[ { "id": 204251, "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": 19, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n16\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nChristian centuries of the new states of South-east Asia, formed under Indian influence in Indo-China, Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula.\n\nDuring the Middle Ages the navigation of the Southern Seas was in the hands of the Arabs. But after the rounding of the Cape, direct contact between Europe and the East by sea was restored. It was mainly by the sea-route that India, China, and South-east Asia became known to modern Europe. In this the Portuguese navigators played an all-important part. Passing over the rivalries of the Western nations we come to the days of the East India Company.\n\nIn India the Moghul empire had reached its height, fine examples of its art remaining in the Moghul architecture of Pakistan and North-west India, and Moghul miniature painting. But with the Moghul Moslem law had come to India, and it was soon recognized by the East India Company that the study of Moslem languages was necessary for the government of India. So Islamics now became part of the study of India as of Persia.\n\nIn 1783 Sir William Jones, a brilliant linguist who had mastered Persian and Arabic during his student days in England, was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal. In 1784 he proposed the forming of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and became its first President. Becoming aware of the importance of Sanskrit, he became the founder of Sanskrit studies in the West. In accordance with Warren Hastings' decision in 1776 that Indians should be ruled by their own laws, he undertook the immense task of compiling a complete digest of Moslem and Hindu law, a task which he left unfinished at his death eleven years later.\n\nIt was from India that the Western study of Tibet commenced, initiated by Catholic missionaries, of whom the most eminent was Desideri who lived for many years in the great Sera monastery at Lhasa, and wrote the first comprehensive account of Tibet.\n\nMeantime the Jesuit missionaries had proceeded eastwards in the wake of the Portuguese to Malacca, Macau and Japan. It was from Macau that Matthew Ricci entered China in 1580 and in course of time reached Peking, where a beginning was made in the study of the Chinese Classics and Histories, which led to the first real knowledge of Chinese civilization in the West. It was now realized that the 'China' at the end of the sea-route was the same as Marco Polo's 'Cathay'.\n\nAt the beginning of the nineteenth century modern Sinology commenced with Robert Morrison at Canton, and continued with a number of able scholars, too numerous to mention here, of whom James Legge with his translation of the Chinese Classics into", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205323, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "78\n\nFRANK, H. A.\n\nL. G. AIJMER\n\n1925 Roving through Southern China, (New York and London, The Century Company).\n\nFREEDMAN, M.\n\n1958 Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 18, (London, The Athlone Press).\n\n1966 Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung, London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 33, (London, The Athlone Press).\n\n1967 Personal Communication, 2. 1. 1967.\n\nGROVES, R. G.\n\n1965a Report of Field Work in Hong Kong, London-Cornell Project, mimeographed.\n\n1965b 'The Origins of Two Market Towns in the New Territories', Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories, (Hong Kong, Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch) n.d.\n\nHAYES, J. W.\n\n1962 'The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 2.\n\n1966 'Old British Kowloon', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 6.\n\nHong Kong 1963\n\n1964 Hong Kong. Report for the Year 1963, (Hong Kong, Government Printer).\n\nHong Kong 1964\n\n1965 Hong Kong, Report for the Year 1964, (Hong Kong, Government Printer).\n\nHSU, F. L. K.\n\n1945 'Influence of South-seas Emigration on Certain Chinese Provinces', Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. v.\n\nHUI KIM-BING\n\n1963 'The Lion Rock and the Deserting of the Coastal Strip and Subsequent Re-occupation of the Region during Early Manchu Rule' Hong Kong and its External Communications Before 1842, Lo Hsiang-lin (ed.), (Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture).\n\nINGRAMS, H.\n\n1952 Hong Kong. (London, H.M.S.O.)\n\nIZIKOWITZ, K. G.\n\n1963 'Expansion', Folk, Vol. 5.