[ { "id": 207792, "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-1976", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA\n\n165\n\nboats as far as Bhamo, and then partly by land and partly by water into China. Other exports were amber, ivory, precious stones, betel nuts, and edible birds' nests; while in return Burma got raw and wrought silk, velvet, gold leaf, preserves, and chinaware. Similar reports came from other sources. By 1850, the possibility of extending trade from Yunnan into Szechwan was envisaged, and the glowing prospect of an extensive market for British goods in West China became an obsession among many British officials and merchants in Burma and India.\n\nCaptain McLeod's mission of 1836 is the first official British attempt to find an overland route to China. McLeod went from Moulmein, the port in the newly acquired province of Tenasserim, via Kungtang to Kenghang, a Shan state on the border of China. Here he failed to get permission to enter Yunnan, being told that if the British wanted to trade with China they should go to Canton, and that if he still persisted in wanting to enter Yunnan he would require official permission from Peking. McLeod had to admit defeat, and turned back.\n\nAfter this came a succession of other ventures from Assam and Burma, all—for one reason or another—failures. These culminated in the famous and ill-fated Dual Mission of 1874-75, which led to the Margary Affair.* This was a joint attempt to explore West China from the Burmese and Chinese sides. Previous to this the only important attempts to find a route between Burma and China from the eastern side had been Captain Blakiston's in 1861 and T. T. Cooper's in 1868.\n\nThe Royal Navy's expedition of 1861 which went up the Yangtze to establish the first treaty ports on the great river—Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow—continued 153 miles beyond Hankow to Yochow. Here they transferred Blakiston's party to junks in which they continued for another 1050 miles to Pingshan, nearly 1800 miles from the sea and 400 miles above Chungking. It had been intended to follow the Yangtze to its source in Tibet, and then cross the Himalayas into India. Because of unsettled political conditions at Pingshan and beyond, however, they were forced to turn back; but they had obtained valuable information about the Middle and Upper Yangtze.\n\nSee pp. 169-170 below.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208356, "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": 80, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "64\n\nGÖRAN AIJMER\n\nA chronicler of Yuanjiang2 states that people used cut paper 'to hang money on the mountain'. This was called 'to drink wine on the grave and hang up.' The chronicler goes on to say:\n\nIf it is graves of newly buried, then there is affection. On Earth God Day and earlier, one suspends and sweeps. The proverb says: For the new graves one does not pass she. For old graves one suspends when thirty nights have passed.14 A record of local customs in Yiyang tells us that at Qingming to sweep the graves were repaired. This was called sao mu 'the graves'. Paper money was suspended on the graves. This was called gua shan 'to hang up on the mountain'.15 From Baling we learn that, in the Qingming solar period, women hung up cut paper strips on the graves. It was called gua fen 'to hang on the grave'. Paper money was burnt and wine poured out. It is said that this practice gave rise to much mournful thought 哀思.16\n\nIn Anxiang it was the practice that 'scholars' and 'commoners' swept their grave mounds: Officials arrange money, prepare cattle, and arrange in order wine. Thereby are made ji sacrifices.17\n\nIn Hanzhou the graves were swept and there was much offering.18 In Jingshan the graves were visited, there were ji offerings, sweeping, and suspension of paper money on them.19 Similarly, in Wuchang, the old graves were swept and paper money hung up on them. Here people encircled the grave wailing loudly.20\n\nIn Chongyang everyone made ji offerings at the graves. People used 'top branches' with paper money on top of the graves.21 In Yingshan it was the practice to construct offering tables in front of the graves. This was called 'to welcome (the