[ { "id": 208363, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n71\n\nAll this is guess work, but as guess work goes it seems to account for the given data in a systematic way. As I see it, the only way to challenge this interpretation (given, of course, that my understanding of the source material is correct) is for those who doubt to produce an alternative way of thinking on this matter, and to provide a new and different explanation which could account better for the data discussed here—and any additional data—in a more interesting way.\n\nFinally, the top branches planted on the graves could be interpreted also as a kind of beacon. Biao means not only 'top branch' but also 'beacon' or 'mark'; such an implication does not necessarily contradict our earlier hypothesis. But if the bamboo arrangements led the way to the graves by marking them and making them conspicuous, we must ask who benefitted from the presence of such signs? Here is another guess. It may be that the yang ancestors are led to the graves of their bones, but I cannot substantiate this at all. It may be mentioned here as a possible interpretation, a vague hypothesis which could be tested at some future stage.\n\n6. Rice Wine\n\nAnother prominent feature of the visit to the graves was the offering of food and wine. The worshippers ate and drank also. The general term used for offerings is ji, or in some notes si. In some cases libations are indicated by the use of the words dian and jiao. Rice wine was an important sacrificial gift used in many contexts. Apart from general wine drinking on various festive occasions, and medical use of wine when it was drunk mixed with herbs and spices on particular days, wine was used in sacrifices. So for instance, on the 24th day of the twelfth moon in offerings to the spirits of the kitchen and the fields in Baling,55 and Jiangling;56 on New Year Eve to the ancestors in Jingshan; On the Lantern Festival in the first moon it formed part of the ji offerings in Jiangling;58 and in the offerings to spirits and ancestors on the Buddhist festival of Zhongyuan, the 15th of the seventh moon, wine was part of the sacrificial gifts, as in Wuling,59 Hangzhou,60 Chongyang,61 and Yingshan.62 Wine was used also in sacrifices to gods like 'General Goan' (Goan Di) in his temple in Mianyang on the 13th day of the fifth moon,63 and to ‘Shui Goan'64 on his birthday on the 15th day of the tenth moon in Zhongxiang;64 Two words", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209699, "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-1982", "page_number": 356, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "334\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nAll in all, students should welcome this handsome book available at a reasonable price.\n\nH. Y. SHIH\n\nClassical Chinese Gardens, ed. Qian Yun. H.K.: Joint Publishing Co., & Beijing: Chinese Building Industry Press, 1982. 240 pp. (including 209 colour plates).\n\nThis is the most satisfying among a number of books on the same subject published in the past decade. Although the text is brief, intended for the general reader, it highlights the special aesthetic qualities of these combinations of architecture and constructed landscape, and offers a synoptic but well-founded history of various types of gardens - imperial, private, religious and scenic parks.\n\nSeveral surviving examples of such gardens and parks are discussed in this book, each illustrated with a plan of its design as well as photographed views. A brief written description of its history, chief monuments and experience of the visitor while walking through or standing at various points, introduces the individual complexes. The quality of this book's reproductions is exceptional. Especially pleasing is the revelation of their views in different seasons.\n\nApart from the many well-known sites in Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou, the book includes such relatively less tourist-ridden locations as the \"Magnificent Clear Lake\" near Xian, and a number of private (and still occupied) residences in Beijing as well as the provinces. Temple gardens in or near a number of cities are a welcome addition as they have been less well publicized for China than for Japan, yet Chinese examples served as prototypes for many in Japan. The final entry in this section of the book is the Norbu Lingka (Treasure Garden), the former summer resort of the Dalai Lama but originally designed for the Qing Dynasty's Resident in Tibet.\n\nOf course, it would demand a much more ambitious undertaking than the work described above, but this reviewer looks forward to a book on Chinese gardens that would offer basic information as to architectural design and construction and...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210361, "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": 332, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "311\n\nThe shops in the market towns supplied all the items that the village shops were unable to stock. Besides “regular” market towns like Yuen Long and Tai Po with their fixed marketing days to regular schedules, the Hong Kong region included a number of coastal market centres places like Cheung Chau, Peng Chau, Tai O in the Islands and Sai Kung in the eastern New Territories. My enquiries show that there were quite large concerns in such places. They were usually \"mixed goods\" establishments. At Sai Kung (land pop. 512 in 1911) one of the larger shops well-remembered by old local people may serve as an example. Its signboard, which survived until twenty years ago, carried a statement of its principal items of business. It dealt in wine, rice, grass cloth rolls from Suzhou and Hangzhou, preserved fruits, fishing nets and shue-leung (a preservative used for dyeing nets), oil, firewood, salt, bamboo and other \"mountain goods\", for all of which it proclaimed itself sole agent. At the same time, I was told, shops like this would slaughter pigs and make their own Chinese wines.\n\nSuch shops could survive, and even flourish, in a market town and especially in the coastal market centres where there were boat people in the anchorages, from both local and visiting boats, to swell the number of customers coming from the many villages of the marketing area. But such businesses could only exist in these market centres. In a region characterized, in the main, by scattered small villages and hamlets with the market towns not too far away on foot or by boat, village shops of the larger kind were simply non-starters.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211044, "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": 105, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "80\n\nlegendary first Huang Yeren, and who was also eventually referred to as Huang Yeren. This individual, Huang Li, was a prefectural governor at Zhengzhou (present day Huizhou) toward the end of the reign of Dayou (928-943) during the short-lived Southern Han dynasty (918-971).\" Evidently he had retired to Luofu after becoming disenchanted with the regime which he served. The sources relate that he met a Taoist who taught him the art of making cinnabar. Towards the end of the reign of Shaoxing (1131-1162), he was by imperial edict granted the title of Dazhen (the one who obtained immortal status). He is thought to have ascended to heaven near the end of the Song dynasty.\" He is also credited with several healings. The memory of Huang Li as a separate figure in the literary sources has been preserved, and evidently there is still a temple or shrine to Huang Li in Dongguan county.\" But the figure of Huang Yeren at Luofu now includes elements of both the original Huang Yeren and the later Huang (or Wang)20 Li.\n\n21\n\nThe veneration of Huang Yeren at Mt. Luofu seems to have a very long history. The poet Su Dongpo in the 11th century A.D. in a letter to a Taoist friend mentions that he had heard of Huang Yeren at Mt. Luofu.\" The great Guangdong poet Qu Dajun (1630-1696) in his encyclopedic Guangdong Xinyu (New accounts of Guangdong) devotes an entire page to Huang Yeren. Huang, he writes, was the most frequently seen of all the saints of the mountain. A small shrine to him (in the hills to the west of the Chongxu Guan) was, he reports, in ruins.\" The writer Tan Cui, who traveled widely in Guangdong during the reign of Qianlong (1736-1796), noted the presence of a small shrine or temple to Huang Yeren in the 18th century.23 When the main temple on the mountain was destroyed in 1802, the nearby shrine to Huang Yeren evidently suffered the same fate. The present temple, the Chongxu Guan, was built shortly afterwards.\" This temple has recently been restored and renovated (1985/86).\n\nIt appears that prior to the restoration, a statue of Huang Yeren stood in the same room as the statue of Ge Hong.\" This statue has disappeared. (The statue beside Ge Hong is now that of his wife, Bao Gu, famous practitioner of acupuncture). However, there is now (as of early 1987) a separate room for the worship of “Huang Daxian\", containing a new statue of the god. We were told that it\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211261, "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": 322, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "297\n\nthat guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French \"Ever Triumphant Army\" to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and administration of the Fuzhou Dockyard and its fleet of warships in the face of many difficulties. Ironically, they were destroyed by naval forces of his own nation during the hostilities of 1884-85 between France and China over Vietnam.\n\nGiquel was a rare bird for his times. Apart from his linguistic proficiency and administrative capacities, he was sympathetic towards China at a time when this was not common among his contemporaries. Moreover, he sought ever to combine his duties to his employers, the Chinese, with his loyalties towards his native land, a veritable tightrope which he conscientiously trod throughout his working life. As Dr. Leibo observes, \"A less committed individual might never have attempted such a balancing act”. (Transferring Technology, p. 5). He gave offence to many influential Frenchmen and to his government in 1872 by an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes in which he suggested that the French Concession at Shanghai should be merged with the International Settlement, and criticized French policy towards China in various aspects.\n\nWhy this should be so is hinted at by an English account which indicates how different Giquel must have been from most of his fellows. Even allowing for the fact that this is an English account, written at a time of strong rivalry between the two powers and by one side of an old and mutual antipathy, it speaks for itself:\n\nFrench officers are so quick to take offense (sic) — so quick to obtain satisfaction - so imperious, so impractical, and so totally uncommercial that they are viewed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212027, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 442, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "417\n\ninterested in modern China or who are interested in the British in Asia. Dr. Atwell has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of how the British administered one small locality and coped with the demands of modern forces. Her work can be used as a guide or spring board for comparison of British colonial policy in other East Asian places, such as Brunei and the Straits Settlements, Hankow, Tientsin and Shanghai, say, with Hong Kong tossed in for good measure.\n\nWEI PEH T'I, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong\n\nSteven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China, Prosper Giquel and the Self-strengthening Movement, China Research Monograph 28, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies, 1985.\n\nProsper Giquel, edited by Steven A. Leibo, A Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1864. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1985.\n\nThese two works, one of compilation and assessment based on a doctoral dissertation, the other of translation (with the help of Debbie Weston) and annotation with a lengthy introduction, have a considerable intrinsic interest because they deal with a rather extraordinary man. They have also a degree of relevance, over a century later, for the West's involvement with present day China's modernizing programme.