[ { "id": 204311, "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": 79, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n75\n\nwith the worship of the Pole Star and with astrology. These can be found in the Tao Tsang (Two Collections of Taoist Literature). To identify him with the Vaisravana of popular legends was advantageous both to the Buddhists and Taoists.\n\nIt has been said that Vaisravana helped the Emperor T'ai Tsung during the war which led to the founding of the T'ang dynasty. But in some Tantric texts, the story is dated in the year A.D. 742 (the 1st year of Tien Pao in the reign of Hsuan Tsung). When the city of An-si (2) was besieged by the troops of five states including Tashkend and Samarkand, Vaisravana appeared above the tower of the city-gate with his celestial soldiers and defeated the invading troops. The sutra reads,\n\nIt was in the 1st year of T'ien Pao, the cyclic year being Jên-wu (4), when the city of An-si in Kansu was besieged by the troops of five states, Tashkend, Samarkand ... (five characters missing in the text). On the 11th day of the second month the commander of the city sent a petition for reinforcements. The Emperor told the Monk I-hsing (一行), “An-si is twelve thousand li away from our capital and it would take eight months for our reinforcements to reach there. I am afraid the city will fall.\" I-hsing said, \"Why does Your Majesty not supplicate the celestial soldiers of Vaisravana, the heavenly king of the North, for help?\" \"How do I get his help?\" the Emperor inquired. I-hsing said, \"Your Majesty need only summon the foreign priest Amogha and he will do everything.\" Amogha was summoned and said, \"Your Majesty sent for me. Is it not because the city of An-si is besieged by the troops of five states?\" The Emperor answered, “Yes.” Amogha said, \"Bring your urn and follow me to the place of worship and I will supplicate the celestial soldiers of Vaisravana the heavenly king of the North to rescue the city from danger.\" Hardly had he finished chanting his spells for the fourteenth time when the Emperor saw celestial soldiers clad in armour standing in front of the hall. \"Who are they?\" the Emperor asked. \"Tu Chien (毘建), the second son of Vaisravana, who is leading the celestial troops to An-si, has come to say farewell.\" The Emperor gave them food and dispatched them. In the fourth month the commander of An-si reported again, “On the 11th\n\n13 Li Ching's name appears in the Tao-chiao Hsiang-ch'êng Tzu-ti Lu *(道教相承次第録 \"Order of Taoist Teaching\") in Yün-chi Ch'i-ch'ien (雲笈七籤)(XL). chüan 4. In the Tao Tsang (道藏), Tung-shên Pu (洞神部)(1), Fang-fa Lei (方法類)(5) T'ien-lao Shên-kuang Ching *(天老神光經) is attributed to him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204333, "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n97\n\nthree chapters (Ch.12-14) of the Fêng-shên Yen-i and all the other chapters except those parts inherited from the prompt-book Wu-wang Fa-Chou P'ing-hua3 and Lieh-kuo Chih-chuan (@) are the original work of the author.\n\n39\n\n40\n\n38\n\nLu Hsün told us that the approximate dates of Wu Ch'êng-ên are about 1510-1580, and the earliest editions of the Hsi-yu-chi by Wu Ch'êng-ên we have were all published late in the Wan Li period, probably after 1592. It is therefore safe enough if we suppose that the novel Fêng-shên Yen-i was first compiled in the middle of the Chia Ching period (about 1545).\n\n4\n\n38 \"King Wu's Expedition against Chou\", the original copy of which is from an edition dated Chih Chih (a), the reign of Emperor Ying Tsung (1321-23) of the Mongol Yüan dynasty. It was published in Chien-an (# now Chien-yang of Fukien province), then a very famous paper-manufacturing and publishing centre. No less than five different prompt-books of the same sort, historical and fictional, including the Wu-wang Fa Chou, have been found, now kept in the Japanese Cabinet Library, bearing the same sub-title as \"published by the Yu family of Chien-an\" (ZREKƒ). A complete English translation of the last-named is included in my \"The Authorship of the Fêng-shên Yen-i”,\n\n39 The Lieh-kuo Chih-chuan FHEN, a book in a very rare edition, copies of which are now preserved only in a few libraries. See my article \"The Discovery of the First chuan of the Lieh-kuo Chih-chuan and Its Relation to Wuwang Fa Chou P'ing-hua and the Novel Fêng-shên Yen-i\" (元至治本全相武王伐紂話明刊本列國志傳一與封神演義之關係), The New Asia Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, Aug. 1959.\n\n4o Chung-kuo Hsiao-shuo Shih lüich, Ch. 17, p. 168. Yang's translation, p. 210. cf. (2).\n\n41 See Prof. Sun K'ai-ti's (H) Jih-pên Tung-ching So Chien Chung-kuo Hsiao-shuo Shumu (B££££+5), pp. 101-2, Shanghai, 1953. Shih-tê Tang (H) edition, dated \"the fourth day of the fifth month in the year jên-chên (IR)\",", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205268, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "THE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG\n\n23\n\nleft the country without a ruler, the ministers and generals, after consultation with their mother, the concubine Young, unanimously installed I Wang Shih as the Generalissimo of the state and his brother Kuang Wang Ping as his deputy. After a while, they decided to travel south by boat. When everything was ready for departure, the cunning premier Ch'en I-chung begged to remain behind, using the excuse that he must bury his mother who had just died in Wenchow. Everybody disliked him and took him for a coward. The impetuous and impulsive warrior Chang Shih-chieh thought up a cunning scheme: he ordered some of his soldiers to remove the coffin of Ch'en's mother and to place it on a ship. Consequently Ch'en had to follow, much against his will.\n\nIn the 4th month they arrived at Foochow, Fukien, In the next month they crowned I Wang Shih Emperor who thus became the last Sung emperor but one. He was then eight years of age. His posthumous name is Tuan Tsung, (*) by which I shall call him hereafter. From that month on, his reign was called Ching Yen (*). His younger brother Ping received the new title of Wei Wang (£), and his little sister, that of Princess of Tsin Kuo (+), while his own mother was properly honoured as the Queen Mother. They stayed in Foochow until the 11th month when news came that the Mongols were invading Fukien, so they sailed southward.\n\nAfter passing by Ch'uanchow (¥) and Amoy in Fukien and Ch'aochow (¶) (Swatow) and Chia-tsu-men (‡ƒ¶) (of Huichow) in Kwangtung, they entered the territory of Kwangchow-fu early in 1277. Passing by Mirs Bay (Ta-p'eng-wan (★*), northeast of Kowloon), the royal party probably went ashore for a short time to get a rest, since there remain a few historical sites by the names of Wang-mu chuang-t'ai (the Queen-mother's Dressing Table) and Wang-mu hsu (Queen-mother's Market). During the next two months they stayed at an island then called \"Mei-wei\". (This place at present is still unidentified.) In the 4th month (May 1277) the royal refugees landed at Kuan-fu Ch'ang accompanied by many descendants of former Sung emperors who had joined the royal party from different places along the coast.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205282, "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": 44, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "THE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG\n\n37\n\n\"the back seat\". But before accepting this interpretation, one must verify the identity of the Yunnan Lao with the aboriginal tribe dwelling in Kow-Joon speaking the same language.\n\n6 See my article \"The Southern Sung Stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang\" in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 5, 1965. At line 17 of the article \"before this date\" should read \"after this date\". The Chinese text on the engraven rock was given in my article, but was not accompanied by a literal translation, which now follows:\n\n[I] Yen I-chang of Ku-pien (K'ai-feng, Honan Province), being the administrator of this Field (namely, Kuan-fu Ch'ang), accompanied by Ho T'ien-chuch of San-shan (Foochow, Fukien Province), come to visit these two mountains (North and South Fu-t'ang). In the course of investigation, [I found, first, that] the stone pagoda (shih-ta, or colloquially called Ku-shih-ta and abbreviated to Ki-ta) at South T'ang was constructed in the 5th year of the reign of Ta Chung Hsiang Fu (i.e., of Emperor Tsen Tsung of Northern Sung, A.D. 1012). Next, Cheng Kuang-ch'ing of San-shan, piling up stones and chopping down trees, renovated the two T'angs. Again, T'eng Liao-chuch of Yung-chia (Wen-chou of Chekiang Province) continued the work. The ancient stone-tablet at North T'ang was established by Hsin P'o-ting of Ch'uan-chou (Fukien province) in the year wu shen but the reign [of what Emperor] cannot be ascertained. Now, Nien Fa-ming of San-shan and Lin Tao-i of this native place (i.e., Kowloon) continue the work. Furthermore, Tao-i can expand the former plan requesting [me] to establish another stone-engraving for commemoration [of the renovation]. Inscribed on the 15th day of the 6th lunar month in the year chia shu [i.e., 10th year] during the Hsien Shun reign (Emperor Tu Tsung of Southern Sung, A.D. 1274).