[ { "id": 205994, "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-1970", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "CHINATOWN IN HONG KONG:\n\nTHE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\nDAFYDD Emrys Evans\n\nIt seems unrealistic to talk of a 'Chinatown' in a place as obviously Chinese as Hong Kong. But for a very long time, there was indeed an area thought of by the Europeans as a part of the city into which they would not normally go. This area has, right from its inception, been known as \"Tai Ping Shan' or Mountain of Peace, after the Chinese name for the mountain the Europeans called Victoria Peak. When the British arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of 1841, the north shore of the island was substantially unoccupied, there being nothing more than scattered huts between the village of Sai Ying Pun in the west and Wong Nei Chung in the east. The principal site for the new city lay in the present Central District of Hong Kong, and the first areas built up by the Europeans (apart from the waterside godowns and houses which extended from the Central Market to Causeway Bay) lay around the present Central Magistracy but rapidly extended within the first three years of the Colony's existence east and west of that spot. Although a small number of Chinese obtained grants of land in this area it is true to say that the town was exclusively European (with, of course, a number of Parsee merchants from British India) from the line of the present Garden road as far as the present Aberdeen Street and up the hill to Hollywood Road. At the time of the Colony's inception there were never more than a few hundred Europeans contrasted with several thousand Chinese who came as tradesmen and artisans. Where, then, did the Chinese live?\n\nApart from the small town that Jardine, Matheson & Co. built out at East Point, there were three principal areas where the incoming Chinese settled at first. It is known that in the early days after June, 1841 a good many matshed huts sprang up on the hillside to the west of the area later to be the site of the main part of the town (and these were destroyed by the great typhoon in August, 1841) and one stretch of the waterfront was 'taken over'. As early as August 1841 the 'Lower Bazaar' was forming in the area of what later became Jervois Street and Bonham", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206003, "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-1970", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "78\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\n\"See their petition, reprinted in Friend of China, 4 May 1844, and also below, P. \n\n10 The contents of the petition, Pottinger's reply and the lot-holders' rejoinder were all published in the Friend of China, 4 May 1844. \n\n\"I Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842, (Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, English translation, 1963) p. 117, maintains that there had long been a settlement in the area of the present Taipingshan, The name is said to have originated from the pacification of the pirate Cheung Po-chai in 1810 who is known to have had a stronghold there. The mountain now known as Victoria Peak was renamed Taipingshan (the Mountain of Peace) and is so known in Chinese today. The Man Mo temple, standing today in Hollywood Road, is said by Lo to have been built by Cheung in the first decade of the 19th Century. There is considerable documentary evidence as to the existence of such a settlement in the early 1840s. \n\n12 Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon to Pottinger, C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 440. 13 Woosnam to Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon, 17 April 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 442. \n\n14 Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon to Bruce, 21 May 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 444. \n\n15 Aldrich to Bruce, 20 July 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 445. \n\n16 Notification dated 25 July 1844. It appeared in the Hong Kong Register on 30 July 1844 and the gist of it was contained in the Friend of China on 3 August 1844. Only in the former, official, version, does the information about the date of possession for the purchasers appear. \n\n17 10 August 1844. \n\n18 Friend of China, 2 October 1844. The site is still occupied by a branch of the present Western Market, \n\n19 Davis to Stanley, (no. 44 of 1844), 26 July 1844 and Stanley to Davis, 3 January 1845; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 438. Under-Secretary Stephen commented on the despatch that, though the expenditure would have to be referred to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, \"it must, however, ultimately be sanctioned \" \n\n20 Davis to Stanley, 29 October 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 157. The additional expenditure was sanctioned without further comment: Stanley to Davis 1 April 1845; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 161, \n\n21 Inland Lots Nos. 223A, 223B, 223C, 223E, 224, 224A, 224B, 224C, 224E, 225, 226, 226A, 229D, 231A, 233, 233A, 234, 234D, 238B, 239A, 239B, 240A, 241, 242A, 243, 243A, 244, 244B, 245A, 245B, 245C, 245D, 245E, 245F, 245G, 245H, 245I, 246A, 247B, 247C, 248A, 253, 253A, 272. \n\n22 Inland Lots Nos. 213, 224D, 228, 228B, 229, 231, 232, 232A, 232C, 233E, 234B, 234C, 234E, 238, 244A, 252B, 255B, 256B. \n\n23 Inland Lots Nos. 223, 246, 