[ { "id": 204240, "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": 8, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n5\n\n## PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nIt is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.\n\nThe original Branch which was founded in 1847 in the early days of the Colony and which included some of the most eminent oriental scholars of the time as well as the leaders of the Church, Government, the Armed Services and of the merchant houses, came to an abrupt end in 1859. After the lapse of a century a movement started in the Colony among those who had been members of branches of the Society elsewhere, in Malaya and in Shanghai where the Society had been compelled by force of circumstances to close down in 1950, to revive the Society in Hong Kong. As Sir Richard Winstedt, the Director of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, wrote:\n\n\"Circumstances had placed the port in a very favourable position for the study of one of the most important cultures of the world\"\n\nand Hong Kong had now the opportunity of filling a void and fulfilling its natural role as a centre for the diffusion of knowledge and culture of Asia and of China in particular.\n\nIt is barely over a year since a meeting was held attended by more than thirty interested members when a resolution was passed for the revival of this Branch. More than twice that number had pledged their support, including persons prominent in academic, professional, commercial and financial circles. The meeting adopted the constitution which had been approved by the parent Society and elected officers and a Council to hold office until this General Meeting. (The names of those elected have already been given in the brief history of the Branch at the beginning of this volume.)\n\nThe success of the founding meeting was crowned when His Excellency Sir Robert Black set the seal of his approbation by consenting to become the patron of the new Branch and when he presided over a meeting of the Society on January 23 of this year. It was the first time that a Governor of the Colony had presided at a meeting of the Hong Kong Branch since the days of Sir John Bowring, a hundred years ago. Thus he closed the gap of a century.\n\nWe are, I feel, justified in considering the result of the first year's work as very gratifying and the second year has already started in a way that is highly encouraging. Within a month of the founding meeting we had 72 members. At the end of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204312, "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": 80, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n76\n\n*\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nday of the second month, before noon, thirty li from the city, on the north-east and in the mist there was a general, who was ten feet tall, at the head of some three to five hundred soldiers all equipped with armour. Near twilight, the sound of the drums and the hubbub shook the mountains and earth within three hundred li and they stayed there for three days. The troops of the five states all retreated. The strings of their bows were gnawed through by golden rats and their other equipment was broken and became useless. Some of the enemy soldiers who were old and feeble could not escape, and were going to be killed by our men. Then there was in the air a loud voice which ordered, \"Release them and do not kill.\" We looked at the place and saw Vaisravana revealing himself over the tower of the north gate of the city with a bright light behind him. A portrait has been made and is attached to this report.\n\nVaisravana defends our boundaries and comes to the relief of our besieged garrisons to carry out the orders of the Buddha. His third son Nata (E) follows him holding up a pagoda with both hands. It is said by the great priest of the Tripitaka, Amogha, that on the first day of every month Vaisravana assembles his devas and genii; on the eleventh day his second son Tu Chien would say farewell to the father and go on a tour of inspection; on the fifteenth day the four heavenly kings would meet and on the twenty-first day Nata would receive or give back the pagoda to his father.\n\n+\n\nThe above quotation is translated from the Tantric Pi-sha-mên I-kuei (\"The Ceremonies in the Worship of the Vaisravana\") alleged to have been translated from the Sanskrit by Amogha himself. As Amogha's name appears also in the text it cannot be taken as an impartial translation.14 However, as Li Ching was such a famous general in the T'ang dynasty, who fought many victorious battles against the Turks, it was again very natural for the Chinese to identify him with one of the four newly-introduced Maharaja-devas (the four heavenly kings).