[ { "id": 204357, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n121\n\non the male relatives, can be got round by omitting pregnant wives from the ceremony. There is also a belief that exhumation should not take place during the years on which fall the 51st, 61st, 71st and other such birthdays of the male head of the family.\n\nIn Chinese public cemeteries, the same principle of exhumation is practised. At the end of each year, the particular coffin section where burials have been taking place is closed and left untouched for five years. At the end of that time, an official notice of intention to clear graves is published, giving relatives six months in which to exhume remains privately and re-inter them in the urn section. Any remains not exhumed privately on the expiry of the period of notice are then exhumed by Government and the remains re-interred in an urn section. The cleared coffin section is then eventually used again for coffin burials.\n\nApplying equally to urban and New Territories burials are the two important grave worshipping festivals of Ching Ming (105 days after the winter solstice, i.e. either 5th or 6th of April) and Chung Yeung (9th day of the 9th moon, i.e. in October). The first is the more important. The second was originally not a grave-worshipping festival at all, but an occasion for climbing to the top of a mountain to avoid evil spirits. Since so many graves are situated on hills, the practice of combining the hill climb with an opportunity of worshipping at graves has been developed.\n\nStrict Cantonese belief also requires that, at ch'un she (#1), which falls annually about two weeks before the Ching Ming festival, relatives should pay their respects to persons who have died within the past year. This ceremony usually takes place at home and its participants are restricted to older persons.\n\nAt the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals, it is customary for whole families to make an outing to their relatives' graves. There, offerings of pork, fruit and flowers are presented; incense and candles burnt; prayers offered; crackers let off. Minor repairs to the graves may be carried out and undergrowth cut back. Coffin graves in the New Territories may be marked with lime at the end and all types of graves usually have a piece of red paper and another piece of white paper underneath the red, tucked under a stone beside them. Exhumations will often be carried out at the Ching Ming festival. At the Tung Wah coffin repository, caskets of remains are opened and the bones spread out to air on sheets of paper.\n\nChinese believe that the spirit of a person leaves the body on death. In Hong Kong the general belief is that it descends into hell where the judge decides on the basis of the earthly merits of the deceased whether it may be allowed to return to earth by reincarnation as a child or, if very evil, as an animal. The main fear of the dead consists rather of the belief that to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205155, "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-1966", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "106 \n\nA. L. Y. CHUNG \n\nground for scholars, the Hanlin Academy, through the various Imperial discussions, achieved a close relationship with the emperor, resulting in mutual influences. The first kind of these Imperial discussions was known as Imperial Discussion Banquets (Chiang-yen) and they took place in mid-spring and mid-autumn.30 On these occasions, two Chinese and two Manchu Hanlins were appointed to prepare lecture materials in conjunction with the Chancellor of the Academy.21 These lecture notes were rendered in the Manchu and Chinese languages for royal perusal and consent.22 \n\nThe other kind of Imperial discussions was the Daily Discussions (Jih-chiang). It was stipulated that each year after the mid-spring Discussion Banquet, the Daily Discussions were to be held on alternate days until the summer solstice (June 21st). It was then temporarily stopped due to the hot weather of summer. The process of discussions would be resumed after the mid-autumn Discussion Banquet until the winter solstice (December 22nd). Discussions were then suspended until the next spring.23 \n\nThe original copy of notes of the Daily Discussion was presented to the emperor in the early morning after officials of the Government Boards and Courts had presented their daily reports and memorials. If the discussion notes were approved, then the Chancellor of the Academy would take two or three Hanlins to the palace to serve as talkers. The discussion notes of each meeting were filed together for further references. \n\nThe Daily Discussion system founded in the early years of the dynasty was greatly elaborated by the second Emperor, K'ang-hsi. In 1673 the emperor ordered the Daily Discussion practice actually to take place daily, rather than on alternate days24 and during his reign, the meetings continued to take place without stop. Even the repairs to the palace premises in 1673 did not prevent the emperor from holding them.25 Later in the same year, the discussion procedure was ordered to last through the \"winter cold and summer heat\",26 In other words, they then took place nearly every day of the year. \n\nSide by side with the Imperial Banquet Discussions and the Daily Discussions was the requirement that high officials, including the Hanlins, in rotation should present to the emperor