\n\nThey are to be read in conjunction with other modern works on this period of China's self-strengthening efforts, including those listed in Dr. Leibo's introduction to Transferring Technology.\n\nProsper Giquel, a French naval officer, came to China during the Second China War. After service with the Joint Commission that guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French \"Ever Triumphant Army” to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212505, "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-1991", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "39\n\nthe Kuan Lineage in K'ai-p'ing County. Ann Arbor, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.\n\nWright, Arnold 1908 Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China their history, people commerce, industries, and resources London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company. Ltd\n\nWu, Chang-chuan 1974 Cheng Kuan-ying A Case Study of Merchant Participation in the Chinese Self-strengthening Movement (1878-1884) PhD thesis Columbia University\n\nXia, Dongyuan. 1982 Zheng Guanying ji (Collected materials of Zheng Guanying) Volume I Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1985a Wanqing yangwu yundong yanjiu (A study of self-strengthening movement of late Qing China) Chengdu, Sichuan Renmin chubanshe\n\n1985b. Zheng Guanying zhuan (A biography of Zheng Guanying) Revised edition Shanghai, Huadong Shifan Daxue Chubanshe\n\n1988a, Zheng Guanying ji (Collected materials of Zheng Guanying) Volume II Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1988b. Sheng Xuanhuai zhuan (A biography of Sheng Xuanhuai) Chengdu, Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe\n\nXu, Dingxin 1991 Shanghai zongshanghui-shi 1902-1929 (A history of Shanghai Chamber of Commerce). Shanghai, Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Chubanshe\n\nYamagami, Kan'ichi 1938 Sekko zaibatsu-ron so no kihonteki kōsatsu (A discussion of Zhejiang financial magnates its basic observation) Tokyo. Nihon Hyōronsha\n\nYu, Qixing 1970 Wu Tingfang yu Xiangkang zhi guanxi (The relations of Wu Tingfang with Hong Kong). In Shou Luo Xianglin Jiaoshou Lunwenji Hong Kong, Wanyou Tushu Gongsi 255-78.\n\nZhang, Wenqin, 1984. Cong fengnan guanshang dao maiban shangren Qingdai Guangdong hangshang Wu Yihe jiazu de pouxi (From feudal official merchant to comprador An analysis of the family of howqua of the Guangdong hong merchants in the Qing). In Jindaishi Yanjiu 1984/3 167-97. 1984/4 231-53\n\n1989 Cong fengjian guanshang dao maiban guanliao Wu Jianzhang shilun (From feudal official merchant to compradorial bureaucrat An analysis and discussion on Wu Jianzhang). In Jindaishi Yanjiu 1989/5 31-54\n\nZhejiangji zibenjia de xingqi (The rise of Zhejiang clique of entrepreneurs) Edited by Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhi Xieshang Huiyi Zhejiang-sheng Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Yanjiu Weiyuanhui Hangzhou, Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1986.\n\nZou, Yiren 1980 Jiu Shanghai renkou bianqian de yanjiu (A study of evolution of the population of old Shanghai) Shanghai, Renmin Chubanshe", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212511, "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-1991", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "45\n\nMajor scholarly activities\n\nRuan Yuan provided opportunities for the scholars to work on literary projects or in academic institutions, and often published their own works as well. Since he organized and controlled the projects, from conceptualization to approval of the final draft, as well as finding the funding of the projects, his name was listed as author, compiler or editor of these publications, although Ruan Yuan was always careful to give due credit to others.\n\nThe 75 titles I have located encompass works in several major areas of learning. In-depth discussion of these works belongs to another study. At the present, however, attention can be called superficially to a few works in several categories.\n\n13\n\nClassics: as director of studies in Zhejiang 1795-98, Ruan Yuan organized more than 40 scholars in Hangzhou to compile Jing ji zuan gu (106 + 10 juan), a dictionary to the Classics, printed in 1800. A thesaurus of classical terms and phrases, Jing fu, planned to comprise more than 100 juan, was compiled around 1810 but was never printed. In 1816, shortly before his transfer to Canton, Ruan Yuan reprinted from rare Sung editions the thirteen Classics, Song ben Shi san jing zhu shu, 243 juan, in Jiangxi. Affixed to this work were collation notes on the Classics Ruan Yuan had gathered earlier. The most monumental work on the Classics compiled under Ruan Yuan's aegis was the Huang-Qing jing jie, 1,400 juan, printed in 1826 in Canton, embodying more than 180 treatises written on the Classics during the Qing era. Discourses by scholars at the academies he founded, the Gu jing jing she (Gu jing jing she wen ji) in Hangzhou and the Xue hai tang (Xue hai tang ji) in Canton, were also published.\n\nArchaeology: A large number of buried ancient bronzes were being excavated at that time. Contemporary scholars were not interested in the vessels so much as objects of art as they were in the inscriptions (ming wen) on them as a reference to authenticate classical texts. For the same reasons, inscriptions on stone were scrutinized. Ruan Yuan's Ji gu zhai chong ding yi chi kuan shi, 10 juan, preface dated 1804, is still used as a standard reference work today for identification of bronze vessels and inscriptions. His study on stone inscriptions include Shan zuo jin shi zhi, 24 juan, 1795-1797, stone inscriptions of Shandong, Liang Zhe jin shi zhi, 18 juan, 1824, of Zhejiang, and Yueh dong jin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212512, "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-1991", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "46\n\nshi lue, 16 juan.\n\n17\n\nHistory and Statecraft: Chou ren zhuan, 46 juan, started between 1797 and 1799 but not completed and printed until 1810, was the first effort of any Chinese scholar to put in chronological order summaries of the lives and works of 242 Chinese and 38 non-Chinese astronomers and mathematicians, thus providing materials that made possible a systematic history of mathematics and its related field, astronomy, as well. Ruan Yuan also wrote biographies of scholars, including those who were not officials and therefore would not have been included in official compilations, in Guo shi ru lin zhuan and Guo shi wen yuan zhuan, 1810. Discourse on contemporary administrative issues included Liang Guang yen fa zhi (Salt administration in Guangdong and Guangxi), Hai yun kao, 2 juan (sea transport), 1805, Hai tang zhi, 30 juan (Coastal Gazetteer of Haining), and an essay putting forth his suggestions on the most efficient way to transport tribute grain, Liang chuan liang mi jie fa shuo, composed while he was director of grain transport.\n\nHistorical Geography: In addition to encouraging other scholars to compile provincial and local gazetteers, Ruan Yuan himself compiled two provincial gazetteers, Guang dong tong zhi, 334 juan in 1818-1822, and Yun nan tong zhi gao, 216 juan, in 1835, when he was governor-general in the respective provinces.\n\nBibliography: As a scholar, Ruan Yuan relished in collecting books. He made sure that cataloguing of well-known collections, such as that of the Fang Family in Ningbo, was brought up to date, in Tian yi ge shu cang shu mu, 4 juan, 1804. He established libraries that included Classical as well as contemporary works in the Lingyin Monastery (Hangzhou) and the Jiaoshan Monastery off Zhenjiang, and compiled catalogues for the collections. As director of studies in Shandong, he drew up a list of books for young students to peruse, Shan dong xue zheng Ruan Yuntai shi tong sheng shu mu, 1 juan.\n\n20\n\nLiterature and Other Collectanea: Ruan Yuan collected and published works of literally thousands of poets, including women and other social minorities, whose work would not have otherwise survived. Liang Zhe you xuan lu, for instance, contained 9,241 poems by 3,133 poets from Zhejiang, including 381 poems by 183 women poets, and 314 poems by 117 monks and priests, together with biographical notes of the poets. His own essays and poems are also published in Yan jing shi ji, 54 juan,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212517, "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-1991", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "51\n\ndistinguished scholars, Wang Chang (1725-1806) and Sun Xinyen (1753-1818) were invited by Ruan Yuan to serve as senior lecturers at the academy he established in Hangzhou, the Gu jing jing she.\n\nWang Chang, a man-of-letters with expertise in such diverse fields as the Classics, linguistics, Buddhist scripture, border warfare, and copper administration, had attained the jinshi degree in 1754 and had served as a clerk in the Grand Council. After a long career that included serving on the personal staff of Wen-fu (d. 1771), the Manchu President of the Board of Barbarian Affairs during the ten military campaigns of the mid-Qianlong reign, he retired to join Ruan Yuan in Hangzhou. Wang had been one of the three chief compilers of Ping ding liang Jin chuan fang lue [Official history of the Jinchuan war] 136+17 juan, printed 1800, and wrote a dozen or so major works of his own, including Yun nan tung zheng chuan shu [The complete work on copper administration in Yunnan], 50 juan, completed in 1787 (now listed as lost), Qing pu xian zhi [Local gazetteer of Qingpu], 40 juan, 1768, and Tai cang xian zhi [Gazetteer of Tai cang], 65 juan, printed in 1803, Shan sheng lü lie [Statutes and precedents of Shanxi province], 50 juan, c.1786, and many others.\n\nSun Xingen, a leading Classicist, specialist in astronomy, Buddhist scripture, geography and mathematics, never attained the jinshi degree but had passed the provincial examination in 1786. He was a friend of such noted scholars as Yuan Mei (1716-1798), Hong Liangji, Duan Yucai, Sun Zhizu, Gui Fu, Wu Yi and Wang Zhong. He met Ruan Yuan during the latter's tenure as director of studies in Shandong. Before joining the Gu jing jing she, Sun also served as director of the Jishan Academy, Hangzhou (1800) and in 1811 was appointed director of Zhongsan Academy in Nanjing. He participated in the compilation of several local histories but made his reputation as a Classical scholar by meticulously correcting the mistakes made throughout the centuries and publishing new editions of ancient texts. He compiled his own local histories — Lu zhou fu zhi [Gazetteer of Lu zhou in Anhuai], printed in 1803 and Sung jiang fu zhi [Gazetteer of Sungjing, including Shanghai], printed in 1819. His considerable literary works were collected in Sun Yen ru shi wen ji [Poems and essays by Sun Xinyen]. Sun was also a noted calligraphist, specializing in the seal script. His wife, Wang Cai wei (1753-1776), and a daughter, Sun Yi hui (married Xiao), both accomplished in poetry and literature, published poems.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212518, "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-1991", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "52\n\nZang Yungtang (1767-1811) had studied in Suzhou in 1793, the centre of Han Learning at that time, and was invited by Ruan Yuan to edit the classical dictionary, Jing ji zhuan gu. In 1800 he was asked again by Ruan Yuan to collate the Thirteen Classics. He stayed on Ruan Yuan's personal staff until 1802. After failing the Metropolitan Examination, he went into business; then joined the personal staff of Yi Bingshou (1754-1815), who was then the Prefect of Yangzhou, in 1804, to write about the topography of Yangzhou. From 1807 onwards, he went back on Ruan Yuan's payroll, compiling Wu Dai shi [History of the Five Dynasties] at the behest of Liu Fengao (1761-1830).