[ { "id": 204621, "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-1963", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\n89\n\nIn the course of a tour of duty in the New Territories I became interested in the island community and, when opportunities offered, made enquiries locally for information which would shed light on its history in the period before 1898, when it was still part of the San On district. I was particularly interested in local source material which would provide a picture of island life and society in the fifty years (1850-98) before the lease of the New Territories to Britain, and this article is based upon information obtained from three commemorative tablets which date from these years, and on other information available locally relating to several district associations of long standing, besides supplementary material from a variety of different sources.\n\nThese tablets consist of slabs of slate-like stone, usually two feet by three feet in size, on which are cut characters a quarter of an inch high set out in two parts: an account of the origin and successful accomplishment of the scheme, followed by the names of all subscribers. Their object was to record the event; and to recognise the efforts of local persons, by recording the names of the donors for posterity. Tablets in this old form were quite common—they are found all over the New Territories—and could record any undertaking, such as the construction of a road or bridge, the repair of a temple, and so on. They were set up, no doubt, with the appropriate commemorative ceremony which is still current practice for such occasions. We have the well-developed Chinese sense of the historical element in everyday life to thank for the existence of such interesting records, which, by their nature, are immune from the ravages of white ants and the damp summer weather. They are not, however, free from the attentions of the man in the street as the present state of these three tablets show: in that the first was hidden by a double bunk, the second is exposed to the elements at a street corner and is often hidden by wood from an adjacent timber yard, and the third was serving as the back of a stove, part of which had to be demolished and the tablet cleared of a heavy deposit of soot.\n\nThe first of the Cheung Chau tablets is in the office building of the Tung Kwun association and records the repair of the Po On study or school in the 5th year of T'ung-chih (1866-7); the second, dated 4th and 32nd years of Kuang-hsü", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204964, "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-1965", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "65\n\nTHE SOUTHERN SUNG STONE-ENGRAVING\n\nAT NORTH FU-T’ANG\n\nJEN YU-WEN\n\nOn the southern tip of the small peninsula, North Fu-t'ang (Pak Fat-t'ang), on the eastern shore of Junk Bay, lies a stone-engraving dating from the Southern Sung Dynasty, one of the most famous historic relics in Hong Kong. The vernacular name for this place is Ta-miao (Tai-miu), or \"Big Temple,\" because a temple of T'ien-hou (T'in-hou), or \"Heavenly Queen,” is situated there. About half-way up the hill just behind this Temple, is located the large rock, five feet high, ten feet wide and five feet thick, hidden in the thick brush. On its flat surface facing the south, there are 108 Chinese characters engraved in nine vertical lines with twelve characters each. Each character is about four square inches in size. The entire surface covering the engraving is four feet two inches wide and three feet nine inches high. The engraving was done in the tenth year of the reign of Hsien-hsun (Ham Shun) of the Emperor Tu Chung of the Southern Sung Dynasty (A.D. 1274) — the date given at the end of the inscription. Just three years before this date, two of the Emperor's sons, who later successively succeeded him to the throne, were fleeing from the pursuit of the Mongols and had landed on the western shore of Kowloon Bay at the historic spot subsequently named Sung Wong Toi.\n\nThis stone-engraving is recorded in the Chia-ch'ing (Ka Hing) edition of the Gazetteer of Hsin-an (Sun-on) District, but details of the historic relic are not given in its description. The Genealogical Record of the Lin (Lum) clan of P'u-kang (P'u-kong) village in Kowloon, however, contains a narration concerning the place, the Temple and the stone-engraving which is very helpful for studying the history of this historic relic. Unfortunately, many of the characters on the stone as transcribed therein are not correct, leaving the readers still in the dark regarding the real meaning of the original text. As a matter of fact, a few engraved characters on the rock have been partially worn-out so badly that it renders some lines absolutely unintelligible.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205284, "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": 46, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "39\n\nPRINTING - A NEW DISCOVERY\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nIn 1963 the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society published a paper of mine entitled \"The development of printing in China and its effect on the renaissance under the Sung dynasty (960 - 1279).\" Recently a new find was made which, if confirmed, pushes back the history of block printing some fifteen years, possibly more. The discovery occurred last October when certain Korean scholars noticed that a stone stupa known as Sokka Tap 釋迦塔, at Pulguk sa 佛國寺, had been damaged. On investigation they found a printed Buddhist sutra hidden in its interior. (See plates 5 and 6) It was in the form of a scroll made of thick mulberry paper, mounted on a piece of bamboo, lacquered at each end. The text is some 630 cm. long and 6 cm. wide, the printed portion being 5.3 cm. in width. The exact length cannot be determined as the scroll has not been fully unrolled due to its poor condition. In fact, about one third has suffered serious damage from worms; the rest of it, however, is in fair condition. Later examination revealed that the printing had been executed by means of a series of woodblocks, twelve in number, each about 20 or 21 inches in length. Then the separate pieces of paper had been joined together to form a continuous scroll, just as was the text of the famous Diamond Sutra of 868, discovered in 1907 at the cave library of Ch'ien-fo-tung near Tun-huang (west China) by Sir Aurel Stein, now at the British Museum. The scholars who have pronounced this an authentic piece of printing are Professors Kim Sanggi and Yi Hongjik, members of the Cultural Assets Preservation Committee, Ministry of Education, Seoul.\n\nIn the cavity of the stupa there were, besides the scroll, reliquary vessels, Buddhist images, tiny pagodas, incense sticks, pieces of silk, etc. (See plate 7). They seem to be typical of the period not only in Korea, but also in China and in Japan. These items are important discoveries in themselves, and deserve further study.\n\nThe text is well known. Its title in Chinese is Wu kou ching kuang ta to-lo-ni ching (in Sanskrit: Raśmivimalavaviśuddhaprabhā dhāranī). It was first rendered into", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206352, "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-1971", "page_number": 169, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K.