[ { "id": 205422, "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-1967", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS \n\n177 \n\nBUDDHISM IN CHINA, A HISTORICAL SURVEY, Kenneth K. S. Ch'en, Princeton University Press, 1964, pp. xii, 560, £5 (U.K.) \n\nWith perfect candor, and absolutely no insinuation of disparagement, it may be said that this book with its 486 pages of text and 43 pages of bibliography is not a work of original research but a conscientiously and painstakingly written, highly informative and engagingly readable general survey of a vast subject, based on the international Buddhistic publications in Chinese, Japanese, English, French and German. The author does not propose to settle any thorny or esoteric problem or penetrate into the obscure recesses of any occult doctrine, but gives an interesting account and all its ramifications with an almost cyclopaedic richness. He tells us the whirligig of Buddhist fortunes under the various dynasties, and especially the foreign dynasties - Northern Wei, Liao, Chin and Yuan; the involvement with politics—both on the ruling side and the rebelling side; and the close relationship with the various branches of Chinese culture: art, literature and philosophy. There is a concluding chapter of 16 pages on 'The Contributions of Buddhism' which is necessarily sketchy. The glossary of Buddhistic terms and the list of Chinese Names and Titles in Chinese script—though incomplete—are helpful to the reader. \n\nAs examples of the cyclopaedic interest of this book, two items especially may be mentioned: how Maitreya was naturalized to become Mi-lo-fo, and got involved with insurrectionary societies; and how Avalokitesvara was metamorphosed from, until the 10th century, a male into from then onwards a female. \n\nThere has been a legend in which it is alleged that Chinese culture has been completely indigenous and that China has refused to accept anything from outside. Such a legend exists and is prevalent because it is fostered both by domestic nationalistic, if not chauvinistic, pride and by the lack of historical knowledge on the part of foreigners. In fact, ever since the Bronze Age, China has had cultural intercourse with foreign cultures; the unearthed bronze articles of that period testify to that. Chinese music was notably influenced by outsiders. Many current popular, and many extinct classical, musical instruments are not native; the very names betray a foreign origin. Quite a number of the Chinese classical lyric measures bear appellations which have no", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205602, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n139\n\nBuddha Maitreya: \"The Buddha to Come\", will appear, and the catastrophe can be avoided if men help him to set the world to rights.\n\nIII. THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT AND THE SECTS\n\nEsoteric sects were regarded with the greatest suspicion in traditional times. They clothed much of their religious activity in secrecy; men and women met together for worship in their halls, even sometimes residing in the same premises (although in separate apartments); leaders did not wear clerical dress, they sometimes lived in their own homes and were not easily recognised as sectarians, and therefore could not be controlled like Buddhist monks; and such men wrote their own sutras. All these things were considered highly unorthodox.\n\nBut worse still, organizations of the group to which the Hsien-t'ien sect belongs believed strongly in a millenium. When Maitreya appears, it was believed, he will attempt to set things right by organizing (with man's help) an ideal form of government and preventing the spread of distorted doctrines and the catastrophes they lead to. During the last century the sects were under the control of patriarchs and it was commonly believed by members that Maitreya, when he appeared, would be incarnate in the body of one of these leaders (such men engaged in special religious practices similar to those of tantric Buddhism, to “absorb” Buddhas of their choice and take on their powers). When undertaking work for the millenium the sects took special secret names, one being, significantly, the White Lotus (from the symbol associated with Maitreya Buddha).\n\nWhen the State, in the nineteenth century, heightened its campaigns to stamp out sects, it was particularly those of the Hsien-t'ien group which took its attention. Marjorie Topley has been able to examine the patriarchal records of several of these sects for the period, and they tell a violent tale: many of their top leaders were, at this time, banished, imprisoned or executed, often after torture. The campaign against the sects has continued into this century and in the 1950's mainland newspapers carried news of further punishment for sectarians for their interpretation of local floods and other natural disasters as signs of the distortion of Truth and bad leadership of the country.