[
    {
        "id": 213371,
        "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-1994",
        "page_number": 193,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "YET MORE ON THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED\n\nWONG WING-HO\n\n179\n\nI was interested to read, in Volumes 28 and 29 of the Journal, material on folk-tales from the New Territories relating to Ho Chan, the late Yuan Guangdong Warlord, and early Ming Minister of the Left, collected by Dr. D. Faure, Dr. J.W. Hayes and Dr. P.H. Hase. In 1991, while working as a Research Assistant in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I collected a further folk-tale of a similar character, very similar, in fact, to the ones collected by Dr. D. Faure at Kat O and by Dr. J.W. Hayes at Kei Ling Ha. Because of the interest of these folk-tales, this version is printed here.\n\nTranslation of Notes of an Interview with Mr. Yeung Fuk-sham (楊福杉) of Ha Ling Pei Village, Tung Chung, Lantau, 5th July, 1991.\n\nFuk-sham is of the Yeung surname, of Ngau Hom Village in Tung Chung. She is now 65 years of age. At age 24, she married Lei Fuk-hei (李福喜), of Ha Ling Pei Village. Fuk-sham said that her husband's grandmother frequently told her this tale.\n\nThe Ho family was originally very wealthy. When the old city was built (the fort at Tung Chung), the imperial court called on Ho, the Minister of the Left, to provide the funds. However, Ho was unwilling to provide them - if he had been willing, the old city would have been big enough to take in the sites of Upper and Lower Ling Pei Villages. It is because Ho, the Minister of the Left, was unwilling to provide the funds that the old city is its present size. It is also because of this that the Fung Shui and gravesites of the Hos lost their effectiveness, though the influence of the city. If the site of the city had been able to include Upper and Lower Ling Pei Villages, then the Fung Shui of the Hos would still be extremely good. Because the city is small, when the cannon fired, the explosive power was very great, and the ancestral tablets of Minister Ho were toppled over by the blast.\n\nHo, the Minister of the Left, was executed by beheading at the orders of the Emperor. The Minister was accustomed to go each morning to Court, and to return home every evening. However, his mother was",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213849,
        "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": 201,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "174\n\nK7\n\n1960s, as members of the Chou lineage moved away from the village after an epidemic which lasted for a year and struck many family members in the 1950s. Now few of the younger generation of the Chous are Catholic. Although the Catholic Church has moved its base from the western border to the core area of Tung Chung, including such villages as Mok Ka, Shek Lau Po, upper and lower Ling Pei, Ma Wan Chung, etc. and even set up a kindergarten at upper Ling Pei in 1971, only two to three villagers have been converted in the last twenty years.\n\n88\n\nIn the 1960s, Protestant missions established their foothold in Tung Chung, but they were no more successful than the Catholic Church. Even though villagers sent their children to a church kindergarten at Wong Nai Uk E, few were baptized. After twenty years of missionary work in Tung Chung, the Protestant Church finally withdrew and the school was suspended. In spite of the tolerant character of Chinese folk religion, which, for instance, can always coexist with Buddhism, Christianity failed to gain a firm footing in this circle of the Houwang worship. As for the small number of Christians in Tung Chung, they do seem to have incorporated the Houwang worship into their belief quite well. As admitted by the only Christian in lower Ling Pei, she also believed in the Houwang and was impressed by his efficacy. Even after some of the Chous at San Tau became Catholic converts and refrained from ancestor worship, they were still worshippers of the Houwang and money donors in support of the god's feast day festival, apparently in order to be accepted by the Tung Chung community as legitimate members.\n\nIn terms of symbolic, cultural, and social meanings, the Houwang worship stands at the core of the territorial and communal ideology of being and belonging. This local cult, which grew out of the sentiments surrounding a historical legend, gradually produced a set of elaborate rituals and the distinctive customs of a living community. Its renewal mechanism through ritual cycle and the villagers' universal desire for communal welfare under the protection of the god have contributed to the continuance of the cult. This deep-rooted tradition has proved able to adapt to social, economic, and political changes since the War. The cult persists, as it has managed continuously to enlist supporting resources, even as its patrons changed in conjunction with the shift of local business centres. It survives tenaciously even after a considerable",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    }
]