[ { "id": 207129, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "194\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nof rice varieties were selected by the growers. The first group was sown in early March, transplanted in April and harvested in July. The second group was sown in mid-June, transplanted in August and harvested in November. The seeds were sown in a nursery which enabled the grower to sow the seed for the late crop before the harvest of the early crop. Seedlings were transplanted in puddled soil. Weeds were tramped in the wet mud with bare feet. Most of the local varieties matured from 100 to 135 days. The crop was reaped by sickle and dried under the sun. The grain had to undergo the process of winnowing before storage.\n\nThe land was prepared through ploughing and harrowing by draft animals, usually cattle. The plough was made of three pieces of wood with an iron head and shear, and the harrow was made of iron similar to a rake, with ten teeth of about 12 inches long spaced 4 inches apart, and a wooden handle was fixed on top of two iron rods extended from the toothed bar. These implements were light and small and could be carried conveniently by a farmer from one field to another. They are still in widespread use.\n\nVegetables planted for subsistence farming were: Preserved Mustard, Chinese Radish, Leaf Mustard, Chinese White Cabbage, Spring Onion, Sweet Potato, and Taro. Any surplus of these vegetables was preserved either by sun-drying or by salt.\n\nAt the end of the last century, the demand for fresh vegetables increased, due to the increase of population in the local towns or markets. Fresh vegetables for cash were produced in the suburban areas. In addition to the above-mentioned species, the market gardeners produced a much wider range of vegetables, namely Flowering Cabbage, Chinese Kale, Chinese Gourds, String Bean, Lettuce, Tomato, Spinach, Chinese Celery, etc.\n\nLichi, longan, tangerine, pummelo, wangpei, guava, and banana were the important fruits grown in this territory. Generally, fruit trees were planted in the vicinity of the villages. Lichi, tangerine, pummelo, and guava were propagated by air-layering; longan by approach grafting; wangpei by grafting, and banana by separation of young suckers to maintain the quality of the fruits. These techniques of fruit tree propagation have been used since before 544 A.D. (Ka 533-544 A.D.) A large number of small orchards was established in the early twenties of this century. They adopted close planting and used longan and lichi as shelter plants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208353, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n61\n\nI have chosen to work on data from central China, southern Hubei and northern Hunan, the marshy and hilly areas around the Dongting Lake water system in the middle Yangzi valley. I have chosen so primarily because I have a personal academic interest in that region, and again because it seems to be a kind of heartland of 'rice China'. This study draws on data from local gazetteers, fang zhi, and from the compilations of fang zhi materials contained in the great 18th century ‘encyclopaedia’ Gujin tushu jicheng.\n\n2. Some Frameworks\n\nQingming is the name for one of the twenty-four periods of the Chinese solar calendar, each being fifteen days long. Approximately, it starts on the 5th of April and lasts until about the 20th of the same month. The name means 'Clear Brightness'; this term may correspond to prevalent climatic conditions for this time of the year in some parts of the vast country, but it does not translate well the meteorological facts of the season in the stretch of country surrounding the big Dongting Lake in the central Yangzi valley, which were more on the dull side. According to one chronicle, the period was noted for 'much strong wind and heavy showers'.\n\nThe agricultural activities in this rice producing part of China followed the landmarks set by the twenty-four solar period calendar. Thus the Qingming period marked the beginning of the sowing of rice, and it seems as if this was a widespread traditional pattern in the Dongting basin. Generally rice was sown toward the end of April in special small plots, in the literature often known as seed beds or 'nurseries'. Although this practice may have been normal, there was certainly a great deal of variation, even within this limited region of China. Some chroniclers give us dates in the second moon; She ri and Hua zhao are mentioned in places like Wuling, Gongan, and Chongyang, a period of the lunar calendar which corresponds roughly to March, as the time for the beginning of sowing. The Spring Equinox, or rather the solar period of Chunfen, is also mentioned in a record from Hanyang. It seems reasonable to say that, given a variation of a few weeks in accordance with local circumstances, rice was sown in late March and throughout April. As a period of ritual", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208373, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n81\n\n39 See Maurice Freedman: Geomancy. Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for 1968. London\n\n1.15.\n\n40 Aijmer, A Structural Approach...p. 95,\n\n41 GJTSJC VI:1223 *** 126.\n\n42 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 33. London: Athlone Press, 1966.