[ { "id": 206645, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\nb. Chang Kung Sheng Chün\n張公聖君\n\nC.\n\nd. Kung Sheng Chün\n公聖君\n\nFa Tze Chu\n法子主\n\ne. Fa Tze Wang\n法子王\n\n+\n\nf. Fa Tze Kung\n法子公\n\ng. Sheng Chih\n聖\n\nh. Min Shan Fa Chu\n閩山法主\n\nt. Wu Sheng Kung\n巫聖公\n\n187\n\naltar. Fa Chu Kung is wearing a gilt crown, and robed with red robes. Seen in Seremban and Kuala Lumpur, and in a famous Foo-chow temple in Singapore.\n\nSeen in a Fukien temple in Toa Payoh, Singapore, co-located with Chiu Kung Sheng Hou (II).\n\nA Fukien god carver says that this is the Cantonese name for him. However, this is normally the short title for the Ch'aochow rain deity Feng Yu Sheng Chih (風雨聖者).\n\nIn a Foochow temple in Singapore.\n\nSeen in a Fukien temple in Tampin in Malaya.\n\nOne temple keeper said that he is called Fa Chu Kung in all places in Fukien Province, except for Pu Hsien area where he is known as b. above.\n\nDisciples, attendants and other gods sharing the same altar as Fa Chu Kung\n\nWhen Fa Chu Kung is the main deity, he is to be seen either alone, or with his two brothers, or with his two or four attendants. If he is with a large group of major and minor deities, he is comparatively near to the main deity, often on the immediate left. The most frequent main deity with whom he appears is Hsüan Tien (太上玄天).\n\nFeast and Birthdays\n\nHis feast and birthdays vary with the place, town or city in which his temple is located. In Taiwan the most frequent date is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212631, "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-1991", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "165\n\nrain had caused a number of minor landslides. At several places large rocks lay across the road, but we were able to move these sufficiently to allow the lorry to pass; then about midday we were told the road further on was entirely blocked by a heavy landslide. At the village nearest to the scene we stopped to collect as many labourers as Michael could get the headman to round up, and then went on to investigate the damage. We found it would be possible in time to clear the road, except for a large rock about the size of a billiard table. We could only blow it up, unfortunately we had not packed our lorry to meet such a contingency and, of course, the primers were stowed under everything else. However, in time the necessary material was collected and a Chinese engineer officer, a casual passenger, and I got down on our stomachs in the mud to scoop out a hole under the rock in which to place the charge. After you place a charge in a hole it is necessary to tamp it well with earth to ensure that the blast does not merely blow back along the hole you have made. Our first attempt was not very successful as the tamping was inadequate and most of the blast came back through the hole and blew the tamping, like a shrapnel fougasse, out over the countryside. For the second shot we used a larger charge and tamped it better, and on returning after the explosion found the rock shattered. Willing hands had soon rolled the pieces over the hillside, and we set to with shovels to clear the rest. It was late afternoon when we reached the Tsien Tang river ferry, to find that a regiment of soldiers had arrived on the opposite bank and had seized all junks and ferry boats for use in crossing. The invaluable Michael went over to see the commanding officer, who readily released one of the ferry boats which was sent over for us. The Japanese were only a few kilometres down river with a large fleet of junks and motor launches, and I was very glad when we had successfully negotiated the crossing. That day, owing to the various delays with which we had met, we were only able to cover about 100 kilometres.\n\nWe stopped for the night at a village, where we had previously made friends when passing through. All the lights were out, and the village seemed deserted; the military police told us that only that afternoon they had opened fire on some farmers, whom they took to be Japanese plain-clothes men. The fact is that when Chinese troop movements take place the soldiers need coolies to carry for them; they impress these wherever they can find them with the consequence that on the approach of bodies of troops it is usual for the population of a place to lock their houses up and hide in the mountains. The soldiers are naturally annoyed when they arrive in a place to find everyone gone; no one to help them make fires,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212729, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "23\n\nMesny shared with other Europeans the assumptions of Christian moral superiority. He did, however, have a genuine respect for Chinese culture that was absent in so many foreigners in China. He also approved of Christian missionaries and their work and anticipated that China would be converted to Christianity within the next century, i.e., by the year 2000, and noted at one point during a discourse on meeting Chinese during his travels that he occasionally took the opportunity afforded him by his contact with groups of them to discuss the importance of Christianity.\n\nSeveral times Mesny raged against the iniquity of the Western nations in their support of the Chinese Imperial Government in its struggle against the rebellion of the Taipings. The latter was led by Hung Hsiu-ch’üan, a failed examination scholar and a professed Christian. Hung, a Hakka, was influenced by Protestant faith and adopted a number of its elements into his cult. After a series of visions, he declared himself to be the son of God and a younger brother of Jesus. The Taipings, a major threat to the last Imperial dynasty of China, were puritanical, having outlawed gambling, opium, tobacco, and alcohol. Their rebellion thrived on the tensions stemming from the economic and political issues of the day, though by the end, it had destroyed very many millions of lives and lasted some thirteen years with much of southern China under their control, and with its centre and capital at Nanking on the Yangtze. Defeated by the Imperialists aided by Western mercenaries, Hung committed suicide in 1864, and the Taipings were eliminated. Mesny, who had been well treated by the Taipings during his captivity in Nanking, explained that Hung had eventually been viewed as blasphemous by Western missionaries for believing the Lord's Prayer, calling God their Heavenly Father, and Jesus [the author, he noted, of that very prayer] their Heavenly Senior Brother. It was logical to Hung, said Mesny, to take it that step further, if God is the Father and Jesus is the Son, and God is also our Father, then Jesus must be our Brother too. Hung simply saw himself as a modern-day Saint leading his followers in the way of Jesus. The Chinese slant included concubinage for the leaders together with a number of misinterpretations of Christian beliefs and rituals which, when identified, became anathema to the missionaries both Protestant and Roman Catholic.\n\nHis Other Publications and Letters to the Press\n\nApart from the major work, his Chinese Miscellanies, Mesny appears to have written one book, Tungking, printed by Noronha in Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 } ]