[ { "id": 206629, "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": 177, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n171\n\ndated either about the turn of the second millennium BC, or mid-eleventh century BC (ca. 1121 BC) about the same time as the Trojan wars. King Wu's victory is the theme of many Chinese legends and also forms the plot of the Deification of the Gods, which was recounted by story tellers the length and breadth of China. Woven into its historical background are a multitude of supernatural events involving the heroes before they were deified. They were divided into two forces: the benevolent under King Wu, and the malevolent under King Chou. The battle was fought with practically every form of weapon known to man and included the use of flame, gas and germ warfare, together with the conventional swords, spears and arrows.\n\nThis long Taoist novel is known, either in part or in whole, by the Chinese peasants, many of whom believe quite genuinely that the gods, both Taoist and Buddhist, were first deified at this juncture. It portrays many of the Buddhist and Taoist heroes, describing the events leading to their deification, and it played an important role in Chinese iconography, crystallising the beliefs and characteristics of the Chinese deities. Although several major characters link the events together and provide the thread for the story, most of the heroes appear only in one or two episodes.\n\nFrom this mixture of Buddhist and Taoist heroes in this fifteenth-century novel may have developed the practice of worshipping Taoist deities side by side with Buddhas and other Buddhist religious figures in Chinese temples; and in many a Chinese mind these Taoist mythological and folklore deities are inextricably involved with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.\n\nGENERAL YIN CH'IAO\n\nXHT\n\nThe President of the Ministry of Time and The Supreme Ruler of the Year and the Seasons.\n\nAlso known as T’AI SUI (★A)\n\nBackground\n\nIn the spirit world of Chinese folk religion, the Ministry of Time is ruled over by the deified hero, General or Marshal Yin Ch'iao, who bears the title T'ai Sui. He is a stellar deity particularly connected with the planet Jupiter, worshipped China-wide, and is said to be one of the fiercest gods in the pantheon who has to be placated if one is moving, building or when the ground is disturbed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206643, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n185\n\nthe newly dead. Mara has a cleft head, ear-pressing tufts and protruding eyes. His skirt can be made of leaves and on occasions he has a staff in his right hand.\n\nTHE CULT OF FA CHU KUNG\n\nBackground\n\nThe localised cult of Fa Chu Kung appears to have originated in the areas of An Chi and Ying Ch'uen in Fukien Province and has been carried by emigrants to their new homes in Taiwan and South East Asia. Fa Chu Kung is renowned amongst his devotees for his ability to cure any illness, and is believed to be capable of such potent magic that many Chinese are fearful even to mention his name. In addition it is claimed in some areas that he is able to cause and stop rain at will, and in one Cantonese temple in Kuala Lumpur he is specifically prayed to for confirmation that a marriage in process of being arranged will be successful. A Fukienese temple keeper in Singapore, who was not too fearful to discuss the deity, confided that Fa Chu Kung is the powerful leader of a large group of gods which includes the Northern Emperor Hsuan Tien Ta Ti and has very many disciples. He also claimed that Fa Chu Kung is able to transform himself into anyone or anything and that Chinese spirit mediums can only approach other gods through Fa Chu Kung. Therefore Fa Chu Kung's goodwill and agreement are always necessary before any petition or prayers may be offered to any god apart from the supreme deity, the Jade Emperor.\n\nRecognition Features\n\nFa Chu Kung is more often to be found as a minor deity on an altar dedicated to another god rather than the main deity on an altar or of a temple. His image is very easy to recognise. The basic recognition features are his shiny black face and body, his unkempt hair and slightly protruding eyes; his unsheathed sword is held at the ready in his right hand and a red snake curls round his neck and shoulders and over his left arm. His black feet are bare and are resting on fire wheels, and finally his left hand is making a magical sign. This is made by his whole left hand stretched forward at waist level and pointing vertically with his index and little finger; his thumb and the other two fingers are pressed to the palm. The whole hand is twisted to face the right. Most images have all these", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207263, "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-1975", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\n23\n\nweekday. His possessing spirit is the saintly monk Buddha Sha僧。\n\nThe third medium is also a Chiu-chow in his early 30's. He is employed as a performer in a Chiu-chow opera troupe and seldom appears at the temple except on major feast days, e.g. Chinese New Year. His possessing deity is the Supreme Buddha.\n\nThe medium \"in training” is a Chiu-chow in his early 20's who was until recently employed as a security guard at a local transportation facility. He now supports himself by odd jobs such as take-home piece work from local factories. His possessing deity is the mythical Monkey of Chinese legend.13\n\nIt is obvious that an individual kei tung's rank within the cult is not based on the relative position of their possessing deities within the Chinese pantheon. Rank is predicated on the kei tung's experience as a medium and degree of involvement in the affairs of the temple association. The mere fact that the cult master's possessing deities would be judged as relatively minor personages in the Chinese pantheon in no way affects his recognized position of dominance among the ritual specialists. His over twenty years of experience as a kei tung, and his role as one of the founding “19 Brothers\" of the temple association, render his position unassailable.\n\nMany elaborate ceremonies are conducted by Tai Wong Ye kei tung, the most ostentatious being those held during Chinese New Year and the Yu Laan or Hungry Ghost Festival. It is our contention, however, that the keystone of the cult's appeal as a religious centre lies in the simpler ritual held each evening at 10 p.m. It is that ritual which we will now discuss.\n\nTai Wong Ye Temple: The Possession Ritual\n\nEighty-seven years ago a Christian missionary in Amoy described a spirit possession ritual as follows:\n\n\"The graven idol can be seen sitting in the shrine, with its attendant figures by its side. The group of men that are chanting in a steady, monotonous voice charms that are supposed to bring the spirit are usually men of no reputation in the village. There is no scholar in his long role present, and no man of influence standing by to do honor to the idol. The men seem fit for scenes of darkness and remind one of Macbeth's witches making their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208340, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "48\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\ndecorated with a large dragon across her bosom, and the \"bird\" hat with its representation of a small bird, wings outstretched, lying on top. She holds a raised fly switch in her right hand and her girdle is grasped in her left hand (the latter pose is usually reserved for male images). She is seated on a dragon throne.\n\nPerhaps readers can offer their views on the use of impersonal images on family altars and further examples of the practice in other parts of China?*\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Lao Tzu—the philosopher generally believed to have founded Taoist philosophy.\n\n2 Erh Lang (#) often identified with Yang Chien (##) the nephew of the Jade Emperor, the supreme Taoist deity.\n\n3 The Five Thunder Magic () is used in Taoist folk religion as the ultimate threat; a magic of destruction brought about by Taoists against those who broke the rules or opposed the Taoists.\n\n4 Lei Kung (2) the God of Thunder.\n\n5 usually read Wei, is read Yu in this surname.\n\n6 The image of Kuan Ti, the God of Loyalty and one of the most popular of deities throughout China also contained a slip which noted that it had been dedicated in the autumn of 1789 in the same area in Wo Kang as the images in illustration 2 and 4. The slip tells us that Devotee Pan Mu-shih, together with his wife, two sons and two daughters-in-law offered sacrifices to the deities in the City God shrine in the local temple, reporting that he and his whole family had had the image of Kuan Ti carved by a scholar. This they respectfully presented to have its eyes opened before the Gods so that it would be able to rid their dwelling of evil spirits and bring them blessings. The latter part of the text on the slip says that, \"Your Honour Kuan Ti is the cleverest, most faithful and righteous in the world both past and present. You are a true spirit, a wonderful inspiration and have the ability to suppress demons. To show you our sincere respect we shall now dress you up, worship you every morning and evening with incense and further, offer you Spring and Autumn sacrifices each year....