RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 BOOK REVIEWS 111 - ASIAN PERSPECTIVES: The Bulletin of the Far-Eastern Pre-history Association, Vol. VII, No. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 1963), Hong Kong University Press, 1965. The 1963 issue of Asian Perspectives comprises the following four parts: 1. Regional Reports The achievements of archaeology, mostly up to the end of 1962, are discussed by the area specialists of the Far Eastern Prehistory Association for fourteen regions. These are: Eastern Asia and Oceania (W. G. Solheim II), Northeast Asia (C. S. Chard), Korea (Kim Won-yong), Hong Kong (S. G. Davis), Union of Burma (U Aung Thaw), India (B. B. Lal), Ceylon (P. E. P. Deraniyagala), Madagascar (P. Vérin), Malaysian Borneo (B. Harrisson), Philippines (A. E. Evangelista), Polynesia (Y. H. Sinoto), New Zealand (O. Wilkes), Melanesia (R. Shutler Jr.), Australia (F. D. McCarthy). Each report is accompanied by a valuable extensive bibliography. Editor Wilhelm G. Solheim II informs the reader that China and Japan are absent because these two countries have too many news items. This issue of Asian Perspectives for the first time covers India, Pakistan (in the section "Notes and Articles") and Ceylon. II. Topical Reports An outstanding contribution in this section is a bibliography by M. E. Barker on "Linguistics" up to the end of 1962, which also includes unpublished manuscripts. III. Notes and Articles A very remarkable report by Erika Kaneko on the archaeological survey of several of the Ryukyu islands in 1962 sheds new light on the present archaeological situation and on megalithic structures there (pp. 113-137). B. B. Lal's article (pp. 144-159) draws a comprehensive picture of "A Decade of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in India, 1951-1960." A. P. Khatri reports on field work during 1959-60, which, though it failed in its main object to discover fossil man's bones in India, brought Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 142 BOOK REVIEWS In matters of mutual understanding, as in every real dialogue, mutual respect is essential. In the search for self-understanding, whether for Europeans or Asians, a certain self-respect is primary also. That requires a degree of self-acceptance, the acceptance of one's own past history and present limitations. This would, it seems, qualify the demand for "parity of esteem." (Cf. Joseph Levenson's bold thesis on modern Chinese response to the West and evaluation of Chinese tradition.) Although it is clear, as one gathers from this book, the time of Western arrogance and Asian "colonial or semi-colonial mentality" is past, it is not clear that the time of Western dominance is in fact over, at least for the immediate future. An Asian can certainly agree with Joseph Needham in his essay on "The Dialogue between Asia and Europe" when he warns the man of the West that "before it is too late, let him take one at least of the essential steps towards self-knowledge, that is to say, knowledge of others. Let him study the words of their saints and sages as well as those of his own. Let him experience his own humanity in the image of theirs" (p.289). This is, however, a moral demand. To be fair, it should be made equally of the man of the East. Comparatively little is suggested in this direction by this book, outside of Robert L. Slater's essay on "Living Religions and World Community." "Western science and technology, Eastern religion and ethics" — this idea has been developed in the response to Western predominance and self-esteem on the part of many Asians. This is expressed in the 'i-yung formula of the Chinese: Chinese learning for substance, Western for function. It in fact constitutes a dominant pattern in the Glass Curtain itself. And one finds this pattern present also in the book, in a variety of ways. The Englishman who, in presenting his view on the uniqueness of Asia, idealizes the East and deprecates the West partly for its science and technology represents a curious inversion of the more typical Western arrogance. One wonders whether anyone who seems to be so lacking in sympathy for his own tradition is really capable of appreciating others'. Then, in another essay, the uniqueness of Europe is identified by a Malaysian Chinese to be science — the spirit of science, to be sure, but quite distinct from religion meaning the spirit of dogmatism. The highly autobiographical nature of this essay (the shortest of the twenty con- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 22 LEIGH WRIGHT tongue of land that looked down the estuary, and which could rake a fleet advancing towards the town, whilst the batteries on the two banks poured in a flank fire. When the tide goes out the mud is most offensive to European nostrils, as all the filth and offal is cast into it from the platforms, and left there to decompose. The town was in a condition of squalid wretchedness—the buildings, all of wood and leaf matting, were in a tumbledown state; and the population was mainly composed of slaves and the hangers on of the Sultan, the nobles, and other members of the upper classes. Brunei was by the 19th century then one of those decaying Malay-Muslim sultanates of Southeast Asia about which the historian Lennox Mills noted,12 The rule of the Malays was as weak as it was cruel and oppressive; individually brave they were unable to prevent their state from crumbling to pieces before their eyes ... The Malay nobles appear to have divided their time between intrigue and dissipation at Brunei Town, and the oppression of their Dayak subjects... III The political map of Southeast Asia was determined largely by imperialist interests and considerations of the last century. In most instances boundaries and demarkations were the results