[ { "id": 204460, "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-1962", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES \n\n81\n\nweddings and funerals, repairs to the ancestral temple, and so on. In \n\nAnother and less formal method of securing these aims is the setting aside of joss and oil fields, sometimes known by the obscure title of ching sheung 1, whose proceeds, again, are used for the proper observance of ancestral rites and other family needs.1 One need hardly emphasise the integrating effect of these land measures,\n\nTo understand the people and their outlook and background it is necessary to see to what sort of government they were accustomed.1 The government of the San On district was essentially Confucian, like that of every other administrative division; by which I mean that Confucian principles were ostensibly followed. This was sealed by the state worship of the sage. In every district city there was a temple to Confucius styled a man miu in which the District Magistrate, his senior staff and the local gentry paid the customary respects to the sage and his seventy-two disciples on his birthday (twenty-seventh day of the eighth moon) and at the spring worship or chun chai 1 in the second moon. The same thing happened at the prefectural and provincial capitals. At the head of the San On district was the District Magistrate whose superior was the prefect of the Kwang Chau prefecture which embraced at least five large districts. He was subordinate to the provincial governor and he in turn to the Viceroy of the two Kwang Provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. The nature and duties of the provincial officers had been established since the T'ang dynasty and for well over a millennium the pattern of government had been cast in an identical mould. The District Magistrate was usually a scholar who had taken one of the metropolitan examinations at Peking and he was always a native of another province than his native one, this being a long standing rule. He spent three or six years in one post and was then moved elsewhere, and was promoted in due course to be prefect or to higher office through merit, connections or good fortune. Some persons began and ended their official careers as District Magistrates.\n\n1\n\nThe District Magistrate's duties were many and his competence was most extensive. He was, in truth, the father-mother official1 of the people so called by them and also so styled in official documents because of his authority over all their affairs, criminal or civil. He certainly regarded himself as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204464, "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-1962", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n85\n\nexamination by the District Magistrate at Nam Tau and by the Kwang Chau prefect at Canton, proceeded to the Viceroy's yamen in the same city where eventually a favoured few would manage to pass the first degree of sau choi. This in theory entitled the scholar to qualify for an official post. In practise there were many more sau choi than there were posts and a scholar had to pursue further study and pass other examinations before he stood a real chance of becoming an official. In every district there were sau choi who would never obtain posts. Many became local schoolmasters. Others by virtue of wealth and position became the local gentry who, by report, were sometimes a help to the magistrate and frequently a nuisance, both to him and to the litigant or criminal public. They sat on the local tribunals kuk and advised the magistrate on local affairs. Being literati like himself they had ready access to his yamen and to his ear. Sometimes they even outranked him. Elders, on the other hand, rarely sat on the kuk. Lockhart estimated that there were one hundred and fifty sau choi in the whole district.20 In 1898 the elders of important villages like Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan were literati. Several of them played a leading part in the planning of operations against the British take-over.27\n\n20\n\nSometimes the wealthier village elders enhanced their position by purchasing degrees. In the late Ch'ing period the sale of examination titles appears to have been considerable. Smith mentions it in his Village Life in China** and I have come across several such persons in villages in the Southern District of the New Territory. They were usually substantial villagers. Such a one was CHAN Tak-hang4 of Cheung Kwan O in Junk Bay who died in the seventeenth year of Kwong Shui (1892) at the age of sixty-four. According to his descendant, the present Village Representative, he was a man of substance who built a guest house in the village which is still standing to-day, gave money for the upkeep of the stone tracks which linked the villages of the area with Kowloon, and was well known locally. His portrait, painted at the age of fifty-seven, shows him in his borrowed finery as a kwok hok sang, for which he paid an unknown consideration to Government. A man such as this would obviously play a considerable part in the affairs of his immediate neighbourhood.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204469, "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-1962", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "90 \n\nJ. W. HAYES \n\nin the area, where presumably they would be seen by the worshippers who congregated there in large numbers at festival times. \n\nFE \n\nThere is a spirited account of a dispute between tenants and a new and rapacious landlord at Kat O in 180243 which was complicated by the clerks of the yamen who, obviously for a consideration, deluded their magistrate and were in collusion with the landlord. The tenants petitioned no less a person than the Viceroy of the Two Kwang provinces in his yamen at Canton and his instructions, relayed through the Governor and Prefect, are set out in stone so that justice could be done, and seen to be done, ever after. Everything worthwhile, every precedent or decision of importance, seems to have been set forth on stone: to ensure compliance44; for observance by both parties45; 'to follow the judgment';46 for fear that this would be forgotten as time goes by, thus leaving endless troubles in the future47; for the general information of the people48 and so forth. The tablets were either set up by the people, or as in most of these cases, by order of the magistrate with the written approval of the Viceroy; by the community of Tung Chung, Sai Chung, Keung Shan etc.; by the fishermen of Peng Chau since approval had not been given for the erection of a tablet by the Viceroy49, (later given by the magistrate); by the Inspector General and like cases.49 \n\nK \n\n46 \n\n44 \n\nPerhaps to compensate for the severities and uncertainties of this life the inhabitants of the District fortified themselves by a devotion to religion that was marked by its generous diversity. To the usual galaxy of gods such as Tin Hau6, Kwun Yam 觀音, Hung Shing 洪聖, Kwan Tai 關帝, Pak Tai 北帝, Tam Kung, and Yeung Hau Wong, they added local officials who had acted as their benefactors and anyone else who took their fancy. Whilst there may be some who are not so well known and whose memory has faded in the minds of the people, the two who have left an indelible mark in the New Territory are WONG and CHOW, successive Viceroys of the two Kwang provinces who were responsible for obtaining the cancellation of the edict of 1662 which ordered all inhabitants of coastal areas to remove50 inland in order to deny their assistance, forced or otherwise, to the pirate bands which were attacking the new dynasty in the name of the Ming", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204477, "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-1962", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "98\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\napproval. This authority, with powers of discretion, was given to the D.O. to help preserve the traditional way of managing land within the clan, and to provide a cheap and impartial arbiter in case of dispute.\n\n13 In Shek Pik village the TSUI, CHEUNG, HO and CHI clans owned 1.1, 0.39, 0.55, and 0.04 acres of agricultural land in 1898. With the exception of the HO clan, they were intact in 1959. The TSUI tso probably dates from the fifteenth generation, and is therefore three hundred years old. The FUNG clan in Fan Pui owned 9.2 acres in 1898 but this was sold in 1953.\n\n14 At Fan Pui I dealt with a disputed case of ownership in which the defendant stated that eight lots totalling 9,581 square feet of agricultural land had been specially set aside as joss and oil fields (shen you tian). Fields are also set aside for the worship of earth spirits. At Cheung Kwan O village in 1898 the two clans of CHAN and NG administered 1.41 acres of agricultural land under the name of a to tei wui. The rentals were originally devoted to the maintenance of the to tei or earth spirit who looked after the village, but for many years the revenue has simply gone to the clans. Many other cases are known at Mui Wo and Tung Chung.\n\n15 See Chapter III (iii) and (iv) of H. B. Morse The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1908) which is based on an article by Byron Brenan \"The Office of District Magistrate in China” Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XXII, (1897-98), 36-65, and incorporates his own wide experience of China and her officials in the course of over thirty years' service in the Imperial Maritime Customs. Brenan himself (1847-1927) had served in China from 1866 and was H.B.M.'s Consul-General in Shanghai 1898-1901. Of the district magistrate Brenan wrote, \"The magistrate is the unit of government; he is the backbone of the whole official system; and to ninety per cent of the population he is the Government\"; op. cit. p. 37.\n\n16 Papers 1899 p. 583.\n\nThe text of the stone tablet outside the Tin Hau temple at Kat O, referred to elsewhere in the article, uses this picturesque phraseology. Contrasting their sorry lot beside the power of the yamen officials they had written in their petition to the Viceroy \"We, civilians, whose lives are cheap as ants... who are we to start a lawsuit against the district yamen's worms?\" An interesting feature of this inscription is that it follows the customary form of Ch'ing document in which reference is made in the text to other papers, by summary or quotation, instead of the western method of adding enclosures. See John K. Fairbank, Ch'ing Documents, an introductory syllabus, (Harvard University Press 1952) p. 21.\n\n18 When I asked an old gentleman who graduated sau choi in 1896 about extortion and venality among magistrates, he replied in distinctly extenuating tones \"Some did; but then they had so many people to look after\". He observed that there were some rich districts in Kwangtung in which a magistrate had to do nothing to obtain money as it came rolling into the Office in the way of presents, inducements, additions to land and other taxes etc., whilst there were others which were so poor that the magistrate could squeeze very little from them even if he tried very hard. This is curiously echoed in Morse, Trade and Administration p. 92 “In Kwangtung we (the Imperial Maritime Customs) have regularly applied to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204636, "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-1963", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "104\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nThere were also examination titles among the organisers and subscribers to the defence office. There were three scholars, who held higher grades of the hsiu-ts'ai or first degree by examination. One was a kung-sheng, another a sheng-yüan, and the third held the grade of lin-sheng, all normally obtained by additional examinations by a literary chancellor appointed from Peking to examine hsiu-ts'ai in the provinces, though occasionally granted for merit. Another was a wu-sheng ±, a military hsiu-ts'ai, an officer by examination, not purchase. These four were WONGs, almost certainly members of the Tong. A fifth, named TSUI, was a tu-szu or first captain and was probably a serving military officer in the locality. The final title is ching sheng #.