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 RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 L 64 Sacred to the Memory of/ Robert Morrison, D.D.,/ The first Protestant Missionary to/ CHINA:/ where, after a service of Twenty-seven years,/ Cheerfully spent in extending the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer,/ during which period he compiled and published/ A DICTIONARY OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE;/ Founded the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca;/ And, for several years laboured alone on a Chinese version of THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,/ which he was spared to see completed, and widely circulated/ among those for whom it was destined. He sweetly slept in Jesus. He was born at Morpeth, January 5th, 1782;/ Was sent to China, by the London Missionary Society, in 1807;/ Was for twenty-five years Chinese interpreter, in the employ of the East India Company:/ And died at Canton, August 1st, 1834. A LIST OF BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF AUTHORS OR OCCASIONALLY, OF TRANSLATORS. AINSLIE, ROBERT, 1766-1838. [Reasons for the hope that is in us.] Edinburgh, printed by Ballantyne & Co. [c.1820.] Amiot, Jean JOSEPH MARIE, 1718-1793. Dictionnaire tartare-mantchou-français, composé d'après un dictionnaire mantchou-chinois, par M. Amyot, rédigé et publié avec des additions et l'alphabet de cette langue, par L. Langlès. 2v. Paris, imprimé par Fr. Ambr. Didot l'aîné, 1789. BAZIN, ANTOINE-PIERRE-Louis, 1799-1863. Le pi-pa-ki ou l'Histoire du luth, drame chinois de Kao-Tong-kia représenté à Péking en 1404 avec les changements de Mao-Tseu, traduit sur le texte original. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1841. BAZIN, ANTOINE-PIERRE-LOUIS, 1799-1863. Théâtre chinois ou choix de pièces de théâtre composées sous les empéreurs mongols traduites pour la première fois Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1838. BIOT, ÉDOUARD CONSTANT, 1803-1850. Dictionnaire des noms anciens et modernes des villes et arrondissements compris dans l'Empire Chinois indiquant les époques auxquelles leurs noms ont été changés. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1842. ================================================================================ 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 66 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 the Ultra-Ganges Missions.) Accompanied with miscellaneous remarks on the literature, history, and mythology of China, etc. Malacca, printed at the Anglo-Chinese Press, 1820. MORRISON, Mrs. Eliza (Armstrong), born c.1800. Memoirs of the life and labours of Robert Morrison, compiled by his widow, with critical notices of his Chinese works by Samuel Kidd. 2v. London, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1839. MORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834. Bible. New Testament. Chinese. 耶穌基利士督我主救者新遺詔書俱依本譯出「嗎啫哩英華書院印」8v. 1813 鑰 Yeh-su Chi-li-shih-tu wo Chu Chiu-che Hsin-i-chao-shu (The New Testament of Jesus Christ Our Lord and Saviour). [Translated by Robert Morrison and William Milne.] 8v. Malacca, Ying-wa College Press, 1813. MORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834. A dictionary of the Chinese language, in three parts... by R. Morrison. Macao, China, printed at the Honourable East India Company's Press, by P. P. Thoms, 1815-1823. MORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834. Horae sinicae, translations from the popular literature of the Chinese. London, printed for Black and Perry, etc., 1812. MORRISON, ROBERT, 1782-1834. Urh-chih-tsze-teen-se-yïn-pe-keáou [ ] being a parallel drawn between the two intended Chinese dictionaries, by Robert Morrison, and Antonio Montucci, . . . together with Morrison's Horae Sinicae, a new edition, with the text to the popular Chinese primer San-tsi-king, London, printed for the author, 1817. NEUMANN, CHARLES FRIEDRICK, 1798-1870. Translations from the Chinese and Armenian, with notes and illustrations. London, printed for the Oriental translation Fund, and sold by J. Murray, 1831. Osbeck, PETER, 1723-1805. A voyage to China and the East Indies, . Together with a voyage to Suratte, by Olof Toreen and An account of the Chinese husbandry, . . . To which are added, A Faunula and Flora Sinensis. 2v. London, printed for Benjamin White, 1771. PARK, MUNGO, 1771-1806. Travels in the interior districts of Africa, performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 20 F. S. DRAKE of prime importance for information upon the Mongols and Central Asia in Mediaeval times.1 Half a century later a solitary and apparently illiterate Friar from a Franciscan house in Italy, Odoric of Pordenone, set out on his own charges as a traveller for 'Jesus Christ' and performed one of the most remarkable of the journeys of his time. Travelling via India to China he landed at Ch'üan-chou on the Fukien coast, where two houses of Franciscans were already established, and proceeded to Kambaluc (Peking), where he remained for three years. On the return journey he travelled first to what he called mistakenly 'Prester John's country', but which can be identified with the region north of the Yellow River bend, the home of the Christian Onguts, and then by Tibet, which he names and describes briefly and accurately, but he gives no further identifiable details for the remainder of the journey home in 1330 after an absence of twelve years. * 18 These travellers all make mention of the Nestorians—priests, laymen, members of the nobility, and even of the Royal House, whom they came across in their journeys through Central Asia or in China. Sometimes it was a solitary priest with a shrine near the Royal tent, sometimes a group officiating at a Royal procession, sometimes a Nestorian village in the wilds of Mongolia, sometimes a Nestorian church in a Chinese city, as at Yangchou on the Yangtse; these all testify to the widespread character of their mission. William of Rubruck gives the fullest details, combining with them sharp criticism of the conduct of the Nestorians and disapproval of their methods, which suggest considerable deterioration in their religious life during their sojourn in Central Asia; unless indeed his criticism is sometimes prompted by ecclesiastical rivalry. It has already been pointed out that some of the ladies of the Royal House were Nestorian Christians; and there were even hopes of an Imperial convert. But of chief interest for our present purpose is Odoric's mention of the Christian Mongol tribe settled at the northern bend of the Yellow River, for this is the region from which our Bronze Crosses come. John of Montecorvino, the Franciscan Bishop who resided in China from 1288 to 1329, and who became the first Catholic Archbishop of China, also speaks of this 15 Rockhill, op. cit. 16 Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, revised Cordier, Hakluyt Society (4 vols.), 1914. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM 97 38 I have heard this from many informants. See also Reichelt, The Transformed Abbot, London, 1954, p. 156, and J. B. Pratt The Pilgrimage of Buddhism, New York, 1928, p. 311. A Buddhist monk once explained to me that although it was true that Jesus had risen after three days, no one should think he had done this "just by becoming a Christian". He had performed religious exercises (hsiu-hsing) and that was how he had achieved resurrection. There was no attempt on the part of this monk to deny the miracle of resurrection, only to fit it into the Buddhist scheme. 39 Rev. Joseph Edkins, The Religious Condition of China, London, 1859, p. 75. In 1875 Timothy Richard, when he was baptising converts in Shantung, found that there was no building convenient to the river where they could change their clothes before and after. He explained his problem to the monk in charge of the Buddhist temple there who "readily consented" to lend some of its rooms for this purpose. See Richard, Forty-five Years in China, New York, 1916, p. 95. In 1879 the largest lama temple in Peking allowed a colporteur of the National Bible Society of Scotland to run a bookstore within the temple, where on several days a week Christian books were sold. See C. F. Gordon Cumming, Wanderings in China, London, 1888, pp. 4-9. 40 Harry A. Franck, Roving Through Southern China, New York, 1925, pp. 575-576. 