[ { "id": 211039, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "75\n\nfame of Huang Daxian in Hong Kong. They have learned about this god from relatives living in Hong Kong, or from the Hong Kong media. However, in Guangdong province the Hong Kong Huang Daxian is frequently identified with another Taoist figure with the same surname but a quite different biography.\" The Hong Kong Huang Daxian, Huang Chuping, was, before his deification, a Taoist hermit living during the Jin dynasty (317-420 A.D.) on Jinhua Mountain in Zhejiang province, where he became an immortal. However, as the first author discovered during a research visit to China in 1985, many Guangdong Taoists believe that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian lived and became an immortal on Mt. Luofu,* in Guangdong province. They believe that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian is the same figure as a Mt. Luofu \"Huang Daxian” known as Huang Yeren (Huang the “wild man”), who lived, according to the sources, roughly during the same period as Huang Chuping.\n\nIn August of 1987, we returned to China to visit the remains of a Huang Daxian temple in the ancestral village of the founder of the Hong Kong Huang Daxian temple.' We also visited Mt. Luofu to learn more about Huang Yeren. We discovered that some people were unaware of the difference between the two Huangs, and that their confusion of the two was due to lack of knowledge about the biography and origins of the Hong Kong Huang Daxian. However, attempts have also been made by people with some awareness of the differences between the two Huangs to merge these two figures: to unite two deified Taoist hermit-saints into one personality on the basis of similarities and supposed historical connections between the two. Evidently this process of the merging of several originally distinct deities into one figure has occurred a number of times in the history of religions, but it is rare that one has the opportunity to witness it firsthand.\"\n\nThe following is an account of the two Huangs, and of our discoveries in China of the confusion or merging of the two figures.\n\nHong Kong's Huang Daxian: Huang Chuping\n\nThe main Huang Daxian temple in Kowloon contains a plaque", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211040, "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "76\n\nwith records of the \"autobiography” of the Taoist saint Huang Chuping, the figure worshipped by many thousands of devotees in Hong Kong as \"Wong Tai Sin.\" This autobiography has been reprinted in official publications of the Sese Yuan, and reads as follows (using the Sese Yuan's translation):\n\nAs a young shepherd boy, I spent my early childhood at Kim Hwa [Jinhua] Mountain located at the north of Kim Hwa City in Chekiang [Zhejiang] Province. The mountain was said to have derived its name from Venus and Mou Nui Constellation (Wunüxing) both of which were directly overhead. Orientated at the north of Kim Hwa Mountain was the Hill of Red Pines where I took abode. This hill, densely forested and often hidden in clouds and fog, was seldom frequented by outsiders. Among thick natural vegetations and interlocking peaks there was a deep ravine named Kim Hwa, one of the thirty-six caves of the similar geological structures in the neighbouring district.\n\nMy childhood was marred by poverty and hunger, compelling me to start earning my daily bread as a shepherd boy at the age of eight. At fifteen I was fortunate enough to have been blessed by a fairy who led me to a stone cave where I learned the art of refining cinnabar nine times into an immortal drug. For forty years in succession, I lived in this seclusion from the rest of the world until my brother broke this isolation. His early efforts were at first futile. However, through the guidance of a Taoist fortune-teller, he located me. My brother queried me of the whereabouts of the sheep under my custody. To this I replied that they could be traced in the east of the Kim Hwa Mountain. He was surprised, on arrival, to find nothing but heaps of white boulders which quickly transformed into sheep at my call. Fascinated by this impressive show of mine, my brother also took steps to learn to become an immortal.