\n\n7 The provenance of three further images in the shipment, in better condition, is unclear though possibly they came from one of the areas in Hunan or Kiangsi from which the others originated. Of these three, two are versions of Yao Wang (1) the King of Doctors, who is easily recognisable by his tiger and dragon, one below and the other above him, and the small red pearl he holds aloft between his fingers. The third image is Yao Wang's aide, a middle-aged man standing carrying a herbalist's case slung over his shoulder and a furled umbrella in his hand.\n\n* Mr. Stevens has made a further discovery in the matter of ancestral images: see the Notes and Queries section at p. 206.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208732, "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-1979", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "162\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nare, of course, an enormous number of deities mentioned and described in Taoist ritual texts, of whom the common people do not even know the names. They belong to the esoteric tradition of Taoism and are only known to Taoist priests. But besides those, the majority of deities worshipped in the temples belong to the popular religion, although many border cases may exist of mutual absorption between the three traditional religions and the popular religion. Some of the most ‘popular' deities of Taiwan religion belong to the popular or community religion: examples are Matsu, Kuanti, the earth god(s), the Wang-Yeh gods, the city god(s), Prince Nat'o or T'ai-tzu, Pao-sheng ta-ti and even the so-called supreme god of Taoism, Yü-huang Ta-ti. A number of originally Taoist or Buddhist deities have been absorbed into the folk religion and have become part of it: Kuan-yin and Ti-tsang wang for the Buddhist side; the kitchen god, Yü-huang (Jade Emperor), the 8 Immortals for the Taoist side.\n\nAccording to the third criterium mentioned above, ownership of a temple, several categories exist greatly coinciding with the division based on the other two criteria. Temples may be government-owned (Confucian temples); owned by the local community on the neighborhood or town levels (these are the community temples); or privately owned, either by individuals, families, sectarian groups or monastic institutions.\n\nFinal sub-section of Chapter Three. After this long digression, I had better return to my book review. In this last part of Chapter Three the author discusses the 'genesis of temples'. Although strictly speaking there is a difference between temple and cult, between temple and deity worshipped in it, still the two should be discussed together. In fact there is a special chapter on the Genesis of Gods. However, since the author prefers to discuss the genesis of temples separately, we had better follow him. He distinguishes several ways of temple development:\n\n(A) by process of fen-shen or \"splitting bodies\" (p. 125). The reason of the spread and construction of new temples is the god's efficacy.\n\n(ii) by process of proselytization or a conscious effort on the part of the believers to spread the cult. This applies to Buddhist temples (and Christian churches).\n\n(iii) by transformation of a private home or temple into a community temple.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208772, "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-1979", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "202\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsister, now a spirit, had proffered good advice, he built a folk religion shrine in her honour. Her cult thrived, so much so that her image is revered by Ch'aochou emigrants in most areas of South Thailand and, so the story goes, also in Singapore and in Nakorn Sri Thammarat.\n\nThe Bangkok god carver claims that Miss Lin is the only Chinese deity with a special urn donated by the King of Thailand who is well known for his tolerance towards and encouragement for other religions. He is said to have bowed in her honour before her image which consists of a simple, seated country girl with bare feet and large hands, dressed in working clothes Plate 3. Her festival is celebrated in her temples each year on her birthday, the 15th of the first lunar month.\n\nHong Kong.\n\nMarch, 1980.\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nTHE TEMPLE OF THE SUPREME RULER,\n\nNEAR SUNG WONG TOI, KOWLOON*\n\nIn the thirteenth century A.D. the Southern Sung Emperor Tuen Chung was attacked by the Mongol Conquerors of the North. Driven from his provisional capital at Hang Chow, the Emperor retreated southwards through Fukien and on to Kwangtung province, stopping temporarily at more than 30 places on his way. Besides the well known Palace at Ngai Mun in the San Wui district of Kwangtung, that at Sau Shan by the Pearly River has been fully described in the Imperial Records which were published in the Yuen Dynasty. Such buildings provide evidence of the efforts of the Sung Emperor and his ministers to make that stand against their enemies which has long been cherished in the people's minds.\n\nIn the spring of 1277 during the second year of his reign, the Emperor left Kam Tsz Mun of Wai Chau district in Kwangtung and reached Mui Wai. In the fourth moon he arrived at Kwun Fu Cheung, a district which included present day Kowloon, the New\n\n*This heading and the following text are taken from a memorial tablet erected in the Urban Council's Rest Garden at Lomond Road, Kowloon, site of this former old temple. A Chinese tablet is also provided.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210416, "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": 23, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "BARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nfire. At first, thirty to forty came to seek cures, but after five months as many as fourteen thousand came each day and the Patriarch cured most of them. Among the more noted cases of cure was that of Li Tsung-yao (), brother of Li Tsung-jen (), the Vice-President of the Republic. Li Tsung-yao had an incurable disease. His intestines were exposed. Lo cured him completely, to the surprise of the then famous German physician called Otto, who pronounced the event as inexplicable.12\n\nThe message of this new god did not stop with curing. He demanded the establishment of an institution with a body of beliefs and a group of disciples. This he revealed on the eighth day of the first month (January 31, 1936). This god, who could not really be named, was provisionally called the Supreme Deityx), and the name of the new belief was called Tan Tse Tao () or the Revealed Truth.13 The Patriarch soon made a number of disciples who were endowed with healing powers equally with himself. Of these the most successful was Ms Liu Han-lien (劉漢廉女士). In 1936, that is, almost immediately after her initiation, she worked in Hui-chou () and Lung-kang Market() and cured over ten thousand sick people. In 1937, two other disciples, Li Han-kun () and Han-lun (), went to Hsin-hui (#) and cured over a thousand people there. Han-lin (***) and Han-ts'ai (#) worked in Wu-chou (梧州) and Han ch'üan (漢全) in Ts'ung-hua(從化).14\n\nThe Patriarch's work in Canton lasted only a few years. Eight months before Japanese soldiers marched into Canton, he was instructed by the Supreme Deity to come to Hong Kong and to establish his religion there. At first, with the help of Mr. Wong Yiu-tung, J.P. (), Lo set up his office at Tung-lu (). Shortly afterwards, he found a plot of land in Ping Shan in the New Territories and built his worshipping hall there where he continued the work of curing and converting disciples. He died in 1981 and his religion is actively carried on by his disciples.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210417, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "III. The Teaching\n\n16\n\nAside from direct communication with his disciples, the Patriarch's religious thoughts can be gathered from two books, T'ai-hsüan's Discourse on the Truth, T'ai-hsüan's Discourse on Various Topics, and a few essays. These do not form a systematic theology but only provide basic discussions of certain specific concepts. Hence only an outline of his teaching can be given. I shall group his teachings under a few topics:\n\ni. General purpose of the religion\n\nPerhaps the single passage which reveals the aim of Patriarch Lo's religion most simply is when he answers the question why the Supreme Deity revealed Himself. He says, \"(The Supreme Deity revealed Himself so that) 1. Man, knowing that the Supreme Deity exists in the Universe, dares not perform wrongful acts. 2. Human worries and sufferings may be abrogated. 3. By transmitting the method of cultivation, man may revert to Simplicity and return to the Truth. 4. Man may realize that he ought to accumulate good deeds and cultivate his person so that, while in this life, sufferings and worries may be reduced, and that, when he dies, he may return to the Supreme Being. 5. By revealing the method of curing and exorcism, man may be relieved from disease and attain longevity. 6. Man may have a clear idea of his destiny and not be confused.