\n\nKUO SHOU-HUA\n\n1964 (Chinese Article), English title: History of Hakka Chinese, 4th edn., Taipei.\n\nLEE, R. H.\n\n1960 The Chinese in the United States of America, (Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press).\n\nLockhart Report\n\n1899 'Extracts from a Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong', Government Notification No. 204, The Hongkong Government Gazette, Vol. xlv.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205401, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "156\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nADDITIONAL NOTE to the above, kindly supplied by Professor LO Hsiang-lin, Professor of Chinese, University of Hong Kong, at Professor Goodrich's suggestion and the Hon. Editor's request.\n\nProfessor Lo writes:\n\n“I am pleased to provide a note on Tu, Fan and the Superintendent of Inland Seas, Chief military commissioner, installed as Ting-hai General. I regret that I have not been able to identify the other two persons, namely Hsiao Li-jen and Su.\n\nTu, Fan and the Superintendent of Inland Seas also appeared on the inscription of the cannon constructed in June 1650, discovered in 1956, for which I have written a short treatise entitled \"Researches on a Cannon made in the Fourth Year of the Yung-li Period of the Southern Ming (1650 A.D.), in Hong Kong”, (in Chinese) Ta-hsüeh Sheng-huo★ Vol. II, No. 10 (January 1957). For detailed information the reader may refer to my treatise on the cannon discovered earlier.\n\nTU, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF KWANGTUNG AND KWANGSI ✯t, who re- 1648 and offered\n\nTu can be identified as Tu Yung-ho † †¤, a follower of the Governor of Kwangtung. Li Cheng-tung volted against the Ch'ing dynasty in Canton in his allegiance to the Emperor Yung-li (Chu Yu-lang *. formerly prince of Kuei) of the Southern Ming dynasty. When Li Cheng-tung died in the following year, the Ming emperor appointed Tu as Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi with his head-office at Canton. Thereupon Tu took up the responsibility of leading his men in their fight against the army and fleet sent by the Ch'ing government to crush the revolt. The Ch'ing general Shang K'o-hsi laid siege to Canton in February of the fourth year of Yung-li (1650). To check the enemy's advance, Tu used the two forts built by Li Ch'eng-tung which stretched out into the sea outside the city of Canton. However an officer under Tu conspired with the Ch'ing army and assisted the latter to land on December 2nd. The forts fell into the hands of the Ch'ing army and the city met the same fate. Tu and his fleet consisting of several hundred vessels made their escape through the sea route and headed for Kiungchow ] (the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205402, "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": 164, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n157\n\nisland of Hainan). An account of the historical episode mentioned above is given in Yang Lu-yung *, San-fan Chi-shih Pên-mo *, Chüan 3, The entry on the Southern Expedition of the Imperial Army; and in Wan Jui-lin *, Nan-chiang Yi-shih 40#, Chüan 4 (A brief account of the history of the Kwangtung Province), the Prince Yung Ming, Part One (edited by Li Yao 李瑤).\n\nAs the date of construction of this cannon was 26th September, 1650, it must have been cast for the express purpose of fighting the Ch'ing army during the siege of Canton.\n\nFAN, REGIONAL COMMANDER OF GUARDIAN OF THE IMPERIAL HEIR(?) KWANGTUNG\n\nAND\n\nFan's full name was Fan Ch'êng-ên ✯✯&. He was the traitor who conspired with the Ch'ing army during the siege of Canton. He caused the leakage in the embankments so that the Ch'ing army was able to land by stepping on floating logs and eventually took over the forts at Canton. When Shang K'o-hsi entered the city of Canton, Fan went up to surrender to him. See Yang Lu-yung, op. cit. and Wan Jui-lin, op. cit.\n\nWU, SUPERINTENDENT OF INLAND SEAS, CHIEF MILITARY COMMISSIONER, INSTALLED(?) AS TING-HAI GENERAL.\n\nWu may be a mistranscription of hsi, which together with yin Ep, signify the official credentials. In my opinion these titles of Superintendent of Inland Seas, Chief Military Commissioner installed as Ting-hai General do not refer to any particular person but were given to the cannon itself. It was the custom in the Ming dynasty to confer the title of 'ta chiang-chün' (the great general) on a new type of cannon called the fo-lang-chi (Franks) which the Chinese had learnt to manufacture in the sixteenth century. (See Chang Ting-yu 張廷玉, Ming Shih 明史, Chüan 92, military affairs, section 4). This tradition persisted in the Ch'ing dynasty and the fo-lang-chi type of cannon was invariably called 'The great general'. (See Ch'ing Wên-hsien T'ung-kao 清文獻通考, Chüan 194, military affairs, section 16.) This cannon constructed by Tu must have been cast according to the fo-lang-chi type. It is natural therefore that this cannon would have been conferred with the titles mentioned in the inscription.