[ { "id": 205203, "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-1966", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n153\n\nThe work contains a thoughtful and perspective-giving introduction, in which the author first explains in detail the purpose of the guide and the reasons for its particular scope (which justification appears both logical and reasonable). He then discusses nine groups of related records, both ecclesiastical and public, located in the British Isles that should also be considered by historians studying the impact of Protestantism in China. He explains the form of the guide itself and its arrangement of information in helpful detail. He also gives a useful brief account of the missionary societies themselves, of their development and administration, of how their home bases and field offices were organized and of the various functions of each. A word is given too on the different types of work, not all evangelical, done by the missionaries in China. Finally, the author gives his own sober estimate of the research value of the records.\n\nThe intimate involvement of the missionary in the political, social and economic life of China in the course of pursuing his different functions enhanced considerably the potential value of his reports to later researchers. The usually well-trained and observant missionary often packed his reports and letters with detailed information on a wide range of topics observed in diverse parts of China. These archives stand, therefore, as a rich repository of information which invites and deserves intensive study by scholars in several disciplines. One reason these materials have been under-utilized thus far is because scholars have been largely unaware of their respective locations, quantities and accessibility.\n\nMr. Marchant greatly rectifies this situation by providing the much needed guide.\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, Jr.\n\nTHE CANTONESE SPEAKER'S DICTIONARY. Roy T. COWLES, Hong Kong University Press, 1965. 1339 pages, plus Romanization Key to Characters, Character Key to Romanizations, and Radical Index. HK$80.\n\nThis book is doubtless the most ambitious single item to appear in Cantonese lexicography. It represents many years of work on the part of the compiler plus the efforts of many others whom he credits for supplying help. With over 13,000 entries,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212284, "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-1990", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "203\n\nA concise image of Dr. Legge's sense of missionary duty was given in a lecture presented in Hong Kong a few months before he retired from his service. Having gained enough Chinese to write numerous tracts and church-related materials in the language, including some in colloquial Cantonese, Dr. Legge had not avoided his call to know the Chinese residents of Hong Kong. He recalls having travelled from house to house \"conversing with them on all subjects, and trying to get them to converse with me on one subject.\"\n\nIn the light of these various evidences of Dr. Legge's spiritual motivations in Hong Kong and Oxford, as missionary and scholar, it seems most appropriate not to overemphasize his contributions to either the one or the other. Helen Legge's biography focuses on her father as a missionary; Lindsay Ride's autobiographical note places most attention on James Legge as the interpreter of the Chinese Classics for Westerners. In fact, Legge was both and more, and is described more adequately in W. E. Soothill's dedication: \"a great scholar and a devoted missionary.\"\n\nV. Legge's Non-Conformist Values\n\nThe values of Non-Conformist Protestantism had an immensely formative power in the Scotland of the 18th and 19th centuries, becoming a more and more influential cultural force in British society, especially in the second half of the 19th century. In the middle of the 19th century, the Non-Conformists were to a large extent united with the Free Church movement, a conjoining of religious values which carried many political overtones in the 1840s. Primarily they arose from the lower middle classes, forming in the 19th century an informed fellowship of dissenters who rejected governmental control of church worship (whether Anglican or Presbyterian), focusing on active and informed belief rather than credal precision, instituted the Sunday School movement for poor children who might not otherwise be schooled, and were one of the major stimuli for the expansive Protestant missionary movement of the nineteenth century. James Legge was a second-generation Non-Conformist, representing the acme of their cultural influence as an evangelical intellectual and globally conscious religious leader.\n\nNon-Conformists were reformists and, at their best, worked against the racialism and capitalistic militarism so often encountered in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212287, "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-1990", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "206\n\narose from a background related to his education in Scottish Commonsense philosophy.