com-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207971, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "179\n\nAmong smaller villages, arrangements for co-operation often extended beyond the village itself. Hang Hau and nearby Seung Sz Wan, for instance, were closely involved in each other's celebrations. When there were celebrations in one village, members of the other village could come without invitation.44 Inter-village co-operative arrangements of one sort or another were sufficiently strong for most of the smaller villages to identify themselves as being parts of permanent village alliances. Tai Mong Tsai, Tai Po Tsai, Shek Hang, Tit Kim Hang, Tam Wat, Wong Mo Ying, Ping Tun, and She Tau formed the Paat Heung (Eight Villages); Nam Shan included also Fu Yung Pit, Kak Hang Tun, Keng Pang Ha, and Lung Mei; Pak Tam Chung included Pak Tam, Tsak Yue Wu, Wong Keng Tei, Sheung Yiu, Wong Yi Chau, and Tsam Chuk Wan; and Ngong Wo, Wo Liu, Shan Liu, Tai Wan, Tso Wo Hang, Sha Ha, Nam A, Wong Chuk Yeung, Long Keng, and O Tau formed the Shap Heung (Ten Villages). The Paat Heung had a joint school in Tai Mong Tsai; the Pak Tam Chung villages jointly worshipped the Great King earthgod near Sheung Yiu; the Shap Heung had its joint school in Tai Wan, and used to maintain collectively the T'in Hau Temple at Wong Chuk Yeung (now ruined). The larger villages, e.g. Ho Chung, Mang Kung Uk, Sha Kok Mei, Nam Wai, Tseng Lan Shue, and Pak Kong, were apparently not parties to such alliances, but regarded themselves as forming complete units in themselves.45\n\nInter-village disputes were not common, but there were some long-standing ones. Sha Kok Mei disputed with Nam Shan over tree-cutting rights. Nam Wai and Ho Chung fought over a quarrel that had started when the cows of one village damaged the crops of the other.46\n\nFestivals and customs\n\nThe major festivals in the village were the New Year, and the T'in Kei (birthday of Nui Woh, the Earth Goddess), Ts'ing Ming (spring worship at the ancestral graves), Dragon Boat, Tsat Tse (Seven Sisters), Mid-Autumn, Double-Ninth (autumn worship at the ancestral graves), and Tung Chi (winter solstice) festivals, the temple festivals of the local temples (in this area Ch'e Kung, T'in Hau, Koon Yam, and Hung Shing), the festivals of the local", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208283, "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": 7, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "186\n\nin the district.68\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nOn its way to Kowloon, the Japanese army looted Ho Chung. Mr. Tse Ming recalled that the Japanese came in groups, and took away the villagers' food. This continued for about a week. Tseng Lan Shue and Pik Uk, the next stop on the route to Kowloon, probably suffered more than other villages in Sai Kung, for Japanese troops stayed there for more than twenty days. The troops disturbed the women, took most of the crop that had just been harvested, and burnt the doors and furniture in the village houses for firewood. It seems that only scattered units of the Japanese army went into the Hang Hau area. Mr. Leung Chiu Man of Hang Hau saw some fighting between British and Japanese troops but recalled that the Japanese did not greatly disturb the village.69\n\nThe bandits\n\nAfter the Japanese came the bandits. Mr. Chau T'in Shang's impression in Sai Kung Market was that the bandits came many times and took away all the residents' valuables. Mr. Cheng Ip of Pak Kong remembered that it was Tung Chi (winter solstice) when the bandits first came. They were armed with guns, and they forced the villagers to carry their grain to Kei Ling Ha where they departed by boat. Mrs. Ts'ui of Sai Kung Market, whose husband was a fish-monger, remembered that many bandits came, and soon she was required to deliver a fixed quantity of fish every month to them. She fled to Yim Tin Tsai for two weeks, and then went up to P'ing Shan on the Chinese side of the border for three months, before she dared return to farm on her own land at Pak Kong. Mr. Hoh King of Nam Shan had just returned from Kowloon, and learnt that his name was on a list drawn up by the bandits of people they wanted to hold for ransom. He left Sai Kung with the proprietor of Kwong Tak Lung, whom he knew well, for the villages near Sham Chun, and stayed there for a month before he returned to Nam Shan. Even then, he did not stay in the village, but lived for a while up on the hillside.70\n\nBandits were reported throughout Sai Kung District, from Clear Water Bay, Junk Bay, to Long Harbour, in both the poorer villages and the richer ones and the market towns. According", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208357, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n65\n\nthe first day or days. But before we continue to discuss such social messages as may have been conveyed by way of the grave ritual, I wish to draw some further attention to the distribution in time of grave worship. Consider the following cases:\n\n+\n\nIn Baling, it is recorded, all families cut paper, 'climb the mounds' £*, and repair the graves on the third day of the third moon.23 Grave offerings were considered at Gold Food or Hanshi in Wuling.24 From Zhongxiang #the chronicler reports that on the same date sons and daughters pay respect with cattle meat as ji offerings on the graves of the deceased. Paper streamers were hung up and the graves were worshiped #. Loud lamenting was to be heard.25 In Jiangxia the graves were swept at Cold Food.26 Cold Food is an occasion of one to three days, celebrated 105 days after the winter solstice. This means that it coincides with the opening days of the Qingming solar period. There is good reason to return to this calendar event in the following discussion. In Baling the grave worship had crossed from the solar calendar to the lunar almanac; the third day of the third moon will be a varying solar date in the spring.