[ { "id": 204417, "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": 49, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "40\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\nand, as there were two hundred monks living on the premises all year round, you can imagine what an enormous place it was. According to the rules, ordination lasted fifty-three days and included an intensive period of study, repentance, and purification, as well as three rites, that is, first the novices' ordination sha-mi chieh; then about ten days later the bhikkhus' ordination pi-ch'iu chieh; and finally the bodhisattvas' ordination, or p'u-sa chieh.\n\nAt the end of the latter, six to eighteen pieces of moxa were placed in two rows on the ordinand's shaven head and set afire. They burned down to the scalp and left permanent scars. If you ever want to tell a monk from a layman, look at his head. If he has the marks, he is a monk. If there are no scars, he may still be a monk, but he was not ordained in China.\n\nOrdination meant a complete break. One no longer had his mother and father, wife and children. One had instead his master and brother disciples. All former responsibilities were dissolved. There was only one responsibility: to seek out salvation with diligence. Ordination was usually irrevocable. A monk could not be released from his vows except for some very good reason, as, for instance, if he were an only son and his parents fell ill. In practice very few monks returned to lay life.\n\nI said at the beginning that one seldom went through all stages of the Buddhist career. Most lay devotees did not go on to become monks; and many monks entered the Sangha without having first taken the Three Refuges or the Five Vows. This happened, for example, in the case of the person who \"left home\" in childhood. Usually he was given to a temple by his parents, sometimes because he had fallen ill and they had made a vow that if he were healed, he would become a monk, sometimes because they were too poor to raise him or took a pessimistic view of human life. I know of one monk, for instance, who was given to a temple when he was ten years old because his father had repeatedly failed his civil service examinations and did not want his son to be exposed to the same disappointments. I can think of another ten-year-old who was literally kidnapped by a wandering mendicant, but who lived to bless him for this act of anomalous charity.\n\n44\n\nSome \"left home\" in their late teens or twenties and of their own volition. They did so for a variety of reasons.\n\nOften", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206796, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA \n\n+ \n\n67 \n\noperation for Kao-tsung Tzu-chih t'ung-chien records this operation as follows: \n\nIn the eleventh moon of the first year of Hung-tao A, the Emperor had great difficulty in seeing because of a headache. The imperial doctor, Ch'in Ming-ho was summoned (to the Inner Palace) to diagnose the case. Ch'in indicated that the Emperor could be healed if he was allowed to needle (acupuncture) the Emperor's head in order to release the blood. \n\nCh'in was allowed to perform the operation and the Emperor was cured. Ch'in was a very skilful surgeon indeed. 38 \n\nIn A.D. 741, a Nestorian Monk known as Ch'ung I also proved to be a good physician in the court. The medical knowledge of these foreigners improved the state of medicine in China and when they met Taoist physicians later, both schools worked very closely and discovered a new kind of medical knowledge which not only benefitted them but also all mankind.40 \n\nLi Hsin 李珣 \n\nIn dealing with foreigners in T'ang China, whether in the field of medical, natural or humanistic science, Li Hsün can hardly be neglected.41 Li was originally from Persia and was the author of the famous Hai-yao pen-ts'ao \n\n(Exotic Pharmacopaeia). Unfortunately, the book is now lost, and there is even uncertainty whether Li Hsun was in fact the author of this book. Fragments of Li Hsün's book have been preserved in the Chung-hsiu Cheng-ho ching-shih cheng-lei pei-yung pen-ts'ao, which is a revision, undertaken in A.D. 1249, of T'ang Shen-wei's Cheng-ho hsin-hsiu cheng-lei pei-yung pen-ts'ao (Materia Medica) of A.D. 1116. They are also preserved in Li Shih-chen's Pen-ts'ao kang-mu \n\n+ \n\nLi was a Ming scientist and died in A.D. 1593. \n\nWhether Li Hsün is the author of the work mentioned is not for discussion here. P. Pelliot, Ch'en Pang-hsien, P. Huard and M. Wong all regarded Li as the author of this work, and as a Persian.42 \n\nLi Hsün was also a literary man of high standing. The compiler of Hua-chien chi had selected thirty-seven of Li's tz'u (lyrics) for this anthology. It is also recorded in Hua-chien chi that Li was also the author of Ch'iung-yao chi. Li Hsün's \n\n+", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207317, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES ON CHIUCHOW OPERA\n\n77\n\nBy that time the audience who were watching the opera* becomes aware of the medium, who is now rushing through the audience on to the stage, where the performance stops and the actors retreat. A table is placed on the stage, the medium stands behind the table facing the audience, shaking in trance, beating himself with the spiky iron ball. A dozen men surround him, one spraying water from a bucket in all directions, one throwing rice around, several beating gongs. They take