[ { "id": 208721, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n151\n\nmigrants, the arrival of a record number of Christian missionaries and new government regulations concerning religious festivals, all contribute to great changes. One more factor not so strongly felt ten years ago, but very active ever since, is the economic prosperity of the island, which has resulted in a new temple-building boom, perhaps unequaled in the past).\n\nSo far the author has identified the temples as either Taoist, Buddhist or Confucian, but now raises the question as to the usefulness and adequacy of these terms: \"Of what significance are these terms (as well as the term 'temple' itself) to our understanding of the development and character of religion in Taiwan?” (p. 52).\n\nIn Chapter II, \"The Use of Government Gazetteers in Scholarly Research\" (pp. 54-84), the traditional way of dividing the religions of China is rejected as inadequate. This terminology was used in official gazetteers but is not always reliable. Moreover, the gazetteers, although of importance for researchers, are often biased: there are omissions of a large number of smaller temples or so-called unorthodox temples; and the relative importance of various temples is ignored. Therefore the gazetteers have to be used with great apprehension and should be complemented with field-work information.\n\nThe confusion of the temple names—I’d rather use temple 'appellations'—certainly makes it very difficult to classify temples according to the three religions model, if one goes by these appellations only. But the author's conclusion on p. 72 is unwarranted: \"For this reason I do not believe that the three religions classification is a useful tool for uncovering the system of Taiwanese religious beliefs.\" Even if temple appellations are partially interchangeable (e.g. a kung may refer to a Taoist or Buddhist temple) their identity is not only based on their names. Besides—and here I only anticipate a major criticism to be discussed later—the \"system of Taiwanese religious beliefs\" is not only embodied in the temples but goes beyond temples and temple rituals.\n\nThe chapter concludes with a criticism of the classical division of the Chinese religions. Everyone must admit that this model does not work any longer: it is a simplification. The author's attempt to propose a set of new criteria to identify the essential nature of Chinese religion in Taiwan is the necessary consequence of his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210452, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "40\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nearly stages of a boom in fishing which had been ushered in by a new system of marketing and was to be accompanied by the rapid mechanisation of the junks. This was a general movement affecting cargo carriers as well as fishing craft in China as well as Hong Kong. Connected closely with it was an upsurge in the demand for education (for legal running a mechanised boat requires a certificated coxswain-engineer) and a strong movement towards dwelling ashore. In a few years Kau Sai was to have its new school, and the first of the gay, new, colour-washed houses was being built. The removal of the Hakka land families had merely made it a little easier for the Cantonese Boat People of Kau Sai to find building sites and maintain their unity as a relatively homogeneous group.\n\n3. KAU SAI: THE RHYTHMS OF LIVING\n\nIn this chapter I continue the description of Kau Sai with a general account of the on-going framework of activities into which a fisherman is born and in which he spends most of his life. It is necessary first to complete the picture of the physical setting with a more detailed account of the lay-out of the anchorage.\n\nThe lay-out of the anchorage\n\nBetween 1950 and 1970 the water front changed. In 1950, the sea wall, running from the temple westward along the whole length of the village, was made of rough granite blocks and boulders. Only in front of the temple were these held in place by mortar. There were four jetties, built also of granite boulders. The largest, best finished and most used was almost directly in front of the main shop. A second somewhat smaller one lay about twenty-five yards west of this. The third and fourth, flanking these two, were rather small and tumbledown. By 1970 the entire water front had a concrete wall surmounted by a concrete pathway. In place of the two old central granite block jetties stood two new concrete piers. The more westerly of the two was now the major one, a smaller one replacing that in front of the shops. The site of the old eastern jetty near the temple was now occupied by a public latrine. The fourth, most westerly jetty", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213909, "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-1996", "page_number": 261, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "236\n\nThe rituals performed by both the 'red hat' and the 'black hat' professional religious specialists, often connected in one way or another with mortuary rites, continue as before. The difference being that before redecoration the ritual performances in the half light, by 'red hats' in particular, accompanied by the boom of their ox horns blown at intervals during the rituals, provided an even more exotic and eerie scene.\n\nThe former layout of the temple consisted, as you entered the temple from the street, of the main hall dedicated to the Lord of T'ai Shan. This led through to the rear hall dedicated to the Saviour of the Underworld, the Buddhist deity, Ti-tsang Wang, with a long and comparatively narrow annexe running down the sides of the whole length of the two halls. On the other side of the halls were large rooms dedicated to the ritual services.\n\nThe usual images one would expect in the halls of both the Lord of T'ai Shan and Ti-tsang Wang stand either before or beside the altars, and lining the walls. Many are tamed demons such as Horse Face and Buffalo Head, and the Short Black and Tall White Demons who seize the souls of humans on their due date of death, dragging them before the City God for their primary interrogation. Others include the City God himself and the Goddess of Maternity, Chu-sheng Niang-niang, both of whom occupied their own secondary altars flanking that of Ti-tsang Wang; the Judges of the Ten Courts of the Underworld; and the Civil and Military Secretaries to the Lord of T'ai Shan.