\"\n\nThis passage clearly states that human destiny is to return to the Supreme Being after death and that to achieve this two things are needed, to lead a moral life and to cultivate one's person according to the revealed method. In this life one may expect some assistance from the Supreme Being in the fight against disease and demons. Thus Patriarch Lo's thought contains the classic themes of religion. Each of the important concepts will be clarified below.\n\nii. Concept of the Supreme Deity\n\nThe Supreme Deity forms one of the most extensively discussed subjects in Lo's writing. First, the existence of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210418, "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": 25, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "6\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nSupreme Deity is most emphatically affirmed, and the basis of affirmation is the Patriarch's personal experience and communication with Him. One can experience the Supreme Deity because He has \"signs\" (hsiang). Yet, being transcendent, He is without form. That is why Lo says, \"God is formless but manifests himself in signs.\"19 Patriarch Lo is very much aware of the transcendent nature of the Supreme Deity. Words applicable to limited beings like existence, form, name, nature, desire, activity, like or dislike, speech, quantity are all inapplicable to Him.20 In this respect, Lo's struggle with a theological language is not unlike Lao Tzu's pithy pronouncements on the Being and Non-Being (yu, wu), or Medieval scholars' formulation of analogy or the Mutazilites' discussion of the names of Allah. In spite of the inadequacy of language when talking about the Supreme Deity, He is worthy of veneration and praise and the worshipper's sentiment overrules philosophical difficulties. A hymn of praise forms the very first passage of Lo's most important book, the T'ai-hsüan's Discourse on the Truth. \"(Oh Thou art) the most great and most venerable! Thou art the God above all gods, the origin of myriad beings. Thou art timeless, beginningless, endless. In Thee there is no mark of destination, no quantity, no form, or name. Thou art present everywhere and there is nothing Thou canst not do. With Thy assistance the heavens become pure, the earth obtains peace, the sun and moon become bright, gods and men become spiritual, the great way is born, the Universe becomes established. Oh, Thou art great and holy, the most great and most venerable! Thy honour is supreme. Thou art so great that no name is adequate.”21\n\nPatriarch Lo contrasts the Supreme Deity with other spirits and ghosts by saying that the former is the origin of myriad beings,22 whereas the other gods are merely certain spiritual essences of the Universe. In other words, he recognizes the vast difference between the Supreme Deity and other gods in Chinese popular religion. The latter exist but ought not to become the objects of worship. That is why in his sect, the Supreme Deity alone is the object of veneration. Such a state of affair is reflected in this sect's shrine. Only the character “shen” (神) or the text I have just quoted appears on the wall directly behind and above the altar. No images or name-tablets of other gods are allowed on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210419, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "the altar.\" Although this practice follows logically from the concept of the Supreme Deity, one cannot help thinking, bearing in mind that no temple in Chinese religion, whether at present or in the past, is devoted to one deity alone, that this must have been the result of Lo's Protestant up-bringing.\n\niii. Human destiny\n\nAccording to Tan Tse Tao, man's final destiny is to return to the Supreme Deity after death.24 This immediately brings up a number of questions with regard to the human constitution. Is there life after death? Do such places as heaven or hell exist? What sort of union with the Supreme Deity is envisaged?\n\nFirst of all, Patriarch Lo recognizes the separate existence of the body and of the soul. “If the body functions but the soul is dead, that person is really dead even though his body is alive; if the body is dead but the soul exists, he is really alive even though his body is dead.”25 Indeed, the soul has three destinies. If a man's deeds are good, he goes up to heaven and may even become a god after death. If his deeds are evil, he goes below ground and becomes a ghost. If his deeds are neither good nor bad, he becomes a wandering soul,26\n\nGiven this belief in the existence of the soul after death and notions of reward and punishment, the belief in the existence of a heavenly paradise and hell becomes unavoidable. Tan Tse Tao recognizes this fact, but it tries hard to avoid crude notions of sensual gratification in heaven and of instruments of torture in hell.27\n\nPerhaps the more intriguing and difficult question is one about the nature of the union with the Supreme Deity. Will the identity of an individual be lost and the individual be merged with the Absolute in the final destiny or will the soul retain its individuality? Patriarch Lo did not discuss this problem in his writings. According to informants, the correct interpretation is that the soul retains its individuality. This is in keeping with the practice of keeping an altar in memory of dead disciples.28", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210420, "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": 27, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "8\n\niv. Cultivation\n\n32\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nThe return to the Supreme Deity demands moral development and cultivation. Moral development is required because only a good person may become united to the Supreme Deity and because it is the pre-requisite for cultivation. \"The way to cultivate the person is to first practice the superior morality and the abolition of evil inclinations.\"29 More about morality will be discussed in the next section. Cultivation is necessary because only a recollected person is in tune with the cosmos and is receptive of the truth. On the subject of quiet-sitting, Lo says, \"When the mind is nurtured and the spirit recollected, one may form a ternion with heaven and earth and be in communication with the Supreme Deity.\"30 On the one hand, Patriarch Lo is convinced that man's destiny lies in his own hands. \"Whether one becomes a god or a demon depends entirely on one's own making. Heaven has nothing to do with it.\"31 In another place, Lo affirms his belief in the moral law of cause and effect (karma, 報應 ).32 On the other hand, Lo appears to think that knowledge about the Supreme Deity can only be obtained by revelation. \"My opinion is that only by obtaining the Tao or by witnessing God's revelation can a person know a few things about God.\"33 This dual approach to cultivation is seen in another passage. \"The most important thing in mental cultivation is devotion to the Supreme Deity. May He always be present in your heart. Adore Him in the morning and in the evening. Always be ready to accept his spiritual light. In the practice of cultivation, the communication between heaven and men, and their mutual relationship are the supreme methods. Next in importance is quiet-sitting. In the way of quiet-sitting, ... this practice will always bring results. These two should be employed together. They assist each other and bring one to the Tao.\" Patriarch Lo's programme of cultivation contains a paradox: on the one hand, knowledge about the Supreme Deity depends on gratuitous revelation; on the other, man's destiny lies entirely in his own hands. This is the timeless theological problem of grace and free will. The maintenance within this theological system of a paradox at this point rather than attempt a more intellectual solution may indicate that Patriarch Lo's\n\n+ + +", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210422, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "10\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nthe Tao; below them in turn eight Healing Masters. Then came an indeterminate number of Cultivation Masters, the Protector of the Tao, Advanced Disciples and Novices.\" However, this hierarchical structure was probably only an ideal and not rigidly adhered to at any time. The current structure runs as follows. There are two Elders of the Tao at the top. Then comes a Person-in-Charge (#), four Healing Masters, Advanced Disciples and Novices. It is not clear what are the exact functions of each of the ranks beyond that vaguely suggested by their titles.\n\nEntrance into this religion is usually made by the recommendation of a follower and the permission of the Supreme Deity. The sect claims that it can discern the Supreme Deity's will by prayer. Those who are admitted can then be allowed to approach the altar and to begin a programme of learning about the way.\" The altar is the place where one can venerate the Deity, practise quiet-sitting, discuss the truth, seek healing, longevity, direction in life and ask the Deity to deliver dead ancestors.\n\nThere are no hard and fast rules about worship. The sacred shrine is opened on Sundays for reasons of convenience and on four festivals special to the sect. These four festivals, in which all believers are encouraged to participate, have absolutely no relationship with traditional customs or religions. They are the Day of Commemoration of the Establishment of Tan Tse Tao (eighth of the first month), the Day of the Disciples (fourth day of the fourth month), the Day of Revelation (eighteenth day of the eighth month) and the Day of Prayer (tenth day of tenth month).