HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH
Being a local history of the region of Hong Kong and the New Territories before the British occupation
S. F. BALFOUR
(Editor's Note. In recent years the Journal has reprinted selected items of enduring interest to those interested in Hong Kong and its past. The following article first appeared in the T'ien Hsia Monthly, published in Shanghai, in vols. 11-12, 1940-41, pp. 330-352, 440-464. It is reprinted with the kind permission of Mr. Balfour's widow, Mrs. William Glock. Stephen Balfour was a Cadet i.e. Administrative Officer in the Hong Kong Civil Service*. He served here from 1929 until his tragic death in an air raid on the Stanley Internment Camp during the war-time Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong,
The article is reprinted as it stands in the original, and no gloss has been attempted or additional references given to books cited or to the source of the illustrations).
I. ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE REGION
Local history in China has always been considered one of the functions of the officials administering each province or district; it has thus come about that there is not a single corner of the Chinese Empire that has not at least one local history, recounting its antiquities and its aspect at the time of writing, and many places have several of these topographies, as they are called, compiled about them at different dates.
The region in which Hong Kong and the New Territories lie is described in the Topography of the San On (now Po On) District. This book, which is dated 1820, is a revised version of earlier editions stretching back to the 15th century, and it would have been interesting to consult the earlier versions, were they accessible, not so much for the information about local antiquities and traditions, for that has probably all been reproduced in the last edition, as for the details of contemporary life described by the official in charge of the district at that time. However, the topography in its later edition contains a great many valuable texts, reproduced from inscriptions or other books that have since disappeared, authentic information about the district itself and almost everything in local tradition that was considered worth printing.
*See Mr. Lethbridge's article on Hong Kong Cadets, 1862-1941 elsewhere in this issue. Ed.
新安縣誌