[ { "id": 205062, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "REGIONAL APPROACH TO CHINESE HISTORY\n\n13\n\nHis luck ran out, however, in 1807, when he was caught in a typhoon off Luzon. Part of his fleet was destroyed and Cheng himself drowned.\n\nLeadership of the pirate fleet fell to Cheng's wife, a kind of early nineteenth-century Dragon Lady, who may have accompanied her husband on his forays. Her chief lieutenant was a young Hsin Hui buccaneer by the name of Chang Pao-tsai. Unkind rumour had it that Chang was more than the lady's \"chief lieutenant\".\n\nUnder the leadership of Chang and the wife of Cheng I, the pirate fleet expanded its activities. It was divided into three divisions, each with a commander. Raids on coastal shipping were carried out with dispatch and precision, each division having been assigned specific areas of the coast. By 1810, Chang's fleet numbered six to seven hundred vessels, manned by as many as thirty to forty thousand men.\n\nNor were they concerned with just coastal shipping. No village or town along the coast was safe. Chang was apparently able to land elements of his navy at will at any bay or harbour from Mirs Bay to Hainan and as far up the river as Whampoa. There are differing accounts as to what his methods and motives really were. Some accounts, probably somewhat romanticized, make Chang out to be a kind of Chinese nautical Robin Hood, landing his men and appearing at village gates only to replenish their supplies of food and water, treating the people with kindness and honesty and refraining from terror. On the other hand, local histories record that more than one village was left in ashes and more than a little blood was spilled.\n\nWhatever way Chang Pao-tsai carried on his raids, the fact remains that the Ch'ing government was powerless against him. Time and again units of the Imperial fleet were sent in search of Chang's navy, only to return empty-handed and usually badly mauled. Once, in 1809, the Imperial navy did succeed in trapping a portion of Chang's fleet off Lantau, but clever seamanship and greater and more efficient firepower enabled him to break through without much damage.\n\nFinally, in 1810, the authorities resorted to the old political expedient... \"if you can't beat 'em, join 'em\". Governor-General", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205063, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "14\n\nJOHN J. NOLDE\n\nPai Ling sent an emissary to Chang and his lady friend, offering him a post in government and the Dragon Lady a handsome pension if they would retire. Chang, in the meantime, had fallen out with some of his own lieutenants, and after a certain amount of negotiation he agreed to the government's terms. He agreed to disband his fleet and turn over most of his ships and equipment to the Imperial authorities. His men were to return to peaceful occupations. He was rewarded with an official position and actually took part in, perhaps led, several expeditions against those former comrades-in-arms who refused to surrender. The Lady received her pension and was reported living in Canton as late as 1830-1831.\n\nNow, aside from the more romantic aspects of this story, the point is that these raids were a major fact of life along the South China coast during these years. Local histories are full of accounts of the activities of Chang and his fleet, the Hsiang-shan hsien chih, especially, devoting many pages to his exploits.\n\nFurthermore, it seems fairly certain that many of Chang's men did not turn to peaceful pursuits after 1810. Many organized fleets of their own and continued their marauding, though on a reduced scale. While Chang's \"surrender\" may have broken the back of the pirate activity for a time, it would seem that by the 1820's piratical activity was again a major problem. Local histories record many instances of pirates extorting money from villagers along the Canton River. The Canton Register of July, 1829 reported that \"the rivers of the province are infested with pirates who force trading boats to purchase passes of them\". In the early 1830's pirate fleets attacked native craft near Macao Roads. The Chinese Repository of December, 1832 reported on a new class of pirate boat which, manned by crews of sixty to seventy men, kidnapped and carried off wealthy individuals for ransom. In the same issue the journal reported that a pirate fleet of thirty to forty sail \"was prowling off Macao. Its chief was said to be the son of a famous pirate.