RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 328 winter. Once in a year they practised shooting at a police shooting range near Man Kam To. In earlier times the guards had used gwan sticks. C. The village market At present there are a few shops, mostly food stalls, in Kam Tin Shi. Some Dangs also live there. They are descendants of the senior branch, including descendants of Wan-Guk and Wan-Gaan. The place used to be the local market. It was active before the Japanese occupation. It had a sign in the form of an arch, which was removed by the Japanese. Some documentary information about the market has survived in a rent record.29 One of the shops entered into the rental contract in 1851. The rent book included entries for five shops in Kam Tin Shi. Among them one was run by a tailor. It also mentioned the names of three streets. These were Upper Main Street (Sheung Taai Gaai) and Lower Main Street (Ha Taai Gaai) as well as Middle Street (Jung Gaai). The elders remembered that the market had two or three butchers and two or three fishmongers. Besides these there were a few other shops. Two sold jaap-fo (“sundry goods”). Kam Tin Shi is remembered to have mainly catered for the needs of the Kam Tin people. Very few outsiders came. Some informants added that there was even one pawn shop inside Kat Hing Wai. The owner was a descendant of Wan-Gaan jou. I have no idea when the pawnshop was started. There was also a peanut oil factory which was started more than 100 years ago. It was owned by a Wan-Yu jou person. IV. SETTLEMENTS AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS 4 According to Sung (1973:111) Hon-Faat, the first Dang ancestor to come to the province, built the first house at the bottom of a hill called [Gwai Gok Saan] about three-quarters of a mile away from the present Kam Tin". His grandson Fu-Hip lived there on retirement and founded a school called Lik Ying Jai (ibid.: 116). The descendants of Fu-Hip's grandson Seui, lived in the Naam Wai and Bak Wai villages around the beginning of Ming dynasty (1368). The division of the Kam Tin settlement into Naam-Bin and Pak-Bin remain today. Yun-leung, father of the gwan-ma and one of the sons of Seui, remained in Kam Tin. The other four descendants of Fu-Hip moved to nearby Ping Shan and places in Dongguan county, among other places. The descendants of many of the sons of the gwan-ma moved away to Lung Yeuk Tau, Tai Po Tau, 30 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 171 NOTES AND QUERIES NOTES ON CHEUNG PAO TSAI ANTHONY SIU KWOK-KIN Cheung Pao Tsai, also known as Cheung Pao Tsai, was the son of a fisherman living along the coast of San Hui county in the Kwantung province. He was kidnapped by Chang Yat, leader of the pirates of the Red Flag Squadron, at the age of fifteen. Because he was young and clever, he was forced to be a pirate. He managed all business very well, and was soon promoted to be headman. In 1807, Chang Yat died at sea in a great storm. His wife, Shek Yeung (also known as Chang Yat Sao by the pirates), and his nephew Chang On Bong led the Red Flag pirates. Chang On Bong was very timid. Thus, Cheung Pao became a good assistant to Chang Yat Sao. She appointed Cheung Pao to be the chief headman, and placed the whole crew under his sway, while she commanded all the squadron. Cheung Pao was a good assistant of Chang Yat Sao. He was very faithful and obedient to her. He did everything only with her permission. She trusted him well, and his suggestions were generally approved. He could command the Red Flag Squadron with her consent. Thus, people at that time only knew the name Cheung Pao, and all the piratical disasters in the South China Sea were said to be done by him. Cheung and his gang plundered along the coast of the Canton Delta from 1808 to 1810, concentrating on the Heung Shan, San Hui, San Ning, Pan Yu, and Tung Kwun counties. Of these, Heung Shan faced the greatest disaster. At first, they only robbed the merchant ships at sea. Later, being encountered by the Ching navy, they turned inland and robbed the villages they could reach by boats. Then, because of the strong resistance made by the villagers, and being defeated by the Imperial force for many times, Cheung was forced to surrender in 1810. He was given the title of a Shoubei or captain in the navy, and he helped to pacify the rest of the pirates in the South China Sea. He married Chang Yat Sao. Because of his bravery in the navy, he was promoted to be a Fujiang or major-general. He died in 1822. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 102 that around what is now northern Jiangxi Province there were many temples dedicated to a god known as Jiu Lang. A story in the Song work Yi Jian Zhi mentioned that a god of a Sichuan temple “was popularly known as Er Lang." This last example is also important in that it testifies the persistence of the lang title: although the god had more prestigious titles from the Emperors, the oral tradition still used the old one. In the Yao document from Liannan one sees a list of five gods each associated with the Five Yue Mountains in a similar form, from Dong Yue Yi Lang to Zhong Yue Wu Lang. Lang as a title for sorcerers is also mentioned in the Tang compilation Dao Dian Lun in the Daoist Canon, which quoted Mingzhen Ke, an earlier work, saying that ritual experts of “excessive cults" called themselves gu (for female) and lang (for male). The use of lang for man as a title is found not later than the Han dynasty. According to Zhao Yi, during the Han officials of higher ranks were allowed to appoint their sons as lang. Therefore, according to this work of Qing dynasty, people's sons were called lang as an address of respect. Earliest examples of such usage include the Tang dynasty scholar-official Han Yu's short composition to mourn his elder brother's son, a Shi Er (12) Lang. The Song work of anecdotal literature Yi Jian Zhi also mentions quite a lot individuals bearing names of this form. In two cases explanations seem to be suggested for those names: one because he was wealthy, the other because he knew how to communicate with gods. In both cases the use of a name in the lang form seems to imply respect. This may explain partly why this form of name was adopted as a title of gods as well as sorcerers and initiates of magic. 54 We have relatively more information about Lú Shan Jiu Lang's disciples, who appear to be masters of magic rather than the son of mountain gods. The Cantonese priests' manual contained an entry for Zhang Zhao Er Lang, the last in Bai Yuchan's list. We learn that Zhang Zhao Er Lang were two persons, both from Huainan Xian, probably within the present Anhui province, origin. They studied under Lu Shan Jiu Lang, giving up their positions as high-ranking officials of Qingzhou and Zhangzhou, two prefectures I have failed to identify, to practice magic. One of them was called Zhang Zhao Wu (5) Lang who conquered crocodiles and other sea monsters in the sea of... ================================================================================ 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-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 120 24 Н Tou To Wang, Changsha Wang and various Muowang "demons" I have not consulted Shuton Yoshio eds. Yao Documents (Tokyo Kodansha 1975) For example the Buddhist concept of Liu Dao, and the Asura was summoned by the Devil King to fight the Buddha in the Dunhuang narrative literature Buo Muo Branwen, in Dunhuang Brannen, in Tarper Shipe Shuju reprint, 1980, p 347 But in a passage of the Hua Yan Jin quoted by Hong MA,, op cut P. 1680, the King of Asura was among those summoned by the Bodhisattva to come to the rescue of those in turmoil But Muowang "Demon Kings' also featured in canonical Daoism in which They have been conquered by the Daoist gods and can be summoned by Daoist for protection Even then the Jade Emperor's native place, according to the same document, was "Puo Xi" which could have been Persia too See Jiang op eit for Qujiang, and Hu Qiwang et al Bancun Yang, Minzu Chubanshe, 1983, for Guangxi Province "See Lagerwey for the present situation "The SJYLSSDC as we see now, a Qing reprint of the Ming book, has a passage that says Chen went to Lu Shan to study magic. But the next four characters do not make sense The crucial characters will give the master's name as Jiu Lang and can be found in reprints in a more recent series A Ming version reprint of the same book, under the title of Sanpao Yuanliu Shengdi Faozu Shoushen Dachuan, in the series Zhongguo Mijian Xinvang Zijido Hunbuan, Taiwan, 1989, gets most of the characters right. Compare also Shi Shen, a Qing manuscript also reprinted in the same series that quotes a Zheng Shou Shen ji, the passage is otherwise identical with SJYLSSDC "See for example Lagerwey, perhaps Liu Zhiwan also. Note the latter being account of practice of the Zhang Fazu sect, which seemed not to involve the