\n\nSome other data are more interesting--and puzzling. We find, widely dispersed in time, grave worship of a form which strongly resembles the accounts presented above. Consider the following notes: The chronicler of Baling tells us:\n\nthe people during the leisure of the first moon pay respect # to and sweep the graves. It is named 'to pay respect to the year on the grave' Moreover, matters of death resemble the way of life 車死如生之道也.27\n\nThe last phrase may be taken to mean that the paying of respect at or on the graves in the festive season of the first moon followed an order which resembled the conventions of paying respect between living relatives at the lunar New Year.\n\nWe have noted already that grave worship occurred in Yuanjiang on Earth God Day in the second moon,28 before the spring equinox. A further record from Wuchang states that in that ‘county\", in the second moon, on Earth God Day people si je offered fresh things on the graves.29 On the same day the graves in Chongyang were decorated with 'top branches' and were given ji offerings. In the same locality it was customary to make ji offerings on the graves on the sixth day of the sixth moon to the shen † spirit(s?) of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208967, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT \n\n97 \n\nthe darkness of the world of Yin, making the night seem as day, and lighting the temple votive lamps with a new, life-bringing fire,\n\nSaso's interpretation clarifies several important aspects of the ritual but is also confusing in some instances. The ritual chanting of the forty-second chapter of the Tao-Te ching appears to be an adaptation that does not truly illustrate the nature of the ritual: it does not merely allude to the \"protogenesis of the myriad creatures\" but is here interpreted as and applied to the proceeding of the original Triad of Taoism: three lamps are lit to symbolize and to honor the successive forthcomings of the Three Primordial Worthies: they are the projections of the creative powers of the universe. The emphasis is not on the creation process but on the origin of the creators. The new light, lit from one flame but used to light three candles in succession, vividly symbolizes the successive births of the three primordial \"breaths\".\n\nTherefore, from a phenomenological viewpoint, there is a kind of discrepancy between the text of the ritual (expressing the forthcoming of the Three Primordial Worthies) and the ritual action itself, which points to the creation of light. This may be an indication of a non-Taoist origin of the ritual act itself.\n\nThe possibility of a non-Taoist but Chinese origin of the fen-teng is suggested by J. J. M. de Groot in his Fêtes Annuellement Célébrées,12 He refers to a custom widely spread among various sun-worshipping civilizations of extinguishing their 'sacred fires' especially before the spring equinox and of relighting them soon after the equinox: this symbolizes the sun's victory over darkness. Examples are given from ancient Rome, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The custom also existed in ancient China, at least in the North. The original custom in China was to renew the fire in all the four seasons, but since the Han times, it was done only once a year in spring. De Groot refers to a text in the Chou Li ♬ which explains this ritual act13: with the help of a mirror, fire is taken directly from the sun to light the sacrificial candles. The date of this spring renewal of fire was the 105th day after the winter solstice: this would correspond with the fourth day of the fifth month. On the other hand, the relighting of the fires took place on the third day of 'cold food' called ch'ing-ming in Amoy: that also coincides with the 4th or 5th of the fourth month. In other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209814, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "51\n\n(c) Sub-letting is a practice more common amongst immigrant vegetable farmers than paddi farmers. It is rare to find an original lease that prohibits sub-letting and in general, landowners do not seem to object to it as long as their rents come in. In some cases, they even collect rent direct from the sub-lessee,\n\n(d) It is customary for a land-lord to reduce the fixed rent in respect of a harvest which has been particularly poor, but discretion is entirely in the hands of the landlord and the request must be made by the tenant himself before the crop is actually harvested, so that the landlord may have a chance of examining the crop to check the truth of the claim.\n\n(e) The termination of an annual lease of paddi land is affected customarily by the land-owner giving notice, either verbal or written, to the tenant between the time of collecting rent after the second harvest (October/November) and the Winter Solstice (December). The land should then be handed back by the tenant to the landlord at the end of the first moon of the following year, in the case of paddi land.