[
    {
        "id": 205491,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1968",
        "page_number": 33,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "28\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\nThe following short description of how some sects related to territorial units comes mainly from my own investigations and examination of sectarian documents in Singapore and Hong Kong. The groups I studied are off-shoots of a widely ramifying system sometimes called Hsien-t'ien Ta Tao, \"The Great Way of Former Heaven\". It contains many sects going under different names. The sects of this religion were found in many parts of China and copied the State system of territorial administration in dividing up areas for administration with lodges descending to the level of the district. Below the district, however, the groups had other centres for members and based, as in Buddhism and Taoism, on pseudo-kinship organization. Provision was thus made for China-wide organization, although it is doubtful whether any sect extended over the entire country at any time.\n\nThe system appears to have worked as follows: administrative lodges existed usually, and where feasible in the face of campaigns of suppression which were waged from time to time against them, in the chief towns of provinces, counties and districts. The \"capital”, however, was not necessarily the same as the imperial capital but might be the town where the sect developed originally or to which it had been forced to remove its head office because of State activity against it. Until the late '50s of the nineteenth century, sects were headed by a patriarch who ideally resided in the main lodge but sometimes lived in another remoter place to escape attention by the State. In the records of some of the sects, the patriarch is compared to an emperor. It is often claimed he was an incarnate Buddha. Under the patriarch, there were various officers administering the branch lodges. All administrators had to hold degrees known as “lotus degrees\" to be eligible for such posts, although not all \"degree\" holders were administrators. Examinations for these degrees were in religious knowledge and techniques, which included knowledge of their own sutras (sometimes written in code) and Taoist type \"hygiene\" and Ch’an Buddhhist type meditation. Degrees have elaborate titles in many of the sects and are likened in their literature to degrees for State examinations. Administrative posts are sometimes compared to those occupied in the State administration by governors, judges and magistrates.\n\nMany sects are \"vegetarian\", that is to say they require degree-holders to practise permanent vegetarianism and also sexual",
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    {
        "id": 205505,
        "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-1968",
        "page_number": 47,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "42\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\n28 Information on the Shuntê anti-marriage movement is scattered and unsystematic, but for brief information on it and also its connexion with religion see J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese: or Notes Connected with China, 5th ed. rev. E. Chalmers Werner (Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1925) section on marriage, pp. 367-76; p. 375.\n\n29 See C. K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society: a Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of their Historical Factors (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1961) chap. XII.\n\n30 Ibid., p. 333.\n\n31 Cf. John Blofeld, The Jewel in the Lotus: an Outline of Present Day Buddhism in China (London, The Buddhist Society, 1948) p. 58.\n\n32 The Religion of the Void was brought to Singapore from China and specialises in cure of drug addiction. On this religion see Hsü Yün-tsiao, \"The Religion of the Void”, Journal of the South Seas Society, Vol. X, Pt. 2 (No. 20) (in Chinese). English version in same issue, tr. Chiang Liu. In Hong Kong the Green Pine Religion aims to cure disease.\n\n33 The most factually detailed work on sects is by J. J. M. de Groot, Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China: A Page in the History of Religions, 2 Vols. (Amsterdam, Johannes Müller, 1903-4), reprinted by Literature House, Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan, 1963). For discussion of alternative names of sects and evidence of sectarian connexions through names, see my \"The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret religious sects\", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 2, 1963, pp. 362-392, at pp. 384-6.\n\n34 See Chiang Siang Tseh, The Nien Rebellion (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1954). The preface by Renville Lund contains reference to White Lotus connexions.\n\n35 Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 210. George Miles writing of the Yao-ch'ih sect (my evidence shows it to be an off-shoot of Hsien-t'ien Ta Tao) states that members had vegetarian halls but he says they were usually in isolated villages where men and women were found in constant residence. See his \"Vegetarian Sects\", in The Chinese Recorder, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, 1902, Pp. 1-10.