\n\n153\n\nway to the Volunteer Ordinance No. 10 of 1933 which was replaced, in its turn, by Ordinance No. 63 of 1948. The present Force is constituted under the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force Ordinance Chapter 199 of the Laws of Hong Kong, Ordinance No. 25 of 1951, modified by subsequent amendments.3 Besides being established by law, all volunteers have also been subject to rules and regulations provided for in the main Ordinances,\n\nBesides serving as a reminder to the present day volunteer that he and his predecessors have always operated within the laws of the Colony, these Ordinances and Regulations are a valuable source of information about volunteering over the past century and more. They are milestones in the growth and development of the Hong Kong Volunteers and provide the essential framework of accurate facts on to which information from other sources can be fitted.4 These include annual inspection reports for part of the period, personal reminiscences, newspaper reports, old photographs and memorials and the wide range of material included in the pages of the pre-war Year Book of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, 1934-40 and of the post-war Royal Hong Kong Defence Force magazine, The Volunteer. The latter has appeared every year since 1950, with a special edition in 1954 to commemorate the centenary of volunteering in Hong Kong. The war period 1941-45 has been covered in Major Evan Stewart's account which has been supplemented by other publications dealing with the fall of Hong Kong. Material from these different sources has been used in writing this brief\n\n3 Since this article was prepared the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force Ordinance has been repealed and replaced by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment Ordinance and Regulations. Legal Supplements No. 1 of 18th December, 1970 and No. 2 of 24th December, 1970 in the Hong Kong Government Gazette refer.\n\n4 They are to be found in the various editions of the Laws of Hong Kong and of the Government Gazette.\n\n5 Only those for the years 1893-1907 are available in Hong Kong, printed in Sessional Papers 1894-1908. None of the earlier or later reports are available in the Colony.\n\n6 A Record of the Actions of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps in the Battle for Hong Kong, December 1941, Hong Kong, Ye Olde Printerie, Ltd. Other sources include the official History of the Second World War - The War against Japan, Volume I edited by Major-General S. Woodburn Kirby (London, H.M.S.O. 1957), John Luff's The Hidden Years (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, Ltd., 1967) and Tim Carew's The Fall of Hong Kong (London, Anthony Blond, Ltd., 1961).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206792, "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": 69, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA\n\n63\n\ncentury. The Persians and Arabs, apart from importing foreign goods to China, also became the middlemen of the maritime trade between China and the rest of the world.23 T'ang China realized that certain steps should be taken to govern this trade and the commercial activities of foreigners. The office of the Shih-po-ssu was first established in Canton in A.D. 714. The governor of Kuang-chou concurrently acted as head of this office. The duty of the office was to levy taxes on imported goods. The office also had regulations dealing with exported goods. According to T'ang law, a number of items were prohibited to be exported, like silver, copper, iron and T'ang currency. Naturally some of the governors in Kuang-chou were greedy, dishonest and corrupt. As a result of this, relations between Canton officials and foreigners were not always amiable. The murder of the Kuang-chou governor, Lu Yüan-jui 路元叡 by the K'un-lun was the result of the evil-doings of these corrupt governors in Kuang-chou.24 Tzu-chih t'ung-chien records this incident as follows:\n\n+\n\n+\n\nthe governor of Kuang-chou, Lu Yüan-jui, was killed by the K'un-lun. Yüan-jui was ignorant and weak; his officials were licentious and extortionate. When merchant vessels came, these officials appropriated (the goods for themselves) without stop; foreign merchants, therefore, complained to Yüan-jui. Yüan-jui wanted to punish (the foreign merchants) so he ordered them to be tied up. The group of foreigners were very angry. Then a K'un-lun came straight into the office with a sword hidden in his sleeves and killed Yüan-jui and more than ten other people around him before he escaped. No one dared to get close (to this man). He boarded a ship and entered the sea. The port-officials gave chase, but it was too late.25\n\nLu Yüan-jui's successor, Wang Fang-ching, was described as a reformer who held the post for several years without any exploitation (of the merchants).26\n\nThe opening of the Ta-yü Ling Pass by Chang Ch'iu-ling in A.D. 728 together with a period of comparative honesty and good administration in Kuang-chou, rendered maritime trade again very prosperous. Communications between Kuang-chou, Lo-yang and Ch'ang-an were no longer a problem, for:\n\nThe (merchants of the) various countries from across the sea may now daily transport their merchandise, so that the wealth", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207100, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n165\n\nthat he owned so much sugar that it would be possible for him to place jars of sugar touching each other all the way from his village to Kam T'in. Tang answered \"Fix the price of each jar of sugar and I will undertake to put the required amount in each jar from one village to the other!\" All the onlookers applauded and called on the two men to make good their boasts. Tang went home and consulted with his mother how to raise the necessary money but she begged him not to do it, because, she said, thieves would certainly hear of it and it would be impossible to guard the jars. So Tang decided that the best way out of the difficulty was to arrange another dinner together and apologize to T'o.\n\nThe other story tells how a notorious robber named Faan Ha On (L) tried for three years to break into Tang's house with the idea of robbing him, but without success. Tang, who like many rich men was particularly nervous of thieves, had his house very well guarded and barred. One day when Tang was in Kam T'in Market he walked straight into Faan by mistake, and with such force that his head was quite bruised. The thief was abject in his apologies and Tang, not knowing who he was, asked his name. When he heard that this was the famous robber, Tang was afraid, fearing to be kidnapped, but Faan assured him that he intended no harm. “For three years I have tried to rob your house,\" he confessed, \"but I have found it too well guarded and even your roof is impenetrable. If you do not believe me go and look for all the stones that I threw away from the dried persimmons I ate, as I lay hidden waiting and watching for an opportunity to enter your door! But there is always a chance still of a careless servant leaving your door open and to make your house even more secure you should build a series of goose-houses round it. Geese are better than dogs, when a stranger comes they will always give the alarm.\" So Tang went home, much impressed, and did what the robber had suggested, even to sending a servant to collect the persimmon stones which are said to have weighed 50 catties. But when later on he tried to find Faan Ha On to show his gratitude to him he was told that he had been killed by a cat, the reason being, the people said, that he had, in a previous existence been a rat!\n\nThe most unaccountable story of all is that of the \"Ngan To Laan (i) silver coins run away from their old home” which is reputed to have happened in the 32nd year of Kwong Sui (1906) of Ts'ing dynasty. On the dragon boat festival day of that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207114, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n179\n\nWhen she reached the great age of seventy-two, she maintained her apartment in the same neat and tidy manner as when she was young.\n\nI have the most humble honour to record the above,\n\n(Signed) TANG WAI KUI,\n\n26th generation descendant of \"the Five Yuens.\"\n\nThe most ancient Ancestral Hall to be found in the different villages of Kam T'in is Loi Shing Tong (✯✯✯) (see H.K.N. VII p. 250 and VIII, plate 8).