RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 32 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Yet Chu Chia, who did not even know Chi Pu personally, took him in, disguised as a farm labourer, and eventually secured his pardon from the Emperor through an influential friend. After Chi Pu had been pardoned and given official honours, Chu Chia refused to see him for the rest of his life. Because of this, men came from far and near to make friends with Chu Chia. For instance, an expert swordsman T'ien Chung treated Chu Chia as his father. Another famous knight errant was Kuo Chich. His father had also been a knight errant and was executed by order of Emperor Wen in the second century B.C. Kuo Chich himself was small in person but very strong, and was a teetotaler. In his youth he was spiteful and killed many men who had offended him. He avenged the private wrongs of his friends at the risk of his own life, concealed those on the run from the law, robbed the rich, and illegally coined money. But luck was always on his side: he either managed to escape in time or was pardoned because of an amnesty. When he grew older, he reformed his ways. He became modest and exerted self-control; he gave liberally but expected little from others. Yet he loved knightly deeds even more than before, and remained revengeful at heart. Many young men who admired him would avenge his wrongs without letting him know it, while he on his part would save the lives of others without boasting about it. Once, his sister's son forced another man to drink beyond his capacity. The latter became angry, killed him, and ran away. Kuo's sister was annoyed that the killer escaped. So she left her son's body on the highway and refused to bury him, so as to shame Kuo Chich. Eventually Kuo found out the killer, who told him how it had happened. Kuo said to the killer, "It was my nephew's fault; you were quite right to kill him." So he let the killer go and buried his nephew quietly. All those who heard about this praised him for putting fairness above family loyalty, and more and more men came to follow him. In 127 B.C., Emperor Wu ordered all those who owned more than three million cash to move from all parts of the empire to Mao-ling, near the capital, so as to keep a strict eye on potential rebels. Kuo Chieh did not have so much, but his name was included in the list of rich men. General Wei Ch'ing spoke on his behalf to the Emperor and said, “Kuo Chieh is a poor man and should not be forced to move.” The Emperor replied, "A commoner who can make a general speak for him cannot be poor!" So Kuo and his family had to move, and his friends contributed more than ten million towards his removal expenses. Meanwhile, his brother's son killed the local clerk who first put Kuo's name in the list. After the Kuo family moved, the clerk's father was also murdered, and when the family of the A, chüan 18. (In the Peking, 1956 edition, Vol. 1, p. 605.) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 33 murdered man sent a messenger to report the murder to the throne, the messenger too was killed by Kuo's followers. The Emperor ordered Kuo's arrest, whereupon Kuo left his family and ran away by himself. After a long time he was caught, but exhaustive investigations showed that all his crimes had been committed before a recent amnesty and he could not be punished. However, something new happened. A Confucian scholar from Kuo's native district remarked, "Kuo Chieh makes it his business to break the law; how can he be called a worthy man!" When one of Kuo's followers heard this, he killed the scholar and cut off his tongue. The officials questioned Kuo about this, but he really did not know who had done it. The killer was never found, and the officials reported to the Emperor that Kuo was innocent. However, the Imperial Censor Kung-sun Hung said, “Kuo Chieh is a commoner who indulges in knightly deeds and wields great power. He would kill a man for a trivial offence. Though he does not know about this murder, his crimes are greater than the murderer's, and he deserves the penalty for high treason." Therefore, Kuo and his whole family were executed. Apart from the knights described in the "Biographies of knights errant", we find others mentioned in various individual biographies in the Shih chi. From these accounts we get a fairly clear picture of the typical behaviour of the ancient Chinese knight errant. What were the ideals underlying such behaviour? Briefly, the ideals of knight errantry were justice, altruism, honour, and individual freedom. In many ways, the knight errant formed a strong contrast to the Confucian scholar. While the Confucian scholar aimed at order and moderation, and stressed the need for the individual to conform to a rigid pattern of behaviour and to subjugate himself to the family, the knight errant stressed justice and freedom and placed personal loyalty above family loyalty and above law and order. Both were condemned by the Legalist thinker Han-fei-tzu, who said, "The Confucians disturb the law with their writings, while the knights errant break the law by force." It is easy to see why he condemned them both, for both placed a moral code above the law, though the moral code of each was different. The Confucian regarded obedience to one's sovereign and parents as a sacred duty more important than observance of the law, but would not resort to force in the discharge of such duties; the knight errant, on the other hand, regarded loyalty to a friend as more important than one's duties to one's king and parents, and would not refrain from violence in performing what they considered their moral obligations or what they thought their honour required. In so far as the knight A e.g. the biographies of political assassins (chüan 86); the biographies of Chi An and Cheng Tang-shih (chüan 120). * Han-fei-tzu, "Wu tu" chapter, quoted by Ssu-ma Ch'ien at the beginning of the "Biographies of knights errant”. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Vol. 1 (1961). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author ISSN 1991-7295 85 No-cha then partially pulled off the celestial robe of the dragon-king and revealed the scales under his left ribs. He tore off some forty or fifty of the dragon-scales and the dragon-king was wounded and suffered a violent pain. He begged his assailant to spare his life. No-cha said, “If you want me to spare your life you must give up your law-suit against me before the Jade Emperor, and follow me back to Ch'ên-t'ang Pass." The dragon-king could not free himself and yielded to No-cha. Transforming himself into the shape of a small black snake, he hid in No-cha's sleeve and they descended from heaven. (Ch.13) Some references can be cited here for comparison and we can see how clever the author was in composing his ingenious and complicated plot which surpasses all the materials he made use of. In the prompt-book Ch'in Ping Liu-kuo P'ing-hua ("The Annexation of the Six States by the Emperor of Ch’in”), chüan 2, there is a sentence, "to fasten the cuirass he should use the sinews of the old dragon." In the Ta-T’ang San-tsang Ch’ü-ching Shih-hua ("Tripitaka's Search for Buddhist Sutras"), chuan 2, (7), the Monkey-monk (Hou Hsing-chê) pulled out the sinews from a dragon with nine heads for a belt to hold the cuirass. According to the Min Shu (M), there was a Taoist priest named Yu Chên-chai (2) living in the epoch of Hung Wu, who was called upon by an old woman: She was a female-dragon... and was to be struck to death by lightning on account of her failure in regulating the rains. She begged him to save her life. Yü said, “Can you transform yourself to a small shape so that I may hide you in my alms-bowl?" The dragon followed his advice and transformed herself into a snake wriggling into the bowl. The story of No-cha goes on as follows: One day as the weather was excessively hot, he felt restless and annoyed, and ascended the tower over the city-gate. On the weapon-stands he found a wonderful bow called ch'ien-k'un kung (the cosmic bow) and three arrows called chên-t'ien chien (heaven-shaking arrows) which he appreciated very much, and did not know that they were left by the Yellow Emperor and since then no one had been strong enough to use them. He was so glad of this discovery and he seized the bow and shot an arrow toward the south-west. With a startling sound the sky was covered with red mist and auspicious clouds floated around. (Ch.13) In chuan 13, in the chapter of the "Competition in Martial Exercises for the Hand of Yasodhara" of Abhiniskramana-sutra (DATE · #), we have the following paragraph: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 124 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 NOTES AND QUERIES Note on a Collection of Chinese Books Presented to The Royal Asiatic Society by Sir George Thomas Staunton in 1824. As a boy of twelve G. T. Staunton had accompanied his father, Sir George Leonard Staunton, on the Macartney embassy to China in 1793. During the long outward voyage young Staunton had learned some Chinese from two Chinese Catholic priests who were returning to China after studying at Naples. When Lord Macartney was received in audience by the Emperor Ch'ien-lung at Jehol on 14 September, 1793 young Staunton acted as his page. In 1798 he became a writer in the East India Company's Factory at Canton, in 1804 he was appointed a Supercargo, in 1808 promoted to the post of Interpreter, and in 1816 he became Chief of the Factory. In the same year he accompanied the abortive Amherst embassy to Peking. On the return of the embassy he settled in England and became a Member of Parliament. In 1823 he was active in founding the Asiatic Society. The following letter was written by Sir G. T. Staunton to the Secretary of the Asiatic Society in 1823. Sir, Having in the course of my residence in China formed a considerable Collection of Chinese printed Books, and also of Manuscript Dictionaries, and other works of Europeans, calculated to assist the Student in the acquisition of a knowledge of the language and literature of the Chinese, I feel confident that I cannot more effectually promote the object I had in view making the Collection, namely, the more general acquaintance in this Country with whatever may be found curious or useful among the productions of the Chinese press, than by a respectful offer of the Collection to the Asiatic Society. My wish is, that it should be preserved entire, and placed in such a situation as may admit of its being at all times readily accessible to the British and other Students of Chinese Literature, who may frequent this Metropolis, under such regulations as the Asiatic Society may deem it expedient to prescribe. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING 61 acquire at Peking a site for Building, or may hire Houses, for the accommodation of Her Majesty's mission, and that the Chinese Government will assist it in so doing". Then, when the Imperial Government appeared to procrastinate over the ratification of these treaties, another English and French force fought its way to the capital and compelled the Manchu authorities to ratify them by the Convention of Peking. This was signed by the British envoy, Lord Elgin,1 and by Prince Kung,2 the chief Chinese representative, on October 24th, 1860 in the Hall of Ceremonies situated in what was later to be called Legation Street. The second clause of the Convention stated that "Her Britannic Majesty's Representative will henceforward reside permanently, or occasionally, at Peking, as Her Britannic Majesty shall be pleased to decide”. Lord Elgin proposed that Prince Kung's own residence should be rented to the British, but Prince Kung memorialized the throne as follows: As regards the matter of the English residing at the capital in the near future, we have been discussing it with them during the past few days. The chief barbarian official [Lord Elgin] considers that the quarters in Prince I's [Prince Kung] palace are spacious and he insists that it is to be their future residence at the capital. Moreover, he stated that there were still open spaces in the palace and that he wants to build houses there himself. It seems to your ministers that to 1 James Bruce, eighth Earl of Elgin. He served as Governor-General of Canada 1846-1854. In 1857 he was appointed envoy extraordinary to China and signed the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, returning to England early in 1859. In 1860 he was again sent to China as special envoy, and signed the Convention of Peking. He returned to England in 1861 and was appointed Governor-General of India in the same year. He died in India in 1863. His younger brother Frederick William Bruce held the post of Colonial Secretary at Hong Kong from 9 February 1844 until 27 June 1846. In 1857 he accompanied his elder brother to China as principal secretary. He was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China in December 1858, but had to wait until March 1861 before actually taking up residence in Peking. He left China on his appointment as British Minister to Washington in 1865. 2 I-hsin (1833-1898), the first Prince Kung, was the sixth son of Emperor Tao-kuang. When the joint French and British forces approached Peking in September 1860 the Emperor Hsien-feng fled to Jehol leaving his half-brother, Prince Kung, to make peace with the allies. When a prototype Chinese foreign office, the Tsungli Yamen, was set up in 1861, Prince Kung was in charge of it, and he played an important part in Chinese affairs for the next fifteen years. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 58 K. M. A. BARNETT from the point of view of my present subject, the event which ushered in the new age is the capture of Canton in +878 by the Huang Chao146 rebels. Between this event and the re-incorporation of Canton's territory into China in +971, by which time the earliest Chinese had already a firm grip on what is now Hong Kong, the Liu76 family gave five emperors to the Nan Han99 Dynasty at Canton. This family was allied by marriage with the Cheng163 and Tuen families which successively at this period ruled the powerful kingdom of Nan Chao;100 with the Ma89 family which ruled the kingdom of Tsu1 and no doubt, if the evidence could be pieced together, with many other peoples. For we are told that the emperor Liu Chang78 had a Persian princess in his harem, and among the many Arab travellers who visited Canton there must be some who left a description of these flamboyant half-Chinese rulers, with their eighty or more palaces, the walls of which were encrusted with pearls, their bloodthirsty exuberance and, what shines even through the disapproving accounts of the Chinese historians, their courage and administrative skill. The name Po On3 revived by the Republic of China as the name for the district of which geographically, Hong Kong is a part, was adopted by the Canton rulers in obvious reference to the pearls for which this district was at that period famous. The statement in the San On Yuen Chi123 that the name comes from the hill called Po Shan north of Nam Tau8 city is the "cart before the horse". The pearls were fished in great numbers somewhere near Tolo Channel, probably in Double Haven where the name Chue Tong Wat162 survives as a bay on Kar O Island." They were then transported overland along the route marked by a chain of forts over the pass northeast of Tai Po Tau34 village, through Kau Lung Hang, over the present golf course and skirting the Pat Heung2 marshes to the present Ping Shan, and across the creek to the fort of Tuen Mun4 which I mentioned earlier in this paper. The route, I would have you observe, almost at every point passes one of the chief settlements of the Tang44 clan who are, I believe, together with all the old Cantonese-speaking clans of this territory, the descendants of the soldiers stationed here in the Nan Han Dynasty and its successors for the express purpose of guarding these precious pearls. They were as I have said encouraged, when too old to serve with their arms, to settle down ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 The Hanlin Academy 103 From 1647 onwards, probationers were required to study either the Manchu language or the Chinese Classics. The number of probationers taking the Manchu course, however, declined as time went on. In the reign of Yung-cheng, only about fifteen scholars were ordered to read the Manchu course, the rest, about forty, took the Chinese course.9 In the next reign (Ch'ien-lung), the aggregate number of probationers studying the Manchu course was about ten each year, and even this small number would sometimes be reduced, as those who took long sick leaves would change to study the Chinese course after their return.10 The qualification for taking up the Manchu course was physical rather than literary. Only the young and the good-looking with a pleasant voice were selected. Presumably, the reason for such a choice is that probationers studying the Manchu course would have more contacts with the Emperor and senior officials than the others. They were the persons likely to be selected as masters of ceremony in official ceremonies. In the pursuit of the course, the probationers would be called upon to study the "History of the Liao dynasty, the Chin dynasty, and the Yüan dynasty" (Liao Chin Yüan shih), "the Sacred Edicts of the Emperor Hung-wu, the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty" (Hung-wu pao-hsün), the "Daily Exposition of the Meaning of the Book of Great Learning" (Ta-hsüeh yen-i jih-chiang) and the "Commentaries of the Four Books" (Szu-shu chieh-i).11 12 Probationers doing research work on the Chinese texts took lessons in Chinese Classics, history and poetry. Together with those reading the Manchu language, they had to sit for a final examination after three years of study. Probationers studying the Manchu course were tested on their ability to translate from Chinese to Manchu and vice versa, whereas those reading the Chinese Classics were each ordered to compose a poem of set form or a piece of irregular verse and to write an argumentative discussion or an eight-legged essay.13 Notice that the final examination of the probationers laid emphasis on the literary skill of writing essays and poems rather than on administrative knowledge. This was because of the need to distinguish "real" from "false" talent among the candidates. Themes on administrative problems, useful though they might be in testing the practical knowledge of candidates when they were original, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung 25 area, e.g. some places on Lantau island (Tai-yu-shan) were salt-producing fields. All such fields, together with the people living in the villages, were under the administration of the Salt Administrator of Kuan-fu Ch'ang. In the Yuan Dynasty, the political status of the Kuan-fu Field underwent a drastic change. Kuan-fu as an independent salt-producing area under a salt administrator was abolished and was incorporated into the Huang-t'ien (†) Field which was one of the original four fields in Tung-kuan. In the third year of the reign of Hung Wu, the first Emperor of Ming (1370), Kuan-fu's status was changed from that of a salt-field into a Hsun-ssu (3), a political sub-district still called Kuan-fu but under the charge of a Hsun-chien (K). The name of Kowloon was not officially adopted until 1840 (Tao Kwang 20th year, in mid-Ch'ing), when Kuan-fu Hsun-ssu was changed to Kowloon Hsun-ssu under the charge of a Kowloon Hsun-chien, still under the general administration of the Hsin-an District. Three years later (1843) the Manchu Governor-general Ch'i-ying (**) constructed a city wall around the Kowloon Tsai (formerly the Kuan-fu Tsai) with the explicit purpose of warding off a British invasion. The wall was completed in 1847. It may be added that this city wall was demolished by the Japanese when they occupied Kowloon, using the stones for the construction of the extended air-field; but the so-called Kowloon Tsai still exists. III. THE LANDING Let us now go back to May 1277. 1277. The exact place where the royal party landed was along the beach on the western shore of the Kowloon Bay from the Sung Wong Toi Hill to To-kua-wan in the south. There were three villages along the coast, namely Ma-tau-kok (§i§}), Ma-tau-ch'ung (‚§§Ã¡Ã¦) and To-kua-wan (LA). They were fairly large in size and populated by many fishermen and workers of the salt-field. Upon the arrival of the royal party the local villagers extended to them an extraordinarily warm welcome. The Imperial Court rewarded them with some parasols made of yellow silk and embroidered with many Chinese characters, in gratitude for the enthusiastic reception and loyal protection they had received. Years later the original gifts wore ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g THE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG 37 "the back seat". But before accepting this interpretation, one must verify the identity of the Yunnan Lao with the aboriginal tribe dwelling in Kow-Joon speaking the same language. 