[ { "id": 205266, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "21\n\nTHE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG IN KOWLOON\n\nA lecture delivered on September 26, 1966\n\nJEN YU-WEN (KAN YAU-MAN)\n\nI am honoured by being invited to talk to you on a subject which deals with a very important episode in the local history of Hong Kong and Kowloon. In recent years I have done some exhaustive research work on this subject and I am glad to have this opportunity to share with you whatever little knowledge I have gained.\n\nIt is recorded in several Chinese historical books2 that Emperor Tuan Tsung of Southern Sung (宋端宗) arrived at Kuan-fu (官富) in the spring of A.D. 1277. According to Ta-Ch'ing I-t'ung Chi (大清一統志)\n\n\"There were over thirty travelling palaces of (Southern) Sung, and four of them can be located now. One of them was Kuan-fu Ch'ang\".\n\nThe problems confronting us now are: Where exactly was Kuan-fu Ch'ang? Why and how did the Sung Emperor go there? Where is the Travelling Palace to be located now? What other historical relics and sites can be found connected with the royal visit? etc. Before answering these questions, however, you should be acquainted with one of the most pathetic stories in the history of China in order to gain a clear understanding of the historical background.\n\nI. THE ROYAL REFUGEES\n\nThe story begins with the death of the 6th emperor of the Southern Sung Dynasty, Tu Tsung (度宗) in 1274, the 10th year of his reign, in the capital Lin-an (臨安), i.e. Hangchow. He was survived by the Queen Ch'uan (全皇后), a few concubines and four children: three sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Shih (昰), 7 years old, was reared by the concubine Yang (楊淑妃). The second son, Hsien (昱), 4 years old, was reared by Queen Ch'uan. The third son, Ping (昺), also 4 years old, was reared by the concubine Yu (俞淑妃). The daughter, probably", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205268, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "THE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG\n\n23\n\nleft the country without a ruler, the ministers and generals, after consultation with their mother, the concubine Young, unanimously installed I Wang Shih as the Generalissimo of the state and his brother Kuang Wang Ping as his deputy. After a while, they decided to travel south by boat. When everything was ready for departure, the cunning premier Ch'en I-chung begged to remain behind, using the excuse that he must bury his mother who had just died in Wenchow. Everybody disliked him and took him for a coward. The impetuous and impulsive warrior Chang Shih-chieh thought up a cunning scheme: he ordered some of his soldiers to remove the coffin of Ch'en's mother and to place it on a ship. Consequently Ch'en had to follow, much against his will.\n\nIn the 4th month they arrived at Foochow, Fukien, In the next month they crowned I Wang Shih Emperor who thus became the last Sung emperor but one. He was then eight years of age. His posthumous name is Tuan Tsung, (*) by which I shall call him hereafter. From that month on, his reign was called Ching Yen (*). His younger brother Ping received the new title of Wei Wang (£), and his little sister, that of Princess of Tsin Kuo (+), while his own mother was properly honoured as the Queen Mother. They stayed in Foochow until the 11th month when news came that the Mongols were invading Fukien, so they sailed southward.\n\nAfter passing by Ch'uanchow (¥) and Amoy in Fukien and Ch'aochow (¶) (Swatow) and Chia-tsu-men (‡ƒ¶) (of Huichow) in Kwangtung, they entered the territory of Kwangchow-fu early in 1277. Passing by Mirs Bay (Ta-p'eng-wan (★*), northeast of Kowloon), the royal party probably went ashore for a short time to get a rest, since there remain a few historical sites by the names of Wang-mu chuang-t'ai (the Queen-mother's Dressing Table) and Wang-mu hsu (Queen-mother's Market). During the next two months they stayed at an island then called \"Mei-wei\". (This place at present is still unidentified.) In the 4th month (May 1277) the royal refugees landed at Kuan-fu Ch'ang accompanied by many descendants of former Sung emperors who had joined the royal party from different places along the coast.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205404, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n159 \n\nThe clan possesses a small ancestral hall in the second row of houses, and here are housed the ancestral tablets of the most important ancestors. \n\nThese tablets usually have a sliding wooden slot at the back on which is given a short biography of the person commemorated, usually his birth and death, and sometimes a geomantic description of his grave site. From these records and the recollections of the present generation, information was obtained about two of the more distinguished clansmen of recent times. \n\nCHAN Jit-meng (M) alias Tak-hang (7) of the 20th generation, was born on the 2nd day of the 10th month in the year of the Tao Kwang (†) (i.e. 1828) and died on the 3rd day of the 12th month in the year of Kwang Hsü (**) (i.e. 1891). \n\nHe was a successful businessman who had a shop at Fat Shan (#) near Canton and a large cargo junk with which he traded to and from the Kowloon area. With the trading junk he brought a large amount of stone and building materials to the Tseung Kwan O area and is said to have been responsible for many public works: the village school, the pier at Hang Hau market (},□) nearby and the stone paved paths up the valley to Tseng Lan Shue and along the line of the present Clear Water Bay Road. \n\nHe also owned a shop called Yi Hing (M) just outside Kowloon City. He was a member of the Kowloon City Kaifong and one of the founder members of the Lok Sing Tong (#44) in 1879. This was an association of local gentry and leading villagers from the surrounding areas. \n\nIn later life, he bought the degree of Kwok Hok Shang (M *) in Canton, \n\nAccording to his ancestral tablet he had a wife NG (A) and a concubine WONG (£). \n\nCHAN Kwok-yan (RQ) alias Wai Tong (†) son of the above. This man's ancestral tablet does not show his dates of birth and death, but these are thought to be 1872-1933. As his father CHAN Jit-meng was a fairly rich man, he had a middle school education in Canton or Fat Shan. At some time in his career he met Sir Cecil Clementi (✯✯) the future Governor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205405, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "160\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nof Hong Kong, when the latter was studying Chinese in Canton, and in later years, so the villagers say, the two used to claim to be fellow students (同窗) (F). Although in his youth he did not take any of the Imperial examinations, he had some reputation as a literary man and wrote fine characters.\n\nHe was married to a CHENG (鄭) from the nearby Cantonese village of Pak Kong (白崗), and also had a concubine from a fishing family. His ancestral tablet perversely records the wife as KAN (簡) and the concubine as CHENG (鄭). Both wives apparently lived amicably in Tseung Kwan O, where Chan spent much of his time.