\n\nOriginally, I was named Wong Cho-ping (Huang Chuping), a subject of the Tsun [Jin] Dynasty and a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211041, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "77\n\nnative of Tak Kai [Danxi] District. The derivation of my name as Red Pine Fairy was due to my living in seclusion in Red Pine Hill. To differentiate myself from the Red Pine Fairy who was in close company with Chang Liang [Zhang Liang], I wrote this autobiography. (Sese Yuan, 1971;3)\n\nThis autobiography is thought by some current members of the Sese Yuan to have been received from the god by the way of the fuji divination procedure, but actually it seems to have been drawn from the story related in the fourth century work titled Shenxian Zhuan (Biography of immortals). This work contains brief descriptions of the lives of eighty-four Taoist hermits and seekers of immortality. The passage on Huang Chuping is as follows:\n\nHuang Chuping came from Danxi. When he was 15 his family had him tend sheep. A Taoist seeing that he was good-natured and conscientious took him to a stone cave in the Jinhua Mountain. For forty odd years he stayed there without thinking of his family. His elder brother Chuqi searched for him for many years in the mountains but without success. Once in a marketplace he saw a Taoist. Chuqi beckoned him and asked \"My brother Chuping who was sent out to tend sheep has not been seen for more than forty years. I don't know where he is or whether he is dead or alive. Would you please find out by means of divination?” The Taoist said, \"On the Jinhua Mountain there is a young shepherd by the name of Huang Chuping. Doubtless he is your brother.\" When he heard this, Chuqi followed the Taoist in search of his younger brother. He found him. The brothers told each other of what had happened during all these years. Chuqi then asked his brother where the sheep were. \"Not far from here on the eastern side of the mountain,” Chuping answered. Chuqi went over there and looked for them. He didn't see them. He only saw white stones. He went back and said to Chuping, \"There are no sheep on the eastern side of the mountain,” Chuping said, “The sheep are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211042, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "78\n\nthere but you, my brother, could not see them.\" Chuping together with Chuqi went over again to have another look. Chuping shouted to the sheep to rise and all the stones turned into tens of thousands of sheep. Chuqi said to his brother, \"You have now attained perfection in the secrets of the Tao. Can I also learn to do that?\" Chuping said, \"Only if you are eager to learn the way will you attain perfection.\" Chuqi then abandoned his wife and children and stayed with his brother to learn the way.\n\nThe passage ends with a reference to medicines perfected by Chuping and states that people who have taken this medicine have also managed to become immortals. Chuping, it is also said, eventually changed his name to Chisong Zi and Chuqi his to Lu Ban.\n\nThe author of this work, Ge Hong (284-364), was a famous Taoist theorist and writer on Chinese medicine. He appears to be the principal source for traditions about Huang Chuping (although paying him no special attention among the many Taoists whose stories he describes). Other, later accounts, such as the Ming dynasty source Huitu Liexian Quanzhuan (Complete illustrated biographies of the saints), differ little from Ge Hong's version.12\n\nMt. Luofu's Huang Daxian: Huang Yeren\n\nHuang Yeren was by tradition a disciple of Ge Hong on Mt. Luofu. Ge Hong had retired there, after an active career of service to the state, to pursue immortality through collecting various herbs and attempting to refine cinnabar into a medicine to produce immortality.3 The Huitu Liexian Quanzhuan describes the life of Huang Yeren as follows:\n\nHuang Yeren was a disciple of Ge Hong. When Hong lived in the mountain and made cinnabar Yeren always would follow him. When Hong was about to ascend to heaven he left a pill between the pillar and the stone [supporting stone of his hut?] at Mt. Luofu. Yeren took it and ate it and became an earthbound saint. Even today [this was written in the Ming dynasty...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211045, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "81\n\nwas copied by a craftsman in Guangzhou from a scroll painting supplied by the temple for use as a model. The scroll painting once hung in a reception hall of the main temple. We viewed and photographed this painting (which is not on public display). The inscription on the painting is Chisong Daxian (Red Pine Fairy). The painting is evidently one painter's version of the ancient figure of the Red Pine Fairy, and is similar to another, older picture of this figure.26 The painting does not explicitly refer to Huang Daxian. However, the appearance of the figure, who is holding a handful of herbs that he has collected, and the two deer at his feet, are consistent with a portrayal of Huang Yeren.