[ { "id": 204603, "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-1963", "page_number": 84, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING\n\n73\n\nthe western side, is a bare space occupied in winter by Mongol traders, and known in consequence as the \"Mongol Market\". On the south side, a congeries of little Chinese shops. The whole is surrounded by a massive wall, which on the west, as being the wall of the Carriage Park and enclosing Imperial ground, is topped with yellow tiles. The principal gate of the Legation is in the centre of the eastern side, facing the canal. The gate-house has an upper storey surmounted by a flag-staff, and carrying the royal arms. ...\n\nNorth of the doctor's house is the Fives Court. From this, under the wall of the Carriage Park, runs the Bowling Alley. Opposite the Fives Court, again, is a converted Chinese building, now divided into a billiard-room, a reading-room, and a small stage. North of this are the garden and buildings of the Students' Quarters.\n\nThe Quarters consist of a long row facing south, having an upper storey, and containing ten sets of rooms, five above and five below. The whole block is in the common style of foreign architecture out here, with verandah and balcony. Each set consists of a sitting-room about fourteen feet by ten, with a small store-closet, a bed-room, say ten feet square, and a bathroom. In the upper rooms the store-closet becomes a cupboard, the bathroom being lengthened to allow the door to open on the stair-head. There is a stern disregard of ornament in the interiors at any rate, but they were comfortable enough on the whole.\"7\n\n+\n\nThe only furniture supplied to the incoming student was a bed, a chest of drawers with a looking-glass, a wash-stand, and three cane-bottomed office chairs for his sitting-room. Wilkinson mentions mess fees. \"On first joining the mess the student pays an entrance fee of $25. We contracted with the cook to supply us with breakfast, tiffin, and dinner at 50 cents 1s. 10d. a day. All stores, such as condiments, jellies, tea, coffee, we provided ourselves in regard to wine, each man had a separate account with the cellar.\" From time to time they gave a mess dinner, the largest one being for forty men, students and guests included.\n\n17 Ibid., 24-5; 27-8. For a plan of the buildings see over.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205157, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "108\n\nA. L. Y. CHUNG\n\nThe practice of ordering a number of Hanlins to become Recorders of the Emperor's Deeds found its origin in an edict by the Emperor K'ang-hsi in the first year of his reign (1662). He ordered two officials selected from the Academy, one Manchu and one Chinese, to attend him in monthly shifts.29 They were to record his actions both in the Manchu and the Chinese languages. Their writings were to be sealed in secret, and even the emperor himself was not permitted to see them.30 This may be regarded as the beginning of the Ch'ing Record Office and the first time the Manchus had set up this typical Chinese institution.\n\nOn the face of it, it was rather paradoxical for an autocratic monarch to devise a method whereby his own actions were recorded in black and white. The likely explanation is that the emperor strove to impress his people with his adherence to enlightened ideas. The Confucian precept of good government was that the monarch should live up to the moral standards prescribed for him by past sages. Officials and people would look up to him for example. Thus, if the emperor was moral and diligent, the Confucians maintained, the Empire would be at peace, with or without the application of the legal system. The Emperor K'ang-hsi therefore hoped to implant in his people's minds the impression that his actions were enlightened enough to be favourably judged by posterity. They would then be of the opinion that he had played well his part as a Confucian monarch. Moreover, the system of recording the emperors' actions had been practised for centuries. The emperor thought it desirable to follow the revered Confucian tradition.\n\nHowever, in the practical application of the system, the emperor seemed to be quite vexed by this \"spying duty\" of his own officials. He gradually departed from the strict observance of the system and thought out pretexts to circumvent its liberal tone. Using yet another Confucian idea that attendance on parents was natural and filial, he commanded the record officials not to follow him when he daily visited his mother in the Inner Court.32\n\nIn 1679, the emperor's doubts about the contents of these records were revealed by his inquiry whether any personal inventions and prejudices had been added to them. The record officials replied that the records were to be examined jointly by the twenty-two members together and that none of them would record official memorials privately. This, however, still did not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205158, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "THE HANLIN ACADEMY\n\n109\n\nsatisfy the emperor completely and at last in 1718 the Record Office was abolished.33\n\nIn the Emperor Yung-cheng's time, the Record Office was re-established and its work of recording the affairs of the state seemed to go on without much interruption from the emperor. Moreover, we see the extension of its functions from recording the Emperor's deeds to include all important government affairs.