\n\nThe legend of the pagoda held in the hand of Vaisravana was developed from Tantric texts into a very complicated and interesting story in the Fêng-shên Yen-i (Chs.12-14). I think\n\n14 No. 1249, P'i-sha-mên I-Kuei; No. 1247, Pei-fang P'i-sha-mên T'ien-wang Sui-chun Hu-fa I-kuei (#SNIU); No. 1248, Pei-fang P'i-sha-mên T'ien-wang Sui-chun Hu-fa Chên-yen (IBR), all translation of Amogha, in The Tripitaka in Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204330, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author\n\n94\n\nVol 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nmouth. After a fruitless argument with the Taoist master, No-cha wielded his weapon again and as Jan-têng raised his sleeve upwards an object was hurled into the air which emitted radiant beauty and when falling, enveloped No-cha in it and rendered him motionless. Jan-têng tapped it with his hand and flames broke out and made No-cha yield and acknowledge Li Ching as father and bow to him in humiliation. After the reconciliation had been made, Jan-têng Tao-jên instructed Li Ching to relinquish his official post and go into seclusion until the rise of King Wu, and gave to Li Ching the magic weapon which was a golden pagoda of elegant workmanship which would serve to safeguard No-cha from rebellion against his father and to consolidate the reconciliation. (Ch.14)\n\n5. HSI-YU-CHI (“MONKEY\") AND FENG-SHEN\n\nThe story of No-cha as it appears prominently in Chapters 12-14 of the Fêng-shên Yen-i, is for the most part, I believe, the creation of the author except for those minute points which I have discussed. After having consulted the Tantric texts which I have already quoted, we can see that the fantastic story of the pagoda, though with some hints of being inspired by the texts, is a wholly fabulous invention and only by skilful ingenuity can it be made so natural and so plausible. In Ch.83 of Wu Ch'êng-ên's (AR) Hsi-yu-chi (“Pilgrimage to the West\") which is no doubt an enlargement of the Hsi-yu-chi in the \"Four Travels\", there is a paragraph which seems to be either the origin of these Chapters (12-14) of the Fêng-shên Yen-i or a synopsis of these same chapters with variations. I am inclined to take the latter view and believe that the writing of Wu Ch'êng-ên's Hsi-yu-chi was later than this novel for these reasons:\n\n36\n\n35\n\n(a) As I have pointed out elsewhere when discussing the magic lasso, the name Ya-lung Tung (Dragon-subduing Cave) of the Ya-lung Shan (Dragon-subduing Mountain) which appears in Ch.34 of Wu Ch'êng-ên's Hsi-yu-chi was derived from Ch.52 of the Fêng-shên Yen-i (Fei-lung Tung AM or Flying-dragon Cave of the Chia-lung Shan or Dragon-pinching Mountain).\n\n(b) In Ch.52 of Wu's Hsi-yu-chi, the eighteen Arhats tried with the sand of golden pills to subdue the devil, which sank its feet to the depth of more than three feet. This sand is derived from the Red-sand Array () in Ch.49 of the Fêng-shên Yen-i.\n\n35 See Arthur Waley, Monkey, translation of chapters i-12, 13-5, 18-9, 22, 37-9, 44-6, 47-9, 98-100, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1943.\n\n30 In my thesis \"The Authorship of the Feng-shên Yen-i\", pp. 178-80.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204376, "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": 8, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "3\n\n1847 and 1859 contained nothing by Chinese scholars since even by 1859 there were no Chinese able to write in English. In contrast Volumes I and II of the present Journal contain articles by Mr. James J. Y. Liu, Mr. Liu Tsun-yan, Miss B. T. Chiu, and Dr. T. Y. Li. The first volume was most ably edited by Mr. James Liu who is now a lecturer at the University of Hawaii. Another Chinese scholar, Mr. Ma Meng, is a member of the publications committee responsible for the present volume of the Journal. While in the past missionaries were responsible for a large number of articles in the former Transactions, the two volumes of the Journal so far published contain no contributions from missionaries, though it should be noted that Professor F. S. Drake spent thirty-eight years in China as a missionary, and for more than twenty of these years he was on the staff of Cheeloo University where he taught (in Chinese) first as Associate Professor of Education and later of Church history. Finally, whereas the earlier volumes contained very little on Hong Kong itself, in the current volumes published by the Society several articles have dealt with various aspects of the Colony. So far the subject matter of these articles has included archaeology, natural history (birds and flowers) and local history. This comparison may serve to emphasize the great contrast between Hong Kong then and now, and the great changes and developments which have taken place within the last hundred years. The Editorial Committee hopes to develop the study of Hong Kong in future numbers of the Journal.\n\nIt would be invidious to claim that the contributions printed in the Journal of the present Society are more learned or more weighty than those printed in the earlier period. But if one is full of admiration for the pioneering work of these early scholars, one may also feel a sense of pride in the vigorous scholarship and spirit of enquiry fostered by the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong and exemplified in the first two volumes of the Society's Journal. We are particularly glad to welcome to the present volume a contribution written by a District Officer of the Colony about the New Territories. This is an encouraging sign and we hope to be able to print in future further articles and short notes about the life and customs of the people of Hong Kong.