[ { "id": 214235, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "56\n\nYin in the other temple, the Pi-yun Ssu, depicts her with only two arms sitting cross-legged on a recumbent blue lion. Her assistants are an unnamed dark-faced elderly minister who appears to be South Asian, standing holding a tablet before his chest and dressed in a long blue robe. Her other attendant is the Red Youth, Hung Hai-eh, standing on her left hand with his hands held together before his chest, and dressed in a red robe over green trousers with a flowing scarf-like halo.\n\nTaking the three groups, the twenty Deva listed in Soothill, and the two groups in the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yun Ssu, we have twenty deities common to all three.\n\nThese are:\n\nBrahma, Indra, Pancika, Sarasvati, Laksmi, Skanda [Wei T'o], Prthivi, Hariti, Marici, Surya, Candra, Siva, Yamaraja, Bodhidhruma, Guyapati, Kinnara and the four T'ien-wang guardians Vaisravana, Dhrtarastra, Virudhaka and Virupaksa.\n\nIn the Ta Pei Ssu we also have five additional Deva not present in the Pi-yun Ssu, the Asura, Vimalakirti, Nanda Upananda and Mahoraga. A further two Deva images are seen only in the Pi-yun Ssu. These are Lei Kung and Sagara.\n\nTaking each of the deities in turn, we shall examine their background and in particular their Brahmanist [or Vedic] origins, their role in the Chinese pantheon and any ambiguities or contradictions we encounter. The important three Brahmanist deities are known in Sanskrit as the Trimurti:\n\nthe creator\n\nBrahma\n\nthe preserver\n\nVishnu\n\nthe destroyer\n\nSiva\n\nBrahma and Siva are indeed included in the two temples whilst Vishnu is not3. Though a major Hindu deity today Vishnu was not so during the Vedic era of the second millennium BC. His particular task", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214237, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "58\n\nseen in a comparatively modern temple near Taipei. A lengthy tunnel connects the main part of the Kuan Tu temple complex, to the North-west of Taipei, with the front entrance overlooking the Tamshui River. Some twenty-eight images stand in glass-fronted niches carved into the rock down the sides of the tunnel. These large individual images are of the Early Buddhas, the Ku Fo; the Buddhas of pre-history, the Buddhas who came before Sakyamuni, The Buddha. They have no altars and as there is an altar dedicated to the Thousand-arm and Thousand-Eye Kuan Yin P'u-sa at the river end of the tunnel they are not offered incense individually.\n\nSeveral aspects of the hagiography of the images in the cave/tunnel are intriguing. First of all, those holding weapons have them in their left hand. They are mostly dressed in gilded armour, and finally, their titles in Chinese, though Sinicised Sanskrit, have proved impossible to translate into the original Sanskrit and are therefore unidentified. Several of these unidentified deities have been depicted in Taiwanese religious literature but without any explanation apart from being listed under a general title of Supportive Incantations to Buddha, Ta Pei Chou Fo 大悲咒佛.\n\nThe following Vedic deities who have been noted in one or both of the temples in the Western Hills would seem not to be present in the cave/tunnel:\n\nMarici, Pancika, Hariti, Pippala [Bodhidruma], Laksmi, Prthivi, Surya, Candra, Vimalakirti, Nanda Upananda and Skanda/Veda.\n\nOf the scores of books, both the popular illustrated and monastic academic, produced over the last half century in Taiwan describing the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the hundreds of minor deities of Buddhism, one at least has listed what they have called The Celestial Guardians Division. This list includes not only the Four Diamond Kings, the T'ien Wang, [Vaisravana, Dhrtarastra, Virudhaka and Virupaksa] but nine of the Deva seen in the Western Hills. These are Indra [Sakra-devanam], Brahma [Maha-Brahman], Marici, Laksmi [Sri-maha-devi], Sarasvati, Yamaraja, Guhyapati, Skanda [Wei T'o] and Gandharva.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214245, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "66\n\nIn Malaysia where a number of Tamils also pray in certain Chinese folk religion temples, they refer to Tou-mu on her tortoise and pigs as the sister of the deity Maritci.\n\n5] Pancika known in Chinese as Pan-chih-chia\n\nPancika is the third of the Eight Great Yakshas, one of the Eight Generals of Vaisravana, husband of Hariti. An image of Pancika is present in both the Pi-yun Ssu and the Ta Pei Ssu. His image in the latter depicts him as a semi-demon, with dark skin, large round eyes and a narrow coronet with a sunburst facing forward. He is dressed in colourful robes over armour and has the swirling scarf round the back of his head, draped over his arms. He is making a 'v' sign horizontally with his right hand pointing to his left, using his fore- and middle-fingers. He has no other unique characteristic. In the Pi-yun Ssu, however, he could easily be taken for Wei T'o but without Wei T'o's diamond sword. His hands are grasped together before his chest; otherwise, he is much the same as in the Ta Pei Ssu.