[ { "id": 204302, "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-1961", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n66\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nthe Ultra-Ganges Missions.) Accompanied with miscellaneous remarks on the literature, history, and mythology of China, etc. Malacca, printed at the Anglo-Chinese Press, 1820. MORRISON, Mrs. Eliza (Armstrong), born c.1800.\n\nMemoirs of the life and labours of Robert Morrison, compiled by his widow, with critical notices of his Chinese works by Samuel Kidd. 2v. London, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1839.\n\nMORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834.\n\nBible. New Testament. Chinese.\n\n耶穌基利士督我主救者新遺詔書俱依本譯出「嗎啫哩英華書院印」8v. 1813 鑰 Yeh-su Chi-li-shih-tu wo Chu Chiu-che Hsin-i-chao-shu (The New Testament of Jesus Christ Our Lord and Saviour). [Translated by Robert Morrison and William Milne.] 8v. Malacca, Ying-wa College Press, 1813.\n\nMORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834.\n\nA dictionary of the Chinese language, in three parts... by R. Morrison. Macao, China, printed at the Honourable East India Company's Press, by P. P. Thoms, 1815-1823.\n\nMORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834.\n\nHorae sinicae, translations from the popular literature of the Chinese. London, printed for Black and Perry, etc., 1812. MORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834.\n\nUrh-chih-tsze-teen-se-yïn-pe-keáou [ ] being a parallel drawn between the two intended Chinese dictionaries, by Robert Morrison, and Antonio Montucci, . . . together with Morrison's Horae Sinicae, a new edition, with the text to the popular Chinese primer San-tsi-king, London, printed for the author, 1817.\n\nNEUMANN, CHARLES FRIEDRICK, 1798-1870.\n\nTranslations from the Chinese and Armenian, with notes and illustrations. London, printed for the Oriental translation Fund, and sold by J. Murray, 1831.\n\nOsbeck, PETER, 1723-1805.\n\nA voyage to China and the East Indies, . Together with a voyage to Suratte, by Olof Toreen and An account of the Chinese husbandry, . . . To which are added, A Faunula and Flora Sinensis. 2v. London, printed for Benjamin White, 1771.\n\nPARK, MUNGO, 1771-1806.\n\nTravels in the interior districts of Africa, performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204392, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "NESTORIAN CROSSES\n\n15\n\nevangelized the West. To this day there are Churches of St. Thomas on the Malabar coast of India, claiming the Apostle Thomas as their founder. Whether or not the evidence is sufficient for this claim, it certainly indicates a very ancient date for the origin of these Churches of the East.\n\nAs the branch of the Church that moved westwards into Europe wrote its Scriptures in colloquial Greek—the lingua franca of the Roman Empire, so the branch of the Church that moved eastwards first with Antioch then Edessa as its centre, used Syriac as its common language; it was at Edessa that its Scriptures were translated into Syriac, and it was at Edessa that its scholarship developed and a School of Theology was founded. To this day Syriac is the liturgical language of the ancient Churches of South India,\n\nDuring the fourth century a Theological controversy arose in the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire concerning the manner in which the Divine and the Human natures were related in Jesus Christ. The leadership of the thought of the Church at the time was with the Church of Alexandria in Egypt, where great emphasis was laid upon the Divine nature of Christ. In the province of Syria the Christian leaders feared lest in the current trend of thought the Humanity of Jesus should not be sufficiently recognized. A presbyter in the Church at Antioch, Nestorius, who was soon afterwards made Patriarch of Constantinople—the highest position in the Eastern Church—began to preach the doctrine of two complete natures—the Human and the Divine—existing side by side in the person of Jesus Christ. This doctrine which became known as 'Nestorianism' was rejected by an irregular Council of the Church held at Ephesus in A.D. 431, and Nestorius was deposed and driven into exile. His followers were persecuted and fled eastwards, first to Edessa the headquarters of Syrian Christianity, beyond the Euphrates, then across the frontier to Nisibis in Persia, where the scholars gathered and where a Theological School essentially Nestorian in character was established. The Nestorian doctrine, partly perhaps because Persia was at enmity with Rome, found favour with the Persian Churches.\n\n+\n\n嗡\n\n+ Adency, The Greek and Eastern Churches, T. & T. Clark, 1908, p. 461. \"Ibid., p. 480.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204397, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "20 \n\nF. S. DRAKE \n\nof prime importance for information upon the Mongols and Central Asia in Mediaeval times.1 \n\nHalf a century later a solitary and apparently illiterate Friar from a Franciscan house in Italy, Odoric of Pordenone, set out on his own charges as a traveller for 'Jesus Christ' and performed one of the most remarkable of the journeys of his time. Travelling via India to China he landed at Ch'üan-chou on the Fukien coast, where two houses of Franciscans were already established, and proceeded to Kambaluc (Peking), where he remained for three years. On the return journey he travelled first to what he called mistakenly 'Prester John's country', but which can be identified with the region north of the Yellow River bend, the home of the Christian Onguts, and then by Tibet, which he names and describes briefly and accurately, but he gives no further identifiable details for the remainder of the journey home in 1330 after an absence of twelve years. \n\n* \n\n18 \n\nThese travellers all make mention of the Nestorians—priests, laymen, members of the nobility, and even of the Royal House, whom they came across in their journeys through Central Asia or in China. Sometimes it was a solitary priest with a shrine near the Royal tent, sometimes a group officiating at a Royal procession, sometimes a Nestorian village in the wilds of Mongolia, sometimes a Nestorian church in a Chinese city, as at Yangchou on the Yangtse; these all testify to the widespread character of their mission. William of Rubruck gives the fullest details, combining with them sharp criticism of the conduct of the Nestorians and disapproval of their methods, which suggest considerable deterioration in their religious life during their sojourn in Central Asia; unless indeed his criticism is sometimes prompted by ecclesiastical rivalry. It has already been pointed out that some of the ladies of the Royal House were Nestorian Christians; and there were even hopes of an Imperial convert. \n\nBut of chief interest for our present purpose is Odoric's mention of the Christian Mongol tribe settled at the northern bend of the Yellow River, for this is the region from which our Bronze Crosses come. John of Montecorvino, the Franciscan Bishop who resided in China from 1288 to 1329, and who became the first Catholic Archbishop of China, also speaks of this \n\n15 Rockhill, op. cit. \n\n16 Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, revised Cordier, Hakluyt Society (4 vols.), 1914.