\n\nAt the New Territories survey of 1905 he was recorded as the owner of 2.3 acres of agricultural land and 6 building lots in Tseung Kwan O, and was the manager of the CHAN Hok-yin Tso (陳學賢祖) with 2.7 acres of agricultural land and 2 houses. He also owned 4 shops and a house in Hang Hau market. It was during this period that Hang Hau was at the peak of its prosperity as a porterage town for produce to and from Sai Kung and Hong Kong.\n\nAccording to local gossip he did not pay much attention to business, but smoked opium and lived on the wealth he had inherited from his father. The Yi Hing shop in Kowloon City lost money and had to be sold in about 1930. In spite of this he apparently continued to play a part in the affairs of Kowloon City and of the Lok Sin Tong.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Most of this information was supplied by Messrs. Chan Shui (陳瑞) the village representative and Chan Kin Ming (陳健明) the supervisor of the village school.\n\n2 See S. F. Balfour, \"Hong Kong Before the British\" in Tien Hsia Monthly, 1936.\n\n3 See Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, 1963), Chapter IX for the Tang clan.\n\n4 The three large Cantonese villages of Ho Chung, Pak Kong and Sha Kok Mei, which dominate the three main valleys of the Sai Kung area, also give foundation dates of late Ming or early Ching. For brief notes on Ho Chung and Pak Kong, see my note \"Visit to Ho Chung pp. 46-47 of M. Topley (ed), Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories (Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1965), and James Hayes, \"Visit to Villages in the Sai Kung District\", ibid., pp. 41-42. Hong Kong. 1967.\n\nBERNARD WILLIAMS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205426, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n181\n\nappendices. The first, Appendix A, is on the Chinese calendar, with a table of the twenty-four fortnightly periods,\n\nThe only criticism of this is the third column giving the approximate date in the Chinese calendar. This presumes New Year to fall on 20th February, the last possible day, throwing forward everything on an average by a fortnight.\n\nAppendix C, furnishing a list of the names of Fireworks, Pigeons, Popular forms of entertainment, Melons, Crickets, and Chrysanthemums is most intriguing. Valuable varieties of pigeons are the \"Toad-eyed grey,\" \"Square-edged unicorn\", and \"Wild duck of the Great Dipper\". Poets have similarly exercised their ingenuity in finding epithets for the Flower of the Ninth Moon for they include \"Purple Tiger whiskers\", \"Concubine of the Hsiao and Tsiang Rivers,\" and \"Wild Goose settling on level sand.\"\n\nIn short, Tun Li-ch'en has left us a vivid picture of life as it must have been lived in the capital for centuries before the violent impact of the western world. It was to change soon after. Within twelve years the Imperial fishpond, Wang Hai Lou, had filled up and was a snipe marsh, whilst in another decade it was walled-in as an experimental agricultural establishment. Again, the emancipation of women through the abolition of foot binding, and their escape from the purdah of the mud-walled compound killed all those forms of entertainment which could only be enjoyed in the home. The famous Shadow play, which he describes as bringing tears to women's eyes, was virtually extinct thirty years later, smothered by the cinema.\n\nTun's study of the human side of the ancient capital is an admirable supplement to the work of two foreigners who spent the best part of their lives there, namely — Arlington and Lewisohn's In search of old Peking.\n\nHong Kong, 1966,\n\nN DU BREUIL\n\nAs noted in the President's Report earlier in this volume Madame du Breuil, former Peking resident and a member of our Council, died in 1966.\n\nPRELUDE TO HONGKONG, Austin Coates. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966, pp. xi, 232. 40/-.\n\nIn view of the recent events in Macao and Hong Kong this book has a certain topical relevance. It covers the period from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208185, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "208 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nas that which obtains between the first and fourth fong of Kam Tin, in that the Ngs (4) originated from an adopted Wong (#). 18. The Hakka Tangs of Wang Toi Shan (1) have a tale of origin remarkably similar to the Hung-yi tale. A Ping Shan Tang, they say, while on a business trip to the north, met with hard times and married a Hakka concubine (or mui chai unclear). After siring a number of children, the Tang businessman died. The Hakka woman, carrying his ashes and children, returned to Ping Shan. Unfortunately for her, the Ping Shan Tangs refused to recognize the “legitimate\" Punti/Tang status of the boy children; but rather than return to the northern districts, she decided to settle down near Kam Tin, and thereafter founded the Wang Toi Shan settlements. Due to her fortitude, virtue, etc. the Hakka Tangs have prospered.\n\n19. Some debate exists over whether the Hakka Tangs and Punti Tangs \"belong\" to the same clan [to my knowledge, they share in no common estate]. This debate often takes the form of one of two questions: are the Kam Tin Tangs \"really\" Hakka? or are the Wang Toi Shan Tangs \"really\" Punti? One of the predictions to come out of this project is that Kam Tin Tangs will increasingly ally themselves with Hakka local groups, both politically (to the detriment of remaining \"higher-order lineage\" ties) and culturally (in that they will increasingly attribute to themselves Hakka characteristics).\n\n20. Hypothesis: There has occurred a shift in dominance at the level of superstructure from one founding myth (Wong Ku) to another (Hung-yi Kung). This shift, which has taken place over the last few decades, reflects a shift at the economic/political base of the New Territories (esp. Yuen Long district) between polar structures A and B.\n\n20. a. Structure A. Essentially the \"large-clan\"/higher-order lineage type. Lineages \"collapse\" into single, legal and social personalities, and assume great power over the formulas of exchange (women: in terms of marriage alliance, and goods: in terms of markets and tax systems). This structure, which is essentially hierarchical and feudalistic (in that it attempts to usurp power from the local tentacles of central government), is best represented by the Tangs prior to the economic/social revolution begun in 1898, and drawn to a close by the events of the 1930's.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210337, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 308, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "287\n\n17 The name of the Governor is given as Li (†), and the name of the award is transliterated in the next as Bai-Li-hsi-tien-te (X) which may represent \nthe Légion d'honneur).