[ { "id": 206092, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n167\n\nof Lantau as being the place where many loyal servants of Sung are buried.\n\nThe same scholar who identified the marquis Yang also states that the elder of the two kings died on Lantau. But this cannot be correct.22 The place of his death is Kong Chow and there is no reason to identify it, as he had done, with Tai Yü Shan or Lantau. After the defeat at Ts'ün Wan the movements of the fugitive court are not very clear and there are contradictions in the various accounts, but it seems that they fled as far as they could westwards from the battlefield. During their journey they met with a storm as a result of which the eldest Emperor, who was afterwards given the title of Tuan Tsung, fell sick. The texts on the subject often state that the storm they encountered was a typhoon, but commentators have been careful to point out that typhoons do not occur in winter and that it happened in the 12th moon. However, this is most unimportant.\n\nThe Mongol armies were bent on catching the Emperors since their death was to mean the end of all resistance in South China. The chief minister, Ch'en I-chung, who had accompanied the court so far, deserted them and fled to Annam, and many other desertions must have occurred at this time. Their army, which is said to have numbered 200,000, was concentrated mostly in boats and commanded by Chang Shih-chieh, somewhere west of the Canton estuary. A Mongol fleet equipped at Canton was searching for them in the estuary. Tuan Tsung died in the 4th moon of the year 1278. He was then eleven years old. His brother was declared Emperor by the chief minister Lu Hsiu-fu. He was eight years old.\n\nThe last Emperor Wei Wong or Ti Ping, to give him his posthumous title, still had a slender chance of regaining his kingdom if Wen Tien-chiang, the minister who was organising resistance on the Kiangsi-Fukienese border, had been able to gain a battle. In the 3rd moon, Wen Tien-chiang had advanced as far as Kan-chow and there was a chance of his being able to attack Canton and relieve the pressure on the Emperor's army. The new\n\n21 廣東新語\n\n22 Professor Hsu Ti-shan has, however, just published an article in which he reaffirms this theory. (See X).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207031, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "96\n\nR. G. IRWIN\n\n\"publishers for advertisement of spurious writings.\" In any case this work was subsequently proscribed by the Ch'ien-lung emperor, exception being taken especially to the last four chuan, written by Wang Ju-nan (T. Chi-yung), a fellow townsman of Chung Hsing, whose preface is dated 1660. It furnishes a record of the final years of the Ming and the advent of the Ch'ing. The sympathy of the author for the former is manifest by the preservation of its chronology throughout, i.e. to 1645/6. Copies of this work are available in several important libraries, such as the National Central Library (Taichung), the Naikaku Bunko (Tokyo), the Library of Congress (Washington), and the University of Leiden. The copy at Columbia University lacks chuan 11 and 12, and that at the Library of Congress has had its objectionable features partially effaced, \"but in no case sufficiently as to be illegible.\"\n\n4. The modern romanization of \"Ming-kouron-hong-vou-y-oyongo Taisi-yen” is “xoeng u i oyonggo tacixiyan,\" which proves to be a Manchu version of Hung-wu pao-hsün, the translation having been done by Kang Lin and others. It is in 6 chuan, and was published in 1646, the 3rd year of Shun-chih.\n\nde Mailla, who was in China from 1703 to 1748, relied on three sources, in addition to his personal observation, for the account of the early Ch'ing period which comprises Vol XI. The editor's introductory note (Vol. XI, page 2) refers to them as follows:\n\nOn a déjà parlé, dans un note sur les MING, du Tong-kien-ming-ki-tsuen-tsai, publié la quinzième année de Kang-hi: le docteur Tchu-tsiny-yen, qui en est l'auteur, a conduit ce morceau d'histoire jusqu'en 1659, que les princes de la famille des MING perdirent tout-à-fait l'espérance de recouvrer le sceptre impériale. Le P. de Mailla a écrit d'après lui; & quand cette source a tari, il a en recours au Tsin-tching-ping-ting-sou-han-fang-lio, ou relation des guerres que l'empereur Gin-ti (Kang-hi) fit au Kaldan des Eleutes. Ces Mémoires, rédigés par quatre ministres d'état & par soixante-dix mandarins tant Chinois que Mantchéous, choisis dans le tribunal des Hanlin & parmi les docteurs du premier ordre, sont écrits dans les deux langues, Chinois & Tartare; ils contiennent le détail de l'expédition contre les Eleutes, & l'abrégé des autres événemens du règne de Kang-hi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207116, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n181\n\nIt is an ancient custom in China when a man passes a Government degree examination or is appointed as a Government official, for him to have his new official title carved on a wooden tablet and hung