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206683, "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-1972", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n225\n\nrank in a number of groups) and even the White Lotus itself — all listed by the author (I am here using his translations and romanizations) — had a systematically worked-out theology, exegeses existing independently of any other Chinese religion, a mother goddess unknown in any other Chinese pantheon, and they looked for the coming of an incarnate buddha, Maitreya, who is to preside over a millennial age. They had elaborate ranks with elaborate religious qualifications, and indeed in many cases it would appear by examination of such ranks, as well as theology and lines of patriarchal succession that they are offshoots of each other. This is certainly claimed to be the case by leaders of some of these messianic organizations living overseas in contemporary times (Topley 1963). Such groups attracted the frustrated intellectual as well as the poorer member of society who might find a home in one of their residential, commonly vegetarian, halls. They had a dialectical approach to the social and ideological contradictions they saw in their society and culture: in some ways more Confucian than the Confucians who urged self-cultivation as a requirement for good government by the official, they made a necessity of a virtue and demanded this qualification for an administrative position in their own organizational hierarchy. And here is an important point. They offered a social and ideological system which was a complete challenge, not just to existing leadership but the form of society itself. Social organization would be unnecessary when the millennium came, because people would act from intuitive knowledge of the right way to behave. Virtue would be the only qualification for the decision-maker and its own reward. There would be no poverty and no contradictions. Such notions are not of course without parallel in secular China today. Is it really true, as the author suggests that they 'contributed to the survival of outdated ideas and beliefs'? Or might they have not paved the way for certain contemporary Chinese ways of thinking? All this requires much more serious thought, as does also, the particular nature of their militant involvements: what role in military activities and strategy-planning would a leader of this kind of organization have a man whose position appears to depend on religious rather than social achievements; on intellect rather than physical prowess (Topley 1968: 35, 38)?\n\nJ\n\nThere was then another kind of grouping which was different. It used religious concepts and symbols but had no separate theology or exegeses. No religious qualifications were necessary for leader-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206795, "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": 72, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "66\n\nCHIU LING-YEONG\n\nThe style of I-seng was of Iranian origin, in which modeled and shaded polychrome figures seemed to stand out in relief, or even to float free from their background. His style is believed to have influenced Wu Tao-hsüan and to be traceable in the caves of Tun-huang.\n\n35\n\nFrom Chinese sources, Ta Yü-chih had three paintings extant in T'ang period, namely: (1) Liu-fan tu; (2) Wai-kuo pao-shu tu (the six foreigners); and (3) Po-lo-men tu (exotic tree from foreign country); (the Brahmara). However, according to Hsüan-ho hua-p'u, there were seven paintings of Hsiao Yu-chih's work, kept by Sung Hui-tsung, namely:\n\n1. Icon of Maitreya 彌勒佛像一;\n\n2. Buddhist icon 佛鋪圖一;\n\n3. Buddhist followers 佛從像一;\n\n4. Buddhist followers from foreign country 外國佛從像一;\n\n5. Avolokitesvara 大悲像一;\n\n6. Vidyaraja 智;\n\n7. Foreigners36;\n\nThese seven masterpieces were kept by the Emperor in the Inner Palace. Some of I-seng's paintings are still kept by collectors either in China or America, like the Dancing girl of Kucha #✯✯; A Sitting God 坐神; Buddha under the Mango Trees 吉羅林果佛; and Drunken Monk 醉僧圖.\n\nThe Yu-chihs were also masters of mural-paintings. Some of their works can still be found in temples and pagodas in China. In the Sung period, their works were classified as shen-p'in (divine category). I-seng also introduced the 'iron-wire' line to China—the Western technique of using a line of unvarying thickness to outline figures.37 I-seng, according to Chang Yen-yüan, had brought new light to Chinese painting and made more paths for painters of the later generations to develop.\n\nCh'in Ming-ho\n\nAt th...\n\nIn the field of medical science in T'ang China, Professor Lo Hsiang-lin inclines to believe that Persians had made tremendous contributions, especially in surgical operations. In A.D. 683, a Persian known as Ch'in Ming-ho, performed a neurosurgical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208731, "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-1979", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n161\n\npresent day Taiwan, I may point out the cult of the Golden Mother of the Jade Pool and the cult of Kuan Ti focussing on divinatory writing and the publication of morality books.