\n\n36 See Sidney D. Gamble, Ting Hsien, a North China Rural Community (New York, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1954) p. 414.\n\n37 Belonging to Lo Chiao (Lo Religion)—a sect named after one of its important early patriarchs (and related to Hsien-t'ien Ta Tao), described by Suzuki Chusei in \"Rakyo ni Tsuite\", Tōyō Bunka Kenkyujo Kiyō (Tokyo), No. 1, 1943, pp. 441-501.\n\n38 Gamble, op. cit.\n\n39 See de Groot, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 231-241 on funeral rites of the Lung hua sect.\n\n40 Gamble, op. cit.\n\n41 See for example Hsiao, op. cit., p. 231f, and p. 233.\n\n42 Yang, op. cit., p. 226.\n\n43 Chiang, op. cit., p. 37.\n\nDe Groot, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 308.\n\n45 According to Chiang the Nien emerged as community defence groups.",
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    {
        "id": 205601,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1968",
        "page_number": 143,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "138 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nsaid to have been of the Buddhist faith and to have lived in China in the early part of the eighth century; or to one of their patriarch-successors. These sects share a common ideology, have the same goals, and some have a similar system of rank and appointments, even possessing the same rank-names and terms of address. Some of these sects are, like Hsien-t'ien Tao, vegetarian, that is to say they demand a permanent vegetarian diet (and also sexual abstinence) from their rank-holders; and some, generally speaking the more recent off-shoots, are non-vegetarian. It is only the vegetarian sects which are organized through vegetarian halls. \n\nSome of the other sects operating in Hong Kong today and recognised by Hsien-t'ien Tao to be related to it are P'u-tu Men: \"The Salvation Sect\" and Kuei-ken Men: \"The Sect of Reverting to the Root [of Things],\" which are both vegetarian; and T'ung-shan She: “The Fellowship of Goodness\", which is non-vegetarian and was particularly active in the period leading up to the founding of the Chinese Republic and immediately afterwards. \n\nThe ideology of these sects is known by Hsien-t'ien Tao rather confusingly as Hsien-t'ien Ta-tao: \"The Great Way of Former Heaven\". It is syncretic, incorporating elements from a number of sources but most importantly from Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism, and from Taoism, and the Yin-Yang cosmology which received general acceptance by the Chinese in traditional times. In combining all these elements however Great Way ideology, as we will refer to it here, produces an original synthesis: a system of ideas distinct from any other. The religion divides time into three major epochs, or cyclical periods, during each of which it is supposed that Absolute Truth comes into the world, is taught by a major Buddha and other distinguished sages, and then, unless men have made efforts to prevent it, becomes distorted and finally disappears. The disappearance of Truth from the world is followed by a major catastrophe (there might also be minor, localised disasters during each period due to minor Truth distortions). All sects in the group believe we have already passed through the first of these periods which was followed by a great flood; some believe we are in the second period now (dominated by Sakyamuni Buddha) which will be followed by a great fire unless we act to prevent it; and a few believe we are actually in the third period which will be followed by a wind catastrophe (interpreted by the sect Kuei-ken Men as an atomic war). It is in this final period that the",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205607,
        "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-1968",
        "page_number": 149,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "144\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nheld the third highest of six ranks which may be taken by members of the sect (the two highest are reserved for men only). This rank is known as Yin-ên (314) “Conducting (or Guiding) Grace\" and entitles the holder to the middle name of Ch'ang (g). For a full list of ranks in various of the sects see \"The Great Way of Former Heaven......\" by Marjorie Topley, cited below.\n\nThis lady's father, said to have been an ordinary tenant farmer, and a native of Fa Yuan district, Kwangtung, had held the Chêng-ên rank in the sect, one below his daughter's. He died in the second year of the Republic (1913-14) and the daughter, his only child, followed him into the religion. Photographs of both these persons can be seen at the hall.\n\nThe founder of this hall was also said to have been in charge of the YEE WOH hall (*) in Canton, but on the Japanese occupation of South China in 1937-39 she and a body of her followers removed permanently to the WING LOK T’UNG in Ngau Chi Wan.\n\nOne of the present inmates of this hall was previously with the founder in Canton, having followed her into the sect at the age of 9 (she is now over 60 years of age). Her mother was said to be a cousin of the founder.\n\n2. Kam Ha Ching She (#4)\n\nThis hall was built in the 16th year of the Chinese Republic (1927-28). The founding lady was of the same rank as the founder of the above hall and like her had previously been in charge of a vegetarian hall in Canton, the SHUI WOH T’ONG (#) before coming to Hong Kong.