[
    {
        "id": 206653,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 201,
        "title": "RAS-1972",
        "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n195\n\nto stay; and as no disaster befell either the town or those who remained, Cheng Ho's reputation was further enhanced.\n\nIn the more serious lawsuits amongst Chinese in Semarang, Chinese witnesses may be required to take their oaths before Cheng Ho's statue and, before his altar, to \"drink the ashes\" from the incense urn mixed with water.\n\nIn the Philippines one Chinese culture hero called Pun Tou Kung () is venerated by both the Hakka and Ch'aochow (Teochew) emigrants. In the Philippines he is said to have been a crew member on one of the voyages of Cheng Ho. He went ashore at Jolo, where he died, and his grave, now a place of miracles, is where he is prayed to for protection. During the shelling of Jolo by the Spanish naval forces in the late nineteenth century the preservation of the Chinese quarter of the town was ascribed to his protective powers. Another version is that he landed at Jolo from Cheng Ho's fleet, remained there, raised a large family and now the majority of the Chinese in the area are descended from him.\n\nThis same Pun Tou Kung is worshipped under various names in most places in South East Asia by emigrant Chinese as a god of wealth. In most places in Malaya and Singapore he is called Tai Po Kung (62) and is believed to be a former tin miner. In Thailand he is also called Pan To Kung (2).\n\nDeity titles likely to be confused with Cheng Ho\n\nCheng Ho's title should not be confused with the titles of the Buddhist trinity, San Pao (E) and San Pao Ye (T); with another Chinese protective deity San Pao Kung Kung (222); nor with San Pao T'a Shen (TAP).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h",
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    {
        "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",
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    },
    {
        "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",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212155,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 97,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "74\n\n5\n\nTa-ch'in ching-chiao is translated by Legge (The Nestorion Monument of Hsi-An-Fu, Oxford, 1888) as the 'lustrious Religion of Ta-tsin; by Saeki (The Nestorian Monument in China, 1916, and The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China, 1951) as the 'Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion', and by Moule (Christians in China Before The Year 1550. London, 1930) as the 'Brilliant Teaching of Ta-ch'in'. Moule's translation seems to me to be the best, though none of the three translations for ching brings out its full resonance.\n\n+\n\n4\n\nTa-ch'in ching-chiao liu-hsing Chung-kuo pri K★*KAT¶M. See Plate 1.\n\nThe Manicheans, who also originated in Persia, used in China the term 'the shining teaching\", ming-chiao W, for their religion.\n\nThe Hsü-ting Mi-shih-he ching FDM. P. Y Saeki (The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China) calls this work the Jesus-Messiah-Sutra. I have departed from Saeki's bizarre terminology here and elsewhere, but his names are given in notes where I have done so.\n\n7 The xhen lun\n\nSaeki's Discourse on the Oneness of the Ruler of the Universe, is actually a compilation of three short essays, the F-r'ien lun or Essay on the One Heaven (Saeki's Discourse on the One Heaven); the Yu, or Parable; and the Shih-tsun-pu-shih fun 1942 fibili, or Essay on the Charity of the Creator (Sacki's Lord of the Universe's Discourse on Alms-Giving).\n\nH\n\nリ\n\nThe Chih-hsüan-an-lo ching &£, Sacki's Sutra on Mysterious Rest and Joy.\n\nThe Ta-ch'in ching-chiao Ta-shing-t'ung-chen-kuei-fa tsan K**HARIANZA, Saeki's Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.\n\nTHE\n\nThe Ta-ch'in ching-chiao San-wei-meng-to tsan ★*** ***, Saeki's Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion Morwa Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity.\n\nJ\n\nThe Ta-ch'in ching-chiao Hstian-yuan-chih-pen ching ****, Sacki's Ta-ch in Luminous Religion Sutra on the Origin of Origins.\n\nנו\n\nThe Tsun ching **\n\nFor example, in lists of metropolitan provinces. Amrus gives a list for 1343 in which Beth Sinaye, the old province of China created by the Nestorian patriarch Seliba-zekha around 720, is listed together with the contemporary province of Cathay and Ong (China and the country of the Ongut tribe).\n\n14\n\nThe pronunciation of the characters ching ## 'scripture\", and ching it. \"brilliant”, differs only in tone.\n\n1.5\n\nLe Quien's Oriens Christianus (Paris, 1740), an invaluable prosopography of the eastern churches, contains the names of nearly a thousand Nestorian bishops, but no other bishop or metropolitan named Adam is recorded.\n\nThe New Catalogue of the Teaching of Shakya in the Cheng-yuan period, composed by a monk of Ch'ang-an's famous Hsi-ming (Buddhist) monastery.