[
    {
        "id": 204309,
        "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-1961",
        "page_number": 77,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n73\n\ncalled \"Umbrella of Noumenon and Unity\" (hun-yüan san A) which is decorated with emeralds and precious pearls of divine power which are threaded together to form the words: \"to pack up the universe.\" When this umbrella is opened, heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, will be covered up by darkness, and when it is rolled the world will be shaken. Mo Li-hai carries a spear and on his back there is a four-stringed guitar (p'i-p'a) which will produce the same effect as the \"Blue Cloud Sword\" when played on and the four strings correspond to earth, water, fire and wind. Mo Li-shou carries two whips and a bag in which is concealed a peculiar creature resembling a rat, hua hu-tiao (the striped marten). When hurled into the air this creature will assume the shape of an elephant with wings from its ribs and will devour every one.\n\nThe combat between these four brothers and the heroes from the camp of King Wu can be found in Chs.39-41 of the novel. They are engaged in mortal combat with the Li brothers, Chin-cha, Mu-cha and No-cha in Ch.40. If the reader knows that Li Ching, the fabulous father of these three Li brothers is in fact derived from one of these four heavenly kings, Vaisravana, the ingenuity of the author of this novel can be appreciated, because before the publication of this novel, in many other works Vaisravana and the Chinese god Li Ching, based on the historical hero so named of the Tang dynasty, had long been amalgamated and formed a single name, P'i-sha-mên t'ien-wang Li Ching (Vaisravana or Li Ching, the Heavenly King of Vaisravana). The Chinese transliteration from the Sanskrit \"Vaisravana\" since the T'ang dynasty has been Pi-sha-mên (R), the last character of which, mên, though senseless in this connection, normally means \"gate\". Thus, in popular literature, the term P'i-sha-mên lost its original meaning and became the name of the P'i-sha Gate, and it was therefore natural enough to have a heavenly general, like Li Ching, to take charge of it, though in English this may appear peculiar.\n\n* In Yang Ching-hsien's (MRK) play T'ang San-tsang Hsi-t'ien Ch’ü-ching (EXRE), Scene 9, we read \"P'i-sha-mên hsia Li Tien-wang\" (TX) which means the Heavenly King Li under the P'i-sha Gate. In the prompt-book Ch'i-kuo Ch'un-ch'iu P'ing-hua ta (TH), chüan 3, we have \"P'i-sha-mên To-t'a Li T'ien-wang\" (*XE) or P'i-sha-mên, the Heavenly King Li who holds in his hand a pagoda. Sometimes the story-tellers thought since there was a P'i-sha mên (gate), it was wise to create a palace, called P'i-sha Kung (CE W D). In the Nan-yüeh-chi, Ch. 11, we have \"P'i-sha Kung Li Ching Tien-wang\" (K*XE). In a long eulogistic poem in Ch. 12 of the Feng-shen, there is a palace in heaven called K'un-sha Kung (R V E) which is obviously an erratum.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204313,
        "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-1961",
        "page_number": 81,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n77\n\nprobably the pagoda was a mistake for the parasol originally held by Vaisravana, as stated in the Ekottarik-agamas (增一含經):\n\nThe heavenly king Vaisravana held in his hand a parasol of the seven treasures (七寶) over the Tathagata in the air to protect the Tathagata from dust and soil,15\n\nBut since the circulation of the Tantric sutras was more or less encouraged by the authorities in the Tang dynasty, the public accepted that legend without scepticism.\" According to a Tantric text, Nata (No-cha 哪吒) is the third son of Vaisravana, who attends his father and holds the pagoda with both hands. But on the twenty-first day of every month, when the son is charged to go on some mission, so that they have to separate, Nata gives the pagoda to his father. This is not at all a thrilling story and there is no combat. The author of the Fêng-shên Yen-i created his own story of No-cha, the third son of Li Ching, based upon his profound knowledge of religious beliefs and popular literature, and made No-cha one of the famous heroes in Chinese literature. In order to analyse the parts which are the creative work of the author and to explain from what sources some of his materials may have been taken, I divide the story of No-cha into several sections below.\n\n2. MU-CHA AND CHIN-CHA\n\nBefore the publication of the novel Feng-shên Yen-i and the prompt-book Ssu-yu-chi, No-cha's (哪吒) name was usually Na-cha (那吒) in many of the plays of the Yüan dynasty which preserved the original transliteration found in the Tantric sutras.17 In the Hsi-yu-chi (Ch.7), one of the \"Four Travels\", the second\n\nHi To P'in (TPE), 30, Ekottarikagamas, chian 22, The Tripitaka in Chinese.\n\n10 In the year A.D. 838 (3rd year of K'ai Chiêng), on the 15th day of the 12th month, Lu Hung-chêng (盧弘正) wrote an inscription for the image of Vaisravana in the Hsing-t'ang Monastery (興唐寺) describing him as \"having a sabre in his right hand, and in the left hand a pagoda.\" cf. Ku-chin T'u-shu Chi-ch'êng, Shên-I Tien, chian 91.\n\n27 In Yang Ching-hsien's Yang San-tsang Hsi-tien Ch'ü-ching, Scene 8, “Nacha San Tai-tzu\" (哪吒三太子); anonymous play Menglich Na-cha San Pien-hua (孟麗哪吒三變換) in the Ku-pên Yüan Ming Tsa-chü\n\n*Z9M) edited by Wang Chi-lieh (王季烈), Shanghai, Commercial Press Ltd., 1941; anonymous play Ting-ting Tang-tang P’ên-êrh-kuei (丁丁當當甕兒鬼), Act 1, \"Hê-lien Na-cha\" (黑面哪吒), Act 2, \"Na-cha Fa\" (哪吒法), the last two are influenced by Tantric works. Besides, Na-cha (哪吒) appears in many plays of the Yuan dynasty, not to mention the tune called Nacha Ling (哪吒令).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204349,
        "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-1961",
        "page_number": 117,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n113\n\nthe Education Department and are under constant government supervision; that there must be an average of 1.2 teachers per class at primary level and 1.4 at secondary level (the standard class numbering 45 and 40 pupils respectively); that at the secondary level entrance requirements are controlled; and all of each graduating class must sit for the School-leaving Certificate examinations. It is an impressive fact that Buddhist groups have been able to meet such standards and that at present more Buddhist schools with space for 3,000 pupils are in the planning stage. As to the other Buddhist welfare enterprises (homes for the aged and orphanages), their operation too is considered satisfactory by local standards. Though they are not legally subject to inspection or supervision by the Social Welfare Department, representatives of the Department visit them from time to time and make suggestions that are usually readily accepted.\n\nIn appraising Buddhist educational and welfare enterprises, it should be remembered that nearly all of them are comparatively new. A tradition of quality in this kind of work takes many years to build. Buddhist schools in particular have been handicapped by the superior drawing power of competing institutions. For example, Roman Catholic schools, with their long record of success, can turn away a number of applicants for every one they accept. Buddhist schools do not yet enjoy the same prestige (partly because they are indigenous rather than Western) and hence they cannot pick and choose their pupils to the same degree. From another point of view, it may be one of their merits that they do provide education for those who would otherwise find it hard to get.\n\nThe principal religious role of Buddhist organisations in Hong Kong is to provide funeral ceremonies and care for the souls of the dead. Thus the Hong Kong Buddhist Association holds a public service for the souls of the dead every Remembrance Day at the Tung Lin Kok Yuen. In January 1960, the Hong Kong Jockey Club after a series of mishaps during the racing season, in the last of which a prominent jockey had been killed (the fourth since the war), invited the Buddhist Association to arrange for appropriate rites of exorcism. For three days and four nights some 68 monks and 44 nuns performed elaborate ceremonies at altars set up on the Club's premises. They prayed continuously in teams, not only for the repose of the souls of the jockeys, but also for those of the 2,000 persons who lost their lives in the grandstand fire of 1918, and for any other souls whose welfare was brought to their attention by relatives. According to the local press, some 40,000 persons attended. Though this was the first time such an event had taken place at the Jockey Club,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204448,
        "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-1962",
        "page_number": 80,
        "title": "RAS-1962",