\n\nTo summarize: Huang Yeren has been known in the Luofu area, and probably worshipped, since at least the early Song period. There was once a separate shrine to Yeren, and when the temple was rebuilt after being destroyed in the early 1800's, Yeren was moved into the same room as Ge Hong. Now, there is a separate room for Huang \"Daxian\" at the Luofu Chongxu Guan. However, he is now no longer identified as Yeren, but merely as the Red Pine Huang Daxian. We believe that this has something to do with the belief that Huang Yeren is the same figure as the Hong Kong Huang Daxian—or that the differences are unimportant.” However, the biographies of the two Huangs are clearly irreconcilable. Neither Huang Yeren nor the partly overlapping figure of Huang Li bears any resemblance to Huang Chuping. Further, there are no literary traditions that Huang Chuping went anywhere near Luofu, or anywhere other than Jinhua Mountain in Zhejiang province, and we have found no trace of any previous worship of Huang Chuping at Luofu.28 Hence, it is surprising that anyone should want to confuse the two figures. Why has this confusion of the two Huangs occurred? We now turn to the interviews and sources in which Huang Yeren and Huang Chuping have been confused or merged.\n\nIdentifications of the Hong Kong Huang Daxian with Huang Yeren of Mt. Luofu\n\nIn 1985, the first author interviewed Taoists and others in Guangzhou and in Xiqiao, and found that where they had any opinion about the origin of the Hong Kong Huang Daxian, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211046, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "82\n\nplaced him at Mt. Luofu. The Taoists typically assumed that the Hong Kong Huang was Huang Yeren of Mt. Luofu. There is a simple explanation for this confusion of the two figures: they are all aware of Huang Yeren because he is a famous figure in the history of Taoism at Mt. Luofu; he is a “Daxian” (saint, or deified hermit-fairy), although not often referred to explicitly as Daxian; and they do not know of the Sese Yuan “autobiography\" of Huang Daxian which clearly identifies him as Huang Chuping of Zhejiang province. (Many Hong Kong worshippers are also unaware of these details).\n\nA second type of merging of the two figures is more intriguing: we have discovered several attempts to link the biographies of Huang Chuping and Huang Yeren. In a pamphlet sold outside the main temple at Luofu, describing the various sites of interest to tourists in the region and providing some background information on the history of the area, there are two short articles on Huang Daxian. The first article, titled “Ge [Hong] the holy man and the Hong Kong Huang Daxian,” relates a visit by the author of the article to the Sese Yuan Huang Daxian temple in Kowloon. After describing the temple, the account begins to describe the life of Huang Chuping, using some of the details from the Sese Yuan's \"autobiography\" of Huang Chuping. However, the account omits the miracle of turning the rocks into sheep, and instead relates the following interesting outcome:\n\nIt so happened that the old fairy and refiner of cinnabar Ge Hong was passing by Red Pine Mountain. He saw Chuping tending his sheep. Although Chuping was starving and fatigued this could not hide his wisdom. Ge Hong took him in as his apprentice, and named him Huang Yeren.\n\nThereafter Huang Daxian (Chuping) followed old saint Ge and \"for forty odd years he forgot about the business of this world.\" He followed Ge Hong to Mt. Luofu in Guangdong and gathered herbs and refined cinnabar below the Lion Rock. Huang Chuping also learnt acupuncture from Bao Gu, the wife of his master.\n\n+\n\n29", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211047, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "83\n\nThe second article, titled \"The legend of Huang Daxian,\" opens with a poem in which the story is retold of Ge Hong's ascent to heaven, taking even the dogs with him, and of Huang Yeren's late arrival and subsequent life as an earthbound fairy. After relating two stories of healings by Huang Yeren (stories taken from literary sources about the Luofu Huang Yeren; see n. 16) the article then asserts that\n\nAccording to historical records the Red Pine Huang Daxian of the Hong Kong Huang Daxian temple was a Jin dynasty man from Danxi. His original surname was Huang and his given name Chuping. In his youth when he was tending sheep he was taken by the famous Jin dynasty refiner of cinnabar, old saint Ge Hong, as an apprentice. Ge Hong jokingly named him Huang Yeren. After Ge Hong had ascended to heaven Huang Daxian continued to travel all over practicing kindness and helping the people. He first went to Mt. Xiqiao, and later to Hong Kong.