\n\nQian Taxin (1728-1804) came from a scholarly tradition, a grandson and son of noted men of learning. After obtaining his first degree at the age of 17 sui, he became residential tutor in a family with an excellent library which he used extensively. After attaining the jinshi degree in 1754, he remained in Beijing where he became friends with Dai Zhen and Ji Yun (1724-1805) who later became chief editor of the Si ku chuan shu. He directed the Chong shan Academy in Nanjing, and joined Ruan Yuan on the dictionary project in Hangzhou. He was the author of the critical notes on Er shi er shi kao yi [Twenty-two dynastic histories], 100 juan, 1782. Ruan Yuan's subordinate wife, Liu Wenru (1777-1849) was to compile the same for Er shi si shi [Twenty-four dynastic histories].\n\nChen Shouchi (1777-1834) of Minxian, Fujian had started his career with Zhu Gui. Afterwards he joined the faculty of Gu jing jing she and the Fu Wen Academy. He was recruited to work on Jing fu and Hai tang zhi by Ruan Yuan. At a later date, he served as editor-in-chief of Fujian tong zhi [Provincial gazetteer of Fujian] and Li xian fang zhi [Local gazetteer of the Li District of Jiangsu]. His own essays on the Classics, with several letters from Ruan Yuan, were printed in Zuo hai wen ji [Essays by Chen Shouchi].\n\nChen Wenxu (1775-1845) of Hangzhou was a “student” of Zhu Gui, who introduced him to Ruan Yuan. Ruan considered Chen one of the foremost poets of the province, and appointed him to his personal staff. He gained expertise in sea transport, salt administration, grain transport and flood control. He helped Ruan Yuan establish a humanitarian social welfare policy, including famine relief. He collected a large number of women students. Both his subordinate wives were acknowledged poets.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212519, "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-1991", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "53\n\nJiang Fan (1761-1831) was one of the scholars from Yangzhou who followed Ruan Yuan all their lives. After losing his fortune and library in a drought that devastated Yangzhou 1785-86, he worked for a number of major officials on their personal staff, including Grand Secretary Wang Jie (1725-1805) and Ruan Yuan. At the recommendation of Ruan Yuan, who was then Director of Grain Transport, Jiang was appointed to the Lizheng Academy as Director in 1813. He followed Ruan Yuan to Canton as tutor to Ruan Fu (b. 1802), who, alone among Ruan Yuan's children, had entertained any pretension as a classical scholar. While at Canton, Jiang edited the Guangdong tongzhi 1819-1822 under Ruan Yuan's aegis. Ruan Yuan published Jiang's major work, Hanxue shicheng ji.\n\nJiao Xun (1763-1820) was another scholar from the Yangzhou area. He was considered to be a major force of the mid-Qing era in Classics, history, astronomy, mathematics, phonetics, etymology, and geography. He was a close personal friend of Ruan Yuan and worked as Ruan's personal secretary in the early days of Ruan Yuan's official career. A record of anti-piracy campaigns in Zhejiang 1799-1809 was compiled by Jiao and printed as Yingzhou shu ji. Jiao also worked on Chouren zhuan. He was recorded to have been paid 1,000 taels to compile the Yangzhou fu zhi [Local gazetteer of Yangzhou]. With this money, he was able to purchase land and build a house. His own works, mostly printed by Ruan Yuan, included Bei hu xiao zhi [Local history of Bei hu, a community north of Yangzhou], Li tang xue suan ji (Jiao Xun's mathematical studies), and Diao gu lou ji [Studies from Diao gu lou], comprising three major treatises on the Classics.\n\nHung Yixuan (1770-1815) was an example of those scholars whose personality and inclination had made it difficult for them to fit into the trials and tribulations of official life. One of three brothers all known for their intellectual achievements, which embraced astronomy, history, the Classics, and geography, Hung first came to the attention of Ruan Yuan in Hangzhou in 1796 or 1797. As Governor-General at Canton, Ruan Yuan rescued Hung from office by appointing him to his personal staff to work with Feng Dengfu on epigraphical notes they were compiling on Zhejiang.\n\nLing Tingkan (1757-1809) had made his home in Yangzhou, where he had become a close friend of Ruan Yuan. A jinshi of 1790, Ling had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212521, "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-1991", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "55\n\nintellectually lethargic. It was also from Liu's diaries we discover that Ruan Yuan's house was burned down on April 2, 1823 with heavy losses, including Ruan's entire library.1\n\n31\n\nThe founding of the Xue hai tang in Canton brought to Ruan Yuan a number of Cantonese scholars. Besides Chen Li, who was cited by Hiromu Momose in Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period as perhaps \"the most brilliant among a group of Cantonese scholars who developed eclectic theories mid-way between Sung Neo-Confucianism and the School of Han Learning,\" the others included Lin Botun, Wu Lanxiu, Ma Fuan, and Xu Rong, Tan Rong from Nanhai, who had passed the provincial examination in 1824 and had been appointed to the Xue hai tang by Ruan Yuan but had chosen not to take the metropolitan examination, nevertheless persuaded his friends, the Wu Family hong merchants, to print the large collectanea, Yue ya tang cong shu, consisting of 180 titles.\n\nIt is disappointing that the personalities and idiosyncrasies of these scholars cannot be discerned from reading their writings. Employing the techniques of detective novelists by investigating whatever might be construed as clues that come my way, I have been able to reconstruct the person of Ruan Yuan to a certain extent, but the scholars around him have completely eluded my attempts. They were not easy prey. Neither were they easy to manage. At times their eccentricities hindered progress of Ruan's work.\n\nThe completion of Shi san jing zhu shu fu jiao kan ji was delayed considerably because of personality conflict among the compilers. The idea for such a project had originated with Lu Wen chao (1717-1796), a scholar-official from Hangzhou who had spent a greater part of his time copying various old editions of the Classics by hand, noting the differences and printing the corrected texts. After Lu's death his student, Zang Rong, who was working on Jing ji zuan gu, persuaded Ruan Yuan to undertake the project to print the Jiao kan ji as well. In 1799, after consulting his staff, a much more ambitious project became envisaged, to print the Thirteen Classics together with all the notations throughout the ages.\n\nBeing then Governor of Zhejiang with resources at his command, Ruan Yuan asked Duan Yucai (1735-1815), a Classicist with expertise in etymology and phonetics, to take on the responsibility as editor. Considering the task too arduous for a single man, Duan recommended his friend Gu Guangchi (1776-1835) to share the work. Gu, in turn, brought other scholars.\n\n33\n\nPage 75\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212523, "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-1991", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "57\n\nCollectively, these secretaries were known as mu.38 There are a number of learned treatises on the subject in Chinese, but I do not think that the function of these people should be expounded here; suffice to say that they were treated as respected senior secretaries by the officials, including Ruan Yuan, and were assigned certain tasks. A few examples of Ruan Yuan's secretaries follow: Zhang Jian was with Ruan Yuan in Zhejiang, Canton, and after his retirement, in Yangzhou as well. He helped formulate and implement such policies as eradication of coastal piracy, famine relief, salt administration, and transportation of tribute grain by sea. Chen Hongshou's expertise ranged from river administration to coastal defence. Together with Chen Wenxu, Zhu Weibi, Shi Guoqi, and Ruan Yuan himself, he also drafted the memorials Ruan Yuan sent to the Jiaqing Emperor while he was Governor of Zhejiang. Scholars with \"an extraordinarily fine hand\"39 who worked as actual copyists for Ruan Yuan's memorials include Fang Pu, He Yuanxi, Shi Guoqi, and Wu Shucheng.40\n\nRuan Yuan found jobs for other scholars in academic institutions. The academies he founded, Gu jing jing she in Hangzhou and the Xue hai tang in Canton, had absorbed scores of scholars. Other academies took on dozens of others. Among the less commonly known academies founded or rejuvenated by Ruan Yuan were the An lan Academy41 in Haining, Zhejiang,42 and the Ta liang Academy in Henan.43 In appointing scholars he considered worthwhile to these academies, Ruan Yuan in fact helped to spread Han Learning throughout the country. Ruan Yuan must have been at his wit's end in trying to find a suitable place for so eccentric a scholar as Fang Dongshu (1772-1851). Fang, from Tongcheng, who only attained the first degree, was noted for his poverty and his inability to get along with anyone, except perhaps Ruan Yuan. In 1819, Ruan Yuan brought him to Canton to work on the Guang dong tong zhi under Jiang Fan. Jiang assigned him research and writing which was supposed to take two years to complete, but Fang finished the task in one month. Ruan Yuan then found him a job at Hai men Academy in Lianzhou, where he lasted less than one year; with a repeat performance at the Chang yang Academy for a similar period. Exasperated, Ruan Yuan took Fang onto his own personal staff.\n\nFor scholars who worked on various literary projects sponsored by Ruan Yuan, see the Appendices to this paper.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212525, "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-1991", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "Appendix 1\n\n59\n\nChronology of Ruan Yuan's Government Appointments 1789-1838\n\n \n Appointment\n Location\n Rank\n Dates\n \n \n Hanlin Bachelor\n Beijing\n \n 1789/5\n \n \n Proof Reader (Wu Ying Dian)\n Beijing\n \n 1789/5\n \n \n Compiler Second Class\n Beijing\n 7A\n 1790/3\n \n \n Imperial Diarist\n Beijing\n \n 1790/2\n \n \n Supervisor of Instruction\n Beijing\n 4A\n 1791/3\n \n \n Chief Supervisor of Instruction\n Beijing\n 3A\n 1791/11\n \n \n Director of Studies (Shandong)\n Jinan\n 2B\n 1793/6\n \n \n Director of Studies (Zhejiang)\n Hangzhou\n 2B\n 1795-1798\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Rites)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1798-1799\n \n \n Acting Vice President (Board of War)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1799/2\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Revenue)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1799/4\n \n \n Assistant Examiner of Metropolitan Examination\n Beijing\n \n 1799\n \n \n Acting Vice President (Board of Rites)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1799/7\n \n \n Governor of Zhejiang\n Hangzhou\n 2B\n 1799-1805\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Revenue)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1807\n \n \n Vice President (Board of War)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1807\n \n \n Governor of Zhejiang\n Hangzhou\n 2B\n 1807-1809\n \n \n Compiler Second Class (Hanlin Academy)\n Beijing\n 7A\n 1809/10\n \n \n Sub-expositor (Hanlin Academy)\n Beijing\n 4B\n 1810/5\n \n \n Imperial Diarist\n Beijing\n \n 1810/10\n \n \n Revisor (State Historiographer's Office)\n Beijing\n \n 1810/11\n \n \n Supervisor of Instruction\n Beijing\n 4A\n 1811/9\n \n \n Sub-Chancellor of Grand Secretariat\n Beijing\n 2B\n 1812/1\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Rites)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1812/1\n \n \n Vice President (Board of Works)\n Beijing\n 2A\n 1812/5\n \n \n Director-General of Grain Transport\n Huaian\n \n 1812-1814\n \n \n Governor of Jiangxi\n Nanchang\n 2B\n 1814-1816\n \n \n Governor of Henan\n Kaifeng\n 2B\n 1816/8\n \n \n Governor-General of Hu Guang\n Wuchang\n 2A\n 1817/10\n \n \n Governor-General of Guangdong & Guangxi\n Canton\n 2A\n 1817-1826\n \n\n38 3 3\n\n \n3833", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212528, "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-1991", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "62\n\nYun nan tong zhi gao\n雲南通志稿\n\n選平樂府重建聖廟碑記\nXuan Ping lo fu chong jian sheng miao bei ji\n\nTa xin shuo 塔性說\n\nSan jia shi bu yi 三家詩補遺\n\nWen xuan lou shu cang shu