[ { "id": 204356, "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-1961", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n120\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nIn the New Territories, there are at present no funeral parlours and few undertakers. As in the agricultural interior of China, practical responsibility still falls mainly on the kinsmen of the deceased. The customary burial of villagers is in two stages: initial coffin burial, and subsequent exhumation and re-interment of remains. Having encoffined the body, the relatives normally sustain the vigil directly outside the home under a temporary shelter. Burial then takes place in a traditional village area, but no monument is erected beyond a small unshaped stone at the head of the grave. After five years or more, the body is exhumed. The bones will be cleaned by the family and be placed either in a funerary urn (kam t'aàp) or in a formal masonry grave (shaan fan) shaped like a horseshoe. In the funerary urn, the bones will be arranged in a manner as if the deceased were sitting in the Buddhist lotus posture.\n\nThe siting of funerary urns and horseshoe graves is of particular importance. Relatives will go to great lengths to ensure that the jung shui of the site is propitious. In other words, they wish to ensure that the benevolent influence of the site will protect the deceased, as a member of the family, so that he in turn will look kindly upon his relatives. The site is usually high up, commanding a view of water, and on a ridge or spur which represents, for instance, a dragon, snake, shrimp or crab in its formation. Standing with one's back to a horseshoe grave, one sees a half circle within a radius of ten yards, which is normally regarded as sacrosanct. Disturbance of the ground is regarded with strong disfavour. Traditionally, the left arm of the panorama in front should consist of a long ridge (containing a \"green dragon”) and the right arm of a shorter ridge (containing a \"white tiger\"). In a horseshoe grave, the exhumed remains are buried in a jar in the centre, just in front of a stone plaque (pei shek) that records the name of the deceased, the date of his death, and other details. Important graves of recorded ancestors or founders of a clan are often flanked by a small shrine (haû tỏ) on either side and sometimes another behind, at a distance of ten to twenty feet from the main grave. The object of the shrines is to persuade the earth god to look after the grave.\n\nWhether the exhumed remains are to be placed in a funerary urn or in a horseshoe grave seems to be governed by the sex and general standing of the deceased in the clan, or even by the financial state of the relatives at the time of exhumation. The remains are normally fit for exhumation after a minimum of five years of burial, but, even so, exhumation should not strictly take place unless there has been no pregnancy amongst the deceased's close female relatives in the immediately preceding nine months. This requirement, which would tend to impose some hardship", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205024, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n123\n\nhappened recently at Tong Fuk on Lantau Island, a multi-clan Cantonese village with a population of 198 at the Hong Kong Census of 1911. Its present population is about the same number. In 1958 the scheme to build a new reservoir at Shek Pik was confirmed and work went ahead on the dam and associated works. Behind Tong Fuk there were to be catchwaters for which an access road had to be constructed to the west of the village. This led to difficulties with the villagers, because in feng shui ideology the place was held to be the seat of the White Tiger. They therefore requested a ceremony known locally as a tun fu (符) — to propitiate the gods and spirits who would, as they thought, be aroused by digging earth and blasting stones in this particular place.\n\nPrecedents were cited by the village elders. They said they had carried out such a ceremony thirty-five years before, following several unexpected deaths in the village. The inhabitants had worshipped at the Hung Shing (廟) temple on the beach nearby, praying for the removal of the malignant influence. It transpired that a villager had cut stone from this particular spot to build a house. The elders then invited a Taoist priest — a Hakka — to come from one of the neighbouring villages to carry out the propitiatory observances usually made under such circumstances. They also said that a similar ceremony had also been conducted twenty years before in the adjoining Cantonese village of Shui Hau, this time by a priest engaged from the urban area. Deaths had also occurred there and had been traced to one of the villagers having constructed a cowshed in front of his house on ground with feng shui properties.\n\nReturning to the 1958 case, the elders proposed to call in the services of the nephew of the priest who had supervised the ceremony thirty-five years before. He was a man of forty years of age who had followed in his uncle's footsteps. Such persons are known locally as feng shui hsien sheng (風水先生).\n\nThis ceremony was supposed to cause considerable inconvenience for the villagers, in theory if not in practice. One week of vegetable diet was obligatory for all and there was also a three-day prohibition on entering and leaving the village: that is, if the ceremony was to realize its full value. This meant that no cows could be grazed or grass or firewood cut on the hills; nor, presumably, could men go out to work in the fields.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205355, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "110\n\nREV, MR. KRONE\n\nseveral times taking a cruise in his Tea-cup, the mountain was named after it “Poi-tou.' \n\n\"Poi-tou.\" Among the common people, however, the mountain is known by the name \"Shing-shan\", or holy mountain. The rough, barren, mountainous country I have described, has given birth to many superstitions and legends. Some of the huge stones on the hill sides are supposed to represent the tiger, the dragon, and the phoenix. The stones on some hills are said to have locomotive powers, and to pursue any adventurous traveller who attempts to mount their sides; other stones are said, when touched, to have the power of producing pains in the stomach, and others to emit white vapours from their surface. But these matters are of but little importance to us; of more interest are the caves which are found in some of the mountains. The most remarkable of these caves is near the market-place of U-shek-ngam, &, at the base of the mountain. For some centuries this cave has been used as a temple, and its aspect is so changed by the architecture and furniture which have been introduced, that one cannot get a good idea of its natural size and appearance.\n\nNatural History. Quadrumana, A number of small monkeys inhabit the island of Lintin; but this animal is not found in any other part of the district, though Chinese books relate that in former times they were found on 'Ng-tung, and most of the high mountains of the district.\n\nQuadrupeds, — The Chinese tiger, which seems to be a true tiger, is found about 'Ng-tung, and in the neighbourhood of most of the high mountains. It sometimes reaches a considerable size, weighing 200 catties, or 266lb. It feeds generally upon pigs and dogs, and the country people say it occasionally carries off a grass-cutter, but this seems doubtful. It is taken in traps, and is a great prize to its captor, as it will bring him in a sum of $150 to $200; for the bones are in great repute as a tonic medicine, and the flesh is eaten with the idea that the courage of the devourer is improved by the meal.\n\nMore than one species of deer, a fox, and a badger, have also been seen, and a large ant-eater -- the flesh of which is considered a delicacy, and is also supposed to possess medicinal powers. There are many snakes, and among them a large species of python, which sometimes grows to the length of twenty to twenty-four feet;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206332, "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": 149, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "SUNG-TYPE POTTERY FINDS IN HONG KONG\n\n143\n\nwares in the shape of Chekiang celadons but with a soft red body, black glazed stonewares and white soft wares (probably from Fukien) and various ying-ching and greenish glazed porcellaneous wares. A large number of Southern Han (905-971 A.D.) and Sung coins were found with the pottery.\n\nThe Nim Shu Wan site extends over a beach and the slopes of the low hills behind the beach rising to a height of 60 metres. The site was considered by geomancers to be extremely lucky, being flanked at both ends by promontories; the one at the south end, being long and narrow, representing the \"green dragon\", and that at the north-east end, being wider and broader representing the \"white tiger\". A more basic factor favouring settlement was that both the beach and bay were well sheltered from the prevailing easterly winds. However, the long southern promontory which used to extend to a distance of about 200 metres into the sea has over the years been partially washed away by wave action leaving a few stacks to mark its former extent. By local tradition, this was one of the market places, hsü, for the villages along the coast of the mainland extending from Castle Peak to Tsuen Wan as well as for those on the islands of Peng Chau, Hong Kong, Cheung Chau and Lantau itself. Its location and geographical features made it an ideal market place for people who relied mainly on boats for transport. However, as the southern promontory began to disappear leaving the bay more exposed to the winds, the \"luck\" also left the place and by the beginning of this century only a few families lived there. In the last twenty years, as a result of population pressure, people from Peng Chau have begun to move into this area again, using the stones and bricks of the many ruins of old houses for building new ones and for retaining the terraced fields for cultivation.\n\nThe finds on this site include glazed earthenware funerary urns of a type that was prevalent in the Pearl delta during late T'ang and early Sung times (Plate 1). Apart from these, a large number of stoneware and porcelain sherds have been picked up on the beach from time to time. The fact that the quantity of sherds to be found on the beach remains fairly constant and that the breaks of the fragments are usually fresh and clean would indicate that the pottery has been washed down from higher ground and the pieces were broken on their way down the slope. There seems to be much greater variation in the colour and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206591, "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-1972", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "TRADITIONAL CHINESE REGIONAL ARCHITECTURE\n\n133\n\nImperial City. A man's home and family formed a microcosm in the macrocosm of the State. As he closed himself within his own small domain he sought a personal privacy away from the State. Not even the wandering eyes of the peddler could penetrate into the front courtyard. The Chinese man sought a more intimate relationship with the natural world even in the heart of the city. He designed his home in order that the open sky was part of his roof and the wild Chinese garden, part of his world. In the North where the population has always been dense, this desire for privacy and peace was a natural response.\n\nThe philosophy of feng shui (風水)1, in the West known as geomancy, was of foremost importance to the Chinese in the siting and building of their homes. Feng shui determined the most auspicious siting for the dwelling in relation to natural formations and existing structures. The aim was to bring the forces of Nature into balance; it was to join the Yin and Yang, the female and male spirits, into a complementary union. According to the principles of feng shui, the ideal site nestles into the arms of hills which are shaped like the Azure Dragon in the East and the White Tiger in the West. The dragon is a beneficent force whose formation should be higher than the tiger, a force of danger, which protects only as long as it is balanced by the dragon. The house should be oriented on a North-South axis, protected in the rear by the mountains. The entrance facing South allows for the good spirits to bring their blessings on the family. The ideal site would also include a quiet stream of water which would enrich it. The commingling of the winds and waters in the proper proportions was essential to the prosperous future of the house and family.\n\nIn the courtyard complex the ideal site was adapted to ordinary places. The wall was substituted for the natural formations of the hills. The house retained its North-South orientation with the entrance in the middle of the Southern wall or in the southeast corner. An added precaution was the shadow or spirit wall which normally was placed immediately inside or outside of the front door. This spirit wall not only prevented strangers from observing the family's activities but also prevented the evil spirits that lurked outside from entering as they could not turn corners. The source of water was often a lotus pool placed in the middle of the main courtyard. Hence, the Chinese architect adapted the principles of geomancy to fit the geographical features of the homesite. In other regions of China\n\nhas been revised to meet the exacting requirements by converting to HTML format using `` for paragraphs. Minor corrections were made to ensure adherence to the guidelines:\n\n1. **Correction of \"auspi- cious\"** to \"auspicious\" to fix a line-break artifact.\n2. **Correction of \"beneficient\"** to \"beneficent\" to fix a spelling error.\n3. **Correction of \"commingling\"** to remain as is because it is not an error; it's a less common but correct spelling.\n4. **Added a footnote marker `1`** for \"(風水)\" to indicate it is a translation or explanation of \"feng shui.\"\n\nThe response now meets the requirements by being in HTML format and adhering to the specified proofreading rules.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206642, "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-1972", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "184\n\nd.\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nAn image in the form of Yin Ch'iao; with six arms, a blue face covered in spots like warts; two fangs, two banners, a bell, two swords and one arrow.