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MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE

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local recruits. The venture was rumoured to be the work of the Ming Lan Tong, a literary society of Tung-kuan city. Additional credence was given to the reports when it was learned that some officers of the Tong were members of the Hsin-an Tang clan. Police on patrol in the New Territory also noted that women were leaving their villages. By 10th May the exodus had reached major proportions.

It was evident that the Sham Chun river was not a defensible frontier and that the best way to forestall attack was to occupy the area from which it was to be launched. On 16th May two columns, numbering 1500 men in all, landed from Deep Bay and Mirs Bay and marched on Sham Chun. That evening the Union Jack was hoisted over Sham Chun market, to the accompaniment of a 21-gun salute. A proclamation was issued declaring that Sham Chun was British territory and that the Viceroy had no further jurisdiction in the district. There had been no resistance and no sign of forces massing to attack the New Territory.

The occupation of Sham Chun was confined to an area within five miles of the Sham Chun river, including Sha Tau, Sham Chun, and the road between them. Neither civil nor military jurisdiction were extended further. However, in the hinterland the occupation of Sham Chun and the proclamation which accompanied it were interpreted as a prelude to the occupation of the entire district. In particular, the Tangs of Pan T'in feared a punitive expedition against themselves.

Much of the information about subsequent events comes from one source. The Rev. Martin Schaub* of the Basel Mission had a station at Li Long, near Pan T'in, in the north of the district. Rev. Schaub wrote periodically to the officer commanding at Sham Chun and his letters convey a vivid impression of the activity precipitated by the occupation. Late in May he wrote that the leaders of Pan T'in had asked the larger villages to help in resisting the British. He said money was being collected and that armed men were making their way toward Pan T'in.

* The printed documents call him "Hart", but this must be in error for Rev. Martin Schaub of the Basel Mission. A photograph and brief biography are given at pp. 16, 438 of Marshall Broomhall, The Chinese Empire: a General and Missionary Survey, London, [1907]. Perhaps hand-writing was responsible for the wrong transcription into the printed documents, Ed.
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CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG

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(10) Relation of land ownership to élite status can be judged by a list of the twenty highest rate-payers in 1876 and 1881, published in the Government Gazette. The list includes both Europeans and Chinese. In 1876 European ownership outranks Chinese twelve to eight; but in 1881 ownership had shifted so that there were seventeen Chinese among the twenty highest rate-payers. In the 1881 list seven of the top twenty were of compradore families, six were merchants, one contractor, and the widow of Rev. Ho Fuk Tong, ordained minister of the London Missionary Society's Chinese congregation.

The terminal date for this study is the opening of Tung Wah Hospital in 1872. After this date, the names of the Directors of the Hospital published in the Development of the Tung Wah Hospital 1870-1960 are an excellent criteria for determining élite status. After 1872 there is also an ever increasing number of subscriptions, memorials, committees, delegations, etc., which serve as counter-checks to the Tung Wah Directorships.

For a study of élite based on such lists, it is necessary to give identity to the names by a biographical sketch. These sketches indicate the manner by which the individual arrived at élite status. To reconstruct the biographies of these early residents of Hong Kong is not easy. Only documentary sources have been used for this reconstruction. No information has been sought from present day descendants of these individuals. I have relied upon such material as newspapers, Land Registry Office records, the Police and Lighting Rates for 1860, 1868 and 1872, the Government Gazettes and Blue Books, the published Calendar of Probates and Administrations, the Colonial Office Records in the Public Records Office, London, and the archives of several Missionary Societies. The Chinese practice of using various aliases complicates identification. In one instance, for example, an individual used at various times and in various relationships ten different aliases. The varying Romanization for Chinese names constitutes another problem for the researcher who uses western sources. The contemporary English, Portuguese, Germans and French each had a different system for Romanizing Chinese characters. For instance on page 101 there is a reference to Tso Aon's brother, Chow Yik Cheong. The Chinese character
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NOTES AND QUERIES 

293 

The former had been purchased in 1859 at a Government Land Sale by an Austrian, Gustav Overbeck (later Baron von Overbeck), a partner in the firm of Dent and Co. In the following year, Lot 607 was granted by Government to the Berlin Women's Society as a site for their foundling hospital. The trustees were Overbeck and the Rev. Johann Ludwig Ladendorff. 

New trustees were named in 1869, and of these, three were German merchants; Berthold Friedrich Johann Schwarzkopf, founder of the firm of Blackhead and Co., Friedrich August Julius Menke, of William Pustau and Co., and Gustav Overbeck. The other trustee was Ladendorff's successor as Superintendent of the Foundling Hospital, Rev. Ernest Klitzke. 