\n\nMr. Ma is Principal of the Language School in the Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205051, "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": 7, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "# PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\n1965\n\nLast year, 1965, the sixth since the regeneration of the Society, was markedly successful. The membership, which was 160 at the close of the first year, passed the 400 mark. It reached a total of 439 — 388 ordinary and 51 life members. In a community like Hongkong where so many come and go so frequently it is natural that we should lose a number of members each year. Our gains, however, have each year exceeded our losses, and the Society continues to grow. Last year we lost 61 members. Of these some resigned on leaving the Colony, but 37 failed to pay their subscriptions after the extended period of grace and ceased to be members. On the other hand we gained 89 new members of whom 3 were life members. One of the three new life members, I am very sad to relate, died last week — Colonel Dowbiggin who had become a life member, and a very keen one, at the age of 81. I regret also to record the death of another life member Dr. T. Y. Li — who in 1962 gave an address on Chinese Seals which was printed in the Journal for that year. He died in September last year shortly after he had been announced to deliver an address on \"Bamboo and its Relation to Chinese Culture\". We deeply feel the loss of these good friends and loyal supporters.\n\nThe lectures continued to be well attended and of a high standard. All except two were given by local members. The list comprises:\n\nJanuary 11\n\nMajor J. R. L. Caunter\n\n“Birds of Hong Kong”\n\nFebruary 15\n\nDr. S. G. Davis\n\n“Archaeological Discovery In and Around Hong Kong”\n\nMarch 1\n\nApril 12\n\nMr. H. D. R. Baker\n\n“The Five Great Clans of the New Territories”\n\n++\n\nDr. Patricia Marshall\n\n“Mammals of Hong Kong”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205933, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "and last Monday's lecture by Dr. Hu on Flowering Trees. The most popular activities each year are the annual symposia held under the Chairmanship of Dr. Topley and the occasional excursions, such as the tour of Old Shau Kei Wan organised last year by Mr. J. W. Hayes. These tours, as well as being studies in the history and social life of Hong Kong, are popular and prove of great service in bringing members together, giving them an opportunity of knowing each other and welding them into one Society of common interest and purpose. In accord with the objects of the parent society and the principles enunciated by Sir John Davis, we have tried to direct attention to practical projects and to natural history as well as to literary pursuits. Thus, a week-end symposium was organised in 1968 under Professor Dwyer of the University of Hong Kong on the subject of The Changing Face of Hong Kong, and recently another week-end symposium was organised by Professor Thrower, as mentioned above. A record of these studies is being edited and will in due course be published by the Society and so make a valuable contribution to the natural history of the Colony.\n\nThe Journal of the Society maintains its high academic standard and interest under the Editorship of Mr. J. W. Hayes. The tenth volume is in the press and will be out later this year. Vol. I, which had long been out of print, has now been reprinted and is now available to meet the increasing demand of members and of scholars and readers overseas for a complete set of the Society's publications, which are now becoming very valuable and much sought after by libraries and learned institutions as well as by individual readers all over the world.\n\nOur greatest problem is our library, and our great sorrow is that our resources do not enable us to rent a room to house our books, let alone to pay a librarian. The original society in Hong Kong had been granted by Sir George Bonham a room in the old Supreme Court to hold its meetings and to house its library. When the Society ran into difficulties in 1858, it handed over its valuable library of 400 books on trust to the Morrison Education Society, which also kept its library in the Old Court House, and in 1869 the Morrison Society presented its own library and that of the Royal Asiatic Society to the City Hall Library. I feel, therefore, that the Government is not without obligation to the Society in respect of the housing of its present library. In Shanghai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206330, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n141\n\nin the Colony. In 1948 they were taken over by the Medical and Health Department.\n\n58 G. W. Skinner, Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, New York, Yale University Press, 1958, p. 79.\n\n59 James Michie wrote: \"The means taken to conciliate the Chinese (in Hong Kong) must be deemed on the whole to have been successful. There was first police supervision, then official protection under a succession of qualified officers, then representation in the Colony Legislature and on the Commission of the Peace. The colonial executive has wisely left to the Chinese a large measure of a kind of self-government which is more effective than anything that could find its expression in votes of the Legislature. The administration of purely Chinese affairs by native committees, with a firm ruling hand over their proceedings, seems to fulfil every purpose of government.