138
K. M. A. BARNETT
ever attempted to solve... who lived in what is now the Colony and Leased Territory of Hong Kong 600 years ago and what language did they speak?'
I had then just written an article for Mr. J. M. Braga's Hong Kong Symposium in which I summarized evidence from various historical sources. A little new evidence has come to light since that article was written in 1956, and it will not be amiss to mention the chief facts.
Three of the existing Punti160 clans, and one Hakka137, claim continuous residence since the eleventh century A.D. The Punti clans appear to have been connected with the military posts set up in the Southern Han135 dynasty (A.D. 917-971) and wherever Punti160 and Hakka11 are found in the same area the Hakkas always have the inferior foot-hill land--the typical pattern of a partial conquest by later arrivals, pushing the earlier inhabitants up into the hills.
At this time Lantao141 and other islands, Hong Kong harbour itself and the peninsulas that jut into Mirs Bay153 were controlled by boat-people. It can be shown that both of the present kinds of boat-people (Tanka175 and Hoklo138) were represented. They were still unassimilated, and independent enough to require strong garrisons to keep them quiet, at the beginning of the Yüan182 dynasty. The suppression of the pearl fishing A.D. 1319-(the late Mr. Sung Hok Pang169 said 1324) was intended to conciliate them.
The assimilation of the hill-tribes was not begun till the Yuan dynasty at the earliest. The petition of Chang Wei-yen134 of Taipo170 in 1318 mentions two tribes, named Yao179 and Shan-lao-165. The 1819 edition of the Hsin-an-chih139 mentions only Yao. All the present hill cultivators claim Chinese descent and all speak Hakka137. Some, however, claim continuous occupation since the Ming152 dynasty, so that if they are really of Chinese descent they must have lived side by side with aboriginal tribes for two centuries. Again, some of those who claim to be Chinese claim also to have been there from time immemorial, and some still preserve the cult of the creator-god P'an-ku159, which is said to indicate a Yao origin. The truth is probably that in some places the aborigines were killed off or driven away, in a few others they adopted the Chinese language and 'passed' as Chinese, while in others there was intermarriage and the offspring were accepted as Chinese.
In circumstances such as these it is usual for something of the original languages to survive: in the everyday terms used in fishing