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205147, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "98\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\n43 Reichelt quotes a warning by the late Ming monk, Hsi-ming, against \"being deceived into joining the Catholic church or some other outside sect,” and states that it was often reprinted (Truth and Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai, 1927, pp. 157-158).\n\n44 It was in 1920 that Reichelt first proposed an \"institute for special work among the Buddhists.\" He wanted to make contact with monks whose hearts were filled with bitterness towards Christianity because some Christians were \"so fatally lacking in a sympathetic and gentle attitude towards others.\" It was to be \"a half-way house\" with many of the features of a Buddhist monastery, including a wandering monks' hall, a meditation hall, a bell tower, a crematorium, and a hall for the aged. See K. L. Reichelt, \"Special Work among Chinese Buddhists\" Chinese Recorder 51.7 (July 1920), 491-497. When it finally went into operation, under the name of the \"Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" in the autumn of 1922, it had only a \"very small, semi-foreign house.\" After a year and a half, it moved to somewhat larger quarters which included a dining room, where vegetarian meals were served, and the all-important \"pilgrims hall\" where monks were allowed to put up for three days (as they would be at a Buddhist temple) and stay longer if they were interested in serious study. The layout was \"just as in monasteries with two long platforms where they can spread their bedding, and, above them, shelves where they can place their things. Between the two platforms, there is an altar with an incense burner and two candlesticks and above all an impressive crucifix.\" Even more significant was the arrangement of the chapel, to which they were summoned for worship twice a day (as they would be in a monastery) by \"a Chinese bell with deep tones.\" The altar was of red lacquer \"in a true Chinese style,\" adorned with gilt designs that included the following: \"the lotus lily symbolizing the purity, the fire, and the water of the cleansing spirit” (but also, of course, symbolizing the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land), \"the swastika of peace and cosmic union\" (but also one of the Buddha's sacred marks and a general symbol for Buddhism), and the cross over a lotus, which was the Mission's emblem.\n\nJust as in a Chinese temple, plaques with parallel inscriptions were hung on the walls. One bore a quotation from the Gospel according to St. John: \"The true light that enlightens every man has come into the world.\" The other legend was more Buddhist in flavour than Christian: \"[Join in] the great vow compassionately to help people across to the other shore\" (ta-yüan tz'u-hang).\n\nThese efforts to make Buddhist monks feel at home attracted a large number of them as visitors (about a thousand annually) but in the first four and a half years of operation, only seventeen male Chinese were converted and baptized. See Notto Normann Thelle \"The Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" Chinese Recorder (September 1927), 571-575. A photograph of four of the Buddhist and Taoist novices, whom Thelle says were enrolled in the boys' school opened by the Mission, appears in the Chinese Recorder 54.11 (November 1923), facing p. 671. When the permanent headquarters of the Mission were constructed at Tao-fung Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong during the 1930s, the approximation of a Buddhist monastery became almost as close as Dr. Reichelt had originally envisaged it. Some missionaries were afraid that he was being too broad-minded in his use of Buddhist motifs and even that he might be fostering a kind of Buddho-Christian syncretism. He and his colleagues maintained, however, that their only purpose was to \"lead these people into a living faith in Jesus Christ.\" (Thelle, p. 571).\n\n45 Maha Bodhi, 41.3.4 (March-April 1933), 133,\n\n46 Most of the information on Chao-k'ung up to this point is taken from David Lampe and Laszlo Szenasi, The Self-made Villain, London, 1961.\n\n47 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1951, p. 47.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205940, "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": 20, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "THE LIBRARY OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nREPORT FOR THE YEAR 1969 - 1970\n\nA further 53 volumes of books were added to the Library during the past year, bringing the total stock to 396 volumes, excluding bound volumes of periodicals, which are mentioned separately below. Of the additions, no less than 43 were gifts, and the Branch is extremely grateful to the following donors:\n\nCentre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong\n(2 publications)\n\nDiocesan Girls' School, through Miss M. B. Mansfield\n(Bentham's Flora Hongkongensis, 1865, and Dunn and Tutcher's Flora of Kwangtung and Hongkong, 1912)\n\nMr. J. E. Noronha\n(Historic Shanghai, by C. A. Montalto de Jesus, 1909)\n\nSouth China Morning Post, Ltd., through the\nUniversity of Hong Kong Library (9 volumes)\n\nFather Manuel Teixeira\n(4 of his own publications on Macau)\n\nUniversity of Hong Kong Library\n(18 volumes)\n\nAnother seven volumes were received through the Hon. Editor, having been sent as review copies to the Journal. Of the above, undoubtedly the most valuable is that by Bentham, which in spite of its publication date remains the primary source on Hong Kong flora. Another interesting addition is a Xerox copy of a rare private publication, Diary of events and the progress on Shameen, 1859 - 1938 by H.S.S. [H. Staples-Smith], made from the original now in the possession of Mr. J. W. Hayes.*\n\nThe Hon. Librarian took advantage of the sale at the Challenge Bookshop in July to purchase eight titles of Asian interest at reduced prices.\n\nThe Library continues to receive a number of valuable journals in exchange for its own publications, and a further fifteen volumes of these have been bound, bringing the total of bound volumes\n\n* There follows on, from Mr. Ryding's report, part of a letter addressed to me by The Rt. Rev. Gilbert Baker, Bishop of Hong Kong and Macao, dated 29th September, 1969, reproduced here with his kind permission, that provides this identification. The Bishop was then on the staff of Christ Church, Shameen. Ed. (Footnote continued on opposite page)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208970, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "100 \n\nJULIAN F. PAS \n\nin the understanding of faith and ritual, its essential characteristics transcend time and remain unchanged: the re-enactment of the divine salvation work performed by its Founder, Jesus Christ, in order to let people of all times and places participate in the fruits of redemption. This central concept has been liturgically expressed in rituals that are often symbolic, and more often, sacramental. Whereas the essence of theological content is believed to be eternal, its manifestations in time can be numerous and changeable.