        "content_text": "CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE\n\n69\n\nTable II lists the numbers of people in each ethnic group distributed by provinces in south and central China. In brief, the T'ai-related groups lead with some 10 million people at present. They are followed by the Tibeto-Burman related group with some 8.4 million, followed by the Miao-Yao related group with about 3.4 million. The greatest concentration of minorities in any one group is among the Chuang in the Tai group. The Chuang live in a compact body numbering some seven million in Kwangsi. The Miao, however, are the most widely distributed of all ethnic groups, being found in significant numbers in every province of south and central China except Kiangsi, although their chief strength is in Kweichow. Yunnan, by all odds, is the most complex province ethnically. Of the 30 national minorities listed by the Census for 1953, some twenty-four are found in Yunnan. This Census apparently may need considerable revision when the minorities are scrutinized more closely. Thus, it listed only 90,000 so-called T'u-chia, which was proclaimed to be a newly discovered ethnic group hitherto confused with Han Chinese and Miao because of their degrees of acculturation. A personal check by Fang Jen revealed over 300,000, and a still more detailed check in subsequent years disclosed that actually these were 549,000 that should be so classified and, from their original cultural traits, they belonged in the Yi-related group. They occupy an area in northwest Hunan.\n\n44\n\nThe Yi comprise so many sub-groups under different names (there are 40 sub-tribes in Yunnan alone) that confusion is understandable. In northwest Yunnan such sub-groups of the Yi as the Na-khi or Na-hsi and Li-su live in the region between the great bends of the Chin-sha river and the Burma border. In the western part of this region are the Nu, Tu-lung, and Ching-p'o, occupying parts of the Salween and Mekong drainage of north Yunnan. Farther south in the drainages of these rivers are the related La-hu and A-ch'ang. The Pai people, in a solid bloc on the plain of Erh Hai (Lake Erh), have been thought by some writers, including this one, to be a T'ai-related people, but are listed by Bruk as a Yi sub-group. In the west bank region of the Red river of Yunnan are the sub-group known as the Han-yi. The Yi proper are scattered over the three southwestern provinces,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204762,
        "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": 65,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "54 \n\nK. M. A. BARNETT \n\npreviously described, no longer carries water, and part of which is still used to supply irrigation water to a village. The ancient grave at Lo-A-Tsai on Lamma Island is made of similar stones; and I am inclined to associate also with these people a number of high standing stones, some of which are still cult objects, of which one stands above Bowen Road, another overlooking Sha Tin115 is known to Europeans by the unnecessarily sneering name of the \"Amah Rock\". A stone of this type, standing above a rock pool which looks as though it had been artificially enlarged and made circular, stands between the deserted village of Pak Koks at the south-western tip of Shek Pik Bay128 and the new village to which the ancient Fung2 clan of Fan Puisi were moved to make room for the Shek Pik Reservoir. Another overlooks Long Harbour, and about this one there is some mystery, since every year at approximately the date of the Mid-Autumn Festival a considerable number of women can be seen flocking up the hill to this stone, but all villages within walking distance flatly deny knowledge of any such celebration. This is at best negative evidence, and may not indicate the persistence of a pre-Chinese tradition; for a similar reticence regarding religious celebrations by women is observed at the great Nu-kwa102 temple on Honam Island154 \n\nopposite Canton, which men are seldom allowed to visit. I am trying to plot the positions of all these stone works and believe that when the list is finished, it will arrange itself into three circuits on Lantao Island, one on Lamma Island, two on Hong Kong Island, two on the Saikung126 Peninsula and three or four in the rest of the New Territories. This work might well be taken in hand by someone younger, but it must be someone who is fond of walking; and walkers have a peculiar blind spot when it comes to the collection of this kind of evidence, for I have often had to draw the attention of my walking companions even to the most obvious systems of stone walls which they have been walking right past, or even over, without noticing. The Lo-A-Tsai grave is situated close by a path and the first time I passed it, in the company of five villagers, I asked them what it was though most of them used that path nearly every day, none had ever before noticed the grave! \n\nA piece which is of vital importance and may indeed be what holds the rest of our jigsaw puzzle together is the correct identification of occupied sites on the seashore. There are many",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205218,
        "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": 174,
        "title": "RAS-1966",
        "content_text": "168\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nmeasure were then recorded and the tau chung for these districts was calculated at ten to the acre. With tenant farmers in these villages paying about the same tenant rentals as the rest of the New Territories the enhanced value of agricultural land to the owners in this section was considerable.\n\nA curious method of land measurement called tam shui, which can be related to the tau chung in the manner described below, is conducted at Cheung Chau, an island about four miles by ferry from Hong Kong. Tam shui means \"carry water\". Here, the farmer measures his land by the amount of water needed to water his crops morning and evening. The island is dry and wells are dug which yield a good supply of water for cultivation purposes. This prevents padi being grown but allows general vegetable crops. The method used by the farmer is to have two wooden buckets suspended on a yoke across his shoulders. Each bucket holds about five gallons of water and has a rose at the end of the spout similar to the English watering can. He trots to his pool, presses the buckets into the water until full, trots out to his vegetable patch and waters his vegetables as he walks along. By the time he has completed thirty trips backwards and forwards, using sixty buckets of water he has then completed watering one tau chung of land. Tenant rentals are fixed on this basis.3\n\nKuk (穀)\n\nKuk is the Cantonese word for unhusked rice. It is also the medium through which tenant rentals are fixed.\n\nLandowners and tenants usually agree to conclude a contract at Chinese New Year when most of the fields are lying fallow. Land leases or short contracts are then entered into which are operative after Chinese New Year. The rent is tied to kuk (unhusked rice) and the price it fetches in the open market after harvesting. The rate usually quoted is about half the annual production of the field, so that the tenant gets half the value. For example, if a field of one tau chung can produce four piculs of rice per crop twice a year then the rent payable is the value of two piculs of rice of the first crop and the value of two piculs of rice of the second crop, as calculated at the open market price after harvesting.\n\nBotanically, rice is considered to be a tropical or subtropical",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206009,
        "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-1970",
        "page_number": 89,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "84 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\ncame from cholera and fire, and not from revolt. It was generally believed that the Chinese were more able to look after themselves than the Indians. \n\nOne of the greatest tragedies in Chinese emigration befell the American clipper Flora Temple in 1859. The Flora Temple left Macao for Havana with 850 passengers, who were rebellious from the very start of the passage. Although they were unsuccessful in breaking out of the holds, they killed one of the crew who fell into their clutches. The ship ran into bad weather four days out from Macao, and was unable to take accurate sights. Two days later she ran on a reef off the coast of Indo-China. It was apparent that she would soon break up, so the captain and crew launched and provisioned the two lifeboats, and abandoned the ship and passengers. After a rough passage the captain and one of the lifeboats reached the coast near Touron twelve days later, but nothing was heard of the other lifeboat. A French naval ship was sent to rescue the deserted coolies and search for the missing lifeboat. When they arrived at the scene of the wreck, however, all they could find was a few planks of the Flora Temple, but no trace of the passengers or other lifeboat. \n\nAnother tragedy, but on a smaller scale, befell the British barque Sophia Fraser when taking emigrants from Amoy to Penang. The Sophia Fraser ran into a typhoon three days out of Amoy, and during the pandemonium which broke out among the coolies confined in the 'tween decks thirty-five died. The subsequent enquiry revealed that only four of the deaths were due to natural causes, the rest having been killed in the senseless fight caused by panic. This bears some resemblance to the central incident in Conrad's novel \"Typhoon\", as the burning of the Shah Jehan in the Indian coolie trade resembles the central incident in \"Lord Jim\". \n\nWhat appeared at the time to be one of the major tragedies in the history of Chinese emigration concerned the French ship St. Paul in 1858, when taking 327 indentured labourers from Hong Kong to the Australian gold fields. The St. Paul ran on a reef off Rossel Island, a small island lying to the east of the New Guinea islands, and the captain and eight of the crew were picked up fifteen days later by the British schooner Prince of Denmark. After an inexplicable delay of two months they were put ashore",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206638,