\n\nIn the second year of the Emperor Yung-cheng's reign (1724), the government allowed the Record Office to record all important memorials from the government boards and courts, and edicts relating to them. The procedure was that on the last day of every month, each government department should send to the Record Office all papers containing memorials and important administrative affairs, giving the exact dates of their issue.34\n\nDuring the reign of the Emperor Ch'ien-lung, the Record Office functioned smoothly as in the times of the Emperor Yung-cheng. The only innovation made by Ch'ien-lung was that in 1740, owing to the multifarious functions of the record officials, who concurrently held posts as editors at various editing-centres and examiners at the Civil Service Examinations, four assistant record officials were enlisted from among junior members of the Academy to help in the work of recording.35\n\nThe reason for the change of attitude of the Emperor Yung-cheng and the Emperor Ch'ien-lung from that of their predecessor in regard to the Record Office may be explained by the growing confidence the two emperors had in the recording agency. The Emperor K'ang-hsi, though he himself had brought about the system, was suspicious of the record officials. Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung, however, found that, given the authority to record all events of the Empire, the recorders were still docile and loyal to the Imperial cause in their writings and would note down events in an Imperial tone. Moreover, even if they dared to put down undesirable comments, the Grand Secretariat, authorized to check the work of the Record Office (since the emperor as noted above was not given access to the records), would order their deletion.\n\nThere were in addition to the recorders a number of officials serving in an advisorial capacity to the emperor in the Inner Court. They were the Royal Attendants in the Inner Palace. In 1660", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205159, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "110\n\nA. L. Y. CHUNG\n\nthe Emperor Shun-chih decreed that Hanlin officials should attend the emperor as advisers inside the Palace precincts. A compartment in the Inner Court was reserved for them, where those on duty resided for the night. Several Hanlins at a time were to serve as Royal Attendants and they were to be on duty in rotation,36\n\nFrom 1677 onwards, the procedure was changed. Instead of coming by turns, two officials were selected to serve as permanent advisers. These advisers were appointed from among capital officials, including the Hanlins, by the emperor himself. Frequently, however, the two permanent attendants were not adequate and other Hanlin officials were called in to assist. In 1714 the Emperor K'ang-hsi indicated that he was not sufficiently familiar with the Hanlins. He ordered that they should do duty four at a time in the Inner Court when he resided at the Ch'ang-ch'un yüan, one of his estates near Peking, in conjunction with the officials serving as permanent advisers.37\n\nIn the Emperor Yung-cheng's reign, Hanlins attending the Inner Court were sent to the Imperial Court in shifts of four each during the time when the emperor performed state affairs, so that they might gain administrative experience. The Emperor Ch'ien-lung also made use of the practice for getting to know better the members of the Academy. He decreed in 1740 that they should attend the Inner Court for duty in rotation of twenty at a time. Later in the year, the number in each group was decreased to ten.28\n\nThe Hanlins could get in touch with the emperor in yet another manner. Serving as personal followers of the emperor, they were to accompany him in his various activities both within and outside of the capital. The outdoor activities of a Chinese emperor included visiting Imperial tombs, attending state ceremonies, hunting, etc.39 In 1711 it was decreed that in each royal expedition, Hanlins recommended by the Board of Civil Service would follow the emperor in order to gain experience.40\n\nFrom the above description of the functions of the Hanlins relating directly to the emperor himself, we see that at all times and in all places, the emperor was followed by a galaxy of scholar-officials of high literary attainments. This was purposely designed to enhance the majesty of the emperor.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206093, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "168 \n\nS. F. BALFOUR \n\nEmperor and his court were at a place called Ngai Shan in San Wui district. The army was gathered round him, waiting for news of Wen Tien-chiang's attack on Canton. But Wen Tien-chiang was defeated at Waichow and finally captured at Hai Fung. He was brought as a prisoner on a Mongol ship, from which he witnessed the final assault on the Emperor's army and fleet, which was conducted by the commander of the Mongol armies, Cheung Hung-fan.