ancestors?) to return'. This celebration was continued up to the end of the moon.22\n\nI said above that Qingming is a period of about fifteen days. When our sources mention visits to the graves we may assume that these were spread out over this duration. It may well be that the visits were initiated on the Qingming day, the first day of the solar period: I will soon provide some evidence for the importance of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208363, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n71\n\nAll this is guess work, but as guess work goes it seems to account for the given data in a systematic way. As I see it, the only way to challenge this interpretation (given, of course, that my understanding of the source material is correct) is for those who doubt to produce an alternative way of thinking on this matter, and to provide a new and different explanation which could account better for the data discussed here—and any additional data—in a more interesting way.\n\nFinally, the top branches planted on the graves could be interpreted also as a kind of beacon. Biao means not only 'top branch' but also 'beacon' or 'mark'; such an implication does not necessarily contradict our earlier hypothesis. But if the bamboo arrangements led the way to the graves by marking them and making them conspicuous, we must ask who benefitted from the presence of such signs? Here is another guess. It may be that the yang ancestors are led to the graves of their bones, but I cannot substantiate this at all. It may be mentioned here as a possible interpretation, a vague hypothesis which could be tested at some future stage.\n\n6. Rice Wine\n\nAnother prominent feature of the visit to the graves was the offering of food and wine. The worshippers ate and drank also. The general term used for offerings is ji, or in some notes si. In some cases libations are indicated by the use of the words dian and jiao. Rice wine was an important sacrificial gift used in many contexts. Apart from general wine drinking on various festive occasions, and medical use of wine when it was drunk mixed with herbs and spices on particular days, wine was used in sacrifices. So for instance, on the 24th day of the twelfth moon in offerings to the spirits of the kitchen and the fields in Baling,55 and Jiangling;56 on New Year Eve to the ancestors in Jingshan; On the Lantern Festival in the first moon it formed part of the ji offerings in Jiangling;58 and in the offerings to spirits and ancestors on the Buddhist festival of Zhongyuan, the 15th of the seventh moon, wine was part of the sacrificial gifts, as in Wuling,59 Hangzhou,60 Chongyang,61 and Yingshan.62 Wine was used also in sacrifices to gods like 'General Goan' (Goan Di) in his temple in Mianyang on the 13th day of the fifth moon,63 and to ‘Shui Goan'64 on his birthday on the 15th day of the tenth moon in Zhongxiang;64 Two words", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208364, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "GÖRAN AIJMER\n\nfor wine are used, jiu H, and it's 'sweet wine'. It is hard to tell from the data whether different kinds of wine were used on different occasions. More generally, we may remember that wine is manufactured from rice; in fact, it is rice transmuted into liquid form.\n\n7. Food\n\nFood was sacrificed and eaten on the graves after they had been swept. Again, the lack of detailed data makes it difficult to interpret the presenting of food as a ritual act. Some notes could be observed here. In Yiyang people ate 'stalks and grass', which, being unusual food, probably signified 'non-rice' or 'non-food'.65 We are told that in Anxiang officials prepared 'cattle'. The term may have a more narrow sense of 'beef'. Meat seems to have been paired with rice wine in many sacrifices throughout the area: on the Lantern Festival (in the first moon) in Jiangling, on Earth God Day in Wuling and Zhongxiang,7 on the Dragon Boat Festival (in the fifth moon) in the Yozhou prefecture (around Baling), and Yunmeng #,68 on Zhongyuan (in the seventh moon) in Wuling,69 and on Churia, New Year Eve, in Jiangling, Hanzhou, Jingshan, Chongyang, and Yingshan.70\n\nAgain, in the temple dedicated to General Goan in Mienyang, mentioned above, the offerings on the 