of international rivalries involving two or more European powers, with only now and then a consideration of the interests of indigenous states. In Borneo this principle does not apply entirely. The boundaries of the states of Eastern Malaysia, formerly British Borneo (Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak), are the result not so much of international rivalry as of the rivalry between Englishmen. This rivalry was centered in commercial circles in Borneo and England and involved the Foreign and Colonial ministries in Whitehall. By the 19th century Britain's chief interest in the area was strategic: to protect her commercial routes to China.13 She was concerned firstly, with the location of a suitable naval station along the eastern flank of the South China Sea, and secondly, with the assumption of political control over the northwestern coast of Borneo so as to prevent those areas falling to a European rival. Britain was not worried about the relatively weak Dutch and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v Links with other Overseas Branches of the RAS From time to time we have established short-lived links with one or other of our sister branches of the Society, including the Korean Branch (established in 1900) and the Asiatic Society of Bengal (established in 1784); and since Mr. K. M. A. Barnett left Hong Kong I have been the Corresponding Member in Hong Kong for the main Society in London. At the last AGM a member asked if ties could be renewed with branches in the region. This has been discussed by the Council recently, and I have written to the Korean and Malaysian Branches asking for information on their activities and expressing an interest in maintaining contact. I was also invited to attend the bicentenary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in January 1984, but unfortunately the notice came late and no direct reply was given to my letter expressing willingness to go. (In this connection Members may have seen the rather distressing account of this venerable body in the Far Eastern Economic Review for 15/3/84). We will continue the effort to keep in touch. Membership Our total membership as at 29th February 1984 was 478, comprising 7 honorary members, 105 local life members, and 2 institutional members, with 75 overseas life members and 37 ordinary overseas members. Changes since last year at this time included 36 resignations, 2 deaths, 19 persons not sending subscriptions and 20 renewal notices returned by the GPO because the members were no longer at their notified addresses. Against this there were 29 new members. There was, as you will perceive, a marked reduction in total membership, mostly in local ordinary membership and mainly attributable to the doubling of the annual subscription from $50 to $100 in 1982. There had been an earlier loss of this kind when the subscription was raised from $30 to $50 in 1975. This is seemingly unavoidable in a busy place like Hong Kong with its many competing interests and claims on people's time, leading some members to say, in their letters of resignation, that they felt they did not take sufficient advantage of the Society's activities to warrant the increased cost. All the more reason, then, for us all to make a special effort to provide interesting programmes if we are to find new members. xiii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 29 dedicated to Pao Kung, the Lenient Judge, and also in a Buddhist temple in Beverley Hills on Cebu where he has behind him a small image of the Jade Emperor's second son Erh T'ai Tzu (...). The whole group of the Jade Emperor's family, though only the two sons (the second one and the third) are portrayed, is referred to as Chiu Chung T'ien Lao Tsu (LICEEM). A rural temple on the island of Penang contains three images on its secondary altar identified as the Three Sons of the Jade Emperor. They are referred to as San Yuan T’ai Tzu (SAT). Another rural folk religion temple at Bukit Mertajam on the Malaysian mainland opposite Penang contains an image of the Jade Emperor's Fourth Daughter (Ti Ssu Kung Chu Pч2) on one side of the main deity on the altar, the Jade Emperor himself, with an aide to the princess on the other side of the Jade Emperor. The aide is known as Meng Yen Hua (夢燕花), An unusual image, of a farmer standing holding a hoe over his shoulder, stands on a private altar belonging to a Hakka petty businessman in Kranji, Singapore. The businessman explained that it portrayed one of the sons of the Jade Emperor and had been brought from eastern Kuangtung province last century; it has been prayed to for good crops ever since. He is known as Li Po Kung Kung (#22). In one group in Singapore, on a Taoist altar in Lorong How Sun, the Jade Emperor is attended by four of his seven daughters. The first is Hsien Chi Niang Niang (瑄姬娘娘), the second is Kuan Yin, the third is T'ien Hou and the fourth is Nu Wa. All but the eldest are well known deities from early Taoism and Buddhism in their own right. Hsien Chi Niang Niang has only been noted twice, both times in Singapore, on altars where she is said to be the eldest daughter of the Jade Emperor. She is portrayed standing on rocks, holding a fly whisk in her right hand. Again in Singapore, on a private altar, a Buddha figure, gilded and seated in a lotus position, was identified as Han Hsien Fu Tsu (# bili), and said to be a daughter of the Jade Emperor (see Plate 8). She has three identifying features apart from her Buddhist five-leaf crown. These are a small dragon crawling over her left knee, a vase balanced on her right knee and her palms held facing together before her chest with her fingers making a mystic sign. This image has also been seen ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 115 possibly the one said to