\n\nOf these various degree and title holders sixteen were named WONG *. The coincidence is probably too great to be accidental and the number of purchases testifies to the Tong's wealth, whilst the presence of genuine scholars, probably from the Cheung Chau branch, and the genealogical record, confirm its gentry status in the late Ch'ing period. There is no doubt that the main Tong was well entrenched and able to exert an \"interest\" with the district ruler and perhaps also with the prefect and viceroy at Canton.\n\n23 HSIAO illustrates the slight degree of local control on another island, Ch'a K'eng, off the coast of Sun Wui district, Kwangtung, in Rural China, pp. 344-348. For his views on the effectiveness of imperial control see pp. 320-322 and pp. 316-320 for the role of the gentry in local affairs. CH'U, op. cit., chapter 10, also examines the problem in general. Krone's article (see note 22), apparently written from long, first-hand knowledge of the western part of San On shows that the district magistrate and his deputy and sub-magistrates had little control over the population (see especially p. 81), and perhaps wanted it less, e.g. \"... the Mandarin of Fuk Wing (a sub-magistrate) confided to me, in a conversation that I had with him that he had nothing to do but to eat, to drink and to smoke”, though over 200 villages were in his charge.\n\n24 The district association is of considerable antiquity in China. They were known in Sung times: see J. Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-76 (London, Allen and Unwin 1962) p. 222; see also Y. K. Leong and L. K. Tao Village and Town Life in China (London, Allen and Unwin 1915) pp. 78-9 for \"the guild of co-provincials\" and H. B. Morse, The Gilds of China (London, Longmans, Green 1909) pp. 35-48 for the provincial club with a mercantile bias.\n\n25 With consequent language difficulties. See R. A. D. Forrest (a former Hong Kong Cadet Officer) \"The Southern Dialects of Chinese\", Appendix No. 1 to V. Purcell The Chinese in South East Asia (Oxford University Press 1951).\n\n26 The word \"member\" may have too strong a connection with the modern club where one pays an entrance fee and monthly subscriptions. In fact, one was born into membership of these early district associations and participated in their activities by subscription, as required. Mr. LEUNG Yau (see note 28) confirms this for his own association, the Wai Chiu.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204731, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n25\n\nendangering the lives of the entire foreign community in Canton. Finding the foreigners resolute they were allowed to return to their Factories, but were told that the bond must be given on the following day, and no excuse would be given. Yesterday Elliot, Snow, and Van Basil31, sent in written communications to the officers who all came again to the Consoo House stating that they could not give the bond required, but that they would avail of the first vessel sailing for their countries to make known to their sovereigns and governments that this new law relative to opium was now published, and that all who brought any here within a certain time must suffer the penalties. Elliot's and Van Basil's Chops were to this effect, but Snow said that if they insisted up his signing the bond for himself and countrymen he could not do it but must ask for permission to leave the country. This was unsatisfactory and his letter was returned as well as Van Basil's.\n\nToday we heard nothing further of the matter, but this morning the Commissioner, the Viceroy32 and the Hoppo33 left Canton for the Bogue, which looks a little as if they did not mean to enforce it.\n\nWe are all quiet, provisions supplied us but no stranger allowed to be in the Factories.\n\nThursday, 11th April, 1839\n\nWe anxiously expected news today from the Bogue but none came and we are surprised that the Chinese have received no letters. The uncertainty of what will be the termination of all this business give us great uneasiness. It appears evident that the English will all leave the place the first opportunity that offers and their doing so may give rise to some serious confusion. Captain Elliot it appears intends the moment he gets without the Bogue to communicate to the Commissioner his sentiments on this piratical act he has perpetrated, of [the] seizure of the opium or causing it to be delivered by seizing our persons and keeping us in prison. The Yum Chae34 may be enraged at that and God knows what he may do with those foreigners who happen to be in Canton when he hears from Captain Elliot that retaliation will be visited upon the Chinese for seizing this property. We are in a most entire trap, that is evident. Took supper on board the linguist's boat. Moller and Fearon with me.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204748, "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": 51, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "40 \n\nW. C. HUNTER \n\nat Samarang where he served for 3 years. He died at Delft in 1863. (L.T.R.) \n\n32 Viceroy. The Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi at this time was Teng Ting-chen who held this post from early 1836 until early 1840. See Hummel, op. cit., II, 716. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n33 Hoppo. The Superintendent of Maritime Customs at Canton in 1839 was Yu (?). (J.L.C-B.) \n\n34 The Yum Chae. Cantonese pronunciation for the characters (mandarin Ch'in-ch'ai) meaning \"an Imperial Commissioner”. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n35 Innes, James Innes (1787-1841), the \"storm petrel\" of Canton was the 7th Chieftain of the Inneses of Dunkinty, Scotland. He came out to China about 1825 and operated as a Free Trader mostly on his own, but for a time in the firm of Innes, Fletcher & Co. His dealings in opium had not a little to do with precipitating the trouble in 1839. He died in July 1841 and was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery, Macao. (L.T.R.) \n\n36 Chaye Beale. Thomas Chaye Beale was a member of the firm of Magniac & Co. in Canton as early as 1826. He severed his connections with this firm in the early thirties, and operated on his own till 1845 when he set up a house of agency in Shanghai with Lancelot Dent under the name of Dent, Beale & Co. In 1851 he was Portuguese Consul and Vice-Consul for the Netherlands at Shanghai. (L.T.R.) \n\n37 Se-yin. This is probably a reference to the characters Ssu-ying, the officer in command of a ying which corresponded in some ways to a battalion. However, the rank of a ying commander corresponded more to the Western rank of captain or major. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n38 Ta-lao-yeh. The phrase ta-lao-yeh signifies \"revered elder”. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n39 The linguists. Linguists (t'ung shih) were supposed to be able to act as interpreters between the Canton officials and the foreign merchants when instructions needed to be conveyed. The foreigners, for their part, usually enlisted the help of the Hong merchants when they wanted a document translated into Chinese or they needed an interpreter at an important interview. They repeatedly declared that the linguists were useless when it came to linguistic matters. In fact, the linguists appear to have been rather low-grade men of not much education, and able to speak only pidgin English. However, by law a foreign merchant trading at Canton was bound to employ a linguist. Since it was forbidden by the statutes of the Ch'ing dynasty to teach the Chinese language to foreigners, it was reasonable that linguists should be licensed to cope with their language problems. However, in order that the foreigners should not learn much about affairs in the interior, the qualifications needed by a linguist were low and their pidgin vocabulary was restricted to matters of trade. This was part of a deliberate policy which grew up among the officials at Canton, and the linguists merely acted as another cog in the mechanism whereby communication between the foreign merchants and the officials, however minor, was prevented, and the foreigners dealt instead with a number of different unofficial functionaries such as the compradores and linguists. Thus, the foreign merchants were kept at an arm's length and also kept in ignorance. \n\nThe linguists and their servants mentioned in this journal appear to have acted as general clerks and messengers, as much as linguists. The prefix A or Ah (ya) signifies the status of servant. (J.L.C-B.)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204782, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "74\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nfishermen and with all those who live close to the sea in South China. A commemorative tablet let into the wall is dated 1798.10 It may record the actual foundation of the temple, though this is not certain as the temple bell is dated six years earlier.\" The tablet has no introductory preamble, as is usual,\" and simply states that persons from the two districts of Tung Kwun ✯E and San On, described as ± subscribed money for the work. A list of 218 names follows, of which 26 appear to be those of shops or businesses, and the other 192 those of private individuals. No indication is given as to the addresses of subscribers, and it is therefore impossible to state with certainty that they were all Peng Chau people, though some of them must have been, or to say which of them were land people and which of them fishermen. It is more than likely that both groups participated in the project. This was certainly the case with the next full-scale repair in 187813 where the fact of co-operation is established beyond any doubt, because the entries on this second tablet are more precise and it is still possible to check names with old inhabitants.\n\nWith the establishment of the temple, Peng Chau's place as a permanent base for fishermen was probably assured, since this would have set the seal on its popularity. Religion has always played an important part in the lives of the boat people and it was probably as much a long-term attachment to the temple as economic ties with local shopkeepers which kept the fishermen there. There was another popular Tin Hau temple at nearby Nim Shu Wan, now in ruins. Throughout the nineteenth century therefore, and into the twentieth, the island continued to be a base for many sea-going and local fishermen. As such, it was important enough to be one of the places where, by order of the San On magistrate, tablets were set up in the middle of the Tao Kwang period (1834) for the information of the fishing population.14 The Peng Chau tablet, which is situated just outside the Tin Hau temple, records a petition which went as high as the Viceroy of the two Kwang provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, and eventually resulted in a directive that no more fishing boats should be commandeered in order to capture pirates. Special craft were ordered to be built for the purpose instead.