41 In the early 1890's De Groot reported: "It has often happened to the author of these lines that when he was taking his meal in one of the monasteries where he was staying, he was visited by monks who were curious to see how he ate and what he ate: but it was enough for them to smell the odour of his roast of pork or his leg of mutton and they would be forced to make a hasty exit from the room: they felt overcome by nausea. Such strict vegetarianism, it goes without saying that when non-vegetarian lay people came to stay sometimes in a monastery they are not allowed to have their food prepared in the monks' kitchen. There are small separate kitchens for them, where their own servants can stew things up for them." (Le Code du Mahayana en Chine, Amsterdam, 1893, p. 103). In 1908, when Boerschmann stayed on P'u-to Shan, he grew tired of the vegetarian fare and sent his cook to smuggle in some chickens (Pu-t'o Shan, Berlin, 1911, p. 166). In these and other instances the monks are portrayed as tacitly or even gleefully cooperating in getting meat onto the foreigner's bill of fare. It seems more likely that their cooperation, when it was forthcoming (and often it was refused), was reluctant and indignant. There was a compelling practical reason for this. If Chinese pilgrims saw meat being eaten on the premises of a monastery, many of them would take their patronage elsewhere. This was understood by early Western travellers like A. J. Little (Mount Omi and Beyond, London, 1901, pp. 75, 81, and 83). Little also provides an example of the Westerner's tendency to haggle (pp. 68, 83). The meanest bit of haggling was probably perpetrated by Mrs. C. F. Gordon Cumming. In 1879 she visited the Tien-t'ung Ssu, one of the model monasteries of China. After she and her party had enjoyed an "excellent dinner," they were asked to give the equivalent of English tenpence, Mrs. Cumming offered eight pence. When the offer was accepted, she tipped the waiter tuppence halfpenny, and noted that he "grinned with delight. Can I give you a better proof that we have reached a spot where foreigners are almost unknown?" (Wanderings in China, London, 1888, p. 291). Mrs. Cumming was quite mistaken, of course, about foreigners being unknown: probably more had stayed at T'ien-t'ung than at any other monastery. Even today Westerners with plenty of dollars in their pocket take pride in doing the poor Chinese shopkeeper out of a few cents, partly to show their savoir faire and partly out of fear of being cheated themselves. But the monastery was not a shop, and this sort of behaviour was regarded as most inappropriate there. 42 W. E. Soothill, Timothy Richard of China (London, 1924), pp. 162-163. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 THE LIBRARY OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1969 - 1970 A further 53 volumes of books were added to the Library during the past year, bringing the total stock to 396 volumes, excluding bound volumes of periodicals, which are mentioned separately below. Of the additions, no less than 43 were gifts, and the Branch is extremely grateful to the following donors: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong (2 publications) Diocesan Girls' School, through Miss M. B. Mansfield (Bentham's Flora Hongkongensis, 1865, and Dunn and Tutcher's Flora of Kwangtung and Hongkong, 1912) Mr. J. E. Noronha (Historic Shanghai, by C. A. Montalto de Jesus, 1909) South China Morning Post, Ltd., through the University of Hong Kong Library (9 volumes) Father Manuel Teixeira (4 of his own publications on Macau) University of Hong Kong Library (18 volumes) Another seven volumes were received through the Hon. Editor, having been sent as review copies to the Journal. Of the above, undoubtedly the most valuable is that by Bentham, which in spite of its publication date remains the primary source on Hong Kong flora. Another interesting addition is a Xerox copy of a rare private publication, Diary of events and the progress on Shameen, 1859 - 1938 by H.S.S. [H. Staples-Smith], made from the original now in the possession of Mr. J. W. Hayes.* The Hon. Librarian took advantage of the sale at the Challenge Bookshop in July to purchase eight titles of Asian interest at reduced prices. The Library continues to receive a number of valuable journals in exchange for its own publications, and a further fifteen volumes of these have been bound, bringing the total of bound volumes * There follows on, from Mr. Ryding's report, part of a letter addressed to me by The Rt. Rev. Gilbert Baker, Bishop of Hong Kong and Macao, dated 29th September, 1969, reproduced here with his kind permission, that provides this identification. The Bishop was then on the staff of Christ Church, Shameen. Ed. (Footnote continued on opposite page) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 210 NOTES AND QUERIES University Hall. The hall has accommodation for 80 students, all men. The present warden is Dr. Enoch Young, lecturer in physics at the University, through whose courtesy the Branch is able to visit this historic building today. We shall then walk across to the Maison de Béthanie. This building, since renovated and added to, was originally constructed in the early 1870s by the French Mission. Father Caminondo who is in charge of the Maison de Béthanie has very kindly supplied the following account: At a time when travelling was not easy and medical care not available in many mission countries, the Superiors of the Paris Foreign Mission Society decided to put up a house in the Far East for the sick and old missionaries. Hong Kong was chosen for this purpose on account of its climate and medical facilities available. It must be added that at that time few places in the Far East offered the political stability and religious tolerance of the Colony. The name of Béthanie was chosen after "Bethany village" of the Holy Scripture, and the inscription above the main entrance "Lord he whom thou lovest lies sick" is part of the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus became sick. Many Missionaries availed themselves of the facilities offered by the sanatorium. In 1884, for instance, 43 missionaries stayed for some time. Apart from the delightful setting, the main interest of the Maison is its chapel. This is said to be built to the same design as the former French Cathedral in Tokyo, destroyed during the war. By kind permission of Father Caminondo, we are permitted to enter the chapel and walk round it, up one side to the sacristy behind the altar, and down the other. The chapel is remarkable for its fine furniture and fittings which apparently date from its construction. Note the sets of altar tables, of different shape and decoration, on each side of the aisle, and the large wall cupboards in the sacristy which is, as its name implies, the repository for vestments, vessels etc. used in the chapel. There are two memorial tablets to martyred priests behind the entrance doors to the chapel. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 FATHER ERNESTO GHERZI, S.J., 1886 - 1973 AN APPRECIATION G. J. BELL* In the Bulletin de Geophysique No. 34 from the College Jean-de-Brebeuf, Montreal there was enclosed a notice of the death of Father Ernesto Gherzi, S.J. at Saint-Jerome, Quebec. He died on 6 December 1973 at the age of 87 years and 4 months. Fr Gherzi was a very well known and popular figure on the China coast between the years 1910 and 1954. He made notable contributions to the science and practice of seismology and meteorology while at Zikawei Observatory, Shanghai from where he operated an efficient typhoon warning service. He was a colourful character who made a great impression on all those who met him and he is remembered with affection by very many mariners and aviators—both military and civil—who served in the Far East in the thirty years prior to 1954. EARLY YEARS Fr Gherzi was born in San Remo, Italy on 8 August 1886. In October 1903 he joined the Society of Jesus, an order whose members had made great contributions to geophysics and meteorology at their Observatories at Zikawei and Manila. He was posted to Zikawei for the period 1910-13 after which he went to England to work with Appleton on ionospheric studies for the Admiralty, London. He was ordained in England in June 1916 and returned to China in October 1920 to start his long scientific career in the famous meteorological, seismological and magnetic observatory at Zikawei. The Zikawei Observatory was supported by grants from the Chinese Customs, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, the Shanghai municipality and the telegraph companies; in return it provided time signals, weather forecasts and magnetic data for shipping. Fr Gherzi produced annual summaries of typhoon tracks for 1926 and for the years 1928 to 1940; they were addressed to the * Mr. Bell has been Director of the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong, since 1965. This article first appeared in Weather, Volume 29, No. 5 (May 1974). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 120 CARL T. SMITH the instruction of the Rev. Theodore Hamberg, preparatory to baptism. On 26 April, 1852, Fung Sen introduced Hung Jen-kan to Hamberg. Two days later, Fung was baptized with ten others at the small chapel of the Basel Missionary Society in Hong Kong. The entry in Hamberg's report lists him as "Fung Asen, aged 21 years, from Lilong, tailor's worker." When Hamberg left Hong Kong at the end of March, 1853 to establish a station at Pukak (Pu-kit, Hsin-an District), Fung Sen accompanied him. He was employed by the Mission as a watchman. A biographical notice of one of the Taiping refugees, Li Tsin-kau (†), which was published in the missionary magazine of the Basel Society, Die Evangelischen Heidenboten, June, 1868, provides interesting sidelights on Hung Jen-kan's unsuccessful effort to reach Nanking in 1854. It also illustrates the connections established between missionaries and those who had been influenced by personal association with Hung Hsiu-ch'uan before he became the Taiping Wang. Li Tsin-kau was a native of Wo Kuk Lyan, in the Ch'ing-yüan District, Kwangtung. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan had been a teacher in the household of the maternal grandfather of Li Tsin-kau, and Tsin-kau's father was a good friend of Hsiu-ch'uan. He had often heard his father tell of Hung and his visions. Was the father the Li Ching-fan who drew the attention of Hung to Liang A-fa's Christian tract? Hung himself often visited Wo Kuk Lyang. During these visits there would be discussions regarding the moral and political conditions of China and hopes expressed that these could be improved and the rule of Heaven (T’ien-kuo) established. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan and Li Tsin-kau discussed especially the benefits of fasting and abstaining from meats and the worship of idols. Tsin-kau remembered that Hung spoke often of the power of God to conquer the demons. He also spoke of Jesus as our Heavenly Brother who forgave men's sins, but this was not the main theme of Hung's thoughts, "It was though it had not much touched his heart (“Wenigstens sei es ihm nicht sehr zu Herzen gegangen"). Li Tsin-kau was caught up in the displacement of the former friends and relatives of the Taiping leaders. When the authorities frustrated the plan to join the Taiping movement in Kwangsi, he fled to Macao. He lost track of his brothers and father, and later believed that they were imprisoned. His mother was taken in and Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SILK & SILVER: MACAU, MANILA TRADE 79 › See Spate, op. cit., p. 151, Tien-tse Chang, Sino-Portuguese trade from 1514-1644. Leyden, 1934, pp. 35-38 and 54-56 and Boxer, South China in the sixteenth century. Being the narratives of Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O.P., Fr. Martin de Rada, O.E.S.A, 1550-1575. Hakluyt Society. 2nd series. CVI, pp. xIV-XX. Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius. Foundations of the Portuguese empire 1415-1580. University of Minnesota Press and Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 380. ↑ Cartas que os Padres e Irmaos da Companhia de Jesus escreverao dos Reynos de Japao e China desde anno de 1549 até o de 1580. Evora, 1598. Quoted in Boxer. The Great Ship from Amacon. Annals of Macao and the old Japan trade 1555-1640. Lisbon, 1963, p. 22. * For accounts of the foundation and early history of Portuguese Macau see Duffie and Winius op. cit., pp. 381-392, Jose Maria Braga. The western pioneers and their discovery of Macao, Macao, 1949, pp. 102-139, A. Ljungstadt. An historical sketch of the Portuguese settlements in China. Boston, 1836, pp. 30-46, Boxer. Fidalgos in the Far East 1550-1770. Oxford University Press, 1968, pp. 12-29. "Chang, op cit., p. 98. Ljungstadt, op cit., p. 79. See Boxer. Portuguese society in the Tropics. The Municipal councils of Goa, Macao, Bahia and Luanda 1510-1800. University of Wisconsin Press, 1965, pp. 42-71. See also Montalto de Jesus. Historic Macao. Hong Kong, 1902, pp. 37-40. 12 On the Captains-major see Boxer Great Ship, pp. 8-11 and 179-241, and Idem. Christian century, p. 106. U.H. Boinford writing from Surat to the East India Company of London. 29 April 1636. Quoted in Boxer. Great Ship, p. 1. 14 Boxer, Christian century, pp. 426-427 and 464-465. 15 Quoted in Boxer, Christian century, p. 93. Padre Lourenço Mexia in his report for 1580 makes an almost identical comment. See Boxer, Great Ship, p. 40. 16 Viceregal provisao of 18 April 1584. 17 Boxer, Great Ship, p. 39. J See John Leddy Phelan. The Hispanization of the Philippines. Spanish aims and Filipino responses. University of Wisconsin Press, 1959, pp. 11-12, 42, 101-102 and P. Chaunu. Les Philippines et le Pacifique des Ibériques. Paris, 1960, pp. 43-46. 1 Spate, op cit., pp. 161-164. 20 For a detailed list of Chinese goods brought to Manila see Dr. Antonio de Morga. Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Mexico, 1609. Trans. and ed. Hon. H. E. J. Stanley. Hakluyt Society. First series. XXXIX, 1868, pp. 337-339, 21 W. L. Schurz. The Manila galleon. New York, 1939, p. 27. 22 Spate, op cit., p. 162. 23 Boxer, Great Ship, p. 170. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO MODERNIZATION IN TAIWAN THE CASE OF 1-KUAN TAO 69 against I-kuan Tao see L. Deliusin, “The I-kuan Tao Society", in Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840 – 1950, ed. by J. Chesneaux, (Stanford, 1971) pp 225-233. 21 In orthodox Buddhism San Pao stands for Triratna, i.e. Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (W. E. Soothill and L. Hodous: A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, Reprint Taipei 1970, p 63) 22 Cf. for example Ching-fen Hsiao, loc.cit., p 17. 23 Cf. Shih Wen-tu *, "Wo tsen-yang t'uo-li I-kuan Tao” #, in Chuch Shih #(Kao-hsiung, Sept. 1977) pp 20 -- 32. 24 Since these accusations can neither be proved nor refuted by the observer it is very difficult to give a fair description of the sect. 25 Cf. Chao Wei-pang, "The Origin and Growth of the Fu-chi", in Folklore Studies, 1 (1942) pp 9 — 27; Hai Ti-shan #, Fu-chi mi-hsin ti yen-chiu *****(Taipei 1966). 26 Cf. G. Seaman, Temple Organization in a Chinese Village, (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, No. 101 Taipei 1978) pp 20 – 35. 27 Cf. Halao, loc. cit., pp 12 – 16. For a case-study ref. Seaman, op. cit. The members trace the origin of the sect back to Fu Hsi and have an elaborated list of the transmission of the Tao through the centuries. The historical evidence for the existence of I-kuan Tao as a separate tradition does not reach beyond the last century, however. 29 The ordinary fu-luan cults have sessions much more often, in general eight or twelve times every lunar month. 30 Obviously many teachings of the fu-luan cults have their origin in the popular "Buddhist” tradition which is also a main source of the I-kuan Tao teachings. It is difficult, however, to assess to which degree there is a direct influence of I-kuan Tao on these cults in Taiwan today. Probably there is a mutual influence since many followers of I-kuan Tao participate also in ordinary fu-luan cults. Actually, some fu-luan cults seem to be reservoirs of potential I-kuan Tao proselytes. 31 Tian-jan *, 2 (Hsinchu Febr. 1980) pp 2 - 3. 32 Cf. K. Ch'en: "Anti-Buddhist Propaganda During the Nan-Ch'ao", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 15 (1952) pp 166 - 192. 33 For examples see J. Chesneaux ed. Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840-1950, (Stanford 1972). 34 Of course, Mohammed is not regarded as a god in Islam. The knowledge of Islam in China, however, is rather poor and Mohammed is thought to be a divine person much like the Chinese "historical" gods or for that matter – Jesus. 36 The medium belonged to the Sheng-hsien t'ang in Taichung. 