\" The Englishman in China during the Victorian Era, Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood, 1900, vol. 1, pp. 280-1.\n\n60 The Labour Advisory Board was established in 1937 and consisted of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Secretary and Cashier of His Majesty's Naval Yard, the Assistant Director of Supply and Transport of the China Command, a representative of the Public Works Department, the Manager of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, the manager of the Hong Kong Electric Company, and the manager of the Taikoo Dockyard. The members consisted entirely of representatives of large government departments and employers of labour. The board rarely functioned.\n\n61 The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1896 principally by Ho Kai and Wei Yuk. It was called at first the Chinese Merchants Bureau. In 1913, after a period of decline, a new building costing $40,000 was erected in Connaught Road. After 1913 the Chamber became one of the most influential bodies in Hong Kong, and many members of the District Watch Committee served at one time or another on its executive committee. The Chinese Club was founded in 1899 by Sir Robert Ho Tung and modelled on the European Hong Kong Club. A description of the Club's premises is to be found in Mrs. Archibald Little, The Land of the Blue Gown, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1902, p. 323: \"We were taken by the Committee into an upper room, where European comforts of curtains and cushioned arm-chairs were judiciously intermingled with Cantonese elegances of black carved wood and landscape marble.\" Mrs. Little was a member of the Anti-Footbinding League or Natural Feet Society.\n\n62 See G. William Skinner for a detailed analysis of Chinese associations. See especially ch. 6 of his Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand.\n\n63 For Overseas Chinese associations, see important works by the following: Maurice Freedman, \"Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth Century Singapore,\" Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1960, and Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore, London, H.M.S.O., 1957; G. W. Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1957, and Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1958; William E. Willmott, The Political Structure of the Chinese Community in Cambodia, London, The Athlone Press, 1970; and Edgar Wickberg, The Chinese in Philippine Life 1850-1898, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1965.\n\n64 See Wilfred Blythe, The Impact of Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya, London, Oxford University Press, 1969.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206427, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "218\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nIn answer to the review in the Journal of the previous book, one of the authors wrote \"I am impelled to emphasize that we wrote avowedly as dealers. Our objective has been achieved and the work has brought us a substantial volume of business\". Where desire for success prevails over truth, accuracy and scholarship, one gets only gallery patter. The present volume has all the bad points of its predecessor.\n\nPeabody Museum\n\nSalem, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1971.\n\nF. B. LOTHROP\n\nJ\n\nFAMILY AND KINSHIP IN CHINESE SOCIETY, edited by Maurice Freedman. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1970., pp. XV, 269.\n\nStudents of Chinese society are not able at present to undertake field studies in the Chinese homeland, the People's Republic of China. The last major social investigation was carried out in the vicinity of Canton by Professor C.K. Yang over twenty years ago. Despite this formidable obstacle - the fact that China is closed to direct sociological observation - the study of Chinese domestic institutions by Western and other scholars has quickened rather than slackened. A small group of dedicated social scientists have been active since 1949 in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other areas of Overseas Chinese settlement. Paradoxically, since 1949 much data have been collected, some important hypotheses formulated, and some parts of theory tested. As this volume makes clear, we have learned much about Chinese society since 1949 - at least about the older China now being transformed by political, social and economic developments.\n\nIt is natural, I feel, that the editor of this volume should be Professor Maurice Freedman, whose two major studies of this area - Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (1958) and Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (1966) — have deeply influenced many other researchers in the same field. Professor Freedman, as the bibliographies appended to his works amply\n\n* A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition and The Chinese Family in the Communist Revolution (both M.LT., 1959),", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208321, "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-1978", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "MILITARY EDUCATION IN CHINA, 1842-1895\n\n29\n\nthe Yalu River in mid-September, 1894, China and Japan each had twelve ships, but the encounter was no contest. China's problem was less the quality of her ships than the lack of an effective command structure, poor communications, cowardice (on the part of Liu Pu-ch'an), poor training, and ammunition shortages.