\n\nIt is recorded that during the battle Wen T'ien-chiang received a message from the Mongol Emperor offering him a post in the government if he would change sides. In reply, he wrote a poem often quoted in books about our region since it mentions the Ling Ting Yeung or Desolate Sea between the islands of outer and inner Ling Ting in the Canton estuary. The poem may be freely translated as follows:\n\n\"After many hardships I am come to a place where the stars foretell the doom of my arms. The waters toss my broken body like a tiny thread, the wind strikes at the wreck of my life. By the Sands of Huang Kung I tell my despair, in the waters of Ling Ting I sigh my desolation.23 Since life began nobody has escaped death, only honour has immortal record among men.\"\n\nThis poem was sent in reply to the Yuan Emperor and Wen T'ien-chiang remained loyal to the Sung cause until his death which occurred in prison some years later.\n\nAt the battle in the Canton estuary the Sung forces were finally dispersed. The last prime minister then took charge of the Emperor's person. Separating them from the army, whose treachery he feared, he led all the surviving members of the royal family to a place on the sea and exhorted them to commit suicide, saying that it was preferable to surrender. When the women had drowned themselves he walked into the sea with the boy Emperor on his shoulders.\n\nIt remains to tell the legends which sprang up over the burial places of the Emperors. According to a story of the Yuan dynasty, one of the Mongol soldiers found a garment floating in the sea\n\n23 惶恐灘頭說惶恐,零丁洋裏歎零丁。", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206796, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA \n\n+ \n\n67 \n\noperation for Kao-tsung Tzu-chih t'ung-chien records this operation as follows: \n\nIn the eleventh moon of the first year of Hung-tao A, the Emperor had great difficulty in seeing because of a headache. The imperial doctor, Ch'in Ming-ho was summoned (to the Inner Palace) to diagnose the case. Ch'in indicated that the Emperor could be healed if he was allowed to needle (acupuncture) the Emperor's head in order to release the blood. \n\nCh'in was allowed to perform the operation and the Emperor was cured. Ch'in was a very skilful surgeon indeed. 38 \n\nIn A.D. 741, a Nestorian Monk known as Ch'ung I also proved to be a good physician in the court. The medical knowledge of these foreigners improved the state of medicine in China and when they met Taoist physicians later, both schools worked very closely and discovered a new kind of medical knowledge which not only benefitted them but also all mankind.40 \n\nLi Hsin 李珣 \n\nIn dealing with foreigners in T'ang China, whether in the field of medical, natural or humanistic science, Li Hsün can hardly be neglected.41 Li was originally from Persia and was the author of the famous Hai-yao pen-ts'ao \n\n(Exotic Pharmacopaeia). Unfortunately, the book is now lost, and there is even uncertainty whether Li Hsun was in fact the author of this book. Fragments of Li Hsün's book have been preserved in the Chung-hsiu Cheng-ho ching-shih cheng-lei pei-yung pen-ts'ao, which is a revision, undertaken in A.D. 1249, of T'ang Shen-wei's Cheng-ho hsin-hsiu cheng-lei pei-yung pen-ts'ao (Materia Medica) of A.D. 1116. They are also preserved in Li Shih-chen's Pen-ts'ao kang-mu \n\n+ \n\nLi was a Ming scientist and died in A.D. 1593. \n\nWhether Li Hsün is the author of the work mentioned is not for discussion here. P. Pelliot, Ch'en Pang-hsien, P. Huard and M. Wong all regarded Li as the author of this work, and as a Persian.42 \n\nLi Hsün was also a literary man of high standing. The compiler of Hua-chien chi had selected thirty-seven of Li's tz'u (lyrics) for this anthology. It is also recorded in Hua-chien chi that Li was also the author of Ch'iung-yao chi. Li Hsün's \n\n+", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206801, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "72\n\nCHIU LING-YEONG\n\n40 See Liu Ts'un-yan #, \"The Taoists' Knowledge of Tuberculosis in the XIIth Century', a paper presented to the twenty-eighth International Congress of Orientalists, Canberra, January, 1971.\n\n41 Li Hsin's name had been mentioned by B. Laufer, P. Pelliot, G. Ferrand and many other sinologists in the beginning of this century. Cf. O. W. Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, a Study of the Origin of Srivijaya (New York, 1966), chapters 9 and 10, also pp. 307-307, n. 13.\n\n42 P. Huard and M. Wong, 'Evolution de la matière medicale chinoise\", Janus 47: (Leiden, 1958); and also their work La mèdecine chinoise au cours des siècles (Paris, 1959).\n\n43 F. S. Drake, pp. 222-223.\n\n44 Ibid.\n\n45 I am indebted again to Professor Lo Hsiang-lin's article 'T'ang-shih yu Chung-Jih wen-hua chiao-liu chih kuan-hsi' ✯✯ ZREALMA T'ang-tai wen-hua shih, pp. 194-220.