[
    {
        "id": 208719,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1979",
        "page_number": 176,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\nJULIAN F. Pas*\n\nThis is a review article partially intended as a book review of Philip Baity's Religion in a Chinese Town1 but also as a reopening of the discussion on Chinese religion, with emphasis on the popular religion. The setting is Taiwan, but the subject can hardly be contained to this small island and somehow reflects the problems of religion in China as a whole.\n\nIn recent years there has been a revival of interest in the study of Chinese religion. This monograph by P. C. Baity is a most welcome addition to the number of more serious works on the topic and shall have to be taken into account by all future researchers. Based on field work carried out in Northern Taiwan (Tamsui and Peit'ou) between 1968 and 1970, the present work is a reproduction of the author's doctoral dissertation. His viewpoint is primarily anthropological: besides summarizing his field work results, he also offers a new way of interpreting the paradoxical relationship between the three traditional religions of China and \"the array of folk religious beliefs and practices which are characteristic of the great majority of people in both villages and towns.” (p. vii).\n\nAlthough the author has done his research carefully and provides us with a mass of new information and new insights, I still have serious reservations about his overall thesis: a new interpretation of the relationship between the three classical religions and the folk religion. In this review I shall summarize and evaluate each chapter in turn, offering a more synthetic presentation of my views on the author's new interpretation.\n\nChapter 1, \"The Development of Temples in the Field Area\" (pp. 15-53), sketches the development of temples in the area under study. From the time of immigration to Taiwan on a more significant scale...\n\n* Julian Pas is Associate Professor, Department of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.\n\n1 Baity, Philip Chesley. Religion in a Chinese Town, (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, vol. 64, edited by Lou Tsu-K'uang). Taipei: The Orient Cultural Service, 1975. (ix-307 pp.) U.S. $7.00.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208720,
        "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": 177,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "150\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nficant scale (17th century) till the period of Japanese control (1895-1945), one can see three successive waves of temple-building, each characterized by its own cult-symbols or deities. This phenomenon is in fact a manifestation of the relationships between the groups of settlers: competition between various groups of immigrants is reflected in the competition of their gods.\n\nDuring the first period of temple-building, the choice of universalistic gods, worshipped by various groups of settlers, points to a spirit of cooperation between them. This was a time of external pressures necessitating cooperation in order to face common threats. Examples given are the Matsu temple in Kuantu (1661), the Shennung temple near Feit'ou (1669) and the Kuan-yin temple whose location is not identified (1660-70).\n\nDuring the second period of temple building, there was a shift in cult-symbols: the choice of more particularistic deities goes hand in hand with strife and competition, or even hostility between groups of settlers of different geographical origins. Examples of such gods with a narrower appeal are K'ai-chang sheng-wang, Ch'ing-shui tsu-shih, Ting-kuang Fo, and the so-called Wang-yeh gods.\n\nThe third period of temple-development was occasioned by new political changes in Taiwan: the threat of foreign invasion (Sino-French war in 1885), and the Japanese occupation (1895-1945). A new consciousness unites the Taiwan population against these foreign threats. While some of the old universalistic gods regain popularity, new cult-symbols arise, such as the Taipei city god cult, \"emerging as the center of a consciousness that transcends particularistic interests\" (p. 40). During the Japanese occupation, great changes take place in the pattern of religious activity. Cut off from its roots on the Chinese mainland, and pressured by the Japanese rulers to undergo a process of acculturation, Taiwan religion follows a development of its own. Local cults and practices are often discouraged (e.g., second burial, spirit medium cults) and Buddhism enjoys a privileged position. Out of twelve temples built in the Peit'ou-Tamsui area during 1895-1945, ten are Buddhist.\n\n(Perhaps the author should have added a fourth period of religious activity: after 1945. The picture has been changing considerably and still is nowadays, especially since the author's research took place about ten years ago. Religious freedom has been restored: but moreover, the influx of a new wave of mainland im-",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208738,
        "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": 195,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "168\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\n\"the worship of Kuqn-yin is not unknown in Matsu temples either” (p. 185). This is a gross understatement: as I already mentioned, many famous Matsu temples (and perhaps even most) have a secondary hall dedicated to Kuan-yin.\n\nTo summarize my comments on Chapter IV: although there is a great amount of correct factual materials, their interpretation is rather shaky: a critical analysis undermines the author's theories. His neglect of a sound historical and philosophical basis leads him to many fallacies and contradictions.\n\nChapter V, \"Ritual Services in Temples\" (pp. 189-237) comes as a surprise: the author has already dealt with these services in Chapter IV. After a while it becomes clear that he now considers them from the aspect of generating income. The main thesis of this chapter, as I see it, is to point out that the two types of temples (here reduced to community temples and \"bone temples\") have each a different center of gravity in their ritual life; community temples, deriving their main income from li-tou rituals are oriented toward life, whereas the \"bone temples\" are death-oriented: their main source of revenue are the rituals for the dead. I do not understand what the author intends to prove: there is no need to prove the obvious: community religion is naturally oriented towards protection of the living and also naturally (but secondarily) tends to protect itself from evil influences, such as for instance the threats posed by revengeful ghosts. That Buddhism emphasizes services for the dead is both historically conditioned and a simplification. A great number of Buddhist temples have found in these services a means of livelihood, but there is more to Buddhism than being a national undertaker.\n\nOn p. 191, the author examines the income of a group of temples in the Tamsui-Peit'ou area. I wonder why he uses the \"official classification\" system: it is incorrect and totally misleading. For example, the Ch'ing shui Lung-shan temples are not Buddhist; the three Matsu temples are not Taoist, and the Hsing Tien T'ang is not really a Confucian temple.\n\nIn a previous context I have pointed out the author's strange sense of causality: another example is given on p. 196:\n\n\"Because the gods in the temples have well defined areas of control over which they extend their protective influences, par.\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
        "rank": 0
    }
]