        "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": 186,
        "title": "RAS-1972",
        "content_text": "180\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nIf the image of T'ai Sui wears shoes, claimed a Fukienese temple keeper, a drought is presaged, and if without, floods are expected; but if one foot is shod and the other is bare, then balanced weather will be the lot of the region. Images of T'ai Sui with one bare foot have been seen in temples in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.\n\nVariations from the basic characteristics\n\nThe youth holding a scroll or plaque of split bamboo is depicted seated, except in a very few sightings where he stands. In the sixty-year cycle of Chinese deities, each year is ruled by a particular image of that year, who is called the “T'ai Sui of the present year\" and the scroll has one of the following inscriptions on it:\n\nTang Nien T'ai Sui (††★★). Liu Nien T'ai Sui (*) Chih Nien T'ai Sui (††✯✯) or Chia Nien T'ai Sui (P‡★A)\n\nYin Ch'iao as a fierce general often has three eyes and six arms, wears armour, and a Taoist crown on a bald head, and has fierce, almost vertical, eyebrows. He holds in five of his hands two discs, one with the character for the sun and the other with the character for the moon, a large ring, a fly whisk, whilst his sixth hand rests on his left knee.\n\nIn Foochow, in the temple of the City Guardian, one of the side altars was devoted to T'ai Sui. His image was dressed in yellow garments, he had a black beard and a necklace of skulls about his hand. The skull necklace, according to Hodous, is a symbol of his authority over the lives of men. Beside him on his left is a trio of small images a foot high representing the present year, last year and next year. Also on either side of him, are the twelve images representing the twelve months or branches and pictures of the twenty-four seasons.\n\nIn only two sightings, one in Penang and one in Singapore, had he a blue face, fierce fangs, was standing, dressed in armour, and carried a mace in each of his hands. One of these images of T'ai Sui, labelled the Great Year of the Moon (A) was one of the twenty-four Celestial Generals (A) who range down each side of some temples. (Plate 17)",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206804,
        "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-1973",
        "page_number": 81,
        "title": "RAS-1973",
        "content_text": "SWATOW HORIZONTAL STICK PUPPETS\n\n75\n\nto be attached to the back of a puppet general and the like. There was also a wooden trunk containing about 30 puppet-bodies.\n\nThe orchestra sat on the backstage floor. The band-leader had a set of drums and a clapper. There were two pairs of gongs, two sonas and a pair of two-stringed violins. There were also two female singers with the orchestra. The whole troupe comprised 12 persons and was paid H.K.$2,500 to perform one hour in the afternoon and a full Opera for four hours in the evening.\n\nBefore the performance started, the puppets were taken out of the trunk, a stick was attached to each hand and the headless bodies were hung on a string at the joint of stick and hand back-stage (Plate V). The left puppeteer was obviously the technician. He adjusted the head on the puppet with glue (UHU), fastened the headgear, bent the wires of the hand around a sword or a halbard, hooked the leading rod into the back and led it onto the stage. While fighting the puppet often loses its head or its sword, but it is quickly repaired and the action continues. The puppeteer guides the right arm with his right hand, left hand and back-stick with his left hand. This technique gives the largest range of movements. If a general has to show his strength by leg movements, the puppeteer transfers the three sticks into his left hand and moves the legs with a fourth stick. The scene is often suddenly tumultuous when whole armies appear. The puppeteer then holds nine sticks of three puppets in each hand. But it poses a great technical problem to let them pass each other or one group another. (Plate VI) It is difficult to keep them standing on the floor, and when not in action they hang in midair (Plate VII). The puppets cannot walk, they fly over the stage (Plate VI). They can easily kneel down but often uncontrollably spread their legs. After its appearance the puppet's back-stick is taken off, its head is put back into the drawer and its body is hung on the string.\n\nThe puppet itself is tiny, about 10 inches high. Its body is a carved wooden torso, to which two-jointed legs of wire or wood are attached. The arms are stuffed like sausages with a bend at the elbow, altogether too soft to be well controlled. The costume is very detailed, including the shoes, and cannot be taken off. Only the heads can be exchanged. These heads complete with hairdo are made of clay and painted. Their features resemble the old, small, delicate, glove puppet heads of Fukien.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207314,
        "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": 82,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "74\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nback of the stage (military and civil hats should be separated, so that those who wear them will not fight with each other!). The costumes are all taken to the left back corner and the other trunks which contain the dressing-tables of the lead-actors (one character of their name is painted on the trunk) are placed wherever space is left. There is one old man in charge to look after the patron-deity of the troupe. He will place the shrine in the middle of the back-stage against the back-wall. The rolled up carpet is taken to the stage.\n\nAll this preparatory work is done in complete silence, everyone is afraid lest their name should be uttered before the ceremonial (P'o-t'ai k'ai-lo “breaking of the stage and opening the gongs\") otherwise they would be unlucky. If one would name an actor, evil spirits not yet cleared from the stage would get hold of him, and during the performance this actor would slip or forget his text, or he would be unable to sing in tune or otherwise damage the success of the presentation.\n\nIn the right back corner of the backstage a space is subdivided for a latrine which is not to be used before the p'o-t'ai ceremony. No outsider is allowed on stage and backstage before the ceremony as they have no knowledge of the strict rules that govern the preparations for a performance. In the afternoon between 3 and 6 o'clock everything is ready for the p'o-t'ai ceremony. All the actors of the troupe are assembled, and all the percussionists sit at their drums and gongs on the left side of the stage.\n\nTwo actors of the troupe who are especially trained for this ceremony go out on the stage and stick a coloured strip of paper-money to the four corners of the stage. Then one of them seizes an enormous trident-fork and the other a live cock, which has been especially chosen for its high comb. The one who holds the cock then bites into the cock's comb until it bleeds. He rushes to the four corners of the stage and, holding the cock's head in one hand, he smears blood on the paper-money he stuck there before. And then they both run madly from the left stage entrance to the front of the stage, from there out through the right exit of the stage, rushing through the backstage to the left entrance of the stage. They then cross the stage to the right side where the string and wind instruments of the orchestra are positioned and then back to the left side, where throughout this ceremony all available percussions are beaten in a frantic rhythm. During this mad rush blood",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208065,
        "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": 104,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "88 \n\nK. G. STEVENS \n\nof a better place. In most temples he stands slightly off to one side from the middle of the Under Altar behind the incense pot. The same God Carver explained that the other, similar image in the Under Altar, is the Black and White Demon (). He too is standing, dressed in sackcloth and has his tongue protruding. He has a black face, the same four characters down the front of his dunce's cap. He too, holds the wand with its tattered decoration which he uses to lead souls safely into the Afterworld and before the Judges of Purgatory. He is sometimes known as \"The one who leads the souls\" (). The usual image, the Local Wealth God who is occasionally known as the Filial son (#7) according to the Macanese carver, is taller, stands in sackcloth, but with a white face and wearing a dunce's cap without characters.\n\nThis statement by a man who is at the heart of image making and whose other statements have been well borne out by temple keepers in both Hong Kong and Macau, has thrown a cat amongst the pigeons, as a careful examination of Under Altars reveals that very few images have black faces or characterless caps. All, with and without characters and with black or white faces, are referred to without exception by the individual temple keepers as the Local Wealth God. They added, however, that they may also be called by the less polite and now old-fashioned title of Wu Ch'ang Kuei, the \"Unpredictable Demon\" (), a term Burkhardt1 consistently used for the demonic policeman who arrests souls.\n\nThe same God Carver also explained that the Wu Ch'ang Kuei quite frequently has red tears running down his face because, apparently, as a youth he so got on his Mother's nerves that she cried herself to death. Covered by remorse and crying until he drew blood, he set himself the task of guiding first her soul, and then souls of others, safely into the through the Underworld.\n\nThe primary function of the Local Wealth God, according to the majority of temple keepers concerned, is to provide unexpected money (always in small quantities), and particularly for luck in gambling, especially horse racing. He is prayed to by gamblers who are going through a lengthy and damaging run of bad luck. In addition to this well-known ability to provide small quantities of unexpected money, a few temple keepers understand that, dressed in hemp, he has the power to drive away sickness demons and, if \n\n(1) V. R. Burkhardt: Chinese Creeds and Customs: Vols. 1-3. 1952-5 Hong Kong (SCMP).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208627,