in the Hall of his ancestors. By this means the good news is reported to the ancestors that their descendant has become a man of rank, and at the same time an example is set to future generations to encourage them to do their best to rise to the same honour, as the tablet is left hanging in the hall permanently. There are many of these title-tablets hung in Sz Shing Tong, put there not only by Kam T'in men, but by other descendants of the Tang family who have sent their tablets from places far away, where they have gone to live. The oldest among them is the \"Man Fui” or Kui Yan degree put there by Tang Ting Ching who passed it in the 7th year of Shing Fa, A.D. 1471. The most highly honoured title-tablets are the two from Tang Yung Keng from Tung Kwun district. He passed his Kui Yan degree in the 3rd year of Tung Chi, A.D. 1864 and became \"Hon Lam Yuen Shue Kat Sz\" (H.K.N. VIII, p. 110) in the 10th year of T’ung Chi, A.D. 1871. He held the office of On Ch'aat Sz (Provincial Judge) of Kiangsu province, and in 1900 during the Boxer trouble he was appointed by Lei Hung Cheung, the Prime Minister and then Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, to be the Superintendent of volunteers in Kwangtung.\n\nTang Ts'ing Lok's eldest son, Tang Wan Kuk was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in San On District. During his time there were twenty-eight Sau Ts'oi (B.A.'s) and nine very rich men all members of his family and living in the same street where his house was situated in Shui Mei village. His house was called Kam Ts'un Tong \"ornamental stream hall\"; it has long since been destroyed and a vegetable garden is on the site of where it once existed, but the remains of a large stone gateway can still be seen (plate 20). Tang Wan Kuk owned a large library in this house, and a fine stone fish-tank, made of pink coloured stone, 2 Chinese feet high, 14 wide and 24 long. (Plate 19). Two scholars of the Tang Family have written inscriptions about this tank, speaking very highly of it, but it now lies in a destroyed school building in Shui T’au village, and no-one cares about it. The dates of Tang Wan Kuk's birth and death are not recorded, but we know that his grave, which is in Noh Mai Ham about seven li from Kam T'in was made before the 8th year of Ching", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207573, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 341, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "332\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nIf other, even earlier historical writings are to be taken into account, the editorial principle for presenting an introduction for each chapter, as Prof. Li has done in his new book, can be further traced to as far back as the 2nd century. For instance, in I-wen chih, \"Records of Literary Documentation”, the 30th chuan of Han Shu (History of the Han Dynasty), all the available documents have been classified, according to their nature, into the following groups: Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Book of Songs, Book of Rites, Book of Music, etc. In each group, before listing all books devoted to the same theme, Pan Ku, the author of Han Shu, also provided many introductory essays; one for each of those groups.\n\nUndoubtedly, namely the old Chinese editorial principle, of presenting an introduction to each chapter, which was first initiated by a historian in the 2nd century and again used by art historians in the 12th and the 14th centuries, has played an important role in Prof. Li's A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines.\n\nI have devoted the rest of this review to a discussion of points of detail on which I differ from Professor Li's findings. These do not detract from Professor Li's considerable contribution to scholarship, but it is appropriate to mention them here for the sake of readers and users of this book.\n\nFirst of all, there happen to be some problems of identification. For example, Figure 52 (A-1) in vol. II deals with a complete set of reproductions of a landscape album dated 1729 by Huang Shen. In leaf 9 (pl. LXXXVI) of this album, in addition to its title and date, this 18th-century artist has also inscribed one 5-word poem. The 16th Chinese character which appeared in the 3rd line of this poem is an adjective which modifies a kind of orange that Huang Shen might have seen locally. This character, in Vol. I, p. 246 is identified by Prof. Li as 'yeh' since its literary meaning is rendered by its English translation as 'wild'. The reviewer questions this. His reasons are two-fold.