[ { "id": 204305, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n69\n\nChou of Shang\n\nby King Wu of Chou about 2100 B.C. However, this merely serves as the basic skeleton of the novel, to which many supernatural incidents are added. Some of these supernatural incidents in the novel are taken from the prompt-book Wu-wang Fa-Chou P'ing-hua ENT (\"King Wu's Expedition against King Chou\"), which was current in the Yüan period, about 1321-1323.\n\nHowever, the author of the Féng-shên took his material from various other sources, for he was an extraordinary character. He was at first a Confucian scholar; then, after failing nine times to pass the official examination, he became a Taoist priest. But in his last years he showed a leaning to Tantric Buddhism, and his work on the Surangama-sutra (VR) is included in the Second Collection of the Tripitaka in Chinese. Even now in Hong Kong he is regarded by Taoists as one of their patriarchs and referred to as \"Lu tsu Hsi-hsing\", or \"Patriarch Lu Hsi-hsing\", though in fact he combined the teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. In his novel, he divided the Taoist gods into two categories. The benevolent ones he called Shan Chiao W, or The Promulgating Sect, led by Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun, or The Celestial Honoured Primordial, and Lao-tzu; the malevolent ones he called Chieh Chiao #, or The Intercepting Sect, led by T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu #, or The Patriarch of All Heaven. When, in the novel, King Chou and King Wu are going to fight a decisive battle, the gods come down from heaven to take part. Naturally, the gods of the Promulgating Sect help the good King Wu, while those of the Intercepting Sect lend their aid to the wicked King Chou. All kinds of magic weapons are used, everything that the sixteenth century Chinese mind could conceive, even plague-carrying seeds (a sort of germ warfare!). The climax is reached after \"the battle of ten thousand gods\", when the leader of the Intercepting Sect is badly defeated. However, the common master of all the three leaders appears and makes peace among them. The author thereupon concludes:\n\nLike the red lotus flower, its white root, and its green leaves,\n\nThe Three Teachings are really one and the same.\n\nNow, the term \"the Three Teachings\" usually refers to Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but in the novel the usage of this term is not always clear. Sometimes it seems to refer to the Promulgating Sect, the Intercepting Sect, and common mortals. At other times, Buddhism seems included. The author has included among Taoist gods of the Promulgating Sect certain Buddhist deities such as Mañjusri (Wên-shu), Samantabhadra", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204325, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n89\n\n\"the second son of the third prince of Vaisravana, the Heavenly King of the North”(北方天王吠室羅摩那羅閣第三王子其第二之孫) and in this text Nata addresses Vaisravana as \"my grandfather\" (RAXXE). Furthermore, this legend appears also in 卷一 of the Ta-fang-pien-fu Pao-ên Ching (大方便佛報恩經) (ASENNUE), and as I have found another story about the \"reincarnation from the lotus\" also in that sutra, which is also similar to the description of No-cha's reincarnation in the novel, I think both these stories may have influenced the author besides the case cited above.\n\nThe story of No-cha's reincarnation and the combat between the father and son is a very dramatic one and it reveals again the literary gifts of the author:\n\nNo-cha's souls, being dispersed, had nowhere to go, drifting about in the air. They went directly to the grotto of the Immortal T'ai-I. Chin-hsia (金霞), the younger disciple of T'ai-I saw it at the entrance, came to the master and said, \"I wonder why No-cha is now borne on the wind and drifting about freely.' (Last paragraph, Ch.13 and first paragraph, Ch.14, Fêng-shên Yen-i.)\n\nWe know from the previous narratives of the novel that No-cha was an avatar of Ling-chu Tsu, the Intelligent Pearl. But why was he so named? I think the following paragraph from Ch.2 of the Nan-yu-chi may explain both this name and the last paragraph I have just quoted:\n\nThe Intelligent Light (Ling-kuang) was enveloped by the Purple Emperor (紫皇) with the magic weapon Nine-bend Pearl (九曲珠) and died in that Pearl. The souls of the Intelligent Light borne on the wind had nowhere to go, and were seen by the Celestial Honoured All-Merciful and All-Compassionate Marvellous-Delight (慈悲妙喜天尊) (NEVRXO) who was in his meditation in the Palace of Eight-scenes. Watching the souls drifting about, he thought...