\n\n1* For instance, Lewis Hodous provides an account in his Folkways in China, London: Arthur Probstain, 1929, p. 92. Hodous draws mainly on his long Fujian experience.\n\n44 Aijmer, A Structural Approach\n\np.96.\n\n45 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 77f.\n\n46 GJTSJC VI:1193, &$ 26.\n\n47 GJTSJC II:51, 6a. A Similar arrangement occurred in Youxian, GJTSJC II:51, 19b.\n\n48 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, pp. 78f.\n\n49 There were probably several kinds of paper money in use. The yellow kind referred to above was in all likelihood the 'gold variety. As our sources do not carry information in detail on this subject we must leave such further implications aside.\n\n50 I have notes from Gongan (GJTSJC VI:1193, * 36), Hanzhou (VI:1130, 風俗长 Ib), Zhongxiang (VI:1142: #6# 1b, 2b), Jingshan (VI:1142, & 3a) Chongyang (VI:1120 † 4a, 5a), and Tongshan (VI:1120, Afb† 6a).\n\n51 I have found notes from Baling (GJTSJC VI: 1223, K## 2b, ennt juan 11:6a), Wuchang (GJTSJC VI:1120, ✩ 26), Chongyang (VI:1120, £#* 46), Tongshan (VI:1120, ### 6b) and Yingshan (VI:1166, BB‡ 4b).\n\n52 Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society. pp. 140f.\n\n53 Other names for this festival used in the region are Yulan dahui, 王蘭大會 Yulan penhui 盂蘭盆會,and Duwang dahui 度亡大會\n\nAll are Buddhist terms.\n\n54 I have, at present, no information from the Dongting area on the handling of paper money at funerals, for instance.\n\n55 GJTSJC VI:1223, # 2b.\n\n56 GJTSJC VI:1193, £&$ 26.\n\n57 GJTSJC VI:1142, R&* 3a.\n\n58 GJTSJC VI:1193, # 2a.\n\n59 GJTSJC VI:1259, 6 2a.\n\n60 GJTSJC VI:1130, &‡ 2a.\n\n61 GJTSJC VI:1120, K✩‡ 4b.\n\n62 GJTSJC VI:1166, ### 46.\n\n63 GJTSJC VI:1142, ‡ 4a.\n\n64 GJTSJC VI:1142, &* 2ab.\n\n65 mm, juan 2:96.\n\n66 GJTSJC VI:1193, R 2a.\n\n67 GJTSJC VI:1259, ✩ lb; 1142, * 2a.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210730, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "64\n\nly Australian and Japanese, some also from India.”\n\nIn the first annual report (31/12/1872) Mr. Ford reported that:\n\n\"It is to be regretted that, owing to the want of skilled European assistance, a portion of these Gardens could not be reserved for strictly botanical purposes, and for the formation of a collection of plants peculiar to China, and thus make the Gardens of use to those scientific visitors who make HK a place of call, as well as students who reside in the Colony.”\n\nThe importance of the Hongkong Botanic Gardens as a repository of plants with commercial value to the area had already been stressed by Dr. Hooker in his report to the Kew Royal Botanical Garden in 1871 when he referred to them:\n\nas a means of introducing a multitude of valuable vegetable products which are described by travellers in China, but which are totally unknown in Europe.\"\n\nIn the 1871 report Ford also refers to the construction of a \"chunamed basin\" 18 ft in diameter and 3 ft deep for the growth of a specimen of Victoria regia but there is no further mention of this eye-catching plant in any further reports. This might possibly indicate its inability to grow under Hong Kong's rather unique climate conditions. The report continues:\n\n\"The trees planted consisted chiefly of Banyans, India-rubber trees, Bamboos, Whampee, Litchi, Rose Apple (Jambosa vulgaris) and Longan which were obtained from Nurseries at Canton. A quantity of Chinese Fir Trees (Pinus sinensis) have been raised from seeds for the purpose of planting in the higher and more exposed parts of hills where other trees do not thrive. A quantity of the same kind of seeds have again been collected together with a larger quantity of Casuarina seeds, which have been matured on trees originally raised, I believe, from seeds received from the Mel-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212487, "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": 41, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "21\n\n26\n\nwas imported from Vietnam. A retail rice shop was also opened in Canton with a capital of 500 taels. Moreover, Li was also interested in other investments such as $15,000 in a native bank, $5,000 in three pawnshops in Hong Kong. He also held a lot of shares in Macau and in other Hong Kong businesses. As the overwhelming majority of Chinese emigrants to America and Australia were Cantonese, Chinese participation in the trade between Hong Kong, Australia, and America was nearly monopolized by the Cantonese merchants. Other examples were: Lee Chak, who had an importing and exporting firm in Hong Kong, two in England, three in San Francisco, two in New York and one in Honolulu, spanning business from Hong Kong to America and England; Chan Kin Tong, owned a firm Guang Yangxing and Rongan respectively, and Chan Mui specialized in drapery business in Hong Kong and had seven associate firms outside Hong Kong. One was located in Chen village, Canton; two in Vietnam; three in Haiphong and one in Siam.