\n\n6] Hariti known in Chinese as Kuei-tzu Mu The Mother of Demons\n\nHariti is also known as the Mother of Loving Children, the children sometimes being known as the malevolent Yaksha [Yeh-sha]. She was the mother of one thousand demons, half of them living in Heaven and the rest on Earth. She is one of the standard group of Twenty Devas [Erh-shih T'ien] though she, too, is regarded by some as a Yaksha.\n\nOriginally her diet had consisted solely of human children and only after Sakyamuni, the Buddha, snatched one of her five hundred children and hid it, causing her great anguish, did she come to realise the suffering she was causing to humans by her diet. She became a vegetarian and a devout Buddhist. She eventually became a Buddhist deity whose images were to be seen in a few temples in northern China, in Shansi in particular, portraying her as a tall, slim beautiful woman whilst beside her stood one or more tiny demonic creatures, some of her offspring.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214268, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "89\n\nAppendix B\n\nTHE DEVA WITHIN THE BODHISATTVA HALL IN THE PI-YUN SSU PEKING'S WESTERN HILLS\n\nThe Chinese titles of these the Deva within the Bodhisattva Hall in the Pi-yun Ssu are as follows together with their standard Sanskrit name:\n\nFan T'ien\nBrahma\n[Mahabrahman]\n\nTi-shih\nIndra\n[Sakra Devaran]\n\nT'o-wen Tien-wang\nVaisravana\n(Guardian of the North)\n\nCh'ih-kuo T'ien-wang\nDhrtarastra\n(Guardian of the East)\n\nTseng-ch'ang T'ien-wang\nVirudhaka\n(Guardian of the South)\n\nKuang-mu T'ien-wang\nVirupaksa\n(Guardian of the West)\n\n) the Four\n) Guardians\n) of the\n) Entrance\n) to\n) Buddhist\n) Temples**\n\nMi-chi Chin-kang\nGuhyapati\nAnother Diamond King Guardian\n\nMo-hsi-shou-lo\nSiva\n[Mahesvara]\n\nPan-chih Ta-ching\nPancika\n\nPien-ts'ai T'ien\nSarasvati\n\nChi-hsiang T'ien-nü\nLaksmi\n\nWei-t'o\nSkanda or Viharapala\n\nChien-lao-ti-shen\nPrthivi\n\nP'u-t'i Shu-shen\nBodhidruma or Pippala\n\nKuei-tzu Mu\nHariti", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214270, "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": 128, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "91\n\nAppendix C\n\nTHE TWENTY-SEVEN SO-CALLED DEVA WHOSE IMAGES STAND IN THE TA PEI TIEN, ONE OF THE BA DA CHU [THE EIGHT GREAT SITES] IN PEKING'S WESTERN HILLS\n\nAsura\n\nCandra\n\nDhrtarastra\n\nGandharva\n\nGuhyapati raja\n\nHariti\n\nKinnara\n\nKsitigarbha\n\nLaksmi devi\n\nMaha Isvara\n\nMahabrahman - Brahma\n\nMarici\n\nNanda Upar Nanda\n\nPancika\n\nPippala", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214275, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "96\n\nAppendix E\n\nTHE LIST OF TWENTY DEVA\n\n十天\n\n+*\n\nIN SOOTHILL'S DICTIONARY OF CHINESE\n\nBUDDHIST TERMS\n\n \n Maha Brahman\n - Brahma\n \n \n Sakra devanam\n - Indra\n \n \n Vaisravana\n \n \n \n Dhrtarastra\n \n \n \n Virudhaka\n \n \n \n The Four Diamond Kings - Temple Guardians\n of the Four Directions\n \n \n Virupaksa\n \n \n \n Guhyapati\n \n \n \n Mahesvara\n \n \n \n Pancika\n \n \n \n Sarasvati\n \n \n \n Laksmi\n \n \n \n Skanda\n \n \n \n Prthivi\n \n \n \n Bodhidruma or Bodhivrksa\n \n \n \n Hariti\n \n \n \n Marici\n \n \n \n Surya\n \n \n \n Candra\n \n \n \n Sagara\n \n \n \n Yama-raja", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214276, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "97\n\nNOTES\n\nMacGowan J : Men and Manners of Modern China: T Fisher Unwin: London 1912\n\n2 Werner in his Dictionary of Chinese Mythology gives the Eight Classes of Dragon Kings as follows:\n\n3 Deva naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asuras, Garudas, Vinnaras, Mahonagas and Rakshas Soothill in his Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms lists the Eight Classes of Supernatural Beings as follows: Deva, Naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asura, Garuda, Kinnara and Mahoraga.\n\nMajor well known Brahmanist deities not included in the groups of Deva in the Western Hills of Peking include Hanuman, Parbati and Ganesh.\n\n* A Student Interpreter: Where Chineses Drive : English Student Life in Peking Wm Allen & Co : London: 1885\n\n6 As with a number of titles the romanised spelling varies depending upon the form used and, as examples, we have Siva and Shiva, Pancika and Panchika. He is the esoteric cult Deva, a masculine form of the wife of Siva. He is the tutelary god of Mongolian Lama Buddhism, and is also said to be an incarnation of Vairocana for the purpose of destroying demons.\n\n7 Werner, ETC: A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology:\n\n8\n\n9 x stands for an illegible character. Although images iconographically look like the standard Buddhist image of the Temple Guardian, Wei T'o, they have been identified as being one of three Vedic deities. Lessing in his Yung-Ho-Kung [Stockholm 1942] and the Taiwanese guide to The Guan Yin Hall of the Ta Pei Ssu both identify Wei T'o's origin as Skanda whilst Soothill claims that he is Viharapala.\n\n10 Occasionally Yüeh T'ian-wang, that is the 12th century hero Yüeh Fei, takes the place of Li Yüan-shuai.\n\n\"Chin-se are the Five Primary Colours permutated in various ways to represent various ideas; also, a five coloured emblematic cord, a Brahman sign worn on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]