\n\n1 Ah-lum had 7 wives, 4 of them being considered concubines, 3 daughters and 10 sons, including 3 who died early, 1 given away to his 1st younger brother, and 1 adopted from another line of the clan. 2 of his sons became chüren, 2 more of them were National School Students. 1 had a military title. The one adopted out was also a National School Student. At least 3 of his sons died and were buried in Vietnam. Of his 2 brothers 1 died at the age of 21; he had a military title. He had 1 son who died early, thus Ah-lum gave one of his sons to him. Ah-lum's other brother was a I-wu-sheng (county military student). This brother held a military title; he had 5 sons and 4 of them were National School Students. See the clan record, 19 See the biography of Ah-lum's father Wei-kang in Clan record Chi-ching pu (A) section, Hang-chuang sub-section, p. 5.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211668, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 83, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "58\n\nTaiwan is dedicated to General Su. He is worshipped by Lukang traders of Quemoy (Chinmen) stock for protection. Two images of him stand on the main altar, one being the main image (Su Fu Ta Wang Yeh *) and the other a secondary image (Erh Wang Yeh Em). According to the temple keeper the latter was carved to satisfy the demand of worshippers for a portable image to take home for private reverence. A third image known as the San Wang Yeh (=E) was placed on the altar of a nearby branch temple (Fen miao). A number of branch temples dedicated to Su as a Wang Yeh, a Ch'ien Sui and as a General or Marshal (Chiangchun and Yuanshuai é) are to be found in many places in central and northern Taiwan.\n\nHis image on the main altar of his temple in Lukang portrays him as black faced and black bearded, a standard carving of a seated dignitary wearing a scholar's gilded cap. Before him are seated five other images, one is the portable image of him in the centre, flanked by the four minor Ch'ien Sui, Chiu, Liang, Chin and Ts'ai,\n\nIt is interesting to note that the deities in the temple at Lukang are colloquially referred to as Su Fu San Wang Yeh, The Three Su Wang Yeh. This despite them being but one person, and there being only two images in the main temple whilst the third is in a temple nearby.\n\nFinally, some dozen or so small images of standing soldiers in a V formation together with their commander crowd a secondary altar in the temple. They represent the army of General Su.\n\nThese four are examples of non-pestilence protective deities referred to as Wang Yeh; there are a few other deities, not protective deities as such, who are also referred to as Wang Yeh in Taiwan. A good example is the T'ang emperor Ming Huang, patron of actors and actresses, known also as the Prince of the Western Ch'in (Hsi Ch'in Wang Yeh Еƒ). He fled to Szechuan province in the far west of China after he abdicated which led to him being given this title. T'ang Ming Huang is probably best known to foreigners for his infatuation with the concubine Yang Kuei-fei which nearly lost him his throne.\n\nTo conclude, the large cult of Pestilence Wang Yeh, almost exclusively worshipped nowadays by the Fukienese and referred to simply as Wang Yeh has been confused over the years with other cults whose individual deities have borne the same honorific which, despite being protective", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212813, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "320\n\nMESNY'S CHINESE MISCELLANY.\n\nThe total strength of the regiment is thus: One Colonel, one Second-Major, two Captains, four Lieutenants, four Sub-Lieutenants, two Sergeants, four Corporals, two Lance Corporals and about 650 to 700 men.\n\nThe strength of this regiment is, however, very much increased by over one hundred and thirty gun-boats and a score or so of old ones. Each new gun-boat is manned by one officer and nine men on a peace footing, to which are added one officer and five men in times of war. The old gun-boats have two officers and over twenty men each, and some of them cruise down in the neighbourhood of the Bogue Forts.\n\nThe new gun-boats thus give a complement of 1,300 officers and men in times of peace and over 2,000 in times of war, to be added to the strength of the above naval regiment, besides a proportionate number of commissioned officers.\n\n1439. PAN FEI-A favourite concubine of Tung Hun Hou, the last but one of the Sovereigns of the Ch'i dynasty, A.D. 499-501.\n\nThe practice of cramping the feet of Chinese girls is ascribed to her by some writers. Mayers says: \"She is celebrated for her beauty and grace, and it is related of her (but on untrustworthy grounds) that the practice of artificially cramping the feet was introduced under her auspices See Yao Niang. Her imperial lover is said to have uttered one day, when gazing at her performances in the dance upon a platform ornamented with golden lilies the amorous expression: 'Every footstep makes a lily grow!' and hence the term Chin Lien metaphorically used for the feet of women is said to have taken its rise. In allusion to the same traditions the expression Lien Kou (lily hooks) is also applied in celebrating this charm of woman-kind.\" The term Chin Lien really means Golden Lotus, not Golden Lilies, frequently translated by foreign writers, and in like manner means the term Lien Kou Lotus Hooks. I have often heard the nicely cramped feet of women described as I tui lien hua, i.e., a brace or pair of lotus flowers.\n\n1440. CHOU TICH CHÈN : The battle name of Chou-han the malicious. The rabid anti-foreign Hu-nan man, who has done so much harm to China and to the Chinese by stirring up animosity against foreigners instead of friendliness, adopted as a battle name the characters Tich-chen, which means True as Iron, or \"True as steel\" Chou Han has now fallen, and is ruined, and he is bound to die a miserable death, like everybody else who gets in the way of Christian progress. The following two characters-Tich-chen —may now be substituted for the two so boastfully selected by himself.\n\nHu-nan is bound to be opened to foreign trade and friendly intercourse with foreign nations. No mortal man even yet kicked against Christianity without hurting himself. Chou Han is as good as dead, or he ought to be dead.\n\n1441. AI YEH -The leaves of Artemisia Moxa, q.v. This is considered a lucky plant. On the fifth day of the fifth moon every family gets a few leaves to hang over the house doors. When dry and rubbed up it answers the purposes of punk or tinder, and may be lighted with flint and steel by striking fire over the punk in the usual manner. It is also burnt to drive away insects, or mosquitoes at least, and is very useful as such.\n\n1442. I-TS'AO-Healing Herbs, Medicinal Herbs, Drugs, Artemisia Moxa, q.v.\n\n1443. AI-HO-Punk made from the dry leaves of the Artemisia Moxa, q.v., and used as a cautery in various cases of disease, and burning the scars seen on the head of all properly initiated Buddhist priests. Each scar represents a vow to abstain from evil and perform good deeds.\n\nA full Index will be issued every Six Months.\n\nJan. 9th, 1896.