246B, 246C, 247, 247A, 247D, 248B, 248C, 248D, 249C, 252C, 253B, 254, 255D, 255E, 256. \n\n24 Inland Lots Nos. 214, 234A, 223D, 227, 235A, 241A, 246C, 246B, 253B. \n\n25 Inland Lots Nos. 238C, 239C, 240, 241B, 241C, 242B, 245, 250, 255A, 256A,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206268, "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-1971", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n79\n\nauthority and its geographical location made it a base for pirates. One of the stories about the origin of the name of the Tai Ping Shan District on Hong Kong Island is that a pirate named Cheung Po-chai used it as his headquarters. He finally went over to the authorities and left the island. In relief the local population named the mountain side on which he had dwelt \"Great Peace Mountain\". Since it was easy to slip away by boat if government officials came to check on inhabitants, the islands on the edge of San On District were popular haunts for outlaws and the criminal element.\n\nAt the time of the establishment of the British claim to the island, The Canton Register under date of 23 February, 1841, predicted that under British jurisdiction the island would become even more popular with these classes: \"Hongkong will be the resort and rendezvous of all the Chinese smugglers. Opium smoking shops and gambling-houses will soon spread; to those haunts will flock all the discontented and bad spirits of the empire.\" Future developments substantiated this forecast.\n\nFACTORS WHICH IMPEDED THE EMERGENCE OF RESPONSIBLE LEADERS IN THE CHINESE COMMUNITY.\n\nSamuel Fearon, the Census and Registration Officer, in his report dated 24 June 1845, describes the origin of the first settlers of Hong Kong.\n\nThe arrival of the British fleet in the harbour speedily attracted a considerable boat population, and the profits accruing from the supply of provisions and necessaries at once raised many from poverty and infamy to considerable wealth. The shelter and protection afforded by the presence of the fleet soon made our shores the resort of outlaws, opium smugglers, and indeed, of all persons who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the Chinese laws, and had the means of escaping hither. In course of time the demands for labour, for the public and other works, drew some thousands to the island, the majority of whom were Hakkas or gypsies; people whose habits, character and language mark them as a distinct race. Careless of the ties of home and of those moral obligations, the observance of which is deemed absolutely necessary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207171, "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-1974", "page_number": 242, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "236\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\non his blackwood cage-bed which is decorated by painted porcelain panels, and a glimpse into a corner of the monk's kitchen.\n\nThe third group of 35 photos are portraits of the monks who inhabited the monasteries of Hua Shan. Hedda Morrison must have been quite a personality to be appreciated and trusted by the monks in such a short time, that she could catch their faces in so many moods and showing so vividly their characters.\n\nAlthough the photos were taken in 1935 they were not published before 1975. In 1935 it was possible for anyone who would brave the steep cliffs and the narrow mountain paths to enjoy the beauty and the peace, to purify one's mind and unite with the Tao. There is not much chance of going there today, nor of finding monks enacting dances symbolizing the cosmic battle of nature (plates 43, 44). The photos are thus a priceless record of the faces of Hua Shan, their value enhanced by their poetic quality.\n\nThe texts are of minor importance but help us to understand the basic Chinese thinking that the individual must be in harmony with the universe.\n\nHong Kong, 1975.\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nSEALS OF CHINESE PAINTERS AND COLLECTORS OF THE MING AND CH'ING PERIODS. REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE SIZE AND DECIPHERED. REVISED EDITION WITH SUPPLEMENT. By Victoria Contag and Wang Chi-ch'ien (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1966. pp. Ixviii+726. Illustrations. Paperback issue 1974, HK$50.\n\nThe academic interest of collecting ancient seals in China was generally developed during the first 150 years of the Ch'ing period (1644-1911) and subsequently sub-divided into several offshoots: such as collecting ancient official seals, an interest related to the study of government organization; or collecting seals of the Han (204 B.C.-220 A.D.) and pre-Han period, connected with either an artistic interest in the archaic style of Chinese sealscript or a paleographic interest on etymology. Following these trends, however, the cited scholastic interests are replaced in the 20th century by a more specified academic practice; for instance, to collect seals of established artists and learned art collectors of previous periods. By so doing, the collected seals can serve students of Chinese art,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210155, "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-1984", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "105\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND BEFORE 1841\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHail, little isle! and Hong's fair haven, hail!