\n\nAs the Chinese character is monosyllabic, it is easy to pick out the character ling (靈) and chu (珠) from this paragraph to form a new name and give it to No-cha as his other title since the description of his reincarnation is partially derived from here. The story continues thus:\n\nThe Immortal (T'ai-I) charged No-cha, “This is your place no more. Return to Ch'ên-t'ang Pass and see your mother in dreams, request her to build a temple for you to dwell in on the Ts'ui-p'ing Hill (Green Screen Hill) forty li away from the Pass. Sacrifices will be offered to you for three years and after that you may be reincarnated. Go ahead and do not tarry.\" During the third watch of that night No-cha appeared in a dream to his mother, saying, \"Mother, my souls have nowhere to go and I have suffered bitterly. Pray", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204327, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n91\n\nyou will be one of his vanguards. Well, I think I can do something for you in this matter. He ordered Chin-hsia to bring two stalks of lotus and three lotus leaves to him, and with them he made a human shape on the ground, using the stems to represent the joints and articulation of the bones, and set the seed of a golden pill in the middle. He employed his divine power and spoke the magic spells while he pushed No-cha's souls toward the lotuses, and suddenly there sprang up a young No-cha who was handsome and full of vitality, with a rosy complexion, red lips, intelligent eyes and was sixteen feet tall. Thus was No-cha reincarnated from lotuses. (Ch.14)\n\nAs I have said, in chuan 3, Lun-1 P'in (Discourses) of the Ta-fang-pien-fu Pao-ên Ching there is a Buddhist legend which can be summarized as follows:\n\nThe king of Varanasi (*) married Lady Doe-mother who conceived and gave birth to a lotus which was cast into a pond. The lotus then grew five hundred leaves and under each leaf a boy was born. When these five hundred boys grew up they became giants, each of whom was strong and brave enough to fight against a thousand men single-handed. These brothers, from the first one to the four hundred and ninety-ninth all forsook their noble life and became Buddhist priests. The youngest brother attained the fruition of a Pratyeka-Buddha ninety days later and, manifesting his miraculous powers, he preached the dharma for the benefit of his parents.\n\nThis can be cited as an illustration that the story about reincarnation from a lotus had a religious background. In the paragraph in chuan 2 of the Wu-têng Hui-yüan I have quoted, the last sentence of the text is “現本身,運大神通,為父母說法” (manifesting his original body and by his miraculous powers preached the dharma for the benefit of his parents), and now in this sutra the corresponding sentence is “...” which would make no difference in translation. We may consult Ch.27, \"King Resplendent and Buddha Thunder-voice\" (¥2) of the Lotus Sutra, in which the two sons of the king, Pure Treasury (*) and Pure Eyes (), worrying about their father's attachment to the heretical teaching which deviated from the right course, revealed to him some of their supernatural powers (...) and brought him to faith and discernment.3 So we may believe the original story that No-cha “rending himself asunder, gave his flesh back to his mother and his bones to his father”.\n\n3 \"The Lotus of the Wonderful Law\" (Saddharma Pundarika Sutra), translation by Prof. Soothill, Oxford, p. 256.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204421, "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": 53, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "44 \n\nHOLMES WELCH \n\nfrom those who knew them best. The leading exponent of the Lotus Sutra might be living in Kiangsu, the leading exponent of the Surangama Sutra in Manchuria, and so on. One went around the country to the famous monasteries, studying at the feet of the famous masters. One's possessions were all in a bag that theoretically weighed only two and a half catties: bowl, robes, and, most important of all, the ordination certificate—so important that one monk I know keeps his in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The ordination certificate was like a Diners' Club credit card. At any big public monastery anywhere in China, the travelling monk had merely to show it to the head of the Guest Department and, if it was in order, he had to be admitted and he could live there as long as he liked unless he violated a rule for which the penalty was expulsion. Under certain conditions it was not necessary to show his ordination certificate to gain admission. That could wait until he applied for a place in the monastic organisation.