RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 191 N° of Column Omens 19. Offering made to each of the four quarters will be auspicious. 20, 21. The Shuozhou says: "Dogs die and are repeatedly reborn; to eat dogs is unlucky. + + inauspicious. Once (it) possesses supernatural powers (it) can cause misfortune. death and destroy one's links (with the living???). difficult to catch in order to kill it; if wounded it becomes even fiercer(?). If you reflect on how best to worship (it) again in order to grow rich (then) release something living(?), it will bring great good fortune to all of us. Afterward, all things will rapidly be successful as promised in the rules. (?) Make an amulet and put a dog at the top. 22. 23. Chapter 27: Omens from sounds. All these sounds are (produced) by the ghosts of dead soldiers. If a sound is heard on a zi day, it bodes ill; there will be illness 24. (and misfortune?). Write an astronomical charm and hang it over the door and all will be well. If a sound is heard on a zhou day, there will be damage to wealth and property and misfortune for small children. Offer a peach tree branch, 6 inches seven cun long. 25. Write an astronomical charm and place it in the branch and it will bring good fortune. If sounds are heard on a yin day, it bodes ill. There will be illness, calamities and loss of wealth. Offer a peach tree branch 6 inches 7 cun long. 26. Write an astronomical charm in order to produce good fortune. If a sound is heard on a mao day, disasters will affect young children. Offer a branch of the tong tree three inches nine cun long. I made the following corrections: - "muži" to "cun" (assuming it's a unit of measurement, and "cun" is a common Chinese unit) - "US" to "us" - "zi F day" to "zi day" (removed the extra character) - "zhou # day" to "zhou day" (removed the extra character) - "mao p day" to "mao day" (removed the extra character) - Added or corrected punctuation for better readability - Corrected some spacing issues - "seven muži" and "7 mu" to "seven cun" (consistency in unit of measurement) Note that some parts of the text still appear to be unclear or contain uncertain characters (e.g., "(with the living???)" and "(?)"). These were left as is, as per the instruction to not rephrase or rewrite the text. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 231 During the whole festival period, the main temple was the most neglected area, whilst the Ming-che area was always crowded with worshippers. Free vegetarian food was offered by the committee in the Association Hall for the whole period. The Association Hall and a room of the office of the Temple were used as temporary kitchens for preparing food and offerings. Worshippers seldom went to the main temple except for presenting incense sticks. Even though the Tao-ch'ang area was more spacious and was air-conditioned, worshippers seldom stayed long in the Tao-ch'ang area except on the last night, for the "Great Offering" ceremony. Worshippers seldom visited the Association Hall either except when they were giving donations or having their daily meals. The Ming-che area was the only place which was always crowded. There were people chatting, exchanging greetings, admiring and criticising every Ming-che (paper-made houses), folding paper-money and playing musical instruments and singing. 5 The Tao-ch'ang area was seen as the most dangerous and frightening place for the worshippers because it was believed to be full of the hungry ghosts who came for the offerings. The Association Hall and the kitchens belonged to the hosts, the Hokkienese. Worshippers went first to the Tao-ch'ang area to offer foods to the spirits, and then to the Association Hall to accept meals from the hosts. In general, worshippers felt attracted to the Ming-che area because, while it was the area of their ancestors, yet the ancestors there were not frightening. The Ming-che area gave the worshippers the opportunity to be at the same time closer to their ancestors, and to build up relationships with other Chinese who lived far away. Non-Hokkienese worshippers seemed to avoid the Association Hall because of ethnic differences, and this brought them even closer to the Ming-che area. During the whole event, only 'Ancestor Worship' was emphasised by the worshippers. II. The Festival According to the figure-maker (Tze-shi) Mr. Lin Yau Chie (73 years old, Hokkienese), the preparation for each year's 'Yue Lan' starts from the end of the previous event. In other ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 232 CHOI CHI