198
NOTES AND QUERIES
THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED
I quote the following from notes taken at the Kat O ta-tsiu on 24th October, 1986:
Halfway through lunch, I overheard Mr. Lau giving the Hoh Choh Shan story to one of the photographers from the Museum. I went over and asked him to repeat it. I have his version on tape. He reiterated that the name old people used was Hoh Choh Shan, but he thought it should be something else. This Hoh was a high-ranking official and worked at the capital. But his wife became pregnant while he was supposedly away from home. His mother, therefore, became suspicious. Then she learnt that he flew home every night. She became jealous and did something to his flying horse. So the next day he was late for the roll-call at court. The emperor wanted to decapitate him, but would rescind the order if he could name a hundred objects that could grow again after their heads had been chopped off. On the way home, he counted ninety-nine such objects (such as the sweet potato). When he got home, he saw his mother killing a chicken to celebrate his son's moon-yuet [one month after birth]. He asked his mother if the chicken would live without its head. [Of course it wouldn't.] The moment the mother answered in the negative, his head fell off.
There was a sequel to the story. At his grave three bamboos grew. Someone had left word that they should not be cut until a hundred days later. The advice was not followed. They were cut early and the bamboos flew into court but missed the emperor. [If they had grown for a hundred days, they would have hit him.]
Hoh Choh Shan was none other than the Tung Koon Paak, the Earl of Tung Koon whose descendants were decapitated by the Ming Emperor when his son was implicated in a conspiracy. The first half of this story I had heard once previously at Lung Yeuk Tau, but the second half was
198
NOTES AND QUERIES
THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED
I quote the following from notes taken at the Kat O ta-tsiu on 24th October, 1986:
Halfway through lunch, I overheard Mr. Lau giving the Hoh Choh Shan story to one of the photographers from the Museum. I went over and asked him to repeat it. I have his version on tape. He reiterated that the name old people used was Hoh Choh Shan, but he thought it should be something else. This Hoh was a high-ranking official and worked at the capital. But his wife became pregnant while he was supposedly away from home. His mother, therefore, became suspicious. Then she learnt that he flew home every night. She became jealous and did something to his flying horse. So the next day he was late for the roll-call at court. The emperor wanted to decapitate him, but would rescind the order if he could name a hundred objects that could grow again after their heads had been chopped off. On the way home, he counted ninety-nine such objects (such as the sweet potato). When he got home, he saw his mother killing a chicken to celebrate his son's moon-yuet [one month after birth]. He asked his mother if the chicken would live without its head. [Of course it wouldn't.] The moment the mother answered in the negative, his head fell off.
There was a sequel to the story. At his grave three bamboos grew. Someone had left word that they should not be cut until a hundred days later. The advice was not followed. They were cut early and the bamboos flew into court but missed the emperor. [If they had grown for a hundred days, they would have hit him.]
Hoh Choh Shan was none other than the Tung Koon Paak, the Earl of Tung Koon whose descendants were decapitated by the Ming Emperor when his son was implicated in a conspiracy. The first half of this story I had heard once previously at Lung Yeuk Tau, but the second half was
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