\n\nThe liturgical year develops round the major themes of the life of Jesus: his nativity and manifestation to the world, his passion, crucifixion and resurrection and finally, his effusion of the Holy Spirit who continues the work of sanctifying grace in the Church. Although this theme is one of uniqueness when compared to the other world religions, the celebration of the resurrection, which is central in Christianity, can easily be seen as a parallel found in many other traditions. The occurrence of Easter in early spring is phenomenologically related to the spring equinox, celebrated in various ways throughout antiquity. Without denying the uniqueness of meaning inherent in the Christian liturgy, it is striking to find that a pre-existing pattern, almost like an archetype, has been adapted to the new faith of Christianity.\n\nThe consecration of new fire on Easter Eve, from which the Easter candle is lit, is a concrete example of the Church's adaptation of old rituals and customs to a new belief system. Although this particular ritual act seems to be rather simple in its structure, there are various levels of meaning that have been superimposed on it. In its primitive significance, the ritual may be a borrowing from the old Roman custom of keeping a sacred fire burning in the temple of Vesta.19 In the early times of the Christian Church, everyday before the Vesper service, a light was struck from a flint: this new light was used to light candles and lamps during the vesper service, and was kept burning until vespers of the following day:\n\nThe Church of Rome observed this custom with great solemnity on Maundy Thursday morning, and the new fire received a special blessing. We learn, from a letter written in the eighth century by Pope St. Zachary to St. Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, that three lamps were lighted from this fire, which were then removed to some safe place, and care taken that their fire was kept burning. It was from these lamps that the light for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208971, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT\n\n101\n\nHoly Saturday night was taken. In the following century, under St. Leo IV, whose pontificate lasted from 847 to 855, the custom of procuring new fire every day from a flint was extended also to Holy Saturday.2\n\n20\n\nIn modern times, this ceremony is no longer performed except once a year on Holy Saturday on the eve of Easter. Although the significance of the ritual has been adapted to the Christian doctrine, it remains clear that the structure of the ritual itself points to a different origin. The event takes place outside the Church proper. All the lamps in the sanctuary have been extinguished and as Abbot Guéranger mentions,21 the faithful had previously put out the fires in their own homes as well; they would relight them on their return from the church service with the new light consecrated at the Easter service.\n\nThe structure of this blessing of fire closely resembles the parallel tradition observed in ancient China: it is a renewal of fire as a life-giving force and is related to the victory of the sun after the spring equinox. Fire was kept burning in the homes both for cooking and for light-giving at night, but it was believed to grow old and weak, and needed to be renewed occasionally. In China the custom was probably observed during the day-time, since fire was taken from the sun directly; in the Roman and Christian tradition, it was struck from a flint stone in the evening.\n\nThe Christian liturgy has maintained this tradition but adapted it skilfully to the new faith: whereas the old form remained unchanged, its symbolic meaning was reinterpreted: the new light represents Christ \"Light of the World\"; the spark of light struck from the flint represents our Lord rising from the rock-hewn sepulchre, through the stone which sealed it\".22 In the present-day Roman liturgy, after the new fire has been struck from stone, charcoal is lit from it and this new fire is then blessed by the officiating priest. After the blessing, some of the consecrated coal is put into the thurible and the new fire is censed with it. After the inscription of the large Easter candle has been made by the priest, five grains of incense are inserted in five small openings, symbolizing the five wounds of Jesus inflicted at his crucifixion. Next, one of the assistants lights a small candle from the new fire and with it again lights the Easter candle. The priest consecrates the newly lit candle with this prayer:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208972, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "102\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nPour forth, we beseech thee, O almighty God, thy abundant blessing on this lighted candle23 and behold, O invisible regenerator, the brightness of this night: that not only the sacrifice that is offered this night may shine by the secret mixture of thy light; but also into whatever place anything of this mysterious sanctification shall be brought, there, by the power of thy majesty, all the malicious artifices of the devil may be defeated. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.24\n\nAfter this prayer the deacon, who has changed from purple to white ritual garments, receives the consecrated Easter candle. A procession is formed and proceeds toward the church, which is now in total darkness. Upon entering the church building, the deacon sings aloud: \"The light of Christ.\" to which all present respond, kneeling: \"Thanks be to God\". Then the officiating priest lights his own candle from the blessed Easter candle. A second time, in the middle of the church, the deacon sings in a higher tone: \"The Light of Christ!\", and all the clergy present light their candles. Finally arriving in front of the altar, a third intonation of \"The light of Christ!\" is followed by the lighting of the candles of all those present. The lights in the church are also switched on. The Easter candle is then placed on a standard in the middle of the choir and after the usual ritual of incensing, the deacon, standing in front of the Easter candle, intones the beautiful hymn “Exsultet”.