[ { "id": 204289, "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-1961", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n53\n\nthe failure of subscribers to return the books on leaving the country-so that there is a large space occupied by books that are of little value to the Society, or to the public. I would recommend that the Library be inspected, and that those books which are not worth binding anew should be disposed of, and the proceeds be devoted to rebinding those that are worth keeping. In this way, the library will be freed from a good deal of trash, and the really valuable part of it, which is by no means small, could be more easily accommodated in the apartment designed for it, and better fitted for the use of subscribers.\n\nThe reports of the Society for 1844, 1845 and 1846 do not specifically mention the Library, but it is interesting to note that at a meeting of the subscribers in January 1846 it was unanimously resolved, \"That a bust of the late Hon. J. R. Morrison (who had also died, at the early age of 29 in 1843) be immediately commissioned from England, to be placed in the public rooms of the institution of the Morrison Education Society; that a copy of Chinnery's painting of his father (the late Rev. Dr. Morrison) engaged in the translation of the Bible into Chinese, be obtained for the same purpose; that the sum of $1,000 be appropriated to meet the cost, and the expense of placing these memorials in China.\n\nBy 1849 the Society was running into financial difficulties, the premises had to be closed and the Library was packed up. By 1855 it was open to the public again when, according to an advertisement appearing in the Hong Kong Register on 30 October, 1855, \"The Library of the Morrison Education Society, now deposited in a room in the Court House, is open every day from 1 to 4 o'clock p.m. to Members of the Society for the giving out and exchange of Books. Parties, not members of the Society, may obtain the advantages of the Library, on payment of an Annual Subscription of $5. By order of the Trustees, James Legge, Secretary.”\n\nAt the annual meeting of the Society in 1858 the question of the permanent disposal of the Library was scheduled for discussion. In this same year they had accepted on trust a collection of 400 books belonging to the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which had been founded in Hong Kong in 1847 by Sir John Davis, later revived by Sir John Bowring, but which was now defunct. A report of the founding of the Asiatic Society appears in the Hong Kong Register for 1847 with a list of 44 titles of books, prints, etc., which had been presented.\n\nThere had been a growing demand for a proper public library and in May, 1863, the Morrison Education Society issued a circular urging the foundation of such a library in a City Hall and offering its own books and those of the Royal Asiatic Society", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205223, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "173\n\nBENHAM, Miss M. E. M. Harcourt Health Centre, Morrison Hill Rd.,\n\nBENT, Miss Dora\n\nBERTOVICH, Miss R. C.\n\nBERTUCCIOLI, Dr. G.\n\nBEVERIDGE, R. J.\n\nBIRNBAUM, Mrs. S. D.\n\nBLACK, D.\n\nBLACKMORE, M.\n\nBLAKER, D. J. R.\n\nBLUE, A. D.\n\nBOAK, C. D.\n\nBOARD, D. B. M.*\n\nBONSALL, G. W.\n\nBORDWELL, J. H.\n\nBORGEEST, G.\n\nNethersole Hospital, Bonham Road, H.K.\n\nR.D. No. 1, Box 220, Masontown, Pa., U.S.A.\n\nItalian Embassy, Tokyo, Japan.\n\nUniversity Press, Hong Kong University, Pokfulum, H.K.\n\n7, Braga Circuit, Kowloon,\n\nLong Acre, Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland,\n\nDept. of History, H.K. University, H.K.\n\nc/o Gilman & Co., Ltd., P. O. Box 56, H.K.\n\nChief Engineer, M.V. \"World Yuri\", World Wide (Shipping) Ltd., c/o Cornes & Co., C.P.O. Box 158, Tokyo, Japan,\n\nDept. of Modern Languages, H.K. University, H.K.\n\nc/o Education Dept., Battery Path, H.K.\n\nFlat 4-B, 3 University Drive, Pokfulum, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 25, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 1058, H.K.\n\nBORRELL, Rev. Bro. O. W. St. Francis Xavier's College, 45 Sycamore Street, Kowloon.\n\nBOXER, Prof. B.\n\nBRAGA, J. M.\n\nBRAUN, F.\n\nBREUIL, Mrs. N. du\n\nBRITTON, Mrs. N. M.\n\nBROMHALL, J. D.\n\nBROOKS, D. E.\n\nBROWN, Miss B.\n\nBROWNE, H. J. C.\n\nBRUCE, Robert\n\nBRUUN, F.\n\nBUNGER, Dr. Karl\n\nDept. of Geography, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, Michigan 48824, U.S.A.\n\nP. O. Box 951, H.K.\n\n8 Kotewall Road, 4th floor, H.K.\n\n86, Main Street, Stanley, H.K.\n\n6 Peel Rise, The Peak, H.K.\n\nFisheries Research Station, The Fish Market, Island Road, Aberdeen, H.K.\n\nRadio Hong Kong, Mercury House, H.K.\n\nMedical Rehabilitation Centre, L254 Kwun Tong, Kowloon.\n\nc/o Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K.\n\nThe British Council, Gloucester Building, H.K.\n\n908 Takshing House, H.K.