        "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-1979",
        "page_number": 84,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n57\n\nwe saw a number of flower pots, a pile of lumps of clay, a few boards, a couple of ramshackle old beds which had long outlived their usefulness, a couple of large water jars and odds and ends of debris, together with a small portion of the family (or was it the gardener's) wash still hanging on a line. One window gave us a little light, but no air, the only air coming in through the crack between the door and the wall. Into this space, say sixteen by eighteen (a generous estimate) we, some thirty-four prisoners of war, were thrust, the door closed and a guard on duty outside.\n\nTaking further stock of our new quarters in the gathering dusk, for by now the sun had sunk behind our hill, we found we were on a concrete floor, at least that part which was not covered with debris. Kicking some of this aside we began to see if we could find enough space in which at least to lie down for the night, as it was now rapidly getting dark. We were still tied up and were given to understand that if we got loose, we would be shot, so we tried to sit or lie down on the concrete floor, but tied as we were, with our hands behind our backs and two and three and four tied together on one rope, it was almost impossible to maintain any position for more than a few minutes. If one of a group sat down, the rest perforce had to follow suit. For a time we tried sitting back to back in order to get some rest, but even that was too tiring. As remarked above, Father Szeliga and Michael were not tied, and they did yeoman service for us in picking up the debris and piling it in corners and under the two rickety beds. Every once in a while the guard would pass by and peek in through the crack. When he did so everyone was as quiet as a mouse for we were also given to understand that we were to make no noise.\n\nJust before dark our door opened a little and a sentry called for three of us to come out. The ones nearest the door were Fathers Tackney, Knotek and O'Connell. At first we thought our time had come, but when the purpose was revealed, namely, to carry a few sand bags, we breathed easier. Finally we lay or sat down in order to try to get some sleep. Outside by this time there was almost an unnatural stillness, the booming of guns had stopped and we wondered what was happening. However, stretched out on the floor in almost every conceivable pose, we could not get to sleep, and in desperation we sought means to get loose from our bonds, come what may. One had already succeeded in loosening his own hands",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209209,
        "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-1981",
        "page_number": 112,
        "title": "RAS-1981",
        "content_text": "98\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\ngirls asked for the same kind of food and clothing they had had in their former homes, the authorities were pestered by girls asking them to arrange marriages, and, in addition, poor parents wanted to hand over their daughters to the care of the Commissioner.\n\nThe speaker answered the question of ill-treatment as follows: Girls sold to wealthy families are usually well off, doing little work, of those sold to the middle class some have to work fairly hard and some do little work, it is more or less a question of luck. In wealthy families the girls act as companions to their master's children, wait on their mistresses, go on errands, do a little serving and attend to the wants of female visitors. In middle class families, they help in cooking, sewing, washing, cleansing and sweeping, carry light loads, marketing and such general work as the master's daughters would have to do. The percentage of cases in which the mistresses are exacting, bad-tempered or cruel-hearted is infinitesimal. These would treat their own daughters no better if daughters were as naughty, lazy and disobedient as some of the servant girls are... Parents are in constant touch with the girl, who can report bad treatment. Masters usually check mistresses' and concubines' bad treatment of girls, as they care too much for their good name. Neighbours and other servants are bound to learn of harsh treatment. Cruelty when reported is investigated by local authorities (in China) and punished.\n\nThe girls were generally bought between the ages of four to thirteen. They cannot be expected to do anything but odds and ends until they are ten or twelve. Their actual period of service is from twelve to eighteen. After eighteen they begin to assert their rights and so arrangements must be taken for their marriage.\n\nMr. Lau Chu-pak went on at some length to comment on other aspects of the system. His remarks suggest that he viewed it in a favourable light and was not in favour of its abolition, even though he expressly said, “It is of no material importance to me whether the system be abolished or not.\" What was to be considered was \"how far will its abolition affect the welfare of the poor, and whether its abolition alone will improve the conditions of the girls and their parents.\n\nThe Hon. Mr. Ho Fook began his remarks by suggesting that Mrs. Haselwood, as chief critic of the system, was not in a good position to judge the manner in which it worked. If the system was so rife with",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210052,
        "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": 23,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "JULIAN PAS \n\noracles. Many deities in China have their own set and devotees consult them for all important questions, problems or difficulties. They believe that after honest prayer and a gift of incense or other offerings, the compassionate goddess will manifest her advice through the paper oracle slips, printed by the temple officials.\n\nOn the altar are several bamboo tubes, each containing 60 bamboo sticks numbered from one to sixty; they can be found in almost any temple in Taiwan.* Here in Peikang, however, there is a large number of sets since the flow of pilgrims is endless. Moreover, in many larger temples of wide reputation, one can nowadays see huge oracle containers three or four feet high, made of dark green marble, extracted from the Hualian mountain quarries. The bamboo sticks in these marble containers are very long.\n\nWith almost no elbow space the people kneel on the floor in front of the sacred images. Incense smoke curls up to the carved beams and one hears the unceasing noise of shaking bamboo sticks and the accompanying clatter of the small or large moon-shaped divining blocks dropping on the temple floor. The noise is non-stop but there is reverence in the atmosphere, and the worshippers believe that Matsu's spiritual power is at its strongest here in her Peikang shrine.\n\nI am standing near a pillar on the side, watching the whole scene of devotees coming and going, of groups leaving the temple, and groups arriving to the joyous sounds of bell and drum. I watch the people, study their facial and bodily expressions and realize that their sense of religion is perhaps different from the Western type. Yet, there is faith in their actions and an implicit trust in the power of the goddess. Her oracles are the especial focus of this power. An older lady goes to the marble container, shakes the sticks (she cannot lift the heavy container itself, of course) and picks up one of them. She puts it on the altar table, takes a set of small divination blocks — there are dozens of them here — and holds them with both hands at the level of her chin. Her lips mutter prayer; she must be asking the goddess whether the numbered stick she has just taken is her true and correct answer in this case. The situation\n\n* See line drawings on following pages, by Ho Yu-dao, of Taichung, Taiwan.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210457,
        "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-1985",