* This hall is in Shui T'au village, and was built for the 11th ancestor, Tang Kwong Yue (). In recent years a tablet was discovered which had been hidden by furniture in one of the rooms for such a long time that its existence was forgotten. It records the date of the building of the hall and can be translated, roughly, as follows:-\n\n\"Our ancestor Tseung Luk (X) planned to build an ancestral hall for our ancestor Kwong Yue. He was successful and the ancestral tablets have been fixed in the hall from the 40th year of Hong Hei, A.D. 1701, up till now. The building is in ruins, and Shing (*) (myself) and others think that as it was erected by our early fore-fathers, we ought to repair it. Owing to the limited ancestral fund, it is difficult to do this, but I (named Shing) and all my brothers, cousins, uncles and nephews are pleased to subscribe money towards the expense, and even the descendants of the ancestors Shing (*) and Yan (g) are pleased to help.\n\nThe subscribers are as follows:\n\nYiu Kong (#) subscribed one tael and two mace Sz Taan (BF @), one hundred and fifty taels.\n\nSz Yue (tô) seventy-five taels.\n\nSz Yuk (+), ten taels,\n\nSz Shing (of), two-hundred and fifty taels.\n\nK'ei Yuen (M), sixty taels.\n\nSz Tsaan (*), sixty taels.\n\nT'ing Suen (), eight taels.\n\nSz Yue ($), sixty taels.\n\nKin Lung, 47th year repaired, and this stone tablet fixed.\n\nThe virtuous, meritorious descendant Tseung Luk was the one who started this Hall. The virtuous, meritorious descendant Sz Shing was the one who took charge of the work of repairing it.”\n\n* See Plate 34 at rear of this Volume.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207177, "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": 248, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "242\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nAs to the dating of this Liu Chih-yüan CKT, the authors of the book now under review also have said nothing. Yet, in Thomas F. Carter's well-known work The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward (revised by L. C. Goodrich, 1955, New York), chapter X, footnote 16, this incomplete CKT is acknowledged as being printed around 1300, namely in the early years of the 14th century.\n\nThis reviewer's third minor dissatisfaction concerns the neglected relationships between chu-kung-tiao and some other folk-literatures in China. According to a statistical account contributed by Professor Cheng Ch'ien, the Hsi-hsiang-chi CKT by Tung Chih-yüan has used 15 kung-tiao and 129 ch'ü-tiao. As Cheng has pointed out, at least 66 out of 129 of these ch'ü-tiao are derived from four different sources4. Jen Erh-pei5, on the other hand, presenting different statistics, has pointed out the origin of 28 ch'ü-tiao of chu-kung-tiao and also demonstrated the continuation of these ch'ü-tiao with reference to the Northern drama of the Yuan period, the Southern drama of the Yüan and Ming periods, the Tsa-chü play of the Sung, the Yuan-pen play of the Chin and Yuan periods. Furthermore, he has even added the chia-ch'u songs of Mongolia, the T'ang music in Japan, and the Sung music in Korea into his statistics. The \"Introduction\" of the Ballad of the Hidden Dragon would be more authoritative had the above quoted statistical studies in relation to the CKT study been fully utilized. Mention could also have been made of Chien Nan-yang's analysis of the relationship between the Lin Chih-yüan CKT and the pai-t'u chi6 — a southern drama written in the Ming period.\n\n* See Cheng Ch'ien, \"Tung's 'Western Pavilion, the Literary Link between the Tzu Lyrics and the Ch' Ballads of the Southern and Northern schools”, in Bulletin of the College of Arts, National Taiwan University, vol. II (Taiwan, 1951): 113-137.\n\n5 See Jen Erh-pei: “Chiao-fang-chi chien-ting” (Annotated edition of Chiao-fang-chi) (1962, Peking) pp. 197-254: Appendix II, “Ch'i-ming-liw-pien-piao” (A Table about the History and variations of the titles of Ch'u).\n\n6 See Ch'ien Nan-yang: \"Liu Chih-yüan pai-t'u-chi, On the Tale of a White Hare about Liu Chih-yüan”, in his Yüan ming nan-hsi kuo-liao. Some Brief Remarks on the Southern Dramas of the Yuan and Ming periods (1958, Peking), pp. 28-33.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208481, "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": 205, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "WOODBLOCK PRINTING\n\n189\n\nyears\n\nving the wisdom of the Chinese people for the past thousand and more. However, since its existence was too familiar to the Chinese, it was so easy to neglect it in times of change. It is often a little too late when people became aware of their treasures. The craft of woodblock printing has already vanished, but the wood-block printed books, prints and other matters still in existence, constituting a hidden heritage, continually serve as inspiration for those in the various areas of cultural pursuits. They provide an endless quest for collectors, and an equally endless fascination for historians.\n\nHowever, to follow the exact instructions given and to correct the provided text according to the rules:\n\n1. The original text seems to be missing a word or has an incomplete sentence starting with \"ving\". It should likely start with \"Having\" to make sense.\n\n2. Correcting \"ving\" to \"Having\" to make the sentence grammatically correct.\n\nHere is the corrected version in HTML format as requested:\n\nWOODBLOCK PRINTING\n\n189\n\nyears\n\nHaving the wisdom of the Chinese people for the past thousand and more. However, since its existence was too familiar to the Chinese, it was so easy to neglect it in times of change. It is often a little too late when people became aware of their treasures. The craft of woodblock printing has already vanished, but the wood-block printed books, prints and other matters still in existence, constituting a hidden heritage, continually serve as inspiration for those in the various areas of cultural pursuits. They provide an endless quest for collectors, and an equally endless fascination for historians.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208898, "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-1980", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "32\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\ninclude the burning of incense every day. This amongst other things saves the individual having to perform the rite before his ancestral tablets daily.\n\n4 There are no Confucian temples in either Hong Kong or Macau.\n\n5 Although there are obvious and major differences between Daoism, Buddhism and Folk religion, their beliefs and practices are so interwoven and syncretized beyond description, that in practice there is almost a single religious scheme of things. A handful of folk religion temples, mostly in Chaozhou and Min An community resettlement areas, are also centres for spirit medium activity. Chaozhou and Min An people customarily communicate with the major gods through minor gods and spirit mediums, Folk religion is very occasionally referred to as \"Spirit worship” (Shen jiao), albeit more by foreigners than by Chinese.\n\nChaozhou and Min An spirit mediums are usually males who speak with the more junior gods, whilst Cantonese spirit mediums are normally female and speak with the spirits of the dead.\n\n* The natives in both Hong Kong and Macau are Cantonese. Immigrants over the centuries who brought their own cultural heritage with them are the Hakka, Min An, Hoklo, and Chaozhou. The Chaozhou are speakers of the Chaozhou (sometimes called Swatow) whose native area is eastern Guangdong province. In folk religion the Chaozhou have more in common with their immediate neighbours to the north, the Min An and other Fukienese rather than with their Cantonese neighbours.