\n\nHaving discussed the great variety of temples according to the first criterium: religious affiliation, the other two criteria mentioned (nature of deities enshrined, and ownership) do not need much attention, since they have already been co-discussed. However, the second criterium needs some elaboration: distinction of temples according to the nature of the deities enshrined. In a few cases there can be no mistaken identity although this criterion by itself is insufficient to determine the temple type. The clearest cases are when the Buddhist Holy Ones are the main objects of worship; Buddhas Sakyamuni, Amitabha or Amita, the Buddha of Healing (rather than 'Medical Buddha' as Baity calls him on p. 126), bodhisattvas Kuan-yin (Avalokitesvara), P'u-hsien (Samantabhadra), Maitreya, Wen-shu (Manjusri), to name the principal ones. In most instances these temples are essentially Buddhist. However, one has to be very careful: the mutual absorption of cult objects by various religions has often blurred the origins; in many Matsu temples (community temples of the folk religion) there is a secondary shrine behind the central hall, in which Kuan-yin is enthroned on the central altar. However, the iconography has been changed: this Kuan-yin does not have the appearance of traditional Buddhist sculpture but appears as another deity of the folk religion. Therefore such temples are still essentially folk religious temples, and the dissonant appearance of Kuan-yin should not deceive the observer.\n\nThe same principal applies to the cult of Ti-tsang (Ksitigarbha). Although originally a bodhisattva, his cult has become so popular that he has been absorbed into the folk religion: his image can be found in many community temples throughout Taiwan, mostly on a secondary altar in the central hall. But once again he has lost the typically Buddhist iconographic appearance.\n\nWhat is the difference between Taoist and popular deities? The most distinctively Taoist Holy Ones are those one does not often see in the temples: their images, painted on scrolls, are in the possession of Taoist priests and brought to the temples or temporary roadside shrines by them for special occasions: such as rituals for the dead or the great chiao festival. Besides those there", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209167, "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-1981", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "56\n\nHUBERT SEIWART\n\nand modern Chinese culture. They present, to a certain degree, a religious interpretation of modernization in Taiwan. But if we examine the above mentioned elements, we find that virtually none of them is really new. They are all patterns which are well known from Chinese intellectual history. I shall just give a few examples:\n\nThe devaluation of the present time as a period of moral decline can be traced back as far as Confucius. In the earliest Confucian writings we can also find the theme of the return of the Golden Age of Yao and Shun.\n\nThe concept of the Great Harmony, Ta T'ung, also originated in antiquity, it is elaborated in the Li Chi. Probably somewhat later, during the Han dynasty, the idea was formulated that the emergence of the new ideal world would be preceded by a period of destruction, as can be seen in the T'ai-p'ing Ching. Finally Buddhism added to these elements the theory of the declining dharma and the expectation of the future Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya is still of utmost importance in the eschatological teachings of I-kuan Tao.\n\nThe rejection of foreign influence is also a familiar topic. As we know, Buddhism has long been the target of anti-foreign propaganda. During the Six Dynasties Buddhism was held responsible for all the deficiencies of the time.\n\nFinally, we should observe that I-kuan Tao as well as most of the other popular cults combine elements of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, and promote the idea of san chiao he i, \"the three teachings form a unity\". This explicit syncretism goes back at least to the Sung dynasty.\n\nThese remarks suffice to show that the reactions of these popular religious movements to the social changes resulting from modernization are by no means new. The symbolization of the tensions caused by cultural contact and modernization draws heavily upon the traditional symbol repository. Not only are the traditional symbols relied on, but also their content: The values by which modern society is measured derive mainly from the traditional moral teachings. It would therefore not be untrue to say that the religious responses to modernization as we have analyzed them so far can be characterized as traditionalism and conservatism.\n\nNevertheless, it would be misleading to regard movements like I-kuan Tao as mere survivals of a past historical period. For, as we shall see presently, besides the traditional elements there are also", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "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 }, { "id": 216309, "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-2003", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "17\n\nIn the early Qing Dynasty Longhua Temple received considerable attention in the form of repairs to the existing buildings and construction of new ones. A major construction project started in 1647 resulted in the completion of the Abbot or Temple Master's Room (Fang Zhang Shi) and the Wei Tuo Hall (Wei Tuo Dian), as well as the repair of the Scripture Storage Pavilion (Cang Jing Ge).