang) and the Dining Hall (Zhai Tang) in 1887; the Goddess of Mercy Hall (Guan Yin Dian), Ancestors Hall (Zu Shi Dian), and the Kshitigarbha Hall (Di Zang Dian) in 1890; and finally the 500 Arhats Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) in 1896.\n\nThe Republican era, 1911-1949\n\nAt the beginning of the Min Guo Republic (1912), all the monks were forced to move out by armed soldiers who moved in and used the temple as a barracks. The soldiers looted the golden statues from the temple, and wooden parts of the temple such as window frames were used by the soldiers to make cooking fires. However, in 1920 the temple and the pagoda were both repaired, and after being closed for a whole decade the temple finally officially reopened in 1922 when all the monks came back. Holmes Welch's otherwise authoritative 1967 study of Buddhism in China mistakenly stated that Longhua Temple was occupied by the Chinese military for the entire Min Guo period. Photos from D. C. Burn's brief 1926 study of the temple show that the Qing Dynasty 500 Arhat Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) was still intact then, although it no longer exists now.\n\nLonghua Temple enjoyed 15 years of peace and tranquility until September 11, 1937 when the temple was badly damaged during the Japanese attack on Shanghai. Nine Japanese airplanes dropped 30 bombs on the Longhua area. Most likely they were targeting the nearby Longhua Airport and the Guomindang's Longhua Garrison military camp next door, but they accidentally caused severe damage to the temple. Before the attack there had been 80 monks living in the temple, but afterward there were only 7 monks remaining.\n\nDuring the first five years of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1942, the internal affairs of the temple were confused and disorganized, with rival masters claiming the post of Abbot, and unqualified persons claiming to be Buddhist monks for the sake of seeking safe haven in the temple. On September 9, 1942 a reorganization committee was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216311, "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-2003", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "19\n\nestablished to restore order within the temple's community of resident monks. In 1944 this committee restored the Da Xiong Bao Dian, and the next year, 1945, the Bao Ta. Once the Sino-Japanese War had ended, in 1946 life in the temple returned to a resemblance of its pre-war normalcy. However, the tranquility which existed within the temple for the next three years was suddenly disrupted when the Communist's captured Shanghai in May 1949 and proclaimed the People's Republic in October 1949. With all the disasters the temple had survived over the previous 900 years, the worst was yet to come.\n\nPeople's Republic, 1949-2003\n\nIn June 1949, one month after their capture of Shanghai, the new Communist government took over the temple, and on October 1, 1949, the day celebrating the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Red flag of the P.R.C. was flown from the top of the pagoda. This unprecedented disrespect shown by the new regime to the temple by flying its flag from the pagoda was only the first in a series of incidents which illustrated the temple's now endangered status. The temple grounds were drastically reduced in size by at least two-thirds when their garden area was seized by the state and converted into Longhua Park in 1954. The temple's halls were temporarily appropriated by the government in January 1956 for a series of meetings held between local government officials and Chinese businessmen to explain and then celebrate the new policy of abolishing private enterprise in favor of a new system of joint private-state companies. The celebration involved a party for 2,000 people which undoubtedly included activities such as smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol which are contrary to the Buddhist faith. This temporary appropriation of the temple by the government for non-religious purposes was herald of worse things to come during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).\n\nIn the summer of 1966 Longhua Temple suffered a devastating series of events over a one month period which destroyed nearly all vestiges of its centuries old heritage. On August 24, 1966 a mob of more than 1,000 Red Guards (Hong Wei Bing) rushed into the temple and in one day destroyed all of the temple's Buddha statues, library of books, treasures, and art work. The next day, August 25, the Red Guards returned with the intention of destroying the Longhua Pagoda (Bao Ta), which we've seen had probably been built in the Northern Song", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216312, "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-2003", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "20\n\nDynasty (960-1126). First they tied ropes around the base of the pagoda and tried to pull it down, but when this failed they poured oil all around its base, intending to set it on fire and burn it down. At this stage the account recorded in the local records (zhen zhi) states rather mysteriously that \"the strong opposition of the residents and other people\" forced the Red Guards to give up. Thanks to the intervention of these nameless people, the pagoda repeated its performance of having miraculously survived many upheavals throughout the temple's history.