\n\n(f) Leases of vegetable land are customarily for a period of 12 months running from the beginning of the first moon to the end of the twelfth moon. No set period of notice is required for recovery of the land, but in general, the landlord should give sufficient notice to ensure that the tenant does not plant further crops which would carry him beyond the end of the year. Three months' notice is probably adequate. Less notice would not be wrong but it might be unreasonable unless the landlord either gave compensation for standing crops or allowed an extension of the lease until the crop was harvested.\n\nTwo\n\n(g) Payment of rent for vegetable land is usually in cash in lieu of paddi. Traditionally, paddi land was regarded as more valuable than vegetable land. Since 1950, a reversal in values has taken place and the lack of clearcut custom regarding vegetable land often gives rise to difficulties.\n\n(h) In the past, recovery of land by a landlord was an unusual occurrence and tenancies often continued for several", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210467, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "55 \n\nremoved in 1952 was coincidental). The 14th day of the 7th month was the day for remembering all those who at death had received no proper burial. Any seafaring community would be likely to know of many such, and like most Hong Kong Boat People, Kau Sai's fishermen marked the month of the 'Hungry Ghosts' with ceremonies of exorcism, both privately on the junks and publicly in the temple. The day of the Moon Festival (the 15th day of the 8th month) was the next occasion for making family offerings in the temple, and on the Double Ninth came the second of the annual dates for visiting the family graves.\n\nOn the 10th day of the 10th month a public offering of pork (and/or fish) was made to Shui Shing Ye, whose image stood next to that of Hung Shing Kung in the temple, and after that came the celebration of the winter solstice (fixed, of course, by the solar calendar, like Ch'ing Ming, but falling usually in the eleventh month). Finally, on the 15th day of the 12th month a pig was slaughtered and offered in the temple on behalf of the community as a whole in public thanksgiving for the successful completion of another year before the preparations for the New Year ceremonies once again got under way.\n\nOnly four of these ritual occasions were publicly observed in the sense that the offerings made and ceremonies performed were provided at joint expense and on behalf of the village as a whole. The rest were private, that is family celebrations, taking place on or about the same dates but quite independently. The four public occasions were the festivals of two gods of the local temple, Hung Shing Kung (13th of 2nd month) and Shui Shing Ye (10th of 10th month), the exorcism of the Hungry Ghosts (14th of 7th month) and the general thanksgiving at the end of the year (15th of 12th month). By far the most spectacular of these was the festival for Hung Shing Kung, for which a group of priests was always engaged to carry out the religious ceremonies and an opera troupe performed plays on five consecutive nights and four days. The organisation of this festival, which involved the collection and disbursement of well over 10,000 Hong Kong dollars each year, was much the most important single joint activity in Kau Sai.\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211015, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "T \n\n52 \n\ntent with the motive of maximizing the market, ranging, as it does from the local Chinese literati to domestic servants of European residents, and even to \"country youths\", presumably from the recently acquired \"New Territories\". \n\nThe principal contents of English Made Easy comprise Mok Man Cheung's “unique system” for enabling non-English speakers to pronounce the English alphabet, numbers, words, phrases, and sentences, plus an anthology of \"model letters\". Fascinating insights into the quality of the social life of upwardly mobile Chinese at the turn of the century are provided by the selection of materials for these sections of the book. \n\nSeveral of the categories of objects and phenomena, invented by Mok Man Cheung to organize his work, offer evidence about the ambivalence of this sort of person at this time in the face of influences from both East and West. In his list of words referring to \"Objects of Nature\", for example, the earliest words on the list (“Sky”, “Earth”, “Sun”, “Moon”, “Wind”, “Clouds”, “Rain”, etc.) may have been chosen for their compatibility with such traditional Chinese concepts as \"Feng Shui”1 and with other widespread beliefs. \"Spirits”, “Gods”, “Ghost”, and “Devil” are all included. The later entries seem to concentrate more on practical and modern realities, such as “reclamation ground”, “rough sea”, “typhoon”, “drizzle” [sic], “low-tide”, “flood”, and, to conclude happily, \"calm-sea\". In his suggested vocabulary for \"Time and Seasons\", he includes \"Intercalary moon”, “Full moon Festival”, \"Dragon Boat Festival\" and \"Winter Solstice\" as well as “Christmas day\", the days of the week and months of the year by Western reckoning, and a battery of non-culture-specific temporal terms. Mok Man Cheung's list of \"Persons and their Occupations\" begins, perhaps because it was politic to do