\n\n7 Yuan Yuan, Kwangtung T'ung-chih, Haifang lüeh, chuan 2, kx. Ak Ma. 40%. Shu Mou-kuan, Hsin-an Hsien-chi, chuan 7, Chien-shu lüeh 建署累\n\n8 Ta-ch'ing Hui-tien, Kuan-chih kao. 76.\n\n9 Research notes by the late Sung Hsueh-p'eng (4) who had done much research work on the local history and geography of Hong Kong and Kowloon. A portion of the notes was generously recopied and given to me.\n\n10 Ibid.\n\n11 T'u-shu Chi-cheng, Chih-fang-tien (811A.AZ) records that \"This was the old engraving of Yuan times”.\n\n12 Chuan 18, Sheng-chi-lüeh BAY.\n\n13 Before 1941 there were three streets at this place, called \"Sung Street\", \"Ti (Emperor) Street\" and \"Ping Street\". (Apparently Emperor Ping was mistaken for Tuan Tsung (Shib). As the history of Southern Sung in Kowloon had been rather obscure, the mixing up of the two names was not very unlikely; even the Hsin-an Gazetteer made the same mistake. This whole area including the three streets was levelled during the Japanese occupation to facilitate the extension of Kai-tak airfield.\n\n14 See Jao Tsung-i, Kowloon yũ Sung-chi shih-liao ✯‡, ^*‡‡‡£ #, Hong Kong, Universal Book Co., 1959, p. 105.\n\n15 Wu Pa-ling, Sung-t'ai kan-chiulu 4*. *4434 in Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume, p. 108.\n\n16 By the side of the cliff a low-cost housing estate has been recently constructed south of the new Fu-ning Street (3##), east of the now Fuk-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206844, "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-1973", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 115\n\nand is on a hill named Hau Tei (#) king crab ground, near the village of Ch'ai Waan Kok (A) Ts'uen Waan ( ) district. The tablet has a poem engraved on it written by Paak Yuk Shim (1) a poetical genius of the Sung dynasty. He was also famous for his paintings which were highly admired among Chinese Scholars. Legends have attributed to him magical powers, and he is supposed to have appeared and disappeared in all the famous mountains from Tung Koon, San On and to the east of Kwangtung.\n\nHe received the title of \"Tsz T'sing Chan Yan” (**^^) from the emperor Sung Ning Tsung (#). Biographies of him were recorded in Tung Koon Yuen Chi (£) Ch'iu Chau Foo Chi (M) and many other books. The poem on the grave was remarkable for the curious allusions that were made in it to the future. It runs:-\n\n1. 長伸左手接星羅,\n\n2. 走攬青衣濯碧波,\n\n3. 深夜一潭星斗現,\n\n4. 裏頭容萬船過。\n\n5. 有人下得朝陽穴,\n\n6. 十三年內登科,\n\n7. 若是世人尋不得,\n\n8. 囘頭轉問釣魚哥。\n\nThis can be roughly translated as follows:\n\n1. \"Put out the left hand as far as Sing Hill,\n\n2. running as far as to Tsing I island wash it in the green waves.” These two lines refer to the position of the grave.\n\n3. \"In deep night one harbour all the stars appear.”\n\nAlluding to the lights of Hong Kong harbour in the future.\n\n4. \"Inside harbour there will be ten thousand ships passing to and fro.\n\nThe trade that was to come to Hong Kong.\n\n5. \"If any one can find the proper site of the grave\n\n6. in thirteen years' time his descendants will pass the highest degree of Government examinations.\"\n\nThis came true in so far as the Tang family were very successful in passing examinations and some of them became high officers and men of rank.\n\n7. \"If people in the world try to find, and are unable to find it\n\n8. turn your head round and ask the young fisherman.\"\n\nReferring to the grave again. When Tang Foo was finding the place for the grave the local villagers pointed out to him a stone known as the Fishing Stone which helped him to decide on the site.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206856, "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-1973", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 127\n\n) 3rd year of T'ong (統) dynasty, by a Buddhist priest named Yuen Chong (圓聰) in the Ts'z Yun monastery (慈雲寺) in Ch'eung On (昌安) city, Shensi (陝西) province, near the Great Wall. This monastery had been built about fifty years previously by the Emperor T'ong Ko Tsung (唐玄宗) for his mother. When the pagoda was being built a wild goose flew against it and was killed, and the monks buried the bird underneath the pagoda and in this way it received its name. It became the custom ever since Shan Lung (神龍) years A.D. 705 & 706 of T'ong dynasty for the Emperor to give a banquet in the monastery called the Kuk Kong Yin (曲江宴) “winding river banquet,” to all the new \"Tsun Sz” (進士). Their names were carved on a stone tablet in the pagoda, and it became customary to use the expression “Ngaan T'aap T'ai Ming (雁塔題名) when congratulating successful candidates for the highest government examination. In Tang Lam's time the Tung Kwun people wished to have their own Ngaan Taap pagoda, and Tang Lam provided the money for them to do it. It was built some time during the ten years of Shun Yau (淳祐) A.D. 1241-1251 of Sung dynasty, and it was repaired in the 40th year of Shung Ching (崇禎) A.D. 1637 of Ming dynasty by a Tung Kwun \"Tsun Sz” named Kwok Kau Ting (郭九錠). Lam's grave is still to be found in Hon Yee Haang (巷義行) in Tung Kwun district.\n\nThe children of the four sons of Tang Tsz Ming seem to have left Kam T'in, and their descendants founded families in other villages. Those of Lam are to be found in the village of Lung Kwat Tau (龍骨頭) near Fanling (粉嶺); those of Waai still live in Tai Po Tau (大埔頭) near Tai Po market and Lai Tung (黎洞) near Sha Tau Kok (沙頭角), while Kei's descendants settled in Tung Kwun. But the great grandson of Tsz came back to Kam T'in. His name was Shau Tso (秀祖), he held the military rank of Chung Mo Kau Wai (忠武校尉) and in the Yuen (元) dynasty A.D. 1277 he received the honour of Hin Mo Tsueng Kwan (顯武將軍). He had two great-grandsons, brothers, named Hung Yee (鴻義) and Hung Chi (鴻志). The latter was a son-in-law of Hoh Tik (何狄) the younger brother of Hoh Chan (何真) who ruled Kwangtung (廣東) and Kwangsi (廣西) provinces at the end of the Yuen dynasty. When the Ming dynasty started Hoh Chan gave up his territory to the first Emperor, but later on he became involved in the case of General Leung Kwok Kung (梁國公) Laam Yuk (濫獄)...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207029, "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-1974", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "94\n\nR. G. IRWIN\n\nCes trois historiens des MING sont particulièrement distingués à la Chine, & personne n'y révoque en doute les faits qu'ils rapportent; c'est sur leur réputation de fidélité & d'exactitude que le Père de Mailla les a adoptés de préférence aux autres. II a encore puisé dans un recueil de discours & instructions de HONG-VOU, fondateur des MING, que Chun-chi des TSING a fait traduire en tartare pour son usage particulier dans le gouvernement de son nouvel empire & pour l'instruction des grands de sa cour. Ce recueil est intitulé, Ming-kou-lou-hong-vou-han-y-oyong-tatsi-yen; c'est-à-dire, Documens importans de l'empereur HONG-VOU, de la dynastie des MING.\n\nThese authors and their works may well have been renowned at the time of de Mailla, but two centuries later their very identification presents a problem, the results of which are herewith summarized:\n\n1. Ku Ying-t'ai (T. Keng-yü),3 who is credited with the authorship of Ming-ch'ao chi-shih pen-moa by the editors of the Ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu tsung-mu¤$£$#!' was a native of Feng-jun, Pei-Chihli. After taking the chin-shih degree in 1647 he held a secretaryship in the ministry of Revenue, and later in the Chekiang provincial board of education. The history, a work in 80 chüan, each devoted to a separate topic, carries a preface dated 1658.6 On the whole, it is a well-ordered record of the Ming period. Factual errors, which occur, for example, in connection with Chu Yün-wen, who reigned as Emperor Hui (1399-1402), and again with Chang Ma, better known as Empress I-an (consort of Chu Yu-chiao, emperor of the T'ien-ch'i period, 1621-27), are accounted for by the lack of any such standard source as the official history at the time of composition. But the Ssu-k'u editors are of the opinion that the author has handled the available material well.