180
Note.
SUNG HOK-PANG
Sze Taan is the man to whom the silver coins flew through the air (see “Ngan Tau Laan” (✯✯) H.K.N. VII pp. 251, 252 and VIII plate 8).* This is the only record that we can find which proves that Sz Taan was alive in the 47th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1782.
Many of Tang Kwong Yue's descendants are rich men, and fine scholars, having passed the Sau Ts'oi (††) and Kung Shang (†*) degrees.
Sz Shing Tong (A) is the ancestral Hall of Tang Ts'ing Lok (***) and is to be found at the western end of Shui T'au. Tsing Lok was the grandson of Tang Hung Yee (*) and the son of Tang Yam (#), (see H.K.N. VII pp. 161 and 251). The Hall was built by Tang Mung Woo (*) and Tang Mung Pik (*), and later repaired by Tang Mung Siu (†), Tang Mung Hung (p), Tang Wun Yat (−) and Tang Kwing Yue ($). A rule was made that on every Ts'un Fan (✯✯), vernal equinox and Ts'au Fan (✯✯), autumnal equinox, the two great days of reverence to ancestors, a certain amount of roast pork was to be presented to the above men or their descendants in recognition of their merit in building and repairing the hall, and this custom is carried on up to the present time.
The date of the building of the Hall is not known, but a large tablet which is hung inside with the three characters Sz Shing T'ong is dated the 2nd month of the 59th year of Kin Lung (A.D. 1794). These characters were written by a high government official, Ch'oh P'aang Ling (✯✯✯), a native of Loi Yeung district (*) in Shangtung province. He was a Hon Lam Yuen P'in Sau (✯✯E*) during the Kin Lung period. For a reference to Hon Lam Yuen (see H.K.N. VIII, p. 110). A Pin Sau was a second class Hon Lam compiler. Ch'oh Paang Ling held the office of Yue Sz (#), a member of the "To Ch’aat Yuen” (**) (Court of Censors) at Peking, whose duty it was to keep the Emperor informed on all matters of public importance. He had the good name of Kang Chik Kam Yin (✯✯✯), “one who has the courage of his opinions," and finally he was given the high office of Kung Po Sheung Shue (***), the President of the Board of Works, in Peking. His written characters are not easy to come across now, so the tablet in Sz Shing Tong is very much valued in Kam T'in.
*See p. 163-4 above, and Plate 35.