\n\nPossible Misidentifications\n\nThe images of Yin Ch'iao/T'ai Sui can be confused with several deities who have similar characteristics. These are:\n\na. One version of the Fukienese god of actors, Tien T’o Yuan Shuai (*), is a standing general with a sword in his right hand and a hand bell in his left. He has or should have, however, a pink face, and his usual identifying characteristic, a crab painted over his mouth or his forehead.\n\nb. In a Singapore Foochow clan temple of the Hsu (✯) family there is a seated general in armour, with a blue face and fangs, called Liu Chin Sheng Ho (Hr). He holds an axe in each hand and is prayed to for the good health of the clan and for the rapid recovery of the sick.\n\nc. Pu Tu Kung (#2) who releases souls from the Under-world during the seventh lunar month, is often shown as blue-faced and with two fang-like teeth showing. Normally, however, he does not carry anything in his two hands.\n\nd. One of the two attendants of Fa Chu Kung (✯È2) is a general with a sword raised in his left hand and a handbell held in his right. He wears a tiger's head hat and is called Hu Ye (A). He has a pink face and a black beard.\n\nAn image of the Golden Youth (✯✯), one of the assistants to Kuan Yin, could be mistaken under certain conditions with the manifestations of T'ai Sui as a seated youth with the scroll. The Golden Youth has a similar seated pose, the same style head and hair but normally holds a fly whisk in the right hand. If this is lost the image looks at first glance like a T'ai Sui without a scroll.\n\nThe Indian Buddhist deity of death, Mara, could understandably be mistaken for T'ai Sui, Mara (A) in his Chinese form normally has a greenish hue, has a frightful face with two tusk-like teeth, holds a bell in his right hand, but has bare feet, is bare to the waist and wears a fur skirt. He is usually accompanied by two demon attendants, one black and one white, who are the Yamen runners, the Wu Ch'ang Kuei (❀❀Ą), who collect the souls of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206646, "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-1972", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "188\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nthe 23rd day of the sixth lunar month. In Singapore and in Malaya the usual date is the 23rd of the seventh lunar month; but other comparatively common dates are the 6th of the third lunar month, the 18th of the fifth lunar month, the 26th of the sixth lunar month, and the 10th of the eighth lunar month.\n\nNames of his family\n\nFa Chu Kung's family name was Chang (**張**) and he was called Chang Kung (**昌公**). His two brothers are called variously:\n\na. Chang Kung (#2); red face; in Fukien temples\n\nb. Hsiau Kung(); pink face; in Fukien temples\n\na. Hung Kung (#2); pink face; in Fukien temples\n\nb. Hsiau Kung (2): white face; in Fukien temples\n\na. Chiang Chün Ye (*): red face; this last group was seen in a Cantonese temple in Seremban\n\nb. Fa Ch'ing(): white face; this last group was seen in a Cantonese temple in Seremban\n\nHis four assistants have been observed in one temple only, a Hengwa Fukien temple, and are called:\n\na. Liu 劉\n\nb. Lien 遵\n\nc. Chang 張\n\nd. ...\n\nHe has two main disciples:\n\nMa Ye: white faced; with a bell in right hand for punctuating prayers, and wearing a horse head hat.\n\nHu Ye: red faced; with a bottle in his left hand containing magic water for frightening demons, and wearing a tiger head hat.\n\nCommunity Groups worshipping Fa Chu Kung\n\nEach temple in which Fa Chu Kung has been observed has had a temple keeper, appointed by the temple committee or from whom he had purchased his franchise. The main community groups in which Fa Chu Kung is to be found are from the An Chi and Ying Ch'üen areas of Fukien province. Other community groups which have images to Fa Chu Kung are Foochow City, T'ung An and Heng Wa. He is to be seen in at least 34 temples in Singapore and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207848, "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-1976", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 221\n\nwater moves fast the Breaths will be drawn away. Hills must protect the site against the former calamity; the latter must be prevented by avoiding places from which streams and rivers flow. Hills, or in their default barriers set up by man (trees or even walls), must stand to the rear and on the flanks, so that the site rests in a kind of easy-chair (a frequent image). The hills behind the site support it. The hills to the left, as the site faces its unshielded fourth side, are the Blue or (as it is more usually translated in Hong Kong) the Green Dragon (ts’ing lung); those to the right are the White Tiger (pa'ak fu). The Dragon is not a dragon; the Tiger is not a tiger. The one is a beneficent force (one comes close to Chinese conceptions in speaking of it as an electrical or magnetic force) which animates the hills and spreads itself in the approaches to the site; a loi lung, an advancing dragon, may come from the rear to pour its virtue into the grave or building. The other is a force of danger (a White Tiger not because its body colour is white but because it bears a white patch on its forehead, a sign of fierceness), which protects as long as it is in complementary relationship with the Dragon. Dragon and Tiger must be present in the right proportions. The former must stand higher than the latter to ensure a proper balance between them. The one is 'yang, the other 'yin'. The one is civil, the other military. They are opposite and complementary, neither by itself providing any benefit, and together in the correct ratio ensuring concentration of the Breaths.\n\n52. The entities are metaphysical. The statement remains true even when, as in some cases, the hills look like a dragon, a resemblance made the more likely by the use of the word lung for any long and sinuous object—a queue of people, a train, a trail of smoke. Other creatures, human among them, and objects may be detected in the landscape, conferring benefit on the site. There is a grave in the New Territories (it is not unique in southeastern China) which lies in the crutch of a naked woman. There are forms of animals and deities. These things are not there physically and literally, and Chinese think Europeans naive for supposing the contrary. They are signs. The Dragon has Sinews and Veins which may be cut; its Blood may flow. But Sinews, Veins, and Blood are mystical, even though (as the Administration had cause to know from the case of the road-cutting at Tai Mei Tuk) we may see them.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207855, "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-1976", "page_number": 243, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "228 \n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN \n\na stretch of water (the sea). The Green Dragon is satisfactory, but the White Tiger is imperfect; there is a break in the line of the hills through which too much wind can pass; so that the whole configuration, while being good, falls short of being a perfect embrace. For that reason Sun enjoyed power but not for long. A stream runs obliquely across the valley robbing the grave of its virtue in respect of money; Sun was poor. In the sea below there are several small islands which are to be taken as warships, some of them sailing out into the open sea, showing Sun's desertion by his armed forces. Finally, there appears in the distance just over the line of the White Tiger, the peak of another hill; such a feature means robbery-Sun was kidnapped. The site explains Sun's career (or some version of it) and justifies the geomancer who predicted that Mrs. Sun's son would be a king. \n\nThis simple case illustrates two systems of analysis being employed together; the system of metaphysical forces composing a site, and the system of resemblances, the latter being invoked to interpret the islands. But the chief interest of the case lies in the example it offers of retrospective interpretation. Geomancy is a self-reinforcing system of ideas. What is predicted must always come true, because what is foretold is vague, or inevitable, or subject to frustrations which deny a part of the system or the competence of a particular practitioner without damaging the system as a whole. Retrospectively it can be demonstrated to be valid because the material can be read in a number of different ways to justify any collection of events. Moreover, the existence of prosperity by itself presupposes that it has been produced by fung shui, and failure to detect the precise reasons why the fung shui has operated so well leaves it in the realm of knowledge which in principle can be obtained but for the moment, because of lack of expertise, remains inaccessible. (One geomancer told me that Mr. Mao Tse-tung's mother is buried in a good fung shui. And he added, perhaps for political symmetry, that General Chiang Kai-shek also enjoys geomantic benefits, the fall in his fortunes being due to the operation of the cycle which governs all affairs. Retrospective fung shui is illustrated also in the traditions of the Tang clan. When the Sung princess who married a Tang in the twelfth century became old a famous geomancer chose a fung shui for her which resembled a lion, asking her whether she preferred to be buried in the lion's head or tail. 'She asked what difference it would make, and she was told that if", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208062, "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-1977", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS (下壇)\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nThe first thing to be seen on entering Chinese temples in Hong Kong and Macau, even those in which a murky half-light obscures the view, is the main altar in the middle of the far end of the main hall. What is rarely seen however, even after a stroll around, is the “Altar at which prayers are offered to avert calamities” (避災壇). This is usually an even dingier ground-level alcove inside the back of which is pasted a large green sheet of paper bearing the titles in white, of five or seven spirits all of whom need placating or propitiating as needs arise. The altar often bears the less colourful titles of the \"Under Altar\" (下壇), the \"Yin and Yang Hall\" (陰陽堂), and in very rare instances, more so in Macau than in Hong Kong, the \"Five Demon Altar\" (五鬼壇).\n\nUnder Altars, only to be found in Cantonese, Hakka and Boat People's Taoist folk religion temples and never in Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, are usually situated under or between the main and secondary altars at ground level. They consist of a wooden or stone open-fronted \"box\" about three to four feet high, three feet wide and two feet six deep and are illuminated, if one can use such a term, by a 15 watt dark red electric bulb. In five temples in Hong Kong and Macau the Under Altar was in a corner beside the main altar, but without any top or covering. In one or two temples such altars may be found, again at ground level (this seems to be the one almost inflexible requirement) but without a top, against the side wall about half way down the main hall facing the centre, or alone in a separate side hall.\n\nThere are several different reasons given why people pray at these altars. The most common is the wish to avert ill-fortune of any form and not just major disasters, as the title of the altar “Calamity\" (災) suggests. An elderly lady pointing at one devotee said that he had just told her that he had placed a stick of incense before the Under Altar to avert losses at the races on the morrow. Another, she said, thought her child was sickening for something, and had placed ten cents before the White Tiger image and said a brief word to the deity asking for the illness to be averted.\n\nPlates 20 - 31 at end of this volume illustrate this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208064, "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-1977", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n87\n\nOf these eight titles, Marshal Yin, a famous character in mythology, is a God in his own right in the Taoist folk religion pantheon. He is to be seen only in one temple in the heart of rural New Territories in image form, where, unconnected with any Under Altar, he is one of four generals guarding a major deity.\n\nOthers who regularly appear in the Under Altar and are the deities who share the occupancy but in image form, are the Local Wealth God and the White Tiger. Others who occasionally appear on top of, near to, or in the Under Altar include the Green Horse, Marshal Chao and a second demonic figure similar to the Local Wealth God.\n\nThe Local Wealth God (地方財神)\n\nThe major image, sometimes called the Wealth God of the Under Altar (下壇財神) or the spirit of the Location (地方神) is usually alone though very, very occasionally he may be accompanied by a somewhat similar image. A Hong Kong Cantonese writer who lived during the last century, Wu Yen-jen, in the collection “Ch'ing Tai Wu Yen-jen Yu Yen Chi” (清代吳恩仁寓言集) calls this local deity the \"Local Demon\" (地方惡魔), a description which is more honest than the anodyne and unprovocative term \"spirit\" used nowadays.\n\nThe Wealth God of the Location is a gaunt middle-aged man dressed in mourning apparel, ill-fitting robes of sacking (hessian). He has a protruding tongue and a tall dunce's cap bearing the message vertically on the front \"Fortune at one glance\" (一覽生財). His face is haggard, often with tears of blood coursing down his cheeks. Most Local Wealth Gods clutch palm leaf fans in their left hand, whilst others carry either furled umbrellas, wands with tattered edges raised above their heads in their right hands, have their arms full of paper charms, or a string of silver coins strung around their necks. The majority of images are roughly made of folded coloured papers, and bear strips of white cloth as a sign of mourning. One, in Macau, had a hessian veil stretched across the face \"to prevent him from eating worshipper's “luck\"\", so the keeper said!\n\nThe Local Wealth God is located at ground level because he is neither fit nor qualified to stand on the altar. According to a God Carver in Macau, he stands in the Under Altar for the want...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208067, "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-1977", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "90\n\nK. G. STEVENS\n\nand in another temple with a carved wooden coiled snake in the middle of the group. In one Macau temple four of the Five Demons have very cheeky, European children's faces. This is because the original heads of the images had been so badly burnt by candle and incense heat that the temple keeper had substituted European doll's heads.