\n\nThis whole series of ritual acts is rich in symbolism and this has been pointed out by Christian authors. For the people attending, the symbolism provides an immediate experience in which they intuitively grasp the significance and the solemnity of the Easter events. From a critical viewpoint, however, several layers of symbolism can be discovered: the inner structure of the ritual, although overlaid with later essentially Christian meanings, points toward its ancient roots in pre-Christian times: the taking of new fire as a renewal ceremony. The first adaptation, also pre-Christian, was to see in this act a symbolical victory of the powers of light and goodness over the powers of darkness and evil. The second adaptation, made by the Christian church, was to identify light with Jesus Christ, who after having been overcome by the powers of darkness, triumphs again by his resurrection. However, since the Christian tradition has been partially grafted on the rich heritage of Judaism, it is no surprise that we find in the Easter celebration several themes reminiscent of the Jewish Passover. The texts of the Christian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208975, "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": 137, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT \n\n105 \n\ntrance procession. Each time the deacon, after kneeling, raises the light and shows it to all the people present, while he chants \"Lumen Christi\" (The light of Christ). Until the recent liturgical changes, he lit in succession three branches of a single candle (a three-branched candle), which was interpreted as a symbol of the Holy Trinity:\n\nThe first showing of the light expresses the revelation made to us by Jesus and the divinity of the Father.\n\n(This) second showing of the light signifies the Divinity of the Son, who dwelt among men.\n\n+\n\n(This) third showing of the light signifies the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. . .32\n\nThe introduction of this triple lighting of candle was probably a Christian adaptation and was already implicitly present in the Roman custom of lighting three candles on Maundy Thursday.33\n\nThe Taoist ritual likewise has a triple lighting of candles; each of them is dedicated to one Heavenly Worthy in the order of their hierarchical rank, and as the fen-teng ritual text points out, in the order of their successive origination:\n\nHeavenly Worthy of the Primordial beginning in the Great Canopy of Heaven:\n\nHumbly prostrated before the Mysterious Tao of Non-Being: at first (It) gave birth to the One. The One is the beginning of Ch'i (cosmic Breath). Therefore we first light a lamp in front of (the Heavenly Worthy of) the Primordial Beginning, to clarify (signify) the Original Purity at the beginning of the ancestral Breath.\n\nGreat Holy Ling-pao Heavenly Worthy!\n\nHumbly prostrated: The Tao produced the One Breath. The One gave birth to Two: Two is the second Ch'i. Therefore we next light a lamp in front of the Primordial August One (Ling-Pao Heavenly Worthy) to clarify (signify) the proceeding of the Second Ch'i from the Original August One.\n\nGreat Holy Tao-Te Heavenly Worthy!\n\nHumbly prostrated: The One produced the Two; the Two produced the Three: Three is the third proceeding of Ch'i.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208977, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT\n\nmeaning of he three Taoist rituals.\n\n107\n\nIn the Christian Easter liturgy, after the deacon has finished chanting the Exsultet, there is next a sequence of readings from the Old Testament, followed, at least since recent changes, by a renovation of the baptismal vows by all those present. Towards midnight, the solemn Easter Mass takes place with the joyful intonation of the Alleluia to mark the resurrection of Christ which happened in the early hours of Easter Sunday. Just before Mass, however, the celebrant and assistants change their ritual garments from purple (mourning) to white (expressing joy). At the same time, the sanctuary undergoes a quick metamorphosis: all signs of sorrow are removed: the purple curtains behind the altar are taken off, the purple veils covering the holy images since Passion Sunday (two weeks before Easter) are taken away and flowers are put on the altar. In just a short time there is a dramatical transformation from sorrow to exultation, symbolizing the sudden triumph of the live Jesus rising from the dead.\n\nThen Holy Mass starts in a shortened form until the intonation of the hymn Gloria in Excelsis by the celebrating priest. A new eruption of joy follows: while the chorus starts singing the ancient hymn, the organ for the first time since Holy Thursday starts playing; and at the same time altar bells and the big church bells join in with their respective sounds of jubilance. They all manifest a cosmic rejoicing at the resurrection of Jesus.\n\nThe very sequence of the three rituals in the Christian liturgy37 provides an excellent hypothesis to interpret the sequence of the Taoist rituals. Although each of the three Taoist rites contains its own logic and significance, yet the sequence appears to be obscure and somehow unrelated. It makes one wonder whether the original version (both meaning and sequence) has been gradually forgotten and therefore invested with a new symbolism in later times.\n\nFirst of all, the 'Rolling up of the Screen' is to be interpreted as a preparatory act before the Taoist priests enter into an audience with the Three Pure Ones.38 Therefore it seems to be out of place here and explains why some Taoists perform it during the Noon Audience on the second day of the chiao.39 If that is the original meaning of the ritual, there is no apparent similarity with the Christian act of decorating the sanctuary. One can only wonder why it was performed in the context of the fen-teng and just before the “sounding” ritual.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210081, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "31\n\nnance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.\n\nMaybe the official teaching of the Christian Churches would not approve of such an approach but I see the definite possibility of composing a set of 60 or 100 oracles based on Biblical stories: the books of the Bible, Old and New Testament, abound with events and actions which can be used as models for the present. If one maintains a strong belief in divine guidance, it is not a priori unacceptable that one would cast a Christian oracle and obtain a Christian answer parallel to those of the Chinese temple oracles. To mention just a few random examples, first from the Old Testament: Abraham leaves his home: obedience to God's will; Abraham sacrifices his son: God tempts the faith of his devotee; Joseph in Egypt: virtue is sometimes tested, but will ultimately triumph. From the New Testament: John the Baptist's message: if you do not repent, you will perish; Mary's acceptance of a superhuman mission; the poor widow's contribution to the temple; the healing power of Jesus for those who have faith.