\n\nThe SHUI WOH T'ONG and the YEE WOH T'ONG above, form part of a group of halls of the sect known to members as the “WOH groups\", because they each have WOH as part of their name. They are not to be confused with the secret society of this name.\n\nThe establishment of the KAM HA CHING SHE was said to have been a result of an increasing following among women from Hong Kong who visited the founder in Canton. Deciding to establish a hall in the Colony she set up the MAN YUAN T’ONG (*) on a floor in rented premises in Third Street, Hong Kong island, probably about the year 1910. The growing number of",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205611,
        "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-1968",
        "page_number": 153,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "148\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nvillage to visit the KAM HA CHING SHE to be given a bowl of rice and other food. This is supposed to \"help make them stronger and more diligent\". (The sects hold masses at which cooked rice is used and which, in Singapore, is certainly handed out to the poor of the area round a vegetarian hall after the service. It may be that the rice handed out in this case is similarly treated to religious rituals and that it is this which gives it its ability to make students \"strong\" and \"diligent\").\n\nIt is also reported that leaders of the Village Affairs Office of Ngau Chi Wan village are invited to dinner on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, no doubt to keep up friendly relations between close neighbours.\n\nThe vegetarian halls certainly went to great effort to entertain members of the Society on our visit. Each hall provided us with plentiful, and extremely tasty, vegetarian snacks, fruit, cold drinks and Chinese tea. We would like to record our gratitude to them for their generosity. We would also like to record our gratitude to those in charge of the halls for permitting this visit and in letting us wander at will, and to the spiritual advisor of the inmates and to other male members of the sect who came along to answer our many questions; also to Mr. Tsang Sum of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, Hong Kong Government for much assistance with the visit.\n\nSOME WORKS OF REFERENCE\n\n1. The most comprehensive work on sects in general in the nineteenth century and of campaigns against them is J. J. M. de Groot's Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China: a Page in the History of Religions (Amsterdam, Johannes Muller, 1903-4) 2 Vols. It has now been reprinted (legally!) by Literature House Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan, 1963. Many of the sects he mentions are members of the Hsien-tien group. For evidence of this, see:\n\n2. Marjorie Topley, \"The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret Religious Sects\", in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 2 1963, pp. 362-392. \"Great Way\" ideology is described in more detail in this article, and also the system of ranks and appointments used by several of the sects. The evidence for linking these sects with the well-known White Lotus organization is also discussed.\n\n3. Further details of several sects of the group are provided in articles appearing in the Chinese Recorder. See for example:\n\nJ. Edkins, \"Religious Sects in North China\", Vol. XVII, 1886. D. H. Porter, \"Secret Sects in Shangtung\", Vol. XVII, 1886. George Miles, \"Vegetarian Sects\", Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, 1902. The relationship among the sects discussed was not however known to these writers at the time.\n\nHong Kong, 1968\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY and JAMES HAYES",
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    {
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1969",
        "page_number": 7,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "# PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1968\n\nThe Society is now in its tenth year since its revival in 1959. Its membership at the end of 1968 was 437 - an increase of 17 over 1967. Despite the loss of 47 members mainly owing to their departure from the Colony, we gained 63 new members including 5 life members, one of whom was already an ordinary member. We have now reached the point where our gains over our losses each year are not great but are steadily maintained.\n\nDuring the year, the Society met fourteen times, at which addresses of a high standard were given both by eminent scholars from overseas and a welcome number of scholars living or working in the Colony.