so in 1905, with \"Emperor\", \"Empress\", \"Crown Prince\", and proceeds to deal with “Mandarin” and “General”, leading on to such occupations as “Maidservant” and “Captain”, before referring to \"Governor\", \"Policemen\" (juxtaposed with “Thief”) and \"Student\". It would not be uncharacteristic of Chinese style if the precise order in which these “Persons and Occupations” are presented is meant to be significant. Even if this is not the case,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213456, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "19\n\nprevailing as to the requirements of proper notice to quit. Repeating here extracts from that judgment:\n\n\"I turn now to the evidence of the two witnesses who spoke as to the custom. It is clear from these witnesses that the time notice is given is fixed with reference to the reaping of the second rice crop, which occurs about the 10th moon, and notice is given after the second harvest. Tang Ying Lung mentions that the notice is given at this time, irrespective of whether the land is cultivated with rice or vegetables. It would appear then that in the case of land used for planting rice, the time at which the tenant gives up the land is limited to some 1 1/2 months. During the period from the second harvest until next spring, the land may be lying fallow; if, however, there are vegetables on the land, the tenant can occupy the land for a further period to enable him to get the full benefit from the vegetables which have already been planted, when notice is given. This does not inconvenience the landlord in any way because he will not begin to plough the land until about the 3rd moon. My understanding of the evidence of the custom is that such tenancies are annual; all the landlord is required to do is to notify the tenant after the reaping of the second harvest that he is terminating the tenancy at the end of the year. That is sufficient notice; obviously, there can be no objection if he notifies him he will require the land back at the end of the following year. The custom does not require him to add words to the effect that if the tenant has vegetables on the land, he (the landlord) will give him a further few months. It may well be that the landlord is unaware in what way the tenant is cultivating the land. The tenancy terminates at the end of the Chinese year, but, as the landlord will not require to start work on the land until about the time of the spring planting, the tenant may continue during the early months to remove crops planted at the time of the notice.\n\nThe tenancy is, by custom, annual, and it is sufficient for the landlord to give notice to terminate the tenancy at the end of a year.”\n\nThis matter was also considered by a land officer sitting at Ping Shan in 1954, and he described it thus:\n\n\"There is a Chinese custom, of which I take notice, that a landlord of paddy fields, in the absence of a written agreement, may give verbal or written notice to the tenant on receiving rent after the second harvest and before the Winter Solstice. The land shall be returned by the tenant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214672, "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-1999", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "51\n\nLife was not, however, all hard work, sickness, and brawls. The farming year was full of slack periods when there was time for entertainment and pleasure. The ritual year gave the villagers a framework for their leisure activities: each major festival was marked with a feast - even the poorest of families would have fat pork and rich eels on feast days. Nga Tsin Wai was, according to the Sha Tin village elders, famous for making \"Cha Kwo\", the traditional sticky village cakes, and these would usually be in evidence at festivals. The New Year, Tin Hau's Birthday, and the Winter Solstice Festival were the main festivals celebrated in Nga Tsin Wai, together with the Spring (Ching Ming) and Autumn (Chun Yeung) Grave Festivals, where fat pork would be distributed by the Ancestral Trusts to those who attended the worship at the graves.\n\nDuring the summer, and particularly at the Dragon Boat Festival, the village had the habit of inviting strolling singers to come and stay in the village for a few days or a week, to sing through their repertoire of \"Dragon Boat Songs\". These were long sung novels, and the villagers would sit outside the village gate in the evening listening to the singer for hours.\n\nThe villagers of Nga Tsin Wai were famous for singing themselves (the Tai Wai villagers in Sha Tin were jealous of the Nga Tsin Wai skills). The villagers sang Shan Ko, “Mountain Songs\". These were sung man to woman, verse by verse, and often included innuendo and suggestive comment: they were often called \"Teasing Songs\" as a result. Nga Tsin Wai villagers would often hold impromptu contests with youngsters from Tai Wai when they met at the pass which separated the lands of the two villages (the villagers say that is why the songs are called \"Mountain Songs\"). The Sha Tin elders also remember that more formal contests were also held - an annual one at Ma Tau Wai drew contestants from all of East Kowloon and Sha Tin: it was held at the Mid Autumn Festival. Contestants would be drawn, man and woman, and they would sing to each other; the one that ran out of things to say being declared the loser. The audience was mostly youngsters, and a few interested elders - they would sit around the contest area on the ground, vocal in their comments. The village elders say these contests could last for a couple of weeks if enough contestants appeared. The last contest was held just after the War. This was a Punti practice. The elders of the Hakka village of Ngau Chi Wan rather...