[ { "id": 207989, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "BRUNEI: AN HISTORICAL RELIC\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT*\n\nI\n\nVery little is known about Brunei before 1500. Place names identified with locations in western Borneo and which were connected with Indonesia in trade in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. are mentioned in some recent research. The same sources suggest a considerable \"political, economic and cultural development” in northwestern Borneo as early as the 7th century. The existence of a \"state\" in the area of Brunei Bay first appears in the Chinese records of the early Sung dynasty when a kingdom called Po-ni sent tributary missions to the court of China in 977 and in 1082. By the 14th century Po-ni was also tributary to the Javanese empire of Majapahit while continuing to send trade/tribute missions to the Ming court. The Ming court entertained such missions in 1371, 1405 and 1408. The ruler of Po-ni visited China on the latter date and died while there. He was buried \"with honour\". From 1408 to 1425 missions went to China at three-year intervals bearing trading goods and tribute gifts. After that date the Ming restrictions on foreign trade discouraged any further intercourse,\n\nHistorians generally identify ancient Po-ni with modern Brunei. There is no hard evidence of a continuity, nor is there hard evidence to indicate otherwise. The position of Brunei Bay in the trading system of Nan Yang at an earlier time and in the 16th century, and the descriptive similarity would seem to lend credence to the theory.\n\nThere is in Brunei tradition a legend about the origin of Brunei.2 The legend is related in Malay folklore common to much of northern Borneo and is contained in a long epic called Sha'er Awang Semaun. Legendary Brunei was founded “29 reigns ago by fourteen brothers of heroic stature and semi-divine descent\". The brothers were sired by a father who descended in an egg from the heaven of the ancient pre-Muslim Malay gods. The father, called\n\n* Lecture given before the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) on Monday, December 6, 1976.\n\nDr. Wright is Reader in History at the University of Hong Kong. He is also a Councillor of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208337, "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": 61, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "ALTER IMAGES FROM HUNAN AND KIANGSI\n\n45\n\nof a scarlet bird', 'bowels like (or as long as?) nine rivers', 'as many as 84,000 teeth' and etc.\n\nThe fifth image (Plate 6) dedicated in 1799, from Kiangsi, is of a different style. It is very similar to certain of the Ch'ao Chow and Fukienese carvings, and particularly like certain Japanese Buddhist temple guardians such as Jikoku Ten. He was less dusty or greasy than the others, though he has been badly kippered by incense smoke and repainted with a cheap gold paint at some time. His original fine gilt lacquer is just visible in places on his lower back. He has lost his weapons, and his beady eyes, guaranteed to frighten when new, have been lost into the general contours of his face. The slip of paper from his back is best preserved of all six. It is recorded as a \"Viscera Statement\" (it) and relates that devotee Chen Ta-chiang, living in Lu Ling County, Chi An prefecture together with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, on this lucky day of the 10th moon of the fourth year of Chia Ching (November 1799) presented the image of the Heavenly General (** ) with a Viscera Statement enclosed, and prayed saying \"Your Most Reverend Spirit of the Chief General and Heavenly Ruler, having become perfect and entered Nirvana during the Shang dynasty, your reputation is as high as the heaven; you have the ability of suppressing all demons and spirits, the power of deciding on all matters of disasters and blessings in the human world without the slightest partiality, the ability to recommend the choosing and establishment of construction sites with favourable geomantic influences, and of leading right people to prosperity. I therefore most respectfully present this new image for eternal worship by us and our future generations under your protection”. \n\nThe sixth image (Plate 7), also from Chi An in Kiangsi and dedicated in 1870, is a multi-image object consisting of a two foot three inches high piece of wood carved in the round, into a series of grottoes and caverns, steps and paths up to a small temple at the summit. This contains the only moveable and identifiable deity, a miniature Tou Mu (44) with her six arms and crown, seated cross-legged and with the cavity in her back which contained the identifying slip of paper. The other immovable thirteen images are of Taoist worthies, unidentified immortals, ten of them standing, one on horseback, the two more holding tablets before them standing beside the temple, probably the guardians or aides to Tou Mu.