\n\nConsul General, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1, Duddell Street, H.K.\n\n* Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206297, "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-1971", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "108\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nthe Chinese Classics. Few Chinese in Hong Kong at this period were noted for their literary or scholarly ability. Ho Fuk Tong was a good scholar, but in the area of Christian thought; having mastered Greek and Hebrew, he translated and edited Biblical Commentaries in Chinese. Though acquainted with the Chinese Classics, he was not an outstanding Chinese scholar. Wong T'ao, who like Ho Fuk Tong was closely associated with Rev. James Legge, was generally recognized as a competent Chinese literati. He was a baptized Christian and had come to Hong Kong from Shanghai because of suspected connections with the Tai Ping movement. He was recommended to Legge by the missionaries in Shanghai. Legge, who was involved in translating the Chinese Classics, found Wong T'ao to be an invaluable assistant and paid him the following tribute: \"This scholar, far exceeding in classical (knowledge) more than any of his countrymen whom the author had previously known, came to Hong Kong in the end of 1863, and placed at his disposal all the treasures of a large well-selected library. At the same time entering with spirit into his labours, now explaining, now arguing, as the case might be, he has not only helped but enlivened many days of toil\"45 Wong T'ao continued as editor of the Tsun Wan Yat Po until he left Hong Kong to return to Shanghai in 1884. He was largely responsible for the prestige the paper achieved, fulfilling in some measure the hopes of the prospectus for the paper that it \"would eventually become in China what the London Times is in England\"46. As a mark of his position in the community, his name appears on several memorials and deputations of representatives of the Chinese in Hong Kong in the 1880s.\n\nStill another Christian associated with the introduction of western style journalism in China was Wong Shing alias 黃勝 Wong Pin Po. Like Ho Fuk Tong and Wong T'ao, he was closely associated with Dr. Legge for a number of years.\n\nWong Shing was a native of Heung Shan District near Macao and was in the first class of the Morrison Educational Society School. The school's principal, the Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown, took Wong Shing with three other students for advanced study in the United States in 1846. Wong Shing's health broke down and he had to return to Hong Kong after two years in America.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206385, "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-1971", "page_number": 202, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "176\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe end of June and the beginning of September, and was then removed from its quarters of which I have spoken on board ship. Many civilians also fell victims to Hongkong fever. The mortality was mainly owing to the want of accommodation for the multitudes who kept pressing into the new colony, and to the miasma set free from the ground which was everywhere being turned up. I remember visiting officers who were living in small huts reared on the hill behind the general's house. It was no wonder that one after another they were seized with fever, and either died, or were invalided home. Then the drains were for the time all open, and an atmosphere of disease, which only the strongest constitutions and prudent living were able to resist, might be said to envelope the inhabitants day and night.\n\nI have intimated my opinion that there was no subsequent year of sickness and mortality so great as that of 1843; and nothing can be more delightful than the change in the colony in this respect. I do not think there is now a healthier residence on this side of Africa. This has been very gradually arrived at, by the increase of good houses, effectual drainage, the better supply of water, and the growth of trees and vegetation in general. There were other unhealthy years, and it came to be said that we might expect one of that character every seven years; but we have ceased to be troubled with the apprehension of such a periodic visitation. As to the healthiness from increased vegetation, I may mention that Dr. William Morrison, the colonial surgeon, who himself died from abscess of the liver, in October, 1883,* told me, some years before that event, that he had advised planting the ground on the south of the street behind the Murray Barracks with bamboos, as being of speedy growth. It was done, and soon the grove which every one of you knows, began to wave, and there was from that time a marked improvement in the health of the soldiers in those barracks.