331
established during the Chenghua (1465-87) period. From information in genealogics about the Dangs who started the villages it can be estimated that Wing Lung Wai was established in the same period and Tai Hong Wai a little later, in the first half of the 16th century." All of the five main villages, therefore, had been started between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, and from them the smaller villages of Kam Hing Wai and Ko Po were derived.
B. Merger of settlements in the 17th century
The foregoing would suggest that the development of the Dang settlements in Kam Tin was a process in which new villages were established as offshoots of the older main villages. But the opposite process, that of newer settlements being merged into older ones, also took place, in the critical period of the 17th century. Such were the cases of Sa Bui Leng (Sha Pui Leng) and Gau Ga Chyun, two Dang settlements which either no longer exist (Gau Ga Chyun), or no longer have any Dang residents (Sa Bui Leng).
According to his descendants, who now all live in Tai Hong Wai, Dang Man-wai first established a village at Shun Fung Wai, and then left it and moved to Nam Pin Wai. There is a widely known fung-sheui story which implied that Nam Pin Wai was unfit for a single surname community. Man-Wai discovered the problem: the fung-sheui was no good as far as the behaviour of women was concerned. So he gave up the idea of settling there. He moved from there back to Kam Tin. Man-Wai and his people first lived at Sa Bui Leng after coming back. It was told that a dan is still to be seen at the site of his settlement. After he became jeun-sz he built Tai Hong Wai and moved there. One version has it that Tai Hong Wai was started by his younger brother, not himself. The brother followed the instruction of the bandit chief called Lei Maan-Wing then living in Tai Mo Shan. Man-Wai was an expert on fung-sheui. Before his time the people [of his segment of the lineage?] were very poor. Thanks to his choice of good fung-sheui [something to do with the village wall] they enjoyed prosperity after the final move.
Gau Ga Chyun means the village of nine families. An elder remembered seeing seven or eight houses used as store houses when he was small. These belonged to the Gwok-Yin jou segment of Wan-Yu jou people. He said that people lived there until more than 10 generations ago, they found the place unsatisfactory and moved back (sic) to Wing