\n\nDuring his first weeks in a monastery the travelling monk lived in the yün-shui t'ang or “cloud-water hall” (monks were thought to be as unattached as drifting clouds or running water). Then when the next semester2 began, he would enroll in the Meditation Hall, or the Hall for Reciting Buddha's Name, or some other part of the organisation. In general he ascended by one or both of two ladders, the ladder of religious positions or the ladder of administrative positions. In the Meditation Hall, for example, he might first be an acolyte, then record the sayings of Instructors, then handle the liturgical instruments, and finally become the wei-no or head of the Hall. Though I call him “head,” his position was in fact inferior to the Four Instructors Ssu-ta pan-shou, who, in rotation, taught the monks how to meditate. On the administrative side he might begin as a serving monk. (The famous Hsü-yun spent four years as a water-carrier, as a gardener, and waiting on table). Step by step he could rise to be a chief of a department, perhaps of the abbot's personal office, or later of the Guest Department or the Treasury. There was a theoretical total of forty-eight positions and in a big monastery like Chin Shan they were all filled.\n\n2 The year was divided into two main periods beginning on the 16th of the first moon and the 16th of the seventh moon,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205485, "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-1968", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "22\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\nuse of by such personalities rather than Buddhism and Taoism, the two other important indigenous religions operating in China in the nineteenth century.\n\nBuddhism\n\nBuddhist monastic establishments were usually situated in the open countryside and members might be connected with a number of different villages in an area. A large proportion of the Buddhist clergy, particularly of the female contingent, consisted of persons joining at least partly for other than religious reasons: those who did not want, or could not afford to marry; those becoming unattached through death and separation, persons who found their lives unbearable; partners to unhappy marriages, and those with other family troubles.26\n\nBuddhism offered a number of social as well as spiritual satisfactions for the unattached. The unattached adult was very much outside traditional society: there was no room for an unmarried daughter at home (custom even forbade she should die in her father's house), and there was little opportunity in most parts of China for outside remunerative work for women; the unmarried male and female and those without children could not be served in the ancestral cult.\n\nMonastic institutions provided a home during life and undertook burial and the ritual needs of inmates at death. They also trained members for a religious profession and religion was regarded traditionally as a particularly suitable occupation for unattached women. The religion itself as presented at the popular level suggested both spiritual and social advantages to those who would become members of the clergy. Those practising abstinences were assured they would meet a better fate in the next life. The Lotus Sutra states that women who practise constant devotions will be born male in the Pure Land (a Buddhist paradise). And popular folk stories with a religious flavour and aimed mainly at women sometimes hint at possibilities for greater power and prestige. Cantonese \"wooden fish\" books (mu-yü shu) tell of women taking high officials and their wives as lay-disciples, and enjoying the respect and deference thereby of formerly cruel and sceptical parents, mothers-in-law and even husbands; and of others who in their next lives became themselves high officials", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214250, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "one of the Twenty Deva. Sagara Naga, the Dragon King of Rain.\n\n71\n\nIn Chinese he is the Dragon King. His image has only been noted in one of our two temples in the Western Hills, the Pi-yun Ssu where he is portrayed as a standing, black-skinned official in multi-coloured robes and a pill-box cap with a small sunburst on the front. He has large round eyes and a black beard and is holding a tablet in both hands clasped before his chest. His image is also present in the cave/tunnel under the Taiwanese temple where he is known as Sha Lo Wang 沙洛王 and is portrayed as a middle-aged Chinese, standing,\n\ndressed in gilded armour and small Taoist crown. He is holding an unsheathed sword in his right hand and a small snake-like dragon in his left.\n\n15] Asura known in Chinese as Ah-hsü-lo\n\nThe Asura in the Lotus Sutra are one of the Eight Classes of super-natural beings - Asura originally meant a spirit or even a god - and are regarded as demons who fight against the forces of Indra. There is an image of an Asura in the group in the Ta Pei Ssu but not in the Pi-yun Ssu, nor in the cave/tunnel in the Taiwanese temple. In the Ta Pei Ssu he is a demonic human with four arms, three eyes and a further head superimposed upon his normal head. He has fiery red spiky hair, red moustache and beard, large round eyes and rings one in each ear. He is stripped to the waist and is white skinned, has bare legs and feet and is wearing a highly decorated colourful skirt.