[ { "id": 204509, "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-1962", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "126\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTHE SUNG WONG TOI INSCRIPTION\n\nIn the year 1277 A.D. Mongol troops overran the Canton area and the one but last Sung emperor, Ti Cheng, who was still a boy, took refuge in the neighbourhood of the present Kowloon City. In this area there was a small hill with a flat top and on this the followers of the boy emperor constructed a lookout, which afterwards became known as Sung Wong T’oi ('terrace of the Sung emperor') while the hill was called the 'Sacred Mount'.\n\nIn 1807 the three characters 宋皇台 (Sung-wong t'oi) were carved on a very large boulder on the Sacred Mount, and remained there until 1943 when the Japanese partially demolished the hill during their occupation of Hong Kong in order to make room for an extension to the airport. Eventually the inscription from the great rock of Sung Wong Toi was placed in its present position in the Sung Wong Toi Park which is off Sung Wong Toi Road near Kai Tak airport.\n\nThus this stone inscription has been preserved and provides a permanent reminder of Kowloon's association with the end of the Sung Dynasty.\n\nThere is a detailed account of these events written in Chinese by Mr. Lo Hsiang-lin ✯ of the Department of Oriental Studies in the University of Hong Kong which can be found in his book Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1959).\n\nJ. L. C-B.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205147, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "98\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\n43 Reichelt quotes a warning by the late Ming monk, Hsi-ming, against \"being deceived into joining the Catholic church or some other outside sect,” and states that it was often reprinted (Truth and Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai, 1927, pp. 157-158).\n\n44 It was in 1920 that Reichelt first proposed an \"institute for special work among the Buddhists.\" He wanted to make contact with monks whose hearts were filled with bitterness towards Christianity because some Christians were \"so fatally lacking in a sympathetic and gentle attitude towards others.\" It was to be \"a half-way house\" with many of the features of a Buddhist monastery, including a wandering monks' hall, a meditation hall, a bell tower, a crematorium, and a hall for the aged. See K. L. Reichelt, \"Special Work among Chinese Buddhists\" Chinese Recorder 51.7 (July 1920), 491-497. When it finally went into operation, under the name of the \"Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" in the autumn of 1922, it had only a \"very small, semi-foreign house.\" After a year and a half, it moved to somewhat larger quarters which included a dining room, where vegetarian meals were served, and the all-important \"pilgrims hall\" where monks were allowed to put up for three days (as they would be at a Buddhist temple) and stay longer if they were interested in serious study. The layout was \"just as in monasteries with two long platforms where they can spread their bedding, and, above them, shelves where they can place their things. Between the two platforms, there is an altar with an incense burner and two candlesticks and above all an impressive crucifix.\" Even more significant was the arrangement of the chapel, to which they were summoned for worship twice a day (as they would be in a monastery) by \"a Chinese bell with deep tones.\" The altar was of red lacquer \"in a true Chinese style,\" adorned with gilt designs that included the following: \"the lotus lily symbolizing the purity, the fire, and the water of the cleansing spirit” (but also, of course, symbolizing the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land), \"the swastika of peace and cosmic union\" (but also one of the Buddha's sacred marks and a general symbol for Buddhism), and the cross over a lotus, which was the Mission's emblem.\n\nJust as in a Chinese temple, plaques with parallel inscriptions were hung on the walls. One bore a quotation from the Gospel according to St. John: \"The true light that enlightens every man has come into the world.\" The other legend was more Buddhist in flavour than Christian: \"[Join in] the great vow compassionately to help people across to the other shore\" (ta-yüan tz'u-hang).\n\nThese efforts to make Buddhist monks feel at home attracted a large number of them as visitors (about a thousand annually) but in the first four and a half years of operation, only seventeen male Chinese were converted and baptized. See Notto Normann Thelle \"The Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" Chinese Recorder (September 1927), 571-575. A photograph of four of the Buddhist and Taoist novices, whom Thelle says were enrolled in the boys' school opened by the Mission, appears in the Chinese Recorder 54.11 (November 1923), facing p. 671. When the permanent headquarters of the Mission were constructed at Tao-fung Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong during the 1930s, the approximation of a Buddhist monastery became almost as close as Dr. Reichelt had originally envisaged it. Some missionaries were afraid that he was being too broad-minded in his use of Buddhist motifs and even that he might be fostering a kind of Buddho-Christian syncretism. He and his colleagues maintained, however, that their only purpose was to \"lead these people into a living faith in Jesus Christ.\" (Thelle, p. 571).\n\n45 Maha Bodhi, 41.3.4 (March-April 1933), 133,\n\n46 Most of the information on Chao-k'ung up to this point is taken from David Lampe and Laszlo Szenasi, The Self-made Villain, London, 1961.\n\n47 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1951, p. 47.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205271, "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-1967", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "26\n\nJEN YU-WEN\n\nout and the local people made facsimiles of the originals and preserved them from generation to generation in order to commemorate the glory of their ancestors. Moreover, in the Dragon Boat Festival (the 5th day of the 5th month) every year since then, they have placed the parasols on the racing boats, called huang-chou1 (Imperial boats). Before the boat race started, the gentry and elders of the villages used to kneel and kow-tow to the royal gifts to pay respect to the Sung Emperor. Sung Hsueh-p'eng says that the custom was perpetuated for many years.10 Less than a month after the landing of the royal party, the Dragon Boat Festival was observed. It can be imagined what a delightful day the boy Emperor Tuan Tsung (Shih) and his small brother Wei Wang (Ping) had in watching the races, along with the Queen Mother and many dignitaries, generals, and ministers, and, of course, the local people who were particularly happy to have such distinguished guests participating in their annual festival.\n\nIV. SUNG WONG TOI (Sung Huang Tai-Man)\n\nThe most important site which furnishes the key to our study of the Kuan-fu Travelling Palace of Southern Sung is a small mound near the seashore, north of Ma-tau-kok. It can be definitely located and is recorded in the Hsin-an Gazetteer, other literature, and maps. Besides, there were three Chinese characters engraved on one of the great rocks there, which many of us have seen with our own eyes.\n\nThe small mound was called Sacred Hill1 (see map). This name was probably given to it by the Hong Kong Government when it took over the territory in 1858, as no Chinese literature recorded such a name, and even Hong Kong people of the older generation, including Sung Hsueh-p'eng, did not know of it. On the top of the mound were two large rocks, one on the northern side, the other on the southern. The characters Sung Wong Toi1 were engraved on the western face of the northern rock in the Yuan Dynasty, long after the royal party departed from Kowloon and after the Mongols conquered the Southern Sung.\n\nThe characters were horizontally inscribed, being uniformly 20 inches in width and respectively 26, 22½, and 27 inches in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205273, "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-1967", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "28\n\nJEN YU-WEN\n\nIt is recalled that the area north of the Sacred Hill was known locally by the name of Chiao-pei-shih (Kau-pui-shek in Cantonese) (1). Chiao-pei, or more properly pei-chiao, means two pieces of wood carved in the shape of oyster shells which are used for the purpose of divination in worshipping idols. This has induced me to think that the Sacred Hill just to the south was originally named Chiao-pei-shih, for the two large rocks really looked like a pair of divining blocks.13\n\nOn 24th October, 1860, when the Peking Treaty was signed, the area south of Boundary Street in Kowloon was ceded to Great Britain, and on 19th January, 1861 was formally taken over by the Hong Kong Government. Since then the Government has taken a deep interest in, and made special efforts for, the preservation and protection of the Sung Wong Toi. In February, 1899, the Sung Wong Toi Reservation Ordinance* was enacted expressing the popular wish of the local residents to preserve this area as a public resort and to prohibit the leasing of any piece of land within it for constructing buildings or any other purpose. The Government also erected a small stone tablet at the foot of the Sacred Hill bearing the words \"Sung Wong Toi Reservation, Quarrying Absolutely Forbidden” and two lines of Chinese characters beneath. In 1915 Prof. Lai Chi-hsi (賴際熙), head of the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong, upon hearing that this area was to be sold by auction, appealed to the Government to be sure to reserve this area permanently. Mr. Li Sui-kam (李瑞金), a leading citizen of Hong Kong, lent his support and paid for the erection of an encircling stone balustrade.