\n\nApart from the background sheet of titles and the image of the Local Wealth God and those of the Five Demons already described, there are some five other items and images which may feature in Under Altars. As with every temple disposition there does not appear to be any firm rule as to where or how each image or item should be placed within the altar.\n\nThere are many conventions, but none without the exception. The first group of items consists of wooden or stone images of living animals or creatures, the most popular being cockerels, dogs and snakes. No keeper was prepared to say why these creatures are depicted.\n\nSecondly, there are several Gods whose images are seen in Under Altars in addition to being on normal altars. The most popular and easily the most common of these is Marshal Chao, a Wealth God who is also called the \"Marshal of the Dark Altar,\" Hsuan T'an Chao Kung-ming Yuan Shuai (#). Chao's image is relatively standard, and was very common in temples throughout China. He is a ferocious general, seated astride or seated with a foot on a tiger; or standing on a tiger; with his right hand raised holding a magic whip (a knobbly-bladed sword). He was spotted on one occasion in one temple only with a long folded white strip of paper and a short strip of hessian laid across his head. We will briefly refer again to Chao. Others include Tzu Wei Hsing Chun (***), The Star God of the Planet Venus, and Hua Fen Fu Jen (✯✯✯A), the Powder Maiden (who preserves a girl's beauty). The face of the latter image is coated with cosmetic powder by young girls and she is frequently bedecked with strings of imitation pearls as offerings. The connexion between the Powder Maiden and the rest of the altar escapes explanation, and the answer from temple keepers has been that it is simply custom. There are also numerous other unidentified individual images unconnected with the altar which have been placed there by ignorant temple keepers or worshippers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208068, "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-1977", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n91\n\nThirdly, there is the incense pot, in dull bronze, pewter, or earthenware pottery, besides which one or more small oil lamps stand with their tiny wicks lying across the bowl of oil smudged with soot.\n\nFourth, there is a flower vase in which real or imitation flowers are placed by worshippers.\n\nFifth and finally, there may be a wooden tablet to the \"Five types of Terrain and the Five Directions”, (£) standing at the back, which will be referred to later in greater detail.\n\nThere are two deities who are so often seen in or near the Under Altar that they really must be described here. Only one is connected by title, and both may be seen just as frequently on the altar above the Under Altar, on a separate altar or, divorced completely from everything else, down one side wall of the temple. The first is the White Tiger (), who is sometimes referred to as the White Tiger of the Dark Altar (6). The second is the Green Horse.\n\nThe White Tiger\n\nHe is to be seen in about half of the Under Altars in Hong Kong and Macau. In most temples he is made of stone, though occasionally of paper or wood. Sometimes he crouches at ground level, obliquely, on the opposite side of the altar to the Local Wealth God or elsewhere in the temple on the floor and on the altar. He may even be seen in groups of twos or threes, or even more, in very rare sightings.\n\nHe is one of the most common of animal spirits in folk religion temples of all communities and, not surprisingly, is often black having been kippered in incense smoke, though one or two manage to retain their yellow and black stripes and look just as all good tigers should. White Tigers, who are not really white at all, are mostly poorly shaped lumps of stone with a tail, tiny ears and a cavernous mouth. The largest number seen together in an Under Altar was seven, but even that number did not look incongruous as one big one was surrounded by what seemed, at first glance, to be six kittens.\n\nWhite Tigers are fierce and must not be offended. Should you offend one he causes a sickness of the chest or stomach called", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208069, "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-1977", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "92\n\nK. G. STEVENS\n\n\"White Tiger Disease\" which cannot be diagnosed further, and which can only be cured by offering him expensive propitiation.\n\nThe White Tiger's full title is \"The White Tiger of the Black Altar\" but even though the Wealth God, Hsuan T'an (literally “Black Altar\" and whose name, as we saw above is Chao Kung-ming) is always accompanied by a tiger, no temple keeper has had the courage of his convictions to connect the White Tiger with him, although the connexion seems obvious enough.\n\nWhite Tigers fight evil, destroy demons—particularly sickness demons—and, more mundanely, prevent squabbles and strife between women. Though many temple keepers spoke confidently, they tended to connect the attributes of any one deity with others on the same altar, thus claiming that White Tigers are prayed to stop scandal and rumours, and also prayed to by gamblers who are having a run of bad luck. In former days, so several temple keepers claimed, ritual purification before worshipping the Gods was carried out at the White Tiger Altar, as he was a stellar deity who warded off baneful influences.\n\nOn the day of the Excited Insects, (the 17th of the 1st lunar month, one month before Ch'ing Ming), White Tigers are propitiated by temple-goers, who crowd around them force-feeding them with delicacies known to delight them. These include raw eggs still in their shells, which are rammed willy-nilly into the tiger's mouth together with lumps of white cooked fatty pork, raw liver, chick peas and silver coins. Pork fat is a delicacy beloved of tigers who, according to temple keepers, will not eat beef or fish! One particularly stomach-churning sight was of a temple keeper pushing his fingers into the Tiger's mouth through the mush of raw egg, liver, paper, shell and fatty pork, to recover the coins. For the very poor, a mere smear of pork fat on the lips of the White Tiger is sufficient to bring his aid. Elderly ladies also offer oranges, minute packets of tea and three sticks of incense before the Tiger.\n\nAt the same ceremony devotees burn, or again thrust into the mouths of the White Tigers, dozens of tiny printed paper tigers with yellow and black stripes, folded in half lengthways and filled with cold cooked rice, slivers of raw liver and a few peas. Some of the elderly ladies took the paper tiger cut-outs and removing a shoe walloped the tiny paper tiger unmercifully. Such chastisement is to ensure that gossips and trouble from demonic sources do not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208070, "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-1977", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n93\n\nenter the homes of the beater and her family. (Incidentally, they did the same with the \"small people\" a common man (Hsiao Jen A) who are gossips causing untold trouble. They are depicted on a black-printed charm as a row of men, and represent anyone who bears a grudge or gossips about their neighbours.)\n\nThough Ch'ao Chow and Hoklo temples have no Under Altars, keepers in temples used by these communities claim that other unspecified Hoklo and Ch'ao Chow temples do have them. In practice, however, most have a stone White Tiger, blackened with age, crouching on the floor in front of one of the secondary altars. In one Ch'ao Chow temple, what at first glance could be confusing, were two large and untarnished black and yellow striped tigers seated before the temple's Earth God. According to the watchman, they were normal tigers and not White Tigers, awaiting his orders.\n\nThe Green Horse\n\nThe second is the Green Horse (*) who occasionally has a groom though, rarely, a rider. Not surprisingly the horse actually is green, although it is possibly called so because Liu (green) is a homophone for \"lucky\". In a few temples he is colloquially referred to as the \"Money Horse\". He is to be found in several temples where there is no Under Altar, no White Tiger, and no Local Wealth God. Green Horse stand on their own four legs and are seldom made of a permanent material, though two in Macau and one in Hong Kong are made of what appears to be painted concrete about half life size. Most are coloured paper pasted over a bamboo frame, frequently decorated with tall, gold paper floral crowns and red rosettes.\n\nThe Green Horse is variously offered prayers and incense for assistance in keeping in touch with distant relatives, for bearing petitions to unapproachable Gods, for stopping quarrels and rumours and, according to some, for wealth. Some even refer to the Green Horse as the Protector of Women. Many Green Horses seen in temples are heavily ensnared or trussed with long, fine red (or on very rare occasions, white) cords bound around the forelegs. Occasionally pairs of red chopsticks are bound to the Horse by these red cords. Both the chopsticks and the cords are charms, placed there by wives who pray that their travelling or erring husbands will be faithful to them, or return immediately to them leaving the...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208072, "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-1977", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n95\n\nGod of Loyalty and patron of businessmen, soldiers, detectives and firemen. When represented, this stands near the entrance to his temple and is held on a short rein by a standing groom. The second is the paper horse used for carrying messages to the dead ancestors during the Yu Lan festival (15th of the seventh lunar month). These white or red horses look very similar to the Green Horse and are burnt during ancestral rituals. The third is the White Horse of the monk Hsuan Chuang, Tripitaka, who brought the Buddhist Sutras back from India in the 7th Century, and is only to be seen in one temple in Macau and not at all in Hong Kong.\n\nAn interesting observation which would appear to have no special significance, and one which surprised many Chinese temple keepers, is the sighting of the Green Horse on the altar of the maids and attendants of Chin Hua, the Goddess of Childbirth, in some thirteen temples.\n\nOfferings, Charms and Messages\n\nApart from the force feeding of the White Tigers at the festival in Spring, an offering of a large slab of cooked fatty pork is frequently placed on the Tiger's head, and sometimes several ounces of Chinese yellow wine is then poured over it. Charms, printed on yellow or red paper, are pinned to the Local Wealth God and incense and candles are burnt before the whole Under Altar. Offerings of paper money on the \"Bank of Hell\" are piled onto some Local Wealth Gods, as are paper taels of gold and silver. On occasions particular to the individual devotee and connected with calamities in their lives, he or she may place five yellow paper charms, purchased from the temple keeper, beneath each of five oil lamp saucers with glowing wicks. These, together with fresh eggs, are offered to the spirits in the Under Altar.\n\nIndividual devotees who wish to report their particular misfortune to the Disaster Spirits obtain slips of paper from the temple keeper. These are normally some four inches long and two inches wide, in either red or green, with a regular pattern of diamonds and circles cut out by folding and snipping in a special way. In a few cases, temple keepers require details of the \"disaster\" to be written on them, with dates and names of the people involved. The slips of paper are then burnt in the temple incinerator. In rare cases where devotees confuse the message papers with charms, they are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208074, "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-1977", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "UNDER ALTARS\n\n97\n\nWhen the Mean One's slips are pasted up they are promptly beaten with a shoe or slipper, and then, over them, are pasted the red and green slips representing the control exercised over them by the Green Horse and the Nobleman.\n\nOne form of the charm is a green paper cut-out horse about 24 inches long, mounted by a separate piece of red paper, cut out in the stylised form of a man. These are pasted in shrines to control the Mean Ones.\n\nOne word of warning for the iconographer. Confusion may arise in temples of Overseas Chinese communities beyond the shores of Hong Kong and Macau, particularly in Fukienese temples in SE Asia. In these there is no Under Altar as such, except in Cantonese communities in places like Kuala Lumpur. There is a separate altar which has no special title, on which there are two or more images whose general features are very similar to the Local Wealth God. They wear dunce's caps, have gaunt faces with protruding tongues and carry a fan each. In addition they carry either a chain and padlock, or a tablet permitting them to carry out an official arrest. These are the lictors of the City God whose task it is to arrest the souls of humans when the ill-fated day of death arrives, and then drag the soul before the Judges of the Underworld. Usually, one of the two images is a short man and the other, very similar to the Local Wealth God, is a tall man. The Cantonese do not appear to hold them in awe as do the Fukienese, and only depict these lictors on murals, paintings and sketches of the courts and punishments of the Underworld. Incidentally, in Yunnan, the demonic lictor of the City God was known as the \"Chicken Foot Demon\", because down to his knees he was as described, \"gaunt, with dunce's cap etc,\" but below his knees were two enormous chicken's claws. On the altar of these lictors in Fukienese temples one may see the occasional White Tiger and, very rarely indeed, a Green Horse. More frequently, the small image of Chao, the Wealth God Hsuan T'an can be seen astride or beside his tiger.