\n\nFirst-fruits of China to the ocean-queen! New orient realms, new navies' embryo sail Glass'd in thy shifting horoscope are seen. May British virtue shine, in thee confest; And in her colony be Britain blest!'*\n\nThe cession of Hong Kong evoked different feelings in both China and Britain. In China, needless to say, there was scarcely rejoicing. The sixty-year-old Tao Kuang emperor, monarch of China since 1820, when asked to sanction the proposed Treaty of Peace that granted Hong Kong to Britain, spent the rest of the day and most of the night pacing up and down the corridor of his Palace, deep in anxious thought. Several times he was heard to mutter \"impossible\" and to sigh deeply. At last, at 3 a.m., he stamped his foot and proceeded to the audience chamber where he affixed the \"vermilion pencil\" to the draft. One of his subjects, the great Chinese statesman Tso Tsung-tang (1812-1885), then an unknown and rather unsuccessful scholar, wrote four poems in which he expressed grief and indignation when he heard that the British had taken over Hong Kong; and when he learned the final terms of the peace he was so overcome that he thought seriously of retiring to some lonely mountain retreat for the rest of his days.\n\n2\n\n3\n\nIn England the young Queen Victoria, twenty-two years old and married with a baby daughter wrote to her uncle, the king of the Belgians, \"Albert is so much amused at my having got the Island of Hong Kong and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess of Hong Kong in addition to Princess Royal\".2\n\nHer Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, was not amused. He received the news of the Chuenpi agreement (January 1841) between Captain Elliot, the British Plenipotentiary, and the Imperial Commissioner Kishen, with disappointment and disapproval.\n\n* See Plates 1-3", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211759, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "149\n\nThe villages or lineages which owned the nunneries chose the nuns, and reserved the right to dismiss them if they brought the nunnery into disrepute. It was the practice, when an abbess was appointed, for the leaders of the village group owning the nunnery to issue a public document detailing their choice, and reserving their future rights, to ensure that no dispute over who was the abbess could arise. The document issued in 1931 when Yip Yuet-kwan was appointed abbess at the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz survives, and is printed and translated as an Appendix to this article. It was, as a \"lucky\" document, written on red paper. It was drawn up in Man Uk Pin, and has the Man Uk Pin Chung clan signatures, and the Loi Tung signatures, added in the handwriting of the writer of the deed: it was then clearly taken round the other villages with interests in the nunnery for the other signatures to be added. The deed includes three signatures of Wo Hang villagers. That village had no share in the nunnery: these signatures probably represent a continuing interest in the nunnery by the last surviving students of Lee Pui-yuen.\n\nThis short note does no more than touch on the subject of the place of Buddhism in the nineteenth century New Territories. Much remains quite unclear. Where were the nuns ordained, for instance, and by whom? What was their tradition of worship, and how was it maintained? Did monks visit the nunneries on a regular or intermittent basis or not at all? Did the nuns have any direct secular influence, or was it only the members of the nunnery management committee who exercised the political influence of the nunnery? What was the religious influence of the nuns and their beliefs in the area? Village elders tend to consider that it was confined to those who professed a pious regard for the Buddha, but is this so?\n\nMany questions of this sort need study, but, incomplete as it is, this study of the last remaining pre-modern Buddhist establishment in the mainland New Territories, in this its last year of presiding in quiet over its remote mountain pass before new roads shatter its primeval peace, seemed worth pursuing.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212003, "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": 418, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "393\n\nforces were defeated. In 1841, Hong Kong Island was ceded to the British. According to the Census taken on 15th May, 1841, there were sixteen villages, with 7,450 people, on the island,\n\nAt that time, pirates still caused great disturbance along the coast. Those of outstanding importance were Shap Ngai Tsai+ and Tsui Ah-po. In the 30th year of Tao Kuang (1850), piracy along the coast was suppressed by the combined force of the British and the Ch'ing navies.7 With this, the island gained its name 'Tai Ping Shan'\n\nwhich means 'the Mountain of Peace'.\n\nDuring the early years of British rule on the island, Chek Chu was considered as a suitable place for the capital city of the Colony.5 However, because it was subject to severe tropical disease, the British built the capital city between the Central and Upper Bays (Chung Wan and Sheung Wan :). It was named Victoria after the name of the British Queen at the time of the early colonization.\n\nFrom then on, development on the island continued. With political changes in mainland China,8 more people flocked to Hong Kong, and they helped to make the city famous in the world.