\n\nIt will be recalled that during the Yuan Dynasty the temple experienced a massive expansion in the size of its territory, if not its actual structures. In 1672 the Qing authorities measured the size of the immediate area around the temple halls as occupying 93 mu of land, plus an additional 74 mu of open land in the surrounding area which was used to plant vegetables. It was this later open space which gradually evolved into first Longhua Park, and then the present day Martyr's Cemetery.\n\nDuring a 155 year period in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, from 1672 to 1827, no new construction, reconstruction or repairs were recorded. This begs the question as to why the temple was dormant during such a long period of time. Was it lack of imperial sympathy for Buddhism in general, or simply the absence of wars and destruction requiring later rehabilitation during this relatively peaceful time?\n\nAfter a century and a half of dormancy, the Taiping Rebellion finally provided the opportunity or the need for new construction and repairs. Between 1860 and 1862 the Taiping rebels attacked Shanghai three times, during which records say vaguely that most of the Longhua Temple buildings were destroyed. On August 18, 1860 the Taipings captured Xu Jia Hui, and it was probably then when the nearby Longhua Temple was destroyed. Although no list is provided of exactly which buildings were destroyed, we can infer from later lists of the structures rebuilt afterwards that this included the Great Sadness Hall (Da Bei Dian), the Precious Hall of the Great Hero (Da Xiong Bao Dian), the Heavenly Kings Hall (Tian Wang Dian), the Three Gods Hall (San Sheng Dian), the Maitreya Buddha Hall (Mi Le Fo Dian), the Drum Tower (Gu Lou), the Bell Tower (Zhong Lou), and the Big Buddha Hall (Da Fo Dian). Basically every previously existing key structure is mentioned as having been rebuilt after this period of destruction, with the exception of the die-hard Precious Pagoda (Bao Ta) and the Master's Room (Fang Zhang Shi), raising the possibility that the two structures which stand today are both authentic originals.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216314, "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-2003", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "22\n\nsuccessive courtyards which separate the six main halls on the central axis. All told there are about a dozen halls, towers, and pavilions, each containing golden effigies of a wide variety of various Buddhist deities. This goes well beyond the typical scale of the average Buddhist temple which normally has only three main halls and sometimes just one.\n\nIn this first courtyard are four stone relics of uncertain age, but probably not older than the Minguo era at most. These include two stone lions and two octagonal stone lanterns, all four enclosed by stone railings. Two large trees in the courtyard were transplanted here in January 2004. On the right side of the courtyard is a new expanded gift shop (shu dian) added in January 2004. It offers not only Buddhist trinkets, but a fine selection of Chinese language books containing histories of Longhua Temple and Buddhist scriptures. Until 2004, there was not a single published history of Longhua Temple available for sale here, but late in December 2003 no less than three new well-researched titles on this topic were published, several of which can be found here.\n\nThe first main hall is the one-story Maitreya Buddha Hall (Mi Le Dian). This hall dates from an 1884 reconstruction, when it was rebuilt to replace an earlier structure destroyed during the Taiping rebel attacks on Shanghai in 1860-1862. The hall was last restored in 1981. It is dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha of the future, known in China as Mi Le Fo, and depicted here as the fat laughing Buddha of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). This Mi Le Fo image is a golden effigy, seated on a square stone base and protected by a glass case. He is depicted as having a third eye in the centre of his forehead. The Buddha can be seen from the first courtyard through a partially open gate of the hall, but the hall itself cannot be entered without passing through the adjoining orange wall into the second courtyard and entering from the other side.\n\nAlthough, Mi Le Fo usually does occupy the first hall of many temples, he often has to share his space with the Four Heavenly Kings (Si Tian Wang). In this case he has the whole hall to himself, the kings occupying a separate building of their own. Until January 2004 he had to share his home with the temple gift shop (shu dian), but this has now been moved out to a separate new hall in the first courtyard.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]