\n\nThe Colony, I have said, is now one of the healthiest residences, if not the very healthiest, in the East. The average of 14 years, reckoning back from the present, gives a rate of mortality for the foreign residents, not including the military, of a very little over 4 per cent; and in 1868, the rate was a trifle under 2 per cent, rather lower than the rate of mortality in Great Britain.\n\n* SIC: Morrison died later than the date given, but I have no reference books available at the time of writing. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210811, "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-1986", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "145\n\nPerhaps the break between 1856 and 1914 does not strictly qualify the present Ying Wa College for the title of the oldest in Hongkong, but it can legitimately claim the tradition of the school founded in 1818.\n\nThe Anglo-Chinese College opened at Malacca was the result of the labours of two missionaries of the London Missionary Society, the Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison and the Rev. Mr. William Milne. Dr. Morrison was the initiator of the project and raised most of the funds. The Rev. Mr. Milne was its first Principal.\n\nIt was a very ambitious project, as it was envisaged that it would be a meeting place for the language, philosophy, literature and science of the East and the West. Its student body would be composed of both Europeans and Asians.\n\nDr. Morrison expressed his hope for the school as follows: \"God grant that it may prosper, that it may be an honour to my country, and a blessing to China; and thus unite in its name, and in its benefits, the West and the East; and finally blend in peaceful intercourse the extremities of the world, the islands of Britain and Japan.\"\n\nUnfortunately the early death in 1822 of the Rev. Mr. Milne prevented the college from fulfilling Dr. Morrison's dreams. A succession of men were principals after Mr. Milne, and it seemed that with each the school progressively declined. It faced many problems, one of the principal ones being the proper language of instruction.\n\nMany of the boys had Malay mothers. Their fathers were often Fukienese. The additional task of mastering a third language, Mandarin, was formidable.\n\nThere is an interesting account of the foundation stone laying of the college building in 1818. It was written by Abdullah, a Moslem youth who taught Mr. Milne the Malay language.\n\n\"Mr. Milne received instructions from his society to provide a building for the college... When everything was ready Mr. Milne", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210812, "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-1986", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "146 \n\nCARL SMITH \n\ninvited all the important people and white men in Malacca, \n\n+ + \n\nう \n\nto a gathering at six o'clock in the morning. Assembling there they buried their contributions of money, altogether $70 or $80, in a hole scooped out in a stone below the door. Then they all raised the door into position and Mr. Milne, coming forward and striking it with his hand, declared that the place was the Anglo-Chinese College.\" \n\nAbdullah must have been at the edge of the crowd unable to see clearly what was put into the hole in the foundation stone. Seventy or eighty dollars would not likely have been buried. What probably was buried was a few token coins which were often placed in foundation stones. \n\nA-FA: SEEDS OF THE TAIPING REBELLION \n\nThe first full-time Chinese student of the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca was Liang A-fa. There is no evidence that he was a particularly brilliant scholar, but the college was always proud to claim him as a former student. \n\nHe was a native of Ko Ming District in the province of Kwangtung. His previous education had consisted of a few years at his village school. He began his education late, at the age of 11, and when he was 15 he left the village to learn a trade in the city of Canton as village schools usually provided only a rudimentary education. If one had hopes of being a scholar, attendance at an advanced academy or instruction by a private tutor was the usual procedure. \n\nLiang A-fa, in spite of the few years of study when an adult at the Anglo-Chinese College, never developed a proper classical style of writing. This, however, did not discourage him from composing and printing Christian tracts. Sometimes he would have a scholar revise them to make them more literary. \n\nAfter learning the block cutting trade in Canton, he was engaged by one of Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison's assistants to carve blocks for the printing of a Chinese translation of the New Testament. Such work for foreigners was not looked on with favour by Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210813, "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-1986", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "147\n\nofficials. Therefore, Dr. Morrison decided it would be safer and less troublesome to have the printing done in Malacca under the supervision of the Rev. Mr. Milne. When Mr. Milne sailed from Macau to Malacca in 1815, Liang A-fa was one of the staff of cutters and printers sent with Mr Milne.