CHEUNG words, he starts to accept orders for making Ming-che" from the middle of the 7th moon. However, not until the beginning of the year is any actual work done. The Association first elects a committee for the 'Yue Lan' festival during the feast for the Lantern Festival (15th of the 1st moon), and several donation-books (Yuan Bu*) are sent out to different places in Japan to collect donations from the Chinese. At about the same time (2nd of the 2nd moon), Mr. Lin starts to make figures, Ming-ches, Chos (paper-made houses for the gods and ancestors), gold and silver paper-made hills, direction flags, and other paraphernalia. Major figures are completed a month before the festival starts. Then, a priest is invited to open the eyes (Kai Kuan H or Kai Yen MIR) of the paper-made figures, and the statues of the Kwan-ti temple and the Tao-ch'ang. On the same day, a ‘Raising the Lantern of Heaven' (Chie T'ien Dan) ritual is done to invite all the spirits to the festival. The committee will then start to send invitation letters to the Chinese in Japan. The festival lasted 4 nights and 5 days from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 (from 13th to 17th of the 7th moon), 1982.” According to a public notice, the rituals included: (i) a daily morning and a daily night ritual, (ii) praying for the reincarnation of the dead in the morning and afternoon, (iii) reporting to Heaven in the afternoon, (iv) offering to the hungry ghosts at night, and, (v) a lantern floating ceremony in the afternoon of Sept. 2.10 Table 1 shows, however, that the scheduled time-table was not strictly followed. For example, on the last morning of the festival, three rituals were performed to thank the gods of the Temple, to thank Heaven, and to offer to the ghosts which were supposed to be late or handicapped, instead of the previously advertised "praying for reincarnation”. From my observation, it appeared that no one attended the 'Morning Lessons' (Morning ritual and prayer for reincarnation), and, except for the rituals for reporting to Heaven, the lantern floating ceremony and the last ‘Great Offering', there was less than ten persons who attended from start to finish. Besides the rituals for reporting to the Heaven, the three rituals held on the last day and the lantern floating ceremony, all other rituals took place at the 'Tao Ch'ang' area. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 Date Aug 31 Time Announced Programme 22:00 Sept. 1 7:00 morning lesson and Kaiko" WANA Table 1. Time Table pre-offering 前传施戰鬼 Observed Programme Inviting the gods night ritual pre-offering morning ritual 1 morning ritual 2 Time 15:00 20:00-20:45 22:00-22:40 7:00- 7:20 10:00-10:30 15:00 afternoon Kaiko 15:00-15:50 and Reporting NAJLA ritual and prayer for reincarnation 15:50-16:10 Reporting 18:00 night lesson and 20:00-20:45 night ritual repentance 晚課拜懺 20:00-22:00 movie 22:00 the great offering 大拖能鬼 10:10-11:00 the great offering Sept. 2 7:00 morning lesson and 7:00-7:20 morning ritual [ kaiko朝課间间 10:00-10:25 morning ritual 2 15:00 afternoon kaiko, FEMA 15:00-16:15 Lantern floating Reporting and lÆSLA 16:20-16:40 Reporting Lantern floating 18:00 night lesson and 20:00-20.45 night ordinance and repentance 晚課拜懺 repentance 22:00 the great offering R 20:00-22:00 22:10-23:00 movie the great offering Sept. 3 7:00 morning lesson and 7:00- 7:20 morning ritual 1 kaiko悯課川河 10:00-10:20 morning ritual 2 15:00 afternoon kaiko and Reporting 14:30-15:00 FOR FRASILA 15:00-15:15 afternoon reincarnation Reporting 18:00 night lesson and 20:00-21:00 night repentance repentance # 20:00-21:45 22:00 the great offering AAMUE 22:00-23:55 Sept. 4 0:00- 0:40 7:00 Late Kaiko H 10:50-11:05 11:10-11:15 movie the great offering Burning Thank the Temple Gods Thank Heaven 11:20-11:25 15:00 * = in Japanese, means reincarnation through praying Offering to the late and handicapped ghosts. Feast. + IL. the prayer book for the offerings is 瑜伽燄口科怆 reincarnation it is A LAKE 233 for the ritual and According to the priests, the morning and night rituals are their normal daily rituals in the temple ( Wat ), only the 'Offering', the 'Reporting', the 'Lantern Floating', and the three rituals on the last day were performed specially for the Festival. During the night rituals, after reciting charms and presenting in- cense sticks to the altar of Heaven-and-Earth (T’ien Di T'an AM), all the priests, except one who kept on striking a drum 天地壇 in the Tao Ch'ang area, walked through the whole festival area. At the same time, the main priest bowed to every object of worship." After returning to the Tao Ch'ang area and purifying a small dish ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 СТ DOUTEN Priests chanting at the Great Offering to the Ghosts. Site for burning offerings to ghosts: notice the flag posts. 