13th day of the fifth moon consisted of 'cattle' meat and sweet wine. A chronicler mentions that in Tauyuan, at mourning, there was an 'excess' of slaughtering.71\n\nIf we assume that the wide category of sheng-cattle-indicates that cows, oxen and buffalos, and such bovine animals were of primary interest as slaughtering animals on Qingming (although pigs may have been included in the category), it may be interesting to associate that circumstance not only with the excessive slaughtering which was part of the mourning practices in Tauyuan, but also with the display of a clay oxen at the Lichum 'Establishment of Spring' festival around the 5th of February in the solar calendar.72 In Chongyang the 5th day of the fifth moon was called niu ri ✈ a Ox Day. Then the buffalos or cows were fed, and it was not allowed to whip the beasts or swear at them on this day.73 These practices seem all to have a close link with agriculture.74\n\nThe fact that cattle was modelled in clay seems to indicate that the nature of cattle was earthly. The breaking of the clay oxen may,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208366, "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": 90, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "74\n\nGÖRAN AIJMER\n\nconnection between the rice growth cycle, the agricultural activities and the grave ancestors, a connection suggested already by the information from Wuchang and Chongyang, quoted above, that grave worship was conducted on She ri.\n\n9. Willow Twigs.\n\nIn Wuling people inserted willow twigs over their doors and also carried willow twigs in their hair. There was a term for this custom: neng pixie 'ability to punish evil'. The same convention was observed in other places in the Dongting area, like Taoyuan,80 Hanzhou,81 Jingshan,82 Chongyang, where it was called 'nun lo'83 'tender willow', and Yingshan.84 It seems as if the twigs were protective and their function was to guard the house, or doorways, and the individuals living behind them. It is hard to say against what willow provided protection. It is interesting, though, to note that willow twigs were used in Jiangling on the full moon day of the first moon when, again, they were inserted above the doors.85\n\n10. Strolling in the Wilderness and Treading on the Green.\n\nSeveral chroniclers report that Qingming was an occasion for strolls and wanderings away from built-up areas. These excursions may well be seen in connection with the visits to the graves, the latter being situated outside the villages. Such ramblings in the countryside are recorded from the prefecture Changde (around Wuling),86 Hanzhou,87 Chongyang,88 and Wuchang.89 From the latter two places it is also reported that men and women 'tread on the green', ta qing, in connection with their strolls in the 'wilderness'. The latter term seems to be a name for strolling and eating al fresco. Earlier I have interpreted this practice as a feature which stresses periphery as contrasted with centre, the latter being emphasized, for instance, at Duanwu. It is interesting to note that the chronicler of Changde says that there were no such customs in that area as ta qing or qui qian 'swinging'. Swinging is reported as part of the Lantern Festival in Zhongxiang,91 Swings are referred to in a Liang dynasty calendar, Jingchu suishi ji,92 in connection with the Cold Food festival. Ta qing was part of the Flower Dawn celebrations in Zhongxiang,93 in this area generally observed on the second full moon of the lunar year. It is probable that a number of notions were expressed in such\n\n90\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208373, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n81\n\n39 See Maurice Freedman: Geomancy. Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for 1968. London\n\n1.15.\n\n40 Aijmer, A Structural Approach...p. 95,\n\n41 GJTSJC VI:1223 *** 126.\n\n42 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 33. London: Athlone Press, 1966.\n\n1* For instance, Lewis Hodous provides an account in his Folkways in China, London: Arthur Probstain, 1929, p. 92. Hodous draws mainly on his long Fujian experience.\n\n44 Aijmer, A Structural Approach\n\np.96.\n\n45 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 77f.