In 1892, Lot 624 was purchased by the Government. The remaining lot was registered in the name of the Director in Hong Kong of the Berlin Ladies Mission for China, incorporated by Ordinance No. 12 of 1889. At the time of the First World War, the property was administered as alien property. Finally, in 1925, it was surrendered to Government. 

As residents of an English colony with a predominant Chinese population, those for whom English or Chinese is not a first language tend to organize groups where they can use their mother tongue. A German Club was organized in Hong Kong in 1859, and by 1867 a recognized German church congregation was meeting regularly. 

German church services had been held previous to 1867, however. A report of the Berlin Society concerning its activities in 1858 mentions the baptism of a certain Lydia (Wei-mong) “at a German service at Victoria”. The Day Book of the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, of the Basel Missionary Society, notes on May 19, 1861, attendance at a German service on Morrison Hill, where the premises of the Berlin Society were located before they occupied "Bethesda" in July, 1861. Another Basel Society missionary, the Rev. Philip Winnes, in 1858 reported, "I preached to the German sailors, for there are always ships arriving from Hamburg and Bremen. Also this year a poor German established a German Inn for sailors, where always a few people are staying until they can find employment. In this inn, I preached until the sailors had had enough, and that they had quite soon.” (Heidenbote, March, 1858, p. 15).
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the instruction of the Rev. Theodore Hamberg, preparatory to baptism. On 26 April, 1852, Fung Sen introduced Hung Jen-kan to Hamberg. Two days later, Fung was baptized with ten others at the small chapel of the Basel Missionary Society in Hong Kong. The entry in Hamberg's report lists him as "Fung Asen, aged 21 years, from Lilong, tailor's worker." When Hamberg left Hong Kong at the end of March, 1853 to establish a station at Pukak (Pu-kit, Hsin-an District), Fung Sen accompanied him. He was employed by the Mission as a watchman. 

A biographical notice of one of the Taiping refugees, Li Tsin-kau (†), which was published in the missionary magazine of the Basel Society, Die Evangelischen Heidenboten, June, 1868, provides interesting sidelights on Hung Jen-kan's unsuccessful effort to reach Nanking in 1854. It also illustrates the connections established between missionaries and those who had been influenced by personal association with Hung Hsiu-ch'uan before he became the Taiping Wang. 

Li Tsin-kau was a native of Wo Kuk Lyan, in the Ch'ing-yüan District, Kwangtung. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan had been a teacher in the household of the maternal grandfather of Li Tsin-kau, and Tsin-kau's father was a good friend of Hsiu-ch'uan. He had often heard his father tell of Hung and his visions. Was the father the Li Ching-fan who drew the attention of Hung to Liang A-fa's Christian tract? Hung himself often visited Wo Kuk Lyang. During these visits there would be discussions regarding the moral and political conditions of China and hopes expressed that these could be improved and the rule of Heaven (T’ien-kuo) established. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan and Li Tsin-kau discussed especially the benefits of fasting and abstaining from meats and the worship of idols. Tsin-kau remembered that Hung spoke often of the power of God to conquer the demons. He also spoke of Jesus as our Heavenly Brother who forgave men's sins, but this was not the main theme of Hung's thoughts, "It was though it had not much touched his heart (“Wenigstens sei es ihm nicht sehr zu Herzen gegangen"). 

Li Tsin-kau was caught up in the displacement of the former friends and relatives of the Taiping leaders. When the authorities frustrated the plan to join the Taiping movement in Kwangsi, he fled to Macao. He lost track of his brothers and father, and later believed that they were imprisoned. His mother was taken in and 

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cared for by friends of the family, and his wife and children fled to her parents' home. Tsin-kau tried to make a living by travelling about the area between Macao and Canton offering his services as a fung-shui expert. After a time, he moved east to the districts of Kuei-shan and Po-lo. After more than a year, he ventured to return to his home district. Here he met up with Hung Jen-kan. The two of them, accompanied perhaps by other friends and relatives, came down to Hong Kong hoping that they could from here find a way to join Hung Hsiu-ch'uan at Nanking, the capital of the Taiping Kingdom. As Hakkas, they sought out the missionaries of the Basel Society, which had devoted itself to work among this dialect group. Jen-kan met the Rev. Theodore Hamberg for a second time at Pu-kit in Hsin-an District. Here he received further instruction in preparation for baptism and was baptized on 20 September, 1853. Hamberg reports six baptisms on this date. The first was "Fung or Hung, from Faheen, aged 31 years, teacher and doctor”, of whom he remarks that he was a relative and youthful friend of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, the Taiping Wang. Four others were members of the Kong family of Lilong, and the sixth was "Fung Tet-schin, from Thatipun, aged 31 years, schoolteacher".