\n\nThese extraordinary attempts to weld the two Huangs into a single figure are not based, as far as we can tell, on any literary sources. The pseudonymous authors, who very likely have had some official connection with Luofu,17 were engaged in what appears to us to be the creative reconstruction of myth.\n\n30\n\nThis reconstruction has doubtless been at least partly successful. The cultural affairs cadres who met us at the Chongxu Guan had clearly been influenced by such ideas. With some knowledge of the Luofu saints, but little knowledge of the Taoist literature, they related to us a story which managed to incorporate into the biography of \"Huang Daxian” elements of both Huang Chuping, Huang Yeren, and Huang Li.18 They were somewhat confused by the conflicting traditions but, nevertheless, asserted with some confidence that the two Huangs, Chuping and Yeren, were the same.\n\nIt might be thought that the Taoists who serve at the temple would wish to clarify the situation, and to inform visitors that the temple's Huang was Huang Yeren, the disciple of Ge Hong, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211048, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "84\n\nnot at all the same figure as the Hong Kong Huang Daxian. This could easily be done with a small plaque identifying the statue as Huang Yeren. Indeed, a Hong Kong Taoist organization which has provided some funds for the renovation of the temple had asked them to make this clarification. A member of the Sese Yuan had also visited the temple and objected to the claim that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian had originated at Luofu, and was in fact the Luofu saint Huang Yeren. He too had asked the temple to make this clarification. However, up to the time of our visit, they had declined to do this. Why have they declined?\n\nPerhaps, we thought, they expect that Hong Kong tourists may be willing to visit the site where their Huang Daxian became an immortal. The anticipation of this flow of tourists and devotees may explain the placing of the statue in a new “Red Pine Huang Daxian\" room. The new statue also makes the identification with Huang Chuping easier, because the mute tiger, evidently represented at the Yeren altar before the restoration, has disappeared.' (The presence of the tiger, of course, would strongly distinguish Huang Yeren, the wild man, from Huang Chuping, the tender of sheep).\n\n32\n\nHong Kong tourists are indeed coming to Luofu. We observed a tourist bus arriving at the temple from Hong Kong and heard the tour guide, addressing his group by megaphone, refer to the site as the place of origin of Huang Daxian. These Hong Kong tourists, we found, were not at all interested in discussing the possibility that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian did not in fact originate there. One elderly local person whom we interviewed asserted that “the masses wish the two figures to be the same, and so we'll let them be the same.\" Considering the amount of revenue which the Hong Kong tourist trade might generate in the area, this position is not surprising.\n\nIt is quite possible that this confusion or merging of the identities of the two Huangs at Mt. Luofu will not continue indefinitely. The Sese Yuan is, of course, aware of the claims made by the Luofu temple in regard to their \"Huang Daxian”, and at some point they may issue a formal rebuttal of some kind, which would be publicized in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong (as of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211051, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "87\n\nNOTES\n\n“Wong Tai Sin” is the most common transliteration in Hong Kong of the god's name. The pinyin transliteration is Huang Daxian. For Chinese names with a conventional Hong Kong transliteration which differs from the pinyin form, we will begin with the pinyin forms followed by the Hong Kong forms within brackets. For names and places in China, and for subsequent references to Chinese names and terms used in Hong Kong (except for place names such as Hong Kong and Kowloon), only pinyin system will be used.\n\nOn the reasons for the growth in popularity of Huang Daxian in Hong Kong, especially since the late 1940's, see Graeme Lang, and Lars Ragvald, “Upward mobility of a refugee god: Hong Kong's Huang Daxian,\" The Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies. Vol, 1, 1988. We have called Huang Daxian the “refugee god” both because his cult was imported into Hong Kong early in this century during a period of persecution of traditional religion in China, and also because the god's success can be attributed in part to the refugees who flooded into the area around the temple in the late 1940's. Key decisions made by the management of the temple were also very important.