[ { "id": 204802, "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-1964", "page_number": 105, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "FENG CHAU\n\n93\n\n26 Dated the thirteenth day of the sixth Moon of the 8th year of Kuang Hsü (27th July 1882).\n\n27 Other examples of local tax-lords are quoted in note 12 of my Cheung Chau article. For an interesting instance from another part of the New Territories see Appendix II to the Report on the New Territory for the year 1900, Hong Kong Government Gazette, vol. XLVII (1901), pp. 1403-4, where a claim by members of a branch of the TANG family of Kam Tin to ownership of the whole island of Ts'ing I was investigated by a member of the Land Court. He wrote \"I have taken special pains to go thoroughly into this case because it seems a very typical example of the curious and unwarrantable pretensions to the ownership of very large tracts of country which are perhaps the most striking feature in the economy of what we call the New Territory.\" Like the TANGS, the CHANS may have owned part but claimed, or aimed to control, the whole.\n\n28 It is interesting that the earliest grave known on the island has a tablet dated Chien Lung fifteenth year (1749) and that the person buried there is a CHAN Yiu Hong & and the person responsible for erecting the tablet (no relationship is given) CHAN Hing Sin. These men may conceivably have had something to do with the CHAN Yan Hop and Yee Ka Tongs. The grave is unlikely to be that of a fisherman and most likely to be that of someone who was living on Peng Chau at the time of his death. Not everyone is provided with a formal grave, and therefore he was probably a person of some consequence. Also, at the time of the land settlement, various persons named CHAN who were not local villagers but belonged to Peng Chau and Nam Tau (BCL) owned land on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau. One of them was the CHAN Yan Hop Tong of Nam Tau. This land may represent the remains of larger holdings left over from an earlier period but mostly sold or mortgaged by 1899, or else not recognised by the Land Court during the re-registration of titles, as being \"not compatible with the principles of British administration\" as happened with some other tax-lord land in the New Territories—see note 12 to my Cheung Chau article.\n\n29 Peng Chau M.S.\n\n30 BCL.\n\n31 BCL, Lantau coast.\n\n32 A lucky day of the first winter month of the year of Tao Kuang (1834),\n\n33 BCL.\n\n34 BCL.\n\n35 BCL.\n\n36 Peng Chau M.S.\n\n37 At the 1911 census (see note 7 above) the population of these villages was Nei Kwu Chau 78, Tai Pak 52, and Yee Pak 59. There were also families living in hamlets at Nim Shue Wan, Cheung Sha Lan, Hai Tei Wan, Hung Shui, Kau Shat Wan and Man Kok, but they are not listed in the Census.\n\n38 There is conflicting evidence about the prosperity of the area in the second half of the century. The decline of population on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau has been noted. This is more noticeable elsewhere on Lantau, where some of the more important villages can be shown to have\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205075, "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-1966", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "26\n\nT\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\nThe five clans bear the surnames Tang2, Hau3, Pang, Liu,5 and Man. The Tangs were the first of the five to settle in the area as far as is known, coming in at the beginning of the Northern Sung Dynasty, probably in 973 A.D.,8 giving them a history of some thousand years of settlement. Their first village (and still one of their largest) was Kam Tin. Other major villages which are occupied by members of the Tang Clan are those of Ping Shan,10 Ha Tsuen,11 Tai Po Tau2 and Lung Kwat Tau,13 while these few names by no means complete the list.\n\nThe Haus arrived towards the end of the twelfth century in the Southern Sung Dynasty.14 Their first settlement was at Ho Sheung Heung,15 the lineage later segmenting to form three branch-villages at Yin Kong,16 Kam Tsin17 and Ping Kong,18 Spatially there is quite a distance between these four villages, and while they still recognise that they are kin, recognise obligations of mutual aid, and appear to hold certain property in common, they are politically four distinct units under four leaderships, each of which is divorced from the others, so that they must be considered a clan. They themselves call the group either the 4 (Hau Clan) or the 5 (Hau Alliance).\n\nThe Pangs claim to have arrived during the Sung Dynasty also, and are said to be in their twentieth generation at the moment. Freedman has pointed out that \"poverty postponed marriage\",19 and the Pangs were poor, so that we may allow thirty-five years per generation of this lineage, which would in fact date their arrival in the last years of the Sung Dynasty. The lineage village is called Fan Ling.?\n\n20\n\nThe Lius of Sheung Shui have a history of approximately 630 years, their first ancestor arriving from Fukien Province towards the end of the Yuan Dynasty.22 They have not lost any branches through hiving-off, and the entire lineage still lives together in the one village-cluster.\n\nThe Mans have two large groups of villages. The first is at San Tin, the second at Tai Hang.24 Each of these village groups is a separate lineage, separated by a great distance, apparently owning no property in common, and each under separate leadership. The two lineages together are spoken of as the ✯ (the Man Clan).\n\nPage 26\n\n...\n\nPage 20", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205077, "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-1966", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "28\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\npoint in history at which the clans arrived, and with their subsequent development. Grant gives some maps plotting the regions of land of various qualities, dividing the land into categories according to the number of catties of paddy per dau chung per crop it can produce.38 Best quality land produces 300 catties and upwards per dau chung, and then he grades the qualities down in units of 50 to 150 catties per dau chung, the lowest category of production worth his recording.\n\nThe region of the New Territories which has the largest area of double-cropping land is the Kam Tin Valley, settled largely by the earliest comers to the district—the Tangs. The land is not all of the best quality, about two-thirds falling into the category of moderate productivity (200–250 catties per dau chung),40 but for sheer size, with good water supply, it is the best region of the New Territories. In the early thirteenth century the lineage segmented, one branch hiving off to the Ping Shan area, where again was a large region of paddy-growing land, double-cropping with moderate productivity,42 fairly well watered, and close enough to the parent village to be within the range of easy communications. Three generations later another branch hived from Kam Tin and established itself in Ha Tsuen.43 I have no information as to the quality of the soil in the area (though from Grant it would seem that productivity might not be very high44), but there is a large quantity of land. The Tangs thus secured to their near-exclusive possession the whole of the agricultural land in the Southwestern corner of the New Territories. When later other groups hived off to found villages on the Eastern side of the New Territories at Lung Kwat Tau in about 1368 A.D.,45 and at Tai Po Tau perhaps two generations earlier,47 they were less fortunate. Not only were they out of the immediate power sphere of the Tang Clan but they moved into an area where other clans were already settled or in the process of settling.\n\nThe Hau48, who were the next of the clans to arrive, settled in an area which was well watered but rather too low-lying to be safe against flood. They appear to have had little power, and after an initial period of growth, when they founded several new villages,49 seem to have lost all impetus. Their land is of good quality, but when they expanded to Ping Kong,50 Kam Tsin,51 and Yin Kong,52 they did so along a line of poorer quality soil,53 arguing perhaps prior settlement in the nearby rich Sheung Shui", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205081, "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-1966", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "32\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\nable foodstuffs. On a more speculative level, however, it is worthy of note that relics of an old market called Kak Chun Hui7% are still turned up by the plough near Hang Tau Tsuen.\" Apparently this market disappeared some 300 years ago, possibly with the original rise of Shek Wu Hui. It is close to the Hau villages of Ho Sheung Heung and Yin Kong, and may have been controlled by them, in which case its demise may have been the result of rivalry between the Haus and the Lius. Obviously, with high rents coming in from markets, the two clans would have had reason to try to monopolise local buying and selling.\n\nIn general, land-holdings may be equated with wealth. The possession of wealth meant changes in the life of a lineage. The leadership based on the age-hierarchy tended to lose its importance when there were wealthy men in the village, and this seems to have been the case in the five clans. With unequal wealth in a lineage, one or two men must be thrown up who are clearly richer than the rest, and it was these men who assumed unofficial leadership in the group. This situation has been dealt with at some length before and need not be gone into here:78 but it is worth stating that at the present time the leadership in lineage villages is of exactly the same kind. The age-hierarchy leadership still exists formally, but the actual leadership rests with men who are educated, and wealthy and powerful in their own right—though now they are dignified with an official title, 'Village Representative',79 by the British Government.\n\nA wealthy lineage could afford to educate its sons, and in nearly all of the villages of the five clans tutorial schools were run. Frequently these would be held in the ancestral halls, but some villages had special school-rooms-cum-libraries built, and these survive to the present day in Fan Ling, Kam Tin, Tai Po Tau, Lung Kwat Tau and several other places. Education was a means to consolidate wealth, for it was through education that men could enter official life up the steep path of the examination system. A scholar-official was in a position not only to make money, but also to advance the interests of his kin through his contacts with other officials. All the five clans have produced scholars, some of whom became officials, the Tangs being particularly noteworthy in this respect—a fact which accords well with their having superior wealth. During recent years the clans have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205082, "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-1966", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "The Five Great Clans\n\n33\n\ntried to retain and modernise this tradition by building modern schools for their children and teaching a curriculum equal to that in the cities of Victoria and Kowloon. The Tangs of Kam Tin and the Lius operated schools with a modern curriculum at least as early as the 1930s, and have since installed them in modern buildings. Other modern schools may be seen at Ho Sheung Heung, Kam Tsin, Tai Po Tau, and San Tin. Usually, the schools have been built on lineage initiative and money, with the Government meeting a proportion of the cost. Boards of Governors are generally composed of lineage members only, though teaching staff may be drawn from any surnames.\n\nBut far from consolidating the position of the clans, as education did in the old days, the new education has cut off the young men (and the young women) from their lineages by educating them up to a level where they are employable only in the city, where they quickly learn to renounce village values and the lineage way of life. Some of the older men recognise the danger which this constitutes to the lineage system, and they try hard to reconcile the modern education with old values, striving to keep the young people based on the village even if facing towards the city. The Lius have recently initiated the practice of sending all their school-children to take part in the worship of the First Ancestor's grave on the 9th of the 9th month,80 a practice which certainly would not have been permitted in the past.\n\nAncestor worship in its manifestations above the level of the family was and is on a larger scale in the five clans than in smaller clans. The five own large ancestral halls (often as large as three M) for the corporate worship of their founding ancestors, and most of their villages have more than one hall, often as many as three or four, each one serving as the focal point for a branch or sub-branch of the lineage. Comparatively few lineages or clans outside the five have ancestral halls of any size; in many, a converted house does duty as the hall, while perhaps no other lineage is able to boast of more than one hall. Wealth again is the factor which enables the five to build and maintain halls.\n\nAll of these clans observe ancestral rites on a large scale and at great expense. The major ceremony of the year is Chung Yeung, on and around the 9th day of the 9th month, when the grave of the founding ancestor is worshipped. Since these graves", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205086, "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-1966", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "THE FIVE GREAT CLANS\n\n37\n\nMainland livestock. Rice cannot be grown to compete with the Mainland and Thailand. The vegetable revolution did not come early enough to alleviate the situation, and still has not spread wide enough to provide an answer. The clans one by one were forced to look elsewhere for income, and one after another began to send men overseas. While I have no figures to prove my point, it is clear that the order in which they succumbed to this process is in inverse order of wealth. In other words, the first to start sending people overseas were the Mans of San Tin, while the last were the Tangs of Kam Tin. The process of modernisation and rebuilding of villages throughout the New Territories shows the pattern in pictorial form. Some of what were previously poor, small villages are almost completely rebuilt now with a more modern style of house and many modern amenities. Then come the Mans of San Tin, whose large village is perhaps approaching one-quarter rebuilt with money earned overseas; and lastly comes Kam Tin, where the rebuilding has only recently started,\n\n97\n\nV\n\nMany writers on and observers of Southeastern Chinese society have drawn attention to the constant rivalry and feuding between clans in the area, and the New Territories have been no exception to this. In the past, and to a lesser extent now, the five clans have been rivals for power and influence in the area, the animosity between them at times breaking out into open warfare; but while rivalry and bad blood was the norm between the clans, they did draw together and cooperate when faced with danger from outside or with some other form of external stimulus. Two major historical examples of cooperation between the clans can be cited.\n\nIn 1662, the first year of the K'ang Hsi reign,99 all inhabitants of a wide strip of land on the Southeastern seaboard of China were ordered to move inland as part of a scorched earth policy formulated to help control pirate forces. All the five clans were involved in this evacuation, and it was not until seven years later in 1669—that they were allowed to return, and then only through the intercession and memorialisation of the throne of two high officials of the Kwangtung provincial administration, Chau Yau-tak and Wong Loi-yam.100 As thanks offerings to these two", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205087, "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-1966", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "38\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\nmen temples were built and dedicated to them in many parts of the effected area. In the New Territories there were three such temples - one at Sha Tau Kok,10 one built by the Kam Tin lineage of the Tang Clan,102 and a third in the market town of Shek Wu Hui known as the Chau Wong Yee Yuen,103 which was built by the five clans and endowed by them with land for its upkeep. It was not the five clans as clans which did this, but rather lineages of the five clans which came together and each purchased a share in the temple.104 The Man Clan took two shares in the temple, one purchased by each of the two lineages; as was the case with the eastern Tangs.105 The Pangs, Hau* and Lius each had one share. Not only was land purchased and a temple106 built with this money, but also a ferry boat was bought to assist all members of the five clans to cross the Sham Chun River107 to get to the large market town of Sham Chun, with which all had dealings. The share-holding lineages took part in an annual feast at which the business of the temple was discussed, the feast being paid for out of temple funds. As might be expected, however, the history of this temple association has not all been peaceful, and recently a major dispute has arisen, three members108 claiming complete control of the funds to the exclusion of the others.109 The matter quickly escalated to a point where both sides hired lawyers and placed vituperative advertisements in the Colony's newspapers. Eventually, after three years of argument, it was settled in 1963.\n\nThe second example of cooperation between the clans is of the army which they raised between them to oppose the arrival of the British when they took control of the New Territories in 1899. Under the leadership of literati of the Tang Clan, working from the ancestral hall of the Ha Tsuen lineage,110 they mustered men, arms and supplies in quantity and attacked the British at their landing point in Tai Po. Unfortunately they lacked training and could do no more than fight an ignominious retreat back over the hills. Some records of the organisation of this force are still available through documents captured by the British at the time, and it is obvious that all the planning was done by and communications established at the level of the literati of the five clans. It seems that these men kept up some kind of informal contact, and there is mention of an organisation called the Tung P'ing Kuk112 in the first British reports on the area, which was said\n\n*Hau is the correct spelling, not \"Haus\". I've made the correction. \nPlease let me know if you need further assistance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205088, "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-1966", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "THE FIVE GREAT CLANS\n\n39\n\nto be a semi-official assembly of these very people. I have found only flimsy evidence that this did exist,113 but certainly the literati had contacts one with another, and when any two of the clans were in dispute, literati from a third clan appear to have been called in as arbitrators.\n\nDisputes were common, and all the clans were involved at one time or another. Alliances were made between clans against others, and sometimes smaller lineages from outside the five would be brought in. Causes of dispute were often trivial, setting aflame long-standing smouldering antagonisms between clans. Small incidents could very quickly escalate into full-scale battles. Frequently little was achieved by the disputes, and fights were stopped without either side gaining an advantage; but there must have been times when the fighting represented a serious attempt on the part of one clan to alter the balance of power or to establish a new relationship with another clan. Being wealthy and large, the five could always command arms and men, and, furthermore, by making use of the network of contacts to which their literati had the key, they could bring in on their side even more forces from the outside sphere, and perhaps even from Government. Smaller lineages could command neither wealth, nor arms, nor man-power, nor outside help based on literati-contacts, and as a consequence their disputes were of a much less serious nature. As one of the great clans 'face' (prestige) became important, and escalation resulted easily from minor incidents involving clan members.\n\nIt might be illuminating if I closed this brief discussion of the clans with a few examples of some of the disputes which took place between them, giving in a little more detail two instances which are particularly illustrative.\n\nThe Tangs, being the largest and most wealthy of the clans, were the most feared and there were many alliances against them. They were, however, split internally, and there is a history of fighting within the clan between different lineages, and particularly between the two large lineages of Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan. The Mans of Tai Hang joined with many other small lineages and villages and with the Pangs against the Tangs of Tai Po Tau and Lung Kwat Tau to set up the new market of Tai Po. Many small Hakka lineages formed the Pat Heung14 alliance against the Tangs of Kam Tin.15 The Lius were apparently associated with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205089, "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-1966", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "HUGH D. R. BAKER \n\nPat Heung in this. The Pangs ran a bitter feud with the Lius over many years, there being a story that a mud rampart was raised between the areas of influence of the two lineages, serving the purposes both of defence and delineation. The Mans of San Tin had battles with the Hau Clan and also with many smaller lineages in their area of the New Territories. The Haus fought the Mans, the Lius and the Pangs at various times.\n\nAs an example of a quarrel deliberately picked and a battle sought in order to change the status quo, we can cite the case of the Mans fighting the Haus in the last century. The Mans of San Tin were numerous but poor, and for many years (up until the Japanese occupation in fact) they resorted to terrorism in the neighbourhood, running a 'protection racket', whereby in return for payment of an annual fee from the weaker villages they guaranteed that the villages would be patrolled and guarded against attack from bandits and thieves. The Hau village of Ping Kong had been paying this fee, but at one stage felt strong enough to dispense with the 'protection'. They sent the Man fee-collectors away empty-handed, knowing that there would be a battle. The Mans raised a large army from their village and descended on Ping Kong under their leader, a notorious fighter with an unsavoury nickname. The Haus of Ping Kong's sister village, Kam Tsin, had sent reinforcements for the defence of the walled village. On arrival outside the walls, the Mans had the misfortune to see their leader shot dead, and immediately lost heart for the battle. They contented themselves with destroying Ping Kong's ancestral hall, which was several hundred yards from the village. There were two results from this episode. Firstly, the Haus have not paid protection money to the Mans since that day; and secondly, the ancestral hall was rebuilt inside the walls of the village, a unique instance in the New Territories as far as I know.116\n\nAs an example of escalation and the lengths to which an inter-clan dispute could go, there is the case of the Haus versus the Lius in the late nineteenth century. A Liu and a Hau farmer quarrelled over an irrigation matter (a very common cause of trouble), came to blows, and within a short time were backed up by the entire Liu lineage on one side and the entire Hau Clan on the other. No armies were sent out, but the Lius locked themselves\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205091, "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-1966", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "42\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\nNOTES\n\nThis article is based on the lecture delivered to the Society on 1st March, 1965. The material has, however, undergone rewriting, augmentation and excision, firstly for the purposes of a paper read to the Anthropology Colloquium of Cornell University in April 1965, and secondly to suit it for publication in this Journal. When the original lecture was given, I began by pointing out that I could give no more than an outline of the history and conditions of settlement and life of the Five Clans, and that much more work would have to be done on this topic before concrete conclusions could be drawn. I must stress again the tentative and sketchy nature of this article, offering it rather as an inducement to others to continue investigations than as a satisfactory piece of research.\n\nMany statements made are unsubstantiated by footnotes, and it should be understood that in these cases I have drawn the material from oral sources and from my own observations during a residence of eighteen months in a village of one of the Five Clans. Chinese names and terms have been romanised according to their pronunciation in Cantonese.\n\n1 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organisation in Southeastern China, London, 1958; Preface,\n\n2\n\n3\n\n4.\n\n6 X.\n\n7 *, A.D. 960-1127.\n\n8 寶安錦田鄧氏族譜、“干開寶六年宦遊入廣.........遂即遷居于寶安\n\n9. See Sung Hok-pang's articles in the Hong Kong Naturalist, Vols. VI and VII, \"Legends and Stories of the New Territories\", Parts III and IV, \"Kam Tin\", for a detailed account of the founding of this village. Strictly speaking, Kam Tin is an area rather than a village, but I shall refer to it as a village.\n\nThe population is given as 2,150 in A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, Hong Kong, 1960. Population figures given below are also taken from this source, but they must be taken as a rough guide only, the Introduction to the Gazetteer warning that \"the statistics are based on an unofficial census in 1955\". Furthermore, the intervening decade has seen many changes in distribution and size of the population. In some cases the total population for one village is not given, and I have had to add together figures from component villages, which I may have selected too arbitrarily for accuracy.\n\n10. Population 2,760.\n\n11. Population 2,840.\n\n12 AЯ. Population 660 including Tai Po Tau Lo Wai ✰ƒ¤★¤,\n\n13 ★★A, also known as Lung Yeuk Tau. The name is that of a group of villages, an area; but I shall refer to this group as a village. Population 2,605, but only a small proportion are Tangs.\n\n14 $*, A.D. 1127-1279.\n\n15 ML, but frequently pronounced Wo Sheung Heung, and sometimes written #. Population 580.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205095, "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-1966", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "46\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\nto \"Mui Tsai in Hong Kong\", the Report of the Committee appointed by the Governor, in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1935.- \"The most careful inquiry shews that no male children are bought and sold here as slaves or servants. and confirms the statements in the Blue-book that 'Boys are sold to be sons. not slaves' and 'that no such thing as a slave-boy exists in Hong Kong\". It might too with truth have been added 'nor in Canton' \". The 1935 Report itself concludes that \"there is no evidence of slavery among Chinese males”. \n\n90 ***.\n\n91 蒙養學校.\n\n92 *.\n\n93 It is tempting to link this Sai Man surname with the original name of Kam Tin - Sham Lei - and to postulate a history of enslavement by 岑里 the Tangs of the original inhabitants. There is no evidence to support such a theory, however, and it must be put down to coincidence.\n\n94 趟。\n\n95 Anyway, since the vegetable-growers are mainly immigrants, indigenous men were freed from the land and looked elsewhere for income in addition to the rents from these fields.\n\n96 Perhaps the village of Tai Tau Leng ★★ may be taken as an example.\n\n97 See for instance Freedman, op. cit.; Hu Hsien-chin, The Common Descent Group in China and its Functions, New York, 1948; Arthur H. Smith, Village Life in China, New York, 1899; Lena E. Johnston, China and her Peoples, London, 1923; and many others.\n\n98. A.D. 1662-1723.\n\n99 For more details see Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842, Hong Kong, 1963, (Chinese version 1960), chapter VI.\n\n100 Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, and *, Governor of Kwangtung. For details see the Hsin-an Hsien-chih B of 1819; also Lo Hsiang-lin, op. cit., chapter VI.\n\n101 I have not seen this temple, and believe it to be on the mainland side of the border which runs through the town.\n\n102 It has become very much a part of village life, accommodating a school; while on the ten-yearly occasions of Kam Tin's Ta-chiu Festival it is the physical focus of the ceremonies, and also has importance in that Chau and Wong are the 'patron saints' of the festival,\n\n103 周王二院.\n\n104 In fact, it was only the Tang Clan which was not wholly involved in the venture---those of its lineages on the West side of the New Territories not being included. The whole of each of the other four clans took part.\n\n105 That is the Tangs of Tai Po Tau and Lung Kwat Tau.\n\n106 Burned down in the fire of 1954, and not yet rebuilt.\n\n107 深圳河.\n\n108 The Tangs of Lung Kwat Tau, the Haus and the Lius.\n\n109 The Tangs of Tai Po Tau, the Pangs, and the Mans of San Tin and Tai Hang.\n\n110 J. W. Hayes, op. cit., note 52.\n\n111 \"Despatches and other papers relating to the extension of the Colony of Hong Kong\", in Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1899.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205584, "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-1968", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "CAPITALISM AND THE CHINESE PEASANT\n\n121\n\nless far than one might suppose from the superficial — though very striking changes in the material standard and style of living. This is especially true of the political and economic spheres. To say, as Potter does in describing the activities of one particularly wealthy individual, that \"in the New Territories at present, political power is easily translated into wealth\" is to oversimplify a complex symbiotic relationship between economic and political power scarcely a new thing in Chinese society. Further consideration of the ways in which different types of peasant society are integrated would have raised some fascinating questions on the particular case of “depeasantization” in the Chinese context. Just how much difference has the great increase in wealth made? Has it, perhaps, intensified patterns of behaviour that were already present? Potter describes the same, or another, wealthy personage as being constantly attended by three or four close business and political associates, almost all of whose entertainment expenses he pays: what is the nature of the relationship between these men? And how does it differ from the analogous ones described in the Chinese novels comedies of manners which could offer new insights to the anthropologist of traditional China?\n\nUnfortunately, Potter lacked time and opportunity thoroughly to investigate the Hop Yick Company, a most interesting organisation in the local market town of Yuen Long. Skinner's work on the integration of whole marketing areas is very relevant to the New Territories, and it would be useful to have more detail on the articulation, past and present, of Yuen Long market with the surrounding villages.* One among many important questions raised, but perhaps insufficiently discussed, by Potter concerns the entry of outside capital into a market which previously derived its livelihood exclusively from its function as a focus for the economic and political activity of the surrounding district: what\n\nA small point of fact (p. 170): the Hop Yick Company did not evolve from a market organisation controlled by a Kam Tin lineage group, interesting though such a development would have been. It was formed when the other groups of villages in the Yuen Long marketing area became tired of the domination of the old market by the Tangs of Kam Tin. These groups (yeuk or heung) found themselves with the capital and the political integration necessary to throw off the Tangs' control, and to form a new market on the doorstep of the old. (Cf. Hong Kong Administrative Reports, 1917, J.2: \"The new market at Un Long proved its utility and incidentally took much of the life out of the old market, where several bankruptcies had to be registered\") Kam Tin was excluded from the foundation of the new market.