Li Tsin-kau did not remain at Pukak with Jen-kan but continued on to Hong Kong with two friends Khi-sem and A-kap. Here they were welcomed by the missionaries and taken on as inquirers to receive instruction. The Rev. Rudolph Lechler had come down from his station in the country to await the arrival from Germany of his fiancé. He assisted Hamberg in the instruction of the new arrivals. The basis of the instruction was the Lutheran catechism. In the light of it, Li Tsin-kau confessed he previously had held a distorted view of the Christian faith. He had understood, under the influence of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, "the discourses concerning the power of God and false idols, but had no understanding of sin and forgiveness through Christ". His prayer had been patterned after a form taught by Hsiu-ch'uan. After three months instruction, he was baptized by Hamberg, although on the urging of Hung Jen-kan, he had some years previous been baptized by Hung Hsiu-ch'uan.

The Day-book of the Rev. Lechler in the Archives of the Basel Missionary Society under date of 28th February, 1854, has the entry of the baptism of four who were instructed by Hamberg at Hong Kong: "Li Khi Lim, from Tseang ye, Li Hin Long, from Tseang ye, Li Chin Kau, from Tseang ye, and Fun Shen Fong from Tung...
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In a word, everything is very uncertain. We must lay the future of the whole mission, even as our own, into the hands of God.2

Hamberg's earthly future was quite short for he died nine days after writing the above.

The fortunes of Hung Jen-kan and Li Tsin-kau in their efforts to reach Nanking by way of Shanghai were also unfortunate. Hamberg had given them a letter of recommendation to the London Missionary Society agent at Shanghai, the Rev. W. H. Medhurst. Medhurst housed them on their arrival in the Mission Hospital. In Shanghai they met a friend from Canton whom they invited to share these quarters. This friend smoked opium, and when Medhurst happened to come into the room and saw his opium pipe on the bed, they were all told to leave. A dispute arose between Jen-kan and Tsin-kau, with Jen-kan charging Tsin-kau with carelessness and sensuality. Tsin-kau remarks:

At that time, I was truly in distress, for I had no friend in the world and no money with which to return to Hong Kong. I felt I must certainly come to misfortune. But this was the point when a change occurred in my heart. I was altogether fallen into the depth, then God took me in judgment of my sins, and the Spirit of God did its powerful work in me. The Shepherd of my life took over and from now on I gave my life to him. The Lord changed Medhurst's heart and he gave me money to return to Hong Kong.3

Jen-kan also returned to Hong Kong, no way being open to pass through the Imperial lines to reach Nanking.

When Li Tsin-kau arrived back in Hong Kong, he immediately sought out the Rev. Lechler, who gave him two dollars to return to his home up-country. After visiting his family, he came down to the Basel Mission station at Pu-kit and was taken on as a helper. When hostilities broke out in 1856 over the Arrow-lorcha incident, Lechler had to leave Pu-kit and retire to Hong Kong. He brought with him Li Tsin-kau whom he placed in the newly opened hospital of the Berlin Missionary Society operated by Dr. Heinrich Göcking. Li served as an overseer and doctor's assistant until the hospital was forced to close in 1859 for lack of funds.

Meanwhile his former travelling companion, Hung Jen-kan had made a second and successful effort to reach Nanking. Being estab-
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lished there in a responsible position, he wrote to Li Tsin-kau inviting him to join him. Tsin-kau set off for Nanking but turned back before arriving there, because, as he claimed, he had heard alarming accounts of the religious and moral aberrations of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. On his return to Hong Kong, he was taken on by Lechler as a helper in his ministry to the Hakka population in Hong Kong.

Li Tsin-kau continued as a valuable assistant in the Basel Mission in Hong Kong, serving as a catechist until his death in 1885. For some years in the 1860's he was a travelling preacher, using Hong Kong as his home base. His mother, wife and children, and a younger brother joined him in Hong Kong and all of them became members of the Basel Society congregation on High Street, Saiying-poon. In 1858, he mentions a brother, Schiu-siu, in California. The Eighth Report of the Berlin Society, for the years 1861 and 1862, mentions A-tat the unbaptized brother of the Basel Mission helper Lichenko.