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213492, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "56\n\nof the Pear Garden\" (T).\n\nThis Chinese version of Don Juan lived an absolute profligate life. In his later years, he lavished much of his love on a country-bred beauty called Yang Yu-huan (E) and neglected his State's affairs, which brought about his downfall. In 755 A.D., one of his trusted lieutenants named An Lu-shan (I), a half-Turk, half-Sogdian, revolted. The poor Emperor had to flee from Ch'ang An (E), his capital, with just a few escorts, including his immediate family and a few soldiers, heading for Szechwan (PTI). When the entourage arrived at a place called Ma Wei Po (5), the escorting soldiers refused to go any further and demanded that the Emperor get rid of the concubine Yang. The Emperor had to give in and act accordingly. At last, a general named Kwo Tzi-yı (97) put down the rebellion and restored peace to the land. The Emperor Xuan-zong lost his throne to his son.\n\nIf you ever go to Xian (1) in the Shaanxi Province, you will find a bathhouse called Hwa Ch'ing Chih (#) in the suburb where Yang Yu Huan used to bathe. The area has been restored and kept in good condition to this day.\n\nTaboos\n\nThere are many, many regulations and taboos in the Chinese theatrical circle, including the Peking Opera group. Some of these taboos help to keep smooth the running of the theatre as an orderly institution; otherwise, chaos would reign. For instance, the actors and actresses are not allowed to sit on the trunks of other performers. Once I had the privilege of visiting the backstage of a Peking Opera theatre. There were rows and rows of heavy trunks on the floor where the stage clothing was stored. Some of the actors or actresses were doing their make-up. Layers and layers of stage clothing were neatly folded and stacked in the trunks. There was order and neatness everywhere. Imagine, in the absence of taboo and regulations, what the situation would be. It could be a madhouse where everyone was fighting to have the right kind of clothing to go on the stage, and when they finished acting, they would just throw things around.\n\nI know one or two other taboos, of which everyone, yes everyone, has to observe, such as you should never utter the word “Geng\" \"E”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214130, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 198, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "169\n\nRAS VISIT TO HUIZHOU\n\nDan Waters\n\nOn Saturday 15 November, 1997, 14 stalwart members of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch (RASHKB) set off by coach on a two-day visit to Huizhou (Waichau or Waichow) and the surrounding region in eastern Guangdong Province.\n\nHuizhou has a population of about 600,000, making it larger than Macau. In this part of Guangdong, where Westerners attract a certain amount of attention, we visited scenic spots like the West Lake (see Plate I), the Xizhou Pagoda and the Su Dongbo Well as well as his Monument (see Plate II).1 Su Dongbo was a leading poet and a member of the literati in Northern Song times. He was also concerned with the building of bridges, improving dams and constructing water supply schemes. Madam Wang (1062-96), his Concubine, was a native of Hangzhou. Su was disgraced and banished to Guangdong and subsequently to Hainan Island.\n\nOur RAS Group also visited one of the most famous Taoist temples (the Lu Dong Bin Temple) in Guangdong Province, situated at Loh Fau Shan. Lu Dong Bin is one of the Eight Immortals and a patron saint of the literati. He uses a fly whisk to sweep away the clouds and carries a magic sword associated with healing.\n\nOn the following day (Sunday 16 November) the RAS Group drove to the unspoiled Nine Dragon Mountain (named 'Kowloon' like in Hong Kong) and its comparatively well-known Tam Kung Temple which was visited by a group of RASHKB members in November 1995. Research has previously been carried out and RAS visits have been made to various Tam Kung temples both in Hong Kong and in Macau, including during the Tam Kung Festival. Also, an illustrated lecture was given on the Hakka Boy Deity, Tam Kung, in 1996, to the RASHKB by Professor Anthony Siu and Geoffrey Roper. There is little point in repeating similar information here.\n\nOne of the tasks that the RAS group set itself, in November 1997, was to find two buildings in Huizhou which were used by the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) during World War Two. Both sites were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214350, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "173\n\nTHE DEIFICATION OF HEROES FOLLOWING THE STRUGGLE BY THE VASSAL STATE OF CHOU TO OVERTHROW THE SHANG DYNASTY\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nThe lives of a great number of Chinese historical figures, heroes, worthies, bandits and revolutionaries, sovereigns and commoners over the centuries have become mythologized and the subjects of teashop story tellers. Their deeds and words have been fictionalised, themes known to the majority of Chinese. Some have found their way into religious life and become deified worthies. Many of these tales, ostensibly biographies of deities, are predominantly fantasy wedded with historico-fictional legends, a number of which comprise two or more volumes, others involve an enormous cast of heroes and worthies as well as scores of supernatural characters. Three major historico-legendary tales in particular have coloured popular religion beliefs. These are The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Journey to the West and The Deification of the Gods. Other works have also been sources of peasant knowledge about individual deities such as The Romance of the Sui-Tang [Sui-Tang Yanyi].\n\nWe are particularly interested here with The Deification of the Gods. [Fengshen Yanyi: a novel also known to foreigners as The Investiture of the Gods]. 'The Feng-shen Yen-i addressed the moral and philosophical question of the origins of the gods and is an unsophisticated version of history describing the overthrow of the dynastic house of Shang by the vassal Zhou which took place some 3,000 years ago, at a mythological time when the \"human\" gods were created. It has an overlay of Buddhism despite this religion in practice not reaching China until some thousand years after the overthrow of the Shang and the establishment of the Zhou and not incorporated into Chinese religious beliefs until the time of Christ. It is the story of the decline of a dynasty, the Shang, with its depraved, dissolute and brutal ruler, under the spell of a beauty, his concubine, leading at first to his ineffective attempts to subdue his vassal Zhou state, and later to the Zhou mustering its forces and allies to attack the Shang and lay siege to its capital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214351, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "174\n\nThe conflict is described in gory detail with both humans and deities waging unrestricted warfare using thunderbolts, poisonous gases, and magic fans. Armies are annihilated by wizardry, bizarre and fantastic magic weapons are deployed by both sides leading to the eventual defeat of the Shang, and the suicide of the ruler and death of his concubine. The story ends with the heroes of both sides being canonised. This historical fantasy describes the struggle in the 11th century BC between the forces of the evil King Zhou3 [Zhou Wang, known also as Zhou Xin] of the Shang [Yin] dynasty and the armies of Duke Fa,a with large bodies of men clashing as well as individual duels between heroes leading to the eventual victory by Duke Fa and the end of King Zhou and his concubine. It describes individual or groups of deities, their origins, careers, and their miracles and supernatural powers during the campaign of Duke Fa against King Zhou. During the struggle, both sides called upon Heaven, who in response sent mythological deities [i.e., not deified humans] to take part in the clashes and battles.