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205740, "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-1969", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "40 \n\nR. G. GROVES \n\nmediate marketing systems schedules are so distributed that one of the possibilities is normally monopolized by the intermediate market. Such a distribution may ... be taken as circumstantial evidence of the systematic genuineness of a given cluster of markets.\"44 \n\nThe marketing areas were not equally endowed with arable land. This was reflected not only in the size of the populations supported, but also in the types of political association formed and the extent of lineage organization. Three local lineages in the Yuen Long marketing area played a particularly active part in the resistance movement. These were the Tang (Mandarin: Teng) lineages of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin. The Tangs of Kam Tin owned the land upon which the original Yuen Long market had been built. San Tin, within the Sham Chun standard marketing area, was the home of a lineage of the Man (Mandarin: Wen) clan. At Sheung Shui, near Shek Wu Hui, was the Liu (Mandarin: Liao) lineage, which owned the land upon which this market was built.45 There were two further Tang lineages at Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau, near the Tai Po markets. The five Tang lineages comprised a higher-order lineage. The Tangs of Lung Yeuk Tau had founded the original Tai Po market and owned the land upon which it was built. The Man lineage of Tai Hang was the chief rival to the political and economic ascendency of the Tai Po Tangs. In 1893 the Mans succeeded in uniting over seventy villages in an association known as the Ts'at Yeuk (seven Yüeh).46 The association established a new market at Tai Po which rapidly supplanted the original one. \n\nThese lineages owned some of the best agricultural land in the territory. Their walled and moated villages occupied strategic positions throughout the area, dominating not only the most productive land, but also the major footpath systems. The warlike architecture of the villages suggests the social ingredients which derive from the control of basic agrarian resources; wealth, numbers, complex kinship organization, political influence, and parochial military prowess. \n\nIt remains to consider the indigenous system of “local government\" described by Stewart Lockhart. \"If a person is arrested by a village constable, he is taken before the gentry and elders of the village, who assemble in a place specially appointed for the pur-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205744, "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-1969", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "44\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\nthat one could not bear to think of them.\"55 These apprehensions represent the core of arguments which were developed and embellished as the campaign to mount the resistance movement continued. They reached their highest point in a petition sent to the San On Magistrate some two weeks later. This alleged that, in an effort to control cholera, the Hong Kong Sanitary Board murdered Chinese who were ill by poisoning them with arsenic and then burned their houses down. The inflammatory potentialities of these charges — which appear to have been widely believed — are obvious. They were used frequently by leaders of the resistance in subsequent weeks.\n\nAs requested, leaders of the various districts within the Yuen Long marketing area assembled the next day at Yuen Long market. Pat Heung, Shap Pat Heung, and Kam Tin were each represented by four people. Ping Shan sent six representatives, Ha Tsuen three, and Tun Mun (Castle Peak), one. Of the twenty-two people who attended the meeting, thirteen were members of one or another of the three Tang lineages. Once again, a decision was taken in favour of resistance, although not without disagreement. Two days later, on 31st March, leaders from throughout the area convened again at Yuen Long. The previous decision to resist was reaffirmed and letters were sent to leaders within the Sheung U Division, asking them to attend a general meeting at Yuen Long the next day.56\n\nOn 1st April leaders from the northern part of the Sheung U Division made their way to Yuen Long. In addition to the Yuen Long leaders, representatives of the following Sheung U lineages were present: Liu (Sheung Shui), Pang (Mandarin: P’eng, Fan Leng), Tang (Tai Po Tau), and Man (San Tin). The ensuing meeting was characterised by long and heated debate. It ended with a decision to offer resistance on an inter-divisional basis. Whatever the others did, the Tangs were clearly determined that the occupation would be opposed. While the Yuen Long meeting was in progress a copy of a placard issued by the Yuk-on Hin (\"wish for peace\" library) of Ping Shan reached the Governor in Hong Kong. Its message was direct and to the point:\n\nWe hate the English barbarians, who are about to enter our boundaries and take our land, and will cause us endless evil. Day and night we fear the approaching", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205756, "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-1969", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "56 \n\nR. G. GROVES \n\nKinship ties played a large part in the organization of the resistance. In the Yuen Long area, leadership and probably manpower were overwhelmingly supplied by the three Tang lineages of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin. In the Shek Wu Hui district, it was a matter of cooperation between a number of lineages of roughly equal status. At Tai Po, the Man lineage of Tai Hang provided leadership, within the Ts'at Yeuk, for a large number of smaller lineages. Ties of clanship enabled the Tangs of Yuen Long to enlist the help of the Tangs of Pan T'in. They, in turn, received support from agnates living in Tung-kuan City. \n\nThe Tang higher-order lineage of the New Territory did not act as a unified lineage during the resistance movement. The leaders of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin were concerned, first and foremost, to consolidate plans for resistance within the Yuen Long area. Leaders of the Tang lineages of Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau only subsequently became formally involved with preparations for resistance, along with other leaders from their respective marketing areas. The leaders of the three Yuen Long lineages carefully coordinated their plans. There is no evidence that representatives of Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau were similarly consulted. Moreover, the Lung Yeuk Tau settlement, along with others in the Shek Wu Hui area, was threatened with attack by the Tangs of Yuen Long. \n\nThere is insufficient evidence to materially advance the discussion concerning the relationship between hsiang and marketing areas. However, the data strongly suggest that, for the purposes of resistance, the highest order of effective inter-lineage cooperation among the Tangs of the New Territory was achieved within the Yuen Long marketing community. There is also the possibility that long- or short-standing disputes between the various local lineages of the Tang higher-order lineage inhibited their cooperation across the boundaries of marketing areas during the resistance movement. But this would not necessarily weaken the argument that the standard marketing community was the optimum unit for inter-lineage cooperation. \n\nWakeman, in his discussion of militia, has stressed the importance of gentry leadership. The documents concerning the resistance name 63 people as active in the movement, in that they: (i) took part in the meetings which organized it; and/or, (ii) acted", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206770, "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-1973", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "The Kam Tin Gates\n\nPeter Wesley-Smith*\n\nBehind the parked tourist buses at Kam Tin, behind the blue-rinsed American ladies and the orderly rows of Japanese camera-clickers and the outstretched palms of Hakka crones, the adventurous visitor will find a plaque on the Kat Hing Wai wall telling the story of the famous pair of gates which adorn the entrance. It is the purpose of this brief article to amplify the few facts engraved on the plaque.1\n\nKam Tin is the principal settlement of the New Territories Tangs and consists of several separate villages. Kat Hing Wai is the oldest: built in the 15th century it has been reasonably well preserved and is now a major tourist attraction.2 The road from Shek Wu Hui to Yuen Long separates it from Tai Hong Wai, a sister village whose walls have been partly demolished and which boasts no gates.\n\nThe Hong Kong Government knew little about neighbouring San On in June 1898, when a large slice of the Chinese county was transferred on lease to Great Britain. J. H. Stewart Lockhart was therefore temporarily relieved of his duties as Colonial Secretary and Registrar General and sent on a fact-finding tour as Special Commissioner. During August 1898 he visited various parts of the area and in general was given an \"excellent reception\" by the inhabitants; but the villagers at Kam Tin were less polite. Unimpressed by the sight of the first steamer ever to navigate their river, they drove away the Commission's chairs and carriers and refused to provide replacements. The elders did not deign to present themselves. A journalist of the time reported that 1,000 villagers, \"preceded by vigorously beaten gongs\", gave a rousing welcome, \"but in place of chin-chins and flowers they came with cries of 'ta' and 'foreign devils.'\" Nothing is said here of the rotten eggs that emphasized these cries, but the gates of the village were closed and the Commission could not enter. According to a journal kept of the trip the gates were opened after \"a clear explanation\" by Stewart\n\nMr. Wesley-Smith is LL.B., B.A., (Adelaide) and Lecturer in Law at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently Editor of the Hong Kong Law Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206771, "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-1973", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "42\n\nPETER WESLEY SMITH\n\nLockhart, A contemporary newspaper, however, revealed the true nature of the explanation: 75 marines and two Maxim guns.7\n\nThe Special Commissioner was appalled by the discourtesy of the villagers. They were reported to the Viceroy at Canton, who was to \"deal with the matter in a proper manner\", and a deputation from Kam Tin was obliged to apologize in Hong Kong.\n\nSuch punishment failed to impress the inhabitants with the error of being disrespectful to British officials, for when occupation of the New Territories commenced in April 1899 the Tangs of Kam Tin were foremost in organization of the resistance movement. Again, therefore, stern reprimands were required, this time by the use of gunpowder. On April 18 a party of sappers from the Hong Kong Regiment blew down the walls flanking the gates of both Kat Hing Wai and Tai Hong Wai, and a few days later the villagers themselves, as an act of submission, carried the two pairs of gates to Flag Staff Hill (Tai Po).10 There they were admired by Governor Sir Henry Blake who, wrote Stewart Lockhart, “instructed me to forward to him a pair of gates from Kam Tin\". This was duly done in May, though the villagers had to be reminded to send in a socket.12\n\nThe two sets of handsome gates were both defective, one wing of each having suffered from the back-scratching of generations of itchy Kam Tin pigs.13 The remaining gates in good condition were combined to make a pair and were appropriated by Blake for \"Myrtle Grove\", his home in the Irish county of Youghal.\n\nIn 1924 the residents of Kam Tin petitioned for the return of the gates. They were supported by the District Officer (North), who referred to the gates as objects \"of pride to the inhabitants on account of their workmanship and antiquity”, and the Assistant Superintendent of Police (New Territories) recalled their whereabouts. His wife had formerly been maid and companion to Blake's daughters, and she remembered seeing the gates at Myrtle Grove in 1902. Stewart Lockhart, then retired after serving for many years at Wei Hai Wei, was asked to approach Lady Blake for their recovery.1 His mission was successful, but when the gates arrived back in Hong Kong the Tai Hong Wai villagers recognised their half and claimed possession. Long negotiations ensued between elders of the two villages, and eventually, reports O'Dwyer, \"the amount of face that would be gained for the whole clan by their erection as a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206841, "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-1973", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "112\n\nSUNG HOK-P'ANG\n\nland, distributed in various parts of the mainland, and on the island, having fields in Kowloon, Ch'eung Sha Wan (*) Kw'an Taai Lo (###) (where the city of Victoria now stands) Causeway Bay, Pokfulum and Aberdeen. He immediately promised to give one thousand piculs. When Yau Tai K'in heard of it he thought there must be some mistake, but the officer said, “At first I also thought he made a mistake, so I asked him again, and he said quite plainly, one thousand piculs!” So Yau T'ai K'in was very pleased, and he at once went off to visit Tang Yuen Fan, who said, “My rice is quite ready in the granary.” The magistrate sent off word to the \"Yamen\" to have junks sent to collect the rice, and on the day it was collected the river was so covered with the junks that the water could not be seen, and all the people gathered to watch shouted for joy. Yau remained with Tang several days and spent much time walking about the country admiring the scenery. He was much impressed by the fine buildings, open fields and pleasant woods, and exclaimed, “Why should the village have such a name? Sham T'in, it should be called Kam T'in instead!” The villagers were delighted with the new name, and it has remained till the present day.\n\nThe name, however, now embraces quite a large collection of villages each with its own name, but most of the villagers still belong to the Tang family and the name of Ch'an has disappeared. There are a certain number of people with other surnames to be found among the Tangs, but they have come in from other places at different times and are not really native to the place in the same way as the Tangs are. A new village which goes by the name of San Ts'uen (††††) new village, has been built very recently for the Cheng (*) family who had to move from the Shing Moon (M¶) district when the reservoir was started.\n\nThe only trace of the old Ch'an T'in village that remains is the temple known as Hung Shing Kung (g) in Shui Pin Ts'uen (k). This temple which was built by the Tangs is known in the village as the Big Temple although small, because formerly it was merely a shrine and was enlarged to its present size at a later date. The exact date of the temple is not known. Some say it was built when the first Tang came to Kwai Kok Shaan; others, that it was built first as a small shrine in the time of Shing Fa (✯ft) A.D. 1465-1487 of Ming dynasty when the Tang family built the village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206843, "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-1973", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "114 \n\nSUNG HOK-P’ANG \n\nto Kam T'in he was much taken by it, considering the people were more friendly and honest than those of his own country, and it was said that he came to live there in the 6th year of Hoi Po (HT) A.D. 973 of Sung dynasty. During the 8th year of Shing Fa (APC) A.D. 1472 of Ming dynasty when the Kam T'in people revised their family tree, they added a note which cast doubt on the veracity of this, and instead they were inclined to believe that Tang Foo (#) the great grandson of Tang Hon Fat was really the first to come to Kam Tin, and that he transferred the bones of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather to Kwangtung from Kiangsi. Be that as it may, and although there is no actual proof that one or other was the original Tang to settle in Kwangtung, Tang Hon Fat remains a \"first ancestor\" as his is the oldest Tang grave near Kam T'in. It can be found at Ah Kai Shaan (Y), Waang Chau (H) village.\n\nSix generations after Tang Hon Fat there were two brothers, Kwai (3) and Sui (). Kwai had two sons called Yuen Ying (* ) and Yuen Hei (†), both of whom left Kam T’in and founded branches of the family elsewhere. Sui had three sons, Yuen Ching (元祯), Yuen Leung (元亮) and Yuen Woh (元和). The first and last of these also left for other districts but Yuen Leung remained behind, and the Tangs in Kam T’in to-day are his direct descendants. These five cousins were known as the \"Five Yuens\", and after their death their descendants who by then were scattered in various parts of China built an Ancestral Hall, common to all the Yuens, called To Hing T'ong (*). It is at the South gate of the district city of Tung Koon (✯✯), on the Kowloon-Canton railway not far from Sheklung (). In the hall Tang Hon Fat has been given premier place, but the \"Five Yuens\" are venerated in the same way as he and Tang Yue are, as being \"first ancestors”.\n\nAs mentioned before, Tang Foo, the great grandson of Tang Hon Fat is said to have found the sites for the graves of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, himself. They were all acknowledged as being lucky places by the \"fung shui\" men, who were, of course, consulted. That of Tang Hon Fat is called Yuk Nui Paai T'ong (£#*) jade girl reverence; and his son's grave which is on Yuen Long Hill (₪), is called Kam Chung Fau Tei () gold bell cover ground. The grave of Tang Foo's father is called Poon Yuet Chiu T'aam (#AM) half moon shine lake,\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206854, "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-1973", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN\n\n125\n\nbeen repaired and colour-washed in red and white. For a long time this grave was lost, much to the sorrow of Tsz Ming's descendants. In the 33rd year of Hong Hei (R) of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1694, Tang Lui Taan (12) of Ha Ts'uen (†) happening to read the old history of Tung Kwun came across this passage. \"Tang Tsz Ming's grave is in Kau To (A) on Fat Au Leng Shaan. It is now called Ng To (£) of San On district.\" Lui Taan reported this to a relation, Tang Ng Shaang (£) who immediately collected a party of Kam T'in men to go out to the hill and find it. They found a grave there, but on it was a stone stating that it belonged to Tang Maan Lei (£) a cousin of Tsz Ming and the first ancestor of the Ping Shaan family of Tangs. The Kam T'in men were preparing to go away disappointed, when Ng Shaang discovered another and much older stone nearby with the characters almost obliterated. He took the tea he had brought to drink, carefully washed the stone with it and found the following on it ẞ and part of the two characters Kwan # and Ma which were in Tsz Ming's title. After consultation it was decided to dig up the grave and a sham tomb with bricks inside it of a very old style were found exactly the same as in the princess' grave. At last they found the real tomb itself and Tsz Ming's bone-pot could be seen through a hole in the top. So the Kam T'in men were very glad indeed, and to show their gratitude every year about the third month, at the Ts'ing Ming () festival of worshipping at the graves of their ancestors, the Kam T'in people always presented Ng Shaang with some roast pork taken from the offerings for the husband of the princess.\n\n[3]\n\nDuring the Sung dynasty the titles of She Yan (4A) or Siu She (J) were used to address young men of high rank. As the four sons of Tang Tsz Ming and the Princess were the nephews of the Emperor they received the title of Kwok She (4) which means \"Kingdom's young men.\" The eldest, Lam (*) was known as Taai Kwok She, the others Kei (2) Waai (†) and Tsz (†) were called Yee, Saam and Se Kwok She respectively. It is the custom in Kam Tin even now for the young people to address their fathers as \"She\" instead of “Ah Dae\" (E) the Cantonese equivalent to \"Daddy.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207060, "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": 131, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Hong Kong Region\n\n125\n\nthe inhabitants were less fortunate and had either to flee into the hills or stay to oppose or meet the pirates' demands. Walls were built or repaired, and a defence by desperate men of even these not very imposing defences might help to stave off an attack. Village refuges, into which cattle and livestock, valuables, women and children and old people were put, were also utilised. One of these places existed at Shek Pik, but was already in ruins by about 1900.1 Most villages kept arms and even cannon available for use up to 1899 and some of these remain to this day.2\n\nNonetheless, the villagers' position was pitiful in the event of attack, and their attitude towards pirates was probably too often similar to that recorded by Commander Vansittart of H.M.S. Bittern from the River Min in March, 1855:\n\n+ miserably poor boats followed the Brig begging assistance; one Village sent me a well drawn up petition; another a present of waste paper and Joss-stick; fishermen, and passage boats, small Traders, all telling the same pitiable story; landing on Hootow, I was quickly surrounded by Peasantry; desiring the Interpreter to ask them why so many fine looking fellows permitted strangers to molest them; they declared it was useless to resist Pirates, and so whenever Pirates came the villagers hid themselves and cried.\n\nThis extract, quoted from Miss Fox's book,3 shows how Chinese on land and sea suffered at the hands of their less scrupulous fellow countrymen.\n\nThings were no better on the sea at the end of the century. L. C. Arlington of the Chinese Maritime Customs, who spent six years 1893-1899 in charge of the Customs station at Cheung Chau, says;\n\n'as well as other numerous islands forming the Ladrones, [it] was the rendezvous of pirates, who kept all of us on the qui vive, foreigners and natives alike. Gangs of pirates would get together and attack the villages, even in broad daylight, and after looting and killing, escape either to Macau or Hong Kong, where they disposed of their booty. The Customs Officers had many tussles and narrow escapes from these pests of the sea.\n\n1 The elders told me about it after I had come across a reference to it as a place name in an old deed of sale of fields in the valley.\n\n2 R. L. Ozorio, personal communication on the village armoury of Kak Tin, Shatin Valley, 1973. These arms were, of course, sometimes used against other villages.\n\n3 Fox, p. 130.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207117, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "182\n\nSUNG HOK-PANG\n\nTak (£), A.D. 1513, of Ming dynasty, because there is evidence that after that year the direction of the grave was altered. The grave was repaired in the 12th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1744, of Ts'ing dynasty, and the inscription on the tablet was composed by Tang Yue Cheung (§§#), a noted Kam T'in scholar.\n\nTang Wan Kuk is supposed to have owned the whole of Hong Kong island, and his great, great grandsons Tang Shing Ngok (# *) and Tang Yuen Fan (1) both very rich men during the Maan Lik period (A.D. 1573-1620) of Ming dynasty, appeared to have shared the island between them, three-quarters belonging to the former, and the rest to the latter. There seems to have been some rivalry between these two gentlemen, and a story often repeated by Kam T'in villagers to-day, tells how when Tang Shing Ngok built a big hall in Shui T'au village, Tang Yuen Fan's youngsters were filled with admiration. Tang Yuen Fan exclaimed, \"Don't waste your time admiring it, but let us do the same thing.\" So he started building a hall equally big and grand, and at the present time Tang Shing Ngok's hall is no longer to be seen, but the old ruins of Tang Yuen Fan's still remain.\n\nTang Shing Ngok's grave was in Sheung To (E✯), now Hung Heung Lo temple (#), Wong Nai Ch'ung (✯✯✯). It was repaired in the 16th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1751 and the name of the grave was Maau Yee Sai Min (#✯6) \"the cat washes its face.\" The people of early times called it Tsau Ma Hoi Kung (ŁSH) \"to draw the bow to shoot at a galloping horse.\" T'o Shi (A), the wife of Tang Shing Ngok, was buried in Kai Lung Wan (#), her grave being repaired in the 14th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1749. Both the inscriptions of these graves are still visible.\n\nDuring the Ming dynasty Hong Kong island was known as Ch'ek Ch'ue Shaan (1) \"red pillar hill,” (Stanley is still called Chek Ch'ue), and it was under that name that the island was referred to in the records of the lands owned by the Tangs. Even in the map contained in the San On Record book, published as late as the 24th year of Ka Hing A.D. 1819, of Ts'ing dynasty, the island is called Chek Chue Shaan. The land owned by the Tangs amounted to several tens of “King” (4) (one \"king\" equalled one hundred Chinese acres) and was mentioned under different localities, the names of which are familiar to us now, such as Taai T'aam (✯✯), Wong Nai Ch'ung (✯✯), K'wan Taai Lo (***) “skirt string", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207119, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "184 \n\nSUNG HOK-PANG \n\nagain, and the judas tree revived, and soon it was covered with blossoms and looked a beautiful sight. \n\nFrom this story the three Tangs had learnt a lesson, and realizing that any one branch of the family was unable to build a hall alone, they combined together and completed one hall, naming it Mau King T'ong \"The luxuriant judas-tree Hall.” Although there is no record of the year that the hall was completed, the following is what is known of its history. The building was started by Tang Mau Wai, who passed the Tsun Sz degree in the 24th year of Hong Hei, A.D. 1685. The hall was rebuilt by Tang Shiu Chau (RA) who passed Sui Kung A† degree in the 1st year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1736; and was repaired twice, first by Tang Hei Sui (###) who passed Yan Kung Shaang in the 21st year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1816, and secondly by Tang Ming Shiu (*) a Lam Shaang during the To Kwong period (the 1st year of To Kwong was A.D. 1821.) \n\nThe T'in Hau Temple (A) Queen of Heaven Temple, in Shui Mei village, was first built during the Hong Hei period (A.D. 1662-1722) of Ts'ing dynasty and possesses a fine bell of 180 catties in weight which was presented by Tang Ch'un Fooi (**) a Kung Shaang in the 10th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1745. It is said that the tone of the bell is very clear and can be heard from ten Chinese miles away. The Kam T'in people say that one of the past Governors of Hong Kong heard about it and visited Kam T’in to try the bell, which he agreed was as beautiful as reported. For a long time the temple was in a bad state of repair, and the bell had to be kept in a private house where those wishing to, were allowed to see it. Lately the temple has been repaired and the bell re-instated in it; also an incense burner that was presented by Tang Yiu King (*) and his son Tang Chan Suen (**) in the 11th year of Kin Lung A.D. 1746, \n\nKwong Yue T'ong (***) in Taai Hong village is the ancestral hall of Tang Man Wai, who was the only man to pass the Tsun Sz degree in the New Territories (See H.K.N. IV. p. 106). The building is quite a large one, and the ancestral fund belonging to this hall is a very large sum and is considered the richest in the New Territories. For many years $100 was given each year to each family of Tang Man Wai's descendants for their New Year expenses.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207617, "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-1976", "page_number": 5, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "165\n\nOriginally, many Sai Kung villagers owned their land only indirectly. In a system of multiple ownership, the Lius of Sheung Shui and the Tangs of Lung Yeuk Tau, as registered land-owners, collected rent in many places in Sai Kung. Sai Kung villagers who paid rent to them nonetheless held their right to the land in perpetuity, and the registered land-owners merely paid the tax and kept the balance from the rent. When the land was registered by the Hong Kong Government, the Lius and the Tangs lost their tax collection rights, and the Crown Rent that was collected by the Hong Kong Government was usually smaller than the former rent that had been paid. For many villagers, then, this must have meant an increase in income.12\n\nElderly villagers in Sai Kung still remember the \"taxlords\". Eighty-seven year old Mr. Wong of Tam Wat had heard of the \"great red hats\", and Mr. Lam Kaap Shau of Tai Long of the \"Koreans\" who came here to collect the tax. Mr. Cheung Kau of Ping Tun had heard of the Sheung Shui people collecting rent here, and elderly Mr. Cheung of Tai Po Tsai (near Tai Mong Tsai) of the Lius and the Tangs doing so. Mr. Cheng Yung of Uk Tau called them the \"Heung Shui Lo\", and knew that they collected rent in his village in his grandfather's days, while Mr. Yau T'aam Shang of Wong Keng Tei actually saw his father among a group of villagers who drove out the rent-collectors from Sheung Shui after the villagers started to pay Crown Rent directly to the Hong Kong Government.13\n\nYet another influence that affected some villages, although it left no impact on Sai Kung District as a whole (except in the field of education), was the introduction of Christianity. As early as 1861, a Roman Catholic priest had reached Wun Yiu in Tai Po. In 1873, the records of the Roman Catholic Church noted that a priest from Sai Kung visited the San On magistrate. In the 1870's, Sai Kung was noted as one of three centres of the Church in the New Territories, the Sai Kung church being responsible not only for the eastern New Territories but also for Wai Chau and Hoi Fung. By 1934-35, Roman Catholic communities were established in Sai Kung Market, Yim Tin Tsai, Wong Mo Ying, Pak Tam Chung, Long Ke, Leung Shuen Wan, and Kei Ling Ha. There were also converts in the 1930's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "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": 208041, "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": 80, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "64\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nveyors, however, found well over 1000 mou under cultivation, roughly valued at 228.10 crown rent. At the current price of $2.30 per picul, the Tang's rent-value equalled $92.00. The British administrators were of the opinion that the 40 piculs rent was indeed in respect of all cultivation on the island, and hence the Tangs should be held responsible for \"encroachments.\" As can be imagined, the Tangs eventually lost interest in pursuing the claim.32\n\nThe landlord-tenant equilibrium was maintained by social organizations ready to defend the respective positions. On the one side were aligned the tenant rings, or alliances, while on the other, the clan increasingly came to defend landlord interests.33 To this end, a \"managerial elite,\" well-versed in the details of ancestral estates, rose within the clan. Evidence from the Tang petitions suggests that the Hong Kong estates were managed by a committee of four wu-sheng (military graduates of the first degree, in this case probably purchased-degree holders) on behalf of fifteen lineal descendants of the original “cultivator.