\n\nThe crowning and most popular activities of the year were the two symposia organized under the chairmanship of Dr. Marjorie Topley. Firstly, in March last year, we had the weekend visit to Chinese Vegetarian Halls of the Sect of Former Heaven in Kowloon. Then, on November 2 and 3, the Branch held a Weekend Symposium organized by Professor D. J. Dwyer of the Department of Geography and Geology of the University of Hong Kong, which had for its subject \"The Changing Face of Hong Kong\". The programme included six lectures with illustrating exhibits by Professor Dwyer himself and members of the staff of his department and of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, followed by a panel discussion of members' questions. On the second day, there were three field trips under the specialist lecturers for further study of the subject on the spot. The Society is deeply indebted to Professor Dwyer and the specialists who took part in this most edifying and highly successful study, and to those who were responsible for its organization.\n\nThe Journal of the Society deserves special attention. With Mr. James Hayes as Editor, the Journal has not only maintained its standard of scholarship but has increased in popularity and repute, especially among scholars and readers overseas, and we have built up a valuable library of journals which other societies with similar objects have been keen to exchange for ours. The sale of our Journal last year was more than twice that of the previous year. There is a greatly increased demand for back",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205703,
        "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-1969",
        "page_number": 9,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "Council in February of this year, and more recently both Mr. J. S. Lee and Mr. M. S. Cumming have resigned owing to their many other commitments, and in the case of Mr. Cumming owing to the likelihood of his being away a good deal from the Colony during the year. Of the original Council of 1959 there are only two left - Dr. Marjorie Topley and myself. The Council is a hard-working body; it meets at least once a month and its activities involve a great deal of time and labour. It is essential for the future of the Society to fill the vacancies with persons who have real interest in the work of the Society and are prepared to share the work in furthering its interests.\n\nIn concluding I want to thank all my colleagues on the Council for their unremitting work, the British Council for their traditional help in a variety of ways and for the use of their premises for the meetings of the Council and their Library to house the greater part of the Society's books, and last but not least Mrs. O'Hara, also of the British Council, for her ever-willing and ready help and secretarial work which have been most valuable.\n\n28 April, 1969.\n\nLectures in 1968 comprised:-\n\n15 January\n\nProfessor Michael Sullivan.\n\n\"The Cave Temples of Maichishan (with slides).\n\n26 February\n\nJ. R. JONES\n\n\"The British Treaty with Siam of 1855\"\n\n16 March\n\nMr. Robert Bruce.\n\nVisit to Chinese Vegetarian Halls (chai-t'ang) and the Sects of Former Heaven (Hsien-t'ien Tao).\n\n18 March\n\nDr. Philip Mao.\n\n\"Some Aspects of Ching Dynasty Porcelain of the Kang Hsi, Yung Cheng & Ch'ien Lung Periods\" (illustrated with slides).\n\n8 April\n\nAnnual General Meeting.\n\n29 April\n\nMr. T. C. Cheng.\n\n\"Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong up to 1941\".",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt",
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    {
        "id": 209889,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 148,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "126\n\nmatters only. It was not a kaifong that looked after the general affairs of the area. This duty seems to have been performed in the early period by a committee of merchant and trade guild elite figures drawn from a wider area. This body sat in the Man Mo Temple in nearby Hollywood Road, and a special kung sor (kung so) or 'public affairs office' was built for its meetings in the first year of the T'ung Chih reign (1862-1863). This is the date of the inscription above the door of the building, which is still in existence. This Kaifong was later (from 1871) effectively subsumed in the Tung Wah Hospital Committee.”1\n\nThe Earth God Shrine at Li Po Lung Path, Kennedy Town\n\nThere was another, lesser Fuk Tak Kung shrine in an adjoining, equally old urban area at Li Po Lung Path, Kennedy Town. When I made enquiries in 1974, no one could tell the whole history of the shrine or in which year it was established.\n\nAccording to an old kaifong Mr. Chow Kwok-kwan, one of the former managers of the shrine, who was 90 years old in 1974, the shrine was already located on the slope behind 14 Li Po Lung Path when he first came to live in the district in 1914. At that time the shrine was only a wooden hut measuring about 12' x 5' with a height of about 8'. He was told by some elderly kaifongs that the shrine had been there for more than twenty years, which may link its origins to the great plague of 1894, as with the altar at Sheung Fung Lane. At first the shrine only housed the Sam Shing Kung, the deities representing Heaven, Earth and Man, the three Powers of Nature; another deity was added to the shrine: the Fuk Tak Kung or earth god (To Tei) who is responsible for the peace and prosperity of the district. Finally, an image of Kwun Yam, Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, was also placed there. In view of its shabby state, Mr. Chow himself reconstructed the temple as a brick structure of more or less the same size about the year 1940.\n\nLater\n\nIn June 1966 it was destroyed by torrential rain, but up to 1974, when I made my enquiries, none of the interested parties had come forward with a reconstruction or resiting project.\n\nSince 1940, it had been the regular practice for the residents of Kennedy Town to celebrate at the shrine annually, usually on...",