away his weapon and give the medium some water to drink from a bowl, they hand him a sword which he brandishes into all directions of heaven. He then opens his mouth, sticks out his tongue with the tip downward, and holding the sword vertically pointing upward he inflicts small cut-wounds to the middle of his tongue. Stacks of yellow paper in various sizes are already prepared on the table, and he bends down and chops the paper with his bleeding tongue, whilst the helpers take away the marked ones to distribute them to the crowd. When the medium's tongue stops bleeding he again drinks water from the bowl, brandishes the sword and cuts his tongue and repeats this whole process several times, shaking all the while, and the deafening gongs never stop being beaten. He finally beats himself once more with the iron ball and blood streaks appear on the back of his costume. Then he is rushed back to the temple where he repeats once more the scene, as on stage. After that he takes off his costume and returns quietly home. They suppose that he is unaware of what he has been doing, and that the wounds of his lacerated tongue and back will have healed by the next morning.\n\nThe members of the opera-troupe who play the military roles, handling knives and swords also venerate Kuan-ti, the god of war on his birthday on the 13th day of the 5th month.\n\nIn recent years, the Chiuchow opera in Hong Kong has received a great boost when Hsiao Nan-ying, a top Chiuchow actress, came to Hong Kong and started to perform in 1974. She has re-trained the actors of the Sang Ngai opera troupe and has written some libretti for them in the style of the reformed traditional plays, a movement which was created under Mei Lan-fang's influence. She produced the libretti, directed the performance, played the leading role...\n\n* From the stage a roof extends to shelter the audience, it rests on pillars and the 3 sides are open. As in church (in Europe and formerly in Protestant mission churches in China) the sexes are divided, women on the left and men on the right. There is a fenced passage-way through the middle up to the stairs leading to the stage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209796, "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-1983", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "33\n\nsangha could be healed and raised by strict adherence to the old rules. 14\n\nBut how can adherence to old rules be encouraged when monks are living in vastly changed conditions, and when nearly every monk has his own temple? It seems that supporters of the old system had not faced the challenge of the changed condition of the time. Some realized that verbal exhortation alone would have little effect in bringing back a better observance of the old rules, and so proposed a centralization of authority into a hierarchical structure. How to reconcile this with the traditional egalitarian ideal was not discussed. Despite this talk of retaining the old system, all the discussions also encouraged active participation in social life, especially in the form of rendering social service to the community.\n\nThe full implication of these discussions of the reorganization of the sangha for the understanding of the monks' changing self-perception is very great and will be discussed later. Here, one may note that one common agreement of these discussions is that monks should be more than just monks. They should acquire skills which will equip them to render social service to the community.\n\nC. Education of the Monks\n\nThe agenda planned for the Conference of Chinese Monks also contained an item on the education of monks. The responses to this item were numerous and quite unanimous. Basically, it was felt that all monks should receive a secular education in addition to the traditional Buddhist schooling in doctrine, rituals, precepts, and cultivation. In the words of one monk who responded, the monk's education should consist of two parts: internal education, comprising the traditional education of the monk with the exception of outmoded matters, and an external education, which was the same as a secular education. The latter was judged necessary for the propagation of the faith and for active service to the community.1 Another proposal divided education into four categories: 1. Fundamental education; 2. professional education, i.e., a secular training preparing the monks to take up jobs which render service to the community; 3. education for the propagation of the faith, which trains eligible monks for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210250, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "200 Y.H. CHEUNG, K.Y. TAI, S.W. TSAO AND L.B. THROWER\n\nDiscussion\n\nArguably, the traditional kei wai has two attractive economic features. The first is that it provides a method for controlled exploitation of recently-deposited alluvium. Probably, rearing of fish is the most feasible procedure for exploiting such sites and the construction of a kei wai requires much less equipment and labour than digging deep fish ponds. The second feature of the kei wai is that it facilitates exploitation of the nutrient-rich waters of an estuary to produce animal protein in a variety of forms.