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205947, "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": 27, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "22\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nLibrary of Peiping reported on its copy of the local history of Shao-hsing-fu, Chekiang (YLTT ch. 7963). One must also mention the excellent use made by Professor Jao Tsung-i of chüan 11,907 (preserved in Peking) in his article on \"Some place-names in the South Seas in the Yung-lo ta-tien.\"8 Finally, because everyone is interested in Marco Polo and the authenticity of his record of travel, let us mention the discovery in chüan 19,418 of the YLTT by two Chinese scholars of the names of the three envoys from the Mongol court of Persia who were dispatched in 1290 to Kubilai in Cambaluc to convey the Lady Kukachin (Marco's Cocachin) to Tabriz to become the bride of Argon. Their names, rendered in Chinese transcription, correspond fairly closely with those preserved in Marco's account. His name and the names of his father and uncle, unfortunately, were not considered of sufficient importance to receive mention. Hopefully we may expect more enlightenment on China's past as these rare volumes are further explored.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 For example, Leonard Aurousseau in Bull. de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient XII: 9 (1912), and both Walter Swingle and Arthur W. Hummel in Reports of the Library of Congress, 1922-23, 1935-36, 1940, etc.\n\n2 Wang Chung-min1 has recently identified 246 of these individuals, including the three principals, in an article entitled \"Yung-lo ta-tien tsuan-hsiu jen k'ao,”†^#, Wên-shih★★ 4 (June 1965), 17 ff. (Mrs. Lienche Tu Fang kindly drew this to my attention.)\n\n3 Bull. de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient IX (1909), 828, n.3.\n\n4 Communication to the author, dated 15th Oct., 1969, from the curator, D. Zichy.\n\n5 I owe this to Mrs. Delano Young (née Yang Chin-yi) who received the information from a member of the staff of the Library.\n\n6 Extracts of books were distributed under different tone groups.\n\n7 A Study of Chiang-su and Che-chiang gazetteers of the Ming Dynasty (Canberra 1969), p. 5.\n\n8 Symposium on Historical, Archaeological and Linguistic Studies of Southern China, South-east Asia, and the Hong Kong Region (Hong Kong 1967), 191-7.\n\n9 Yang Chih-chiu and Ho Yung-chi, \"Marco Polo quits China,\" Harvard Jo. of Asiatic Studies IX (1945), 51. See also Yule-Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo (London 1903), I, p. 32.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206650, "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-1972", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "192\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nof insufficient fire wood, he stuck his foot in the stove, and the flame shot up cooking the food in but a few moments. The second is no less than Li T'ieh Kuai (*), one of the Eight Immortals. One of the stories told about him is that, when he was young and very poor, his mother ordered him to go into the hills every day to collect wood but he was never able to collect more than sufficient for one day. When it rained they had none. His aunt cursed him and said they would use his legs as fuel. Now Li T'ieh Kuai had learnt some tricks from the Immortals in the hills and stuck his foot into the fire which blazed up much more brightly. His aunt shouted that she was only joking and pulled his foot from the fire. Because of this the bottom part of his leg fell off and became poisoned. The story ends by his aunt using the burnt-off leg to bank up the cinders!\n\nConclusion\n\nAlthough this Fukienese local deity is mostly to be seen, as is to be expected, in those areas of Taiwan and South East Asia where Fukienese immigrants from An Ch'i, Ying Ch'üan and the immediate surrounding areas are to be found, he is also to be found in Hainanese, Ch'aochow and Cantonese temples in South East Asia; where presumably this cult has been adopted by the other immigrant groups who wished to take advantage of his power.