[
    {
        "id": 204416,
        "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": 48,
        "title": "RAS-1962",
        "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n39\n\nintention to become a monk under the auspices of a master (not necessarily the same one with whom he might have taken the Refuges). \"Leaving home\" was a simple ceremony. The layman went to a barber, had his head shaved, except for a patch of hair on top, and repaired to his future master's temple, where he burned some incense and kowtowed first to the Buddha image and then to the master. Thereupon the latter shaved off the remaining patch of hair in the presence of witnesses and at this moment the layman became his disciple. There are several kinds of master-disciple relationships, but when a Buddhist monk speaks simply of his \"master\" or shih-fu, he means his tonsure-master, or t'i-tu en-shih #1824p, that is the one who shaved his head.\n\nBy leaving home he became a novice, or sha-mi, which is the Sanscrit word sramanera (not to be confused with a sha-men, that is, the sramana, or advanced monk). Notice that he had not received the novice's ordination (as he would have at this stage in a Theravadin country), but he was already called a novice and lived as one; that is, he wore a monk's robe, ate vegetarian food, and observed all the Ten Vows. These vows are, besides the first five mentioned above, not to attend theatricals or dancing parties, not to wear perfume or adornment, not to sleep on a high or large bed, not to accept gold or silver, and not to take food after noon (this last prohibition was ignored by most monks in China on the grounds that the climate was too cold). The disciple lived with his tonsure master in the latter's small temple for a period of training that, according to the rules, lasted three years, but was often shorter in practice. He learned not only ritual and liturgy, but also what it was like to be a monk. It was a trial period, from which he could withdraw at any time without embarrassment, and some did withdraw. At the end he was taken by his master to a big public monastery, shih-fang ts'ung-lin, for ordination. If he lived in the north, he might go to the Kuang-chi Ssu in Peking. If he lived in the south, he might go to Pao-hua Shan, which is not far from Nanking. These two were very strict and he could be sure that if he were ordained there, it had been done correctly. At Pao-hua Shan four or five hundred novices would come to be ordained every autumn and in the spring another four or five hundred would come. Sometimes as many as a thousand came",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207919,
        "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-1976",
        "page_number": 307,
        "title": "RAS-1976",
        "content_text": "292\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nCHINESE PRESERVED MONKS (肉身塑像)\n\nThe preservation by both Taoists and Buddhists of the bodies of famous monks and abbots by lacquering, varnishing or coating and embalming in clay was not as uncommon as one would think. It is only too easy to see how after the death of a particularly wise and beloved abbot, his presence would be badly missed throughout the monastic community. They would begin to venerate his memory and perhaps even a cult might emerge. Again we can visualise that his contemporary detractors, should there have been any, would eventually die and their prejudice, jealousy or even dislike perhaps, would fade in time. The opposite however, would be true of the memory of his wisdom, piety and gentleness. Another major motive for the preservation of such saints and very religious monks was the very mundane desire to obtain more funds for the religious institution by exhibiting the body to the faithful. In some monasteries such mummies were kept in private apartments hidden from public gaze. They had been members of a community, so their brethren claimed, and only other members had the right to see them. Most monks were cremated after death and their ashes retained in reliquaries in their monastery.\n\nSome of the more famous \"preserved monks\", or 'fleshy bodies' which is a direct translation from the Chinese, displayed or kept for personal reverence, were to be found in the following temples and monasteries:\n\nPai Sui Kung on Chiu Hua Shan, Anhui\n\nTsu Shih T'ien on O Mei Shan, Szechuan\n\nTien T'ai Ssu in the Western Hills near Peking\n\nYuch Lin Ssu in Chekiang\n\nNan Hua Ssu in Northern Kwangtung\n\nTien An Fu below T'ai Shan in Shantung\n\nHui Chu Ssu in Pao Hua Shan, Kiangsu.\n\nThere is also one such in the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas above Sha Tin, Hong Kong.\n\nA Danish architect, J. Prip Møller1 spent a considerable time in the early thirties touring around many monasteries throughout China in his research into monastery construction. He referred on several occasions to 'fleshy bodies' set up as images in monastery",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207923,
        "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-1976",
        "page_number": 311,
        "title": "RAS-1976",
        "content_text": "296 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n(A✯✯) who founded the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple above Sha Tin in the New Territories, Hong Kong in 1951 (erroneously recorded as 1961). He was a widely known and admired monk who at the age of 24, according to the Temple broadsheet, had been named Buddha Simba in recognition of having perceived the cause of the Universe. He was born in Yunnan in 1878 into the Wu (A) family and was educated in Shanghai and Peking. In the latter place, the record states, he was a \"professor of philosophy\" at Yenching University at the early age of 19 in 1897 before he became a monk. He preached throughout his life and died in April 1965 at the age of 87 in his temple in Sha Tin.