\n\n17\n\nThe Tien-pao-tsang ching KMR.\n\nE The To-hui-sheng-wang ching\n\nZLI\n\nWEER.\n\nThe A-wan-chi-li-yung ching EHFIYR.\n\nThe Nestorian monastery at Tun-huang was apparently named after the nearby prefectural city of Sha-chou.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212595,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 149,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "129\n\nWhen humans experience helplessness it is natural to turn to unseen powers for strength, hope and guidance. Typical Hong Kong funeral ritual paraphernalia, with many taboos, incorporate the trinity of the three Chinese religions: Buddhism (usually adulterated), Taoism and Confucianism - if indeed the last can be termed a religion. Buddhism is peaceful and gentle; Christianity is more aggressive; and Confucianism seldom considers the afterlife being more concerned with earthly subjects like filial piety. Folk religion and animism, with joss sticks placed at the feet of special rocks and trees in which spirits dwell, often play parts.\n\nInterrelationships of the above and hedging are important. If one doctrine does not succeed in 'brightening a person's soul another may.' If you live on a precipitous mountain and pass both a Catholic and a Buddhist shrine every day while driving down a steep, dangerous road you cannot afford not to make the sign of the cross and bow; just as many people carry lucky charms to prevent mishap.\n\nThe wish of the average Englishman is for a simple interment, unlike most Chinese whose funerary rites are more complicated. Mourners usually require advice from priests, staff at funeral homes and temples, fortune tellers and others. Reasons for doing something are sometimes obscure and mourners, after asking 'why', are often told, 'It's always done like this.' Most want to believe they are doing the right thing for their dead. This was obviously so in this case study.\n\nAlthough most Chinese funerals include supernatural beliefs and practices these are often related to basic values embracing rank, achievement and security. These are important to most people both in this world and the next. A funeral is also an expensive social event which can be noisy. In this study, a very average funeral in 1988 cost $50,000 and there were seven ceremonies, some short, some long. In addition, the family had to gather together to perform other duties. These were time-consuming.\n\nNevertheless such ritual has therapeutic effects for mourners. Burning a paper car and various 'necessities', together with other rituals, are indicators of serious intent.48 The family in surcoats of sacking symbolise relinquishing everything. Food, money, colour, symbolism and homonyms (Sz is the homophone for both 'four' and 'death') play prominent parts, not only in society as a whole but also at funerals.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
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    {
        "id": 214240,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 98,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "61\n\nAppendix A\n\nDETAILS OF THE DEITIES WITH SINICISED SANSKRIT NAMES\n\nWHOSE IMAGES APPEAR IN THE GROUPS IN THE TWO TEMPLES IN THE WESTERN HILLS OF PEKING\n\nAND THE ONE IN NORTHERN TAIWAN\n\n1] Brahma [Mahabrahman] usually known in Chinese as Fan T'ien 梵天\n\nBrahma is the ancient Vedic creator and the Soul of the Universe, an impersonal being, chief of the Hindu gods and celestial spirits and the first in the Hindu trinity. He is usually paired with Indra [see Ti Shih below] though married to Sarasvati. It is believed that the Vedas sprang from Brahma's head.\n\nHe is known in China by several titles including Ta Fan T'ien-shen and Fan Wang as well as Ta Fan T'ien Wang. In India his image varies from place to place but frequently he is portrayed with four arms and four faces or heads. Over the centuries his worship slowly declined in favour of Vishnu and Shiva.\n\nHis image has been noted in a number of folk religion temples in China where he is considered to be one of the forms of the Jade Emperor. In several Buddhist monasteries he has been noted as one of the two attendants flanking Sakyamuni Buddha, the other attendant being Indra.\n\nIn a number of temples in southern China he has been represented as a bearded middle-aged man, standing, wearing long flowing robes, and either the standard Hanlin-style Chinese literati cap or the tiny Taoist crown. He can also be portrayed carrying a stylised incense-stick holder which looks very similar to the long-stemmed tobacco pipe. In some temples in central China he was depicted riding a swan.\n\nIn the Ta Pei Ssu in the Western Hills he is portrayed as an imperial minister, standing with a tablet held in both hands before his chest and dressed in a colourfully decorated robe and Ming decorated leather.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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