\n\nTai Pao(*)\n\nOne image likely to be confused with Fa Chu Kung is Tai Pao. Tai Pao is the monk Sha (*) who usually wears a necklet or waistband of skulls, but in many temples these have been lost and the black, unkempt figure of Tai Pao at first glance can easily be confused with Fa Chu Kung.\n\nTHE CULT OF THE EUNUCH ADMIRAL CHENG HO\n\nA deified hero and a Taoist Saint\n\nBackground\n\nThe intercourse between China and the West under the widespread rule of the Mongols lapsed with their withdrawal into Central Asia. The Ming dynasty emperor Yung Lo made great efforts to re-open trade routes and to expand the much diminished foreign trade by despatching between the years 1405 and 1431 A.D. seven major expeditions to the Southern Seas, commanded by eunuchs", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206651, "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-1972", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n193\n\nfrom the Imperial Palace. These Chinese expeditions sailed as far afield as the coast of East Africa, the Maldive Islands, Mogadishu, the Persian Gulf, Aden and Mecca, Siam, Champa, Java, Sumatra and Malacca, visiting more than thirty countries in South East Asia, the Indian Archipelago and the Indian Ocean.\n\nCheng Ho\n\nThe most famous of the admirals to command these expeditions was Ma Cheng-ho, a eunuch from the Imperial Palace and the son of a Chinese Moslem Hadji from Yunnan. The Admiral is remembered either as Cheng Ho or by his title, San Po Kung (2) and not by his family name which was the common Chinese Moslem name Ma ( ). The full title by which he was known after his death was San Pao T'ai Chien (2), the Three Jewelled Eunuch, but this in South East Asia has been shortened to San Pao Kung (ET). Cheng Ho's last expedition in 1430 visited seventeen countries from which tribute had ceased to be received, but after he died in about 1431 all official intercourse between these countries and China ceased.*\n\nWhere or when he was deified is not known. However, amongst the overseas Chinese communities which are mentioned below Cheng Ho is still prayed to for protection, both in everyday life and on short journeys. In the earlier days of the Chinese migrations to South East Asia, he was prayed to by the junk crews of the southern maritime provinces of China and the South Seas. Cheng Ho himself on his voyages is said to have prayed to Tien Fei, the Heavenly Consort (kt), the Chinese seafarers' goddess, who is now normally called Ma Tsu or Tien Hou. What a good example of Chinese toleration Cheng Ho was: or perhaps a good example of the prudent Chinese who takes the opportunity not to offend, and also backs all horses. Here he is, a Mohamedan who prays to Tien Fei for protection and who during one of his voyages erects a tablet in honour of the local Buddha.\n\nImages of Cheng Ho\n\nStatues of Cheng Ho are to be seen in temples in Singapore; in Malaysia in Muar and Malacca; in Sarawak; in Semarang in Java,\n\nSee J. V. G. Mills' edited translation of Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan. The overall survey of the Ocean's Shores, Cambridge University Press for The Hakluyt Society, 1970.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208937, "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-1980", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SILK & SILVER: MACAU, MANILA TRADE\n\n67\n\naffairs clandestinely. This greatly encouraged them to develop autonomous merchant communities with what amounted to extra-territorial rights. The most important of these Chinese merchant communities at the end of the 15th century was in Malacca.\n\nShips went to and from Malacca as far as India and China, trading in a wide variety of Indian and Chinese goods which were exchanged for the products of the Indonesian islands. Malacca, the \"city made for merchandise\", was essentially an entrepôt the very existence of which depended upon its carrying trade. It had an excellent and easily defensible harbour, protected on either side by the narrow straits between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula and strategically placed, as Pires put it, at the end of one monsoon and the beginning of others. When Afonso de Albuquerque captured Goa in 1510 he was quick to see that Malacca's unrivalled position as an emporium and as a centre for the dissemination of Islam in South East Asia made it essential that he gain control of it also. He could thus fulfil Portuguese obligations to the Holy See and acquire a base for their commercial activities in the archipelago, in particular the carrying trade in spices and other precious goods from Indonesia to Goa and Lisbon in which the Portuguese sought to gain a share, if not a monopoly.