ji\n文選樓書藏書記\n\nBa zhuan yin guan ke zhu ji 八轉吟館刻記\n\nBu bi tu shi 布幣圖識\n\nA4\n\nRuan shi Chi gu zhai Han tong yin te\n阮氏積古齋漢銅印得\n\nWen xuan lou cang bei\n文選樓藏碑\n\nRuan wen da gong zhi shi hou jia shu\n阮文達公致仕後家書\n\nHan shi jing can zi 漢石經藏碑\n\nLang huan xian guan shi\n\nRuan wen da gong zhi shi hou jia shu\n阮文達公致仕後家書\n\nLun yu lun ren lun 論語論仁論\n\nMeng zi lun ren lun\n\nNOTES\n\nArthur F Wright, \"Values, Roles, and Personalities” in Confucian Personalities, edited by Arthur F Wright and Denis Twitchett (Stanford 1962), 11\n\nIbid., 4\n\nSee Appendix 1 chronology of Ruan Yuan's government appointments and Appendix 2. Ruan Yuan's major works and compilations\n\n4\n\nLyn Struve, \"The Hsu Brothers and Semi-official Patronage of Scholars in the K'ang-hsi Period\", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 42-231-266 (1982). R Kent Guy, The Emperor's Four Treasuries. Scholars and the State in the Late Ch'ien-lung Era, Harvard, 1987 Guy has inscribed \"We await Ruan Yuan\" on the front piece of my copy of his work\n\nStruve, 231\n\nThe three Xu Brothers were Xu Qian xue (1631-1694), Xue Bing yi (1633-1711), and Xu Yuan wen (1634-1691) Other officials who were patrons of scholars included Ye Fang ai (1629-1682), Song De yi (1622-1687), and Yu Guo zhu (d ca 1688), Struve, 232-239\n\n7 Guy, 52 Guy had neglected to include the group Ruan Yuan had organized at the Gu Jing Jing she in Hangzhou earlier. A number of scholars from this group had followed Ruan throughout his official life from the late 1790s to the late 1830s for over 40 years I have opted to keep the Wade-Giles transliteration of the Guy original\n\n8 Wang Jun-yi, “Kang Qian sheng shi yu Qian Jia xue pai — jian lun Qian Jia xue pai di liu pai ji chi ping jia\" 清代乾嘉學派的流派及其評價 Qing shu yen jiu 4 342-366 (Beijing, 1986). Unless otherwise indicated, all translations into English in this paper are made by me\n\n9 Qian Mu, Zhong guo jin san bai nian xue shu shi [A history of Chinese learning during the past 300 years], (Taipei edition, 1976), 478", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212651, "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-1991", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "186\n\nevery year from January to end of June; from end of September to the end of October. His hunting grounds were the provinces of Kiangsu and the mountainous country of Anhwei, except that in 1910, he collected on the Hwangshan range. In these 20 years, he brought back some 40,000 plants fully annotated especially the rare and not well known species. His Anhwei collection was published in 1933 by his successor H. Belval S.J..\n\nThe tome VI book 1 published in 1920 contains his Kiangsu 1918 collections 136 pages in quarto, with 23 plates.\n\nIt's interesting to follow him step by step, as he describes his daily encounters; oppressive heat in the valley; cold wind; pestilence around Nanking and Ousi; military movement hindering his projects; bands of inquisitive villagers hampering his work, especially his bird hunting; torrential rains several days sleeping in the open air; 12 hours walk; 60 li mountain climbing, often-dangerous storms; dinky boats; unreliable or even treacherous porters and so on and so forth.\n\n―\n\nF. Courtois' Bird collection was published also in 1920. It comprised 130 pages of text and 60 plates, and there was more forthcoming.\n\nBesides Heude's, Courtois' and some other minor collections, the Zi-Kia-Wei Museum had two collections worth mentioning. Both Floras of Hangzhou, one by Oliver, determined by Courtois and the other by Clive of the Chinese Customs.\n\nThe Musée Heude\n\nIn 1930, the Heude Museum was built as an annex to the University of Aurora, on Avenue Dubail, now Chong Qing Rd. (South). I understand the University is now the 2nd Medical University, and the Museum has become an Entomological Research Centre.\n\nI think Dr. Henry Belval S.J. was given the task of transferring the extensive collections of the Zi-Kia-Wei Museum and the vast library to the Musée Heude, then a majestic building with a garden richly endowed with a variety of rare species.\n\nI never met Dr. Belval. He must have gone back to France in 1932. I arrived in Shanghai from Beijing in September 1935.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212769, "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-1992", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "63\n\n1881\n\nApril\n\nJune\n\n1882 February March Spring\n\n1882 November 1882/1883\n\n1883 May\n\n1833 Autumn\n\n1883\n\nca 1883/1884\n\nEarly 1884\n\n1884 July\n\nArrived Hami\n\nPassed through Shensi and Kansu to Turkestan he tried to push on through Central Asia to India but was stopped; again, tried to push on to the Russian frontiers via Ili and Tarbagatai but was stopped, visited Hami [HQ Chinese Army]. Residence in Hami where he said he remained until the Treaty of Livadia [2-10-79] was signed and where he learned a number of Turkish words. [Mesny claimed that in 1882 returning from Kashgaria he stayed in Tso Tsung-t’ang's camp. [Tso was recalled from Hami to Peking in late 1880] Departed Hami and retraced his steps leisurely across the Gobi desert to Kansu, on to northern Tibet (visited old fashioned gold diggings) and back to Kan-chou to refit before continuing into Tibet a second time in another direction. He then, travelled through the Kokonor region ending up at Lanchou, February 1881, via Hsi-ning.\n\nDeparted from Northwest China for Peking, via Si-an, Ho-nan Fu, Tai-yuan Fu and Pao-ting Fu.\n\nWhilst in Si-an Mesny visited the Nestorian Cross, later, on his first evening in Taiyuan he lost 640 pages of notes, the journal of his Journey to Hami from Canton\n\nArrived Peking\n\nVisited Tientsin to await the first steamers of the season carrying mails Returned to Tai-yuan in Shansi and Pao-ting Fu, and again visited Si-an.\n\nVisited the famous Shao-lin monastery in the Sung-shan [Mountains] near Ho-nan Fu and invited to settle down for a couple of years with the monks.\n\nDeparted Shansi for Canton; however,\n\nVisited Yunnan province at the invitation of T'ang Chung to assist in the development of natural resources of the province The French authorities in Tongkin insisted that Mesny leave the province Passed through Ch'engtu and Yunnan Fu heading for Canton via Po-se, Nanning Kuangsi [Kuei-hsien, where he spent three to four months whilst the Franco-Chinese war raged in Tongkin), Kueichou and the West River. He travelled much of the way by large house boat. He took careful notes which he offered to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce but failed to receive any encouragement\n\nArrived Canton, then visited Hong Kong, Macau, Swatow, Amoy and Foochou [Viceroy Chang Chih-tung retained Mesny at Canton for one year and ten months (nfd) He lived in an hotel unable to get an appointment from Chang he eventually withdrew. Mesny met Kung Chao-yuan, the Commissary General at Shanghai for Formosa, at the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai\n\nVisited tomb of Su Hsiao-hsiao near Hangchou. (a celebrated courtesan of the 11th century AD)\n\nDeparted Canton via Hong Kong for Foochou and Shanghai [elsewhere he noted that he had been recommended for the post of Foreign Superintendent of the Arsenal at Foochou during his visit there in 1883)\n\nIn Wu-chang and Han-yang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212770, "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-1992", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "64\n\nSeptember 1885 March\n\nJune\n\nca 1885\n\n1886 January\n\nca 1886\n\nca 1886\n\n1887\n\n1889/1890\n\n1889 23 January\n\n1890\n\nLived in the Chang-fa Chen, an hotel in Shanghai\n\nHis first child, Pin Mesny, also known as Hu-sheng, born in Shanghai Departed Shanghai aboard the Yangtze for Canton and appointed for service in both Arsenals [claimed that during the years 1884/1887 whilst living in Canton, he suffered from boils, eczema and prickly heat]\n\nMany of Mesny's notes lost in Chungking during the destruction of the CIM missionary premises. Mesny had left them for safe keeping with the Rev G Nicoll\n\nOffice Bearer of the Keystone Royal Arch Chapter of Masons in Shanghai\n\nPromoted to the brevet rank of Lieutenant-General [ennobled for three generations: previously claimed to have been bestowed in 1879] In charge of the China Branch of the New York Life Office, in Shanghai\n\nRepresentative of the Lartigue Railway Construction Company in Shanghai\n\nIntention to publish a monthly magazine in Shanghai to be called Yüleh Pao together with Chiang Chao-ling (friend and sworn brother). to be the organ of the Reform Party\n\nMade two journeys through Anhui and northern Kiangsu in connection with famine relief\n\nJourney through Anhui, around Lake Chao from Wu-hu to Lu-chou Fu, returning 5 February 1889\n\nVisited Wu-chang to warn Chang Chih-tung that he was erecting the Iron and Steel Works in Wu-chang in an unsuitable place\n\n1891 7 September Typhoon destroyed the Olympia Skating Rink, his property in Lloyd\n\n1892 January\n\n1894\n\nMay\n\n1895 September\n\n1896 Mar/Sep 1898\n\nMay/June\n\nDecember 1899 Mar/Oct\n\nRoad, Shanghai, ruining him financially.\n\nMesny involved in the Mason case\n\nInvited to organise a naval brigade for service on the Hsiang and Han rivers\n\nStormy interview with Li Hung-chang in Tientsin Visited Peking and had breakfast with Manchu Prince Su Claims to have volunteered for service in Manchuria [Sino-Japanese War]\n\nEn route to Manchura: Visited Liu K'un-1, Generalissimo of Chinese Forces [afloat and ashore] at his headquarters at Shan-hai-kuan Mesny refused permission to visit camps of Wu Ta-cheng and Wei Kuang-tao at or near to T'ien-chuang-tai Liu advised Mesny to return to Tientsin.\n\nHis second and only other child, his daughter, Marie Wan-er, born in Shanghai\n\nBegan the publication of his Chinese Miscellany Volume 1 in Shanghai\n\nPublication of Volume 2 of his Chinese Miscellany\n\nLegally married to Lady Han, mother of Hu-sheng [or Pin] and Marie Wan-er\n\nTrip by chartered boat to Hangchou\n\nVisited Nanking\n\nPublication of Volume 3 of his Chinese Miscellany", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212783, "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-1992", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "77\n\narmy in itself, especially organised to meet the requirements of its own territorial demands or necessities. The various provincial army corps [chün] consisted of two or more territorial divisions called chen besides several [from 3-10] territorial brigades called hsieh. The divisions consisted of several regiments and battalions, both of which were called ying; the regiments were commanded by ts'an-chiang [colonels] or yu-chi [lieutenant-colonels], and battalions by tu-ssu [majors]. Most regiments and battalions were divided into two or more companies, shao; however, a few regiments and battalions were not divided at all, with the officers in each regiment or battalion holding common authority over all portions of the regiment or brigade.\n\nMesny frequently referred to individuals as holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel in one context whilst elsewhere describing them as generals. This was finally clarified in a throwaway line buried in other text when he wrote, 'In China Brigadier-Generals, Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels in command were all considered to be General officers, that is Chiang-Chün.' General officers, chiang-kuan, in the territorial army were those brigadiers, colonels and lieutenant colonels in command. In field forces the commanders of battalions were also so styled by courtesy irrespective of rank. The same courtesy was extended to the chief of battalion, ying-kuan, in field forces where many of them had only permission to wear a button sometimes of the lowest civil rank and degree.\n\nMesny summarised the order of battle including the Chinese naval forces, with two provinces, Kuangtung and Fukien each having a naval force, and another stationed on the Yangtze. Finally, with the northern steam fleet of iron-clads there was a total of twenty-one army corps, i.e. provincial forces, and four naval corps for the whole Chinese empire. To these had to be added the Tartar Banner forces forming the garrisons of several important towns, Canton, Foochou, Hangchou, Cha-pu, Chinkiang, Nanking, Peking and elsewhere. Also the numerous regular field troops denominated Yung or Lien-chün which had been kept under arms in various parts of the empire since the Taiping Rebellion (which, he added, were a great deal more formidable in numbers as well as effectiveness than the whole of the sedentary garrisons or ordinary chün or army).