[ { "id": 210290, "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": 261, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "240\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\nburnt and vegetarian food was offered by many worshippers there.\n\nAt the entrance of the Tao Ch'ang, 4 notices stated: \"The water and land cross-over is at this Tao Ch'ang ()\" separating the Tao Ch'ang area from the other areas. Within the area, there were 39 worshipping objects. There were three distinct areas to the Tao Ch'ang: i) On one side of the entrance, there were the territorial gods of the human world, and, on the other side of the entrance, there was a god who holds the key to the door between earth and hell (two of his runners were with him). ii) In the main hall, there were tablets of different spirits who were supposed to come from the ten courts of the underworld, and tablets of the Taoist Saints. Two Generals were put in the centre of the hall to watch over the spirits. iii) At the back of the area, was the altar (or Hoza in Japanese) where the priests practised their rituals under the images of the 3 Buddhas and the Goddess of Mercy. Compared with the typical Buddhist arrangement for rituals for appeasing the dead, the Tao Ch'ang area of the Kobe Chinese 'Yue Lan' was more inclusive and closer to Chinese folk tradition, though the priests were all Buddhists.\n\n32\n\nThere were 7 types of objects worshipped (Table in the Appendix):\n\ni) Those represented by incense bowls and offerings only.\n\nii) Paper-made figures.\n\niii) Paper-made lanterns.\n\niv) Porcelain statues.\n\nv) Paper-made houses.\n\nvi) Paper-made tablets.\n\nvii) Paintings.\n\nNot all worshippers knew the names and roles of all the objects worshipped. During the festival, worshippers presented incense sticks to all the objects of worship in the festival area. However, besides the Ming-che and the \"Ancestral Hall\", the two runners attracted the most attention from the worshippers. Worshippers bribed them with bundles of paper money. One Cantonese lady of about 75 years old explained that by doing so, it was hoped that the runners \"would take care of our ancestors whose spirits are com-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210296, "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": 267, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "246\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\nTable A. Name of the Objects of Worship\n\n \n 1.\n A Nan Chun Che *\n \n \n 2.\n Buddha #N*\n \n \n 3.\n Chia Ych Chun Che\n \n \n ***\n \n \n \n 4.\n Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy\n \n \n 5.\n Dragon Kings of the 4 Seas\n \n \n 6.\n Representative of the Heavenly Kitchen 天厨使者\n \n \n 7.\n Chin Kwong Wang\n \n \n 8.\n Cho Kiang Wang thi\n \n \n 9.\n Sung T'i Wang ✯E\n \n \n 10.\n Wu Kwan Wang HE\n \n \n 11.\n Yen Lo Wang\n \n \n 12.\n Bien Chen Wang |\n \n \n 13.\n Thai Shan Wang E\n \n \n 14.\n T'u Shi Wang\n \n \n 15.\n Pin Deng Wang\n \n \n 16.\n Chuen Lun Wang\n \n \n 17-18.\n The Courts of extreme happiness 極樂殿\n \n \n 19.\n Kan Tsai Wang\n \n \n 20.\n Wai Lo ##\n \n \n 21.\n ?\n \n \n 22.\n The Great Kings and Emperors 大王大帝\n \n \n 23.\n The Lord of Pu-tu\n \n \n 24.\n Ancestral Hall of all Lineages 各姓宗祠\n \n \n 25.\n 6 paths and 4 species 0%\n \n \n 26.\n Wandering spirits of 4 directions 西方忘魂\n \n \n 27.\n The 3 Pure Ones E\n \n \n 28.\n Gods of the 3 levels\n \n \n 29.\n ?\n \n \n 30.\n Male and female orphan spirits 男女孤魂\n \n \n 31.\n 3 religions and 9 schools\n \n \n 32.\n Million souls of the 3 levels 三界萬靈\n \n \n 33.\n Office of the Yin and Yang H\n \n \n 34.\n Lord 8th A\n \n \n 35.\n Lord 7th\n \n \n 36.\n Temporary resting place ✯✯S\n \n\nQ 1-3 as told by the organizer of the Uji O Festival\n\nR\n\nET\n\nT\n\nH No. 7 to No. 16 were the ten courts of the Underworld. Informants always mention them without any difference from no. 17 and 18, as ‘Chigoku Juunoo' (M&E) or 'Chigoku” (Ten Kings of Hell, or Hell). 7 to 9, 10 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 18, were all made in one paper-made house (informants simply class them as Ming-che too) respectively.\n\nF Both 19 and 20 were regarded as the guardians of the festival. 19 for avoiding any meat, and 20 for keeping out evil and watching over the spirits.\n\nQ No one knew what it was\n\nT\n\nT\n\nGIF\n\nT\n\nQ No one knew what it was\n\nT\n\nT\n\nQ Told by the organizer of the Uji festival. It was also called T'ien Ti Tan (X).\n\nF Both 34 and 35 were the runners of Hell.\n\nH\n\n! \n\n! \n\n! \n\n¡", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "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": 214263, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "84\n\nShan is one of the five sacred mountains of China and is located in Shantung. It is believed to be inhabited by many divinities both male and female with T'ai-shan Yeh the primary deity for most pilgrims to the mountain even though the main deity in the temple on the peak is the Jade Emperor. Temples dedicated to the Lord of T'ai-shan were to be found in all parts of China, where he was regarded as the guardian of life and death.