[ { "id": 211651, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "41\n\nto cure a member of the family before being returned to the temple altar with an offering. This service is available in Wang Yeh temples where the main deity is a Pestilence Wang Yeh and the row of small portable images of Pestilence Wang Yeh on the altar table before the main altar is available for devotees. The individual images can be any one of those available from the altar itself or from the altar table. Which image should be taken is determined by the Pestilence Wang Yeh who reveals his decision through his spirit block response. In a temple on a Singapore housing estate, all five images had been borrowed and the altar was bare apart from the outlines of the bases of the Wang Yeh images in the dust. In a very few homes, an image of the Pestilence Wang Yeh is maintained permanently on the family shrine, having been carved specially for the family at their request.\n\nImages of the Pestilence Wang Yeh's consort have been seen on altars in several temples in Taiwan. In Lukang, in the Shun Yi temple, the main deity, Shun Fu Wang Yeh (**E**) is accompanied by five others, T'ien, Ting, Chu, Ma, and Chin (BT✯54), and his consort Shun Fu Wang Yeh Fujen (KƒÆÂ). All six Wang Yeh are regarded by the temple keeper as Pestilence Wang Yeh, and although the main deity's consort is offered incense by devotees, she is not approached for benefits. Sometimes the consort is simply a small image of a matron and merely known as Fu Jen Ma (AA) without a surname.\n\nIn a number of South-East Asian Chinese rural temples, both corrugated iron structures and shophouses, one or three (and never two unless one has been borrowed by a devotee) Pestilence Wang Yeh images have been noted interspersed between other unconnected deities, often in addition to the main deity, whoever that might be, in no particular order and in no way connected. This again is private enterprise on the part of the temple keeper, often a poor peasant who has taken advantage of a gap in the local requirement for protective deities and who started up his own small temple from which he obtains sufficient petty cash to keep the wolf from the door.\n\nGenerally speaking, the deployment of Wang Yeh temples has followed the progress of the spread of Fukien people within Taiwan and South-East Asia. The most densely deployed areas in Taiwan are the Pescadores and Tainan, and to a lesser extent in the Chia I, Yunlin, and Kaohsiung coastal areas. The origins of these temples are related to the traditional practice of 'Fang Wang Chuan', the setting forth of the Wang Yeh Spirit", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214319, "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": 177, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "141\n\nbeen sacked in the memory of man. When the Taiping rebels came to the walls of Nanchang in the middle of the 19th century, they saw sitting on it the figure of a huge man swinging his feet in the moat. He was apparently selling sandals three feet in length to the beleaguered citizens. That was enough for the attackers who turned and fled. It was the figure of Xu Xianzhen. This, however, was not true of the Wan Shou Gong at Xi Shan which, according to temple records obtained by Professor Liang Hongsheng. These are quite clear that since the Furen Palace was first constructed there in 1743, it was destroyed by fire first in 1820 and again in 1856, after it had been rebuilt in 1848, by the Taiping rebels. It was again repaired in 1871 only to be destroyed once more nearly a century later by Red Guards,\n\nSomewhat surprisingly Xu has been seen on altars in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, possibly carried there by immigrants from Fujian province, a province immediately to the south of Jiangxi. His is, however, a minor cult deity.\n\nAn image of Xu, one of the minor healers in a group of five, on the main altar in a temple in Hsinchu, in northern Taiwan, portrays him as a standard Daoist immortal with a sword and small Daoist crown. The gilded image is swathed in a golden robe and all that can be seen are his face and bald head, his black beard and one hand holding the sword aloft. He and the others are collectively revered by devotees as celestial doctors who reveal herbal prescriptions for devotees through a spirit medium. The senior celestial doctor in the group of five is Yang Zhenren, better known perhaps as Yang Zhensong; the other three junior doctors being Xuan Zhenren, Wu Zhenren and Sun Zhenren. The old temple keeper who had founded the temple and is now dead, came over to Taiwan in the 1930s bringing the cults with him from Nanping in Fujian province, some 200 miles due south of Nanchang.\n\nA temple in Singapore, opened in 1971, has Cuji Zhenjun\n\nas the main deity on its main altar. The temple keeper was in no doubt that this deity was Xu Sun, a famous Song dynasty doctor, who was portrayed as a black-bearded, seated Daoist, dressed in colourful robes and a scholar's hat, but without any unique characteristics. His image is flanked by two aides who have not been noted anywhere else:\n\nCishui Lingguan Dadi\n\n刺水靈官大帝", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215338, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "63\n\nofficial, sitting in full armour, with a black beard and a light brown face. He was attended by generals Gan and Meng.