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204784, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "PENG CHAU\n\n75\n\nIt is not certain whether the fishermen who petitioned the Viceroy were local men, but, if so, their initiative on that occasion showed itself again some twenty years later when in 1857 an association called the Peng Wo Tong was formed among the trawlers based on Peng Chau. These are said to have numbered about 200 at that time. Though this may be an exaggeration, the Tong was undoubtedly a large organisation. Its name appears on the Tin Hau temple repair tablet of 1878 where its joint contribution of 140 taels of silver, out of a total of about 640 taels subscribed for the work, heads the list and its leaders were among the twelve principal organisers. Little is now remembered locally of its work and objects, or of its origin, but perhaps it was formed to retain more of the profits of fishing for the fishermen themselves, instead of letting them go to the Cantonese shopkeepers who might have become demanding and oppressive at the time. I do not know whether fishermen in other ports organised themselves into such groups, and it would be interesting to have further information on this point. This particular Tong concerned itself with more than business. As we have seen, it helped with temple repairs and it is known to have taken a hand in organising festival matters. One elder remembers attending an opera show organised by the Tong when he was about ten years old (1905) and he can even remember the name of the opera! It is certainly an organisation which would repay such detailed study as is still possible.\n\nThe number of fishing boats based on Peng Chau during this period was considerable, and an interesting variety of persons were engaged in fishing. At the end of the century there were said to have been still nearly 200 trawling junks there and a similar number, more or less equally divided, of two smaller types of sailing craft. Whilst this is perhaps an exaggeration it is certain that there were many more than can be seen there today. These were all operated by Tanka fishermen, the true boat people of South China, who lived and died on their craft.17 There were also a hundred Hoklo boats, long narrow craft with two or three standing rowers of a type still to be seen round Peng Chau and Cheung Chau. The Hoklos themselves spent their life between their boats and their mat-shed homes near the beaches. There were also lesser numbers of Hakka and Cantonese fishermen,18", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204870, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "148\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nabandoned, broken-down, and over-grown with trees and scrub, probably because it lies in a more remote and less populous part of Lantau, so that there would be no use for it after the garrison left.\n\nAn interesting feature of the Tung Chung fort is the presence of six old muzzle-loading cannons on its walls, each fixed to a cement base. (There are now none at Fan Lau). How these were preserved at Tung Chung is told in the following extract from the 1918 Administrative Report of the District Officer, South:\n\nMiscellaneous Receipts show an increase of $5,000 odd, due to the sale of old cannon for $5,265 which had previously remained neglected in the district. In this connection, it may be noted that any specimens of interest were retained, and that six guns were selected for mounting upon the wall of the old Yamen — the present Police Station — at Tung Chung, Lantau. So the guns at Tung Chung may not always have been there, but may have come from elsewhere, some perhaps from Fan Lau.\n\nThe cannons vary in weight from 1,000 to 2,000 catties, i.e. between 12 and 24 cwts., and are quite large. An interesting comparison is the Ming cannon dredged from Kai Tak Bay in 1956 during the construction of the new runway, which weighs 500 catties and is now mounted outside the Colonial Secretariat. All six pieces carry inscriptions, of which only four are now legible. A typical description reads as follows (though there is room for dispute as to the precise translation):\n\nCannon; weight - 2,000 catties (23-8 cwts.) YIK, Border Pacification General by Imperial Appointment. CHAI, Minister of Constant Support, Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi.\n\nLEUNG, Assistant Minister of Defence and Governor of Kwangtung.\n\nLAU, Acting Prefect of Fat Shan Prefecture.\n\nCHEONG, Hoi Fung District Magistrate, on Reserve, supervised its manufacture in the 21st year of Reign of To Kwong, 10th Moon (1842)\n\nby Cannon Artisans LI, CHAN & FOK.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204874, "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": 177, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "152\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\ncannons still point to the sea. The inscription on two of these both on the eastern wing, is relatively clear. The words on the easternmost one show that the cannon was cast in the eighth moon of the fourteenth year of the reign of Chia Ching (1809), serial number Ching 80, weighing 1,000 catties (1,333 lbs.) and was cast by the master of the Man Shing Furnace. The second cannon was cast by order of the Fat Shan Magistrate in the tenth moon of the twenty-first year of the reign of Tao Kuang (1841) by Craftsmen Lee, Chan and Fok. The two dates are rather interesting. It can be imagined that the first cannon was transferred from the Fort at Nan Fau when the fort was first built and the second was cast in Fat Shan specifically for this Tung Chung Fort when Viceroy Lin wished to strengthen coastal fortification as he feared that Captain Elliot might attack the coastal areas of Kwangtung. Two of the cannons on the western side have shapes distinctly foreign to the Chinese, and they are more subjected to weathering than the others. As these rather remind the observer of those kept in the Raffles National Museum and the Malacca Museum, it is possible that these pieces might have been captured from the Portuguese or might have been cast with their help earlier on.\n\nThe granite slabs used for building the fort are foreign to the valley. They might have come from Chek Lap Kok Island across the Bay or might even have been brought in from T'un Mun (Castle Peak). There are many of these slabs lying about the fort and some have found their way to becoming part of a rural house. Recent site preparation for an extension of the school building revealed a tiled floor below the present ground level. Had some sort of a garrison been maintained throughout the dynasties? Is the present form of the fort a result of several expansions in the nineteenth century? Were there originally more cannons mounted on the battlements? Where are the sites of the other constructions mentioned in the Annals? The answers to these questions would be of great value in establishing the important role played by Lantau in the history of the region.\n\nLOAN-WORDS IN THE CHINESE LANGUAGE\n\nA gap in our knowledge which I suggest should be filled would be to establish the date of the introduction into China of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205373, "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-1967", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "128 \n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nrank among the Seu-tsai, twenty of the senior bearing the title of Nam-shang. These Nam-shang have a small pension from Government, and receive some fees from the aspirants to the examination at Canton, who have to procure from them a certificate in reference to their character and acquirements.\n\nThere are only four Keu-jin in the district; these are all Puntis, and from its western part. They are all engaged in teaching.\n\nThere is only one individual in the district who possesses the degree Tsin-tze +, the famous Chan-kwei-chik of Sha-tsing. This man held office in Peking, but was obliged to retire on account of the decease of his parents. One of his parents dying just as the time of mourning for the other had expired, his exclusion from office was protracted to the term of six years. During this period he led rather an indolent life, occasionally engaging in the healing art; but he was never much known till the time when the differences between the British and the Canton authorities commenced in 1856.\n\nHe then offered his services to the Governor General, promising to inflict severe injuries on the British. To effect this, he organised a force of village braves, and endeavoured to stop the supply of provisions to Hongkong. The district magistrate was not at all pleased with the ascendancy of this man, and in several instances showed his dissatisfaction and disapprobation of Chan-kwei-chik's plans. The latter, however, having been invested with dictatorial powers by the Viceroy, exercised them according to his own discretion, and cared nothing for the approbation of the district magistrate, who was at this time his inferior.\n\nThe measures which he adopted were however unpalatable to the people, who rose against him in the district city, and forced him to retire to his native place. It is said that he also got into the bad graces of the Viceroy, who accused him of having squandered public money, and drawn large sums without effecting anything against the enemy. Chan-kwei-chik is still in retirement in Sha-tsing, and amuses himself by playing on the seraphim which he stole from Mr. Genähr's house in Sai-heong.\n\nNo natives of the Sanon district at present hold any high office in other provinces. Since the commencement of the present dynasty (1644), six natives of this province have obtained the degree of Tsin-tze, and 54 that of Keu-jin.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205709, "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": 15, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\nAs things turned out, Gibb did not return to Hong Kong, and Ng Choy was therefore appointed on a three-year term. This appointment was unfortunately interpreted by some members of the British community as an attempt to create an anti-English party feeling in Hong Kong.\n\nIn May 1880 when one of the magistrates went on leave, the Governor replaced him temporarily by Ng Choy who thus became the first Chinese to hold a senior appointment in the Hong Kong Government. This led to a question in the House of Commons as to why Ng Choy should combine a paid official post with an unofficial seat in the Legislative Council; but by the time these explanations were required the original holder of the post had returned to the Colony.\n\nThe attitude of the British community towards him and the Governor as a result of his appointment to the Legislative Council as well as this parliamentary question must have embarrassed Ng Choy very much. During this time, China having suffered repeated defeats from the hands of foreign powers, there was a movement in China to promote western technology and to modernize China, and any Chinese who had been trained or educated abroad would be welcome back to China. Thus when an invitation came from China for him to serve China, Ng Choy accepted it gladly. He left Hong Kong in 1882 before the expiry of the 3-year term in the Legislative Council, and later sent in his resignation from Tientsin.