\n\nBusiness Patterns of Cantonese Compradors and Merchants\n\n28\n\nThe special position of compradors in mediating between the Chinese and foreign businesses provided them with the opportunity to trade on their own and even in private partnership with their employers. Compradors were enabled to acquire capital, which they could use to promote commercial, financial, and industrial enterprises modeled on Western patterns. As scholars have said, compradors were actually not only serving as compradors but also did business on their own behalf at the same time. Their business investments in modern Chinese enterprises could be described as \"activities of Chinese merchants in buying capital shares from foreign aggressive companies\" (huashang fugu huodong),29 implying that their role in the entrepreneurial activities as Chinese merchants was also significant.\n\nInitiatives in Modern Enterprises\n\nAccording to Yen-p'ing Hao's study on Chinese compradors, it was because compradors had acquired considerable wealth, during the years they were engaged in business with foreign merchants that they had realized the importance and profitability of modern enterprises. The compradors were willing to invest in such enterprises long before any other class had a similar intention. Although they also invested in traditional forms of business such as native banking and pawnbroking, however it only constituted a small portion of their total investments.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213279, "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "81\n\nThe vegetation on the Peak corresponds to the fung shui woods (where stillborn babies are sometimes buried) positioned at the rear of traditional, symmetrical New Territories' villages. In addition to acting as, so called, 'green dragons', untouched shelter belts and firebreaks, these fung shui groves, which may house a temple or a shrine, are considered almost sacred. These woods also act as barriers against malevolent forces. They are the homes of spirits and gods and are considered essential for the wellbeing of a village.\n\nThere are well over 300 fung shui woods in Hong Kong (Webb, 1995:44), and, although the largest covers as many as 14 hectares they average two hectares each. Historically, they provide materials for culinary, medicinal, ceremonial and structural use, if, for instance, a length of timber is required for repairs to the temple, or bamboo carrying poles are needed for weddings or funerals. Banyans, heung (incense) trees, camphor, bamboo, rose-apple, longan, lychee, mango and breadfruit, some of which play important parts in Chinese folk religion, are common in fung shui coppices. One of the best examples of a fung shui wood is in Shing Mun Country Park, at the north end of Jubilee Reservoir. This wood is reputed to be around 400 years old (Dudgeon, 1994:73).\n\nA well-sited village is not only protected from the elements, such as typhoons, heatwaves and pollution, by fung shui groves. Such a site is also sheltered by hills and spurs. In turn, graves are situated out of sight on a hill behind the village. And so, as is written in Ecclesiastes 1,4:\n\nOne generation goeth and another generation cometh\n\nthe earth abideth for ever\n\nBut sacred woods are not just found in Chinese communities. In India, Nepal, Bhutan and Japan, as well as in various parts of Europe, people have their groves where religious ceremonies are performed. The druids in ancient Britain, who were also bards and soothsayers, had sacred woods. Oaks in Sherwood and other forests were the abodes of spirits. The fruit of the oak, the acorn, was also sacred. So was the mistletoe.\n\nBut even in Hong Kong views can change and modernisation can take its toll. In the mid-1990s, a venerable fung shui banyan in a Lantau village was felled merely to improve television reception.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213377, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "186\n\nin matters relating to personal relationships. During Lunar New Year, hundreds of people come from all over the Territory, even from as far away as Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island, to offer prayers at the foot of the tree and to throw red and yellow prayer flags, attached to strings weighted with stones, up into the branches.\n\nOnly in four villages was it claimed that the special trees were the home of earth gods. At Lin Au, the large, old Cinnamomum trees were planted by the villagers when the settlement was founded in order to protect the shrine that was built to honour the ancestors. The earth gods have their home in the trees and also roam about in the wood. Lin Au and Sheung Tsuen were the only cases found where this was said to happen, but it may be that such a belief could have been more widespread in the past. At Pak Kong, a grove of six trees protects the Tai Wong shrine to Tin Hau beside which is a smaller Paak Kung that is used to worship the earth gods who live in the trees. Kuk Po is also an example of an ancestral tree which is also the home of the local earth god.\n\nIn most cases, however, the tree adjacent to the shrine is there simply to provide shelter. In the study carried out by the author, a variety of reasons were given as to why specific trees were protected and the commonest reason given was that the trees protected the important shrines of the village, which were both Tai Wong and Paak Kung shrines. The shrines were situated at important fung shui locations, usually protecting the entrance points of the village from loss of chi (good luck or prosperity) and affording protection from undesirable forces. The spirits live in the shrines rather than in the trees themselves. For example, at Tai Om, camphor trees protect each of the three Paak Kung shrines in the village and trees protect four of the principal shrines in Man Uk Pin. Such trees are commonly banyan, or camphor, although other species may be used. The commonest shrine trees found during the study were;\n\n \n Ficus microcarpa\n Banyan\n 19\n \n \n Cinnamomum camphora\n Camphor\n 13\n \n \n Euphoria longan\n Longan\n 5\n \n \n Gironniera nitida\n \n 5\n \n \n Litchi sinensis\n Lychee\n 4\n \n\nin addition to 26 individuals of other less common species.