\n\nWhether Ku should be given entire credit for its authorship is open to question, however, since it seems to have been based on Shih-kuei ts'ang-shu♬ §#*, for which he is reported to have paid Chang Tai of Shan-yin, Chekiang, some 500 pieces of gold. Fu I-li# » † (fl. 1862-74), in a colophon, discusses the problem at length, concluding that Chang Tai's material passed through the hands of Hsu Ch'ao-li, who re-wrote it. Ku, in turn, re-worked this, and cannot be accused of out and out plagiarism.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207582, "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": 350, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n341\n\n16 This mountain is clearly marked in the map (pl. CXIV of Vol. II) of the book review. In addition, according to Chun kuo ku-chin ti-ming ta tzu-tien \"Dictionary of Ancient and Present Place Names in China\", edited by Tsang Li-ho and others (1933, 2nd edition, Shanghai), p. 135, Mt. Tien-chu is at the northwest of Chien-shan in the present western An-hui Province.\n\n17 In Tung Shih-heng's Li-tai chiang-yu hsing-shih i-lan-t'u (1914, Shanghai), Map 3 (Chan-kuo ch'i-hsung-t'u A Map of the Seven Strong States during the Warring States period); again in Watari Yanai's Toyo Tokushi Chizu (1934, 3rd edition, Tokyo), Map 3; also in Albert Herrmann's A Historical Atlas of China (1966, 2nd edition, Chicago), Map 8 (The Contending States), the Huai River area is always marked as part of the territory of the State of Ch'u.\n\n18 This is to be seen in Fujiwara Sosui's Chokuoku shoho rokutai dai-jiten, Dictionary about Six Different scripts of Chinese calligraphy, (1960, Tokyo), pp. 615-616.\n\n19 See Chin Shu, History of the Chin Dynasty (1974, Peking punctuated edition), Chüan 40, (in Book V), p. 1366.\n\n20 Ibid., p. 1359.\n\n21 For the latest findings of scholars of this small circle, see Ho Ch'i-min: \"Chu-lin ch'i-hsien yen-chiu\" \"A study of the Seven Talents of the Bamboo Grove\", 1966, Taiwan.\n\n22 Po-hsüeh hung-tz'u. This examination, initiated in 731, the 19th year of the K'ai-yüan era during Emperor Hsüan-tsung's reign in the Tang Dynasty was during the Ch'ing Dynasty confined to some limited candidates primarily recommended by the Education Department in each province.\n\n23 For sound scholarship on the economic importance of Yang-chou during the Ch'ing Dynasty, see Prof. Ho Ping-ti: \"The Salt Merchants of Yang-chou: A Study of commercial capitalism in Eighteenth century China\", in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (1954, Cambridge), Vol. 17, pp. 130-168.\n\n24 Tsang Li-ho and others, op. cit., p. 923.\n\n25 The edition that the reviewer used is the Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition, first wood-blocked in Canton in 1850.\n\n26 The Chinese title reads: \"44415447\".\n焦山看月分得辇字\n\n27 In Chiao-shan chi it is to be found in p. 1b-p. 2a, while in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, (1937, Shanghai), hsü-chi (a supplementary collection), chüan 7, pp. 359-360 (In the Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts'ung-shu edition).\n\n28 The Chinese title reads: \"9493A7”.\n同作分得月字“\n\n29 In Chiao-shan chi it is to be found in p. 9a-9b, while in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi it is in hsü-chi, chüan 7, p. 360.\n\n30 In Ma Yueh-kuan's own Sha-ho i-lao hsiao-kao (also the Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition), it is to be found in chüan III, p. 17a-17b.\n\n31 The Chinese title reads: \"宿佛日淨慈\". It is to be found in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 134.\n倪龍瘢痕\n\n32 The Chinese title reads: “晚起 撖上人導行黃萬峯下 倪龍瘢泉 尋龍”. It is in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 134.\n\n33 The Chinese title of this poem reads: \"...\". It is to be found in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 135.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208336, "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "44 \n\nKEITH STEVENS \n\n1871) offered sacrifices at the City God temple and reported, in writing, that he and the whole family with gratitude had made an image of the Duke Wei which he presented to undergo the rite of consecration, so that it would protect all members of his family and all his domestic animals and poultry. The image is of a seated soldier, dressed in armour and military cap, his right hand is clenched and rests on his right knee. His left hand, the first and fifth fingers only, pointing vertically, is held at waist height in a magical sign. Wei had a gilded face, traces of which can still be seen, five tufts of black beard, the stubble only remaining and gilt armour covered by a red and blue robe again only traces of which are still visible. This image was blackest and greasiest of all and is quite surprisingly handsome now that the film of filth has been removed. Wei could possibly be Yu-ch'ih Ching-te (*), the Door Guardian who according to Mathews' dictionary is well-known as one of the two door guardians on temples and is “depicted with a black face and the fingers of one hand twisted up\". The image, dressed in loose robes over armour and chain mail, has a gilded face but otherwise, has his fingers twisted up. In reality Yu-ch’ih was a general who served the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung in his wars against rebels and died in 659 A.D. \n\nThe fourth image (Plate 5), also from Shan Men district, Wu Kang county in Hunan and dedicated in 1938 is of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. The image, easily identifiable as such by her five-leafed bodhisattva crown, beads and vase, is seated cross-legged on a lotus, and dressed in gilded robes, The slip of paper in Kuan Yin's back relates that Petitioner and worshipper Mrs. Yin Wu-chi together with her five sons, four daughters-in-law, and one grandchild, on the 21st of the 6th moon of the 27th year of the Chinese Republic (18th July 1938) offered sacrifices to the Earth God at the City God temple in Lao Chai, presented and installed a new image of Kuan Yin. This has been done, the slip said, so that this Buddhist deity can be resorted to in her natural form and can kindly bestow good luck and eternal protection and prosperity on the Yin family and its future generations. In words of glowing praise, the petitioner described the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the soul, the gall, the eyes, teeth, the bones, the bowels and the spirit of Kuan Yin, as 'the liver of a green dragon', 'lungs of a white tiger', ‘kidneys \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210061, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "11\n\nseemed to be favourable. But our human eyes do not see all the factors involved, we only see the externals. Matsu, powerful and wise, knows better. This is her oracle:\n\nDo not implore blessings nor pray for luck\n\nYour scheme and efforts will get stuck\n\nThe world of the living knows not the realm of death: A burning furnace is its law: no freedom is granted.\n\nIn small print the leaflet gives details about the major concerns of human life: here, the section ‘marriage' is the one that counts. But the expectations are not too good: “difficult to succeed\" is the verdict. After reading the slip for herself, the woman had consulted one of the temple diviners: his view was that powers from beyond the grave are causing trouble and for some reasons trying to oppose the union. The woman is disappointed but her faith in Matsu is not shaken; the oracle has at least helped her in opposing a wedding that would end in failure, or would even never materialize. Where human eyes cannot see the truth, the gods and goddesses will offer guidance to help men follow the path of correct action.\n\nHistorical Precedents of the Temple Oracles\n\nThe above narrated scene took place in 1978: a thousand years earlier, in A.D. 978, the 3rd year of the Sung Emperor T'ai-tsung, a similar scene could have taken place anywhere in China, with a different worshipper addressing a different deity concerning the same frustrating problem.2\n\nAgain, another two thousand years before that, in the year 1022 B.C., in a different situation, a similar question could have been addressed to the imperial ancestors or the divine spirits of the Chinese realm. The divining technique used at that time must have been different: either the old Shang method of heating up animal bones (scapulomancy or osteomancy), or else the manipulation of yarrow stalks or milfoil sticks, later replaced by bamboo (achilleomancy).