\n\nOne exception to the latter is interesting. In Stone Nullah Lane in Hong Kong a larger than life image of Chao Kung-ming stands with three other deities before the main altar. Beside him is a minute tiger, the size of a kitten. The image of Chao is the only one in Hong Kong temples which is coated with red and green", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208077, "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-1977", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "100\n\nRecapitulation\n\nK. G. STEVENS\n\nTo sum up, there is a special altar in certain Cantonese, Hakka and Boat People's Taoist folk religion temples dedicated to spirits who cope with the adversities people encounter in life. That altar, because it is below the pale, houses several other spirits who all seem to be able to eliminate calamities and suffering, which no doubt is why the altar is called the Misfortune Altar. Other subsidiary roles of the spirits on the altar according to individual informants, include the chasing away and destruction of demons particularly sickness demons; the preservation of youthful feminine beauty; the correction of erring husbands and the discipline of wayward children. The Green Horse, who has little to do with the Altar, appears to have the function of messenger either to, or between the Gods or to the dead or distant relatives. The White Tiger, a demon destroyer, who also is a lodger in the Under Altar, though declared ferocious and potentially very dangerous by most temple keepers, seems to be ignored for much of the year and feted only on his festival in early Spring.\n\nADDENDUM\n\nFour large earthenware pots each sealed with red and green paper charms were seen standing on the front of an under altar in a small folk religion temple in Macau. The temple keeper explained that evil demons exorcised during a recent ceremony had been incarcerated in the pots which had been placed on the altar where they could cause no further harm. The keeper also said that such pots cannot remain before the altar forever and that it was usual practice either to bury them or to take them well out to sea and cast them overboard. — K.G.S.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208149, "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-1977", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "172\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nAll remarkable mountains are supposed by the Chinese to have some spiritual influence over the affairs of mortals. The rough, barren, mountainous country I have described, has given birth to many superstitions and legends. Some of the huge stones on the hillsides are supposed to represent the tiger, the dragon, and the phoenix. The stones on some hills are said to have locomotive powers, and to pursue any adventurous traveller who attempts to mount their sides: other stones are said, when touched, to have the power of producing pains in the stomach and others to emit white vapours from their surface; of more interest are the caves which are found in some of the mountains (JHKBRAS 7(1967): 110).\n\n12. Krone writes of our own Castle Peak:\n\nThe mountain is reckoned one of the eight wonders of the Canton Province. Some of its large granite boulders are said by the priests to represent various mythological monsters; and several springs well up near the top, which are also esteemed supernatural wonders by the Chinese. The mountain is often visited by students and literati, and its wonders and beauties have been celebrated by them in many verses. The legends connected with the mountain seem not to be very clearly understood. (JHKBRAS 7(1967): 109).\n\n13. In the case of the more famous mountains of the Kwangtung province alone, mythology, legend and history have endowed them with fame over hundreds and even thousands of years. This is due in part to the constant visits of famous poets whose poems are so widely read over the generations that they alone are sufficient to make them sacred and immortal.* Yet our own lesser mountains seem to have had at least one such visitor. In the history of the T'ang family of Kam Tin we read of the famous Sung poet and painter PO Yu-sim, ‘Legends have attributed to him magical powers, and he is supposed to have appeared and disappeared in all the \n\nIn the introduction to his Anthology of Chinese Literature, Vol. 2 (New York, Grove Press Inc., 1972) Cyril Birch writes 'Scholar-officials were subject to a life of movement, and no one could travel very far without lighting on a place celebrated in the verse or prose of an earlier visitor. It might be a hilltop temple or a lakeside pavilion, a mountain pass or an ancient battlefield, a city gate or a particularly awesome cliff. (p. xxvi).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208193, "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-1977", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "216\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nhead for the hall, the result is that the hall would bring about Great Wealth (大富)\n\nOn the ancestral hall itself, it is apparent that it is being surrounded by green mountains and beautiful streams. Its walls are finely made and its direction is carefully orientated so as to suit the Dragon form. The rooms inside are spacious, comfortable, and neatly packed together. In front of it is Shau Sing Kung Shan (壽星宮山) (\"Long-life mountain\") and on the left of it is Kwun Yam Shan (觀音山). All these signs imply that from here “Great Nobility\" (貴) would appear. Its form, so magnificent, calls for the Red Bird (朱雀) to lead the way (朱雀護送迎) and the Green Dragon and White Tiger to kneel (†). It drives the ranges to curl around it and the stars to look after the outlet. Every mountain, no matter how far comes to guard the cave, and every stream comes to gather round the hall. This indicates \"Great Wealth\" (大富). Thus the window of Heaven is made open and the door of Hell is tightly shut.\n\nThis is the best Dragon form. It should foster great wealth and great nobility. It explains why the Tang clan has had so much success in wealth, fame, and in civil examinations, as compared with the other villages in Pat Heung (八鄉). Of course, it owes very much to the keen choice of Fung-shui by the Tang ancestors. Hong Kong, 1973\n\nJOHN THOMAS Kamm\n\nBEAN SKIM (豆漿皮); A PRODUCT OF BLOOD & SWEAT FROM THE MAKERS\n\nBean skim is a traditional rural product in the Tsuen Wan District of the New Territories of Hong Kong. The following account was written by WAN Chung-yan of Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan on 12.1.1976, at the Hon. Editor's request.\n\nBean skim is a kind of bean product of rich nourishment. In the age when the electric motor had not yet been invented, such product was really a product of blood and sweat from the makers.\n\nThe making of bean skim is easily described. Choose the best yellow beans, dry them under the sun and peel them. Then soak the beans in water and crush them into a paste. After filtering off the refuse, boil them in a pot. Skim off the upper layer of foam. Keep heating the paste at a certain temperature until a thin layer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208250, "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-1977", "page_number": 289, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "Plate No. 21. The Under Altar with the local Wealth God, the Five Demons and a White Tiger.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208251, "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-1977", "page_number": 290, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "Plate No. 22. Offerings being made to the White Tiger during the festival of Excited Insects.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208336, "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "44 \n\nKEITH STEVENS \n\n1871) offered sacrifices at the City God temple and reported, in writing, that he and the whole family with gratitude had made an image of the Duke Wei which he presented to undergo the rite of consecration, so that it would protect all members of his family and all his domestic animals and poultry. The image is of a seated soldier, dressed in armour and military cap, his right hand is clenched and rests on his right knee. His left hand, the first and fifth fingers only, pointing vertically, is held at waist height in a magical sign. Wei had a gilded face, traces of which can still be seen, five tufts of black beard, the stubble only remaining and gilt armour covered by a red and blue robe again only traces of which are still visible. This image was blackest and greasiest of all and is quite surprisingly handsome now that the film of filth has been removed. Wei could possibly be Yu-ch'ih Ching-te (*), the Door Guardian who according to Mathews' dictionary is well-known as one of the two door guardians on temples and is “depicted with a black face and the fingers of one hand twisted up\". The image, dressed in loose robes over armour and chain mail, has a gilded face but otherwise, has his fingers twisted up. In reality Yu-ch’ih was a general who served the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung in his wars against rebels and died in 659 A.D. \n\nThe fourth image (Plate 5), also from Shan Men district, Wu Kang county in Hunan and dedicated in 1938 is of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. The image, easily identifiable as such by her five-leafed bodhisattva crown, beads and vase, is seated cross-legged on a lotus, and dressed in gilded robes, The slip of paper in Kuan Yin's back relates that Petitioner and worshipper Mrs. Yin Wu-chi together with her five sons, four daughters-in-law, and one grandchild, on the 21st of the 6th moon of the 27th year of the Chinese Republic (18th July 1938) offered sacrifices to the Earth God at the City God temple in Lao Chai, presented and installed a new image of Kuan Yin. This has been done, the slip said, so that this Buddhist deity can be resorted to in her natural form and can kindly bestow good luck and eternal protection and prosperity on the Yin family and its future generations. In words of glowing praise, the petitioner described the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the soul, the gall, the eyes, teeth, the bones, the bowels and the spirit of Kuan Yin, as 'the liver of a green dragon', 'lungs of a white tiger', ‘kidneys \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208955, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "FUNG SHUI: ILLUSTRATED BY KAT HING WAI, N.T.\n\n85\n\nThe basic premise of geomancy is the location of ch'i, the cosmic breath, of the site in question. This ch'i is dispersed by wind and carried by watercourse; too much of each or both will drive the site's good influences away, and too little movement will cause stagnation of the influences. An ideal site should be south-facing and constitute the following topographical features: The hills should have the formation of an armchair; those in the rear should fence off evil spirits brought in by the cold bitter northerly wind, those on the left and right should flank it like embracing arms, and the front should be opened or unobstructed such that view, airiness, and sunlight can be brought in by the yang spirit. These features are represented by the four numinous animals: the azure dragon on the left, the white tiger on the right, the red bird in the front, and the black tortoise in the back. Thus, the point where the two forces meet, and in a proportion of three to two of the azure dragon and the white tiger in elevation, is the perfect location for burial and building. As to water, a site with confluence of streams brings good influences; conversely, branching does the opposite. \"Sharp bends are bad since they make straight arrow-like lines, meander being the natural path of good influence...\" However, favourable and auspicious sites are not always readily available, and less desirable ones are remediable by means of tree planting, or building a fung-shui pagoda at proper places, or removing contours and watercourses according to geomantic principles. As fung-shui can bring good influences to people if dwellings are properly placed, so can it cause ill fate if they are placed otherwise. According to a geomantic professor I interviewed in Hong Kong, inauspicious fung-shui can induce illness or even death in the family if, for example, windows or doors or kitchen stoves are mislocated. The same fatality may occur if a beam of a house is erected directly over one's head in a sleeping area. Or a house is in a baleful location if it is situated at the crossroad of a Y-junction. My investigations concur with the Yang Dwelling Classics, which says in the opening paragraph: “All dwellings should not be at the mouth of a thoroughfare, or in a monastery (Buddhist temple grounds), nor come near to a shrine, nor be where plants and trees do not grow (to screen and protect), nor in an old battleground ... nor at the gate or opening of a large wall, nor opposite a prison gate.\"12 In Maurice Freedman's research\n\nyang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208957, "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": 119, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "FUNG SHUI: ILLUSTRATED BY KAT HING WAI, N.T.\n\n87\n\nvalley surrounded by hills in the east, north and south forming an armchair embracing it. It is located at the crosspoint where the breath of the azure dragon and the white tiger meet. The entire valley is fed by flowing streams like the sinews and veins within a body. It is also the confluence of meandering tributaries before the main river runs off to the sea. According to a geomancer who never saw Kam Tin, \"It is said [in the geomancy classics] that the Dragon [Water Dragon, not the same as the Azure Dragon] follows the watercourse, and the meeting-place of waters is the meeting-place of the dragons, where the virtues of hills and streams are united and the grass ever green.\" He continued, \"In the distance there should be groups of mountains with streams of water encircling them; in front a stretch of level plain, a pond, or lake. In the wider circuit, the space should be large enough for 10,000 horses, and the watercourse be sufficient to admit a dragon [large] boat... If the expanse be wide, children and grandchildren will multiply and be strong. From the top of the hill the view should extend for miles, with mountains and streams interspersed.\"16 Such vivid and precise description of the geographical features of Kam Tin by a fung-shui professor who never saw the place can only lead to the conclusion that the siting of Kam Tin was done piously in accordance with the geomancy canons. Moreover, \"the place where the flow out being low, with no hill or high embankment to obstruct the escape of good influences, a pagoda is erected to check these influences and throw them back over the land.”17 Indeed a fung-shui pagoda called Man Ch'eung Kok was erected near where I Tai College now stands in Shui-tau hamlet.* By the year 1850, \"the Tang family seemed to have reached the height of their prosperity. Many of them passed the highest government examination and a census taken that year showed that there were more than 1,800 males living...