\n\nNg Choy became Secretary and Legal Adviser to Viceroy Li Hung-chang, one of the most important Chinese political figures of the time. Now known as Wu Ting-fang, he soon rose to become Chief Director of Railways and later Ambassador to the U.S.A. After the founding of the Chinese Republic in 1911, he held important appointments respectively as Minister of Judicial Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Financial Affairs. In 1917, when China entered the First World War, he was for a short time nominated as Premier. In 1922 he became Governor of Kwangtung and died the same year in office, soon after General Chan Kwing-ming's revolt in Canton.*\n\n* In his The Chinese (Indianapolis, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1909) p. 196, John Stuart Thomson praises Wu and styles him \"the Chesterfield of China in all the graces of speech and manners.\" Ed.\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206296, "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-1971", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n107\n\nHowever with the financial assistance of his wife's share in the estate of Ho Fuk Tong, he was able to study law in England. He returned to Hong Kong to practice law and in time was appointed a Magistrate. In 1880, Governor Hennessy appointed him as the first Chinese member of the Legislative Council. He served for two years, but then resigned to join the staff of Viceroy Li Hung Chung at Tientsin. In 1897 he was appointed the Chinese Ambassador to the United States and continued serving his country in other posts of responsibility until his death in 1922.\n\nA classmate and good friend of Wu Ting Fang, named Chan Ayin (陳海亭) alias Chan Oi Ting was one of thirty representatives of the Chinese community to call on Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy to welcome him to Hong Kong in 1872. He is also named among fourteen who, dressed in their official robes as mandarins, welcomed the Governor on his visit to Tung Wah Hospital in 1878. He was baptized while a student at St. Paul's College and, like most of the others whose career we are considering in this section, after completing his education he entered Government service. He was connected with the Magistrate's Court, but in 1871 he left to become a reporter for the China Mail. When the Mail began publishing the Wah Tsz Yat Po in 1872, he was head of this department. In 1877 he surrendered his lease of the paper but continued with The China Mail for a short period after. He then gave up his career in journalism to join the staff of the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to the United States. As a member of the staff, he was appointed Consul-General in Havana, Cuba. He continued to serve in the Chinese diplomatic service for ten years, but then returned to China where he became director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company and of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway Administration. He died at Shanghai in 1905.44\n\nWhile editor of the Wah Tsz Yat Po, Chan Oi Ting was also instrumental in organizing and managing the Chinese Printing and Publishing Company which bought the press and type of the London Mission Press in 1872. This company began publishing the Tsun Wan Yat Po (Universal Circulating Herald) in February 1874. It advertised itself as the \"first daily newspaper ever issued under purely native auspices\". The paper was registered under the name of Wong Tao (£), a scholar of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207058, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Hong Kong Region\n\n123\n\nPirates continued to be a local nuisance, however, and there seems to have been no end to their depredations throughout the 19th century. An inscribed tablet dated 1834 outside the Tin Hau Temple at Peng Chau, off southeast Lantau, records a petition from fishermen against the local officials' practice of using their craft as decoys to catch pirates; and the Viceroy's instruction that the commandeering of craft for this purpose should stop and that boats should be built for the work. A few years later, in the early years of the Colony, the Hong Kong authorities and the British naval forces at their disposal were constantly having to take notice of piracies and attacks, great and small, that happened on their very doorstep. The pirates of the 1840s and 1850s were often in fleets, as in Cheung Po-tsai's time.2 The Royal Navy was frequently involved in their suppression, and some major expeditions were mounted against the leading pirate fleets. Grace Fox's British Admirals and Chinese Pirates gives an interesting account of the period from the establishment of the China station in 1834 up to 1869.3 It was not until controlling legislation on the registration of native craft was enacted and enforced in the late 1860s that it became more difficult for pirate craft to operate from Hong Kong's ports.4\n\nThe local population was the usual victims of these pests. In 1856 the captain of H.M.S. Sampson reported an action off Tsing Yi, close to Hong Kong, with a number of pirate junks wearing the flag of the Taipings. They were identified as pirates with stolen property by a local fisherman and others, whereupon they were pursued by the Sampson's boats and five of their number destroyed. The boat crews freed two market craft with several passengers who had been confined by the pirates for several days, and at least one fishing boat that they had taken from its owner. Wade, then Chinese Secretary to the Hong Kong government, records (1852) how persons returning to their homes for the lunar new year preferred to travel by steamer than by passage boat, for this reason.6\n\n1 Tablet dated Tao Kuang, 15th year, 7th month, 19th day. It was apparently one among many erected at this time in places along the Kwangtung coast.\n\n2 See the striking account given in Illustrated London News, 28th March 1857, p. 283.\n\n3 For local events see the chronological record for Hong Kong's early years in Mayers, Dennys and King, pp. 55-115.\n\n4 SP 1888, p. 258.\n\n5 Schofield papers.\n\n6 Fox, p. 120.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207120, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n185\n\nLei King T'ong (A) is another ancestral hall, and can be found by the side of the main road through Kam T'in. It was built for Tang Ng Shaang (£) (see H.K.N. VII, p. 36).\n\nI Tai Shue Yuen (**) is the new school building built instead of the Man Ch'eung Kok (M) (see H.K.N. VII, p. 256) and is situated in Shui T'au village.\n\nChau Wong Yee Kung Ts'z (M), (=214) (plate 20) is a hall that was built to record the merit of Viceroy Châu Yau Tak (♬) and Governor Wong Loi Yam (*). After the Ming emperors were expelled from China, an officer of the Ming army named Cheng Shing Kung (4) attacked the coast of South China, using Formosa as his base. All the people in sympathy with the Ming dynasty, along the coast helped him, so as the Manchu government had no navy to send against him, an order was made that all the inhabitants of the coast were to be moved inland for 50 Chinese miles. Later they were moved again for another 30 miles and for seven years, A.D. 1661-1668, the New Territories were deserted. The fields were unattended and allowed to lie fallow, and the buildings fell into disrepair. At the end of that time the people made representations to the Governor and Viceroy, and it was through the mediation of these two men, with the Emperor that the people were allowed to go back to their own land. The full account of this story is very long, but it is hoped to devote an article to it later on.\n\nI have to thank Mr. Tang Paak K'au (1) and Mr. Tang Wai T'ong (**), both elders of Kam T'in, for their co-operation and help in obtaining access to the numerous documents that it has been necessary to consult before this series of articles could be attempted. Also Mr. Tang Ch'ong Yip (##) a teacher in Kam T'in, who gave invaluable assistance in searching out references, copying out paragraphs from books in the possession of various villagers, and deciphering inscriptions from stone tablets. Unfortunately Mr. Tang Wai Man (✯) another elder who showed great interest in these articles and helped considerably, died a few months ago, and is unable to see them completed. Lastly, I am much indebted to Mrs. Herklots for her help in writing these articles in readable English.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207334, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "94 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nemployment; but few stayed with the department. Most took to their gypsy life again, once they had accumulated a few dollars, and left for either Shanghai or Singapore, or simply went to earth in Tai Ping Shan or Wan Chai until disinterred by the police, always on the look out for European destitutes. \n\nThere were always some troops on garrison duty in the colony or manning the various fortifications designed to repel a seaborne invasion. The garrison normally was small and numbered usually less than 1,500 men. But numbers fluctuated markedly at times. In March 1860, for example, over 14,000 troops (10,000 British and 4,000 French) were being drilled in a vast tented camp on two square miles of the Kowloon peninsula, leased from the Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, and awaiting transportation to the theatre of operations in the north. A witness of these events wrote that 'the streets of Victoria were thronged by soldiers and sailors; commissaries and staff officers were to be seen everywhere; all as busy as mortals could be'.7 \n\nIt was a policy of the government and the military to keep troops if possible out of European Victoria—the central commercial district—and to confine their debaucheries to special areas of the colony. Thus five brothels were specially opened at Wan Chai in the 1850s when soldiers at that time were prohibited by their officers from entering the central districts of the city. For soldiers on outpost duties access to Victoria was difficult in any case: \n\nGarrison life at these outposts is usually melancholy; society is impossible, as the fortifications are eight miles by water from the city, and communication over the mountains is arduous. It is not a question of which is the better of the two, but which the worse, to be of the British Garrison Artillery or the Chinese Lighthouse Service.& \n\nThere were usually more sailors than soldiers ashore in Hong Kong, or afloat in the harbour, at certain times of the year. During the three winter months, the British China squadron was stationed in Hong Kong; in summer most naval vessels left Hong Kong for the north and other stations. The large number of sailors, who at times outnumbered the civilian European population, was supplemented by merchant seamen of many nationalities; for by the 1890s Hong Kong had become, after London, Liverpool, and Port Said, the fourth largest port in the world in terms of seagoing tonnage", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207737, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "110\n\nTIN-YUKE CHAR\n\nAldersey brought over from her Batavia, Java mission school to become assistant leaders in her Ningpo school. Ruth and Laisun had a family of six children: Elijah, Spencer, Willie, Annie, Lena, and Amy.