\n\nThe major hero of the forces of Duke Fa was his prime minister, Jiang Ziya, who was eventually responsible for handing out honours deifying the human heroes of both sides, with both the victors and the conquered being awarded posts in the Celestial hierarchy. Images of many of these heroes can still be seen on altars, deities in their own right, with responsibility for specific roles as gods of wealth or health or as patron deities. These deified heroes are possibly best thought of as 'human' deities in comparison with the mythological orthodox Daoist and Buddhist deities of the Creation and pre-history, a number of whom also took part in the fictional conflict. It has provided a standardisation of myths and legends woven into a continuous story which has, since its compilation, been the main spring of Chinese popular knowledge about the celestial and Underworld deities. A great many deities were familiar before this work was written, and the problem, therefore, has been well-nigh impossible, of determining how much of the work was original and how much was grafted in from earlier legends.\n\nChinese histories describing the fall of the Shang are far from clear. It was the era when the Chinese in the Yellow River basin were emerging from the mists of pre-history. Dates vary from 1050 BC to 1120 and 1127 BC, but one scenario is well known to the Chinese man in the street, the final act. The Shang was ruled by a degenerate, Zhou Xin [also known as Zhou Wang], whose army was defeated in battle on the Muye plain before the Shang capital. The victor was Duke Fa [Ji Fa], who founded...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214352, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 210, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "175\n\nthe Zhou dynasty and became the emperor of the new dynasty, the Zhou, and is known by his reign title of Wu Wang. The Book of History suggests that his army consisted in part or in the main of a central Asian race, the Western Yi. Zhou Xin is vilified as a moral degenerate under the spell of a wicked concubine, Dan Ji. The Shang were attacked and replaced as the dominant force in northern China by the Zhou just before the first millennium BC, having come from the west. They established their capital near present-day Xi'an.\n\n6\n\nThe victor, Wu Wang [King Wu], passed on the title of Zhou Gong [Duke Zhou] to his brother, Dan, and also conferred the imperial title on his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who had only been dukes when still alive. Zhou Gong was the paragon of literary China for some three thousand years, and it was he rather than his imperial brother who was the author of the Constitution of Zhou. When his brother, the emperor, died leaving a young son, court officials and the vassals assumed that Duke Zhou would usurp the throne and kill his nephew. He did nothing of the sort, and instead, it was the young king who at the age of nineteen stripped his uncle of his powers and forced him to live in exile in Shandong where he died a few years later.\n\nThe deities described in traditional vernacular fiction, and in particular in the immensely popular novel the Fengshen Yanyi, are known to most Chinese, whereas the majority of those left out of the Fengshen Yanyi, apart from the major cult deities, have to all intents and purposes gone into limbo and are only known within small pockets of China or have been lost in the mists of time. Versions of the legend passed on orally often in local dialect, which frequently does not extend further than the extent of the dialect group, have numerous minor and occasionally major variations, whereas the written version was read China-wide in its 'established' state.\n\nSo many heroes and worthies make their appearance at one stage or another that it is impossible to name them all. Some appear momentarily during one of the battles, others are recorded in several chapters, occasionally with different names or titles, such as the Northern Emperor [Bei Di] who is also known by his titles, Xuantian Shang Di, The Supreme Lord of the Dark Heavens, and Zhen Wu, The True Warrior. And in temples today, in all probability, he will be known by only one of these titles, with local devotees vigorously denying that an identical...\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214353, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 211, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "176\n\nimage with one of the other titles is the same god.\n\nThe Fengshen Yanyi records numerous departments of the Celestial World including, for example, the Department of Thunder. It has a chief, General Wen, and twenty-four subordinates, amongst whom are the spirits of wind, rain and lightning; these are often referred to as the Five Spirits of Thunder, Lei Shen. Another is the Department of Fire Spirits. Its departmental head, Luo Xuan of Fire Dragon Island, called himself Yan Zhong Xian, the Immortal of the Flames, and was a fierce-looking iron-toothed, red individual. His immediate subordinate was Liu Huan, a yellow-faced demonic being who, during the Shang-Zhou struggle, brought along the materials with which they nearly destroyed the capital of Xi Ji, before being themselves routed. Luo Xuan was awarded the title The Chief Spirit Ruler of the Southern Region Three Atmospheres Fire Virtue Star: Nan Fang San Qi Huode Xingjun Zhengshen. Among his subordinates are a pig, monkey, tiger and snake spirits, all representing the different kinds of fires. The tiger is the 'tail fire' which is very hot; the pig is a 'house fire' which bursts out unexpectedly; the monkey is the 'nose fire' which comes suddenly through openings; whilst the snake is the 'winged fire' which leaps from one place to another. Liu Huan causes fires to spread.\n\nThe story begins with the last ruler of the Shang making an offering at the temple of the goddess Nü Wa. Having written a poem on the wall of the temple, a graffiti that offends her, she sends three monsters to bewitch him.