\n\nWhen the Japanese occupied the territory 1941-45, they levelled the Sacred Hill for the purpose of extending the Kai-tak Airport. They blasted the engraved rock which broke into three pieces. Fortunately one part retained the original inscription intact. After the Liberation in 1945 the Government held to its former desire to preserve this ancient monument. A small garden was created to the southwest of the airfield, about five hundred feet west of the original Sacred Hill across the Tam-kung Road. The section of engraved rock was trimmed into a rectangular shape and placed within the garden which was to be its permanent and suitable resting place. This, too, fulfilled the public wish. Work on the\n\n* On the initiative of Dr Ho Kai, later Sir Kai Ho Kai (1859-1914).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205277, "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-1967", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "32 \n\nJEN YU-WEN \n\nComparing this map with two others (Military Survey Map 1902-03, GS3749, and Map of Kowloon, 1960, Sheet 2) and checking it with my personal observation in the old and new roads around that area, I found that the original site of the village was directly west of the southern foot of the former Sacred Hill, about 1,200 ft. distant from it (see map). The northern tip of the Two Emperors' Palace Hill has been levelled leaving a high cliff there.16 As to the precise boundaries, population and number of houses in the former village, there is no way to ascertain this, although the military map of 1902-03 shows only a very small number of houses in comparison with other villages in Kowloon.\n\nVII, THE MA-TAU-WEI TEMPLE \n\nWe should note one more, the last, historical site in this area. It is the Ancient Temple of Shang-ti (Shang-ti Ku-miao1) situated on the western side of the present Lomond Road, behind the St. Theresa Hospital (see map). The original temple was near the former Ma-tau-wei Village directly east of the present site. When the villagers were evacuated by the government and the whole village was levelled to construct new roads and buildings in 1927-28, the temple was destroyed and a new temple was constructed at the present site.17 Later on, the new temple was also demolished but the stone gate was preserved, the name of the temple remaining.\n\nThe idol worshipped there represents the God of the Black (Northern) Heaven (Hsuan-t'ien Shang-ti✯AL) which is identical with the Northern God (Pei-ti). According to Chinese ancient mythology, North has been considered as the centre of water, symbolized by the colour black. Hence, it became the patron deity of the people living along the seacoast, and almost every coastal village had such a temple wherever there were fishermen or seafarers. There are still some temples of the Northern God in Kowloon and elsewhere. Some years ago the Hong Kong Government accepted my suggestion and preserved this stone gate. Moreover, the piece of ground was converted into a small garden. Mr. Jao Tsung-i of the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong was asked to prepare the Chinese text which is engraved on a tablet erected by the side of the gate. Work was completed in 1962.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205279, "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-1967", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "34 \n\nJEN YU-WEN \n\nregular) palace, tien, was for the Queen Mother Young and was called by the name of Ts'u-yuan Tien (18. \n\nIt is reasonable to imagine that when they arrived in Kowloon their manner of life was practically the same as later in Ya-shan. The royal party with their attendants and the generals and ministers with their families went ashore followed by a number of royal guards, while the rest of the one hundred thousand soldiers had to stay on the boats. I believe that the royal party, including the mother Queen, Tuan Tsung, his younger brother and their closest attendants, were welcomed by the Salt-field Administrator, who was the chief official of the area, and accommodated in the better and more permanent houses in Kuan-fu Tsai. It is said that at the foot of the Kuan-fu Tsai Hill there was a large, flat stone which the Queen Mother used as her dressing table and hence it was called the Queen Mother's Dressing Stone, wang-mu shu-chuang shih (14†). The others had to live in the several villages and houses and huts which were hurriedly built with whatever materials were available in the area, such as bamboo, wood, mud, straw, stones, etc. No magnificent and beautiful palaces or mansions could have been built, owing to lack of time they stayed for only two months and want of the better class of building material. Such temporary houses must have spread all over the area. \n\nA close scrutiny of the earlier government maps show that the terrain in this area was very suitable for habitation. There was a brook which ran south from the northern mountainous area. There was another one running east from the valley between the two pincers on the northern end of the Kuan-fu Mountain. The two brooks converged on the western side of the Sacred Hill to form the Ma-tau-ch'ung, (i.e. stream), which then flows into Kowloon Bay. Thus there was enough fresh water for drinking, cooking and other purposes for thousands of people. It was in this large plain that the Kuan-fu Travelling Palace of Southern Sung was located (see map). \n\nIX. THE REST OF THE ITINERARY \n\nHaving encamped at Kuan-fu for two months from the 4th to the 6th, being the summer of 1277, the royal party, now threatened by the advent of the Mongols, moved on by boat with all", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205458, "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-1967", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "宋官富行官遺址全圖\n\nTHE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG\n\nIN KOWLOON KUAN FU\n\nWITH\n\nL COMELLAN LIMETESTY\n\n(10)\n\nREFERENCES\n\nPERWER SEA\n\nPREDO SIA\n\nDECLAMER LÁNG\n\nFORMER VILLAGE\n\n$ CALE\n\nKECI\n\nPROPET NA JHOM\n\nPLAY GROUND\n\nLUNC\n\nTO KWA WAN VILLAGE\n\nLANDING MACE\n\nSACRED HILL\n\nSUNG WONG TOI ROCK\n\nXIAO Fur\n\nSHEK\n\nTAM KUNG VEH\n\nMA HILL\n\nKAM FOU VAN GRAVE\n\nTAU EHEME VILLAGE\n\nMA TAU KOM VILLAGE\n\nYI WONG TIEN VILLAGE\n\nYE WONG TIEN HILL\n\nKUAN MOUNTAIN\n\nMA TAU WEL VILLAGE\n\nSHANG-TI ANCIENT DEMONS\n\nWONG TEMPLE\n\nKOWLOON TSAL WALL CHT\n\nPAK HER SHANIYU SIN NGANJ\n\nHAU\n\nTI TARDEN\n\nIN COURTEST AN A NEW KING GOVERNMENT\n\n啟德機懾\n\nPLENARI JAD JA TAR\n\nAIKKA\n\nLOW.ALINAN FLARE FICU\n\nPlate 12. Map to illustrate Mr Jen Yu-wen's article \"The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung in Kowloon\" between pp. 21 & 38\n\n\"Romand Road\" to the immediate right of the number 12 above is taken from a Chinese-English map, and should read \"Lomond Road\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206082, "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-1970", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n157\n\nbegging bowl. However, since the first reference to Buddhist worship on the mountain occurs in 954, when an officer of the garrison called Ch'an carved a figure of Buddha which he put in a cave, we can assume that its Buddhist connotations were created by the Chinese soldiers. Before being a Buddhist hill it was made famous as a sacred spot by the visit of Han Yü, the famous Confucian scholar and one of the greatest names in Chinese literature.\n\nHan Yü was brought up in North China in the same region as Confucius, for whom he had the greatest veneration. He was a particularly intransigent type of philosopher who disliked all signs of mysticism. In 820 he attacked the Emperor for installing a relic of Buddha in the palace. \"I am not so naif as to think Your Majesty is deceived by Buddhism,\" he wrote. \"This ceremony is no more than a pageant got up to please the people, and how could your august wisdom deem it anything else?\" For these scathing remarks he was sent into exile to Chao Chou, which was then one of the most remote outposts of the T'ang Empire. On his way, whether coming or going, he passed by this region, and according to the Topography, \"ascended the mountain of T'un Mun and looked over the vast unfathomable ocean and the forests and waters and felt that it was indeed a sacred spot.” This local tradition is confirmed by a passage from one of his poems which describes a storm at sea with the lines:\n\n\"Tun Mun is a high mountain they say,\n\nBut even the waves swallow it up.