\n\nIn thanksgiving for the Deity's grace, each follower is responsible for spreading the faith, forming extensive relationships with persons of good character, establishing and bringing to perfection the follower's own person and the person of others, delivering all men from various pains and diseases, and obeying the sacred injunctions. The latter consists of the five precepts and the ten good deeds. The five precepts are: 1. Do not do wrong-doing. 2. Do not become an apostate. 3. Do not make monetary gains with healing. 4. Do not believe in astrology and geomancy. 5. Do not worship blood-eating gods. The ten good deeds are: 1. Be diligent", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210423, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "11\n\nand thrifty. 2. Be trustworthy and loyal. 3. Know yourself. 4. Be self-controlled. 5. Be content and know your limits. 6. Be careful of your words and be watchful when alone. 7. Be filial to your parents. 8. Respect your elder brother. 9. Be friendly with your neighbour. 10. Love your own people.\n\nAlthough nominally a Taoist sect, Tan Tse Tao does not make use of any Taoist scripture or any other traditional scripture for that matter. The Patriarch's two books, T'ai-hsüan's Discourse on Truth and T'ai-hsüan's Discourse on Various Topics, are distributed to believers and function as a kind of scripture.\n\nV. Method of Healing\n\nThe method of healing in Tan Tse Tao is one of the most striking things about this sect. It employs absolutely no medicine, not even placebos, acupuncture, surgery, hypnotism, massage or breath-cultivation (chi-kung). Externally, the healer uses certain hand and eye gestures. Occasionally, he uses a talisman (fu-lu). Internally, the healer must have a deep devotion to the Supreme Deity. He employs his original breath and original spirit. Among his paraphernalia are the treasure sword, the gourd for imprisoning the demon, the fly-whisk and the five thunder palm. None of these are actual objects but are only imaginary within the healer's mind.\n\n39\n\n40\n\nWhat is amazing is that there is no physical contact between the healer and the patient. Indeed, healing can take place at a distance, with the patient at another room or in a house a hundred yards away. Healing can take place with several patients at the same time. There is no limit to the kind of physical ailments cured. All kinds of diseases are cured, including those declared incurable by Western medical doctors.\n\nDuring the cure, the patient can sometimes feel power surging in his limbs or heat in certain parts of the body. Sometimes the body vibrates on its own accord or the patient uncontrollably bends forwards and backwards. A lame person may straighten up and walk away.\n\nPage 30\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210424, "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": 31, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "12\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nThere are certain dispositions on the part of the patient before he or she can be cured. The first is that the patient should venerate the Supreme Deity with devotion. Secondly, he should repent of his wrong-doings and resolve to live a better life thereafter. Thirdly, he should not worship other gods or the Buddha. Fourthly, he should not use paper gold and candles (in worship).\" There are also four conditions under which a patient may not be cured: firstly, where the patient has committed a grave sin; secondly, where the disease is a result of the patient's misdeeds; thirdly, where the patient has only a minor sickness; fourthly, where the patient has reached the end of his or her natural life-span. (However, the Supreme Deity may grant an extension to the natural life-span as a favour.)\n\nAlthough a recognition of the Supreme Deity on the part of the patient is necessary for healing, a full initiation into Tan Tse Tao is not necessary, and many who were not followers were cured.\n\nVI. Notable Characteristics\n\nWe have now seen the history, teaching, practices, organization and healing method of Tan Tse Tao. It has all the essential elements which go to make up a religion. Thus it claims to have a special revelation, a beginningless and endless God, a teaching which will settle the perplexities of human life, a hierarchical church which governs the group of followers, a form of worship, its own festivals, and its own holy books. The most striking thing about this religion is the spontaneity of its origin and the unlikelihood of its having a thoroughly Westernized Protestant uninterested in traditional Chinese religion as its founder. It is as if the circumstances of the Patriarch's conversion were so chosen as to accentuate the authenticity of this revelation. The fantastic power of Tan Tse Tao's healing method also contributes to this end.\n\nAnother striking thing about Tan Tse Tao is that, unbeknown to Patriarch Lo, it bears remarkable resemblance to certain other faith-healing sects. I have in mind, for example, the Tenrikyo of Mrs. Nakayama Miki (1798-1887) of Japan and the Heavenly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210425, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "13\n\nMaster Sect of Chang Tao-lin. All these sects claim to have received a special revelation. They all teach that disease is caused by sin and/or demons. Healing must go hand-in-hand with repentance. They all decline the use of medicine but resort to prayer and exorcism. They are all organized into religious sects. Do these similarities among healing sects speak for a type of religious expression? Perhaps, underneath the conscious mind, all men have something in common which, when manifested externally, is constituted along similar lines.\n\nThe second reflection to which I would like to draw attention concerns the association of Tan Tse Tao with Taoism. As can be seen from the history of the Supreme Deity's revelation and the teaching as recorded in Lo's important writings, there is little hint that Tan Tse Tao is a form of Taoism. Yet in its later development, Tan Tse Tao was considered as such by the Patriarch and his disciples. It is in fact at present a member of the Hong Kong Taoist Association. It is not too clear how this could have occurred. Perhaps Patriarch Lo felt that the ineffable quality of the Supreme Deity is the same as the \"Tao\" discussed by Lao Tzu, and that the quiet-sitting is similar to Chuang Tzu's \"sitting in forgetfulness.” Or perhaps he found an identity in the terminology used in his own religion and that of Taoism. Or perhaps the association with Taoism is simply revealed.42 Whatever the reason for the association, it must have provided a strong support by reason of Taoism's reputation as the most ancient native Chinese religion. This association is a parallel to the association of the Heavenly Master's sect with Lao Tzu. Scholars with Confucian sympathies have invariably ridiculed the association of the Han Dynasty faith-healing sect with Lao Tzu. In their minds the faith-healers have simply twisted the meaning of Lao Tzu to fit their own purpose. The association of Tan Tse Tao with Lao Tzu should make us think again. Perhaps the association is not as arbitrary as Confucian scholars make it out to be. Perhaps Maspero's conjecture of a religious base to Lao Tzu is still a live issue.43\n\nThe last notable character about Tan Tse Tao is its exclusive veneration of the Supreme Deity. This practice is unprecedented in Chinese cults. Writers have often drawn attention to the fact", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210426, "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": 33, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "14\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nthat the spirit world is just an exact copy of the administrative world in Chinese popular religion or in Taoism, and worshippers carry on transactions with the gods just as they would have dealt with bureaucrats. Their offerings to the various gods are just like bribes to officials. In contrast to this, the veneration of the Supreme Deity is of a different nature. The praise of the deity and the acknowledgement of his greatness are the predominant sentiments. The only offerings made are one stick of incense and some flowers. No other gods are venerated. The holy shrine contains no images of any gods, thus giving an impression of austere reverence and an attempt to root out extravagant expressions which might be taken to indicate something superstitious. The exclusive veneration of the Supreme Deity follows logically from the history and teaching of the sect, but outside observers cannot help speculating just how much this is due to Patriarch Lo's early Protestant background.\n\nOut of deference to the founder who has transliterated (Tien Chi Tao) as Tan Tse Tao, the latter title will be retained in this paper. Source material for this paper consists of the books FBIEZ, which contains Patriarch Lo's most important writings, the 太玄真言 and the 太玄漫言, 天昏道神靈治療釋義 and interviews with Mr. Alfred Lo, son of the founder and an Elder of the sect and Mr. Law Ping Chi (MM), current Person-in-Charge (E) of the sect. Responsibility for the accuracy of this paper is entirely mine.