\n\nSuch an experiment may not be welcomed by the Church authorities, not because the examples are not relevant, but because of the divination approach involved. However, it could be interpret-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212125, "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": 67, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "THE 'SYRIAN BRILLIANT TEACHING’\n\nDAVID WILMSHURST\n\nIntroduction\n\nFew Christians nowadays outside the Middle East are familiar with the name, let alone the history, of the Nestorian church of Persia, yet between the ninth and fourteenth centuries it was in some respects perhaps the largest Christian church in the world, with bishoprics stretching from the Mediterranean right across Asia to China. The church took its name from Nestorius, who became archbishop of Constantinople in 428 and was deposed not long afterwards for holding heretical views on the nature of Christ. Nestorius placed great stress on the human nature of Jesus, and tried to discourage the use in the churches under his jurisdiction of the title Theotokos, 'mother of God', a term which had long been applied to the Virgin Mary. To his enemies, he appeared to be denying the divinity of Christ, and regarding him as a mere man who had been adopted by God as his son, though it is now clear that his views were considerably closer to the orthodox position than he was given credit for at the time. A heated controversy ensued, and both sides in the dispute supported their arguments with bribery and intimidation. The opposition to Nestorius was led by Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, who was motivated partly by a genuine distaste for his opponent's theology and partly by jealousy of his ecclesiastical status. Cyril finally procured the deposition and banishment of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in 431.\n\nIn the next century and a half the Nestorian heresy was stamped out within the territories of the Roman empire, and its adherents fled to neighbouring Persia. Although the state religion of Sassanian Persia was Zoroastrianism, Christianity had firmly established itself in the western provinces of the Persian empire, particularly among the mainly Syrian population of northern Mesopotamia and in Khuzistan and Fars, and Persia's Christian minority by and large sympathised with the theological position which Nestorius had taken. The influx of Christian refugees from the Roman empire strengthened the native Persian church, and after the Persian empire was conquered by the Moslem Arabs in the seventh century the Nestorian church enjoyed a period of rapid expansion. Syrian and Persian Christians were tolerated by their Moslem rulers and organised into a melet, or official minority", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212134, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "53\n\n1\n\n景案\n\n+\n\n'brilliant scholars', and a Christian community ching-chung\n\nthe 'brilliant assembly'. The Christian monasteries which\n\nappeared all over China in Kao-tsung's reign filled the land with 'brilliant happiness', ching-fu. Christ is described as 'the brilliant and reverend (ching-ch'uan) Messiah'. At his birth a brilliant star (ching-shu) told of good fortune'. In the most emotionally-charged context of all, ching occurs in a veiled and ambiguous reference to the crucifixion: the Messiah 'hung up a brilliant sun (ching-jih) to take by storm the halls of darkness'. The use of the character ching in this way shows that the composer of the Sian tablet inscription wanted to extend and deepen its normal meaning 'brilliant', thereby adding to its effectiveness as a descriptive term for Christianity.\n\nUntil the beginning of this century the Sian tablet was the only source for the expression Ta-ch'in ching-chiao, Syrian brilliant teaching', as an official identity for Nestorian Christianity in T’ang China. We now have more evidence for its use. The expression occurs in a number of Nestorian manuscripts discovered in 1980 at Tun-huang, where there was a Nestorian monastery in the Tang period. Altogether seven separate works, all in Chinese, have been discovered. Two, the Book of Jesus the Messiah, and the Essay on Monotheism, are seventh-century documents composed shortly after Reuben's arrival in China, and neither the geographical term Ta-ch'in nor the descriptive term ching-chiao are found in these early works. Of the other five works, one, the Book of the Secret of Peace and Joy, contains three occurrences of the term ching-chiao, but none of Ta-ch'in. The manuscripts of three other works, the Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity, and the Book of the Origin of Origins, all display Ta-ch'in ching-chiao prominently in their titles, but neither Ta-ch'in nor ching-chiao occurs in their contents. All three works, however, are listed in a fifth work, the Book of Praise, with the phrase Ta-ch'in ching-chiao omitted from their titles. The Book of Praise, which was found together with the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity on a single manuscript, is rather different in style from the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity. It contains one reference to Ta-ch'in pen-chiao, ‘our teachings of Syria', but does not contain the expression ching-chiao, 'brilliant teaching'. All occurrences of ching-chiao in these documents use the curious variant form of the character ching found on the Sian tablet.\n\n12", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212136, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "55\n\nassociated with Persia, not Syria, until 745. The expression 'teaching of the scriptures' is found in three texts dating from before the middle of the eighth century. One is a Nestorian tract, the Book of Jesus the Messiah, written between 635 and 641, shortly after Reuben's arrival in China. The other two are imperial decrees, one of 638, and the other of 745. They deserve special respect because, as official documents, they were drafted with care, and used terminology with precision. The decree of 745 also provides evidence that up to 745 Christian churches were called 'Persian monasteries, and that the official name for Christianity was Po-ssu ching-chiao 'Persian teaching of the scriptures'.\n\nThe Book of Jesus the Messiah is the earliest Nestorian document to survive from Tang China. There are two, slightly different, versions of this work, and the earliest version has been shown on stylistic grounds to predate the Essay on the Charity of the Creator (one of the three chapters of the Essay on Monotheism), a work known to have been written in 641. The Book of Jesus the Messiah was therefore written within six years of Reuben's arrival in China in 635. It is probable that it is the 'scripture' which, according to the Sian tablet, Reuben translated into Chinese for the emperor T'ai-tsung to support his petition to establish a monastery in Ch'ang-an. It gives a fair digest of the Christian message, and its length is right for a document intended for submission to an emperor. If so, it was written before 638, the year in which Reuben's petition was approved.