\n\nFrom the angle of Legge's philosophical methodology, it needs to be noted that Legge had a tendency to gauge philosophical profundity in terms of the insight a system gave to the inner workings of the mind. These kinds of questions were not extensively addressed in the Confucian Classics, although questions regarding the heart-mind were central in later Confucian metaphysical discourses. Legge was basically not interested in these systematic philosophies, most of which he felt were inarticulate and wrong. Empirical observations of human behaviour and categories inherited from an Aristotelian concept of the mind were assumed as the basic truths from which more precise models could be constructed. Legge discovered no resources of this sort in the Confucian traditions, and so could self-consciously advocate the need for Chinese students to readdress their traditional system with important questions which revealed systematic inadequacies.\n\nThough this kind of critical stance may seem too harsh and even an unjustified imposition of alien values on the Chinese ways of thinking, not long after Legge died Chinese scholars did begin an all-out attack against the traditional Confucian ethical system. This was partially responsible for the final overthrow of the imperial powers in 1911.\n\nVII. Legge's Immersion in the Confucian Tradition\n\nLegge, a missionary and advocate of Christian faith, was also responsive to the Chinese culture and people among whom he lived. There are several reasons why this was the case, beyond the simple fact of being immersed among the Chinese for thirty-five years. One important reason is the parallels Legge perceived between his Non-Conformist heritage and selective Confucian traditions. Legge located in the famous Confucian Han Yu (768-824 AD) of the Tang dynasty shared general attitudes also found in Non-Conformist Protestantism: both valued a return to the fundamental spiritual texts of the tradition; both asserted a more commonsense view of the world; and both stood in opposition to superstitious religious traditions (primarily associated with Buddhism and Taoism).\n\nIn addition, Confucian scholarship had developed its own more", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212290, "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-1990", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "209\n\n7\n\nThe texts translated by Legge were given the special subtitle, The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879-1891). They included six volumes (numbers 3, 16, 27-28, 39-40) in The Sacred Books Of The East Series under the general editing of F. Max Müller: Part I. The Shu King (the Book of Documents), The Religious Portion of the Shih King (The Book of Odes), and the Hsiao King (the Classic of Filial Piety) (XW) (1879); Part II. The Yi King (the Book of Changes) (58) (1882); Part III. The Li Ki (the Book of Rites), (禮記) I-X (1885); Part IV. The Li Ki, XI-XLVI (1885); Part V. The Tao Teh King (道德經) and the Writings of Kwang-Tze (莊子) (the Taoist Classics by Laozi and Zhuangzi), I-XVII (1891); Part VI. The Writings of Kwang-Tze, XVIII-XXXII, and the Thai-Shang Tractate of Actions and Their Retributions, (太上感應篇) with Appendices, I-VIII (1891). One of Legge's more important addresses in this field was to the Oriental Congress which met in Lyons and Florence during September, 1878. It was entitled, \"On the Present State of Chinese Studies and What is Wanted to Complete the Analysis of the Chinese Written Characters\" (September 16, 1878). Legge was Chairman of the Congress.\n\nAfter his Inaugural Address at Oxford, Legge quickly sought to attract students and any interested public by presenting very practical discussions of Chinese language. On November 7, 1876, he presented \"The Nature and History of the Chinese Written Character\". In 1878 another public lecture dealt with \"Principles of Composition in Chinese, or Grammar without Inflections\". By January, 1877, he was able to attract enough students to begin a course entitled \"Elements of Chinese and the Confucian Analects\". By the school year of 1881-1882, Legge was presenting classes on The Four Books, Laozi's (Zhuangzi) Daode Jing (道德經), and Chinese Poetry. See Oxford University Gazette, 1876-1877, pp. 64, 191; 1878-1879, p. 93; 1881-1883, pp. 200-201. The text he used for the grammar course in his early years at Oxford was Stanislas Julien's Syntaxe Nouvelle de la Langue Chinoise (ibid, 1877-1878, p. 193).\n\n* Besides the major Taoist volumes in The Sacred Books of the East, Legge also presented independent public addresses on Laozi and Zhuangzi (莊子) at Oxford's Taylorian Institute. The high regard Legge had for Zhuangzi can be seen in the typescript of the address, still available in the Bodleian. See Oxford University Gazette, 1889-1890, p. 92.\n\nLegge's response to Buddhism was very much influenced by the polemical attitudes of the Tang dynasty scholar, Han Yu, and other criticisms of Buddhism he read in Chinese tractates written by notable missionary scholars. He employed Han Yu's memorial against Buddhism as part of class readings beginning in 1883, added other texts to this in the late eighties and early nineties, and spoke publicly on \"The Purgatories of Buddhism and Taoism!\" in 1893. See Oxford University Gazette, 1882-1883, p. 558; 1884-1885, p. 339; 1892-1893, pp. 226, 491. His most important text and article relating to Buddhism are A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (AD 389-414) In Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), and “A Fair and Dispassionate Discussion of the Three Doctrines Accepted in China', by Liu Mi, A Buddhist Scholar”, (London; n.d., presented to the Orientalist Congress 188?, pp. 563-580). The original source of publication for the article is not clear.\n\n† Besides the Buddhist texts mentioned above in §9, Legge also published Christianity In China: Nestorianism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism. On the flyleaf is the following title: Christianity in China; A Rendering of the Nestorian Tablet at Si-an-fu to Commemorate Christianity. London: Trübner & Co, 1888.