95 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 99 also young women, walked around the legs of the paper image. I heard a man say, perhaps as a joke, “Girls who walk under the legs will marry quickly.” The concluding rite known as Great Offering to Ghosts started at about 9:00 p.m. The priests chanted and sang while about 60 people watched. About the same number of people, mostly young, were looking at photos they took on the previous days. They left soon afterwards. When the chanting finished, the villagers, including many middle-aged women who had prepared the paper money, took the offerings to the main beach where a huge hole had been dug. Incense and paper offerings were burnt. The daai-si-wong and his companion, yat-gin-faat-choi, were later taken there, with their faces towards the sea. The final burning was supervised by some of the priests. The photographer Mr. Yue remarked that there were more people at this rite than in the case of Kam Tin. However, in this case, most of those present were onlookers rather than worshippers. The head priest had advised in the previous evening the leader Mr. Wong that roast pork and other specified kinds of pork (seung-yuk, laam-yuk) in specified form and quantities were needed for the rite in the morning. The rite is presumably chau-san, Thanksgiving to the Gods. The local gods would be sent away two days later because the day after the main rites was an unlucky day (po-yat). I heard in the procession in the previous evening the comment that those who had contributed more than a certain amount of money were entitled to a meal and roast pork to take home. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 348 D. The Taoist Priests and Their Rites The Taoist priests who performed the rites in this festival were hired on a contract basis. More than ten of them were involved, among whom four were in a senior position. The oldest of the four, Mr. Lam Pui, born before 1910, was from the New Territories. Another, Mr. Jeung Hoi, was from a village just across the present Chinese border. Mr. Lam Choi was probably from the New Territories too. Both were born about 1920. These three had been active as ritual experts in the area since when they were young, and had been in leading positions at least in the last few decades. The four had all performed in the 1965 celebration of the Kam Tin jiu festival. The other senior priest, Mr. Chan Gau, was from Sa Jeng in the western area of Bao'an county. He had come to Hong Kong more than ten years ago and since then has worked in the New Territories. Mr. Leung Tung, though not a priest by profession, had been working with this group of priests as a musician, and had trained in an early stage of his career in ceremonial music bands in the Bak Bin villages. Chan Gau, Jeung Hoi and Lam Pui were the partners who undertook to provide the priestly services on this occasion, and the other members of the team were hired to help. Besides the three-times daily Scripture chanting and small processions to make offerings at different spots, the priests performed about 20 rites in the festival. About ten of them were more elaborate and were considered to be the main ones. Each of the four senior priests took the leading role in different rites. Mr. Lam Pui, being the oldest and the most knowledgeable, acted as the high priest in most of the main rites, including the Opening Rite, the Purification of the Ritual Area, the Posting of the Placard, the Escort of the Holy Ones, and the Great Offering to Ghosts. Mr. Chan Gau, being younger and good at acrobatic feats, took care of the more martial rituals: the martial arts section of the Purification of the Ritual Area, and Going through the Gates of Life and Death, and headed the team for the Dipper Rite. Mr. Jeung Hoi acted as the main priest in some of the other important rites. Mr. Lam Choi, partly because he was not one of the partners, played secondary roles. The morning, noon-time, and afternoon Scripture chanting and offerings were performed by the more junior members of the team, as were the short concluding rites on the last day. 60 Although the rites differ one from another, there were many elements ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 354 [**posting the memorial”] which will start at about 8 a.m., and