\n\nTowards the end of the text of the Book of Jesus the Messiah, after a description of the crucifixion, the following passage occurs:\n\n\"The earth quaked and the hills rocked, and the gates of all the graves in the world were opened and all the dead received life. When men saw that it was so, some still did not believe the teaching of the scriptures (ching-chiao), that the Messiah would die again, but most men did believe.\n\nIt is true that in this passage ching-chiao most probably bears its literal meaning, and refers to the Old Testament prophecies of the death and resurrection of Christ; but once this convenient term was coined, it did not take long before it suggested itself as a suitable Chinese name for the Christian religion. Christians liked to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212145, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "64\n\nit reminded its readers, in two delicately separated allusions, that the Christian general I-ssu had helped the emperor Su-tsung keep his throne in the traumatic An Lu-shan rebellion, but decently avoided an explicit statement to that effect. A well-educated Chinese reader would have gone away with the impression that there was probably something to the 'brilliant teaching', and that, in terms of social acceptability, it had solid credentials.\n\nOne very obvious feature of Adams' style in the Sian tablet inscription is the care which he took to express his meaning in straightforward Chinese wherever he could, and his distaste for transliteration from Syriac. His skill can be better appreciated now that other Nestorian works in Chinese have been found at Tunhuang. The Book of Jesus the Messiah, admittedly written very shortly after the Nestorians arrived in China, and apparently by a man with an imperfect command of Chinese, contains a large number of unattractive transliterations of proper names. Obviously names had to be found for Jesus, Mary, John, Pilate, and other major characters in the Christian story, but meaningless transliterations of obscure names such as Golgotha could easily have been avoided, and a Chinese name found to represent the name's meaning (the 'place of the skull'). Adam never fell into the trap of using a Syriac expression because he was too lazy to invent a better Chinese term. Indeed, he seems to have standardised, simplified, and improved the Chinese translations of uniquely Christian terms wherever he could. He discarded unsatisfactory seventh-century names for God in favour of A-lo-he. This term, to be sure, resembled the Syriac Eloi, but it was probably chosen by Adam because it had for many years been used by the Buddhists in China to translate their own term for God, Arbhar, and therefore had respectable associations for a Chinese reader. He used the expression 'pure wind' (ching feng) for the Holy Spirit, in preference to the not particularly apt 'cool wind' (liang feng), found in seventh-century Nestorian documents. Finally, he abandoned transliterations of the proper name 'Jesus', common in the seventh century, and used only the term Mi-shi-he, 'Messiah', which had by the 780s established itself as a convenient term for Christ.\n\nWe are now in a position to draw some conclusions about Adam and his personality. His collaboration in a translation of a Buddhist scripture into Chinese demonstrates that he was reasonably fluent in Chinese, but perhaps overconfident in his linguistic ability;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212280, "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": 222, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "199\n\nas this related to Chinese classical culture. Having been somewhat hesitant to suggest the possibility of a missiological approach which included a more positive role for Confucianism, Dr. Legge in his first years at Oxford became fully convinced that this was the most appropriate strategy for Christian missionaries in traditional China. In this way traditions known and respected in Chinese society, from the common people to the Confucian scholars who effectively ruled the provinces, could be used as bridges for presenting and highlighting the need of China and her people for the Christian fulfillment in salvation through Jesus Christ.\n\nThis was the keynote of Legge's controversial 1877 speech presented at the First General Missionary Conference in Shanghai. Because many missionaries came to China during this period in which \"gunboat policies\" brought legal access of missionaries to China, many also experienced strong opposition from the often corrupt and \"atheistic\" mandarins who ruled the areas in which they were active. In the minds of these missionaries, to advocate an alliance with this kind of a system was to advocate a dismantling of basic Christian convictions in theology and ethics. What appears to be a condescending view of the superiority of European culture in the writings of many missionaries was from their point of view the only means of supporting the kinds of reformations which Christianity would, they felt, necessarily involve in Chinese society. Their opposition grew out of their sense of the devastating practical compromises which would have to be accepted if missionary strategies accommodated the Qing Confucian system.\n\nThe consequences of Prof. Legge's support of an “original Confucian monotheism” in the early historical annals of the Confucian Classics were unwelcome to many missionaries. By referring to the classical Confucian texts as the basis for Christian missionary strategy, Legge was by extension accepting, they felt, the imperial palace — the arbiter of Confucianism as the final court of appeal for Christian missionaries. A further complication arose because the worship of Shangdi, the technical term Legge associated with the Christian God in the Chinese Classics, was a religion limited to an imperial monopoly. Legge hoped that this religion and its rites could be transformed into a Christian institution and extended across the whole of China.\n\nRather than approach China as outsiders with a foreign message,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212282, "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "201\n\nhis criticisms of Mencius cf.) In these revisions, the Christian sense of the bilateral duty to truth and to Deity was never lessened. What changed was Legge's understanding and sympathy toward Confucius as he compared the goals of the Classical tradition with those of the Christian tradition. They were neither religiously equal nor ethically equivalent, but they shared convictions about the nature of wisdom, commitments to moral virtues, and an understanding about the value of a self-critical humility in life which provided persuasive reasons for a bi-cultural harmonization. Although this perspective is most clearly brought out by a comparison of the 1861 and 1893-1895 editions of the Four Books, the basic arguments and their explicit justifications had been summarized in the Shanghai missionary conference paper of 1877.5%\n\nLegge's power to persevere through personal crises can only be explained by his deep sense of commitment to fulfil his vow of duty to Jesus Christ. For the sake of completing his task, he endured the death of his first wife (in October 1852) and four of their children (two in Malacca and two in Hong Kong); three periods of furlough when he returned with family members to England, two clearly for the sake of convalescence; risking death and hardship while travelling and evangelizing in the Chinese mainland (he was stoned by Chinese crowds at least two times in his career); and once being caught out at sea in the midst of a major typhoon, suspected by his family and colleagues of having been lost at sea. Although these might be seen as the trials of any difficult life, they were taken willingly, in spite of the cost, because of the deep commitment arising from his missionary call.