\n\nThe following résumé of the last two chapters of the book brings into focus the tenor and style of the story. Jiang Ziya, about whom tales are told of his ineffectual efforts to become a trader and thus satisfy his wife's demands that he should do something useful, was eventually introduced to the Court and King Zhou Xin, who gave him a high position. Jiang antagonised Dan Ji, Zhou Xin's concubine, by getting rid of one of her vampire friends who had disguised herself as a human to share with the evil queen the flesh and blood of the victims she had slaughtered. Jiang was being taken away to be executed outside the palace but managed to slip through a hole in a bridge and disappeared. The guards sought him everywhere and finally assumed that he had been drowned. He had however been able to conceal himself.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214356, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 214, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "179\n\nwas the decapitation of a Fox Fairy, possibly the wicked King's concubine, Dan Ji. In legend the spirit of a fox inhabits the body of a beautiful young woman who then bewitches and captivates men. When killed such woman immediately revert to their fox body origins. In the exhibit the young woman is standing and as the sword descends her head rolls off and rolls about on the floor before immediately reverting to its original position on her body. The boys were only too delighted to press the button to cause the head to roll again and again. Another was the birth of the Third Prince out of his caul. In legend he is born an apparent monster but after a swift slash with a sword the caul opens and the child emerges. Once more the boys played this for us several times.\n\nThis was possibly not the most ideal way to be introduced to the Fengshen Yanyi. A year or so earlier my daughter and I heard of the small temple dedicated to Zhou Gong, located at the foot of Phoenix Mountain in a rural area north of Qi Shan in Shaanxi province. We drove there to find in the main hall of a memorial temple, which had just been renovated, an image of Jiang Ziya flanked by two mythological deities, Na Zha and Yang Jian [see Note 8]. The first of the two, is a seven year old youth who caused havoc in Heaven and, better known as the Third Prince. He is nowadays the primary guardian of temple altars in Taiwan where his image stands on the altar table before the main altar. His is a traditional story tracing the age-old conflict between generations, and conflict of power and responsibility. Yang Jian has certain magic powers, which he used during the conflict but is also regarded as a potent deity who protects against demonic attack. He is often referred to as Er Lang, and he and his small dog are to be seen in a number of temples and in many he is regarded as the patron deity of dogs. The murals across the whole of the main hall's side walls depict episodes from the Fengshen Yanyi complete with Jiang Ziya first mobilising the deities of heaven to help the Duke Fa, and finally, the scene of the Investiture itself on the Terrace of the Investiture.\n\n10\n\nA number of temples in the central-west of China used to contain large gilded 'mountains', carved structures representing a mountain with crags and caves on which were superimposed a number of carved wooden gilded images of Daoist deities. The vast majority of these were also characters from the Fengshen Yanyi.11", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215103, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 199, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "156\n\nwhereupon he changed his surname He grew up to be a tall, heavily built, clever fellow, and a good judge of character.\n\nHe spoke the various frontier dialects well, a point which once saved his life when condemned to death for sheep-stealing He began to be employed in repressing the raids of the Kitan Tatars, in which occupation he made quite a name for himself, and was at length taken to the capital. The emperor T'ang Ming Huang took a great fancy to him, and the emperor's concubine, Yang Kuei-fei, called him her adopted son, making him do obeisance to her first and to the emperor afterwards, on the ground that such was the Turkic custom.\n\nDespatched upon an expedition against the Kitans, he was so successful that he was ennobled as Duke. Then, with inflated pride and ambition, he rebelled, and added to the general confusion which was surrounding the wretched Ming Huang, who had been repeatedly warned of this new danger. An called himself Emperor Hsiung Wu of the Great Yen dynasty, and for a time carried everything before him. He was assassinated by his own son, An Ch'ing-hsu, who feared that he was going to be deprived of the succession in favour of the offspring of a concubine. And within three years of the first rising, the son too had been put to death by Shih Ssu-ming.\n\nThis rebellion was one of several eras in Chinese history which has provided a popular theme for opera and tea-house story tellers' tales providing Chinese with a familiarity with the dramatic events of the times and details of the lives and times of well-known heroes and villains of the time.\n\nThe same can also be said of traditional stories told within popular religion temples where tales are told and retold of a select number of the deified heroes of the victorious Tang imperial forces whose images are on altars. We shall be examining the roles of the emperor, his personal doctor and six generals loyal to the emperor during the campaign to suppress the rebellion and their eventual role in the celestial bureaucracy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215104, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 200, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "157\n\nBut First, the Story of the Rebellion.\n\nTang Ming Huang, or Xuan Zong, the sixth emperor of the Tang dynasty, who reigned between AD 713-756, became infatuated by Yang Yuhuan, the consort of his son, Prince Shou, and caused her notionally to enter a Daoist nunnery. She soon became the favourite concubine of the emperor who shared with him her love of music and dance and whose hold over him led to his neglect of state affairs. It is rarely explained that the Concubine Yang was comparatively plump, conforming to the social concept of beauty of the era. By about 740 the Emperor, tired of the daily routine of his high office, now addicted to luxury and women, also became indolent. As the eunuchs gained ever greater control over state affairs so the emperor surrendered power into the hands of two men, Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, the latter being a relative of the concubine.\n\nOnly this one woman, the Concubine Yang [Yang Guifei], a famous beauty, was able to fascinate the ageing emperor. He took her into his own harem where she speedily dominated the aged emperor's consort after which he gradually slid into dissipation with his name forever linked with her and their ill-fated romance. Her hold over him led to his loss of interest in imperial duties transforming him from being a staid and good ruler to a playboy. This led to his downfall and her murder. In the late 740s she adopted An Lushan as her son and she, the emperor and An remained in a very friendly relationship until immediately prior to him rebelling. Despite An's gross and huge frame scandalous stories have circulated down the ages of his sexual excesses with the emperor's concubine, Yang, which may or may not have had any truth to them.