\n\nIn an old Chinese writing, Yen Tzu chun-chiu … the ancient quibbler Yen Tsu (d. 500 B.C.) once stated that Chinese oranges in Southern Huai area were always good while the same fruit when moved to the Northern Huai area was always bad because of its thick skin.15 In this connection, the title of leaf 9 seems worthy of notice, since it is inscribed by the artist himself as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208013, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "36 \n\nG. C. EMERSON \n\ncheques to fellow internees who had extra yen. These cheques were payable after the war and were called ‘duress cheques' as they had been written under duress. After the war the Hong Kong Government announced that people should not feel obligated to honour them. However, as those who signed the cheques had done so willingly and felt that in many cases they had saved them from starvation, almost all the cheques were honoured. As a result, a few of the internee-traders who held many of these cheques became wealthy.\n\nOne man was said to have done this:\n\n1st he traded 8 lbs. of rice for a tin of golden syrup\n\n2nd — he sold the syrup for HK$500\n\n3rd — he sold the HK$500 for ¥3000\n\n4th he sold the ¥3000 at ¥10 to £1 for a £300 cheque.\n\nThus his original 8 lbs. of rice, which before the war was worth about 1 shilling and 4 pence, was eventually turned into 300 pounds sterling!\n\nFood and the Black Market occupied much of Camp \"gossip\", and another topic frequently talked about was repatriation. For the British, repatriation never occurred, partly because in exchange for them, the Japanese asked for a group of Japanese interned in Australia who had been pearl fishermen there and hence knew the coastline very well. Fearing a possible Japanese invasion of Australia, for which these people would have been invaluable, the British government refused to allow their repatriation. The Americans and Canadians in Stanley Camp were, however, repatriated. On 29th June 1942, the first group, mostly Americans and numbering about 300, left on the Asama Maru for Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, where they met the Gripsholm bringing Japanese from America. Changing ships, the Americans reached New York on 25th August 1942. The second repatriation took place in September 1943, when approximately 140 internees, mainly Canadians, returned home.\n\nOne internee, watching the Americans march down to the jetty in Stanley Bay to board small boats which took them out to a ferry for transference to the Asama Maru, wrote:\n\nWe sat on the wall of the cemetery and with deep emotion watched them go. We had dreams of good food for them, of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208215, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "238\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nI wish to express my thanks to Dr. Robert F. Inger (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) for kindly confirming my identifications of specimens of both R. paraspinosa and R. spinosa from Hong Kong, and to Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee for their generous gift of all of the above-mentioned specimens from Tai Mo Shan.\n\nREFERENCE\n\nDubois, A.\n\n1975 Un nouveau sous-genre (Paa) et trois nouvelles espèces du genre Rana. Remarques sur la phylogénie des Ranidés (Amphibiens, Anoures) Bull. Mus. natn. Hist. nat., Paris, 3rd series, No. 324, Zoology 231, pp. 1093-1115.\n\nHong Kong, 20 September 1978\n\nJ. D. ROMER\n\nA VILLAGE WAR (Postscript)\n\nA very similar incident is reported by E. J. Dukes in his late 19th century work Everyday Life in China, pp. 106-107:\n\n\"Several years ago, in a village near Amoy, rival idols were being carried in procession. The paths converged to a point a little way out of the village. The persons forming the procession caught sight of one another, and ran towards the junction of the paths, to see which could get the precedence. They came into collision, indulged in a little fighting, and began a quarrel which lasted fourteen months. Thirty-two villages became involved. A tax was levied upon them by the elders of the villages for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Sentries were placed at the top of square towers, to shoot at any of the hostile party that might venture into the fields. The seeds could not be sown. The standing crops could not be reaped. Two small cannon were bought in Amoy, and with these they amused themselves occasionally in battering a wall or a roof. Great damage was done. The whole neighbourhood was reduced to distress. Where were the mandarins? Calmly waiting till some one was killed. When that event occurred, and was multiplied by twenty-two, the district mandarin became indignant, sent three thousand troops to take possession, levied black-mail on all the villages involved, and retreated with the spoil.