\n\nAn estuary has been defined as “an area in which sea water is appreciably diluted by fresh water from rivers” (Stewart, 1972). Therefore sources of energy and nutrients produced in terrestrial communities are carried by the rivers to the estuary, where tidal movement assists recycling of nutrients from consumer back to producer. This characteristic structure and function of an estuary has led to it being called a “nutrient trap” (Odum, E.P., 1971). The importance of supplements of energy and nutrients moving to the estuary from terrestrial communities has been shown clearly by Odum W.E. (1971) and Odum & Heald (1975) for a system in southern Florida. There an estuary is receiving material from an extensive mangrove community, and measurements showed that material to be more important as a basis for economic productivity than was photo-synthesis.\n\nIn considering the productivity of the waters of Hau Hoi Wan, it is relevant that Vrijmoed (1975) found that the weight of fouling organisms (invertebrate animals) accumulating on blocks of pine wood submerged for several months in Hau Hoi Wan was the greatest among the five sites she investigated within Hong Kong's coastal waters; this result reflects the high nutrient content of the water.\n\nThe inherently nutrient-rich water of the estuary is then impounded in the kei wai where it is further supplemented with nutrients and energy by the plant material that enters it. Microorganisms play an important part in fragmenting the plant material and converting much of the structural carbohydrates to protein. Consequently, the higher trophic levels have available material", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210252, "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": 223, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "202\n\nY.H. CHEUNG, K.Y. TAI, S.W. TSAO AND L.B. THROWER\n\nReferences\n\nAnon (1979). Hong Kong 1979—a review of 1978. (Hong Kong: Government Information Services).\n\nBowen, S.H. (1980). Detrital non-protein amino acids are the key to rapid growth of tilapia in Lake Valencia, Venezuela. Science 207, 1216-1218.\n\nFogg, G.E. (1980). Phytoplanktonic primary production. In Barnes, R.S.K. & Mann, K.H. (edit) Fundamentals of Aquatic Ecosystems. (Blackwell: Oxford).\n\nHulscher, J.B. (1975). Het wad een overvloedodig of schaars gedekte tafel voor vogels? Symposium Waddenonderzoek Uitagave van Oecologisch Onderzoek, Arnhem.\n\nKing, J.R. and Farmer, D.S. (1961). Energy metabolism, thermoregulation and body temperature. In Marshall, A.J. (edit.) Biology and Comparative Physiology of Birds, Vol. II (Academic Press: London).\n\nMelville, D.S. (1978). Notes on food requirements of some birds at Mai Po. Notes privately circulated.\n\nOdum, E.P. (1971). Fundamentals of Ecology, 3rd Ed. (Saunders: Philadelphia)\n\nOdum, W.E. (1971). Pathways of energy flow in a south Florida estuary. Sea Grant Tech. Bull. No. 7, Univ. of Miami,\n\nOdum, W.E. & Heald, E.J. (1975). The detritus-based food web of an estuarine mangrove community. Estuarine Research I, 265-286.\n\nPark, D. (1975). A cellulolytic, pythiaceous fungus. Trans. Brit. mycol. Soc. 65, 249-257.\n\nPark, D. & McKee, W. (1978). Cellulolytic Pythium as a component of the river mycoflora. Trans. Brit. mycol. Soc. 77, 251-259.\n\nStewart, W.D.P. (1972). Estuarine and brackish waters an introduction. In Barnes, R.S.K. & Green, J. (ed.) The Estuarine Environment (Applied Science Publishers: London).\n\nVrijmoed, L.L.P. (1975). A study of lignicolous marine fungi in the coastal waters of Hong Kong. Univ. of Hong Kong: M.Phil. Thesis.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211457, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "149\n\nUpon receiving word of the unexpected death of Second Paternal Aunt, Father decided to take a trip to China to see his remaining brothers and sisters. Passage by boat after the First World War was difficult to secure, but reluctant to change his schedule and to inconvenience the bank, he accepted steerage accommodation and left in April 1919 on the Shinyo Maru. Before the ship arrived in Japan some ten days later, he had seen 19 passengers die from influenza and he had himself fallen ill. He debarked in Japan to seek medical care, but as he had difficulty communicating with the Japanese doctor, he proceeded to Shanghai so that Second Paternal Uncle could take care of him. The weather in Shanghai proved to be too cold, so he decided to go to Hong Kong to stay with First Paternal Uncle. There a doctor Koch diagnosed Father as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. When his fingers began to swell, relatives believed the sulphur content of the water in Hong Kong was not beneficial and arranged to move him to my maternal grandfather's home in Shekki, occupied then by his widow and son. It was then that Father sent for Mother. With the help of C. K. Ai, Mother was able to obtain passage, again steerage, on the S. S. Nanking for herself, Dora, and me. Ruth and Helen were left in the care of the Ais. It must have been difficult for them, especially for Helen, to be separated from Mother under such stressful circumstances.\n\nOn shipboard we were one of three families in a large cabin, sharing one bath. There was much noise and activity in and outside of this cabin, but we kept much to ourselves because Mother was very much worried about Father and left Dora, who cried a good deal, probably from seasickness, to my care. One day Mother suffered such severe gastric pain that she thought she would die and gave me instructions as to what to do. The ship's doctor was able to ease her pain. It was a frightening experience and the trip was a traumatic one for all three of us. Years later, Dr. Samuel Yee found that Mother had had a healed perforated gastric ulcer and I wondered if it had occurred then.