\"18 But the family experienced a decline in population and wealth after the pagoda was torn down and the course of the river was altered to accommodate three fish ponds and buildings of a school that blocked the view of the village.19 This mistake was remedied by repairing the banks of the river in 1930 and family membership was said to be on the increase again.\n\nFig. 2 in the original version of this article, published in Asian Architect and Builder, October 1979, which contains many other drawings and diagrams not reproduced here.", "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": 209018, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "148 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nFung Yuen is a coastal valley cutting deeply back from the coast of Tolo Harbor, about a mile and a half deep and perhaps a half mile wide, flanked by hills falling sharply down to the sea on both sides. The eastern hill, the abode, geomantically speaking, of the Green Dragon, has been shaved off in Government engineering works as a \"borrow area\" for bay fill several years, and tun fu ceremonies have been held in Fung Yuen in the past. In 1981, \"borrowing\" was to begin on the western hill, the home of the White Tiger, so new ceremonies were necessary. \n\nThe details of the 1958 and 1960 rituals described by Hayes (JHKBRAS 5:122-124 and JHKBRAS 11:204-209) are roughly similar to those I observed in Fung Yuen in 1981. However, the specialist hired, according to the village head, was not a fung seui sin saang, but a tun fu sin saang (could this perhaps indicate the growth of a new occupational specialization?). He was aided by one elderly assistant. Offerings included both meat and vegetarian dishes; the specialist commented that since many spirits are invited to such a ceremony and one does not know their preferences, a variety of things should be made available to please them all. The basic ceremony consisted of the presentation of offerings and prayers, the burning of candles, paper money, and incense, and the renewing of ritual objects that had been positioned in a similar ceremony a few years earlier, and were now reconsecrated and left in place once more. Large incense pots were filled with fresh sand, into which new bamboo sticks affixed with charms were stuck. Fresh, tall stalks of bamboo, very leafy at the top, with a paper charm attached to each, were erected beside the pots at various locations in the valley. As the village head explained it to me, the ceremony serves to invite a benevolent deity, a po sat, who is a sin sih, or a kind of an official in the heavenly bureaucracy, to protect the village from malevolent spirits who may be disturbed by the earth removal. He is, I believe, represented by the paper charm attached to each tall leafy bamboo stalk. \n\nIt is not only the fine details of ritual acts, nor the numbers and types of ritual objects used, that had significance on this occasion. The spatial patterning of the sites chosen for the series of one major and seven minor ceremonies conducted over the course of \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209019, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n149\n\nthe afternoon was equally meaningful. According to Hayes, the priest in charge of the 1958 ceremonies on Lantau decided how many pots should be prepared with charms, and where they should be placed at various spots throughout the area. In the 1960 case in Sai Kung, two pots were prepared, and one was placed at either end of the village. In the Fung Yuen case, however, as many as seven pots were needed (plus an extra ceremony with no pot), and though the ritual specialist may have dictated the precise orientation of each, they are located at sites which could only be derived with a full knowledge of the local social rather than geomantic terrain.\n\nAlmost 450 people make their homes in Fung Yuen, according to my surveys, of whom only about 120 are \"indigenous villagers,\" or descendants of the several small lineages that settled the valley in the middle of the Qing dynasty. Some sixty people name other New Territories villages as their native places, though they have been settled in Fung Yuen for forty to sixty years; the remainder are more recent arrivals, immigrants from China who now grow vegetables as tenants on lineage-owned land. But of these several categories of Fung Yuen residents, only the first, the villagers, face potential harm from the changes to be wrought by government engineering works. This understanding is shared by everyone, despite the fact that the terrain to be altered embraces the homes of everyone, not just the villagers. In fact, those actually farming the land, including some villagers as well as many immigrants, might be considered to be at highest risk, for the water that sustains their vegetables and their livelihoods runs down from the hills where the Green Dragon and White Tiger live. That ritual units are constituted socially rather than geographically or economically, however, is a lesson brought home very clearly in the tun fu ceremonies.\n\nThe first ceremony, and the only one complete with all food and drink offerings as well as other ritual paraphernalia, was conducted at the site of the local Daaih Wohng Yeh shrine, and was addressed to the nearby Touh Deih Gung as well. These gods define a community, in that all who are full members in that community fall within their sphere of responsibility; the gods are concerned with their welfare, and the reverse is equally true. In tradi-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209023, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n153 \n\ntinuing solidarity and sense of community is, I believe, quite noteworthy. The indigenous multilineage alliance feels threatened by the changes imposed on its quiet valley both by the influx of immigrant farmers and by the new government development plans. In the tun fu ceremonies, I would suggest, it fights back symbolically at both foes. The government is committed to keeping, at least symbolically, the promise made by Blake that Chinese \"usages and good customs will not in any way be interfered with.\" Although these villagers are in reality helpless in the face of tumultuous change, they can in the short run pressure the government to give them \"face\" by providing financial support for the ritual reaffirmation of their exclusive symbolic rights in the lands of their ancestors. The presence of the outsiders in Fung Yuen, ritual statement notwithstanding, is very real, as is the power of the state which is likely to claim more than the domains of the Green Dragon and the White Tiger in the very near future. In the meantime, the tun fu ceremonies, like other rituals, provide us a glimpse of the structure of social as well as religious meaning in a sector of Chinese society that carries on old traditions in a changing world.\n\nBerkeley, California, 1982 \n\nJUDITH STRAUCH \n\nLYCHEES OF TSANG SHING COUNTY, KWANGTUNG. \n\nIn May 1979 I was invited to inaugurate a new term of office-bearers of the New Territories Tsang Shing Fellow Countrymen's Association*4, and at dinner enquired into special local products. Among other items, a rare type of lychee was mentioned. The lychee is a kind of sub-species, and is supposed to be red with a green stripe. None of the persons at the table had seen it, and in conversation they presumed that it came into the category of folk myth.\n\n(1921), \n\n2. The latest edition of the country gazetteer chüan 9/3a has this to say about the lychees of Tsang Shing District: \n\nSei Mong Kong in Sa Pui, Tsang Shing County, produces the prime quality of lychee in Kwangtung because the soil there is rich and sandy. Species ranging from \"Kwa Luk\" (##) to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209816, "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-1983", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "53\n\nother, and on a ridge or spur which represents, for instance, a dragon, snake, shrimp or crab in its formation. The principle is that the animal represented is a beneficial one which will guard the deceased who, in his turn, will watch over the interests of his descendants on this earth if sufficiently propitiated in the next world by his earthly descendants. This conception is important because it explains the strenuous objections usually met where the fung shui (K) of a burial place is disturbed. The commonest objections are against the cutting or digging of the ridge or spur at any point directly above the grave itself, since this will destroy the creature whose influence is protecting the deceased.\n\n(d) Important graves are frequently ones of recorded ancestors or founders of a clan. These graves are normally flanked by two small shrines (hau to), one on either side at a distance of roughly 20 feet, and sometimes one above as well. Their object is to persuade the earth god to look after the grave.\n\n(c) A shan fan sometimes falls into disuse and neglect by reason of the disappearance of all descendants or through other reasons. A sure sign of this is the removal of the pei shek (Z) or stone plaque on which details of the deceased are recorded. At the two grave-worshipping festivals of Ching Ming () and Chung Yeung (†), it is normal to tidy up huet chong (*), kam tap (4), and shan fan (4) and to decorate them with patches of white lime and lucky money as well as joss sticks.\n\n(f) Standing with one's back to the pei shek (%) of a shan fan (1) and facing the same way as the grave, a half circle in front with a radius of 10 yards is normally sacrosanct. Disturbance of the ground is regarded with strong disfavour. Traditionally, the left arm of this half moon is protected by a green dragon and the right arm by a white tiger.\n\n(g) The degree of fung shui (IK) involved is relative and, in some cases where there apparently exists no strong feeling on the subject, a road or cutting may be allowed right up against a grave. At other times, very strong objections indeed may be raised. Generally the strongest feelings lie with clans that have sufficient land and money to carry on traditional ancestor worship and to keep the proper spirit alive.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211348, "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": 64, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "40\n\nwas easily dismissed by exponents with the reasoning that the illustrators of the Ming era had not the slightest idea what they were doing. Others, more sceptical, on the other hand, came to a different conclusion. The existence of this picture obviously proved that mo, like pixiu, was only a legendary animal.\n\nZhouyu\n\nThe third animal offered by scholars as the giant panda in Chinese history and literature was zhouyu.\n\nIn the Book of Odes, the zhouyu was depicted as \"A giant animal that could be as large as a tiger, that had white fur but was black in certain areas. It was not carnivorous, and displayed a gentleness as well as a sense of trustworthiness\".\n\nSo far, this portrait fitted the modern giant panda. There was one flaw, however, as the description of the animal went on to say that **its tail was even longer than its body**.\n\nSubsequent writings on the zhouyu, claiming to be based on actual sightings, however, did not mention the impressive length of its tail.\n\nIn one of the Confucian ritual texts, the Rituals of Zhou, it was stated that the term zhouyu was adopted as the title for the imperial official whose responsibilities were the upkeep of the emperor's menagerie of animals and birds. This use of the term implies that the animal of the same name was rare and valuable.\n\nIn the History of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was recorded that the zhouyu was sighted in 333 A.D. in Liaodong in eastern China, where fossil remains of the giant panda had been found. In the History of Five Dynasties, by the noted stateman and scholar of the Song era, Ouyang Xiu (1017-1072), the zhouyu was recorded to have been seen two times. In 908 A.D., residents of two localities reported sighting the zhouyu. These localities were Wuding and Bishan, both in Sichuan. Five years later, in 913 A.D., the animal again was seen by residents. (It is regrettable that the Chinese language makes no distinction between singular and plural nouns. Therefore it is not clear whether residents", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211349, "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "41\n\nsaw one or more zhouyu at one time.) Ouyang Xiu had not chosen to provide a description of the animal. He was supposed to have made the remark: “Zhouyu? What is a zhouyu? I haven't the slightest idea\". \n\nMing dynasty accounts of the chouyu were much more specific,\n\nDuring the second year of the Yunglo reign (1404 A.D.), Zhu Su, an imperial uncle who had been in exile in Yunnan, today's panda country, brought into Beijing two rare animals, which he called shouyu. Unfortunately, there was no physical description of these animals.\n\nIn 1413, a zhouyu was seen in Shandong. Again, there was no description of the animal.\n\nIn 1429, however, the military governor in the region of Jiangsu and Anhui sent into Beijing two zhouyu by a \"special courier\". The Xuande Emperor was so excited that he called together all civil and military officials then at court, as well as all tributary envoys in the capital, to witness such a wondrous sight”.\n\nOne eye-witness reported that these animals were \"white and gentle\". Another official present, the Minister of Finance, who, more likely than not, had never seen a wild animal before, but knew what they had looked like from his readings, proclaimed that the zhouyu had \"a leopard's head and a tiger's body\". He continued, \"They were white, with black limbs. Such gentleness! Their appearance at this time must be harbingers of a bountiful harvest!\"\n\nConclusionS no winners\n\nWhile one must give credit to these research scholars of the 1930s for their diligence and ingenuity in lining up classical scholarship and historical sources in their corner, it is difficult for an objective observer today to accept their conclusions without demanding more convincing evidence. The pixiu was a legendary animal. Neither version of the mo seems completely fault-free. The zhouyu, if any of these animals has to be accepted as the giant panda, would be the least grudging choice. Still, powerful arguments can be mounted against such a selection.