have been carried over by Koxinga, had miraculously brought it under control Images of Pao-sheng Ta-ti have been noted on altars in only two temples in Hong Kong, one in a Ch'ao-chou refugee community and the other in a Hakka community temple. Although his image has not been seen in any Cantonese temples there, it has been noted in temples where Cantonese are predominant in Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. In Pao-sheng Ta-ti temples, in SE Asia in particular, devotees take articles of clothing usually worn by a sick person who is unable to come to the temple in person, and wave them through the incense smoke before his altar. This can be done by the devotee himself, but normally the act is performed by a priest or member of the temple staff with a formalised ritual. The article is then taken back to the sick person who, wearing it, believes that Pao-sheng now knows about his illness and will do something about it. Hakka vendors of herbal medicines venerate the Great Emperor as their patron, and in Malaysia a Hakka devotee claimed that this deity is worshipped mainly by Hakkas, with Wu T'ao himself having been a Hakka. Vaughan in Singapore in 1878 also claimed that Hakkas in eastern Kuangtung worshipped him, but as the King of Medicine, Yao Wang, and described the image of Pao-sheng Ta-ti in the temple in Telok Ayer Street as a ‘jolly looking elderly gentleman who watches over the sick and afflicted.' Vaughan explained that the title, that of Ta Tao Kung, was particularly used by Singaporean Hakkas. In SE Asia, Pao-sheng Ta-ti shares the main altar with one or two other deities from much the same part of Fukien. These are Ma Tsu and Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih, with Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih the senior and Pao-sheng Ta-ti the junior deity. There have also been a number of innuendoes hinted at by temple keepers that there is constant friction between Ma Tsu and Pao-sheng Ta-ti following the failure to successfully arrange a marriage between the two. Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih The second of the three cults, that of The Patriarch of Clearwater, Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih, is a popular local Fukienese healing deity ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 118 and the ten celestial trunks." These indicate the cardinal points and all other directions, as well as calculating various phenomena according to Chinese beliefs, by which the specialist can work out the geographical position of Taisui and the times and places threatened by his presence. To find where Taisui will be during the forthcoming year, and he is believed to move annually, the compass is used by a fengshui expert, a geomancer; or for every day general use prognostications are simply looked up in the Farmer's Almanac. Nowadays, the birth hour and date of an individual are matched to the movements of Taisui given in the Almanac thereby obtaining the auspicious and inauspicious dates for most social functions such as weddings, travel, starting a business or journey, launching a ship or burying the dead. Individuals whose future has been identified as clashing with the particular cycle through which Taisui [or his planet Jupiter] is passing must avoid major events such as travel, moves, marriage or house construction. Although he is greatly feared as he can not only protect and provide happiness he can also invoke disease misfortune, calamity and must be placated especially before embarking on any new major project. Despite the importance of this deity he is worshipped on as few occasions as possible as he is so alarmingly unpredictable. He is, however, prayed to when a child is born for a long, comfortable and happy life. Taisui is also prayed to in Fukienese temples, especially in Malaysia, for good luck at the races. As an agricultural deity, one of the most important rôles of Taisui, was to control rainfall, and to provide sufficient and no more for a good harvest. In Fujian and other eastern Chinese provinces Taisui was also known as Mang Shen or Gou Mang, "the youth with the Spring Ox." A colourful and symbolic ritual, not observed in Hong Kong or Macau but still to be seen in Taiwan, was the beating of the Ox at the beginning of Spring. The ox, fashioned from mud or coloured papers, was based on the Farmer's Almanac, with its size and colouring determined by the portents for general well being and weather for the coming year. The ceremony consisted of a float bearing the mud images of the ox and Taisui, followed by city officials bringing up the rear. It ended with the ox being beaten by the local mandarin outside his yamen and broken up, followed by devotees scrambling for parts which they either fed to their pigs for fertility, buried them in the fields for abundant crops, or kept them in their homes for good fortune. The first illustration ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 122 etc. are the actual Taisui who perform the functions and duties of the deity. The bells have magical properties and a Hokkien god carver in Singapore explained that all Taisui images should carry one of four specific charms. The main one is the bell which when rung causes the hearer to lose his way and wander aimlessly. Therefore a demon hearing it forgets his task and wanders off. The other three charms are the seal of office which when shaken causes the heavens to quake; and two swords, one male and one female. Another unusual feature is Taisui's footwear. Normally he wears sandals but occasionally only one foot is shod the other being bare. This form is comparatively common on Fukien community altars, an excellent example being in the Buddhist temple in Yen Kiu Road in Singapore. Only one example has been noted in Hong