\n\nConclusion\n\nHong Kong, an isolated island at the mouth of the Pearl River, was only sparsely populated with fishermen. During the Ming Dynasty, because of the cultivation of incense trees, which gave great profit, population increased rapidly. However, the Coastal Evacuation at the 1st year of the K'ang Hsi Reign obliged the people to retreat to the mainland. Fields were left barren, and houses were pulled down.\n\nWhen the Edict of the Coastal Evacuation was abandoned, people were encouraged to return to their old dwellings. Villages were rebuilt, people from the neighbouring counties came and settled in the Hong Kong region, too.\n\nWith political changes in mainland China, more people came to Hong Kong. They helped to develop Hong Kong into a densely populated commercial city.\n\nANTHONY SIU Kwok-Kin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212779, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "73\n\nmany Miao, a number of whom wished to live in peace and had offered allegiance to the Imperial Force. Meanwhile the Miao rebels who were constructing stockades on the mountain sides above Chung-an prior to attempting to destroy the Imperial Force, were able to observe the C-in-C's headquarters together with Imperial reinforcements and supplies arrive from Ma-ping-bah.\n\nThe Szechuan Force's next objective was the city of Ch'ing-p'ing Hsien some 20 miles away, on the far side of the river. Despite having been in rebel hands for the previous eighteen years it was captured without too much difficulty though the Imperial Force had had a tough time for a day or so repelling Miao counter-attacks.\n\nThe C-in-C of the Szechuan Force sent a proposal to the C-in-C of the Hunan Force suggesting that the Szechuanese should advance on one side of the river Chung-an with the Hunan Force advancing up the other and, as the Hunanese had gunboats, they could also advance up the river itself.\n\nMeanwhile, and here Mesny's chronology is questionable, in early May 1869 the Ko-i Brigade advanced on Ch'ing-p'ing Hsien and prepared to storm the thirteen Miao stockades on the Tieh-chang Po heights above the town. Eventually after a fierce struggle and capture of the stockades, the Ko-i Brigade awaited the approach of the Hunan Force which should have been taking the next mountain range at the same time. Mid-afternoon on the day of the assault on the stockades, as the Hunanese had not appeared, the Ko-i Brigade withdrew to their camp in Chung-an, only to learn that the Hunan Force after initial successes had been badly defeated at Wu-ku Lung.\n\nThe Szechuan Force then remained comparatively inactive in Chung-an for the next seventeen months, until November 1870.\n\nMeanwhile, during the summer of 1869, Miao rebel forces had defeated the Kueichou provincial Force at Tu-yün Fu which left the Szechuan Force undefeated but out on a limb with both flanks exposed by the defeat of the Hunan Force on one side and the defeat of the Kueichou Force on the other. The emergence of a new Miao rebel chieftain threatened the Szechuan Force whilst at the same time the lines of communication between the Szechuan Force and the provincial capital at Kuei-yang and the rear base at Tsun-i were in danger of being cut.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213097, "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-1993", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "EASTERN PEACE:\n\nSHA TAU KOK MARKET IN 1925\n\nPH. HASE\n\n147\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe aim of this article is to describe the old Sha Tau Kok Market and its economic life as it was in 1925 before the market moved across the frontier into the New Territories. Before doing so, however, a sketch of the earlier history of the market, and the effects on it of the new frontier are given, with a brief description of the roads and ferries which lay at the heart of the market's prosperity in the early years of this century.\n\nSha Tau Kok before 1898\n\nMirs Bay is a forbidding place.** Its coast is almost uniformly mountainous. There is very little flat land: only patches here and there where one of the mountain streams reaches the sea. The mountains behind the coast are steep and high, reaching 3,000 feet in the Ng Tung Shan (芽嵘山) at the north-west corner of the Bay, immediately behind Sha Tau Kok. Many support patches of forest. Tigers, deer, wild boar, and other wild life were common here until recent times. The description of Hsin An County in the 1688 Gazetteer, 'The County is made up of many high mountains and lofty peaks, which rise up immediately from the shores of the deep sea,'2 is particularly true of the Mirs Bay area.\n\nDespite the forbidding nature of the Bay, however, the area attracted imperial attention from an early period. An imperial salt commission was active here from the tenth, or even the fifth century. The imperial pearl monopoly, too, was active in the bay, probably from the eighth century. During the Ming, however, imperial interest in the area waned. The pearl monopoly ended its local activities in 1374, as a consequence of the exhaustion of the beds, and growing concern in enlightened circles.\n\n* In this article, placenames within Hong Kong are transliterated as in the Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, (Hong Kong Government, 1969); placenames in China are transliterated into Cantonese, using the same transliteration standards as in the Gazetteer, with the characters for the placename, and a pinyin transliteration, on first occurrence.