\n\n1\n\nNonetheless, the destruction of the relics within the temple halls continued for another month. On September 3rd an estimated 103 antique relics found in the temple were looted. This was followed on September 14th by the intentional destruction of the Da Cang Jing, a sacred Buddhist scripture which weighed 1,763 kilograms before it was shredded into waste paper. Finally, on September 30th the Ming Dynasty bronze bell in the Bell Tower (Zhong Lou), which weighed 2,574 kilograms, was cut into pieces and melted down as scrap metal, as was the last remaining Buddha statue, which had been a gift of Ming Emperor Wan Li, and weighed 334 kilograms.\n\nHaving now been destroyed as a functioning temple, all that remained were the empty buildings. In 1967 the temple buildings were all rented out as warehouse storage space to the China Rice and Oil Import Export Co. The one exception was the Master's Room (Fang Zhang Shi), in which some monks may have continued to live a hidden existence.\n\nAfter 15 years of having been closed as a place of worship, Longhua Temple was finally reopened in February 1981 after three of the main halls had been repaired, including the Mi Le Dian, Tian Wang Dian, and the Da Xiong Bao Dian. The government tried to make further amends in 1983 by giving the temple a new set of scriptures known as the Long Cang, which had been preserved in the Shanghai Library. In 1984 the Bao Ta pagoda was repaired, and these repairs continued with the restoration of the San Sheng Dian in May 1986.\n\nIn 2001 a giant new shopping centre called Longhua Tourist City was built behind the pagoda, but this surprisingly has not damaged the environment, and in fact has added the convenience of additional restaurants in the area at which one can rest after a long day's exploration.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216314, "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-2003", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "22\n\nsuccessive courtyards which separate the six main halls on the central axis. All told there are about a dozen halls, towers, and pavilions, each containing golden effigies of a wide variety of various Buddhist deities. This goes well beyond the typical scale of the average Buddhist temple which normally has only three main halls and sometimes just one.\n\nIn this first courtyard are four stone relics of uncertain age, but probably not older than the Minguo era at most. These include two stone lions and two octagonal stone lanterns, all four enclosed by stone railings. Two large trees in the courtyard were transplanted here in January 2004. On the right side of the courtyard is a new expanded gift shop (shu dian) added in January 2004. It offers not only Buddhist trinkets, but a fine selection of Chinese language books containing histories of Longhua Temple and Buddhist scriptures. Until 2004, there was not a single published history of Longhua Temple available for sale here, but late in December 2003 no less than three new well-researched titles on this topic were published, several of which can be found here.\n\nThe first main hall is the one-story Maitreya Buddha Hall (Mi Le Dian). This hall dates from an 1884 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt to replace an earlier structure destroyed during the Taiping rebel attacks on Shanghai in 1860-1862. The hall was last restored in 1981. It is dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha of the future, known in China as Mi Le Fo, and depicted here as the fat laughing Buddha of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). This Mi Le Fo image is a golden effigy, seated on a square stone base and protected by a glass case. He is depicted as having a third eye in the centre of his forehead. The Buddha can be seen from the first courtyard through a partially open gate of the hall, but the hall itself cannot be entered without passing through the adjoining orange wall into the second courtyard and entering from the other side.\n\nAlthough, Mi Le Fo usually does occupy the first hall of many temples, he often has to share his space with the Four Heavenly Kings (Si Tian Wang). In this case he has the whole hall to himself, the kings occupying a separate building of their own. Until January 2004 he had to share his home with the temple gift shop (shu dian), but this has now been moved out to a separate new hall in the first courtyard.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216315, "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-2003", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "23\n\nThe second courtyard is flanked on the left side by a two-story wooden Drum Tower (Gu Lou) and on the right by the matching two-story wooden Bell Tower (Zhong Lou). On the first floor of the Zhong Lou is a glass case holding a golden effigy of Kshitigarbha (Di Zang). Dizang is the bodhisattva who has the special power to rescue departed souls from Hell, and thus plays an important role in Buddhist funeral ceremonies. Upstairs on the second floor is the bronze bell which can be rung for a fee of 50 Rmb. On New Year's Eve this bell is rung 108 times at midnight. It is considered good luck to be there to hear it ring, and even better luck to be the one who rings it. The Zhong Lou was rebuilt by Qing Emperor Guang Xu in 1895, following the Taiping destruction of the temple in 1860-1862. The bell itself was made in 1894, during the 18th year of the Guang Xu reign of the Qing Dynasty. Beside the Zhong Lou is a Ming-style stone stele with a partially legible inscription which has been damaged.