\n\nThe following year A-fa was baptised and thus began his career of writing, exhorting and preaching which only ended with his death at Honam, a Canton suburb, in 1855.\n\nAbout the year 1828, he opened a school in his home district. Associated with him and probably bearing most of the teaching duties was one of his recent converts, the schoolmaster Kwu Tin-ching. This school was the first organised by a Chinese Protestant Christian in China. It was, however, not a success.\n\nParents did not wish their sons to be associated with teachers who had acquired strange ideas from foreigners. The school was soon closed. It was charged that it taught foreign ideas and its purpose was to undermine Chinese tradition so that the foreign powers might more easily impose their will on China.\n\nOne of the results of this educational venture was a small catechism he wrote to be used in the school. It was another of A-fa's books, however, that proved to be an important factor in influencing the course of Chinese history.\n\nIn 1843 Liang A-fa and a helper distributed thousands of tracts to the candidates for the official literary examination being held at Canton. One of the candidates was Hung Hsiu-chuan, the future leader of the Taiping Rebellion which almost succeeded in unseating the Manchu dynasty in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Hung paid no attention to the pamphlet he had received, as an examinee he had more weighty cares on his mind. He took it home after the examination, put it in a cupboard and forgot about it.\n\nSome years later after another unsuccessful try at the examination, Hung experienced strange dreams and visions. One day a relative called his attention to Liang A-fa's book.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210821, "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-1986", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "155\n\nDr. Legge arrived at Malacca in 1840 as a young missionary teacher. He came having read the glowing reports of the school's progress written by its Principal. Dr. Legge expected to find a school of high standards on the lines set forth in Dr. Morrison's original prospectus. What he came to was something quite different.\n\nWhile the school operated under the name of a college, it was actually little more than an elementary school.\n\nDr. Legge was critical. This naturally did not endear him to his superior, the Rev. John Evans, the man who had been in charge of the school for more than six years.\n\nMr. Evans attributed the criticisms to the inexperience and brashness of a young man unacquainted with the local situation.\n\nBut Dr. Legge was not the only person to criticise.\n\nA Singapore missionary wrote to his board in America: “They have made much noise and excited large expectations as to the prospects of usefulness of the college. A strange sort of reserve and mystery was kept up about the Establishment. Part of this has probably been due to the haughty manner and uncourteous deportment of Mr. Evans.”\n\nOne of Mr. Evans' innovations was to prohibit the students from visiting their homes. He felt that if they were away from the school even for a brief time, they would be exposed to bad influences.\n\nThe principal of a missionary boarding school at Singapore thought Mr. Evans' policy very unwise as it ran counter to traditional Chinese practice.\n\nHe explained: “The ties which bind parents and children together cannot be rudely torn asunder, where they are as fully developed as they are among the Chinese, without great danger to the child. Should the boys ever become able to think for themselves, and have the Bible in their hands, they will find it difficult to respect the authors of such a system.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210824, "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-1986", "page_number": 175, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "158\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nBritish Plenipotentiary, informed them that missionaries would not be welcomed at the Treaty Ports. British officials felt missionary efforts to convert Chinese would provoke the hostility of the mandarins and hinder the proper development of commerce and trade with foreigners.\n\nSir Henry maintained that the treaty extended only to commercial relations between Great Britain and China and not to religious activities.