269
FURTHER TALES OF THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED
P.H. HASE
In Vols 28, 29, and 34 of the Journal a series of folk-tales relating to Ho Chan, the Warlord of Canton in the late Yuan, and Earl of Tung Kuan under the first Ming Emperor were printed1. Recently a further version of one of the folk-tales has been seen, in the booklet issued by the Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple Restoration Committee to commemorate the re-opening of the Temple (March, 2000), and a translation of this version is given below. It will be seen that this is a version of the same story relayed by Tsim Fo-sang (Journal, Vol. 29), although it differs in a number of details: certain important details are also clearly related to parts of the story collected by Wong Wing-ho (Journal, Vol. 34). It seems likely that this story is essentially a boat-people's story from Kau Sai. Tsim Fo-sang in the years just before the coming of the Japanese used to carry fire-wood from his home village in Sha Tin across the mountains to sell to the boat-people in Sai Kung. It is likely that his version of the story was the one he heard in the late 1930s from his boat-people customers, the version given below is as the story is remembered today in Kau Sai2.
“Talking about Tiu Chung Crag (吊鐘巖), the Sai Kung fisher-people have a strange folk-tale which has been handed down among them.
In the Tiu Chung Crag there is a cave. It has been handed down that when the first ray of dawn enters the cave, the cave discloses what seems to be a Golden Bell hanging in the air: the island is believed to take its name (Tiu Chung Chau, 吊鐘洲, “Hanging Bell Island") from this.
It is said that, at the end of the Sung, there was an official called Ho, who loved walking in the mountains and admiring the sea views. He came to Tiu Chung Chau. He considered the scenery there to be very fine. There was an old banyan tree growing in the centre of the island then, with roots wriggling in every direction like a young dragon. In particular, there were two roots, as thick as a thumb, which pierced through the top of the Tiu Chung Crag.