\n\nIn any case divination combined with ancestral sacrifices is one of the oldest expressions of Chinese religiosity. Whereas the Shang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211630, "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": 45, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "20 \n\nsecure a writ of pardon for a soul in the Underworld. Buddhists have occasionally accused the Taoists of stealing him from their pantheon. The Buddhist Indra, known as Yu Ti (**玉帝**), literally The Jade Emperor, was, they say, adopted by Taoists to counter Buddhist power. Others suggest that the Jade Emperor was a creation of a Chinese emperor to help maintain the authority and stability of his rule. In one popular version the Sung emperor Chen Tsung (**宋真宗**) in AD 1012, in order to divert his ministers from an unfortunate treaty he had been obliged to sign with some barbarian tribes, announced with great pomp that he had been visited in a dream by an immortal with a letter from the Jade Emperor. In the letter the Jade Emperor explained that he was sending one of the emperor's ancestors in person. The Sung emperor then claimed that a dazzling deity appeared before him in a dream and informed him that he was the Jade Emperor, Master of Heaven and Earth, and the Incarnation of Tao. Later the emperor, having announced that the visit had taken place, ordered that thereafter the Jade Emperor, “one of his ancestors\", was to be treated as a major deity. The next year, in 1013, the Jade Emperor's image was cast and placed in a special temple, the Jade Palace (**玉皇殿**) where it was worshipped by the whole court. One hundred years later, the Sung emperor Hui Tsung (**宋徽宗**) built an even more magnificent temple for the Jade Emperor and thereafter the image was portrayed in imperial robes.\n\nH. Y. Feng3 claimed that the earliest reference to the Jade Emperor was in a poem by Han Yu (768-824), a Confucian scholar who wrote, admiring plum blossom, \"Riding clouds we came together to the home of Yuh Huang', proving, he states, that the Sung emperor's claims were after the fact. However, state recognition by emperor Chen Tsung made the Jade Emperor an important deity in the pantheon.\n\nA Fukienese legend describes the Jade Emperor as being born to a queen who conceived miraculously after a visit by T'ai Shang Lao Chun (Lao Tzu) in a dream. When this prince in due course became king, he ruled with great compassion and concern, and was a model ruler who later devoted part of his life to religion and attained sainthood. This was, however, many centuries before the Sung emperor Chen Tsung popularised the cult.\n\nAnother popular version explains how the Jade Emperor appeared in his visible manifestation to a Sung emperor and told him that he, The Jade Emperor, was the manifestation of the power and thought of Tao,\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211631, "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": 46, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "21\n\nto be regarded as such by mankind and to be revered only as the representation of that power. However, over the centuries, he has developed into a god in his own right, depicted as a gilded image of an emperor sitting on a throne, and is accepted by the masses as the ruler of the Heavenly bureaucracy.\n\nIn T'aishan in Shantung province it was claimed that the Jade Emperor in mortal life had been merely a learned doctor of medicine who had lived during the 12th century AD at the Sung court in Kaifeng. He attended the emperor Hui Tsung during a serious illness and saved his life with a miraculous cure. He was known as Chang Yu-huang, but, on his death, he, like many a hermit, was deified by imperial decree.\n\nBritish representatives met the imperial representative, Li Hung-chang in 1876 in the temple (Yuh Huang T'ing) dedicated to the Jade Emperor to the west of Yent'ai (Cheefoo) in Shantung province to arrange the Chefoo Convention. Another incident involving the British in North China and connected with the Jade Emperor concerned Sir Meyrick Hewlett of the China Consular Service at the turn of the century during the clearing up after the siege of the British Embassy during the Boxer Rebellion. He found in the house of Sir Ernest Satow, HM Ambassador in Peking, a tablet with a background of sky-blue, framed in rich gold and inscribed with the four characters in gold — 'Huang T'ien Shang Ti'. Prince Ch'ing identified it as an item from the Temple of Heaven which had been missing for more than a year. When Sir Ernest asked how to restore it to its rightful place, the Prince begged the Ambassador not to send it round to his palace as should it be placed in the entrance he could neither leave nor enter his home without kowtowing twenty-seven times before it. Another more enlightened official helped out by bearing it off at dead of night in a Peking cart to the vaults of a European bank where it awaited a favourable day for restoring it to the Temple of Heaven. Some thirty-five years later, Sir Meyrick, paying his farewell visit to Peking, visited the Temple of Heaven and asked the attendants whether he could see the tablet, kept with the other tablets sacred to the emperors of the Ch'ing dynasty in a small temple opposite the Altar of Heaven. They replied that this was quite impossible, since even in post-imperial Kuomintang days no-one was allowed to see it. Sir Meyrick related the story of its recovery, upon which the attendants agreed to show him the tablet together with the tablets to the 28 Major Constellations, to Thunder and Lightning, and to the other forces of nature, but said that the tablets to the emperors were all lost after their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211660, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "50\n\neach bearing a different surname. Depending upon which source you accept the maximum number of individual surnamed Pestilence Wang Yeh would appear to be a mere 106 or 132 out of the 360.\n\nThere are at least five or six different legends describing the origins of these spirits which vary enormously both in general and in detail with the most popular story heard repeatedly in Taiwan and South-East Asia being of 360 musicians deified by an emperor of China. Cautionary stories about the threat to the populace from the 360 Plague Gods were common throughout China but other than in Fukienese communities they were not referred to as Wang Yeh. In some versions the spirits of the musicians spread out all over China and in our major legend five particular spirits, deemed special protectors of the area, ended up in the Changchou and Ch'uanchou area of Fukien.\n\nThe different legends, in general, claimed that the group of Pestilence Wang Yeh were 'scholars killed by Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, the unifier of China in 210 BC, who ordered the burning of books and the burial of Confucian scholars'; 'T’ang dynasty literati who died as a result of the folly of the emperor T'ang Ming Huang (685-762AD)'; 'The 360 Ming literati who refused to serve the usurping foreign dynasty, the Ch'ing and hanged themselves, (mid-seventeenth century AD)'; 'The five scholars who killed themselves to save villagers from an infected well'; or, finally, are 'spirits of the man-in-the-street who died of plague and became Plague gods'.\n\nA few temple keepers claim that the Pestilence Wang Yeh are subordinate to the Lord of Mount T'ai and of the Underworld (T’aishan Ta Ti 泰山大帝).\n\nThe following are a number of the legends in greater detail. The first relates that during the reign of T'ang T'ai Tsung (627-649 AD) five scholars who had been unsuccessful at the imperial civil service examinations had stayed on in the capital living on what they could earn playing music. The emperor summoned them to the palace to play for him and had at the same time the Taoist 'pope' Chang T'ien Shih (Chang the Heavenly Master) in audience. The emperor wishing to test the 'pope's' magical powers ordered the musicians to play in the cellar whilst he told the ‘pope' that there were five demons in the basement. The 'pope' using his secret arts killed all five. The emperor was both appalled and ashamed of what he had caused and deified all five.