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

72

Vol. 1 (1961)

ISSN 1991-7295

hua-pên (story-tellers' prompt-book), we can hardly know their origin or the invaluable part played by the author of the Fêng-shên in transforming them into interesting characters.

Li Ching, bearing the same name as the historical hero in the early part of the T'ang dynasty, is no doubt derived from the Buddhist heavenly king Vaisravana.

We know from many Buddhist texts the legends of the Four Heavenly Kings. According to the Abhiniskramana-sutra (出曜集經) translated by Jnanagupta in 587, they are,

Dhritarashtra or Chih-kuo T'ien-wang in the East, who leads the gandharvas, musicians in heaven; Virudhaka or Tseng-chang T'ien-wang in the South, who is the sovereign of the kumbhandas or deformed demons; Virupaksha or Kuang-mu T'ien-wang in the West, who is king of the nagas who dwell in their palaces at the bottom of the lakes; and Vaisravana or To-wen T'ien-wang in the North, who is head of the yakshas, strong and brave genii.

The author of the Fêng-shên Yen-i adapted these four heavenly kings in his novel (Chs.31-40) and called them "the four generals of the Mo family". He made them brothers and commanders who took charge of the Chia-mêng Pass under the command of the Premier Wên T'ai-shih. Their individual names are Mo Li-ch'ing, Mo Li-hung, Mo Li-hai and Mo Li-shou. But in Ch.31 when they are summoned by Premier Wên T'ai-shih, the author writes, "The four heavenly kings (ssu t'ien-wang) strode forward,” thus unconsciously revealing their origin, and afterwards in Ch.99 they are given the titles of Tsêng-chang T'ien-wang (Mo Li-ch'ing), Kuang-mu T'ien-wang (Mo Li-hung), To-wên T’ien-wang (Mo Li-hai) and Ch'ih-kuo T'ien-wang (Mo Li-shou) respectively. In Ch.40 the author describes the weapons of these four brothers through the mouth of General Huang Fei-hu as follows:

The eldest brother Mo Li-ch'ing is twenty-four feet in height, with a face resembling that of a crab, and his beard is like copper wires. He fights always on foot with a long spear, and he has a sword which is called "Blue Cloud", on which there are charms and a seal saying "earth, water, fire and wind". The wind caused by the brandishing of this magic sword is a black wind in which hundreds of thousands of spears would run and cut off the limbs of men. Following the wind is a blaze in which flaming golden serpents cover the atmosphere with black smoke. The weapon of Mo Li-hung is an umbrella.

* chúan 16, Shê-kung Ch'u-chia P'in (攝功出家品).
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g
26

JEN YU-WEN

out and the local people made facsimiles of the originals and preserved them from generation to generation in order to commemorate the glory of their ancestors. Moreover, in the Dragon Boat Festival (the 5th day of the 5th month) every year since then, they have placed the parasols on the racing boats, called huang-chou1 (Imperial boats). Before the boat race started, the gentry and elders of the villages used to kneel and kow-tow to the royal gifts to pay respect to the Sung Emperor. Sung Hsueh-p'eng says that the custom was perpetuated for many years.10 Less than a month after the landing of the royal party, the Dragon Boat Festival was observed. It can be imagined what a delightful day the boy Emperor Tuan Tsung (Shih) and his small brother Wei Wang (Ping) had in watching the races, along with the Queen Mother and many dignitaries, generals, and ministers, and, of course, the local people who were particularly happy to have such distinguished guests participating in their annual festival.

IV. SUNG WONG TOI (Sung Huang Tai-Man)

The most important site which furnishes the key to our study of the Kuan-fu Travelling Palace of Southern Sung is a small mound near the seashore, north of Ma-tau-kok. It can be definitely located and is recorded in the Hsin-an Gazetteer, other literature, and maps. Besides, there were three Chinese characters engraved on one of the great rocks there, which many of us have seen with our own eyes.

The small mound was called Sacred Hill1 (see map). This name was probably given to it by the Hong Kong Government when it took over the territory in 1858, as no Chinese literature recorded such a name, and even Hong Kong people of the older generation, including Sung Hsueh-p'eng, did not know of it. On the top of the mound were two large rocks, one on the northern side, the other on the southern. The characters Sung Wong Toi1 were engraved on the western face of the northern rock in the Yuan Dynasty, long after the royal party departed from Kowloon and after the Mongols conquered the Southern Sung.

The characters were horizontally inscribed, being uniformly 20 inches in width and respectively 26, 22½, and 27 inches in
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
24 

STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR. 

as soon as they were caught.20 A few days later, Captain Dew arrived in Ningpo and apparently impressed with General Huang's reply wrote of his satisfaction, and in his momentary spirit of good feeling toward the Taipings perhaps said too much. For example, he stated that "Till the late acts, they (the British) had every reason to be satisfied with your (the Taipings) conduct, and you may rest assured that no breach of friendly relations shall emanate from our side." And since the Taiping response had been "so satisfactory" and tended so much "to impress on us your wish to maintain friendly relations with the English and French," Captain Dew indicated that he would not insist on the demolition of the battery whence came the musket fire, but only that the guns be removed from the position. Incidentally, on the same day in a separate letter to Admiral Hope, Captain Dew noted that a "very active trade is being carried on with the rebels in rice and fire-arms,"22 which comment would in itself seem to be additional evidence against the contrary propaganda line which held that the Taipings were anathema to commerce.