\n\n46 Sun Kuang-hsien, Pei-meng so-yen. It records during the reign of Hsuan-tsung ✯ (A.D. 847-860) and I-tsung ✯✯ (A.D. 860-873) that secretaries in the Inner Court were all foreigners (#, *£*^); HTS, chuan 217, part II.\n\n47 Ch'üan-Tang wen, chuan 767; Ch'ien I &, Nan-pu hsin-shu **** (Hsüleh-ching t'ao-vüan ## edition) records: A › Ü*** › ÄR 三二人,姓氏稀僻者,謂之色目人,亦謂曰牌花口\n\n4 Sung Ming chiu it fed, Tang huiyao (Peking, 1959), chüan 10, p. 64, Tai-ho third year, the emperor decreed that:\n\n南海蕃舶,本以慕化而來,囿在榷以恩仁,使其感孚,如開癘疫,嗟怨之聲達於殊俗;況朕方寶勤儉,豐愛退遐?深慮遐邇未安,榷稅猶重,思有矜恤,以示綏撫。其嶺南、福建及揚州蕃客,宜委節度觀察使,常加存問,除舶稅、市、進奉外,任其來往通流,自行交易,不得重加榷稅。", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208889, "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-1980", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n23\n\nof deities. It is now only three storeys high though originally it had, according to differing legends, four or seven storeys.23\n\nInternal Decoration\n\nPopular religion temples vary from the traditional old, often magnificent buildings with carved and gilded panels and beams, furnished with rich embroideries, bronze and pewter vessels and numerous personally-donated items all of which enhance local pride in the temple, to the new jerry-built squatter constructions with ramshackle altar tables littered with tins, boxes and bottles, with one or two litho reproductions only to enliven the walls. Some of the rural traditional temples are bereft of much decoration due, in all probability, to the poverty of devotees,\n\nThe range of stylistic variations that emerged as temples evolved in Hong Kong and Macau, shows an essentially conservative character, although the inner decoration of traditional temples does vary from area to area. Some temples have a frieze of panels carved or sculpted in relief above or in front of the altar tables depicting birds and animals, court scenes with generals flanked by soldiers and scholars, and scenes and characters from Chinese myths and legends. Some temples have long red (occasionally black) boards inscribed with auspicious phrases in black or gilded characters, concealing the pillars of the main hall, and some have richly decorated lintels. Most however are relatively bare. Inside, the structure of beams, brackets and roof tiles are more often than not blackened with soot from incense smoke.\n\nApart from the strikingly rich crimsons on and around the altars, there is little colour in Daoist folk religion temples and the murk and dust tends to overshadow what little colour there is. Courtyards, paved with stone, are usually calm, shaded areas of green and blue, with little decoration apart from the murals which may have been preserved, painted over doorways.\n\nTemple and monastery murals and decorative wall carvings, particularly in Daoist and folk religion temples, are so complicated in detail and pattern, and contain such a wealth of allegory and legend that non-Chinese visitors are either completely bewildered or overwhelmed by detail that usually they see little of the mural. Paintings and sketches of scenes involving numerous Immortals and deities defy identification, even though the main character may", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210685, "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-1986", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "19\n\nHis admission was moved by the Attorney General, Julian Pauncefote, before the Chief Justice, J.J. Smale, who in addressing Francis said \"As you have not been in England I may as well tell you that, though in this court you attain to rights and privileges equal to those enjoyed at home, you will hold yourself bound by all the practices of the court and look upon it as your first duty to aid in the administration of justice, subject to which is your other great duty of protecting your client in every way. From what I have seen of you I have no doubt your career will be a prosperous one”. Smale also observed that a good feeling prevailed among the attorneys of Hong Kong and that they did not seek to take advantage of each other. Gaskell's death no doubt worked both ways for Francis who appears to have practised from the same office. One of his first clients was John D. MacDonald, the executor of Robert Henry Grant, a clerk in the Naval Yard. Francis advertised the fact for so long in the Gazette that I suspect it was a way of advertising that he was in practice. According to the Hong Kong Telegraph Francis soon came to the front as a solicitor and built up a remunerative practice. He brought out from England M.J.D. Stephens to act as his managing clerk. Stephens was admitted to practise in 1874. He also had working for him H.L. Dennys who was admitted in 1874, clerks called Smithers and Guttierrez and an interpreter called Mun Choy. The Chinese name for his firm was Fa Lan Shea Shi Chong Sz. In 1873 Francis decided to give up practice as a solicitor and study to be called to the Bar. He sold his practice to Stephens and in December 1873 had himself taken off the Roll. It was no doubt a courageous thing for him to do, but he had an example in the person of E.H. Pollard who was admitted as a Solicitor in 1850 and as a barrister in 1859 and elected to act as a barrister only in 1865 (in conformity with Ordinance No. 13 of 1862). No doubt also he was able to weigh the likely competition with a fair degree of accuracy; and the hazards to health in Hong Kong ensured that only the fittest survived the pressures of work.