\n\nChan later left his mission work and went to Shanghai in 1853 where he became quite successful through his connections with an English mercantile firm. On a corner of the American Board's property in Shanghai, he built a school house where his wife opened a girls' school. As he was acquainted with Yung Wing and was qualified, he was engaged to accompany the Educational Mission to America in 1872. He took along his wife and six children. His two eldest sons were ready to enter college in two years and his two eldest daughters received part of their education in England.\n\nIn 1875 Chan was detached from the Educational Mission and appointed interpreter to Li Hung-chang, Governor-general of Chihli. Thus, he met Hawaiian King Kalakaua in Tientsin in 1881.\n\nThe February 1887 issue of the Hamilton College Literary Monthly had this letter from Chan, \"We all love the United States, for many reasons. Our hearts are still there, although we are back in China. I am in Tientsin, with the well-known viceroy, Si [Li] Hung Chang, as his Secretary, and Interpreter. Annie, our eldest daughter, is married to a Dane, Captain of the Chinese government revenue cruiser; and is the happy mother of a beautiful son. Elijah, the eldest boy, graduated from the Yale Scientific School in 1887. He then went to Freiburg in Saxony, and remained there eighteen months. On his return to China, he was commissioned to open the copper mines in Eastern Mongolia. His prospects are very bright. He was offered the post of chief engineer for the government railroads, but declined to accept it. He is the first scientific engineer China has produced. His field is the largest ever offered to a single individual, for the mineral resources of China are almost infinite.”\n\nFrom Carl Smith's article, it was learned that another son, Spencer Tsang Lai Sun, married Man Kwai, daughter of the Reverend Ho Fuk-tong (1818-71) of Hong Kong.\n\nA further lead to more information was given by Chi Wang of the Orientalia Division, United States Library of Congress. In Shu Hsin-ch'eng's Chinese book on Chinese Students in Foreign Countries, the interpreter of the Educational Mission was identified by his official name, Tseng Heng-chung. The same is true in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207741, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "114\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\n“And you liked the manners and customs of the women in the United States?”\n\n\"Oh, yes\".\n\n\"And having returned to China, how is it? Are you diligently seeking for a young lady with bound feet for a wife? one who must stay at home because she can't walk?”\n\n\"No, indeed\", Yung Wing said, adding with a touch of humour that he wished for a wife who would be able to run with him should ever the need arise.\n\nThe conversation had struck a sensitive issue for these Chinese who had been trained in values different from their contemporaries. With some feeling, Lai-sun's wife spoke out.\n\n\"How can this cruel custom be abolished, when Christian women, by binding their own and their children's feet, are handing it down to future generations?\"\n\n\"Aside from religion\", remarked Yung Wing, \"the practice is barbarous, cruel and atrocious.”\n\nTheir changed attitudes toward certain aspects of Chinese life were not only reflected in their conversation but also in the furnishing of their home. The missionary lady comments on the Chan's “nice parlor” fitted out with both foreign and Chinese furniture. \"Most conspicuous was a very nice organ, with which the good man accompanies himself in singing the songs of Zion.”\n\nChan Lai-sun died on 2 June 1895 in Tientsin. His obituary, published in the North China Daily News, on which his son Spencer was a reporter, was republished in the Hong Kong Daily Press (12 June 1895). In addition to the biographical data given by Mr. Char, there is an account of his early business connections in Shanghai. He first entered the firm of Messrs. Bower, Hanbury and Company, where he became a close friend of Mr. Thomas Hanbury, one of the partners. He then set up his own business in partnership with Mr. H. E. Clapp of the firm Clapp and Company, but the venture was not a success, so Lai-sun joined the staff of Viceroy Tso Tsung-tang at Foochow, where he was appointed instructor and subsequently superintendent of the Foochow Naval School. He left the school to become a member of the Chinese Educational Mission in 1872. Returning to China in 1874, he then joined the staff of Viceroy Li Hung-chang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207742, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "CHAN LAI-SUN AND HIS FAMILY\n\n115\n\nHe served as chief secretary at the Chefoo Convention in 1876, and until the time of his death assisted at the many transactions Viceroy Li had with foreign powers. He was to have joined Li in his mission to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War, but Li excused him saying, “You are old and so am I; but I have to go because there is no help for it.\"\n\nAt the time of his death Chan Lai-sun was survived by his widow, two sons and two daughters. He was predeceased by his son William and a daughter. The death notice of his widow, who died at the age of 92 on 17 Jan. 1917, was published in the Chinese Recorder (v. 58, p. 258). Her son Spencer T. Lai-sun had died only thirteen days before.\n\nSpencer had been educated at Queen's College, Hong Kong, before being taken to the United States by his father at the inauguration of the Chinese Educational Mission in 1872. He and his elder brother, Elijah, attended Yale. According to his obituary (South China Morning Post, 23 Jan. 1917), Spencer had an “extraordinary command of English” and was remarkably well informed on Chinese affairs, being one of the first to forecast the gravity of the Boxer Uprising. He was simultaneously on the staff of a Chinese language newspaper, the Hu Pao, and of an English language paper, the North China Daily News, both published at Shanghai. In 1911 he abandoned his newspaper career and as an expectant Taotai joined the staff of Viceroy Tuan Fang at Nanking. Early in his career in 1885 he undertook a special mission to India. When a reporter of the Times of India interviewed him, he was impressed with Spencer's European style clothing and the absence of a queue, for the latter he was said to have been given special permission by the Chinese authorities.\n\nDuring his school days in Hong Kong, Spencer had become acquainted with the family of the Reverend Ho Fuk-tong, being most likely a regular attendant of the Chinese congregation which met in the afternoons at Union Church. He married Ho Man-kwai, the daughter of the pastor. She died in Shanghai in 1894 at the young age of twenty-eight, leaving a young daughter, Daisy.\n\nThe other two daughters of Chan Lai-sun married Europeans. The husband of the eldest daughter was a Danish ship captain, N. P. Andersen. He had seen service in the Taiping Revolution and had a long career in the Coast Staff of the Chinese Customs. He was somewhat older than his wife and married in middle age.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208500, "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-1978", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "208 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nThe westermost cannon has an inscription showing that it was cast in the 1st moon of the 10th year of the reign of Chia Ching (1805), weighing 1,200 catties (嘉慶十年正月造,重一千二百斤). Again, this cannon and some others were probably cast for the defence of the region against pirates.4 The cannon which lies next to it had been severely weathered, and the inscription is illegible. \n\nTwo cannons on the east wall bear the same inscriptions. These read as follows:-- \n\nCannon: weight 2,000 catties. \n\nYik: General of Border Pacification, by Imperial Appointment (欽命靖逆將軍奕(山)). \n\nChoi: Minister of Constant Support. Kay: Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, and Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi (太子少保廣東總督都堂祁(墳)). Leung: Assistant Minister of Defence, and Governor of Kwangtung (兵部侍郎廣東巡撫部院(寶常)). \n\nLau: Acting Prefect of Fat Shan Prefecture. Cheong: Reserve Magistrate of Hoi Fung District, supervised its manufacture (海豐縣丞即補縣昌、監造). \n\nIn the 10th moon of the 21st year of the reign of Tao Kwang (1841) (道光二十一年十月吉日). \n\nCast by Cannon Artisans Li, Chan, and Fok. \n\nDuring that time, British influence in this area was strong. Viceroy Lin Tse-hsü ordered the casting of cannons from Fat Shan for the fortification of the coast of Kwangtung. These two cannons must be two of those that Viceroy Lin had ordered to be cast, and they were placed in this region for defence purposes. \n\nThe cannon which lies next to these two is again illegible, because of severe weathering. \n\nThese six cannons were selected from elsewhere, some perhaps from the Kai Yik Kok Fort, others from the Shek Se Fort, and were mounted there. Though they were not cast at the same time, they had the same purpose: they were used to defend the region against pirates and foreign invasions. They are now preserved at Tung Chung and help to commemorate these events.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210884, "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-1986", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "218\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nThere may have been some substance to these reports, for, after leaving the service of the Hongkong Government, he became attached to the Kwangtung Provincial Tax Bureau. It was while he was in the Kwangtung Government administration that he became interested in the development of the mines of the province.\n\nA specimen of lead ore from the Wei Chau area was brought to his attention. It was almost pure ore. He sent a party to inspect the mine. Previously it had been worked by the Government, but after expending a large amount of money, the work had to be suspended because the mine was flooded. A-mei thought he could overcome this problem with modern machinery. He approached the Viceroy and was able to get his approval, but in the face of opposition from other officials, he decided not to pursue the project further.\n\nSome of his friends, however, did start work, having raised some $8,000. By the time the water problem was solved, all the money had been spent and further work was abandoned.\n\nHo A-mei's interest in the mineral wealth of Kwangtung had been aroused and he sent prospectors to various areas of the province to secure ore samples. From the reports he was convinced mining could be undertaken with profit.\n\nIn 1880 he became interested in some old mines at Tam Chow near the Bogue forts (Fu-mun) on the Pearl River. Some 30 years before they had been successfully developed at a profit of some $300,000, but this mine was also flooded so work had been abandoned. With the experience of his friends at the Wei Chow mines in the Wing On District in mind, A-mei decided it was not worth pursuing the reopening of the Tam Chow mines.\n\nIn 1883, however, a number of stone cutters struck a rich vein of ore about half a mile from the old mine. A-mei sent a specimen to England and it was found to be 13 per cent silver. He bought the mine for $10,000.\n\nNot long after, his attention was directed to mineral deposits on Lantao Island at Silvermine Bay. Investigation of the site indicated it was worth working. He arranged to lease the site for $2,000 a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210885, "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-1986", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "219\n\nyear from Chan Kan-to, whom he called the owner of the island. Having done so, he then applied to the provincial government for permission to work it.