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209440, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "75\n\nnumber of Chinese women moved to safety in Canton from the 6th onwards.11 On the night of the 7th, a procession going from Hunghom to Yaumati created some anxiety for the police, but it did not lead to any violence.12\n\nThe Executive Council met on the 8th to review the situation, and on the following day, at an extraordinary meeting of the Legislative Council, a bill was passed without any opposition. It was the Peace Preservation Ordinance of 1884 which was to be in force until April of the following year. It gave the Governor power to banish for five years from Hong Kong 38 persons regarded as being suspicious and dangerous characters. It prohibited Chinese possession of firearms, and it enabled the Governor-in-Council at any time to extend the provisions of the Night Pass Ordinance14 of 1870.48\n\nOnly seven of the thirty-eight persons whose banishment had been decreed were found, but the Government believed the rest had already left the Colony. As for arms, 16,000 items of different arms were reported to have been surrendered on the 10th.44\n\nPerhaps because it was now armed with emergency powers, and could now see the return of order, the Government felt it could afford to show leniency toward those rioters who were still awaiting sentence. On the 10th they were tried; several of them were defended by Ho KaiE, a Chinese barrister, and were fined $20.45 This was much lighter than the sentences imposed on the 3rd. The Magistrate had then said that sentences would depend on the progress of affairs, and the new leniency certainly reflects the return of the Government's confidence.\n\nYet, as late as November, cargo boats and coolies still refused to work for French ships. On the 1st, when coolies discovered that they had been unloading cargo transferred from a French ship, they became very agitated. It was reported that upon making the discovery, they yelled, \"This cargo is French! Don't touch it!\" In the midst of great excitement, they walked off, leaving the cargo on board the lighter unattended.46\n\nSo far what we have done is to relate what had happened. Questions as to why and how are yet to be answered. Some of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211882, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "272\n\nbeautifully marked by black bars on a white ground.\n\nOn Thursday there were several albatrosses. The first mate says the wings of the largest would have measured quite 12 feet if spread out. They look almost as big as a dog of fair size, and fly round close to the stern of the ship. The bird I skinned was cased with fat, and very oily indeed. Directly they are caught and placed on deck they begin to vomit oil, and can never rise to fly from the deck.\n\nThis cold weather is very agreeable after such a roasting as we had in the tropics. Soon however we shall experience the second edition which will be hotter. The captain has behaved uncommonly well lately, and has almost forgotten to swear. Moreover he is getting quite kind and obliging. Capt Moate and I keep together, and he finds that two to one is rather too many, so he had to knock under a little.\n\nOur provisions have lasted far better than I anticipated; we have still quite a respectable stock of fowls and vegetable. My mouth, however, quite waters for the pine-apples, mangosteins, bananas, yams, etc. which we shall get at Java when we get there. Our yesterday's dinner will give you a fair idea of what we have. Roast fowl, cold pork, preserved mutton pie, green peas preserved, potatoes, plum pudding (bottled plums), cheese, etc. etc. There is nothing to complain of as regards food. Yet I do not get fat upon it someway or other. I believe it is for want of exercise. They tell me I ought to drink wine, but as long as I can I shall be a tee-totaller.\n\nThe captain's wife has been very unwell for some days. The sea evidently does not agree with her. A breeze is just now beginning to spring up, although it is hardly a favorable one. The sunset is very fine indeed. There is a ship just in sight, and the captain has just gone on the deck with his glass. I shall often be thinking of home, and all my friends and relations tomorrow. I can picture you all out now at home. Mother and Siss busy in the shop, and having a long chat with some old woman or other on Saturday night.\n\nMonday, June 3rd\n\nSince my last entry upwards of a fortnight has passed away, during which I have passed through no end of difficulties and misfortunes, that I am almost disheartened, and have not had the courage to attempt the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212614, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "148\n\nnormal form of exercise was the evening stroll. There is, perhaps, nothing which so readily distinguishes the Chinese from their lugubrious neighbours to the west, the Indians, as their cheerful spirit. That evening the scene was more animated than usual. I could read in the happy faces of the crowd the joy they felt at finding themselves at last no longer alone in the struggle.\n\nArrangements had been made to send the officers of our little group to various parts of the Chinese front to study war conditions. The others had already left, and I was due to leave by air for Kweilin next day. I went down to the island air-strip early in the morning to find several planes just in from Hongkong, with the families of the C.N.A.C. staff who had been living there. The American crews had flown to Kaitak from a field in China, loaded up, and flown out again all at night. Over a cup of bad Chungking coffee they described the events in Hongkong, the bombing of the airfield and the destruction of the majority of the C.N.A.C. planes, caught on the ground by the sudden Japanese attack.