\n\n** See Map 1\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213276, "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-1994", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "78\n\nstar or a god shrine decorated with 'prayer flags' (). All these have the power to protect the occupants.\n\nAlso, just inside the front door of the flat, the electric light, symbolising the sun, is always switched on. Dark rooms oppress. Brightness stimulates chi and transforms yin to yang. A chandelier can distribute chi around a room. Conversely, a room cluttered with objects will obstruct the flow of chi.\n\nThe flat in this case study faces Victoria Peak, which towers over Tai Ping Shan (Hill of Great Peace) District. The flat also faces (approximately) 'compass south'. Fung shui south, namely 'Red-bird Aspect' (a Chinese constellation in the southern sky), is not always true south. An old Chinese proverb states:\n\nEven with 1,000 taels of gold, it is not easy to buy a house facing south.\n\nIt is believed by many that houses, temples, graves, and the Emperor on his throne should all face sunny south (Tatlow, 1993: 9). The south is pure, auspicious, and warm. In short, it is yang. With the south-westerly monsoon (actually, it mostly blows from the south-east, the direction that most typhoons come from) blowing in the summer, and the north-easterly monsoon in the winter, no one quarrels with this assumption. A flat facing south is thus warmer in winter and cooler in summer. This helps promote harmony among family members. Some Chinese believe people living on the south side of a building have better chi than those living on the north side. The latter are said to be less intelligent, less successful, and lack the vitality of their neighbours who live facing 'sunny south'. For a person who was born during the cold of winter, it is even more important for him or her to live in a building facing the warm spirits of the south (Tatlow, 1993: 9).\n\nBut, having said all that, it must be pointed out that in the Sha Tin district, in Hong Kong's New Territories, out of 60 villages or hamlets, only two or three face due south. Facing south is more important in the north, where bitterly cold winds blow, than in the sub-tropics, where other factors, such as the back-up of a mountain or copse, may have to be considered.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213278, "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-1994", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "There is a resident dragon living within Victoria Peak, as in all remarkable mountains, and it is believed to have spiritual influence over the people living below it. Energy is harnessed from cosmic forces and this affects mere mortals who inhabit the earth. Most people, the fung shui master who accompanied the author explained, need a strong 'back-up'. Such persons are likely to prefer working for the Government rather than engaging in the rough-and-tumble of private enterprise. Although it can be described as geomantic imagery, psychologically, in some ways, it is like sitting in an office chair with a high substantial back, as compared to a low-backed chair formed with slender slats. Likewise, living in a flat close to the Peak with its good topography, whose green slope is covered with a mattress of vegetation, helps provide much needed moral support.\n\nBut vital elements can be dispersed, and, with too much wind blowing and too much water flowing, cosmic breath can be excessively dissipated. Too little or 'neutral' fung shui can bring about stagnation. It is something like salt. Add too much and the food is inedible. Sprinkle too little and the meal is tasteless.\n\nAfter a heavy rain the 'eyes of Victoria Peak' (springs) open up and water courses (the arteries) flow. Slopes come alive. Water, the emblem of wealth and influence, cascades among rocks and down gullies worn over centuries. If this flow ceases, people living under the influence of the Peak will lose their fortunes. (The flat in this study also has the added advantage that it is close to water in the swimming pool). All these features provide a sound back-up in addition to being a scene on which 'one can feast one's eyes'. Here in the twilight the world can seem like a dream; the trees and bushes surge as if at anchor on the 'tide', the heave of the slope running from the Peak down to Realty Gardens comes alive.\n\nEarly in the 20th century, however, the Chinese were not at all pleased when Lugard Road and Harlech Road were constructed encircling the mountain at Victoria Gap level. People likened the effect to putting a halter around the neck of the 'Hill of Great Peace'. Nevertheless, there has not been a severe hill fire on the Peak, where erosion is limited by stands of verdant trees, bushes and undergrowth, for half a century. Figuratively, above the flat in this study the heavily overgrown, evergreen slope has 'vegetation as its hair and mist as its complexion'. The Peak is the home of a fair amount of wildlife.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213286, "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-1994", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "88\n\nIt is not unlike the West where it is not uncommon practice to construct beams with a slight camber and columns with an entasis. This overcomes the illusion of sagging or concavity respectively.