\n\nHe was about to send off a sample of the ore to England, when a mineralogist, Professor Milne of Tokyo, happened to be in Hong Kong. Ho A-mei arranged for him to visit the mines at Tam Chow and Lantao. The professor took some specimens back to Japan for analysis. He found the Tam Chow ore with 13 per cent silver, the same as the English report had been, and the Lantao specimen with five per cent.\n\nA-mei then proceeded to float a company for the development of the two mines. He imported machinery and brought from England a geologist, Mr. T.B. Chandler, as general supervisor, and an experienced Cornish miner, Mr. Phillips, to train and oversee the workers.\n\nA-mei tried to persuade the Kwangtung officials by pointing out that the development of mines would provide work for a large number of unemployed. Instead of going off to America, Australia and other places, the Cantonese people could be kept at home. His Australian experience had convinced him, however, that mines would only be operated profitably if modern machinery and methods were introduced from the West. With these arguments he persuaded the Viceroy of Kwangtung to establish a Bureau of Mines.\n\nIn March 1866, the Lantao Island mine was formally opened. A launch party composed of interested Chinese and Europeans went over from Hongkong.\n\nIt was, of course, necessary to get the favour of the earth god if the mine was to be a success. A small mat shed had been erected as a temporary temple. The sacrificial ceremonies were conducted by Chan, the owner of the land, the mandarin in charge of the island and his assistant, one of the directors of the mining company and Ho A-mei, the promoter of the mine. All of them were dressed in their official mandarin robes and the European observers were suitably impressed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210898, "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-1986", "page_number": 249, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "232\n\nCARL SMITH\n\ntal to their people, and it will thus be in their power to cut off the supply altogether by a pecuniary sacrifice, far less than that voluntarily taken by England in the emancipation of slaves in the West Indies.\n\nA number of historians have regarded Li Hung-chang's attitude towards the opium problem as ambiguous. However that may be, he took a strong stand in a letter he addressed to the Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.\n\nHis statement was couched in a high moral tone.\n\n\"Opium is a subject of discussion of which England and China can never meet on common ground. China views the whole question from a moral standpoint; England from a fiscal. England would sustain a source of revenue in India, while China contends for the lives and prosperity of its people. The ruling motive of China is to repress opium by heavy taxation everywhere, whereas with England the manifest object is to make opium cheaper, and thus increase and stimulate the demand in China.”\n\nLi recognised that the crux of the issue was the importance of opium for the revenue of India, and thus indirectly of Britain. He contended that China did not tax opium because of the revenue it produced, but “the present import duty on opium was established, not from choice, but because China submitted to the adverse decision of arms. The war must be considered as China's standing protest against legalising such a revenue.\n\nA Shanghai paper did not believe the letter was composed by Viceroy Li. It stated: \"It bears the impression of foreign --- we had almost written missionary penmanship throughout.” It was perhaps the product of one of the Viceroy's advisers trained in a missionary school, such as Wu T’ing-fang (Ng Choy) or Chan Lai-sun. Whoever wrote it, it went out under Li's name and must have represented his opinions.\n\nThe letter became the subject of a question in Parliament to the Secretary of State for India as to whether the Indian Government was taking any steps to review Britain's position on the opium", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210933, "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-1986", "page_number": 283, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "266\n\ning in the New Territories. Unfortunately, the British misunderstood that the soldiers were sent there to assist the uprising.\n\nWith this as an excuse, the British invaded the Walled City on the 8th day of the Fourth Moon (i.e. 19th May) and drove away the Imperial officials and the three hundred soldiers.\n\nThis ended the Ch'ing rule over the Kowloon Walled City.\n\nHong Kong, June 1987\n\nAnthony K. K. SIU\n\nNOTES\n\n2\n\nSee JHKBRAS 20(1980): 139-141.\n\nThey were said to be Hakka stone workers and Triad members.\n\nCheung Yu-tang E, a native of Wai Chau H, was a Fu-cheung #or Brigadier of the Tai Pang Battalion in 1854. He was stationed in the Walled City for thirteen years. Then he retired in the 5th year of Tung Chih (1866) and died four years later in the 9th year of Tung Chih (1870) at the age of 76.\n\nSee Chapter 82 of the Kwangchow Fu Chi, Kuang Hsu edition 廣州府志卷八十二,\n\n5 See the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong, 1898 (signed at Peking, 9th June, 1898): Treaties between China and Foreign States Vol. 1, P. 539-540. Shang-hai, 1917.\n\n6 See Despatches and other Papers relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1899.\n\nSee the Report of Viceroy Tam Chung-lun and Governor Luk Chuen-lam of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces to the Imperial Court on the Lease of Kowloon Customs and her territory on the 9th day of the 4th moon in the 25th year of the Kuang Hsu Reign (1899).\n\nSee the Report of Viceroy Tam Chung-lun and Governor Luk Chuen-lam of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces to the Imperial Court on the British Occupation of the Kowloon City and the French Occupation of Ng Chuen and Shui Kai Prefectures 奧督撫譚鈺麟鹿傳霖泰英人佔據九龍城法人圖佔吳川遂溪兩縣請飭籌 on the 15th day of the 5th moon in the 25th year of Kuang Hsu (1899).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211120, "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-1987", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "156\n\nIn its memorial the Chamber of Commerce maintained that both foreigners and Chinese who were British subjects, when travelling or reading in China, needed the protection of a consul and the right to be tried in a British Consular Court.\n\nOn the other hand, the Chinese on the British soil of Hongkong needed no such protection. They could rest confident in the fair administration of British justice. In addition it was pointed out, \"they have an important official in the Registrar General, to whom as 'Protector of Chinese' they can always have recourse for advice and assistance.\n\nThe Chefoo Convention was never ratified by Britain. Therefore China could not claim by treaty rights the privilege of appointing a consul for Hongkong.\n\nThe question arose again in 1874 as the result of the so-called \"blockade of Hongkong.\" This development had been anticipated by Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British Minister to China, at the time China had first asked for permission to station an official in Hongkong as a check to smuggling.\n\nIn 1868 the Viceroy of the Two-Kwangs had opened customs stations near Hongkong to collect provincial duties on goods carried by Chinese junks sailing from Hongkong.\n\nTwo of them were near the eastern and western approaches to the Hongkong harbour. Another was on the island of Cheung Chau. In 1871 the stations began collecting the treaty tariff duty on opium,\n\nIn addition, armed revenue cruisers were introduced to see that the stations were not bypassed. They patrolled Chinese junks, chased smugglers and attempted to ensure that proper duties were paid. The foreign merchants in Hongkong labelled this effort of the Chinese to protect their interests as a \"blockade.”\n\nThe Chinese, however, had not given up their wish to have a consul in Hongkong. The expense of maintaining a fleet of armed vessels near Hongkong was heavy. There was always the danger", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211244, "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-1987", "page_number": 305, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "280\n\ntwo of those that were placed in this region for defence purposes, and installed at Kowloon Walled City when that was built in 1847.\n\nANTHONY K.K. SIU\n\n1 Wu T'u-li #, White Banner Manchu, Acting Governor of Kwangtung from the 5th year to the 7th year of Chia Ch'ing (1800-1802).\n\n1 Chüeh-lo-chi Ch'ing, White Banner Manchu, Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi from the 1st year to the 7th year of Chia-ch'ing (1796-1802).\n\n} Sun Ch'uan-mou, native of Fukien Province, Commander-in-chief of the Kwangtung (Marine) Forces from the 1st year to the 9th year of Chia-ch'ing (1796-1804).\n\n4\n\nFrom the inscription, the name of the Commissioner of Salt Transport of Kwangtung and Kwangsi is illegible. However, from historical record, the one who was in that post was Zhang Ch'uan, native of Chekiang Province.\n\nHONG KONG'S OWN BOAT PEOPLE\n\nIn April 1970, I went with one of my friends to visit his mother who lived on a boat in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. The friend was a boatman who crewed and looked after a pleasure boat for a European firm. He lived in a squatter hut in Chai Wan Cottage Resettlement Area.\n\nThe old lady belonged to the indigenous boat population of Hong Kong Island. She had been born on a boat moored off the old Dairy Farm pier inside the present typhoon shelter. This was in 1890. Her father had also been born there in a boat, and she thought this had been so for several generations: at least, this was the family's received information. Her husband had also been born on a boat in the area, and his father before him, and with the same family tradition of local identity.\n\nThis evidence is not conclusive, being based only on word of mouth within these two families of boat people. The grandparents might have come into the area upon the opening of the port in the 1840s. On the other hand, a pre-British origin would accord with many other cases known to me, in which Tanka boat people had attached themselves to small bays and local anchorages: by all accounts and certainly by their own traditions for generations, and perhaps even for centuries.\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211396, "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-1988", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "88\n\npanic; many of the people abandoned their homes without taking food or money, and with their wives and children were driven towards the boundary. Destitute, many of them died on the road, while a few managed to escape to Kwai Shin district and other places as far away as they could.