\n\nThe total of 450 temples reflects the number found and visited by the author. The total given by the Hong Kong Government Temples Committee of the Home Affairs Department of over 500 private temples registered in Hong Kong is misleading in that their total includes to the author's knowledge quite a number of small temples which have been destroyed, removed or closed down. The author's number of 450 is also inaccurate as there are bound to be a number of very small temples hidden away in residential blocks of flats which would defy discovery without a visit to every floor of every apartment building.\n\n* County towns were the centres for official, commercial and religious activities. Villages within present day Hong Kong before the arrival of the British came under the jurisdiction of the mandarin at the county town of Hsin An (present day Pao An), north of the Sino-Hong Kong border.\n\n* However, an engraved title can easily be superseded when a more popular deity has been promoted to the main altar, without the title over the entrance being changed.\n\n10 Images on, beside, before and under altars can be categorised into the deities themselves, and their disciples, guardians and attendants. There are also two other categories of figures, seen only on separate altars in some Buddhist temples. These are the likenesses of the founding Abbot and of major donors and their wives.\n\n11 Urban and rural are terms used for the areas where the temples were established, and many a rural temple is now lost in the centre of a vast modern housing estate. Urban temples do not include village temples, they do however include the temples of the market towns such as Taipo and Yuen Long.\n\n12 These \"pensioners\" are normally the most needy and worthy elderly males or females of the community, voted or appointed into the post and supported there by subscription.\n\n13 See Hong Kong 100 Years Ago (Hong Kong City Hall, 1970) on the sixth page of photographs, though under another titling.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208958, "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-1980", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "88 \n\nDAVID LUNG \n\nThe westerly orientation of the village is shifted 90° from the standard south-facing position in order to adapt to the local currents of the cosmic breath formed by the azure dragon on the left, the white tiger on the right and the black tortoise on the back. The open field on the west stretching to the sea which lies beyond gives a sense of airiness and the Nan Tau Shan mountain range across from the bay keeps good influences from being washed away. Such an intricate step taken in the planning process indicates that the geomancy canons were not translated literally into a physical form, but rather the interpretation of the fundamental principles was fused with the deep understanding of the forces of nature and the micro-cosm of the local surroundings to make their aspirations and existence come true on a land which had existed before their occupation. As the commemorative tablet of Kat Hing Wai (1925) states, \"... our ancestor Fu-hip... consulted divination and settled in this village...\"20 \n\nTo authenticate the geomantic siting of each of the built forms, for example, a wai, an ancestral temple or a bridge, lies beyond the scope of this paper. It is not an impossible or improbable task per se, but rather it is a different discipline of study. The concern of a geomancer is the actual method of divination, a combination of understanding of a wide range of fung-shui classics and the use of the geomantic compass. In an over-simplified experiment, I have attempted to explore the physical and cosmic relationships of the four wais, Kat Hing, Wing Lung, Tai Hong and Kam Hing. (The last one is a ruin; its wall configuration is largely my own reconstruction based on the patterns formed by the other three.) As indicated in Fig. 5*\n the lines that are drawn to link up a corner tower of one wai with a second and a third tower of another wai, and as indicated in Fig. 6*\n the lines which join the mid-points of the walls in a similar fashion, are clear indications how the wais are related. These lines show quite explicitly a certain design pattern which is far more complex than the untrained human eye can conceive. Even though the location and orientation of these hamlets may seem arbitrary, the intensity of the hidden energy cannot help but force one to believe that the alignment and the orientation of the wais are too coincidental to have happened by chance. Although several historians assert that the walls were built 200 years later \n\n* References are to figures in the original version, not reproduced here. \n\nPage 120\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210938, "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-1986", "page_number": 288, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "271\n\ncounter to one side of the entrance hall. We were not allowed to enter until the opening ceremony at 10 sharp, when a male executive came out, looked at the \"opening hours\" signboard outside the entrance, and then placed himself in the centre, flanked by the two girls. Together, they bowed us into the building.\n\nMuch more was in store for us. As usual, all the employees, male and female, and there were very many of them, standing in their sections. Being among the first customers, we received many bows and gracious words of welcome. Similarly, at each escalator level, more floor staff together with executives waited to receive us as we ascended to the first and second floors. Meanwhile, an organ began to play. First (presumably) came the Japanese national anthem and (perhaps) the Company's own song, and then a selection of “vintage” Western songs of the type popular before the Second World War. Advancing to the balcony, and looking down, I was astounded to see a large assembly hall at ground level, with a huge multi-coloured wooden religious carving in the centre and a large painting (in fact, two, as it was paralleled by another on the opposite wall, hidden from my view). The organist was there, placed high up behind the carving. Looking up, I saw the coloured glass roof of the building high above me and each succeeding upper floor. The whole, being old and opulent, together with the ceremonial and the music and the art works, caused a very acute awareness of time and place, so that I felt the occasion deeply. Indeed, I cannot recall being so affected in recent years.\n\nUpon descending to the hall — and cursing myself for having told Mabel not to bring the camera as I thought it unnecessary and just something more to carry — we found that the carving and the paintings had been specially commissioned about the years 1906-08, which probably dates the building to that period. What a pity not to have all this on film!\n\nHong Kong, June 1986\n\nJames Hayes\n\nEnd note: Mitsukoshi is the department store chain of the famous Mitsui concern which began the drapery side of its business in Edo (Tokyo) in the early 17th century. See Charles J. Dunn, Everyday Life in Traditional Japan (Tokyo, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1972), pp. 114-121.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210985, "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-1987", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "22\n\nTwo completely different factors come into the picture, namely Gaullism and Italy.\n\nA hidden but deep correspondence had always existed between Gaullists and Maoists. Both emphasised the importance of historical roots and long-term perspectives, for France de toujours as well as for the Sons of the Han on their everlasting Yellow Earth. Both had refused to align their nuclear policies with the strategies of the superpowers. André Malraux's visit to China in the 1960s, both as a former activist in the 1926-27 revolution and as a prominent Gaullist intellectual, was a symbolic episode, much publicised in France. Had General de Gaulle not died suddenly in 1970, he most probably would have paid Mao Zedong the visit already arranged by his old companion Etienne Manach, then French Ambassador to Peking. It would have been an extraordinary performance, in both the grand French and Chinese traditions.