\n\nIt was not until, literally, the latter days of the first campaign that an overall commander was appointed, with the Szechuan Force commander", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213316, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "119\n\nTHE TAKING OF CHAPU\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nRecently my daughter and I visited Chapu, a town which for a moment in history was the scene of one of the first encounters between British Forces and the Tatars of the Imperial Chinese Army.\n\nChapu, sometimes recorded as Chapoo but now romanised as Zhapu, is a small town lying almost exactly half way between the cities of Shanghai and Hangchou, the latter being the provincial capital of the central Chinese province of Chekiang. It used to be an important port on the north coast of the Bay of Hangchou noted for its connections with the Japan trade during earlier times; however, by the 1840s it had become a backwater garrison town for the Chinese army of the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty in support of the small Manchu garrison. The original Ch'ing fighting force, the Tatar Banners from Manchuria and Mongolia, had become effete through soft living, whilst the provincial forces of Chinese so-called soldiery, the Green Banners, were ill-equipped, ill-trained, and under strength.\n\nDuring the eighteen thirties, China wanted nothing of foreigners, whilst the Europeans, seeing a vast land teeming with millions of potential customers, wanted admission into China and its lucrative trade. Europeans, and to a certain extent the Americans too, were becoming more and more frustrated by the Chinese attitude towards foreigners in general, refusing to accept them under what was considered in the West as normal international relations.\n\nMisunderstandings were centred around China looking upon Great Britain and other European countries as tributary states, and the British East India Company, which had had its monopoly abolished in 1833, had entered the opium trade. Opium was banned by the Chinese authorities, and after an official was sent from Peking to Canton—the only port open to foreigners for trade in general—especially to put an end to the opium trade. British officials became involved due to confusion over recognition of their status and the question of the illicit trade of opium. A further quarrel broke out over the jurisdiction of Chinese courts in cases involving British subjects.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213317, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "120\n\nThe First China War was the culmination of many years of irksome restraint. The British, as did other nations, objected strongly to being treated and listed with Burma, Vietnam and Korea as tribute bearers. The immediate cause was the destruction of all the opium in Canton brought in by foreigners and in 1840 the Chinese fleet attacked a British warship, followed by, amongst other incidents, Canton being bombarded by the British, and the war was on. Palmerston was Prime Minister in Britain during this, the First China War, now possibly better known as the first of the two Opium Wars. It began with a desultory naval engagement and little further happened until Major General Sir Hugh Gough arrived from Madras in March of 1841. The British plan was, first, to capture Chusan island off the coast of Chekiang to use as a pawn in the demand for Chinese agreements to British demands. This proved to be a futile gesture and during 1841 and 1842 British forces, with the continued aim of pressuring the Chinese into legitimising foreign trade within China, proceeded to attack several ports one after the other up the China coast, creeping ever further north towards the capital of Peking, causing the Chinese greater apprehension about the future. The campaign eventually ended with the imminent attack on Nanking, the former capital situated on the Yangtze in central China, avoided last minute by the agreement by the Chinese finally to the terms of a treaty signed in August 1842. One of the attacks on the China coast was on the then city of Chapu, which was to be followed up with an attack on Hangchou.\n\nChapu had a tolerable harbour, with a great rise and fall of tide, so much so that the smaller junks were left high and dry at low water. Together with its suburbs the town, perhaps five miles in circuit built in a square and intersected by numerous canals, lay about half a mile from the coast. The Reverend Gutzlaff in his third voyage up the China coast in January 1833 arrived in Chapu and described the surrounding countryside as the Chinese Arcadia with nothing able to exceed its beautiful and picturesque appearance. He further described the canals, neat roads, plantations and conspicuous buildings, adding that the whole country (of China) from the Yellow River south was flat until one came to the high lands which formed the harbour of Chapu city. The sea, he added, was receding from the land and flats had formed along the shore, visible at low water and constituting a barrier to the whole coast. Gutzlaff found nowhere so much openness and kindness, the (residents') intelligent questions respecting Britain were endless with them never seeming to be satiated with (British) company.\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213318, "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": 140, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "121\n\nWhen Gutzlaff had first landed at Chapu an armed force of Chinese was drawn up along the shore. The Chinese soldiers had matchlocks and burning matches ready for a charge, and a Tatar general had placed himself in a temple to superintend the operation; however, wrote Gutzlaff, \"being accustomed to the fire of Chinese batteries which seldom do hurt, and knowing their matchlocks cannot hit, we passed through their line of defence in peace\". The soldiers retreated and crowds of people in the rear being very dense the camp was overrun and tents fell to the ground. After this nothing disagreeable happened. On one excursion Gutzlaff went to a temple on a high hill overlooking the populous region, \"with its abomination of idolatry.\"\n\nToday little remains of old Chapu. The harbour, still used by fishing boats, is overlooked by a broken wall pierced for cannon, with three old cannon still mounted but on modern concrete bases, two being breech loaders and one a comparatively old muzzle loader. There is no sign now of the old city walls, nor of the old Tatar Quarter. It is a sleepy rural town on a former main road now left more or less isolated by the modern highway between Hangchou and Shanghai, by-passing Chapu by some fifteen miles.\n\nThe British Expeditionary Force began the 1842 campaigning season by evacuating Ningpo and Chinghai in early May to raise sufficient troops for the attack on Chapu. The force left Ningpo on 7 May for Chapu where some six thousand Chinese Green Standard troops and some seventeen hundred Manchu soldiers held the beaches and the adjacent heights and were waiting for the British to land and attack. It took the wooden-sided troop transports nine days under sail to cover the sixty miles from Chinhai to Chapu. Theoretically Chapu was strongly fortified but, as had happened before, the Chinese proved unprepared for anything but frontal attack.\n\nThe British Order of Battle consisted of the Force Headquarters under Lieutenant General Sir Hugh Gough, a fleet of seven ships of war, four steamers and troop transports, a naval brigade of some two hundred and fifty men, and four regiments.\n\nThe plan called for three columns, with the Left Column under Lieutenant Colonel Morris, consisting of the 18th Royal Irish under Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas R. Tomlinson (consisting of 492 all ranks),", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213319, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "122\n\nthe 49th Regiment (Hertfordshire Regiment consisting of 25 officers and 426 men) and a Sapper unit. The Force commander, Sir Hugh Gough accompanied the Left Column.\n\nThe Centre Column under Lieutenant Colonel Montgomerie consisted of detachments of Royal Artillery and Madras Artillery, a Sapper unit and a rifle company of the 35th Madras Native Infantry.\n\nThe Right Column, under Colonel Schoedde, consisted of the 26th Regiment (The Cameronians) under Lieutenant Colonel Pratt, the 55th Regiment (Westmorland Regiment) and a unit of Sappers.\n\n6\n\nThe British plan required the 2,200 troops to be landed on the right flank, on the west face of the line of low-lying hills some two miles to the east of Chapu Bay. From there the three battalions would separate, one, the Centre Column, to hold the base, one, the Right Column, to pass round the base of Huang-p'an Shan to cut off the Chinese retreat and the third, the Point or Left Column, to storm the heights of Kuan Yin Shan. On 16 May the Nemesis and the Phlegethon reconnoitred the northern coast of the Bay of Hangchou and on the 18th they landed in a bay some two miles east of the city without opposition, with the Left Column advancing along the heights parallel to the coast, whilst the rest moved inland to the rear of the heights on which the enemy was posted. Elements of the British Naval Brigade, consisting of some 700 men, landed within a quarter of a mile of the harbour and advanced straight for the harbour battery and then on to the town itself. Only about one in ten of the Chinese force had firearms, the rest being armed with bows and spears. The British plan so took the Chinese by surprise that they fell back in disorder, throwing away their arms and fleeing in every direction. The Chinese having made their nominal stand in the hills had left their rear wide open allowing Chapu to be taken without any major problems. After a battle lasting more than four hours, Chapu was taken by the Right Column and the Naval Brigade with the British casualties of nine killed and fifty-five wounded. Of these, in addition to Colonel Tomlinson, the loss to the Royal Irish were one serjeant and three other ranks killed, and Lieutenants E. Jodrell and A. Murray, one serjeant, one drummer and twenty-seven other ranks wounded. Major Jeremiah Cowper was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on the day following the battle, in succession to Colonel Tomlinson. The Chinese defenders fled to the west, towards Hangchou leaving the British with the town which was promptly looted by the native Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213322, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "125\n\ncalling the Chinese \"disloyalists\", the Fukien braves sided with the enemy and set fire to the town. The foreigners then got over the wall and burnt the Manchu quarter, the Assistant Tatar-General and the acting Sub-Prefect losing their lives, and the taotai escaping to Kashing. The Magistrate Wei Feng-chia led a body of militia to oppose the British advance on the town and was killed, and whilst Heng Hsing, the Chinese Force commander at Hangchou was cashiered, the Chinese commander at Chapu, Chang Hsi, escaped death and capture but was later, posthumously, accused of having run away. The official toll of Chinese casualties including civilian casualties was said to exceed 1300. This figure includes more than 400 officers and men from the Green Standard force and 280 Manchu Bannermen.\n\nWhen I-li-pu \"arrived at Chapu, the English demands, so the Chinese version continues, were so extravagant that nothing definite could be arrived at; and, when the Governor requested the Emperor's sanction to the restoration of the score or two of white and black barbarian prisoners, the foreign ships had left Chapu. The prisoners were then sent to Chen-hai, and it was suggested that bygones should be bygones; but the English would not listen any more.