\n\n46 GJTSJC VI:1193, &$ 26.\n\n47 GJTSJC II:51, 6a. A Similar arrangement occurred in Youxian, GJTSJC II:51, 19b.\n\n48 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, pp. 78f.\n\n49 There were probably several kinds of paper money in use. The yellow kind referred to above was in all likelihood the 'gold variety. As our sources do not carry information in detail on this subject we must leave such further implications aside.\n\n50 I have notes from Gongan (GJTSJC VI:1193, * 36), Hanzhou (VI:1130, 風俗长 Ib), Zhongxiang (VI:1142: #6# 1b, 2b), Jingshan (VI:1142, & 3a) Chongyang (VI:1120 † 4a, 5a), and Tongshan (VI:1120, Afb† 6a).\n\n51 I have found notes from Baling (GJTSJC VI: 1223, K## 2b, ennt juan 11:6a), Wuchang (GJTSJC VI:1120, ✩ 26), Chongyang (VI:1120, £#* 46), Tongshan (VI:1120, ### 6b) and Yingshan (VI:1166, BB‡ 4b).\n\n52 Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society. pp. 140f.\n\n53 Other names for this festival used in the region are Yulan dahui, 王蘭大會 Yulan penhui 盂蘭盆會,and Duwang dahui 度亡大會\n\nAll are Buddhist terms.\n\n54 I have, at present, no information from the Dongting area on the handling of paper money at funerals, for instance.\n\n55 GJTSJC VI:1223, # 2b.\n\n56 GJTSJC VI:1193, £&$ 26.\n\n57 GJTSJC VI:1142, R&* 3a.\n\n58 GJTSJC VI:1193, # 2a.\n\n59 GJTSJC VI:1259, 6 2a.\n\n60 GJTSJC VI:1130, &‡ 2a.\n\n61 GJTSJC VI:1120, K✩‡ 4b.\n\n62 GJTSJC VI:1166, ### 46.\n\n63 GJTSJC VI:1142, ‡ 4a.\n\n64 GJTSJC VI:1142, &* 2ab.\n\n65 mm, juan 2:96.\n\n66 GJTSJC VI:1193, R 2a.\n\n67 GJTSJC VI:1259, ✩ lb; 1142, * 2a.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208374, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "82\n\n68 GJTSJC II:51, 19b.\n\nGÖRAN AUMER\n\n69 GJTSJC VI:1259, RG 2a.\n\n70 GJTSJC VI:1193, 風俗考 26; 1130, 風俗考 2a; 1142, 風俗考 38; 1120, 風俗考 5a; 1166, 風俗考 5a.\n\n71 GJTSJC VI: 1259, + 2ab. For two interesting discussions on foodstuffs as part of offering rituals, and in terms of cooked and raw food, see Emily M. Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973, pp. 167-170, and Arthur P. Wolf: Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors, pp. 131-182 in Arthur P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1974.\n\n72 Chroniclers report this custom from Hanzhou (GJTSJC VI:1130, 1b), Jingshan (VI:1142, 3a), Zhongxiang (VI:1142, 6b), Chongyang (VI:1120, 4a), and Yingshan (VI:1166, 3b, 4a).\n\n73 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4a.\n\n74 A local tradition from Daye (GJTSJC VI: ... 17a) tells of a persecuted jiao dragon that turned itself into an ox island in a river; this was henceforth called Bull Island. A similar transmutation is mentioned in a legend referring to the Yuan River; see E. T. C. Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh Ltd. 1932, p. 116f.\n\n75 In Tongshan, there was an idea of a pair of Earth Gods, She Gong and She Mu. I have no other evidence for ideas of a female counterpart in the Dongting area; GJTSJC VI:1120, 6b.\n\n76 GJTSJC VI:1193, 2a. This may be compared to the use of a mixture of rice and red beans, sometimes contained in a pot, on other ritual occasions; see Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 76.\n\n77 GJTSJC VI:1259, 1b.\n\n78 GJTSJC VI:1142, 2a.\n\n79 GJTSJC VI:1259, 1b.\n\n80 #Ma juan 3: 8a. 風俗考\n\n81 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4b.\n\n82 GJTSJC VI:1142, 4b.\n\n83 GJTSJC VI:1120, 3a.\n\n## 4b.\n\n84 GJTSJC VI:1166, 4b. 風俗考\n\n85 GJTSJC VI:1193, 2a. 荆楚歲時記 Seasons in Jing and Chu. Auth. Tsung Lin\n\n86, juan 13:4a.\n\n87 GJTSJC VI:1130, 1b. 風俗考\n\n88 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4b.\n\n89 GJTSJC VI:1120, 2b.\n\n90 Aijmer, A Structural Approach... p. 95.\n\n91 GJTSJC VI:1142, 1b, 2b.\n\n92 荊楚歲時記 7b. 風俗考 16, 2b. M16\n\n93 GJTSJC VI:1142, 2a.\n\n94 loc. cit.\n\n95 GJTSJC VI:1166, 5b. Records of the ... Ed: MELAR‡ n.d.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212698, "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-1992", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT.\n\nARTICLES:\n\n1 Keith Stevens A Jersey Adventurer in China: Gun Runner, Customs Officer, and Business Entrepreneur and General in the Chinese Imperial Army, 1842-1919 ... Vii\n\nP.H. Munro-Faure - Behind the Front Lines in Burma, The Marches of the Salween Border, 1942-1944... 