\"\n\nHan Yü held an official post at Chao Chou. Although the place is outside our region it is worth while illustrating the conditions then prevailing in South China by quoting from his famous ‘Address to the Crocodiles.\" Han Yü was asked by the aborigines to drive away crocodiles by throwing charms into a river. His address to the crocodiles was thrown into the river by the chief of the garrison. Part of it reads as follows:\n\n\"If the crocodiles have any intelligence they should listen to the words of the prefect of Chao Chou. The great ocean spreads in the South. There live huge whales and monster birds, tiny shrimps and little crabs: all creatures find space and nourishment therein. If the crocodiles start in the morning they will reach the sea by nightfall. I conjure them, if they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206083, "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-1970", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "158 \n\nS. F. BALFOUR \n\nwant to avoid the mandatory officer of the Emperor, to betake their horrid presence to the South within three days. If they do not do so in three days, I shall wait five days. If they do not do so in five days I shall wait a week. If they do not do so in a week it will mean that they definitely refuse to go, and therefore that they do not recognise the prefect nor obey his words. In other words, they are so stupid and bestial that although their prefect speaks to them they neither listen nor understand. Now those who disregard the words of the mandatory officer of the Son of Heaven and who refuse to go away, and those who are too stupid to listen and harm the people deserve to be put to death. Therefore I, the prefect, shall select good archers among the soldiers and people who will use their bows and poisoned arrows to shoot the crocodiles until they are all dead. And let them not complain then, for it will be too late.” \n\nA year after, Han Yü was pardoned and allowed to return to North China. His passage in these parts was remembered by the first educated Chinese immigrants and Mount T'un Mun was provided with an inscription (§4§—)13 signed with his name which still stands on a rock at the summit in commemoration of his visit. \n\nDuring the period between the T'ang and Sung dynasties our region was governed from Canton by local kings who styled themselves emperors of the Southern Han dynasty. During this period one or two facts about this region are recorded. One is that in 969 Mount T'un Mun was named as a sacred mountain. The ceremony may have been conducted by the Emperor himself performing the sacrifice. From then onwards Mount T'un Mun was called Shing Shan or \"sacred hill.\" Its modern name of Ts'ing Shan or Green Hill dates from much later. Its Buddhist name is Pu Tu Shan. \n\nFrom another source we learn for the first time that pearl fishing was carried on in this region during the Southern Han dynasty. The text is a petition from a local Chinese of the Yüan dynasty to the Government saying that pearl fishing and the enslavement of the fishers was reviving in the Taipo Sea where it had not been practised since the Southern Han dynasty, and that a repetition of \n\n13 It was written by the ancestor of the Tang clan. See the next section.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206331, "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": 148, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "A BRIEF REPORT ON SUNG-TYPE POTTERY FINDS IN HONG KONG\n\nJ. C. Y. WATT*\n\nTHE SITES\n\nOver the past thirty years various pottery finds attributed to the Sung period have been made in many parts of Hong Kong. For the purpose of this paper, two representative sites will be described and the finds discussed. The sites are: the area of Kowloon City near the present Kai Tak Airport, and Nim Shu Wan on the eastern coast of Lantau Island, the largest of the islands of Hong Kong.\n\nKowloon City, formerly called Kuan-fu Chai, was the administrative centre of the salt-pans on the north coast of Kowloon Bay. These salt-pans were one of the chief official centres of production of salt in south China during the Southern Sung period2. The existence of the Kuan-fu salt-pans, which we know from historical records, is confirmed by an inscription written by one of the salt-officers, Yen I-chang, in 1274 and carved on a rock which still stands today. The rock is situated behind a Tien-hou temple in Joss House Bay. Kuan-fu Chai was also one of the stopping places of the fleeing court of the last princes of the Sung dynasty3.\n\nIt is not surprising that a site with so much connection with Sung history should yield archaeological finds of the Sung period. The first group of finds made in this area, which are still partially available for inspection and have a fair claim to be Sung, were unearthed intermittently from a small hill which used to be known as the Sacred Hill. This hill, on which stood the Sung Wang T'ai, the Sung Princes' Rock, was levelled during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War when the airfield was extended. When the hill was demolished a large quantity of pottery was unearthed, which consisted of celadons, green glazed\n\n*Mr. Watt is Assistant Curator, City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong. His note \"A Pair of Pottery Covered Jars found at Shek Pik, Lantau Island\" appeared in Vol. 9 (1969) of this Journal, pp. 161-163. This article is based on a paper presented by the author at the Manila Trade Pottery Seminar held in March, 1968.\n\nPlates 1-10 illustrate this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207794, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA\n\n167\n\ngorges are the Wushan, Witches' Mountain, and Windbox Gorges, which provide some of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring river scenery in the world. There are places where the river is only 150 yards wide, where the passenger on a steamer has the feeling that the almost sheer precipices actually overhang the river. The cliffs in Windbox Gorge are 700 feet high, and it was here that the record rise in the river level of 275 feet once took place.\n\nAbove Wanhsien the valley of the river opens out, and navigation to Chungking and beyond is comparatively simple. Until the Szechwan Steam Navigation Company's second steamer, Shuhun, went into service in 1914, steamers on the Yangtze, like junks, required trackers to pull them up the most powerful rapids, and a unique feature of the Upper Yangtze was the trackers' paths cut in the hillside thirty or forty feet above the river level. At these places junks were often lightened of their cargo and passengers before negotiating the rapid.\n\nIn the year after the Swinhoe expedition the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce supported another expedition up the Yangtze and into Szechwan by the famous German explorer Baron von Richthofen. His report on Szechwan is the most important until then, being the first to include an accurate description of the famous Red Basin of Chengtu, and its legendary irrigation system. This basin, with an area of some 3,500 square miles, is the only large area of level ground in the whole province, and has a population of about six million. Its remarkable fertility is due to the irrigation system introduced by Li Ping in the third century B.C. Li led the Min River through a hill and distributed its waters over the wide plain through a network of canals.\n\nOther notable journeys in Szechwan and West China between the late 1870s and early 1900s, included those of E.C. Baber and Sir Alexander Hosie of the China Consular Service, Archibald Little of Upper Yangtze fame, and A.E. Pratt, the zoologist. Pratt's travels lasted three years from 1887 to 1890. He built his own boat at Ichang to take him through the Gorges and past Chungking to Kiating, from where he journeyed overland to the sacred Mount Omei, over 11,000 feet high. Pratt's travels deserve to be better known, as they were the first in West China to be undertaken for purely scientific purposes. He blazed the trail for the later journeys of the botanists George Forrest, Kingdon Ward, and E.H. Wilson.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207811, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "184\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nare those that form a complete contrast with the classical structures of the first major Burmese capital. These are the 19th century temples in wood. The Shwenandaw was built by Thibaw in 1880, five years before he was taken away in captivity by the British and the kingdom ended. Most of the materials came from part of a palace occupied by King Mindon which was dismantled. The elaboration of the carving is overwhelming and one suspects that to like it, after the sober majesty of Pagan, is to border on bad taste. The Shweinbin to the south of the city is even more elaborate, and still being a very active monastery the monks' saffron robes form a strong contrast to the teak wood greying with age, sun and rain on the outside. Like all wooden buildings these temples are raised above the ground on pillars and the space beneath is used for storage.