[
    {
        "id": 204270,
        "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": 38,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n34\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nerrant may be said to have had an ideology, it had more affinity with Taoism than with any other school of thought. True, in their altruism and devotion to duty they showed some resemblance to the Mohists, but they did not share the austerity of the latter. Indeed, the Mohists despised the knights errant and did not think them worth mentioning. It was to Taoism that some knights errant turned for guidance, as recorded in the biographies of several of them. This is hardly surprising: both Taoism and knight errantry came into being before Confucianism became the established official ideology, and both emphasized individualism and freedom from social bonds. To risk a generalization: if the obverse side of the Chinese character is represented by Confucianism—moderate, realistic, and conservative, then its reverse side is represented by Taoist philosophy, knight errantry, and various unorthodox artists and writers: romantic, individualist, and rebellious. It seems to me that it is the obverse side that is familiar to the West while the reverse side is perhaps not so well known and deserves more attention.\n\nTo come back to the history of knight errantry; the early Han emperors, though they paid lip service to Confucianism, actually ruled largely by Legalist methods. It is therefore not surprising that they took strong measures to suppress the knights errant. I have already mentioned that Kuo Chieh's father was executed by order of Emperor Wen. In the next reign, Emperor Ching ordered the execution of many others. And Emperor Wu, as we have seen, ordered the execution of Kuo Chieh and his family. Yet in spite of such suppression, many knights survived, although not all of them lived up to the high ideals of true knight errantry. In later periods, knights errant continued to exist. For instance, the poet Li Po (A.D. 701-762) was a knight errant in his younger days and killed several people by his own hand. In still later periods of history, we also read of people described as being knights errant or behaving in a knightly manner. Sometimes this means no more than that someone behaved in a chivalrous, altruistic way, without necessarily using force or breaking the law. On the other hand, the more swashbuckling knights either degenerated into mere outlaws or became professional bodyguards. As we are concerned here with literature rather than history, I shall give no more examples of historical knights but turn to descriptions of knight errantry in literature.\n\n7 According to the \"Biographies of knights errant\".\n\nSee Lao Kan, \"Yu-hsia, a type of knights errant in the Han dynasty\", Bulletin of the College of Arts, National Taiwan University, No. 1.\n\nLi T'ai-po shih-chi (SPPY), chüan 31, 5a. See Arthur Waley, The poetry and career of Li Po (London, 1950), p. 6.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205188,
        "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": 144,
        "title": "RAS-1966",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\nKUAN-TZU: A REPOSITORY OF EARLY CHINESE THOUGHT, Vol. I. By W. Allyn Rickett. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1965. xviii, pp. 269. Bibliography, Index. HK$45.\n\nThe Kuan-tzu is said to have been written by the famous statesman Kuan Chung who died around 645 B.C. Many chapters record social and economic reforms allegedly proposed by him to his ruler, Duke Huan of Ch'i who ruled from 685 to 643 B.C. Also included are proposals for the establishment of state monopolies over salt and iron, the different ways government might control currency and grain prices, and other measures advocating state interference in economic affairs.\n\nAccording to some scholarly studies the Kuan-tzu is really a work of collected writings by various writers, and therefore it could not have been entirely written by Kuan Chung. If this assertion is true, many chapters were probably written by Confucians, Mohists, Legalists, and Taoists during the third century B.C., although a few may have been written as early as the late fourth century, while some were probably produced during the second or even the first century B.C.\n\nOne reason why certain sections of the Kuan-tzu, written after Kuan Chung's death, were attributed to him is that he played a major role in strengthening the state of Ch'i. As soon as Duke Huan took over the government of Ch'i after a civil war, he appointed Kuan Chung as his chief minister. With his new power Kuan Chung was able to persuade the Duke to carry out political, military, social, and economic reforms which soon made Ch'i one of the most powerful feudal states of the day. By 680 B.C. Duke Huan was recognized as the lord protector or chief over the feudal lords. He had the responsibility of controlling the barbarian peoples on the frontier and ensuring that all states be loyal to the ruler of Chou. After the seventh century B.C. feudal society gradually disintegrated. It was during this period that Kuan Chung came to the fore as a new type of professional bureaucrat and political adviser to replace the former hereditary officials who",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811",
        "rank": 0
    }
]