\n\n19", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213774, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "97\n\nwould not explain why many genealogies put duming, lungming, or faming before such names.' \n\nI have already pointed out the connection between ordination names and the practice of “Davist” ordination still practiced by the Yao. As we shall see later, the style of those names as well as the tradition of ritual experts who performed rites in connection with these names, can be traced to the tradition of Lu Shan Jiu Lang, mention of which can be found in a document from Southern Song.\n\nThere remains the question of the nature of the ordination in the Hakka case. Do those names indicate families of ritual specialist, or a more general popularity of such ordinations among the Hakka? Is it posthumous ordination as part of funeral service, or ordination before adulthood to afford extra protection?\"\"\n\nThe Hakka sang ritual specialist mentions langming (Ordination Names) and gongmung (Imperial Degrees) in the same breath. This suggests that it was generally considered desirable to have ordination names. They certainly differ from childhood “ordination\", which, like the establishment of fictive tie with a protective god, last only until adulthood and would not become a ritual name to be recorded in genealogies. \"We also see in a Chen genealogy, which will be mentioned again later, an ancestor who became the founding monk of a Buddhist establishment, which seems to preclude the possibility of posthumous ordination. Moreover, the Hakka ritual specialists who perform rites related to ordination names and are likely to have been the ones who conducted the ordination itself, do not perform funeral services at all.\n\n21\n\nA Qing work on the Guangdong province, the Guangdong Xinyu, written before 1696, does provide unequivocal evidence of the practice of ordination in the mountainous county of Yongan (present Zijin). Under an entry about the county, it describes, without identifying it, the Hakka sang specialists' practice and some of its distinctive features still found today in the Hakka priestly tradition, including the Chicken Song and transvestite. The entry mentions something that refers to the ordination we are looking for: nanzi petan dushui, shou baidie huanggao, “Man organized an altar to perform ordination in which white [ordination] certificates and yellow [celestial] mandates were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213775, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "98\n\nreceived.\" There were unsuccessful attempts by a county magistrate to eliminate these and other customs relating to belief in sorcerers and shamans. The practice is also mentioned, as prechang dushui, in the Third Gazetteer of Yongan County, compiled about 1822, which gives very slightly more but very useful information. It mentions that \"those ordained\", again, \"were given white [ordination] certificates and yellow [celestial] mandate”, and, in addition, “slaughtered animal for sacrifice for the rite of Fengchao\". Similarly the Changle County Gazetteer of about 1845 mentioned very briefly the practice, as, again, jrechang dushui,22\n\nWe cannot preclude the possibility that the Hakka ordination actually amount to initiation to the practice of magic as in the Yao case, as the Xueshan Gazetteer mentioned that men in Kaijian “like to study to be a sorcerer.21\n\nThe Tradition of Lü Shan and Mao Shan\n\nThe Hakka and the Yao were ordained under a religious tradition distinct from Daoism and Buddhism which may be called the Lu Shan tradition. Popular traditions of “Daoist\" ritual experts of Fujian, Guangdong Cantonese and Hakka, and the Yao had in common the Lu Shan Jiu Lang, his disciples and a Wang Tai Mu which is often confused with the Daoist goddess Wang Mu. The canonical Daoist gods appear to have been incorporated at a time later than Southern Song dynasty, while the characteristic group of gods still occupies a central position.\n\nProbably the earliest mention of the Lu Shan Jiu Lang's tradition is a passage about the wuze's (\"sorcerers\") magic / method of exorcism from the Southern Song dynasty which gave the names of Lu Shan Jiu Lang, his successors and predecessors. The passage is in the Sayings of Bai Yuchan,25 the famous Daoist who was active in Guangdong, Jiangxi, Jiejiang and Fujian around 1220. Bai is obviously talking about something that had begun before his time, as he mentioned several names of these \"sorcerer's magic” that existed \"in the past\". The account began, curiously, with The King of Sha Tan, which can be interpreted by a sinicization of Satan. The magic originated with the King of Satan, who passed it to the King of Pan Gu, who in turn passed it to the King of Asura, who in turn passed it to a Wei Tou Shi Wang,26 King