\n\nMandalay has few other temples of note; those on the hill are mostly modern, and the Kuthodaw near its base dates from 1857 and is more important for the 729 stone slabs containing all the Buddhist scriptures which King Mindon had made for the Fifth Synod. The authorized version of the Tripitaka was inscribed on the slabs, each beneath its own vaulted canopy. Atumashi was built in 1880 and resembles more an Italian palace, but as only the base remains after a fire in 1890 it is hard to judge fairly. The Mahamuni was rebuilt after a fire in the 19th century and is architecturally without interest. The gold-covered bronze image is much revered and seen at night with chanting monks and the faithful at its feet is impressive.\n\nThe most interesting thing in the temple, apart from the stalls lining the temple approach, are the six bronze figures in one of the adjacent buildings. They are two of men, one probably a warrior, three of lions, and one of a three-headed elephant (erewar) and are undoubtedly Khmer, possible of the 12th century. They were probably taken by the Siamese at the sack of Angkor in the 15th century and removed to Ayuthia. The Burmese king Bayinnaung took them from Ayuthia when he sacked the city in 1563 to the then capital at Pegu. King Rajagyi of Arakan took them as spoils of war from Pegu and they were taken from Arakan by Bodawpaya in 1784 to Mandalay.\n\nThe journey to Sagaing takes one past the numerous sites of the capitals of the Alaungpaya dynasty which estimated that a new centre would give a new direction to adverse fortune associated with the old. In this way Shwebo was capital from 1752 to 1765, Ava from 1765 to 1783, Amarapura from 1783 to 1823, Ava again", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207812, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Ancient Mon-Pagan, Peru & Nakorn Pathom\n\n185\n\nfrom 1823 to 1837, Amarapura once more from 1837 to 1857, and Mandalay from 1857 to 1885. Of Ava, which had also been the capital under another dynasty from 1636-1752, little remains; it is more famous now for the mile-long Ava bridge across the Irrawaddi, though U Bien's wooden bridge across the often dry Taungthaman lake, made from the timbers of the Ava palace, is more charming and evocative. This leads to the Kyauktawgyi pagoda of 1847, the principal interest of which is in the wall paintings similar to those in Siam of the same period. The Patotawgyi pagoda is not without interest, although it is essentially a stupa of later foundation (1820). The sacred hill of Sagaing, across the river, boasts no temples of great beauty, though the ensemble of the view from the top over the many spires and pagodas is delightful. The Kaunghmudaw pagoda, to the north of the town, is however unusual. It was built in 1636 in the shape of a gigantic almost spheroid dome, said to resemble a queen's breast. The shape is in fact Singalese, though one of the traditional attributes of Indic feminine beauty is perfectly rounded breasts. The stupa is also said to contain a tooth of the Buddha, and attracts many pilgrims to perform the pradakshina, the walking round the monument three times in a clockwise direction to obtain merit. The passage of the devotees at night was illuminated by a large number of upright pillars into which were inserted coconut oil lamps.\n\nMinggun, an afternoon's boat trip upriver from Mandalay, is well worth the journey. Clearly, Bodawpaya intended to make it his capital and he had a temporary residence there until he died in 1819. The base of the great unfinished pagoda is a witness to his folie de grandeur; the massive brick structure is on a 450-foot square and rises to 162 feet. It was abandoned even before it was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1838. Seen in the setting sun, the building impresses by its golden glow against the dark green foliage around. It has nearby a massive bell, said to be the largest ringing bell in the world, 12 feet high. To the north is the Hsinbyune pagoda built in 1816. It represents the Hindu-Buddhist cosmography; Mount Meru is symbolised by the central core containing a vaulted chamber for the Buddha, rising above the seven seas, represented by seven circular terraces with wave-like lines on their retaining walls. One has a fine view of the ensemble of Mingin from the Irrawaddi which for its size is a surprisingly empty river.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209966, "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-1983", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "203\n\nAnd like a brave and gallant soul he pleaded for the honour, To carry in the coming fight the Regimental Colour. Into his willing hands they gave the sacred trust;\n\nThat night the Colour still remained, but, he was as the dust. As Colour Serjeant Davison took the colour from the dead, Another well-aimed shot takes off the gilt spear-head. The first upon the hill was the gallant Lieutenant Butler, Who attacked, and took a Flag from a Chinese soldier; The Standard-bearer falls but we preserve the trophy, In Kendal Church it now hangs up, a record of our glory.\"\n\nThe colours, which fluttered in Hong Kong when the regiment was stationed here after the hostilities are also in urgent need of conservation.\n\nModern viewpoints have assessments of glory or otherwise which differ from those of the 1840s. But the banner in Kendal church is unique and it would be a tragedy if it were allowed to disintegrate. Lt. Colonel Ralph May, Curator of the Regimental Museum of the Border Regiment and Kings Own Royal Border Regiment, Queen Mary's Tower, The Castle, Carlisle, would be delighted to hear of any offers of help in preservation. Given the uniqueness of the banner and the circumstances of its seizure, is it too much to hope that the money to permit that preservation might be found in Hong Kong?\n\nNOTE\n\n1 The action in which the 55th gained the Imperial banner, and in which Ensign Duell was killed is described also in The Border Magazine, September 1955, pp. 178-179, and in the Historical Account of the 34th and 55th Regiments (publ. in the 1870s) pp. 78-79 (information by courtesy of The Curator, The Regimental Museum of the Border Regiment and the Kings Own Border Regiment).\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210292, "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-1984", "page_number": 263, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "242\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\nnese News (MA###); reports about the Ghost Festival in Kobe no longer emphasised the role of the Hokkienese. Thus, the secondary identification (identity of being a Chinese and/or of being a resident in Kobe) instead of the primary identification (identity of blood relation and/or of origins) became the central idea of the Festival. Thus the Festival is more inclusive now.\" The Festival, though including all elements of the secular world as well as the sacred world, stressed only ancestor-worship because only ancestor worship supercedes the boundaries of all social groupings and categories, eases the tension of group competition among the Chinese, and connects all social groupings and categories into one worshipping group which is based primarily on the relationship of the worshippers with Kobe, and secondarily on their territorial identity as Chinese.\n\nNOTES:\n\nThe original meaning of 'Yue Lan' is \"hanging upside down” (of the hungry ghost in Hell). However, during the festival, participants used terms like: Obon (Mah, Japanese term for the festival), Chung Yuan (†, middle of the year, which is a term mainly used by the taoists for the same event), and/or Kuai Chie (m, ghost festival). Some Cantonese even called it a Chiao (M) (simply meaning a festival dedicated to the Gods). Moreover, the documents used during the festival spoke of it as 'Pu Tu' (#), meaning general offering and place where spirits can cross over to this world, e.g. the papers that hung over the entrance of the Tao Ch'ang (entrance A) wrote \"The water and earth Pu Tu is held in this Tao Ch'ang' (*), at the entrance B, it was written 'the Great Occasion of Pu Tu' (E), the invitation card wrote \"the great meeting of Pu Tu' (#★#), and the same term was also used in the P'ang.\n\n1 See Kobe Kakyou Ho (#), no. 71, 1976.3.10. In 1974, there were 46944 Chinese in Japan. 8585 of them lived in Hyogo Prefecture of which 7071 were concentrated in Kobe city. The distribution of the origins of the Chinese in Hyogo Prefecture was as follow: Taiwan (41%), Cantonese (21%), Hokkien (11%), Kiangsu (11%), Shantong (5%), Chekiang (4%), others (7%).\n\nSee plan at the Appendix to this paper, and Plate 15.\n\nPlate 16.\n\n3 Plates 17, 18, 19.\n\n6\n\nSometimes informants called the paper-made houses \"Cho' () without distinguishing between the house for the 'Newly Dead', and that for the gods. Here, Ming-che is used for the house of the \"Newly Dead', and Cho for that of the gods.\n\n7 Plate 20.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210430, "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-1985", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "18\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nCemetery in 1889 is June 1841 and the latest date is January 1845.