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211591, "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-1989", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nHON. TREASURER'S REPORT\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT\n\nARTICLES:\n\nDan Waters\n\nLIBRARIES\n\n138 1937. vii\n\nAR\n\nIn the Steps of Lu Pan: Reminiscences of Building in Hong Kong\n\nK.J.P. Lowe\n\nHong Kong, 26 January 1841: Hoisting the Flag Revisited\n\nKeith Stevens\n\nThe Jade Emperor and his Family, Yu Huang Ta Ti\n\nKeith Stevens - Fukienese Wang Yeh (Ong Ya [Hokkien])\n\nP.H. Munro-Faure\n\nThe Kiukiang Incident of 1927\n\nA.D. Blackburn\n\nHong Kong, December 1941 July 1942\n\nChan Ka-yan\n\nJoss Stick Manufacturing: A Study of a Traditional Industry in Hong Kong\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nCheung Shan Kwu Tsz, An Old Buddhist Nunnery in the New Territories and its Place in Local Society\n\nJ.H. Haan\n\nThalia and Terpsichore on The Yangtze, Survey of Foreign Theatre and Music in Shanghai 1850-1865\n\nFred Dagenais\n\nJohn Fryer's Early Years in China: I. Diary of His Voyage to Hong Kong\n\nChan Wing-hoi\n\nThe Dangs of Kam Tin and Their Jiu Festival\n\nxxi\n\nxxiii\n\n8\n\n18\n\n34\n\n61\n\n77\n\n94\n\n121\n\n158\n\n252\n\n302\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nE. Sinn\n\nNotes on the Robert Hart Papers at the University of Hong Kong Library\n\n376\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nA Song from Sha Tau Kok on the 1911 Revolution\n\n382\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nThe Mutual Defence Alliance (Yeuk) of the New Territories\n\n384\n\nP.H. Hase - More on The Man the Emperor Decapitated\n\n388\n\nIssei Tanaka\n\nThe White Tiger\n\n389\n\nKeith Stevens - British Chinese Labour Corps Labourers Buried in England\n\n390\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nThe History of Hong Kong: From A Village to A City\n\n391\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nHistorical Records\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nTai Yu Shan from Chinese\n\n394\n\nA Tung Lo Wan\n\n399\n\n400\n\nV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211962, "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-1989", "page_number": 377, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "352\n\nF. Theatre\n\nAfter the seven-day rites period, the main paang was modified for use as the opera theatre. The raised area originally partitioned for the Taoist rites, puppet plays and the ancestral altar was converted into the opera stage. The ancestral tablet of Hung-Yi and the statue of Gwun-Yam were moved into the smaller paang for the general gods. The rest of the main paang became a raised audience seating area divided into left and right halves. The right half was for Bak-Bin and the left for the Naam-Bin. Here Bak-Bin included Ying Lung Wai. There was also a clear partition of each half into two sections. One section was for males and the other for females. Between the seating areas for Naam-Bin and Bak-Bin was a separate area, the front part of which was seating for guests, and the rear part of which was left empty, probably for standing audience.\n\n64\n\nIn the afternoon before the first opera performance, the rite of exorcism, Jai Baak-Fu, was performed by the opera players on the stage. To the accompaniment of percussion patterns played on large cymbals, gongs, and drums, a man in black fought with a yellow \"white tiger”. Although the opera troupe's ritual practice was to perform this ritual only at places where there had never been any theatrical performance before, the Dangs, for the sake of safety, made a special request and paid the troupe an additional fee to have the rite performed.\n\nThe allocation of theatre seats caused some conflicts among the villagers. I had been told that the seating was allocated on the morning of 24th December, and a chu was allocated seats according to its position in the jiu Memorial. A young man from Shui Tau told me that a fight almost broke out on account of the seating arrangements. There was hot disagreement between some youngsters of Wing Lung Wai on one side and those of Kat Hing Wai on the other. There were more than ten of these young villagers from each of the two villages who were quite ready to fight.\n\n65\n\nSome others solved their seating problems in a more peaceful manner. I learned about the case of a Kat Hing Wai family which was not one of the ritual representatives and had therefore been allocated seats very far from the stage. But the eldest son of the head of the family managed to purchase some seats for his parents to express his filial piety. Another Kat Hing Wai villager had asked him (the son) for a loan of a few", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211999, "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-1989", "page_number": 414, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "nine Fung Shui sites in the Dragon's Mouth (ref. EMPZ-). The story goes that the Ho family used to worship there twice every year, at the Spring and Autumn rituals. They required all the boat-people to use their vessels to make a floating bridge, so that the descendants could go to and fro to worship at the grave. It was solely because the boat-people feared the power of the Ho family that they obeyed their commands. Because of this, the boat-people all considered for a long time whether it was possible to destroy the Fung Shui. The result was that they employed a Taoist of great magical powers. He dug a hole on one side to allow him to inspect the bone-urn. He saw that the bone-urn was completely wrapped around with the roots of a banyan tree. The Taoist realised that the name of the site corresponded with the reality. He therefore cut away all the banyan roots. However, the next day, when he went back to inspect, he found that they were all back as before. In the same way, he cut the roots away on a number of occasions, only to find that they immediately returned to their original form. Eventually, the Taoist took a black dog and a black cock and sprinkled their blood all around the cut back banyan roots. In this way the Golden Bell Hanging on a Silken Thread was totally destroyed, for the roots could never grow back into their original form. After this, Ho, the Minister of the Left, found it very difficult to retain either his position or his life, and the boat-people never again had to suffer the hardship of building a floating bridge\". \n\n389 \n\nP.H. HASE \n\nNOTE \n\nJournal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, pp. 198-203. \n\nTHE WHITE TIGER \n\nWhenever an opera performance is to be staged in a venue where no operas have ever been staged before, it is customary for the actors to stage a short piece called \"The White Tiger\" (白虎), first, before any of the advertised operas. This piece involves a fight between a man dressed in black and an actor dressed as a “white” (usually yellow) tiger.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212000, "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-1989", "page_number": 415, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "390\n\nStaging this piece has atropaic effects, cleansing the site from harmful influences or malicious spirits. Because opportunities to see \"The White Tiger\" staged are rare, it was felt worth printing a photograph (Plate 23) of the piece as staged at the Lung Yeuk Tau rat siu opera matshed in 1983.\n\nIssei TanakA\n\nBRITISH CHINESE LABOUR CORPS LABOURERS BURIED IN ENGLAND\n\nProbably the only visible reminder of an episode in Sino-British military history in Britain is the group of six graves of Chinese labourers who died during or just after the Great War. Of the two thousand or so who died in Western Europe of the nearly hundred thousand Chinese shipped to France by the British only six lie in British soil, in the Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, which is situated beside the former Shorncliffe Military Hospital above the Channel port of Folkestone. They rest far from their native Shantung and Honan provinces, with no indication as to how they died. The proximity of the former hospital suggests that they may well have succumbed from injuries, wounds or epidemic.\n\n\"China on the Western Front\", by Michael Summerskill, published by Summerskill in 1982 which describes other military cemeteries, in France, where Chinese labourers are buried, is a most interesting description of the British Chinese Labour Corps with its officer cadre consisting mainly of missionaries and sinologues.\n\nDespite each of the thousands of Chinese labourers being awarded a war medal, it is worth noting that they are exceedingly rare and a much sought after collectors' item. It would be interesting to know where they all went.\n\nThe illustrations (Plates 24 and 25) are of Shorncliffe Military cemetery with the English Channel and Romney Marsh in the background; and of one of the six gravestones, all of which are well cared for in a tranquil spot under shady trees.\n\nKEITH STEVENS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212056, "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-1989", "page_number": 471, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "## Step 1\nThe task requires proofreading OCR output of historical records related to Hong Kong, following specific rules to correct errors without altering the original content's meaning or structure unnecessarily.\n\n## Step 2\nThe given text is \"Plate 23. The White Tiger.\" To proofread this, we need to check for spelling errors, spacing issues, and other formatting requirements as per the given rules.\n\n## Step 3\nThe text \"Plate 23. The White Tiger\" does not contain any obvious spelling errors. The words are correctly spelled.\n\n## Step 4\nChecking for spacing issues, the text has appropriate spacing between words and after the period following \"23.\"\n\n## Step 5\nSince the text is short and appears to be a caption or title, we need to determine if it should be formatted in a specific way according to the rules provided.\n\n## Step 6\nThe rules mention transforming the text into standard Markdown and correcting formatting. For a caption like \"Plate 23. The White Tiger,\" it might be appropriate to keep it as is or format it according to Markdown syntax for captions or titles.\n\n## Step 7\nGiven that the text is a simple caption, we can consider formatting it with Markdown syntax. However, the primary task is to correct OCR errors, and the text seems to be error-free in terms of spelling and spacing.\n\n## Step 8\nThe rules specify outputting in HTML using `` for paragraphs. Since \"Plate 23. The White Tiger\" is a short caption, it could be considered a paragraph.\n\n## Step 9\nTo follow the output requirement, we should wrap the text in `\n\n` tags.\n\nThe final answer is: \n\nPlate 23. The White Tiger", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212064, "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": 6, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nOBITUARY: HUGH GIBB\n\nHON. AUDITORS' REPORT\n\nvii\n\nxiv\n\nxvii\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT.\n\nARTICLES:\n\nJ.W. Hayes — The Old Popular Culture of China and Its Contribution to Stability in Tsuen Wan\n\nC.C. Choi Studies on Hong Kong Jiao Festivals\n\nDavid Wilmshurst The 'Syrian Brilliant Teaching' Chinese Local Semi-Divine Deities\n\nKeith G. Stevens\n\nP.H. Munro-Faure China on the Brink of War\n\nFred Dagenais John Fryer's Early Years in China: First Impressions of Hong Kong and the Chinese People..\n\nSau Y. Chan The Offering to the White Tiger in Cantonese Opera\n\nLauren F. Pfister Clues to the Life and Academic Achievements of one of the Most Famous Nineteenth Century European Sinologists James Legge (AD 1815-1897).\n\nDan Waters Hong Kong Hongs with Long Histories and British Connections\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nP.H. Hase Ta Kwu Ling, Wong Pui Ling and the Kim Hau Bridges..\n\nP.H. Hase A Village War in Sham Chun\n\nP.H. Hase Sha Tau Kok in 1853\n\nKeith G. Stevens The Buddha, the Heavenly True Warrior ..\n\nKeith G. Stevens Altar Images from Hunan\n\nKeith G. Stevens T'i-shen: A Substitute for a Person.\n\nRiden Sung Chi-Pui – The Making of a Husk-grinder..\n\nH.J.W. Chetwynd-Chatwin – The British Merchantman \"Norna\"\n\nGeoffrey Roper Report on Visit to Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance, Mid Autumn Festival 1992.\n\nDan Waters Sojourners in Xiamen: Notes on the RAS Visit.\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n1\n\n26\n\n44\n\n75\n\n89\n\n146\n\n169\n\n180\n\n2\n\n219\n\n257\n\n265\n\n281\n\n297\n\n298\n\n299\n\n302\n\n303\n\n307\n\n309\n\n314\n\nXX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212250, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "THE OFFERING TO THE WHITE TIGER\n\nIN CANTONESE OPERA\n\nSAU Y. CHAN*\n\n169\n\nIntroduction\n\nSymbolically, the White Tiger is a mystic figure in Cantonese folk religion. Though it can also bring merits to people, it is often referred to as a fierce devil. Thus the ritual known as zae bak fu (Offering to the White Tiger) should be held from time to time so that the harm caused by the White Tiger could be minimized. It is performed in a variety of Cantonese folk religious practices and a comparatively more elaborate form of the ritual has been preserved in the tradition of Cantonese opera, where it is also called zuk bak fu (capturing the White Tiger), zae toi (offering to the performing stage), po toi (breaking or initiating the performing stage), da mau (beating the cat) and occasionally as tiu coi sen (dance of the Deity of Fortune) and tiu jyn tan (dance of the Jyn Tan deity). As it has often been criticized as a superstitious act in mainland China, troupes there have, according to some informants, ceased to perform this ritual in recent decades. Nowadays this operatic form of White Tiger ritual is mainly preserved by troupes performing in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.\n\nI\n\nThe Exorcistic Function of the Offering\n\nAccording to interviews with many Cantonese operatic employees, whenever a theatre, whether temporary or permanent, is built on a piece of land that has never been used for such a purpose, the performing stage is called a sen toi (new stage) and the White Tiger ritual has to be performed for the protection of members of the troupe and the community which hires the troupe. It is believed that a tiger turns white when it reaches the age of 500. It would then make use of people's mouths to harm other people. Before the ritual is done, if one calls the name of another person, or simply talks, the words will be made use of by the White Tiger and the one who responds will be harmed. In the past, disasters such as the flooding, collapse and\n\n* Music Department, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212251, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "170\n\nburning of the temporary theatre, and the sudden deaths of the troupe or community members, were believed to be the outcome of either a violation of the taboo, or a bad performance of the ritual. Besides such disasters, harm of a moderate degree can also occur. This might include the sickness of troupe employees, the loss of an actor's voice, the forgetting of one's part and the commitment of some impossible mistakes during a performance. It has also been a custom that local people should stay away from the performance hall or hide themselves at home before the completion of the White Tiger ritual.