\n\nDuring the discussion about the Anglo Chinese College some of the missionaries were rather critical of Dr. Morrison and his work. This deeply hurt his son, John Robert Morrison, who had been invited to attend the Hongkong meeting by the Mission Society's directors in London. This did not please some of the missionaries in the field, for the young Mr. Morrison was not a missionary but had the office of Chinese Secretary in the Government. A disinterested observer who attended the meetings remarked: \"Indeed it seemed to be the studied purpose of some of them to cast discredit on Dr. Morrison by all means. John Morrison was affected to tears on learning of the way in which some of them spoke of his father.\"\n\nFortunately there was a peacemaker present, W.H. Medhurst, the observer remarked. “If it had not been for him, I fear there would have been unpleasant consequences.”\n\nThe outcome of all the troubled waters was that Dr. Legge was authorised to reopen the school in Hongkong, with four pupils in temporary quarters.\n\nFINDING A HOME FOR A COLLEGE\n\nIt was no easy task reestablishing the Anglo-Chinese College in Hongkong. A new student body had to be gathered, a site for a building obtained, the building erected, the new financial support arranged.\n\nThe Rev. James Legge, Principal of the school, had brought with him from Malacca only one student, an orphan boy he had taken into his family. Mrs. Legge had under her care a Chinese girl", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210826, "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-1986", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "160 \n\nCARL SMITH\n\navail themselves of the intended boon, will be totally superfluous.\"\n\nAnother blow to those planning for the school was the transfer to the Morrison School of the annual grant it had been receiving from the British Government. The unfavourable action and views of Sir Henry Pottinger, the Governor, provoked considerable ill-will among the missionaries. The cutting off of the annual grant without prior notice put them in a difficult position.\n\nDr. Legge had already drawn upon the fund in anticipation of the grant. The matter became entangled in red tape upon the death of John Morrison in August 1843. He had been the transmitting agent. Now the executors of Morrison's estate were calling for repayment of the advance drawn by Dr. Legge, as it had not been officially authorised by the Government.\n\nFunds for the repayment were not immediately available to Dr. Legge,\n\nIn a letter he explained the matter to the Governor, but he did not receive a reply. After half a year passed, he again wrote. This time there was a reply stating the matter had been referred to London and patience must be exercised while awaiting a reply. Dr. Legge waited.\n\nIn the meantime Sir Henry Pottinger had been replaced as governor by Sir John Francis Davis. After another half year, Dr. Legge presented the matter to the new Governor. His Excellency replied he had no power to make a payment for a period before his incumbency unless it had been actually sanctioned by his predecessor or the Home Government. Neither had been done. Dr. Legge despaired of getting the affair unravelled from the red tape and dropped the matter.\n\nHe did not, however, drop his plans for finding a site and opening a school. In January 1844, the first land sale was held following the suspension of land grants. Dr. Legge bought two lots obligating himself to pay the annual Crown rent of £50 per year. The Governor, on learning that the lots were to be used for educational and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210853, "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-1986", "page_number": 204, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "187\n\nsoon the pet of the pious section of the San Francisco community.\n\nEveryone was impressed with this suave, intelligent and seemingly religious young Chinese gentleman. The Rev. Albert Williams, founder of the First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, after meeting A-chick, reported that \"his answers to questions touching matters of Christian doctrine are intelligent and satisfactory. He is associated with his uncle, accompanying him in a mercantile venture, and will remain in this city. I have much hope, that through his instrumentality we may bring the gospel more directly to bear upon his interesting country.” A-chick was viewed as a potential medium for missionary endeavour.\n\nSoon after A-chick's arrival, a Bible class for Chinese was organised by a Presbyterian Elder. Its first members were A-chick \"and his companions.” Among these was Lee A-kan, a former classmate at the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong.\n\nIt was realised, however, that if the Chinese in San Francisco were to be reached by the church, it was not enough to have classes for them in English. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions was asked to send a Chinese-speaking missionary to San Francisco.\n\nThe Board sent the Rev. William Speer.\n\nMr. Speer had been in Canton for about three years, returning to the United States in 1849. His wife Cornelia Breckenridge and an infant daughter died within a few months of each other and are buried in the Protestant Cemetery at Macau near the grave of Dr. Robert Morrison.