6 See my article "The Southern Sung Stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang" in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 5, 1965. At line 17 of the article "before this date" should read "after this date". The Chinese text on the engraven rock was given in my article, but was not accompanied by a literal translation, which now follows: [I] Yen I-chang of Ku-pien (K'ai-feng, Honan Province), being the administrator of this Field (namely, Kuan-fu Ch'ang), accompanied by Ho T'ien-chuch of San-shan (Foochow, Fukien Province), come to visit these two mountains (North and South Fu-t'ang). In the course of investigation, [I found, first, that] the stone pagoda (shih-ta, or colloquially called Ku-shih-ta and abbreviated to Ki-ta) at South T'ang was constructed in the 5th year of the reign of Ta Chung Hsiang Fu (i.e., of Emperor Tsen Tsung of Northern Sung, A.D. 1012). Next, Cheng Kuang-ch'ing of San-shan, piling up stones and chopping down trees, renovated the two T'angs. Again, T'eng Liao-chuch of Yung-chia (Wen-chou of Chekiang Province) continued the work. The ancient stone-tablet at North T'ang was established by Hsin P'o-ting of Ch'uan-chou (Fukien province) in the year wu shen but the reign [of what Emperor] cannot be ascertained. Now, Nien Fa-ming of San-shan and Lin Tao-i of this native place (i.e., Kowloon) continue the work. Furthermore, Tao-i can expand the former plan requesting [me] to establish another stone-engraving for commemoration [of the renovation]. Inscribed on the 15th day of the 6th lunar month in the year chia shu [i.e., 10th year] during the Hsien Shun reign (Emperor Tu Tsung of Southern Sung, A.D. 1274). 7 Yuan Yuan, Kwangtung T'ung-chih, Haifang lüeh, chuan 2, kx. Ak Ma. 40%. Shu Mou-kuan, Hsin-an Hsien-chi, chuan 7, Chien-shu lüeh 建署累 8 Ta-ch'ing Hui-tien, Kuan-chih kao. 76. 9 Research notes by the late Sung Hsueh-p'eng (4) who had done much research work on the local history and geography of Hong Kong and Kowloon. A portion of the notes was generously recopied and given to me. 10 Ibid. 11 T'u-shu Chi-cheng, Chih-fang-tien (811A.AZ) records that "This was the old engraving of Yuan times”. 12 Chuan 18, Sheng-chi-lüeh BAY. 13 Before 1941 there were three streets at this place, called "Sung Street", "Ti (Emperor) Street" and "Ping Street". (Apparently Emperor Ping was mistaken for Tuan Tsung (Shib). As the history of Southern Sung in Kowloon had been rather obscure, the mixing up of the two names was not very unlikely; even the Hsin-an Gazetteer made the same mistake. This whole area including the three streets was levelled during the Japanese occupation to facilitate the extension of Kai-tak airfield. 14 See Jao Tsung-i, Kowloon yũ Sung-chi shih-liao ✯‡, ^*‡‡‡£ #, Hong Kong, Universal Book Co., 1959, p. 105. 15 Wu Pa-ling, Sung-t'ai kan-chiulu 4*. *4434 in Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume, p. 108. 16 By the side of the cliff a low-cost housing estate has been recently constructed south of the new Fu-ning Street (3##), east of the now Fuk- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 156 NOTES AND QUERIES ADDITIONAL NOTE to the above, kindly supplied by Professor LO Hsiang-lin, Professor of Chinese, University of Hong Kong, at Professor Goodrich's suggestion and the Hon. Editor's request. Professor Lo writes: “I am pleased to provide a note on Tu, Fan and the Superintendent of Inland Seas, Chief military commissioner, installed as Ting-hai General. I regret that I have not been able to identify the other two persons, namely Hsiao Li-jen and Su. Tu, Fan and the Superintendent of Inland Seas also appeared on the inscription of the cannon constructed in June 1650, discovered in 1956, for which I have written a short treatise entitled "Researches on a Cannon made in the Fourth Year of the Yung-li Period of the Southern Ming (1650 A.D.), in Hong Kong”, (in Chinese) Ta-hsüeh Sheng-huo★ Vol. II, No. 10 (January 1957). For detailed information the reader may refer to my treatise on the cannon discovered earlier. TU, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF KWANGTUNG AND KWANGSI ✯t, who re- 1648 and offered Tu can be identified as Tu Yung-ho † †¤, a follower of the Governor of Kwangtung. Li Cheng-tung volted against the Ch'ing dynasty in Canton in his allegiance to the Emperor Yung-li (Chu Yu-lang *. formerly prince of Kuei) of the Southern Ming dynasty. When Li Cheng-tung died in the following year, the Ming emperor appointed Tu as Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi with his head-office at Canton. Thereupon Tu took up the responsibility of leading his men in their fight against the army and fleet sent by the Ch'ing government to crush the revolt. The Ch'ing general Shang K'o-hsi laid siege to Canton in February of the fourth year of Yung-li (1650). To check the enemy's advance, Tu used the two forts built by Li Ch'eng-tung which stretched out into the sea outside the city of Canton. However an officer under Tu conspired with the Ch'ing army and assisted the latter to land on December 2nd. The forts fell into the hands of the Ch'ing army and the city met the same fate. Tu and his fleet consisting of several hundred vessels made their escape through the sea route and headed for Kiungchow ] (the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 MORE ON THE YUNG-LO TA-TIEN 19 dictionary, the characters were arranged under four main tone groups, based on the Hung-wu chêng-yün, sponsored by the first Ming emperor. Kao Kung oversaw the first and second tone-groups, Ch'in Ming-lei (1518-93) the third, and Ch'en I-ch'in (1511-86) the fourth. On May 23, 1567, Hsü Chich (1494-1574), then chief grand secretary, submitted the duplicate copy to the throne. Great rejoicing must have ensued, for the shih-lu records a long string of honors and emoluments presented on that day to high officials at court. The original was now stored in the Wên yüan ko (Peking) and the duplicate in the Huang shih chêng (office of imperial 皇史宬 archives). In 1594 a number of scholars, among them Lu K'o-chiao (a chin-shih of 1577 and currently chancellor of the National University), agitated for the installation of a bureau for the compilation of a history of the Ming dynasty. Following the approval of their proposal, several historians began to busy themselves with various aspects of the work, and gather documents for their research. Lu at this time recommended that the YLTT be printed, the labor of doing so to be parcelled out to publishers in various parts of the country. Regrettably his suggestion, along with the initial proposal of a dynastic history, was never consummated, at least in Ming times. The war in Korea against the Japanese invaders, incursions by the Mongols in the north-west, and insurrections in the south-west were all then in progress, and the resources of the empire could not bear so heavy a burden. At the end of the dynasty, during the occupation of the capital by the rebel Li Tzu-ch'eng (d. 1645), the original set was entirely put to the flames, and a considerable portion of the duplicate (about one-tenth) likewise destroyed. For over a century silence reigns, Ch'ing dynasty scholars seeming to be totally unconcerned about the YLTT. Then in 1771/72 Chu Yün (1729-81) suggested to the Ch'ien-lung emperor first that he launch a similar and even greater enterprise, and later that certain rare books contained only in the YLTT be reproduced in the new work, which came to be known as the Ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu. The emperor was pleased to accept both suggestions; as a result, 385 works in 4,946 chüan were made an important part of the latter. By this time only 9,677 volumes were available (although a report of Nov. 9, 1794, records + ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TSUNGLI YAMEN 53 master a foreign language then memorialize requesting that he be rewarded. As regards duties on foreign goods at the ports, it has been agreed that at present twenty per cent of the value of the duties shall be deducted and handed back, and a joint record maintained'. Also there are barbarians who are helping to manage revenue matters20. It should be made absolutely clear how much revenue is to be collected each month, so that it does not result in misappropriation and embezzlement. But in future, after the amount withheld has been cleared, let Prince Kung and others further concentrate on deciding what appropriate regulations ought to be fixed so that after a period of time malpractices do not grow up. As regards any other arrangements to be made let them also carefully deliberate and memorialize from time to time. For an examination of the implications of these two important documents the reader is referred to Banno's China and the West, pp. 223-236. NOTES 1 Harvard University Press, 1964. 2 Bruce to Russell, No. 51, May 23, 1861, FO17/352. 3 Teng Ssu-yü and John K. Fairbank, China's Response to the West, Harvard University Press, 1954, 47-48; 73-74. 4 Masataka Banno, China and the West 1858-1861, 220-221. 5 Meng Ssu-ming, The Tsungli Yamen: Its Organization and Functions, Harvard University Press, 1962, 20-21. 6 Translated in collaboration with Mr. Vei-Tsen Yang, formerly of the Department of Chinese Studies, University of Hong Kong, now Special Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto. 7 The Chinese text is in Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo (#MR#&*) Hsieng-feng, 71: 17b-26. 