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211628, "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-1989", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "18\n\nTHE JADE EMPEROR AND HIS FAMILY\n\n玉皇大帝\n\nYU HUANG TA TI\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nThe Jade Emperor, also known as the Lord of Heaven (T`ien Kung), is the chief deity of the pantheon of the Cheng I sect of Taoism. He is only a secondary deity of the Taoist Lungmen sect. He was worshipped China-wide as the supreme ruler of the Heavens, and even of some of the Underworld. In folk religion, he is worshipped as the protector of all mankind, having replaced Lao Tzu in that role and as head of the Taoist faith, possibly because people were uncomfortable taking their problems to a philosopher. According to a majority of Taoists his earthly mouthpiece was Chang T'ien Shih, The Heavenly Master and his descendants.\n\nAlthough he is well known to both Chinese and to interested foreigners, what is not so well known are the ramifications of his family and the extent to which several of its members have their own cults.\n\nThe development of the supreme deity in China is far from clear. In earlier times the all-seeing, all-powerful, unseen god was Shang Ti who even now is occasionally referred to as the all-highest. Not only is the term Shang Ti used by Protestants for the Supreme Deity, God, but also the late Chairman Mao in his statement that, at the age of 72, “he was soon going to see God“, used this expression.\n\nHoward Smith, a missionary in China for 24 years, describes how the Chou dynasty (ca 1050-256 BC) founded its government on religion and transformed 'Shang Ti', probably originally a term used for the deified spirits of the imperial ancestors under the previous dynasty, the Shang, into a high God, independent and supreme, He added \"The importance of this change cannot be over-emphasised. When this supreme deity finds the rule of an emperor abhorrent, whenever a king fails, by persistent misrule, in his duties to God, then God rejects him and seeks out a suitable substitute.\" The transfer of the mandate of Heaven, based on the belief in a supreme deity, carried with it strong ethical implications, and continued down to the last dynasty, which fell in 1911.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211629, "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-1989", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "19\n\n2\n\nGoullart in his description of the monastery in Kiangsi in which he spent several holidays, describes in one hall 'Shang Ti smiling benevolently and enigmatically from his canopied throne'. He then refers, in his description of another temple, to the Jade Emperor and speaks of him as Shang Ti. There are various explanations offered as to why this deity is called the Jade Emperor. One suggests that the reference in the Book of Changes to '. . . heaven being the ruler, and is... jade' is its origin; Goullart however gives, in translation, an invocation from the abbot to Shang Ti in which he refers to him by title as 'the Mightiest Emperor over all Heavenly Kings, who lives in the Jade Hall of the Western Heaven'. This, surely, is a clue. The supreme deity, Shang Ti, lives in the Jade Hall, hence his title the Jade Emperor. This title is a relatively recent development in Chinese chronology having only become prominent during the 11th century AD. However, popular recognition of and interest in the cult became apparent during the Manchu (Ch'ing) dynasty.\n\nThe title of the sovereign divinity of the Chinese State religion until 1911 was Huang T'ien Shang Ti, the First Rank Supreme Deity in the 17th century regulations of the Ch'ing dynasty. Shang Ti, as the All-highest, was never portrayed in image form, and in a number of temples in South-East Asia the title of Huang T'ien Shang Ti is still given for the supreme deity, usually carved on plaques, and in one temple in Singapore an image of the Jade Emperor even bore a vertical slip of paper inscribed with this title.