\n\nAfter his arrival in San Francisco, Mr. Speer began looking up the Chinese who had been connected with missionary churches or schools in China. He called on Tong A-chick. By then the young man was already in a position of leadership in the Chinese community and was recognised as a man of wealth.\n\nOf the meeting Mr. Speer remarks: “A-chick is regarded by the American community here as a man of more than common ability-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210871, "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-1986", "page_number": 222, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "205\n\n\"There were, of course, the usual crowd common to native processions present. Following those on foot came 100 riders in official robes, two abreast, followed by a detachment of native troops from the camp near the Arsenal, provided by the colonel, who was a friend of the deceased gentleman. Then came Chinese musicians and the town band, and then what is not often seen except in funerals of the highest officials, bands of Buddhist nuns and bonzes as well as Taoist priests.\n\n\"After them came the chief mourners in sackcloth, while surrounded by a white panoply, screened from the gaze of the crowd, walked the sole surviving son of the deceased. Then came the coffin on a red bier with a dragon's head in gold and red, and after it some 200 chairs containing the female friends and relatives of the family and over 80 carriages.”\n\nOur story of Tong Mow-chee, alias A-chick, has taken us far from the lad of 11 taken by his father to meet his future schoolmaster, the Rev. S.R. Brown in 1839, but his position of wealth, influence and honour had its foundations in the schoolrooms of Macau and Hongkong.\n\nFROM A HONGKONG CLASSROOM TO ALTAR OF HEAVEN\n\nClosely associated with the Rev. Dr. Legge throughout his life in Hongkong was Ho A-sun, or, as he was also known, Ho Ye-tong. Actually they had first met when Mr. Legge first arrived in Malacca. By trade Ho A-sun was a book block-cutter. He was one of some half dozen people Dr. Robert Morrison had sent from Canton to work at the Ultra-Ganges Press the London Missionary Society established in Malacca.\n\nIt was at a time when the Chinese authorities were strictly enforcing the prohibition against Chinese being employed by foreigners at Canton. Only those who had been granted special permission were allowed to work for the foreign traders. For this reason the printing of Morrison's translation of the Bible in Chinese at Canton could only be done secretly and at some risk to the Chinese printers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214823, "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-1999", "page_number": 238, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "204\n\nEarth Gods and Tree Spirits\n\nBesides the gods of Buddhism and Taoism worshipped in the village temples, there were also the gods of each locality. In the villages of the Hong Kong Region, in addition to whatever temples had been erected to the deities, it was usual for there to be several earth gods in each village, and in each of the streets in the local market centres. These animistic spirits were equally sought out by the village people.30 Besides the regular acts of worship performed at the shrines, with their supplications and thanksgivings, it was common practice to place children, especially boys, under the protection of a temple deity, an earth god or a tree spirit during the uncertain years of childhood, in order to secure protection against the many dangers that beset young lives. If a tree died or had to be felled, the protégés were transferred to another protector, with the appropriate ceremonies of disengagement (recognition of and thanksgiving for favours bestowed) and adoption at each place.31 Either Buddhist or Taoist priests were required for such rituals.\n\n31\n\nChinese Women and Religion\n\nFinally, it should be noted that Chinese women are considered to be more religious than their menfolk. As Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison's biographer observed in the last century:\n\n46\n\n'...their nature is much more religious than that of the men...it is they who visit the temples. The incense pots which smoulder before the placid countenance of Buddha are filled and kindled by them; they burn ten sheets of paper to the men's one....The men can do without worship, the women cannot.”32\n\nFrom my observations in Hong Kong and elsewhere, I believe this to be as true of today's worshippers as when it was written one hundred years ago.\n\nNOTES\n\nWilliam Frederick Mayers, The Chinese Reader's Manual (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1874) called them \"The Three systems of Doctrine (or Religion)\" and stated that they “constitute the recognized systems of religion,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 } ]