\n\nSometimes scholars overlook this missionary calling when a man like Legge retires from mission work and enters academia. Though this might be the case for some, Legge experienced no disenchantment with his Christian faith once he entered Oxford. His missionary duty was carried on throughout his Oxford career, albeit expressed at the intellectual level,\n\nSoon after presenting his paper for the Shanghai General Missionary Conference in 1877, Prof. Legge served as the translator for a charitable organization which was seeking famine relief for the masses in China in 1878. This was directly related to his sense of Christian compassion, and was a means of practical response to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213863, "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": 215, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "189\n\nfound in the speech of the late Rev Peter Wang, the former General Secretary of the Council.\n\n\"Church involvement in education should be regarded as a kind of social service. It also provides a good chance to spread the gospel by nurturing young people with the teaching of Jesus Christ, to love their families, show filial piety towards their parents, to love their schools, respect their teachers and truth; to love their neighbours and live in harmony with others, to love and serve their society with enthusiasm; and be a good citizen in the society. If we have nurtured our students in this way, we have fulfilled the aim of serving the society, even though the students have not been baptized as believers.\n\nFrom the data gathered in this survey, the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China has the strongest preference for education as the objective of church involvement in education. (Refer to Tables 1 and 2). The same emphasis is reflected from the literature of the Council.\n\nThe Tsung Tsin (Basel) Mission changes with time in its perception of objectives. The direction of changes, however, is contrary to that of the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China. In the early years, the Mission was concerned much about education and social service. For example, the Basel Free School was founded in 1862 to provide free education for the Hakka-speaking Chinese. The school aimed to improve illiteracy in the society. It was the first girls' school set up in Hong Kong.7 In recent years, owing to the growing emphasis on evangelization, there is a considerable change in the Mission's objectives of involvement in education. For example, from the Mission's publications in recent years, the importance of evangelization through schools is obviously stressed. It is also made compulsory that all Tsung Tsin schools should organise a religious week in October each year. As such are to be implemented or supervised by the school, it does bring about due effects. In the past, there was no preferential policy held regarding the employment of school staff; that new teachers are selected, as far as it is possible, from among Christians. This shows that the Tsung Tsin Mission is concerned more and more with evangelization as an important objective of running church schools.\n\nAccording to the questionnaire survey, the Lutheran Church is the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215431, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "157\n\nOther Images\n\nA salutation in St. Alfonso's Office praises the palma patientiae and the cedrus castitatis. This allusion to both cedar and palm trees derives from Ecclesiasticus, 24, 17-18. When it comes to the date palms of the second storey, it is very much a part of the stock-in-trade immaculist symbols, particularly dear to southern Spanish poets and painters and also known from early prints, all praising Mary's Immaculate Conception. But these may equally refer to the triumph of the Society of Jesus, with the canonisation of its main protagonists, Sts. Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier in 1622 and the recent beatification of Francis Borgia and Luis Gonzaga.\n\nIn the fourth storey or attic The Child Jesus raises his right hand and holds an empty left hand forward. The latter undoubtedly held the lost orb mentioned in the 1644 Annua. It is a pose and attribute typical of the kind of devotional religious image known as an infant Salvator Mundi, that is, Infant Jesus Saviour of the World. The type of \"Menino Jesus\" as Salvator Mundi was well disseminated in Portuguese colonies in the East during the seventeenth-century, as a large number of Indo-Portuguese and Chinese ivory statuettes, usually nude, tend to confirm. Here the Child Jesus is framed by reliefs of angels displaying the Arma Christi, or symbols of Christ's suffering on the Cross. According to Christian theology, the ironically named arma are the “weapons” Christ used in his earthly battle against evil in order to redeem humankind. They were profoundly mystical symbols popularised in devotional literature and images since Medieval times in Europe.\n\nThe pediment is decorated with the large bronze of the Holy Spirit, originally gilded and emerging from rays, with four stars framing it. Next to it are square slabs of the sun and moon, with which the iconography of the main image of the Assumption is finally brought to full completion.\n\nThe dove of the Holy Spirit hovers over both Mother and Child with wings far outspread in an image that seems uncannily like a visual illustration of the Holy Spirit in the opening lines of John Milton's Paradise Lost. As bronze sculpture it is impressive enough today; with its original gilding it must have appeared awe-inspiring to the citizens of Macao and to seventeenth-century and later visitors before the fire.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215968, "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": 267, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "201\n\nMore fundamental to Ch'ea's self-defence was a claim inherent in those translations of the Shengjing, the Chinese Christian Bible, which employed shàngdì as the key term for the Christian God. When Jesus spoke about \"conversion,\" the Chinese phrase suggested a “return” (gūixiàng) rather than a \"turning.