\n\nAfter the new cemetery was opened, the old was allowed to fall into neglect. An article in the China Mail of 23 November 1865 calls public attention to the desecration of the abandoned cemetery. \"Part of it”, the writer says, “has been cut away for building lots, where now stand some tenantless houses, and day after day headstones are stolen by the Chinese to be refaced and sold to some newly-made mourners”.\n\nThe remaining stones were removed in 1889 and the ground was sold for development. Upon a part of it Hong Kong's first electric power plant was built.\n\nThe new cemetery at Happy Valley\n\nA large tract of land on the hill on the west side of Happy Valley was designated in 1845 as cemeteries for Protestants and Roman Catholics. St. Michael Cemetery, administered by the Roman Catholic Church, lies to the north of the Colonial Cemetery.\n\nIn the same year that the cemetery was opened a mortuary chapel was built. The cemetery was placed under the charge of the Colonial Chaplain, who kept a register of burials. Maintenance costs were borne by the Government as a part of the Ecclesiastical Establishment. The first burial record book begins in 1853 with grave number 807. By the end of the century the cemetery was placed under the jurisdiction of the newly created Sanitary Board.\n\nThere were complaints about the state of the cemetery in 1865. An article in the China Mail (23 November 1865) stated that it was nearly full. At the time there had been some 3,100 burials. The writer expressed the hope that \"Happy Valley will ever be sacred to the dead, and that we never again behold in Hong Kong a graveyard desecrated and as filled as was that to the south of Queen's Road East by St. Francis Hospital\". He made some suggestions \"so that the Happy Valley Cemetery be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213279, "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-1994", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "81\n\nThe vegetation on the Peak corresponds to the fung shui woods (where stillborn babies are sometimes buried) positioned at the rear of traditional, symmetrical New Territories' villages. In addition to acting as, so called, 'green dragons', untouched shelter belts and firebreaks, these fung shui groves, which may house a temple or a shrine, are considered almost sacred. These woods also act as barriers against malevolent forces. They are the homes of spirits and gods and are considered essential for the wellbeing of a village.\n\nThere are well over 300 fung shui woods in Hong Kong (Webb, 1995:44), and, although the largest covers as many as 14 hectares they average two hectares each. Historically, they provide materials for culinary, medicinal, ceremonial and structural use, if, for instance, a length of timber is required for repairs to the temple, or bamboo carrying poles are needed for weddings or funerals. Banyans, heung (incense) trees, camphor, bamboo, rose-apple, longan, lychee, mango and breadfruit, some of which play important parts in Chinese folk religion, are common in fung shui coppices. One of the best examples of a fung shui wood is in Shing Mun Country Park, at the north end of Jubilee Reservoir. This wood is reputed to be around 400 years old (Dudgeon, 1994:73).\n\nA well-sited village is not only protected from the elements, such as typhoons, heatwaves and pollution, by fung shui groves. Such a site is also sheltered by hills and spurs. In turn, graves are situated out of sight on a hill behind the village. And so, as is written in Ecclesiastes 1,4:\n\nOne generation goeth and another generation cometh\n\nthe earth abideth for ever\n\nBut sacred woods are not just found in Chinese communities. In India, Nepal, Bhutan and Japan, as well as in various parts of Europe, people have their groves where religious ceremonies are performed. The druids in ancient Britain, who were also bards and soothsayers, had sacred woods. Oaks in Sherwood and other forests were the abodes of spirits. The fruit of the oak, the acorn, was also sacred. So was the mistletoe.\n\nBut even in Hong Kong views can change and modernisation can take its toll. In the mid-1990s, a venerable fung shui banyan in a Lantau village was felled merely to improve television reception.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213618, "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-1995", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "187\n\nTWO GROUPS OF CHINESE DEITIES RARELY SEEN ON CHINESE ALTARS\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nImages of Chinese deities on altars either stand alone, with their aides and assistants where applicable, or in groups of two, three, five, eight, ten, eighteen as dictated by their legend or custom. There are many such groups, most of which are to be seen on a number of temples. However, two groups, though quite frequently referred to in scripture and legend have only been noted once. The first, the Six Patriarchs of Buddhism, stand on three altars, side by side, in a secondary hall of a popular religion temple run by Ch'aochou devotees in Chonburi, a city just south of Bangkok. The second, the Taoist Seven True Ones (of the Northern School), the disciples, enlightened ones, of Wang Chung-yang can be seen in a separate side hall dedicated to them of a temple at the base of Hua Shan in Shensi province.\n\nThe Patriarchs of Buddhism, Tsu\n\nThere are two separate groups of Buddhist patriarchs, those of the West, that is, with Indian and Hindu origins, and those of the East, that is, Chinese. Indian patriarchs of Western Buddhism totalled twenty-eight, a few of whom were still revered in mainland Chinese temples during the earlier part of this century.\n\nThe Chinese patriarchs of Eastern Buddhism, a total of six, the Tung-tsu Liu(1), belong to a relatively late stage in the development of Buddhism in China of which one, the last and Sixth, Liu Tsu, is still regarded as a major deity in his own right by the Cantonese. However, images of Liu Tsu, together with the other five Patriarchs are to be seen in Chonburi, in a large combined Buddhist-Taoist temple.\n\nThe first patriarch of Chinese Buddhism is Bodhidharma who was also the 28th and last Patriarch of Indian Buddhism. He left India when already an old man and in about AD 520 after travelling for about three years he reached Canton bringing with him the sacred alms bowl of the Indian Patriarchate. He died some ten years later and, according to different schools of thought, is buried either near Loyang or near...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214178, "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": 36, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY HONG KONG BRANCH HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1998/1999\n\nAs of 1 March 1999, the library collection had increased to 3,704 volumes. A total of 275 volumes were added during the year. Donations of books were received from Mrs. Barbara Baker, the estate of the late Mr. Christopher D'Almada, Mrs. Valery Garrett, Dr. James Hayes, Peter and Rosemary Lee, Mr. John MacKenzie, and Ms. Margaret Moore.\n\nThe addition of several collections to the RAS Library is worth mentioning. Mrs. Valery Garrett managed to obtain some nineteen old and valuable books from the Hong Kong Club, with the help of Mr. John MacKenzie, for HK$20 each. Two big boxes of Arts of Asia magazines dating from 1972 - 1993 were donated from the estate of the late Mr. Christopher D'Almada. Mr. Geoffrey Roper recommended three fascinating books relating to the Ningbo visit: The Five Sacred Mountains and Sacred Buddhist Lands compiled by the Hong Kong China Tourism Press, and Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China edited by Susan Naquin and Chun-fang Yu. Peter and Rosemary Lee also donated four videos: Minorities of Guizhou and To the Roof of the World via the Backdoor, to the RAS Library.\n\nThe digital project of mounting RAS journal content pages and full-text articles on the HKU Libraries Web server for wider access was discussed and decided not to be feasible. There was major concern on copyright. Consent of each author in writing is required prior to mounting his/her article on the Web and it is difficult to trace them all. Easy access to full-text articles on the Web may also result in the reduction of sales and a subsequent decrease in revenue from sales of the Journal.\n\nThe latest news on the opening of the new Hong Kong Central Library at Moreton Terrace in Causeway Bay is that the City Hall Reference Library will be relocated to the Central Reference Library around the end of 2000. To provide more convenient access to the RAS Collection, there is consideration that the Collection, as with other special collections, will be searchable via the on-line catalogue as a separate subset.\n\nXXXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214232, "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": 90, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "53\n\nderstood that all twenty-eight of the deities in the hall were followers or disciples of the Kuan Yin with the Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes.\n\nThe twenty-eight images in the Bodhisattva Hall of second temple, the Pi-yun Ssu, (apart from the main deity Kuan Yin), fall into three categories: four bodhisattvas [P'u Hsien, Wen Shu, Ta Shih Chih and Ti-tsang Wang - but not including the main deity, the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin]; seventeen deities with Sanskrit titles [including four T’ien-wang Guardians] and three Chinese native folk religion deities.\n\nThe monks also explained that a stream which ran through the area had attracted imperial favour and several temples had been sited and built by palace eunuchs to enable the emperors to relax during the summer heat or visit the nearby shrines of deities of longevity and prosperity. Amongst these were the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yün Ssu. They also understood that when the decision was taken to set up the images in the Hall each image was specially constructed and given a name or title all in accordance with Buddhist sacred writings.\n\nHowever, these two temples in the Western Hills are not quite unique in that a further 28 deities can be seen in a cave-tunnel in a comparatively modern temple near Taipei in Taiwan, each labelled with a Sinicised Sanskrit or pseudo-Sanskrit name, similar to the deities in the two temples in the Western Hills. Such alien names mean nothing to most Chinese.\n\nIn the Ta Hui Ssu X, a third temple, within the city of Peking, statues referred to in the temple as the Twenty-eight Protectors of the Buddhist Law line the flanking walls of the main hall. These too are very similar in style and appearance to the Twenty-eight Deva in the Ta Pei Ssu in the Eight Great Places and though not individually identified as such in the Ta Hui Ssu they are probably similar Deva.\n\nAccording to Soothill's Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms Deva is a general designation of the gods of Brahmanism, celestial beings whom he lists as the Twenty Deva [+]. The Sinicised Sanskrit titles of the deities seen in the two temples in the Western Hills, compared with the list of twenty in Soothill's dictionary, con-\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214253, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "74\n\nhim by priests he has been regarded by some foreigners as the patron deity of monks: he was and still is, however, the protector of the Buddhist Law before whom lots were drawn during the selection of the new abbot.\n\nSkanda, son of Shiva and brother of Ganesh [Tunhuang fresco] is a major protector, a destroyer of demons and a god of war, identical with Karttikaya.\n\nWei T'o in Japan is known as Idaten, whilst in Tibetan and Lamaist Buddhism he is known as Skanda: Wei T'o T'ien-shen ## [or in transliterated Chinese: Ssu-chien-t'o].\n\nAlthough the image in the Ta Pei Ssu is labelled in Chinese, Wei T'o; the well-produced and colourful Chinese guide to the Hall of the Bodhisattvas produced in Taiwan gives the title in Chinese as Wei T'o and in English as Skanda. Skanda according to Werner is the Hindu mythological god of war, usually known as Karttikaya. He is represented riding a peacock, holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other.\n\nHe has numerous appointments, all protective. Originally he was one of the Thirty-two Generals under the command of the Four Celestial Kings - Ssu Ta T'ien-wang (see 23 below). One such appointment is his rôle as Commander of the Heavenly Hosts, the head of the Heavenly Guard [one of the Twenty or Twenty-four Devas], the protective spirit or spirits of Buddhism and its sanctuaries. In the biographies of Hsüan Tsang, Wei T'o is described as the leader of all the kuei-shen [minor deities], and was charged by the Buddha who was at that moment on the point of entering Nirvana, with the protection of the Law.\n\nOfficially he is neither a Buddha nor a bodhisattva though commonly he is referred to as the latter and it is often claimed that for his zeal he was promoted to bodhisattva when he became the commander of the Four Diamond Kings [Chin-kang: see below]. His title would appear to be the Chinese form for the Sanskrit term \"Veda\", the body of sacred writings brought to India by invaders and from which Hinduism developed. However, it is generally said that his origin is uncertain even though, for example, Vitasoka, the younger brother of King Asoka", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214355, "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": 213, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "178\n\namends. King Wu also held an audience at which he announced that certain Daoists and generals who had bravely fought and died should be regarded as heroes and revered as such. At that point a number of Daoist mythological heroes stepped forward and declared that as they were uncultured, having lived in the mountains and countryside, they now wished to return to report to their masters. They added that they were unable to accept honours or rewards as they had simply followed the orders of their masters. All seven left the Court, and the following day after a feast, they were reluctantly permitted to leave by King Wu.\n\nMy daughter, a friend and I during a visit to Song Shan in Henan province, one of the Daoist holy mountains, came across a large modern temple which, as we approached its entrance, looked real enough until we came to enter it. There were several young women in a uniform of sorts knocking a badminton cock around to while away the hours and, of all things, a turnstile. We then saw the name of the temple was Fengshen Gong, the Palace of the Investiture of the Gods, and entered wide-eyed wondering what could possibly be inside.\n\nOnce inside we were taken by our guide down a short corridor and out into what proved to be a massive wax-works, images of scenes from the Fengshen Yanyi as well as images of the major local deity, the Lord of Zhong Yüeh, the Lord of the Central Peak [Song Shan]. The exhibition, we were informed, had been built by the Tourist Board of the local city, Deng Feng, for Chinese visitors. Well over 200 images, mostly static but with some dozen or so automatons, lined the winding path leading through the large exhibition hall. With a not too subtle gesture our guide switched each on and off until, apparently bored by her foreign guests who spent quite some time at each exhibit, she abandoned us and returned to her badminton. The place was deserted apart from four small boys who were delighted to be alone with us and took enormous pleasure in switching on and off the various exhibits for our benefit without any guide being there to chastise them.\n\nScenes included the wicked Zhou Wang ascending his throne; Na Zha, the Third Prince, Causing Trouble with the Dragon King; Duke Fa [King Wu] subjugating Zhou Wang; the Terrace of the Investiture on which Jiang Ziya is reading out the decree canonising the heroes, and the Five Sacred Ones returning to Heaven. Several of the automated exhibits had the small boys in fits of giggles; one in particular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214464, "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": 322, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "289\n\nand a dedication plaque from the Imperial court. This would not have been unusual for a Chinese general killed in action, but for a foreigner it was a great but much misunderstood honour. Missionaries in particular were indignant, and it was only very fortunate that the local peasantry did not take it to its normal and logical conclusion by placing an image of Ward on the altar, otherwise the missionaries would doubtless have forced the authorities to remove it.\n\nThe oral history related in 1993 by the curator of the History Department of Sungkiang county is insignificantly at variance with the story as related by Caleb Carr in his book The Devil Soldier published in 1991, which regrettably I did not come across until it appeared in paperback in 1995, two years after my visit to Sungkiang. Carr explains that the Japanese invaders had sacked Ward's shrine and Memorial Hall and defaced his grave in 1940. And in 1955, six years after the communists came to power, his remains were dug up and the gravesite and shrine were destroyed and paved over. He added that the whereabouts of Ward's bones today are unknown, and have almost certainly been destroyed.\n\nCarr's version is almost certainly accurate though Ward has not been forgotten in Sungkiang and local memory still has Ward's bones under the high altar of the Catholic church.\n\nAs an After Note readers might be interested in Franck's final paragraph providing his version of the end of Ward's natural successor, his second-in-command, Burgevine, who had been born in North Carolina in 1836.