\n\nIn January 1874 Francis was admitted as a student of Gray's Inn. His witnesses were Wellington Cowper of the Inner Temple and C.W. Bardswell of Lincoln's Inn. He gave his addresses as 27, Belsize Park Gardens, South Hampstead and 14, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and described himself as late of Victoria in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211815, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "205\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: Alter the usual doubts about the formation of a theatrical company for the season, two plays were given this evening. The theatre had been redecorated and there was a new drop scene, not quite to the liking of the critic though: \"however picturesque and attractive the drop scene may be it ought not to absorb the attention of the onlookers to the exclusion of other objects quite as attractive and much more interesting\". Considering how much stage furniture was normal at that time, this performance must have been very crowded!\n\nOne of the plays, Done on Both Sides, also came in for some sharp remarks, yet this time there was no public outcry in the Herald. But for the remainder the principal character, Henry Jasper (in A Bachelor of Arts) was most successfully personated by Mr. NEWCOME who greatly excelled his efforts on a former occasion and succeeded in placing himself in the foremost ranks of our genteel comedians. Not less finished and effective was the acting of Mr. PICKWICK, in the character of Mr. Thornton. It would, indeed, be difficult to conceive a more quiet and judicious representation of the intelligent, gentleman-like, elderly merchant and man of the world than this performer succeeded in giving. \"Mr. PICKWICK as one of the new members of the corps, we look upon as a decidedly valuable acquisition\". And of course there was that \"first star of the galaxy\" Mrs. NESBIT as Emma Thornton with her \"astonishing powers of portraying the multifarious and often uncomprehensible traits of character which make up that delightful enigma 'woman'\". In Done on Both Sides \"our old favorite Mr. BRUSHWOOD appeared in the character of Pygmalion Phibbs, a veterinary Surgeon\" (NCH 13.2.1858). For behaviour of some members of the public see Survey.\n\n16.3.1858 (Tue)\n\nJ.H. PAYNE: \"Charles the Second\" (1824)\n\nT: Comedy (2 acts)\n\nH. LILLIE: \"As Like as Two Peas\" (1854)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by Messrs Phu & Mor; a selection of overtures and operatic morceaux\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\nN: Second performance of the season.\n\nR: Again one of the pieces, As Like as Two Peas, was not quite up to the standards of the reviewer: \"what was successful in creating laughter was due to the acting, certainly not to the play\". Mrs. NESBIT got some competition tonight for an \"actress of much promise made her debut before the Shanghai audience [Miss WALTERS – JHJ]. The lady-like manner and finished toilette of the new candidate created quite a sensation\". Payne's Charles the Second was far more to the taste of Herald: \"On this occasion the corps took a large step backward — not, we would for an instant wish to infer, in point of ability, but merely in point of time. Hitherto their efforts have been enlisted upon contemporaneous subjects upon the manners and custom of the present day (this was not quite true, see e.g. 21.4.1851 and 26.1.1852). Their characters have been taken from the sunny side of Regent Street or the genteel suburbs of Clapham and exhibited on the stage in the costumes to which the genius of living tailors has brought us, and which we, in our foolish vanity, may consider elegant and becoming, but which, it is mortifying to think, will furnish a subject of lively mirth and ridicule to our great-grandchildren. The comedy selected went back to the time of Charles II and was illustrative of the manners of himself and his court. The scenes were laid in Whitehall and Wapping; and the characters were the courtiers of the merry Monarch and the occupants of a hostelry. The mise-en-scene, considering the means the amateurs have at command, was very well arranged and the two royal and noble revellers, together with the attendant Page and Lady Clara, were dressed with great elegance and effect.