\" The military gentry, who were not mentioned in the tax registers (and hence, probably not listed on the ancestral rent rolls), managed the fields for a fee. This managerial structure also prevailed on the Tsing Yi estates. Clementi, in a communication to the Colonial Secretary, writes:\n\nI have seen Tang Kwai Yui of Kam Tin, a military fau tsoi who is manager on behalf of the descendants of Tang Kou Nam for the land in question. He says that the first ancestor of the clan is Tang Kou Nam, and that after his time the clan divided into two branches:-(1) Tang Yi Kwok, and (2) Tang Lun Tai; “both branches have descendants still alive; they are both settled at Kam Tin. We are all British subjects. Both branches have a share in the land. I am manager of both branches. I have been manager for two years. I remain manager so long as I give satisfaction. I have no business. I live on the rent I collect. I have property of my own at Kam Tin,34\n\nClans and rings constituted bounded groups within which the circulation of rent-values and cultivation-values, respectively, ideally took place. Circulation of values was effected by two means: \n\n1) succession, and 2) sale. By definition, the perpetual leasee was succeeded by his male lineal descendants. Division of cultivation-value, in the event of more than one son, often", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208043, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "66\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nFinally, a word on economic development. Equilibrium in the tenancy system in no way implied stagnation in the economy. We have already noted the benefits which tenants derived by extending the surface value. The clans, restricted in the amount of rent-value collected, expanded economically into two areas, regulation of trade and monopolization of tax collection. It was at the level of periodic marketing that the landlord clans \"reasserted control” over the tenants' surplus; moreover, the landlords were able to extract increasingly large amounts of revenue, as taxes, while both trade and agricultural production increased. In this way, perpetual tenancy gave impetus to the rise of taxlordism, which we shall consider in the next essay.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Hugh Baker, Sheung Shui, A Chinese Lineage Village, p 8.\n\n2 See, for instance, the Kwang Tung Nung Yeh Kai-K’uang Tiao-ch'a-pao-kao Shu Hsuan-pien (*), Vol. I, p 185.\n\n3 Hung ch'i represented officially recognized ownership of land. Pai ch'i (é) denoted unregistered ownership, mortgage, and the like. Tenants might possess pai ch'i, or they might not.\n\n4 It is very difficult to give a realistic estimate of the amount of land worked by tenants in the early nineteenth century. Existing records (including Government CSO reports, sessional papers and cadastral surveys) suggest a very high degree of tenancy. A survey taken by Potter in 1960 indicates a tenancy rate of 83% in Ping Shan (); this coincides with my observations in Kam Tin.\n\n5 Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony, p 52.\n\n6 In the first tally of cultivated land conducted at the beginning of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 4039.567656 mow of land were liable to the payment of taxes. By 1819, this amount had shrunk to a total of 3815.94836965 mow. (Hsin-An Hsien-chih, ch'uan 8). Lockhart, in the Extension papers, writes of the land registers: \"The land registers of the district, which ought to be a reliable guide, are worse than useless, as they contain not more than half of the land under cultivation.\" (p.48).\n\n7 See Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (*), ch'uan 39, for an account of the problems raised by this situation. In the early years of British administration, officers were often informed by cultivators that plots of 3rd class land (see below) were exempt from tax in certain areas.\n\n8 Kwang-chow Fu-chih ( ), ch'uan 4:46b-47a.\n\n9 Hsin-An Hsien-chih, ch'uan 2.\n\n10 James Hayes, \"Old British Kowloon\", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 6, 1966, gives some data on Kowloon. The Hakka Tangs of Pat Heung apparently arrived in the neighborhood of Kam Tin during the migration years.\n\n11 Wan Lo, “Communal Strife in Mid-19th Century Kwangtung” Papers on China from the Regional Studies Seminar, p 93. See also N.B. Dennys (ed), The Treaty Ports of China and Japan (1867), pp 20-22.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208044, "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": 83, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n67\n\n12 Lockhart lists 255 villages occupied by Hakkas, with a total population of 36,070 in the Tung Lo in 1898. Assuming a population of 250,000 for the total district in 1900, Hsin-An probably had a Hakka population of around 90,000.\n\n13 Rawski's bibliography in Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China offers the most complete listing of works bearing on perpetual tenancy.\n\np. 64.\n\n14 CSO280/04 Extension. See note 4, Essay 2.\n\n15 Hsu T'ien-tai, Fu Chien Wen Hua (福建文化), Vol. 1, No. 1, (1941),\n\n16 Correspondence Respecting Affairs of China, March 1898-September 1900. \"Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong,\" (Presented to both Houses of Parliament, November 1900) p. 19.\n\n17 The Shih Chien T'ang Chia P'u (世鑑堂家譜), a collection of genealogies from Kam Tin, gives the following settlements of lineal descendants in Tung Kuan: Chuh Yuan (竹園), Yen Tien (燕田), Fu Lung (福龍), Huai Te (懷德), Shih Ching (石井), Tu Kao (土高), and Ping Hu (平湖).\n\n18 \"These clans gain their local influence, not through numbers alone, but owing to the fact that certain of their numbers have official rank, gained through competitive examinations, or obtained by purchase, which keeps them in touch with the Magistrate and even higher officials.\" Correspondence Respecting Affairs of China ibid., p. 20. The Shih Chien T'ang Chia P'u records that, from Cheng Hua (Ming Dynasty) to Tao Kwang (Ch'ing Dynasty)—that is, from roughly 1470-1820—fourteen Kam Tin Tangs passed the state examination. Several of these became office holders. Another indicator of gentry connections with officialdom was the construction, in Kam Tin, of a temple (祠堂) dedicated to the two officials (Chou Yu-te (周有德) and Wang Lai-jen (王來任)) who petitioned the Emperor, on behalf of the inhabitants of the coastal areas, to allow resettlement.\n\n19 Introduction to the Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u (南陽堂世族譜), compiled by the Ping Shan Tangs.\n\n20 Sung Hok-P'ang, in his articles on the Kam Tin Tangs in the Hong Kong Naturalist, claims to have seen references to Tang lands on Hong Kong in the Land Register (土地冊) of Tung Kuan. \"One may judge that the land was owned by the Tangs before the first year of Maan Lik, AD 1525, (sic) as after that the San On District was formed” (Vol. VIII, nos. 3 and 4).\n\n21 HKTCSMTC, \"Details of Cultivated Land” (耕地詳情).\n\n22 ibid.\n\n23 The landlord clans were often referred to by the British as \"first cultivators.\" See, for instance, CSO3172/1915 cited in the essay on tax-lordism.\n\n24 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p. 16.\n\n25 Hsin-An Hsien-chih, ch'uan 8.\n\n26 In this regard, note the high degree of correlation among the different \"tax-burdens\" in Table II. One is tempted to speculate that a native formula for the conversion of rent rates from tax-rates existed.\n\n27 In the 1934 edition of the Chung-Kuo Ch'ing-chi Nien-chien (中國經濟年鑑), chapter 7 (Chinese Tenancy Systems), contains the following description of the Fen Chih Chih (分種制) system, a form of perpetual lease found in the East River counties of the Kwangchow Prefecture: \"This", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208053, "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": 92, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "76\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nTaxlordism first came to the attention of the British in an intelligent report filed with the Colonial Secretary nearly eight months prior to the occupation of the leased area. The document, essentially an analysis of potential unrest in the neighborhood of Kam Tin and Sham Chun, sheds light on the politics of the lease at the local level. Addressing himself to the question of possible resistance in Un Long Tung (*), the author remarks:\n\n+ + +\n\nenquiries proved that the people of the markets and towns were glad to see England get the place. But the villagers were very much displeased, especially those of Kam Tin village, owing to the fact that, though the owners in the neighborhood of Kam Tin hold deeds, they have to pay tax to the said village. If England got the place, it is feared that the benefit will be deprived of (sic).... It is like the way the (Chinese) Government charges taxes.23\n\nThe report proved to be prophetic, for it was the gentry of Un Long Tung, specifically those of the Tang villages and their dependencies, which mounted the most effective and prolonged resistance to the occupation. The same reasons were invariably set forth in petitions from captured “ringleaders:” Among the wealthy villages, there was considerable apprehension over substantial and drastic changes in the tax structure, while among the smaller villages, leaders cited the coercion and bullying of the larger gentry villages.24\n\nTaxlordism was so widespread that an enterprising land officer suggested, in 1902, that the Colonial Government utilize the taxlords \"to get the taxes for us as they did for the Chinese Government.”25 When existing tensions ruled this out, a plan was formulated to eliminate the institution by granting unclaimed tracts of crown land to those who could establish “taxlord claims.” Initial optimism over a rapid settlement evaporated, however, as taxlords attempted to establish rights over huge tracts of land. The largest claims were unquestionably in Un Long Tung, where the Kam Tin Tangs laid claim to taxlord status over the whole of Pat Heung (A) and Shap Pat Heung (+A+),26\n\nThe \"taxlord claims\" proved to be the thorniest problem faced by British colonial administrators charged with the rationalization of revenue collection. The plan by which taxlords were to be compensated for rights \"not compatible with the principles of British", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208058, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n81\n\nbuyers and sellers of commodities and to effect a transaction between them.” By the late 1920's, \"its importance to the Hopei provincial finance was only second to that of the land tax.\" It is difficult to weigh the relative importances of the various taxes in Hsin-An, but we do have figures on the revenue collected on trade between local markets in November 1911, which indicate a relatively low volume of local trade (see Imperial Maritime Customs, 1902-1911, Volume II, p.156). Also, refer to Appendix II, which Lockhart credits as a reliable source. The Tangs of Kam Tin and Lung Kwat Tau (A) were apparently farmed the monopolies of collecting market taxes in Un Long Kau Hui (±##4) and Tai Po Kau Hui (£# #). The Tongs who oversaw the markets in turn \"sub-leased\" the brokerages to traders, merchants, and shop-owners.\n\n4 The CSO files held in the Government Archives of Hong Kong constitute one of the richest stores of first-hand knowledge about local political economy and society in Hsin-An during the period 1890-1910. I am very grateful to Mr. Ian Diamond, Government Archivist, and his staff for their assistance in helping with my research.\n\n5 C. M. Chang, op. cit., pp. 826-828.\n\n6 Lien-sheng Yang, \"Buddhist Monasteries and Four Money-Raising Institutions in Chinese History,\" in his Studies in Chinese Institutional History, pp. 198-199n.\n\n7 Yeh-chien Wang draws heavily on the Ts'ai-cheng Shuo-ming-shu for his research on the land tax in China (Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750-1911). On the basis of the material presented in this paper, Hsin-An conforms to his general thesis of the declining relative importance of the land tax throughout late Ch'ing.\n\n8 Correspondence Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony (hereafter Extension Papers), p. 60.\n\n9 For a fuller discussion of li-chia, see Kung-chuan Hsiao's Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 84-143.\n\n10 The annual rotation of these positions (44) constituted the primary mechanism whereby the local magistrate attempted to maintain some measure of centralized power by restricting the excesses of local magnates.\n\n11 Hsiang-kang Teng-ch'u-shui-mau Ts'ung-ch'eng (44¥Æ#*# Z), p. 2: \"All together the cultivated land measured 8 ch'ing 3 mau 6 fen 1 li 9 hau 2 ssu 5 hu (i.e., 803.61925 mau) and was registered under the name of Tang Tin-luk, 6th tu, 7th p'i, 2nd chia. In addition, Tang Chi-cheung and others had purchased from Ho Ch'iu-ping and others plots of land at Wong Nei Chung... having a total area of 1 ch'ing 89 mau registered in Tung-Kuan under the name of Tang Chi-fu of the 2nd tụ, 18th p'i, last chia.\" The formula is often repeated in the land memorials held at the Land Office of the Registrar General in Hong Kong.\n\n12 Kwangchow Fu-chih (1759), ch'uan 4: 43a-b, 46b.\n\n13 Hsin-An Hsien-chih (1819), ch'uan 2.\n\n14 Kwangtung T'u-shuo, Hsin-An Hsien-t'u.\n\n15 Krone, \"A Notice of the Sunon District\", originally published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6:5, 41-105. This quote, as all the others, is from the reprinted copy in the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society V: p. 119.\n\n16 Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1797), 10:10b-11.\n\n17 Lockhart, in the Correspondence Respecting the Affairs in China, writes: \"Small villages and hamlets often place themselves under the protection of large and influential clans to which they refer all complaints and from which they expect assistance in case of attack, robbery, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208160, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe five graves may be summed up chronologically as follows:\n\n(1) TANG Hon-fat\n\n(2) TANG Kun\n\n(3) TANG Yuk\n\n(4) TANG Fu-hip\n\n(5) TANG Wai-kap\n\nHong Kong, Nov. 1976\n\n183\n\n(Yuk Nui Pai Tong) near Wang Chau.\n\nYuen Long.\n\n(Kam Chung Fook Fo) on a small hill\n\nbehind Pok Oi Hospital.\n\n(Pun Yuet Chiu Tam) Tsuen Wan on\n\nCastle Peak Road.\n\n(Sin Yan Tai Tso) near Wang Chau,\n\nYuen Long.\n\n(Wu Lei Kuo Shui) near Au Tau cross-\n\nroads.\n\nDAVID LIU\n\nACCOUNT OF THE VISIT\n\nOn Saturday, 11th December, 1976 some thirty members of the Society visited the five main graves of the Tang family of Kam Tin and other old established villages in the New Territories (see the programme notes above).\n\nWe first visited grave No. 3 in Tsuen Wan which is located on a small hill that was bought by the family in 1927 to protect the grave in the face of various encroachments. In addition to the grave, there exist two round granite pillars (similar to those at graves 1 and 4 but without their lion-dog tops). These are situated each at a distance of 132 feet and angles of 125 and 217 degrees from the centre of the grave, as measured standing at the main table with the compass pointing north.* Lower down, a little off the main road there is also part of an entrance, built of inscribed rectangular granite pillars, erected in the 4 year which the Tang elders say is, in this case, 1894.\n\nMr. Peplow was Land Bailiff, Southern District at the time the Tangs purchased the land in 1927, and his account,† quoting from a silk scroll given to him by one of the Tangs, is as follows:\n\n† S. H. Peplow Hong Kong About and Around (Hong Kong Commercial Press 1930) pp. 148-149.\n\n* I have since learned from the Tangs that the two pillars stood further to the front of the grave, nearer the former shore line, and that they were moved to their present location when the first Castle Peak motor road was constructed about 1917-1919.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208162, "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": 201, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n185 \n\ndogs. We observed those at the first but actually visited those at the second, which were close to our path back to Wang Chau. The first of these sites is particularly well placed and the outlook and general air of peace and perpetuity on a most beautiful sunny winter day were unforgettable. Alas for permanence! Though not itself in danger, the land to the rear of the second grave is threatened by a plan to establish a borrow area for development projects requiring soft fill. This would cut into the hills and remove features that are considered by the Tangs to threaten the good geomantic qualities of the grave. Consequently, a number of the persons who had earlier met us at Kam Tin were waiting there patiently to explain the position to us, obviously hoping for our support, and several members of the party walked with them to the ridge behind to see the land and hear their views, as courtesy required. \n\nAll told, this visit was a memorable one. The Society is most grateful to the elders of the Tang family for their courtesy, hospitality and assistance with the day's arrangements. \n\nHong Kong, 1978. \n\nJAMES HAYES \n\nGrave No. 3 is Plate 50 of LO Hsiang-lin and others' Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Chinese version, 1959) and Plate 35 of the English version (1963). Grave No. 5 is at Plates 51-53 of the Chinese version and Plates 36-37 of the English. \n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY VISIT TO TSUEN WAN SATURDAY, 10TH DEC., 1977 \n\n‘A VILLAGE WAR' \n\nA. NOTE ON THE VISIT \n\nIn the 1860's, an ill-natured three-year struggle took place between villagers of Shing Mun, where the Jubilee Reservoir now is, and of Tsuen Wan. A good deal of damage was caused on each side, and many lives were lost. Fortunately, the descendants of the combatants are still living in this area, and it is possible to reconstruct the details of the struggle and to view some interesting relics", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208177, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "200\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nvided useful suggestions concerning possible lines of enquiry; their assistance promised to complement the substantial resources Government placed at our disposal. Most significant of all was the enthusiasm displayed by the village representatives and elders of Kam Tin. The Kam Tin area, populated chiefly by members of the Tang clan, has a long and rich history; we decided, therefore, to concentrate our efforts in this area. On 25 June, Government hired Chan Sin-wai, a fourth-year history student at Chinese University and longtime resident of Kam Tin, to assist in carrying out the project. Another unpaid co-worker, Chen Ka-won, a graduate of C.U.H.K. and a resident of Ping Shan, joined the project in late July.\n\nAn examination of available knowledge and questions of methodology absorbed the next few days. A field headquarters was established in Ng Ka Tsuen, and the long process of “introduction” was begun. On 11 July, Mr. Paul Wong, liaison officer attached to your Office, arranged a meeting of interested elders from the Tang villages of Kam Tin. During the meeting, we explained the goals of the project, and their warm reception assured us of every cooperation.\n\nThe success of this \"mass meeting\" prompted a series of formal interviews which have been taking place over the last six weeks and will continue into September. We have interviewed nearly twenty-five elders possessing knowledge of Kam Tin's history and traditions. Several have proved to be exceptionally valuable informants, and closer, more \"informal\" relationships have developed.\n\nWe have made a number of tape recordings of important tales ranging over a variety of topics. One collection of stories centers around the resistance by the Tangs to British occupation. We are especially hopeful that these tales and personal remembrances will shed light on the events of 1898-99 and subsequent land disputes, and will lead to the solution of certain perplexing questions regarding land tenure and rural class structure (the 'Sai Man' question).\n\nWe have been granted access to clan and fong genealogies, and have received permission to make photo-copies. Documents, paintings, and plaques dating from Ming and Ch'ing have also come to light. Field trips were undertaken to every village in the Kam Tin area, and we have been guided through the major temples, tsz tong, and graves of historical interest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208180, "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": 219, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n203\n\nor as it was known prior to 1587, Sham Tin (), was the recognized source of all branches and sub-branches of the Tangs. This clan, which eventually settled and dominated large sections of San On (**) and Tung Kwun () counties of the Canton prefecture, established Kam Tin as the \"administrative center\" of the unofficial government of the Yuen Long Tung(A).\n\n2. To be more precise, Kam Tin can be regarded as the heung ha (F) of the male agnatic descendants of the first, third and fourth fong \"hived off\" the central trunk originating with TANG Hung-yi (**—more below).\n\n3. It is not surprising, then, that the researcher finds himself confronted with a long and rich social history consisting of a corpus of written and oral tales. Nor is it surprising that, in attempting to bring to, or impose on this corpus an “alien” order, the researcher finds himself grappling with a number of theoretical problems which question the very foundations of Chinese anthropology and local history. I will illustrate this last point with an example.\n\n4. The very notion \"clan\" has been, and to a large extent still is, defined with reference to a \"founding ancestor\" (hoi chuk cho (M **)). That is, a clan is treated as a corporate group whose membership is regulated by the fact of agnatic descent from a \"common founding ancestor.\" Maurice Freedman, whose early works tend to confirm this basic assumption, departs from this view in his 1966 volume on lineages entitled Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. In this work, he stresses joint ownership of a common estate, rather than “demonstrated descent,” as the defining characteristic of \"higher-order\" lineages, Freedman's new term for the older, more established (hence vague) term “clan”. \"The difference,\" he writes \"between a system of physically dispersed segments of a single corporation and a network of historically—or at any rate genealogically-related but independent lineages turns upon the maintenance of common property and the ritual obligations and privileges entailed in that property.\"* According to Freedman, both corporate lineages and \"non-corporate\" clans exist in China, and demonstrated descent from a single, common founding ancestor is crucial to neither.\n\n5. I might add that this is, at least implicitly, the view adopted by the New Territories Administration (N.T.A.). Clans are defined\n\n* Freedman op cit: 21.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208181, "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": 220, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "204\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nas \"land-holding corporations\" and are treated as such, descent data being regarded essentially as secondary particulars.\n\n6. Although the implications of this statement for the general theory of unilineal descent groups have largely been ignored, the observation is borne out by a study of the ethnographic and historical data concerning the Kam Tin Tangs. The elders classify no fewer than four ancestors as hoi chuk cho, and, according to them, honor all four with essentially the same ritual obligations. These ancestors [1) Tang Hon Fat (**), 2) Tang Foo (##), 3) Tang Yuen Leung (*), 4) Tang Hung Yee (###)] are central pivots around which much of the oral and written history revolve; yet, as an investigation of the genealogy (##) kept by the elders reveals, long spells of \"historical time\" and interrupted residence separate them one from another, a disturbing fact which has, in the past, generated considerable debate on their individual legitimacies.\n\n7. Sung Hok Pang* mentions a debate, recorded in an early Kam Tin genealogy during the Shing Fa () years of the Ming dynasty, concerning whether Tang Hon Fat ever actually visited Kam Tin at all. Elders maintain that this debate is still very much alive.\n\n8. The debate concerning the founding of Sham Tin, i.e., whether Tang Hon Fat or Tang Foo founded the Tang settlement, is perhaps understandable when we realize the striking similarities in the biographies of the two men. Tang Hon Fat settled, it is said, in the vicinity of Sham Tin at a place called Kwai Kok Shan (± A L), some time towards the end of the tenth century A.D. There is speculation that he constructed the Hung Shing Kung (†), a temple still intact in Pak Pin (at) Village. He was a government officer, shing mo long (#4), from Kiangsi (31), Kat Shui Yuen (##), Pak Sha Tsuen village (#). The Nam Yeung Tang genealogy (✯✯✯✯✯), held by the Ping Shan Tangs, credits him with being the first settler. The Kam Tin Tangs disagree, placing most of the credit on his great-grandson, Tang Foo.\n\n9. Tang Foo was also a high official of the Sung Dynasty (holder of the chin shih (+) degree and county magistrate of Yeung Chun (**)). He, too, is supposed to have settled at Kwai...\n\nSee Mr. Kamm's Essay I, f.n. 20 and Essay II, f.n. 21.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208182, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n205 \n\nKok Shan. In general, the significance of Tang Foo is two-fold: 1) by establishing a famous school or study (Lik Ying Tsai #) near Kam Tin, he linked his name with scholarly achievement in San On and Canton, 2) by recognizing the qualities of the area's Fung-shui (風水) and locating his ancestors' graves accordingly, he assured future benefits for his descendents. \n\n10. With reference to the former point, Tang expansion was undoubtedly assisted by the largely fictive \"kinship\" bonds established within the scholarly civil-service tradition. \n\n11. It will be noted that in the two accounts of Fung-shui appended to these notes,* the landmarks recognized by Tang Foo correspond generally to the boundaries of territory claimed by the Kam Tin— Ping Shan- Ha Tsuen Tangs. Also notice the conflicting tales recorded by Sung and O'Dwyer,† particularly concerning whether Tang Foo was an official prior to examining the Fung-shui. An excellent example of how oral \"tales” contradict orthodox doctrine. \n\n12. There is considerable doubt that, after Tang Foo, the Tangs continued to be a force in Sham Tin; but, two generations later, ancestors reappear, and with them mention, for the first time, of the popular territorial division of Kam Tin. Two cousins (grandchildren of Tang Foo), Kwai (#) and Sui (*) settled respectively in Nam Pin (南邊) and Pak Pin (北邊) Villages. \n\n13. The dispersal of their children, known as 'the Five Yuen (五遠)' is the first major migration or fission of the Tangs from Sham Tin. The descendents of the Five Yuen considered together form the highest order grouping of the Tang clan. \n\nKwai (癸) gave birth to Yuen-hei (元喜) who settled in Tung Kwun City (東莞縣城) and Pak Wai (北圍), and Yuen-ying (元英) who settled in Fuk Lung (福隆) of Tung Kwun county. \n\nSui (遂) gave birth to Yuen-ching (元貞) who remained in San On, establishing the branch of the clan at Ping Shan (坪山), Yuen-leung (元亮) who remained in Sham Tin, and Yuen-woh (元禾) who moved to Wai Tak (懷德) of Tung Kwun. \n\nThese together made up the five great branches of the Tung Kwun San On Tangs. In the K'ang Hsi years of Ch'ing, their descendents established the To Hing Tong (蹈興堂), which built\n\n* pp. 214-216. Only one has been printed. \n\n† K. O'Dwyer, \"Kam Tin, Memories and Legends\" The Rock (a Hong Kong Catholic Journal) April 1940.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208183, "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": 222, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "206\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\na temple outside Tung Kwun city whose upkeep and ritual observances were financed by large joint landed estates.\n\n14. Yeung-leung's son, Tsz-ming (8) was married off, albeit unwittingly, to a princess of the Sung Dynasty. I have little to add here that Sung and O'Dwyer do not mention, but I believe it is important to stress that this tale (popularly known as the Wong Ku (*) story) served the important function, at least prior to the 1930's, of defining Tangs relative to outsiders (the powers-that-be) and locals (especially surrounding great and small lineages).\n\n14. a. The San On gazetteer (a rare copy of which exists in the Fung Ping Shan Library of Hong Kong University), compiled in 1819, gives the tale in complete detail.\n\n14. b. The Rev. Krone's \"A Notice of the Sanon District,\" published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, contains the following passage:\n\n\"The inhabitants of a pretty little village on Deep Bay called “Kam-Tin”... also trace their origin up to the Sung dynasty. A high mandarin, they say, of the name of Tung, came to San On from the interior of China, and was so much pleased with the county around Deep Bay, that he settled down and made himself very popular, by giving gratuitous instruction. The grandson of this man having done some meritorious service to the State, the emperor Ko-tsung of the Sung dynasty, gave him his daughter in marriage.'\n\n14. c. It will also be noted that the plaque commemorating the return of the iron gates to Kat Hing Wai makes especial reference to the tale. Several elders of neighboring villages, when asked why the Tangs were so powerful as to be able to concentrate five wais (walled villages) in the district, cited this imperial kinship link.\n\n15. The second major migratory movement of the Tangs occurred during the generation of Wong Ku's sons.\n\nLam (*) settled at Lung Kwat Tau (##), Kei (*) settled in Tung Kwun at Shek Tseng &✯✯, Wai (*) established the Tang branch-settlement at Tai Po Tau (†). Chi (#) remained in Sham Tin. [Chi's grandson Chu-on (₫) established the Ha Tsuen lineage-village.]\n\n* Reprinted in JHKBRAS 7(1967). See p.134.\n\n† See P. Wesley-Smith's article in JHKBRAS 13, 1973: 41-44.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208184, "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": 223, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n207\n\n16. The fourth generation of Sham Tin Tangs after Chi witness the events of the two brothers Hung-chih (*) and Hung-yi (*). The Hung Yi Kung tale is, of course, highlighted by the marriage between Hung Yi and an adopted daughter of the rich businessman Chan. One of the most interesting finds of the project was the ascendancy of this tale to a position of dominance, at least at the oral level.\n\n16. a. Several \"native\" reasons are given for this ascendancy. The head nun of the Ling Wan Tsz (†††) maintains that the Wong woman was really Hung-yi's mother, and that it was she who established the temple from which countless blessings have been distributed [this corresponds well with the current \"official\" Kam Tin history at para 20 below]. All scholastic achievements of the Tangs have been attributed to the virtues of the Wong woman.\n\n16. b. Mr. Tang Ying-kai, one of the prominent younger men, attributes the popularity of this tale to the fact that it establishes an \"intimate\" relationship between the first and fourth fongs. [For it was the first son of Hung-yi who offered a son to Wong to raise, initiating the fourth fong.]\n\n16. c. The key to the mystery of why this tale is dominant is somehow related to the evermore blurred Hakka/Punti distinction. The surrounding settlements are predominantly Hakka, and all Hakka villages in Stewart Lockhart's original 'census' are in the Un Long (=Yuen Long) Division and in the vicinity of Kam Tin. [The 1966 census for San Tin, Kam Tin and Pat Heung gives the Punti (Cantonese) population as 10,600 and the Hakka population as 13,000. This is a surprisingly large figure.] The oral tradition of these Hakka communities, in particular their “tales of origin” show striking structural similarities to the Hung-yi tale.\n\n17. The Hung-yi tale contains two references to a local marriage custom known as \"yap nao\" (x), adoption of a male into a family for the purposes of marriage or perpetuation of the line. There are specific Tang prohibitions against this custom mentioned in the genealogy, as it is considered ‘demeaning\"—a custom practised by \"sai chuk” or “sai man”—so it is all the more surprising to find arrangements of this nature in the tale. The Ngs and Wongs of Sha Po Tsuen claim a similar relationship to each other.\n\n* Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong in Eastern No. 66, Colonial Office, London, 1900.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208185, "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "208 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nas that which obtains between the first and fourth fong of Kam Tin, in that the Ngs (4) originated from an adopted Wong (#). 18. The Hakka Tangs of Wang Toi Shan (1) have a tale of origin remarkably similar to the Hung-yi tale. A Ping Shan Tang, they say, while on a business trip to the north, met with hard times and married a Hakka concubine (or mui chai unclear). After siring a number of children, the Tang businessman died. The Hakka woman, carrying his ashes and children, returned to Ping Shan. Unfortunately for her, the Ping Shan Tangs refused to recognize the “legitimate\" Punti/Tang status of the boy children; but rather than return to the northern districts, she decided to settle down near Kam Tin, and thereafter founded the Wang Toi Shan settlements. Due to her fortitude, virtue, etc. the Hakka Tangs have prospered.