\n\nThe idea of an attack on Hangchou itself by the British forces was now abandoned and attention was directed to the important trade centre of Shanghai. The British, having destroyed the Chinese arsenal, guns and all Chinese government stores in Chapu, released all their prisoners of war cash with a small present, and then on the 28th May embarked for the Yangtze and Woosung, the town at the mouth of the river leading to Shanghai. The transports took fifteen days to cover the hundred miles to Woosung which was bombarded and captured by naval forces. The war ended two months later before the walls of Nanking,\n\nThe 18th Royal Irish was disbanded in 1922 and amongst its many battle honours was 'China 1840-42'. The men of the regiment who took part in the campaign were eligible for the medal awarded for the 'China War' though, regrettably, there was no bar for Chapu.\n\nIn March 1994 my daughter and I tried to find the site of the joss house. Enquiries in the town of Chapu itself were received with polite replies that no such place existed and that there were no temples now near Chapu, this despite the fact that standing less than thirty yards from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213324, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "127\n\n1\n\n# NOTES\n\nThe Manchus established the Ch'ing dynasty in AD 1644, having overthrown the native Chinese Ming rulers. The Manchus were related to the central Asian group speaking a language akin to Mongol who settled in Manchuria many centuries earlier. They were usually referred to by Europeans as Tatars.\n\n2. Lach garrison town, including Chapu, contained a Tatar walled city separate from the Chinese city.\n\nIn 1840 HMS bug Algerine paid a flying visit to Chapu and was fired upon from some batteries near the town. During the attack on Chapu in 1842, these batteries were quickly put out of action by the Royal Navy.\n\n4. Under command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker.\n\n*The Westmorland Regiment was granted the China Dragon superscribed “China” for service during the China War of 1840-42.\n\n*The Nemesis was the first iron steamer to round the Cape of Good Hope. She was never commissioned as one of HM's vessels of war, yet was generally commanded by Royal Navy officers. She was of the greatest use throughout the First China War and after the Treaty of Nanking returned to Bombay.\n\nA joss-house is the Victorian name for a Chinese temple or shrine, the house where the joss (god, from the Portuguese \"Deos\") was situated. From contemporary sketches and descriptions, the joss house in question would appear to have been a medium-sized Buddhist establishment, and although there were no references to priests, monks, or nuns, it had residential accommodation in addition to the usual altar halls.\n\nLung Fu was a company commander, Iso-ling (grade 4a), of one of the Eight Manchu Banners.\n\n*Parker, L. II. Chinese Account of the Opium War.\n\nA Tao-tai was an imperial Circuit Intendant, a member of the hierarchy controlling several prefectures.\n\nI-li-pu (1770-1847) was a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner and an Imperial Clansman. He was banished for disobedience in 1841 but recalled and appointed acting assistant military lieutenant-governor at Chapu in early 1842, his predecessor having died of wounds during the British attack. Chapu was still occupied by the British, and I-li-pu had to remain in Hangchou, where he received orders to move to Soochou as it was understood that he was respected by the British, and the Court wished him to be on hand to carry out negotiations.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213796, "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": 148, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "119\n\nprestige since the Tang dynasty. I shall return to this point later\n\nGenealogies that are available now are the result of many updates and only then prefaces can be dated. Some of those in the collection of Luo, op. cit. contain a preface dated 1269 (p. 363), another a preface dated 1406 (p. 48), another was first compiled during the same period (p. 67). As the prefaces do not usually dwell on the many different names of ancestors, we cannot expect prefaces to indicate ordination names as such. The earliest dated preface in the collection to mention ordination names was written in 1780. It drew attention to early ancestors whose achievements as officials are not known but are immortals in the celestial count, referred to by their religious names. It would be useful to examine unabridged genealogies to find mention of ordination names in early prefaces.\n\n1. Check the Golden Lotus for ordination of a male child. Ordination in a funeral seems to appear in the famous Qing novel, the Red Chamber.\n\nNJ\n\nHu Bo'an's *Zhonghua Chuanguo Lingji*, reprinted 1990, Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Guji Chubanshe, *shang bian*, j. 1, p. 82 describes a practice in Tianjin province of Buddhist ordination; the child will later become a layman again in a rite to be carried out at the age of 12.\n\n21 Qu Dajun, *Beijing: Zhonghua*, 1985, pp. 302–303. The passage is repeated by Yihe Dong Biji, written around the 18th century (the author Li Diaoyuan obtained his Jinshi degree during the Qianlong period, 1736-1795). If the passage in *Guangdong Xinyu* was copied from some earlier book, the original would not have been written before 1569, when Yong'an was first established as a separate county.\n\n\"The Third Gazetteer of Yong'an, j. 1, p. 207 in the reprint by Chengwen Chubanshe, 1974.\n\nThe Changle County Gazetteer, j. 4, p. 247 in a reprint in the 70s (2) in Taiwan. According to the *Gongguo Difang Zhi Zonghe Mulu* ('Comprehensive Catalogue of Chinese Gazetteers'), the earliest version, of circa 586 and circa 663 respectively, still exist.\n\n21 The passage does mention that the area has Yao and Liao minorities, but the sentence about the sorcerers seems to refer to Han villagers. See Hu, op. cit., *shang bian*, j. 8, p. 50.\n\n24 Op. cit., j. 1, pp. 8b-9a.\n\n1\n\nJl,\n\n* Michel Strickmann, in 'The Longest Taoist Scripture', in *History of Religions*, 1978, p. 349, suggests that the appearance of the name Satan here attests to the influence of Manichaeism in Southeastern China. The Satan was worshipped by some circles of agnostics, according to the entry in Mircea Eliade, ed., *The Encyclopedia of Religion*, New York: Macmillan, 1987.\n\n26 Interpreted as King of Skanda by Strickmann, op. cit.\n\n27 In some cases written as Mei Shan, Mei Shan, Lu Shan, or Lu Shan.\n\n* Li and Huang, ed., *Liannan Bapai Yanjiu Ziliao*, published by Guangdong Sheng Shehui Kexueyuan in the 1980s. See, for example, p. 554 and p. 564 for King of Asura, p. 433 for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214130, "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-1997", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "169\n\nRAS VISIT TO HUIZHOU\n\nDan Waters\n\nOn Saturday 15 November, 1997, 14 stalwart members of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch (RASHKB) set off by coach on a two-day visit to Huizhou (Waichau or Waichow) and the surrounding region in eastern Guangdong Province.\n\nHuizhou has a population of about 600,000, making it larger than Macau. In this part of Guangdong, where Westerners attract a certain amount of attention, we visited scenic spots like the West Lake (see Plate I), the Xizhou Pagoda and the Su Dongbo Well as well as his Monument (see Plate II).1 Su Dongbo was a leading poet and a member of the literati in Northern Song times. He was also concerned with the building of bridges, improving dams and constructing water supply schemes. Madam Wang (1062-96), his Concubine, was a native of Hangzhou. Su was disgraced and banished to Guangdong and subsequently to Hainan Island.\n\nOur RAS Group also visited one of the most famous Taoist temples (the Lu Dong Bin Temple) in Guangdong Province, situated at Loh Fau Shan. Lu Dong Bin is one of the Eight Immortals and a patron saint of the literati. He uses a fly whisk to sweep away the clouds and carries a magic sword associated with healing.\n\nOn the following day (Sunday 16 November) the RAS Group drove to the unspoiled Nine Dragon Mountain (named 'Kowloon' like in Hong Kong) and its comparatively well-known Tam Kung Temple which was visited by a group of RASHKB members in November 1995. Research has previously been carried out and RAS visits have been made to various Tam Kung temples both in Hong Kong and in Macau, including during the Tam Kung Festival. Also, an illustrated lecture was given on the Hakka Boy Deity, Tam Kung, in 1996, to the RASHKB by Professor Anthony Siu and Geoffrey Roper. There is little point in repeating similar information here.\n\nOne of the tasks that the RAS group set itself, in November 1997, was to find two buildings in Huizhou which were used by the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) during World War Two. Both sites were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214303, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "125\n\nnotes on nature and hunting in Manchuria. He founded the first natural history museum in China, at the Anglo-Chinese College and this brought him to the notice of directors of museums in the United States and England.\n\nWe have little idea what he did between his return from the Duke of Bedford's expedition and the start of the next expedition nearly three years later, the Clark expedition of 1908/9, which again sought specimens. This time they again set out from Taiyuan to the west, across the Yellow River into Shensi and then on to the north-west, into Kansu province travelling up the Silk Road as far as Lanchou. It was a well-financed private expedition with Sowerby taken on as the Naturalist and though not spelled out - the interpreter. Their route took them through Yulin, a city in the Ordos desert in Shensi province, noted for its large Buddhist temple. This was selected as the first main stopover where they remained undisturbed within the temple compound. Sowerby, brought up in Taiyuan, spoke the local dialect and was able to converse with the local officials and obtain their co-operation and assistance. They remained in Yulin over the winter during which time the Emperor and the Empress Dowager died in Peking. This event brought the second most senior Chinese official in Yulin to the compound to break the news and warn the party of the general apprehension that the deaths of their Majesties might bring about a revolt against the dynasty. Clark, who was also an amateur astronomer, had been seen by Chinese peering through his telescope at the night sky leading the second most senior Chinese official to ask Sowerby whether Clark had foreseen this calamity? Sowerby's answer that he had foreseen it led the official to demand to know why Clark had not passed on the warning to him. Sowerby was able to answer that the official knew full well that it would have been treason for anyone to even suggest that such a thing would take place before it happened. This satisfied the awed official, though the warning of possible unrest left the expedition in a quandary. They decided that the best move would be to set off at once for Sian [now known as Xi'an], the provincial capital, where they would expect to have better protection. On reaching Yenan, some short distance to the south of Yulin, en route for Sian they were assured that the situation was stable and once more settled down for a while, hunting and prospecting locally. After several weeks of visits to Loyang and Honan Fu [now Chengchou] in a neighbouring province, whilst Clark returned to Shanghai to settle a family matter, they continued on to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214370, "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": 228, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "194\n\nTaiwanese pilgrims carrying cult images in yellow cloth sling bags from Taiwan to mainland China to renew the power within their images from the main deity in the cult centre. Ching-Tz'o Temple Hangchou [photo: Jenny Welch]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215113, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "166\n\ncommunities outside mainland China, and also local non-Fukienese Chinese in the vicinity of Hangzhou, sometimes individually, alone on an altar or together as a pair.