\n\nBy and by the covers were taken off the three engines of the old Junkers 52 plane, in which I was to fly, and mechanics started them up. The plane was the last of those belonging to the Eurasia Aviation Corporation, a Sino-German company, the only competitor of the C.N.A.C. The German pilots had been replaced by Chinese. There were a dozen passengers; we clutched our seats a little nervously as the heavy-looking machine accelerated down the runway towards the river only to rise from the ground just before we hit the water. We spiralled up above the Chungking escarpment and flew away over the Szechuan mountains at a steady hundred miles per hour, until we dropped back through a gap in the clouds to see below us the sabre-toothed hills of Kweilin. I was taken in hand by an efficient \"Fu kuan\" (Adjutant) of General Li Tsung Jen's staff and motored into the city, where I found Michael waiting.\n\nMy destination was the 3rd War Zone, the most important of the nine war zones in China. It covered the greater part of the richest provinces, Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, Kiangsi and Fukien: bounded by the Yangtze to the north, the sea coast in the east, Fukien to the south, the area of the 3rd War Zone reached west as far as the Kan river. General Ku Chu Tung, famous for his defence of Shanghai in 1937, was the Commander.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212615, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 169, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "I should like here to explain that the Japanese intelligence service is efficient; very little that goes on in China is not quickly known to it. But obviously considerations of security, no less than a courteous regard for a great Ally, require a severe discretion in what may or may not be mentioned while a war is still in progress; unperceived by the reader there will be gaps in the story which follows, a story of some minor assistance given to our Chinese Allies in the 3rd War Zone by the British, when themselves hard-pressed during 1942. For similar reasons, where persons are concerned, I propose to refer to them by their Christian names.\n\nI had asked that the Chinese government should provide me with an interpreter for my trip; but Michael was much more than that. He had been educated in Peking and at the Chelu University in Tsinanfu, and was the type of modern young Chinese patriot, on whose enthusiasm, integrity, and sense, the future of China depends. The horizon of these young Chinese is only too often limited by the fact that not only have they never travelled outside China, so that their knowledge of the foreigner is confined to the few they may have met in their schools or in their immediate environment, but also they know so little of their own enormous country. The displacement of schools brought about by the Japanese aggression has helped much to overcome the second difficulty; and it is to be hoped that far more extensive opportunities will be provided after the war to enable the youth of China to visit foreign countries. In the past, by reason of proximity, Japan has received most Chinese students; followed by the United States, where special endowments, arising initially from the excessive claim made for indemnity at the time of the Boxer trouble, and the facility of “earn while you study”, have attracted students. A few, far too few, have come to England.\n\nMichael spoke fluent English, had seen much of his own country, and for his years carried a wise head on his shoulders; he had, moreover, a most engaging personality. For a year he was my constant companion, on whose advice I came to rely much. I found also awaiting me at Kweilin members of General Ku Chu Tung's staff. We left for Hengyang by train, and thence motored a thousand kilometres to Shangjao, the headquarters of the 3rd War Zone. I was the first foreign officer, Russian liaison officers apart, to visit the 3rd War Zone in two years: I was, in fact, a visible token of the assistance which China might now expect from her new allies, and my reception was correspondingly cordial. I was shown everything; the Arsenal, in a cave; The Prisoners of War cage, where some twenty Japanese were kept pending transfer further west;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212616, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "150\n\nand the 3rd War Zone branch of the Central Military Academy, where the junior officers of the Chinese army are trained.\n\nThe outbreak of war between Britain and Japan had altered the nature of my visit. It was agreed that a British party would be sent to the 3rd War Zone to assist in guerilla warfare, and shortly afterwards I left for a reconnaissance of the forward areas where the school, which was to be the central feature of our assistance, would be established.