RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS 11 There are a dozen or so temples in Hong Kong the titles of which should leave one in no doubt that they are Buddhist. To highlight the problem of classifying temples by their religious affiliation, let us examine one in Lo Wai above Tsuen Wan which has a typically Buddhist name followed by the characters for "Buddhist temple". The staff consists of three laymen who run the vegetarian restaurant below the temple and the deities on the altar from senior to junior are Guan Di, Guan Yin, Lu Dong Bin, Dou Mu and Yao Shi Fo. Guan Yin and Yao Shi Fo are Buddhist, whilst the other three are Daoist folk religion deities. Opposite the main altar, on a secondary altar, are a Kitchen God and a Protector of the Law, both represented by framed prints; the first is a folk religion deity and the second Buddhist. And finally, on the table before the main altar is a red wooden rice bucket containing a peck of uncooked rice in which stand numerous items which have without doubt Daoist and not Buddhist origins. Despite the mixture, the three laymen were surprised that there was any doubt that their temple was Buddhist. Confucian and Daoist temples In Hong Kong and Macau there are no Confucian temples as there were in China and still are in Taiwan. There are, however, Confucian Halls such as the one in a school sponsored by the Confucian Society at Caroline Hill, Hong Kong Island. Several Chinese societies in Hong Kong are understood to have private altars dedicated solely to Confucius. The official state religion had its own rites and deities and involved the official bureaucracy and the gentry only. The nearest thing to a State temple in our two territories is the rural school at Fanling where an image of the Yellow Emperor (*) stands on an altar in the main hall, and the side hall of a Macau temple in which a school is held where on an altar there are full-size images of the inventors of ink and writing. "Pure" Daoist temples are rare, there appearing to be none in Macau and some two dozen in Hong Kong of which two are branches of two of the others. These two dozen contain distinct Daoist deities, are run by Daoist bodies represented by a committee, whilst Daoist lay priests and priestesses perform Daoist ceremonies. * Peng Lai Ge (**M**) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j Liang Zhe fang hu (ling qin ci mu) lu (REHE)* Zhejiang kao Ku jing jing she wen ji 詁經精社文集 (Wang fu zhai) zhung ding kuan shi (E) H** Xue shi zhong ding kuan shi 薛氏鐘鼎款識 Jiao shan ding-kao 焦山定陶鼎考 Huang Qing bei ban lu Hai tang zhi 海塘志 Ji gu zhai zhung ding yi qi kuan shi **** 海連考 Hai yun kao I Liang Zhe jin shi zhi 兩浙金石志 Shi san jing zhu shu fu jiao kan ji +¶EAH Yang zhou Ruan shi jia miao bei 揚州阮氏家廟碑 Yen jing shi wen ji 擘經室文集 Sui Wen xuan lou ming Ying zhou shu ji 瀛舟書記 Qu jiang ting ji 曲江亭記 ** Si ku wei shou shu mu ti yao 四庫未收書目提要 Tian yi ge shu mu 大一閣書目 Ling yin shi shu zang mu Chou ren zhuan AM Shi san jing jing fu +* ****! Yi li shang fu da gong zhang zhuan zhu chuan wu Kao x 功章傳注舛考 Han Yen xi xi yue Hua shan bei kao ✶✶U** Ru lin zhuan kao ####N Guo shi wen yuan zhuan 國史文苑傳 Jiao shan shu cang shu mu 焦山書藏書目 (Song ben) shi san jing zhu shu (**)+*** Jiang su shi zheng # Jiang xi gai jian gong yuan hao she bei ji 江西改建貢院號舍碑記 Guangdong tong zhi 廣東通志 Gai jian Guangdong xiang shi wei she zhuo bei ji ***** 碑記 Shi shu gu shun 詩書古訓 Yen jing shi ji 擘經室集 Chong xiu Ruan shi zu-pu CEE** Huang Qing jing jie 皇清經解 Xue hai tang zhi 學海堂集 Yen jing shi shi lu 擘經室詩錄 Shi hua ji 石畫記 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 119 prestige since the Tang dynasty. I shall return to this point later Genealogies that are available now are the result of many updates and only then prefaces can be dated. Some of those in the collection of Luo, op. cit. contain a preface dated 1269 (p. 363), another a preface dated 1406 (p. 48), another was first compiled during the same period (p. 67). As the prefaces do not usually dwell on the many different names of ancestors, we cannot expect prefaces to indicate ordination names as such. The earliest dated preface in the collection to mention ordination names was written in 1780. It drew attention to early ancestors whose achievements as officials are not known but are immortals in the celestial count, referred to by their religious names. It would be useful to examine unabridged genealogies to find mention of ordination names in early prefaces. 