Lu Shan Jiu Lang at all Th Interesting information is found in John Lagerwey was not mentioned, instead "John Keupers", "A Description of the Fa-ch'ang Ritual as Practiced by the Lu Shan Taoists of Northern Taiwan", in Saso and Chappell eds Buddhist and Taoist Studies 1. Hawaii University of Hawaii, 1977, p 83 This article on the Lu Shan San Nai sect shows, without saying so, that the confusion has multiplied as the priest has mistaken the pair Lu Shan Jiu Lang and Wang Tu Mu for Dong Wang Gong and Xi Wang Mu, two prominent gods in canonical Daoism, and by two steps of substitution (Xu Xun = Lu Shan Jiu Lang, Dong Wang Gong = Lu Shan Jiu Lang) identified Dong Wang Gong with Xu Xun - See for example the San Jiao Shou Shen Da Chuan Min Du Wai Ji by den He Qiu, reprinted 1987 by Fujian Renmin Chubanshe Yuan Hao-wen, Yi Jian Zhi, Reprint Beijing Zhonghua Shuju, 1988 14 ALL Op eit pp 1181, 1429 + ================================================================================ 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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 178 amends. King Wu also held an audience at which he announced that certain Daoists and generals who had bravely fought and died should be regarded as heroes and revered as such. At that point a number of Daoist mythological heroes stepped forward and declared that as they were uncultured, having lived in the mountains and countryside, they now wished to return to report to their masters. They added that they were unable to accept honours or rewards as they had simply followed the orders of their masters. All seven left the Court, and the following day after a feast, they were reluctantly permitted to leave by King Wu. My daughter, a friend and I during a visit to Song Shan in Henan province, one of the Daoist holy mountains, came across a large modern temple which, as we approached its entrance, looked real enough until we came to enter it. There were several young women in a uniform of sorts knocking a badminton cock around to while away the hours and, of all things, a turnstile. We then saw the name of the temple was Fengshen Gong, the Palace of the Investiture of the Gods, and entered wide-eyed wondering what could possibly be inside. Once inside we were taken by our guide down a short corridor and out into what proved to be a massive wax-works, images of scenes from the Fengshen Yanyi as well as images of the major local deity, the Lord of Zhong Yüeh, the Lord of the Central Peak [Song Shan]. The exhibition, we were informed, had been built by the Tourist Board of the local city, Deng Feng, for Chinese visitors. Well over 200 images, mostly static but with some dozen or so automatons, lined the winding path leading through the large exhibition hall. With a not too subtle gesture our guide switched each on and off until, apparently bored by her foreign guests who spent quite some time at each exhibit, she abandoned us and returned to her badminton. The place was deserted apart from four small boys who were delighted to be alone with us and took enormous pleasure in switching on and off the various exhibits for our benefit without any guide being there to chastise them. Scenes included the wicked Zhou Wang ascending his throne; Na Zha, the Third Prince, Causing Trouble with the Dragon King; Duke Fa [King Wu] subjugating Zhou Wang; the Terrace of the Investiture on which Jiang Ziya is reading out the decree canonising the heroes, and the Five Sacred Ones returning to Heaven. Several of the automated exhibits had the small boys in fits of giggles; one in particular ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x Being chairperson of the Activities Committee is a demanding position and we thank Valery Garrett for her considerable effort and for a job well done. We also thank her Committee comprising the Reverend Carl Smith, Doctors Elizabeth Sinn, Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, as well as May Holdsworth, Sarah Parnell, Peter Stuckey and Jason Wordie. Others who have helped with the organising of activities include Stephen Selby, Michael Broom and Arthur Hacker. A vote of thanks is accorded to all of them. Projects and other activities Again our Society has been involved in various ways with projects and other activities which sometimes amount to a form of community service. For instance, over the summer we pieced together information for Mrs Victoria Brown of Australia. She was trying to trace details