\n\nThe lower Yangtze delta is the most densely populated and the wealthiest region in China. Within the triangle contained by Shanghai, Nanking, and Hangchow, there are many large cities, such as Soochow, Changhsing, Huchow, Chinkiang and Kashing. In this area there is more railway traffic, more road traffic, more river and canal traffic, more sea-going shipping, and more active industry, than in all the rest of China. For the past four years, since the fall of Nanking, the Japanese had occupied the main lines of communication in the region; the Yangtze, the railways, the large cities; and they had patrolled and used the roads and creeks: in short, on the security of this base rested the whole Japanese position in China. Any threat here, any blow at Japanese dispositions, would be correspondingly the more telling. Well, as it happened, a broad tongue of mountains reached from the southwest into the area, and in these mountains the guerillas had established their quarters.\n\nOur car followed the road along the Tsien Tang river gorges: we slept in little road-side inns and ate in busy fly-blown taverns. When I had last visited these parts there had been no motor roads; I had come by junk, hauled up the rapids by trackers who bent to the ground as they strained to advance foot by foot. A new railway, leading south from Wuhu on the Yangtze, had been completed only a few years previously. In face of the Japanese advance, Chinese engineers had dismantled the line to deny its use to the enemy: but the Japanese advance had stopped at the edge of the plain; the mountain area which reached back to the mass of unoccupied China was still untouched, except for desultory bombing. The steel railway bridges had been cut, their girders sloped at all angles; and the sleepers had been taken for firewood by the farmers, leaving the rails lying along the track.\n\nAll this derelict steel, the stone piers of the bridges, the embankments and cuttings, and the rails themselves, were ideal for use in training. We had here better facilities than we had ever had in Maymyo, though", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212617, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "151\n\nalong the dismantled track ran no trains, under whose wheels we could get our dummy mines, as we had been able to do in Burma where the alarm created by their noisy, if harmless, explosions had often confused the Indian engine drivers.\n\nThe magistrate was helpful: he devoted two days to tramping round with us from village to village, until we could decide where accommodation for the school might be most suitable; and he promised to build a short length of road to connect the village finally selected with the motor road so that our lorries could drive right up to the door. The village was some miles outside a small country town; I shall call it Chin Ya, the Golden Duck.*\n\nNew Year's Eve fell while I was making these investigations. The local general, with that consideration which is the charming mark of Chinese breeding, fearing I should be lonely, invited me to dinner. Since arrival in the 3rd War Zone I had asked to be kept informed of any parties of foreigners escaping from Shanghai, but no news of any escapes had come through. It was accordingly with the greater pleasure, as we were sitting down to dinner, that I was surprised by the entry of a tall bearded figure, wearing a long Chinese gown, and heard myself addressed in English. He was the first foreigner to escape from Shanghai, an American, Mr. Hawkins, the manager of one of the branches of the big American bank which had offices in China.\n\nHe told us his story while we ate our dinner. Having only just returned from leave in the States, he was staying at an hotel, which happened to be near the Bund. Early on the morning of December 7th he was wakened by the sound of gunfire. He went out to investigate and found that Japanese destroyers were sinking H.M.S. Peterel in the Whangpoo River just off the Bund. He realised that war must have broken out and dashed round to his bank to 'phone his manager. He then returned to his hotel, packed a small bag, got into his car, and drove out to the stables in the western suburb, where a friend kept two ponies which he had permission to ride. He saddled the ponies, and riding the one while leading the other, passed through the gate at which a Japanese sentry stood guard where the road crossed the barbed wire barrier surrounding Shanghai. The barrier had originally been put up by the foreign troops holding the\n\n* It is in the Tianmushan mountains, near the border of Chekiang and Anhwei, near the country town Anchi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212622, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "156\n\non the door panels drew attention wherever they passed, the Allies were arriving. Alas, the advance party was the only party we were to receive: the attack on Burma was developing very quickly and all supplies and reinforcements were diverted there. Then the Burma road was cut, and as time advanced we found we had to get along with what we had. It was not as if we had even a first claim on such supplies as had already reached China for the British Military Mission. Our particular activity was not the main interest of the Mission, and we were not on any priority list.