[ { "id": 205355, "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-1967", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "110\n\nREV, MR. KRONE\n\nseveral times taking a cruise in his Tea-cup, the mountain was named after it “Poi-tou.' \n\n\"Poi-tou.\" Among the common people, however, the mountain is known by the name \"Shing-shan\", or holy mountain. The rough, barren, mountainous country I have described, has given birth to many superstitions and legends. Some of the huge stones on the hill sides are supposed to represent the tiger, the dragon, and the phoenix. The stones on some hills are said to have locomotive powers, and to pursue any adventurous traveller who attempts to mount their sides; other stones are said, when touched, to have the power of producing pains in the stomach, and others to emit white vapours from their surface. But these matters are of but little importance to us; of more interest are the caves which are found in some of the mountains. The most remarkable of these caves is near the market-place of U-shek-ngam, &, at the base of the mountain. For some centuries this cave has been used as a temple, and its aspect is so changed by the architecture and furniture which have been introduced, that one cannot get a good idea of its natural size and appearance.\n\nNatural History. Quadrumana, A number of small monkeys inhabit the island of Lintin; but this animal is not found in any other part of the district, though Chinese books relate that in former times they were found on 'Ng-tung, and most of the high mountains of the district.\n\nQuadrupeds, — The Chinese tiger, which seems to be a true tiger, is found about 'Ng-tung, and in the neighbourhood of most of the high mountains. It sometimes reaches a considerable size, weighing 200 catties, or 266lb. It feeds generally upon pigs and dogs, and the country people say it occasionally carries off a grass-cutter, but this seems doubtful. It is taken in traps, and is a great prize to its captor, as it will bring him in a sum of $150 to $200; for the bones are in great repute as a tonic medicine, and the flesh is eaten with the idea that the courage of the devourer is improved by the meal.\n\nMore than one species of deer, a fox, and a badger, have also been seen, and a large ant-eater -- the flesh of which is considered a delicacy, and is also supposed to possess medicinal powers. There are many snakes, and among them a large species of python, which sometimes grows to the length of twenty to twenty-four feet;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208149, "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-1977", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "172\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nAll remarkable mountains are supposed by the Chinese to have some spiritual influence over the affairs of mortals. The rough, barren, mountainous country I have described, has given birth to many superstitions and legends. Some of the huge stones on the hillsides are supposed to represent the tiger, the dragon, and the phoenix. The stones on some hills are said to have locomotive powers, and to pursue any adventurous traveller who attempts to mount their sides: other stones are said, when touched, to have the power of producing pains in the stomach and others to emit white vapours from their surface; of more interest are the caves which are found in some of the mountains (JHKBRAS 7(1967): 110).\n\n12. Krone writes of our own Castle Peak:\n\nThe mountain is reckoned one of the eight wonders of the Canton Province. Some of its large granite boulders are said by the priests to represent various mythological monsters; and several springs well up near the top, which are also esteemed supernatural wonders by the Chinese. The mountain is often visited by students and literati, and its wonders and beauties have been celebrated by them in many verses. The legends connected with the mountain seem not to be very clearly understood. (JHKBRAS 7(1967): 109).\n\n13. In the case of the more famous mountains of the Kwangtung province alone, mythology, legend and history have endowed them with fame over hundreds and even thousands of years. This is due in part to the constant visits of famous poets whose poems are so widely read over the generations that they alone are sufficient to make them sacred and immortal.* Yet our own lesser mountains seem to have had at least one such visitor. In the history of the T'ang family of Kam Tin we read of the famous Sung poet and painter PO Yu-sim, ‘Legends have attributed to him magical powers, and he is supposed to have appeared and disappeared in all the \n\nIn the introduction to his Anthology of Chinese Literature, Vol. 2 (New York, Grove Press Inc., 1972) Cyril Birch writes 'Scholar-officials were subject to a life of movement, and no one could travel very far without lighting on a place celebrated in the verse or prose of an earlier visitor. It might be a hilltop temple or a lakeside pavilion, a mountain pass or an ancient battlefield, a city gate or a particularly awesome cliff. (p. xxvi).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208486, "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": 210, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "194 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nare in rural areas. The major Sheng Gong cult temple in Taiwan is in Taiwan City, from which place his portable image is taken by sedan chair to other cult temples in the vicinity to renew the efficacy of the images there. Evidence of the presence of his cult has been seen, too, by the writer in Sarawak, Brunei and Indonesia, in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.\n\nSheng Gong is a comparatively little used short form for the local Fujian cult of Guang Ze Zun Wang (廣澤尊王) whose full personal name was Guo Zhong-fu (郭忠福) and who is equally well known as Guo Sheng Wang Gong (郭聖王公); hence the \"Sheng Gong.\" He has some half a dozen other titles but all with a very limited local use, apart from Bao An Zun Wang (保安尊王). This is occasionally included in the title of his temple (*\n\nas compared with the more popular title of the Phoenix Mountain Temple (鳳山寺). He should not be confused with another and entirely different Fujian local cult deity, Hui Ze Zun Wang(惠澤尊王)\n\nThe Saintly Guo's image is not difficult to recognise as it has certain characteristics which, whilst not individually unique, together identify him at a glance. He has a youthful, clean-shaven face; is seated dressed in robes over armour with his right foot raised parallel to the ground, pointing towards his left leg at knee height. His face is a dark red and he has protruding round eyes.