\n\n\"The southerner was overbearing and, there remains little doubt, dishonest and disloyal, and he was soon discharged by the financing merchants of Shanghai. He went over to the [Taiping] rebels and tried to get Gordon to join him and establish a new dynasty! But the staid Britisher seems to have had so little imagination in his make-up that he 'peached' on Burgevine instead. [The US] consul deported the Carolinian to Yokohama, but he came back to Amoy, 'got lickered up', and started to rejoin the rebels. He was captured by the Imperial Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214624, "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": 39, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "3\n\nsurvived until the coming of the Japanese, were built after the return of the Sub-Magistracy to Kowloon: they were completed in 1847. They may well, however, have been rebuilt on older foundations: the walled compound of 1293 and before may have stood here. From 1370 to 1841, Kowloon City usually had only a small military post (from 1682 to 1811 it had a unit of 10 soldiers, increased to 43 in the latter year, when a new fort was built on the sea-coast to guard the landing-place*).\n\nIt is conventionally useful to say \"Kowloon City\" as the site of these early yamens, and there can be no doubt that the yamen was at all dates between 200 BC and 1811 AD close to Kowloon City, but there is no certainty that it was at all dates immediately under the site of the later Kowloon Walled City. Between 1811 and 1847 the local garrison was, for instance, certainly centred on the fort by the sea-shore, not at the Kowloon City site some a quarter of a mile inland. Again, in the tenth century, the Nanhan pottery finds centre on the Sacred Hill (the hill was also known as the Hill of the Sung Princes, which is the more commonly used name today) about a quarter of a mile south of the Kowloon Walled City, and the Nanhan yamen may just possibly have been in this area: equally, this may have been a residential area for the salt-workers, with the yamen closer to Kowloon City. However, the salt-marshes which blocked access to the Kowloon Bay shore from the sea except in the immediate Kowloon City and Sacred Hill area make it certain that any yamen in the area must have been close to this vital landing-place, the only place where ships could come to land easily. Thus, there can be little doubt that the yamen, at all dates, was either at, or very close to, today's Kowloon City.\n\nThus, Kowloon City was a significant Imperial centre and garrison from, probably, about 200 BC, down to at least 1370, and continued to have a small garrison even after that date.\n\nThe presence of a Salt Monopoly centre in or near Kowloon City from 200BC did not, however, lead to civilian Han Chinese settlement in the area. In fact, it is likely that such settlement was banned for many centuries. The Salt Monopoly, in the interests of controlling salt-smuggling, wanted to have the areas around its salt-fields made Restricted Districts, banned to ordinary citizens of the Empire except with passes issued by the Salt Intendant. It is likely that, for almost a thousand years after the establishment of the salt-fields at Kowloon City,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214625, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "the whole area remained a Restricted District, and closed to civilian settlement.\n\nThe earliest civilian settlement in the area that we know of dates from the middle-late twelfth century. The Lam clan settled in this period at Po Kong, and, as will be discussed further below, the Chan clan settled in the Nga Tsin Wai area at about the same date. The foundation date of Ma Tau Wai is probably middle-late twelfth century as well. It is noticeable that the Salt Intendancy moved at precisely this period (1163) to Tip Fuk, in the still unsettled Mirs Bay area: it is likely that a decision to allow civil settlement around Kowloon City was coupled with a decision to keep the Restricted District in place around the Mirs Bay salt-fields, and to move the Salt Intendant's yamen into this still secure part of its old district.\n\nThe most significant event in the early history of the area was the visit to Kowloon City of the Sung boy-Emperor Ching and his brother Ping (himself Emperor from the Third Moon, 1278) in 1277. The boy-Emperor and his remnant Court were being pushed down to the south by the Mongol troops, and, from the 2nd Moon in 1277 until the final destruction of their forces and the death of the Emperor Ping in the 2nd Moon, 1279, they were unable to leave the area around the mouth of the Pearl River, which was all they were able to control. During this period they stayed at Kowloon for five months (4th to 9th Moons, 1277). It is likely that the Imperial family stayed in the Salt Intendant's yamen, but a wooden \"Travelling Palace\" was also built for the Court. This may well have been built at the site of the later village of Yi Wong Tin,\n\nE, \"Palace of the Two Kings\" - this name is clearly rather suggestive (this village stood under today's Tam Kung Road, near Mok Cheung Street). Yi Wong Tin village stood just below the Sacred Hill, which was crowned by the Sung Wong Toi Rock, which has commemorated the boy-Emperor's stay here since the Ming dynasty at least.\n\nThe presence of the Sung remnant Court for this period must have had major implications for the residents of the area, although it is difficult now to discover details. Many villages in the area (including Nga Tsin Wai) claim to have been founded by remnants of the Sung Court left behind when the Court moved away in late 1277, but in many cases (including Nga Tsin Wai) it can be shown that this is unlikely. One nineteenth century clan of Ma Tau Wai, indeed, the Chius, claimed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214676, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "55 years the Nga Tsin Wai villagers blamed on this act of disrespect to the Goddess: those disasters were massive and permanent.\n\nThese disasters stemmed from the coming of the Japanese. When the Japanese came, the squatters living on the Nga Tsin Wai fields all fled, or were forced, back to China, and the villagers started the slow job of rehabilitating their fields. Before this work was complete, however, the Japanese decided to extend the airfield at Kai Tak. The pre-War Airfield was very tiny, and built solely on a narrow strip of reclaimed land seaward of today's Prince Edward Road, extending not much further seaward than the Airport Terminal Building as it stood before 1998. The Japanese saw that this was totally inadequate. They decided both to reclaim a further strip out to sea, and to clear a large area inland. They closed the very narrow road which the British had built along the sea-coast (approximately along the line of today's Prince Edward Road). They diverted all the streams of the area into a single huge stone-lined nullah, and built a new road along the inner side of this nullah (today's Choi Hung Road). To prevent floods, they built the banks of this nullah high, so that Nga Tsin Wai found itself at a level some four or five feet below that of the new nullah banks. Everything within the huge semicircle thus formed they confiscated and cleared. Po Kong, Sha Tei Yuen, Kak Hang, Ma Tau Chung, Kau Pui Shek and Nga Yiu Tau villages, with about half of Tai Hom, were all destroyed in a matter of weeks. The Sacred Hill, with the Sung Wong Toi Rock, was blasted for fill for the new reclamation.\n\nThe Japanese paid no compensation for the land they confiscated. It was just taken, and a barbed-wire fence erected: anyone crossing this fence was executed. According to the Nga Tsin Wai villagers, the villagers of the destroyed villages were allowed to take part in a ballot for huts in the “Model Village” (). This had been built by the Japanese in the area between Lancashire Road and Renfrew Road in Kowloon Tong (this area had been cleared for development in the late 1930s, but was still empty when the Japanese came in 1941). The Japanese divided this area into a number of tiny patches. Those successful in the ballot were given one of these patches, and permitted to build on it a tiny one-room hut, and to use the rest of the patch for market gardening. Those who succeeded in getting a hut here mostly survived the War: those who failed mostly died. At best a half of the villagers whose houses were destroyed and whose fields were confiscated got", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214700, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "Live \n\nA Drawing of the Nga Tsin Wai Area From Sha Tin Pass, 1846 \n\nLt W. Collinson \n\n: \n\nMa Tau Kok \n\nThe Po Kong \n\nFeng Shui HIA \n\n\" \n\n(The Village is \n\nout of sight on the \n\nsteward side) \n\nFort of 1811 \n\nKowloon Market \n\nSha Po \n\nThe Sacred Hill!!! (Sung Wong To) \n\nKowloon City \n\n(The Wall were – \n\nbuilt in 1847) \n\nKak Hang Village \n\nFung Shai Trees \n\nNga Tsin Wai \n\nand its Mont \n\nTsim Sha Tsui \n\nMa Tau Wai Village \n\nTa Kwa Leng Village \n\nFung Shui Trees \n\nThe Kwun Yam Temple, \n\nTin Wan Shan \n\nFootpath \n\nto Sha Tin \n\n79", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214701, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "08\n\nMAP 1\n\nThe Kowloon City Area about 1905\n\nTai Wai\n\nChok Yoen\n\nSiu Lek Yuen\n\nTai Po\n\nDiamond Hill\n\nHau Wong\n\nTa Kwa Leng\n\n(Nga Yau Tau)\n\nHau Wong Temple\n\nKowloon City\n\nSai Tau Tsuen\n\nNga Trin Long\n\nKai\n\nKwy Lung\n\nPa Kong\n\nKak Hang\n\nNga Trin Wai\n\nKowloon Market\n\nKan Pui Shek\n\nTung Tau Tsuen\n\nSheung Hok Lo Tsuen\n\nPier\n\nWaste Land\n\nTai Hom Yuen\n\nLing Wai\n\nPing Yi Tsai Tau\n\nSha Tei Yuen\n\nKowloon