        "page_number": 64,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "45\n\ntime in hand-lining. Specialist trappers and hand-liners also existed. In the spring one variety of fish was caught by spearing with a four-pronged spear. This, like much of the hand-lining, was done mainly for sport. In the summer both fish and shell-fish were occasionally taken by diving.20 Twenty years later the same types of fishing were still to be observed, but one concomitant of mechanisation appeared to be a breakdown in strict specialisation: some purse-seiners were now practising gill-netting in the appropriate season and at least one had also tried long-lining.\n\n21\n\nHand-Lining need not be described. In 1970 all lines were of nylon, unheard of in 1950 but cheaply and easily available from about 1959 onwards. The trapping most commonly practised was done by means of beehive-shaped traps of various sizes into which the fish, attracted by a bait usually made of crushed fish, entered through a non-return valve at the side. Traps were laid in suitable waters and normally collected the next day. All traps were made out of rattan by the fishermen themselves. My returns in 1953 list 8 boats in this general category.\n\nLong-Lining is a method of catching fish on baited hooks hanging from a series of short lines (snoods) attached to a long line each end of which is fastened to a marker. Kau Sai's long-lines are normally 100 fathoms in length, and carry 100 baited hooks.22 Floats at regular intervals hold the long line steady in the water. Shooting takes about twenty minutes. The line is then immediately hauled in, starting at the end first shot. Long-liner catches are often good quality fish of varieties in high demand for the table. They are usually sold fresh, often kept alive in special watertight holds. In 1953 the number of small long-liners claiming to be based at Kau Sai was 15. There was also 1 medium-sized long-liner.\n\nFloats and markers are also used in gill-netting, but here it is a wall of net some 6 or 7 fathoms deep that is shot over the side of the junk. The mesh of the nets and the depth at which they are set vary with the seasons and types of fish. Nets are laid in such a way that fish swimming towards them thrust their heads through the meshes, their own gills then acting as valves to prevent them\n\n: \n\n:",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210481,
        "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-1985",
        "page_number": 88,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "69\n\nmaintenance given to it. Smaller junks, like those in Kau Sai, may have a life of 15-25 years. Large deep-sea craft may last twice as long.\n\nThe three main types of junk operating out of Kau Sai between 1950 and 1970 were purse-seiners, small long-liners and hand-liners. The fish trappers' boats were indistinguishable from the last, except for their specialised gear. There was also a fourth type, used exclusively as a carrier and owned by land-dwellers. Known as p'a tsai or p'a t'eng tsai (lit. small paddle boat): it had a single mast and no deck covers. It did not normally serve as a dwelling place.\n\nPurse-seiners\n\nPurse-seiners are chunky little boats, measuring between about 25' and 35' in overall length and about 11' in the beam. Both larger and smaller examples may be found.37\n\nOn the purse-seiners fresh water is always stored forward, right up in the bows under a raised rectangular hatch cover. Here, too, worship is offered daily, and on all special ritual occasions, to the Spirit of the Prow. Holds for brine, and salt fish come next. They are separated from the (larger) fresh fish holds by the net holds. All this fore part of the junk is open decked. Aft of the mast is a large hold, running most of the breadth of the boat, traditionally used for gear, lamps, rope, spare sail-cloth etc. but now-a-days occupied by the engine and known as the “engine room” (ch'eah fong). Further aft the holds are all given over to gear, clothing and personal possessions. Cooking is always done on two or three chatties on the port side of the raised poop, the starboard side being used for a privy. The poop projects some three to four feet over the water, and a hole in the boards here, or a gap between two, allows for complete cleanliness. Surrounding wooden walls about 2½ feet high afford also a fair degree of privacy. Privy and “galley” can both be covered over with wooden lids which provide convenient extra seating, and from which the steering is usually done. The helmsman can quite easily control both the long handled tiller and either sails or long gear lever at the same time, often using his toes for the latter.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210940,
        "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-1987",
        "page_number": 2,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "272\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nthat one of these is an earlier version, including the annual accounts for only 1911 to 1913. A photocopy of this one was given to James Hayes by the Chairman of the Sheung Shui Rural Committee in 1972, and Dr. Hayes kindly made it available to the Oral History Project at the Chinese University. It is now incorporated into the volumes on Sheung Shui in the Project's Historical Literature of the New Territories. The other copy is held by the British Library, and includes the annual accounts from 1923 to 1960. The British Library also holds the only copy of the accounts of the New Alliance, on the cover of which is written: Temple celebration of the New Alliance, opened on the 1st of the Sixth Month in the 1st year of Hsüan-t'ung, Lung Yeuk Tau copy (新約會神誕,宣統元年歲次己酉六月初一日✰✰✰). It includes the annual accounts from 1906. Both copies held by the British Library are originals, not photocopies.\n\nAccording to these account books, member villages held shares in these alliances, managed the communal property by annual rotation among the shares, and participated in the annual sacrifices that were paid for from income derived from the communal property. The Old Alliance was made up of four shares and the New Alliance of six. The four villages of the Hau (侯) lineage (Kam Tsin, Ping Kong, Ho Sheung Heung, Yin Kong) together held one share in the Old Alliance, and so did the Liu (廖) lineage of Sheung Shui, the Wan Shing T'ong (雲升堂) of Sheung Shui (a sub-lineage trust of the Liu lineage), and the Tang (鄧) lineage of Lung Shaan, i.e. Lung Yeuk Tau. According to oral tradition in Sheung Shui, the Wan Shing T'ong bought its share from the Man (文) lineage. This is corroborated by an undated document entitled, \"Eulogy of the four surnames of Hau, Liu, Tang and Man on the foundation of the Po Tak Temple”(侯、廖、鄧、文四姓立報德祠頌詞) published in a recent commemorative volume (Liu Yun-sham, Commemorative Volume on the History of the Venerable Chau and Wong 廖潤深,周王二公史蹟紀念專輯 Hong Kong, 1982, p. 13). We have not seen the original of this document, but its title suggests that it was written for the Old Alliance at a time before the Man lineage sold its share to the Wan Shing T'ong. In the New Alliance, the four Hau villages, Sheung Shui, Lung",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211553,
        "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": 270,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "246\n\nThus, contrary to Faure's \"modest\" claims, I see very little in his alternative thesis which offers any criticism of Freedman's model worthy of anthropological note, unless of course one finds it fair to force any body of ideas to answer questions it was not initially intended nor prepared to ask. Ironically, there is more in this book which is broadly supportive of lineage theory than contrary to it. For one thing, Faure's talk of lineage society as being real would have been enough to make Meyer Fortes, Maurice Freedman and other ancestors of lineage theory jump out of their graves in delight, especially if viewed in light of recent attacks by anthropologists who have argued that “descent groups” and **social structure** are imaginary constructs which have no basis in empirical reality at all. (Holy 1979, Dumont 1970) Even Faure's attempt to dissociate the village as something that should be understood in its own terms is confounded by his failure to look at the village as anything other than the aggregation of descent groups. In short, his talk of rights of settlement, rules of inheritance, genealogical linkages, membership criteria and relations to inalienable property reproduces the whole language of descent and social structure which is at the root of lineage theory (in any of its versions). To wit (anthropologists, take note),\n\nThe history of the lineage is one of the most important means of recording village membership, and given the fact that settlement rights are inheritable until they are surrendered, for instance, by the act of moving away, this is exactly what the researcher should expect of the villager's narrative. (p. 30)\n\nNonetheless, the founding of separate lineages, each holding independent settlement rights, but which retained the claim to, even if they did not practice, common ancestral worship, is clearly illustrated. The acquisition of independent settlement rights was, no doubt, a stage in lineage segmentation. (p. 47)\n\nI have described four dimensions of the lineage in the organization of the villages of the eastern New Territories. First, the lineage embodies the inheritance of the rights of settlement in the village. Second, it is the corporate body, or the collection of corporate bodies, that holds property.\n\nPage 270\nPage 271",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213269,
        "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-1994",