\n\nItaly was also very influential. There has always been a special connection between Italy and China. Chinese intellectuals have always felt very much at home in Italy, and the active sympathy for Maoist China of such prominent Italian intellectuals as Malaparte, Alberto Moravia and Maria-Antonietta Macchiocchi certainly made an impact on Parisian literary circles. Altogether, many influential French intellectuals were in those years very keen on visiting China and however brief their visit publicising their sympathy for China. Be they Claude Roy, Etiemble, Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, Julia Kristeva18 or many others, their individual approaches may have differed one from another, but they were all indulging in China as if their commitment to China was more important than China itself. They also affected a definitely revivalistic attitude, as if they were the new sinophiles in the grand eighteenth-century tradition.\n\nBy and large, Maoist China was very chic in French cultural life of the 1950s and 1960s. The theatres were packed full at every Peking Opera visit, the books of Han Suyin sold very well, Chinese exhibitions of art at the Grand Palais were a must, the veteran film-director Joris Ivens, Dutch by birth but settled in France, embarked on a 12-hour film on Yu Gong and People's China's achievements, and the well-established literary publishing series", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211040, "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-1987", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "76\n\nwith records of the \"autobiography” of the Taoist saint Huang Chuping, the figure worshipped by many thousands of devotees in Hong Kong as \"Wong Tai Sin.\" This autobiography has been reprinted in official publications of the Sese Yuan, and reads as follows (using the Sese Yuan's translation):\n\nAs a young shepherd boy, I spent my early childhood at Kim Hwa [Jinhua] Mountain located at the north of Kim Hwa City in Chekiang [Zhejiang] Province. The mountain was said to have derived its name from Venus and Mou Nui Constellation (Wunüxing) both of which were directly overhead. Orientated at the north of Kim Hwa Mountain was the Hill of Red Pines where I took abode. This hill, densely forested and often hidden in clouds and fog, was seldom frequented by outsiders. Among thick natural vegetations and interlocking peaks there was a deep ravine named Kim Hwa, one of the thirty-six caves of the similar geological structures in the neighbouring district.\n\nMy childhood was marred by poverty and hunger, compelling me to start earning my daily bread as a shepherd boy at the age of eight. At fifteen I was fortunate enough to have been blessed by a fairy who led me to a stone cave where I learned the art of refining cinnabar nine times into an immortal drug. For forty years in succession, I lived in this seclusion from the rest of the world until my brother broke this isolation. His early efforts were at first futile. However, through the guidance of a Taoist fortune-teller, he located me. My brother queried me of the whereabouts of the sheep under my custody. To this I replied that they could be traced in the east of the Kim Hwa Mountain. He was surprised, on arrival, to find nothing but heaps of white boulders which quickly transformed into sheep at my call. Fascinated by this impressive show of mine, my brother also took steps to learn to become an immortal.\n\nOriginally, I was named Wong Cho-ping (Huang Chuping), a subject of the Tsun [Jin] Dynasty and a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211352, "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-1988", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "44\n\nTHE FIRST CHILD LABOUR LAW IN HONG KONG\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nA Reminiscence\n\nWhen I first came to Hong Kong about twenty-eight years ago, I observed cases of open and of hidden child labour,\n\nIn certain Chinese tea houses, young girls and boys carried the trays of dim-sum by means of a strap passed around their necks. One could see these children, who seemed only ten or eleven years of age; they may have been a little older, with arched backs to counter-balance the weight of the trays which they carried in front of them. Usually, they were wearily dragging themselves past the tables, but at other times chattering merrily among themselves, but too often one could see the strain of their job on their faces and bodies.\n\nThe hidden and less obvious use of children as labourers, I would see in the building I lived in at Tai Po in the New Territories. At that time, it was the tallest building there - a six-storey walk-up. I lived on the top floor. As I climbed the stairs, I passed a flat used as a workshop for sewing sequins on cloth. The room was filled with children, many of whom appeared to be no more than ten or twelve.\n\nChild Labour and the Mui-tsai Question\n\nAgitation about children in domestic service, that is, the mui-tsai system, or, as it was called by some, child slavery, and a movement for regulation of the labour of children outside the home arose about the same time, but each problem had its own history and its own development.\n\nBoth problems were initially brought to the attention of the general community by expatriates. In the case of child labour, a law was passed largely in response to pressure from the European community. As for the mui-tsai, though it was a British Naval officer and his wife who began the agitation, a portion of the Chinese community soon took over the campaign for its abolition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211400, "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-1988", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "44\n\n+\n\nheard it they shouted for joy, and started off to their homes at once, full of hope. But when they found their houses half fallen down, some villages entirely hidden by the long grasses, and the paddy fields covered with weeds, they were much dishearted, realizing that they were not any better off when they were inside the boundary. San On district had in the meanwhile been re-established and Lei Hoh Shing (5) the district magistrate gives a pitiful picture of the condition of the land and people. ... I arrived as district magistrate and found many old and young lying in ditches, having died from hunger. The strong young men are gone to other places to earn their livings. When I look down from a height all is dense undergrowth and fallen walls and I cannot hear the voice of a single wild goose in the distance . . . . so I get oxen trained to plough..... and every so often I collect one or two lucky-to-be-alive people and try to encourage them to develop the barren land. We stand about and talk, but when the talking is not half finished each of us cannot help sobbing with grief. . . .\n\n++\n\nThus gradually the land was worked back to its old state, and to perpetuate the memory of the two men who had done so much to help the people, a hall was built in Shek Woo Market (M) by the Sheung Shui (E) villagers and their neighbours. The name of the hall was **Tuk Foo I Kung Ts'z** (A) \"The Viceroy and the Governor, these two Sirs Hall\". Over the front door three characters were written Po Tak Ts'z \"Return thanks for the Bounty Hall\". The hall was used for the village council for many years and every year on the birthdays of Governor Wong and Viceroy Chau a feast is held in the hall by the village elders. Another such hall is in Kam Tin (see H.K.N. VIII, page 207 and plate 20(2))* and has been used as a school for many years. It is situated on Taai Sha Chau (7) amidst beautiful scenery and near it is the Kam Shui (*) “ornamental stream\", with a big lawn like a tennis court in front of it. A large lichee orchard is on the left-hand side of the hill.