\"\n\nIn the interior things seemed to be in even more chaotic state, partly due to the activity of the ex-pirates now turned bandit and partly due to an increase in brigandage per se. English-language journals published at Macao in the 1820's and 30's commented repeatedly on \"parties of armed bandits\", \"vagabonds and ban-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207096, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n161\n\nAnother ancestral hall, built by the Tang family was less fortunate. The story goes that in the 1st year of Ka Hing (✯✯) A.D. 1796 of Ts'ing dynasty, the sons of Tang Yue Cheung (**) decided to build an ancestral hall worthy to house the tablet of their illustrious ancestress, the princess. So they built a house of “kak muk” (**) in T’aai Họng (✯✯✯) village, and in shape the house was like a king's palace. At that time the district magistrate of Sun On was a man nicknamed “Hungry Bug\" on account of his habit of collecting \"squeeze\" wherever he could. When he heard of the new building being erected in Kam T'in, and how magnificent it was, he scented a chance to make money. So he sent a message to the Tangs to say he would like to inspect their new acquisition.\n\nThe Tangs were much dismayed; being familiar with the character of their district officer they knew quite well the object of his visit, they did not want to pull down the house yet its very existence was an indication of their wealth and prosperity. In the village of Lung Kwat T'au (#) where the villagers are Tangs too, being descendants of the first son of the princess, there was a portrait of the princess and the Tangs of Kam T'in borrowed it and hung it up in the entrance of the hall. When the district officer saw it he was filled with awe, and hastily made obeisance to it. He was so impressed that he dared not demand money from the descendants of so distinguished a lady, and after making a show of being pleased he stayed one night, and then took his departure.\n\nEventually the picture had to be returned to its rightful owners, and the Kam T’in men fearing further trouble, pulled the hall down, but the foundation stones, overgrown with weeds and grass can still be seen.\n\nThe legends of Kam T'in are curiously mixed up with tales of buried treasure. One story tells how at the end of the Ming dynasty the Tangs wished to build an ancestral hall for the tablet of their eleventh ancestor, Tang Kwong Yue ( ). Tang Ping Yee (*) (a grandson of Tang Kwong Yue) and eight of Tang Ping Yee's cousins chose what was, according to one \"Fung shui\" man, a very lucky day to put up the central beam of the house, but a few days later they found that the beam was putting forth shoots. The people considered this to be a bad omen, so they consulted a more reliable fortune-teller, who declared that the day had been a lucky day, but for building boats, not houses! The people at once pulled down the beam, the time happened to be the season of the dragon boat festival, and the villages decided to make the discarded", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207578, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 346, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n337\n\nguiding me to the foot of the Peak of Yellow Crane; there, after my contemplation of the Hiding Dragon Spring, I begin to search the Cave of Dragon and Reach the Cave of Immortal Lady”32. In Vol. I, from the last line of p. 236 up to line 21 in p. 237, the English translation deals with this poem. Once again, in Plate LXXX-L, from the last two characters of line 17 till the end of the inscription, the content is to be identified as Li E's third poem. It is entitled \"A Travel to the Temple of Crane and Forest,33 Prof. Li's English translation of this poem is at Vol. I, lines 22 to 29 on p. 237.\n\nIn the \"Collected Poems Written in the Fan-hsien Mountain Studio\" all poems are chronologically arranged, and the dates of each year are always recorded under the first poem of each year. Thus, according to such chronology, these three pieces cited are all Li E's poems written in 1735. That is, they are all composed one year before Chin Nung had completed the Drenowaltz album, since the latter is dated 1736. In logic, it seems alright for Chin Nung to inscribe Li E's three poems on the last leaf of this album since the two men seem to have been very good friends since at least 171434. However, it is absolutely impossible for Chin Nung to have inscribed two poems in 1736, one by Li E and other by Ma Yueh-kuan, to be written as late as 1748 in leaf 11 of this album.\n\nThe significance of this discovery should be interpreted critically. The date of the inscription in this Drenowaltz album is some 12 years earlier than the actual date for composing the poems, and so the authenticity of the former is obviously doubtful. This brings us to the question of whether the calligraphy is really by Chin Nung or is perhaps by a very good copist. To think even one step further, the problem of whether extraordinarily elaborate landscapes should really be accepted as authentic works of this artist needs to be reconsidered.