        "page_number": 91,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "71\n\nMost Chinese will, however, tell you that a dragon has sinews and veins which can be severed. Blood can be spilled. Thus, when the earth's flesh was pierced, blood, in the form of bright red, ochre-coloured earth, appeared during excavations for the construction of Hong Kong's underground railway in the 1970s. This could mean the time had come for workers to down tools. The evil that might follow had to be averted ritually. Taoist priests would then beat ceremonial gongs and offer prayers to pacify spirits of the earth where the dragon's peace was being destroyed. Exorcism in modern day Hong Kong is by no means uncommon (Raceday rites, 1987). Neither is exorcism uncommon in Christian churches. It is mentioned in the Bible.\n\nOne can compare certain Buddhist, Taoist or folk-religion ceremonies, which purify and bestow blessings, with walking through fields in Europe in springtime while conducting a Christian Rogation Service to ensure a good harvest.\n\nInterestingly, some Chinese came to the conclusion during the last century, that foreigners know far more about fung shui than they are prepared to admit. Otherwise, why would they have picked such a fine site (as it was then) for the Governor's residence? Why would they plant vegetation over the slopes of Victoria Peak in which dwells the resident dragon?\n\nReturning to the cutting edges of the Bank of China: a fung shui master is supposed to adhere to strict ethical standards and not do anything which could be construed as the 'black art'. He should not 'attack' a neighbour. However, in the New Territories, for example, a case where a successful family's fortune has suddenly waned has sometimes been traced to the desecration of an ancestor's grave. As a result, revenge against perpetrators was, in the past, not uncommon.\n\nA buried 'person' needs to 'breathe', and, whether he or she can do this properly or not, affects his or her descendants. Some believed Chiang Kai-Shek's rise to power depended on his mother's fine grave. This, the Communists are said to have dug up.\n\nThe People's Republic's 'Red Guards' went to considerable lengths during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to destroy the 'Four Olds' (old customs, old habits, old culture, old thoughts). These included fung shui.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213792,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 144,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "115\n\nbetween three-compartment ancestral halls restricted to officials and ancestral worship within the domestic unit or bed chamber appropriate for commoners. Faure points out that the three-compartment ancestral hall is related to claims of official title. Faure sees some small ancestral halls found in the New Territories of Hong Kong as the “bed chamber” variety. Examples of villages in which ancestral halls of this style are found include Ping Long, Kau To, Man Uk Pin and Wo Hang, the last three of these four are Hakka villages. Faure thus writes of the New Territories in the 19th Century: \"with rising prosperity and acquisition of official degrees, some of their ancestral halls became more ornate even though none quite reproduce the official style.\" Although the bed-chamber type ancestral hall is found in both Hakka and Cantonese villages, a Hakka ancestral hall holds a single spirit tablet, dedicated to unnamed shi, gao, zheng ancestors. This is probably related to the practice of moving incense ashes from the domestic unit to the incense burner of the ancestral hall mentioned above. This contrasts with the “major surname” clan ancestral halls in the Hakka county town of Xingning described in ZHJLS, in which those who had made donations had a spirit tablet of their ancestor installed.\n\nThat ancestors are represented in individual ancestral tablets is a prerequisite of some ancestral hall ceremonies found in Cantonese lineages in Hong Kong, such as one found in the Qingle ancestral hall of Kam Tin, in which the group of ancestors to whom the ancestral hall is dedicated is escorted in the form of ancestral tablets for special treatment.\n\nDespite the possible difference in the form of ancestral halls, the Hakka probably followed the trend of development of lineages since the 16th century. Ancestral hall rites, Faure has pointed out, was an example of the incorporation of a literate tradition into a proto-literate culture, the literate tradition spread with the literati ideal, coming... in the Ming and the Qing dynasties as local government strengthened, as neo-Confucianism was taken for granted as an acceptable social code, and as examination awards were granted in large numbers for",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214246,
        "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": 104,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "67\n\nAn image of Hariti is present in both the Pi-yun Ssu and the Ta Pei Ssu. She is portrayed in both temples as a middle-aged Chinese woman with a full face, dressed in colourful robes and crown, resting her left hand on the head of a small pig-like winged demon with a child on his shoulders.\n\n7] Bodhidruma who is also known in Chinese as P'u-t'i Shu Shen 提樹神\n\nThis is an Indian Vedic goddess, the guardian of the Bo-tree; the 'wisdom tree' [peepul tree] under which Sakyamuni obtained enlightenment and became the Buddha. She is one of the group of Twenty or Twenty-four Devas and is also known in Sanskrit as Pippala, a peepul tree, after the tree in question.\n\nImages of Bodhidruma are present in both the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yun Ssu. The image in the former has a human body and demonic face. It is difficult to make out the sex of this deity with him/her having black skin, colourful decorated robes and black pill-box cap with red band, and small sunburst on the front. He/she holds a tablet before his/her chest clasped in both hands. His/her face has the large flat nose, the slightly jutting wide jaw and round eyes. In the Pi-yun Ssu his/her image depicts him/her with white skin, a calm and benign face, standing, dressed in colourful decorated robes and crown and with his/her hands pressed together before his/her chest in prayer.\n\n8] Sarasvati known in Chinese as Pien-ts'ai Tien\n\nShe is the Vedic goddess of speech and learning, the goddess of rhetoric, and female energy. It is widely accepted in India that she was the inventor of Sanskrit. Originally a mother-goddess she has developed over the centuries into her present role as the goddess of wisdom and learning, and the patron deity of music. An image of Sarasvati is present in both the Pi-yun Ssu and the Ta Pei Ssu. In both she is depicted as an eight-armed goddess, standing dressed in colourful, decorated robes and crown, with six of her hands each holding a symbolic object. The main pair of hands are pressed together before her chest in prayer. She is barefoot in both temples.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214255,
        "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": 113,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "76\n\nfact that he is listed in Soothill as one of the Twenty Deva. His image is to be seen in both the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yun Ssu. In both temples he is depicted as a ferocious guardian general with a wide gaping mouth, large round eyes and a highly decorated Buddhist crown. He holds the standard weapon, the vajra, the diamond sword, resting in his left hand and against his left shoulder, and has the swirling scarf behind his head. He is stripped to the waist, has bare legs beneath a highly colourful decorated skirt, and sandals. A mural in the Sakyamuni Pagoda in Ying county in Shansi province depicts Guhyapati in much the same form.\n\nThe Chin-kang as a group are minor deities, guardians belonging to the class of Lokapalas borrowed by Buddhism from Brahmanism. The standard four Chin-kang, the Diamond Kings, are each the ruler of the four continents surrounding Mount Sumeru and though Guhyapati Raja is a Chin-kang he is not one of the usual four. The standard four are the Ssu Ta T'ien-wang [see 23-26 below].\n\n23-26] Ssu Ta T'ien-wang XX The Four Great Celestial Kings\n\nThe Four Deva Kings, known also as the Four Diamond Kings, Ssu Ta Chin-kang X, are the four guardians whose images stand, usually portrayed much larger than life-size, just inside temple entrance doorways, in pairs, two to either side.\n\nWerner points out that these are not gods but guardians, Buddhist protectors who should be thought of as minor divinities. Chinese Buddhists adopted four Hindu Brahmin deities from Indian Buddhism, the Lokapala, the guardians of the four sides of the fabulous Mount Meru [the Guardians of the Four Corners of the World] who, in turn, were later adopted by the Taoists from the Chinese Buddhists. The Four were probably first introduced into China during the T'ang dynasty [6th and 7th centuries AD] and still today are regarded as the grim-faced temple guardian generals, enormous statues in T’ang armour, tamed demons who were redeemed and who now symbolise the seasons and control the elements of fire, water, earth and air. Although the majority of images of the Four stand up to and even over fifteen feet high they can also be as tiny as eighteen inches high. They used to be deities in their own right and offered worship, reverence and offerings. Nowadays however although most devotees solemnly place one smoulder-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214256,