\n\nThere are two images of the Saintly Guo in the one temple in North Point, Hong Kong. One is the main, large image swathed in embroidered robes donated by devotees, and the other is a small wooden carving on the main altar before and between Guo and his consort. Neither were easy to photograph, and therefore I have gone through some old photographs, the best of which is to be seen at illustration at the back of this volume.* In this photograph Guo is the main deity on the altar of a temple in Seremban, West Malaysia, flanked by two other images of another Fujian local cult, Fa Zhu Gong (法主公). Guo is prayed to for the usual blessings though in certain temples he is specifically looked upon as a healer of the sick, a protector of children and as a wealth god for businessmen. He is also the patron of those who bear the same surname as himself.\n\n* Plate 22.\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208487, "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": 211, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n195 \n\nGuo's cult centre was at Phoenix Mountain Monastery (4 +) near Nan An, a county capital some 15 miles inland from Chuan Zhou, the prefectural capital on the coast of Fujian province opposite Taiwan. Though Chuan Zhou lies only forty miles up the coast as the crow flies from Amoy, before the advent of buses travel between those two cities took several days. Immigrants to South-east Asia took the Saintly Guo with them, and wherever his temple is to be found you can be certain that the local populace includes a fair percentage of Nan An, Chuan Zhou and Amoy settlers. \n\nHe is usually seen on altars, as he is on the Hong Kong altar, sitting beside his consort and with his parents behind him and two unnamed male servants before him. \n\nHis festivals are celebrated on his birthday the 22nd of the second lunar month, and on the 22nd of the eighth lunar month, the day he was whisked away to Heaven and achieved Tao. \n\nGuo has two or three legends describing his origins and life. Some readers will have heard all or parts of these differing legends connected with various deities. The main one relates how Guo was born in Nan An district during the Sung Dynasty where he grew up with his poverty-stricken widowed mother. She worked as a maid for a rich but unpopular man who, as did all very rich heads of families, also employed his own feng shui specialist (a form of fortune adviser) who provided advice and plans for each day. The feng shui specialist foretold that the child Guo who worked as a goatherd, would have a great future, and would inherit everything from the rich man, as Guo's family had been pious, honest and good for three generations. The question posed by the rich man after he had heard this prognostication from the feng shui specialist was \"would Guo prefer to be a great man for one generation\", or \"ashes and incense forever?\" (In another version it was Emperor for one generation and Duke or King for many generations). The feng shui specialist secretly explained to Guo which was the best plot in the rich man's acres, the plot with the most auspicious characteristics. Here he was to bury the remains of his dead father. To obtain the plot Guo indentured himself to the rich man for a fixed period without the rich man realizing the auspicious nature of the site. After years of hard work Guo was able to bury his father in the plot, earning the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214356, "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": 214, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "179\n\nwas the decapitation of a Fox Fairy, possibly the wicked King's concubine, Dan Ji. In legend the spirit of a fox inhabits the body of a beautiful young woman who then bewitches and captivates men. When killed such woman immediately revert to their fox body origins. In the exhibit the young woman is standing and as the sword descends her head rolls off and rolls about on the floor before immediately reverting to its original position on her body. The boys were only too delighted to press the button to cause the head to roll again and again. Another was the birth of the Third Prince out of his caul. In legend he is born an apparent monster but after a swift slash with a sword the caul opens and the child emerges. Once more the boys played this for us several times.\n\nThis was possibly not the most ideal way to be introduced to the Fengshen Yanyi. A year or so earlier my daughter and I heard of the small temple dedicated to Zhou Gong, located at the foot of Phoenix Mountain in a rural area north of Qi Shan in Shaanxi province. We drove there to find in the main hall of a memorial temple, which had just been renovated, an image of Jiang Ziya flanked by two mythological deities, Na Zha and Yang Jian [see Note 8]. The first of the two, is a seven year old youth who caused havoc in Heaven and, better known as the Third Prince. He is nowadays the primary guardian of temple altars in Taiwan where his image stands on the altar table before the main altar. His is a traditional story tracing the age-old conflict between generations, and conflict of power and responsibility. Yang Jian has certain magic powers, which he used during the conflict but is also regarded as a potent deity who protects against demonic attack. He is often referred to as Er Lang, and he and his small dog are to be seen in a number of temples and in many he is regarded as the patron deity of dogs. The murals across the whole of the main hall's side walls depict episodes from the Fengshen Yanyi complete with Jiang Ziya first mobilising the deities of heaven to help the Duke Fa, and finally, the scene of the Investiture itself on the Terrace of the Investiture.\n\n10\n\nA number of temples in the central-west of China used to contain large gilded 'mountains', carved structures representing a mountain with crags and caves on which were superimposed a number of carved wooden gilded images of Daoist deities. The vast majority of these were also characters from the Fengshen Yanyi.11", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]