112
JAMES HAYES
This recital tells its own story. Hsin-an hsien was not one of the glories of the prefecture. In that useful compendium on the Kwangtung province, the Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao of 1893, only the counties of Nan-hai, P'an-yu and Tung-kuan were singled out for mention in the section dealing with the customs and traditions of the Kuang-chou prefecture. These entries speak of the elegant dress and manners of Nan-hai, of its literary and cultured atmosphere, and of how every palace examination brought forth the names of successful local candidates; of the profusion of foreign and local products, and the native and foreign merchants, stationery and itinerant, and the immense shipping of the port.1 Tung-kuan found fame as the ancient examination centre for the province; but no other place is mentioned. In scholars' eyes, the two metropolitan districts of Nan-hai and P'an-yu completely eclipsed the country and coastal districts of the prefecture like Hsin-an and another late creation, Hsin-ning, established in 1498-1499.2 As late as 1745 the district magistrate of Hsin-an when composing an inscription for the repair of the Chau Wong memorial school at Kam Tin, styled it as a place where the Book of Poetry was read as early as sunrise; and culture had spread even to this remote place near the sea.
The Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao, a typical work of Chinese historiography, lovingly compiled, was the work of four Hunanese who had long been employed in the province as huan or officials and mu-fu or private secretaries to senior mandarins. It deals, in 46 chuan, with the wide variety of subjects usually found in district gazetteers and other works on administrative geography. Those chüan dealing with subjects on a geographical basis included material, arranged by prefecture and district. Hsin-an is included whenever, in the opinion of the compilers, there was anything in its records that warranted an entry.4
As in the chuan on customs and tradition the entries for Hsin-an in other chüan are much fewer than for the older hsien of the
1 KTKKCY 4/1,
2 KTKKCY 1/1 and KCFC 7/4.
3 Tablet dated Ch'ien Lung 10th year, 1st moon, lucky day, inside the building.
4 There is, of course, no shortage of books dealing with Kwangtung and its many localities under similar heads, and in providing their Hsin-an material the compilers did not set out to provide a compendium of all that had ever been included in the successive editions of the standard works on the Kuang-chou prefecture and the hsien of Tung-kuan and Hsin-an, but rather a selection of important material. The KTKKCY seldom provides material after the end of Ming (1644),
112
JAMES HAYES
This recital tells its own story. Hsin-an hsien was not one of the glories of the prefecture. In that useful compendium on the Kwangtung province, the Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao of 1893, only the counties of Nan-hai, P'an-yu and Tung-kuan were singled out for mention in the section dealing with the customs and tra- ditions of the Kuang-chou prefecture. These entries speak of the elegant dress and manners of Nan-hai, of its literary and cultured atmosphere, and of how every palace examination brought forth the names of successful local candidates; of the profusion of foreign and local products, and the native and foreign merchants, stationery and itinerant, and the immense shipping of the port.' Tung-kuan found fame as the ancient examination centre for the province; but no other place is mentioned. In scholars' eyes, the two metropolitan districts of Nan-hai and P'an-yu completely eclipsed the country and coastal districts of the prefecture like Hsin-an and another late creation, Hsin-ning, established in 1498- 1499.2 As late as 1745 the district magistrate of Hsin-an when composing an inscription for the repair of the Chau Wong memorial school at Kam Tin, styled it as a place where the Book of Poetry was read as early as sunrise; and culture had spread even to this remote place near the sea".
The Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao, a typical work of Chinese historiography, lovingly compiled, was the work of four Hunanese who had long been employed in the province as huan or officials and mu-fu or private secretaries to senior mandarins. It deals, in 46 chuan, with the wide variety of subjects usually found in district gazetteers and other works on administrative geography. Those chüan dealing with subjects on a geographical basis included material, arranged by prefecture and district. Hsin-an is included whenever, in the opinion of the compilers, there was anything in its records that warranted an entry.4
As in the chian on customs and tradition the entries for Hsin- an in other chữan are much fewer than for the older hsien of the
1 KTKKCY 4/1,
2 KTKKCY 1/1 and KCFC 7/4.
3 Tablet dated Ch'ien Lung 10th year, 1st moon, lucky day, inside the building.
4 There is, of course, no shortage of books dealing with Kwangtung and its many localities under similar heads, and in providing their Hsin-an material the compilers did not set out to provide a compendium of all that had ever been included in the successive editions of the standard works on the Kuang-chou prefecture and the hsien of Tung-kuan and Hsin-an, but rather a selection of important material. The KTKKCY seldom pro- vides material after the end of Ming (1644),
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