a meal. The procession is to cover the 5 wai and 6 chyun of Kam Tin, paying respect to the gods. It will end at about 5 p.m. There will also be a ceremony to be officiated by James Hayes at 4 p.m. The procession on the next day will go all the way to Yuen Long, taking about the same amount of time. But as it can start earlier there is no need to wait until a preceding rite is over it will probably end a bit earlier... the daai-yau [“Great Offering to Ghosts"] on the last evening of the jiu will start at about 7 p.m., and end at about 3 a.m. T — The four rites named were the events which many of the villagers took part in, and the routes of the procession were unique to Kam Tin. It is therefore not surprising that the no. 1 ritual representative could estimate their timing with some confidence. Of the other rites performed by the priests, he did not seem to know much. He told me that to have a better idea of what the schedule would be, I had better talk with the priests. The answer of the priest I talked to on the telephone was that he would not know until he and his colleagues got to Kam Tin, as Kam Tin had a written record prescribing its own requirements for the jiu. I had the opportunity to read the manuscript in detail. It included contracts for the priests, paang construction contractor, paper image and offerings maker, puppeteer and opera troupe, among others. It also listed the rites, giving details of the offerings and other arrangements required. A few copies of the manuscript from previous celebrations were still kept. While the manuscripts provide much useful information, the responsible villagers do not seem to use it fully. While the contract for the paper image maker specified the figures to be included, the elders probably had no idea what there should be besides the images of the ten Kings of the Underworld. They had no idea that in the contract they required several dozen sets of paper clothing for use as offering to "heroes". The record had a diagram showing the proper arrangement of the temporary altars to be set up for the ying-sing rite, which had been in practice in the previous celebrations, but this time the layout no longer agreed with that in the record. Part of the confusion must have been due to the fact that a few different ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 364 They left the festival site, passing Tai Hong Wai and Ko Po, where those who took part were offered drinks. They next reached Ying Lung Wai, where they were met by the lion dance of the village, and treated to soft drinks. They first worshipped at the altar of the God of Earth and Grain of Ying Lung Wai, then the san-teng and the village gate. They proceeded to Tung Tau Tsuen, where they worshipped at the Tin-Hau Temple and then the Gwun-Yam Temple. No one came to meet them. But nearby two elderly ladies exchanged these remarks among themselves, "The two temples belong to Kam Tin fellows, they wanted to repair them, but Tung Tau Tsuen would not let them". They proceeded to the Old Market. First they worshipped at the market gate then at the Bak-Dai Temple, and then at the Daai-Wong Temple. Then they moved on to Nam Pin Wai, where they worshipped at the altar of the God of Earth and Grain, the san-teng and the village gate. A man in his fifties sitting under a tree cursed the Dangs when he saw the Ambulance which was in attendance in case anyone was overcome by the heat. He said, "Right. Let this Ambulance carry these Kam Tin fellows". At the nearby Sai Pin Wai they worshipped at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. There was a reception. They proceeded to a Lam Yi-Hing Tong” inside Sai Pin Wai, and then the village gate and an altar of the God of Earth and Grain. The procession finished with the Old Market and the surrounding villages, and went on to Yuen Long New Market. When they reached Sau Fu Street, they were offered soft drinks by people who had come from Kam Tin for that purpose. From there they walked back to the festival site at Kam Tin. F. The Procession with the King of Ghosts The procession with the King of Ghosts took place during the evening before the Great Offering to Ghosts. In the first stage the Bak-Bin villagers carried the huge image of the Daai-Si Wong through their villages. Their Naam-Bin counterparts waited near Kam Hing Wai to take over the paper image for the second part of the procession. These were 22 young men, many carrying long bamboo poles with metal ends ================================================================================