\n\nMany Chinese myths and legends involve the Jade Emperor; those surrounding his origins are shrouded in mystery and probably his genesis will never be known. China has a rich popular tradition incorporating local tales from every corner of the vast empire, and it is no wonder that numerous and varied explanations have been given by devotees of how and when the Jade Emperor became the senior deity. The earliest known reference to him is from the T'ang but he could have existed long before that. Since then it has commonly been believed that he was either an incarnation of, or given the task of Supreme Deity by Yuan Shih T'ien Chun, the senior deity of the Taoist trinity, the Three Pure Ones (San Ch'ing). His popularity declined somewhat during the Ming. Although a Taoist deity, his image is to be found on altars in several Buddhist temples and some Buddhists even claim that he is really just an adaptation of Indra. To the man in the street all Buddhist, Taoist and folk religion deities are his subordinates, and well timed worship will", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211630, "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-1989", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "20 \n\nsecure a writ of pardon for a soul in the Underworld. Buddhists have occasionally accused the Taoists of stealing him from their pantheon. The Buddhist Indra, known as Yu Ti (**玉帝**), literally The Jade Emperor, was, they say, adopted by Taoists to counter Buddhist power. Others suggest that the Jade Emperor was a creation of a Chinese emperor to help maintain the authority and stability of his rule. In one popular version the Sung emperor Chen Tsung (**宋真宗**) in AD 1012, in order to divert his ministers from an unfortunate treaty he had been obliged to sign with some barbarian tribes, announced with great pomp that he had been visited in a dream by an immortal with a letter from the Jade Emperor. In the letter the Jade Emperor explained that he was sending one of the emperor's ancestors in person. The Sung emperor then claimed that a dazzling deity appeared before him in a dream and informed him that he was the Jade Emperor, Master of Heaven and Earth, and the Incarnation of Tao. Later the emperor, having announced that the visit had taken place, ordered that thereafter the Jade Emperor, “one of his ancestors\", was to be treated as a major deity. The next year, in 1013, the Jade Emperor's image was cast and placed in a special temple, the Jade Palace (**玉皇殿**) where it was worshipped by the whole court. One hundred years later, the Sung emperor Hui Tsung (**宋徽宗**) built an even more magnificent temple for the Jade Emperor and thereafter the image was portrayed in imperial robes.\n\nH. Y. Feng3 claimed that the earliest reference to the Jade Emperor was in a poem by Han Yu (768-824), a Confucian scholar who wrote, admiring plum blossom, \"Riding clouds we came together to the home of Yuh Huang', proving, he states, that the Sung emperor's claims were after the fact. However, state recognition by emperor Chen Tsung made the Jade Emperor an important deity in the pantheon.\n\nA Fukienese legend describes the Jade Emperor as being born to a queen who conceived miraculously after a visit by T'ai Shang Lao Chun (Lao Tzu) in a dream. When this prince in due course became king, he ruled with great compassion and concern, and was a model ruler who later devoted part of his life to religion and attained sainthood. This was, however, many centuries before the Sung emperor Chen Tsung popularised the cult.\n\nAnother popular version explains how the Jade Emperor appeared in his visible manifestation to a Sung emperor and told him that he, The Jade Emperor, was the manifestation of the power and thought of Tao,\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211631, "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-1989", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "21\n\nto be regarded as such by mankind and to be revered only as the representation of that power. However, over the centuries, he has developed into a god in his own right, depicted as a gilded image of an emperor sitting on a throne, and is accepted by the masses as the ruler of the Heavenly bureaucracy.\n\nIn T'aishan in Shantung province it was claimed that the Jade Emperor in mortal life had been merely a learned doctor of medicine who had lived during the 12th century AD at the Sung court in Kaifeng. He attended the emperor Hui Tsung during a serious illness and saved his life with a miraculous cure. He was known as Chang Yu-huang, but, on his death, he, like many a hermit, was deified by imperial decree.\n\nBritish representatives met the imperial representative, Li Hung-chang in 1876 in the temple (Yuh Huang T'ing) dedicated to the Jade Emperor to the west of Yent'ai (Cheefoo) in Shantung province to arrange the Chefoo Convention. Another incident involving the British in North China and connected with the Jade Emperor concerned Sir Meyrick Hewlett of the China Consular Service at the turn of the century during the clearing up after the siege of the British Embassy during the Boxer Rebellion. He found in the house of Sir Ernest Satow, HM Ambassador in Peking, a tablet with a background of sky-blue, framed in rich gold and inscribed with the four characters in gold — 'Huang T'ien Shang Ti'. Prince Ch'ing identified it as an item from the Temple of Heaven which had been missing for more than a year. When Sir Ernest asked how to restore it to its rightful place, the Prince begged