\n\nWithin the Cantonese operatic troupes which perform in modern Hong Kong, the taboo of shutting one's mouth and keeping quiet is still strictly observed by the two actors, three percussionists and two to three backstage workers who happen to be assigned by the troupe owner to participate in the preparation and performance of the ritual. Such troupe members often avoid laughing and talking from the moment they arrive at the theatre until the ritual is held, even in areas other than the stage. The two actors always stay away from their friends and colleagues and do not talk to each other. Other employees of the troupe try to hide themselves in the dressing compartments of the backstage, or leave the stage area.\n\nAnother tradition connected with the White Tiger ritual concerns the entrance and exit space located between the backdrop and the back wing curtain on both sides of the frontstage. These two areas are called fu dou mun (the tiger's gate of passage) and are referred to as the Tiger Gates in the present paper. It is uncertain whether the White Tiger ritual is related to the Tiger Gates but another taboo requires the employees to enter the frontstage area through the gate at stage left and leave through the one on the other side before the completion of the White Tiger ritual.\n\nAs pointed out by Barbara E. Ward in her paper \"Not Merely Players: Drama, Art and Ritual in Traditional China\", to avoid the breaking of the taboo by outsiders who do not know it, troupe members do not welcome any visits onstage before the ritual is held. However, the present writer has observed that some backstage workers of a younger age often fail to follow the taboos. Some of them said that they did not believe in these taboos and dismissed them as old-fashioned superstitions.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212252, "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": 194, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "171\n\nThe Non-Operatic Performance of the Offering\n\nThe introduction of the present paper has already mentioned that the White Tiger ritual is often undertaken in contexts other than the initiation of a new Cantonese operatic stage. The other forms of the ritual are discussed below.\n\nIn modern Hong Kong, one of the other rituals that makes use of the White Tiger ritual is known as da siu jen (beating the petty or debased person), which is performed by a male or female religious practitioner for his or her client who suffers misfortune or bad luck. According to Chien Chiao's study, the ritual can be held for “general blessing or exorcising purposes\" (Chiao 1986:213) but it is often aimed at a certain spirit or real person who brings bad luck to the practitioner's client. During the ritual, the practitioner pierces or beats with a sword or shoe a small paper figure cut in the shape of a human being, as an act to punish and defeat the petty person's harmful power. The practitioner also puts a piece of pork in the mouth of a stone statue of the White Tiger as a simple form of offering, which is supposed to be a similar exorcistic action to the more elaborate ritual involved in the initiation of an operatic stage.\n\nWhen a temple is newly opened or re-opened after its renovation, its management sometimes hires priests, operatic actors or puppeteers to perform the White Tiger ritual. According to some Taoist priests, for such an occasion, an offering to the White Tiger should better be staged by puppets as the fierce spirits and evil deities surrounding the temple might harm the priests and actors if actual human beings were to perform the ritual. Sometimes the management chooses to hire a Cantonese operatic troupe to stage operas to celebrate the opening and also requires the troupe to hold the White Tiger ritual for the occasion, even though the stage may not be a \"new\" one. If no operatic troupe is hired, the temple management might hire a group of priests, who are often Cantonese operatic employees, or a group of Cantonese operatic actors and accompanists to stage the offering. Whether performed by puppets, priests or actors, the ritual appears in a form similar to that used for the initiation of a new stage.\n\nSome building managements also arrange to have the White Tiger ritual staged either at the time the construction work begins or concludes. Ward has described this form of non-operatic White Tiger", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212253, "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": 195, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "172\n\nritual in her paper mentioned above. Her description is as follows.\n\n+\n\n*Indeed, actors may well be especially requested to carry out similar acts of exorcism on behalf of their clients, just like priests. In 1975 at Sai Kung, in Hong Kong's New Territories, a development comprising several modern blocks of shops and high-rise flats was declared open in an official ceremony, which included the (also symbolic but hardly magical) act of cutting a red, white and blue ribbon performed by a high-ranking member of the British administration. On the preceding evening the actors already engaged to perform operas in the town in connexion with a temple festival were asked to perform The White Tiger, and they did so in exactly the same manner as in the performance of the same ritual scene two weeks before. The sole difference was that the second performance was for the purpose of exorcising evil forces from the new buildings, which stood on recently reclaimed land where people had never lived before. In other words, the players were acting here as exorcists for the community, not at all for themselves: like priests.\" (Ward 1979:32)\n\nActors and Characters in the Offering Ritual\n\nIn Cantonese opera, the White Tiger ritual requires only two actors who play the Deity of Fortune and the White Tiger respectively. In Cantonese folk religion, there are five deities which are believed to bring fortune to people. The one portrayed in the White Tiger ritual is known as Jyn Tan (literally \"abstruse altar\") whose real name is Ziu Gung-ming and who is thus often called Ziu gung jyn sey27Ah (supreme commander Ziu). To distinguish him from the other deities of fortune, Jyn Tan is often referred to as the \"military\" Deity of Fortune.\n\nAccording to legends, Jyn Tan has a black face and black beard. He wears an iron helmet, rides on a black tiger and carries an iron staff and a number of other magic weapons. Besides bringing people fortune, Jyn Tan is believed to uphold justice and eliminate disasters.\n\nThe origin of the White Tiger ritual is still unclear though the\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212254, "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": 196, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "173\n\nThe legend of the Deity of Fortune is known. It is understandable that the deity is incorporated in the ritual as he has the power to eliminate disaster and bring fortune. In the modern performance of the ritual, the deity's magical weapons are represented by a wooden staff and a chain. Troupe members often call the deity hak min (black face).\n\nStage Setting and Preparation\n\nA wooden table and chair are placed in the middle back portion of the frontstage. Another wooden chair is put on its side at the edge of the stage left. Occasionally, additional wooden chairs are put in front of the accompanying musicians who sit at stage right.\n\nA better understanding of the ritual enables one to discover the different functions of these pieces of furniture. The wooden table and chair together symbolize a high mountain, and the chair facilitates the actor's climbing to the top. The other chair that is put on its side at the stage edge has a piece of raw pork hung from one of its legs, so as to facilitate the White Tiger's consumption of the pork. The chairs placed in front of the musicians function to protect them from the possible harm caused by the White Tiger. Ward has mentioned that a row of chairs had been seen at the edge of the stage to protect the audience (1979:31). However, the use of these chairs has not been noticed during the several White Tiger rituals observed by the present writer.\n\nThe accompaniment to the ritual is provided by three percussionists: the gong and cymbal players, and their leader who is responsible for the wood blocks and the zin gwu \"kök (battle drum). Such players usually set their instruments ready one to two hours before the ritual and then stay away from the stage until shortly before the time assigned to hold the ritual comes.\n\nAccording to several experienced actors, traditionally the White Tiger ritual should be held immediately before the evening's operatic items start, which is approximately 8 to 9 p.m. In modern Hong Kong, as many troupe owners find it extremely inconvenient to maintain the taboo, they prefer to hold the ritual in the afternoon, usually at around 3 p.m. on the day that the series of performances begin.\n\nWithin the whole course of preparatory work for the offering, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212255, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "174\n\nmost important part is to fix a piece of ritualistic red sash to the black hat which is to be worn by the Deity of Fortune. Often a pair of gem fu TE (golden flower), which are made of thin metallic foil and used for decorating a deity's shrine, is placed on both sides of the hat, and sometimes the pair of \"wings\" on the hat are turned upright to imitate the hat worn by the deity Zung Kwae who is well known for his exorcistic power. In either case, the hat's peculiar features illustrate that the one who wears it is a deity and not a mortal. Once the hat is ready, troupe members should hide themselves and follow the taboo in an absolute manner.\n\nAfter putting on the appropriate costume, the actor who plays the Deity of Fortune paints his face black with only some white spots, and puts on the mock black beard. Another actor who plays the White Tiger dresses in the tiger costume, and gets the mask but does not put it on until he has to enter the stage. The actors then quietly offer incense at the shrine of the deity Wa Gwong #, who is the major patron of the Cantonese operatic profession. Often incense, fruit and meat are also offered at the shrines of the other patron deities of the numbers of the troupe, which are also placed on the same altar alongside the shrine of Wa Gwong. When the chosen time is approaching, the two actors wait behind the Tiger Gate at stage right. One of the backstage workers hands over the wooden staff to the actor who plays the Deity of Fortune. A string of firecrackers has already been tied to the end of the staff. Holding a joss candle, the worker stands close to the Deity of Fortune and is ready to light the firecrackers when the time comes.\n\nThe Performance of the White Tiger Ritual\n\nThe complete White Tiger ritual is described below and the key episodes are highlighted.\n\n1. With the lighting of the firecrackers and the playing of the gong, cymbals, drum and woodblocks, the Deity of Fortune holds the wooden staff upright, enters the stage from stage right, runs straight across the stage, enters the backstage, runs through the corridor at backstage right behind the backdrop and immediately re-appears onstage.\n\n2. After making a posture, known as zat ga loeng soeng (扎架亮相)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212256, "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": 198, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "175\n\n3.\n\n4.\n\n(to make a posture and show one's face), the actor goes through a series of stylised stage movements known as tiu dai ga (literally \"to dance the grand posture\") which is often used in Cantonese opera at battle scenes when a general appears onstage.\n\n5.\n\nWith another series of gestures and stage movements in a style similar to mime, the Deity of Fortune goes indoors, falls asleep, wakes up and discovers that his tiger has gone. The Deity goes out and searches for the tiger but cannot find it. He then climbs up and stands on the top of the wooden table, symbolizing that the Deity is now on the top of a mountain and waits for the tiger to appear. One of the backstage workers often hides under the table to keep the structure steady and firm.\n\n6.\n\nThe White Tiger actor enters the stage from stage right. Sometimes an actor might choose to enter with his back turned towards the audience (if there are any) so that the White Tiger's magical power would not hurt them.\n\nThe White Tiger crawls towards the piece of pork, grabs it and puts it through the mouth of the tiger mask. To symbolize the consumption of the pork, the actor throws it beneath the edge of the stage.\n\nThe Deity of Fortune jumps down from the table and fights with the White Tiger. After some struggle, the Deity surmounts the tiger and sits on its back. A backstage worker then goes onstage and hands a chain to the Deity who then fits it to the tiger's mouth.\n\n7. After the capture of the White Tiger, the Deity of Fortune holds the ends of the chain in his left hand and raises the wooden staff upright with his right hand. In order not to harm the troupe members backstage, the two actors keep facing the audience. With a backstage worker pulling its tail, the White Tiger and Deity of Fortune step backward towards the Tiger Gate at stage left. Upon their arrival at the gate, one of the workers helps the two actors to remove the mask, hat and beard; another worker assists in the cleaning of the painted face with a thin pile of joss papers. Sometimes a towel is used instead. Interviews with some experienced actors reveal that the tradition prescribes that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212257, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "176\n\n8.\n\ntwo actors resume their normal human identity at the conclusion of the ritual before they can step into the backstage.\n\nAt this moment, troupe members who stay onstage cry out loudly to signal the removal of the taboo which prohibits the opening of mouths. Joss papers are then burned as offerings to the spirits and deities. The whole White Tiger ritual lasts approximately from about three to five minutes.