\n\nSince the 10th year of Kin Lung (#), 1745, each Yuet Chau (ZE) year, which occurs every ten years [sic], the Kam Tin people have a matshed erected for Kin Tsiu ( ), the festival of the Dead. Two water colour paintings of the Governor and Viceroy are displayed\n\n* Vol. 14, of the Journal, plate 41.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212164, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "83\n\ntook some of the soil from his tomb and raised a shrine to him in his native village nearby. Almost immediately other villagers discovered that one could obtain good advice through divination at the shrine and his fame spread. Shortly after the Japanese occupied Formosa some of their cavalry passed through the village destroying crops. The angry Chinese villagers were unable to protest but that night as the cavalry troop tethered their horses around the shrine one of the horses neighed once and dropped dead. This was seen as hidden retribution by the spirit of Ts'ai on behalf of the villagers, punishing the Japanese without providing an opportunity to blame the villagers for the mishap.\n\nA very local cult in a village near Tainan is based on the worship of a 'Young Girl' (Hsiao-niang). A two-year-old baby died in about 1908 and was deified after she reappeared as a spirit in 1935. The cult would appear to have been forced upon the family by the appearance of, and pressure from, the deity herself.\n\nMiss Ch'en Jui lived during the Ch'ing dynasty, 'about a hundred years ago', in Yen-shui in southern Taiwan where she died a spinster at the age of 28. All that is known about her according to the temple plaque is that 'her spirit did not disperse and she was deified'. A thatched shrine built over her grave was rebuilt with bricks in 1928 and the only image within is that of Miss Ch'en. Devotees claim that since she was deified she has delivered them from perils and cured their illnesses.\n\nA native of Chia I, a town in central Taiwan, was killed in about 1853. A short record of his life is kept in Chia I itself although the local residents who worship at his shrine know nothing more than his name, Luo An, and that he was a neighbourhood peasant who died \"about a hundred years ago\". None knew why he had been deified. The short record explained that Luo An had been involved in the fighting around Chia I between migrants from Chang-chou and those from Ch'uan-chou, both groups from the mainland. Although he had neither official nor unofficial status he struggled hard to prevent the fighting spreading into the town of Chia I itself. After he had succeeded and peace had been restored he was accused of acting in his own interests and killed. People remembered him as a brave man who had saved their town and a shrine was erected in his honour. His cult grew, with Luo An as a local protective spirit with an annual festival celebrated on the 29th day of the first lunar month. Like many of the very local", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212268, "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": 210, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "opposition to missionaries. A recent case in point is the brilliant article by Andrew Nathan on the use of value judgements in cross-cultural studies. Arguing for \"evaluative universalism\" rather than \"cultural relativism\", Nathan uncovers a number of hidden biases in the last thirty years of American sinological studies. His \"evaluative universalism\" is informed by a relatively sensitive account of the nature of value judgements. Rather than support an uncritical absolutist stance, he argues that scholars must make explicit and reasoned value judgements of foreign cultures by employing the values they believe to be valid. In this way, the validity of the values can come under legitimate scrutiny, and the beliefs of the investigator in the validity of these values can be tested by norms of rational discourse.\n\nIn the process of elaborating his position, Nathan at least three times suggests generalized criticisms against missionaries. Implicit in these generalizations is the claim that missionaries are driven by zeal, and so are incompetent and biased judges of foreign cultures, not fairly stating the value judgements of the cultures they are proselytizing. Exactly these kind of general statements, especially when embedded in the text of a notable scholar, would discourage inquisitive souls from the hope of ever finding a missionary who would be something more than a cross-cultural misfit. But Legge was precisely such an exception.\n\nPragmatic Difficulties\n\nLargely as a consequence of some of the above mentioned misunderstandings, James Legge has been generally neglected and we should ask, \"Why?\"\n\nI would like to suggest here four pragmatic reasons for this oversight.\n\nFirst, the immensity of the scope of Legge's work is simply forbidding. The sum of all his efforts included translations of nine Confucian classics, descriptions and evaluations of four religious traditions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity), data involving materials from China, Japan, Korea, India and Europe (he was literate in Latin, French, German, Italian, English, biblical Greek and Hebrew as well as several Oriental languages). A proper\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212336, "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": 278, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "255\n\nThe Hong Kong Guide 1893 (republished 1982)\n\nHughes, Richard, Borrowed Place Borrowed Time, Hong Kong and its Many Faces\n\n(London 1968, reprinted 1976)\n\nHunter, W.C., The \"Fan Kwac\" at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844 (republished 1965)\n\nHutcheon, Robin, The Blue Flame, 125 Years of Town Gas in Hong Kong (1987) Hutcheon, Robin, Wharf. The First Hundred Years, 1886-1986 (1986)\n\nIngrams, Harold, Hong Kong (London, 1952)\n\nJardine, Matheson & Company... an historical sketch (undated)\n\nJarrell, Old Hong Kong\n\nJones, Stephanie, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading. The Origins and Growth of the Inchcape Group) (England, 1986)\n\nKing, Frank H.H., The History of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, vols. I to IV\n\nLawrence, Anthony, and Frederick Amentrout, The Taipan Traders\n\nLiu Kwang-ching, Anglo-American Steamship Rivalry in China 1862-1874 (Harvard 1962) Luff, John, Hong Kong Cavalcade (1968)\n\nLuff, John, The Hidden Years, Hong Kong 1947-1945 (1967)\n\nLuff, John, The Hong Kong Story (circa late 1960s) MacMillan, Alistair, Seaports of the Far East (1925)\n\nMorris, Jan, Hong Kong, Xianggang (England, 1988) Murray, Simon, Legionnaire (England, 1980)\n\nPeak Tramway. 1888–1988\n\nPresent Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad, Managing Director W.H. Morton-Cameron, Editor-in Chief W. Feldwick (1917)\n\nRoyal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, journals, various\n\nThe Thistle and the Jade. A Celebration of 150 Years of Jardine. Matheson & Co. Editor Maggie Keswick (London, 1982)\n\nTwentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong. Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China, Editor in Chief Arnold Wright (1908)\n\nWong Siu-lun, Emigrant Entrepreneurs: Shanghai Industrialists In Hong Kong (1988)\n\nUNPUBLISHED BOOKS\n\nBook 1, The Canton Dispensary 1828-1838 Book II, The Hong Kong Dispensary 1841-1862 Book III, A.S. Watson and Company 1862-1886\n\nCOMPANY BROCHURES, LEAFLETS AND MAGAZINES\n\nA.S. Watson & Co., Limited\n\nBrief History: The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation\n\nChina Light and Power Co. Ltd. (annual reports)\n\nDeacon's\n\nThe Elements of Power, China Light & Power\n\nHistory of Hong Kong & China Gas Co. Ltd\n\nHong Kong Bank Group Magazines\n\nHong Kong Land 1889/1989\n\nHong Kong's Noonday Gun (Jardine)\n\nHutchison Whampoa Limited (annual reports)\n\nInchcape: The International Services and Marketing Group A Pictorial History of Hong Kong Electric Standard Chartered News", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212714, "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": 23, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "8\n\nregular references to his deep knowledge of things Chinese and in particular, their formal rituals. As with many foreign writers on China and the Chinese, Mesny frequently implied exclusive access to hidden corners. This was indisputable because, whilst most foreigners who pride themselves on having Chinese friends and have visited them at home, even perhaps having stayed with them, few have the opportunity afforded to Mesny when he served with the Chinese military forces and lived as one with them on the staff. However, in retrospect we can see that Mesny knew little of the private life, thoughts and policies of the native Chinese higher classes, or more importantly, of the ruling Manchus, simply through his lack of access. The great majority of foreigners in China were dependent upon what they could glean from their native interpreters whose depth of understanding was limited by their lack of knowledge, especially about state policies. Such people as Mesny, foreigners who spoke and read Chinese and had Chinese contacts, were one up on the foreigners who heavily depended upon their Chinese employees, but for Mesny to maintain his credibility with possible foreign investors he had to clutch at any crumb from the tables of the great and worthy, hence his repeated name dropping. It is also well nigh impossible to judge simply from his own account of events the extent to which Mesny understood the power politics of senior Chinese Imperial military officers or the nuances of the accusations aimed at a number of the generals. If he did, then his poignant description of the removal and demotion of his own Commander-in-chief from his command in Kueichou is very sympathetic.\n\nShanghai, where Mesny spent many of his later years, was one of the first Treaty Ports, opened in 1842, and by the turn of the century the largest foreign settlement in the East with a western population of many thousands. Mesny spent all but five of his last thirty-three years in the city.\n\nA Briton, Oliver Ready3, writing in 1904 of the time when Mesny first reached China said, 'Forty odd years ago, at the close of the second great war [i.e. 1860, the year in which Mesny reached the China coast], China was a veritable Eldorado for Europeans, where all turned to gold beneath the slightest touch of alien hands. Fortunes were made with startling rapidity, and money came in so freely that the standard of living amongst foreign merchants and their employees reached such preposterous heights of luxuriousness, that even when the inevitable reaction set in, want, and even ruin, supervened where plenty should have been found. Forty years ago the foreign trade was practically monopolised by Englishmen, who only had to place their goods on the market of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212719, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "13 \n\nimposes upon readers. He had joined the large skirmishing force led by General Liu Ho-ling, commander of the Ko-i Force of the Szechuan Army Corps and Mesny's immediate chief, to harry the Miao tribesmen. Mesny remarks that upon retiring the General and Mesny came under fire from a Miao ambush with hundreds of bullets whizzing close to them. Mesny quickly dismounted and soon cleared the wood [in which the ambushers were hidden] and the enemy fled leaving their dead and wounded. Some ten lines further on, after an anecdote about a splendid prize that he had captured, an eight foot long Miao rifle, he explained that the Miao-tzu had lost more men in and near that wood than they had all day as Mesny had laid an 'ambuscade' for them with two companies of General Liu's guards. If one bears with Mesny's usual hyperbolic claim that he had laid the successful ambush, one is left wondering what he was doing, alongside the General, when they fell into the ambush, which Mesny would appear from an earlier paragraph to have foiled alone with great success.\n\nAt another point in the narrative, when General Liu goes off leading a local attack, he leaves Mesny behind because 'the Commander-in-chief needed Mesny's advice more than he, General Liu, did.' Liu was defeated, 'badly' says Mesny, and one can sense the schadenfreude. Mesny added that one of the battalion commanders had commented that General Liu would appreciate Mesny's abilities better in future! It is not hard to imagine General Liu becoming more and more irritated by this young foreign whippersnapper who always knew best. General Liu has only to leave Mesny behind and, as luck would have it, be defeated.\n\nHis lengthy and often involved autobiographical essay in his Miscellanies only cover the period from 1861, when he was 19, to 1870 and the end of the first campaign in Kueichou to suppress the Miao tribesmen's rebellion, when he was still only 28. From 1870 on we are dependent upon the copious and varied snippets in his Miscellanies, both long and short, until the final publication of the Miscellanies in 1905 when he was 64. Dr Tiedemann of SOAS, University of London, has discovered that Mesny wrote at least a dozen letters from Kueichou from May 1872 to February 1874 published in the Shanghai newspaper, Shanghai Budget and perhaps even more in the Celestial Empire, the paper which took over the Shanghai Budget in 1874. No copies of these papers appear to be available though we can surmise that they probably covered Mesny's activities during that period. From 1905 until his death fourteen years later, in 1919, we have to rely on his obituary, admittedly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213613, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "182\n\nTo ensure that I could recover information more easily I drew approximate plans of each temple with the major deities on the altars listed and located. This in itself revealed fascinating aspects of Chinese ethnic groups, with certain deities or altar layouts identifying the ethnicity of the founders of the temple though not necessarily the current ethnicity.\n\nLater, in the early 1970s, I returned to Singapore for another comparatively long stay and during the many revisits to temples to note change and development I found that a great number had already disappeared or were about to disappear as the national programme of suburban redevelopment raced ahead. For example, a fascinating Cantonese temple in the middle of a large cemetery had disappeared, as had the cemetery itself, the whole area now being one of the many new large housing estates. Another temple had been surrounded by high-rise blocks and was hidden from sight in a \"hole\" as the surrounding area had been covered with in-fill to level the area for housing construction.\n\nBy this time a few of the popular religion temples were beginning to clean up their act. Presumably temple committees had more funds at their disposal now that the Republic of Singapore was well on its way to prosperity. New temples replaced old ones, usually a major overhaul of both the structure and the content, often with modern colourful, perhaps to some gaudy, roof tiles. The deities remained the same, apart from many being repainted, though there was a spate of thefts from altars during the late sixties and early seventies which led to new images having to be carved. There were also a number of temples relocated, some like the Temple of the Nine Carp were moved from their former and long-standing site in Muar Road, approximately where the Rochore Centre is today, to the outer suburbs of the Upper Thomson Road. The temple today gives the appearance of having been there for many decades, and the not so old residents, both permanent and transitory, who visit temples may be tempted to interpret the age of an establishment from its condition. Some, a few, still are old temples on their original sites. These are mainly out in the country areas of the north-west of the island.