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212399, "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-1990", "page_number": 341, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "318\n\nThe origins of the Grand Council, which served as the highest executive body under the Emperor in the Qing government from the first quarter of the eighteenth century, are clarified for the first time. It was not created one day through act of parliament. Nor was it the accidental survivor of a military planning group as its Chinese name might suggest. Bartlett shows the transformation from direct imperial personal rule (Yongzheng's ad hoc arrangements of the Military Finance Section, the High Officials in Charge of Military Strategy, and the palace memorial system) to joint monarchical conciliar administration (Qianlong's regularization of the Grand Council). The development of an inner court to offset the rigidity and limitations of the outer court is traced, and we are shown how the Qianlong Emperor adapted to the increasingly complex demands of ruling China. The Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) was brilliant, but could rely on raw Manchu force to rule; Yongzheng and Qianlong had to use more \"Confucian\" means, at the same time surviving the factionalism of the imperial family.\n\nBartlett has not simply used the Qing archives to sketch political events, or to mark the stages of development of the Grand Council. She has used provenance to enlighten us on process, and has gained an understanding of the whole range of communication that passed between Emperor, grand councillors and provincial officials. This system has been researched before, but no one has gone into such detail on the forms of communication and the act of decision making. The grand councillors knew that control of information flow led to control of decisions. As the palace memorial system expanded from a secret, personal channel between the Emperor and a few officials to a broader, prioritized but more impersonal avenue, the councillors and their clerks injected themselves into the process. Before long they perused memorials, drafted summaries and proposed imperial replies (see, for example, pp 98-101).\n\nThe tension between Emperor and officials, and among officials, was conceptualized by Joseph Levenson in his trilogy Confucian China and its Modern Fate. Bartlett brings Levenson's provocative concept down to earth, and shows the conflict and cooperation between emperor and councillor, and inner and outer court officials. On the dichotomy of an all-powerful Emperor and officials with independent legitimacy, we are told that the outer court ran according to an administrative code. Although the monarch could probably", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212400, "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-1990", "page_number": 342, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "319\n\nchange these arrangements at will (and indeed in a few instances did so), for most matters imperial respect for established statutes prevailed and advice on the wisdom of proposed changes was sought and followed.' (p.6). This was not the case with the inner court in the eighteenth century. It was the creation of the Emperor. But Bartlett argues that by the end of the century the Grand Council straddled the roles of pawn and directorate. The result was a greatly expanded inner-court dominance, but one where both ministers and monarchs could be strong. While the framework for autocracy continued in place, the expansion of inner-court work and the ministerial skill and labor essential to accomplishing it weakened the monarchs' ability fully to oversee and direct the government.\" (p 7).\n\nHere I might take issue with the statement that the Grand Council weakened the monarch's ability to direct government; rather, it permitted him to do more than he could alone. It is at this point within the system that the individual comes into play, and the balance between monarchical power and conciliar power was less a question of institution, and rather varied on the basis of the personal qualities of the incumbent emperor, as well as the qualities of certain officials such as Heshen.\n\nThere is the risk in working with thousands of documents of losing sight of the wood for the trees. The reader is forewarned by the author that Part One covering the Yongzheng reign is very detailed. This reflects the evolution of the Grand Council as the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors experimented with the Inner Court before it was enshrined in statute. In Part Two Bartlett soars above the foliage to give us an overview of the mechanism of government.\n\nMonarchs and Ministers is a seminal work, and opens up many avenues of research. We must study the officials who held concurrent titles in both the Inner and Outer Court, and determine if their authority derived from their positions as Grand Councillors or from their incumbency as presidents of various boards (much as we ponder the power of government officials that derive from their party membership in modern China). This book also looks outward from the Inner Court, and we would do well to look inward from the Outer Court. We should not underestimate the value of Bartlett's analysis of the types of documents existing in the archives. There was no guide to the materials; who drafted them, who read them.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212602, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "136\n\nThe charming English custom of dressing for dinner is ill adapted to the perspiring tropics.