[
    {
        "id": 204842,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1964",
        "page_number": 145,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "120\n\nFORKE'S TRANSLATION OF THE LUN HENG'\n\nReviewed by D. LESLIE2\n\nThe Lun Heng\n\nof about A.D. 85, is the work of Wang Ch'ung £ (c. A.D. 27-96), one of the most original thinkers of Han China.\n\nMany, including Hu Shih and most western scholars, have praised his critical ability. In fact, this praise is not entirely justified. Wang Ch'ung, in this respect, falls far short of the Chou Confucian philosopher Hsüntzu (also Chuangtzu and Hanfeitzu). Han philosophy is generally considered to lack the originality of the classical Chou philosophers, and Wang Ch'ung, as Fung Yu-lan points out, was a child of his time. The most we can say is that he rises head and shoulders above his Han contemporaries in his critical abilities.\n\nIt is true that Wang Ch'ung demands proofs and verification by experience at all stages in his arguments, but his idea of proof and experience is insufficiently empirical. He does not seek out the facts. He believes some of the weirdest stories (that Duke Ai was changed into a tiger; that Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, was twenty months in the womb; that hares give birth via the mouth). As Marcel Granet has expressed it (in his La Pensée Chinoise, 1934, p. 580), \"son scepticisme a quelque chose de livresque\".\n\nWang Ch'ung's criticism is always based on pre-conceived postulates. Rather than reject the superstitions of his time, he merely reinterprets them in accordance with these postulates. Herein lies both his strength and his weakness. A good example is his denial (in his chapter 15 and elsewhere) of the many supernatural births accepted by his contemporaries. For, together with this denial, he accepts the factual truth of all the omens that accompanied these supernatural births. Omens, such as signs in the sky or lines in the hand (the Lun Heng incidentally gives the earliest extant reference to palmistry in China), the appearance of weird animals and plants, all mark, he believes, the rise and\n\n1 Lun-Hêng. By Alfred Forke. Paragon Book Gallery, New York, 1962. Pt. I, iv+577; Pt. II, vi+536. U.S.$20.00,\n\n2 D. Leslic is a Research Fellow in the Department of Far Eastern History, Australian National University, Canberra,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206644,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1972",
        "page_number": 192,
        "title": "RAS-1972",
        "content_text": "186\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nfeatures, but as with all Chinese images there are local variations of which two major ones observed have been:\n\na. A shiny black Fa Chu Kung with six arms and standing barefoot, holding in his six arms:\n\n(1) a sword held in each of three of them,\n\n(2) a scimitar in one,\n\n(3) a magic ring in one (this is identical to the bracelet of San T'ai Tzu),\n\n(4) the sixth has a hand making the magical sign described above.\n\nHe is dressed in flowing golden robes, and has a small snake entwined around the arm with the hand making the magical sign. (Plate 25)\n\nb. A Ch'ao Chow style carving of Fa Chu Kung has two pillars protruding from the base on either side of his body reaching to his waist height, making two \"side table\" tops on either side of him. On one side, on the \"table top\", stands a vase and on the other stands a bowl. Otherwise he is exactly as described in the basic description.\n\nThe images most likely to be confused with Fa Chu Kung are those of his two brothers which apart from the colour of their faces are identical to his. They have never been observed on an altar without him.* Also possibly confused with Fa Chu Kung is T'ai P'ao or Sha Ho Shang who is described at the end of this article.\n\nTitles\n\nFa Chu Kung is known by various names or titles than by his best known title of Fa Chu Kung. According to Fukien temple keepers, Fa Chu Kung means the Controlling Duke. There is, however, a Buddhist term, Fa Chu, for the Lord of the Dharma, which is the Buddha himself. It is unlikely that this is the origin of Fa Chu Kung's title, even though several informants have suggested that, as he is black, he was an Indian and was formerly a trader from India. The various titles and names by which he is referred to, are:\n\na. Fa Chu Sheng Chün 法主聖君\n\nTitle given in Mutseh near Taipei to the group of the three brothers, all to be seen on one\n\n* See Plate 26. A Fukienese god-carver's sketch of Fa Chu Kung is at Plate 27.