\n\nThe story of his interment, exhumation and preservation is described in the temple brochure. The body was placed in a seated position, cross-legged in a wooden box and buried on the hillside behind the temple. There it remained for eight months. Yueh Chi, during his latter days, had instructed that his body should be exhumed after such a period of time, and when uncovered it was found that very little decomposition had taken place. A mark on the lower side of the right ribs excited comment as it appeared to be an image of a tiger, and another on the breast that of a human head. The body was then gilded, dressed in a salmon pink robe and a five-leaf vairocana crown, and enthroned in May 1966 in front of the large image of Amida Buddha which towers some twenty-five feet above him (plate 28). Another image, carved ostensibly in his likeness, is enshrined in a glass case in the rear of a Buddhist nunnery on a spur some two miles from the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple. This carving, one suspects, is stylized. It is gilded, apart from a heavy beard and a head of hair painted shiny black. The image holds a fly whisk, and has a pair of slippers before his throne, but has no crown.\n\nOther forms of image based on human remains, usually of laymen rather than of monks, such as those seen in Singapore and Ipoh made of a mixture of concrete, sand and human ashes, have not been included in this article. Whereas most wealthy devotees achieve recognition by having their donation details carved on the monastery wall, a few, however, will their ashes to be mixed and made into an image in their likeness, warts and all, in addition to donating a final large sum to the establishment.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211635,
        "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-1989",
        "page_number": 50,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "25\n\nwhich is reserved exclusively for the occasion. The offerings must include red pork and two long stems of bamboo in leaf; these are laid out on special tables placed on small stools so that they do not touch the ground and be defiled.\n\nThe Jade Emperor's image has been noted on altars in nine temples in Hong Kong and in two in Macau. It is also to be seen on numerous altars throughout South-East Asia and in Taiwan. In Taiwan his image appears alone or with two or three attendants on a number of secondary altars and even on side altars. In Hong Kong he is the main deity in six of the nine temples and is the major deity on a secondary altar in the other three.\n\nThe most fascinating image of the Jade Emperor in Hong Kong is to be seen in the upper level hall of the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in Shatin where he is flanked by two of his ministers. In a large number of temples in which he is the main deity the Jade Emperor is supported in this way by the two stellar deities, each in his own secondary altar flanking the main altar with the Jade Emperor. They are the Lord of the Northern Bushel and the Lord of the Southern Bushel, Nanpei Tou (jjdk-1-). There are also a number of images of attendants flanking the image of the Jade Emperor, and on occasions the Civil and Military Judges (Wenwu P'ankuan).\n\nHe is the main deity in a tiny temple near Shaukiwan on Hong Kong island, a tiny image in a small single-room temple occupied by one elderly lady, the temple keeper. The original occupants were refugees from Yunnan province in the early fifties, dead these many years. By the mid-seventies the temple was being kept spotlessly clean by the elderly lady who had been an amah to a long-departed English family. She explained that she had to earn her keep somehow, especially as her husband had already 'long time gone topside'.\n\nIn Penang people will tell you that the small red shrine outside their shop or house is dedicated to the Jade Emperor even though neither his name nor title is recorded anywhere.\n\nSupporting the Supreme Deity is a Board or Ministry of Thirty-Six Ministers, with duties to supervise junior celestial officials and clerks, whose images are rarely to be seen on altars though on temple murals all thirty-six are frequently portrayed. Their role is to control and run",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214256,
        "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": 114,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "77\n\ning stick of incense before each with a perfunctory bow, the Four are looked upon as mere soldier guardians with a fifth, Wei T'o [see 21 above], their commander.\n\nThe group of Four are the product of the Mahayana school of Buddhism with additions from the Tantric school. Their original Buddhist title in Sanskrit is usually Dvarapala, though others claim that they are the Chin-kang Shou, derived from the Sanskrit \"Vajrapani', the Thunderbolt Bearer, the Great Protector.\n\nThey are responsible for the security of temples, protecting them from demonic attack and also preventing evil spirits from sneaking in. In Taoist temples, where they have different individual identities, they normally stand in the side wings of the main hall, such as in the Jade Emperor Hall at the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas at Shatin in the New Territories of Hong Kong.\n\nThose in Buddhist temples are the Diamond Kings whilst those in Taoist and folk religion temples are Celestial Kings [T'ien-wang]. They are easily recognisable by their stature, location and by the collocation with the others in the group; also, because each usually holds a unique identifying symbolic object, a furled umbrella or a rodent, etc. They stand with defiant stares and have faces in colours identifying the direction for which they are responsible. The Buddhist Four guardians all wear the bodhisattva's five-leaf crowns with minute Buddhas inscribed on the central leaf, and flying scarves forming a nimbus behind and above their heads and shoulders. Many have demons, thieves, liars and adulterers underfoot. The Taoist Four, who also have demons underfoot, generally wear military helmets.\n\nA manifestation of Vaisravana, the protector of the North and one of the Four Chin-kang, appeared during his journey to aid Hsuan Tsang, the Buddhist monk who trekked from China to India and back to obtain Buddhist scriptures. For this reason Vaisravana was later revered by devotees, alone and in his own right, and over the years became associated with General Li Ching.\n\nAll four of the Mo-li brothers, the Taoist identities of the Four Temple Guardian Generals, are included and represented in the sets of",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]