\" Chinese firing was comparatively effective, especially in the early stages of the fighting, but too often the shells were faulty. At Wei-hai-wei, in early 1895, the situation was even more grim. By this time, the war had been lost, and Chinese naval forces were completely demoralized, even mutinous.92\n\nChina's use of foreign talent could not remedy her military deficiencies. Unlike the Japanese, who succeeded in eliminating reliance on foreigners entirely by the outbreak of the war, the Chinese were forced to continue using them on both land and sea. A surprising number served, in spite of the existence of various neutrality ordinances and foreign enlistment acts.93 At one point, the Ch'ing government even contemplated establishing an army of 100,000 Chinese troops under 2,000 foreign officers—an effort, in the words of the North-China Herald to \"re-create an Ever-Victorious Army” under Constantin von Hanneken.94 Predictably, however, the plan met heavy opposition from Ch'ing officials, including Li Hung-chang, and it was never implemented.95\n\nIn all, the Sino-Japanese War was a disaster for China. Yet there were optimistic voices to be heard even in the midst of China's despair. The journalist, Wang T'ao—as shocked as anyone by Japan's sudden victory—undoubtedly spoke for many reform-minded Chinese in expressing the hope that defeat by the Japanese would finally shake China out of her lethargy. National humiliation was a prelude, he felt, to meaningful change,\n\nThe alliance between Chinese nationalism and agitation for reform, was evident in many sectors of Chinese society during the first few years following the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The writings of newly-politicized Chinese intellectuals, as well as the publications of the burgeoning Chinese periodical press, reflected these related concerns.97 The immediate post-war era also witnessed the proliferation of Chinese reform associations and study groups. Even remote Szechwan was touched by the reform spirit. In late 1896, a group of gentry members issued a manifesto which called for the abolition of footbinding and argued with tortured but telling logic: \"The present is no time of peace. Foreign women have natural feet,\n\nPage 30 is missing, actual page number in original text is \"45\" and \"46\"\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208740, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "170\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nto the hungry gods\" (p. 235). This statement is contradicted by the custom of ending great festivals with a huge banquet offered to the ghosts: at the end of a chiao festival there always is this p’u-tu ritual. I have seen it performed as well at the conclusion of a temple consecration, of an installation of new deity statues, etc. I feel that the author over-states his case in order to strengthen his thesis.\n\nIn Chapter VI: \"The Genesis of Gods” (pp. 238-269), the author formulates a new theory of how the gods, or cult-symbols, are created by the community. Since the gods, per definition, are symbols of community cohesion, they must appeal to the community as a whole. Ancestors are naturally excluded as candidates, and so the author decides that \"gods evolved from hungry ghosts\" (p. 239). Such a theory comes as a shock: it goes against the grain of most religious traditions, in which candidates for sainthood and deification are chosen from among the highest models of virtue, reflecting ideals of human perfection to be imitated by all men. Here, however, gods are born on the \"garbage piles” of society; they are among the outcasts who have no known family, no known descendants. That this theory is at first alarming does not necessarily undermine its validity. However, before it can be accepted, we must carefully scrutinize it.\n\nFirst of all, it is clear that the author only talks about the deities of the community religion. A great number of \"supernatural” beings are therefore not included: for example: the higher gods of Taoism, the Buddhist Holy Ones; their genesis is quite different. Also excluded are the gods of the \"state religion\" of ancient times, still worshipped nowadays: Heaven, Earth, the nature gods like the spirits of thunder, of rain, of mountains and rivers, etc. These are rather personifications of natural phenomena. The author also excludes the Taoist immortals, although in legend and literature they are often close to the people. It seems therefore that only one group remains to develop into cult symbols, the hungry ghosts. The fact of their evil origins is later on camouflaged.\n\nA priori I do not see any serious reason to reject this theory even if it appears to be shocking. However, I want to see solid arguments brought forward. And I find that the author does not provide them, except for one case (see later). When the author takes up the Matsu cult as an example he undermines his own thesis when he says that it is possible that her cult \"began as the cult...