[ { "id": 212826, "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-1992", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "120\n\nI was also most fortunate in my Chinese friends, many of whom strongly disapproved of the discreditable state into which Chinese administration had fallen. Unchecked hoarding and profiteering were the order of the day and on these the black market flourished exceedingly. Providing you had the money you could buy almost anything in the Kun-ming shops. Inflation mounted steadily and so far as one could see no serious efforts were made to control it. Many officials kept several wives and lived in great luxury; they had profited from the colossal fortunes made over the transportation of supplies on the Burma road. The sight of all this was sufficient to shake one's faith in the future progress of China.\n\nThere was also an extensive black market in money. The official rate of exchange for the Indian rupee was six Chinese dollars to one rupee; but in the black market you could get forty, then fifty, sixty, and so on upwards. British officers drew as much of their pay as they required in Chinese dollars at the fixed rate later by special arrangement with the Ministry of Finance increased by 50%, that is nine dollars to the rupee - but at these rates Kun-ming prices in terms of dollars were beyond their reach. They could not afford to go out, and had difficulty in returning hospitality. The Americans were better off because they received their pay in U.S. dollars, which they disposed of in the black market.\n\nThere was no difficulty about the provision of food; local supplies, so far as we were concerned, were adequate. The drink problem was more difficult; supplies had to come over the 'Hump' and a bottle of whisky was a very rare thing. The French Catholic fathers made a beverage, called Anis, not unlike Absinth in taste, and like Absinth it turned a cloudy white colour when mixed with water; it had a kick like a mule. Anis was rather expensive though, and the more enterprising members of the community took to distilling their own ‘gin'. The machine consisted of a two-gallon petrol tin, placed over a charcoal fire: from the top of the tin a copper tube - probably salvaged from a dismantled lorry - led through a five-gallon kerosene tin filled with cold water, where the vapours from the still passed through coils in the pipe, condensed, and dripped into the gin bottle. The stock from which the liquor was distilled would be either one of the fiercer forms of Chinese wine or the commercial alcohol manufactured for use in driving vehicles: either product tasted horrible and left the most distressing hangover, but it did make a party go.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213890, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "216\n\nIf Generalissmo Sun can give us, the renmin [the people], supervisory power [over the government], we the people will maintain the situation. After all, all the generalissmo needs is just several millions.\n\nAnticipating Sun's return to power in 1923, the Siyi men from Hong Kong announced that they could raise several billion dollars for the new government if the following two conditions were granted:\n\n1. Every one dollar lent to Sun should be paid back by two dollars. The financial departments of the Canton government were to be managed by the Siyi companies.\n\n2. The Siyi men should have a say over the appointment of the future Provincial Governor of Guangdong.\n\nDesperate for money, Sun accepted these conditions. Having resumed his power in Canton, Sun fulfilled his promises by giving the important posts of Provincial Governor, Ministry of Finance, and Commissioner of Salt Transport to the Siyi men. Under these Siyi men, a Guangzhou Guanchan Gengjiju, literally, the Guangzhou Registration Bureau for Government Properties, was established for the registration of immovable properties in Canton City. Accordingly, all properties controlled by lineage, temple, and guild hall were declared public properties until \"red deeds\" (land deeds issued by the Qing government) were produced. Financial rewards were given to those who reported to the Office any unknown Guanchan (government property) or Gongchan (public property) kept in private hands.\n\nUnder the pretext of land classification and deed examination, thousands of sites and buildings held by private hands were confiscated and sold under the office of Guangdongsheng Guanchan Qinglichu (**Guangdong Province Government Property Clearance Office**), literally, the Guangzhou Government Property Clearance Office under the control of a Siyi director. The major duty was to sell \"public property\" and \"government property\" in Canton to private owners. By subjecting everything to inspection and registration and requiring heavy fees on every act, at least $120,000,000 was collected by the Municipal Government. From 1923 to 1925, every tax rate in Guangdong was doubled and some quadrupled, besides already having the addition of hundreds of new imposts.\n\nThe China", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215060, "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-2000", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "113\n\nTHE CELESTIAL MINISTRY OF TIME\n\n太歲\n\nKEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH\n\nIntroduction\n\nBelief in a Celestial bureaucracy was universal throughout China, particularly within peasant and the less literate urban communities and it is still believed in by devotees not only within China itself but also in Taiwan and the Chinese communities throughout South-east Asia. The Celestial bureaucracy is headed by the Ruler of Heaven, the Jade Emperor, with the various functions of the officials of the celestial departments being performed within the confines of numerous ministries, though possibly the former term of boards might be better, ranging from the Ministries of Water, Finance and Literature to the Ministry of Public Works, each with the aim of protecting or doing good for mankind. One such ministry is the Ministry or Board of Time.\n\nTaisui\n\nThe President of the Celestial Ministry of Time, the deity Taisui is possibly better known in English as the Ruler of the Year and the God of the Sexagenary Cycle. He is generally thought of as the Supreme Ruler of the Year and of the Seasons. He is one of the fiercest gods in the pantheon who must be placated whenever ground is disturbed for any reason, and is well known as the deity who strikes down any who offend him. In popular belief he is thought of as demonic and, if not regularly placated, he is at least to be avoided. His cult is comparatively commonplace, though the manifold forms it takes in temples throughout China, as well as the disparate names and titles of members of the Ministry, make an interesting picture. Taisui is not only the President but is also the name of the Ministry itself.\n\nIt is accepted by most Chinese that a number of factors control human lives; these include geomancy and astrology. Geomancy, in Chinese fengshui, concerns location whilst astrology is concerned with the auspicious or inauspicious nature of dates and times, and involving the stellar deity Taisui in particular.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216328, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "36\n\npeople and goods over and along the river. They also helped to load ships in the river and carry goods to the European merchantmen at Whampoa. Their presence was useful to the occupants of the Foreign Factories during periodic conflagrations. For instance, a painting of the Great Fire of 1822 shows residents viewing the fire from these boats, their main refuge in time of such emergencies.28\n\nInterestingly enough, people of this type - perhaps even from the Canton group accustomed to foreigners - were of immense help to the British when they first established themselves in Hong Kong as providers of many essential services.29\n\nOther groups of Tanka constituted the sea fishermen whose craft, large and small, were to be found all over the Delta and the islands outside it; and as we shall see further on in this talk, they provided the 'outside pilots' who assisted foreign merchant vessels to get safely into the Macau Roads.\n\nPersonnel directly connected with the China Trade\n\nWe may now consider seriatim, the various personnel encountered by foreign merchants and ships' officers during their time in China over the trading season of the year.\n\nThe Hoppo30\n\nThe Hoppo was the official at the head of the maritime customs, controlling the revenues accruing from the foreign trade. Representing the ministry of finance in Beijing (hu pu) he was dubbed with this title in error by the foreigners. This lucrative office was often filled by a Manchu. The Guangzhou Custom House is shown in Plate 5.\n\nThere were Hoppo in other maritime provinces of China, but the Canton Hoppo was the most important owing to the foreign trade being confined to Canton. His circuit eventually included five sub-stations and some sixty other collection points, the catchment for the coastal and inter-national trade. International trade was itself divided into Chinese, Asian and European, each taxed at a different rate; the Governor was left with control over internal trade.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]