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211667, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "57\n\nThe third non-pestilence Wang Yeh is Sui Chia Wang Yeh (隨駕王爺). This Wang Yeh whose title means 'Following the Imperial Carriage' was the general-in-charge of the royal guards during a legendary visit to Taiwan by the Chinese crown prince, later to be the Ch'ing emperor Chia Ch'ing in about 1690. Images of the general Li Yung, and his deputy Wang Fa, stand on the altar of a temple in Nantou in Central Taiwan. The crown prince received reports of a plot by the Hsiao family, so legend claims, who in conjunction with a hill tribe planned to assassinate him, Li Yung attacked the Hsiaos and although he was killed during the battle the Hsiaos were forced to retreat and the crown prince was saved.\n\nSo much for legend. According to historical records, in 1721 Chu Yi-kui rose against the Ch'ing dynasty in Taiwan to restore the Ming, and Li Yung was appointed Duke by Chu. Both Li and Chu were defeated and captured by the Ch'ing forces and executed in Amoy. The probability is that the temple, which was erected in 1899, just after the occupation of Taiwan by the Japanese, was erected to commemorate Li Yung's, and by extension the people's opposition to foreign (in Li's case, Manchu and in the people's, Japanese) occupation of Taiwan.\n\nA fourth example of a non-pestilence Wang Yeh, but from central Taiwan this time rather than the south, is Su Fu Wang Yeh (蘇府王爺), a Tang dynasty official now better known as General Su.\n\nIn the early days of its development Quemoy (Chinmen) was repeatedly attacked by pirates. Due to the superhuman bravery of General Su they were defeated and Quemoy was pacified. He, Su Yung-sheng (蘇永盛) to give him his full name, and Ch'en Yuan, the Horse Breeding Duke, another official serving T'ang T'ai Tsung, worked together to develop the area.\n\nThe pirates called Su Yung-sheng 'Su Ta Wang' (The Great Lord Su 蘇大王). In his twilight years Su was transferred on promotion to the mainland where he was appointed a Wang Yeh.\n\nAfter he died a temple was built in his honour in which he was revered together with four of his subordinates, Chiu (邱), Liang (梁), Ch'in (秦), and Ts'ai (蔡), who were honoured with the honorific of Ch'ien Sui (Excellencies). \n\nA major temple, the Chinmen Kuan, in Lukang on the west coast of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212131, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "50\n\nus to re-date two Nestorian manuscripts discovered in Tun-huang in 1980, and suggests contexts for their composition. Best of all, it throws valuable light on one of the most appealing Nestorian missionaries of the T'ang period, Adam, archbishop of China and composer of the celebrated Sian tablet inscription. As will become clear, Adam possessed an extraordinary talent for the art of public relations.\n\nThe 'Syrian Brilliant Teaching'\n\nThe main source for the Nestorians in Tang China is the Sian tablet.* The tablet, discovered in 1625, was originally set up in 781 by the elders of the Nestorian church on the premises of a Nestorian monastery in the city, then China's capital. It was probably buried by Sian's Christian community during a period of persecution or unrest to save it from destruction, but we do not know when: possibly as early as 845, possibly as late as the 980s. Christians in Yüan China knew nothing of it, and appear to have believed that they were the first to bring the Gospel to China, so we can safely conclude that when Marco Polo arrived in China in 1279 the Sian tablet had been long underground. Its discovery in 1625 caused a sensation, both in China and Europe. In China, Christianity enjoyed a short wave of popularity, and the Jesuit missionaries found that for a few years they were making converts in far larger numbers than previously. In Europe, the discovery stimulated scholarly interest in the history of the separated eastern churches. Forays were made into the Middle East in the early eighteenth century by antiquarians in search of old texts. These expeditions came none too soon, and it is in large measure due to the efforts of the scholars of the Age of Enlightenment that the history of the Nestorian church has been preserved in more than its mere outlines.\n\nThe Sian tablet carries a long inscription in Chinese, supplemented by a few sentences in Syriac, and we learn from it that the monastery in which it stood had been founded in 638, on the orders of T'ai-tsung, the second emperor of the T'ang dynasty, in response to a petition from a Nestorian monk named Reuben.2 It is implied, though nowhere explicitly stated, that this monastery was the first Christian foundation in China. The inscription, apparently aimed at satisfying the curiosity of visitors to the monastery, includes a brief sketch of\n\n* See Plate 1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212136, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "55\n\nassociated with Persia, not Syria, until 745. The expression 'teaching of the scriptures' is found in three texts dating from before the middle of the eighth century. One is a Nestorian tract, the Book of Jesus the Messiah, written between 635 and 641, shortly after Reuben's arrival in China. The other two are imperial decrees, one of 638, and the other of 745. They deserve special respect because, as official documents, they were drafted with care, and used terminology with precision. The decree of 745 also provides evidence that up to 745 Christian churches were called 'Persian monasteries, and that the official name for Christianity was Po-ssu ching-chiao 'Persian teaching of the scriptures'.\n\nThe Book of Jesus the Messiah is the earliest Nestorian document to survive from Tang China. There are two, slightly different, versions of this work, and the earliest version has been shown on stylistic grounds to predate the Essay on the Charity of the Creator (one of the three chapters of the Essay on Monotheism), a work known to have been written in 641. The Book of Jesus the Messiah was therefore written within six years of Reuben's arrival in China in 635. It is probable that it is the 'scripture' which, according to the Sian tablet, Reuben translated into Chinese for the emperor T'ai-tsung to support his petition to establish a monastery in Ch'ang-an. It gives a fair digest of the Christian message, and its length is right for a document intended for submission to an emperor. If so, it was written before 638, the year in which Reuben's petition was approved.\n\nTowards the end of the text of the Book of Jesus the Messiah, after a description of the crucifixion, the following passage occurs:\n\n\"The earth quaked and the hills rocked, and the gates of all the graves in the world were opened and all the dead received life. When men saw that it was so, some still did not believe the teaching of the scriptures (ching-chiao), that the Messiah would die again, but most men did believe.\n\nIt is true that in this passage ching-chiao most probably bears its literal meaning, and refers to the Old Testament prophecies of the death and resurrection of Christ; but once this convenient term was coined, it did not take long before it suggested itself as a suitable Chinese name for the Christian religion. Christians liked to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212137, "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": 79, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "56\n\nappeal to the authority of scripture, and the high moral tone of their scriptures was a decisive factor in securing imperial permission to preach Christianity in China. It is understandable that, presented by Reuben with a summary of the Christian message, the imperial authorities should have approved, or perhaps even suggested themselves, the term 'teaching of the scriptures' for the strange western religion. In 638 the term ching-chiao, 'teaching of the scriptures', is found in an imperial decree as the official Chinese term for Christianity.\n\nT'ai-tsung's decree of 638 was issued in response to the arrival of Reuben in Ch'ang-an, and gave permission for the Nestorians to establish a monastery in the capital. The decree has been preserved in the Tang hui-yao, an important collection of documents of the T'ang dynasty, and reads as follows:\n\nTruth can be recognised, whatever its name: wisdom can be discerned, whoever its possessor. Every region has its appropriate religion, which by its imperceptible influence benefits the inhabitants. The virtuous Persian monk Reuben (A-lo-pen) has come to our high capital from afar with the 'teaching of the scriptures' (ching-chiao). We have carefully examined this teaching, and find it mysterious, admirable, and tranquil; we have studied its principles, and are satisfied that they lay stress on the essentials of life. Its language is spare and elegant, and its thought is coherent. It is clearly a helpful doctrine: let it be admitted to our empire. Let a monastery be built in our capital by the appropriate board in the I-ning ward, and let twenty-one monks be appointed there.