71
PENG CHAU BETWEEN 1798-1899
J. W. HAYES, M.A.
I
The object of this and previous articles is to recover as much of the pre-1899 past of the Hong Kong region as possible, with special reference to the nineteenth century.
What materials for a history of the life and times of the people still exist? Locally there are occasional stone tablets commemorating the repair of temples or the settlement of an important local dispute. They mostly belong to the latter part of the nineteenth century. Some eighteenth century ones have survived but early tablets are generally rare because local people have a habit of getting rid of them when the temple is repaired once more. If not actually thrown out, they are taken into the yard and eventually broken up by children, or taken away to serve as impromptu table tops and seats or as chopping boards for vegetables. Then there are the numerous horse-shoe shaped graves which stud the countryside, practically all of which have dated tablets. Many of those still legible date from the late CHING period (1644-1912), but time and exposure to the elements have often done their worst, especially where a family has died out and the grave is no longer visited every year. There is the mute evidence of the countryside itself, where land long fallow and houses mouldering into the ground testify to a more populated past, often at a considerable distance of time from the present.
Written records include clan genealogies. These seem to be fairly widespread, though fewer in number than before the Japanese war. In the remoter and poorer areas, where the clans are small and poorly educated, they often amount to no more than a list of names without even dates of birth and death; but those of the larger clans are often printed and include all kinds of interesting information, such as lists of property, honours and posts held by ancestors, clan rules, etc. A few land-deeds from the CHING period also turn up from time to time, but, like the genealogies, they have suffered from damp and the consuming desire of white ants to know more of their local history. It has also to be remembered that land-deeds had to