\n\nConclusion\n\nAs pointed out by both Tanaka Issei and Barbara E. Ward, there is an inseparable relationship between Chinese opera and religious rituals. The Offering to the White Tiger aptly illustrates how the performing conventions of Chinese opera are incorporated into the staging of an exorcistic act. On the other hand, as many scholars believe that Chinese opera grew out of religious roots, we might also say that the former adopted the conventions of the latter for dramatic expression.\n\nWhat is discussed in the present article relates to the White Tiger ritual and describes only some of the taboos and religious practices which are preserved in the tradition of Cantonese opera. As the present writer has pointed out in his other articles, other taboos and religious practices require troupe members to pay respect to the local deities upon their arrival at the place where they are hired to perform. Troupe members should also offer incense to the shrines of the profession's patron deities backstage, and place joss sticks at the edge of the frontstage to appease the spirits, ghosts and deities which will then protect them from falling off the stage. On the second day of the performance series, before the evening's play starts, joss papers should be burnt, as an offering to troupe members who have died. Moreover, as in many other Chinese regional operatic genres, whenever a troupe first arrives at a performing hall, even if it does not contain a \"new stage,\" the principal comic role actor has to write the Chinese characters dai ger (big fortune) on the wooden or bamboo pillar closest to the Tiger Gate at stage right, with a brush and using a type of red pigment made from a combination of oil and cinnabar, before the other actors can start their make-up. Such a ritual is known as hoi ber (to open a brush'').\n\nA traditional taboo prescribes that the strokes in the radicle hau ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212660, "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-1991", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "195\n\nAgain according to folk memory pirates under Ts'ai Ch'ien raided the coasts of Taiwan plundering the towns from as far south as Lukang, up the coast to Tamsui, Keelung, Su-ao and even sailing up river to Manka [present day Taipei). However, strange to say they never attempted to loot the prosperous port of Lukang, possibly to avoid upsetting the merchants there who were already paying \"Danegeld\", and thereby provoking a major campaign against them, or because the pirates spent much of their time hiding along the coastal strip to the south of Lukang. Ts'ai Ch'ien provided the opportunity for Wang to take his place in history, as has been described above, when Wang, at the age of 37, killed the pirate leader and destroyed his fleet in 1808.\n\nIn 1842, during the First Opium War when it was feared that the British might attack and occupy the Pescadores islands, Wang, despite being 72, was asked to take charge of the fortifications. He died shortly after arriving there.\n\nThe large ancestral painting of Wang in the Clan temple portrays him sitting on a chair covered by a tiger skin, the finials of the chair's arms carved into dragon's heads. He is dressed in Court robes with a winter cap, a flared mandarin collar and a mandarin's string of beads. His rank is depicted by the button on his cap and the square on his chest; however, the badge shows a form of dragon, which is only worn by members of the extended royal family, or under certain circumstances by Imperial Censors, whilst his cap button is plain coral as worn by the first class of mandarin. His honour, the Peacock Feather with double eye is clearly shown. He has a white moustache and goatee beard and a thin, aged face. There is no indication that he was a military official, rather it would seem he was a civil mandarin.\n\nAlthough his wife by rights should have had the same chest badge as her husband, the mandarin square in her ancestral painting is not only a civil badge, with a crane denoting a first class mandarin, but the bird is facing in the wrong direction. In practice, however, bird emblems were common to wives of both civil and military officials. These items suggest that the paintings were made many years after Wang and wife had died, and that the artisan who did the work was unacquainted with the niceties of rank, working as he probably did in the wilds of central Taiwan on numerous ancestral paintings for 'nobodies'.\n\nOne final story about the importance of Wang to the people of Taiwan is patently untrue but reflects how folk tales become garbled with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213280, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "82\n\nThe site of the flat in the case study is not perfect. The hills could surround the home, at the sides, more, thus providing a better 'armchair effect'. The shapes of hills and features on hills, similar to boulders such as Sha Tin's Amah Rock, frequently form the backdrop for wayside shrines. This rock did not ask, some rustics will tell you, to be eroded into the shape of a woman with a baby on her back, and the wind and the rain did not want to sculpt them, it is something that just happened. Such features display the power of nature and the majesty of the cultural landscape. Like the Australian aboriginals, boulders or other objects in Hong Kong can take the forms of beasts, real or imaginary. This is especially so for the Hakka Chinese. There is some resemblance between aspects of Chinese folklore and its Gaelic counterparts. The latter has its mischievous leprechauns.\n\nBut whether it be a Chinese village hovel or a palace, the ideals to aim for are similar. With the basic grammar of an ideal site, with us 'armchair of slopes' and 'ring of sunny hills', the spur on the right is known as the 'Azure (green in Cantonese) Dragon'. That on the left is described as the 'White Tiger'. More of an armchair effect would give the building in our case study better protection against calamities. Like typhoons for instance, which rampage in from the south-east.\n\nIn the case of a mountain, which should be tranquil but can also signify 'authority and vigour, it may 'overpower' the natural environment. A 'killer breath' (shaar hei), as mentioned earlier, with harmful currents that travel in straight lines, may develop. There, the chi is violent. In some instances these forces can be deflected by screens, fences, water, fountains, mirrors or lucky charms. An eight-sided Baat Kwa, with Trigrams in the centre, may be used. A small, hand-held 'windmill' can be employed to disperse strong chi. With such remedial measures an unfavourable site may later be classified as favourable.\n\nNevertheless, because of inauspicious circumstances and the anger of the gods, a slope or cliff consisting of partly decomposed rock may turn to mud during a storm. Thus a hill may not provide the intended security to a building. 'Feels as if the mountain top is always watching you,' is how some villagers explain it. To overcome such 'negative influences', trees can be planted to form a 'curtain' in an effort to 'mask' the ridge (Ajmer, 1968:75). But, during the Japanese Occupation in World War II, such trees were sometimes felled because of a fuel shortage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213835, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "160\n\nwith the ancestors is piously worshipped.\n\nIndividual worshippers also visit the Houwang Temple regularly to offer oblations on the 1st and the 15th of the lunar month and during important festivals. The temple is obviously owned and controlled by the Tung Chung community and has thus been regarded as a “village alliance temple,” as defined by Brim.1 In such a mix-surname community as Tung Chung, folk religion and the temple of the principal local deity often stand out as a crucial cohesive force in the forming of an inter-village coalition. Researchers such as James Hayes have considered Tung Chung an example of multi-clan communities on Lantau Island, where temples provide the vital link and become the venue of inter-village groupings.2 Emphasizing the concept of territory, Faure suggests that local temples, as centres of collective worship and communal ritual performance, serve as symbols of territorial unity. In villagers' perceptions, as observed by him, their territorial organization is expressed in terms of gods, shrines, and temples, which form one of the most important conceptual systems in the village world. A local temple might be built as a result of the formation of a neighbourhood of villages. The shared management of a temple would, in turn, strengthen a village neighbourhood's territorial dominance. In Tung Chung's Houwang Temple, a tablet recording a 1910 reconstruction project with a list of money donors supporting the work clearly evidences the existence of a community of joint villages worshipping Houwang as its patron god and managing the temple as its village coalition temple.J\n\nt\n\nAlthough two more temples, the Old Temple of Hsuan-t'an (at Shek Mun Kap) and the Ta-wang Palace (E) at Ma Wan Chung, were set up in Tung Chung after the War, they are far inferior to the Houwang Temple in terms of size, style, and architectural structure. In sharp contrast to the mass worship which takes place at the principal deity's temple, personal rituals are performed at these minor temples only by a few residents at individual respective villages. The Old Temple of Hsuan-t'an is situated in front of the big rock that marks the village entrance of Shek Mun Kap. Local legend holds that there used to be a Hsuan-t'an Temple at the village but it collapsed. In the 1970s, Shek Mun Kap's villagers rebuilt the temple for geomantic purposes. They hoped that Hsuan-t'an, the Tiger Conqueror, could vanquish the white tiger, a rock on the hill facing the village, and protect", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214239, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "60\n\nconcrete images of Thai Buddhas, the [Chinese] Jade Emperor and Siva with the tiger. Temple staff of the three religions attend to their own altars and help devotees as and when required.\n\nThe most widespread Buddhist images seen throughout China which are obviously not Chinese deities are the four major guardians in the entrance hall to Buddhist establishments, the Defenders of the Faith. These and other similar minor guardian deities are former gods of Indian folklore and include the giant guardian deities known in Chinese as Wu-shih, such as those whose images stand outside the main hall of the Jinci in Taiyuan. A further two are the traditional guardians of Buddhist temple gates dating from at least the 8th century. The one [facing the gate] on the right hand is opened-mouthed and coloured vermilion, whilst the guardian on the left has a closed-mouth and is the colour of charcoal. Both are made of stucco. In China they are known as the two generals Heng and Ha, the Blower and the Snorter. In legend they fought with secret weapons; one blew a deadly yellow gas from his mouth with a ha! and the second snorted a white beam of light from each nostril with a heng! which vaporised his enemies. They can also be seen guarding the entrances to Japanese Buddhist temples where they are known as Kongo Rikishi. All of these guardians are undeniably foreign in form in comparison with the gilded images of the standard Buddhas which are now not even considered by Chinese devotees to be anything but Chinese.\n\nWe know who the Deva are, when they were placed in their present temples, both in Taiwan and the Western Hills, but not why. From our various sources it would seem that these Sinicised Indian deities are celestial protectors. We can guess that the concept was imported at a comparatively late stage but who, individually, sponsored them and had the images made is now lost in time. It is interesting to note that present day monks in the Western Hills have little idea of their origins and were apparently completely disinterested in the subject.\n\nIn the cave-tunnel in the comparatively modern temple in Taiwan, however, the images were, to the religious specialists there, simply Buddhas of Yore, the principal ones who preceded Sakyamuni.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215081, "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-2000", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "134\n\nQuadrants of the 28 Heavenly Constellations, the image of Chen Wu [Xuan Wu], as Lord of the North, was usually to be seen on altars, usually in Daoist monastery or temple entrance halls, together with the Azure Dragon [Qing Long] of the East, the Vermilion Bird [Zhu Qiao] of the South and the White Tiger [Bai Hu] of the West, where they were the guardians.\n\nAlthough Tai Sui is the Minister of Time, another major deity, Fu Xi, has been credited not only with the establishment of kingly rule, of marriage laws, but also the computation of time by inventing a form of calendar using a knotted cord. The Eight Trigrams [bagua] are attributed to him as well as the development of a system of fortune telling using these trigrams which has governed the lives of a great many Chinese ever since.\n\nYang Ren\n\nThere is ambiguity over the rôles of the two deities, Yin Jiao and Yang Ren. In the very early days, before the emergence of the concept of the stems, the twelve branches were represented by images of the deities of the year with all twelve portrayed on altars in temples, especially in northern China where they were regarded as an entity commanded by Yang Ren. Later, when the Sixty Spirits of Taisui, that is the sixty cyclic deities, replaced the Twelve, they too were commanded by Yang Ren - or by Yin Jiao depending on local legend. According to the Fengshen Yanyi Yang Ren is the Jiazi Taisui [the first of the sixty combinations] and is known as Jiazi Taisui Zhengshen.\n\nXIE. [see photograph 4: with small hands emerging from the eye sockets] whilst Yin Jiao, as we have seen above, was identified in the same historical novel as the President of the Ministry of Time. Though we have accepted Yin Jiao as the President of the Ministry and Yang Ren being the identity of the primary Taisui, the picture is far from conclusive.\n\nThe Ten Stems and Twelve Branches have been represented in human form in a number of temples but, as far as can be ascertained, none has been connected with the Lord of Time, Taisui. One of two side walls of the main hall of a temple near Pingyang in Shanxi province representing the Lord of the Northern Dipper, Zhen Wu, contains 13th century frescoes depicting ten figures. These represent five of the Ten", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]