\n\n2 The title 尊師 (tsung-shih) has been used to address the founder, whose Taoist sobriquet (道號) is T'ai-hsüan (太玄).\n\n3 was later changed to 孫, in memory of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the father of the Republic of China. In fact, the Lo family is related to the Sun family.\n\n4 Among these, the 少林拳, reputed to have originated from Bodhidharma and the Shao-lin (†) school. This account is taken from ZE › XL.\n\n6 September 15, 1935, when Lo was forty-one years old.\n\n7 經嘯。廣州東平路萬芳園內。\n\n9 • Another account placed the second attempt at exercise on the following day. XILE · 1-This account also records that these events happened in the presence of family members who thought he was going crazy.\n\n10 Is \"the burning of incense\" a matter of style of the Chinese language? It is inconceivable for Christians at that period to keep incense. None of my informants could answer this question satisfactorily.\n\n11 The interpretation of this is that God uses Lo's own hand and words to convey His displeasure over Lo's unbelief.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210427, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "15\n\n11 At the time of my research in 1985, Tam was still alive in Canton. He has not altered his Protestant faith.\n\n12 From my interview with Alfred Lo.\n\n13 Lo translated it as the \"Tao of Apocalypse.\" He probably was not aware that the word 'apocalypse' had connotations which were not in keeping with his teaching.\n\n14 By now it is obvious that the first generation of disciples all changed their middle names to Han (). This is significant in that a name-change signifies a new identity, that is, the disciples were conscious that they belonged to a new sect.\n\n15 **. This worshipping hall must have been built before the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese, for Alfred Lo recalled the pillage of the hall by neighbouring villages during the period of lawlessness.\n\nPage 1\n\n16 XANT · KM. There are certain esoteric elements in Lo's teaching, especially those which pertain to specific methods of sitting in meditation and the method of curing and of chasing of demons. These specific instructions cannot be divulged to the uninitiated. However, the abstract formulation of his teaching is open to the public.\n\n17 至大至達顧聖紀念館講詞,\n\n18 See his essay \"Does God exist? { »h_27[® )\".\n\n19 神也否無形而有徵者也\n\n20 有,形,名,性,欲,尬,恩怨,注,數情,\n\n21 This text appears as the centre-piece on one of the altars of this sect.\n\n22 This is as much as Lo is prepared to say about the creative function as the Supreme Deity.\n\n23 See photo on the inside of back cover of the AM (Plate I).\n\n24「歿後可以復歸干种」至大至尊顯聖紀念館講詞。「復貼於神,復節於無極」神之有無講詞。\n\n25 AZGI, ch. 8.\n\n26 Ibid., ch. 3.\n\n27 神之有無。\n\n28 Thus, human destiny in Tan Tse Tao is envisioned quite differently from monistic Indian religious thought.\n\n29「養身之道先修達德伤去监性」太太真jch. 17.\n\n30 Aliki chỉ 28.\n\n31 Ibid., ch. 8.\n\n32 Ibid., ch. 7.\n\n33 神之有無\n\n34 £ì, ch. 31. Also in f¡¡ ch. 18.\n\nPage 1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210428, "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": 35, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "16\n\n35 太玄漫言 ch. 13.\n\n36 Ibid.\n\n•\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\n37 宗師,道長,法師,鍊師,謰道,高級弟子,初級弟子。\n\n38 However, in actual practice, almost anybody with a good character can come forward to the altar to venerate the Deity.\n\n39 It has been explained to me that the talisman is not at all essential, but is occasionally used to help the patient into thinking that a certain action is being performed on him.\n\n40 An attempt has been made by a healer in Hong Kong to heal a patient half way round the world in U.S. It is not clear to me whether the attempt was successful or not.\n\n41 These are the most commonly used objects in the worship of gods of the popular religion.\n\n42 The Supreme Deity is known to have revealed himself in the guise of a Taoist gentleman to Patriarch Lo and numerous disciples.\n\n43 See, for example, his \"Historical Notes on the Origins and Development of the Taoist Religion up to the Han Period” in Taoism and Chinese Religion, tr. Frank A. Kierman, Jr., Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981, pp. 413-430.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211628, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "18\n\nTHE JADE EMPEROR AND HIS FAMILY\n\n玉皇大帝\n\nYU HUANG TA TI\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nThe Jade Emperor, also known as the Lord of Heaven (T`ien Kung), is the chief deity of the pantheon of the Cheng I sect of Taoism. He is only a secondary deity of the Taoist Lungmen sect. He was worshipped China-wide as the supreme ruler of the Heavens, and even of some of the Underworld. In folk religion, he is worshipped as the protector of all mankind, having replaced Lao Tzu in that role and as head of the Taoist faith, possibly because people were uncomfortable taking their problems to a philosopher. According to a majority of Taoists his earthly mouthpiece was Chang T'ien Shih, The Heavenly Master and his descendants.\n\nAlthough he is well known to both Chinese and to interested foreigners, what is not so well known are the ramifications of his family and the extent to which several of its members have their own cults.\n\nThe development of the supreme deity in China is far from clear. In earlier times the all-seeing, all-powerful, unseen god was Shang Ti who even now is occasionally referred to as the all-highest. Not only is the term Shang Ti used by Protestants for the Supreme Deity, God, but also the late Chairman Mao in his statement that, at the age of 72, “he was soon going to see God“, used this expression.\n\nHoward Smith, a missionary in China for 24 years, describes how the Chou dynasty (ca 1050-256 BC) founded its government on religion and transformed 'Shang Ti', probably originally a term used for the deified spirits of the imperial ancestors under the previous dynasty, the Shang, into a high God, independent and supreme, He added \"The importance of this change cannot be over-emphasised. When this supreme deity finds the rule of an emperor abhorrent, whenever a king fails, by persistent misrule, in his duties to God, then God rejects him and seeks out a suitable substitute.\" The transfer of the mandate of Heaven, based on the belief in a supreme deity, carried with it strong ethical implications, and continued down to the last dynasty, which fell in 1911.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211629, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "19\n\n2\n\nGoullart in his description of the monastery in Kiangsi in which he spent several holidays, describes in one hall 'Shang Ti smiling benevolently and enigmatically from his canopied throne'. He then refers, in his description of another temple, to the Jade Emperor and speaks of him as Shang Ti. There are various explanations offered as to why this deity is called the Jade Emperor. One suggests that the reference in the Book of Changes to '. . . heaven being the ruler, and is... jade' is its origin; Goullart however gives, in translation, an invocation from the abbot to Shang Ti in which he refers to him by title as 'the Mightiest Emperor over all Heavenly Kings, who lives in the Jade Hall of the Western Heaven'. This, surely, is a clue. The supreme deity, Shang Ti, lives in the Jade Hall, hence his title the Jade Emperor. This title is a relatively recent development in Chinese chronology having only become prominent during the 11th century AD. However, popular recognition of and interest in the cult became apparent during the Manchu (Ch'ing) dynasty.\n\nThe title of the sovereign divinity of the Chinese State religion until 1911 was Huang T'ien Shang Ti, the First Rank Supreme Deity in the 17th century regulations of the Ch'ing dynasty. Shang Ti, as the All-highest, was never portrayed in image form, and in a number of temples in South-East Asia the title of Huang T'ien Shang Ti is still given for the supreme deity, usually carved on plaques, and in one temple in Singapore an image of the Jade Emperor even bore a vertical slip of paper inscribed with this title.\n\nMany Chinese myths and legends involve the Jade Emperor; those surrounding his origins are shrouded in mystery and probably his genesis will never be known. China has a rich popular tradition incorporating local tales from every corner of the vast empire, and it is no wonder that numerous and varied explanations have been given by devotees of how and when the Jade Emperor became the senior deity. The earliest known reference to him is from the T'ang but he could have existed long before that. Since then it has commonly been believed that he was either an incarnation of, or given the task of Supreme Deity by Yuan Shih T'ien Chun, the senior deity of the Taoist trinity, the Three Pure Ones (San Ch'ing). His popularity declined somewhat during the Ming. Although a Taoist deity, his image is to be found on altars in several Buddhist temples and some Buddhists even claim that he is really just an adaptation of Indra. To the man in the street all Buddhist, Taoist and folk religion deities are his subordinates, and well timed worship will", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "22\n\nremoval to T'ai Miao.