the Ambassador not to send it round to his palace as should it be placed in the entrance he could neither leave nor enter his home without kowtowing twenty-seven times before it. Another more enlightened official helped out by bearing it off at dead of night in a Peking cart to the vaults of a European bank where it awaited a favourable day for restoring it to the Temple of Heaven. Some thirty-five years later, Sir Meyrick, paying his farewell visit to Peking, visited the Temple of Heaven and asked the attendants whether he could see the tablet, kept with the other tablets sacred to the emperors of the Ch'ing dynasty in a small temple opposite the Altar of Heaven. They replied that this was quite impossible, since even in post-imperial Kuomintang days no-one was allowed to see it. Sir Meyrick related the story of its recovery, upon which the attendants agreed to show him the tablet together with the tablets to the 28 Major Constellations, to Thunder and Lightning, and to the other forces of nature, but said that the tablets to the emperors were all lost after their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211661, "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-1989", "page_number": 76, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "51\n\nAnother version of this legend claims that it was the T'ang emperor Kao Tsu (618-626 AD) who wished to test the 'pope's' powers by hiding 360 of his most elite literati (and not failed scholars) in the basement where they were required to play music. The 'pope' was instructed to stop the unidentified noise in the cellar and having waved his magic sword all sounds ceased. The 360 were all found dead, decapitated. The 360 complained to Yen Lo Wang, the ruler of the Underworld on their arrival at his Court who criticised the emperor and required him to appease the dead literati. This the emperor did by appointing them all to be Wang Yeh and by ordering a magnificent Buddhist mass to be said for their souls.\n\nIn some versions the detail of the test set by the emperor for the Taoist 'pope' suggests that the imagination of the tea-house story tellers was stretched to the limit. In one, when the music reached its crescendo the emperor ordered the 'pope' Chang to put a stop to it. Chang replied that the only way he could do so was by killing the makers of the music but the emperor insisted. Chang sprinkled rice and salt on the floor, struck it with magic sword or wand and all 360 were instantly decapitated. After their souls had appeared before Yen Lo Wang in the Underworld demanding to be restored to life and Yen Lo had explained that this was not possible, the spirits of all 360 were confined to a box and cast into the waves of the sea. Found later by a fisherman on the foreshore, the box was opened and the spirits released. They returned to haunt the emperor who thereupon ordered that they should be deified as Wang Yeh. He also decreed that they should be revered in all parts of the empire. The spirits separated and went their ways with five going to Fukien where they have been worshipped ever since.\n\nA version heard in rural Singapore claimed that Chang T'ien Shih was told by some immortals that other immortals, heavenly ones who played music and wrote poetry, were in fact demons in disguise and that they should be destroyed. Chang, who could not resist a challenge, drew his sword and killed a mere 36 at one blow. Chang was later horrified to hear that the 36 were not demons at all but genuine immortals, and immediately sped to the Court of the Jade Emperor in Heaven to apologise and request that the 36 should be deified. The Jade Emperor granted his request and the 36 were sent to all parts of China to serve as pestilence deities. This legend in one form or another is possibly one of the best known legends about pestilence deities amongst the Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212088, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "\"of the respect which constituted authority commands. They keep up soldiers and police to enhance the dignity of their own positions, and, incidentally, to suppress rebellions and catch, castigate, torture or behead such persons as they consider to be malefactors; but all their actions are limited by what public opinion will allow.\"'\"\n\nA decade earlier, the American missionary educator, Bishop Graves of Canton, long acquainted with the popular will, had explained what it was and how it had to be taken into account by the authorities at all times:\n\n\"China's government consists of two elements: the Imperial authority, as represented by Mandarins, high and low, with the underlings and police runners connected with the various official courts, and the popular will represented by the village elders, the Kung-Kuk, or councils of literati, and the Kai-fong or assemblages of householders in cities and towns. Public opinion, which is, perhaps, practically the strongest element in Chinese society, is based on local traditions, clan feeling and provincial pride, modified by a sense of nationality founded on allegiance to the Emperor as the Son of Heaven or Divinely-sent Ruler.