\n\nAt the other end of the maritime area with which we are here concerned was another important trading centre. This was the Ryukyu Islands. The inhabitants of these islands, known to the Europeans as Lequeos or Loochoos, were actively engaged in the carrying trade between the northern and southern parts of the area from the 13th to the mid 16th century. The islanders carried to the south Chinese porcelain, silks and other textiles, metal goods and drugs, Japanese weapons and armour, lacquer and gold, all of which they exchanged for spices, aromatic woods, dyewoods and exotic beasts and birds from the Indonesian archipelago — goods that they could sell in China for several hundred times the buying price.2\n\nTechnically this trade with China remained an imperial monopoly and was carried out under the pretence of tribute. As Ming seapower dwindled and piracy in the China Seas accordingly grew, and as the Portuguese extended their trading activities in the years following their conquest of Malacca in 1511 into the Indonesian archipelago and beyond to the spice islands, to Timor and the Solor Islands, to Makassar and eventually to Macau—so the Ryukyu trade became increasingly circumscribed until it was con-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213065, "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-1993", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "114\n\nor a boil on her chest which other doctors had been unable to cure. The story adds that he was required to pass a test before he would be allowed to approach the empress. He was offered a silken thread which had been tied to a column in the hall [or on the knob of a door] but behind a screen and was then asked to take the empress's pulse. It was the custom to take the pulse of ladies by remote means using a piece of thread tied to the wrist. Wu correctly diagnosed that the thread was tied to a column [by the pulse of the dragon in the stone] and not the empress's wrist as he had been told it was. They next tied the silk to the paw of a kitten and again Wu was able to identify the pulse as non-human, and it was only then that he was allowed to treat the empress. Having cured her illness the emperor asked what reward Wu would like and, so legend claims, he requested an old set of the emperor's cast off clothes. After his death Wu was deified by the emperor as Pao-sheng Ta-ti, alluding, so it is said, to him being dressed in the emperor's cast off robes. A caretaker at his cult centre added that as Wu wore the emperor's clothes in life and was buried in them he had command over minor deities and even some of the major ones such as Lei Kung, the god of thunder.\n\nA strange tale recounted by a temple keeper in Jakarta claimed that Pao-sheng Ta-ti appeared to a Sung emperor in a dream and informed him that he, Pao-sheng Ta-ti, was an incarnation of the Yellow Emperor [Huang Ti] and bore the same surname as the emperor of the Sung, Chao. Therefore, so the story concluded, Pao-sheng Ta-ti was regarded as the imperial ancestor and his special protective deity.\n\nHis cult, first established at the Lung-chiu An, a monastery not far from Amoy, and later at the Tzu-chi Kung in Lung-hai [Pai-chiao], was carried by immigrants through the ports of T'ung-an, Amoy and Hai-ch'eng to the southern seas. The oldest image of Pao-sheng Ta-ti in Taiwan is probably in Hsueh-chia in Tainan county where it is said to have been brought over to Taiwan from the mainland by Koxinga.\n\nSome indication of his popularity as a doctor deity in Taiwan is manifest by his presence as the major deity in at least 160 temples on the island, dedicated to him, predominantly in the areas of Tainan and Yunlin, with a great many more as the main deity on a side altar of other temples. A noticeable increase in shrines dedicated to him occurred after the great plague swept Taiwan in 1699 killing large numbers of new immigrants. It was believed that an image of Pao-sheng Ta-ti brought over from Fukien,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215118, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "171\n\ninto Tainan and nearby Yenshui to purchase building materials. After one deal had been completed in a timber yard in Tainan the shop owner, intending to show the old man the best way out of town, came out of his shop to find that the old man had completely disappeared. A short while later the Spirit showed himself more frequently in several nearby towns where, as carts were not available, he employed some sixty people with bamboos to transport stone to the temple site. One stone merchant promised a pair of sculpted stone lions when the task of transporting the stone was finished and was amazed by the speed with which the sixty people managed to complete the task and then realised that they were spirit-labourers.