36 W. Grootaers, "Une société secrète moderne, I Kuan Tao: Bibliographie annotée", in Folklore Studies 5 (1946) p 332f. 37 Tian Tao Kai Lun (1979 2nd printing), p 61. 38 ibid., pp 61 – 62. by Su Ming-tung (Kaohsiung, 1978) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 136 T.A ACTON Cantonese Shui-sheung-yan who have joined, and not the Hoklo, who have been "resistant to the Gospel message." When I asked Philip Chan about the use of the term "Tanka”, he answered, as did most Shui-sheung-yan, that the term was no longer used as it was offensive, because of the way ordinary Cantonese used it to oppress them. Nevertheless, in the sermon he preached the next day, referring to the knowledge of the sea his audience possessed, which land people could not understand, he spoke of "We Tanka... or so to speak, Shui-sheung-yan." The whole sermon, over an hour and a quarter long, held his audience spell-bound with illustrations from storms at sea, fishing disasters and marine life, salting his speech with fisherman's talk (Shui-sheung-wa) so deep that the Malaysian student who had been put by my side and knew only standard Cantonese, was often completely baffled and unable to give me any interpretation. (Later, Philip Chan referred to Shui-sheung-wa as “a separate dialect”.) Of course, the content of this sermon can hardly have been completely unaffected by the knowledge that there was a sociologist in the congregation interested in the life of boat-people. Nonetheless, it is indicative of the way in which an ethnic and cultural solidarity has been maintained, an assertion of pride of origin, which provides a way of avoiding the schizophrenic need to assimilate wholly to ordinary Cantonese society and suppress one's own identity. Adaptation and Education As Barbara Ward and other sociologists have indicated, the majority of boat people are able to assimilate into land-based Cantonese society, and do so fairly often. Members of the Fishermen's Recreation Clubs, the True Jesus Church, and perhaps to some extent the Hong Kong and Kowloon Fishermen's Association Ltd., find a middle way of adaptation that relieves them from the stark dilemma between the self-obliteration and the stasis of isolation. Nonetheless, one cannot speak of any general emergence of Shui-sheung-yan ethnic consciousness; the leaders of the three movements mentioned above, geographically separated at the three opposite corners of the territory, appeared absolutely unaware of each others' activities. When one asks Shui-sheung-yan the conventional Cantonese question about what kind of Chinese they are, (“Nei hai matye yan a ?"), the most common answer remains a reference to their home village, or, at any rate, to that of their grandparents — “Ngo hai Tunglowaan-yan" or "Yeung Kong yan”, or “Ap Chau yan”, Page 150 Page 151 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING 143 The Society for Community Organisation (Hong Kong, 1976) 37 SoCO pp. 1,9. 38 SoCO, Survey pp. 6-9 39 Ibid. p.15 ** R. Daryanani op. cit. 41 Conversation with the secretary of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Fishermen's Association Ltd. 42 Reports in South China Morning Post and the Star (Hong Kong) August 30, 1980. 43 Words of Life (English Literature Evangelical Centre, International Assembly of the True Jesus Church, Singapore, 1976) p.3 44 Ibid. 46 Barbara E. Ward, "Chinese Fishermen in Hong Kong”, p. 286. 46 Reported in the Hong Kong Standard, July 19, 1979 47 D. Grayson, "West Midlands Travelling School" in H. Steyne and D. Derrick eds. The Education of Travelling Children (Centre on Educational Disadvantage, Manchester, 1979) 48 T. Acton "Seven Wasted Years: Negotiations with the Department of Education and Science, 1970-77” in H. Steyne and D. Derrick eds, op.cit. 49 T. Acton, Gypsy Politics and Social Change ch, 11-14. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 344 BOOK REVIEWS began to develop around 4000 B.C., that iron metallurgy was practiced in the Shang dynasty, and that the Hsia dynasty existed as described in much later texts—all highly controversial views—but the reader does not glean this information from the essay. Cheng's concluding sentence typifies his approach, with confident optimism and will to believe displacing scholarly caution: "and what an exciting day it will be when the discovery of a Hsia capital site is announced to the world!!" (emphasis added). WILLIAM MEACHAM + Oxford Reprint Series: Things Chinese J. Dyer Ball (reprint of Kelly and Walsh 1925 Edition, Shanghai) 766pp inc. index, Peking J. Bredon (reprint of Kelly and Walsh 1931 Edition, Shanghai) 571pp inc. index, The Moon Year J. Bredon and I. Mitrophanow (reprint of Kelly and Walsh 1927 Edition, Shanghai) 514pp + index, The Hong Kong Guide 1893 (reprint of Kelly and Walsh 1893 Edition, Shanghai) 137pp + 36pp of advertisements, Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China J. A. Turner (reprint of S. W. Partridge and Co. 1894 Edition, London) 194pp inc. index. All Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1982, all with introduction by H. J. Lethbridge. The Oxford University Press is to be wholeheartedly congratulated on their courage in deciding to reprint many of the classic western texts on China dating from the last decades of the Ch'ing and the first years of the Republic. These works have become increasingly difficult to buy in recent years, and their reappearance on the market is most welcome. The reprints of this year do not represent the end of OUP's hopes in this field; also under consideration for reprinting are, it is understood, among others, Couling's Encyclopedia Sinica, Eitel's Europe in China, and Montalto de Jesus' Historic Macau. The last decades of the last century and the first years of this are usually considered a period when Europeans either merely had contempt for the Chinese or else, at best, regarded them with patronising condescension. Surely, it will be thought, books on Chinese religion, society, or customs written by Europeans in China in this period would have nothing of value to tell us today. There are, certainly, remarks in almost all these books which ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 204 A RELIC OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER P. BRUCE In a small cool church in Macau, separated by a few hundred yards of muddy water from China, rests a unique relic of St Francis Xavier.* Almost 20 years ago 100,000 people in 15 days filed past the small piece of bone housed in an ornate silver monstrance when it was taken to America from its usual resting place in Macau. Now the relic is back in a tiny church on Coloane Island. Ten years ago the building was in a run-down condition, having been used as a chapel for soldiers from Mozambique serving in the Portuguese Army. Then Father Mario C. Acquistapace arrived on the scene. A sprightly figure now probably in his seventies, he had the church restored. Today its exterior is washed in pale yellow with windows and woodwork picked out in light blue. He has an outgoing personality that runs to a hug when he finds a visitor is a Christian. Macau, the first permanent Western settlement on the coast of China, across the silt-laden waters of the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, despite wars, upheavals and revolutions, remains curiously Mediterranean. The Portuguese built their first houses there in 1557, having camped briefly at Liampo and Sanchuang (St John's) Islands. Francisco de Xavier, called by Pope Urban VIII the "apostle of the Indies", was born into a noble and wealthy family and in 1529 he made the acquaintance of St Ignatius Loyola who was then studying at Paris. Impressed by his teachings, Xavier became one of the original seven men to take the first vows of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, in 1534. When John III, King of Portugal, asked the Pope to send a mission to his Indian possessions, two Jesuits were selected, one of whom was Xavier. He set sail in 1541 and after a voyage of more than a year arrived in Goa, India, where he carried out missionary work. From there he journeyed to Ceylon, or Sri Lanka... * See plates 12-14. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h medical care not available in many mission countries, the Superiors of the Paris Foreign Mission Society decided to put up a house in the Far East for sick and old missionaries. Hong Kong was chosen for this purpose on account of its climate and medical facilities available. It must be added that at that time few places in the Far East offered the political stability and religious tolerance of the Colony". Those words have long rung in my ears. I doubt if there could be a finer unsolicited tribute to British Hong Kong. I must confess, too, against that stirring background of service, and recalling the over 100 priests and high dignitaries of the Mission who were buried in the private cemetery then within the grounds, that I was moved by the inscription that can still be found over the entrance. Father Caminondo had continued, "The name of Bethanie was chosen after "Bethany village" of the Holy Scripture, and the inscription above the main entrance "Lord he whom thou lovest lies sick" is part of the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus became sick”. Truly memorable, at least for me. But enough of the past: though it enriches the present. We are a strong Society in both numbers and spirit. We aim to continue in the service of scholarship and mutual understanding in this great City for as long as may be possible. Judging by the record of the last 30 years, there will never be a shortage of willing workers and contributors, whether British, Chinese or others. With Sir David's consent, I shall now ask him to propose a toast to the Hong Kong Branch of the RAS. xix JAMES HAYES ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 199 as this related to Chinese classical culture. Having been somewhat hesitant to suggest the possibility of a missiological approach which included a more positive role for Confucianism, Dr. Legge in his first years at Oxford became fully convinced that this was the most appropriate strategy for Christian missionaries in traditional China. In this way traditions known and respected in Chinese society, from the common people to the Confucian scholars who effectively ruled the provinces, could be used as bridges for presenting and highlighting the need of China and her people for the Christian fulfillment in salvation through Jesus Christ. This was the keynote of Legge's controversial 1877 speech presented at the First General Missionary Conference in Shanghai. Because many missionaries came to China during this period in which "gunboat policies" brought legal access of missionaries to China, many also experienced strong opposition from the often corrupt and "atheistic" mandarins who ruled the areas in which they were active. In the minds of these missionaries, to advocate an alliance with this kind of a system was to advocate a dismantling of basic Christian convictions in theology and ethics. What appears to be a condescending view of the superiority of European culture in the writings of many missionaries was from their point of view the only means of supporting the kinds of reformations which Christianity would, they felt, necessarily involve in Chinese society. Their opposition grew out of their sense of the devastating practical compromises which would have to be accepted if missionary strategies accommodated the Qing Confucian system. The consequences of Prof. Legge's support of an “original Confucian monotheism” in the early historical annals of the Confucian Classics were unwelcome to many missionaries. By referring to the classical Confucian texts as the basis for Christian missionary strategy, Legge was by extension accepting, they felt, the imperial palace — the arbiter of Confucianism as the final court of appeal for Christian missionaries. A further complication arose because the worship of Shangdi, the technical term Legge associated with the Christian God in the Chinese Classics, was a religion limited to an imperial monopoly. Legge hoped that this religion and its rites could be transformed into a Christian institution and extended across the whole of China. Rather than approach China as outsiders with a foreign message, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 204 Hunter, Jane, The Gospel of Gentility, American Women Missionaries in Turn-of the Century China, New Haven Yale University Press, 1984 Hunter, W C. The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton, London Kegan Paul, 1882 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Hunter, William, Bits of Old China, London K Paul, French, 1885 Hutchison, James Lafayette, China Hand, Boston and New York Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1936 Hutchison, Paul, ed. A Guide to Important Missionary Stations in Eastern China Lying Along the Main Routes of Travel, Shanghai Mission Book Company, 1920 Hyatt, Irwin T, Jr, Our Ordered Lives Confess. Three 19th Century Missionaries in East Shantung, Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1976 Ichiko, Chuzo, Political and Institutional Reform, Cambridge History of China, vol II, 375-415 Inglis, Brian, The Opium War, London Hodder and Stoughton, 1976 International Mission Council, Christian Education in China, A Study Made by an Education Commission Representing the Mission Boards and Societies Conducting Work in China, New York, 1922 Isaacs, Harold Robert. Images of Asia, New York and London. Harper and Row, 1972 Jesuits, Letters from Missions, The Travels of Several Learned Missioners of the Society of Jesus translated from the French in 1713, London printed for R Gosling, 1714 1 Johnston, Alan James, The Footprints of the Pheasant in the Snow, Portland Me Johnston, 1976, 1978 Johnston, R. F, From Peking to Mandalay, London John Murray, 1903 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Twilight in the Forbidden City, London Victor Gollancz, 1934 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press) Jones, Francis Clifford, Shanghai and Tientsin, With Special Reference to Foreign interests, London Oxford University Press, 1940 Kemp, Emily Georgina (b 1860), The Face of China. Travels in Eastern, Northern, Central and Western China, with Some Accounts of New School, Universities, Missions, New York Duffield and Co. 1909 Chinese Mettle, London and New York Hodder and Stoughton, 1921 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 189 found in the speech of the late Rev Peter Wang, the former General Secretary of the Council. "Church involvement in education should be regarded as a kind of social service. It also provides a good chance to spread the gospel by nurturing young people with the teaching of Jesus Christ, to love their families, show filial piety towards their parents, to love their schools, respect their teachers and truth; to love their neighbours and live in harmony with others, to love and serve their society with enthusiasm; and be a good citizen in the society. If we have nurtured our students in this way, we have fulfilled the aim of serving the society, even though the students have not been baptized as believers. From the data gathered in this survey, the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China has the strongest preference for education as the objective of church involvement in education. (Refer to Tables 1 and 2). The same emphasis is reflected from the literature of the Council. The Tsung Tsin (Basel) Mission changes with time in its perception of objectives. The direction of changes, however, is contrary to that of the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China. In the early years, the Mission was concerned much about education and social service. For example, the Basel Free School was founded in 1862 to provide free education for the Hakka-speaking Chinese. The school aimed to improve illiteracy in the society. It was the first girls' school set up in Hong Kong.7 In recent years, owing to the growing emphasis on evangelization, there is a considerable change in the Mission's objectives of involvement in education. For example, from the Mission's publications in recent years, the importance of evangelization through schools is obviously stressed. It is also made compulsory that all Tsung Tsin schools should organise a religious week in October each year. As such are to be implemented or supervised by the school, it does bring about due effects. In the past, there was no preferential policy held regarding the employment of school staff; that new teachers are selected, as far as it is possible, from among Christians. This shows that the Tsung Tsin Mission is concerned more and more with evangelization as an important objective of