\n\nNo one can understand China who regards its government as a pure despotism, an Autocrat imposing his own will on subservient subjects. The popular element must also be taken into consideration in estimating the forces which bind Chinese society together.\n\nMuch was expected of their rulers by the ruled. It was assumed that they would be guided in their actions in accordance with the ethical code, and rule by the moral authority and example of righteous action rather than by despotic whim or tyrannical decree. When this was not the case, it was open to the oppressed people to remove their rulers. Such conduct had been openly endorsed by the sage Mencius. A propos the overthrow of the last Hsia dynasty king he had said bluntly, \"I have heard about the killing of a ruffian called Chou; I have not heard about the killing of a king\". The phrase long in use for a rising against unjust rulers is hei yi; which means literally \"to raise righteousness\". The ordinary people of China justified actions against oppressive or neglectful authorities by transforming themselves\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212155, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "74\n\n5\n\nTa-ch'in ching-chiao is translated by Legge (The Nestorion Monument of Hsi-An-Fu, Oxford, 1888) as the 'lustrious Religion of Ta-tsin; by Saeki (The Nestorian Monument in China, 1916, and The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China, 1951) as the 'Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion', and by Moule (Christians in China Before The Year 1550. London, 1930) as the 'Brilliant Teaching of Ta-ch'in'. Moule's translation seems to me to be the best, though none of the three translations for ching brings out its full resonance.\n\n+\n\n4\n\nTa-ch'in ching-chiao liu-hsing Chung-kuo pri K★*KAT¶M. See Plate 1.\n\nThe Manicheans, who also originated in Persia, used in China the term 'the shining teaching\", ming-chiao W, for their religion.\n\nThe Hsü-ting Mi-shih-he ching FDM. P. Y Saeki (The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China) calls this work the Jesus-Messiah-Sutra. I have departed from Saeki's bizarre terminology here and elsewhere, but his names are given in notes where I have done so.\n\n7 The xhen lun\n\nSaeki's Discourse on the Oneness of the Ruler of the Universe, is actually a compilation of three short essays, the F-r'ien lun or Essay on the One Heaven (Saeki's Discourse on the One Heaven); the Yu, or Parable; and the Shih-tsun-pu-shih fun 1942 fibili, or Essay on the Charity of the Creator (Sacki's Lord of the Universe's Discourse on Alms-Giving).\n\nH\n\nリ\n\nThe Chih-hsüan-an-lo ching &£, Sacki's Sutra on Mysterious Rest and Joy.\n\nThe Ta-ch'in ching-chiao Ta-shing-t'ung-chen-kuei-fa tsan K**HARIANZA, Saeki's Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.\n\nTHE\n\nThe Ta-ch'in ching-chiao San-wei-meng-to tsan ★*** ***, Saeki's Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion Morwa Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity.\n\nJ\n\nThe Ta-ch'in ching-chiao Hstian-yuan-chih-pen ching ****, Sacki's Ta-ch in Luminous Religion Sutra on the Origin of Origins.\n\nנו\n\nThe Tsun ching **\n\nFor example, in lists of metropolitan provinces. Amrus gives a list for 1343 in which Beth Sinaye, the old province of China created by the Nestorian patriarch Seliba-zekha around 720, is listed together with the contemporary province of Cathay and Ong (China and the country of the Ongut tribe).\n\n14\n\nThe pronunciation of the characters ching ## 'scripture\", and ching it. \"brilliant”, differs only in tone.\n\n1.5\n\nLe Quien's Oriens Christianus (Paris, 1740), an invaluable prosopography of the eastern churches, contains the names of nearly a thousand Nestorian bishops, but no other bishop or metropolitan named Adam is recorded.\n\nThe New Catalogue of the Teaching of Shakya in the Cheng-yuan period, composed by a monk of Ch'ang-an's famous Hsi-ming (Buddhist) monastery.\n\n17\n\nThe Tien-pao-tsang ching KMR.\n\nE The To-hui-sheng-wang ching\n\nZLI\n\nWEER.\n\nThe A-wan-chi-li-yung ching EHFIYR.\n\nThe Nestorian monastery at Tun-huang was apparently named after the nearby prefectural city of Sha-chou.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212398, "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": 340, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "317\n\nNowadays piracy is very much in the news again, in the Malacca Straits, the Sulu sea, and even in the waters outside Hong Kong. There is scope for a new pirate book. However, it would call for more political background and a deeper understanding of human nature than Lilius shows in this briskly moving but somewhat superficial narrative.