Bay\n\nCustoms Pier\n\nSai Kung\n\nNgee Chi Wan\n\nPak Uk Tsuen\n\n(Ping Shek)\n\nLei Yue Mun\n\nShau Kei Wan\n\nTau\n\nNgan Kok Hill\n\nSham Shui Po\n\nTsuen Wan\n\nYau Ma Tei\n\nMa Tau Wai\n\nHau Pui Long\n\nYi Wong Tin\n\nTsim Sha Tsui\n\nSacred Hill (Sung Wong Toi)\n\nKilometres\n\nMa Tau Kok\n\nCoastline in 1905\n\nBuildings 1905\n\nFootpaths\n\nEdge of Hill\n\nMarshes\n\nKowloon Market", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215960, "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-2002", "page_number": 259, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "193\n\nruling authorities, including the emperor in the temples of the imperial college. Then very solemn ceremonies of reverence and adoration were performed, marking the Sage as the ultimate exemplar for all who aspired to any level of leadership within Chinese society.1\n\n18\n\nThe Poklo temple to Master Kong was, indeed, more impressive than those in nearby villages, such as the one at Lung Ch'un (literally, the \"River of the Dragon,\" M. Lóngchuān) also visited by Legge and others in 1861. There the temple had no images at all, but only the spirit tablet (shénpái) of the Sage along with a large plaque citing the sixteen maxims of the Sacred Edict (Shèngyù) of the Kangxi emperor (ruling from 1662-1722).19 Both temples at Poklo and Lung Ch'un were dwarfed by the massive grounds set aside to honour the sage in the capital city of Canton. There the image of the Sage was in a hall elevated from the grounds six to eight feet above the preceding courtyards, the roof made of \"those splendid burnished tiles\" constituting imperially-sponsored buildings, garnished with mystical beasts balancing on the upper beams. Seated on a large rock dais, the thick paper-maché-like image of Master Kong was taller and larger than life. Postured as if leaning over a tablet in his hands, the Sage appeared immersed in the study of the text before him.20\n\nHow Ch'ea came to take his place in this Confucian institutional and ritual system is never explained. Whether he had been a student at one time or not is also not made explicit, but he was able to read, and so had probably spent at least part of his youth as a student, one of large majority who had obviously not been elevated by successful results in the examination system. When the two colporteurs from Hong Kong met him, Ch'ea was already in his fifties, had been married, and had at least one son.21 Because no direct mention is made of Ch'ea's wife in any of the documentation after his conversion, there is the possibility that Ch'ea had become a widower even before the pair of colporteurs met him in Poklo.\n\nIf conversion is a multiform and processural event,22 then all of the above cultural, social, personal and religious factors have a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215992, "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-2002", "page_number": 291, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "225\n\nA recently prepared description of the area from local sources can be seen, along with fuller descriptions of this famous mountain and its history, in Bóluóxiàn zhì (The Gazette of Bóluó District) (Bóluó: Guangdong Provincial Cultural History Research Library, 1988), pp. 69-79, 325-329.\n\n16. These are drawn from Legge's notes in \"Journal of a Missionary Tour\" and materials from 19th century gazettes (fangzhi) from the Nanbai district of western Guangdong province.\n\nA description of the refurbishing and building up of the temple complex dedicated to Master Kong in Poklo, initiated in the seventh year of the Kangxi emperor (1668) is rehearsed in Bóluóxiàn zhì, pp. 315-316. In the third year of the Qiánlóng reign (1738) yellow tiles were added to the roof reflecting imperial honour and a decorative sign was added to the main temple, honouring Master Kong as one yǔ Tiān Dì gēn (“a Partner with Heaven and Earth\"), a phrase from the Zhongyong which Legge translated \"[Confucius] may with Heaven and Earth form a ternion\" (Ch. 22, CC1, p. 416). Three other similarly adulatory signs were added in the fourth year of the Jiaqing emperor (1800), during the Dàoguāng reign (1821-1850), and the second year of the Tongzhi reign (1863).\n\n17. See Chinese Classics, Volume 1 (CC1), prolegomena, pp. 112-127. The following footnote (p. 113) provides the necessary details for understanding the layout and furnishing of the \"temples (diàn) of Confucius\". [Transliterations replace characters in the original text, which can be looked up in the attached glossary. Here I use standard Pinyin for the sake of easier identification.]\n\nThe principal hall, called Dàchéng diàn, or 'Hall of the Great and Complete One,' is that in which is his own statue or the tablet of his spirit, having on each side of it, within a screen, the statues, or tablets, of his 'four Assessors.' On the east and west, along the walls of the same apartment, are the two xù, the places of the shí'èr zhé, or 'twelve Wise Ones,' those of his disciples, who, next to the 'Assessors,' are counted worthy of honour. Outside this apartment, and running in a line with the two xù, but along the external wall of the sacred inclosure, are the two wǔ, or side-galleries, which I have sometimes called the ranges of the outer court. In each there are sixty-four tablets of the disciples and other worthies, ... Behind this principal hall is the Chong shèng cídiàn, sacred to Confucius's ancestors, whose tables are in the centre, fronting the south, like that of Confucius....\n\nFrom a rubbing of a stele portraying the arrangement of the sacred tablets in the Beijing temple dedicated to Master Kong, it is seen that the \"four Assessors” are (from left to right when facing the Sage) Mèngzǐ (“Mencius,” c. 372 B.C. - c. 289 B.C.), Zēngzǐ (noted for his filial piety, 505 B.C. - 436 B.C.), Yánhuí (noted for his humane virtue, the Master's favourite student, 521 B.C. - 490 B.C.), and Zǐsī (a grandson of the Sage who edited and/or wrote the Zhongyóng, one of the four books Legge first called it the Doctrine of the Mean, but later gave it the more preferable title, the State of Equilibrium and Harmony (see CC1, p. 383).\n\n18. See Legge's descriptions of these ceremonies and some of their prayers to the Sage in CC1, prolegomena, pp. 91-93.\n\n19. According to the journal record, Legge and Ch'ea had preached in the grounds of the Confucian temple at Lung Ch'un on May 15, 1861.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216041, "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-2002", "page_number": 340, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "274\n\nThere also used to be an early Buddhist shrine dedicated to the former abbot of renown, Fa Hai, concealed in a cave on the hillock. In recent times the few foreign tourists visiting Zhenjiang have been perplexed by the description of Jin Shan being an island when it is so obviously part of the mainland. The reason is all too obvious. Alluvial silt left by the Yangzi floods down the past hundred and fifty years has not only completely joined the island to the mainland but also reclaimed part of the River, land now used for agriculture. 19th century western accounts of the town usually tended to begin with a description of the view from the Yangzi of the pagoda of the temple on the island of Jin Shan or, during the storming of the town by British forces in 1842, of troops being disembarked on the mainland across the strip of water at that time still separating Jin Shan from the mainland.\n\nAccording to Doré's description of the Jin Shan temple following his visit during the early days of the twentieth century, \"the visitor was confronted on entering with the Falstaffian figure of the Buddha Maitreya [Mile Fo], the Buddha of the Future, squatting in his turret as guardian of the precincts. Behind him opens out a vast vestibule at the sides of which are four gigantic statues - about fifteen feet in height - of the Four Heavenly Kings, Si Da Jingang, inner guardians of the monks and the monastery. Crossing the inner court, one entered the great Hall. On the altar were two Buddhist triads. Facing North are gigantic statues of Sakyamuni, Yao Shi Fo and Mile Fo, the Buddhas of the Present, Past and Future. Beside Sakyamuni in the centre, stand his two disciples, the old Kasyapa and the young Ananda. Right and left of the altar are the two guardians Li, the Pagoda-bearer and Wei Tuo. Facing South is the Triad San Da Shi: Guan Yin, Wen Shu and Pu Xian. Guan Yin rides over the waves on a sea monster; near by are the rocks of her sacred isle, Pu Tuo and, in between these, sundry immortals and Buddhas were housed. The Golden Boy, Shan Cai and the Naga Maiden, Long Nu are conventionally in attendance on Guan Yin whom the authorities in the temple recognise as formerly having been a god - not a goddess\".\n\nThe second large Hall was the Hall of the Yangzi Spirit, Jiang Shen [Spirit of the River]. Serving as a military barracks at the time of Doré's visit “it retained of its former glories only one ordinary-sized statue of the god, in a lateral niche, viz. a fish about three metres in length carved in wood with a copper plaque providing the honorific", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]