        "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": 114,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "77\n\ning stick of incense before each with a perfunctory bow, the Four are looked upon as mere soldier guardians with a fifth, Wei T'o [see 21 above], their commander.\n\nThe group of Four are the product of the Mahayana school of Buddhism with additions from the Tantric school. Their original Buddhist title in Sanskrit is usually Dvarapala, though others claim that they are the Chin-kang Shou, derived from the Sanskrit \"Vajrapani', the Thunderbolt Bearer, the Great Protector.\n\nThey are responsible for the security of temples, protecting them from demonic attack and also preventing evil spirits from sneaking in. In Taoist temples, where they have different individual identities, they normally stand in the side wings of the main hall, such as in the Jade Emperor Hall at the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas at Shatin in the New Territories of Hong Kong.\n\nThose in Buddhist temples are the Diamond Kings whilst those in Taoist and folk religion temples are Celestial Kings [T'ien-wang]. They are easily recognisable by their stature, location and by the collocation with the others in the group; also, because each usually holds a unique identifying symbolic object, a furled umbrella or a rodent, etc. They stand with defiant stares and have faces in colours identifying the direction for which they are responsible. The Buddhist Four guardians all wear the bodhisattva's five-leaf crowns with minute Buddhas inscribed on the central leaf, and flying scarves forming a nimbus behind and above their heads and shoulders. Many have demons, thieves, liars and adulterers underfoot. The Taoist Four, who also have demons underfoot, generally wear military helmets.\n\nA manifestation of Vaisravana, the protector of the North and one of the Four Chin-kang, appeared during his journey to aid Hsuan Tsang, the Buddhist monk who trekked from China to India and back to obtain Buddhist scriptures. For this reason Vaisravana was later revered by devotees, alone and in his own right, and over the years became associated with General Li Ching.\n\nAll four of the Mo-li brothers, the Taoist identities of the Four Temple Guardian Generals, are included and represented in the sets of",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214259,
        "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": 117,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "80\n\na Stupa and/or spear\n\nThe King Protector of the North E and controller of Autumn\n\nelement metal\n\nsometimes identified as Li T'ien-wang\n\nP'i-sha-men T'ien-wang E\n\nIn a number of older temples the Diamond Kings are portrayed as demonic with black skins and with a total of eight in the group rather than the usual four. In the Kai-yüan Ssu in Changchou in Fukien province, the Eight are positioned on all sides of the main altar. They are bare to the waist and have bare feet, and are without weapons or attributes.\n\nIn northern Chinese temples the two guardians outside the main doors, often painted on the front walls flanking the entrance, are blue or green skinned demons known as Wu-shih, simply meaning 'warriors'. or Li-shih J\n\nDoré claims that the Four were introduced in the 8th century during the reign of T'ang T'ai Tsung who believed that the Four helped him establish his empire. The Taoist group said to have assisted the T'ang emperor is often identified with four Taoist mythological deities. These are:\n\nLi Yüan-shuai [Marshal Li or Li T'ien-wang], Li Ching, the Heavenly King who holds a pagoda10\n\nMa Yuan-shuai [Marshal Ma] or Ma the Heavenly King who holds two swords\n\nChao Yuan-shuai [Marshal Chao] or Chao T'ien-wang, holding a single sword\n\nWen Yuan-shuai [Marshal Wen] or Wen T'ien-wang holding a spiked club",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214264,
        "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": 122,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "85\n\nIn addition to being the final arbiter in the judgement of souls and the Keeper of the Registers of Life and Death, Tung-yüeh Ta-ti protects the virtuous, especially those who are truthful, good and excel at filial piety.\n\nImages of Yama, that is Yen-lo Wang, are to be seen in both of the temples in the Western Hills where they are Deva, but together with Tung-yüeh Ta-ti, indicating that they are regarded as two separate deities in these temples.\n\n38] Tzu-wei Ta-ti\n\nThe Great Emperor of the Purple Heaven, a major Chinese Taoist stellar deity of the North Pole Star, the keeper of the book of destiny, a controller of blessings, and one of the most potent destroyers of demons, is revered for his power to ward off evil influences and spirits. In northern China he was occasionally regarded as one of the Four Heavenly Kings and portrayed as a benign middle-aged Taoist, with Taoist crown and tablet held between both hands before his chest. Icons bearing his likeness are pasted or nailed to doors as popular charms to ward off demonic attack.\n\nHis image stands in both the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yun Ssu. In both he is portrayed as a standard Chinese Taoist figure, with long multi-coloured and highly decorated robes, and a small Taoist crown on his head. He has a benign face, a small goatee and moustache and in the Ta Pei Ssu holds both hands together before his chest as if holding a tablet. His image in the Pi-yun Ssu is similar but has the tablet in place.\n\nA mural in the Mahavira Hall of the Yunlin temple at Yangkao in Shansi portrays the Emperor Tzu-wei of the North Pole.\n\nThere is also some confusion within Cantonese communities about the role of this deity. In some temples he has been claimed to be the chief of the heterodox Taoist stellar deities and identified either as the god, or one of the gods of the Pole Stars. He is popular with the Boat People of the Pearl River estuary, and is also one of the stellar deities seen on charms and scrolls used during rituals. A number of devotees",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215011,
        "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": 107,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "63\n\nfrom October 1914 and closed to British burials in May 1919. His grave is amongst those saved for officers who had died in early 1915. [see photograph]\n\nMy wife and I visited St. Etienne-au-Mont cemetery and amongst the graves is that of Cheng Shun Kung (Zheng Shungong), [53497], of the 60th Company CLC, who died on 23rd July 1918 after being convicted of the murder of a fellow countryman. On his grave is carved ‘A Good Reputation lives Forever.' The date of his death, as shown at the Public Records Office, is 27th July 1918. The CWGC, in a letter to the author, state that their records cannot be amended until such time as they have written authorised confirmation. The CWGC also state that the British Library, Oriental and Indian Office and Army Records, Hayes, hold no records for the CLC.\n\nIn this cemetery is a large memorial, with inscriptions in Chinese, French and English, stating that it was erected by comrades of the CLC. Close-by, it has four small white magnolia trees, in bloom at the time of our visit in April.\n\nWe also visited the cemetery at Abbeville, in which there are the graves of expatriates who served with the CLC. Sgt. E.J. Collins served with the 43 Company CLC and died on 7th November 1918. Staff QMS (WO II) George William Bashford was with the RASC before transferring to the Labour Corps attached to the 91a Company CLC. He drowned on 18th November 1919. 2/Lt. Henry Elderfield of the Northumberland Fusiliers was attached to the 163rd Company CLC and died on 11th November 1918 [Armistice Day]. Sgt. T. F. Murphy of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers transferred to the 135th Company CLC and died on 26th March 1920. Cpl R H Smith of the 2nd Bn. Cameronians [Scottish Rifles] transferred to the Base Depôt, CLC and died on the 27 November 1918. Cpl. Robert Whittaker of the Royal Welch Fusiliers also transferred to the Base Depôt CLC and died on 3rd November 1918. Cpl. J. Wilkie from the Durham Light Infantry was another who transferred to the Base Depôt CLC and died on 19th September 1919. There are no Chinese buried in this cemetery.\n\nSt. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, amongst others, holds the graves\n\nof 44 members of the CLC and four British attached to the CLC. For the most part, graves in this cemetery are laid head to head. Lt.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215423,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 200,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "149\n\neach one in his niche, over stone bases with their names carved on them in the same order as we have them on the main altar, all in bronze with their foundry signs: hands and faces painted red; vestments gilded throughout the length of the body, with no other colour. On the second frieze and third storey with columns that rest on the middle window the Image of Our Lady of the Assumption, titular saint of the Church, has its niche, which image steps on a large gilded moon; over her head two Angels in the round of the same metal appear to be holding a closed crown, each one of which holds out his arm on the side where he is. Below these another pair seem to go through the air giving a hand in favour of Our Lady's ascent.