36
JEN YU-WEN
At the close of Southern Sung, the last two emperors had to flee and seek refuge by the shores of the sea, from where they led a hundred thousand odd officials and soldiers in the noble endeavour to restore the empire. The Kuan-fu area, with the three big characters Sung Wong Toi still remaining, commemorates one of the last portions of Sung territory on which the two emperors stood. Shortly afterwards they met their ultimate defeat and the whole country was lost to a foreign tribe for the first time in China's history. But what we commemorate is not this unfortunate event in our national history; it is the spirit of nationalism and patriotism displayed in the last struggle of the Sung patriots for the recovery of the mother country.
The independence and freedom of China had a higher claim to their lives. This unconquerable spirit, expressed in the unceasing revolutionary efforts of the Chinese people to fight against the Mongols ever since the last days of Kuan-fu and Ya-shan, was finally crowned with success in the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty less than 90 years afterwards. Today, when we pass through the ancient site of the Travelling Palace and look at the Sung Wong Toi monument, we see the symbol of this same spirit, which is the essential quality necessary for the survival of any nation on earth.
NOTES
1 This lecture is a condensation of my Chinese article Sung Kuan-fu Hsing-kung K'ou (†‡3hB) published in the Continent Magazine (†
A), Taiwan, September, 1966.
2 Such as Ch'en Chung-wei, Erh-Wang Pen-mo (RR#i, =±**), Shu Mou-kuan, Hsin-an Hsien-chih (Chia-ch'ing), Gazetteer of Hsin-an District (**T. **
**BA), K'o Wei-ch'i, Sung-shih Hsin-pien (MM. ER #), Chang Hsu, Ya-shan Chih (HM, AJA), Nan Sung Shu (ET).
* Mother Yu was never again mentioned in historical records; probably she had died.
4 For references, details and discussions on the royal itinerary from beginning to end, see my treatise Sung-mo erh-ti nan-ch'ien nien-lu k'ou (**=*64***) in Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume (edited and compiled by myself), Hong Kong, 1960, pp. 122-174 (X£b444).
5 It is alleged that there were eight mountain ranges spreading over the peninsula which look like running dragons (lung), and that when the boy Emperor stayed at the place, people pointed out that he himself represented the ninth, as an emperor was commonly believed to be symbolized by a dragon. But the more rational and reasonable interpretation for the origin of the name would be that there are altogether nine mountain ranges spreading over the peninsula. According to Hsi-nan I Chuan (§§ AM) in Hou-han-shu (**後漢書**), the Ai-lao-i (‡‡✯ aboriginal tribe Lao) in Yunnan Province called back “k'ou" and seat "lung". Hence to them, Kowloon meant
36
JEN YU-WEN
At the close of Southern Sung, the last two emperors had to flee and seek refuge by the shores of the sea, from where they led a hundred thousand odd officials and soldiers in the noble endeavour to restore the empire. The Kuan-fu area, with the three big characters Sung Wong Toi still remaining, commemorates one of the last portions of Sung territory on which the two emperors stood. Shortly afterwards they met their ultimate defeat and the whole country was lost to a foreign tribe for the first time in China's history. But what we commemorate is not this unfor- tunate event in our national history; it is the spirit of nationalism and patriotism displayed in the last struggle of the Sung patriots for the recovery of the mother country.
The independence and freedom of China had a higher claim to their lives. This unconquerable spirit, expressed in the un- ceasing revolutionary efforts of the Chinese people to fight against the Mongols ever since the last days of Kuan-fu and Ya-shan, was finally crowned with success in the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty less than 90 years afterwards. Today, when we pass through the ancient site of the Travelling Palace and look at the Sung Wong Toi monument, we see the symbol of this same spirit, which is the essential quality necessary for the survival of any nation on earth.
NOTES
1 This lecture is a condensation of my Chinese article Sung Kuan-fu Hsing-kung K'ou (‡T3hB) published in the Continent Magazine (†
A), Taiwan, September, 1966.
2 Such as Ch'en Chung-wei, Erh-Wang Pen-mo (RR#, =±**), Shu Mou-kuan, Hsin-an Hsien-chih (Chia-ch'ing), Gazetteer of Hsin-an District (**T. ** **BA), K'o Wei-ch'i, Sung-shih Hsin-pien (MM. ER #), Chang Hsu, Ya-shan Chih (HM, AJA), Nan Sung Shu (ET).
* Mother Yu was never again mentioned in historical records; probably she had died.
4 For references, details and discussions on the royal itinerary from beginning to end, see my treatise Sung-mo erh-ti nan-ch'ien nien-lu k'ou (**=*64***) in Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume (edited and compiled by myself), Hong Kong, 1960, pp. 122-174 (X£b444 ).
5 It is alleged that there were eight mountain ranges spreading over the peninsula which look like running dragons (lung), and that when the boy Emperor stayed at the place, people pointed out that he himself represented the ninth, as an emperor was commonly believed to be symbolized by a dragon. But the more rational and reasonable interpretation for the origin of the name would be that there are altogether nine mountain ranges spreading over the peninsula. According to Hsi-nan I Chuan (§§ AM) in Hou-han-shu (**), the Ai-lao-i ( ‡‡✯ aboriginal tribe Lao) in Yunnan Province called back “k'ou" and seat "lung". Hence to them, Kowloon meant
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.