\n\nOur discoveries regarding the ruined temples to Huang Daxian in Guangdong, and a second visit to these sites in 1987, will be reported in a forthcoming article.\n\nThere are undoubtedly many intriguing stories about Huang Daxian which could be collected by researchers in Guangdong province. For instance, one story connecting Huang Daxian to legends about the founding of Guangzhou was related to the first author by the manager of a local company near Guangzhou, who as a child had played in an old Huang Daxian temple in the Fangcun area (on which, see the first author's forthcoming paper). According to this story, Huang Chuping of the Jin dynasty had found the way (Tao) and become a saint at Mt. Luofu. He then, it is said, shouted at five pieces of hard rock turning them into five fairy-sheep and also ordered five fairies dressed in red, yellow, blue, white and black respectively to drive the sheep. This unlikely flock descended in the midst of Guangzhou. Huang Daxian then chanted, \"I wish that Guangzhou from now on shall enjoy bumper harvests, timely wind and rain, be prosperous and at peace, and never suffer famine or disaster”. This tale was related as explaining the origin of the old names Wuyang Cheng (City of the five sheep) and Suicheng (Ear of grain city). The story is clearly modeled on the old (documented) tales of the five saints on ram-back who brought the five ears of grain to Guangzhou. It is not clear where the manager got his story, but it may have been stimulated by an obscure phrase on one of the pillars of the main gate of the old Fangcun Huang Daxian temple. In any case, we expect that there are many such tales which remain to be uncovered. The versatile Huang Daxian, with his several incarnations and his ability to absorb stories from other traditions, may continue to surprise students of his cult for years to come. In the present paper, however, we focus only on his merger with another Taoist figure at Mt. Luofu.\n\n5 Several cases of apparently similar confusion or merging of legendary Taoist figures on the basis of similar surnames have been documented in S.H. Wong. “A study of Huang Ta-hsien [Daxian].” The Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, XVI, 1985, pp. 223-239.\n\nMt. Luofu, some 100 kilometres northeast of Guangzhou, is historically the most important site in the history of Taoist worship and practice in Guangdong province.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211052, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "88\n\nOur principal concern has been to document and explain the rapid growth in popularity in Hong Kong since the 1940's of the cult of Huang Daxian (on which, see Lang and Ragvald, \"Upward mobility of a refugee god\"). However, we have also been trying to trace the origins of the cult in Guangdong province, hence the research trip to the village. A report on this visit, and on the first author's initial visit to the village in 1985, has also been prepared. We are now working on a book on the history of the cult in Guangdong and Hong Kong.\n\nProbable cases of the mergings of deities include, from ancient Greece, the merging of two incarnations of Zeus (Gilbert, Murray, Five stages of Greek Religion, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday Anchor Books, 1951, p. 48; H.J. Rose, Religion in Greece and Rome, N.Y., Harper and Row, 1959, pp. 48-49), and of various female deities in Aphrodite (Paul Friedrich, The Meaning of Aphrodite, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1978, ch. 2); from Rome, the blending of Roman with Greek deities, and the subsequent apparent merging of some Roman deities with Celtic deities (John Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire, Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1970, pp. 211-220); from the early Christian era, the probable absorption of elements of the cult of Diana into the cult of Mary (Herbert Muller, The Loom of History, N.Y. New American Library, 1958 p. 173; Durant, 1939: 183); from Mexico, the absorption of elements of the Indian goddess Tonantsi into the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe (Ena Campbell, “The Virgin of Guadalupe and the female self-image: a Mexican case history\", in Mother Worship: Themes and Variations, ed. by Richard Preston, University of North Carolina Press, 1982).\n\n9 This translation strangely enough contains one serious (the failure to recognize Dongtian Fudi [Cavern-heavens and blessed spots] as a general Taoist concept) and a few smaller mistakes. These, however, do not affect the arguments made in this paper.