8 During the time of the Three Kingdoms Liu Pei, the founding ruler of the Kingdom of Shu, invaded the Kingdom of Wu in order to avenge the death of Kuan Yü. He suffered a crushing defeat and died soon after. After the accession of his son to the throne in 223 B.C. the chief minister Chu-ko Liang sent Teng Chih as an envoy of good will to Wu, which resulted in a rapprochement between the two states. See San-kuo chih, chuan 35 and 45 for the biographies of Chu-ko Liang and Teng Chih. 9 In fact the emperor was at the summer palace at Jehol. Since the emperor had fled from the enemy the term hsing-ying ('travelling headquarters') was used rather than pi-shu shan chuang ('avoiding the heat hill palace') for reasons of face. 10 At this time the prince-ministers in charge of the travelling headquarters were Tsai-yuan, Prince I, and Tuan-hua, Prince Cheng. Ministers of the imperial presence at this time were: Prince I, Prince Cheng, Su-shun and Ching-shou. Of these Su-shun was the dominant figure and was entrusted with the main responsibility for affairs at the travelling headquarters (also referred to in English as "the temporary court"). There were four Grand ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 62 CHIU LING-YEONG T'ang government to maintain the security and prosperity of these multi-racial cities harmoniously and peacefully. II In T'ang China, apart from the capital Ch'ang-an and the Eastern capital Lo-yang, the most prosperous cities within the Empire were Kuang-chou, Yang-chou, Chiao-chou, and Ch'üan-chou.16 These cities were all centres of Persian and Arabian trade. There were a large number of Persians and Arabs living in these cities. In A.D. 760, when T'ien Shen-kung raided Yang-chou, it was recorded that several thousands of Persians and Arabs were massacred.17 It is not clear whether this was an isolated incident or an act of retaliation because the Persians and Arabs had sacked Canton in A.D. 758.18 It was also believed that Huang Chao had killed thousands of foreign merchants when he captured Canton in A.D. 878.19 The large number of Persians and Arabs killed in Yang-chou and Canton confirmed that the foreign population in these cities was indeed very large. Activities of Persians and Arabs in these cities were confined to maritime trade because the majority of them were merchants. There were also Islamic disciples who came to China with the intention to preach. In the reign of Wu-te (A.D. 618-626), four Islamic disciples were dispatched to China to spread the Mohammedan faith. Of these four, one was posted in Canton, one in Yang-chou and the other two were stationed in Ch'üan-chou.20 There is evidence that some of these Persians, Arabs and Uighurs were also engaged in the restaurant business in Yang-chou and Ch'ang-an. It was recorded that they made very good hu-ping, yu-chien ping and pi-lo.21 Ssu-ma Kuang mentioned in his Tzu-chih t'ung-chien that when Hsüan-tsung took his 'Imperial Excursion' to Szechuan during An Lu-shan's rebellion, the 'Excursion' set off so suddenly that the Emperor had no chance to bring his chef with him. His brother-in-law, Yang Kuo-chung therefore, had to buy hu-ping for him during their journey to the West China.22 The Persian and Arabian merchants brought to China precious stones and hsiang-yao; and they always could earn a fortune very easily by these commodities. Financially speaking, maritime trade had become very important in the beginning of the eighth ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA + 67 operation for Kao-tsung Tzu-chih t'ung-chien records this operation as follows: In the eleventh moon of the first year of Hung-tao A, the Emperor had great difficulty in seeing because of a headache. The imperial doctor, Ch'in Ming-ho was summoned (to the Inner Palace) to diagnose the case. Ch'in indicated that the Emperor could be healed if he was allowed to needle (acupuncture) the Emperor's head in order to release the blood. Ch'in was allowed to perform the operation and the Emperor was cured. Ch'in was a very skilful surgeon indeed. 38 In A.D. 741, a Nestorian Monk known as Ch'ung I also proved to be a good physician in the court. The medical knowledge of these foreigners improved the state of medicine in China and when they met Taoist physicians later, both schools worked very closely and discovered a new kind of medical knowledge which not only benefitted them but also all mankind.40 Li Hsin 李珣 In dealing with foreigners in T'ang China, whether in the field of medical, natural or humanistic science, Li Hsün can hardly be neglected.41 Li was originally from Persia and was the author of the famous Hai-yao pen-ts'ao (Exotic Pharmacopaeia). Unfortunately, the book is now lost, and there is even uncertainty whether Li Hsun was in fact the author of this book. Fragments of Li Hsün's book have been preserved in the Chung-hsiu Cheng-ho ching-shih cheng-lei pei-yung pen-ts'ao, which is a revision, undertaken in A.D. 1249, of T'ang Shen-wei's Cheng-ho hsin-hsiu cheng-lei pei-yung pen-ts'ao (Materia Medica) of A.D. 1116. They are also preserved in Li Shih-chen's Pen-ts'ao kang-mu + Li was a Ming scientist and died in A.D. 1593. Whether Li Hsün is the author of the work mentioned is not for discussion here. P. Pelliot, Ch'en Pang-hsien, P. Huard and M. Wong all regarded Li as the author of this work, and as a Persian.42 Li Hsün was also a literary man of high standing. The compiler of Hua-chien chi had selected thirty-seven of Li's tz'u (lyrics) for this anthology. It is also recorded in Hua-chien chi that Li was also the author of Ch'iung-yao chi. Li Hsün's + ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA 69 should be well-treated.48 The Emperor based his policies on the principle of 't'ien-hsia pai-ch'uan kuei ta-hai' 天下百川歸大海 (all rivers in the empire enter the sea), and accepted everyone from different parts of the world, either to pay tribute to or to trade with China. There is no doubt that Persians, Arabs, Turks, Japanese and others did enjoy their stay in China; and it is also an undeniable fact that T'ang emperors wished to befriend these foreigners. It is equally true that in such a highly Sino-centric society as the T'ang period, nobody felt that such a process of assimilation was untraditional or against the theory of Sino-centrism. In T'ang times, such a social pattern was a reality, not a myth, and its spirit may serve as a model for the future. NOTES * I wish to express my appreciation to Professor Woodbridge Bingham of the University of California, Berkeley (Visiting Professor in Chinese History, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong 1970-71) for reading an earlier version of this paper, weeding out mistakes and suggesting improvements. Abbreviations used in the footnotes: CTS Chiu T'ang-shu HTS Hsin T'ang-shu TCTC Tzu-chih t'ung-chien 1 In T'ang time, Islamic followers used to call the Chinese Tamghai, Tomghaj, Tonghaj, Tangas, Tubgao or Tapkao. Some historians believe that these were transliterations of T'ao-hua-shih. However, Kuwabara Jitsuzō suggested that these were derived from T'ang-chia-tzu. Cf. J. Kuwabara 'On P'u Shou-keng', Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 2:1-79 (Tokyo, 1928), 7:1-104 (Tokyo, 1935). See also Chinese translation of this, with additional notes by Ch'en Yü-ching, P'u Shou-keng k'ao (Peking, 1954), pp. 103-109. 2 Edward O. Reischauer and J. K. Fairbank, East Asia: The Great Tradition (London, 1958), p. 155. 3 See Lo Hsiang-lin, T'ang-tai wen-hua shih (Taipei, 1963), pp. 54-87. 4 Hsiang Tai, T'ang-tai Ch'ang-an hsi-yü wen-ming (Peking, 1957), pp. 24-25. 5 Edward H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963), pp. 10-11. I must express my thankfulness to Professor Schafer's opus magnum; I have fully made use of Professor Schafer's work. 6 See Chiu Ling-yeong, Superintendents of Customs in Canton during the Tang and Sung Dynasties (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1963), Chapters 5 and 6. Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r FIVE ART CATALOGUES 109 9 In chuan 4 of Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi pp. 22b-33a, after entering Ni Tsan's Yu-po-t'an-hua-t'u and inscriptions and recording the three colophons written by Tung Ch'i-ch'ang and emperor Chien Lung, Wu Yung-kuang's own colophon follows, beginning thus, This painting agrees with the one recorded in Wu's Ta-kuan-lu 4. It was after this painting had been dispersed from Chiêng Chi-pa's collection that Wu Tzu-min came across it. Soon it was acquired by the imperial household..... In saying that "this painting agrees with the one recorded in Wu's Ta-kuan-lu”, it is apparent that Wu Yung-kuang must have used Wu Sheng's Ta-kuan-lu in order to make a comparison between the inscriptions recorded in this catalogue and those appeared on the painting. 10 See Hsin-chou hsiao-hsia-chi chuan 5, p. 54b. 11 See Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi chuan 4, p. 23a. 12 Ibid chuan 5, p. 54b. 13 See Ping-sheng chuang-kuan chuan 3, p. 20; published in Shanghai, 1962. 14 See Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi chuan 4, p. 39a. 15 Refer to footnote 10. 16 An Ch'i's description of Yü-tung hsien-yüan-t'u can be found in Mo-ylian hui-kuan chuan 3. However he recorded it as Tao-yuan hsien-ching-t'u, which is somewhat different from that recorded by Wu Yung-kuang. 17 See Pien Yung-yu's Shih-ku-t'ang hua-k'ao chuan 37. The edition used here is a photo copy of this catalogue in the collection of Mr. Chiang's Mi-chün-lou, made by Ying-yin chien-ku shu-she of the Cheng Chung Book Co., Taiwan in 1958, p. 4966. (The Chêng Chung Book Co. shows its ignorance in combining two pages of the original book into one page, and instead of following the original page number, gives each page a new number). 18 The titles of these three scrolls of painting can be found in T'êng-hua-t'ing shu-hua-pa chuan 1, which are: Pai-l'ou an-ch'un tu p. 35b; Hua-kuo-r'u, p. 36a; Lan-hua-t'u, p. 36b. 19 Among the documents that were completed in the Ch'ing dynasty and mainly dealt with biographies or names of the Ch'ing painters, the following are, in general, regarded as the most important: (1) Chang Kêng's Kuo-ch'ao-hua-chêng-lu in 3 chuan, supplement in 2 chuan. According to his own preface, this book was completed in the 13th year of the Yung Chêng era (1734). (2) P'êng Yün-ts'an's (1780-1840) Hun-shih hui-chüan 史棠傳 in 70 chuan and appendix in 2 chuan. (3) Fêng Chin's Li-tai hua-chia hsing-shih pien-lan in 7 chuan, published in the 6th year of the Tao Kuang era (1826). (4) Lu Chün's Sung Yüan i-lai hua-jen hsing-shih-lu in 37 chuan. The preface written by Tang Chin-ch'ao is dated in the 10th year of the Tao Kuang era (1830). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 121 is called Lo Foo Ts'z T'ong (老虎祠堂), Tiger Hall. The floor of the cave is quite smooth with a lot of small stones almost like a mosaic. Though the actual site of the school is not known, old tiles have been found from time to time on the hillside, and one of these can be seen in a house called Cheung Ch'un Yuen (祥泉園) of Shui Tau (水頭) village. In the same house is a flower vase of interest that was dug up on Hong Kong island about 30 years before the British settled there. As mentioned before, four of the "five Yuens" eventually left Kam Tin and founded branches of the Tang family elsewhere, and it has even been said that Yuen Leung, the ancestor of the Kam Tin branch, moved to Mok Ka Tung (莫家洞) near Shek Lung, but this removal is generally attributed to Yuen Leung's daughter-in-law, a princess of Sung dynasty whose story reads almost like a romance. She was a daughter of the Emperor Ko Tsung (高宗) of Sung Dynasty, who before becoming emperor of China was Prince Hong Wong (康王). The Tartars at that time were attacking the North of China, and in the 2nd year of Tsing Hong (靖康) A.D. 1127 they entered the Sung capital, captured the two emperors Fai Tsung (徽宗) and Yam Tsung (欽宗) together with both the mother and wife of Hong Wong, who was himself away in another part of the kingdom fighting the Tartars as he held the appointment of Tin Ha Ping Ma Tai Yuen Sui (天下兵馬大元帥), the commander-in-chief of all the emperor's forces. Hong Wong's little daughter was only ten years old and she was protected by her women servants who fled with her to the South. In the 3rd year of Kin Yim (建炎) A.D. 1129 they arrived in the Kiangsi province where Yuen Leung was district officer of Kung Yuen (贛縣) district. He was very zealous to help the Emperor and had collected together an army of soldiers, with the intention of marching North. Kiangsi was full of the Tartar forces, and the princess found herself surrounded by enemies. One day she saw the Sung flag over the encampment of Yuen Leung's army and she went to him for protection. She stayed with Yuen Leung, moving about with his soldiers, and eventually when he returned to Kam Tin he brought her back with him. He did not know who she was, as the servants had told him only that she was the daughter of a high official in the North. The princess found happiness and security in Kam Tin. She was like a daughter in Yuen Leung's house, helped with the household duties and was quite content. Eventually she revealed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 330 BOOK REVIEWS Chapter XIV: "The Nineteenth century: Looking Backward and Forward", is mainly a discussion of the landscape paintings of the 19th century, represented by Ch'ien Tu (1763-1844) and Tai Hsi (1801-1860). Chapter XV: "Bird-and-flower painting: The end of a tradition”, five artists of the Ming Dynasty; Lu Chih, Hsiang Yuan-pien (1525-1590), Chou Chieh-mien (act. 1580-1610), Chang Hung, and Sun K’o-hung (1532-1610), and two artists from the Ch'ing Dynasty; Hua Yen (1682-after 1755) and the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi (1835-1908) form key figures for discussion. The merits of this book are shown, first of all, by a detailed chronology of the artists of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties. This point can be clearly seen if the chronologies of the same group of artists as they appear in other writings on history of Chinese painting are compared with those in Prof. Li's new publication. In order to make this point clear, a concordance table about the chronology of many artists is provided below.* The second merit of this book seems to be a new use of old editorial principles practised in Chinese historical writings. As stated, Volume I consists of 15 chapters. In every chapter, a detailed study of each picture is always preceded by an introductory essay. The origin for presenting such an essay in a descriptive catalogue, when old writings on Chinese painting are studied, can be traced back at least to the early 12th century work, Hsuan-ho hua-p'u *1#," a descriptive catalogue about paintings, in Emperor Sung Hui-tsung's imperial collection, the Ming Hua Lu ***;14 and also to "Records of History of painting in the Ming Dynasty", edited by Hsü Hsin in late 17th century, both edited according to this principle. In the former, the subject-matter of Chinese painting is classified by the anonymous editor into 10 categories; and in the latter, into 15 subdivisions. Using modern concepts to review Hsuan-ho hua-p'u and Ming hua-lu, each category in these two historical documents should evidently be read as an independent chapter. More significantly, introductory essays, no matter whether long or short, are always addressed to each chapter-like category. p. 330. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d BOOK REVIEWS 341 16 This mountain is clearly marked in the map (pl. CXIV of Vol. II) of the book review. In addition, according to Chun kuo ku-chin ti-ming ta tzu-tien "Dictionary of Ancient and Present Place Names in China", edited by Tsang Li-ho and others (1933, 2nd edition, Shanghai), p. 135, Mt. Tien-chu is at the northwest of Chien-shan in the present western An-hui Province. 17 In Tung Shih-heng's Li-tai chiang-yu hsing-shih i-lan-t'u (1914, Shanghai), Map 3 (Chan-kuo ch'i-hsung-t'u A Map of the Seven Strong States during the Warring States period); again in Watari Yanai's Toyo Tokushi Chizu (1934, 3rd edition, Tokyo), Map 3; also in Albert Herrmann's A Historical Atlas of China (1966, 2nd edition, Chicago), Map 8 (The Contending States), the Huai River area is always marked as part of the territory of the State of Ch'u. 18 This is to be seen in Fujiwara Sosui's Chokuoku shoho rokutai dai-jiten, Dictionary about Six Different scripts of Chinese calligraphy, (1960, Tokyo), pp. 615-616. 19 See Chin Shu, History of the Chin Dynasty (1974, Peking punctuated edition), Chüan 40, (in Book V), p. 1366. 20 Ibid., p. 1359. 21 For the latest findings of scholars of this small circle, see Ho Ch'i-min: "Chu-lin ch'i-hsien yen-chiu" "A study of the Seven Talents of the Bamboo Grove", 1966, Taiwan. 22 Po-hsüeh hung-tz'u. This examination, initiated in 731, the 19th year of the K'ai-yüan era during Emperor Hsüan-tsung's reign in the Tang Dynasty was during the Ch'ing Dynasty confined to some limited candidates primarily recommended by the Education Department in each province. 23 For sound scholarship on the economic importance of Yang-chou during the Ch'ing Dynasty, see Prof. Ho Ping-ti: "The Salt Merchants of Yang-chou: A Study of commercial capitalism in Eighteenth century China", in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (1954, Cambridge), Vol. 17, pp. 130-168. 24 Tsang Li-ho and others, op. cit., p. 923. 25 The edition that the reviewer used is the Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition, first wood-blocked in Canton in 1850. 26 The Chinese title reads: "44415447". 焦山看月分得辇字 27 In Chiao-shan chi it is to be found in p. 1b-p. 2a, while in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, (1937, Shanghai), hsü-chi (a supplementary collection), chüan 7, pp. 359-360 (In the Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts'ung-shu edition). 28 The Chinese title reads: "9493A7”. 同作分得月字“ 29 In Chiao-shan chi it is to be found in p. 9a-9b, while in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi it is in hsü-chi, chüan 7, p. 360. 30 In Ma Yueh-kuan's own Sha-ho i-lao hsiao-kao (also the Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition), it is to be found in chüan III, p. 17a-17b. 31 The Chinese title reads: "宿佛日淨慈". It is to be found in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 134. 倪龍瘢痕 32 The Chinese title reads: “晚起 撖上人導行黃萬峯下 倪龍瘢泉 尋龍”. It is in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 134. 33 The Chinese title of this poem reads: "...". It is to be found in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 135. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN 67 12 Lockhart lists 255 villages occupied by Hakkas, with a total population of 36,070 in the Tung Lo in 1898. Assuming a population of 250,000 for the total district in 1900, Hsin-An probably had a Hakka population of around 90,000. 13 Rawski's bibliography in Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China offers the most complete listing of works bearing on perpetual tenancy. p. 64. 14 CSO280/04 Extension. See note 4, Essay 2. 15 Hsu T'ien-tai, Fu Chien Wen Hua (福建文化), Vol. 1, No. 1, (1941), 16 Correspondence Respecting Affairs of China, March 1898-September 1900. "Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong," (Presented to both Houses of Parliament, November 1900) p. 19. 17 The Shih Chien T'ang Chia P'u (世鑑堂家譜), a collection of genealogies from Kam Tin, gives the following settlements of lineal descendants in Tung Kuan: Chuh Yuan (竹園), Yen Tien (燕田), Fu Lung (福龍), Huai Te (懷德), Shih Ching (石井), Tu Kao (土高), and Ping Hu (平湖). 18 "These clans gain their local influence, not through numbers alone, but owing to the fact that certain of their numbers have official rank, gained through competitive examinations, or obtained by purchase, which keeps them in touch with the Magistrate and even higher officials." Correspondence Respecting Affairs of China ibid., p. 20. The Shih Chien T'ang Chia P'u records that, from Cheng Hua (Ming Dynasty) to Tao Kwang (Ch'ing Dynasty)—that is, from roughly 1470-1820—fourteen Kam Tin Tangs passed the state examination. Several of these became office holders. Another indicator of gentry connections with officialdom was the construction, in Kam Tin, of a temple (祠堂) dedicated to the two officials (Chou Yu-te (周有德) and Wang Lai-jen (王來任)) who petitioned the Emperor, on behalf of the inhabitants of the coastal areas, to allow resettlement. 19 Introduction to the Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u (南陽堂世族譜), compiled by the Ping Shan Tangs. 20 Sung Hok-P'ang, in his articles on the Kam Tin Tangs in the Hong Kong Naturalist, claims to have seen references to Tang lands on Hong Kong in the Land Register (土地冊) of Tung Kuan. "One may judge that the land was owned by the Tangs before the first year of Maan Lik, AD 1525, (sic) as after that the San On District was formed” (Vol. VIII, nos. 3 and 4). 21 HKTCSMTC, "Details of Cultivated Land” (耕地詳情). 22 ibid. 23 The landlord clans were often referred to by the British as "first cultivators." See, for instance, CSO3172/1915 cited in the essay on tax-lordism. 24 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p. 16. 25 Hsin-An Hsien-chih, ch'uan 8. 26 In this regard, note the high degree of correlation among the different "tax-burdens" in Table II. One is tempted to speculate that a native formula for the conversion of rent rates from tax-rates existed. 27 In the 1934 edition of the Chung-Kuo Ch'ing-chi Nien-chien (中國經濟年鑑), chapter 7 (Chinese Tenancy Systems), contains the following description of the Fen Chih Chih (分種制) system, a form of perpetual lease found in the East River counties of the Kwangchow Prefecture: "This ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 48 KEITH STEVENS decorated with a large dragon across her bosom, and the "bird" hat with its representation of a small bird, wings outstretched, lying on top. She holds a raised fly switch in her right hand and her girdle is grasped in her left hand (the latter pose is usually reserved for male images). She is seated on a dragon throne. Perhaps readers can offer their views on the use of impersonal images on family altars and further examples of the practice in other parts of China?* NOTES 1 Lao Tzu—the philosopher generally believed to have founded Taoist philosophy. 