\n\nGeneral An lost the emperor's favour when Yang Guozhong, a distant relative of Yang Guifei who had worked his way into power, became the most powerful man in Court. He hated An and with the ear of the emperor he was able to turn the emperor's fondness into one of hate and distrust. Eventually, believing the calumny spread by Yang Guozhong, the emperor lost faith in his favourite general, An Lushan found his position untenable and finally, at the end of 755, he rebelled, almost certainly to counter the threat to himself posed by the ever-growing power of Yang Guozhong and his realisation that he had lost the support of the emperor. An Lushan's army drove east and in a series", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215105, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 201, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "158\n\nof victorious battles he captured Kaifeng and Luoyang where he had himself proclaimed emperor of the new dynasty of Greater Yan. His further campaigns and those of his subordinates were at first victorious; however, they then began to suffer a series of defeats at the hands of Guo Ziyi, one of China's most renowned generals, whose successes led to increased loyalist resistance to the rebel forces.\n\nA major consequence of the rebellion of An Lushan, was the withdrawal by the emperor of his forces garrisoning the North-west thereby losing control over China's far dominions in Zungaria and the Tarim Basin [today's Xinjiang province] for the best part of the next thousand years.\n\nFor a while it seemed that the balance was turning in the emperor's favour. However, the Capital garrison at Chang'an [Xi'an] was incapable of resisting the attacks of the rebel forces and after the defeat of his main army on the banks of the Yellow River the emperor in great alarm was forced to flee Chang'an accompanied by some of his entourage. They fled west heading to Sichuan province ahead of the rebel advance. En route, at Ma Wei, his escort mutinied, killed Yang Guozhong and forced the emperor to order the Concubine Yang be strangled to pacify his discontented guards. Stories have varied but the most popular versions claim that the emperor had no choice but order her to be strangled by his chief eunuch or that she was forced to commit suicide. On reaching the safety of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the heir apparent had been persuaded to usurp the throne. Weary and distressed the old emperor, now in Chengdu, gave his assent to the new reign and became the retired emperor. The new emperor bestowed the title of Taishang Huangdi\n\nupon his father but kept him under house-arrest.\n\nThe heir-apparent made his way to Lingzhou in Gansu where he was proclaimed emperor Su Zong and was soon joined by two armies, one under Guo Ziyi. By 757 Guo had recovered the main and subsidiary capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang from the rebels, whereupon the new emperor summoned the former emperor back to Chang'an to ensure that he would not be the focus of any further intrigue and threat, where he died in 761. The father was then canonised as Zongming Huangdi\n\nthough usually he is still referred to as Ming Huang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215108, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 204, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "161\n\nand the Fulu particular of two opera companies, the Xipi Pai and Erhuang Pai [or Fi Pai], the latter, the northern school, being especially dedicated to woodwinds3. In legend he is said to have had an emotional reunion with the soul of his dead concubine, Yang Guifei, in the palace of Guanghan on the Moon.\n\n4\n\nA tablet on a minor altar at the rear of a secondary hall in the temple of the City God in Hsinchu in northern Taiwan refers to him as Tang Xuan Zong, whilst his usual title in Taiwanese temples of the Lord of the Western Qin, Xi Qin WangyeE is not usually understood beyond Taiwan. There is no image, whereas in the Ma Tsu temple in Taipei a side altar is dedicated to him and his image, portraying him as a standard scholar-official with a black beard, is flanked by two very elderly male aides.\n\nIn South-east Asia images of the emperor have been seen in temples in Seremban and Ipoh in Malaysia, and in Singapore, in some of which he is simply referred to as Zunzhu Mingwang, the Lord Prince Ming, 尊主明王,\n\nAn image seen on the only altar in a side hall of the temple on Miaofeng Shan in Beijing's Western Hills and identified as Tang Ming Huang, is better known in the temple as the God of Happiness, Xi Shen [Photograph 2]. He is referred to as Liyuan Shen, and is portrayed as a smiling figure with beard and moustache, standing with his hands in a theatrical pose. His modern image is dressed in imperial yellow robes decorated with a large dragon and the whole body of the image is swathed in a red robe placed there by devotees.\n\nDisappointingly, there appears to be no image of the Concubine Yang on any altars. However, a modern [1996] tableau in an old temple, now converted into a theme-park, depicts in a series of life-size plaster images scenes ranging from the Tang Ming Huang's first sight of the Concubine Yang bathing, progressing through stages of his infatuation though ending before her death and his overthrow. This can be seen on a low hill overlooking the bend in the Yellow River at the south-western tip of Shanxi province, at a place known as Yang Guifei's pool. The main altar has the Tang Ming Huang and the Concubine sitting with her pouring wine for him. Before the altar stand three incense pots, a container holding fortune spills and plastic fruit as an offering and before", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215115, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 211, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "168\n\ntheir aid.12 Thus it was that although neither of the two deities had ever set foot in the Chaozhou area during their human existence, yet their divine spirits helped the native Chaozhou people and became their patrons. Chaozhou emigrants to Taiwan bore their cult from their local cult centre at Chaoyang, together with images, over to the new lands where at present there are some ten or so temples dedicated to the pair.\n\nSeveral versions of the tales of their heroism during the siege of Suiyang are related by temple keepers and devotees. Individual stories about Zhang and Xu are well known to Chaozhou devotees, describing how they dug holes to catch rats during the siege, and about Zhang slaughtering his beloved concubine, either to spare her being taken by the enemy or, more morbidly, to be eaten by the starving defenders. Each of the stories highlights their heroism in the face of starvation with no hope of relief from the siege, and their choice of death rather than surrender.