\n\n10 This probable origin of the autobiography was pointed out to us by Dr. S.H. Wong of the Department of Chinese, Hong Kong University (see Wong, \"A study of Huang Ta-hsien\").\n\nThere are several slightly different versions of Shenxian Zhuan. For this translation we have used the relatively early (Song dynasty) version in Biji Xiaoshuo Daguan (A Parade of Note-form Fiction), Taibei, Xinxing Shuju, volume 4. 12 Essentially the same story is related in Huitu Liexian Quanzhuan, compiled in the 16th century by Wang Shizhen (reprinted by Zhongwen Chubanshe in 1971 on Taiwan). This is one of the major reference works on Taoist saints, with capsule biographies on some 500 of them, and covers the entire period from the beginning of Taoism until the last year of the reign of Hongzhi (1506 A.D.). This source adds only the information that during the Song and Yuan dynasties, both Huang Chuping and his brother were awarded honorary titles by the state. The story of Huang Chuping also appears in Jinhua Fuzhi (the prefectural gazetteer of Jinhua), volume no. 22 in the subsection \"xian shi\" (on fairies).\n\n13\n\nGe Hong was a native of Jurong in Danyang (present day Jiangsu province). His career included service as assistant to prime minister Sima Rui, and as counsellor and military staff officer. He was honoured by the state for his services in the suppression of the peasant revolt led by Shi Bing. However, he was also very interested in Taoist alchemy. He was a grandson, on the fraternal line, of the famous necromancer and alchemist Ge Xuan (164-244), and from a disciple of Ge Xuan's, he learned the art of refining cinnabar. When word spread that cinnabar sand had been found in Jiaozhi (the ancient name for part of Guangdong and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211054, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "90\n\nese pronounced exactly like Wang) after becoming a hermit at Mt. Luofu. Thus the foundation for a subsequent merger of the two \"Yerens” was created. According to Soymie, \"Le Lo-feouchan\", pp. 110-111, another immortal of the mountain, Wang Tijing, was also occasionally referred to as Huang Yeren. Today, however, he seems to be totally disconnected from the \"Yeren\" figure,\n\n21 Su Dongpo Ji [collected works of Su Dongpo], Shanghai, Shangwu Yinshu Guan (Commercial Press), 1933, Vol. 2, p. 58. In this volume there are numerous references (poems as well as letters and essays) to Luofu. Su Dongpo was exiled to Huizhou from the Song capital, and went to Luofu Mountain soon after (in 1094) arriving in Huizhou (this probably indicates the fame of Luofu among men of letters and politicians). What attracted him, no doubt, was the name of Ge Hong. Su is said to have spent about two years (of his four years in Huizhou) in Luofu. (Source: Luofushan Fengwuzhi, p. 105).\n\n22 Guangdong Xinyu, Hong Kong, Zhonghua Shuju (Chung Hwa Book Company), 1975 (reprint), pp. 729-730.\n\n23\n\nThe reference is in Tan Cui's work Chuting Baizhu Lu (Records of precious pearls from Chuting [old name of Guangzhou], reprinted in October 1982 by Guangdong Renmin Chubanshe). This work contains a rather detailed account of Luofu Mountain and most (possibly all) of the temples which existed in the mountain in the 18th century.\n\n24 According to the Luofushan Fengwuzhi, the original temple at Luofu was built in 405 A.D., and was called Ge Hong Ci. Later in the early Tang, a large one called Ge Xian Ci was built. Another source (Lingnan Gu Jin Lu or Records of old and present Lingnan [Guangdong], edited by Xu Xu, well-known Guangzhou-based scholar, Hong Kong, Shanghai Book Company, 1984) states that a small temple was built at Luofu in 742 A.D., called Ge Xian Ci. During the Song dynasty, a Taoist temple was built, called the Duxu Guan, later renamed the Chongxu Guan. The deities worshipped in the central shrine of the temple (they have superseded Ge Hong, perhaps from as early as the Southern Han dynasty) are the three gods residing in the 35th (San Qing Tian) of the 36 heavens (Tianbao Jun, Taishang Daojun and Taishang Laojun). They are the mightiest among the \"shenxians\" (the fairies and saints [immortals]). They are normally understood by worshippers to be the Jade Emperor and his two closest officials.\n\n25 We learned this from the interviews at Luofu, especially from an interview with Mr. Zhang Zongquan, the presiding Taoist at a smaller temple, the Jiutian Guan (devoted to Beidi, the \"northern emperor\"), on the plain near the mountain several kilometres from the main temple. Mr. Zhang had been an officer in the anti-Japanese forces of the area in the 1930's. The provincial Fengwuzhi (Guangdong Fengwuzhi, Guangzhou, Huacheng Chubanshe, 1985, p. 151) also mentions worship of Ge Hong together with worship of Huang Yeren and the mute tiger often mentioned in folk-tales. This account refers to the situation prior to the restoration.