[ { "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": 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": 206641, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n183\n\n(E), Pei Chi Sheng Ti (1), the Pen Ming Hsing Chün ($*£*) who is the local earth god, and the provincial city god. All five are connected with the fate of mankind.\n\nIn a Ch'ao Chow temple in Johore Bahru, Tai Sui a youth with a scroll (***) is on the altar of Hung Chün Lao Tsu (#$ *). (Plate 20)\n\nFather Doré says that in one temple outside the South Gate of Jukao, in the Yangtze Valley, Yin Ch'iao (F) is to be seen on the right as you face him, with Marshal Ma () on the left. Both have six arms, stand on clouds, and hold swords, amulets, gourds, bells and banners in their hands. Ma has three eyes and wears a hat, whilst Yin is bare from the waist upward and has his hair in a large upswept tuft on the top of his head. Yin is worshipped here as a member of the Ministry of Thunder.\n\nOther interesting sightings.\n\nIn Lavender Street in Singapore a Cantonese temple has sixty-two T'ai Sui images. About half the images hold scrolls and are, according to the temple keeper, the administrators of the fortune; whereas the others with silken slippers, fans, bells, etc. are those who actually provide the fortune.\n\nOne image of a young man, standing with one slipper on and one bare foot, is to be seen in Bukit Purmei temple in Singapore. He is prayed to for rain, and for good crops. (Plate 21)*\n\nCarver's drawings of Yin Ch'iao\n\nA Fukienese god carver prepared, on request, drawings of many deities. From memory he drew:\n\na. An image of T'ai Sui, seated, robed like a monk, wearing sandals, a band around his hair, and holding an open scroll with Tang Nien T'ai Sui (****).\n\nb. Yin Ch'iao's father, seated astride a large, long-beaked bird, holding a fly whisk in his right hand and a seal in his left hand. He is bearded, with a Taoist top knot and crown. His robes are covered in the Yin and Yang circle pattern.\n\nc. Yin Hung(); a standing young man with a spear in his left hand, and a mirror raised in his right, which is flashing beams towards his enemies.\n\n* Plates 22-24 also relate to representations of T'ai Sui.", "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": 206647, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 195, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n189\n\nMalaya, in nine of which he is the main deity. Twenty-seven of these temples are run by Fukienese emigrants or their descendants; one is run by Hakka, three by Cantonese, two by Ch'ao Chow and one by Hainanese. In Taipei all eleven observed images are in temples maintained by Ch'üan Chow emigrants. There are three Cantonese temples in Malaya in which he has been seen; one is in Seremban and two are in Kuala Lumpur. In one of the Kuala Lumpur temples he is to be seen beside a sand divination table; the temple keeper in the other said that he was a lesser deity donated by a Fukienese devotee. The Seremban temple had all three brothers seated together on an altar in a temple devoted to Hsuan Tien Shang Ti (玄天上帝).\n\nIn a Hainanese temple in Singapore there is a standing image of Fa Chu Kung with the usual unkempt hair, but he has only one foot resting on a fire wheel. He is the secondary deity in the temple, which is dedicated to Wen Chow Hou Wang (溫州侯王) who is a specifically Hainanese deity.\n\nIn one spirit medium temple in Singapore, where Fa Chu Kung is the main deity, the medium and the keeper are both Fukienese. The female medium speaks with a very deep voice, said to be that of Fa Chu Kung, and writes prescriptions for medicines dictated by him. To stimulate the spirit to reply, and thereby causing considerable interest to the spectators around the table, the female medium pauses between writing each prescription and extinguishes a lighted candle on the roof of her mouth.\n\nProfessor Wolfram Eberhard has confirmed that in his researches he has encountered this deity, the god of the cult of tea merchants localized in the areas of Ying Ch'üen (#) and Te Hui (德惠) whose birthday is on the 27th day of the 7th lunar month. Law suits were settled before this deity, who is mentioned in the Taiwanese folk almanac of 1963.\n\nMyths concerning the origins or deification of Fa Chu Kung\n\nMost temple keepers who have an image of Fa Chu Kung in their temples tell a different story about his origin. These tales do, however, contain certain common factors:\n\na. Fa Chu Kung is the head of all demons and is to be feared. His black face signifies his demonic origins. He warned all gods in the area of Ying Ch'üen in Fukien that the area was too\n\nPage 190 is missing\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208070, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n93\n\nenter the homes of the beater and her family. (Incidentally, they did the same with the \"small people\" a common man (Hsiao Jen A) who are gossips causing untold trouble. They are depicted on a black-printed charm as a row of men, and represent anyone who bears a grudge or gossips about their neighbours.)