\n\nFrequently confused both by devotees and professional god carvers, the two deities are known to Chaozhou-speaking devotees as the Civil and Military Lords of Peace (Wenwu An Zunwang) or individually, Zhang Xun as Wen'an Zunwang and Xu Yuan as Wu'an Zunwang. They are also known by titles respectively [possibly within Chuanzhou communities only] as Baoyi Zunwang 保儀尊王 and Baoyi Dafu 保儀大夫. Both deities hereafter will be referred to as Zhang and Xu, and in a number of temples an individual, lone deity of either Zhang or Xu is known as the patron of local Zhang or Xu clans.\n\nThe most common story of the two heroes as related by a great number of temple keepers describes how Zhang and Xu were loyalists opposed to the rebel An Lushan. They died heroically defending the provincial city of Suiyang in Henan province in AD 757, which fell to the enemy after a siege of 49 days. Most temple keepers claim that they died by their own hands rather than fall into those of the enemy, though some claim that the heroic defenders were betrayed by cowards after the food gave out.\n\nZhang was born in Henan on either the 10th of the fourth or the 12th or 29th of the fifth lunar months in AD 709 and died with Xu on either the 15th of the second or the 9th of the tenth lunar months in 757. These are now celebrated annually with temple festivals in Zhang's honour.\n\nZhang was the military mandarin in Suiyang and is occasionally referred to in temple records as Zhang Suiyang. He had been employed in military operations in Central Asia before being posted to Suiyang, where his discipline was legendary. In 756, during the rebellion of An Lushan, he fought many battles, was wounded on a number of occasions, and performed prodigies of valour. The climax was reached by his heroic defence of Suiyang against the army of An Lushan's son. He refused to yield and even sacrificed his favourite concubine to no avail. The enemy broke in, and as he scorned to offer allegiance to his conqueror, was immediately put to death. It is said that during the siege", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215116, "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": 212, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "169\n\nthe hills. In temples in and around Hsintien and Mucha Wang Gong is revered as the protective deity (with the pair being revered in a few places but still known as Wang Gong) with his [their] annual festival celebrated on the 10th day of the fourth lunar month, but largely without the great majority of devotees realizing the original identity of the deities. Wang Gong A is also referred to as Weng Gong and Huang Gong A, both of which are almost certainly erroneous titles due to mistaken homophones.\n\nIn and around Hangzhou they are known together as Er Da Ming Huang [The Two (Generals) of Tang emperor Ming Huang]. A fierce image of Zhang, with his mouth wide open used to stand on a minor altar in a small temple near Donghu, a city some sixty miles upstream from Hangzhou. Devotees there believed that pain could be cured merely by touching the abdomen of the image whilst throwing a few coppers into its mouth. Two large images of Zhang and Xu in an old temple some fifteen miles east of Hangzhou, destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, have been replaced with modern images with the image makers being guided by the elderly from memory. This temple stands out in the countryside with the nearest village some half a mile away and with the catchment area for contributions for the rebuilding extending some ten miles in all directions. The refurbished temple has yet [early 1994] to have the two dozen aides flanking the side of the main hall completed, though the images of their main deities and their consorts have been finished. They are regarded as the local protective deities.\n\nIn 1963 in Hong Kong, in a Chaozhou community squatter-shack temple on Lion Rock hillside above Kowloon [now long demolished], the two deities, represented on a framed paper icon on the main altar as two relaxed, seated mandarins in floral robes, were first identified as \"The Two Loyal Dukes\" or \"the Two Loyal Saintly Lords\". The two deities were later identified by several devotees as Wang Zhang Ek and Wang Xu Elf. The two mandarins, with long black beards, were identical and were prayed to as the patron deities and protectors of Chaozhou people.\n\nIn 1927 Goodrich in Beijing recorded seeing images of “two famous generals of the Tang dynasty, Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan” in the Dongyue Temple to the east of the city.13", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215127, "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": 223, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "180\n\nXu Yuan and Zhang Xun, two loyal Tang generals who fell in battle with the rebels. They are clan patrons and revered as protective spirits. A modern image of Zhang Xun on a rural altar near Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, has replaced the one destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215325, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "50\n\nLi Deyu died in exile in 849, in Hainan some 57 years before the end of the Tang dynasty. He was born in AD 787, the son of a minister of state, and rose to become a great minister. In his heyday he was pre-eminent in China serving six emperors faithfully, including being chief minister to Tang emperor Wu Cong. Impeached as the President of the Board of War he was banished to Hainan where his spirit withered. He was not only a fine scholar but also favoured Daoism in the rivalry with Buddhism to influence the Court. He would appear to have had a comparatively close friendship with the Mao Shan sect of Daoists and is even thought to have encouraged the persecution of Buddhism and the imperial eunuchs. He was also an untiring opponent of eunuch influence. His achievements as a poet were recognised as was his contribution to horticulture.\n\nLi Guang was born in Fujian province in 1085 and died in a monastery in Hangzhou in 1140, having been an Imperial Censor and Minister of State. He is renowned for his opposition to the encroachment of the Jin Tatars and in particular the peace proposals by which Qin Gui earned his unenviable notoriety. In 1126 he commanded troops defending the capital and succeeded in defeating the Jin Tatars with great slaughter. He was impeached in 1127 after only a matter of months as Minister of State for irregularities in connection with the purchase of horses and levies of troops, and was exiled for a while before moving to a monastery where he lived out the rest of his life.\n\nLi Guang [1077-1159] was born in Yuezhou in Zhejiang. He was also a scholar-official, but of the earlier Northern Song. He also appears to be feted in Hainan for sharing Hu Quan's rigorous opposition to any kind of accommodation with the Jin invaders and his dislike of Qin Gui. The latter earned him demotion to Jianning military district, and later still another demotion. He was, however, rehabilitated to his original position in 1158 but died the following year while travelling to Jiangzhou.\n\nHu Quan [1102-1180] was a scholar-official of the Southern Song from Luling in Jizhou, Jiangxi province, who received his appointment in the second year of Jianyan emperor. Before taking up his duties, the Jin armies crossed the River and Hu raised his own army to defend the area. He too is famous for his stubborn opposition to any kind of peace dealings with the Jin invaders. He petitioned for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215327, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "52\n\n1101. Though well known for his poetry, he was a celebrated scholar-statesman who has been deified by popular acclaim. However, though not recorded as such, it would be unlikely for him not to have been deified by posthumous imperial decree, an honour coming into vogue at that time.\n\nHe was born in Meixian in Sichuan province and died in Changzhou in Fujian shortly after being permitted to leave exile on Hainan island. His father was a distinguished scholar, and owing to his father's long absences from home, Su received most of his education from his mother. At the age of 21, he entered the state examinations and headed the list of competitors. He rose in public office and was prominent among the strenuous opponents of the political economist, Wang Anshi. His first fall from grace in 1079 was from ministerial office when he was downgraded to be Governor of Hangzhou Fu. In 1086, at the start of a new reign, he was restored to favour but again incurred imperial displeasure, this time being exiled, first to Huizhou in Guangdong and finally to the semi-barbarous island of Hainan in 1097 where he was appointed to the petty office of sub-prefect of Yaizhou. During his exile, having complained that Hainan was wild and its \"frontier\" people, settlers from the mainland, without culture, he took a genuine interest in their welfare as well as the welfare of the original non-Chinese inhabitants. He was permitted to return from banishment in ca. 1100 and died shortly after. He spent the four years of his exile in Hainan in Wenchang, in the north-east of the island, and was the first great name in Chinese history connected intimately with Hainan. His memorial temple in Haikou in Hainan island is now a museum. Within the grounds of the temple is the spring which he is said to have had dug during a severe drought.\n\nd] Zhu Chuping was a magistrate in Hainan who had preceded Su Shi in the post as magistrate by some twenty years.\n\n3: Major Hainanese Deities noted in all Hainanese communities\n\nThese are uniquely Hainanese Gods\n\n13\n\na] Images of the Marquis of Wenzhou, Wenzhou Houwang\n\nI have been seen only on altars in temples founded and run by ethnic Hainanese. According to devotees, he is uniquely worshipped", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215333, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "58\n\nclaiming that the Society used to worship ‘openly' in Hainanese temples before convening a meeting. One hundred and eight is also a Buddhist number, the number of the beads in a rosary, the number of passions and delusions, and the number of tolls of the monastery bell at dawn and dusk. A further connotation of the number 108 is reflected in the number of times temple keepers claimed that the Brothers were the 108 heroes at Liang Shan Po in the classic novel, Shuihu Chuan, 'The Water Margin,' but when pressed, in every case they admitted that this had been no more than a guess.\n\nThe Brothers are also known as:\n\nYibai You Ba Gong 一百有八公\n\nYibai You Xiongdi 一百有八兄弟 and\n\nYibai Lingba Xiongdi Zhonghun 一百零八兄弟忠魂\n\nLu Bode and Ma Yuan are two generals revered in Hainanese temples, often on the same altar, with both bearing the same honorific, the Wave Conquering General, [Fupo Jiangjun13].\n\nThe first general, Lu Bode, subjugated large areas of what today is Guangdong province during the Earlier Han [ca. 120 BC]. A native of Pingzhou, he served with distinction under He Chubing who became the president of the Board of War. In BC 120 he subjugated large portions of what is today Guangdong and Guangxi, and received further honours.\n\nThe second general, Ma Yuan [14BC - AD 49], was also awarded the title of the Wave Conqueror for the pacification of the southern region some hundred years later. Popular in Guangdong province he used also to be particularly honoured in Guangxi where he was revered as a river god, \"The Wave Conquering General - Fupo Jiangjun' and in Hengzhou in Hunan he used to be the main deity in a small temple where he was worshipped as the protective deity at the local river rapids.\n\nMa Yuan, also known as the Vanguard General, Xianfeng14 led a further southern expansion of the Han empire and has been popularly worshipped from about the fifth century AD by Han settlers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215339, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "64\n\n5: Shared with other Han Ethnic Groups\n\n[though regarded by Hainanese as Unique Hainanese Deities]\n\na] Madame Xian, Xian Tai Furen ★★↑ is a deity whose image has only been noted on two altars in Hainanese folk religion temples, within fifteen miles of each other, in southern Malaysia, in Rengam and Kluang. The image is of a standard matron, and in both temples it stands alongside images of Tian Hou, the patron deity of seafarers, and Shuiwei Shengmu.