\n\nOn the first floor of the Gu Lou is a glass case containing a golden effigy of Guan Yu, the God of War. In the Ming and Qing dynasties Guan Yu had temples dedicated exclusively to him in every city in China. The former Guan Di Miao can still be visited in Shanghai's Nanshi District. The second floor of the Gu Lou cannot be ascended, and it no longer seems to contain a drum. Beside the Gu Lou is a Ming-style stone stele with a lengthy inscription in very good condition. The present Gu Lou dates from an 1895 reconstruction, following the Taiping destruction of the temple in 1860-1862.\n\nAcross the second courtyard from the Mi Le Dian is the Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings (Si Tian Wang Dian). This hall dates from an 1881 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt to replace an earlier structure destroyed during the Taiping rebel attacks on Shanghai in 1860-1862. The hall was last restored in 1981. The hall contains enormous gilded wooden statues of all four kings, two on each side of the hall. All four wear crowns on their heads and are dressed in heavy armor. One holds a four-string guitar and has a light green face, another holds a sword in his right hand and has a black face, a third holds an umbrella in his right hand and a small stupa in his left hand, and has a white face, while a fourth holds a snake and has a black face. This depiction is somewhat different than in the past. In the centre of the Tian Wang Dian are two glass cases containing golden effigies of two rather obscure Buddhist deities. Tian Guan Mi Le, a variant incarnation of Mi Le Fo, is depicted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216316, "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-2003", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "24\n\nas seated, holding a long-stemmed lotus flower with a small temple perched on the blossom, and has a third eye in the centre of his forehead. Wei Tuo Pusa is represented by a golden statue in which he poses wearing armor and holding a drawn sword. Wei Tuo is the protector of all Buddhist temples.\n\nOn the other side of the Tian Wang Dian is the third courtyard, on the far side of which is the Hall of the Great Hero (Da Xiong Bao Dian). This hall's origins date to an 1878-1879 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt to replace an earlier structure destroyed during the Taiping rebels' attacks on Shanghai in 1860-1862. The hall was closed for a massive reconstruction and renovation in November 2002, but had been reopened by January 2004. The interior is now nothing less than spectacular. Three large Buddhas (San Fo) are placed in the centre. Sakyamuni Buddha stands in the centre, flanked on the left by the bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Pu Xian) seated on an elephant, and on the right by the bodhisattva Manjusri (Wen Shu) seated on a blue lion. Overhead the hall's ceiling is pierced by a massive wooden dome that spirals upward, looking much like the wooden domes (Zao Jing) often found over traditional Peking Opera stages (Xiju Wutai). Behind the San Fo facing out the rear exit is a large Guanyin statue in front of a floor-to-ceiling landscaped rockery covered with smaller figurines depicting the Buddhist heaven and hell. Along the side walls stand 36 quite expressive human statues of the Buddhist saints, 18 on each side of the hall. This is an unusual number, which seems to include 16 Arhats (Luohan) and 20 Devas (Zhu Tian), and an assortment that includes such non-Buddhist figures from Chinese tradition as Confucius (Kong Fu Zi), the War God (Guan Di), the God of Literature (Wen Chang), and the Kitchen God; Hindu gods such as Brahma, Indra, and Yama (Yen Lo); as well as Buddhist deities such as the Four Heavenly Kings (Si Tian Wang) and the bodhisattva Wei Tuo as well. The hall also houses one of Longhua's three bronze bells, this one dating from 1586.\n\nOn the other side of the Da Xiong Bao Dian is a fourth courtyard. On the far side of this fourth courtyard is the Hall of the Three Gods (San Sheng Dian). This hall is dominated by enormous floor-to-ceiling golden statues of three Buddhas (San Fo) who appear side by side in an unusual standing position with golden flames rising up behind them. In the centre is Amitabha Buddha (O Mi Tuo Fo), to your left is the bodhisattva Da Shi Zhi, and on your right is the bodhisattva Guan Shi Yin.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216317, "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-2003", "page_number": 76, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "25\n\nYin. While Guanyin has compassionate mercy for those in need, it is Da Shi Zhi who possesses the power to actually carry out her acts of kindness. The San Sheng Dian houses by far the oldest of Longhua's three bronze bells, this one supposedly dating from 1132, which would also make it the oldest historic relic the temple possesses today. The hall itself dates from an 1884 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt to replace an earlier structure destroyed during the Taiping rebel attacks on Shanghai in 1860-1862. The hall was last restored in 1986.