\n\nThe third frieze, which runs underneath the last storey, gave place to the last niche. It has on its base the Image of the infant Jesus with a cross on the globe of the world on his hand and which does not differ from the others in anything, except that it is of lesser height than them. Inside the field of the pointed summit which makes a straight triangle - on which rests the stone pedestal on which is to be fixed the iron cross with rod arms that is the crown of the whole work, for which alms were given this year as I said above - from the middle of rays carved in the stone, a kind of image of a dove goes fourth, representing the Holy Spirit with its wings wide open, in gilded bronze and of significant size. Note: for all of this magnificent and sumptuous work expenses were met with alms ....' (italics mine).\n\nThere are several quite remarkable points here. Apart from their gilded garments, the first is that the faces and hands of the images of the Jesuit saints were painted red. That these bronzes were painted is highly unusual. If the faces and hands were actually painted red is perhaps arguable. But the gilded garments of the four bronzes could well have been intended to imitate the technique of gilding practised on carved statues since Late Gothic retables.\n\nBrightly painted images are known in medieval Spanish portals, an obsolete practice in the seventeenth century. It was, however, still in use in the case of some Latin American retable-façades, as the researches of Humberto Rodríguez-Camilloni on the façade of San Francisco, Lima, Peru, have disclosed.21\n\nWhat has equally remained unknown because it is missing in José",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215431,
        "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-2001",
        "page_number": 208,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "157\n\nOther Images\n\nA salutation in St. Alfonso's Office praises the palma patientiae and the cedrus castitatis. This allusion to both cedar and palm trees derives from Ecclesiasticus, 24, 17-18. When it comes to the date palms of the second storey, it is very much a part of the stock-in-trade immaculist symbols, particularly dear to southern Spanish poets and painters and also known from early prints, all praising Mary's Immaculate Conception. But these may equally refer to the triumph of the Society of Jesus, with the canonisation of its main protagonists, Sts. Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier in 1622 and the recent beatification of Francis Borgia and Luis Gonzaga.\n\nIn the fourth storey or attic The Child Jesus raises his right hand and holds an empty left hand forward. The latter undoubtedly held the lost orb mentioned in the 1644 Annua. It is a pose and attribute typical of the kind of devotional religious image known as an infant Salvator Mundi, that is, Infant Jesus Saviour of the World. The type of \"Menino Jesus\" as Salvator Mundi was well disseminated in Portuguese colonies in the East during the seventeenth-century, as a large number of Indo-Portuguese and Chinese ivory statuettes, usually nude, tend to confirm. Here the Child Jesus is framed by reliefs of angels displaying the Arma Christi, or symbols of Christ's suffering on the Cross. According to Christian theology, the ironically named arma are the “weapons” Christ used in his earthly battle against evil in order to redeem humankind. They were profoundly mystical symbols popularised in devotional literature and images since Medieval times in Europe.\n\nThe pediment is decorated with the large bronze of the Holy Spirit, originally gilded and emerging from rays, with four stars framing it. Next to it are square slabs of the sun and moon, with which the iconography of the main image of the Assumption is finally brought to full completion.\n\nThe dove of the Holy Spirit hovers over both Mother and Child with wings far outspread in an image that seems uncannily like a visual illustration of the Holy Spirit in the opening lines of John Milton's Paradise Lost. As bronze sculpture it is impressive enough today; with its original gilding it must have appeared awe-inspiring to the citizens of Macao and to seventeenth-century and later visitors before the fire.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215907,
        "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": 206,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "140\n\nSeated in the front row are the other guest speakers for the day: Dr. Patrick Hase, a member of the conference organising committee and RAS Council member, who will talk about Shatin and its development from a village to a city; Reverend Carl Smith, the honorary vice-president, who will talk about his 40 years of research in Hong Kong, and Mr. Tim Ko, an organising committee member and Council member, who has prepared a slide presentation about living in Hong Kong from 1960 to 1980. Also listening attentively is Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, vice-president of the RAS, convenor of the conference and mistress of ceremonies for the day.\n\nI sit near the front to get better video of the proceedings, but it's dark in the hall and other than Dr. Waters, I realise I won't be able to capture any of the audience's faces. I direct my camera in their direction anyway, just in case, or maybe just to let them know they'd be wise not to doze off.\n\nThis was in December 2000, when the one-day conference was presented jointly with the Hong Kong Museum of History. Waters has since stepped down from the presidency he held for four and a half years, during which Hong Kong was handed back to the motherland.\n\nAn old hand's reflection...\n\nI met Waters for the first time a month before the conference at his home on Conduit Road. He greeted me at the door and he was just as I had imagined from our telephone conversations. He is a tall man with a strong presence. He has perfect posture and his movements are quick. Waters holds the 800m and 1500m local running records in the over 70 category. He has a full head of hair although the colour has changed from when he was a young man; the only other hint of his advanced years is that he's a bit hard of hearing.\n\nHe takes me to the study and has had his maid prepare a glass of orange drink for me. I haven't had orange drink from powder something like Tang since early childhood,\n\n-\n\nWhat do I want to know? he asks. What do I want to know? I ask myself. I really want to find out if the Royal Asiatic Society is as snobby as it sounds, maybe. But no, I don't ask that...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216315,
        "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-2003",
        "page_number": 74,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "23\n\nThe second courtyard is flanked on the left side by a two-story wooden Drum Tower (Gu Lou) and on the right by the matching two-story wooden Bell Tower (Zhong Lou). On the first floor of the Zhong Lou is a glass case holding a golden effigy of Kshitigarbha (Di Zang). Dizang is the bodhisattva who has the special power to rescue departed souls from Hell, and thus plays an important role in Buddhist funeral ceremonies. Upstairs on the second floor is the bronze bell which can be rung for a fee of 50 Rmb. On New Year's Eve this bell is rung 108 times at midnight. It is considered good luck to be there to hear it ring, and even better luck to be the one who rings it. The Zhong Lou was rebuilt by Qing Emperor Guang Xu in 1895, following the Taiping destruction of the temple in 1860-1862. The bell itself was made in 1894, during the 18th year of the Guang Xu reign of the Qing Dynasty. Beside the Zhong Lou is a Ming-style stone stele with a partially legible inscription which has been damaged.\n\nOn the first floor of the Gu Lou is a glass case containing a golden effigy of Guan Yu, the God of War. In the Ming and Qing dynasties Guan Yu had temples dedicated exclusively to him in every city in China. The former Guan Di Miao can still be visited in Shanghai's Nanshi District. The second floor of the Gu Lou cannot be ascended, and it no longer seems to contain a drum. Beside the Gu Lou is a Ming-style stone stele with a lengthy inscription in very good condition. The present Gu Lou dates from an 1895 reconstruction, following the Taiping destruction of the temple in 1860-1862.\n\nAcross the second courtyard from the Mi Le Dian is the Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings (Si Tian Wang Dian). This hall dates from an 1881 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt to replace an earlier structure destroyed during the Taiping rebel attacks on Shanghai in 1860-1862. The hall was last restored in 1981. The hall contains enormous gilded wooden statues of all four kings, two on each side of the hall. All four wear crowns on their heads and are dressed in heavy armor. One holds a four-string guitar and has a light green face, another holds a sword in his right hand and has a black face, a third holds an umbrella in his right hand and a small stupa in his left hand, and has a white face, while a fourth holds a snake and has a black face. This depiction is somewhat different than in the past. In the centre of the Tian Wang Dian are two glass cases containing golden effigies of two rather obscure Buddhist deities. Tian Guan Mi Le, a variant incarnation of Mi Le Fo, is depicted.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    }
]