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    {
        "id": 211649,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 64,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "39\n\nmajor festival held every five years, hence their title. The ten are Chang (H), Hsu (1), Keng (I), Wu (5), Ho (FPJ), Hsuch (B‡), Feng (B), Chao (#), T'an (M) and Lu (F).\n\nThe generally accepted leader of the Pestilence Wang Yeh is Chih Wang Yeh (1) who is also known by other honorifics, as are other Pestilence Wang Yeh, as Chih Fu Wang Yeh (b); Chih Fu Yuan Shuai (EBD); Chih Fu Ch'ien Sui (af); Chih Fu Tai Hsun (£FF{X); Chih Ch'ien Sui (-1) or Tai T'ien Chin Fu (RX##). In Singapore and Malaysia a not uncommon title for the Pestilence Wang Yeh is 'Great One' (Ta Jen AA), a title more frequently given to non-Pestilence Wang Yeh in Taiwan. In Ang Mo Kio in Singapore three Pestilence Wang Yeh, Li, Liu and Chin who occupy the main altar are referred to both as Ta Jen and Wang Yeh in temple notices. They are prayed to not only for protection from disease but also for tranquility in the home. In Taiwan and South-East Asia a number of what would be non-Pestilence Wang Yeh in Fukienese communities are referred to as Lao Yeh (Em) and Ta Jen. They are mainly in Hakka communities and are very local deified and revered worthies.\n\nPestilence Wang Yeh are identifiable by the honorific 'Touring and Inspecting on behalf of Heaven' (Tai T'ien Hsun Shou X). The various other titles borne by Pestilence Wang Yeh in Taiwan include Tsun Wang (Honourable Prince), with the three on the altar being the First, Second and Third Honourable Princes (AZE); Ch'ien Sui (Prince or Excellency T); En Wang (Prince of KindnessE); Wang Kung (Prince 4), and 'An Emissary for Disaster Relief' (Hsing Ts'ai Shih Chih 77(K).\n\nA number of temple keepers differentiate between a Wang Yeh and a Ch'ien Sui. The former they claim to be permanent whilst Ch'ien Sui are only temporarily on Earth 'for less than one thousand years'. The Wang Yeh are said to be the senior, promoted on orders from Heaven, whilst the Ch'ien Sui are deities promoted by popular acclaim. They are, however, prayed to in the same way, for the same things and with the same results. The latter are also the patrons of sorcerers (wushih ZEL) who use them as a go-between between them and their spiritual contacts. There is little functional differentiation as all are believed to be capable of fending off disasters and curing sickness.\n\nIn one instance, and probably in others too, the full title of a particular",
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    {
        "id": 216042,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
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        "document_key": "RAS-2002",
        "page_number": 341,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "275\n\ntitles of the god”. \n\nThe third hall contained Guan Yin, as the 'patron of offspring', with statues of the Buddhist trio Dicang Wang etc., about her. A special little shrine to the left contained the 'thousand-handed' Guan Yin. \n\nDoré added that a visit to a smoky grotto, reeking with the acrid odour of 'joss-sticks' rounds off the tour of the cult buildings. Here there were two ugly statuettes, Guan Yin and Yanguang Pusa, the Bodhisattva of Eyesight: strings of cash hung as ex-votos for the former. In the depths of the grotto, sticks of incense were burning night and day before the statue of one, Pei Toutuo, a Hunanese [so said the monks] who discovered gold in what was then called Fuyu Shan E. He was said to have built the temple with the proceeds of his mining and the temple name was then changed to Jin Shan, Gold Mountain. \n\nA square artificial lake enclosed by a stone balustrade is referred to as the First Spring under Heaven after the waters were declared to be the sweetest for brewing tea. Not surprisingly a tea house offering tea brewed with water from the spring is served to today's visitors. \n\nMy wife, eldest daughter and I visited the Jin Shan Temple during a cold spell one March in the mid-1990s and found to our disappointment that the images were all modern, replacing those destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. However, along the leading edge of the main altar we recognized some twenty or so small images of the Sinicised Vedic deities similar to those I wrote about in Vol. 38 of JHKBRAS. The fact that the great Qing emperor Qian Long had a particular love for the monastery at Jin Shan, referred to earlier, may explain why these Vedic images are also present on the altar in the Jin Shan Si, possibly copied from the images in the temples in Beijing's Western Hills, again connected with the early Qing. \n\nAnother highly visible pagoda, known as the Sengjia Ta, stands on top of the Dingshi Shan, just under a mile south from Zhenjiang's former southern gate. It was built on this site during the Ming having been moved from its former location during temple reconstruction.",
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