\n\nIn Tainan in southern Taiwan an elderly temple keeper claimed that the heads of the five major religions, Confucius, Lao Tzu, The Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed gathered and chose Kuan Yu (otherwise known as Kuan Kung, the Patron deity of loyalty) to be raised in succession as the 18th Jade Emperor. He assumed the throne at Chinese New Year in AD 1864 and still occupies the throne.\n\nAlthough the Jade Emperor is concerned with running the bureaucracy of the spirit world and with meting out justice, he delegates many of his day-to-day responsibilities to his ministers and judges. It is accepted by devotees that he is the arbiter during disagreements between the gods. His rule is conceived of as similar to a reigning Chinese emperor, he being the heavenly ruler with the Chinese emperor the terrestrial ruler. Most people believed that the emperor of China was his terrestrial equal. Despite the large pantheon the Jade Emperor commands, containing an inordinate number of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, The Five Emperors, Kings/Judges of the Underworld, major gods and all the deified spirits (shen), in Chinese mythology he is frequently duped and outwitted, as indeed the Chinese well knew that their emperors were. One only has to remember the story of Ch'i T'ien Ta Sheng, better known in the West as Monkey to see how gullible he can be. This does not mean that he was not feared. The Jade Emperor's forces include his powerful spirit armies, capable of destroying anyone or anything, which he can unleash upon anyone who offends him.\n\nAn English missionary in the nineteen thirties after 36 years in North China wrote \"Lao T'ien Yeh is the Supreme God, the popular equivalent of Shang Ti of the Classics. He is not represented by any image or other symbol nor are there any temples in his honour, nor is he the object of popular worship. But built into the outer wall of the house, beside the doorway, there is commonly a little shrine in which thank offerings are placed at harvest time. When you inquire what people know about him, the usual answer is 'He sends the wind and the rain and ordains life and death, and to him the Kitchen God makes his annual report'\"*.\n\nIt is well known that the Jade Emperor personally receives reports from each and every Kitchen God during the period from the 12th day of the final lunar month until the Lunar New Year's Day, and from these", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211633, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "23\n\nhe examines each human's conduct and adds his comments to the records kept on each person against the day when that human will die and be summoned to enter the Courts of the Underworld for judgement.\" A temple dedicated to the Jade Emperor on Coal Hill in Peking was where the living emperor of China prayed for rain during long droughts, requesting the Jade Emperor to instruct the Dragon King to cause rain to fall.\n\nReverend Hutson in Szechuan recorded his observation that lanterns hanging before the altars of Yuh Huang were taken home by childless couples and a new lantern presented in its place if a son was born to them. These lanterns were also hung in orchards and elsewhere to secure a good crop.\n\nThe Jade Emperor is a puritanical god, offended, for example, by the sight of a pregnant member of the family attending a sacrifice. In some places women are not permitted to worship him. As supreme Sovereign of the universe he is rarely approached directly, and usually only receives devotional offerings. Worship is therefore performed with great care, and his image and altar is treated with the greatest solemnity. The common man is loath to approach him unless he has little choice. The main reason for doing so is to obtain a prediction of fate; he knows that he cannot always change it, but if the common man is aware of what is in store he can plan ahead.\n\nThe Jade Emperor is only approached directly, with great trepidation, when the plea being submitted by the devotee is of the greatest import, or when the Jade Emperor's underlings have failed to come up with the goods, and devotees' expectations have not been achieved; under normal circumstances pleas are submitted to the Jade Emperor through lesser deities. In a small temple in an immigrant community in Kowloon, the Jade Emperor, their only main deity, is approached by devotees for remission of punishment for their sins in return for promises of future good deeds. The devotees have to submit their pleas to the Jade Emperor through the temple keeper. He in turn voices their pleas to an unnamed invisible bodhisattva (pusah) who approaches the Jade Emperor on their behalf.\n\nIn many parts of China the Jade Emperor was considered too holy, too awesome, and too powerful to be represented by an image, and only a tablet bearing his title was permitted to be placed on the altar (see Plate 1). In other parts, amongst the Fukienese in particular, he is believed to reside in the ash of the main incense pot on his altar (the main altar)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211635, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "25\n\nwhich is reserved exclusively for the occasion. The offerings must include red pork and two long stems of bamboo in leaf; these are laid out on special tables placed on small stools so that they do not touch the ground and be defiled.\n\nThe Jade Emperor's image has been noted on altars in nine temples in Hong Kong and in two in Macau. It is also to be seen on numerous altars throughout South-East Asia and in Taiwan. In Taiwan his image appears alone or with two or three attendants on a number of secondary altars and even on side altars. In Hong Kong he is the main deity in six of the nine temples and is the major deity on a secondary altar in the other three.\n\nThe most fascinating image of the Jade Emperor in Hong Kong is to be seen in the upper level hall of the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in Shatin where he is flanked by two of his ministers. In a large number of temples in which he is the main deity the Jade Emperor is supported in this way by the two stellar deities, each in his own secondary altar flanking the main altar with the Jade Emperor. They are the Lord of the Northern Bushel and the Lord of the Southern Bushel, Nanpei Tou (jjdk-1-). There are also a number of images of attendants flanking the image of the Jade Emperor, and on occasions the Civil and Military Judges (Wenwu P'ankuan).\n\nHe is the main deity in a tiny temple near Shaukiwan on Hong Kong island, a tiny image in a small single-room temple occupied by one elderly lady, the temple keeper. The original occupants were refugees from Yunnan province in the early fifties, dead these many years. By the mid-seventies the temple was being kept spotlessly clean by the elderly lady who had been an amah to a long-departed English family. She explained that she had to earn her keep somehow, especially as her husband had already 'long time gone topside'.\n\nIn Penang people will tell you that the small red shrine outside their shop or house is dedicated to the Jade Emperor even though neither his name nor title is recorded anywhere.\n\nSupporting the Supreme Deity is a Board or Ministry of Thirty-Six Ministers, with duties to supervise junior celestial officials and clerks, whose images are rarely to be seen on altars though on temple murals all thirty-six are frequently portrayed. Their role is to control and run", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211636, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "26\n\nthe destinies of mankind on behalf of the Jade Emperor.\n\nImages of four of his 36 ministers are to be seen with him on several altars. They are:\n\nHsu Chenjen (許眞人)\n\nSa Chenjen (薩眞人) both on his right hand, and\n\nChang Chenjen (張眞人)\n\nKo Chenjen (葛眞人) both on his left hand.\n\nTheir collective title is Hsu Lung Chang Ko Ssu Chenjen (許呂張葛四眞人).\n\nPopular versions of the deification of the Jade Emperor are no more than an echo of the stories related by tea house story tellers who, in turn, came by many of the stories from the Ming dynasty book containing a collection of myths describing the wars which ended in the fall of the Shang dynasty and its replacement by the victorious Chou, \"The Deification of the Gods' (Feng Shen Pang). The collection, also known as the Feng Shen Yen I, describes the appointment of the Jade Emperor by Chiang Tzu-ya, the Prime Minister of the Chou, in about 1180 BC. Chiang had appointed the majority of the heroes who had lost their lives in the wars to overthrow the Shang tyrant to fill vacancies in the bureaucracy of the spirit world with only one post left unfilled, that of the Supreme Deity, the Jade Emperor, which Chiang had been reserving for himself. When he was offered the post, with customary courtesy he paused and asked people to 'wait a second' (Teng lai) whilst he considered. However, having called out \"Teng lai', an opportunist, Chang Teng-lai, hearing his name, stepped forward, prostrated himself and thanked Chiang for creating him the Jade Emperor. Chiang Tzu-ya, stupefied, was unable to retract his words. However, in tense anger he quietly cursed Chang Teng-lai, ‘Your sons will become thieves and your daughters prostitutes!' Chang Teng-lai became the Jade Emperor but was unable to prevent the curse from working. The sons, in the Feng Shen Pang, planned to steal Buddha's lotus throne, but omniscient Buddha trapped them with his fingers and enslaved them under a pagoda. Despite this human origin, and his apparent lack of qualifications for the post of Supreme Deity in the pantheon, he is above all other spirits in the Taoist and folk religion pantheon and is a distant deity to whom all others must pay their respect.