[
    {
        "id": 208032,
        "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": 71,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH’ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN, KWANGTUNG\n\nJOHN THOMAS Kamm*\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nThe British Crown Colony of Hong Kong was carved, in three successive steps, from the Chinese county of Hsin-An (新安). These essays represent attempts to reconstruct modes of economic activity which prevailed in this remote county during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This reconstruction will eventually serve as the groundwork on which an analysis of mercantile capitalism, in terms of its impact on local Chinese social structure, will be built.\n\nIn the first year of Wan-Li (1573), Hsin-An Hsien was formed from the division of Tung-Kuan Hsien (東莞縣) into two jurisdictions. Except for a brief period during the reign of the Kang-Hsi Emperor, the county remained one of the fourteen counties of the Kwangchow Prefecture throughout Ch'ing. As with most other magistracies in rural imperial China, Hsin-An was characterized by a high degree of self-government. The magistrate seldom intervened in local affairs, and relied heavily on the indigenous social order for the day-to-day administration of the countryside.\n\nThe dominant stratum of the local hierarchical order consisted principally of landlord-gentry patrilineal descent groups, commonly referred to as great clans (大族). Of these clans, the Tangs (鄧) and especially that branch of the clan which resided in Kam Tin (錦田) -- were probably best representative. Much of the data presented was collected during field work into the social history and oral tradition of this Punti \"power brokerage.\"\n\n*\n\nMr. Kamm states, The essays were written in fulfillment of seminar requirements for an A.M. at Harvard University's Regional Studies-East Asia program. The work is based largely on research undertaken in the New Territories (including a brief stint as coordinator of an NTA-Yuen Long \"oral history\" project in Kam Tin) and in the archives of the Public Records Office, Hong Kong. Writing and editing was supervised by Professor Yang Lien-Sheng of Harvard during late 1974.\n\nNOTES\n\nThe cession of Hong Kong Island was ratified by the Treaty of Nanking (1842). The Kowloon peninsula was added in 1860. Britain obtained the New Territories (on a 99-year lease) in 1898.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208179,
        "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": 218,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "202\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nin the shuffle. As a consequence, phenomena of this order are hardly understood.\n\nIn my opinion, as large corporate groups continue to disintegrate in the New Territories, a complex structure of social life will emerge to fill the vacuum. This structure will be composed of 'popular' elements, previously considered 'incongruities' by most theoreticians, which are no less traditional than the Confucian ideal, yet more resilient. It is precisely within the corpus of oral tradition that the historical basis of this structure comes to light.\n\nAside from these reasons, the project would provide useful materials for the study of Hong Kong history in the lower and middle schools, while being of general scholastic worth to advanced research.\n\nThe initial project would hopefully be attached to the District Office, its scope of research encompassing the villages and townships of a single Administrative District. I estimate that a staff of three or four researchers working for a minimum of two years would complete an adequate history of Yuen Long.\n\nAt this time, I would like to thank the New Territories Administration, and most especially your office, for the assistance and encouragement offered the pilot project over the last few months. I look forward to a further exchange of opinions on the points touched on above.\n\nYours,\n\n[Signed]\n\nJOHN THOMAS Kamm\n\nFIELD NOTES ON THE SOCIAL HISTORY AND FUNG-SHUI OF KAM TIN*\n\n1. Kam Tin is properly the name of a community; it is a generic term applied to a number of settlements (walled and unwalled villages - respectively wai (圍) and tsuen (村)) clustered together to form a heung (鄉). Until recent times (mid-1930's), with the notable exceptions of servile families (sai-man (世民) and ha-fu (下夫)) and tenants, this heung was inhabited exclusively by members of the large and powerful Tang (鄧) clan. Indeed, Kam Tin,\n\n* As such, these notes should be read in conjunction with the various papers to which reference is made in the text.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208193,
        "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": 232,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "216\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nhead for the hall, the result is that the hall would bring about Great Wealth (大富)\n\nOn the ancestral hall itself, it is apparent that it is being surrounded by green mountains and beautiful streams. Its walls are finely made and its direction is carefully orientated so as to suit the Dragon form. The rooms inside are spacious, comfortable, and neatly packed together. In front of it is Shau Sing Kung Shan (壽星宮山) (\"Long-life mountain\") and on the left of it is Kwun Yam Shan (觀音山). All these signs imply that from here “Great Nobility\" (貴) would appear. Its form, so magnificent, calls for the Red Bird (朱雀) to lead the way (朱雀護送迎) and the Green Dragon and White Tiger to kneel (†). It drives the ranges to curl around it and the stars to look after the outlet. Every mountain, no matter how far comes to guard the cave, and every stream comes to gather round the hall. This indicates \"Great Wealth\" (大富). Thus the window of Heaven is made open and the door of Hell is tightly shut.\n\nThis is the best Dragon form. It should foster great wealth and great nobility. It explains why the Tang clan has had so much success in wealth, fame, and in civil examinations, as compared with the other villages in Pat Heung (八鄉). Of course, it owes very much to the keen choice of Fung-shui by the Tang ancestors. Hong Kong, 1973\n\nJOHN THOMAS Kamm\n\nBEAN SKIM (豆漿皮); A PRODUCT OF BLOOD & SWEAT FROM THE MAKERS\n\nBean skim is a traditional rural product in the Tsuen Wan District of the New Territories of Hong Kong. The following account was written by WAN Chung-yan of Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan on 12.1.1976, at the Hon. Editor's request.\n\nBean skim is a kind of bean product of rich nourishment. In the age when the electric motor had not yet been invented, such product was really a product of blood and sweat from the makers.\n\nThe making of bean skim is easily described. Choose the best yellow beans, dry them under the sun and peel them. Then soak the beans in water and crush them into a paste. After filtering off the refuse, boil them in a pot. Skim off the upper layer of foam. Keep heating the paste at a certain temperature until a thin layer",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213310,
        "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-1994",
        "page_number": 132,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "'Local Reactions to the Disturbance of \"Fung Shui\" on Tsingyi Island, Hong Kong, March 1978-December 1980', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 20, 1980\n\n'Movement of Villages on Lantau Island for Fung Shui Reasons', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 3, 1963.\n\n'Removal of Village for Fung Shui Reasons, Another Example from Lantau Island, Hong Kong', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 9, 1969\n\nIp Hing Fong, Emily, Feng Shui and the Walled Villages of Hong Kong, A Geographical Consideration, Hong Kong University M.Phil thesis, 1995\n\nKamm, John Thomas, 'The Fung-Shui of Kam Tin', The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 17, 1977\n\nLin Yutang, My Country and My People, Heinemann Ltd, 1936\n\nLip, Evelyn, Chinese Geomancy, A Layman's Guide to Feng Shui, Times Books International, Singapore, 1983\n\n'Feng Shui for Business', ditto, 1989\n\n'Feng Shui for the Home', ditto, 1985\n\nLo, Raymond, Feng Shui and Destiny, Tynton Press, England, 1992\n\nLung, David, Chinese Traditional Vernacular Architecture, Regional Council Hong Kong, 1991\n\n'Fung Shui, an Intrinsic Way to Environmental Design with Illustrations of Kat Hing Wai in the New Territories of Hong Kong', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 20, 1980\n\nMarkert, Christopher, I Ching the No. 1 Success Formula, Aquarian Press, 1986\n\nMattock, Katherine and Jill Cheshire, The Story of Government House, Studio Publications, 1994\n\nMiller, Hamish and Paul Broadhurst, The Sun and the Serpent, Pendragon Press, 1989",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]