\n\nThe term 'teaching of the scriptures' also occurs in another imperial decree made over a century later, in 745, by the emperor Hsüan-tsung. This decree has also been preserved in the T'ang hui-yao, and reads as follows:\n\n\"The ninth month of the fourth year of the T'ien-pao period. The Persian 'teaching of the scriptures' (ching-chiao) originated in Syria (Ta-ch'in). Long ago this teaching was brought here and has been practised in China. When the monasteries were first built, we called", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212143, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "62\n\nidentify the two. Unfortunately there are other considerations. Firstly, it is difficult to see why different titles were used if they were the same person. Secondly, nearly every Syriac name given in the inscription is balanced by its Chinese equivalent, and the Chinese name 'monk Ling-pao' appears near the Syriac reference to Adam, son of Jazedbouzid, and is otherwise unexplained. It is possible that it was placed there because there was a convenient gap available, but on the whole it seems more likely that there were two different Adams, the metropolitan of China, whose Chinese name was Ching-ching, and a more humble minister, whose Chinese name was Ling-pao. Nevertheless, the possibility that the metropolitan Adam was the son of the high-ranking soldier Jazedbouzid should not be altogether ruled out, and would certainly fit in with the other known facts about Adam.\n\nThe Sian tablet inscription, composed by Adam, tells us a lot about his personality. It is unlikely that he drafted the inscription in Chinese, as it contains nuances and subtle allusions to classical Chinese works of literature which were beyond the ability of most foreigners. Nevertheless, it is legitimate to conclude that the structure of the inscription, and the main lines of its thought, were his. The Sian tablet inscription has often disappointed western Christian readers. Some have complained that the inscription pays too much attention to the compliments paid by successive T'ang emperors to the Nestorian church. Others have wondered why there is a long passage in which Chinese geographical works are quoted to illustrate Ta-ch'in's location and its main products. Others have noticed that the most important event in the Christian story, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, is alluded to so vaguely that it is difficult to discern at all. These critics have failed to appreciate why the Sian tablet was set up, and who its readers were.\n\nThe Sian tablet was above all else a tourist guide. It stood in the courtyard of the oldest Nestorian monastery in China, in Ch'ang-an's I-ning ward. The monastery would have attracted Chinese visitors, mostly with a scholarly bent, and the aim of the inscription was to explain the monastery's history, and to gratify curiosity about the Christian religion. One of its most striking features is the wealth of graphic description it provides of furnishings and articles which could be seen in this first and most impressive of the Nestorian monasteries in China. The visitor's attention was specifically drawn to a portrait of the emperor T'ai-tsung, to portraits of the 'five emperors' donated by Hsüan-tsung and brought in person to the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212147, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "66\n\nexpression 'brilliant teaching' and its meaning. The first section of the inscription, which describes the main doctrines of the Christian faith and the missionary character of the Christian church, concludes as follows:\n\n\"This true and unchanging way is wonderful and hard to name. Its merit is so clear and its usefulness so obvious that we strive to express it by calling it the 'brilliant teaching'.”\n\nAdam also removed from a quotation in the Sian tablet inscription two inconvenient references to the former official identity of the Nestorian church, the teaching of the scriptures'. As has been mentioned earlier, the emperor T'ai-tsung gave permission in 638 for Reuben to build a Nestorian monastery in Ch'ang-an, and the relevant imperial decree has been preserved in the T'ang hui-yao. This decree is also quoted by Adam in the Sian tablet inscription, but with two slight, but significant, changes to the authentic text. Where the original referred to the virtuous Persian monk Reuben', Adam silently substituted 'Syrian' (Ta-ch'in) for 'Persian' and, carefully altering the original text of the imperial decree as little as possible, transformed the phrase 'Reuben has come to our high capital from afar with the teaching of the scriptures (ching-chiao)' into 'Reuben has come to our high capital from afar with scriptures and images (ching-chang)', by the deft alteration of only one Chinese character. Again, this suggests an effort to promote a new image: if the term 'brilliant teaching' had been firmly established in 781, it would have been unnecessary to take such pains to avoid references in the Sian inscription to the previous official identity of the Nestorian church.\n\nAdam and the promotion of the term 'Syrian Brilliant Teaching'\n\nIt should come as no surprise that a man of Adam's character was determined to ensure that his new term for Christianity, the 'Syrian brilliant teaching', should be uniformly applied by all Nestorian monasteries in China, so as to achieve maximum impact. There is evidence that, once this term had been adopted by the Nestorian church as an official description in 780, efforts were made to apply it consistently and to erase traces of the former official identity wherever they occurred. So far, this process has not been adequately analysed. In fact, a sustained effort appears to have been made in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212148, "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": 90, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "67\n\n780s to translate Syriac documents into Chinese, and to recopy and emend old Chinese manuscripts to promote the new image. Adam, the composer of the Sian tablet inscription, was behind this campaign. A seventh-century imperial decree and two early eighth-century Chinese texts were emended, and at least thirty-five seventh-century Syriac texts were translated into Chinese, to conform to the new style. He nearly succeeded in eliminating all traces of the old identity. Indeed, if Hsüan-tsung's decree of 745 had not been preserved, he could only be shown to have tampered with the text of a single imperial decree, T'ai-tsung's decree of 638. As it is, there is evidence that his revisionism went much further.\n\nMuch of the argument in this section will rely on taking Hsüan-tsung's decree of 745 at its face value. The decree states that Nestorian monasteries were called 'Persian monasteries' until 745, and orders them to be renamed 'Syrian monasteries' thereafter. The decree clearly envisages a prompt change from one consistently applied nomenclature to another. In 745 the T'ang dynasty was at the height of its prosperity, communications were good, and there is no reason to suppose that the leaders of the Nestorian church in China found difficulty in regulating such matters in the churches under their jurisdiction. It will therefore be assumed that the term 'Persian monastery' was indeed consistently used until 745 by the Nestorians for their monasteries in different parts of China, even in remote Tun-huang. If the decree of 745 can be trusted, two Nestorian manuscripts will have to be re-dated to the 780s, even though their texts plainly state that they were written in 718 and 720 respectively. In other words, it will be assumed that they were deliberately emended and recopied. This may seem a bold assumption to make. But if the dates of these Nestorian manuscripts are correct then an imperial decree of the greatest emperor of the T'ang dynasty, at the height of his power, was not worth the paper it was written on. It seems easier to believe that texts were doctored to preserve the coherence of the new Nestorian official identity, especially since it can be proved that Adam did just that with T'ai-tsung's decree in the Sian tablet.