running church schools. According to the questionnaire survey, the Lutheran Church is the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g -reinfo 141 brackets, enclose a window. Typical Late Renaissance ornaments and geometric designs of various kinds, such as spheres on pedestals, top the entablature and pediment. Jesuit Churches in India Perhaps the most ingenious exploitation of the motif in India was by the Jesuit Fathers, whose building schemes form such an important part of the history of art of Colonial Iberian architecture in Asia and the Americas. It can be seen not only on the façade of the now vanished collegiate church of São Paulo in Velha Goa, but also in the Church of their College of São Paulo in Baçaim. The Arch of Triumph decoration of their Baçaim church is of great interest for my main argument because at least one art historian has noticed its structural similarities to that of retables. David M. Kowal's recent article implies that not only the façade of the Baçaim collegiate church, but also that of Velha Goa should be so considered and he describes them as "retable-like." Not all art historians would classify any of the church fronts in Portuguese India as retable-façades, including those of the Jesuits, although it is difficult to dismiss D. Kowal's claim for these two churches.13 The name of the church at Baçaim, built between 1561-1579, is actually Nome de Jesus (Name of Jesus). Its large Arch of Triumph indeed resembles those appearing in a number of Renaissance retable-façades in Southern Spain, such as that of the church of St. Elizabeth, in Seville. As far as the Arch of Triumph motif itself is concerned, the most important sixteenth-century example in India may be seen in the Church of São Paulo in Velha Goa. Moreover, one could take 1560, the year when building of the new college and church of São Paulo were initiated, as signalling a more ambitious phase in the Society of Jesus' architectural projects in India. When it was completed in 1572 São Paulo was not only the first major church built by the Jesuits in India, it was also one of the most masterful Portuguese churches in Asia, attesting to the importance that the Jesuit fathers attached to it.15 Its association with St. Francis Xavier ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 142 himself, as well as the whole of their missionary activity in Asia and the Far East, including Macao, accounts for this. Sadly, as in Macao's Madre de Deus (which apparently was popularly called St. Paul's because of the Goa college and church), today only a pitiful ruin remains of this artistic and historic treasure, with merely a section of the entrance façade with its stone portal standing (Fig. 8). The entangled history of the church's abandonment and final decay need not concern us here. But conveniently for my main arguments, the small section that does survive displays an Arch of Triumph integrated to the wall. Here engaged Corinthian columns, paired and elegantly fluted, standing on bases decorated with diamond-shaped reliefs and carrying a broken entablature frame the half-circular entrance arch. Artistically and technically this feature is close to the sophistication of Italian Renaissance architecture. Since neither the famous college nor its church survives, Mário Chicó attempted to reconstruct the latter by means of drawings based on contemporary descriptions. He believed it to be the prototype for one of two types of Indo-Portuguese churches. He also convincingly argued that of the two types that of the façade of São Paulo is the closer to Serlio and Italian Renaissance architecture. In Chicó's published drawing the façade of the church is shown as having three storeys, plus a pedimented attic. The three storeys are divided into three bays by projecting pilasters with entablatures, with openings for entrances and square and round windows. There is a niche for a titular image in the attic, which is joined to the floors below by the pilasters of the middle bay and by volutes. It's an imaginative reconstruction, especially the fact that the façade has comparatively little decoration. It relies for effect on the more purely abstract lines of the design and on the main feature of its decoration, its Arch of Triumph. The artistic and symbolic potency of the motif and its application as decoration to the façades of religious architecture was one that was not actually initiated by either the architects or the religious members of the Society of Jesus in Italy, Spain, Portugal or India. Rather it was one that the Jesuits had readily accepted and were able to effectively ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 143 exploit for the decoration of the façades of some of their Indian churches of the last third of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the next. The theme would later be adapted to the more ornate decoration of the façades of the churches of their Casa Professa in Velha Goa and of the Jesuit College in Diu. Minor Basilica of Bom Jesus and the Diu Collegiate Church Not only the Bom Jesús, but, as we shall see, the façades of the collegiate churches in Diu and of Madre de Deus in Macao point to a further stylistic development of the architecture of the Society of Jesus in Asia. It could be argued that the façade decoration of the three mentioned buildings reveals a transitional phase, one in which a Late Mannerist decorative idiom is elaborated to the utmost. Moreover, in the Church of Madre de Deus in Macao this idiom already heralds the Baroque style. In India even before Jules Simão's appointment as chief of the cathedral works the Jesuits had begun work on what was to be their finest building project in India. This was their Casa Professa, or Profess House, begun in 1583-85, whose cloisters were also designed by Simão (Figs. 9,10). Today the church of the Profess House, originally dedicated to the Child Jesus, is better known as the Minor Basilica of Bom Jesus. It was started on the 24 November 1594 to the plans of G.B. Cairatti, an Italian architect from Milan, and completed about twelve years later. Perhaps its chief attraction today is the so-called incorrupt body of St. Francis Xavier and its magnificent 1690s funerary monument by Giovanbattista Foggini.17 The design of the front of the Bom Jesús, if not of its ground plan, indicates that the architect followed the general lines of the façade of St. Paul as reconstructed by M. Chicó (Fig. 9). There is the same division into three storeys and three bays, plus attic and pediment joined to the storeys below by gracefully curved brackets. Not only the façade but the whole building is crowned by numerous Herreresque spheres on bases placed as accents to the line of rising unifying pilasters. The Arch ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 144 of Triumph theme itself has been incorporated here into a more sumptuous design and at first glance is not immediately apparent. Although it is not possible to discuss it in detail, one should at least take note of the articulation of the façade. Its luxuriously applied decoration is executed in a soft local stone and stands out from the brick wall, once coated in white plaster. It starts with Corinthian columns on three bays of the ground floor that connect to Doric and Corinthian pilasters in the two storeys above and a fanciful Mannerist Composite order with decorative shafts in the attic. But the overall design is highly compartmentalized by means of large buttresses framing the corners and central bay in the shape of classical brick pilasters rising on all storeys. However, in spite of similarities, one can see a marked difference to the churches the Jesuits has built previously. Quite novel are the Mannerist carvings now embellishing practically the whole design of the façade of the Bom Jesus. The rendition of the symbol of the Society of Jesus in the attic, inside an oculus framed by a Mannerist cartouche upheld by eight angels, as well as other unusual details, is typical of the Mannerist style (Fig.10). Started in 1601 the Collegiate Church of the Society in Diu is the second most important example of a new development in Jesuit churches in India. Its proper name is Espírito Santo, or Church of the Holy Spirit. The design of the front elevation basically reproduces that of the Bom Jesús, except that it has been greatly unified by the abolition of the third storey and the