\n\nCf Lindsay Ride's \"Biographical Note\", in The Chinese Classics with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes (Taipei: Southern Materials Center, Inc, 1985), p. 22. At the age of 26 he had been awarded a Doctorate of Divinity by New York University (1842).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212675, "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-1991", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "210\n\nevaluation section that records the joys and pains of fieldwork, and reflects our youngsters' genuine affection for things Hong Kong as they seek to further their understanding of their own cultural tradition and social milieu.\n\nThe collection starts with a section on religion, which is the most coherent part of the book. The first report is a general study of tian de sheng jiao, a cult that started at the turn of the century and which attempts to integrate the five great religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. The report includes a brief history of the cult and a description of its beliefs and rituals. But the most interesting and enlightening part of the report is the interviews of members of other religions who tend to take an inclusive and accepting stance towards the cult.\n\nThe second report deals with one school of Taoism, chuan zhen jiao, through the study of its monastery in Fanling, feng yin xian guan. Besides giving a very brief introduction to Taoism, the report has also paid attention to a variety of aspects to the religion, such as social service provided by the church. Of special interest should be the rather detailed description of the religious festivals, rituals of worship and divination, and a short questionnaire that reflects a lack of understanding of the Taoist worldview among its followers.\n\nThe third report has picked a less known sample of Protestantism in Hong Kong, dao feng shan, which aims at converting Buddhists to Christianity. The report is highly focussed - on the main worship hall on the premise. A detailed description of the architecture and its symbolisms is informative. But, instead of shedding light on the reasons for the special mission in its historical context, the report unfortunately is skewed towards rationalizing and justifying the moral objectives of the unopportune mission.\n\nThis section provides a glimpse of the diversity of religious life in Hong Kong and the processual nature of religious development in different social contexts. Unfortunately, all of the reports have chosen to describe the architecture, the catechism and the organization of the churches, etc, rather than describe the architecture, the catechism and the organization of the society at large. In other words, readers are given a paraphrase of the structure of the institutions, rather than an analysis of the ways they are lived. In many instances, the researcher's views", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214363, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "187\n\nTEMPLES ARISE\n\nFROM THE ASHES OF REVOLUTION\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nReturning from each of our tours of temples in Mainland China the question most frequently posed is the extent to which religious freedom exists in China? I find this difficult to answer. I have yet to visit an area where we have observed any form of obvious religious discrimination or evidence of current iconoclasm. At the risk of being accused of being a 'blind' observer in a country with a record of political suppression, I know that constraint of religion by the State exists as I have read numerous articles in the Chinese press about Chinese government calls for crackdowns on illegal temples and superstitious practices, but the extent to which these instructions have been carried out has not been apparent during our tours around the countryside. Indeed, there are few signs of religious suppression in any form. In late 1997 we came across a small rural temple in one of the loess canyons some fifteen or so miles north-east of T'aiyüan in Shansi province and were told by one of the villagers that the local Public Security Police had ordered it be pulled down as it was 'a bad element, a manifestation of superstition'. The small modern shrine, constructed some eight years ago, contained just one deity, a very rough and amateurish, modern baked-mud and concrete image of the local protective spirit, Ts'ai T'ai-yeh. The PSB had passed through the village many times during the two years since they issued the order for the destruction of the image; however, the villagers had simply ignored it and even when crowds of visitors drove in by car during the annual festival on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, the PSB again had simply turned a blind eye.\n\nChina's constitution theoretically protects the freedom of religion in China with party members being dissuaded from practising. Whilst permissive religion is unquestionably allowed within certain bounds I suspect 'tolerance' should be substituted for the word freedom. The Bureau of Religious Affairs under the State Council in Peking permits the five major organised religions to worship as they wish, within reason. These are Taoism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism [known in China as 'Christian'] and Islam. The Bureau does, however, frown on and frequently clamps down on popular religion, [also known as folk religion and even as Taoism by foreigners who have not perceived the difference] and some of the smaller proselytising western", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]