RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 24 JULIAN PAS 46, and 54) or in two temples (B-12, 38 and 55). In a few older cities or towns one finds the richest variety: Tainan: Taipei: Lukang: 5 different sets (cp. Banck, who has 9) 8 different sets (cp. Banck: 12) 3 different sets (cp. Banck 6) In Banck's collection are also included the Pescadores (P'eng-hu) islands: he has 6 sets from there, whereas I did not collect there at all. The great variety in older centres of immigrant settlements indicates that those sets were very likely brought to Taiwan from different "mother-temples” (tsung-miao) in the mainland; whereas in later times newly constructed temples took over the more popular sets available in Taiwan itself. In Taiwan, the more popular a cult, the larger the number of “daughter-temples” (fen-miao) it produced: that would explain the popularity of B-1 and B-2. To summarize my findings, I'd like to combine the data shown in tables 3 and 4 and then conclude with some final considerations: Table 5: Joint Survey of Temple Oracles in Taiwan B-I 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 Other B Not in B Not Avail. Total Confucian 1 Taoist 1 1 Buddhist 2 6 2 158 71 8 2 1 3 6 4 22 28.10 5 11 291 1 2 18 18 18 186 81 8 2 7 3 6 4 24 6 30 357 One important remark concerns the representative value of this survey: in my view, the sample taken cannot be considered to have general validity, except with regard to table 1 (and perhaps tables 2 and 3). A more detailed and carefully prepared research would produce a more accurate knowledge of the spread of the oracles. Taiwan nowadays counts between 4,000 to 5,000 registered temples, and a large number of non-registered shrines. Among the latter group are literally thousands of T’u-ti-kung shrines, sometimes small roadside chapels or altar-like structures, which have no oracle sets available. Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 28 Sheng Mu (玉皇聖母) One of the more interesting arrangements is the main hall of the Temple of the Jade Emperor in Tainan. The Jade Emperor occupies the main altar with the San Kuan (Three major Taoist deities) immediately before him. On his left hand is his son, referred to as the Fourth Heir Apparent (Yu Huang Ssu Tien Hsia F) (see Plate 4) but without any personal name, and on his right is his grandchild, the Third Princess (San Kung Chu Niang, see Plate 5). According to the temple keeper she is the younger sister of the Jade Emperor's heir Yuh Huang T'ai Tzu, and her annual festival is celebrated before her altar on the 15th day of the third lunar month. The other children of the Jade Emperor are not represented. An image of the Jade Emperor's third daughter (see Plate 7), a princess whose name is not given, is the main deity on an altar in a temple in Pai Sha on the Pescadores Islands. On the same altar are four other princesses, said to be her sisters, but again without names. These four are lesser deities. 10 Mrs. Goodrich was told by her Peking informant that Yen Kuang Niang-niang, the deity who watches over eyesight, was the sixth daughter of the Jade Emperor. Her image in the Temple of the Eastern Peak in Peking portrayed her carrying images of eyes in her hands. She has to be worshipped by a pregnant mother or her child will be born with incurable eye trouble. In another temple on the Pescadores, the Lung Tu Temple in Makung, the Third Prince of the Jade Emperor is the main deity on one of the major altars. He is flanked by smaller images of the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Princesses (Ta, Erh, Ssu, Wu Kung Chu). This Third Prince Yu Huang San T'ai Tzu should not be confused with Na Cha, who is also referred to as the Third Prince (Nacha San T'ai Tzu). The third son of the Jade Emperor is portrayed as a seated, beardless, middle-aged man holding an unsheathed sword vertically before his chest and with his left hand raised to shoulder height making a mystic sign. He is wearing a high, round-topped cap with a bead-screen, and has four flags signifying his military rank in a rack across his back. This same deity, Yu Huang San T’ai Tzu, has been noted with an image of the Taoist deity, the Saintly Mother (Sheng Mu) on a side altar in the main hall of a large folk religion temple in Manila. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 193 to and honouring the memory of Wang Te-lu, an Imperial fleet commander who helped clear the Straits of Formosa of pirates during the early years of the nineteenth century. The Wang Clan Temple in T'ai-pao village in Chia I county in central Taiwan was an elegant building first built during the late 19th century by the proud clan whose surname Wang Te-lu bore. It was rebuilt in 1979, this time a modern metal frame construction retaining the comparatively small single hall in which there is but one altar on which stands one large multi-ancestor tablet and three ancestral tablets. The flanking walls bear texts, with Wang Te-lu referred to in a number of the captions as Wang Ta-jen, i.e. His Excellency Wang, and paintings of Wang Te-lu stage left and of his primary wife stage right. Although we know little about Wang's early life apart from what has been retrieved from local folk memory which, as with all family recollections, is highly subjective and probably exaggerated out of all reality, we do have official records of the highlight of his life. This "five minutes of glory", depicted in a painting hanging in his Memorial Chapel illustrating the incident, was his victory over pirates who had been causing immense and terrible problems up and down the coasts of the southern provinces of Chekiang, Fukien and Kuangtung since the late 1790s. One pirate fleet in particular had sailed the Fukien coast under its dreaded Fukienese leader, Ts'ai Ch'ien. The Chinese Imperial naval commander, Li Ch'ang-keng, commanding the joint fleets of Fukien and Chekiang province, determined to suppress them, successfully defeated the pirates on a number of occasions but was killed in action in 1808, following which his two subordinate admirals, of whom