\n\nand they have been\n\nHowever, since the refurbishment of the temple, which took some two and a half years, the images down the side annexe which used to stand each in its own shrine have been relocated. The comparatively large image of the local tutelary deity, the Earth God, now has a shrine of his own in the Ti-tsang hall and the other two major images, of the Lord Protector of the Realm, Hu-kuo Tsun-wang Immortal Celestial Physician, Tien-i Chen-jen moved to the Ti-tsang Wang hall where they now sit on the main altar but in front, one on either side of the altar, both newly repainted. These two deities have borne these titles for at least thirty years and during that time the temple staff who appeared to be quite knowledgeable explained that the images down the side wall of the annexe had been brought in from other temples when the latter had been demolished for one reason or another, and their identities had been lost over the years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215490, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 267, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "216\n\nwas commemorating, it was certainly doing so with great Excitement and Atmosphere.\n\nAcross another courtyard, up a dark flight of wooden steps to a square viewing balcony with space for perhaps 40 people to stand next to the railing, looking down into\n\nTemporarily speechless\n\none of the most amazing and moving sights I have ever seen. So much so I had to leave after a few minutes, and go and look at the sunlight and distant mountains before venturing back in, still in a state of some shock. Seated one floor below us, lit only by smoking candles, cross-legged on the wooden floor, were four rows of monks dressed in their dark blood-red habits, two rows facing the other two rows, 48 monks in all. Each had a drum of about two feet in diameter, which was held vertically with the aid of a three-foot pole. They were beating these drums and chanting in the deep-throated growly tones that one only hears in Buddhist temples, all to a set but irregular rhythm without the apparent aid of written music or any other form of instruction. Wandering along the ranks of seated chanters was a sergeant-major or choirmaster with a large and solid-looking stick in his hand. He used this to apply a none-too-gentle rap on the shoulder to any monk whose drum was not held perfectly upright. I regret that my less than classical education made me think of Indiana Jones when he was deep inside the Temple of Doom amongst the thuggees. I apologise if I am upsetting any reader's sensitivities with this comparison, and I freely admit that there could hardly be less similarity than between a gentle Bhutanese monk and a murderous Indian thuggee.\n\nSeated behind these monks, beneath our viewing platform, were countless other monks - some with instruments, some without. Some of these, it seemed to be the young novices, for no apparent reason received three lashes each on the back from a gentle monk carrying a cat-o'-nine-tails. (Parent: 'Did you have a nice day at the temple today dear?' Young Novice: 'Yes thank you mama.' P: 'Did you get thrashed?' YN: 'Yes mama - thrice.' P: 'That's my boy! Your father and I are so proud of you.')\n\nBack to centre stage, where the performers were considerably more", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216313, "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-2003", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "21\n\nof the temple complex.\n\nOne other positive result of the new development is that the section of Longhua Lu which passes in between the walled temple compound and the pagoda has now been closed to vehicular traffic, unless you count motorcycles, and turned into a pedestrian mall.\n\nLonghua Temple's current structures\n\nThe 40 meter high octagonal wooden pagoda, Longhua Ta, has orange walls with red cross timbers, upturned eaves and wood railing balconies at each level, and a metal spiral spire on top. As late as 1934 visitors could still ascend to the top of this tower, but now it is closed and cannot be entered or ascended. The base is encircled by a brick wall with a perpetually locked gate, which keeps admirers at arm's length. Depending on who you believe, it may have been built during the Three Kingdoms, the Bei Song or the late Qing Dynasty. After extensive research into the difangzhi local histories, the author has concluded that the current pagoda may possibly be the same as the Xin Bao Ta first constructed in 1066 by the Song Emperor Ying Zong. Although at that time the temple was named Kong Xiang Si, the Longhua Pagoda's official name has continued to be the Bao Ta to this day. In 1984 the pagoda underwent a massive restoration during which the entire tower was covered with scaffolding, and a giant boom crane dropped a brand new copper spiral ornament onto the tower's roof. Although impressive, Longhua Ta is not the only pagoda in Shanghai, as is sometimes claimed, but is in fact only one of a total of 16 pagodas within the Shanghai Municipality.\n\nThe grand outer Shan Men gateway to the temple complex is one of the most impressive sights it has to offer. The five-gate pai lou has a granite stone frame with five wooden double gates, above which are three inscribed wooden signboards, all of which is covered by an enormous three-tiered wooden roof with multiple layers of upturned eaves, itself supported by layers of intricate wooden brackets. The top of the roof is covered with tiles and decorated with dragon-fish ornaments. Each wooden gate is one-foot thick, which should have made the temple impregnable to attack during times of unrest, but unfortunately did not stop the Red Guards in 1966.\n\nPassing through this outer gateway, you enter the first of six", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]