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211642, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "32\n\nHuang T'ien Shang Yi (LR)\n\nSan Chieh Yu Huang Ta Ti (三界玉皇大帝)\n\n(The San Chieh altar before a temple entrance in Fukienese and Ch'aochou communities, represents the Supreme Deity, T'ien Kung (The Jade Emperor). It is a trinity of Heaven, Earth and Mankind, and the altar is usually higher than normal altars.)\n\nYuan Chih T'ien Tsun (X) (Taiwan)\n\nYu Huang Chih Tsun(玉皇至尊)\n\nYu Huang Ta T'ien Tsun (X) (Taoist)\n\nCh'ing Ching Tzu Jan Chiao Wang Ju Lai (a**=**)\n\nSome temple keepers claim that Yuan Shih Tien Tsun is an incarnation or alternative title for the Jade Emperor. Though Yuan Shih T'ien Tsun is often claimed to be the Supreme Emperor of the Beginning of time, he is primarily a member of the Trinity, the San Ch'ing (), and its first member. He is the First Principle, he has no beginning and no end, is the source of truth and his doctrine leads to Immortality. He dwells in the Kunlun Mountains and was possibly a deity invented by the Taoists to counter the then growing influence of Buddha. His image appears with that of the Jade Emperor on a number of temple altars, thus highlighting the difference between the two deities.\n\nMost of the information related above about the Jade Emperor is reasonably well known; however, the question of the images of the children of the Jade Emperor is a subject which appears not to have been investigated before. Most of the children, numbering up to seven daughters and four sons, appear on altars with their father, in groups on their own or individually alone as deities in their own right. Temple keepers without exception did not know why the particular son or daughter was represented on the altar in their temple though some suggested that the children were really well known major deities such as T'ien Hou and Kuan Yin. However, it is understandable that individual members of the Jade Emperor's family who are referred to on a number of occasions in the legendary history, the Feng Shen Yen I, together with mythical apotheosised heroes from the same legends whose images appear on Chinese altars, should themselves also appear on Chinese altars.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212158, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "77\n\nexalt the magical power of the tree god.'\n\nOn the 23rd day of the first lunar month in 1925 just west of Suifu in Szechuan province some Chinese saw a beggar lying on the ground. They returned very shortly after to find the beggar had disappeared completely, the ground where he had lain was bone dry and his imprint on the wet grass stood out. They realized that he must have been an Immortal and built a small shrine dedicated to him. Once a year thereafter, on the 23rd of the first month anniversary local people held a special festival to celebrate his disappearance.\n\nInnumerable stories are told of the creation of such new deities. These tend to have the following common factors:\n\na. a human dies under unusual circumstances and his spirit is 'found' to have special and supernatural characteristics.\n\nb. An image is carved and placed on an altar as a direct result of the god's behaviour or action. Usually the deity has appeared in a dream, or in a more tangible form as a piece of wood sometimes rough, at other times shaped (a gate or door) — floating in the sea, on a lake or a river, and manifesting supernatural characteristics.\n\nAlthough in theory the deification of a dead soul requires the joint authority of the supreme Taoist deity, the Jade Emperor and the terrestrial emperor of China, there have been a large number of minor deities in particular who owe their deification to the common people, voting with their feet, going to shrines to offer up incense and oil. And just as gods fade and disappear because of lack of support from devotees who have found other and apparently more potent deities, so the creation of new gods springs from a natural but unusual happening such as was the case of the small boy in Singapore, who, as we shall see later, was killed in 1963 by lightning.\n\nCults spring up whenever the spirit of a dead person responds to public devotions and offerings and grants devotees their requests. The deceased need not be from the distant past. An image of Chiang Kai-shek, who only died in 1976, has been seen on at least one major altar in Taiwan, against the wishes of the Kuomintang government, though they would appear to have turned a blind eye. Sun Yat-sen, one of the Republic's greatest worthies, has also been seen in both image and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212253, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "172\n\nritual in her paper mentioned above. Her description is as follows.\n\n+\n\n*Indeed, actors may well be especially requested to carry out similar acts of exorcism on behalf of their clients, just like priests. In 1975 at Sai Kung, in Hong Kong's New Territories, a development comprising several modern blocks of shops and high-rise flats was declared open in an official ceremony, which included the (also symbolic but hardly magical) act of cutting a red, white and blue ribbon performed by a high-ranking member of the British administration. On the preceding evening the actors already engaged to perform operas in the town in connexion with a temple festival were asked to perform The White Tiger, and they did so in exactly the same manner as in the performance of the same ritual scene two weeks before. The sole difference was that the second performance was for the purpose of exorcising evil forces from the new buildings, which stood on recently reclaimed land where people had never lived before. In other words, the players were acting here as exorcists for the community, not at all for themselves: like priests.\" (Ward 1979:32)\n\nActors and Characters in the Offering Ritual\n\nIn Cantonese opera, the White Tiger ritual requires only two actors who play the Deity of Fortune and the White Tiger respectively. In Cantonese folk religion, there are five deities which are believed to bring fortune to people. The one portrayed in the White Tiger ritual is known as Jyn Tan (literally \"abstruse altar\") whose real name is Ziu Gung-ming and who is thus often called Ziu gung jyn sey27Ah (supreme commander Ziu). To distinguish him from the other deities of fortune, Jyn Tan is often referred to as the \"military\" Deity of Fortune.\n\nAccording to legends, Jyn Tan has a black face and black beard. He wears an iron helmet, rides on a black tiger and carries an iron staff and a number of other magic weapons. Besides bringing people fortune, Jyn Tan is believed to uphold justice and eliminate disasters.\n\nThe origin of the White Tiger ritual is still unclear though the\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214241, "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": 99, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "62\n\nbonnet. He has a Chinese face, white moustache and beard and rather hooded eyes.\n\nHowever, in the Pi-yun Ssu, also in the Western Hills, his modern image depicts him in what appears to be a sarong held up by a long blue bow, and with a bare chest. His shoulders are covered with a decorated blue robe down to his knees, parted revealing his bare chest, and an unusual bonnet which appears to have a pair of short wings extending out beyond his ears. He has a squat nose, large mouth and is holding his right hand making a mystic sign at chest height. His left hand grips an incense-stick holder at waist height. He looks marginally less Chinese than the other images but does not look Indian.\n\nPaired with Indra, he stands in prime position at the head of one of the two rows of fourteen Deva.\n\n2] Indra, known in Chinese as Ti Shih and Yin-t'o-lo\n\nHe is the greatest of the Vedic deities with the dual function of weather and war god, known also as Sakra Devanam. He has been adopted by Buddhists as representative of secular powers, protector of the religious body but inferior to any Buddhist saint. He is said to have taken an oath to defend Buddhism during a former incarnation and was reborn as the King of the Yakshas.\n\nAlthough some Chinese Buddhists identify Indra as the Taoist supreme deity, the Jade Emperor, Brahma is much more commonly accepted as a form of the Jade Emperor.\n\nHis image is present in both the Ta Pei Ssu and in the Pi-yun Ssu, and in both he is completely Chinese with no hint whatsoever of foreign origins. He is standing, an ancient minister, dressed in colourful decorated Chinese robes and imperial bonnet, with pink flesh, a black moustache and goatee, and with both hands held together before his chest, fingers pointing upward.