Wang was one, were entrusted with continuing the task. Wang, in charge of the Imperial Fukien fleet, together with the Chekiang fleet under Admiral Ch'iu, fought the major battle in September 1808 near the Tai-chou islands off the Chekiang coast. The pirate fleet was destroyed with Ts'ai Ch'ien going down with his ship. Wang was born and named Te-lu, literally meaning "To become prosperous and happy", in 1771, the thirty-fifth year of the emperor Ch'ing Ch'ien Lung, in Kiangsi's provincial city of Nanch'ang, and in later years acquired the courtesy name of Pai-ch'u, literally "All Honours are concentrated within Him"; and the literary name, Yü-feng, literally meaning "The Jade Peak". He died at the age of 71 in 1842 on the Pescadores, an archipelago in the middle of the Straits of Formosa, and having been borne in honour back to Taiwan, was buried in Hsin- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 195 Again according to folk memory pirates under Ts'ai Ch'ien raided the coasts of Taiwan plundering the towns from as far south as Lukang, up the coast to Tamsui, Keelung, Su-ao and even sailing up river to Manka [present day Taipei). However, strange to say they never attempted to loot the prosperous port of Lukang, possibly to avoid upsetting the merchants there who were already paying "Danegeld", and thereby provoking a major campaign against them, or because the pirates spent much of their time hiding along the coastal strip to the south of Lukang. Ts'ai Ch'ien provided the opportunity for Wang to take his place in history, as has been described above, when Wang, at the age of 37, killed the pirate leader and destroyed his fleet in 1808. In 1842, during the First Opium War when it was feared that the British might attack and occupy the Pescadores islands, Wang, despite being 72, was asked to take charge of the fortifications. He died shortly after arriving there. The large ancestral painting of Wang in the Clan temple portrays him sitting on a chair covered by a tiger skin, the finials of the chair's arms carved into dragon's heads. He is dressed in Court robes with a winter cap, a flared mandarin collar and a mandarin's string of beads. His rank is depicted by the button on his cap and the square on his chest; however, the badge shows a form of dragon, which is only worn by members of the extended royal family, or under certain circumstances by Imperial Censors, whilst his cap button is plain coral as worn by the first class of mandarin. His honour, the Peacock Feather with double eye is clearly shown. He has a white moustache and goatee beard and a thin, aged face. There is no indication that he was a military official, rather it would seem he was a civil mandarin. Although his wife by rights should have had the same chest badge as her husband, the mandarin square in her ancestral painting is not only a civil badge, with a crane denoting a first class mandarin, but the bird is facing in the wrong direction. In practice, however, bird emblems were common to wives of both civil and military officials. These items suggest that the paintings were made many years after Wang and wife had died, and that the artisan who did the work was unacquainted with the niceties of rank, working as he probably did in the wilds of central Taiwan on numerous ancestral paintings for 'nobodies'. One final story about the importance of Wang to the people of Taiwan is patently untrue but reflects how folk tales become garbled with the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 823 29 Su Shi, probably better known as Su Dongpo, the scholar-statesman and poet, whose image has also been seen here in a village shop-house temple at Makung on the Pescadores Islands. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 283 an important strategic port for merchants. In the process of competing with Macao as the doorway to China trade, Hong Kong had its moments of hesitation. It had its own internal problems to solve during the three decades after 1841, such as building roads, houses, godowns, and having to provide an attractive and safe environment for trade. Only in 1875, after Hong Kong had developed into a port which was busy receiving Chinese junks from the north as well as Japanese vessels from the East and European steamers from the West was the first lighthouse at Cape D'Aguilar constructed to facilitate the navigation route leading to its harbour. Ships from the West To build lighthouses was a need formed by several elements. First, the marine navigation route from Europe to Asia used to go round the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa. In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened for navigation, shortening the distance between Europe and East Asia by 20 to 30 per cent as well as cutting the cost, facilitating more frequent sea traffic.4 Secondly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe increased drastically the supply of consumer goods which, in turn, demanded more and more large steamships with greater speed to carry them. Thirdly, shipping costs depend not only on the size and speed of the vessel or the time needed for the transportation. Part of the cost goes to the insurance against the danger of shipwrecks. The safe route with good navigation aids affected the cost of the goods directly. Because of the above elements, the demand for building lighthouses on the sea route to Hong Kong became more pressing with the increase of trade. Old lighthouses Before the setting up of lighthouses in Hong Kong there were already lighthouses in nearby waters. On the Eastern approaches to the Singapore Straits Horsburgh Lighthouse was established in 1851.5 Off the west coast of Taiwan located on Xi Yu Island of the Pescadores/Penghu Islands, the Fisherman Island Lighthouse (Yureng Tao Lighthouse) was set up as early as 1778.6 In Macao, the Guia lighthouse (Farol da Guia), built in 1865, claims to be the oldest on the China coast. These lighthouses, however, did not provide enough help for 7 ================================================================================