\n\nThough Ch'ao Chow and Hoklo temples have no Under Altars, keepers in temples used by these communities claim that other unspecified Hoklo and Ch'ao Chow temples do have them. In practice, however, most have a stone White Tiger, blackened with age, crouching on the floor in front of one of the secondary altars. In one Ch'ao Chow temple, what at first glance could be confusing, were two large and untarnished black and yellow striped tigers seated before the temple's Earth God. According to the watchman, they were normal tigers and not White Tigers, awaiting his orders.\n\nThe Green Horse\n\nThe second is the Green Horse (*) who occasionally has a groom though, rarely, a rider. Not surprisingly the horse actually is green, although it is possibly called so because Liu (green) is a homophone for \"lucky\". In a few temples he is colloquially referred to as the \"Money Horse\". He is to be found in several temples where there is no Under Altar, no White Tiger, and no Local Wealth God. Green Horse stand on their own four legs and are seldom made of a permanent material, though two in Macau and one in Hong Kong are made of what appears to be painted concrete about half life size. Most are coloured paper pasted over a bamboo frame, frequently decorated with tall, gold paper floral crowns and red rosettes.\n\nThe Green Horse is variously offered prayers and incense for assistance in keeping in touch with distant relatives, for bearing petitions to unapproachable Gods, for stopping quarrels and rumours and, according to some, for wealth. Some even refer to the Green Horse as the Protector of Women. Many Green Horses seen in temples are heavily ensnared or trussed with long, fine red (or on very rare occasions, white) cords bound around the forelegs. Occasionally pairs of red chopsticks are bound to the Horse by these red cords. Both the chopsticks and the cords are charms, placed there by wives who pray that their travelling or erring husbands will be faithful to them, or return immediately to them leaving the...", "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": 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": 208493, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 217, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n201 \n\nCHANG'S descendants did not know his name, and so he was simply called by them Millionaire CHANG (...). When the writer first saw the images of CHANG and his family they were covered with dust and cobwebs. There was also a wooden carving of an award from the Emperor of that time. CHANG'S images in the bedroom, and parts of the other images, reflect the mood prevailing at that time. CHANG'S image in particular depicts him as a contemplative but determined old man.\n\nHis image depicts him seated, his forehead is high and long, his face too is longish; he has a slightly protruding jaw and thick lips which appear to be smiling. His head is inclined slightly to the left; his shoulders are level and his arms lowered with his left hand on the arm rest of the chair while his right hand rests on his lap. He wears the everyday robes of the man in the street, and despite the age of the image the carving is still well defined.\n\nThere was also an image of a female, probably his daughter-in-law, and another of a younger man dressed in official robes, perhaps CHANG'S son. Both these latter two have been carved by the same craftsman and probably at the same time. However, the image of CHANG is older. All in all, the three are rare works of art.\n\nThere are no descendants left of the CHANG family in the old house, and the images are worshipped by people in the neighbourhood. The writer found a woman of about 30 who claimed that she was one of CHANG'S descendants but she knew nothing about the legendary figure. Whether she was or not, the images are of great significance in Taiwanese folk art.\n\nA large number of people on the Pescadores 300 years ago were of Fukienese origin and whilst we do not know the ethnic origins of CHANG Pai-wan, it is probable that he was either of Fukienese or Ch'ao-chow origins.\n\nIn addition to the discovery of these 300 year old ancestral images, I have also seen a couple, husband and wife, carved in wood, seated on the front of the ancestral shelves in the Hall of Remembrance at the side of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple in Malacca (See Plate 23). There is no identifying detail and the temple keeper was unable to say who they were.\n\nThe man, sitting together with and on the right of the woman on a high-backed bench with sides, is dressed in blue robes bearing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 } ]