\n\nWhen the walla-walla boat took me out to the coaster anchored in the harbour, I found she was even smaller than the ship I had come on from Shanghai, and slower. The run to Singapore, which the larger ships cover in a little over three days, again took a week. It is true we had to make a considerable detour to avoid the extensive belt of mines laid round the Singapore harbour, and we were kept waiting outside pending permission to enter.\n\nWhile anchored there, I was astonished to observe a launch, flying the Japanese flag, and towing a string of fishing craft, steam in over the minefield. On enquiry I was told that Singapore could not do without fish. It later transpired that many of the fishermen were Japanese naval officers in disguise, and that there was little they did not know about the British minefields. Only a few months previously, while undergoing cross-examination in court, a Japanese consular official detained on a charge of espionage had swallowed poison to avoid having to give evidence; but, presumably in the interest of the breakfast table, the Japanese fishermen continued to receive the benefit of the doubt. The big talk of the moment was the scandal of the bribes which had been paid on large contracts for the construction of the new concrete pill-boxes, which were being erected around the island. It was alleged that the quality of the concrete supplied was sometimes little better than plaster, and that some of the leading British firms were implicated. It was all a trifle disturbing.\n\nThe further you got from Shanghai and the nearer to India the worse the plumbing. In Shanghai, American influence had overcome British conservatism with happy results. In the foreign home there was generally a bathroom to each bedroom, and the fixtures were as pleasing to the eye as in use. Stainless steel vied with coloured plastic and the right use of glass to gratify the visitor. In Hongkong the standard lagged a bit. In Singapore it was a long way behind. The bathroom floor might be mere wood, and the walls just homely white tiles. No incentive here to dawdle in delectable contemplation. Even in the famous Raffles Hotel, a barrack descended from earlier times, the bathroom, though no doubt sumptuous enough by English standards, left much to be desired. If I remember rightly it even contained a primeval article of furniture called a \"wash-hand stand”.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214505, "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": 363, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "332\n\nDowntown - the west of the city\n\nThe first port of call in the morning was the former German governor's residence, used as such from 1903 to 1914. This was reached by driving down the newly named Xiang Gang Lu (Hong Kong Road) from the hotel and penetrating the centre of the city. Until recently the governor's residence had been a government-run guesthouse - The Qingdao Yingbin Hotel; it was such when I visited it in 1996, and at least in theory a possibility as a place to stay or at least have dinner in surroundings of baronial splendour. Now, however, it has become the much more humble No 26 Long Shan Road and is kept as a museum, with original furniture (including “German table\", \"German chair”, “German piano\") and artifacts on display in the rooms, all of which are accessible. Also on display, although not officially, was the original German electric wiring system, complete with enormous switches, connection boxes and fuses. The main interest for most, however, was the outside of the building - which immediately impresses upon the onlooker the purpose for which it was built. Almost castle-like in its appearance, the governor's residence would have given the great man a clear view over most of the city over which he ruled to the south and west, and of the military establishments to the east.\n\nHaving set the scene for the morning by visiting first the seat of power, next was a visit to the centre from which that power was exercised - the Town Hall. Still operating as such, the Town Hall, found in Yi Shui Road, is another commanding building whose intended purpose is clear at first glance. Access is denied, of course, but the outside of the building is worth a few moments contemplation. When first constructed, the Town Hall was the place from where a community of 30,000 was governed. The population of present day Qingdao is in the order of 20 times this figure, and so the original building has been long outgrown. However, interestingly enough, an extension was built in the early 1980s in exactly the same design. The result is most impressive in that it is very hard to differentiate the old from the new, even down to the fine architectural details such as the fine wrought iron work on the roof. Visitors should take a minute to walk down the small street to the left of the main building to see the new building through the gates, and see if they can spot the difference.