\n\nThe Marquis, the Kind and Merciful, Virtuous and Brave Commander-in-Chief who Pacified the Mountains and Rivers [*]\n\n玉封耀武威德仁慈綏鎮河山義勇都督候王\n\nGeneral Gan\", Commander of the Left [#]\n\n左指揮甘大將\n\nGeneral Meng, Commander of the Right [#]\n\n右指揮蒙大將\n\nDoor Guardian in charge of 1,000 Buildings, of the Left [#]\n\n左千門官\n\nHousehold Guardian in charge of 100 Households, of the Right [#]\n\n右百戶官\n\nCelestial and Terrestrial Soldiers, Yin [Darkness] Soldiers and Yang [Light] Soldiers [#]\n\n天兵,地兵,陰兵,陽兵\n\n[*] Names on lists of deities in Hainanese temples usually claimed to be one or other of the images on one of the altars but whose details, corroboration and in most cases not seen elsewhere, include:\n\nShengzhi Taizi Prince of the Holy Decree [Singapore]\n\nXiannu er niang The Second Maiden of the Immortal Women [Seletar: Singapore]\n\nZhengxun Furen The Upright and Auspicious Matron [Singapore]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215339, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "64\n\n5: Shared with other Han Ethnic Groups\n\n[though regarded by Hainanese as Unique Hainanese Deities]\n\na] Madame Xian, Xian Tai Furen ★★↑ is a deity whose image has only been noted on two altars in Hainanese folk religion temples, within fifteen miles of each other, in southern Malaysia, in Rengam and Kluang. The image is of a standard matron, and in both temples it stands alongside images of Tian Hou, the patron deity of seafarers, and Shuiwei Shengmu.\n\nMadame Xian was the wife of Feng Bao, an official of the Liang dynasty who became prefect of Gaoliang and who died at the age of 44 in AD 558. Before her marriage, she had been schooled at home by an extraordinary teacher who not only taught her secret practices but also military strategy and tactics. Despite having trained and commanded troops in battle, she also frequently showed her alter ego trying to persuade her relatives, and in particular her brother, to be kind and considerate. Her brother was markedly different from her. He used the skills she had imparted to him to attack neighbouring areas, causing great misery and hardship, and though it took time, she eventually managed to persuade him to stop causing trouble to others. The peace that then reigned brought many over to her side, and her exploits came to the notice of Feng Rong, the prefect of Gangzhou, who arranged for her to marry his son, Feng Bao.\n\nAlthough Feng Bao, as prefect of Gaoliang, was fair and strict, his orders were still not being carried out, and Madame Xian, now his wife of some years, first warned her husband's subordinates and then drafted orders which stated that anyone who committed a crime, even blood relations of officials, would be punished severely. From then on, laws were applied with great fairness, and criminals were deterred.\n\nA few days later, Li did rebel and sent an army under General Dou Shi to take over power in the capital. Madame Xian pondered that if her husband joined battle against Dou Shi, there would be bitter fighting and many casualties. She realized that Dou Shi was a poor general who was locked in combat with the emperor's forces and would be unable to assist Li Qianshi in Gaozhou; therefore, she and her husband should devise a way to defeat Li by strategy. She told her husband that he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216028, "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": 327, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "261\n\nwere keen to claim association with the first rulers of the Zhou, of the 12th century BC, and also with the infamous first ruler of China, Qin Shih Huangdi who, it was claimed, had used the area of Dantu as a penal settlement.\n\nDuring dynastic times Zhenjiang was a walled administrative seat, an important prefecture, and one of twelve prefectural cities in Jiangsu province, in a major region known as Jiangnan [South of the River]. Zhenjiang means 'Guard-post of the River', a title given in 1113 during the Song dynasty, and its location, guarding the junction of the Grand Canal and the Yangzi, is such that it was a fortified post at the point where the southern arm of the Grand Canal crosses the Great River to join the northern arm, as well as being the first and ideal position to control the upstream passage of the Yangzi. The British political aim, when their soldiers captured the city in 1842, was to cut off the vital supply route, the Grand Canal, from southern China to the north in order to exert maximum pressure upon the Imperial government.\n\nAlthough Zhenjiang lays claim to a number of incidents, destruction by nature and by human hand, visits by royalty, legendary happenings we shall restrain ourselves to note but a few.\n\nSun Ce**, who was assassinated in 200 AD, conquered a wide territory down to the mouth of the Great River, to which region he gave the title Jiangdong [East of the River]. His brother, Sun Quan of Wu# succeeded to his throne, and it is to him that Zhenjiang is said to owe its existence as a city. Moreover, it was here that he came to court the beauty, Pan Furen, whose father Sun Quan had condemned to death. He pursued her until he was able to make her his wife. Although Nanjing was Sun's main city Zhenjiang had reminders of his fortifications still visible during the early years of the Republic. The foundations of the fortifications that he built round his Governor's Residence could still be traced in a line of crumbling masonry that capped the ridge of heights connecting the then existing Zhenjiang city wall northward to the monastery, Ganlu Si. Also, inside the present city stood a high solitary gateway, with a building on it known as the Old Drum Tower. The masonry foundations of the gate were alleged to date from the time of Sun Quan, and some graves outside the North gate were also said to be those of some members of his line.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]