about her great-grandmother, Mrs Miranda Main (née Mann), who served as a school principal in Hong Kong at the end of the 19th and early in the 20th century. When Mrs Brown visited Hong Kong in October of last year, together with Mr S T Chiu of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, he and I showed Mrs Brown the old school building at 136 Nathan Road where her great-grandmother had been principal. Also, RAS members David Clinton and Dr Gillian Bickley met Mrs Brown and provided her with useful information. With the help of Council member Tim Ko, we also provided information regarding bullet and shrapnel marks on a wall on Lower Stubbs Road where a great deal of fierce fighting took place when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong in December 1941. In another case a lady in England, Frances Howell, was trying to trace details of her relatives who lived in Shan Dong Province and Hong Kong. Again, in response to a letter in the press, information was provided for a relative in England regarding Lieutenant Henry Dallas who died in Hong Kong in 1844. Information was obtained regarding both the grave and a monument on the wall inside Saint John's Cathedral up until World War Two. Also, our Branch was invited to send a representative to make its views known to a government working party which was looking into the subject, 'Conservation and the Natural Environment.' This is the xvi ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 50 Li Deyu died in exile in 849, in Hainan some 57 years before the end of the Tang dynasty. He was born in AD 787, the son of a minister of state, and rose to become a great minister. In his heyday he was pre-eminent in China serving six emperors faithfully, including being chief minister to Tang emperor Wu Cong. Impeached as the President of the Board of War he was banished to Hainan where his spirit withered. He was not only a fine scholar but also favoured Daoism in the rivalry with Buddhism to influence the Court. He would appear to have had a comparatively close friendship with the Mao Shan sect of Daoists and is even thought to have encouraged the persecution of Buddhism and the imperial eunuchs. He was also an untiring opponent of eunuch influence. His achievements as a poet were recognised as was his contribution to horticulture. Li Guang was born in Fujian province in 1085 and died in a monastery in Hangzhou in 1140, having been an Imperial Censor and Minister of State. He is renowned for his opposition to the encroachment of the Jin Tatars and in particular the peace proposals by which Qin Gui earned his unenviable notoriety. In 1126 he commanded troops defending the capital and succeeded in defeating the Jin Tatars with great slaughter. He was impeached in 1127 after only a matter of months as Minister of State for irregularities in connection with the purchase of horses and levies of troops, and was exiled for a while before moving to a monastery where he lived out the rest of his life. Li Guang [1077-1159] was born in Yuezhou in Zhejiang. He was also a scholar-official, but of the earlier Northern Song. He also appears to be feted in Hainan for sharing Hu Quan's rigorous opposition to any kind of accommodation with the Jin invaders and his dislike of Qin Gui. The latter earned him demotion to Jianning military district, and later still another demotion. He was, however, rehabilitated to his original position in 1158 but died the following year while travelling to Jiangzhou. Hu Quan [1102-1180] was a scholar-official of the Southern Song from Luling in Jizhou, Jiangxi province, who received his appointment in the second year of Jianyan emperor. Before taking up his duties, the Jin armies crossed the River and Hu raised his own army to defend the area. He too is famous for his stubborn opposition to any kind of peace dealings with the Jin invaders. He petitioned for the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 272 Although not part of the Zhenjiang story a Daoist cult centre on Mao Shan, a mountain some fifty miles to the south, was visited annually by a stream of pilgrims in the Spring, a great many of whom passed through the convenient port of Zhenjiang. The Daoist Mao Shan school was arguably the most powerful Daoist sect during the Tang and maintained its great prestige down to at least 1949. The Mao Shan Daopai as it is known, is renowned for its seances and medium trances, and according to Mao Shan sect priests was