2 Erh Lang (#) often identified with Yang Chien (##) the nephew of the Jade Emperor, the supreme Taoist deity. 3 The Five Thunder Magic () is used in Taoist folk religion as the ultimate threat; a magic of destruction brought about by Taoists against those who broke the rules or opposed the Taoists. 4 Lei Kung (2) the God of Thunder. 5 usually read Wei, is read Yu in this surname. 6 The image of Kuan Ti, the God of Loyalty and one of the most popular of deities throughout China also contained a slip which noted that it had been dedicated in the autumn of 1789 in the same area in Wo Kang as the images in illustration 2 and 4. The slip tells us that Devotee Pan Mu-shih, together with his wife, two sons and two daughters-in-law offered sacrifices to the deities in the City God shrine in the local temple, reporting that he and his whole family had had the image of Kuan Ti carved by a scholar. This they respectfully presented to have its eyes opened before the Gods so that it would be able to rid their dwelling of evil spirits and bring them blessings. The latter part of the text on the slip says that, "Your Honour Kuan Ti is the cleverest, most faithful and righteous in the world both past and present. You are a true spirit, a wonderful inspiration and have the ability to suppress demons. To show you our sincere respect we shall now dress you up, worship you every morning and evening with incense and further, offer you Spring and Autumn sacrifices each year.... 7 The provenance of three further images in the shipment, in better condition, is unclear though possibly they came from one of the areas in Hunan or Kiangsi from which the others originated. Of these three, two are versions of Yao Wang (1) the King of Doctors, who is easily recognisable by his tiger and dragon, one below and the other above him, and the small red pearl he holds aloft between his fingers. The third image is Yao Wang's aide, a middle-aged man standing carrying a herbalist's case slung over his shoulder and a furled umbrella in his hand. * Mr. Stevens has made a further discovery in the matter of ancestral images: see the Notes and Queries section at p. 206. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m JUAN YUAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826 161 Meanwhile, the Tao-kuang Emperor felt keenly British challenges to traditional Chinese foreign policy. Juan Yüan was summoned to Peking. One topic of their discussions was Sino-British relations at Canton. But these discussions must be interpreted in the light of another pressing development. Page 162 In 1821, the Tao-kuang Emperor, newly on the throne, adopted a policy that was closer to Juan Yüan's point of view. A more stringent anti-opium policy was enforced at Canton, leading to closer monitoring of activities and movements of foreigners in port. The following year, a new situation developed in the northwest, giving further evidence that the British were challenging the Canton system by trying to open new trading frontiers in China. The combination of these factors led to toughened measures to control Westerners in Canton. That year, Wu-lung-a, assistant military governor for administration (ts'an-chan ta-ch'en) in Kashgar, reported to the Emperor the presence of two British traders near Yarkand in western Sinkiang. These traders had entered the Chinese Empire from Kashmir and Tibet, and had travelled by camel across the Sinkiang desert, but had sent the camels back when they were no longer suitable for the terrain. These traders and the remainder of their caravan had been prevented by the local chieftain of Yarkand, Akim Beg Mohamet, from buying horses, blankets and other provisions. Wu-lung-a, whose responsibilities included Yarkand, had ascertained that these traders were indeed British, and had indeed come from Kashmir. He enclosed with the memorial a letter from a British official in India which gave in considerable detail the route taken by the two traders from Kashmir to Sinkiang, as well as their intention to travel through the Chinese Northwest to Bukhara, north of Afghanistan, hence their need for horses. This letter to the Akim Beg identified the writer and the traders, then continued: These traders and their retinue would like to go to Bukhara, taking any road that was safe for them, ... It is their understanding that the road through Yarkand is good and safe. They also heard that his Imperial Majesty is kind and fair to strangers, therefore, they have come to discuss with me the possibility of taking this road. They have asked me to certify their need to purchase horses, blankets and stockings. As it is the British practice for the chief in each city to write a letter to the chief of the next city on the traveller's route on behalf of the traveller, I am writing this letter to the Akim Beg of Yarkand. Wu-lung-a, maintaining the traditional Ch'ing policy that the only Page 163 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 176 NG LUN NGAIHA the Chinese population. This was to make Sun different from Ho Kai and other intellectual or bourgeois reformists whose interest in economic reform was centred more on industry and commerce. He maintained that improving agricultural productivity was the most urgent and important reform in China. He found it deeply regrettable that in the recent westernization movement undertaken by the Government, agricultural affairs had been neglected as no one was sent abroad or into agricultural college to learn Western techniques. It was perhaps for these reasons that he offered to serve the state, to promote agricultural reforms. He did not claim to have specialized training in this field. But "for many generations my family had been engaged in farming, and I was able to gain some experience in it", and "when I was educated abroad, I often read books concerning Western farming methods, geology and other science subjects". He admitted that practical knowledge was essential and he was ready to go abroad to study sericulture and other Western agricultural methods. Dr. Sun Yat-sen's years in Hong Kong being an essential part of his formative age, had a significant influence on his intellectual development. He mentioned more than once in his recollections that his revolutionary ideas germinated in Hong Kong, and in his few early essays that can be found, it is evident that he also shared some reform notions of the time. Much of this thinking then, as expressed in his presentation to Li Hung-chang in 1894, was also nurtured by his experience and observations in Hong Kong. NOTES 1 According to Wang Teh-chao, this was published in the September and October (1894) issues of the Wan-kuo kung-pao. It was then republished in issue No. 19 of Yu-shih. See Wang Teh-chao, “Tungmeng hui shih chi Sun Chung-shan hsien-sheng k'o-ming szu-hsiang ti fen-hsi yen-chiu”, Chung-kuo hsien-tai shih ts'ung-k'an, vol. 1 (Taipei, 1960), p. 66, note 3. 2 ibid. note 4. 3 Feng Tzu-yu, “K'o-ming i-shih” (Taipei reprint, 1957), and K'ai-kuo chien k'o-ming shih (Taipei reprint, 1954); Ch'en Shao-pei, Hsing-Chung hui k'o-ming shih-yao (Canton, 1934). See also Chou Hung-jan, "Kuo-fu 'shang Li Hung-chang shu' chih shih-tai pei-ching”, Ta-lu tsa-chih 23.5, pp. 157–161. 4 The pamphlet, Kidnapped in London, was published in England in 1897. In this, Sun recalled that a Ch'ing official in the Chinese legation said to him, "You have previously sent in a petition for reform to the Tsung-li yamen in Peking asking that it be presented to the Emperor." See Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi vol. 5 (Taipei, 1973), p. 16. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 41 etym, (variant); } = cracks; 1= || scapula !) (K. 1192) enquire by divination; auspicious, good, virtuous; firm, solid; and !! diviner's fee?) { Kui (K. 462) tortoise, divination by aid of the cracks in heated tortoise shell to draw lots; a lot [this character is a strange mixture; enclosure or “border prairie” with possibly 2 sets of stalks on top of a tortoise: 2 types of divination mixed together] * (K. 894; M. 5763) to divine by stalks of milfoil; (from K magic and " bamboo-stalks) * shih (M. 5801) milfoil (“achillée”) [the character suggests a plant, and elder person, and a mouth: oracle of old sage?] Characters derived from 4: A hands manipulating divining sticks on a table to perceive name of king, Kao, a diviner to learn to teach (to learn + whipping) NOTES 1 The Chinese text of this oracle is found in Sheng-ch'ien chu-chieh (see bibliography) 2 While this article was already in press, I obtained new information stating that there is a still older example of Chinese oracles, dating from the 5th century A.D: “The earliest example of a Buddhist oracle-sequence can be dated to the middle of the fifth century, and is found in the printed Buddhist Canon. It forms the tenth book in a work entitled The Book of Consecration (Kuan-ting ching, T. 1331).” Although this text is not necessarily a temple oracle, yet it is so far the earliest book containing 100 oracle stanzas in a style similar to the later temple oracles. (Michel Strickmann, “Chinese Oracles in Buddhist Vestments”, p. 27 of an unpublished paper delivered at the Berkeley Conference on Chinese Divination and Portent-lore, June 20-July 2, 1983). 3 See for example L. Vandermeersch, "De la Tortue à l'Achillée", p. 46. Fung Yu-lan, in his History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 1 (1952), pp. 27-28: quotes the Ch'ien Han Shu, which in its turn refers to the Shuching. “The divina-tion plant (shih ) and the tortoise shell (kuei #k) are used by the Sages. The Shu says: "when you have doubts about any great matter, consult the tortoise shell and divination stalks'. . . . ** See also J. Needham, Science & Civilization in China, vol. 2 (1956), pp. 347-349. On page 348 there is a reproduction of a drawing dating from the late Ch'ing dynasty, which shows the legendary emperor Shun and his ministers consulting the oracles of the tortoise-shell and the milfoil. 7 & Miyazaki Ichisada (1966), p. 161. 8 Miyazaki (1966), p. 162. 9 Webster's New 20th century Dictionary of the English Language (1979), p. 765. 10 Andree Richard (1906). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 90 Kwangtung province formerly, I found the people could earn their living. Latterly since the people have been moved inside the boundary, they have gradually died off. Out of every ten of them about eight or nine have been killed by the removal. The best thing that can be done at present, as we cannot allow them to return to their homes, is to allow the boundary limit to be made larger so that the farmers may find a place to farm and the fishermen room for fishing." Nothing came of the position, but the Viceroy's interest in their plight was remembered by the people and they were grateful to him. In the 5th year of Hong Hei there was a bad drought in Kwangtung and the Emperor gave order that the rice kept in the Government granaries should be given to the people. It was during that year the San On district was abolished, all government appointments there were cancelled, and what was originally San On was added to Tung Kwun (東莞). During this time the Governor Wong Loi Yam (黃律琰) wrote a report to the throne suggesting that six principal causes of growing discontent should be removed. At first no notice was taken of this effort but in the 6th year of Hong Hei, when things were getting worse, the Emperor allowed Governor Wong's suggestions to be carved on stone tablets, and each city gate had one of the tablets displayed there. Beyond that, the Emperor did nothing, but the fact that someone was interesting himself on their behalf helped to soothe the increasing resentment of the people. The Governor Wong was a very good man and he made great improvements in a lot of government affairs. It is said that he dressed as a common man during his leisure and spent much time talking to the simple farming people. In this way he learnt much about his subordinates, which were good and which were bad, and he really benefited his people. But he was unable to get on with the ministers in Peking and in the following year he was dismissed by the Emperor and ordered to return to Peking. When Wong received the message of his dismissal he wrote his valedictory address and in it he mentioned five important steps which should be taken to ease the burden on his people. Two of these were that the numbers of troops should be reduced in Kwangtung, and the boundary be removed, the people being allowed to return to their homes. He then started off for Peking, but a Lei P’aai (里排) (chief of the village elders) named Poon Shai Ts'eung (潘世璋) heard about this, and went to beg the Emperor to allow Wong to retain his post. Wong died, whether... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 18 THE JADE EMPEROR AND HIS FAMILY 玉皇大帝 YU HUANG TA TI KEITH STEVENS The Jade Emperor, also known as the Lord of Heaven (T`ien Kung), is the chief deity of the pantheon of the Cheng I sect of Taoism. He is only a secondary deity of the Taoist Lungmen sect. He was worshipped China-wide as the supreme ruler of the Heavens, and even of some of the Underworld. In folk religion, he is worshipped as the protector of all mankind, having replaced Lao Tzu in that role and as head of the Taoist faith, possibly because people were uncomfortable taking their problems to a philosopher. According to a majority of Taoists his earthly mouthpiece was Chang T'ien Shih, The Heavenly Master and his descendants. Although he is well known to both Chinese and to interested foreigners, what is not so well known are the ramifications of his family and the extent to which several of its members have their own cults. The development of the supreme deity in China is far from clear. In earlier times the all-seeing, all-powerful, unseen god was Shang Ti who even now is occasionally referred to as the all-highest. Not only is the term Shang Ti used by Protestants for the Supreme Deity, God, but also the late Chairman Mao in his statement that, at the age of 72, “he was soon going to see God“, used this expression. Howard Smith, a missionary in China for 24 years, describes how the Chou dynasty (ca 1050-256 BC) founded its government on religion and transformed 'Shang Ti', probably originally a term used for the deified spirits of the imperial ancestors under the previous dynasty, the Shang, into a high God, independent and supreme, He added "The importance of this change cannot be over-emphasised. When this supreme deity finds the rule of an emperor abhorrent, whenever a king fails, by persistent misrule, in his duties to God, then God rejects him and seeks out a suitable substitute." The transfer of the mandate of Heaven, based on the belief in a supreme deity, carried with it strong ethical implications, and continued down to the last dynasty, which fell in 1911. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 30 on an altar in a folk religion temple in Pongol in northern Singapore. In the Feng Shen Yen I, mythical tales known to most Chinese, Yang Chien is described as the nephew of the Jade Emperor. Yang, also known as Erh Lang in some stories and in some temples, was a mythical general fighting for the legendary Shang (Yin) dynasty during the wars of the 12th century BC. Another popular romance of the Ming, the Journey to the West, better known as the story of Monkey, tells of the incident when a heavenly being was exiled to Earth for re-incarnation as a punishment for assaulting one of the Jade Emperor's daughters. By mistake he entered the womb of a sow and was born half-man and half-pig and is now best known as Piggy, one of Monkey's assistants. The Jade Emperor's festivals are celebrated on his birthday, the 8th and 9th of the first lunar month, and on the 6th of the eleventh lunar month, the anniversary of his ascension. In parts of Taiwan he is also feasted on the 24th of the sixth lunar month, and in South-East Asia on the 6th of the fourth, and fifth of the eighth lunar months. Though it is not a date on which humans especially revere the Jade Emperor, all the gods of Heaven assemble on the 19th of the first lunar month to pay their respects to him. He is offered a feast on his birthday which includes duck and chicken, but must include pork. These offerings are placed on a table in the open, before the front entrance to the courtyard, together with candles and the large-size sticks of incense. Two whole sugar canes with leaves intact are especially popular offerings in Fukien communities to celebrate the escape of Fukienese who hid amongst the fields of cane to avoid being killed by an enemy. The survivors offered such canes to the Jade Emperor in thanks and the custom has persisted. In general, routine offerings before the altar of the Jade Emperor consist of the standard three sticks of smouldering incense. However, offerings of a vegetarian feast are made to him in Hong Kong on the first day of the lunar new year, accompanied by the burning of spirit money. Not all families perform this ritual, many Hoklo and Hakka families prefer only to offer the basic vegetarian meal. The Jade Emperor is usually accompanied on the altar by images of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 31 aides and guardians. His two major aides, according to a Taiwanese temple keeper, are major deities in their own right: T'ai I Chiu K'u T'ien Tsun (AZREF) and Lei Yin P'u Hua T'ien Tsun (LEO). He has a senior deity as his personal messenger, Teh Chih Chiangchun (特赤將軍) A Buddhist priest guiding a visitor around his temple in Chia I county in Taiwan, in which the Jade Emperor was the main deity on a side altar in a side hall pointed out that he had four bodyguards: The Marshals Wen (溫), Ma (馬), K'ang (康) and Chao (趙) with blue, white, red and black faces respectively. The full title of the Jade Emperor is: Hao T'ien Chin Kuan Yu Huang Shang Ti (昊天金阙玉皇上帝) or T'ien Ti San Chieh Shih Fang Wan Ling Chen Tsai (天帝三界十方万灵真宰). This is possibly best translated as The True Lord of Heaven, Earth and Mankind, in all areas and of the Mystical Spirits. The following are the short titles by which the Jade Emperor is known: Yu Ti (玉帝) Yu Huang T'ien Kung (玉皇天公) T'ien Kung (天公) T'ien Kung Tsu (天公祖) T'ien Kung Yeh Yeh (天公爷爷) T'ien Shang Ti (天上帝) Tien Ti (天帝) He is also known as: Yu Huang Ta T'ien Tsun Hsuan Ch'iung Kao Shang Ti (玉皇大天尊玄穹高上帝) Yu Ch'ing Shang Ti (玉清上帝) Hao T'ien Shang Ti (昊天上帝) Shang Ti (上帝) Lao T'ien Yeh (老天爷) North China ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 32 Huang T'ien Shang Yi (LR) San Chieh Yu Huang Ta Ti (三界玉皇大帝) (The San Chieh altar before a temple entrance in Fukienese and Ch'aochou communities, represents the Supreme Deity, T'ien Kung (The Jade Emperor). It is a trinity of Heaven, Earth and Mankind, and the altar is usually higher than normal altars.) Yuan Chih T'ien Tsun (X) (Taiwan) Yu Huang Chih Tsun(玉皇至尊) Yu Huang Ta T'ien Tsun (X) (Taoist) Ch'ing Ching Tzu Jan Chiao Wang Ju Lai (a**=**) Some temple keepers claim that Yuan Shih Tien Tsun is an incarnation or alternative title for the Jade Emperor. Though Yuan Shih T'ien Tsun is often claimed to be the Supreme Emperor of the Beginning of time, he is primarily a member of the Trinity, the San Ch'ing (), and its first member. He is the First Principle, he has no beginning and no end, is the source of truth and his doctrine leads to Immortality. He dwells in the Kunlun Mountains and was possibly a deity invented by the Taoists to counter the then growing influence of Buddha. His image appears with that of the Jade Emperor on a number of temple altars, thus highlighting the difference between the two deities. Most of the information related above about the Jade Emperor is reasonably well known; however, the question of the images of the children of the Jade Emperor is a subject which appears not to have been investigated before. Most of the children, numbering up to seven daughters and four sons, appear on altars with their father, in groups on their own or individually alone as deities in their own right. Temple keepers without exception did not know why the particular son or daughter was represented on the altar in their temple though some suggested that the children were really well known major deities such as T'ien Hou and Kuan Yin. However, it is understandable that individual members of the Jade Emperor's family who are referred to on a number of occasions in the legendary history, the Feng Shen Yen I, together with mythical apotheosised heroes from the same legends whose images appear on Chinese altars, should themselves also appear on Chinese altars. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 397 the Yuen Ka Walled Village E, Mui Wo, Shek Pik, Tong Fuk 塘福,Shek Mun Kap 石門甲,Shui Hau 水口, Shek Lau Hang 石榴坑, Ngau Au 牛凹, Sha Lo Wan, Shek Tau Po石頭莆,Yi O 二澳 and Yau Ku Long. Also, Hakka villages were found at Tai Ho, Pak Mong, Wang Long and Ling Pei Walled Village at Tung Chung." The population on the island increased, and they depended on fishing and farming. Nowadays, Mui Wo, Pui O, Shui Hau, Tai O and Tung Chung have developed into towns; Shek Pik Village has been removed, and a reservoir built on that site. However, many villages founded in the Ching Dynasty still remain with little development. NOTES ANTHONY SIU KWOK-KIN 1 The inscription of the 42nd year of Chien Lung (1777) on the stone tablet in the Hau Wong Temple of Tung Chung bears the name "Tai Hai Shan". 