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208336,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 60,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "44 \n\nKEITH STEVENS \n\n1871) offered sacrifices at the City God temple and reported, in writing, that he and the whole family with gratitude had made an image of the Duke Wei which he presented to undergo the rite of consecration, so that it would protect all members of his family and all his domestic animals and poultry. The image is of a seated soldier, dressed in armour and military cap, his right hand is clenched and rests on his right knee. His left hand, the first and fifth fingers only, pointing vertically, is held at waist height in a magical sign. Wei had a gilded face, traces of which can still be seen, five tufts of black beard, the stubble only remaining and gilt armour covered by a red and blue robe again only traces of which are still visible. This image was blackest and greasiest of all and is quite surprisingly handsome now that the film of filth has been removed. Wei could possibly be Yu-ch'ih Ching-te (*), the Door Guardian who according to Mathews' dictionary is well-known as one of the two door guardians on temples and is “depicted with a black face and the fingers of one hand twisted up\". The image, dressed in loose robes over armour and chain mail, has a gilded face but otherwise, has his fingers twisted up. In reality Yu-ch’ih was a general who served the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung in his wars against rebels and died in 659 A.D. \n\nThe fourth image (Plate 5), also from Shan Men district, Wu Kang county in Hunan and dedicated in 1938 is of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. The image, easily identifiable as such by her five-leafed bodhisattva crown, beads and vase, is seated cross-legged on a lotus, and dressed in gilded robes, The slip of paper in Kuan Yin's back relates that Petitioner and worshipper Mrs. Yin Wu-chi together with her five sons, four daughters-in-law, and one grandchild, on the 21st of the 6th moon of the 27th year of the Chinese Republic (18th July 1938) offered sacrifices to the Earth God at the City God temple in Lao Chai, presented and installed a new image of Kuan Yin. This has been done, the slip said, so that this Buddhist deity can be resorted to in her natural form and can kindly bestow good luck and eternal protection and prosperity on the Yin family and its future generations. In words of glowing praise, the petitioner described the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the soul, the gall, the eyes, teeth, the bones, the bowels and the spirit of Kuan Yin, as 'the liver of a green dragon', 'lungs of a white tiger', ‘kidneys \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211667,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 82,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "57\n\nThe third non-pestilence Wang Yeh is Sui Chia Wang Yeh (隨駕王爺). This Wang Yeh whose title means 'Following the Imperial Carriage' was the general-in-charge of the royal guards during a legendary visit to Taiwan by the Chinese crown prince, later to be the Ch'ing emperor Chia Ch'ing in about 1690. Images of the general Li Yung, and his deputy Wang Fa, stand on the altar of a temple in Nantou in Central Taiwan. The crown prince received reports of a plot by the Hsiao family, so legend claims, who in conjunction with a hill tribe planned to assassinate him, Li Yung attacked the Hsiaos and although he was killed during the battle the Hsiaos were forced to retreat and the crown prince was saved.\n\nSo much for legend. According to historical records, in 1721 Chu Yi-kui rose against the Ch'ing dynasty in Taiwan to restore the Ming, and Li Yung was appointed Duke by Chu. Both Li and Chu were defeated and captured by the Ch'ing forces and executed in Amoy. The probability is that the temple, which was erected in 1899, just after the occupation of Taiwan by the Japanese, was erected to commemorate Li Yung's, and by extension the people's opposition to foreign (in Li's case, Manchu and in the people's, Japanese) occupation of Taiwan.\n\nA fourth example of a non-pestilence Wang Yeh, but from central Taiwan this time rather than the south, is Su Fu Wang Yeh (蘇府王爺), a Tang dynasty official now better known as General Su.\n\nIn the early days of its development Quemoy (Chinmen) was repeatedly attacked by pirates. Due to the superhuman bravery of General Su they were defeated and Quemoy was pacified. He, Su Yung-sheng (蘇永盛) to give him his full name, and Ch'en Yuan, the Horse Breeding Duke, another official serving T'ang T'ai Tsung, worked together to develop the area.\n\nThe pirates called Su Yung-sheng 'Su Ta Wang' (The Great Lord Su 蘇大王). In his twilight years Su was transferred on promotion to the mainland where he was appointed a Wang Yeh.\n\nAfter he died a temple was built in his honour in which he was revered together with four of his subordinates, Chiu (邱), Liang (梁), Ch'in (秦), and Ts'ai (蔡), who were honoured with the honorific of Ch'ien Sui (Excellencies). \n\nA major temple, the Chinmen Kuan, in Lukang on the west coast of",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    }
]