[
    {
        "id": 208334,
        "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": 58,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "42\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nIn addition there were scraps of cotton, threads, one or two grains of rice, a tiny sac of cotton cloth stuffed with more cotton and several beads and slivers of mica. There were also two dried sea-horses* in the image dedicated in 1871 though there were no signs of any other remains. The strips of paper are not all that usual and are rarely found in Southern Chinese images. Precis translations of the six strips of paper are included later in this note.\n\nThe papers show that five of the seven images were dedicated and placed on altars in the County of Wu Kang (A) in South East Hunan, one hundred miles due north of Kweilin and three hundred and seventy-five miles NNW of Hong Kong, near the Hunanese boundaries with its neighbouring provinces of Kwangsi and Kweichow. The west and south-west of Hunan were not easily accessible until the 1930's due to the dangerous rapids in the upper reaches of the plentiful rivers. Then a system of highways opened up the area. Prior to that, apart from the occasional traveller, traders and, of course, the petty officials sent to such \"punishment\" posts, all that was known of the area came from tales passed on from mouth to mouth. Wu Kang is in rising country, on the edge of an area marked on old maps as the lands of the Thai minority peoples, the Ko Lao (z) and another larger minority people, the Miao (δ). The other two images come from Chi An prefecture () in Kiangsi province, some two hundred and eighty miles due east of Wu Kang. Chi An, an old walled city and a major centre on the north-flowing Kan Chiang, had closer cultural links with central rather than south China.\n\nThe first image (Plate 2), from Wu Kang and dedicated in 1756, is a household deity to protect the home and family and to bring blessings. The slip of paper relates that Worshipper Fu Shih-hsiang, together with his three sons and others from his family, all of Hsin Wu Chang Village, Yen Shan, Lung Chu district of Wu Kang county in Pao Ching prefecture (now Shao Yang), Hunan, on the 4th day of the 7th moon of the 20th year of Ch'ien Lung (1756), offered sacrifices to the gods at the City God temple in Shih Pei.† He also reported to them in writing that he and his whole family\n\n* Seahorses, found as far inland, would have a rarity value, though they are commonly used by Chinese herbalists & pharmacists.\n\n† Chinese characters are to be found on the illustrations of the slips of paper.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211065,
        "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-1987",
        "page_number": 126,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "THE BRITISH (PROTESTANT) CEMETERY AT SAN PEDRO, MAKATI, MANILA, PHILIPPINES\n\nDAVID W MAHONEY\n\n101\n\nIn the Eternal Lawn section of the Manila Memorial Park at Paranaque, a Southern suburb of the Philippine capital, Manila, in the shade of a Candelnut tree, wafted by the fragrance of a nearby Frangipani, lie all that is left of the British (Protestant) Cemetery of Manila. (See Plates 17 and 18 at rear of this Volume).\n\nAs the simple granite memorial stone announces \"Here lie the remains of those who were buried in the Protestant Cemetery at San Pedro, Makati between the years 1863-1968”. Well, that's the end of the story, what about the rest?\n\nThe first British contact with the Philippines is said to have been the visit of the “SEAHORSE” to Manila in 1644, but trade could not proceed due to a blockade by the Dutch. The first British people started to come to the islands in the early eighteenth century and established trading links selling textiles (chiefly cotton) and buying silver, pearls, skins, leather, tobacco, sugar and even horses. Trade prospered between the Philippines and Mexico and particularly with China — mostly through English merchants so that the Islands were described as an “Anglo-Chinese Colony flying the Spanish flag\". As many of those involved in trade also had connections with India, it was inevitable that the country which had been ruled by the Spanish since 1565 would come to the attention of the British military. Sure enough in 1762 an expedition under Col. Draper was launched from Madras and captured Manila after a two-week campaign. (Incidentally, Col. Monson, the Second-in-Command is buried in the South Park St. Cemetery in Calcutta.)\n\nAlthough this campaign has been written about extensively, it is still worthy of further investigation. — What happened to the graves of the eight hundred or so who were killed, drowned in the landing during a typhoon or died of disease? No physical evidence\n\nDavid W. Mahoney is a Chartered Surveyor working for Swire Properties Ltd., and has lived in Hong Kong since 1964.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
        "rank": 0
    }
]