\n\nA year later the boundary was moved a further 30 Chinese miles inland. The new boundary ended to the west at Taai Ch'ung Hau and Sha T'ong Fong and to the east at Taai Shaan Ha and Paak T'au Shaan, a flag being put up at each of these places. Almost immediately the district magistrate of Tung Kwun made a personal inspection of the places where the flags were erected and he reported that the people in Taai Chung Hau had not moved so the flag was taken from Sha Tong Fong and hoisted on top of Shek Shaan. Thus the six villages Ch'ung Hau, Lau Ka Haang, Chaak Mei, K'iu T'au and Tau Ch'ung all had to be moved, but at Kiu T'au a rope was put between it and the boundary and half only of the village was shifted. The Viceroy Lo Shung Tsun quite sympathized with the people, and joined with other high officials in sending a memorial to the throne, stating how miserable the people were, and begging that fewer villages should be caused to move.\n\nIn the 10th month of the same year (1663) two head boatmen, Chau Yuk and Lei Wing revolted against the Ts'ing Government in Kwangtung. These two men were the owners of fleets of several hundreds of junks that usually fished in the rivers of Poon Yue district. All the junks had long oars as well as three sails so they were very fast. In addition they stored a lot of arms on board. Both Lei and Chau had a military title of Yau Kik bestowed on them by the P'ing Naam Wong, as their sailors had proved themselves of great assistance in fighting sea-battles against the Ming soldiers. When, however, the order was issued preventing boats from putting out to sea the junks of Chau and Lei were detained in the rivers and their families forced to live in Canton city. Chau and Lei pretended to get leave to go home and bury the bones of their ancestors. Secretly they took their families away from Canton, and collecting all the boatmen they put out to sea. Then openly they attacked the Ts'ing forces, capturing many of their ships and burning the guard stations along the coast. They never", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211397, "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-1988", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "89\n\ntouched anything belonging to the people, however. They then ventured up the Canton river, burning ships and attacking Canton itself. At last Chau was captured by the Ts'ing general, Cheung (), and Lei put out to sea again and kept his junks near Taai P'aang (A) now Kowloon city. In the 3rd year of Hong Hei, 1664, a battle was fought off Kowloon city between Cheung and Lei. The latter was beaten, and was forced to take refuge at Tung Ch'ung (Hafi) on Taai Ue Shaan (AMBULI), Lantau Island.\n\nThere now followed a time of great distress for the unhappy country people. More villages were forced to move, and the people treated with great harshness. Many of them who refused to go or even hesitated were killed by the soldiers. At the beginning of the Ts'in Fuk the people imagined that it was only a temporary measure and they managed to keep together with their wives and children. But after three years had passed they found themselves without means of livelihood. So the husbands left their wives, the fathers left their children, and the elder brothers younger brothers, each pushing north in the hope of finding work, leaving behind them the sound of crying and sorrow.\n\nIn the 8th month of the 3rd year of Hong Hei a man named Yuen Sze To (AP48), a Foo Muk (11) (an official title meaning \"Head of relief and soothing of the people\") disobeyed the order to move over the boundary, and collecting a crowd of discontented country people, he made a stronghold in Lik Yuen (HM) a village near Sha Tin. He had other quarters in Kwun Foo (1fif), now Kowloon city and his followers acted as bandits robbing and killing as they pleased. They gave much trouble to the Ts'ing government, as when the soldiers were sent out to search the solitary parts for people hiding in order to avoid being moved, they were often set on by Yuen's band and either robbed or killed by them. Eventually they were exterminated after a long time by an officer named Tseung Wang Yun (1479) who was sent with a large company of soldiers to Sha Tin for that purpose.\n\nThe following year a system of beacons was started along the coast to be used as signals in case of attack. In the same year the retiring Viceroy Lei Sut T'aai (4) in his Wai Soh (6) a valedictory address to Emperor Hong Hei, asked him not to press too firmly the question of removing the people over the boundary. \"When I was in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211399, "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-1988", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "91\n\nbefore leaving Kwangtung or on his arrival in Peking is uncertain, and there are many private records that state that he did not die a natural death, having taken poison by his own hand, as a protest to the throne. Roughly translated Wong's address said, in part: \"Although your Majesty has not thrown me away but instead given me this post, I am an officer of no use, most of the government affairs that I want to do having failed, and my abilities being inadequate for the position. Now I have received information from Peking that the ministers of the Board have reported badly of me, and having the Imperial degree dismissing me, I may die at any moment. It is hopeless for me to return to the capital while I am alive. But as I have been in this appointment for two years already, I understand quite well Kwangtung affairs. Your Majesty wants to have the affairs kept better and better, and as I have a clear knowledge of things and can be sure of future happenings, if I keep my mouth shut when I am about to die, I surely carry my sin to the grave. Therefore I cannot help putting it to your Majesty that the boundary be removed as soon as possible. Kwangtung faces the water and is backed by the hills, and the level land is not wide. Twice have the people living near the water been moved inland. Several hundred thousand people are now homeless, large troops of soldiers are kept in the places whence they were removed, in order to watch the boundary, and government builds beacons, railings, etc., which have to be repaired. None of this is paid for out of government funds; the people are taxed in order to pay it. ... I therefore beg that the boundary be abolished and the people allowed to return to their own villages to farm and evaporate salt. ... The above-mentioned affairs are forbidden, and all high officers dare not mention them, but as I am on the point of death, I pour out my blood to write this suggestion as my will before my death. Though I have done nothing for my country, since I can have this matter put before you, I can die without regret.\"\n\nAt first, this letter had no result, but eventually, a party of officials were sent from Peking to inspect the boundary in the company of Chau Yau Tak (**周佑德**), the Viceroy. The latter, seeing the wretched condition of the removed people, at once urged the Emperor to let them go home. \"Do not wait till the inspection is over,\" he said, \"It is urgent to let the people prepare seeds and develop the land to be ready for farming next spring.\" Thus, at last, in the 8th year of Hong Hei, 1669, an Imperial decree was issued abolishing the boundary. It is said that when the people", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211400, "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-1988", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "44\n\n+\n\nheard it they shouted for joy, and started off to their homes at once, full of hope. But when they found their houses half fallen down, some villages entirely hidden by the long grasses, and the paddy fields covered with weeds, they were much dishearted, realizing that they were not any better off when they were inside the boundary. San On district had in the meanwhile been re-established and Lei Hoh Shing (5) the district magistrate gives a pitiful picture of the condition of the land and people. ... I arrived as district magistrate and found many old and young lying in ditches, having died from hunger. The strong young men are gone to other places to earn their livings. When I look down from a height all is dense undergrowth and fallen walls and I cannot hear the voice of a single wild goose in the distance . . . . so I get oxen trained to plough..... and every so often I collect one or two lucky-to-be-alive people and try to encourage them to develop the barren land. We stand about and talk, but when the talking is not half finished each of us cannot help sobbing with grief. . . .\n\n++\n\nThus gradually the land was worked back to its old state, and to perpetuate the memory of the two men who had done so much to help the people, a hall was built in Shek Woo Market (M) by the Sheung Shui (E) villagers and their neighbours. The name of the hall was **Tuk Foo I Kung Ts'z** (A) \"The Viceroy and the Governor, these two Sirs Hall\". Over the front door three characters were written Po Tak Ts'z \"Return thanks for the Bounty Hall\". The hall was used for the village council for many years and every year on the birthdays of Governor Wong and Viceroy Chau a feast is held in the hall by the village elders. Another such hall is in Kam Tin (see H.K.N. VIII, page 207 and plate 20(2))* and has been used as a school for many years. It is situated on Taai Sha Chau (7) amidst beautiful scenery and near it is the Kam Shui (*) “ornamental stream\", with a big lawn like a tennis court in front of it. A large lichee orchard is on the left-hand side of the hill.\n\nSince the 10th year of Kin Lung (#), 1745, each Yuet Chau (ZE) year, which occurs every ten years [sic], the Kam Tin people have a matshed erected for Kin Tsiu ( ), the festival of the Dead. Two water colour paintings of the Governor and Viceroy are displayed\n\n* Vol. 14, of the Journal, plate 41.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211401, "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-1988", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "93\n\non the wall while \"Kin Tsiu” is held, and any valuable curios owned by the Kam Tin villagers are displayed on tables as well. A story tells how on the first of these occasions, after five days and nights of festival the Kin Tsiu was finished, and the matshed about to be pulled down. Suddenly a lot of Hei Shuen (6) ships for carrying actors and their properties arrived at Hung Fan Taam (红粉潭), a pool near the Kam Shui. The actors' manager went on shore to see the elders of the village to arrange matters, and were surprised to be told by them that he was not expected as they had not ordered any theatrical performance. He declared that ten days before, two very grandly dressed men had come to him and made a contract to have a play performed in Kam Tin for five days. He then displayed the contract, and the elders found two signatures on it, one being Chau (周) and the other Wong (王). Much surprised, the elders led the man into the hall, where the man gave a cry on seeing the portraits of the Viceroy and the Governor, \"Those are the two gentlemen who made the contract with us\", he said, \"are they not some of your elders, and where are they now?\" So the Kam Tin people decided that it was the souls of Viceroy Chau and Governor Wong who wanted them to have the performance, so, being without money ready to pay the actors, they decided to appropriate some money from the ancestral funds of Naam K'ai (南溪) and Ts'ing Lok (清乐) to pay the expenses. Since then, every ten years the Kam Tin people have five days for the Festival of the Dead and five days for the performance of a play.