\n\nIn Hong Kong he has been paired with Brahma on altars and is portrayed carrying a golden bowl somewhat similar to an incense pot. He is depicted in a form and dress virtually identical with that of Brahma,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214242, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "63\n\nthe golden bowl being his unique characteristic.\n\nMahesvara, Mahadevi or Siva, known in Chinese as Mo-hsi-shou-lo T'ien 摩醯首羅天\n\nMahesvara is one of the numerous titles borne by one of the best known of the Indian deities, Siva. He has come to be regarded as the Supreme Being though he more generally represents the more malignant forces and destruction, all part of the cycle of creation and destruction. He is married to either Uma Mahesvara [also known as Parvati], by whom he had a son named Skanda [see 21 below], or to Kali, who is also Durga. The latter is known as Hariti [and in Chinese Kuei-tzu Mu: see 6 below] whose image is also one of the twenty-eight Devi. Hariti has one face, six arms and a necklace of skulls\".\n\nImages of Siva stand in both the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yun Ssu. In the Ta Pei Ssu he is portrayed as a typical northern Chinese deity dressed in multi-coloured robes and a tall Buddhist crown, but with six arms and an ageless Chinese face of indeterminate sex. He looks like and could easily be confused with other multi-arm Buddhist deities as he has no unique characteristic. In the Pi-yun Ssu he is naked apart from a skirt in colourfully decorated cloth down to his knees. He has four arms and a smaller head on top of his normal head. He has red spiky hair on both heads and fangs rising out of the lower jaw of his normal head.\n\nSoothill described Siva as having eight arms, three eyes and riding a large white bull, holding a handful of snakes and a small drum, and can be represented as the phallic symbol.\n\n4] Maritci [Maritchi or Marici] known in Chinese as Chun-t'i P'u-sa\n\nThe Tantric [Lamaist] bodhisattva, Chun-t'i, is the Buddhist form of the Hindu personification of light and an offspring of Brahma, Cundi or Candi. She is often confused with the Tantric many-armed Kuan Yin and the Taoist stellar deity, Tou-mu Hsing-chün. Two separate deities also are referred to by Chinese devotees as Chun-t'i; these are as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214262, "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": 120, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "83\n\n35] Man-shan Ch'e Wang 慢善車王\n\nMan-shan Ch'e Wang has only been seen in Taiwan, in the cave/tunnel where he is portrayed as a semi-demonic figure with a large slightly open mouth, and bushy eyebrows. He is wearing gilded armour and helmet and is carrying a short dagger in his left hand with his right hand extended vertically. He has a gilded halo behind his head and shoulders.\n\n36] P'o-x-Hsien-jen 婆x仙人\n\nP'o-x-Hsien-jen, the Immortal P'o-x, has only been seen in the cave/tunnel under the Taiwanese temple where he is depicted as an emaciated elderly Chinese, wearing no more than a wrap-around gilded skirt. He is holding a small gilded scroll in his left hand at face height and leaning on a staff with his right. He has white eyebrows and goatee beard and has a gilded halo behind his head and shoulders.\n\n37] Tung-yüeh Ta-ti The Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak 東嶽大帝\n\nImages of Tung-yüeh Ta-ti are included in the groups of Deva in both the Pi-yun Ssu and the Ta Pei Ssu but not in the cave/tunnel in the temple in Taiwan. In the Ta Pei Ssu he is standing, dressed in colourfully decorated robes, but with an open-winged bird on the crown which usually is only worn by a female deity. Perhaps the present generation of monks have misidentified the deity and this is the image of the major deity, Pi-hsia T'ien-chun, the daughter of Tung-yüeh Ta-ti. He or she is holding a long-stemmed flower in the left hand resting up against the outstretched right hand. The hair style too suggests a female as do the facial features. The image in the Pi-yun Ssu, however, is an elderly standing male, with grey beard and multi-coloured robes and cap. He holds a tablet clasped in both hands before his chest.\n\nTung-yüeh Ta-ti is the Lord of T'ai Mountain [T'ai-shan Yeh 泰山爺], a Chinese deity and the Supreme ruler of the Underworld12. Many Chinese do not seem to appreciate that these two titles are one and the same deity, a fact borne out by Mrs Goodrich when she noted in 1931 that “no one thought of this minor god T'ai-shan Fu-chün of the Underworld and the Great Ruler of the Eastern Peak as one\". T'ai-\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214263, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "84\n\nShan is one of the five sacred mountains of China and is located in Shantung. It is believed to be inhabited by many divinities both male and female with T'ai-shan Yeh the primary deity for most pilgrims to the mountain even though the main deity in the temple on the peak is the Jade Emperor. Temples dedicated to the Lord of T'ai-shan were to be found in all parts of China, where he was regarded as the guardian of life and death.\n\nAs the Supreme Lord of the Underworld he has a very large bureaucratic organisation responsible to him for the maintenance of the Book of Life, the register of the due date on which the soul of every living soul must be summoned to appear before the Judges of the Underworld. Popular belief claimed that the entrance to the Underworld was to be found in one of the temples at the base of the mountain. The arrest and escort of souls is carried out by lictors and runners from the yamen of the local City Gods who drag each soul before the local City God, together with the biography and report on the soul prepared by the local Earth God [T'u-ti] who has carried out the first, very preliminary interview to ensure that the right soul has been arrested and is ready for onward despatch. Again, after verification of the identity of the soul the City God endorses the Earth God's report and if available adds any further information on the soul he might possess, and sends the soul under escort to the First Court of the Underworld where the process of purging the soul of all sin commences. After the soul has passed through all Ten Courts and been fully purged of its sins, it is then despatched either to the Western Heaven [Celestial Paradise] or for rebirth in an incarnation to be decided upon depending upon the weight of sins incurred during the previous incarnation.\n\nIn parts of China and in Taiwan, the alter ego is Tung-yüeh Ta-ti with Yen-lo Wang being the senior and chief of the Ten Judges who are under his charge. This dual role played by both Tung-yüeh Ta-ti and Yen-lo Wang is a further complication and a confusion which appears to be insoluble. The former is not only the Supreme deity of the Underworld but also the Judge of the Seventh Court whilst Yen-lo Wang is not only the senior Judge in charge of all Courts but also the Judge of the Fifth Court. The latter has been explained as Yen-lo Wang having ten different forms, as Judges in each of the Ten Courts. This, however, would mean that T'ai-shan Yeh of the Seventh Court would also be a form of Yen-lo Wang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215060, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "113\n\nTHE CELESTIAL MINISTRY OF TIME\n\n太歲\n\nKEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH\n\nIntroduction\n\nBelief in a Celestial bureaucracy was universal throughout China, particularly within peasant and the less literate urban communities and it is still believed in by devotees not only within China itself but also in Taiwan and the Chinese communities throughout South-east Asia. The Celestial bureaucracy is headed by the Ruler of Heaven, the Jade Emperor, with the various functions of the officials of the celestial departments being performed within the confines of numerous ministries, though possibly the former term of boards might be better, ranging from the Ministries of Water, Finance and Literature to the Ministry of Public Works, each with the aim of protecting or doing good for mankind. One such ministry is the Ministry or Board of Time.\n\nTaisui\n\nThe President of the Celestial Ministry of Time, the deity Taisui is possibly better known in English as the Ruler of the Year and the God of the Sexagenary Cycle. He is generally thought of as the Supreme Ruler of the Year and of the Seasons. He is one of the fiercest gods in the pantheon who must be placated whenever ground is disturbed for any reason, and is well known as the deity who strikes down any who offend him. In popular belief he is thought of as demonic and, if not regularly placated, he is at least to be avoided. His cult is comparatively commonplace, though the manifold forms it takes in temples throughout China, as well as the disparate names and titles of members of the Ministry, make an interesting picture. Taisui is not only the President but is also the name of the Ministry itself.\n\nIt is accepted by most Chinese that a number of factors control human lives; these include geomancy and astrology. Geomancy, in Chinese fengshui, concerns location whilst astrology is concerned with the auspicious or inauspicious nature of dates and times, and involving the stellar deity Taisui in particular.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]