\n\nThere happens also to be a third problem of identification. For instance, on the 1st leaf, as well as on that with Wu Ta-chang's colophon of Tai Itsi's album of ‘Landscapes after Great Masters' (Vol. II, Fig. 56, plates XCIV-XCIX), there appears a number of collectors' seals. Of them, as Prof. Li has specifically noted, (Vol. I, p. 262) \"Six of Chang Hsiang-ning, ho p'ing-chai, who cannot be identified, one which cannot be identified”.\n\nIn fact, this unidentified collector is not a mystery. He is Chang Hsiang-ning, a contemporary Cantonese literary man, a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208120, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n143\n\npainted to the eyes, and clad in gay garments. Behind these a band of native musicians, youths dressed in gaudy clothes, provide the melody and rhythm. The dragon shakes his head and stamps his feet to the rhythm, the bearers grunt and sweat, the musicians fiddle and bang and blow, the spectators spit and chew, laugh and talk, admire and applaud. The last player disappears round a bend in the street and another procession begins to form itself with much good-natured chaff and chatter. Meantime the dragon processions which have already been sent off wander through the distant fields, and the curious rhythm of the dance rises and falls in every corner of the glens.\n\nSo much we have seen for ourselves, but our kind host, who has lived on the island for many years, tells us that on the great day of the feast, all the small processions meet at the special matshed, where are assembled also some of the local gods, as well as visiting deities who have been brought by the folk from other towns and villages. All these gods are then carried in procession to the Pak Tai Temple to make their how to the occupant. Following this they are carried about a mile to the temple of the Queen of Heaven, the Lady of the fisherfolk, through the streets densely packed with fishermen and townsfolk, and thousands of visitors. At this temple the processions stand aside, and the gods in their chairs of state are raced back to the special matshed. The first god to arrive, even if he arrives in several pieces, brings to his devoted supporters the best of luck during the year.\n\nIn the afternoon the cones are overturned and there is a scramble for the cakes, which are then eaten with the happiest consequences for all concerned. It would be interesting to hear more exactly what these benefits are, for the whole feast looks like an ancient fertility cult.\n\nWe are much indebted in this account to notes jotted down by Mr. A. C. Franklin, and kindly put at our disposal. The opportunity to witness the Moon-cake festival was also due to his kindness. If we have not reproduced all the interesting and suggestive comments which those notes contain, it is because we hope that he will find time to throw them into literary form and publish them. Meantime we would welcome corrections, and an elucidation of the meaning of the feast from our students, some of whom might well take time to visit Cheung Chow for that purpose.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211313, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "If the pirate's ultimate growth was not a result of external patronage or protection, might it have been owing to some internal element such as religion, ideology, or leadership that served in a special way to unify and integrate their force? For the time being I will dismiss religion and ideology as relevant factors with the promise to return to them in the conclusion and argue instead that indeed it was to the extraordinary leadership that emerged from within their ranks that the pirates owed not only their survival during the crisis of 1802, but also their subsequent success.\n\nThe one individual, more than any other, upon whose shoulders such accolades must fall, was Cheng I, a pirate whose pedigree can be traced to the sixteenth century. From the imbroglio that emerged after the death of the Tayson, Cheng I was responsible for transforming a motley crew of quarrelsome refugees interested primarily in internecine warfare and mutual slaughter into a well-ordered confederation divided into the Six Fleets of the Red, Black, White, Yellow, Blue and Green Flags.\n\nTo bring order to the confederation, each vessel was to be registered with one fleet whose banner it would subsequently fly. Because the stability of the confederation would be threatened by individual junks switching affiliation or by fleet leaders encouraging them to do so, anyone caught tampering with the identification process was subject to punishment. Provisions prohibiting pirates from fighting one another for prizes already taken or from undertaking unauthorized activities on their own sought to prevent internal conflict. Clear regulations also defined the procedure for sharing prizes while a kind of implicit territorial division characterised the cruising grounds of the various fleets.