\n\nAlso worth a little inspection is the old Court House, just over the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214894, "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-1999", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "283\n\nTHE HKBRAS TRIP TO VIETNAM BETWEEN 30 SEPTEMBER AND 6 OCTOBER 2000\n\nCRYSTAL TANG\n\nTo take advantage of the two holidays, the Royal Asiatic Society's all overseas visit took place from September 30 to October 6, 2000 to Central Vietnam. Under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Hase, there were 20 of us in total; we started off our trip in the cosmopolitan south - Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam until 1975, when it collapsed along with the anti-communist resistance struggle, now bears the name of Ho Chi Minh City,\n\nWe stayed overnight at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel facing the beautiful Saigon River. Everyone in the group had a superb view from their rooms. Ho Chi Minh City is definitely a city on the move with its throngs of scooters, cycles, bicycles and cars running endlessly on the streets even at midnight. What an experience to cross the street there - you take your life into your own hands, it's entirely up to the pedestrian to avoid the traffic, not the other way round. According to the vice chairman of the Road Transport Administration of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, \"traffic accidents are a bigger threat in Vietnam than the AIDS virus\". I'm glad I came back to Hong Kong alive.\n\nAfter dinner, I strolled along the streets near our Hotel. In a sense the French presence remains, lingering not only in the minds of the older generation but physically in the legacy of the colonial architecture and the long tree-lined avenues, streets and highways they left behind.\n\nThe next day we arrived in Hue. Hue is one of the few ancient capital cities of the world that maintains today a cultural heritage of national and international importance. On making Hue the capital of Vietnam early in the 19th century, the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) constructed here a complete urban complex in which the Perfume River played a vital role. Fortifications and palaces, where the Court held office and the Royal family lived, are built on the north bank of the river. Here exist three walled enclosures and hundreds of palaces and buildings. UNESCO declared these monuments in Hue World Cultural Heritage sites in 1993.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216041, "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": 340, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "274\n\nThere also used to be an early Buddhist shrine dedicated to the former abbot of renown, Fa Hai, concealed in a cave on the hillock. In recent times the few foreign tourists visiting Zhenjiang have been perplexed by the description of Jin Shan being an island when it is so obviously part of the mainland. The reason is all too obvious. Alluvial silt left by the Yangzi floods down the past hundred and fifty years has not only completely joined the island to the mainland but also reclaimed part of the River, land now used for agriculture. 19th century western accounts of the town usually tended to begin with a description of the view from the Yangzi of the pagoda of the temple on the island of Jin Shan or, during the storming of the town by British forces in 1842, of troops being disembarked on the mainland across the strip of water at that time still separating Jin Shan from the mainland.\n\nAccording to Doré's description of the Jin Shan temple following his visit during the early days of the twentieth century, \"the visitor was confronted on entering with the Falstaffian figure of the Buddha Maitreya [Mile Fo], the Buddha of the Future, squatting in his turret as guardian of the precincts. Behind him opens out a vast vestibule at the sides of which are four gigantic statues - about fifteen feet in height - of the Four Heavenly Kings, Si Da Jingang, inner guardians of the monks and the monastery. Crossing the inner court, one entered the great Hall. On the altar were two Buddhist triads. Facing North are gigantic statues of Sakyamuni, Yao Shi Fo and Mile Fo, the Buddhas of the Present, Past and Future. Beside Sakyamuni in the centre, stand his two disciples, the old Kasyapa and the young Ananda. Right and left of the altar are the two guardians Li, the Pagoda-bearer and Wei Tuo. Facing South is the Triad San Da Shi: Guan Yin, Wen Shu and Pu Xian. Guan Yin rides over the waves on a sea monster; near by are the rocks of her sacred isle, Pu Tuo and, in between these, sundry immortals and Buddhas were housed. The Golden Boy, Shan Cai and the Naga Maiden, Long Nu are conventionally in attendance on Guan Yin whom the authorities in the temple recognise as formerly having been a god - not a goddess\".\n\nThe second large Hall was the Hall of the Yangzi Spirit, Jiang Shen [Spirit of the River]. Serving as a military barracks at the time of Doré's visit “it retained of its former glories only one ordinary-sized statue of the god, in a lateral niche, viz. a fish about three metres in length carved in wood with a copper plaque providing the honorific", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]