\n\nImmediately behind the San Sheng Dian is a walled garden with trees which unfortunately is closed to the public. Inside this walled garden is a fifth main hall, the Abbot's Quarters (Fang Zhang Shi), which is for the private use of the resident monks and their master, the Fang Zhang. It was the only hall which the monks maintained control of during the Cultural Revolution. Normally it is kept off limits to the public and cannot be visited. However, the author was able to steal a glimpse and found that the hall was furnished with rows of large armchairs, and lacked any large statues. Possibly it is a modern day form of the Meditation Hall (Chan Tang). At the far left end of the hall is a small office decorated with framed color photos of the temple's Buddhist leaders posing with Communist Party leaders such as Jiang Zemin.\n\nBehind the Abbot's Quarters is the sixth and final courtyard, and the sixth hall on the central axis, the newly built two-story Scripture Hall (Cang Jing Lou). This modern building holds most of the temple's few genuine relics, including a library of 7,000 Qing Dynasty volumes; a Ming Dynasty gold seal given to the temple in 1598 by the emperor Wanli (1573-1620); a Ming Dynasty gold-plated bronze Buddha statue; Tang Dynasty scriptures; and a copy of the Heart Sutra dating from the year 1098, the fifth year of the Zhe Zong reign (1085-1100) of Emperor Zhao Xu of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126). Exactly how these relics survived the destruction of the Taiping Rebellion, the lengthy military occupation of the Min Guo era, and the Cultural Revolution is unclear. Possibly they were donated to the temple sometime later. Unfortunately the public is not welcomed to visit this sixth hall, and the relics are kept hidden from view, although photographs of them appear in a recent pamphlet sold at the temple's bookstore.\n\nHidden in a seldom visited corner of the temple grounds on the east side of the Fang Zhang Shi's walled garden is a smaller garden", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216318, "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-2003", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "26\n\nwhich is open to the public, the Mu Ta Yuan, so named for the Tao Ming Chan Si Mu Ta, a broken stone tomb pagoda dating from the year 1667 in the reign of Emperor Kang Xi which stands in the centre. The Mu Ta is a hexagonal stone pillar on a lotus flower with a round stone ball balanced on top decorated with dragon images wrapped around it. Two faint inscriptions can be seen on either side of the pillar. Lying on the ground beside the Mu Ta is a broken piece of an ancient inscribed tablet. This is one of the original four boundary stones of Longhua's predecessor Kongxiang Temple dating from the year 1262 in the late Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Near the Mu Ta are three stone statues of a mythical animal, the Si Ge Lin Shou. These broken stone remains may be the oldest relics on the site, but their age, origin, and significance seem a mystery. In one corner of this courtyard is a corridor connecting with the Longhua Hotel next door. At the rear of the courtyard is the monk's Dining Hall (Zhai Tang), not to be confused with the separate Vegetarian Restaurant (Su Cai Guan) intended for public visitors located on the right side of the Da Xiong Bao Dian beneath the sign of the large wooden fish (pang) hanging from the rafters.\n\nTwo long barracks-like halls run along almost the full length of the western side of the temple compound and are divided up into many small Buddhist chapels. The major ones include the Arhat Hall (Luo Han Dian), and the Goddess of Mercy Hall (Guan Yin Dian). The Luo Han Dian is a new addition to the temple, added sometime during 2002. It features small golden statues of 500 arhats or Buddhist saints. This chapel has become quite popular with worshippers, but one woman who had just finished praying mistakenly told the author there were 800 arhats, testimony to the newness of this innovation. The Guanyin Dian is on the left side of the fourth courtyard and features an impressive golden statue of Guanyin, who is depicted as facing in all four directions, and has 1,000 arms. Many of her hundreds of hands hold objects of special significance.\n\nIn between the Luo Han Dian and Guanyin Dian is yet another hall, seemingly nameless, which although devoid of architectural splendor does have three splendid gilded Buddha statues. These three include Sakyamuni Buddha (Shi Jia Mou Ni Pusa) in the centre, Manjusri (Wen Shu) on your left, and Guanyin on your right. The interior walls of this hall are literally covered with memorial slips of paper and photographs meant to commemorate lost loved ones. It is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216319, "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-2003", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "27\n\nalso in this hall that one is most likely to see the resident monks performing ceremonies which include chanting and the use of musical instruments such as cymbals and drums.