\n\nDespite his many accomplishments, however, Cheng I's days as a pirate were short-lived, but when he died unexpectedly in 1807, his tradition of exemplary leadership was continued by his wife Cheng I Sao, who assumed his position as leader of the confederation. Just as Cheng I had been the confederation's unifier, so did Cheng I Sao become its consolidator. Realizing that an association of several thousand individuals could not live from the chance capture of a few vessels at sea, she took measures to regularize its finances through the selling of protection to seafarers, no matter who they were employed by, along the entire coast. Such was the authority of this \"dragon lady\" of the South China Sea that when she spoke the men rushed to obey. Under", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211774, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "164\n\non the stage. At last Shanghai could boast a drama society that was footed on a regular basis, could give its fiftieth performance on April 18, 1876 (T.W. Robertson's School), its hundredth on March 22, 1893 (a local version of Lloyd Clarence's A Tale of Tell under the title The Tale of Tell Retold). The 150th performance went off in 1908 with James Matthew Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, and altogether the A.D.C. existed well into the 1930s.25\n\n27\n\n24\n\nIn the years preceding the A.D.C., theatrical seasons, and with it the companies, were organised annually, depending, it seems, on the interest shown by society and the availability of actors and managers. The very first amateur performances took place during the season 1849-1850,26 but no record has been left of them. In the following years more than once reference was made to a \"New Corps\" formed for the season, or that it had been \"but a few weeks since the present company had been embodied\".28 Under these circumstances it was by no means certain that the Shanghai public would be treated each winter to an evening of uncomplicated amusement. In its issue of November 27, 1852, the Herald stated that “if 'common report' be true we fear that the 'Dramatic Corps' (...) will be unable to continue their performance\" due to the \"absence from Shanghai of the 'Head and Front' of the original body, together with the retirement of some of its members\". This brought forward an outcry by a foreign lady (?) who donned herself with the name \"Phoebe Silverveil\": \"No theatricals? Dear Me! Mr. Editor, what are the ladies to do without them? The performances were so good (...) and we all enjoyed them so much!''; and then, quoting liberally the pieces of the past season (see Calendar), she ended: \"I have just put dear baby down for a minute to write these few lines as a gentle hint to the Corps; hoping that if the members are not quite Used Up, they will give us another merry Rendezvous at the Theatre and there is surely not such a Dragon amongst them as to say NO!\"29 As if this appeal were not enough, the editor added as an afterthought that this letter \"can hardly fail to have the effect of rousing the dormant energies of the heroes of the 'sock and buskin' to renewed exertions, to deserve the applause of their fair admirers. We doubt not they will take the hint\". In this way aspiring amateurs were cajoled into the formation of a new company which started its operations in January 1853 with Beckett's The Turned Head and Boucicault's Used Up. Some five years later, in January 1858, the Herald regretted that the Amateur Theatrical performances, so successful last year, have not as yet been reorganised during the present season and we think we speak with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211851, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 266, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "241\n\nAurora Floyd Burlesqued: W.B. Gill; 19.4.1865.\n\nThe Babes in the Wood: J.H. Byron; 17.4.1865.\n\nA Bachelor of Arts: P. Hardwicke; 10.2.1858, 8.5.1865. Betsey Baker; J.M. Morton; 23.3.1853.\n\nBinks the Bagman: J.S. Coyne; 8.10.1857.\n\nThe Birthday: T.J. Dibdin; 9.2.1858.\n\nBlack-eyed Susan: D.W. Jerrold; 28.3-5.4.1865.\n\nBombastes Furioso: W.B. Rhodes; 28.1.1851, 5.5.1858.\n\nThe Boots at the Swan: C. Selby; 14.12.1865.\n\nBox and Cox: J.M. Morton; 15.5.1854, 18.2.1857.\n\nThe Bride of Abydos: H.J. Byron; 22.10.-28.10.1864.\n\nBullrick at Kroll: N.N.; 28.3.1864.\n\nCamille: A. Dumas Jr; 27.3.1865.\n\nA Capital Match: J.M. Morton; 23.4.1857, 3.12.1864.\n\nCharles the Second: J.H. Payne; 16.3.1858.\n\nCinderella: H.J. Byron? T. Taylor?; 12.11.-18.11.1864, 28.4.1865. The Colleen Bawn: D. Boucicault; 25.4.1865.\n\nA Conjugal Lesson: H. Danvers; 26.3.1857.\n\nConrad and Medora: W. Brough; 12.E.