\n\n19. Some debate exists over whether the Hakka Tangs and Punti Tangs \"belong\" to the same clan [to my knowledge, they share in no common estate]. This debate often takes the form of one of two questions: are the Kam Tin Tangs \"really\" Hakka? or are the Wang Toi Shan Tangs \"really\" Punti? One of the predictions to come out of this project is that Kam Tin Tangs will increasingly ally themselves with Hakka local groups, both politically (to the detriment of remaining \"higher-order lineage\" ties) and culturally (in that they will increasingly attribute to themselves Hakka characteristics).\n\n20. Hypothesis: There has occurred a shift in dominance at the level of superstructure from one founding myth (Wong Ku) to another (Hung-yi Kung). This shift, which has taken place over the last few decades, reflects a shift at the economic/political base of the New Territories (esp. Yuen Long district) between polar structures A and B.\n\n20. a. Structure A. Essentially the \"large-clan\"/higher-order lineage type. Lineages \"collapse\" into single, legal and social personalities, and assume great power over the formulas of exchange (women: in terms of marriage alliance, and goods: in terms of markets and tax systems). This structure, which is essentially hierarchical and feudalistic (in that it attempts to usurp power from the local tentacles of central government), is best represented by the Tangs prior to the economic/social revolution begun in 1898, and drawn to a close by the events of the 1930's.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208186, "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": 225, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n209 \n\n20. b. Structure B. An organic/alliance model which stresses relationships of an egalitarian, contractual nature. Power is not usurped, but \"won\" through cooperation/conflict of equals. This structure, represented prior to 1898 by the Tung (董) system [especially the Tai Ping Kuk (太平局) of Sham Chun] has become the dominant polar type of the modern New Territories (examples: The Yuen Long Hop Yick Co. and The Tai Po Yeuk alliances, which dominate local markets to the exclusion of the Tangs; these alliances only become possible with the cooperation of Hakka and Punti, great clan and small clan alike.). \n\n20. c. Both these structures (ideal types) existed as systems of unofficial control in Southern San On prior to British occupation. \n\n21. The period dating from the beginning of Suen Tak (宣德) to the end of Sing Fa (成化) reigns of the Ming Dynasty, roughly from 1426-1487 A.D., was a period of great prosperity and expansion for the Kam Tin Tangs. \n\n21. a. During this period, the Tangs moved out of their \"neighborhood\" of Sham Tin and took over complete dominance of the settlement. We can think of the settlement at this time as being a multi-lineage settlement, with at least three surnames present, Tangs, Lais (黎) and Shams (沈). The Tangs apparently drove out the Lais (turning them into \"sai chuk\") and enslaved the Shams (as \"sai-man\"). How they accomplished this is related in the Lai vs. Tang tale transcribed and appended below.* \n\n21. b. The members of the 2nd fong (descendants of Hung-yi's 2nd son) constructed Ying Lung Wai (應龍圍), and from this wai they controlled the access to the Pat Heung (八鄉) valley and eventually established Yuen Long Old Market. \n\n21. c. The building of Ling Wan Tsz (靈雲寺) at the head of Pat Heung valley can be viewed as part of the general process of expansion by which the Tangs gained control of the entire valley [that area now included in Demarcation Districts nos. 103, 106, 107, 109, 113]. A Tong (堂) was established to finance the upkeep of the temple, to which the Kam Tin Tangs contributed up to the early years of the Republic. The nuns continue to perform important \n\n* Not available. \n\n† Demarcation Districts are survey districts, the sheets and registers pertaining thereto being kept in the District Land Offices of the New Territories Administration. \n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208187, "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": 226, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "210\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nritual obligations for Kam Tin, officiating at the Kam Tin ta chiu ceremonies.\n\n21. d. The changing of the name of Sham Tin to Kam Tin dates from 1587. We collected a variant of the tale related by Sung. In this account, the magistrate never leaves San On at all, but is moved to praise the delicious quality of their rice. Hence, the name Kam Tin. In general, this tale illustrates the extent of the wealth and power of the Tangs, and their intimate relationship with the local magistracy.\n\n22. Expansion out of the Pat Heung basin into neighboring heung of Yuen Long Valley, Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island continued throughout the early years of the 16th century. Sung (p. 205) notes that the appropriation of Hong Kong island was completed by the Wan Li reign of Ming Dynasty (app: 1573-1620), as references exist in the Tung Kwun Leung Chak (ĦM) of that date. Our own evidence (see San On Land Dispute below)* suggests an even later date. In any case, the oft-made assertion that Tang land holdings steadily decreased from large Sung grants is clearly in error.\n\n23. The period coinciding with the fall of Ming and the establishment of Ch'ing [especially the K'ang Hsi reign] although devastating in its consequences for most of the lineages of the present day New Territories (southern San On), left untouched—indeed enhanced—the basis of Tang power in the area.\n\n23. a. Sung spends quite a bit of time (as does O'Dwyer) on the tales surrounding Tang Man-wai (*)† This man was a large landowner and eminent scholar who is remembered for 1) his relationship with the rebel Lei Man-wing (‡✯✯), 2) the building of Tai Hong Wai (✯✯✯) dating from 1647-1656, and 3) the establishment, in his pen-name (*) of the Tong which financed and operated the Yuen Long Old Market. It is clear that, throughout the imperial era, whenever the central government was threatened or weakened by rebellion, the Kam Tin Tangs accommodated and shared power with rebel forces. [The extent to which this fact justifies its characterization by surrounding lineages as a \"bandit clan\" remains in doubt.]\n\n23. b. As Hugh Baker notes in Sheung Shui A Chinese Lineage\n\n* See paras 24-29 below.\n\n† JHKBRAS 14 (1974): 172 - 174.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208188, "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": 227, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n211 \n\nVillage, p. 41, the K'ang Hsi evacuation \"may well have helped the Liao lineage to consolidate its position as a major power and landowner in the area.\" This undoubtedly extends to the Tangs as well, though for quite different reason. The Liaos increased their local power by means of the formation of a Hakka/Punti alliance to finance the local school built to honor the two official Chou Yu-te () and Wang Loi-jen (). The Kam Tin Tangs also participated in the \"deification campaign\" (The two officials petitioned the emperor to allow the re-population of the coastal strip), and similarly constructed the school, the ruins of which are still to be seen in Pak Wai Tsuen. However, the school was never given official recognition [i.e. it was not listed, with the other schools, in the gazetteer], perhaps because of, again, the \"special relationship” enjoyed by the Tangs and San On magistrates. The Tangs claim that these officials were eventually to suffer at the hands of the imperial government because of their loyalty to the Tang family! [I have been unable to verify this, though I expect that it is true. How else can one explain the subsequent favors bestowed on the Tangs immediately after their (at least implicit) support of the Cheung Ta-yuk and Lei Man-wing rebellions?] \n\n23. c. The To Hing Tong () was constructed in 1707 by the five branches of the Tangs residing in San On and Tung Kwun. This followed shortly after the re-location of the Tangs in San On. The large number of Tang settlements in Tung Kwun no doubt facilitated the smooth re-location into Kam Tin, Ha Tsuen, Ping Shan, Tai Po Tau and Lung Kwat Tau. Several tales concerning this relocation are still told, some of which cast doubt on the existing theory that there was a total evacuation. The ceremonies held twice yearly at the To Hing Tong (continued into the early years of the Republic) served greatly to consolidate the consciousness of Tang unity. \n\n24. By far the most popular topics of conversation among Tang elders concern the nature and extent of their land holdings prior to 1898, and how subsequent events stripped them of much of these estates. It is probably impossible for us now to reconstruct, from records available, the exact amount and number of their holdings. However, some evidence exists: \n\n* After the Evacuation of the Coast 1662-69 by the Ch'ing authorities to deny supplies and assistance to Ming loyalists on Taiwan.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208189, "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": 228, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "212\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n24. a. Several tales contain information regarding land tenure. For instance, an elder of the 3rd Fong who related the Tang Hei-sui () tale (see Sung p. 253), mentioned that members of the Tso () established after his death each received 100 Tam Kuk each year till 1898, indicating extensive holdings.\n\n24. b. As mentioned above, the Kam Tin Tangs virtually owned the Pat Heung Valley (even the suspect Cadastral Surveys confirm this).* They also possessed land around Yuen Long and further south, Shun Fung Wai (). Ancestral land on Hong Kong Island totalled approximately 1000 Chinese acres, and clan land (shared among the five fongs) in Kowloon was extensive (200 acres in Cheung Sha Wan alone).\n\n25. Land was either communally or privately owned. The former (\"communal ownership\") is divided into a number of categories, the most important of which are Tso () and Tong (). Tong land is appropriated in the literary name of an ancestor (hence early confusion of Tongs as literary clubs). Unlike Tso, the joint holders need not be descendents of a common ancestor. Hence, while Tso land exhibits \"vertical solidarity\" within a fong across class boundaries, Tong land establishes horizontal ties across fong within class boundaries.\n\n26. For the uses to which ancestral land is put, see the material from the Nam Yeung genealogy and the section on Land Tenure (\"varieties of Tenure\") reproduced from the Hong Kong Government Gazette, No. 26, 28 April 1900. I would here simply like to add two further uses of ancestral land: 1) defence funding and 2) financing ritual ceremonies. On the former, see Enclosure 7, no. 172 from Extension of the Boundaries. [I add here what might appear superfluous; ancestral land increases in direct proportion to the distance from Kam Tin. Private holdings predominate within the heung itself]\n\n27. As we have seen, the Kam Tin Tangs acted as \"unofficial\" government of a large section of San On county. One of the essential elements to this system of control was their status as tax-lords. The former is thus explained in Cecil Clementi's report on his work in the New Territories in 1905-1906: \"On the recommen-\n\n“Suspect\" because they do not always reflect the pre-1898 situation: owing to decisions about ownership made by the New Territories Land Court.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208190, "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": 229, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n213\n\ndation of the Land Court, the Governor decided that 14 elders of the Northern District should be compensated for certain \"tax-lord\" rights claimed by them to have existed before the convention, but not compatible with the principles of British administration, by the grant of 252.33 acres of Crown land in the Northern District, to be selected by each \"tax-lord\" in proportion to the value of the right claimed by him.\" Also, see Enclosure 7, no. 172 mentioned above, to the effect that Kam Tin collected taxes in the Pat Heung Valley on land it didn't own. Much more is to be learned on this tax-lord system; I expect to glean more information from the records of the debate before the Land Court, 1904, which may be contained in the CSO reports.*\n\n28. The Tangs of Kam Tin existed as a power often beyond the reach of the local magistracy. There is evidence of widespread non-payment of land-taxes and squeeze. On the former point, see the San On Letters appended below. Squeeze was collected primarily from the Tai Ping Kuk and similar organizations of Structure B type. The Tangs of Kam Tin were apparently not members of this Sham Chun group [see Petition to Lockhart in Extension Papers.] Also, note Sung's tale regarding the use of the Wong Ku relationship in the successful refusal to paying squeeze, the major source of revenue in San On county.\n\n29. In summary, then, the Tangs were land-lords and tax-lords who existed and operated as a power unto themselves, dominating the local scene and ignoring the tendons of local government whenever possible.\n\n30. Two statements regarding the status of sai-man (*R,): “We give them cows, we give them houses, we even give them women”. Also, \"When the bridal procession passed through Kam Tin on its way to Pat Heung or Sap Pat Heung, the bride and groom were forced to descend and kow-tow.\" There is general agreement among Tangs and non-Tangs in the Kam Tin area that sai-man and sai-chuk (clans \"with same name\") were constantly reminded of their \"place\".\n\n31. We uncovered a great deal of smouldering resentment and bitterness in Kam Tin, directed against the Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan branches of the clan. One tale concerns a \"war\" with Ping Shan over tax-collection rights in the vicinity of Shun Fung Wai.\n\n* Kept in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208191, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "214\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n[This is perhaps the feud Lockhart mentions on page 51 of his Report.] There is also the case of the Ha Tsuen Tang who sold the Cheung Sha Wan clan land [see appendices]. The first murder case heard in the New Territories is thought to have some connection with this dispute. Tang Cheung, a Ha Tsuen Tang, was captured during the resistance and \"executed\" for posting British petitions. This event, in turn, is cited by Kam Tin Tangs as further evidence of treason on the part of their clan brothers.\n\n32. One question that came up was the relationship between the local Tangs and the Tung Kwun Tangs. We have assembled a great deal of documentary evidence which illustrates the broad range of defense activities performed by braves from Tung Kwun (Intelligence reports at the time of the resistance estimate over 1000 braves from Tung Kwun were stationed in Yuen Long). Behind a nunnery near Sha Po (9), a well-kept grave bears witness to the memory of those troops killed in the fighting who were buried secretly by the Kam Tin Tangs. The nuns still perform ta chiu ceremonies for their spirits, at intervals of 10 years.\n\n33. A biography of Ng Ki-Cheung, or Ng Sing-chi ({✯✯) would illuminate the transitional period 1898-1930. On the one hand he is considered, by the Sha Po villagers, as being \"The Hero of the New Territories,” a literatus (Sau Tsoi) who led the revolt of 1898 against the British and, in later years, against Tang efforts to reassert land rights. His name figures prominently in the Extension Papers, in which he is implicated in the Tang Cheung murders and other related resistance events. His confession is particularly interesting, as it implicates many Tangs in the crime. He received a sentence of life-imprisonment, which was later commuted \"to still the hearts of the loyal natives.\"\n\n34. The 1930's were particularly eventful years in and around Kam Tin. The Chengs (i) moved in, after being relocated due to the building of the Shing Mun Reservoir at Tsuen Wan by the Hong Kong Government. The villas (1) built in Pat Heung with Overseas Chinese and Warlord support, became nuclei for non-Tang settlements unbound by the traditional system.* The last tax-revolt against the Tangs was successfully carried out by Sha Po villagers, an event which coincided with the disappearance of sai-man and mui-chai.\n\ne.g. Ng Ka Tsuen immediately south of Kam Tin which is populated by descendants and relatives of a wealthy Overseas Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209138, "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-1981", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "ANOTHER LOOK AT LAND AND LINEAGE IN THE N T, c 1900\n\n—\n\n27\n\nall\n\ntoo, multiple rights in land became negotiable. Thus, by the end of the Ch'ing period, in the places where this system existed, the revenue right, the cultivation right, and sometimes the tenancy right could be bought and sold, or mortgaged (as well as inherited), and, since mortgage could be assigned, might be transferred yet another step or two. The economic and social significance of these developments in late imperial China awaits full investigation.\n\nUnder what circumstances did such a system come into being? I believe I have identified five kinds of circumstances. There may be many more. In one case, where a frontier is to be opened or devastated lands reclaimed, patents may be given to an entrepreneur to make the necessary arrangements. He may then recruit persons to do the work, giving them a perpetual lease to cultivate the land subject only to their paying him an annual rent on a perpetual basis. In this way, both entrepreneurship (which sometimes included partial financing of reclamation) and the actual labour of opening the land, are given their rewards. Such was the most common origin of the multi-tiered tenure system in Ch'ing Taiwan; but as far as I know these circumstances never applied to the New Territories of Hong Kong.\n\nIn a second case, local power sometimes extending beyond the purely local to become influence in higher places was the basis of such an arrangement. In this case, clans or individuals who arrived early in a given region, claimed the best lands for themselves, and, in time, perhaps produced degree holders who exercised influence, or through armed forces asserted their local power, would then claim what amounted to \"protection money\" from other landowners in their region. Again, the result was the same: a right to part of the produce of the land. But in this case, there seems to have been little sense of responsibility for paying the tax and, indeed, the arrangement, based on power rather than documented land rights, might not have been recognized by the Chinese government if ever brought to notice. We are most familiar with this form of revenue claim from reports of the activities of the Tangs of Kam Tin just prior to the British assumption of sovereignty over the New Territories.\n\nIn a third case, on a frontier where there were non-Chinese aboriginal peoples, treaties might be made with the latter in which Chinese settlement and land rights were allowed subject to the perpetual payment of fees to the aboriginal claimants. In Taiwan, where this situation existed, such a fee was called \"barbarian\" rent, or \"barbarian\" revenue (fan ta-tsu).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209141, "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-1981", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "30\n\nEDGAR WICK BERG\n\n-\n\nclaims were not settled by the British administration until 1908. Despite the wide prevalence of revenue-claiming practices and institutions, the British recognized only those revenue rights that could be documented. Thus, the raw power and somewhat less raw influence of the Tangs of Kam Tin which underlay their revenue claims, and which the Pat Heung region, at least, had but recently thrown off by force, was not recognized. Only in the fifth circumstances and sometimes the fourth where a perpetual lease document, or perhaps a satisfactory sale document could be produced, were such rights recognized. It is of interest to note that despite the wide prevalence of multiple \"ownership\" noted by early British land officers, only the claims of about 40 \"taxlords\" were sufficiently documented to be recognized, and the land involved amounted to only about 200 acres, in a total New Territories cultivated acreage estimated at 40,000 acres. Those whose claims were so recognized were awarded lands as full owners elsewhere in the New Territories, and the multiple-\"ownership\" system was thus retired.\n\nIt is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the New Territories and Taiwan on these points. In 1900, north Taiwan was 100 to 150 years past the frontier age which had shaped its multi-tiered land system. But by 1900, fewer than 50 percent of the cultivated lands in the north had such arrangements, and when the Japanese put an end to the system in 1905, they were actually following through on an attempt that had been made in the 1880s, under Chinese rule, by Governor Liu Ming-ch'üan to end the multiple \"ownership” system. This is not the place for extensive comparisons, but we may observe in passing that the much greater prevalence of the multi-tiered system in the New Territories in 1900 as compared to Taiwan at the same time may be a result of the much greater importance of clans here than there.\n\nII. The rate of tenancy.\n\n-\n\nHere we are speaking, properly, in terms of a multi-tiered system, of subtenancy: not the taxlord-\"owner\" relationship, to use the early British terms, but the relationship between the \"owner\" and the tenant under him - the man who actually cultivated the land. Much less has been written about tenancy at this level than at the upper-level of taxlord to \"owner\". Understandably, the British interest in 1900 was primarily in determining a single owner who would be responsible for paying the tax. Owners were asked the names of their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209148, "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-1981", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "ANOTHER LOOK AT LAND AND LINEAGE IN THE N T. c. 1900\n\n37\n\nnames!\n\nMy point of departure is Hugh Baker's essay on the \"Five Great Clans of the New Territories\". I can hardly hold Baker responsible for what my imagination has done with the material and the views he presented. I can only give him credit for stimulating me to think about the history of the New Territories as, looked at in one way, a history of a few major clans competing for influence over territory. Territorial influence, as I understand it, might have been exercised through overlordship, of the kind the Tangs of Kam Tin held in the Pat Heung region; or control of markets (there were some well-known instances of this); or actual land ownership (in the sense of ownership of the right of cultivation or occupancy, whether by clan trusts or by individual members of the clan); or by possession of mortgages over a significant proportion of the land. It is the last two of these – land ownership and mortgage holdings that I shall examine.\n\nBaker did not argue that all of the land in the New Territories was occupied by the great clans. Indeed, it has been generally observed for many years now that there were two types of area, with reference to lineage in the New Territories: one, the lineage stronghold, was dominated by a single lineage; the other was an area where there was no dominant lineage. Whenever the relationship between the two kinds of areas had been discussed it has been either in terms of the kind of overlordship of Tang over Pat Heung that I have mentioned above or else with reference to the existence of subordinate villages within the sphere of the dominant lineage. This last phenomenon, that of the so-called ha-tsai (more commonly referred to as \"ha-fu\" or subordinate villages), has been discussed by Potter for the Ping Shan area and by Watson for the San Tin area. So far I have found no evidence of its existence in the part of the Pat Heung I am studying.\n\nMy objective in choosing for study the area from Kam Tin eastward to the end of the Kam Tin Basin was to see what I could learn about the extent of Kam Tin power as expressed in land and mortgage ownership as one moves away from the stronghold of Kam Tin itself. Since none of the other “Five Great Clans\" owned land or otherwise exercised influence in this region it seemed to me that any limits on Tang land-owning power or expansion would not, therefore, be the result of countervailing power expressed by another major clan. Such limitations, if any, might be the result of local resistance of some sort, or merely the result of distance from Kam Tin. With this in mind, I have examined land and mortgage ownership, house ownership and evidences of the existence and strength of local clans, temples, schools and community", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209149, "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-1981", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "38\n\nEDGAR WICKBERG\n\nhalls to see what I could learn about Tang influence on the one hand and local solidarities and influence on the other.\n\nI expected to find a pattern of declining Tang landholdings as one moved away from Kam Tin towards the east end of the Basin. In fact, what I found was solid owned-holdings and mortgage holdings by the Kam Tin Tangs in the area immediately to the east of the lineage stronghold itself, but a complete drop-off thereafter: no Kam Tin Tang holdings beyond a mile or two east of Kam Tin. Instead, what is most noticeable is the widespread land ownership influence of a different set of Tangs - the Hakka Tangs of Wang Toi Shan, a large village of several hamlets in the Northeastern portion of the Pat Heung area. Indeed, it is Wang Toi Shan ownership that follows my presumed pattern of solidity nearby trailing off to smaller amounts over distance. Wang Toi Shan people owned lands at considerable distances from their village well beyond their ability to walk to them and cultivate them themselves and right up to the area where Kam Tin Tang ownership began. Interestingly enough, Wang Toi Shan Tang holdings were mostly those of clan trusts. Where the lands were near to Wang Toi Shan itself, they were both individually-owned and clan-owned; more distant lands were almost all clan-owned. Parenthetically, this seems to resemble an observation made by J. T. Kamm about the holdings of the Kam Tin Tangs: that their individual holdings were close by and their clan holdings were often distant.\n\nThe Tangs of Wang Toi Shan may or may not be related in some way to the Tangs of Kam Tin. The Wang Toi Shan Tangs were Hakkas, of course, and the Kam Tin Tangs are usually thought of as Punti. But there is a Kam Tin tradition that someone of the Punti Tang branches of Ping Shan or Ha Tsuen married a Hakka woman of Waichow and that her male offspring settled in Wang Toi Shan, thereby founding the Tang name and fortune there. And the genealogy of the Hakka Tangs of Shui Lau Tin, who claim affiliation with the Wong Toi Shan Tangs, shows some possible links between themselves and the Kam Tin Tangs. The Wang Toi Shan Tangs with whom I have spoken deny kinship, but their genealogy appears to show a common place of origin in North China with the Kam Tin Tangs. Lo Hsiang-lin, however, finds no modern connection.\n\nV. Localities\n\nLet us look individually at the villages in the area east of Kam Tin, starting with Sheung Tsuen village, the farthest away at the east end", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209150, "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-1981", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "ANOTHER LOOK AT LAND AND UNEAGE IN THE N T. c 1900\n\n39\n\nof the Kam Tin Basin. Sheung Tsuen was a large Punti village of several hamlets. Although no single lineage was dominant, the Lais owned almost 30 percent of the land in the area of the village. The Hakka Tangs of Wang Toi Shan village, not far to the north of Sheung Tsuen, owned an equal amount of land. Among the Wang Toi Shan Tangs there was only one individual owner of note; all the rest of their land was corporately owned. Another 25 percent of the land was owned by individuals and corporations of three Sheung Tsuen surnames: Tsang, Cheung and Tse. Thus 55 percent of the cultivated land was owned by four local surnames, and 30 percent by the Tangs of Wang Toi Shan, considered, it appears, as outsiders but near neighbours. Of 62 Sheung Tsuen-based corporations owning land in the area, 34 were either exclusively Lai organizations or ones with a Lai as trustee. More than half of the lineage trusts were those of the Lais. But there were 22 land-owning lineage trusts belonging to the Tangs of Wang Toi Shan, only a few less than the 28 of the Lais. As for house ownership, it is impossible to be precise, because the house records for this area are incomplete, or seem to be. From what is available, it appears that Lai house ownership was in proportion to their land ownership, but that the Tangs of Wang Toi Shan owned few houses. Associations of all kinds, judging by the ownership record, flourished in Sheung Tsuen. I was struck by not only the number of lineage organizations, temples and the like, but other associations as well—devoted, for example, to education, mutual benefit, and, perhaps, investment. There was also, in this area as elsewhere in the Pat Heung, a branch of the Tong Yick Tong, the community organization for the Pat Heung as a whole.\n\nThe next village to the west, Lin Fa Tei, was also large — perhaps, 700 persons in 1900. No surname could be called predominant, although one surname (Lei) owned about 22 percent of the cultivated land. None of the other four leading local surnames owned more than 15 percent, and the total of the holdings of these five local surnames was about 60 percent of the cultivated land in this area. House ownerships roughly followed the pattern of land ownership. Although there were lineage schools and religious associations and temples, there were few lineage trusts (10–15) and not a great deal of corporate land. Although only 60 per cent of the lands around the village were owned by the five leading surname groups of the village, there was not a great deal of outside ownership. The Tangs of Wang Toi Shan owned some land, but most of the remainder was scattered among various minor surnames of Lin Fa Tei.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209151, "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-1981", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "40\n\nEDGAR WICKBERG\n\nThe small Hakka village of Shui Lau Tin was quite different. This was essentially a two-lineage village. The Tsois was the more numerous and owned most of the houses. But the one Tang lineage was quite prosperous as were many of the Tsois. Yet, while the largest landowners among both Tsois and Tangs owned much of their lands away from the village, and more to the west near Yuen Kong, other lineages and other villages owned land right up to the walls, so to speak, of Shui Lau Tin. Without tracing the affiliations of each of these surname groups it would be difficult to classify Shui Lau Tin in any typology of New Territories lineage villages.\n\nFinally, the large village of Yuen Kong, a mixed Hakka-Punti village nearest to Kam Tin of any I have looked at. Here, the Leung surname was preeminent, since Leungs owned almost 30 percent of the houses in the village, twice as many as any other of the major surnames of the village, and they also owned 26 percent of the cultivated land in the village area. There were seven lineage trusts - one for each of the major surnames and five religious associations. 75 percent of the cultivated land around the village was locally-owned, but there were important enclaves of ownership by the Kam Tin Tangs, the Wang Toi Shan Tangs, and individuals from Shui Lau Tin, Lin Fa Tei and Sheung Tsuen.\n\nHaving surveyed the area in this way, I find myself puzzled by what appears to have been an absence of Kam Tin influence east of Kam Tin, other than in the way we know about: that is, the earlier overlordship. Is it possible they never held land in the Pat Heung other than within a mile or two of their own gates? To the west of Kam Tin there were Tang branches, large-scale land ownership, market control, and overlordship over ha-lu. It would seem that the Kam Tin Tangs expanded to the west, but not much to the east. If so, why? Surely, the Pat Heung, a fertile area, was attractive.