Li Tsin-kau after his initial efforts to join the Taiping forces spent the remainder of his life serving the church in Hong Kong. However, his friend Hung Jen-kan became an important figure in the Taiping government under the title Kan Wang. Before assuming this political role, he also was a valued assistant in the Protestant Mission work in Hong Kong. While Li Tsin-kau worked among the Hakkas under the direction of the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, of the Basel Missionary Society, Hung Jen-kan worked with the Rev. Dr. James Legge, of the London Missionary Society, among the Cantonese speaking population.

Dr. Legge took an interest in the Taiping movement and saw within it a potential for providing a turning point in the relation of the Christian church with the whole of China. In the summer of 1853, he sent two of his assistants to Shanghai to open communication with the Taiping government so as to prepare the way for a missionary to enter Nanking. The delegation consisted of a long-time assistant in the London Missionary Society, Keuh A-gong, alias Wat Ngong A, and a young theological student of Dr. Legge's school, Ng Mun-sow. Their efforts were unsuccessful, so after spending six months in Shanghai, they returned to Hong Kong.4

We have already noted the unsuccessful effort of Hung Jen-kan and Li Tsin-kau to reach Nanking by way of Shanghai in 1854. Upon returning to Hong Kong, Jen-kan became a language teacher
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style befitting relatives of one of the Taiping Kings. To celebrate his second marriage, Dr. Legge and his new wife entertained their Chinese friends and associates at a feast of twelve tables with some thirty courses. Mrs. Legge remarks in a letter dated 24 August, 1860, that “Sy-poe seemed very desirous I should honour his table

We had a letter from the Rebel King, he congratulates Dr. Legge on his marriage." Sy-poe is not mentioned again by the missionaries, but in 1871, Dr. Legge states that his son came to the Mission house requesting a recommendation for the position of a watchman. Legge states, "He is an honest-looking lad — but alas, that the glory of the Taipings should thus have passed away”
 
Reports in the Archives of the Basel Missionary Society mention Fung Khui-syu, born in 1848, "son of a Taiping King". He must be Hung K'uei-yüan alias K'uei-hsiu, the son of Hung Jen-kan." He was employed by the Society as a teacher; first on the mainland, but then, because of the danger to him and his family created by his former association with the rebellion, he was removed to Hong Kong to teach in the mission's Girl's School at Sai Ying Poon.
 
In 1873 a marriage was arranged by Mrs. Lechler between Fung Khui-syu, then teaching at Tshong-hang-kang in Hsin-an district, and one of the older girls in the Society's boarding school at Hong Kong. The bride Tsen A-lin, alias En-min was an orphan. As a young girl she had been sold by her mother in Shanghai and had been brought to Hong Kong to work in a brothel; but she had been found wandering in the streets by a member of the Basel Society congregation and was brought to the Mission House. In 1865, at the age of twelve, she was enrolled as a student, and was baptized in 1870, when she received the name Lin, meaning compassion, in place of Tchuy-khuyk (Ch'iu-chü), meaning autumn chrysanthemum.

In 1878 a large part of the congregation of the Basel Mission Church at Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, emigrated to Demerara, British Guiana. Fung Khui-syu went with them. The 1885 Yearly Report of the Rev. Lechler states:

In Georgetown is a Chinese Church and one of our emigrants has been placed there as Pastor. He is the relative of the former rebel king Fung Syu-tshen, and himself, at the time of the Government of Taipings in Nanking, was made king. He found his way to Hong Kong and was received at our table. I sent him
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4 London Missionary Society Archives, London, England (hereafter given as L.M.S.A.), South China Box 5, Folder 3, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 26 Sept., 1853, and Jacket D, Yearly Report of the Hong Kong Mission, 25 Jan., 1854. For a brief notice of Keuh A-gong see my article, "A Register of Baptized Protestant Chinese 1813-1842, Chung Chi Bulletin, No. 48 (Dec., 1970), p. 24. For Ng Mun-sow see my article, "Dr. Legge's Theological School", ibid, No. 50 (June, 1971), pp. 16-22.

5 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 2, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 28 Jan., 1869, and Folder 1, Jacket A, letter of Wong Foon, 8 May, 1857. Another missionary estimate of Hung Jen-kan is the testimonial the Rev. John Chalmers sent to the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, Basel Missionary Society Archives (hereafter given as B.M.S.A.), Vol. IV, 1857-1862, letter dated, London Mission House, Hong Kong, 24 Dec., 1857: “I have great pleasure in giving my testimony to the Christian character of Hung Jin, the relative of Hung Sew Tauen, who, since his return from Shanghai in the year 1854, has been in the employment of our mission; first as a Christian teacher, and afterwards as a preacher and assistant missionary. His general behaviour has been such as becomes the Gospel; the work which we have given him to do, he has always executed to our satisfaction and not only so, but his zeal for the promotion of the cause of Christ has been marked. He is a young man of superior abilities, and I hope he may yet be honoured to labour successfully in the preaching of the gospel to his countrymen for many years.