\n\nThree texts which were discovered at Tun-huang in 1908 contain Ta-ch'in ching-chiao in their titles, and a fourth contains ching-chiao in the text. A short explanatory note appended by a monk of the Nestorian monastery at Tun-huang to the text of the Book of Praise supplies a vital clue proving that these were seventh-century texts\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212149, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "68\n\nrecopied in the 780s either by Adam, or on Adam's instructions. The Book of Praise contains a prayer giving thanks for the composition of 35 named books. The explanatory note makes it clear that Adam had been given access to Ch'ang-an's imperial library (presumably by the emperor Te-tsung); that these 35 books had been translated by him from their original Syriac into Chinese, and were a small portion of the scriptures which Reuben had brought to Ch'ang-an in 635; and that the translations had been sent to the Tun-huang monastery. The note reads as follows:\n\n\"Regarding the list of books, there are altogether 530 religious works of our church of Syria (Ta-ch'in), and they are all on patra leaves in the Syriac language. In the ninth Cheng-kuan year [635] of the emperor T'ai-tsung of the Tang bishop Reuben (A-lo-pen) came to China and presented a petition to the emperor in his native language. Fang Hsuan-ling and Wei Cheng made known the interpretation of the words of the petition. Later by imperial order bishop Adam (Ching-ching) of this church translated the above thirty and more rolls of books. The majority are on patra leaves or on leather in wrappers, and have still not been translated.'\n\nAmong the 35 books listed are four of which versions have been recovered from Tun-huang, the Book of the Secret of Peace and Joy, the Book of the Origin of Origins, the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity, and the Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Now if these books are, as the note to the Book of Praise implies, seventh-century works connected with Reuben, 'Christianity' should be rendered by the term 'teaching of the scriptures', and be associated with Persia, not Syria. Instead, notes in the manuscripts of the Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord and the Book of the Origin of Origins state that they were written in the Sha-chou Ta-ch'in ssu, the 'Sha-chou Syrian monastery', implying that the notes, at least, were added after 745. Furthermore, in the titles of three of these four works, we find that the term Ta-ch'in ching-chiao, the 'Syrian brilliant teaching', has been added. It does not occur in the titles as given in the Book of Praise. In the case of the fourth book, the Book of the Secret of Peace and Joy, the title remains as given in the Book of Praise, but the term ching-chiao, ‘brilliant teaching' occurs three times in the text. All four manuscripts have been copied (or at", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212152, "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": 94, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "71\n\ntexts of these two works. Adam, working in the imperial library in Ch'ang-an sixty years later, probably translated Reuben's Syriac originals into Chinese without realising that translations had already been produced in far-off Tun-huang. Later, as the Book of Praise implies, he sent Chinese translations of thirty-five Syriac works to Tun-huang, and his new translations of the Kai-yuan documents were among them. The Tun-huang monks were evidently unwilling to destroy their own Chinese translations and replace them with Adam's, and it is their version which has survived, but in a copy made in the 780s. Adam had probably directed that new Chinese texts on Christian subjects should consistently use the 'Syrian brilliant teaching' identity, and that old texts should be edited where possible, to be brought into line with the new style. The monks therefore recopied and lightly edited their own Chinese texts to conform to the new identity. But they continued, understandably, to acknowledge the translation work carried out more than sixty years previously by their own monastery's monks, Chang-ku and Su-yüan.\n\nEpilogue: the Five Dynasties Period\n\nWe have seen how Adam tried to ensure that all Nestorian churches in China consistently used the term 'Syrian brilliant teaching'. During his lifetime, his position as metropolitan of China ensured that his flock complied with his wishes, but it is clear that the consistency by which he set such store broke down once he was no longer there to enforce it. This process can be seen at work in the manuscript in which the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity and the Book of Praise have been preserved. The former work seems to have been copied in the 780s, as it consistently applies the terminology found in the Sian tablet inscription. But the Book of Praise, although written on the same piece of parchment as the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity, is written in a different hand and clearly at a much later date.\n\nThe Book of Praise, much of which is a hymn of thanksgiving for the existence of the 35 Syriac works translated by Adam, seems to have been written either in the tenth or the early eleventh century. The Tun-huang cave in which it was found was sealed in 1036, providing a terminus ante quem for its composition, and the formulation ‘emperor T'ai-tsung of the T'ang', proves that it was written after the final collapse of the T'ang dynasty in 906. At any rate, it was written not long before or after Abu'l Faraj met the despondent Nestorian monk", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212153, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "72\n\nin the Christian quarter of Baghdad, when Ch'ang-an and its glories were only a distant memory, and the Nestorian church in China proper was virtually extinct.\n\nIts tone is one of elegiac regret for an illustrious past, when the leaders of the Nestorian church had enjoyed access to the emperors of China; when Fang Hsüan-ling and Wei-cheng, two of the most powerful men in T'ai-tsung's court, had welcomed the first Nestorian missionary to China, and when the emperor Te-tsung had summoned a Nestorian archbishop to the imperial palace to translate the Christian scriptures into Chinese. The term 'brilliant teaching' does not appear either in the text of the Book of Praise or in the explanatory note, although there is a single reference in the note to our religion of Ta-ch'in'. The text of the Book of Praise lists, as we have seen, a number of books brought by Reuben to China in 635, including the Book of the Secret of Peace and Joy, the Book of the Origin of Origins, the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity, and the Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. The manuscripts of the last three documents which have survived contain the term 'Syrian Brilliant Teaching' in their titles, but the phrase is omitted from the titles as given in the Book of Praise. Also, the term ching-feng (pure wind) is no longer used for Holy Spirit: instead we find a transliteration of the Syriac Ruha de Kudsha. The man who wrote the Book of Praise did so on a manuscript which contained a text of the Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity with 'Syrian Brilliant Teaching' prominently displayed in the hymn's title. He nevertheless felt able to ignore this example of 'correct' usage in the Book of Praise.\n\nThere are a number of stylistic similarities between the Book of Praise and the Book of the Secret of Peace and Joy, which suggest that our manuscript of the latter, although deriving from a seventh century Syriac original translated into Chinese by Adam, was copied in the tenth century. Firstly, its title is exactly as given in the text of the Book of Praise, and does not contain the expression 'Syrian brilliant teaching', found in the other late eighth-century manuscripts. Secondly, as in the Book of Praise, a transliteration of the Syriac Ruha de Kudsha is used instead of the term ching feng to denote the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, both texts use an obscure transliteration of the Sogdian word for 'rock' in the proper name 'Simon Peter' (Chang-wan Chang-jia, 'Simon the Rock'), instead of adopting a straightforward Chinese equivalent. Fourthly, both texts use one only of the two", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212738, "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-1992", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "32\n\nthem during his journey across the province in 1879 and accepted their offer of sworn brotherhood. He later explained that he had done so to prove to them that Englishmen believed in cultivating and cementing friendship with all civilised beings of whatever creed or nationality. He also mentioned several times his 'never-to-be forgotten friend and brother, Yü Te-k'ai, an officer in Kueichou of the fifth degree of civil rank, the confidential correspondent to the C-in-C beside being commandant of the battalion of guards.' It would have been interesting to have learned the views of these sworn brothers about Mesny.