\n\nMadame Xian was the wife of Feng Bao, an official of the Liang dynasty who became prefect of Gaoliang and who died at the age of 44 in AD 558. Before her marriage, she had been schooled at home by an extraordinary teacher who not only taught her secret practices but also military strategy and tactics. Despite having trained and commanded troops in battle, she also frequently showed her alter ego trying to persuade her relatives, and in particular her brother, to be kind and considerate. Her brother was markedly different from her. He used the skills she had imparted to him to attack neighbouring areas, causing great misery and hardship, and though it took time, she eventually managed to persuade him to stop causing trouble to others. The peace that then reigned brought many over to her side, and her exploits came to the notice of Feng Rong, the prefect of Gangzhou, who arranged for her to marry his son, Feng Bao.\n\nAlthough Feng Bao, as prefect of Gaoliang, was fair and strict, his orders were still not being carried out, and Madame Xian, now his wife of some years, first warned her husband's subordinates and then drafted orders which stated that anyone who committed a crime, even blood relations of officials, would be punished severely. From then on, laws were applied with great fairness, and criminals were deterred.\n\nA few days later, Li did rebel and sent an army under General Dou Shi to take over power in the capital. Madame Xian pondered that if her husband joined battle against Dou Shi, there would be bitter fighting and many casualties. She realized that Dou Shi was a poor general who was locked in combat with the emperor's forces and would be unable to assist Li Qianshi in Gaozhou; therefore, she and her husband should devise a way to defeat Li by strategy. She told her husband that he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215641, "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": 418, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "370\n\nconsiderably out of sorts and suffering from gout. During the journey Jeremy Reid, one of the guards belonging to the Royal Regiment of Artillery, died:\n\nHis disorder was occasioned by a surfeit of fruits, the man having eaten no less than forty apples at breakfast!\n\nOn reaching 'Pekin' Macartney received letters informing him that Lion and other ships were leaving Chusan and that only Hindostan was remaining (Chusan being an island in the bay between Shanghai and Hangzhou, which was preferred, over Hong Kong, as a base by the British Government). Hearing that the ships had left Chusan upset the Chinese officials who wished, now the visit was over, for the Embassy to leave the coast of China as soon as possible, the limit of forty days prescribed for visits from without the Kingdom having been reached. Because of this the Embassy was then more or less directed to start on their return journey and left 'Pekin' on 7th October 1793 for Chusan travelling down the Grand Canal from Tientsin to Hangzhou. In Tientsin they were treated to a sumptuous banquet:\n\n...excellent mutton, pork, venison and poultry of all kinds, fruits in great variety - peaches, plums, apples, pears, grapes, chestnuts and walnuts and several others new to them.\n\nThe journal describes in some detail the construction and working of the system of sluices on the Grand Canal. These were unlike the locks on British canals but consisted of a single sluice which was raised by windlass, in fairly flat country, through which the boats were hauled when the sluice was raised.\n\nAt Hangzhou it was confirmed that Lion and the other ships had left for Canton being urgently in need of medicine for the men on board. Hindostan was quite incapable of accommodating the entourage and all its heavy baggage and it was agreed, as though it was simply a matter of course, that the party would continue the long journey by river and with some trekking overland on ponies between the north and south flowing rivers, and so to make their way to Canton. They left Hangzhou on ponies on 14th November and reached Canton on 19th December. This was an extraordinary and intrepid journey. Macartney's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216031, "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": 330, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "264\n\nAbout two miles west of Zhenjiang railway station, on rising land, there was a temple called Xiu Wang Miao, the Temple of the Xiu Kings, dedicated to the memory of the Xiu dynasty of Nantang.\n\nLu Xiufu [AD 1238 - 1279] was a native of Zhenjiang, and a statesman and military commander during the latter years of the Southern Song. He had been appointed to the Court of Imperial Family Affairs, a form of Minister of Protocol, during the reign of Song Gong Zong [ca 1276]. He is remembered as a man of integrity and a devoted Minister who, when the Mongols were on the point of capturing Hangzhou, was sent in an attempt to reach an accommodation with them. This ended in failure. The Court was persuaded by Wen Tianxiang [one of the Three Loyal Generals of the Song] that the imperial heirs should be sent to the coast of south China, to Fuzhou and later to Quanzhou to ensure their safety. The emperor and his mother were captured by the Mongols and taken to Beijing, whilst Lu followed the Court in its retreat to the south. Lu met up with Zhang Shijie [the third of the Three Loyal Generals of the Song] in Wenzhou to rally support for the imperial cause, but had to flee on south to Fuzhou where they joined the forces of Wen Tianxiang. The senior heir was enthroned in Fuzhou as the Song Jing Yan emperor. At this point, following a reorganisation, Zhang and Lu became deputies to Chen Yizhong, the Commissioner of Military Affairs and Grand Counsellor. The new emperor was forced to flee further and further south pursued by the Mongol forces until he reached the area of present day Kowloon where Lu Xiufu rejoined the force from Chaozhou. The Mongol fleet having captured Guangzhou destroyed the forces of Zhang Shijie thus driving the Song Court out to sea. A typhoon struck the fleeing Song fleet and even though the ship carrying the young emperor was sunk he was rescued but died from shock and exposure near the Leizhou peninsula in mid-1278. Lu and Zhang stood firmly against any talk of surrender and ensured that the younger heir, a boy of six, was made emperor. Zhang became the Junior Guardian whilst Lu was Grand Counsellor. The next year the Mongol forces having been reinforced compelled the last of the Song forces to attempt to escape. Lu is said to have committed suicide but the official records do not reveal how the last of the Song, the boy of seven, died. The popular version claims that Lu, the hero from Zhenjiang, leapt into the sea with the boy in his arms.\n\nAn imperial hostelry, the Danyang Guan, was founded in Zhenjiang\n\nPage 330\n\nPage 331", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216043, "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": 342, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "276\n\nThe fight between Lady White Snake and the monk Fa Hai leading to the flooding of Jin Shan\n\nA popular and well-known opera, Bai She Chuan, tells of Lady White Snake's fall from grace and of her eternal imprisonment under a pagoda. It begins with a small white snake which, having been both virtuous and devout for many thousands of years, became immortal and could change at will into the form of a beautiful young maiden. As a snake she had been saved from death by a compassionate man and would have to repay the debt at a future date. She discovered that the man, in his latest incarnation, was a young scholar, Xu Xian, living in Hangzhou and after recruiting as her maid a small blue snake who too could change into a young woman, she returned to Earth having been warned by the Xi Wangmu, the Goddess of the Western Heaven, not to abuse her magical powers.\n\nShe met the young scholar and they promptly fell in love. She explained that she was the daughter of a deceased army officer and lived in some style in a large house, produced by her magic, on the lakeside at Hangzhou. They were soon married and set up a herbalist store in which all three helped prepare and sell the medicines. White Snake enabled her husband's recipes gain widespread fame by the addition of a small addition of a magical powder and their fortunes were made. However, Xu began to be suspicious of the personality and origins of his wife and went to consult his old teacher, the Abbot Fa Hai at his monastery, Jin Shan Si, on the island in the Yangzi and sought his advice. The Abbot too was suspicious and gave Xu a potion to add to his wife's drink which would change any non-human back into its true self. To his horror his wife was revealed in her herpetological form and he, petrified, dropped dead with fright.\n\nThe power of the potion soon wore off and when White Snake found that her beloved husband was dead she went off to the Western Heaven to obtain herbs of resuscitation. Her husband, now recovered, was unable to get over his experience and lived a life of nervous apprehension. He returned to his teacher and explained what had happened. The Abbot explained that he too feared for Xu as both his wife and her maid must be transformed snakes who could do him great harm. Xu remained in the monastery in hiding. His anxious wife set out to find him and was met by the Abbot who ordered her away.\n\nShe", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216044, "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": 343, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "277\n\npleaded with him and explained that she was a good person and truly loved her husband. She added that she was due to bear his child in the not too distant future. The Abbot, who is the villain of the tale, would have none of it and White Snake at her wits end called on her allies, the fish and crustaceans of the Great River to her aid. The violent and prolonged rainstorm flooded the entire area around Jin Shan island in an attempt to free her husband and as the waters rose White Snake again pleaded with the Abbot offering to call off the dangerous river waters. He refused to listen, used his own cloak to quell the waters and even tried to catch her in his magical urn to incarcerate her but to no avail as she was protected by Wen Chang, the God of Literature, as her future son was destined to achieve the status of Zhuang Yuan, the First Scholar in the whole country. The Abbot immediately knew that he was no longer able to catch or destroy White Snake but would be able to do so once she had borne the child.\n\nThe Abbot gave Xu his magical urn and explained that once the son had been born he was to capture her in it and she would then be incarcerated forever. Xu returned home and after tearful explanations from both husband and wife they were reconciled, though once the child was born Xu threw the urn at his wife. Having been captured by the magic urn she turned back into her original form. Almost immediately the Abbot materialised and took the urn with its prisoner and placed it under the Thunder Peak Pagoda on the shores of Hangzhou's lake. Xu bitterly repented betraying his wife and sought obscurity as a solitary Buddhist monk far away.\n\nThe son grew into a handsome and talented youth and only when he had become the long forecast First Scholar, a Zhuang Yuan, was he told the sad tale of his ill-fated father and mother. At an auspicious time on an auspicious day he prepared an elaborate sacrificial ceremony in memory of his mother and there, before the Thunder Peak Pagoda he knelt in prayer. His mother, freed for a very short period as a gesture by the local guardian deity, appeared dressed in white. She approached her son and full of tears explained her love for his father and the sad ending, and especially the dreadful punishment she was suffering for having caused the deaths of so many innocent people in and around Zhenjiang by ordering the land to be flooded. She was escorted back to the Pagoda to continue her agony - for all eternity.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]