1 See Chapter 19 of Kwong Yu Kei, Ming edition. 1 1 See Chapter 2 of Yuet Man Chuen See Kei Leuk, 1684 edition. See Chapter 7 of Lin Tien-wai and the writer's Essays on the History of Hong Kong Prior to British Colonisation, Commercial Press, 1984. It is now known as Lantau Island, and in some newly published maps of Hong Kong, it is also known as Tai Ho Island. + See S. G. Davis and May Tregear's Man Kok Tsui, Archaeological Site 30, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Univ. Press 1961; and “An Archaeological Site at Shek Pik”, Journal Monograph I, Hong Kong Archaeological Society 1975. 7 See Chapter 29 of the Tung Kwun Yuen Chi 8 See Chapter 1 of the Tung Kwun Yuen Chi, 1464 edition. 非 See Tsang Yat Man's "Hai Nam Chaak, an old Salt Pan on Lantau Island" 大嶼山鹽田學, No. 284, Cosmorama Pictorial, Hong Kong. 9 As Note 8. See Tsang Yat Man's "A Textual Research on the Ins and Outs of the Rebellion of the Natives of Tai Hsi Shan – Now Tai Yu Shan of Hong Kong - in the third year of Ching Yuan of Emperor Ning Tsung of South Sung Dynasty" 南宋寧宗慶元三年, Chu Hai Journal No. 11, October, 1980. 12 See Chapter 67 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1558 edition. 13 See Tai Hai Shan 大箂山 in Ng Loi 吳榮's Nam Hoi Ku Chik Kei 南海古鏞記, Chapter 61-1 of Su Fu, Shun Chih edition. 14 See Chapter 12 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1697 edition. + 15 As Note 4. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 43 THE PEKING OPERA D.H. LIU It may sound strange to many that the Peking Opera originated, not from Peking, as it is generally believed, but from the obscure county towns of Huang Po (黄陂) and Huang Kong (黄冈) in the Hupeh Province on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. From its early beginning as local, folk song amusement of surrounding areas, it gradually gained popularity and traveled beyond the provincial boundary to Peking where it settled down and prospered during the reign of Emperor Chien Lung (A.D. 1751-1795) As the troupe travelled on its way to Peking, it absorbed many of the methods and techniques of different theatrical groups, notably, the K'un Chu (昆曲) and the Hwei Ban (徽班) with one sole dogma it has persistently adhered to the original dialect of the Hupeh Province in its performance up to the present day. The Stage in the Early Times: At the beginning, the stage was a very simple structure with no proper sitting arrangement for the audience. People would sit around a square-shaped table with two persons on each side. I remember that, when I was a boy, the first theatre we had in Yienta (烟台) where I was born, was called the Tan Kwei Tea House (谭家祠茶馆). People went there to watch the opera and at the same time, enjoy a cup of tea. Why not? People were out to enjoy themselves. I still remember how people would enter the theatre and leave it at will. You sat at the table watching the play, drinking Chinese tea and cracking melon seeds, all at the same time. You will say that this would divert the attention of the audience from what was going on on the stage. Why worry? If the actor or actress was good, the audience, of course, would automatically stop drinking tea and pay close attention to the stage! I still remember that, in those happy days, the theatre waiters would throw a hot towel to you from a distance of ten feet to wake you up when you were tired. What a wonderful idea! Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 45 as a Buddhist monk. The problem of identifying which members of the family are portrayed by images on altars has been complicated by temple keepers having their own personal views of the exact identity of each deity on their altars. At least four of Yang Yeh's other sons are individually revered on altars, with the complete family, usually seven sons, revered in at least four temples, though in two of these there are eight sons, together with Yang Yeh's two young daughters and several of his sons' wives. Legends recounted by tea-house story-tellers claimed that General Yang Yeh defeated the Mongols near Heng Shan in Shansi early in the Sung dynasty becoming one of the most powerful supporters of the Sung. Later he, together with his heroic sons, tried to save the emperor from the invading hordes, and with his wife chose to die rather than surrender. All but two of their sons died with them. The Fifth and Sixth made their separate ways home after many adventures. After falling in battle fighting the enemies of the Sung, Yang Yeh was awarded the title of The Marshal who Protected the Sung, Sung-pao Yüan-shuai*. His body was recaptured from the enemy, so legend relates, by a valorous captain who had used a secret weapon to defeat them. He caused fire to flow from a pot thereby scorching the hillside and then, having exhumed the general's corpse, he returned to the capital at Kaifeng where it was buried in state. A temple keeper in Kowloon Tsai in Hong Kong claimed that General Yang Yeh was killed by the Tatars who hung his body on a gate tower where, daily, Mongol soldiers fired arrows at it to cause pain to his soul. A popular opera describes how the Commander-in-Chief of the Sung forces, General Yang Yeh, was encircled by the Tatars and seeing no other way out defied capture by knocking out his own brains on a stone monument dedicated to the loyal Su Wu, the unyielding plenipotentiary of the Han dynasty. The Tatars recovered his remains and honouring his bravery built a mausoleum in the Hung-yang cave, but covertly buried his remains in a secret place elsewhere to avoid the Sung forces taking the corpse back to be buried in the family grave. Meng Liang, a junior officer serving with the Yangs [and possibly now represented by the image of the unidentified deity on the temple altar beside the main altar bearing the images of the Seven, near Taichung] bravely recovered the corpse from the false coffin which, as the Tatars had feared, then was buried back home. However, Yang Yeh's spirit ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 46 appeared to the Sixth Son who was resting, weary and sick with over-work and revealed to him that Meng Liang had recovered the bones of another and gave the Sixth Son details of where his, the father's, body really lay. Meng Liang set out once more, disguised as a Tatar soldier and after a series of episodes the bones were recovered, but not before several of the Sixth Son's comrades had been killed or committed suicide. These deaths led the Sixth Son's condition to deteriorate and for his spirit to wander whilst he lay in a coma. The emperor's nephew on his way to visit him saw a tiger barring his path and shot and grazed it with the arrow. On reaching the bedside of the Sixth Son, who rallied at that point, the Prince was told that the tiger was the spirit of the Sixth Son roaming the hills and was duly appalled at the idea that he had nearly killed the Sixth Son. Despite all efforts, the Sixth Son's condition grew worse and soon he died, vomiting blood. In another episode of the tea-house tales the ruler of the Liao Khitan planned to assassinate the Sung Emperor at a meeting to which the Sung Emperor had been invited at Chin-sha Nan. As the plan had been detected by the Eldest Son of the Yang family he disguised himself as the Sung emperor whilst the Second Son went as the Crown Prince, with the other brothers in attendance. In the event they in turn were recognised and in the ensuing fight the Second and Third Sons were killed and, apart from the Sixth and Seventh Sons, the others were captured. One of several cult centres dedicated to the Yangs in northern China developed in a temple on the Buddhist holy mountain of Wu T'ai Shan, in northern Shansi province. There are at least three temples in Taiwan in which Yang Yeh is the main deity. And only in Taiwan are the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth sons collectively portrayed together on several altars with the collective title of the San Wang-tsu. In an old temple near Taichung the seven main images on the main altar represent the Seven Sons although, according to the temple keeper, the group did not include the father. However, the smaller portable images of the Seven on the front of the same altar had alongside them several other images which did include the Father, Yang Yeh, and the Mother, Yü Lao T'ai-chün, and a complete outsider, the mythological deity, Yang Chien [Erh Lang] who bears the same surname. The temple keeper explained that in about 1986 all nine main images, carved on the mainland many years ago and brought over to Taiwan, which at that ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 181 may be unremarkable, in Mao's China not all that long ago folk religion was taboo, and even in today's China that they offer such displays of the old deities without blatant propaganda is surprising. NOTES 1 The Feng-shen Yen-i is usually attributed to Hsü Chung-lin who lived during the first half of the 16th century. 2 The mythological gods of the Creation and pre-history are different from the “human” deities, the latter being canonised since the 11th century BC [and, indeed, up to the present day] 3 Confusion between the new dynasty, the Chou and the last ruler of the Shang, Chou Hsin was so general that it became the convention for a while to romanise the name of the last ruler of the Shang as Tsou rather than Chou. Duke Fa of the Shang vassal state of Chou, the later King Wu [Wu Wang], the first emperor of the Chou dynasty Filial piety prohibited a son from bearing a higher title than that borne by his father. Should he acquire the throne it was necessary that the title should first be conferred on his father, dead or alive. We therefore hear of names like Wen Wang [the Emperor Wen] and Chou Kung, awarded to his father and brother respectively, these being the titles 6 A mural portraying Duke Chou is one of the panels, together with others depicting Christ, Confucius, Lao Tzu and Mohammed, around the inside of the dome above the main hall of the cult centre temple of the I-kuan Tao at Nan Hua near Tainan. 7 The only image of Pai Chien noted in today's temples is in Havelock Road in Singapore where he is one of the 24 Heavenly Generals. * The seven, who not long after this became Immortals, free from the cycle of rebirth and death, were: Li Ching The Three Princes, Chin Cha, Mu Cha and Na Cha Yang Chien Wei Hu ================================================================================