[
    {
        "id": 204754,
        "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": 57,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "46\n\nK. M. A. BARNETT\n\nour map describes as Laffan's Plain27 was then a swamp, probably with one or two navigable channels; which explains why there is in that region a Tin Hau135 temple, which is now miles from the highest point which even sampans can reach.\n\n96\n\nAlthough the first fortification was dated A.D. 958, the name, if it means what it says, indicates that this channel or mun must have had a fortification on it before. Among all the channels which are called by this name mun— all the important channels are so called - no one is going to single out one to be described as \"the fort (or garrison) channel\" unless it previously had a fort or garrison. However, evidence is still lacking of the nature of this previous fortification. Here a word of conjecture may be permitted. The San On Yuen Chi123 mentions that in the year ✯✯ 6 (A.D. 331) of the Tsin158 Dynasty the hsien of Po On3 was first set up, to be abolished under the Sui22 Dynasty. Since it was in the Tsin158 Dynasty that the first Buddhist temple was said to have been built, the establishment and abolition of the hsien may indicate an unsuccessful attempt at settlement during this period, say from A.D. 330 to 590.\n\nFrom the Nan Han99 Dynasty onwards, it was settled government policy in these parts to encourage soldiers of each garrison to take up grants of land and to settle there after completion of their military service. The land they occupied was known as tuen-tin142 and was charged land tax at a lower rate than normal. Taxation at this favourable rate continued up to the last edition of the San On Yuen Chi123. The favourable rate was the same as the special rate for monasteries.\n\nIt is pretty clear from local tradition and from the location of the pieces of land which paid tax at the preferential rate that the reclamation of mangrove swamp in and around the present Yuen Long was done by these soldiers and their early descendants. The Man94 clan now settled at San Tin125 have been winning land in this fashion for 500 years on their present location, to which they moved from their first settlement at Lo Fu Hung85 about half way down what was then a creek. The latter lies between the original Tuen Mun141 fort and the present shore of Castle Peak Bay15. Just north of that location, at the foot of the small group of hills on one of which stands the present Ping Shanlit Police Station, there was a village called Nga Tsin Tsuen settled\n\nļ",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204755,
        "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": 58,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE \n\n47 \n\nby a very powerful clan surnamed Mo. This clan fell foul of authority early in the Sung132 Dynasty and several slightly different accounts of their misdeeds and eventual extermination are preserved in three different clans, one of which claims descent from the sole posthumous survivor of the massacre. The latest edition of the San On Yuen Chi123 has only a brief mention, but earlier editions may have dealt with the subject more fully. The next clan to settle on the swamp land in these parts was surnamed Chan and I have not been able to find any of their descendants. In the wake of the Mo9s catastrophe came the very successful clan of Tang44 whose branches by the end of the Sung Dynasty132 appear to have held most of the best land in several parts of the territory, including some near Tsuen Wan2 from which they have since vanished. When I mentioned that the Chan1 clan had disappeared I do not wish to indicate that there is no evidence to support the tradition that a group with this surname were among the early Chinese settlers. There are several small families found here and there, often in close association with the Tang:44 but none of them has preserved a tradition connecting itself with these early settlements.\n\nThe Puzzle. I must here leave the subject of the earliest Chinese settlers, since my main theme is what they found when they first arrived. I have mentioned these details generally to indicate the strength of the tradition which indicates that the present Deep Bay152 extended over the Yuen Long\" Valley, up to Sheung Shui130 and over Laffan's Plain.27 On the other side of the territory the sea has been gaining; therefore it is much more difficult to be sure of the original coastline, since when the sea gains, sections of submerged land are often churned away to some depth by wave action, whereas when the sea recedes the contours do not otherwise change. However, we do have the evidence of the cadastral survey completed in the New Territories shortly after the British occupation I believe it began in 1902. Comparing this survey with what is now to be seen sixty years later testifies to three instances (one on Discovery Bay,32 Lantao; one on Tolo Harbour;3 and one on Plover Covel) where the sea has not merely encroached but churned away substantial pieces of arable land leaving in their place fairly deep water. They also testify to the obliteration of three villages106 and thus afford",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r",
        "rank": 0
    }
]