\n\nHowever, the future was concealed from us. We started off, full of enthusiasm, for Chin Ya in our four lorries accompanied by the General Commanding the Engineer Troops of the 3rd War Zone, a particular friend of ours, and reached our destination without incident. Mac's arrangements had all been completed and we were able to enter immediately into the quarters prepared for us.\n\nI was a little uneasy about the magazine, a flimsy outbuilding, used as a temple and distant a hundred yards from the village. We removed the idols from the shelf at the back, stacked our explosives there and on wooden racks built for the purpose, so as to keep them off the damp floor; and locking the door posted a sentry over it, hoping for the best. There were several tons of explosive; had they gone up they would have taken the village with them.\n\nA row of houses had been taken over for the students; in a small wood at the back three open thatched sheds had been erected as lecture rooms; and the top floor of the largest house in the village, owned by a widow, was occupied by our Chinese assistants. The widow lived on the bottom floor; she was old-fashioned and had strong objections to our installing windows in the walls of her house to admit light to the rooms. There was a local superstition that windows let the money fly out, thus impoverishing the occupants; all the houses in the district had only little slits, inadequate to relieve the gloom inside. With Michael's assistance we persuaded her to allow us to put in roughly made window-frames, fitted with wooden shutters for use if it rained; we, of course, had no glass.\n\nTwo temples had been reserved for our own quarters: the one, at a little remove from the village, I used as my office and living quarters: the other contained a large hall facing a small yard, open to the sky.\n\nI\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212625, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "159\n\nunaccustomed and which they might not like; it is, of course, a good deal more difficult to provide foreign fare in China than Chinese fare. So we decided to have one Chinese mess and one British mess. We found a very good cook for the Chinese mess, but were less successful, until later Lao Teng joined us, with a cook for our own food. It seemed the obvious solution, but the young Chinese interpreters from Shanghai took it in ill part and claimed that we were giving them \"unequal treatment”. The Hongkong boys were only too pleased with the arrangement, as were the accountant and storekeeper I had engaged; they had previously worked in a foreign firm and were not influenced by the same inferiority complex. It was unfortunate, and it was a dilemma which we never quite got over.\n\nOn April 1st we held the opening ceremony and our training commenced. We were extraordinarily encouraged by the quality of the students sent to us. I should explain that we were accredited to the Chinese Regular Army, not to the guerillas; but I had heard such favourable reports of the work the guerillas were doing, that I had asked especially that some guerilla teams should be sent to us. There appeared to be reluctance in agreeing to this request; possibly because, as we were to discover later, the guerillas only owed a nominal allegiance to the 3rd War Zone; they were really directly under Chungking. However, we did get guerillas, and also some men from special front-line organisations, who appeared to be a cross between guerillas and regular troops.\n\nAs the success of our type of work depended so much on team spirit, I was determined from the start only to teach in teams, and so far as possible we tried to arrange that the teams sent to us for training should remain as teams when they returned to the field. We had some difficulty in putting this idea over, and I am afraid that our teams, only too often, after leaving us were shuffled. Each team had a leader, and we had insisted that only men who could read and write should be sent to us. In practice that meant that our students were mainly drawn from the ranks of the junior officers or non-commissioned officers. The students proved extremely keen; they were intelligent, good with their hands, and developed a fine team spirit. In the first course, we had a good many students from the engineers, though I was not too anxious to receive these, because I feared our object might be misunderstood and that our ideas would be confused with the work of defensive military engineering, where the deliberate methods of laying explosives on your own ground before the arrival of the enemy were quite different to the type of hasty attack demolition calling for expert team work in which