\n\nAs the Supreme Lord of the Underworld he has a very large bureaucratic organisation responsible to him for the maintenance of the Book of Life, the register of the due date on which the soul of every living soul must be summoned to appear before the Judges of the Underworld. Popular belief claimed that the entrance to the Underworld was to be found in one of the temples at the base of the mountain. The arrest and escort of souls is carried out by lictors and runners from the yamen of the local City Gods who drag each soul before the local City God, together with the biography and report on the soul prepared by the local Earth God [T'u-ti] who has carried out the first, very preliminary interview to ensure that the right soul has been arrested and is ready for onward despatch. Again, after verification of the identity of the soul the City God endorses the Earth God's report and if available adds any further information on the soul he might possess, and sends the soul under escort to the First Court of the Underworld where the process of purging the soul of all sin commences. After the soul has passed through all Ten Courts and been fully purged of its sins, it is then despatched either to the Western Heaven [Celestial Paradise] or for rebirth in an incarnation to be decided upon depending upon the weight of sins incurred during the previous incarnation.\n\nIn parts of China and in Taiwan, the alter ego is Tung-yüeh Ta-ti with Yen-lo Wang being the senior and chief of the Ten Judges who are under his charge. This dual role played by both Tung-yüeh Ta-ti and Yen-lo Wang is a further complication and a confusion which appears to be insoluble. The former is not only the Supreme deity of the Underworld but also the Judge of the Seventh Court whilst Yen-lo Wang is not only the senior Judge in charge of all Courts but also the Judge of the Fifth Court. The latter has been explained as Yen-lo Wang having ten different forms, as Judges in each of the Ten Courts. This, however, would mean that T'ai-shan Yeh of the Seventh Court would also be a form of Yen-lo Wang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215349, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "74\n\nperhaps taken over within their own ethnic temple.\n\nThe Iron-ox General is a black-skinned demonic figure dressed in pantaloons and anklets, standing, with a tiger skin draped around his waist, and with a bolero covering his shoulders. He has a narrow plain coronet, and is holding a heavy chain in his left hand and an axe raised above his head in his right.\n\nThe Iron-ox and Bronze-ox were both live oxen transformed by Lishan Shengmu into human, albeit demonic form, to be her guardians and to protect the gateway to her mountain. They have powers in their own right which include, it is claimed, the prevention of natural disasters, and in particular flooding.27\n\nb] In Fujian province prior to 1949 it was not uncommon to see the Eight Youths, young boys running round the procession when the palanquin containing the image of the deity was being borne around his parish. The boys were regarded in most places as the incarnate soldiery of the spirit armies of the deities. In others they were underworld generals whose exorcising dance was performed to rid the vicinity of demons. In Taiwan groups of young men regularly meet in certain temples and practice exorcist drills which they then perform for the public during annual ceremonies. Their other function is to act as bodyguards to the major deity in their temple when he is taken out in his carrying chair to process around the town. These youths are known in Taiwan as the Eight Underworld Generals A#. They are skilled in martial arts, have their faces painted in specific patterns using a number of bright colours, somewhat similar to the actors in Peking opera but generally regarded as demonic faces, and are dressed in a uniform of jacket and trousers and in a few temples, according to one temple keeper, they wear red bands, similar to those worn by the Boxers of the 1900 Rebellion, identifying which unit they belong to. The markings and forms of these youths tend to be identical with the Ba Jia Jiang, the statues lining the walls of Underworld temples in Taiwan. Such statues have also been noted in several Hainanese temples in South-east Asia where the group of Eight is known as Ba Ban Gong A, The \"Eight Bosses\". Whereas the total, Eight, would appear to be somewhat immaterial to most devotees and temple keepers, in Singapore the Eight represented the large number of gaolers in each of eight of the Ten Courts of the Underworld responsible for purging\n\n28", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]