Kong, on an altar on a junk in the Pearl River. The one bare and one shod foot is said to represent the amount of rain expected during the coming season [see above under The Rôle of Taisui for an explanation provided in eastern China]. A similar story has been told about the Immortal Lan Caihe and, as we have seen above, about Mang Shen. An unusual large clay image of Taisui in a temple near Kam Tin in the New Territories depicts him with the bell in his left hand, and with a third eye. The bell, according to the temple keeper, has magical properties. Even more unusual is the image in Hung Hom in Kowloon with the usual bell in Taisui's right hand but unusually he has a Tantric necklace of thirteen skulls draped around his neck." Other lone image carvings are standard, anonymous seated officials or scholars with no particular characteristic and only identifiable as Taisui by the written Chinese characters on the front face of the base or because they are standing on piles of spirit money which, according to common belief, no other deity does. The lone Taisui image tends to be referred to as the 'Taisui [or Intendant] of the Current Year' EX- Over the years and in a number of places ranging from Singapore to northern China various informants have explained, mostly contradicting each other, that the images with a bell is the Taisui of the Year, the one with a scroll or tablet is the Taisui of the Month and those without anything are the Taisui of the Day. In a small temple in Sepang near Port Dickson in Malaysia, three images on a side altar stand side by side. A typical Taisui image with a Page 165 Page 166 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 around the world where full sets of our Journal are available to scholars. Members will have seen, in the Newsletter, a growing amount of information about the activities of a number of these other Societies, information reaching us as a direct result of the improved communications we have been seeking. I am glad to say that we have been able to get into improved communication in particular with three of the Branch Societies in India, that is, those in Madras (the Madras Literary Society), Bombay (the Asiatic Society of Bombay), and Calcutta (the Asiatic Society of Bengal), and with those in Colombo (The Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch), Kuala Lumpur (the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society), and Seoul (the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch). All these Societies have agreed to welcome our Members to any of the events they mount, and we in turn have been very happy to offer Members of these Societies temporarily visiting Hong Kong access to our activities on the same terms as our own Members. We have also improved our contacts with the Siam Society, in Bangkok, and, again, we are now offering their Members access to our events on the same terms as our own Members. We have also been in regular communication with the Parent Society in London. We have not been able to contact the Branch Society in Tokyo as yet, and any Member able to help us in this respect should contact me. As part of our drive to improve relationships with these other Branch and Associated Societies we have agreed to donate sets of our Journal to the Madras, Bombay, and Bangkok Societies, in return for sets of their Journals, which will be placed in our Library. Exchange arrangements with the Parent Branch in London, and with the Korea, Calcutta, Malaysia, and Ceylon Branches are also in place. We have also recently agreed an exchange arrangement with the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden. Following the agreement of Members at the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society on 4 October 2002, that the Society should have a new category of Member, that is Honorary Institutional Member, we have agreed in the subsequent months to make the Shanghai Library; the Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives; the Zhong-ying Street Historical Museum, Sha Tau Kok (Shenzhen); the National Library, Bhutan; the British Empire Museum, Bristol, England; and the Instituto Cultural of Macau Honorary Institutional Members of the Society. In xxvi ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 29 Seton, Sir Malcolm, 1926, The India Office, G P Putnam's Sons, London and New York Strang, Lord, 1961, Britain In World Affairs, Faber and Deutsch, London Swettenham, F, 1948, British Malaya - An Account of the Origins and Progress of British Influence in Malaya, Allen and Unwin Tan, Ding Eng, 1986, A Portrait of Malaysia and Singapore, Oxford University Press Tarling, N, 1962, Anglo-Dutch Rivalry in the Malay World, 1760-1824, Cambridge Thio, Eunice, 1969, British Policy In the Malay Peninsula 1880-1910, Vol 1, University of Malaya Press Thio, Eunice, 1960, 'The Singapore Chinese Protectorate: Events and Conditions Leading to its Establishment, 1823-77', Journal of the South Seas Society, xvi, 40-80 Tregonning, K G, (1964) 1972, A History of Modern Malaysia and Singapore, Eastern Universities Press Sdn Bhd, Singapore Tripathi, Amales, 1956, Trade and Finance in the Bengal Presidency 1793-1833, Calcutta Turnbull, C M, 1960, 'Bibliography of Writings in English on British Malaya, 1786-1867', JMBRAS, xxxiii, no 3 327-424 Turnbull, C M, 1958, 'Communal Disturbances in the Straits Settlements in 1857', JMBRAS, xxxi, no 1, 96-146 Turnbull, C M, 1970, 'Convicts in the Straits Settlements, 1826-67', JMBRAS, xliii, no 1 Turnbull, C M, 1969, 'The European Mercantile Community in Singapore, 1819-67', Journal of Southeast Asian History, x, no 1, 12-35 Turnbull, C M, 1957, 'Governor Blundell and Sir Benson Maxwell; a Conflict of... ================================================================================