\n\nANTHONY LAWRENCE\n\nBeatrice S. Bartlett, Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ching China, 1723-1820 Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford: University of California Press, 1991. xxi + 417 pp. Bibliography. Glossary. Index.\n\nThe Emperors of China were both person and institution. The Chinese bureaucracy was the most highly developed organization of its kind in the pre-modern world, with a complex array of rules and regulations which confined and defined government. The Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-35) is traditionally portrayed as the epitome of a ruthless despot, a cunning autocrat who developed a whole new secret police system to solidify his power. The Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95) based his rule of more than sixty years on political adeptness, not ceremonial presence. The traditional image of a Confucian official is of a man who served principle, not a ruler, and who dared to criticize those Emperors who strayed from the Middle Way (read \"bureaucratically defined acceptable behavior\").\n\nHow do we reconcile these contradictory views? Did the Emperor terrorize the literati-officials into submission, or was he merely the tool of an ageless bureaucracy? Is Chinese history during the Qing the record of strong or weak monarchs, or did institutions evolve which tempered the influence of the Son of Heaven?\n\nBeatrice Bartlett has provided us in Monarchs and Ministers with a ground-breaking work. Bartlett, delving deeper into Qing court documents than any previous foreign scholar, has provided us with crucial information on the evolution of the political structure of China's last dynasty. Where other scholars have given us glimpses of Emperors, have laid out initial hypotheses or focused on narrower political issues, Bartlett has unlocked the actual records and drawn together different strands of research on 18th century China.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214351, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "174\n\nThe conflict is described in gory detail with both humans and deities waging unrestricted warfare using thunderbolts, poisonous gases, and magic fans. Armies are annihilated by wizardry, bizarre and fantastic magic weapons are deployed by both sides leading to the eventual defeat of the Shang, and the suicide of the ruler and death of his concubine. The story ends with the heroes of both sides being canonised. This historical fantasy describes the struggle in the 11th century BC between the forces of the evil King Zhou3 [Zhou Wang, known also as Zhou Xin] of the Shang [Yin] dynasty and the armies of Duke Fa,a with large bodies of men clashing as well as individual duels between heroes leading to the eventual victory by Duke Fa and the end of King Zhou and his concubine. It describes individual or groups of deities, their origins, careers, and their miracles and supernatural powers during the campaign of Duke Fa against King Zhou. During the struggle, both sides called upon Heaven, who in response sent mythological deities [i.e., not deified humans] to take part in the clashes and battles.\n\nThe major hero of the forces of Duke Fa was his prime minister, Jiang Ziya, who was eventually responsible for handing out honours deifying the human heroes of both sides, with both the victors and the conquered being awarded posts in the Celestial hierarchy. Images of many of these heroes can still be seen on altars, deities in their own right, with responsibility for specific roles as gods of wealth or health or as patron deities. These deified heroes are possibly best thought of as 'human' deities in comparison with the mythological orthodox Daoist and Buddhist deities of the Creation and pre-history, a number of whom also took part in the fictional conflict. It has provided a standardisation of myths and legends woven into a continuous story which has, since its compilation, been the main spring of Chinese popular knowledge about the celestial and Underworld deities. A great many deities were familiar before this work was written, and the problem, therefore, has been well-nigh impossible, of determining how much of the work was original and how much was grafted in from earlier legends.\n\nChinese histories describing the fall of the Shang are far from clear. It was the era when the Chinese in the Yellow River basin were emerging from the mists of pre-history. Dates vary from 1050 BC to 1120 and 1127 BC, but one scenario is well known to the Chinese man in the street, the final act. The Shang was ruled by a degenerate, Zhou Xin [also known as Zhou Wang], whose army was defeated in battle on the Muye plain before the Shang capital. The victor was Duke Fa [Ji Fa], who founded...