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215074, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "127\n\nthe sacred and the secular.\n\nSacred time can be separated into liturgical and non-liturgical. Liturgical dates are those linked to the lunar calendar such as Yu Lan Hui, the Chinese All-Soul's Day, celebrated on the 15th of the seventh lunar month [best known as the Hungry Ghosts Festival] and the anniversaries of the gods and immortals; whilst the non-liturgical are fixed dates marking the seasonal changes. Only two such non-liturgical dates are still observed - the grave sweeping at Qing Ming, usually on the 5th of April, 106 days after the Winter Solstice, and the Winter Solstice itself. Secular dates are national state holidays.\n\nHumans accept the depth and space of time as a natural aspect of our daily lives. To people the world over a day, depending upon the culture, consists of the period between noon and noon, midnight and midnight, or from dawn to dawn. The lunar month has been a common time-marker since time immemorial, with the Chinese lunar calendar being based on the full moon on the 15th day of the month and the new moon, on the first. To many Chinese, as indeed to a number of other agricultural civilisations, time did not stretch back into eternity but came round again and again, it was cyclical, and again like other civilisations a zodiac evolved.\n\nBefore the days of the cheap watch or clock, time to the average Chinese man-in-the-street was simply the year, which is the interval between each spring equinox, the month and the forenoon, afternoon and evening of the day. Chinese peasants were able to avoid the bourgeois vice of clock-watching. However, certain times were rigid; for example, the times of the opening and closing of the city gates; these were usually regulated by dawn and dusk, and for watchmen who walked the dark streets who knew from experience reasonably accurately when to call out the hour. For the majority of Chinese another important aspect of time is the lunar date of birth and death, as no marriage could be arranged without the exchange of time and date of birth of the potential bride and bridegroom.\n\nHowever, to the Daoist time never stops and no state can be retained. Change is the only constant. Everything is continually changing but for each action there is a reaction so that the cosmic balance remains the same.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215077, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "130\n\nthousand or more years ago even if it had taken place either comparatively recently or a millennium ago. Again, various broad-brush replies to such questions might be 'during the Ming, Song or Tang' meaning simply a long, long time ago and again usually without any factual basis for such an assertion.\n\nThis highlights one of the problems which beset Chinese who tried to count the years between two events spaced many decades apart was that they did not have a continuous calendar as we do in the West. This created the problem of calculating intervals between two dated events when each of those dates involved a specific year in the reign of an emperor's reign. To do this one had to know in correct sequence not only each dynasty but also each emperor within each dynasty, and for how long the reigns lasted. Thus it was that the man-in-the-street might perhaps know which dynasty succeeded which but to expect them to know the length of each and to calculate the elapsed time, was more than one could possibly expect. Therefore to them events were regarded as 'a long time ago,' 'before the Ming,' or 'over a thousand years ago' when in practice the elapsed time might be no more than two to three hundred years.\n\nBefore the 1911 and the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty, the four annual markers considered most important were the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. The twelve months of the year were divided into twenty-four solar periods, each of which corresponded to the day on which the sun enters the first and fifteenth degree of the zodiacal sign. The 24 fifteen-day solar periods [known as jie - 'joints'] are referred to by meteorological terms, such as the Great Rain, Slight Snow, Great Heat and Lesser Heat, and the Excited Insects, the latter being the day best known by foreigners for its fanciful name. This last solar period is from March 5th to March 20th and, so children are told, if on the 5th of March you put your ear to the ground you can hear the insects stirring, even ‘marching,' after their winter hibernation. A number of the tall temple entrance doors in Taiwan bear paintings of the deities ruling each of the 24 solar periods, with each portrayed standing on clouds and with commonly accepted characteristics. These include, for example, the Dragon King for the Great Rain and the Tall White Demon for Qing Ming. These periods were the 24 seasonal energies providing a meteorological cycle of great value for the regulation of certain chronological dates, or periods in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]