[ { "id": 215002, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "54\n\nwas also awarded to some members, whether serving with or attached to the CLC.\n\nSome Items of Interest\n\nWhilst carrying out research in the Imperial War Museum in London, I came across an undated letter, written in literary Chinese by Zhong Yangchang on YMCA headed paper, giving the address as ‘On Active Service with the British Expeditionary Force' and addressed to his wife c/o Bureau of Recruitment of Chinese Labour, the British Administration, Weihai Wei. It appears that the letter was also addressed to the Hong Kong University. The writer, a well-educated man, was not necessarily the husband of Zhilan and could quite possibly have been one of the Chinese administration staff. The translation is as follows:\n\nTo my\n\nwife, Zhilan\n\nI had intended to write to you earlier; however, it is only now that I have found a gap in my daily routine to do so. We are still at the same base camp. On the 13th it was Duanyang Festival [the Dragon Boat Festival] and we had the day off. The [Chinese] workers were made-up and put on the Yangke dance (a northern Chinese country peasants' dance) along the street. It was a very good show, but the foreigners seemed somewhat bemused by the event.\n\nSome British Army [officers] came along and they brought with them some other [Chinese labourers], from the Hong clan from the west of Tai [the area around Tai Shan].\n\nI will stop writing now, my spirit will follow the letter to you\n\nMy greetings and best wishes\n\nYour clumsy husband Zhong Yangchong.\n\nThere is a letter, also written in a similar vein on YMCA paper, but this time in English, [with the Wade-Giles left as in the original]. The envelope on display is addressed to Mrs Sung, Normal School,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215141, "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": 237, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "PATRON DEITY OF PROSTITUTES\n\nZHU BAJIE\n\n豬八戒\n\n195\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nZhu Bajie is better known to Westerners as Piggy or Pigsy. He is one of the three assistants to the Tripitaka [the Chinese monk, Xuanzang] who, in 629 AD, together with the Monkey King [Qitian Dasheng], set out with the monk as his escort and aides on his hazardous and enthralling trek to India to collect the sacred Buddhist scriptures. These were the heroes of the romance the Journey to the West. He is also known by his name in religion - Zhu Wuneng - Seeker after Strength.\n\nIn the story Pigsy was the former Superintendent of Navigation of the Milky Way, banished to be reincarnated on Earth for assaulting one of the daughters of the Jade Emperor. Unfortunately a mistake was made and he entered the womb of a sow and was born half-man and half-pig. He was ordained a priest by Guan Yin and is portrayed on altars and in murals as a composite deity, a human with the head of a pig. He carries a five-toothed rake as a defensive weapon which he used to good effect during the long and arduous journey escorting the pilgrim monk, Xuanzang.\n\nAlthough he is usually regarded China-wide as the epitome of gluttony, in Taiwan he is also revered by prostitutes who call on his divine title Shoushou Ye, offering him incense and chants morning and evening whilst calling on him to bring them rich guests, foolish and witless, to be fleeced. An image, one of a number on loan from devotees, depicts him sitting holding a virtually nude woman in his arms alone on one of the side altars in the City God Temple in Chia I.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215347, "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-2001", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "72\n\nuniquely Hainanese. In practice of the seventeen only one was Hainanese and that bore the odd title. It was Li San Shengmu, literally the Saintly Mother Li the third. This is obviously Li Shan, misheard with the 'san' assumed to be the 'Third'.\n\nThe most widespread claim is that Lishan Shengmu or Lishan Laomu24 was a ferocious lady general of the Tang dynasty known for her love of fighting, and is now a popular character in Chaozhou plays. However, to many Chinese she is better known by the maiden name of Fan Li-shan as merely the wife and mother of two famous generals, Xue. Several stories told about her contain in addition to common factors, others involving unconnected genuine historical heroes, some from entirely different eras. The composite story of the best known legends about Miss Fan25 begins with her warrior father giving her a 'sword to execute Immortals' and a 'whip to beat the spirits' and after she had completed her military training and prior to her going off to help General Xue Dingshan26 to pacify the west. In one version she joined up with him, served and fought alongside winning his trust and favour. In another Xue met and fought her on the battlefield. She defeated him but, because he was a handsome general, and with a bit of persuasion, she married him. A photocopied broadsheet distributed by the temple keeper in a small immigrant settlement shrine above Kowloon claimed that the Lishan cult had been popular in central China, and that her story, described in the 'Conquest of the West,' ostensibly written by Xue Dingshan himself, explained that she had been the wife of Xue, later transformed into an Immortal as a reward for her miracles and achievements.\n\nThere is also a Lishan Laomu who is also a definitive goddess appearing in the great novel The Journey to the West, the story of the fantastic journey made by Xuanzang, together with Sun, the Monkey, Sha the monk and Pigsy. In part of the story it appears likely that Lishan was Monkey's elder sister, a courtesy title rather than a blood relationship. She, together with her three daughters, all Bodhisattvas, named Truth, Love and Pity, transformed themselves into beautiful women in order to tempt the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang and his entourage of Monkey, Pigsy and Sha with their beauty. She changed herself into a widow and proposed to Xuanzang who rejected her. She and her daughters teased Pigsy, who after many adventures found that they were merely figments of his imagination. This goddess would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]