\n\nAlthough Mesny described quite a substantial number of contacts with Chinese officialdom and his views on the very senior officials, he frequently simply referred to the names and titles of senior Chinese officials with or for whom he had worked or by whom he had been interviewed in such a manner as to imply a personal relationship which, in the majority of instances, raises suspicions that he was trying more to bolster his own ego in his passing years and convince himself as well as his readership. However, he also had many an axe to grind and debts of personal slights to repay and these he undertook with great relish in his Miscellany. He sat, in his fifties, in Shanghai, after a life of action, musing over Chinese officialdom's ingratitude, lack of foresight, ineptitude etc. taking pleasure from the opportunity afforded him to write about those who had earned his displeasure.\n\nMesny had particular respect for one very senior Chinese official, Tso Tsung-t'ang, whom he first met when Mesny called to pay his respects during the winter of 1867 in Hankow. After discovering Mesny had been a captive of the Taipings at the age of 25 and spoke French and English, he offered Mesny an appointment as French and English Secretary on his staff, with a recommendation to the Emperor for the civil rank of Fourth Degree. He also offered to take Mesny on his impending campaign to the North-west of China where Tso had just been appointed Governor-General of Shensi and Kansu provinces and C-in-C of the Imperial Forces. The offer was scuppered by the refusal by the local British Consul, Medhurst, to provide a British passport as Mesny's parents had written objecting to his involvement in recent escapades, and capture by both the Taipings and Imperial forces whilst running the blockade. Mesny was next involved or very nearly involved with Tso in 1879 when Mesny trekked from Canton to Tso's headquarters in Hami in the extreme North-west to offer him a French loan. However, Tso had been recalled to Peking just", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213619, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 215, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "Canton He founded the Meditative School, Ch'an Men (9) which taught that the Buddha was to be sought within the mind and not learnt from books. His image is to be seen alone on a number of altars, revered in his own right.\n\nThe second Patriarch is Shen Kuang (4) the Spiritual Light, who lived some 107 years, dying in AD 593, some sixty years after the death of Bodhidharma. When he was forty he went to the Shao-lin Monastery near Loyang in Honan province following a vision and there received from Bodhidharma the robe and the sacred alms bowl. Bodhidharma also changed Shen Kuang's name to Hui K'o (7) Intelligent Ability. Many years later the emperor T'ang Te Tung bestowed upon him the title of T'ai-tsu Ch'an-shih ().\n\nThe Third Patriarch, Seng-ts'an (), is said to have introduced himself to Hui K'o and as a result of the conversation the Patriarch realized that he had met his successor. He explained and taught Seng-ts'an all he knew and when dying appointed him as his successor. Seng-ts'an died in 606.\n\nThe Fourth Patriarch, Tao-hsin (), was a precocious youth who became a disciple of Seng-ts'an and eventually his successor. He lived during the period when the first two emperors of the T'ang ruled China, with the reign of the second, Tai Tsung, regarded as one of unrivalled brilliance and glory, and died in 651. He appointed Hung-jen as his successor. Legend describes how Tao-hsin saw a beggar woman and her child at the side of the road and learnt that she had been driven from her home by her parents having become conceived her child miraculously, it being a reincarnation of an aged wood gatherer who had sought instruction from Tao-hsin. Tao-hsin immediately recognised the child as his successor and having sought his mother's consent to the boy entering a monastery. Tao-hsin instructed him and changed his name to Hung-jen, Vast Endurance.\n\nHung-jen (L), the Fifth Patriarch, died some 24 years after his appointment. Hung-jen, and to a greater extent his successor, Hui-neng, founded the Ch'i-su Chiao, the Buddhist Vegetarian sect. To select this successor he held a verse competition, more a hymn with a moral purpose, and Lu Hui-neng being judged the winner became the Sixth and final Patriarch of Chinese Buddhism.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214005, "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-1997", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "40\n\narmy against the Prince of Han, and this time he gained a victory, but the practical results of it were of little service for the Liao came to the rescue and the Sung troops once more had to retreat. T'ai Tsu died a short time later at the age of 50 and was succeeded by his brother who ruled as Sung T'ai Tsung.\n\nIn 980, following the policy of his brother, T'ai Tsung made extensive preparations for the subjugation of the Prince of Han and a great Sung army under the command of the veteran P'an Jen-mei set out. The Prince of Han in great alarm sent messengers to the Liao Khitans begging them to hasten once more to his assistance, which they were well pleased to do. This time, however, the Khitans were defeated and the Northern Han capital at Taiyuan eventually capitulated and became a mere district city. Over-confidence then led the Sung to invade Khitan territory where they were badly defeated.\n\nThe hero of our story, Yang Yeh had been one of the captains of the Prince of Han, but after his surrender with the city of Taiyuan to the Sung he entered the service of Sung T'ai Tsung and became conspicuous for his daring and gallantry. Yang Yeh was perhaps the one man that the Liao Khitans feared, for he was so invariably successful in action with them that he was popularly referred to as 'Yang the Invincible.'\n\nIn 981 a Khitan force of many thousands again marched south. Yang Yeh learning of their plans laid a successful ambush of several hundred horsemen which caused the Liao army to fall back, abandoning their plan to invade.\n\nAgain, in 986 hostilities were once more embarked upon with the Liao Khitans. The Sung emperor sent four armies to attack them and at first they were successful. However, fortune then began to desert the Sung. First one army and then another were picked off and destroyed by the victorious Liao, one of which, commanded by P'an Jen-mei, was routed at a great battle at Ch'en-chia Ku near Huan-chou where the invincible Yang Yeh was killed whilst bravely fighting against overwhelming numbers. The Emperor felt the immensity of the loss of Yang Yeh who, as the Warden of the Marches, had been the most efficient commander serving Sung T'ai Tsung.\n\nNext is the story in legend. As a family they are renowned as the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214259, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "80\n\na Stupa and/or spear\n\nThe King Protector of the North E and controller of Autumn\n\nelement metal\n\nsometimes identified as Li T'ien-wang\n\nP'i-sha-men T'ien-wang E\n\nIn a number of older temples the Diamond Kings are portrayed as demonic with black skins and with a total of eight in the group rather than the usual four. In the Kai-yüan Ssu in Changchou in Fukien province, the Eight are positioned on all sides of the main altar. They are bare to the waist and have bare feet, and are without weapons or attributes.\n\nIn northern Chinese temples the two guardians outside the main doors, often painted on the front walls flanking the entrance, are blue or green skinned demons known as Wu-shih, simply meaning 'warriors'. or Li-shih J\n\nDoré claims that the Four were introduced in the 8th century during the reign of T'ang T'ai Tsung who believed that the Four helped him establish his empire. The Taoist group said to have assisted the T'ang emperor is often identified with four Taoist mythological deities. These are:\n\nLi Yüan-shuai [Marshal Li or Li T'ien-wang], Li Ching, the Heavenly King who holds a pagoda10\n\nMa Yuan-shuai [Marshal Ma] or Ma the Heavenly King who holds two swords\n\nChao Yuan-shuai [Marshal Chao] or Chao T'ien-wang, holding a single sword\n\nWen Yuan-shuai [Marshal Wen] or Wen T'ien-wang holding a spiked club", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]