\n\nIncidentally, the length of a briefcase manufactured in many Chinese communities is, very approximately, 43 centimetres (around 17 inches). This, it has been suggested (Walters, 1988: 83), is designed to conform to the auspicious 'fung shui foot'. The actual size of a briefcase could, of course, be coincidence. Or perhaps it depends on the size of files and sheets of paper which the bag has to hold? But whatever the reason for the dimension, a liberal helping of luck is always welcomed by businessmen of whatever nationality.\n\nReturning to the case study: the front view looking out from a building is important for enhancing wealth. If one gazes north out of the window of the master bedroom, one can view the harbour which forms the dragon's lair with all its benevolent power. Beyond are the Kowloon Foothills (including Lion Rock and Beacon Hill), Tai Mo Shan, Ma On Shan, and the Pat Shin Range. Well out of sight is the Kun Lun Shan mountain range of South China. The Hong Kong harbour can be compared to the much smaller fung shui ming tong (ponds) that one sees in front of Chinese villages.\n\nThe water in the front balances the fung shui that flows down the hill at the rear. Of course, it also serves a practical purpose. Not only does the village pond contain fish, but also the water is used for washing, irrigation, and, in emergency, for fire fighting. As previously mentioned, water, in Cantonese, symbolises money. It is good fung shui to have water in front of a building or a grave. But looking across at the ocean, you need to be able to see an island or a strip of land. If there is no 'destination', there is no 'purpose'. A sailor needs to know where he is heading. He must not be 'rudderless'. Looking out to sea or gazing at a water feature, however, gives not only Chinese, but also Westerners, a relaxed feeling.\n\nCertainly, the ambience of a home or office means something to everyone, Westerner or Chinese. And, sometimes, on entering a building, a Westerner's subconscious senses may lead him or her to exclaim, 'I like this place: I can relax here!' It is, however, not always easy to provide an explanation why one's sixth sense indicates a feeling of peace or, contrarily,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214851, "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-1999", "page_number": 266, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "233\n\nEssays and Notes (London, John Murray, 1865)\n\n[same] China, During the War and Since the Peace (London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 2 vols., 1852)\n\nCaptain Arthur Cunynghame, An Aide-de-Camp's Recollections of Service in China (London, 2 vols, 1844)\n\nK.S. Mackenzie, Narrative of the Second Campaign in China (London, 1842)\n\nGranville G. Loch, The Closing Events of the Campaign in China (London, 1843)\n\nAlexander Murray [Lt. In the 18th Regt. (Royal Irish)], Doings in China (London, 1843)\n\nLord Robert Jocelyn, Six Months with the Chinese Expedition (London, 1841)\n\n“A Field Officer\", The Last Year in China (London, 1843)\n\nArmine S.H. Mountain, Memoirs and Letters (London, 1857)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216063, "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": 362, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "296\n\nQufu, and Tai Shan, the Holy Mountain, where he saw thousands of poor pilgrims assembling. Mesny claimed that, as an adviser to the Governor of Shandong province, Ding Baozhen, he persuaded the Governor Ding to establish an arsenal near Jinan and build a railway from the Yellow River to the arsenal. Mesny also claimed to have persuaded him to dredge the Yellow River and to fortify Weihai Wei and Jiaozhou [both places later occupied and governed by Britain and Germany respectively as leased territories]. Mesny also claimed to have persuaded Ding to develop the mineral wealth of Shandong 'which he did though in a small way only'.\n\nRiots and mob violence\n\nZhenjiang suffered its share of mob violence and riots during its treaty port era. One of the major problems confronting westerners within China was the ever-present possibility of petty or even major violence against their persons and property. Often the disturbance to the peace, due to whatever cause, would be exacerbated by either western impetuosity and/or the indifference and inactivity of the local intendants [mandarins] and their staffs. There were also the perils of banditry, of pirates, of rebels or simply of thugs.\n\nOne afternoon in 1865 the astounding news was received in Hankou that three foreigners had been most barbarously hacked to pieces in Zhenjiang, and were not expected to live. One was Francis Pickernell, a friend of Mesny, and another was Charles Lewis of Boston, an American, a former ship and messmate of Mesny's, whilst the third was another friend and fellow Jerseyman, Filleule, all of whom died from their horrible wounds. The outrage caused a profound impression upon all foreigners in the river ports and John, Mesny's younger brother, who had not been at Hankou very long, felt very sad at the loss of three such friends. The outrage was said to be due to mistaken identity. A man named Stone, a master of a lorcha on the Yangzi, appears to have offended some Chinese military officials who had insulted his Chinese wife, and they had attempted to avenge themselves in this horrible manner.\n\nOne fine evening in about 1866, during the time the Nianfei [or Nianzi], the so-called Twisting Bandits, were in the neighbourhood of Hankou, Mesny relates the dreadful tale of four westerners who saw a favourable opportunity to join up with one of the roaming gangs of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]