[
    {
        "id": 204276,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1961",
        "page_number": 44,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n40\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nheroes have remained favourites.\" On the stage, a knight errant is easily distinguishable from a general: the former usually wears a short jacket and trousers and wields a sword or club, while the latter wears full armour with banners behind his back and uses a spear or halberd,\n\nWe now come to the last stages in the evolution of chivalric literature. In the Ming and Ch'ing periods, two notable trends developed in chivalric fiction. On the one hand, in some stories of chivalry, the supernatural element was increasingly emphasized, so that a type of knight with “flying swords\" and magic power became popular. On the other hand, some tales of knightly deeds became mixed with stories about “legal cases”, so that a new type of fiction, which may be called chivalric-romance-cum-detective-story, developed. An early example of the first type is a novel called The flying sword (Fei-chien chi), published in the Ming dynasty, about the Taoist immortal Lü Tung-pin and his acquisition of magic powers. Later examples are too numerous to mention. In fact, such stories are still being written now in Hong Kong. Sometimes they are presented in the form of comic strip cartoons, known as \"serial pictures\" (lien-huan t'u-hua), obtainable from small book stalls and pavement lending libraries. The second type, which combines tales of chivalry with detective stories, has also remained popular to the present day and is still being written. There is an interesting difference between this type of fiction and earlier tales of chivalry. In stories belonging to this type, the knights errant are usually on the right side of the law, instead of rebelling against it. For instance, in popular stories about Judge Pao, the Chinese Solomon, various knights errant help him in detecting crimes and arresting bandits and local bullies. Originally these stories about Judge Pao only dealt with crime and detection. They were first joined together and published as a novel entitled The cases of Judge Pao (Pao-kung an) about 1600. Later, the knights who helped Judge Pao assumed greater importance in these stories, which formed the basis of another novel, Three knights and five righteous men (San-hsia wu-yi), published in 1879. This was revised by Yu Yüeh and given the title Seven knights and five righteous men a few years later, and achieved great success. It was followed by a sequel, the Junior five righteous men (Hsiao wu-yi), and further supplements. Imitations also followed. Among these may be mentioned The cases of Judge Shih, first published in 1838, and The cases of Judge P'eng, first published about 1895. These were based vaguely on recent historical figures, and the knights errant in these novels were probably in\n\n24 Plays about the Shui-hu heroes have been collected by Fu Hsi-hua and Tu Ying-t'ao in Shui-hu hsi-ch'ü (Shanghai, vol. I, 1957; vol. II, 1958).\n\n25 Sun K'ai-ti, op. cit., p. 170.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210848,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1986",
        "page_number": 199,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "182 \n\nCARL SMITH \n\nthe opening of consular offices. A competent staff of translators and interpreters was needed. Qualified people were very scarce. A request was made to Mr. Brown to supply interpreters from his students. \n\nHe was most reluctant to interrupt the boys' education, but official pressure, reinforced by reference to the yearly Government grant the school received, was strong. He agreed to send Tong A-chick and Wong Tin-sau for a limited period. The latter had only been in the school for a few months, but was an advanced transfer pupil from Singapore. They were to serve for six months and then to return. \n\nThe boys proved invaluable. The British Consul, Mr. Balfour, reported to Mr. Brown that he was quite pleased with the reliability and the conduct of the boys. He had found them so useful that he was not willing to send them back after the agreed six months. \n\nWhen A-chick finally returned to Hongkong after serving for a year and a half in Shanghai, he brought a note from the consul giving a favourable account of his conduct and expressing the consul's obligation to the Morrison Education Society for the assistance of its pupils. \n\nA-chick's fellow student remained in Shanghai where he later met a tragic death during the uprising of the Small Sword Society. \n\nReturning to Hongkong in 1845, Tong A-chick resumed his studies. In November 1845, six essays written by members of the senior class of the Morrison Education Society School were published. One of these was entitled “Chinese Government.” \n\nThe essay appears to reflect impressions made upon A-chick in his post as interpreter, pointing out the injustice and corruption of late Ch'ing Dynasty. While critical of the malpractices, the author clearly described its administrative structure and procedure. \n\nThe Morrison Education Society School was closed in the spring of 1849. The students were distributed among other schools. Along with seven of his schoolmates, Tong A-chick con-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    }
]