-18.E.1864.\n\nCool as a Cucumber: M.W.B. Jerrold; 26.3.1857, 30.3.1864, 4.4.1864. Crinoline: R.B. Brough; March 1863; 16.3.1863, 1.4.1864.\n\nThe Daughter of the Regiment: E. Fitzball? 15.4.1865.\n\nA Dead Shot: J.B. Buckstone; 11.4.1865.\n\nThe Debut: N.N.; 1.4.1864.\n\nDelicate Ground: C. Dance; 13.2.1864.\n\nDiamond cut Diamond: W.H. Murray; 12.12.1850.\n\nDone on both sides: J.M. Morton; 10.2.1858.\n\nThe Dragon of Wantley: H. Carey & J.F. Lampe; 26.1.1852.\n\nDuck Hunting: J.S. Coyne; 30.3.1864, 4.4.1864,\n\nThe Dustman's Belle: C. Dance; 9.2.1858.\n\nFaint Heart never won Fair Lady: J.R. Planché; 8.10.-14.10.1864, 14.12.1865.\n\nA Fast Train! High Pressure!! Express!!!: J.M. Maddox; 8.3.1854.\n\nA Fearful Tragedy in the Seven Dials: C. Selby; 15.2.1860.\n\nFitzsmythe of Fitzsmythe Hall: J.M. Morton; 26.3.1863.\n\nThe Flowers of the Forest: J.B. Buckstone; 28.3.-5.4.1865. Fra Diavolo: H.J. Byron; 15.10.-21.10.1864.\n\nThe Frantic Husband: N.N.; 26.4.1865.\n\nThe Golden Farmer: J.C. Cross? B. Webster? 8.10.1857,\n\nA Good Night's Rest: C.G.F. Gore; 21.2.1856.\n\nThe Goose with the Golden Eggs: A. Mayhew & H. Sutherland; 13.2.1863, 17.2.1863, 26.4.1865\n\nThe Governess (Die Gouvernante): T. Körner; 28.3.1864.\n\nGrimshaw, Bagshaw and Bradshaw: J.M. Morton: 2.6.1859.\n\nThe 'Green' Bushes: H.J Byron: 30.9.1865.\n\nA Hard Struggle: J.W. Marston; 12.11.-18.11.1864.\n\nThe Harvest Home: A.F.F. von Kotzebue; 28.3.1864.\n\nThe Haunted Inn: R.B. Peake; 6.5.1852.\n\nThe Heir at Law: G. Colman the Younger; 21.4.1851.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211955, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 370, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "345\n\nlevel. The rest of the group (on the middle level) included a scene from the story of the Baishe Zhuan, the legend of the love between a snake-turned beauty and a virtuous scholar. The episode represented was that of the monk exercising his supernatural power to kill the lady, so as to free the scholar from the seduction of the demon. The other group bore the sign Wudan Shan, at once one of the famous mountains of China and a well-known place for Taoism. The top level of the group included the Jade Emperor. On the lower levels of these two groups were a temple, runners escorting a sedan chair, and the scene of the Eight Immortals Turning the Sea Upside Down.\n\n51\n\nDecorated with embroidery hangings, the Taoist altar had at its centre portraits of the Three Pure Ones and on either side the Heavenly Master and Taai-Yut Jan-Yan. Further from the centre were portraits of four minor “generals\", named “dragon\", \"tiger\", \"fire\" and \"water\". On the inner walls of the partitions hung pictures of the ten Kings of the Underworld. There was also a backroom to the altar, where the priests stayed between rites. Hanging in this room was an umbrella-shaped object with many charms trailing from it. There were, a priest told me, 28 in all, one for each of the 28 sau constellations. It was called the luo-tian, which meant, he said, the same as xian-tian, the Taoist primordial heaven.\" In the room was a temporary altar set up for the Three Pure Ones, plus a place with two red slips of paper saying \"May Tao be popular with people\" and “Good Luck in the rites\".\n\n52\n\nOn the day before the seven-day period of rites, the villagers decorated the room for their own gu in the main paang. Before each of the rooms stood a Luk Gwok flag, which was the same as the flag used in the Cantonese opera of the same name to announce the identity of a player; and a lo-gu ga; i.e. “drum and gong holder\". Hanging from the top of the opening were mechanical \"hanging puppets\". Inside near the front was a heung-on incense burner set of the siu-cheng type. The tables inside were decorated by toi-wai embroidery that hung from the edges. Hanging from the \"ceiling\" were similar pieces of embroidery known as waang-mei.\n\nSome of the villages put on displays in these rooms of relics of their illustrious ancestors. In the room for Shui Mei was the screen presented to Dang Git-Sau by relatives and friends to congratulate him on the occasion of his 61st birthday, which I mentioned previously. In the room for Wing Lung Wai was a series of scrolls presented in 1919 to celebrate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212166, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "85\n\nfather who had owned the land on which the temple stood had consulted the deities and found that his daughter had been deified. He had an image of her carved and placed on the altar. This was transferred some time during the mid 1960s to another small shrine within the same temple and again her image stood alone but this time she had under her shrine a cardboard box which contained, according to the temple keeper, an