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215060, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "113\n\nTHE CELESTIAL MINISTRY OF TIME\n\n太歲\n\nKEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH\n\nIntroduction\n\nBelief in a Celestial bureaucracy was universal throughout China, particularly within peasant and the less literate urban communities and it is still believed in by devotees not only within China itself but also in Taiwan and the Chinese communities throughout South-east Asia. The Celestial bureaucracy is headed by the Ruler of Heaven, the Jade Emperor, with the various functions of the officials of the celestial departments being performed within the confines of numerous ministries, though possibly the former term of boards might be better, ranging from the Ministries of Water, Finance and Literature to the Ministry of Public Works, each with the aim of protecting or doing good for mankind. One such ministry is the Ministry or Board of Time.\n\nTaisui\n\nThe President of the Celestial Ministry of Time, the deity Taisui is possibly better known in English as the Ruler of the Year and the God of the Sexagenary Cycle. He is generally thought of as the Supreme Ruler of the Year and of the Seasons. He is one of the fiercest gods in the pantheon who must be placated whenever ground is disturbed for any reason, and is well known as the deity who strikes down any who offend him. In popular belief he is thought of as demonic and, if not regularly placated, he is at least to be avoided. His cult is comparatively commonplace, though the manifold forms it takes in temples throughout China, as well as the disparate names and titles of members of the Ministry, make an interesting picture. Taisui is not only the President but is also the name of the Ministry itself.\n\nIt is accepted by most Chinese that a number of factors control human lives; these include geomancy and astrology. Geomancy, in Chinese fengshui, concerns location whilst astrology is concerned with the auspicious or inauspicious nature of dates and times, and involving the stellar deity Taisui in particular.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215072, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "125\n\nthe death of his mother who had been defenestrated on orders from her husband, King Zhou, as punishment for bearing such a 'monster.' Yin Jiao was determined to destroy not only his father but also the Imperial Concubine, Da Ji, the Nine-tailed Fox Spirit and current royal favourite who had caused the death of Yin's mother by her calumnies. Yin was presented with two magic weapons by the Goddess Tian Fei, a gold club and a battle-axe, and after the final great battle between the forces of the declining, sinister and corrupt Shang dynasty and the victorious future Zhou dynasty at Wan Xian Chen, Yin Jiao fought first on the side of his father, King Zhou. Later, after switching sides and fighting for the good King Wu, he was unfortunately decapitated by a general during the battles having been sandwiched by the Buddha Randeng between two mountains. He was deified during the general deification at the end of the war by Jiang Ziya, the future Prime Minister of the new dynasty, on the authority of the Jade Emperor. Yin Jiao, at the end of the novel, having been sent by Heaven to bring dread calamity down on to King Zhou because of his blasphemies and evil ways, volunteered to be the executioner of his father and his father's concubine, Da Ji. He was proclaimed Prince Jingming and was rewarded by the Jade Emperor for his bravery and filial piety with the titles of Taisui, Marshal Yin and with the presidency of the Ministry of Time. In the novel, the full title of Yin Jiao, the younger son of the evil King Zhou of the Shang dynasty, is Dou Lei Taisui Yin Yuanshuai.\n\nRC\n\nand as one of the Twenty-four Heavenly Lords he is also referred to as Yin the Heavenly Lord (Yin Tianjun).\n\nAn entirely different story is given in another novel, the Shenyi Jing which tells of Jin Chong, the son of Pan Gu the creator of the world, who lived in the mountains of Shandong province. Jin was canonised as Taisui by Fu Xi, a primeval ruler and sage, the first of the three emperors of the legendary period, for his many good deeds and was made responsible to Heaven for supervising the activities of all the spirits and demons. Few Chinese would appear to know this story.\n\nDoré, who refers to Taisui as the Patron of the Harvests, explains that Yin Jiao's baby name whilst living with He Xiangu was Jin Nazha. This adds further confusion to the legends surrounding Li Nazha [the Third Prince - San Taizi], a very popular deity who appears with great frequency in Chinese legends and fairy tales.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]