\n\nA second long barracks-like hall hidden behind the first one is known as the Jade Buddha Hall (Yu Fo Dian), and contains other side chapels which are usually kept closed and only opened on special occasions. One of these is a chapel which contains an unusual Reclining Jade Buddha (Yu Wo Fo) like the one at the Jade Buddha Temple (Yu Fo Si). Above this chapel is a second floor with another image inside a glass case, and windows looking down on the gardens of Longhua Park next door.\n\nThe monks' residence is in a separate set of buildings in a back corner of the complex and is off limits to visitors. Through the windows of the second floor can be seen their private library stacked with books.\n\nApproximately 90 resident monks live here now, with another 30 student monks in apprenticeship. The temple's current abbot is Master Ming Yang. The monks of Longhua supposedly belong to the Chan Zong sect (Zen) of Chinese Buddhism. However, the vast array of gilded effigies here, representing the whole Buddhist pantheon of deities, makes one wonder about the accuracy of this claim or the status of Chan Buddhism in China today. Chan was originally an iconoclastic sect which prohibited use of images of any kind. At least one resident foreign monk was noticed living here in January 2004, made obvious by his large crooked nose, white skin, and wide girth, as well as his lateness for morning prayers.\n\nColor photos of Longhua Temple can be seen in the author's Vol. I of his New Yangzi River series, entitled Shanghai and the Yangzi Delta, published by Times Publishing Ltd. of Singapore in 2004.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216320, "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-2003", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "28\n\nREFERENCES\n\nBurn, D.C., A Guide to Lunghwa Temple: with Brief Notes on Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Ltd., 1926.\n\nLonghua Zhen Zhi (The History of Longhua Town), Shanghai: December 1996.\n\nPan Ming Quan, Shanghai Fo Si Dao Guan (Shanghai Buddhist and Taoist Temples), Shanghai: Shanghai Ci Shu Chubanshe, December 2003.\n\nPan Ming Quan, Shanghai Si Miao Ying Lian Dui Lian Ji (Poems About Shanghai Buddhist and Taoist Temples), Shanghai: Shanghai Ci Shu Chubanshe, December 2003.\n\nShanghai Tan magazine, Shanghai: October 2002, pp.38-42 on the history of Longhua Temple.\n\nZhang Qing Hua and Zhu Bai Kui, Longhua, Guanglin Shu She, Yangzhou: December 2003.\n\nFojiao Da Cidian (Dictionary of Buddhism), December 2002.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216442, "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-2003", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "151\n\nas accommodation, as local or major headquarters, staff or Other Rank accommodation and as storage space. Although it was the usual practice for both Russians and Japanese to use Chinese temples as field-dressing stations and even as hospitals, only two or three references to the practice have been found in contemporary books. There are at least two published photographs of wounded Japanese soldiers lying on stretchers in rows on the floors or in the temple courtyard, with one in particular showing a seriously wounded soldier lying at the feet of two large carved and stuccoed Chinese deities, two of four standard images of Guardians and Assistants to the major deity. The role of the fierce Guardians was to protect the temple from malignant forces and must have been either a comfort to the casualty or a frightening figure from the other world.\n\nThe difference between Russian and Japanese use of Chinese temples was that the former, when they departed, seldom left anything behind worth carrying away. The Japanese respected Chinese religious statuary, because they too were often Buddhists, but also because, although the deities on altars were different, they were sufficiently similar for Japanese to respect them.\n\nPost-war\n\nWe have described a few of the aspects of Chinese problems during the war and the effect the warring armies had on the Chinese officials and commonality on whose territory the war was being fought. The Chinese, who gradually tended to side with the Japanese in the hope of recovering Manchuria, adroitly avoided any involvement in the fighting.\n\nPost-war, Japan assumed the rights in Manchuria that Russia had previously held, with a garrison of some 10,000 men to protect its interests, primarily in southern Manchuria where it was known as the Guandong Army (Kuantung), though its controls extended in practice to the whole of the territory, with the Chinese ostensibly maintaining civil authority.\n\nThe change in Chinese official and student circles within the decade following the Sino-Japanese War, i.e. from 1884-1904, was from anti-Japanese and pro-Russian, to pro-Japanese and anti-Russian after the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese victory clearly signalled to the Chinese in Peking that the Japanese were the model to study and possibly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216449, "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-2003", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "5. A Red Cross attendant placing a dying soldier at the foot of the big josses in the Buddhist Temple at Kwantu\n\n158", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]