\n\nI can think of some possibilities. One might be united local opposition. We know that, strong though they are, Tang branches could be successfully opposed when several groups united. The Pat Heung opposition to overlordship discussed above is one instance; the Taipo Market case is another. Was there a united Pat Heung organization well before 1900 and well before the opposition to Tang overlordship, perhaps centering on the Tong Yick Tong, or something like it, that could prevent sales of land to Kam Tin? A second possibility: were there, perhaps, village-level agreements not to sell land to Kam Tin, but rather, if one must sell, to sell to another surname in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209152, "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-1981", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "ANOTHER LOOK AT LAND AND LINEAGE IN THE N. T. © 1900\n\n41\n\nvillage or nearby? What relevance to Kam Tin is there, if any, to the modest expansion of the Hakka Tangs of Wang Toi Shan, such that they owned 150–200 acres spread over a wide part of the Pat Heung?\n\nThis last point raises the question of how surname influence of non-\"great\" clans was extended; or, to put it another way, the nature of the territorial history of non-dominant lineages. Granting the limitations of the material we are using, a few preliminary observations may be made. It appears that the Tangs of Wang Toi Shan may have acquired lands through mortgage or purchase by their clan trusts, as well as by individual acquisition. It is striking that although their lands nearest to their home base are either individually owned or corporately owned, those most distant are almost invariably owned by lineage trusts. It is of further interest that of the 44 major landholding individuals in the area I have studied, only one of them was Wang Toi Shan Tang. Wang Toi Shan Tang land, wherever it was found, was likely to be clan land. The 'Kam Tin Tangs' lands in the Pat Heung, by contrast, do not include any distant holdings at least not in this part of the Pat Heung. And, unlike the Wang Toi Shan Tangs, whose corporate organizations made mortgage loans to other surnames, the Kam Tin Tangs, according to the record of 1905, were mortgaging property only among themselves.\n\nVI. Conclusion\n\nTo briefly summarize the paper: I think that the tenure system in the New Territories ca. 1900 was broadly similar to that found in other parts of South China at the same time. The rate of tenancy, measured in tenant-cultivated land, may have been about 50 percent or slightly higher. A typical farm might range in size from one to three acres, perhaps half of it owned by the farmer and the other half rented. An ordinary farm family might derive its income from several sources and occupations, and we can apply no easy and exclusive analytical categories, such as \"tenants\", \"labourers\", etc. Clan influence over territory might be exercised through a clan's ability to collect rents as an overlord or super-claimant on the land; or through its control of a market; or through its land ownership. A federation of less powerful clans might reduce its power as a revenue claimant or a market controller. Whether there were any such federations that checked its expansion of land ownership remains to be seen.\n\nTwo types of locality in the New Territories are presented in most analyses. The \"lineage stronghold” type is dominated by a single", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209694, "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": 351, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n329\n\nAugustus K. K. Siu and Anthony K. K. Siu, Studies on Chinese Genealogies and the History of the Hong Kong Region, Fung Chin Institute, Hong Kong, 1982.\n\nThis book consists of eleven essays on the Hong Kong region (Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and neighbouring areas). Four of them deal with genealogies, six principally with the history of the New Territories, and the last with boat people's songs. The central theme is that genealogies are valuable source materials for writing the history of this area, and this theme is illustrated with numerous examples.\n\nThere should be no dispute on the central theme: the question is how to put it into practice. The essay on migration into the Hong Kong region (chapter 5), despite the misleading reference in the title to all immigrant lineages as \"guest lineages\", is a useful example. In this essay, the authors list the time periods during which fifty-three surname groups first settled here from evidence recorded in their genealogies. The Tangs of Kam Tin, Lung Yeuk Tau, etc., and the P'aangs of Fan Ling came at the end of the Sung dynasty, the Lams of Shek Po Tsuen, and the Lius of Wu Kai Sha came in the Ming, and so on. The list is a useful first approximation, but obviously much more needs to be done.\n\nAnother interesting essay (chapter 4) describes ten historical “events” recorded in the genealogies. They include the marriage of the Sung princess to the ancestor of the Tangs, several famines and piratical attacks, the coastal evacuation from 1662 to 1668, the establishment of Tai Po New Market, the burial of a Chinese Christian at a Protestant cemetery on Hong Kong Island in 1854, the establishment of charity schools by philanthropist Fung Ping Shan, and flooding in Tsuen Wan in 1954. Similar \"events\" are discussed in greater detail in four other chapters (6, 8, 9 and 10), i.e., the establishment of the \"five great clans\" of the New Territories, the legend often referred to as \"letting go of the wooden goose\", the experience of the Southern Sung court in Kowloon, and the Tsuen Wan village feud of 1862 to 1864. Quite a few of these events have been discussed by other authors, notably Lo Hsiang-lin and James Hayes.\n\nThese later chapters make use of stone tablets and oral", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211591, "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": 6, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nHON. TREASURER'S REPORT\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT\n\nARTICLES:\n\nDan Waters\n\nLIBRARIES\n\n138 1937. vii\n\nAR\n\nIn the Steps of Lu Pan: Reminiscences of Building in Hong Kong\n\nK.J.P. Lowe\n\nHong Kong, 26 January 1841: Hoisting the Flag Revisited\n\nKeith Stevens\n\nThe Jade Emperor and his Family, Yu Huang Ta Ti\n\nKeith Stevens - Fukienese Wang Yeh (Ong Ya [Hokkien])\n\nP.H. Munro-Faure\n\nThe Kiukiang Incident of 1927\n\nA.D. Blackburn\n\nHong Kong, December 1941 July 1942\n\nChan Ka-yan\n\nJoss Stick Manufacturing: A Study of a Traditional Industry in Hong Kong\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nCheung Shan Kwu Tsz, An Old Buddhist Nunnery in the New Territories and its Place in Local Society\n\nJ.H. Haan\n\nThalia and Terpsichore on The Yangtze, Survey of Foreign Theatre and Music in Shanghai 1850-1865\n\nFred Dagenais\n\nJohn Fryer's Early Years in China: I. Diary of His Voyage to Hong Kong\n\nChan Wing-hoi\n\nThe Dangs of Kam Tin and Their Jiu Festival\n\nxxi\n\nxxiii\n\n8\n\n18\n\n34\n\n61\n\n77\n\n94\n\n121\n\n158\n\n252\n\n302\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nE. Sinn\n\nNotes on the Robert Hart Papers at the University of Hong Kong Library\n\n376\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nA Song from Sha Tau Kok on the 1911 Revolution\n\n382\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nThe Mutual Defence Alliance (Yeuk) of the New Territories\n\n384\n\nP.H. Hase - More on The Man the Emperor Decapitated\n\n388\n\nIssei Tanaka\n\nThe White Tiger\n\n389\n\nKeith Stevens - British Chinese Labour Corps Labourers Buried in England\n\n390\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nThe History of Hong Kong: From A Village to A City\n\n391\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nHistorical Records\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nTai Yu Shan from Chinese\n\n394\n\nA Tung Lo Wan\n\n399\n\n400\n\nV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211758, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "148\n\nvillages in the neighbourhood. Of the nuns of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz, the abbess from before 1920 to 1931, Wong Tik-yuen, is believed to have come from Fu Tin (Futian), just west of Sham Tsun. Her successor (1931-1944) was Yip Yuet-kwan. It is not known from which village she came, but she, like Wong Tik-yuen, was definitely Punti.\n\nThis strongly suggests that there was a tradition in the New Territories area among the long-settled Punti lineages which made it respectable for girls of those lineages to refuse marriage and instead to enter a nunnery. Those lineages or village groups which owned nunneries were proud of them, and proud of the fact that the nuns came from within the lineage or from the village group or a nearby village. Certainly, the Ling Wan nunnery holds a critically important position within the folktales of the Tangs of Kam Tin.43\n\n—\n\nFor a district to have a nunnery with a few dedicated women living a pure life, eating vegetarian food, and offering shelter and prayer to and for all men, certainly helped protect the district from spiritual disaster, but equally it must have helped reduce social tensions by providing a socially acceptable outlet for girls who did not wish to marry. It is probable that most of these indigenous Buddhist establishments were usually nunneries;14 the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz is called a nunnery ( ) on the 1789 bell, and in the Hsin An County Gazetteer of 1820* and the folktales of the Tangs about the Ling Wan house clearly presuppose that it was always a nunnery (it is specifically called a nunnery on the bell there, of 1755). The evidence for Ling To and Lung Lai before about 1900 is less clear.¶ However, these nunneries were occasionally handed over to devout men to live in, if such men presented themselves to the villages which owned them when the nunnery would otherwise have been vacant. Villagers remember that, before Wong Tik-yuen became abbess, the nunnery was lived in by a man, who was not a monk (he wore his hair “like a Taoist''), and who terrified the children of the villages.** Lei Pui-yuen may have run the nunnery in the same way. The Ching Shan monastery at Tuen Mun must have been founded for men, and this alone may have remained a house of men in the nineteenth century.¶ What is clearer, however, is that there were no Hakka monasteries or nunneries within the New Territories — presumably the Hakka in this area had no nunnery-based tradition of socially acceptable marriage-refusing women. The question of nunneries and marriage-refusing women in this area requires further study.\n\n48\n\n49", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211765, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "155\n\n27\n\nAs noted above, 20,000 people a month used the Miu Keng pass. Probably as many again used the road from Ping Che to Kan Tau Wai, or started their journey within Ta Kwu Leng. 40,000 users of the ferry a month is a likely figure. Probably 25% of them carried goods. This represents more than $50 a month income, or about $600 a year. Even depreciating heavily for the salary of boatmen and costs of maintenance, $400 a year clear profit seems likely.\n\nThe date of this war was probably in the 1860s, as Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., p. 104, shows.\n\n29 For the arrangement of the Yeuk, see map. The information in this section comes from Mr. Chan Yau-tsoi and Mr. Chan Wa-chun of Ping Yeung, Mr. Man Kam-muk of Ping Che, Mr. Yeung Choi of Fụng Wong Wu, Mr. Man Lei-wa of Tong Fong, and Mr. Hau Foh-tai of Law Fong, all very knowledgeable elders. I met them as a group, and include here only what they were unanimous in agreeing was the case. I would like to express my particular thanks to them for the several hours of discussion they had with me. As to Sai Ling Ha, this village, although it lay within the Ta Kwu Ling hills, supported Wong Pui Ling in the fighting, I was told. It had no part in the Luk Yeuk. However, when the Communists took over, most of the inhabitants of Sai Ling Ha crossed into Hong Kong, and set up homes in Ping Che. They were then allowed to become part of the Luk Yeuk, as part of Ping Che Yeuk. The account of the Luk Yeuk given here differs in detail from that given in Faure, op. cit., pp. 103-104.\n\n+1\n\n-\n\n30 The deaths are recorded in the \"Heroes Shrine\" () in the Tin Hau Temple at Ping Che, which was the community temple of the Ta Kwu Ling area. 23 names of the **Heroes who died in protecting the villages, who knew how to perform the duties of filial piety\", or the \"Heroes who defended the Yeuk\" as they are named in two inscriptions *澳四總鎮源樂友例段英雄履考之神位 and \"MX\") are recorded. Of these, 3 (all surnamed Chan) came from the Ping Yeung Yeuk, 4 (3 surnamed Tang and 1 surnamed Chau) from the Lin Tong Yeuk, 4 (1 surnamed Chau and 3 surnamed Lei) from the Lei Uk Yeuk, 4(2 surnamed Yiu and 2 surnamed Hau) from the Law Fong Yeuk, 2 (both surnamed Yip) from the Lo Shue Ling Yeuk and 4 (2 surnamed Wong and 2 surnamed Man) from the Ping Che Yeuk. One Law died he came either from Law Fong (Law Fong Yeuk) or Kan Tau Wai (Ping Che Yeuk). A Lau Ah-ngau (劉亞牛) also died -- he could have been from Wo Keng Shan (Ping Yeung Yeuk), where there was a tiny clan of Laus, or could possibly have been a servant, as his name suggests his name is entered last on the tablet. 23 deaths suggests very bloody fighting. It is unlikely that the population of the whole of Ta Kwu Ling in 1860 was higher than 1750 (representing an average village population of about 80, or perhaps 12 households), and the adult males could not have been more than a quarter of that (440). The young men of fighting age were probably no more than about 200. 23 out of 200 is about 11.5% deaths of those involved, which is a very high percentage. The population of the Ta Kwu Ling villages within the New Territories totalled 1441 in the 1911 Census (Sessional Papers, 1911, no. 17, Noronha & Lo, Hong Kong, 1911, \"Report on the Census of the Colony for 1911”, Table XIX p. 103 (32)).\n\n+\n\n-\n\nLoi Tung, with its lineage brethren of Lung Yeuk Tau, and the small villages between them, formed the Sze Yeuk (四約, “Alliance of Four''), which was, to a large degree, designed to ensure that the ancient enmity of the Tangs of Lung Yeuk Tau and Loi Tung with the Pangs of Fan Ling was tilted in favour of the Tangs. The Pangs supported the Luk Yeuk in its fight with the Cheungs this almost certainly means that the Sze Yeuk supported the Cheungs, as did Sheung Shui, the other ancient enemy of the Pangs. Man Uk Pin was a Yeuk of the Sha Tau Kok Shap Yeuk, as well as forming a part of the Sze Yeuk. The Shap Yeuk were dubious about the activities of the Luk Yeuk. Free travel between Sha Tau Kok and Sham Tsun was vital to the Shap Yeuk. With the Cheung Shan Kwụ\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211766, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "156\n\nTsz people controlling the pass and the Cheungs controlling the river crossing; no one group had total control of the road; but if the Luk Yeuk controlled both the pass and the bridge, then the Shap Yeuk's interests could well have been at risk. Lin Ma Hang of the Shap Yeuk actually fought alongside Wong Pui Ling; the rest of the Shap Yeuk was probably friendly to the Cheungs, or at least neutral in the dispute. The Sze Yeuk were allied with the Tangs in their opposition to the establishment of the Tai Po New Market by the Tsat Yeuk; as is to be expected, Fanling and the Luk Yeuk supported the Tsat Yeuk.\n\n32\n\n33\n\nIt is unclear if the inscription still survives or not.\n\nThey were Man Fuk-ting (Tong Fong, Chairman); Lei Yi-wa (Lei Uk); Chan Kwok-cheung (Ping Yeung); Tang King-shiu (Au Ha or Wang Kong Ha); Law King-fan (Law Fong); To Kan-yeung (Tin).\n\n14 Between 1911 and 1924 Chan Ping-kei (Chau ...) and Chan Tai [or Ting]-cheung ... (+ [Chinese characters unknown]) were managers, and as such appear on the Land Memorials.\n\n35\n\nIt was put up by Lin Tong and Wang Kong Ha villages, in \"The Shing Ping She Shrine of Righteousness\".ĦTH, Faure, Historical Inscriptions, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 850.\n\n36\n\n37\n\nFaure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 104-105.\n\nChau Tin village owned a small temple, or San Teng (神廳), as did Kan Tau Wai and Law Fong. Kan Tau Wai in addition owned a small house as a meeting place for its elders. None of these communal facilities had any income-producing land attached to them, except for the Law Fong and Kan Tau Wai temples, which owned 0.05 and 0.12 acres respectively. The Ping Yuen temple manager was registered only for the single temple building, but not for any income-producing land, although the temple did buy a piece of land (0.72 acres) from a Ping Che villager in 1906. See DD82, houselot CT20; lot 759; DD78, lot 1158; DD82, houselot KTW13; houselots PC1-3; Memorial 2744.\n\nMemorials 24058 (20 April 1913), 27471 (4 June 1914), 45919 (7 December 1920); see also Memorial 17779 (17 October 1911) for the succession of the She to a house at Tong Fong.\n\n19\n\nFor the Po Tak Old Alliance, see Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 128-140.\n\n40\n\n41\n\nSee R.G. Groves, \"The Origins of Two Market Towns'', loc.cit.\n\nFor the Tung Ping Kuk and the Tung Wo Kuk, see Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 128-140.\n\n42 (唔出嫁嘅女)\n\n43\n\n44\n\nSung Hok-p'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories: Kam Tin, op. cit.\n\nIt should be noted that these nunneries are often called Tsz (寺) in ordinary speech and documents. This character strictly means \"monastery\", but, in this area, this does not necessarily imply that the religious living there were men. Thus the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz is almost always so called, as in the document printed in the Appendix. The use of the more correct character Am (庵, 'nunnery') is almost entirely limited to Ch'ing official documents (especially the County Gazetteer) and, sometimes, on bells.\n\n45\n\n46\n\nloc.cit.\n\nSee Faure, Luk and Ng, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 669. It is called Miu (廟, \"temple\") in Hsin An County Gazetteer, 1922, ch'uan 4 and 7, pages 49-50 and 82 of the Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, and in the 1688 Gazetteer.\n\n47 Ling To is called Tsz (寺) in the Hsin An County Gazetteer, 1819, at ch'uan 18 and 21, pages 148 and 174 of the Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, and, given the care with which...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211912, "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": 327, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "302\n\nTHE DANGS OF KAM TIN\n\nAND\n\nTHEIR JIU FESTIVAL*\n\nCHAN WING-HOI\n\nOf the lineages of the New Territories, that of the Dangs of Kam Tin is noted for its vast land holdings, numerous imperial degrees and control of the Kam Tin Market. While the Dangs and outsiders talk about them as a corporate entity, and the Dangs do trace their descent from a common ancestor, it was the different segments of the lineage whose collective presence in ancestral trusts and halls is most noticeable. Contrary to what one would expect, there is no ancestral hall or any significant ancestral trust in honour of the common ancestor Dang Hung-Yi. The main ancestral halls and ancestral trusts highlight the divisions within the lineage rather than its unity.\n\nUnlike some other single-surname settlements in Hong Kong, the various Dang villages in Kam Tin do not correspond to segments of the lineage. Each of the villages has its own village temples or other places of worship which delimit the villages as collective entities. Religious activities associated with these local places of worship are part of the duties arising from membership of the village, and are different in nature from worship at popular temples at the nearby market, the latter being more a matter of personal choice than a function of membership in a corporate group.\n\nThe eventful period of the early Qing Dynasty was a major turning point in Dang history. This period saw the merger of a number of Dang settlements. It was during the same period that the Jau and Wong Temple was built and the jiu festival in honour of the same deities was first celebrated.\n\n* This report represents the result of field and library research I conducted as a temporary researcher of the Hong Kong Museum of History within the four months ending 15th March 1986, centring on the 1985 Jiu festival.\n\nI would like to express my gratitude to the Hong Kong Museum of History, Urban Council, for permission to publish this report which is based on part of the report I submitted.\n\nFor the romanization of Cantonese this report has adopted the Yale system. For local place names I have followed common usage. For a few terms more directly related to the wider \"China\" than the \"local\" area I have used the Mandarin pronunciation and the pinyin system. See glossary at the Appendix for Chinese characters of all words romanised.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211913, "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": 328, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "303\n\nTHE DANGS AS A LINEAGE\n\nAlthough a survey on occupations and land ownership was not part of the brief project on which this report is based, some of my interviews bear on the economic aspects of life in Kam Tin.\n\nWhile the Dangs of Kam Tin are well known as a wealthy lineage that has produced many imperial degree holders, in fact very few of the lineage were landlords/scholars. The vast majority of the Dangs earned their living as farmers, and most of them did not own much farm land. There seems to have been a large gap between the rich and the poor amongst the Dangs. Replying to my questions about ha-fu, or hereditary servants to the Dangs, a Mrs. Dang added her observations on the inequality among the Dangs themselves. The majority, the poor Dangs, were at the beck and call of the minority of the wealthy Dangs. She cited the example of her father-in-law, who worked on rice fields rented from a rich Dang as well as his own. He also took risks to hide the valuables of the rich man during the Japanese war. When asked why he did all this, she explained that obviously this was done in case he needed to borrow rice from the rich man in the future, which he actually did.\n\nThe family of another Mrs. Dang I interviewed had rented farm land from the same rich man, Dang Baak-Kau. She took care to lower her voice when saying this, and added: “Villagers of Tsi Tong Tsuen, Kat Hing Wai, and Tai Hong Wai — actually, all over Kam Tin people had rented his farm land”. Dang Baak-Kau had been a major leader of the Dangs of Kam Tin during his time. He represented the Dangs of Kam Tin in 1925 to petition the Hong Kong government to return the iron gates of one of the main Kam Tin villages taken away in 1899 when the British took over the New Territories. He was also one of the two Dangs named after the formal head of the lineage in a 1941 petition to the New Territories administration against the division and sale of an ancestral trust property. The dominance of the segment descended from him in lineage affairs is evident in the Ching Lok Ancestral Hall ritual manual, to which has been added, after entries giving two or one and a half catties of ritual pork to descendants of the six Dangs responsible for the initial building and rebuilding of the hall, an entry giving two catties of roast pork to his descendants in the Spring and Autumn rites. Before this Dang died some 30 years ago, he was awarded a \"higher medal\" in about 1933 by the British administration, according to a genealogy he commissioned. One can see at the same ancestral hall a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211914, "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": 329, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "304\n\ncouplet engraved on wood bearing the words \"presented by the descendants of ancestor Baak-Kau\". The exact details of Dang Baak-Kau's line of descent from Ching-Lok, however, remain obscure.\n\nIt was probably more common that farm land was owned by groups of people who traced their descent from a common ancestor in the form of ancestral trusts than by individual heads of families like Dang Baak-Kau. I overheard two men (one born about 1910, one about 1925) talking about the ownership of fields in the past. They said that among 100 people there were less than 9 who had their own rice fields. Most people farmed ancestral trust land. The rent was cheaper than that for other land. Once somebody had taken up a piece of ancestral land, he never had to return it, and it was quite common for people to sub-let to other people the ancestral land they rented. These ancestral trusts were each founded for the worship of an individual ancestor and for the education of his descendants. The terms \"jou\" and \"tong\" are used by the villagers to refer to an ancestor, his trust, and often the segment of the lineage which consists of his descendants.\n\nThe case of Dang Baak-Kau is representative of the small minority of personally wealthy Dang. Men like him formed the village elite, dominating local and lineage affairs, and monopolising village connections with the government. Most lineage segments and their ancestral trusts among the Dangs seem to stem from personally wealthy elite villagers like Dang Baak-Kau. It is no surprise that his descendants formed an ancestral trust in his name.\n\nThe power of village elites like Dang Baak-Kau may have been undermined by the abundance of outside employment and business opportunities within Hong Kong in recent years. Among our informants were two men born in the 1920s who had worked outside Kam Tin, one with the Agriculture and Fishery Department and another with a Chinese trading firm. We were told that they were exceptions. But such opportunities have abounded in the last couple of decades.\n\nI. THE DANG LINEAGE, ELITES AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS\n\nA. Early History\n\nThe first Dang ancestor to come to Guangdong province was Hon-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211915, "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": 330, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "305\n\nFaat, who was an official of the Song Dynasty. His great-grandson Fu-Hip was the first to settle in Kam Tin. One of his two sons moved to Dongguan county and the other, named Seui, stayed. The two had a total of five sons whose descendants were known as the “five main branches”. In a time of chaos, a grandson of Seui married a daughter of the Song Emperor Gaozong. This member of the royal family was better known by her descendants as Wong-gu because her brother later became the Emperor Guangzong. Her husband was called the Gwan-ma. The Wong-gu sent one of their sons to see the Emperor, who granted official titles to her husband and sons and gave her some farm land as a gift. Present-day Dangs attribute their wealth to this event. Her descendants moved to different parts of Dongguan and Xin'an counties, including Lung Yeuk Tau, and Tai Po Tau in the New Territories. The nearest common ancestor of the present-day Dangs of Kam Tin, Hung-Yi, was a seventh-generation descendant of the youngest son of the Wong-gu. Hung-Yi's brother Hung-Ji was the ancestor of some of the Dangs of Ha Tsuen.\n\nHung-Yi did not leave much property, and there is no ancestral hall dedicated to his worship. We do not know much about Hung-Yi. Oral tradition has it that in 1393 he was sent on penal servitude on behalf of his younger brother Hung-Ji. Before that, he had married a Miss Jeung and had three sons Yam, Jan, and Yeui. He survived the (unknown) period of servitude and obtained a teaching job in a wealthy family. His employer married him to a servant girl of the surname Wong. Miss Wong bore him a son by the name of Gyun. Upon his death, she brought his ashes and the son to Kam Tin. The son Gyun died soon afterwards, and subsequently Yam gave one of his sons as Gyun's heir.\n\nYau-Leun Tong in the present Kam Tin Shi was the hall in honour of Hung-Yi. But there was no tablet for him in the tong. To explain the absence of a spirit tablet, one elder said, \"Because Hung-Yi did not have much property, the fund was small. There was no spirit tablet for him in the tong. His spirit tablet was housed in the ancestral hall of his grandson, [i.e., the ancestral hall for Ching-Lok, see below.]\" Another provided a different explanation. It was because the Fung Sheui was poor for the purpose. Whatever the reason, Yau-Leun Tong was not a place for setting up a spirit tablet. It was a place for gatherings only. Some younger villagers told me that the hall was once rented out, and once used as a kindergarten.\n\nPage 330\n\nPage 331", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211919, "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": 334, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "309\n\nB. Earliest Evidence of the Lineage\n\nPresent-day Dangs of Kam Tin speak of the four branches of their lineage, which correspond to the four sons of Hung-Yi. This division into four branches stemming from Hung-Yi's sons was already clear in the sixteenth century: it is implied in the will of Dang Kei-fong, a fourth generation descendant of Dang Hung-Yi, of the fourth branch - the will was written in 1561.\n\nThe earliest evidence we have of a lineage focussed on Hung-Yi is this will. The will was copied in a genealogy compiled by a descendant of his. In the will Kei Fong stated that he had inherited a substantial property from his father and had not added much to it. He now wished to set aside 90 sek of rental rice for the worship of his parents, himself and his wife, and the education of his male offsprings. He had also set aside 33 acres of farmland, the rent from which was to help his descendants to cope with the county corvée. Kei-Fong stated his intention to build an ancestral hall in honour of his parents, Chung-Yut and his wife. This, although probably never realized, is the earliest known plan to build an ancestral hall in Kam Tin.\n\nKei-Fong started his will by naming his office-holding ancestors, Fu-hip, the gwan-ma's father, and the gwan-ma himself. No reference is made to Hung-Yi. But the will as preserved includes the names of the witnesses, which comprise a juk-jeung and four fong-jeung. Comparing the name list with genealogies, we find that the \"clan\" in this 1561 document is one that has Hung-Yi at its apex. The first of the four fong-jeung is a grandson of Yam, the eldest son of Hung-Yi. The third is a grandson of Jan, Hung-Yi's second son. The fourth is a grandson of Gyun, Hung Yi's fourth son. Curiously, the other fong-jeung is another grandson of Gyun rather than one of Yeui's. The juk-jeung, however, was not only a descendant of Yeui rather than Yam, but was also more junior in generation terms than the others. He was the eldest son of the eldest son of Siu-Geui, the only son of Ting-Jing. Ting-jing was the eldest son of Yeui. This may be a reflection of the continuing influence of Ting-jing's descendants in clan affairs in that period.\n\nIn 1471 Ting-Jing (a son of Yeui) had been awarded a geui-yan degree and subsequently (in 1514) appointed as the Director of Studies of a Jiangxi county and subsequently promoted to be a County Magistrate", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211921, "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": 336, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "311\n\nrecorded by Sung (1974:181-182), Wan-Guk \"was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in [Xin'an County]\". He died before 1513 (ibid: 182). We have more detail about some of his great-great-grandsons, among them Dang Yun-Fan who made a donation of 1,000 sek of rice to the county government for relief during a bad famine. The details of Dang Yun-fan's descent from Wan-Guk are obscure. Because of this act of generosity Kam Tin was given its present name in 1587, instead of the Sham Tin used earlier (Sung 1973:111-112). The story must be quite close to the truth. Siu (1982:23:24) has checked the Xin'an gazetteer to verify it. He found an entry for a serious drought in 1583, and the County Magistrate named in the anecdote assumed his position in 1586. I have found other supportive data in a local manuscript that records some of the inside inscriptions of the spirit tablets in one of the ancestral halls of Kam Tin. Two ancestors of this period had \"pen-names\" (hou) that probably alluded to the new name of the settlement.\n\nAn elder I interviewed attributed the change of the place name to Kam Tin to his ancestor Pou-Am, another great-great-grandson of Wan-Guk's, and provided the following information. Pou-am's holdings reached Chuk Yuen near San Tin. He had house(s) where the rent collectors could stay when collecting the payment and being entertained by the tenants. Pou-Am's grandson Lok-Sin had comparable holdings.