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threat by the spiritual power of the divinity. This is likely to be the reason why the Shing Ping She did not change the registration of the land after the purchase, but left it under the aegis of the divinity.
The land "of the nunnery", therefore, was possibly always essentially communal land. The claimed "sale" to the Shing Ping She, in these circumstances, would merely represent a rearrangement of the communal lands; a transfer from the Ping Yuen Hap Heung to the wider Ta Kwu Ling grouping. Problems connected with the costs of repair of the nunnery after the fire may underlie the transfer. It would seem that only the tiny plots of land in the immediate vicinity of the nunnery actually used by the nuns for growing vegetables, and money donated by travellers, were wholly in the nuns' control. Such an arrangement would certainly make it easier to understand why the nunnery always seems to have been poorer than its landholdings would suggest.
Thus, the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz can be seen to have been founded as part of a growing move to political independence in the Ta Kwu Ling area in the later eighteenth century. Later, as the move to political independence moved to open warfare, the nunnery became one of the spiritual bulwarks of the larger Luk Yeuk, and the founding inter-village grouping was swept up in part into the larger and more complex new political structure. Very probably the nunnery held the founding villages' communal lands in its name, and later acted in a similar way for the larger area.
However, it is easy to over-simplify the political situation in the late nineteenth century. None of the mutual defence alliances of the area were truly united. All had internal political divisions of some importance, which introduced stresses into the system. Thus, within the Luk Yeuk, the stresses between the Ping Yuen Hap Heung, with its interests and alliances to the south-east, and the northern villages, with their interests concentrated on the north-west, were never entirely overcome. The ritual feasts held by the Luk Yeuk were held both at the Ping Che temple, and in front of the Kim Ho temple. In other words, even ritually the Luk Yeuk had two centres, pointing in different directions.
The area immediately south of Ta Kwu Ling formed the Sze Yeuk ("Alliance of Four"). This divided into Lung Yeuk Tau in the west, and the "small villages" to the east, who were always somewhat nervous about their over-mighty neighbour and ally, and restless about
145
threat by the spiritual power of the divinity. This is likely to be the reason why the Shing Ping She did not change the registration of the land after the purchase, but left it under the aegis of the divinity.
The land "of the nunnery", therefore, was possibly always essentially communal land. The claimed "sale" to the Shing Ping She, in these circumstances, would merely represent a rearrangement of the communal lands; a transfer from the Ping Yuen Hap Heung to the wider Ta Kwu Ling grouping problems connected with the costs of repair of the nunnery after the fire may underlie the transfer. It would seem that only the tiny plots of land in the immediate vicinity of the nunnery actually used by the nuns for growing vegetables, and money donated by travellers, were wholly in the nuns' control. Such an arrangement would certainly make it easier to understand why the nunnery always seems to have been poorer than its landholdings would suggest.
Thus, the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz can be seen to have been founded as part of a growing move to political independence in the Ta Kwu Ling area in the later eighteenth century. Later, as the move to political independence moved to open warfare, the nunnery became one of the spiritual bulwarks of the larger Luk Yeuk, and the founding inter-village grouping was swept up in part into the larger and more complex new political structure. Very probably the nunnery held the founding villages' communal lands in its name, and later acted in a similar way for the larger area.
However, it is easy to over-simplify the political situation in the late nineteenth century. None of the mutual defence alliances of the area were truly united. All had internal political divisions of some importance, which introduced stresses into the system. Thus, within the Luk Yeuk, the stresses between the Ping Yuen Hap Heung, with its interests and alliances to the south-east, and the northern villages, with their interests concentrated on the north-west, were never entirely overcome. The ritual feasts held by the Luk Yeuk were held both at the Ping Che temple, and in front of the Kim Ho temple. In other words, even ritually the Luk Yeuk had two centres, pointing in different directions.
The area immediately south of Ta Kwu Ling formed the Sze Yeuk (4), “Alliance of Four"). This divided into Lung Yeuk Tau in the west, and the "small villages" to the east, who were always somewhat nervous about their over-mighty neighbour and ally, and restless about
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