\n\nThe spirit of General Lei again revisited the temple during the invasion of Taiwan by the Japanese in 1895 when he turned peas into soldiers. He gave orders through the temple's divination blocks for three baskets of peas and one basket of hemp-seed to be thrown into the open court in front of the temple. On the following morning all the peas and hemp-seed had disappeared, replaced by red-coated soldiers some three foot tall standing on the tops of trees or on the tips of bamboo canes. These undertook the defence of the town which suffered no damage nor anyone injury from the Japanese.\n\nAlthough many of his devotees believe that he is the General Lei revered elsewhere as the spirit of Lei Wanchun, a subordinate of Zhang Shun, his image in their temple depicts him as a standard soldier, sitting, dressed in armour and with a long black beard. He has no unique characteristics such as gold spots, and is prayed to not only for protection but also for general benefits [Photograph 9]. Until 1915 General Lei was the sole deity on the temple altar. However, that year following a long drought devotees decided to introduce the image of Qingshui Cushi on to the altar to be prayed to for rain. Almost immediately the drought was broken and the image of Qingshui Cushi then became the main deity on the altar. Again, in 1924, after devotees wished to test the power of General Lei following complaints from devotees that his power was waning, it was proved through extensive tests that General Lei was as powerful a spirit as ever though by that time an image of another Wangye, that of Li Wangye, a local Pestilence Wangye1 had also been added to the altar.\n\nWen Yüan-shuai, a deity noted on temple altars across southern China from Zhejiang to Sichuan, has been identified by some religious specialists as Wen Qiong or . Wen was the Vanguard General", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215328, "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-2001", "page_number": 105, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "53\n\nby the Hainanese and especially those from the Hainanese county of Wanning where he is primarily prayed to by the sick. He is claimed to be extremely efficacious and able to cure or heal any sickness or injury. He usually sends his Black or White Horse Generals to help devotees and only leaves the Heavens himself for very important cases. His image has only been seen in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Borneo, Bangkok and Phnom Penh where his festival is generally celebrated on the 15th of the fifth lunar month. However, he must never be prayed to for prosperity.\n\nTwo entirely different legends describe the origins of this deity, one more popular in Singapore and southern Malaysia, and the other in Thailand and Cambodia. In neither is the Marquis identified by name and he therefore remains unidentified.\n\nHe is also referred to as:\n\nthe Lord of the Seas, Wenzhou Haizhu Houwang\n\nTongzhu Houwang The Marquis Lord of the Aboriginal People\n\nShanqin Houwang The Imperial Marquis of the Mountains\n\nThe first legend claims that a petty king in China was waved by an individual who, in the city of Wenzhou on the coast of Zhejiang province, north of and nearly opposite the island of Taiwan, was awarded the title of Marquis. This happened a long, long time ago. The ruler of Hainan, as a separate state, so the legend continued, had an image of the Marquis brought to the island of Hainan and placed in a specially built temple where he has been worshipped ever since.\n\nThe second story relates that the Marquis was, variously, a Ming governor of Hainan island or a minister of an ancient dynasty against whom, through jealousy, evil ministers plotted. They killed him and threw his body into the sea where it turned into a log and floated away. A fisherman found it, realised that it had spiritual properties and so carved it into a statue which he revered and quickly became wealthy,\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215332, "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-2001", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "57\n\nnot orthodox spirits shen\n\nbut dark spirits. Yinshen, the ghosts of those who have died a violent death before their due date.