founded in the fourth century AD with the Mao Shan sect priests considering themselves to be the highest ranking of all Daoist orders.15 The sect originally appears to have been meditative and only later did it fall into line with other sects. In 1917 two images were observed by Otterwill in Zhenjiang, in procession, Yan Gong and Jiang Gong #, both patron deities of river boatmen. Both deities were popular on altars in and around Nanchang, Anjing and along the Yangzi. Also popular in central China, C. B. Day records that Yan Gong in Zhejiang province was one of the Five Daoist deities who presided over a period of danger, a member of the Celestial Board of Health 瘟部五帝. There have been but few references in western writings to the legend and role of Yan Gong, a Patron of Sailors. According to Doré, "he was regarded in Central China as the protector of sailors and the god of the tides [Chao Shen]." This, presumably, means the patron deity of sailors in the rivers and estuaries of the Yangzi basin. However, Yang Laoda is the usual patron of boatmen on the Yangzi. Werner1 provides a more detailed description of Yan Gong, the god of sailors, adding a little to Doré. He notes that Yan Gong had a temple built in his honour near Shanghai during the reign of the first emperor of the period of the Three Kingdoms [ca. AD 240] and that he was the deified hero in that temple who protected Shanghai from rebel attacks during the reign of Ming Shi Cong [ca. 1540]. Other legends claim that he was born during the Song in Jiangxi, that he was one of the four major deities of Jiangxi province, and was a censor famous for his integrity. Or that he was again a native of Jiangxi but born during the Yuan, and drowned during a storm when returning home. He was buried but was seen by the inhabitants of his native district on the same day. When his coffin was brought to Nanchang and opened it was found to be empty, a miracle which led to a temple being built in his honour. Sailors have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 296 Qufu, and Tai Shan, the Holy Mountain, where he saw thousands of poor pilgrims assembling. Mesny claimed that, as an adviser to the Governor of Shandong province, Ding Baozhen, he persuaded the Governor Ding to establish an arsenal near Jinan and build a railway from the Yellow River to the arsenal. Mesny also claimed to have persuaded him to dredge the Yellow River and to fortify Weihai Wei and Jiaozhou [both places later occupied and governed by Britain and Germany respectively as leased territories]. Mesny also claimed to have persuaded Ding to develop the mineral wealth of Shandong 'which he did though in a small way only'. Riots and mob violence Zhenjiang suffered its share of mob violence and riots during its treaty port era. One of the major problems confronting westerners within China was the ever-present possibility of petty or even major violence against their persons and property. Often the disturbance to the peace, due to whatever cause, would be exacerbated by either western impetuosity and/or the indifference and inactivity of the local intendants [mandarins] and their staffs. There were also the perils of banditry, of pirates, of rebels or simply of thugs. One afternoon in 1865 the astounding news was received in Hankou that three foreigners had been most barbarously hacked to pieces in Zhenjiang, and were not expected to live. One was Francis Pickernell, a friend of Mesny, and another was Charles Lewis of Boston, an American, a former ship and messmate of Mesny's, whilst the third was another friend and fellow Jerseyman, Filleule, all of whom died from their horrible wounds. The outrage caused a profound impression upon all foreigners in the river ports and John, Mesny's younger brother, who had not been at Hankou very long, felt very sad at the loss of three such friends. The outrage was said to be due to mistaken identity. A man named Stone, a master of a lorcha on the Yangzi, appears to have offended some Chinese military officials who had insulted his Chinese wife, and they had attempted to avenge themselves in this horrible manner. One fine evening in about 1866, during the time the Nianfei [or Nianzi], the so-called Twisting Bandits, were in the neighbourhood of Hankou, Mesny relates the dreadful tale of four westerners who saw a favourable opportunity to join up with one of the roaming gangs of ================================================================================