\n\nIt was probably in the second half of the 16th century that an ancestral hall was built in honour of Ching-Lok, Wan-Guk's father. It was in all likelihood the earliest ancestral hall ever built in Kam Tin. We know the approximate date of the ancestral hall because a handbook for its rituals prescribed that extra portions of ritual pork were to be given to the descendants of certain individuals, some for their part in the initial building of the hall and some for their contribution towards subsequent repairs and rebuilding. These involved six people. Among them the two rewarded for the original building and another two rewarded for the first rebuilding were all Wan-Guk's great-grandsons. It was only in a subsequent repair in 1788 that one of the descendants of the other sons of Ching-Lok became involved. The spirit tablets in the hall confirm the dominance of Wan-Guk's segment. The two Dangs honoured for the initial effort, as already mentioned, were Wan-Guk's great-grandsons. The time when the ancestral hall was first built was probably not later than the time of Yun-Fan, the great-great-grandson of Wan-Guk's who made the donation to the county in 1587. It was also in the second half of the 16th Century that Kei-Fong (not a descendant of Ching-Lok)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211923, "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": 338, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "313\n\nDocuments confirm that Sing-Ngok's descendants had a large portion of the more than 160 acres of Kam Tin Dang land-holdings on Hong Kong island.\n\nD. Sung-Kok jou and the Gwong-Yu Tong and Lei-Ging Tong\n\nI have mentioned before that the second ancestor of the fourth branch, Naam-Kai, had been adopted from the first branch. This connection might be expected to serve to make the two branches feel closer together. However, fung-sheui stories hint at feelings of rivalry between the first and the fourth branches, especially after the rise of the latter during or after Dang Man-Wai's time in the later seventeenth century. However, it was only a few segments of the fourth branch which prospered: a letter from the leaders of the Kam Tin Dangs in 1941 claimed that the ancestral fund for Naam-Kai used to be a broken house in the county town of Xin'an until it was expanded to a farmland holding of over 200 sek in rent value under the management of the youngest son of Dang Kyun-Hin (1755-1822). It was only the families of Dang Man-Wai and of his brothers who enjoyed great prosperity from early in the Qing dynasty.\n\nThe present descendants of Dang Man-Wai attribute the prosperity of their segment (known as Gwong-Yu Tong) to the jeun-si degree of Man-Wai, which he won in 1685. But from 1657, i.e. almost 20 years earlier, he was already a geui-yan, one of only two or three ever achieved from the Hong Kong region, which should have placed him in a very advantageous position especially in this period. According to a stone inscription, Man-Wai started the Yuen Long Market in 1669, and until it was replaced by the New Market in 1898 this market was run by the ancestral trust of Man-Wai, the Gwong-Yu Tong. Man-Wai was also credited with having compiled a genealogy and having initiated the building of an ancestral hall for the larger Dang clan. His sons and grandsons included many imperial degree/title holders involved in lineage matters.\n\nThe spirit tablets of two of Dang Man-wai's brothers are housed in the Lei-Ging Tong, an ancestral hall which used to be in the present playground, but which was later moved to near the Sun Ngai Brass factory on Kam Sheung Road. The original building was only a little smaller than the Gwong-Yu Tong. One of the two brothers was Dang Ng-sang, who, according to Sung (1974:185), built the ancestral hall. Some village elders confirmed that he was the same Ng-sang who was the leader of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211924, "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": 339, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "314 \n\n10 \n\nthe Dangs of Kam-Tin in the dispute with the Dangs of Ping Shan over the grave of the gwan-ma several decades before 1737. The descendants of Man Wai and his brothers (i.e. the members of the Gwong Yu Tong and the Lei Ging Tong) are all also members of the Sung-Kok jou segment which derives its name from the \"pen name\" of Man Wai's father.\n\nE. Loi-Sing Tong \n\nTo avoid confusion with Gwong-Yu Tong (i.e. the descendants of Man-wai) I shall call the Gwong-Yu jou segment (Le, the descendants of Gwong-Yu) by the name of their ancestral hall, the Loi-Sing Tong. The first datable event relating to this segment was the building of the ancestral hall in 1701 by Jeung-Luk, a sixth generation descendant of Gwong-Yu. Probably the best known of the Loi-Sing Tong ancestors was Si-Daan. The details of Si-Daan's descent are obscure. He was probably a descendant, perhaps a grandson, of Jeung-Luk. Sung (1973:63-65) records a story that upon his birth there was an unmistakable sign that he was destined to be a rich man. According to Sung (1974:164) he “built himself a very big house called Naam Teng, the remains of which can still be seen on the South side of Kat Hing Wai\". In 1755 when Si-Daan's uncle presented a bell to Ling-Wan Ji his name was included as one of the donors. The family probably had become rich before his father's generation. That uncle of his, Dang Yu-Jung, had purchased a minor official title. The donation list for the rebuilding of a temple in 1744 recorded a single sum donated by four Yus that included Yu-Jung and Si-Daan's father Yu-Man. Among the four, Yu-Ji had purchased a gung-sang degree in the Yongzheng period (1723-1735), and two others had degrees of gaam-sang. Si-Daan himself had purchased an official title of jau-tung.\n\nOf the ancestors whose tablets were housed in the hall Puk-Chai, gung-sang degree holder, is remembered by his descendants, who still keep an embroidery presented to the father of this degree holder on the occasion of a birthday.\" He was probably one of Jeung-Luk's brothers.\n\nF. Mau Ging Tong \n\nThe period of the late Ming and the early Qing was an eventful period for the people of the Xin'an county. The Kam Tin jiu festival itself had started as a response to experiences in this period, especially the serious", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211925, "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": 340, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "315\n\npiracy problem in the late Ming, the Coastal Evacuation and its aftermath. In 1662, to deny Ming loyalists supply and support, the Qing government ordered the coastal population of Xin'an county, among others, to evacuate inland (see Ng 1983:26-28). Many died. They were only allowed to return in 1669, thanks to the petitions of the Governor of Guangdong Wong Loi-Yam and the Governor-General Jau Yau-Tak.\n\nIt is to be expected that the population became smaller in the period just after the evacuation. Many new lineages had migrated into the area in this period (Siu 1984:5-6). These newcomers would have been a threat to those who had settled long before the evacuation. Some of the “locals” had probably also learnt from the previous experience the need to get organized. Others would have to follow suit if they did not want to be dominated by large power groups. Students of the region see the Evacuation (1662-1669) as a turning point in its history. Watson (1985:25), for example, pointed out, \"Many of south [Xin'an] temples, and large corporate descent groups trace their beginning to this period”. The construction of temples and ancestral halls, she suggested, were steps to strengthen the organizational framework and power of the dominant lineages.\n\n12\n\nThe ancestral hall for Ching-Lok's segment, as I have noted above, was probably first built before this period. In Kam Tin a few other ancestral halls and the Jau and Wong Temple were erected in this period. Before this period, therefore, some of the Dangs in Kam Tin had ancestral halls and some had none. From early in this period every one \"belonged” to at least one ancestral hall. One of them, the Mau-Ging Tong, was obviously different in nature from the earlier Ching-Lok ancestral hall. It encompassed the three junior branches of the lineage. An inscription for the rebuilding of the Mau Ging Tong included in the Si Gim Tong genealogy acknowledged that it was built subsequent to the Ching-lok ancestral hall, in the Kangxi period (1662-1735). Another ancestral hall, Loi-Sing tong, was also built in this period, in 1701, for the brother of Ching-Lok, as noted above. All of the Dangs of Kam Tin belong to one of these three ancestral halls. Even then, there is no common ancestral hall for all the Dangs of Kam Tin. The Gwun-Yam temple at the site of the present Ling-Wan Ji monastery, to which I shall return later, may have been important to Kam Tin as a whole since very early days. The Jau and Wong Temple built in 1685 dedicated to two officials, and its associated decennial jiu festival also provided all the Dangs of Kam Tin with a unified symbol of identity.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211928, "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": 343, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "318\n\nof money, he would go up to Canton. This also surprised people, for they supposed that one spent money in Canton. But Chi-Naam would go to meet officials in Canton, and earned, so the story goes, much money on each trip by handling cases for clients. Another story of the same informant told of Chi-Naam's influence. Once upon a time, soldiers were sent to Kam Tin. These men were very impolite. They urinated in the open. Chi-Naam was angry and told his brothers to beat the soldiers up. The case was brought to a local official, who decided to take away the academic title of Chi-Naam's younger brother, who was held responsible. Chi-Naam asked the official if he had authorisation from his superiors. The official therefore dared not carry out the penalty. An informant related that Chi-Naam was once the head of the Dung Ping Guk, the council for the eastern section of the county established as the unofficial administrative and judicial organization for the eastern part (Dung-Lo) of the county, which decided local cases.\n\n15\n\nDang Ting-sam played important roles in many lawsuits which involved the Dangs of Kam Tin and outsiders. We have documents of some of these lawsuits and oral stories for others. The earliest datable one I know of took place in 1854, when he brought a case to the Dongguan County Magistrate to request action against some Heungs who had kidnapped some of the Dangs who went to worship at the wong-gu's grave in Dongguan. I shall refer to the other cases later.\n\n16\n\nII. THE DANGS VS RIVALS AND TENANT COMMUNITIES\n\nThe Dangs of Kam Tin had conflicts with their neighbours over various matters, especially land ownership, rent, and irrigation rights. These conflicts took the form of lawsuits and fighting. Those who died in fighting with enemies of the community were worshipped as \"heroes”. A jiu festival document of 1895 indicates that up to that time 80 persons were recognized as \"heroes\" to whom special offerings of paper clothing were to be made in the festival.\n\nThis kind of fighting (da-saat) was common in the area. Elders of Kam Tin told me that there had been fighting between Kam Tin and the alliance of Ping Shan and Pat Heung. This had taken place long ago, even before the birth of an elder born in 1900. Through fighting, Kam Tin lost much of its land holdings, because they had to sell land for money to pay as compensation for lives lost. In the past, people entered yeuk alliances for this kind of fighting. Pat Heung was part of the Ping Shan alliance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211930, "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": 345, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "320\n\nYeuk and Shap Pat Heung the Ha Tsuen Yeuk. Kam Tin never joined a yeuk, because its collective strength was great enough on its own.\n\nOne of the causes of conflict was disputes over land ownership. Anecdotes are still remembered of an early case that involved the Lais of Sheung Che or Ha Che. The site of one of the earlier temples of the Dangs of Kam Tin is the Hung Sing Temple, the site of which is also known as Lai Ga Dei (“Lai family land” or “Lai family grave”). There used to be a grave of the Lais there but the Dangs had moved it away to build the temple. The Lais sued the Dangs. The Dangs won the lawsuit by citing the following: hung-jeuk (peacock the Hung bird) was not a bird owned by the Hungs.\n\n18\n\nAnother major cause of conflict was farm rents. The relationship between the Kam Tin Dangs and many other communities in the area, especially those of Pat Heung, was one of landlords and tenants. Many elders mention the village of Tsiu Keng as an example: the name originally meant “recruit to cultivate”. These tenant villages were not on a par with the Kam Tin Dangs. This distinction found its expression in marriages. A Dang in his 60s made an observation about marriage partners. The Dangs of Kam Tin never married Pat Heung people until his generation, nor did they marry members of other \"minor\" (tenant) villages such as Pok Wai. Many Dangs elders have similar ideas.\n\nThe relationship between the Dangs and the other tenant communities in Pat Heung and Shap Pat Heung was difficult. The problems involved included rents as well as irrigation rights.\n\nA. Pat Heung\n\nThe Dang elders I talked to generally knew about some serious fighting with Pat Heung, but none of them remembered any detail. What they could describe at some length were lawsuits rather than fighting. One of the elders remembered the case of a Lam Ngau-Jai who was illiterate but very good at verbal skills. He took a case to court. He accused the Kam Tin Dangs of being barbarous and despotic. Some parts of the accusation were still remembered. “In daytime they wanted chicken, goose and duck, at night they wanted pretty women in their bed”. “They used extra-large grain sorters, measures that were 80% larger than the designated volume, and for pushing the excess grain off the heap in the measure they used a crooked stick so that the surplus would remain”.\n\nPage 345\n\nPage 346", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211931, "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": 346, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "321\n\nThese accusations were made at the county magistracy. The Kam Tin Dangs got news of the accusation and arranged that all their young men gathered in the various ancestral halls and temples to read, so as to deceive the investigators from the county government. The county magistrate was deceived, and believed that the Kam Tin Dangs were all scholars and would not give any time to the accusation. Therefore he did not pursue the case any further.\n\nSome of the Dangs believe that the fighting between the people of Kam Tin and those of Pat Heung was over agricultural resources such as irrigation water. The Dangs of Kam Tin used only one bei reservoir, the one called Fui Sha bei. The water flowed from Pat Heung, near Lin Fa Tei, and the Pat Heung people could stop the water. One recent (about 100 years ago) example of a dispute over agricultural resources was the Ngau Wong Wui association which had been started to organize the cowherds of Kam Tin, to protect them against their Pat Heung counterparts, and to preserve Kam Tin pasture rights.\n\nOne piece of documentary evidence of the conflict between the Dangs and their Pat Heung tenants has survived. It is a stone inscription dated 1777 found in both the Daai-Wong Temple of Yuen Long Old Market and the Jau and Wong Temple of Kam Tin. It records a rent dispute.\n\nFive Dangs are named as the landlords in this inscription. In general terms, the document calls the landlords \"the Dang surname\", and the land \"the land of the clan\". It is therefore clear that the landlords were all from the same lineage and the property was considered as linked to the lineage as a whole albeit it was probably individually owned. Four of the five names can be found in various documents from Kam Tin. All four appear in a silk embroidery presented to a Dang of Kam Tin to celebrate his birthday in 1771. We have more specific information about two of them: one, Dang Si-Daan, was a descendant of Yam's second son Gwong-Yu, and the other, Dang Chung, is a descendant of one of the other sons of Hung-Yi, most probably Gyun. It is therefore clear that one of the parties to the dispute were many of the Dangs of Kam Tin, including members of different branches and represented in general terms the Dang lineage.\n\nA few names are also given of the tenants. There were about the same number of Dangs and non-Dangs among them. While the landlords were referred to as members of a lineage, the tenants were referred to as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211932, "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": 347, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "322\n\nmembers of several neighbouring villages. Among the seven named, two have been identified by Cheng (n.d.) in ancestral tablets of Lin Fa Tei [Fung Yuk-Daan] and Yuen Kong [Leung Gwan-Daat], both of Pat Heung.\n\nThe dispute was over the size of the measure for the rent rice. The inscription mentioned an earlier case of 1726 when some tenants accused the landlords of using a larger measure than that which was agreed. As a result of that earlier case, the authorities had ascertained the actual volume of the original measures and issued some standard measures. From then on there had been no more dispute until the 1777 case. According to the inscription, some of the tenants instigated those of the other heungs to take the case to the county magistrate. Meanwhile they fraudulently forged some measures in order to pay less than the agreed rent. The authorities applied the same method as in the previous case: they declared a standard conversion ratio for the different measures. They also decided to punish the tenants who had started the case and had forged the measures, as well as an outsider who had involved himself in helping the tenants. The punishment was waived in consequence of a general royal pardon.\n\n20\n\nA document dated 1873 suggests that the hostility between the Kam Tin Dangs and the Pat Heung villagers continued to that time. Some Dangs of Kam Tin, including Dang Ting-sam, who, as we have seen, had been involved in disputes between the Dangs and outsiders, made a formal complaint against five people among whom the names of two appear in the 1886 and 1861 stone inscriptions for repair/rebuilding of the Pat Heung Temple. The complaint was against a Leung of Pat Heung. The Dangs had found that their ancestral grave (which was over 200 years old) had been damaged but had failed to find the evil-doer. On Ching Ming festival of that year a named Dang went to worship at the grave with his younger brothers and nephews. For no reason at all, the accused, Leung, ordered his people to cause further damage to the grave. In the document the Dangs demanded that the accused repair the grave on a suitable day. If he should fail to do so, the Dangs threatened to take further action.\n\nB. Shap Pat Heung\n\nHostility between the Dangs of Kam Tin and the Shap Pat Heung villages, especially those around the old market, is still evident today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211933, "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": 348, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "323\n\nI was told by a descendant of Dang Man-Wai that his ancestor had made several alterations to the landscape to destroy the fung-sheui of Nam Pin Wai. He built a number of temples, and dug a well behind the temples and made fish ponds in front of the village.\n\nSome written complaints from 1873 reveal a series of disputes that had lasted several months and which suggest that the event was part of a long term conflict. The Dangs complained to the county magistrate and his subordinates that some Nam Pin Wai villagers had robbed their money for fish seeds, and that they had several times in the previous six months taken fish by force from the fish ponds that belonged to or were operated by the Dangs. The owner of one of the fish ponds, a Wong of Sha Tau, complained that on one occasion the local Nam Pin Wai gangsters fed more than one thousand people to take all the fishes away from the ponds. The version of the Nam Pin Wai villagers is different. According to them, some of the Dangs of Tai Hong Wai, one of the Kam Tin villages, relying on their being the owner of the market, for a certain amount of “rent” allowed gambling tables to be set up in the market area, some just in front of the house of a certain Ng of Nam Pin Wai. Ng reported this to the nearby guard post. In response the man in charge came to stop the gambling. But the Dangs would not listen. Ng and other villagers tried in vain to reason with them. The Dangs beat them up, causing injuries, and seized the laundry of Ng. To cover up their misdeeds, the Dangs asked their village brothers to accuse the Nam Pin Wai villagers of robbing the fish seed money, and later framed the case of the fishes.\n\n7\n\nThe target of the Dangs was not limited to the few alleged gangsters, but included the Nam Pin Wai villagers in general. In one of the complaints the Dangs gave the general context of the dispute. The Nam Pin Wai village had been subordinate to the Dangs since the time of their ancestors.22 Many of the villagers were generally disloyal to their masters, and the younger ones had relied on this when they robbed the fishes. The people of the village in general were pleased to see the disaster that happened to the Dangs. The Nam Pin Wai villagers, on the other hand, spoke of themselves as a small village always oppressed by the big lineage of the Dangs. They accused the Dangs of stealing two cows from a Yeung of their village. When they complained to the Dang elders about this, they were told to pay to redeem the cows.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211934, "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": 349, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "324\n\nC. Scramble over land in Kowloon\n\nAlthough scrambles over land was not new to this region, it was in the context of the British occupation of Hong Kong and Kowloon that the last major disputes over land holdings in the Kowloon peninsula took place. In 1860, when south Kowloon passed into British hands, the Dangs of Kam Tin, with another branch of the larger clan, were held to possess 276 acres of the 452 acres of land for which registered land documents were produced to the Anglo-Chinese Land Commission (Hayes 1983:87-88). The re-registration of land is a likely occasion for disputes. Besides, as a result of the development of the port of Hong Kong, the land in Kowloon doubtlessly appreciated sharply in value.\n\nIt is from an anecdote about Dang Ting-sam that we learn about the dispute between the Kam Tin Dangs and the Ping Shan Dangs over the rents from Kowloon Tsai. In the words of the informant, they scrambled for the rent. There was fighting between them. In the fighting a ha-yan of the Kam Tin Dangs killed a mou-geui-yan of Ping Shan. The ha-yan, whose name was Ah Chiu, had been sent to Kowloon Tsai to take care of the rent collecting. He was staying at a house his master kept for this purpose. The military degree holder of Ping Shan wanted to infringe upon the rent. He came to the house to make a claim that the land had belonged to him. Soon the fighting began. He was killed by Ah Chiu, who was not as strong as the mou-geui-yan but was very clever. The Ping Shan Dangs sued the Kam Tin Dangs for this. Chi-Naam made use of his skill [and connections?] to get Kam Tin out of the trouble. He was allowed to see the written complaint from the Ping Shan people. After reading it he offered 500 taels of silver to the official to let him add three strokes to the document. The original complaint said yung fu seung yan (\"caused injury by using an axe\"). Chi-Naam added one stroke to the character yung, and altered it to lat, \"[an object] fell off\". So the accusation had become \"an axe fell and injured a person\". Because of the alteration, the Kam Tin Dangs did not have to pay compensation for the killed man's life, they only had to pay a fine.\n\nD. The land re-registration of the New Territories\n\nMuch of the land of the Kam Tin Dangs was lost when the British government started the re-registration of land holdings.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211935, "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": 350, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "325\n\nIn the nearby Pat Heung region, according to a genealogy dated about 1933, the rent the Dangs used to collect from the portion of their farm land holding lost in the land re-registration in the 1900s amounted to more than 2,000 taels. The Dang elders explained to me that the lost land included both individual and corporate holdings. They were lost to Pat Heung people, i.e. the villagers of Yuen Kong, Sheung Tsuen, Wang Toi Shan and Lin Fa Tei. The Dangs lost the land because the government's policy was to ask those who claimed a piece of land to say where the land was rather than to say who the tenants were. In many cases the Dangs knew the tenants but not the land, and were unable to sustain their claim. Dang Wing-Sau was told by his mother that a certain Lam Ngau-Jai of Yuen Kong had claimed the land he rented from Wing-Sau's father. Wing-Sau's father took the case to court and won the lawsuit. Subsequently Lam Ngau-Jai changed his name to Lam Jyu-Jai so as to avoid possible prosecution.\n\nI learned of a similar case from an anecdote about Ng Sing-Chi. A son of the Ng of Nam Pin Wai in the 1873 dispute, he was a prominent figure of the period around 1898 who was instrumental in opening a new market in Yuen Long in opposition to the Dangs.* A Mr. Dang of the Gwong-Yu Tong told me of Ng Sing-Chi's role in putting an end to the rent payments to the tong. On each Chinese New Year Eve each household in Nam Pin Wai had to pay the Gwong-Yu Tong Dangs a small sum of money, which, he said, was rent for their house land. The Dangs used to do the collecting themselves. But soon after Ng's release by the British officials from imprisonment for his involvement in the fighting against the British in 1898 he played a trick against the Dangs. He offered to them that to save their trouble he would do the collecting for them, if they would give him a receipt. This the Dangs did, and with the receipt Ng reported the case to the government. It was illegal. Since then the Gwong-Yu Tong Dangs dared not collect the rent from Nam Pin Wai any more.\n\n## COMMUNITY AND WORSHIP\n\n### III. THE COMMUNITY\n\n#### A. Overview\n\nMany informants mentioned the expression \"five wai and six tsuen” with regard to the Kam Tin Dangs, but none of them was able to list these walled and unwalled villages definitively. The villages of Kam Tin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211938, "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": 353, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "328 \n\nwinter. Once in a year they practised shooting at a police shooting range near Man Kam To. In earlier times the guards had used gwan sticks.\n\nC. The village market\n\nAt present there are a few shops, mostly food stalls, in Kam Tin Shi. Some Dangs also live there. They are descendants of the senior branch, including descendants of Wan-Guk and Wan-Gaan. The place used to be the local market. It was active before the Japanese occupation. It had a sign in the form of an arch, which was removed by the Japanese. Some documentary information about the market has survived in a rent record.29 One of the shops entered into the rental contract in 1851. The rent book included entries for five shops in Kam Tin Shi. Among them one was run by a tailor. It also mentioned the names of three streets. These were Upper Main Street (Sheung Taai Gaai) and Lower Main Street (Ha Taai Gaai) as well as Middle Street (Jung Gaai). The elders remembered that the market had two or three butchers and two or three fishmongers. Besides these there were a few other shops. Two sold jaap-fo (“sundry goods”). Kam Tin Shi is remembered to have mainly catered for the needs of the Kam Tin people. Very few outsiders came.\n\nSome informants added that there was even one pawn shop inside Kat Hing Wai. The owner was a descendant of Wan-Gaan jou. I have no idea when the pawnshop was started. There was also a peanut oil factory which was started more than 100 years ago. It was owned by a Wan-Yu jou person.\n\nIV. SETTLEMENTS AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS\n\n4\n\nAccording to Sung (1973:111) Hon-Faat, the first Dang ancestor to come to the province, built the first house at the bottom of a hill called [Gwai Gok Saan] about three-quarters of a mile away from the present Kam Tin\". His grandson Fu-Hip lived there on retirement and founded a school called Lik Ying Jai (ibid.: 116). The descendants of Fu-Hip's grandson Seui, lived in the Naam Wai and Bak Wai villages around the beginning of Ming dynasty (1368). The division of the Kam Tin settlement into Naam-Bin and Pak-Bin remain today. Yun-leung, father of the gwan-ma and one of the sons of Seui, remained in Kam Tin. The other four descendants of Fu-Hip moved to nearby Ping Shan and places in Dongguan county, among other places. The descendants of many of the sons of the gwan-ma moved away to Lung Yeuk Tau, Tai Po Tau,\n\n30", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211939, "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": 354, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "329\n\nLoi Tung, among other places, including some to Dongguan and Xiangshan counties. The cousins of Hung-Yi moved away to nearby Ha Tsuen and Xiangshan county, among other places. Hung-Yi's brother Hung-Ji moved to Ha Tsuen. Thereafter, all the remaining Dangs of Kam Tin were descendants of Hung-Yi.\n\nCasually asking the Dang elders about the relationship between lineage segmentation and settlement, one is given both concrete examples that suggest a correspondence as well as general observations that there is no correspondence. For example, one would be told that the descendants of the third branch (Yeui), which are very few in number, all live in Wing Lung Wai, and that all the others of that village were descendants of the first fong. Unless one asks about a particular segment, the answers would be in terms of the four branches of the lineage, and the conclusion will be that no single segment lives in a village of its own except in the case of Tai Hong Wai where all the villagers are descendants of Man-Wai and his brothers.\n\nGoing down the level of segmentation, to the lineage divisions focussed upon ancestors of the 17th to 19th centuries, there is correspondence in the sense that members of these segments all live in the same village. As already mentioned, all the members of the third branch live in Wing Lung Wai. Similarly, all the Ji-Ga Tong people live in Shui Tau, all the descendants of Wan-Yu live in Wing Lung Wai, and all the descendants of Gwong Yu Tong and Lei Ging Tong live in Tai Hong Wai. Another example is the descendants of Wan-Gaan, who, according to one account, had three sons: Fau-Ng, Jan-Ting and Gai-Jau. Gai-Jau's segment live in Kat Hing Wai. Fau-Ng's descendants are divided into three sub-segments. One of the three lived in Ko Po, another in Kat Hing Wai, and the other in Kam Hing Wai.\n\nSome segments of the lineage settled elsewhere. The descendants of Hung-Yi's second son Jan had moved to Ying Lung Wai near the Yuen Long Old Market at a very early date. I was told by its head of branch that many more lived in Zhongshan county. Some of the descendants of San-Fung, a son of Wan-Guk, also had settled elsewhere. I was told that most of them live in Kat Hing Wai, but some had moved to Tong Fong near Ping Shan. The ritual handbook for Ching-Lok's ancestral hall had a special provision for the descendants of San-Fung, which said that they had moved to Naam Tau, in a street outside the city wall.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211941, "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": 356, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "331\n\nestablished during the Chenghua (1465-87) period. From information in genealogics about the Dangs who started the villages it can be estimated that Wing Lung Wai was established in the same period and Tai Hong Wai a little later, in the first half of the 16th century.