\n\nSince we were total strangers in a different world, First Paternal Uncle thoughtfully accompanied us from Hong Kong to join Father in Shekki. We travelled over the ocean and up river to our destination on a crowded junk or \"doo\", to be greeted joyfully by Father. Chinese herbs and good food, however, had not been able to restore Father to good health. So my parents decided to return to Honolulu, hoping that a stay at the Leahi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214315, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "137\n\nXU, THE DAOIST PERFECTED LORD XU ZHENJUN 許真君\n\nTHE PROTECTIVE DEITY OF JIANGXI PROVINCE\n\nKEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH\n\nChinese Daoist and folk religion cults can in general terms be classified as nation-wide, provincial or local cults, the latter often limited to as few as one or two villages. Most studies of such cults made during the past half century have concentrated, for very good reasons, on Fujian and Guangdong communities in Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan and South-east Asia as well as in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and only a handful have described in any detail those cults limited to the more remote or less accessible provinces of Mainland China. The following short study is, in truth, no more than a tolerably full outline of a provincial cult which has spread to a limited extent into the neighbouring provinces of China. It is basically a medical cult, the deity revered for his skills in healing the sick; however, in a number of places there is also the added concept of the sick being healed by the deity using his power to cast out demons of sickness. Our particular cult is centred on the not so easily accessible southern province of Jiangxi.\n\nXu Sun, [known also as Xu Zhenren] is one of the numerous legendary Perfected Lords, the 'Immortals' or 'saints' of Daoism. He is the patron deity not only of the Xu clan but also of Jiangxi province. For at least two hundred years his cult has been very popular in the Jiangxi provincial capital, Nanchang [formerly Yu-chang] as well as throughout the whole province of Jiangxi and the immediately adjoining provinces where he is regarded as one of the most potent agents to cure sickness by ridding communities of the baleful spirits and demons who caused the sickness. He, in particular, was believed to be especially efficacious with diseases of the eye. According to Dudgeon, Xu was a doctor in Jiangxi province who, with six brothers, saved the province from devastating floods.\n\nA threesome, of Xu Zhenren and two other Immortals, Sun Zhenren and Wu Zhenren, are venerated as healers of the sick in many temples within communities from Jiangxi and Fujian, and in Fujian communities outside China.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215629, "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": 406, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "357\n\nFRIENDS OF THE HKBRAS TRIP TO CORNWALL\n\nKIRSTY NORMAN\n\nIn April 2002, 25 members of the Friends of the RAS Hong Kong Branch took part in the group's first Monday-Friday organised tour, thanks to the excellent teamwork and organisation of Anita Wilson, Rosemary Lee and Penny Byrne.\n\nThe group visited six gardens in eastern Cornwall, in order to look specifically at oriental planting, and the connections between Cornwall and the early plant hunters. Given the county's place in the history of early oriental plant introductions, there are many gardens to choose from, but in this choice we were fortunate to have the help of the remarkable Maggie Campbell-Culver, author of the recently published and well received The Origin of Plants and previously in charge of the gardens at Mount Edgcumbe, and also her husband Michael Culver. Both had become close friends of Penny Byrne and her husband Tim Heald while neighbours in Fowey. Maggie's love of her subject, and her instinctive ability to strike a balance between educating us and allowing us to roam made her a very popular guide and companion.\n\nThe group met in Fowey on the Monday, visited two gardens a day for three days, and dispersed on the Friday. The trip also included that essential of a Friends outing, good Chinese food, in the form of two fine dinners organised by Penny. Gardens visited were Trewithen, Pine Lodge, Tregrehan, Heligan, Caerhays, and also the Eden Project, though Eden is perhaps more of a phenomenon than a garden.\n\nThe great Cornish gardens we now know were, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the testing grounds for what was to become a veritable torrent of newly discovered plant material, much of it being brought or sent back from China, Japan, Korea and the Himalayas. The way was paved by men like Major General Thomas Hardwicke (1755-1835) of the Bengal Artillery, who brought the first Himalayan rhododendron to Britain in the early 19th century. Discoveries were made by missionaries such as Père Armand David and Père Jean Delavay in the late 19th century, but it was in the early 20th century when professional explorer-collectors such as Ernest Wilson, George Forrest, Frank Kingdom Ward, and Reginald Farrer began systematic", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]