\" One who \"turned\" to the Christian God through the sacrifice of Christ was \"returning\" to the Lord on High (shàngdì) worshipped by the ancient sages as mentioned in the Book of Historical Documents and Book of Poetry. For a Chinese to become a Christian was, in the final analysis, to return to the religious worldview of the sage kings and to experience a new fulfilment of their own Ruist cultural heritage.49\n\nPerhaps it was this strain of Chinese Christian theology which was partially influential, though never stated explicitly, in sparing Ch'ea from civil punishment. Probably some months after he had left his post at the local temple, Ch'ea was arrested by government officials and his Christian books were seized. Ostensibly the charge was that he had \"been deceiving the people with heretical doctrines,\" but there were probably other concerns also motivating the officials' harshness. After the initial battles of the new Sino-British war, issues probably not fully known by Ch'ea, all suspicious citizens with obvious foreign connections were being questioned. The threat of foreign invasion determined by the outcome of war and not restrained by any other known international legal institution greatly threatened the Qing hierarchy and Chinese citizens in the Manchurian empire. As a consequence, Ch'ea had this additional complication to face in addition to other, probably more expected, cultural oppositions. After \"squabbling for about three hours\" and trying to \"practice extortion\" on Ch’ëa, who “fearlessly” did not “answer them a word,” nothing could be found as evidence to place him in either a cangue or chains. Did the officials peruse the books and come up with other conclusions? Or was it merely that they found Ch'ea was a poor man without money, and so \"they pretended to be in a great rage\" and let him go?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215972, "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": 271, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "205\n\nbecause of this specific claim.\n\nSeveral points of interest should be underscored in this account. Although Ch'ea had stopped the rituals of ancestral veneration at home and during the festival seasons, he continued to live in accordance to other accepted norms, including \"cleaning the graves\" of his ancestors. Apparently wanting to be with people and to share his message, Ch'ëa had obviously worked through the ethics of which traditional practices did not hinder his Christian life and so developed means of approach to others through them. Kot was very specific about the themes Ch'ea spoke about, some which he might have heard from Ho and Legge in Hong Kong in the spring of 1856. What Kot remembered were themes on \"the bounty of God in creation and providence,\" the latter an issue expressed in Legge's sermons and most likely in Ho's elegant Chinese homilies, as well as elaborations on the nature of the soul, why people should not worship idols, and \"the propitiation made by Jesus Christ for the sins of men.\" In spite of the disbelief of many listeners in the cemetery after Ch'ea mentioned that he had the “divine books\" in his possession, Kot kept note of where he lived and made it a point to visit him nearly a month later.\n\nCertainly the fact that Kot waited a full month before attempting to visit Ch'ea suggests that he did not feel very comfortable or highly motivated to do so. Apparently Kot had begun questioning his village neighbours about many of the issues Ch'ea had raised, and so a greater curiosity about Ch'ea's actual \"domestic arrangements\" prodded Kot to see if this local preacher lived by what he taught. Once he found Ch'ea's home, Kot was invited in and saw, perhaps to his surprise, that \"there was in his house neither Koon Yum (Guanyin, the famous Chinese female Boddhisatva), nor Kwan Ty (Guandì, the spirit guardian, often the image placed on doors as a protector of homes), neither ancestral tablets, nor incense pot.\" Willingly receiving Christian literature from Ch'ea at that time, Kot returned to his village only to find his neighbours still taking Ch'ea \"to be mad.\" After intermittent reading of the books and later repeated visits by Ch'ëa (in \"my house three or four times\"), Kot began to join Ch'ea in \"worship[ping] God\" and \"convers[ing]\n\n+62", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216207, "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": 506, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "440\n\n- who were very friendly and didn't mind us snapping away.\n\nAll too soon, it was time to head back for the 2.30pm ferry (and the dreaded customs hall that was rumoured to be tough-going, but in fact gave us no problems). In all, a relaxing and different weekend which was fun and gave us a sense of achievement.\n\nDetails of St Francis Xavier's life and links to St John's Island (as gleaned from a search on the Web and other sources)\n\nSt. Francis spent 10 years in Asia and became known as the Apostle of the East. He was the third son of a high official and was born in April 1506 in the Castle of Xavier in Navarre in Northern Spain. Francis was influenced by Ignatius of Loyola and his “Spiritual Exercises” while they lived in Paris. Later, while in India, Francis became a member of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, which Ignatius had been instrumental in founding. Francis left Lisbon in 1541 and travelled via Mozambique to Goa in 1542. Many were converted, inspired by his life, writings and teaching. He travelled to Malacca in 1545, translated prayers into Malay, and again won many converts. He travelled to the Moluccas, to Cochin (1548), to Kagoshima (1549) and to Kyoto (1550).\n\nIn 1551 he resolved to return to Goa and his ship called in to St John's Island in December 1551. St John's Island was a common port of call for Portuguese ships in those times. While Francis was there, a Portuguese prisoner in Guangdong, probably a smuggler who had been caught by the Chinese authorities, managed to get a letter to a friend of Francis's. The letter suggested the sending of an ambassador to China to seek help for such prisoners. Francis saw opportunities in this and set out from Goa again in April 1552. He intended to bring the news of Christ to China and, with others on board the \"Santa Cruz,\" intended to pursue the release of Portuguese prisoners. However, when they called in at Malacca, they found the Captain of Malacca, a son of Vasco da Gama, resented the appointment of an ambassador other than himself. He allowed the Santa Cruz to leave Malacca, but only without the ambassador.\n\nFrancis realised his mission was in peril but arrived at St John's Island in August 1552. The Chinese authorities forbade him to enter", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]