compartments created by the buttresses in that building (Figs. 11,12). In ornamental extravagance its carved white stucco decoration outdoes the Bom Jesús and it has been argued that this is partly due to the influence of Indian architecture. Both the influence of retables claimed by D. Kowal for the Jesuit portals showing arches of triumph in Velha Goa and Baçaim, as well as the decorative complexity of the fronts of the Bom Jesus and Espiritu Santo are new developments. They point the way towards the even more novel departures seen in the façade of the Church of Madre de Deus in Macao. Page 195 Page 196 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 145 The Façade of São Paulo, Macao These novel trends in Jesuit architecture in India occurring at about the turn of the century may have reached their apogee in the church of their new college in Macao, opened to the public on Christmas day, 1603 (Figs. 1, 13). However, amongst other important differences with churches in India, here there is no Arch of Triumph as such; there is not even an entrance arch, but straightforward lintel-and-post doorways. Could the reason for its absence be that Portugal never did conquer Macao? This is an attractive conjecture, although a more likely explanation is that the architect or designer of the façade of St. Paul's was simply following St. Charles Borromeo's recommendations to architects concerning the façades of ecclesiastical buildings. In his influential Instructions of 1572, Charles Borromeo recommends the use of lintel and post for entrances of Christian churches instead of the arch, which he considered a pagan structure18. Be that as it may, the idea that the façade of Madre de Deus represents a symbolic arch of triumph of sorts, although one not based directly on an Arch of Triumph but on some other structure, should not be discarded altogether. Apparently, seventeenth-century visitors, many of whom had seen the churches of the Jesuits in Goa, did not find the lack of arches too unusual. What they do imply in their chronicles is that this façade was something particularly surprising within the architecture of the Society of Jesus, not only in Asia but elsewhere. The way they reacted not only to the magnificent interior of the church but also to its façade is significant. In the case of the latter, were they looking at something not merely visually striking but also quite novel? As already surmised at the start of this paper, were they in fact looking at the first retable-façade in China? This is not as improbable as it may seem. Today, once certain historical and art-historical associations are made, the surviving façade of the church recalls the outburst of altarpiece construction that took place in the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas colonies from the last decades of the sixteenth century. Until the Portuguese revolt of 1640 and the restoration of the House ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 148 kept in the archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome and elsewhere, indicate that they were understandably interested in the names of their martyrs, but much less so in those of their artists, no matter what names contemporary researchers may have been able to find. Nevertheless, the sculptures of Chinese lions and the reliefs of Japanese flora, which decorate the façade, show that under their wing these mainly anonymous Asian artists were at least free to express their native sensibilities. The 1644 Annual Letter What cannot be established, except through a careful examination of the façade, is if these artists were under the influence of contemporary altarpieces. But again it should be recalled just how important the design of retables had become in the Iberian universe. Latin American Baroque and Rococo retable-façades clearly testify to the ascendancy of the features of retables over those of retable-façades." I would argue that a similar influence was already at work in the design of the façade of St. Paul's. The Litterae Annua of 1644 for the Japan Province penned by António Ferreira, in the archives of the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus, in Rome, is an exceptional document of exceptional relevance for this paper. It is already known to scholars from competent but slightly inaccurate eighteenth-century transcripts by Fr. José Montanha in the Archivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon, and has been quoted since 1955 by Fr. Videira Pires and others. But the original manuscript has remained quietly filed and largely ignored in the Archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome. The original passage in the Annua that describes the façade as it reached completion in 1644, and which I would like to quote to the honourable audience and members of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong for the first time in public form my translation of the Portuguese text, reads as follows: Alms were given this year to crown the main façade of this Church, which is all of carved stone in a Roman manner. From top to bottom it has three orders of columns with their pedestals, six arched niches in good proportion; four of the ones which are half domes are on the first frieze amongst the orders of the second order of columns, each by itself next to the opening of the three windows of the choir: in them there are the half length figures of our Saints Ignatius, Xavier, Borja and Gonzaga, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 157 Other Images A salutation in St. Alfonso's Office praises the palma patientiae and the cedrus castitatis. This allusion to both cedar and palm trees derives from Ecclesiasticus, 24, 17-18. When it comes to the date palms of the second storey, it is very much a part of the stock-in-trade immaculist symbols, particularly dear to southern Spanish poets and painters and also known from early prints, all praising Mary's Immaculate Conception. But these may equally refer to the triumph of the Society of Jesus, with the canonisation of its main protagonists, Sts. Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier in 1622 and the recent beatification of Francis Borgia and Luis Gonzaga. In the fourth storey or attic The Child Jesus raises his right hand and holds an empty left hand forward. The latter undoubtedly held the lost orb mentioned in the 1644 Annua. It is a pose and attribute typical of the kind of devotional religious image known as an infant Salvator Mundi, that is, Infant Jesus Saviour of the World. The type of "Menino Jesus" as Salvator Mundi was well disseminated in Portuguese colonies in the East during the seventeenth-century, as a large number of Indo-Portuguese and Chinese ivory statuettes, usually nude, tend to confirm. Here the Child Jesus is framed by reliefs of angels displaying the Arma Christi, or symbols of Christ's suffering on the Cross. According to Christian theology, the ironically named arma are the “weapons” Christ used in his earthly battle against evil in order to redeem humankind. They were profoundly mystical symbols popularised in devotional literature and images since Medieval times in Europe. The pediment is decorated with the large bronze of the Holy Spirit, originally gilded and emerging from rays, with four stars framing it. Next to it are square slabs of the sun and moon, with which the iconography of the main image of the Assumption is finally brought to full completion. The dove of the Holy Spirit hovers over both Mother and Child with wings far outspread in an image that seems uncannily like a visual illustration of the Holy Spirit in the opening lines of John Milton's Paradise Lost. As bronze sculpture it is impressive enough today; with its original gilding it must have appeared awe-inspiring to the citizens of Macao and to seventeenth-century and later visitors before the fire. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 158 The prolific use of symbols for the decoration of the façade and the mystical poetry thus created is typical of the way images were used in the decoration of carved wooden retables. It is a topic that could be elaborated at great length, although unfortunately it is not possible here. Conclusion In this talk I have endeavoured to elucidate my main contention concerning the façade of St. Paul's by pointing out the way certain of its principal features relate to retables, such as the uniquely decorative nature of its classical supports and the strongly Eucharistic connotations of its decoration. This fact connects it to Spanish retable-façades, a kind of structure not typically Portuguese but also appearing in Portuguese architecture at this time. Moreover, two significant artistic developments in Jesuit architecture in Portuguese India could be said to prefigure the originality of the façade of St. Paul's. Firstly, there is some evidence of incipient retable-façades decorating a few of the churches of the Society of Jesus in India in which the Arch of Triumph is used as principal decorative motif. Although not possible here, Secondly, at the turn of the century the Jesuits in India were willing to admit the use of a more elaborate artistic idiom for the façades of their churches, in contrast to the plain styles preferred in the Iberian Peninsula during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Hopefully my extended inquiry has provided convincing answers to the intriguing similarities I believe exist between the unusual features seen in the façade of St. Paul's and those more characteristic of a retable-façade, even if the façade discussed remains an elusive artistic work sui generis. NOTES Guillén-Nuñez, César, “The Relationship of the Façade of the Jesuit Collegiate Church of Madre de Deus, Macao, to Retable-Façades”, M.Phil. Thesis, University College London, 1997. Guillén-Nuñez, C., Macau (Images of Asia), Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1984, pp. 52-3. 2 Vid. Rafael Moreira, “As Formas Artísticas”, in História dos Portugueses no ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 199 to justify any kind of violence against that "other" as a form of cultural and social self-preservation. "Foreign demons" were constructs of a political discourse which played on the common people's fears, even to the point of instituting extensive studies in teratology (the study of monstrous forms of animals and plants) as a way of explaining the foreign "things." 39 In taking a "China-centred approach" to studying the implications of Ch'ea's Christian conversion, these factors should be explored in two areas: the teratologisation of Jesus and the whiplash of an earlier imperial racism expressed in Manchurian campaigns against any intellectuals who strongly supported Hàn cultural motifs. 40 41 In a rare picture of the transmogrification of "foreign teachings" in order to mark them out for vilification and destruction, Paul Cohen has illustrated how one Qing scholar, Tián Xingshu (1837-1877), produced a blistering lampoon of Christianity in publicly displayed placards during the 1860s. The "Lord Jesus" (Zhu Yésu) was depicted in cartoon-like caricatures as the "Pig Jesus" (Ju Yésu), worshipped by "foreign devils" in bizarre and salacious rites. Christian "devils" are depicted as cannibalizing unsuspecting children and religious seekers, using their religious rites as a cover-up for the most immoral and inhumane forms of treatment that a Chinese person could imagine. Near the end of his book, Bixié jìshí (The Truth about Records of Exorcising Evil Spirits12), Tián depicts a righteous mandarin ordering the "shooting of Pig [Jesus] and the beheading of the Goats [foreigners]." But this is not the end. Following long traditions found in many Chinese Buddhist or Daoist temple reliefs, Tián capsulizes the defamation by illustrating the terrible purgatorial punishments deserved by the "Pig Incarnate" (jujing) in some lower level of Chinese hells. Any partially literate and sensitive Chinese citizen would obviously want to be rid of such a terrible menace to their own society. How could any Chinese person, convinced that these claims were false and purposefully misleading derisions, seek to redirect mobs angered by these putative evils of "foreign torturers"743 Yet an even deeper level of antagonism and racism had been instigated from the highest imperial offices during the 17th and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 435 VISITING ST JOHN'S ISLAND PETER STUCKEY AND CHRIS BAILEY Introduction St John's Island is about 160 kms WSW of Hong Kong. It is about the size of Lantau Island and is the largest of the Chuan Shan Islands which form part of Tai Shan County. The adoption of the name St John's Island appears to be through anglicisation of the Chinese name for the island, variously spelt as "Shang Chuan Island" on current Chinese maps, or as "Sancian". "Ilhas de San Joao" or "St Jean" Island on older western maps. Our interest in visiting the island was aroused by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society's visit to Goa in January 2001. There, in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, in Old Goa, we had seen the preserved remains of St Francis Xavier. His corpse is displayed in an elaborate glass-sided, silver ornamented casket that rests high up on a Florentine marble mausoleum. St Francis, we learnt, had died on St John's Island on the night of 2/3 December 1552, aged 46. In view of the local interest two visits were made by members of the HK Branch, one travelling “independently" and the other through an organised China Travel Services guided tour. Here follow their accounts of the visits. Independent travel Two Branch members, Rocky Dang and myself, Peter Stuckey, went to the Island on 20th and 21st October 2001. We took a Chu Kong Shipping (CKS) ferry from the China Hong Kong ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, to Xin Hui, leaving at 8:45 a.m. The ferry passes between Macau and Taipa and then follows up the river system past the Yamen Fort to Xin Hui for a fare of HKD 188. At Xin Hui we took a short taxi ride to visit the "Bird's Paradise." Here egrets fly over a huge banyan tree. The tree is reputed to be 500 years old. It extends to cover over a hectare with many trunks formed from the aerial roots descending from the branches of the single organism. Similar trees exist in the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta and in Phimai in NE Thailand. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 440 - who were very friendly and didn't mind us snapping away. All too soon, it was time to head back for the 2.30pm ferry (and the dreaded customs hall that was rumoured to be tough-going, but in fact gave us no problems). In all, a relaxing and different weekend which was fun and gave us a sense of achievement. Details of St Francis Xavier's life and links to St John's Island (as gleaned from a search on the Web and other sources) St. Francis spent 10 years in Asia and became known as the Apostle of the East. He was the third son of a high official and was born in April 1506 in the Castle of Xavier in Navarre in Northern Spain. Francis was influenced by Ignatius of Loyola and his “Spiritual Exercises” while they lived in Paris. Later, while in India, Francis became a member of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, which Ignatius had been instrumental in founding. Francis left Lisbon in 1541 and travelled via Mozambique to Goa in 1542. Many were converted, inspired by his life, writings and teaching. He travelled to Malacca in 1545, translated prayers into Malay, and again won many converts. He travelled to the Moluccas, to Cochin (1548), to Kagoshima (1549) and to Kyoto (1550). In 1551 he resolved to return to Goa and his ship called in to St John's Island in December 1551. St John's Island was a common port of call for Portuguese ships in those times. While Francis was there, a Portuguese prisoner in Guangdong, probably a smuggler who had been caught by the Chinese authorities, managed to get a letter to a friend of Francis's. The letter suggested the sending of an ambassador to China to seek help for such prisoners. Francis saw opportunities in this and set out from Goa again in April 1552. He intended to bring the news of Christ to China and, with others on board the "Santa Cruz," intended to pursue the release of Portuguese prisoners. However, when they called in at Malacca, they found the Captain of Malacca, a son of Vasco da Gama, resented the appointment of an ambassador other than himself. He allowed the Santa Cruz to leave Malacca, but only without the ambassador. Francis realised his mission was in peril but arrived at St John's Island in August 1552. The Chinese authorities forbade him to enter ================================================================================