\n\n16] Vimalakirti known in Chinese as Wei-mo Chu-shih\n\nVimalakirti was a disciple of Sakyamuni at Vaisali who the Buddha is said to have instructed, and who later recorded it as the Sutra of Vimalakirti. The realm of Vimalakirti is a realm of profound joy.\n\nAn image of Vimalakirti is in the group in the Ta Pei Ssu but not in the Pi-yun Ssu, nor in the cave/tunnel in the Taiwanese temple. He is standing, dressed in a green robe decorated with gilded roundels and border, and a scarf round his head holding his hair in a loose knot protruding up and through it. He has grey hair, beard, moustache and eyebrows. There are no unique characteristics.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214251, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "72\n\n17] Kinnara known in Chinese as Chin-na-lo The heavenly musicians\n\nListed as one of the twenty Deva in Soothill, and also one of the Eight Classes of supernatural beings in the Lotus Sutra. They are a group who, in Java for example, are portrayed as half-bird and half-human, and known in their plural as Kinnari. They are also one of the twelve spirits connected with the cult of Yao-shih Fo, the Buddhist Master of Healing. Another version claims that they are the musicians of Kuvera, with bodies of humans and heads of horses. In yet another version they dwell in the tall trees which grow on Gandhamadana, Incense Mountain.\n\nThere are images of a Kinnara in both the Ta Pei Ssu and in the Pi-yun Ssu. In the former he is portrayed as a military figure, standing in armour and helmet and with a scarf swirling round the back of his head and down across his arms. His hands are clasped before his chest and his face, pink and friendly, has a short black beard and mutton-chop moustache. In the Pi-yun Ssu the image has a similar friendly face but this time he is wearing robes and cap of an official and not those of a soldier.\n\n18] Mahoraga known in Chinese as Mo-hu-lo\n\nMahoraga is one of the twelve spirits connected with the cult of Yao-shih Fo, the Master of Healing and the Buddha of Medicine. He is one of the twelve guardian spirits each of whom is associated with one of the twelve hours of the day. The twelve include Vajra, Indra and Kinnara.\n\nAn image of the Mahoraga has only been seen in the Ta Pei Ssu and not in the Pi-yun Ssu. He is portrayed as an extremely ugly, ferocious inhuman demon with black skin. Dressed merely in a decorated and multi-coloured skirt he is standing and has a swirling scarf behind his head and a snake held in his right hand. He has spiky hair on either side of his head protruding like small snakes, and his large protruding jaw and upper lip and his sloping forehead make his face almost animal. The hair on the head is pulled up into a high point, with two ear-pressing tufts one on either side. His eyebrows are like white flames, and his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214252, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "73\n\nlarge, wide, gaping mouth has but four small teeth showing, these being normal human-size incisors top and bottom. Finally, he has three small white skulls across his forehead held in place by a pink band.\n\n19] Gandharva known in Chinese as Kan-t'a-p'o\n\nThe Gandharva are one of the eight classes of supernatural beings referred to in the Lotus Sutra. They are Indra's musicians and also in the retinue of Dhrtarastra [they are the same as or similar to the Kinnaras]. They do not eat meat nor drink wine but feed on incense and fragrance.\n\nAn image of the Gandharva is in the Ta Pei Ssu but not in the Pi-yun Ssu. His image portrays him standing, dressed in multi-coloured robes over armour, a helmet over black spiky hair, and is clean shaven. His face is semi-demonic, with large protruding eyes. He has no unique characteristics.\n\n20] Nanda Upananda known in Chinese as Nan-t'o Pa-nan-t'o 跋難陀\n\nLittle seems to be known about Nanda Upananda apart from being a protector of Magadha [near Bihar]. His image has only been seen in the Ta Pei Ssu and not in the Pi-yun Ssu. It depicts him as an elderly man but with a semi-demonic face. He has round eyes, small ugly protrusions on his cheeks, a gaping mouth and fang-like eye-teeth, no moustache but a short pointed beard, and is wearing decorated robes and cap. His hands are held together as if holding a tablet [which may well be missing].\n\n21] Skanda, Viharapala or Veda' known in Chinese as Wei T'o #BE\n\nWei T'o, a Hindu deity, the Deva Protector of the Dharma, guards the sanctuary of virtually all Chinese Buddhist temples. He stands with his back to the main entrance in the inner temple hall facing the main altar and back-to-back with the Laughing Buddha of the Future, Mi-lo Fo, who greets visitors with his smiling welcome. Wei T'o is also to be seen guarding many a folk religion temple, though only very rarely does he appear on a household altar. Because of the prayers offered to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]