\" All of the five main villages, therefore, had been started between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, and from them the smaller villages of Kam Hing Wai and Ko Po were derived.\n\nB. Merger of settlements in the 17th century\n\nThe foregoing would suggest that the development of the Dang settlements in Kam Tin was a process in which new villages were established as offshoots of the older main villages. But the opposite process, that of newer settlements being merged into older ones, also took place, in the critical period of the 17th century. Such were the cases of Sa Bui Leng (Sha Pui Leng) and Gau Ga Chyun, two Dang settlements which either no longer exist (Gau Ga Chyun), or no longer have any Dang residents (Sa Bui Leng).\n\nAccording to his descendants, who now all live in Tai Hong Wai, Dang Man-wai first established a village at Shun Fung Wai, and then left it and moved to Nam Pin Wai. There is a widely known fung-sheui story which implied that Nam Pin Wai was unfit for a single surname community. Man-Wai discovered the problem: the fung-sheui was no good as far as the behaviour of women was concerned. So he gave up the idea of settling there. He moved from there back to Kam Tin. Man-Wai and his people first lived at Sa Bui Leng after coming back. It was told that a dan is still to be seen at the site of his settlement. After he became jeun-sz he built Tai Hong Wai and moved there. One version has it that Tai Hong Wai was started by his younger brother, not himself. The brother followed the instruction of the bandit chief called Lei Maan-Wing then living in Tai Mo Shan. Man-Wai was an expert on fung-sheui. Before his time the people [of his segment of the lineage?] were very poor. Thanks to his choice of good fung-sheui [something to do with the village wall] they enjoyed prosperity after the final move.\n\nGau Ga Chyun means the village of nine families. An elder remembered seeing seven or eight houses used as store houses when he was small. These belonged to the Gwok-Yin jou segment of Wan-Yu jou people. He said that people lived there until more than 10 generations ago, they found the place unsatisfactory and moved back (sic) to Wing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211942, "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": 357, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "332\n\nLung Wai.\n\nWe know that Dang Man-Wai's period was 1627-1693. The move of his people to Tai Hong Wai, then, must have taken place in the 17th century. Various information suggests that the merger of Gau Ga Chyun into Wing Lung Wai took place in the same period. The only Dang genealogy (a Ha Tsuen one) that I found to have included Sa Bui Leng among the settlements of Hung-Yi's descendants named Gau Ga Chyun as well. The elder I talked to said that the residents moved to Wing Lung Wai more than ten generations ago, which was Gwok-Yin's time. Sung named Gwok-Yin as one of the two who walled Wing Lung Wai at the time when Man-Wai walled Tai Hong Wai. Probably it was Gwok-Yin himself who moved to Wing Lung Wai.\n\n37\n\n16\n\nIt is interesting that, if my guess is right, then the two mergers both took place during the period of the Coastal Evacuation, in which the Dangs of Kam Tin established their central temple as well as an ancestral hall for the three junior branches. Although the reasons given for the merger were in one case very vague and in the other supernatural (“fung-sheui\"), they would, in effect, have been part of the Dang response to the disorders of the times.\n\nC. The development of Tai Hong Wai\n\n38\n\nAt present, only the descendants of Dang Man-Wai and his brothers (known as Sung-Gok jou, after Dang Man-Wai's father) live in Tai Hong Wai. They all live in the village and its extension. But people from other segments used to live there. From the stone inscription for a bridge built by a filial son Dang Jeun-Yun we know that some descendants of Chung-Yut lived there around the end of the 17th century. It was Dang Jeun-Yun's grandfather Gaai-Yut who, together with Dang Man-Wai, walled Tai Hong Wai. Jeun-Yun named Shui Tau as his home. So probably the family had moved from Tai Hong Wai to Shui Tau in the time of his father.\n\nTai Hong Wai became settled solely by the descendants of Dang Man-Wai and his brothers only from about 100 years ago. The head of the only household that is descended from the senior segment of the descendants of Gyun is remembered to have recalled moving when he was very small from Tai Hong Wai to Tsi Tong Tsuen, where his family now lives.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211943, "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": 358, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "333\n\nD. Outsiders in the villages and the immediate vicinity\n\nBesides outsiders who rented houses from the Dangs for residence or workshops/factories in recent years, there are some non-Dangs who have lived in the Kam Tin villages for many generations. These \"resident outsiders\" were believed by the Dangs to have been ha-fu, a term which can be translated as hereditary servants. When a Mrs. Dang mentioned to me that some people of the surnames Man and Sam lived in Naam Bin Teng, a part of Tai Hong Tsuen, she added that they had been ha-fu. Her logic was that any non-Dang who lived in Kam Tin must have been ha-fu. The present Dangs applied the term to servants of the lineage, as well as to settlements of tenants of the Dangs. My general impression is that there was more than one usage of the term, and the status of some groups might have changed in the passage of time.\n\nThe elders explained to me that ha-fu meant ha-yan, servants, and the fu in this term was the same fù as in kiu-fu (“sedan chair carriers”). Another term for ha-fu is sai-man. In this connection, one of them added that the villagers of Sha Po, Chuk Yuen and Pok Wai had been tenants of the Dangs of Kam Tin, and that ha-fu were not the same as tenants.\n\nAt Wing Lung Wai and Tai Hong Wai, some elders still remembered some ha-fu in their village. A Wing Lung Wai elder remembered only one ha-fu in his village. The person belonged to the great grandfather of an elder, a Yeui jou descendant who had a large land holding. The ha-fu carried sedan chairs for his master, among other things. A ha-fu had lived in Tai Hong Wai until he died around the time of the Japanese occupation. His given name was Loi-Fu. His surname was probably Mak. He lived in a house in the north-east corner of the wai. The house, now broken, was still there. He had to serve the whole village. His work was to do errands on special occasions such as banquets. In the old days one invited guests to banquets by sending a ha-fu. This Loi-Fu did not have to work for the Dangs on ordinary days. He often fished using his nets at a pit (haang) where the children went to swim. He would scold the children when he saw them swimming. He also kept bees, and gave some of the honey to the children. One of the villagers remembered that his mother often gave this Uncle Loi-Fu food to eat. He left no descendants. He had had no wife.\n\nNear the centre of the Kam Tin Dang settlements is Sa Bui Leng, which has only three or four families now. According to an elder the Sa", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211944, "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": 359, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "334\n\nBui Leng village was established in very early days, “even earlier than Kam Tin\". But the building of Yau-Leun Tong had destructive effects on its fung-sheui. After the rise of the Dangs the Sa Bui Ling villagers became their ha-fu.\n\nI have talked with a 64-year-old Mr. Chan, who was the oldest person in this village. The villagers were originally of three surnames: Chan, Yeung and Yun. The Yuns have left no descendants. The villagers had established Sa Bui Leng at the same time as the Dangs established their settlement. The Dangs had taken measures to prevent the prosperity of this village. They built three ancestral halls (chi tong-jai), i.e. Yau-Leun Tong, and two others, which used to be at the site of the present playground, and dug a pond which had only been filled up to build the cinema some ten years ago. The combination had bad impacts on the fung-sheui of Sa Bui Leng and the Chans suffered a serious decline. Therefore some of them had moved to Tai Kiu, a small village in Yuen Long.\n\nBefore the war, the Chan family had grown rice on fields rented from a wealthy Dang and one of the jous of the Kam Tin Dangs. Mr. Chan stressed that the family farmed land rented from the Dangs, they did not work for them. There are indications that at least for the last hundred years, the Sa Bui Leng people were accepted as equals by some of the poorer Dangs. The Chan family was a member of the Yi-Chung Wui, a ritual association which drew its members mostly from the poorer Dang villagers of Kim Tin, since at least the time of his great grandfather. I also discovered that Mr. Chan's wife was a daughter of a Tai Hong Wai Dang.\n\nV. WORSHIP\n\nThe supernatural world was very real to the villagers. It is still so to many of the elders. A Mr. Dang who had spent his youth in a trading firm on Hong Kong Island told me that in the old days when the area was less densely populated, one often encountered ghosts. Now that there were more people one rarely saw ghosts. I have heard something similar from a younger Mrs. Dang. The belief in the reality and power of the gods is strong too. It is, above all, manifested in the villagers' behaviour in the jiu festival.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211945, "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": 360, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "335\n\nA. Places of worship\n\nThe gods worshipped in Kam Tin can be divided into four categories. They are gods housed in temples, localized gods in outdoor space, gods on family altars, and the general gods of Heaven. The gods of heaven (Tin-San) are worshipped outside the house door, often with a tablet saying \"Blessings from the Gods of Heaven\" (Tin-Gwun Chi-Fuk).\n\nMore important for the community as a whole are temple gods and localized gods. Firstly there are the Ling-Wan Monastery and the Jau and Wong temple, which were important to the Dangs of Kam Tin as a whole. Stone inscriptions show that villagers of Kam Tin as a whole contributed money for rebuilding or repair, doing so on the basis of villages and higher order lineage estates, notably Ching-Lok Jou and Naam-Kai Jou.\n\nAccording to Sung (1973 and 1974) and the Si Kim Tong genealogy the Ling-Wan Ji was established by the Dangs of Kam Tin for the second wife of their founding ancestor Hung-Yi. But it is probable that Sung's source for this information was the author of the Si Gim Tong genealogy himself, and other villages seemed less aware of the connection of the monastery with their ancestor. Perhaps even more important is the idea that Ling-Wan Ji was the jyu-lou, or “head” of Kam Tin. That is why, a Mr. Dang explained to me, all the village gates should face Kwun Yam Shan, where Ling-Wan Ji is, and there is no need for a tall san-teng. Ko Po and Wing Lung Wai are exceptions to this rule. He knew that the position of the gate in Wing Lung Wai had been altered. He thought that the direction of the Ko Po one had been altered too.\n\nInterestingly the Xin'an gazetteer has no entry for the Ling-Wan Monastery under that name, but records the existence of a Gwun-Yam Temple on Kwun Yam Shan at the foot of Tai Po Shan, which matches the location of the monastery. The Xin'an gazetteer of 1688 is probably the earliest document mentioning the temple. Under the entry for the temple it mentioned a man of Dongguan county in the Ming dynasty who had lived there. It is not completely clear if this man was a Daoist. When Dang Si-daan's uncle donated the bell now at the monastery in 1755, the inscription referred to the place as the nunnery at Kwun Yam Shan. No one had heard about the temple named in the gazetteer, but Gwun-Yam is worshipped in the monastery, with various other gods such as Gwaan-Dai, and it is the goddess who has a central position, with\n\nPage 360\n\nPage 361", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211946, "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": 361, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "336\n\nJau and Wong, among the gods invited to the jiu festival.\n\nThe origin of the Jau and Wong Temple, and its central position in the jiu festival is recorded on the stone inscription at the 5th rebuilding of the Jau and Wong Temple in 1965. It says that\n\nin the Kangxi [1662-1722] period, pirates were a serious problem in the area, and the residents of the sea coast were forced to leave home and wander about. Fortunately the two officials Wong and Jau were in charge of the Guangdong Prefecture. Thanks to their petitions the old clans were allowed to return. To express their gratitude, [the Dangs of Kam Tin] built a place for the worship of the two and for education. The construction started in 1684 and finished in 1685, when the practice of performing the jiu rites and to stage opera was begun.\n\nThe oral tradition has elements that are not found in the official account. The version of a Mr. Dang, born in the 1920s, was that there was a time when the villagers fought with bandits, many of the villagers died and the central government was asked for support. Jau and Wong were sent leading an army to help. The festival was to commemorate the villagers who died fighting the bandits. Some men born in the 1940s explained that the jiu was to commemorate the officials Jau and Wong who had died in Kam Tin, it was in a way a chiu-dou service for the dead. These two versions agree with the official one in that Jau and Wong are regarded as having helped the Kam Tin villagers in a period of disorder.\n\nAlthough the Jau and Wong Temple was built to express the gratitude of the villagers for the efforts of the two officials in getting royal permission for the villagers to come back after the 17th century Coastal Evacuation, the two are now believed to have god-like powers. There is, for example, the anecdote of Jau and Wong hiring the opera troupe on behalf of the villagers. During the Japanese occupation it was difficult to get the material needed for the festival. So the villagers decided not to hold the celebration. But in the form of two old men Jau and Wong made arrangements for opera players to come. When the villagers learnt about what had happened, on the arrival of the opera players, they changed their mind and celebrated the festival as usual.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211948, "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": 363, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "338\n\ntwo less common gods.\n\nThe villagers have very little to say about the gods per se. They have more to say about who is responsible for worshipping which god. For example, when I asked who Ngau-Wong was, the response was \"Ngau-Wong is Ngau-Wong\", and I could not get any further than that. But the informants have very interesting things to say about who worshipped the god. The Ngau-Wong of Naam-Bin was worshipped by an association known as Ngau-Wong Wui. The Wui was started by a group of cowherds who spent their time on the same hilltop during their work. They gambled using coins. They decided that each time a person won he would give a portion of the money to a fund. This money accumulated and with it farm land was bought to endow the association so that descendants of the members would get their share of pork in the annual celebration. The place is an ordinary stone on the hill top, which they did not worship until the association was started.\" There is another Ngau-Wong near Shui Mei, whose responsibility it is to worship the god. Before each jiu festival the ritual representatives of Shui Mei will fetch the god from his place on the top of a hill, and walk him back afterwards. The only story about the god a knowledgeable elder could tell me is that, in a previous jiu celebration, the person responsible for walking the god home neglected his duty. Without reaching the hilltop he went home. He got sick soon afterwards, and as if in possession revealed the anger of the god. Probably the most important thing about any god is its place in the social framework.\n\n45\n\nNeither Juk-Yun Nunnery nor San-Sin Fu, the two nunneries within Kam Tin, exists any more. Still extant is Miu-Gok Yun, which was built by the [Dang] Tung Fuk Tong. The tong was a charitable association which collected unburied human bones and buried them in a charity tomb (yi chung). \"It was started to collect gam-taap bones that were not worshipped by anybody. Some of those containers would have been broken, and animals might eat them\". The Tong also cares for the Temple for Dei-Jong Wong, whose role, similar to that of Daai-Si Wong in the Offering to Ghosts ritual in the jiu ritual, is to watch over the ghosts. The date and the circumstances in which the Tung Fuk Tong started is no longer remembered. There were Dangs who had shares in the association. They contributed towards buying some landed property as endowment to the Dei-Jong temple. The nunnery with an altar for the Buddha was built in 1936, before which time there were already some monks and nuns resident at the temple. They did not rebuild the temple", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211949, "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": 364, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "339\n\nbut moved the Dei-Jong Wong inside the Buddhist hall instead.\"7 After the building of the Buddhist hall two of the nuns were added to the managers of the trust, and since then the Dangs did not have much to do with the nunnery except that the related ritual associations go annually to worship at the charitable grave.\n\nB. Household and village worship\n\nEveryday worship is local and is mainly performed by women. Such is the case of a family of Tsi Tong Tsuen who gave me information on this point. This family seldom worshipped in any temple. For weddings they worshipped at the Mau-Ging Tong ancestral hall, where the head of the family also went when he was small for the annual worship, and to get his shares of the ritual pork. This he no longer does, having stopped a few years ago. In some years he also joins the ancestral grave worship in Tsuen Wan. On Ching Ming and Chung Yeung his family went to worship their own near ancestors. On festivals his family worshipped at Tsi Tong Tsuen's shrines to the Earth God and the God of Earth and Grain and the place for the Well God.\n\nI was able to talk with some of the older women. One Tai Hong Wai woman born in the 1910s told me that ordinarily her family worshipped at home. They went to neither the Jau and Wong Temple nor the Hung-Sing Temple. They had no share in the Hung-Sing Temple. They did go to the Daai-Wong Temple at Yuen Long, early in the first month of the lunar calendar, but it is the business of their men only: the temple belonged to their distant ancestor. Similarly, an elderly Kat Hing Wai lady told me that Pak Wai Tsuen (i.e., Shui Tau and Shui Mei) people worshipped at the Hung Sing Temple. I have witnessed part of a waan-san (“thanksgiving”) ritual in Kat Hing Wai, which took place at the san-teng. I was told that for impromptu religious activities such as divination, some of the Kat Hing Wai women went to a temple at Tai Shue Ha [which is, as far as I know, not otherwise of interest to the Dangs of Kam-Tin] and some went to Ling-Wan Ji. They went to the Jau and Wong temple mainly during the jiu, and the temples at Shui Tau and Shui Mei were for their respective villagers alone.\n\nA san teng was probably considered to be of central importance to its village. When I walked with an elder to his house we passed the san-teng of Tai Hong Wai. He explained to me that it was the wai-jyu, and he compared its status in the village to that of the most senior and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211957, "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": 372, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "347\n\nwho were not allowed to compete for the other places among the 60 ritual representatives.\n\nThe selection of ritual representatives, which I did not witness, took place on the fifth day of the first moon. It lasted twelve hours on this occasion, and I was told that in the past it took even longer. Several hundred men were present. In casting the bui every man in the chu could try his luck. Therefore those chu having more members had better chances of winning the first places. The men from each chu numbered from two to a few dozen. The first five places were filled before the others, and some of the participants avoided them because the first five places entail much work. Many people repeated the divination process several times for better results.\n\nIn the festival memorial one can see that for the Dangs of Kam Tin, there were 60 ritual representatives entries and only 50 ordinary entries, and the number of members in each chu, as represented by an entry, ranged from a few to almost 100. It is obvious that for those who could get more people into their chu it would not be difficult to get a good place among the ritual representatives.\n\nEach of the 60 places was actually shared by all the male members of a chu, who took turns to attend the rites in their cheung-saam. There were different reasons why a person would be eager to compete for a good place in the group of ritual representatives. I know in some detail the case of a young man in Tsi Tong Tsuen. His deceased grandfather had had the position in many of the previous celebrations, and he had been pressed by his mother to compete for a place. To gain the favour of the gods by worship was one of the reasons why she would like him to be a ritual representative. Another important factor is that ritual representatives get better seats in the opera matshed than ordinary participants, and the higher one was in the list of ritual representatives, the better the seats one got. It is usual that a Kam Tin family invited their relatives to the opera. In the case of this young man, the family had invited his mother's brothers, among others, and the guests took up the six seats they received in the distribution. Seats were distributed to each chu, but the seats for ritual representatives were towards the front, while the other seats for the chu were towards the back.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211961, "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": 376, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "351\n\nwould send a horse to carry the document to heaven so as to ask blessings for the people whose names appeared in the list. Other women villagers to whom I talked had the same kind of understanding.\n\n+1\n\nThe Memorial listed the participants under six categories, which were, in the original order, ritual representatives, “faithful elder”, \"faithful scholar”, “jiu representatives”, \"faithful farmers”, and \"faithful outsiders”. The first three titles were used for the Dangs of Kam Tin and their families. Which one among the three was used was determined by whether the person was a ritual representative or over 60 years old. The **jiu representatives** were the Ying Lung Wai villagers. The fact and the position of the category among the others was probably more important than the literal meaning of the term. At the end were the \"faithful farmers\" and \"faithful outsiders\". The former included the indigenous non-Dangs of the heung as well as immigrant farmers. The latter referred to immigrants who operated businesses in Kam Tin.\n\nThe importance and meaning of these entries was made clearer to me by a \"mistake\".\n\nAt one point a leader of a lineage segment was copying an entry in the posted memorial for use in the distribution of ancestral ritual pork. I took the opportunity to ask him about a strange entry. The person named in the entry (and his family) was a Dang, but he was classified as “faithful farmer”. I also noticed that there had been an alteration, and the original classification, \"faithful scholar\", was also visible. The elder could not explain this. Later I saw him and another elder talking near the posted memorial, and went to see if they had the answer. The other elder knew the case very well. The person concerned had been taken to Naam Tau by his widowed mother when he was small. It was quite recently that he had returned and found his kinsmen. There were several houses in the village under his father's name. But in his absence someone else had assumed ownership. The elders of Kam Tin had been helping him at the District Office to recover his rights. The case was not settled yet. The elder had no doubt that it was the other party who altered **faithful scholar** to “faithful farmer”. He took this act very seriously, “What if someone did that to you!” He suggested that this was more than an insult. It was part of the other fellow's trick: to deny that his recently returned kinsman was a Kam Tin Dang. But he also thought this alteration to the name list was not useful, because the document would be burnt at the end of the festival.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211963, "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": 378, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "353\n\nthousand dollars. He would not give him the loan. He offered instead to purchase some of this fellow villager's seats. The offer was accepted and the family got some seats near the front.\n\nVII. THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE VILLAGERS\n\nA. Tradition and Continuity\n\nThe beliefs in gods and ghosts are still strong among the Dangs. This was most clear in the morning on the main day of the celebration when there was a very strong wind and some of the fa-paais threatened to fall down. There were rumours that some gods had been omitted in the villagers' invitation. “Some gods must have been omitted. Otherwise how can there be such a strong wind?\" An elder was asked to tell the priests to invite the omitted gods to the festival site, as a remedy.\" Something similar had happened 10 years ago. I was told that in the last celebration a few gods were forgotten and not invited, and during the festival suddenly the electricity went out and there was rain and wind. The villagers invited the missing gods and everything was fine again.\n\nSome younger Dangs who were more sceptical had suggested welfare projects instead of the festival for the last two celebrations. For the 1965 occasion they suggested the alternative of building a public school. This was done (the Mung Yeung Public School), but at the insistence of elders the festival had still been celebrated as usual. Something similar happened 10 years ago, and they established a Kam Tin Hospital for Women and Children. This time the younger men did not propose an alternative. They thought maybe there was not going to be another time at all, now that 1997 was so near.\n\nYet the continuity of the tradition depends not only on the willingness of the villagers to contribute the money and time required. It also requires knowledge about the detailed arrangement for the rites, especially where this jiu differs from others in the region.\n\nTalking with the no. I ritual representative, I found that he knew a lot about many of the events.\n\nThere will be two hang-heung [“procession of incense\"] on both the main day of the celebration and the following day. The first one will start at about 11 a.m., after ying-bong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211969, "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": 384, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "359\n\nThe offerings included fruits and cha-gwo pastries. In addition to these they burnt paper clothing for Jau and Wong, and a yellow piece of paper with the characters wing-bou-ping-on (\"unremitting protection\") and some yun-bou for the earth god.\n\nB. Setting up the ghost flags\n\nEarly in the morning of the opening day, after the rite of Fetching Water, the ritual representatives on their own installed faan flag posts for the worship of ghosts. There were five of these posts, each set up by the ritual representatives of one gu.\n\nThe ritual representatives took precautions in this rite, since it dealt with ghosts. They told each other the taboos to observe in installing the posts. One should avoid speaking people's names out loud while this was being done. It would be wise to be silent. It was said (by the ritual representatives) that those who posted a faan should be those to dismount it afterwards. Some of the ritual representatives complained about not getting red packets for doing the rite. It was not for the money, they said, but for the good fortune.\n\nThese faan posts were initiated by the priests in the first Procession of Offerings.\n\nC. Inviting the gods\n\nBeside the temple gods and other localized gods of Kam Tin, gods were fetched from the Pat Heung Temple at Sheung Tsuen and the Yuen Kong Temple. These two places were included because the places, I was told by the villagers, originally belonged to Kam Tin. Also fetched was the portrait of the Heavenly Master from his altar inside the village gate of Tai Hong Wai.\n\nGenerally the ritual representatives of each gu were responsible for fetching their own gods: e.g. the gods at the Hung-Sing Temple and Man-Cheung Temple were fetched by the ritual representatives of Shui Tau. There were special arrangements for the gods important to the Kam Tin Dangs as a whole, and gods from outside the heung: (1) Ritual representatives no. 1 to no. 5 went to Ling-Wan Ji, as well as to the temples of Yuen Kong and Sheung Tsuen; (2) All 60 ritual representatives went to fetch the Heavenly Master from Tai Hong Wai; (3) The Head", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211974, "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": 389, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "364\n\nThey left the festival site, passing Tai Hong Wai and Ko Po, where those who took part were offered drinks. They next reached Ying Lung Wai, where they were met by the lion dance of the village, and treated to soft drinks. They first worshipped at the altar of the God of Earth and Grain of Ying Lung Wai, then the san-teng and the village gate.\n\nThey proceeded to Tung Tau Tsuen, where they worshipped at the Tin-Hau Temple and then the Gwun-Yam Temple. No one came to meet them. But nearby two elderly ladies exchanged these remarks among themselves, \"The two temples belong to Kam Tin fellows, they wanted to repair them, but Tung Tau Tsuen would not let them\".\n\nThey proceeded to the Old Market. First they worshipped at the market gate then at the Bak-Dai Temple, and then at the Daai-Wong Temple.\n\nThen they moved on to Nam Pin Wai, where they worshipped at the altar of the God of Earth and Grain, the san-teng and the village gate. A man in his fifties sitting under a tree cursed the Dangs when he saw the Ambulance which was in attendance in case anyone was overcome by the heat. He said, \"Right. Let this Ambulance carry these Kam Tin fellows\".\n\nAt the nearby Sai Pin Wai they worshipped at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. There was a reception. They proceeded to a Lam Yi-Hing Tong” inside Sai Pin Wai, and then the village gate and an altar of the God of Earth and Grain.\n\nThe procession finished with the Old Market and the surrounding villages, and went on to Yuen Long New Market. When they reached Sau Fu Street, they were offered soft drinks by people who had come from Kam Tin for that purpose. From there they walked back to the festival site at Kam Tin.\n\nF. The Procession with the King of Ghosts\n\nThe procession with the King of Ghosts took place during the evening before the Great Offering to Ghosts. In the first stage the Bak-Bin villagers carried the huge image of the Daai-Si Wong through their villages. Their Naam-Bin counterparts waited near Kam Hing Wai to take over the paper image for the second part of the procession. These were 22 young men, many carrying long bamboo poles with metal ends", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211977, "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": 392, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "367\n\nThe villagers had already gathered at the festival site when I arrived at half past nine in the morning. The red slips of paper etc., were carried by the people responsible on a tray, and, in some cases, a \"pavilion\", back to where they had been fetched from. In all cases, I believe, the person who carried the divinities was preceded by one of his companions who beat a gong. In some cases the procession included the \"Keep quiet!\" and \"Keep clear!\" banners.\n\nI witnessed the case of the Hung-Fan Taam gods. On their arrival the villagers set up the temporary spirit tablets of the divinities at the site, and made offerings of tea, sweets, yun-bou and paper clothing to them. Then they burnt the spirit tablets as well as the paper offerings.