113\n\nWei Peh Ti A Peek Backwards into the Jewish Community of Shanghai. 149\n\nJames Hayes - Old Chinese Graves from the Tsuen Wan District of Hong Kong's New Territories ... 164\n\nDavid Faure An Exploratory Study of Pingshan, a Hakka Village Cluster to the East of Shenzhen ... 180\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nDavid Faure - China Resurgence of Folk Religion in Western ... 193\n\nDenis Bray - Growing up in China: Lecture to the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, 14 May, 1993 ... 199\n\nP.H. Hase Bandits in the Siu Lek Yuen Yeuk ... 214\n\nAlvin P. Cohen First Meeting of the Warring States Working Group, University of Massachusetts ... 216\n\nBOOK REVIEWS ... 218", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212886, "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-1992", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n180\n\nVol. 32 (1992)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nAN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF PINGSHAN,\n\nA HAKKA VILLAGE CLUSTER TO THE EAST OF SHENZHEN\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215009, "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-2000", "page_number": 105, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "61\n\nChinese Labour Corps. A native of Pudsey, he died on 16th February 1919. And also the grave of Lt AE Player of the Labour Corps, attached to the Chinese Labour Corps. He died on 10th July 1919.\n\nWe also saw the graves of twenty-three seamen from the SS British Sovereign, amongst which were those of Ah Ling and Doe Gai [no Chinese characters on their gravestones] who died on 7th September 1918. There is also a grave of a member of the Japanese Merchant Marine Service, 1st Class Engineer Yioshto [or Yiosto as it appears on the gravestone], who died on 31st December 1918. His name is not listed nor his grave location shown in the cemetery register which, I believe, is only used for British and Commonwealth personnel. It is listed on the CWGC Foreign National register database. The CWGC has written to the Japanese Embassy, London, to ascertain the correct spelling of his name and await their reply.\n\nIn our wanderings in this cemetery, my wife and I also saw the grave of a young civilian who was buried alongside those who had fought and died in the War. He was Joseph Leng, who drowned at Audricq on 2 October 1917 whilst visiting his father, Sapper J Leng. He was only seven years old and on his gravestone his parents have had carved the epitaph 'Suffer little children to come to me.'\n\nAlso in this cemetery are five graves containing the remains of men of the CLC who were 'shot at dawn'. Their gravestones carried the usual epitaphs and were in every way indistinguishable from other CLC gravestones. Wang Enrong (Wang En Jung in Wade-Giles romanisation) [10299] 29th Company CLC was executed on 26 June 1918, together with Yang Jingshan (Yang Ching Shan in Wade-Giles romanisation) [10272] also of the 29th Company CLC, from Liaocheng county of Shandong province, for murdering a French woman at her estaminet [coffee house] during a robbery. The former's gravestone only carries his number and the inscription ‘Faithful unto Death' whilst that of the latter bears the inscription ‘A Noble Duty Bravely Done.'\n\nSt\n\nZhao Gongyi [Chao Hsing I (Chao Kung-i) in Wade-Giles romanisation] [46090], 161 Company CLC, from Jinan county in Shandong, having murdered a fellow-countryman, possibly as a result of gambling, was executed on 9th August 1918 and Hui Yihe [Hui I He (Hui I-ho) in Wade-Giles romanisation] [42476], 112th Company CLC,\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215347, "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": 124, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "72\n\nuniquely Hainanese. In practice of the seventeen only one was Hainanese and that bore the odd title. It was Li San Shengmu, literally the Saintly Mother Li the third. This is obviously Li Shan, misheard with the 'san' assumed to be the 'Third'.