of Changsha, Tou To Wang, Lu Shan Jiu Lang, Meng Shan Ji", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213786, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "109\n\nYongan County mentioned above, there is data from the New Territories of Hong Kong that suggest a connection between ordination names to the necessity of performing the site of Fengchao. The priest who performed the ritual mentioned a document known as Chaodie, used in the ritual, which contains ordination names. The genealogy of the Chens of Ping Yeung, in which Jingwang is mentioned, and in which ordination names are indicated for the “Founding Ancestor of Changle” county and some earlier ones, does not have any indication of the practice of Fengchao. A clearer example is the case of the Chens of She Shan, Taipo, whose genealogy noted specifically that the ordination names are to be remembered for the purpose of preparing documents for the rite of Fengchao. One section of the genealogy included the same Jingwang as in the Ping Yeung genealogy. The last section starts with the grandfather of Pujiao, the latter being included in the ordination name list. The earlier ancestors in the list cannot be found in any of the sections in the volume. The list also includes a Chengdu Wu(5) Lang, who was apparently in a later generation than Pujiao, but cannot be found elsewhere in the genealogy.\n\nAs a more complete copy of the genealogy of Huangs of So Lo Pun is available, where the rite of Fengchao is performed, it is possible to see the position in the lineage of the ancestors honoured in the rite. The genealogy also contains a separate list of ordination names, apparently for the purpose of the rite. The genealogy called a son of a 156th generation ascendant as the \"First Ancestor of Qing dynasty”, and it is from him that the last section starts counting generations from one. It was probably the same ancestor or his son who moved to the region from Yongan; his son is buried at the nearby Lai Chi Wo. The cover and the first page of the genealogy bear the date 1876 and an indication that it was from two Huangs in the new 10th generation. It can therefore be estimated that the Huangs moved to this region in the 16th or 17th century, perhaps as part of the Hakka immigration after what is known as the \"Coastal Evacuation\" in the 17th century. The ordination names listed are a 144th generation ascendant and his brother, ascendants of the 145th to 148th generations, and a 151st generation ascendant and his brother. Among ancestors since the 126th generation, those are the only ones for whom ordination names are indicated in the genealogy. The ordained ancestors honoured in the rite are therefore ancestors...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215080, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "133\n\nchambers or tanks. The most famous of the early clocks was constructed in the then national capital, Kaifeng, about the time of the Norman Conquest of Britain, by Su Song [1020 - 1101 AD]. Su Song, born in Tongan county in Fujian province where he is still revered within the Su ancestral hall, created an astronomical clocktower in which he incorporated his mechanical clock, a celestial globe and an armillary sphere. The difference between water clocks until the time of Su Song and his invention was his creation of an escapement mechanism which controlled the regular movement of the small water tanks providing previously unheard of accuracy.\n\nThe Twenty-eight Constellations\n\nIn early China the visible stars were divided into 28 zones or constellations, referred to as lunar mansions. These provided manageable proportions of the heavens, with seven in each of the four directions. The selection of twenty-eight reflects the time it takes the moon to make a complete circuit of the stars, a fraction under twenty-eight days. Books describing such celestial spirits, printed in Taiwan, illustrate each spirit with a sketch showing the \"human\" form and giving its attributes. Although usually regarded as a group, in some places a number of these celestial spirits, always mythological, are referred to individually in legend or by ritual specialists. According to religious specialists each of the stellar deities of the Twenty-eight Constellations has a title and a specific role, the latter differing depending upon the individual ritual specialists or books.\n\nThe Pole Star was also the celestial base of the several deities, the main one being the Northern Emperor, also known as the Dark Warrior, Xuan Wu, one of the spirits of great antiquity who ruled one quarter of the universe. Each of the Thirty-six stars of the Plough was a legendary hero recorded in one of the numerous stories of the deification of and struggles between the deities. They are deities of good omen, whereas the Seventy-two Stars of ill-omen, without individual legends, are just that, stellar spirits of bad luck. The great popularity of the Northern Emperor has rested for many centuries on devotees' belief in the mighty magical powers with which he suppresses demonic forces with his Daoist Pole Star sect, Beiji Pai, of which he is the patron, centred at Wudang Shan in Hubei. Xuan Wu was the Lord of the northern sector of the 28 Lunar Mansions and as one of the Spirits of the Four", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]