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212595, "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-1991", "page_number": 149, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "129\n\nWhen humans experience helplessness it is natural to turn to unseen powers for strength, hope and guidance. Typical Hong Kong funeral ritual paraphernalia, with many taboos, incorporate the trinity of the three Chinese religions: Buddhism (usually adulterated), Taoism and Confucianism - if indeed the last can be termed a religion. Buddhism is peaceful and gentle; Christianity is more aggressive; and Confucianism seldom considers the afterlife being more concerned with earthly subjects like filial piety. Folk religion and animism, with joss sticks placed at the feet of special rocks and trees in which spirits dwell, often play parts.\n\nInterrelationships of the above and hedging are important. If one doctrine does not succeed in 'brightening a person's soul another may.' If you live on a precipitous mountain and pass both a Catholic and a Buddhist shrine every day while driving down a steep, dangerous road you cannot afford not to make the sign of the cross and bow; just as many people carry lucky charms to prevent mishap.\n\nThe wish of the average Englishman is for a simple interment, unlike most Chinese whose funerary rites are more complicated. Mourners usually require advice from priests, staff at funeral homes and temples, fortune tellers and others. Reasons for doing something are sometimes obscure and mourners, after asking 'why', are often told, 'It's always done like this.' Most want to believe they are doing the right thing for their dead. This was obviously so in this case study.\n\nAlthough most Chinese funerals include supernatural beliefs and practices these are often related to basic values embracing rank, achievement and security. These are important to most people both in this world and the next. A funeral is also an expensive social event which can be noisy. In this study, a very average funeral in 1988 cost $50,000 and there were seven ceremonies, some short, some long. In addition, the family had to gather together to perform other duties. These were time-consuming.\n\nNevertheless such ritual has therapeutic effects for mourners. Burning a paper car and various 'necessities', together with other rituals, are indicators of serious intent.48 The family in surcoats of sacking symbolise relinquishing everything. Food, money, colour, symbolism and homonyms (Sz is the homophone for both 'four' and 'death') play prominent parts, not only in society as a whole but also at funerals.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215596, "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-2001", "page_number": 373, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "323\n\nhusband of Mrs. Archibald Little who was a traveller and writer in her own right and who in 1895 founded the Heavenly Foot Society for the suppression of the cruel practice of binding and spoiling the natural feet of Chinese girls.\n\nThe story now goes back thirteen years. In 1885 Little planned to set up a company to build a couple of steamers after his own design to sail up to Chongqing to open up the vast and fertile province of Sichuan. This led him first to spend six months in one of the ordinary boats of the river learning all he could about the rapids, swirls, currents, depth and other details of the upper waters of the river.\n\nHe went back to London where he soon formed a company, and an experimental steamer of five hundred tons burden was put on the stocks in Glasgow from designs drawn by Mr. J McGregor, the chairman of the company, conforming to the designs furnished by Archibald Little. The steamer was completed during the summer of 1887, and shipped in sections to Shanghai, where she was put together by one of the local ship-builders and launched towards the end of 1887.\n\nShe was christened the Kuling, and was about five hundred tons burden, one hundred and seventy-five feet long and twenty-eight broad. She was eight feet deep, perfectly flat-bottomed and drew only two feet four inches of water empty, a mere trifle over four feet with a full cargo, and was especially adapted for navigating rocky and dangerous rapids. The boilers and engines were amidships. She was driven by two sets of compound engines, with a stroke of five feet, and worked with a pressure of one hundred and sixty pounds of steam. She had two stern wheels and a balanced rudder astern of the wheels.\n\nThe Kuling reached Yichang at the end of February 1889 and all was ready for the passage through the Gorges, when Mr Gregory, the British consul, backed by the Chinese authorities, refused to allow the steamer to proceed, as no permit had been received from either the Zongli Yamen [Chinese Department of Foreign Affairs], or Sir John Walsham, the British Minister at Peking.\n\nThe rest of the story was so characteristic of Chinese procrastination and delay. To put it simply and bluntly, the British Minister refused to coerce the Chinese in any way, and so the Kuling was eventually sold and the scheme abandoned.\n\nThe matter of the Upper Yangzi navigation remained in abeyance until the Chinese defeat by the Japanese in the war of 1895 when the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]