we were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212635, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "169\n\nas they subsequently produced no results, and indeed, in the absence of targets could not be expected to\n\nHowever, the next course had to be postponed time and again owing to our dangerous position. The Japanese took Kinhwa, advanced and after severe fighting took Chunsien, and joined up with their other troops who had advanced from Nanchang to Yingtan. They occupied Shangjao: the Headquarters of the 3rd War Zone withdrew to Fukien. We were thus entirely cut off. The most serious consequence was to break our telegraphic communication with Chungking. It was fully expected that the Japanese would mop up the areas left behind; in the absence of the telegraph we could not get accurate information and all sorts of wild rumours circulated. We broke up our stores and found hiding places for them in the mountains. We had already decided on our own line of retreat to a mountain hideout, which had last been used by the members of our village during the Taiping rebellion.\n\nWe ran out of money. Michael was able to borrow some from his friends, and the magistrate did what he could to help us; but currency seemed to have vanished. Eventually the Government dropped a supply by aeroplane in the area and the situation eased. I found a Chinese civilian who was a wireless expert, and who had made a good set, driven by hand-operated power, which had sufficient strength to reach Chungking. We applied to the Chinese authorities for permission to use this set; the request was relayed by wireless to Chungking, but after a long delay we received a refusal from General Ho Ying Chin \"Lest precedent be set\". I know, of course, that wireless was one of the subjects on which the Chinese government was very touchy, but I had hoped, in view of our circumstances, that an exception might be made.\n\nAfter three months the Japanese withdrew from Shangjao, conditions improved, and students collected for the second course. In the meantime, we had not been idle. One of our chief problems was to obtain the metal for our mines and booby-traps. We had heard that a number of damaged locomotives were to be found down the line; on inspection, we discovered that they had been stripped of anything portable, particularly of all brass work, but in some of them, the boiler tubes still remained. The Chief felt sure he could make good mines out of these. We obtained permission from the engineer in charge of the railway to take what tubes we could find; they had to be cut out by explosive, as those that screwed out had already been taken. The Chief put in a lot of work at this, and we acquired quite a useful stock of tubes. They were 1\" in diameter and when cut\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213092, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "141\n\nwith some happier notes.\n\nJuly 23rd\n\nBy this time we had broken down the opposition and matters began to run smoothly\n\nAnd after a long gap, the final entry,\n\nSeptember 3rd\n\nI left for Japan about this time spending all September in Colony In Japan the guest of the Japanese Government and made a national hero Valuable presents numerous and suite of rooms in the Imperial Hotel\n\nThis red-carpet treatment must have been recommended by Kitasato in appreciation of the help given him by Lowson in making the discovery that earned him international fame\n\nHaving read the diary, I learnt more about the situation as it developed from day to day but it came as a surprise to me that so much had gone on behind the scenes arising from clashes of personalities The three important people whose responsibility in the fight against the Epidemic was no less onerous than that of Ayres or Lowson were called: fools, cowards and nonentities. They were the Governor, who was in overall charge as head of the administration, the Colonial Secretary, who was the Governor's principal assistant, and the Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board which was set up to recommend on legislation Were the accusations justified? We do not know, but it would be interesting to find out something about these three.\n\nSir William Robinson was Governor of Hong Kong from December 1891 to January 1898. His governorship covered a most difficult period in the history of Hong Kong, during which 'misfortunes after misfortunes assailed the colony in swift succession', to quote from Sayers. The year 1894 was a particularly bad one for Robinson and Hong Kong. His wife died but not from plague. Two very severe typhoons struck Hong Kong in September and October, causing much devastation and many casualties. Above all, there was the Epidemic with its effect on the economy and other aspects of life in the Territory. Robinson reported to the Secretary of State for the Colonies that 'Without exaggeration, I may assert that so far as trade and commerce are concerned the plague has assumed the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]