[
    {
        "id": 210070,
        "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": 41,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "20\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\n1980, I received photocopies of the new additions to the register. The 1976 register lists 107 temples: they are numbered according to their location within the city. By the end of 1980, the number had gone up to 154. The main reason for such a drastic increase was the inclusion of churches. As a matter of fact, the new list with handwritten additions so far contains 21 Christian churches (2 Roman Catholic, 19 Protestant), 1 mosque, one Ta-t'ung and one Tenrikyo shrine (two new religions).\n\nThe Taichung city hall list provides for each temple the following details: district, name of the temple, the main deity worshipped, the religious affiliation, the correct postal address, the person in charge (Kuan-li jen) and the number given by the city. I presume that much more data is contained in the city's files, for I looked at the local file in Kaohsiung and found that many more details regarding temple properties, income, and regular activities are contained in the full register. But the Taichung city hall list is a useful, practical document, making it possible to go and visit the temples for interviews. I visited roughly half of the listed temples myself, while the other half were taken care of by assistants and college students as a field work project. One of the purposes of the visit was to collect samples of their oracles. Each different type of oracle has been given a number, preceded by B: this is the numbering found in W. Banck's text edition, which I adopt here (see Footnote 15). He allotted numbers according to the frequency of the oracles he found: in most cases this frequency coincides with my field work experience, but there are occasional discrepancies.\n\nThe categorization of temples as \"Taoist\" or \"Buddhist” is found in the listings of Taichung City Hall. I have reservations about the category of “Taoist” temples, as the official lists simplify the affiliation of temples: whatever is not a Confucian or Buddhist temple, is said to be a Taoist temple. That is stretching the concept too far; most of these temples are community temples and belong more properly to the folk religion.\n\nThe table shows that at least 85 out of 115 temples make use of temple oracles, which is almost 74%. There are certainly more temples using them, for the group \"not available\" contains a number of temples where we could not obtain samples, because",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210424,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1985",
        "page_number": 31,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "12\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nThere are certain dispositions on the part of the patient before he or she can be cured. The first is that the patient should venerate the Supreme Deity with devotion. Secondly, he should repent of his wrong-doings and resolve to live a better life thereafter. Thirdly, he should not worship other gods or the Buddha. Fourthly, he should not use paper gold and candles (in worship).\" There are also four conditions under which a patient may not be cured: firstly, where the patient has committed a grave sin; secondly, where the disease is a result of the patient's misdeeds; thirdly, where the patient has only a minor sickness; fourthly, where the patient has reached the end of his or her natural life-span. (However, the Supreme Deity may grant an extension to the natural life-span as a favour.)\n\nAlthough a recognition of the Supreme Deity on the part of the patient is necessary for healing, a full initiation into Tan Tse Tao is not necessary, and many who were not followers were cured.\n\nVI. Notable Characteristics\n\nWe have now seen the history, teaching, practices, organization and healing method of Tan Tse Tao. It has all the essential elements which go to make up a religion. Thus it claims to have a special revelation, a beginningless and endless God, a teaching which will settle the perplexities of human life, a hierarchical church which governs the group of followers, a form of worship, its own festivals, and its own holy books. The most striking thing about this religion is the spontaneity of its origin and the unlikelihood of its having a thoroughly Westernized Protestant uninterested in traditional Chinese religion as its founder. It is as if the circumstances of the Patriarch's conversion were so chosen as to accentuate the authenticity of this revelation. The fantastic power of Tan Tse Tao's healing method also contributes to this end.\n\nAnother striking thing about Tan Tse Tao is that, unbeknown to Patriarch Lo, it bears remarkable resemblance to certain other faith-healing sects. I have in mind, for example, the Tenrikyo of Mrs. Nakayama Miki (1798-1887) of Japan and the Heavenly",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    }
]