\n\nThe most widespread claim is that Lishan Shengmu or Lishan Laomu24 was a ferocious lady general of the Tang dynasty known for her love of fighting, and is now a popular character in Chaozhou plays. However, to many Chinese she is better known by the maiden name of Fan Li-shan as merely the wife and mother of two famous generals, Xue. Several stories told about her contain in addition to common factors, others involving unconnected genuine historical heroes, some from entirely different eras. The composite story of the best known legends about Miss Fan25 begins with her warrior father giving her a 'sword to execute Immortals' and a 'whip to beat the spirits' and after she had completed her military training and prior to her going off to help General Xue Dingshan26 to pacify the west. In one version she joined up with him, served and fought alongside winning his trust and favour. In another Xue met and fought her on the battlefield. She defeated him but, because he was a handsome general, and with a bit of persuasion, she married him. A photocopied broadsheet distributed by the temple keeper in a small immigrant settlement shrine above Kowloon claimed that the Lishan cult had been popular in central China, and that her story, described in the 'Conquest of the West,' ostensibly written by Xue Dingshan himself, explained that she had been the wife of Xue, later transformed into an Immortal as a reward for her miracles and achievements.\n\nThere is also a Lishan Laomu who is also a definitive goddess appearing in the great novel The Journey to the West, the story of the fantastic journey made by Xuanzang, together with Sun, the Monkey, Sha the monk and Pigsy. In part of the story it appears likely that Lishan was Monkey's elder sister, a courtesy title rather than a blood relationship. She, together with her three daughters, all Bodhisattvas, named Truth, Love and Pity, transformed themselves into beautiful women in order to tempt the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang and his entourage of Monkey, Pigsy and Sha with their beauty. She changed herself into a widow and proposed to Xuanzang who rejected her. She and her daughters teased Pigsy, who after many adventures found that they were merely figments of his imagination. This goddess would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215355, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "80\n\n21 This is present day Maoming in western Guangdong province, not too far from the Liaozhou peninsula leading down to Hainan.\n\n22 A city in south eastern Guangdong province, half way between the Liaozhou peninsula and the Pearl River.\n\n23 Note that there are two different deities, Longwei Shenggong worshipped by the Hainanese and Longwei Shengwang worshipped by the Chaozhou people. The latter is, to all intents and purposes, a local Earth God.\n\n24\n\n25 Laomu, Old Mother [or Elderly Matron], is a title often mentioned in popular stories. In Xue Dingshan's Campaign to the West Laomu was Fan Lihua's teacher who, in eight years, taught her the art of moving mountains and raising armies from a handful of beans.\n\nAn elderly Chaozhou man in a Kowloon temple confided that Lishan [‘Fan Lihua' he called her] is a fictional character to support the story of the two generals Xue, and that much of their legends have little or no historical basis.\n\n26 Xue Dingshan's father, Xue Rengui, also a general, was an early Tang hero who not only also led an expedition to the west, he also served in the Korean campaign of Tang Tai Cong. Xue Dingshan, otherwise known as Xue Gang, is claimed to have saved the life of his emperor and is now a Fukienese cult deity, the face of whose image is characterised by extraordinary and colourful decorations.\n\n27 William Mesny relates that recumbent iron images of oxen were believed to be a protection from floods when these images were placed along the banks of river courses and lakes likely to overflow. He noticed several along the banks of the Grand Canal in 1874 and was told that they had been placed there by Liu Bowen Mesny's Chinese Miscellany: Vol. IV: Shanghai: 11 February 1905.\n\n28 As in Taipan, the Senior Boss.\n\n29 The shrine and its images disappeared, doubtless into a high rise flat, though it could have gone the way of so many minor cults and disappeared due, perhaps, to the aged temple keeper's demise.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]