\n\nThe two deities are revered together on the main altar in at least five temples in Taiwan. Zhang has some eight temples dedicated to him alone in Taiwan, whilst Xu has a further nine. A further fifteen temples contain one of these two deities under their other titles, with both deities, again under their true names of Xu and Zhang, being noted as the main deity on secondary altars.\n\nA Chuanzhou immigrant named Chen brought an incense pot with him from the cult centre of Baoyi Dafu [Zhang Xun] in Fujian and set it up as a branch temple in Shen Keng village near Taipei. According to temple lore, the deified Zhang Xun proved very efficacious in helping villagers with both good fortune and excellent harvests. Later, as the cult developed, it emerged from dream messages that Baoyi Dafu was also very effective in coping with the ravages of insect pests and, moreover, had won local renown by helping Chinese immigrants overcome the original hill tribesmen.\n\nHowever, in the centre and south of the Taipei Basin, Xu and Zhang together were known by Chuanzhou Fukienese by the single title of Wang Gong 尪公, Wang Yuanshuai 尪元帥 or Wang Wang 王王. Their local legend claims that Wang Gong appeared to a temple keeper in a dream, warning him and the local inhabitants of the San Hsia, Mucha, and Hsintien areas of an intended raid by head-hunting tribesmen from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215119, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 215, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "172\n\nof\n\n17\n\nGuo Ziyi, born in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province ca. AD 700 and only deified many years after he had fled from Guo's service [Illustration 8].\n\nGuo, after a dream, became suspicious of Wen's powers to perform miracles, and Wen, realizing the danger he was in, fled and became a butcher. When a heavenly messenger revealed to Wen the evil of taking life, he gave up slaughtering animals and entered a monastery. Later, he moved to a temple dedicated to Tai Shan, the Lord of the Underworld, where he became the senior medium and communicated with the souls of the dead. He was renowned for his ability to bring rain and help devotees stricken by drought.\n\nEpilogue\n\nThese nine individuals, an omnipotent Chinese emperor, and a hero, and general, believed to have been the emperor's personal physician; a powerful victorious general with immense progeny; a garrison commander and the city mandarin who died in defence of an imperial stronghold; and four minor soldiers, referred to as generals who also died for the emperor, have been deified with their images placed on popular religion temple altars within limited areas of south-east China and Taiwan, their legends being eagerly retold by temple custodians and devotees.\n\nThe Rebellion has held Chinese imaginations for centuries - mainly, it would appear, because of the story of the fall of the emperor's concubine bringing to its listeners a mixture of sadness and anger at the weakness of character shown by the emperor.\n\nA Chinese Biographical Dictionary published in 1898 in London by Bernard Quaritch\n\n2 In Hunan province and the Yangzi valley in general, Lao Lang, the patron of the theatre, of musicians and actors, has been identified in a number of places as a deified human named Zhuang Zong. He was said to be the patron of Peking opera but only of such groups touring central China. His image in Hunan portrayed him as a clean-shaven, white-faced young man without any special", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215124, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 220, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "177\n\nA large modern tableau in the old former Five Springs Temple at the extreme south western tip of Shanxi province, overlooking the bend in the Yellow River with a pool in the temple grounds. The tableau depicts the Tang emperor Ming Huang and his concubine, Yang Guifei, at the site of the pool where she is said to have bathed. She is portrayed here as a slim beauty, pouring wine for the emperor, and not as a typical Tang plump beauty. Incense, fortune sticks and offerings have been left on the altar table by visitors.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216030, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 329, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "263\n\nafter a siege of 49 days. Most accounts claim that they died by their own hands rather than fall into those of the enemy.\n\nOur interest lies in Zhang. He was born in Henan in AD 709 and died with Xu on either the 15th of the second or the 9th of the tenth lunar months in 757. Zhang was the military mandarin in Suiyang and is occasionally referred to in temple records as Zhang Suiyang. Before being posted to Suiyang he had been employed in military operations in Central Asia where his discipline was legendary. In 756 during the rebellion of An Lushan he fought many battles, was wounded on a number of occasions and performed prodigies of valour. The climax was reached by his heroic defence of the Henan provincial city of Suiyang against the rebel army commanded by An Lushan's son. Zhang refused to yield and even sacrificed his favourite concubine to no avail. The enemy broke in and as he scorned to owe allegiance to his conqueror was immediately put to death. It is said that during the siege his patriotic rage caused him to grind his teeth so that after his death it was found that all but three or four had been worn down to the very gums.\n\nIn central China the rain and crop deity, the Bodhisattva of the Whole of Heaven, Doutian Pusa or the Marshal of the Whole of Heaven, Doutian Yuanshuai, was believed to be an incarnation of Zhang who, it was said, had intervened to assist the imperial forces during the Taiping wars ca. 1855 and had been awarded the title of Zhangwei. His major local shrine is some distance outside the southern gate of Zhenjiang, a little beyond the shell of a Ming pagoda. There was also a shrine to him in the city's new main street, Ma Lu; another in a village on the road to the Bamboo Grove, and yet another in the village of Doutian Miao where the Imperial battery had been located on the north shore of the Yangzi abreast of Jiao Shan. Annually, during the Fourth lunar month, Zhenjiang was crowded with country folk who came to enjoy the procession of gods being borne through the streets of the city, including the image of Doutian Pusa.\n\nWhen the Tang dynasty collapsed China fell back into feudal kingdoms, one of which was the Xiu dynasty of Nantang. Under their rule the walls of Zhenjiang were repaired. Xiu Lijing succeeded his father in 946 and during his reign he annexed what today is Fujian province and added it to his dominion of Jiangxi, most of Anhui and Jiangsu, thus becoming one of the largest states in China at the time.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]