1. Check the Golden Lotus for ordination of a male child. Ordination in a funeral seems to appear in the famous Qing novel, the Red Chamber. NJ Hu Bo'an's *Zhonghua Chuanguo Lingji*, reprinted 1990, Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Guji Chubanshe, *shang bian*, j. 1, p. 82 describes a practice in Tianjin province of Buddhist ordination; the child will later become a layman again in a rite to be carried out at the age of 12. 21 Qu Dajun, *Beijing: Zhonghua*, 1985, pp. 302–303. The passage is repeated by Yihe Dong Biji, written around the 18th century (the author Li Diaoyuan obtained his Jinshi degree during the Qianlong period, 1736-1795). If the passage in *Guangdong Xinyu* was copied from some earlier book, the original would not have been written before 1569, when Yong'an was first established as a separate county. "The Third Gazetteer of Yong'an, j. 1, p. 207 in the reprint by Chengwen Chubanshe, 1974. The Changle County Gazetteer, j. 4, p. 247 in a reprint in the 70s (2) in Taiwan. According to the *Gongguo Difang Zhi Zonghe Mulu* ('Comprehensive Catalogue of Chinese Gazetteers'), the earliest version, of circa 586 and circa 663 respectively, still exist. 21 The passage does mention that the area has Yao and Liao minorities, but the sentence about the sorcerers seems to refer to Han villagers. See Hu, op. cit., *shang bian*, j. 8, p. 50. 24 Op. cit., j. 1, pp. 8b-9a. 1 Jl, * Michel Strickmann, in 'The Longest Taoist Scripture', in *History of Religions*, 1978, p. 349, suggests that the appearance of the name Satan here attests to the influence of Manichaeism in Southeastern China. The Satan was worshipped by some circles of agnostics, according to the entry in Mircea Eliade, ed., *The Encyclopedia of Religion*, New York: Macmillan, 1987. 26 Interpreted as King of Skanda by Strickmann, op. cit. 27 In some cases written as Mei Shan, Mei Shan, Lu Shan, or Lu Shan. * Li and Huang, ed., *Liannan Bapai Yanjiu Ziliao*, published by Guangdong Sheng Shehui Kexueyuan in the 1980s. See, for example, p. 554 and p. 564 for King of Asura, p. 433 for ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 169 RAS VISIT TO HUIZHOU Dan Waters On Saturday 15 November, 1997, 14 stalwart members of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch (RASHKB) set off by coach on a two-day visit to Huizhou (Waichau or Waichow) and the surrounding region in eastern Guangdong Province. Huizhou has a population of about 600,000, making it larger than Macau. In this part of Guangdong, where Westerners attract a certain amount of attention, we visited scenic spots like the West Lake (see Plate I), the Xizhou Pagoda and the Su Dongbo Well as well as his Monument (see Plate II).1 Su Dongbo was a leading poet and a member of the literati in Northern Song times. He was also concerned with the building of bridges, improving dams and constructing water supply schemes. Madam Wang (1062-96), his Concubine, was a native of Hangzhou. Su was disgraced and banished to Guangdong and subsequently to Hainan Island. Our RAS Group also visited one of the most famous Taoist temples (the Lu Dong Bin Temple) in Guangdong Province, situated at Loh Fau Shan. Lu Dong Bin is one of the Eight Immortals and a patron saint of the literati. He uses a fly whisk to sweep away the clouds and carries a magic sword associated with healing. On the following day (Sunday 16 November) the RAS Group drove to the unspoiled Nine Dragon Mountain (named 'Kowloon' like in Hong Kong) and its comparatively well-known Tam Kung Temple which was visited by a group of RASHKB members in November 1995. Research has previously been carried out and RAS visits have been made to various Tam Kung temples both in Hong Kong and in Macau, including during the Tam Kung Festival. Also, an illustrated lecture was given on the Hakka Boy Deity, Tam Kung, in 1996, to the RASHKB by Professor Anthony Siu and Geoffrey Roper. There is little point in repeating similar information here. One of the tasks that the RAS group set itself, in November 1997, was to find two buildings in Huizhou which were used by the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) during World War Two. Both sites were ================================================================================