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212767, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "61\n\nNovember 1862\n\n1863 March\n\n1863 May 1864 April\n\n1864\n\n1864-1865\n\n1867 Winter\n\n1867\n\nhis junk and three others\n\nCaptured at Fu-shan-chan by Taiping rebels. Mesny held first in Soochow and Chang-shu, then at Pao-ying the Taiping camp, and finally in Nanking\n\nRescued by Adkins, the British Consul at Chin-kiang aboard HMS Slaney and taken back to Chin-kiang\n\nJoined Chinese Imperial Customs Service, Hankow\n\nResigned from Customs Service after fourteen months Involved in cotton broking\n\nEstablished the Hankow Horse Bazaar, a private hotel in Hankow, and set up Hupei Iron and Brassworks, Han-yang Romantic interlude with a Chinese widow in Hankow Mesny called on Tso Tsung-tang during the latter's visit to Hankow and was appointed his French and English Secretary, and was further offered the opportunity to accompany Tso on his campaign to the Northwest. Mesny also claimed that he had made recommendations to Marquis Tso Tsung-tang for a number of undertakings to help modernise China\n\nSold the Huper Iron and Brassworks to officials of the Viceroy of Szechuan province\n\nMesny's trek to war\n\n1868 June\n\nLate July or early August Late August\n\nSeptember\n\nLeft Hankow, after five year's residence, for Szechuan to become a drill instructor with the Szechuan Force\n\nArrived Chungking\n\nDeparted Chungking for Kueichou to join the Szechuan Force suppressing the Miao rebellion: he accepted employment as a military instructor (wu-chiao hsi)\n\nArrived Niu-ch'ang, the headquarters of the Szechuan Force in Kueichou\n\nSeptember 1868-May 1874 Involved in the military campaigns to suppress the Miao\n\nThe Advance: Late Summer 1868-March 1869\n\n1869\n\nPromoted Colonel, awarded the Star of China and the Flowery Plume The Retreat: Summer 1869-Summer 1870 1870/1871\n\n1871\n\n1872\n\nHelped form a joint stock company in Kuei-yang to \"recover mercury\"\n\nThe Withdrawal: mid-August 1870-Lunar New Year 1871\n\nca 1873\n\n1873\n\n1874 Spring\n\nEstablished a small day school for poor boys and girls in the Jade Emperor temple in Kuei-yang, importing suitable books and paying a Chinese teacher, a struggling student painter, Chin Yü-t'ang Siege of Hsin-ch'eng in upper Kueichou (Mesny involved in preparations for the siege during 1871)\n\nWent to Szechuan with General Chou Ta-wu\n\nPromoted Major-General and awarded the Ying-yung Pa-t'u-lu Left Kueichou for Szechuan: Margary expected to meet Mesny in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212769, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "63\n\n1881\n\nApril\n\nJune\n\n1882 February March Spring\n\n1882 November 1882/1883\n\n1883 May\n\n1833 Autumn\n\n1883\n\nca 1883/1884\n\nEarly 1884\n\n1884 July\n\nArrived Hami\n\nPassed through Shensi and Kansu to Turkestan he tried to push on through Central Asia to India but was stopped; again, tried to push on to the Russian frontiers via Ili and Tarbagatai but was stopped, visited Hami [HQ Chinese Army]. Residence in Hami where he said he remained until the Treaty of Livadia [2-10-79] was signed and where he learned a number of Turkish words. [Mesny claimed that in 1882 returning from Kashgaria he stayed in Tso Tsung-t’ang's camp. [Tso was recalled from Hami to Peking in late 1880] Departed Hami and retraced his steps leisurely across the Gobi desert to Kansu, on to northern Tibet (visited old fashioned gold diggings) and back to Kan-chou to refit before continuing into Tibet a second time in another direction. He then, travelled through the Kokonor region ending up at Lanchou, February 1881, via Hsi-ning.\n\nDeparted from Northwest China for Peking, via Si-an, Ho-nan Fu, Tai-yuan Fu and Pao-ting Fu.\n\nWhilst in Si-an Mesny visited the Nestorian Cross, later, on his first evening in Taiyuan he lost 640 pages of notes, the journal of his Journey to Hami from Canton\n\nArrived Peking\n\nVisited Tientsin to await the first steamers of the season carrying mails Returned to Tai-yuan in Shansi and Pao-ting Fu, and again visited Si-an.\n\nVisited the famous Shao-lin monastery in the Sung-shan [Mountains] near Ho-nan Fu and invited to settle down for a couple of years with the monks.\n\nDeparted Shansi for Canton; however,\n\nVisited Yunnan province at the invitation of T'ang Chung to assist in the development of natural resources of the province The French authorities in Tongkin insisted that Mesny leave the province Passed through Ch'engtu and Yunnan Fu heading for Canton via Po-se, Nanning Kuangsi [Kuei-hsien, where he spent three to four months whilst the Franco-Chinese war raged in Tongkin), Kueichou and the West River. He travelled much of the way by large house boat. He took careful notes which he offered to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce but failed to receive any encouragement\n\nArrived Canton, then visited Hong Kong, Macau, Swatow, Amoy and Foochou [Viceroy Chang Chih-tung retained Mesny at Canton for one year and ten months (nfd) He lived in an hotel unable to get an appointment from Chang he eventually withdrew. Mesny met Kung Chao-yuan, the Commissary General at Shanghai for Formosa, at the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai\n\nVisited tomb of Su Hsiao-hsiao near Hangchou. (a celebrated courtesan of the 11th century AD)\n\nDeparted Canton via Hong Kong for Foochou and Shanghai [elsewhere he noted that he had been recommended for the post of Foreign Superintendent of the Arsenal at Foochou during his visit there in 1883)\n\nIn Wu-chang and Han-yang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212795, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "89\n\nChang was the first scholar in the land. Sir Everard Fraser, the Consul-General in Hankow for ten years [1901-1911], was an excellent scholar. He once told Green that he had taken a despatch in Chinese to Viceroy Chang, of Wuchang, who had become a friend of his when he was in Hankow, for his opinion on it. The Viceroy read a few lines, and then taking up his brush-pen began to edit. ‘And then,' said Sir Everard, ‘I had the finest lesson in Chinese that I ever got.' Chang was that rara avis, the official who scorned to enrich himself.\n\nChiang Chao-ling #*# @ Chiang Pa-hsia (1846-1891)\n\nA native of Szechuan, Chiang met Mesny when he, Chiang, was travelling to Yunnan to take up an appointment as County Magistrate of Hsi-o Hsien. He and Mesny were thrown out of the province at the behest of the French in Tongkin. They met again in Canton and Shanghai where Chiang's pursuit of reform was not appreciated by other officials. He died in Peking. Mesny and Chiang were to have started a monthly magazine in Shanghai in 1887 to be called the Yueh Pao ♬ which was to have been the organ of the reform party. Chiang was to have been the chief editor and Mesny the registered owner and business manager. Mesny intended to use his nom-de-plume of Meng-hua # but in the event the magazine appears not to have been published.\n\nCooper T.T.\n\nVisited Hankow and asked Mesny to accompany him on a trek to India. Mesny refused as the fees offered were too low. He later expressed regret at having refused as he 'had missed an opportunity to travel.'\n\nDamström\n\nCaptain Damström was referred to by Mesny three times during his times in Hankow in the mid 1860s. Once as a gunnery officer on one of the first steam boats ever owned by the Chinese, at Ningpo, and later as Captain of the S.S. Pao-hua [nfd]. Mesny took him along together with a Captain Dix to offer their services to General Tso of the Imperial Force in the Northwest of China. Tso offered all three of them positions as instructors but we never hear the outcome as far as Damström and Dix were concerned.\n\nThe second occasion was when Damström went off with the other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212812, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "Jan. 9th, 1896.\n\nMESNY'S Chinese MISCELLANY.\n\nland and sea forces, and its head-quarters are on the coast of Hai-nan Island. It furnishes a marine battalion to the sea-coast naval force. The marine battalion is called Ai Chou Hsieh Shui Shih Yu Ying, or the Right Wing Marine Battalion of the Ai Chou Brigade. It is commanded by a Shou-pei, Second-Major, who is assisted by a Shui Shih Chien-tsung, Naval Captain, two Shui Shih Pa-tsung, First and Second Naval Lieutenants, besides the usual number of non-commissioned officers and men.\n\nThe remainder of the brigade forms part of the land forces of the Hai-nan division Ch'ing Chou.\n\n1437. KUANG-TUNG SHUI SHIH KE CHUN LUN CH'UAN 廣東水師各軍輪船\n\n:-The Steam Naval Forces of Kuang-tung province, or the Canton Provincial Steam Fleet. In the year 1884 there were altogether fifty-six steam vessels of various sorts and sizes belonging to the provincial authorities of Kuang-tung.\n\nThe best of the steamers, the Fei Chao Hai, Chên-jui and An Lan, are neither new, powerful nor fast, though serviceable craft for sea-going gun-boats. Some of the others are of the alphabetical class, but they have been so badly kept that they are far from reliable as to steam power. Some of the vessels are hardly fit to go to sea; though not old in point of age they are not sound, and never were very swift or powerful, even for their class. The rest are nothing better than pleasure boats or steam launches for riverine purposes.\n\nCANTON GUN-BOAT SQUADRON,\n\n \n Name\n Flug and Rig.\n Guns.\n Tons.\n H.P.\n \n \n Chee-hing\n cruiser\n 7\n 450\n 265\n \n \n An-lan\n gun-boat\n 2\n 80\n 20\n \n \n Chên-jui\n cruiser\n -\n -\n -\n \n \n Chên-to\n gun-boat\n 7\n 450\n 265\n \n \n Chop-chung\n gun-boat\n 5\n 500\n 300\n \n \n Chop-sai\n gun-boat\n 3\n 80\n 17\n \n \n Hai-chong-ching\n gun-boat\n -\n 320\n 200\n \n \n Hai-king-ching\n gun-boat\n 4\n 320\n 200\n \n \n Hoi-tung-hung\n -\n 3\n 350\n -\n \n \n Lien-chi\n gun-boat\n 3\n 200\n -\n \n \n Peng-chao-hai\n cruiser\n 3\n 450\n 310\n \n \n Quang-on\n gun-boat\n 3\n 155\n 100\n \n \n San-hing\n gun-boat\n 3\n 150\n 100\n \n \n Tching-on\n gun-boat\n 3\n 150\n 100\n \n \n Tching-po\n gun-boat\n 3\n 150\n 100\n \n \n Tchun-tung\n gun-boat\n 3\n 170\n 100\n \n\nN.B. Some of these vessels have now been condemned.\n\nBy order of the Viceroy of the Two Kuang Provinces (Chang Chih-tung) seventeen of the most serviceable war steamers have been formed into a fleet, called Shui Shih Chin Kor Naval Corps. Each of these ships is called a Shao or company. Four ships, Shao or companies, form a Ying, battalion, or squadron, and four Ying, or squadrons form the Chun, or Corps (may be fleet.) The odd ship is the Peng Chao Hai, and serves as flag ship for the commandant of the fleet, who is styled Tung-ling, and is also commander of his own flag-ship. His titular rank is Tu-ssü, or Major (just now), was, when appointed, Shou-pei, Second Major only.\n\n1438. CHAO CH'ING SHUI SHIH YING -The Chao-ch'ing Naval or Marine Regiment.\n\nThis regiment, although forming part of the Riverine Naval Force, is actually a part of the Governor-General's Staff Corps, and is usually styled the Tu Piao Shui Shih Ying on that account.\n\nThe Governor-General of the Two Kuang Provinces was formerly stationed at Chao-ch'ing Fu, a prefectural city some hundred miles or so from Canton on the north bank of the West River, hence the reason why five of the six regiments forming his Staff Corps are stationed there to this day.\n\nThe Chao-ch'ing Naval Regiment is commanded by a Tu Chiang, Colonel, whose Adjutant is a Shou-pei, Second-Major. The regiment is divided into two Shao or companies, each of which is commanded by a Chien-tsung, Captain, assisted by two Pa-tsung, Lieutenants, and the usual complement of Wai Wei, Sub-Lieutenants and non-commissioned officers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 } ]