Author ｜
Lee Fong-mao
Abstract ｜
During the Age of Exploration, since the navigation between India and Southeast Asia, cholera became seriously contagious in Melaka and Pulau Pinang, two places on the route. Meanwhile, when Hokkienese immigrated to Malaysia, on this occasion of epidemic situation was out of control, Hokkienese transplanted their “Patrol of the Imperial Aide” worship from their homeland, which were the words “In awe of the Southern Lands” or “In fear of the Southern Man People” displayed on the horizontal inscribed board. In the first part of the nineteenth century, there were temples continually building up in Melaka. The popularity of Wang Ye worship reflected the contagion of the plague. The times holding the rituals of “Sending the Royal Vessel” from the last part of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, a period that corresponds with the time periods when the cholera was contagious in Asia. This was a time when the worldwide spread of cholera grew six times via the trading route, from India to southeast Asia, as well as the northern Chinese coastal provinces and Taiwan. The history recorded the period of cholera pandemic in 1820 Pulau Pinang, and the British J. Low witnessed people in Pulau Pinangasking Chiwangye to patrol their territory in order to dispel the ghost of cholera. However, Wang Ye Miao in Pulau Pinang chose not to record it for they did not want to mention any about the cholera.On the other hand, five Wang Ye temples in Melaka kept the historical remains, which included the rituals of “Sending the Royal Vessel” heldin the Qinghua temple in Kandang, as well as Bandar Hirlir in Yongquan Basilica, and the processions held in 1905, 1919 and 1933, and the related maps, deeds and historical relics. After World War II, there was a time not holding rituals due to the improvement of sanitation. Until 2012, the Yong Chuan Temple re-held the rituals and changed the name as “Ching jao,” which was host by the Taoist priests from Muar in Johore since local Taoist priests already forgotten the old rites. There was much confusion over the proper etiquette and ceremony to sacrifice Wang Ye, which formed the “compound” rituals composed by Daoist priests and masters.The memory of plague became vague due to there has been a long time since the early twentieth century. Therefore, it missed some of the details of the rituals, such as picking lotus team, and transformed the enhancing luck rituals, even shifted the patrolling areas. Taking the instance as an example of crossing area research, there are rituals of sending out the Royal Vessel around Fujian, Taiwan or Indonesia in Southeast Asia; however, due to the changes of circumstance, “the same origin” of the title of the rituals and goals became “diverse branches,” which reflected the changes of collective needs of local believers. Therefore, the structure of rituals contains the effects of “collecting treasure box,” which contains the same or different stuffs in different time periods. As long as keeping the“collecting treasure box,” it would store and refill different stuffs, which the rituals of “Sending the Royal Vessel” formed the historical effects.
keywords ｜
Melaka, Sending the Royal Vessel, Patrol of the Imperial Aide, cholera