embalmed parrot. The elderly nun claimed that it was Miss Liu's pet. The image and parrot remained until 1983 when the temple was refurbished and the image disappeared for a while. In 1986 it reappeared on the family altar in the rear of the large Buddhist temple next door, dedicated to the Liu family. Her image was now draped in red silken robes and somewhat strangely was labelled Miss Lin. She still held the miniature handbags but the parrot was nowhere to be seen, and the temple staff denied ever having seen or heard of a stuffed parrot. They confirmed that her name was Lin and not Liu but were unable to say why she was now on the Liu family altar in the Buddhist temple. And there she remains, last noted in 1989 still on the Liu family altar.\n\nA cult, that of 'the Prince descended from the Dragon', Lung-shih T'ai-tzu, was established in the mid-1960s in the northern suburbs of Kowloon before being transferred to Lo Wai above Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. It is a piggy-back cult dependent upon the local Cantonese major cult of the Dragon Mother, Lung Mu. The story begins with a boy, Huang Hsin-tsai, born in Shamshuipo, Kowloon, in 1949, the son of refugees from Canton. His parents died soon after they arrived in the Colony leaving him in the hands of the lady who now runs the new cult temple. In 1960 the youth, now 11 and still living with the lady in Shamshuipo, fell ill with swollen legs and abdomen. She nursed him carefully back to health but in 1962 he was thought to have eaten something which did not agree with him and, despite a visit to the Wong Tai Sin Temple, he died. Accused by her neighbours of neglecting the youth she was exonerated by him when he appeared to her in a dream to explain that he was now the stepson of the major deity, Lung Mu, and had the power to cure on her behalf. Once a year thereafter he provided the lady with a large basin of very tiny pills for her to distribute to cure people's ills; he also appeared to her in dreams to help solve difficult problems put to her by devotees. The lady, now the temple keeper, has a number of elderly ladies to help run the corrugated iron and brick temple which she has had built near his grave.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212382, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 324, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "301\n\nThese images, occasionally called 'Household Spirits' (Chia-shen ) by the carver, can be ordered by parents even if their son or daughter who is suffering from an unidentifiable ailment is mature, living away from home, and does not believe or wish to be involved.\n\nThe god carver explained that the image remained on the family altar until removed, usually because the individual concerned is no longer alive, when it is normally incinerated. However, there are times when an elderly lady does not wish to burn an image and, being unsure what to do with it, presents it to a temple with a fee, where it remains on the crowded 'mixed altar' (Lieh T'an ) and receives its share of public reverence and incense.\n\nIn theory, the god carver explained, these images can portray humans in many forms. Also in theory, in a previous incarnation the present human may have been an animal or an insect, though this is very unlikely and he had never heard of a case. In practice, all were Chinese humans in previous incarnations and the majority identified as generals or marshals, senior graduates, mandarins, and ladies of rank. The carver raised an eyebrow and added that it was not for him to question the word of the spirit mediums. Many of the ladies who come to him with their 'prescription' for an image would appear to have been male in a previous life, and it is very rare for a man to have been a female in his previous incarnation.\n\nImages usually consist of either a seated lady or man with a number of 'unique' characteristics. The standard lady is a dowager with a heavily decorated hat and robe, and a crane under each of her feet. Some hold a scroll, a fly switch, a cup or bowl, or a gourd, whilst others simply hold their belt with one hand and rest their other hand on the arm of their 'dragon throne'. Male images vary from the scholar to the soldier, portraying them sitting on a 'dragon throne' and holding a scroll, seal, bowl, flag, or a tablet. Generals and Marshals, very occasionally portrayed seated astride a horse, have their battery of four or five triangular coloured flags in a rack across their backs indicating their military rank, but only rarely are they depicted with a weapon. Usually, the seated male has a lion, dog, or stylised creature, one under each foot, whereas the female, on rare occasions, might have frogs rather than cranes under hers.\n\nKEITH STEVENS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 } ]