On the very next day, April 28, 1862, there came a surprising turn of events. Captain Dew suddenly reversed himself. He now demanded of the Taipings "an ample apology," insisted that the offending battery "be immediately pulled down," and that all guns facing the foreign settlement be removed. Twenty-four hours were given for compliance, after which he and the French naval commander would request permission from their respective admirals to destroy the battery. Dew threatened that should the Taipings fire but one shot in return it would be considered an act of hostility, leading to measures that would probably follow with the capture of the city of Ningpo.23 

Considering the startling changed tone and the demands of this letter, it would appear that it was designed to antagonize and provoke the Taipings. One might have expected a defiant reply. Instead, on April 29, Generals Huang and Fan returned a very long letter characterized by an unusual degree of forbearance. It firmly maintained that the demands could not be complied with; otherwise the security of their position would be jeopardized. The letter pointed out all that had been done to keep relations proper and to protect trade. Without rancour it mentioned foreign transgressions against the Taipings. In the event that the foreigners should attack the Taiping positions, the generals made it clear

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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
28

STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR.

and justify their active support of the attack on the city. This then is what happened on the morning of May 10th. According to the Ch'ing official, Hsü Yao-kuang, the provocative shots were fired at a foreign vessel and actually killed two foreigners.36 Dew jumped to the conclusion or feigned to believe that it was the Taipings who had done the firing, and immediately joined in the fight. Dew's own account is nonchalant, noting merely that the Taiping guns were silenced and that he then went to dinner at noon. At 2 p.m. storming parties mounted the walls, and at 5 p.m., after all opposition had ceased, the "Governor” (probably the tao-t'ai) and Ch'ing soldiers landed from their junks. Dew turned the city over to the Manchu official and withdrew his men.37 The disposition of the Ch'ing troops during this attack is implicit in this report, but another unofficial source was more explicit, reporting that the Chinese allies could not be made to move toward the walls, so that in the end, even the actual breaching of them had to be undertaken by foreign troops.38 Obviously, under the circumstances of such an attack by Ch'ing forces, the Taipings had little alternative but to return fire toward foreign vessels which were interspersed among or in close proximity to the pirate fleet, both as the action began and as it continued.

After a determined resistance, and after both of their generals, Huang and Fan, had been badly wounded, the Taipings retired from the city. The contrast between what happened during the retaking of the city at this point and the record of the Taiping seizure of the city several months earlier is interesting. It will be recalled how universal had been the favorable comments regarding the bloodless Taiping takeover. As for this latest occupation, the report of the correspondent for the China Mail speaks eloquently: "The rebels retreated through the west gate; the pirates then entered the city and began the work of destruction, and in a few hours did more damage than the rebels did in the whole of the five months that they had possession." The same account goes on to speak of the executions and the tortures that were perpetrated over the next couple of days, and notes specifically that the British Consul's Chinese servant was "one of the principal murderers and torturers of the poor fellows found in the city."39 Cheng A-fu was subsequently given the status of a petty official in Ningpo, as a reward for his service.40
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n
156

whereupon he changed his surname He grew up to be a tall, heavily built, clever fellow, and a good judge of character.

He spoke the various frontier dialects well, a point which once saved his life when condemned to death for sheep-stealing He began to be employed in repressing the raids of the Kitan Tatars, in which occupation he made quite a name for himself, and was at length taken to the capital. The emperor T'ang Ming Huang took a great fancy to him, and the emperor's concubine, Yang Kuei-fei, called him her adopted son, making him do obeisance to her first and to the emperor afterwards, on the ground that such was the Turkic custom.

Despatched upon an expedition against the Kitans, he was so successful that he was ennobled as Duke. Then, with inflated pride and ambition, he rebelled, and added to the general confusion which was surrounding the wretched Ming Huang, who had been repeatedly warned of this new danger. An called himself Emperor Hsiung Wu of the Great Yen dynasty, and for a time carried everything before him. He was assassinated by his own son, An Ch'ing-hsu, who feared that he was going to be deprived of the succession in favour of the offspring of a concubine. And within three years of the first rising, the son too had been put to death by Shih Ssu-ming.

This rebellion was one of several eras in Chinese history which has provided a popular theme for opera and tea-house story tellers' tales providing Chinese with a familiarity with the dramatic events of the times and details of the lives and times of well-known heroes and villains of the time.

The same can also be said of traditional stories told within popular religion temples where tales are told and retold of a select number of the deified heroes of the victorious Tang imperial forces whose images are on altars. We shall be examining the roles of the emperor, his personal doctor and six generals loyal to the emperor during the campaign to suppress the rebellion and their eventual role in the celestial bureaucracy.
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