\n\nChinese usually describe this group, in English, as the 108 Martyrs. They are never portrayed as images and tend to be regarded more as public worthies, folk hero \"ethnic group\" ancestors rather than deities. The tablet is very similar to the ancestral tablet and simply states that it is the 'Tablet to the One Hundred and Eight Brothers'. It is venerated and although the spirits of the brothers are occasionally asked for advice by devotees they are not usually prayed to for major requests or protection, although in Java in one temple the tablet was prayed to by seafarers before they set out on a long journey. Their festival, simple and not in any way lavish, is generally celebrated on the 15th day of the tenth lunar month, though in Singapore it is held on the 3rd of the eighth lunar month.\n\nThe question is, who were the One Hundred and Eight Brothers? Three separate versions of the story of their demise have each been recounted with great solemnity, conviction and confidence by temple keepers in Java, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and even in a Chinese temple in Bali. In Penang the story centres on a junk-load of Hainanese immigrants heading for South-east Asia which never arrived. One version claims that they were mistaken for pirates and wiped out by the 'French' [sic] navy off Annam or the 'British' off Malaya again having been mistaken for pirates. Another version suggests that they were all drowned during a typhoon off the southern tip of what is now Vietnam, and yet another that they were annihilated by Chinese government forces off the Leizhou peninsular immediately north of Hainan when, again, they were mistaken for pirates.12 The third story is that they were the original immigrants from Fujian province who arrived in Hainan to settle but all died in Hainan from disease or at the hands of the aborigines. A twist to the version heard in Penang claimed that the typhoon which sank the junk in the South China Seas drowned all but one of the one hundred and nine aboard, one small boy being saved after days of drifting on wreckage. He then died in Malaya at a ripe old age.\n\n12\n\nOne hundred and eight is a secret symbolic number used by secret societies, and one of the Triad gangs in British Malaya was known as the 'One Hundred and Eight Society.' with a devotee in Seremban", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215562, "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-2001", "page_number": 339, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "289\n\nIn 1888 the Chinese and Hong Kong Governments reached agreement. Gap Rock Lighthouse would be built by the British and maintained by them. The island remained Chinese territory not to be used for any other purpose. On the Chinese part, the Kowloon Customs was to contribute $7,500 towards the initial cost of the light and $750 annually towards its maintenance.22 The agreement was not put into effect. Towards the close of the nineteenth century, however, the proposal for lighthouses at the two main approaches to Hong Kong, on Gap Rock and Waglan Island, was revived. The previous agreement was then implemented.\n\nIn 1891 a lighthouse was built on Gap Rock, at the south-western extremity of Lema and Kypong Islands. Lighting equipment was constructed in Sweden and the light was first shown in April 1892. Three years later the lantern was smashed by a severe typhoon. According to experts' opinions later the lighthouse should have been built on the northern part instead of the southern part of the rock. But to rebuild it would cost somewhere near $140,000. So, the original light continued to function usefully through forty years of typhoons until the Japanese invasion in 1941.\n\nGap Rock is in the form of two hillocks, about 80 to 100 feet high, and the gap between gave the place its name (in Chinese it is called Man Mei Chau, meaning the last island or Mosquito Tail Island). The lighthouse tower is nearly 50 feet high, and the light is thus about 142 feet above mean sea level. In heavy storms seas broke right over the lighthouse but it stood, as a tribute to its builders and a pointer to the developments which have marked the growth of the port of Hong Kong.23\n\nWaglan Lighthouse\n\nUnlike Gap Rock Lighthouse, Waglan Lighthouse has a different history. It was constructed by a Paris company for the Chinese Customs Light Department of the Imperial Maritime Customs in 1893. It started to operate on 9th May in the same year. It was run by the Chinese Maritime Customs from Shanghai. Following the lease of the New Territories by Britain, in 1898, it was transferred to the administration and control of the Hong Kong Government on 1st January 1901.\n\nWaglan was a First Order light of 45,000 candle-power burning", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]