\n\nEach time I return to Singapore I am fascinated to find yet another temple or two, some I must have missed years ago but most are new", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214513, "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": 371, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "340\n\ncommander's residence. Indeed, its present use is a naval canteen. The sleepy staff were somewhat surprised to see an invasion by foreign tourists, but they allowed us to wander all over the house as if it were our own. Later research pinned this house down as being the governor's residence, as opposed to \"Government House\".\n\nFrom this vantage point it is possible to look into the naval base. There is not much of interest, except for one smart but small building towards the northern end of the base that looks as though it could have been the former customs house. It has a four-storey tower with a very tall flagpole and a large verandah overlooking the sea. My previous visit in 1996 afforded me a closer look at this well-preserved building, but only by gaining unauthorised entry to the naval base. The front gates were, naturally, guarded - but a door into one of the external walls had a sign that a canteen was doing business up the stairs. Up I went - and then down I went on the other side, but only very briefly. Much as I liked what I saw, I did not fancy spending a few years there.\n\nBack at the governor's residence, comparing notes and old photographs with a naval officer who had just strolled up the hill for lunch, we established that the actual Government House still exists, but that it is firmly inside a military compound. Nothing daunted, we found the place - inland and a mile or so to the west of where we were. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, no amount of pleading with the guards at the gate could get even a foot inside. But we could get a glimpse of the roof of the building in question - just through the gate and to the right - about 100 yards away, partially hidden by trees. The details that we could see confirmed it as being the former British governor's residence.\n\nDuring lunch, Jessie and a few others wandered off in search of the King's Hotel, the Hongkong Bank building and a few other places from her past. Unfortunately they did not find any.\n\nThe only other point of interest that we saw was an obelisk, in the middle of a traffic island near the seafront, commemorating \"the taking back of Wei Hai from the British after years of pain.\" Lucky, I suppose, that Wei Hai was not subjected to as much pain as Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215957, "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-2002", "page_number": 256, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "190\n\n# PART ONE: Out from the darkness of forgotten history\n\n4\n\nGrowing interest in James Legge's missionary-scholar career reflects a more general trend initiated in the 1970s towards re-examining the impact and contribution of various kinds of missionaries in modern history. Yet it remains one of the ironies of the specialized study of missionary history that it has largely forgotten the converted while emphasizing the converter. Certainly the early 19th century missionary chronicles in Europe and North America dealing with Chinese missions mentioned occasionally the names of indigenous believers, especially those who later became prominent in church leadership. Still, most converts remained hidden under unpronounceable and misspelled transliterations, vague references spiced with evangelical rhetoric, abbreviated names, and, later on, a growing trend to employ comparative statistics with a modicum of personal details.\n\n5\n\nAs Legge's own pivotal role in exploring Chinese contributions to comparative philosophy and comparative religious studies becomes clearer, it is all the more necessary to re-examine his relationships with those Chinese students, scholars, officials, and collaborators who responded to and enriched his life and work. These include a sizeable number of students from the Anglo-Chinese College (Yinghua shuyuan), the workers at its associated press under the leadership of Wong Shing (Huang Sheng, 1825-1902), and the Chinese scholars he met and worked with during his missionary-scholar career (1840-1873) – especially the Cantonese official from the district of Huilái, Luó Zhòngfán (d. circa 1850), and Legge's academic companion for the last ten years of work on the Chinese Classics (1862-1872), Wáng Tāo (1822-1897). Wáng was also a member of the small group Chinese Christians with whom Legge identified as pastor and scholar. Among these Hong Kong Christians over the years were students, Bible colporteurs, some of the first Chinese Christian families, apprentice evangelists, full-time evangelists, and one ordained Chinese minister. These included the venerable evangelist who trained under Robert Morrison (1782-1834), Liáng Gōngfa (commonly known as Liang Afa, 1789-1855),\n\n8\n\nof\n\n10\n\nthe", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216312, "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": 71, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "20\n\nDynasty (960-1126). First they tied ropes around the base of the pagoda and tried to pull it down, but when this failed they poured oil all around its base, intending to set it on fire and burn it down. At this stage the account recorded in the local records (zhen zhi) states rather mysteriously that \"the strong opposition of the residents and other people\" forced the Red Guards to give up. Thanks to the intervention of these nameless people, the pagoda repeated its performance of having miraculously survived many upheavals throughout the temple's history.\n\n1\n\nNonetheless, the destruction of the relics within the temple halls continued for another month. On September 3rd an estimated 103 antique relics found in the temple were looted. This was followed on September 14th by the intentional destruction of the Da Cang Jing, a sacred Buddhist scripture which weighed 1,763 kilograms before it was shredded into waste paper. Finally, on September 30th the Ming Dynasty bronze bell in the Bell Tower (Zhong Lou), which weighed 2,574 kilograms, was cut into pieces and melted down as scrap metal, as was the last remaining Buddha statue, which had been a gift of Ming Emperor Wan Li, and weighed 334 kilograms.\n\nHaving now been destroyed as a functioning temple, all that remained were the empty buildings. In 1967 the temple buildings were all rented out as warehouse storage space to the China Rice and Oil Import Export Co. The one exception was the Master's Room (Fang Zhang Shi), in which some monks may have continued to live a hidden existence.\n\nAfter 15 years of having been closed as a place of worship, Longhua Temple was finally reopened in February 1981 after three of the main halls had been repaired, including the Mi Le Dian, Tian Wang Dian, and the Da Xiong Bao Dian. The government tried to make further amends in 1983 by giving the temple a new set of scriptures known as the Long Cang, which had been preserved in the Shanghai Library. In 1984 the Bao Ta pagoda was repaired, and these repairs continued with the restoration of the San Sheng Dian in May 1986.\n\nIn 2001 a giant new shopping centre called Longhua Tourist City was built behind the pagoda, but this surprisingly has not damaged the environment, and in fact has added the convenience of additional restaurants in the area at which one can rest after a long day's exploration.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]