\n\n26 See the picture of the Red Pine Fairy in Zhongguo Shenhua Chuanshuo Cidian (Dictionary of Chinese myths and legends), Shanghai, Cishu Chubanshe (Lexiographical publishing company), 1985, p. 185.\n\n21 One Taoist whom we interviewed (see note 25) dismissed the importance of the differences in the biographies of the two Huangs with the remark that the spirit of Huang Chuping entered (or could enter) into the person of the later Huang Yeren. He was the only one we met who explicitly used this strategy to rationalize the merger of the two Huangs into one figure at the Chongxu Guan. It is possible that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211055, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "91 \n\nhe did this spontaneously, in response to our questions. In any case, his response constitutes an interesting datum for those interested in the study of religious rationalizations.\n\n28 Ge Hong, of course, wrote of Huang Chuping, but only as one of a large number of immortals. Su Dongpo, who stayed at Luofu in the 11th century, praises a painting of Huang Chuping in one of several poems on various paintings, but does not mention any connection between the painting and Luofu. Qu Dajun's very detailed account of Luofu (in Guangdong Xinyu) and its saints does not mention Huang Chuping at all. It might be noted, however, that the Southern Song court bestowed titles on Huang Chuping and his brother in the reigns of Shaoxing (1131-1162) and Jiaxi (1237-1240). The Ming official Huang Gongfu (1573-1657) also seems to have brought worship of Huang Chuping to Guangdong. He was stationed in Fujian not far from Jinhua Mountain, according to the annals of Xinhui (quoted by Wong “A study of Huang Ta-hsien\"), but became disillusioned with the Ming regime and migrated south to become a hermit in the Xinhui area. While there, he wrote some poems mentioning Huang Chuping. He lived near a rock or crag once named Yang Shi Keng (Sheep stone pit), changed its name to Chi Shi Yan (The crag of shouting [at the sheep]), evidently referring to Huang Chuping's miracle of turning rocks into sheep. There is as yet no evidence that worship of Huang Chuping by the founders of the Hong Kong temple owes anything to the influence of Huang Gongfu. Many of the devotees of the Xiqiao Huang Daxian, however, came from Gaoming and Heshan not far from the home area of Huang Gongfu.\n\n19 The article, authored by An Shi, is on page two of the brochure, which is printed on newsprint-type paper with the heading \"Scenic spots in Luofu, Tangquan, Huizhou”. The brochure, published by the local branch of the provincial Tourist Agency, is clearly written by journalists and local scholars attached to the local cultural affairs bureau.\n\n10 We were told at Luofu that two former members of the local Wenhua Ju (Cultural Affairs Bureau) had written articles to prove that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian originated in Luofu: Mr. Xie Hua (editor of Luofushan Fengwuzhi), now at the Tequ Bao (Special Zone Daily), had apparently written an article for the Shenzhen Ribao (Shenzhen Daily); Mr. Su Fanggui, now at the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Huizhou, had reportedly also written an article on this theme.\n\n31 We were told during the interview with these officials that Huang Chuping was another disciple of Ge Hong; he became an official in Huizhou (obviously a reflection of Huang Li]; he had a brother named Huang Chuqi; he went to Hong Kong, found he had to go far north to a mountain in Zhejiang province, where he was engaged in tending sheep; he became separated from his brother; and so on. These cadres had evidently consulted some books on Taoist saints prior to their meeting with us.\n\n12 Regarding traditions about the mute tigers associated with Yeren, see Soymie, \"Le Lo-feou chan\". p. 27. Soymié points out (ibid. p. 111) that by tradition, several other saints of Luofu also had tigers as companions. Tigers functioned like tutelary deities of the mountain, placed there in part to prevent the wicked and the unworthy from ascending the mountain.\n\n33 We learned while in the area that there had been some recent conflict between the proprietors of rival shrines near the mountain in their attempt to get some of the tourist trade. For a time in the spring of 1987, the Beidi temple on the plain several kilometres from the main temple was by-passed by a steady stream of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 } ]