\n\nAhern, Emily Martin\n\nBrim, John A.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n1981 Chinese Rituals and Politics, Cambridge University Press,\n\n1974 \"Village alliance temples in Hong Kong\", in Wolf (1974: 93-104).\n\nCheng, Sui Kwan Faure, David\n\nn.d. \"Yuanlang Xinx\", unpublished manuscript.\n\n1984 \"The Tangs of Kam Tin - A hypothesis on the rise of a gentry family\", in Faure et. al (1984).\n\nFaure, David et. al (eds.) 1984 From Village to City: Studies in the Traditional Roots\n\nHayes, James W.\n\nKamm, John\n\nof Hong Kong Society, Centre of Asian Studies. University of Hong Kong.\n\n1983 The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.\n\n1977 \"Field notes on the social history and fungshui of Kam Tin”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JHKBRAS) xvii, pp. 202-216.\n\nLaw, Suk-Ching and Lam Siu-Fung\n\n1985 **Jintian Dengshi shixi bogian shi'', in Renleixie Zhou Tekan, pp. 2-14. The Anthropology Society, Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\n1984 \"Village education in the New Territories region under the Ch'ing\", in Faure et. al. (1984).\n\n1983 New Peace County: A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong Region. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,\n\nNg Lun, Alice Ngai Ha\n\nNg, Peter Y.L..\n\nOfuchi, Ninji\n\n1983 Chugokujin no Shukyo Girei, Tokyo,\n\nSaso, Michael R. Schipper, K.W.\n\n1972 Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal, Washington.\n\n1974 \"The written memorial in Taoist Ceremonies\", in Wolf (1974:309-324).\n\nSiu, Augustus K.K. and Anthony K.K.\n\nSiu, Anthony K.K.\n\n1982 Studies on Chinese Genealogies and the History of the Hong Kong Region, Hong Kong: Hin Chiu Institute.\n\n1982 \"Zupu zhong suojian zhí shishi shili”, in Siu and Siu (1982), pp. 21-29.\n\n1984 **The Hong Kong Region before and after the Coastal Evacuation in the Early Ch'ing Dynasty', in Faure", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211983, "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": 398, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "373\n\nMany Dangs attributed the deceased worshipped in their Altar for Heroes (Ying-Hung Chi) and those buried in the big grave known as yi-chung to the battle with the British in 1898. We found that the number of \"heroes\" for whom paper clothing were ordered for the jiu of 1955 is only 2 more than the 1895 figure, i.e. only two can be attributed to the 1898 incident.\n\nSee also Law and Lau (1985) about this dispute.\n\n19\n\nAccording to this informant the Dangs married villagers of Lam Tsuen, Tai Hang, Sheung Shui and places like Sha Tau across the border. Other Tangs who discussed the point included Tuen Mun and Gak Tin, a place of the Wong surname, also known as Fuk Tin, across the border.\n\n20 Another stone inscription dated 1786 recorded a similar case. Although it has been cited by many scholars as another rent dispute case that involved the Dangs of Kam Tin as the landlords, I cannot find any of Dangs whose names appear in the inscription in other documents.\n\n21\n\nIn Kam Tin Historical Documents, vol. 2.\n\n11 The original expression is that the villagers were the diding of the Dangs. Diding refers to tax on land and persons.\n\n73 See also Kamm (1977:213-214) on other similar disputes.\n\n24 See Cheng (n.d.).\n\n25\n\nBesides the formal names that appear in local documents and present-day road signs and maps, many of these villages had other names that were used in everyday conversation.\n\n10\n\nFormal names\n\nKam Hing Wai\n\nKat Hing Wai\n\nPak Wai\n\nTai Hong Wai\n\nWing Lung Wai\n\nAccording to the jiu festival record of the year.\n\n\"Nickname\"\n\nGaak Seui Yun\n\nFui Sa Wai\n\nLaan Bak Wai\n\nTaan Wai\n\nSa Laan Mei\n\n27 Tanaka (1985:935-7), quoting A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, Hong Kong, pp. 172-173.\n\nThe original expression was \"Tai Hong Wai and Tsuen\" and probably included only the part of Tai Hong Tsuen whose residents were considered Tai Hong Wai people.\n\n20\n\nKam Tin Historical Documents vol. 2.\n\n30 See the account dated 1966 in the Si Kim Tong genealogy.\n\n31 According to a descendant of Fau-Ng. The genealogical relationships among the ancestors he gave may be wrong.\n\n32 Ying Lung Wai is part of Shap Pat Heung, the group of villages which was involved in several disputes with the Kam Tin Tangs. It seems that the Ying Lung Wai Dangs join the Kam Tin Dangs only in the jiu festival and the worship at the Mau Ging Tong ancestral hall. I have not heard anything about its position in the disputes between Kam Tin and Shap Pat Heung.\n\n33 Sung (1974:168) says Tai Hong Tsuen. This is my interpretation.\n\n34 Ditto.\n\n35 Siu-Geui, with his father and others, made a new stone inscription for the grave of the wong-gu in 1483. Kei-Fong's will is dated 1562. (See the genealogy in Kam Tin Historical Documents vol. 1 for both.) Kai-Wa was born in 1494 (See inside text of his spirit tablet,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211984, "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": 399, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "374\n\nwhich has been copied in an untitled manuscript in the possession of Mr. Dang Yu-Hing).36 Dang Kei-faan Genealogy in the Baker Collection of New Territories genealogies in the British Library.\n\n37 The elder was Dang Wing-Sau, the head of the lineage. I do not know which generation he was in. See Taga (1982:92).\n\n38 Translated in Sung (1974:177-179).\n\n39\n\n40 See table above and the genealogy in Kam Tin Historical Documents, vol. 1.\n\nProbably Dang Hei-Seui. See Sung (1974:166-168) and a genealogy of his segment included in Hugh Baker's Collection of Genealogies.\n\n41 Patrick Hase has drawn my attention to the importance of the monastery as central to the establishment Hung-Yi's descendants in Kam Tin, just as Ling To nunnery is to the Dangs of Ha Tsuen. The monastery and the earlier temple are a major element in the fung-seui of the Pat Heung valley and Kam Tin. The rivers important to irrigation in the area all flow from the mountain on which the monastery stands.\n\n42\n\n41\n\n44 I have not tried to find further information on this man in gazetteers.\n\nSee Sung (1973:112-113) for the Hung Sing Temple.\n\nThis was one of two stories. They were thought of as alternatives although there is no contradiction between them. I shall relate the other one later.\n\n45 I was told that the Juk-Yun Am used to be at the present site of the Gwaan-Dai Temple of Shing Mun San Tsuen, and San-Sin Fu near Shui Mei.\n\n46 Two items in Kam Tin Historical Documents vol. 2 were probably intended for this very grave. These were among the papers of Dang Ting-sam from the year 1873. The first was a request for donations towards the establishment of a charitable grave. The second was intended for a stone inscription. There is strong evidence that the charitable grave was established before the British came, although many present-day Dangs believe that those buried in the grave were those who died fighting against the British. The jiu festival record for 1895 included the Dei-Jong Wong of Tung-Fuk Tong among the gods to be invited, and an elder in his nineties remembered seeing gam-taap jars for bones when he was very small. He deduced that those must have been the remains of people who died before 1898, because one had to wait for many years he suggested ten — until the bones could be extracted after a first burial.\n\n47 A bin-ngaak (horizontal inscribed board) presented to the Buddhist altar at its completion included ten names who were believed to be the share-holders of the Tong. They were three Wan-Guk jiu descendants of Shui Mei: Baak-Cheung, Daat-Hung, and Jik-Hing; three brothers Yat-Wa, Seui-Chuen, Gam-Wa and two of their nephews, and Baak-Yi, all descendants of Wan-Gaan; and a Hin-Yiu of Kam Tin Shi.\n\n48 Plus a inscribed stone on the ground saying Naam-mo O-Mei-To-Fat, set up to offset the bad influences that caused traffic accidents near the stone.\n\n49 Hoi-dang for a village did not always take place at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. In the Shui Mei case it took place at the Tin-Hau Temple.\n\n50 The elders made it clear that gu here does not mean “shares\".\n\n51 The subjects for these paper images were specified in the contract made with the craftsmen. The contract was included in the general record for the festival and was copied from the previous ones. But neither the organizers nor the contractor seem to have paid much attention to the details of the prescription.\n\n52 The object is probably more commonly known by the name dong 'an and is more often installed over the central area of the Taoist altar rather than in the backstage room. See", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211985, "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": 400, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "375\n\nOfuchi (1983).\n\n5.1 These two kinds of embroidery were always found in major festivities and at temple altars.\n\n54\n\nBoth are reproduced in the Dang Clan Association handbook in Huge Baker's collection of genealogies, with commentary. One of the Dangs I talked to had some doubt about the authenticity of the alleged painting of Song Wuizong. He observed that the calligraphy was not of the typical style of the emperor, the shou-zhen ti.\n\n55 Although the wong-gu was a common ancestress, her relics were not public property. The painting of the eagle belonged to a wealthy leader of the Dangs of Kam Tin, and the other pieces to the Wan-Gaan jire segment or one of its members.\n\n57 On this divination instrument, see Ahern (1981:45-47).\n\nDiscussed in the next part of this report.\n\nSV For more information on Lam Pui and his family, see Tsui (1985).\n\n60\n\nThe rite is locally found probably only in the Kam Tin jiu festival. The priests explain it by alluding to the legendary Baiguai Zhen battle formation of Zhuge Liang, a stateman and strategist in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-265). I think it is probably more directly related to the gimen dunjia style of magic.\n\n42\n\nA handheld small metal idiophone with a handle.\n\nSee Schipper (1974) for a thorough discussion of the Memorials in the Taiwan case, which is very close to the one I am describing.\n\nThe Oral History Project collection and Osuchi (1983) include most of the manuals used in this festival.\n\n64 The actual seating no longer observed the segregation of the sexes, although this used to be the practice.\n\n65 The difficulty was due partly to the fact that there were more Naam Bin people than their Bik Bin counterparts, even when the Ying Lung Wai villagers were added to the latter. As I have mentioned already, the seating area was divided into two halves, one for Naam Bin and one for Bak Bin. This gave the Bak Bin chu more seats each.\n\nI learned from a different source that the elder left early on the day because he felt that some younger villagers were being hostile to him.\n\n67 The informant explained that it was usual for the Village Representatives to keep their position until they die. Therefore, those who are interested in becoming one always fail, except in Shui Tau, where the villagers generally have more exposure to the outside world and re-elect their V.R. once every two years.\n\n68 I saw another lady doing waan-san at Ying Lung Wai. In addition to the san-seng, she made offerings at the village gate as well, which I guess is the normal practice.\n\nThe two men were elders/ritual representatives, neither was the head of the lineage, probably due to the lineage head's age.\n\n70\n\nExcept in the case of Tin-Chyun San-Gwan, I have relied on the Daojiao Yuenliu, the priests' manual to which they often refer when asked to explain their tradition, for interpretation.\n\nThere were some young ladies in the procession this time, which represented a recent development.\n\n72 Ancestral tablets could be seen inside, but Mr. Dang Jik-Waai said that the place used to be a sun-teng, and was worshipped by the procession because of this.\n\n73\n\nIn which case only the woman herself would suffer.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212123, "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-1990", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "42\n\ndisasters. the second is for those who died because of plague. The final reason is to thank the benevolent governors Wang Lai-ren and Zhou You-de of the beginning of the Qing dynasty. In my opinion, all these reasons can be integrated into the first one.\n\n(d) Chan Wing-hoi \"The Tangs of Kam Tin and their Jiu festival\", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29 (1989) 302-375, a rich and detailed account of the lineage, its temples and villages, and the festival which draws them together.\n\nDr. Faure gradually switched his interest to the Pearl River Delta while Prof. Tanaka, as I was told, is now looking at Sichuan province. Talk on publishing a book on Hong Kong Jiao festivals has been going on for years by members of the \"Research Circle of the Regional Society of Southern China''. In 1990, the editorial board of the society set up a schedule to compile a book focusing on the Jiao festival. It is expected that papers on various aspects will be completed by the end of April 1991. (Correspondence from the society dated 28.12.1990)\n\nSchipper, Kristofer M., \"The Written Memorial in Taoist Ceremonies\" in Wolf, Arthur P. (ed.) Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 324,\n\nFor example, according to Chan Wing-hoi, villagers of Shek O celebrated their 16th Jiao in 1986 (Chan, 78). The Dengs in Kam Tin claimed to have celebrated their Jiao since 1684 (Tanaka, 918).\n\nSee for instance Basel Mission Archives, doct. Al-6, No. 51 (1869), and doct. Al-7, No. 51 (1870) and Der Evangelische Heidenbote, July 1867, in which a missionary describes how he was forced to go to the Magistrate to get his support before he could avoid having to pay his share of the Jiao expenses. All these cases are from Hsin An County. The Sha Tin poem will, it is hoped, shortly be published by Dr. P.H. Hase.\n\nThese two series are part of the 15 series of historical documents collected by Dr. D. Faure and others in the New Territories. Copies of the collections are kept in the libraries of CUHK, Hong Kong University, Sha Tin Regional Council Library, and Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University.\n\n31\n\nTanaka Chugoku no Sozoku to Engeki [Lineage and Theatre in China] (Tokyo Univ. Press 1985), 608. Jiao festivals celebrated by the powerful communities in Hong Kong like Kam Tin, Ha Tsuen, Lung Yeuk Tau etc., were all performed by the Zhengyi Taoist group, led first by the late Master Lin Pei and now by Master Chan Kau. Another Zhengyi Taoist group is led by Master Chan Wah. However, many Taoist priests work for both groups. There are also other Taoist groups who performed for the Jiao festivals, like a Cantonese group which performed for Ho Chung and a Heklo group for Cheung Chau. In 1983, four out of five Jiao festivals were performed by monastery Taoists. It is not clear whether it was because of tradition or out of economic reasons. A comparison of the two Taoist groups has yet to be made.\n\n14 Choi Chi-cheung **Sho matsuri no jinmei risuto ni mirareru shinzoku ban'i” [Kinship as seen in the name lists of Jiao festival] Bunka Jinnú Gaku 5 (1988): 131, table L. 35 **Shinshi men\" [Section of Believers] in Fanling Wenxian (Historical Literature of Fanling) vol. 8. This brief account records details of the arrangement of the Jiao area, including the contents of couplets, names of deities invited, location and direction of matshed stages, and the sacrifices prepared etc.. See n. 32 for the depositories of Fanling Wenxian.\n\n36 See (1972) Lin Chuan [Lam Tsuen] Xiang Taiping Qingjiao huiyi jilubu in Dapu [Tai Po] Wenzian [Historical Literature of Tai Po] vol. 1. (see n. 32 for depositories)\n\n37 Tanaka Issei's three books, all published by the Tokyo Univ. Press are: Chugoku Saishi Engeki Kenkyu [Ritual Theatres in China] (1981), Chugoku no Sozoku to Engeki [Lineage and Theatre in China) (1985), and Chugoku Kyoson Saishi Kenkyu: Chihogeki", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212360, "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-1990", "page_number": 302, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "TABLE 1: VILLAGE WARS IN THE HONG KONG AREA\n\n279\n\n \n Antagonist\n Lo Wu\n Antagonist\n Tsoi Uk Wai\n \n \n Date\n Source\n Comment\n \n \n \n 18.36\n Above\n Over control of landing place\n \n \n \n Lo Wu\n Wong Pui Ling\n 1856-75\n Ahove\n \n \n Ta Kwu Ling\n Wong Pui Ling\n TRGON\n Hase 1989\n \n \n Sheung Shui\n Wong Pui Ling\n VERSOS\n Baker 1967 1979\n \n \n Sheung Shui\n Ho Sheung Heng\n long-term\n Baker 1966\n \n \n \n \n Over control of landing place\n \n \n \n \n \n Over control of river-crossings. 23 dead on TKL side alone. Hero shrine.\n \n \n \n \n \n Over control of irrigation systems\n \n \n \n San Tin\n Ping Kong\n 1851\n \n \n \n Kam Tsin\n Baker 1966 1968\n \n \n \n \n San Tin\n Ping Shan\n 1851\n Baker 1968\n \n \n Hero Shrine\n \n \n \n \n \n Shup Pat Heung\n San Tim\n Ping Shan\n 1851\n \n \n Watson 1982\n \n Over control of ferries\n \n \n \n Ha Tsuen\n \n \n Baker 1968\n \n \n Sha Tseng\n Pok Tau Kong\n 185.3\n Krone (above)\n \n \n Po Kat\n neighbours\n 1853-\n Above\n \n \n Sheung Shun\n Fanling\n long-term\n \n \n \n Ping Kong\n Fanling\n \n Baker 1966\n \n \n \n \n Over control of market\n \n \n \n \n \n Earthwall on border\n \n \n \n Ho Sheung Heung\n Long Yeak Tho\n Fanling\n long-term Oral\n \n \n Par Fleung\n ?Kam Tia\n Tinid 19\n \n \n \n Hero Shrine\n \n \n \n \n \n Sheung Tsuen\n Wang Tei Shan\n 2nud (19\n Oral\n \n \n Lam Tsuen\n \n \n \n \n \n Hero Shrine\n \n \n \n \n \n Tsuen Wan\n Shing Mun\n \n \n \n \n Tsim Sha Tsui\n neighbours\n \n \n \n \n Tai Wai\n Cheung Sha Wan\n \n \n \n \n Keng tam\n \n 1862-4\n \n \n \n \n \n 1862\n mid-late c19\n \n \n Haves 1983\n \n Hero Shrines\n \n \n \n Hayes 1983\n \n \n \n \n \n Paure 1986\n \n Hero Shrine\n \n \n \n Kak Tin\n Shek Pik\n \n \n \n \n Sha Lo Wan\n \n נִי\n \n \n \n Hayes 1983\n \n \n \n \n \n Pui O San Tsuen\n Pui O La Wai\n 1930\n Hayes 1983\n \n \n Kam Tin\n Ping Shan\n \n Chan 1989\n \n \n Heroes worshipped\n \n \n \n \n \n Pat Heung\n Kam Tiu\n Ping Shan\n long-term\n \n \n mid c19\n \n Chan 1989\n \n \n\n#\n\n[Baker 1966 = \"The Five Great Clans of the New Territories\", H.D.R. Baker, Journal. Vol. 6, 1966, pp. 25-49; Baker 1968 = H.D.R. Baker, Sheung Shui: A Chinese Lineage Village, London, 1968; Baker 1979 H.D.R. Baker, Chinese Family and Kinship, London 1979; Faure 1986 = D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, 1986; Hayes 1983 = J.W Hayes. The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies anet Themes, Hong Kong. 1983; Watson 1982 = Rubic S. Watson \"The Creation of a Chinese Lineage: The Teng of Ha Tsuen, 1669-1751\", Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 16(1). 1982 pp 69-108; Chan 1989 = \"The Tangs of Kam Tin and their Jio Festival\", Chan Wing-hoi, Journal, Vol 29, 1989. pp. 302-376.]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212878, "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-1992", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "172\n\nThis letter is both a classic of its kind and rather special—in its content warranting translation in full. It was composed in the literary style, and the writer's calligraphy is of a high standard. It is altogether a superior production, and of a kind now seldom seen. The writer was either an old village scholar or a retired schoolmaster, since the younger generation no longer has these literary skills or is trained in them. The letter was accompanied by a copy of the grave tablet erected in 1962 by the four branches descended from Ancestor Shui-tai, and by a list of all male descendants in the after generations, including mention of those who had gone abroad. It is beyond doubt that the clan took the government's notice to remove the grave very seriously indeed.\n\nAccidental Damage to Graves and Urns\n\nSuch statements by those concerned—and they can be many times multiplied since they were the rule—indicate how very concerned villagers became if an old grave, and especially a founding ancestor's grave, was likely to be interfered with by the authorities. Sometimes the files record damage by accident or even by intent. Where accidental damage to graves occurred in the early postwar years, when a large military garrison engaged in frequent exercises across the countryside, the British Army was sometimes the culprit. In 1963, the District Office received a letter from the Tangs of Kam Tin about one of their ancestral graves on the slopes of Tai Mo Shan. 'It has recently been discovered that this ancestral grave has been damaged by military trucks... We are anxious to have it repaired; and as we cannot afford to do so, shall be much obliged if you will sympathize with us and provide the cost of building materials, so that we may proceed to repair the grave as possible in order to pacify the souls of our ancestors and calm ourselves.'8\n\nOn another such occasion, the then District Commissioner, New Territories, upon learning that an ancestral grave had been damaged during a military exercise, arranged for a ceremonial visit to be paid to the village by the brigade commander, the command land agent, the district officer concerned and himself. This was done to show respect to the family and to acknowledge its concern, as well as to show the authorities' desire to make speedy reparation for the damage caused.9 The villagers no doubt appreciated this gesture.\n\nSuch actions could be two-way. Meritorious actions by officers of the District Administration were also recognized. I once received a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213136, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "186\n\n# APPENDIX I\n\n## Calendar of Disturbances in the Border Area, 1899-1940\n\n(Orme = Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1912, (Sessional Papers 1912, printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers), No 11 of 1912. \"Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912” (The Orme Report), pp 43-63, SP = Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong (Sessional Papers), STJLS = Shatinjiade Lishe, op cit. AP = Administrative Reports, \"Report by the District Officer New Territories\", JLHG = Judonghaiguan Baoguan Dashiji op cit. Note JUHO is limited in material for 1921-1927, and AP has little to say on the border 1931-1938, except to comment on the levels of smuggling)\n\n \n Year\n Event\n Source\n \n \n 1900\n Abortive Rebellion in Wai Chan Sham Chun valley in turmoil Sam Chau Ti in revolt 5 piracies in Hong Kong waters\n SP 1901 STJLS Orme\n \n \n 1901\n Chinese military patrol formed on frontier\n SP 1902\n \n \n 1905\n Most serious crime in New Territories caused by cross-border gangs these impeded by new blockhouses at Ta Kwu Ling Second rebellion at Sam Chau Tin\n Orme STJLS\n \n \n 1906\n Market strike at Sha Tau Kok\n STJLS\n \n \n 1907\n Riot against Customs at Sha Tau Kok\n STJLS\n \n \n 1911\n Law Fong, Chor Uk Wai, Shu Tau Customs Stations sacked by bandits Law Fong Customs Station destroyed by bandits\n JLHG\n \n \n 1912\n Fighting in area near border Increase in banditry and piracy In Hong Kong, military assistance needed by Police Law Fong, Lin Tong, Sha Tau Customs Stations sacked by bandits, at Law Fong claiming to be \"new revolutionaries\" Situation confused Executions in Sham Chun\n SP 1912 AR JLHG\n \n \n 1913\n Nam O, Yun To Customs Stations sacked by bandits\n JLHG\n \n \n 1914\n Nam O attacked and sacked by night Tai Chan, Chek Wan Customs Stations sacked by bandits\n JLHG\n \n \n 1915\n Chan Hang (Siu Mui Sha) Customs Station sacked by bandits\n \n \n \n 1916\n Increase in smuggling opium into China Bad outbreak of cross-border crime, due to \"lack of any reasonable system of policing\" on the Chinese side Yum Tin (3 times), Kai Chung, Lung Tsun Hui Customs Stations sacked by bandits (40 men attack Kai Chung, up to 200 Yum Tin, and 150 at Lung Tsun Hui) All Customs firearms removed to Hong Kong for safe-keeping (until 1932)\n JLHG AR JLHG\n \n \n 1917\n Hakkas fleeing disturbances in Waichau arrive in New Territories Outbreak of crime in New Territories by \"undesirables\" from across border Kai Chung, Lung Tsun Hui, Sha Tau Customs Stations sacked by bandits\n AR JLHG\n \n \n 1918\n Times \"very disturbed\" on border Outbreak of cross-border crime \"half the offenders come from Chinese territory\" Kai Chung, Tip Fuk, Ha Sha JLHG Customs Stations forced to close (April) Sha Yue Chung and Kai Miu Customs Stations sacked by bandits and forced to close (August)\n AR JLHG", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213577, "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-1995", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "143\n\nTHE USE OF HILL LAND FOR VILLAGE FORESTRY AND FUEL GATHERING IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG.\n\nRICHARD WEBB\n\nWhile recent economic and social changes in the New Territories of Hong Kong have wrought irrevocable changes to the rural villages, until perhaps twenty years ago, villagers appeared to have used the hillsides much as they pleased, even though some of the larger clans claimed payments for hill land. The villagers of Cheung Sha Wan, west Kowloon, for example, paid regular sums in silver to the Tangs of Kam Tin for their forest land. The Liu family of Sheung Shui was leasing forest land to the villagers of Long Keng under a deed of 1867 (Hayes 1983). However, hill and forest land was usually annexed by the nearest village. Each village had its forestry lot, apportioned to families according to natural boundaries. There was a major difference in people's minds between land under pine tree cultivation (Pinus massoniana) and other hill land used for fuel gathering, grass cutting, and grazing. The British administration carried over the common usage of hill areas for pine cultivation into their village forestry licenses, or \"t'sung shaan p'aai\", which allowed villagers to occupy Crown Land for the purpose of growing these trees on which they relied for fuel, poles, and timber. It was the 'pine hills' that mattered more to the village families, even though they possessed no proper title to them, save under British rule, an undifferentiated notional share in the village license through being part of its community. Like houses and fields, hillside plots could be passed from father to son.\n\nDaley (1975) provides an account of forestry activities, although it is not clear if this refers to village forestry, in which 211,015 trees were planted in 1880, rising to 1,157,609 in 1883. The British administration established the Botanical and Forestry Department in 1880, with the objective of planting the badly eroded areas and water catchments. From 1881 to 1891, an average of around 647,223 trees were planted every year, of which 95% was Pinus massoniana, a local pine which can establish on very poor soil. By 1938, 70% of Hong Kong island had been afforested with government plantations, and 200 km2 of the New Territories were occupied by leased forestry lots used as a source of firewood. By this time, the government plantations were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214042, "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-1997", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "77\n\nhealth and fortune would not be harmed by evil spirits. In fact, these two religious activities are held in Fanling Wai (the settlement of the Pang lineage in Fanling) by the Pangs exclusively. The Pang villagers, be they in Fanling Wai or in other settlements, will enjoy the supernatural benefit from these activities through the descent line of their father or husband.\n\nThis figure was collected from the Lands Department in the North District Office.\n\n12 See Fong, Peter, K. W., op. cit.\n\n\"But the Lees in Wo Hang, Sha Luk Kok recognised that renting village houses out would\n\ninfringe on the values contributing to the maintenance of their community as a whole. The villagers defined occupancy within the village as permanent residence, and the rights for it could only be enjoyed and inherited by their fellow villagers through the male line. Houses were not simply residential structures but constituted Wo Hang as an agnatic village community. The house was a source of the rootedness that permitted the natives to claim identity with their natal village community through their right of occupancy.\" See Allen Chun, op. cit., pp. 249-50.\n\nDavid Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the New Territories, Hong Kong, pp. 2-4. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.\n\nLiao Hua Chuan, \"Xin Jie Yifan Lai Min Quan Yi Lu You\" (The Origin of the New Territories Indigenous Inhabitant's Prerogative), p. 144, in Lu Yan (Ed.), Xiang Gang Zhang Gu (Legends of Hong Kong), Xiang Gang: Guang Jia Jing, 1987.\n\n16 See GWE Jones, “Rural Housing in Hong Kong\", in Lok, S. K. Wong (Ed.), Housing in Hong Kong: A Multi-Disciplinary Study, Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), Hong Kong, 1975; Kwok Kam-chau, Planning for Village Development in the New Territories, M.Sc. thesis, The University of Hong Kong, 1987; Allen Chun, op. cit.; and James Hayes, Chinese Customary Law in the New Territories of Hong Kong, paper proceedings of the fourth International Symposium on Asian Studies in 1988.\n\n18 For details, see Heung Yee Kuk (Ed.), Xin Jie Xiao Xing Wu Yu Zheng Ce Te Ji (Special Collection of the New Territories Small House Policy), 1980.\n\n**Of this total of twelve houses, four were built in 1979, five in 1980, two in 1981, and one in 1982.\n\n19 The one allowed to build ding wu on Crown land had to pay a premium of about $4,000 at that time.\n\n20 210 hectares of this new town were designated for residential and commercial development, 50 hectares for industrial development, and 140 hectares for government and community use. See Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong 1984 (Annual Report), p. 132. Hong Kong Government Press.\n\n21 Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong 1985 (Annual Report), p. 183. Hong Kong Government Press.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214649, "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-1999", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "28\n\nof Cheung Yuk-tong (E) arrived (presumably this relieving force came from the garrison at the County City of Nam Tau), and retook the Walled City after a day of very heavy fighting, in which two of the Government soldiers died, and \"over 30\" bandits. Presumably, the successful defence of Nga Tsin Wai took place during this same seven-day period, in September - October 1854.\n\nThere were probably other occasions when bandits were forced away. For instance, the villagers of the Siu Lek Yuen inter-village alliance in Sha Tin have a story of a heroic fight by their combined manpower against a gang of bandits in the 1860s or 1870s. The Siu Lek Yuen villagers, having killed a number of the bandits, forced the rest to flee over the mountains to Nga Tsin Wai, where the Siu Lek Yuen villagers left them to the further attentions of the men of the League of Seven27.\n\nThe Nga Tsin Wai villagers also remember an attempt by the Tang clan (probably of Kam Tin) to impose Tang clan political control on this area. They relate that the elders of the League of Seven met the Tangs, and showed them the bags in which the silver which had been gathered by the League as a defence fund was kept, and the guns and gunpowder at their gate. \"Every tsin of silver, and every grain of gunpowder will be spent to fight you off\", the elders said, and the Tangs eventually left, with their tails between their legs2.\n\nThe last time the Nga Tsin Wai villagers closed and barred their gates against attack was in 1967, during the Riots. When the Riots broke out in San Po Kong, the villagers closed their gate, and put themselves into a position of defence, although their valour was not then put to the test.\n\nNga Tsin Wai's position at the head of the League of Seven put it into a very important position in the traditional politics of the Kowloon area. The Chief Elder of the League of Seven - usually the Chief Elder of Nga Tsin Wai - was one of the two or three most important figures in the district. The Sub-Magistrate would certainly have included him whenever he needed to consult the gentry of the district. As noted further below, Nga Tsin Wai village trusts were the subsoil land-owners of a good deal of the land in the area, especially in the Market, and at Sha Po, thus reinforcing their predominant local political position.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 } ]