6 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket B, letter of Chalmers, 5 June, 1858.

7 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket C, letter of Legge and Chalmers, 11 Jan., 1859, with enclosure of translation of letter of Hung Jan: "Translation of Hung Jan's last letter, sent from Shanghai by Mr. Muirhead, who received it from a Chinaman who had been with Lord Elgin's expedition up the Yangtze. He wrote in 170 or 180 miles on that river below Hankow." Letters from "Shau Kwan, Nan Gan [both on the north boundary of Kwangtung], one from the capital of Keangse, one from imperialist camp at Yaou Chow [in north of Keangse]" are mentioned as having been written by Hung Jen-kan.

8 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 2, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 24 Aug., 1860, and Folder 3, Jacket B, letter of Legge, 14 Jan., 1861.

9 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket A, letter of Legge and Chalmers, 14 Jan., 1857.

10 L.M.S.A., Legge Family Papers, letter of 28 Mar., 1861 and 24 Mar., 1871.

11 For identification of Hung K'uei Hsiu see Jen (Chien) Yu-wan “**太平£Ø*^£$*M”, (Record of Visit with Descendants of the Taiping Hung Family) ***@** (Taiping Kingdom Miscellany), No. 4, and * Lo Hsiang-lin, (Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas), (Hong Kong, 1965), p. 409,

12 B.M.S.A., Hong Kong School Report, 14 Feb. 1875, "Teacher Schui Thin will shortly change places with Fung Khui-syu in Tschong Hang Kang, because the last as a son of a Tai Ping Rebellion King, cannot stay anymore in the mainland without danger to the life of himself and family."

13 B.M.S.A., Hong Kong School Report, 16 Apr. 1873, and Die Evangelischen Heidenboten, Jan., 1866, letter of Lechler, 2 Oct, 1865.

14 B.M.S.A., Chinese Mission Yearly Report 1885. The ship Dartmouth left Hong Kong 25 Dec., 1878 and arrived at Georgetown, British Guiana on 17 Mar., 1879. Among its 516 emigrants were seventy Christians.
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CARL SMITH'S ADDITIONAL NOTE

Carl Smith has added to the text of the article appearing in Ching Feng the following note on the family of Li Tsin-kau and their services to the Hakka Church of the Basel Mission in Hong Kong and in Sabah.

Li Tsin-kau, otherwise known as Lee Sik-sam, died 8 April, 1885, aged sixty-two. On the letters of administration issued to his widow Ho Lai-yau, the value of his estate was estimated at $400. His assets consisted principally of a small house beside the Basel Society's Church and Mission House in Sai Ying Poon, which he had purchased in 1878 for $480. He sold a portion of the lot in 1878 for $370.

Li Tsin-kau's wife was baptized in Hong Kong in 1861 and died there 21 September, 1888, leaving four surviving children. The family property after her death was conveyed by Li A-cheung, an interpreter, Li Shin-en, a missionary and Li En-kyau, unmarried to their brother Li A-po, a trader.

The eldest son of Tsin-kau, A-lim, had died in 1864 “in trouble with the police". A-po, the second son was betrothed in 1865 to Kong Oi-fuk from Lilong. She was a student in the Basel Society Girl's Boarding School at Hong Kong, and he was a student of their Boy's School at Lilong.

The third son, A-cheung studied at Hong Kong Central School (Queen's College) and in 1871 was given the prize for best scholar. After leaving school, he entered Government service, beginning as a charge-room interpreter for the Police, but in 1875 was transferred to the Magistracy as a clerk. Three years later he was promoted to Second Interpreter in the Magistracy. In 1882 he was offered the position of Interpreter to the Kingdom of Hawaii. Like his brother he had married one of the students of the Girl's Boarding School in Hong Kong, Tshin Then-tet. She accompanied him to Hawaii.

In 1883, the Rev. Frank Damon, who was in charge of Chinese Christian work in Hawaii, visited Hong Kong. In a report of his visit published in The Friend (New Series, Vol. 33, No. 2, p. 9) he expresses his pleasure in meeting "the venerable and interesting father of our Government interpreter in Honolulu, Mr. Lee Cheong. A brother and sister are engaged in teaching here, while another brother is missionary to his countrymen".
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The fourth son, Li Shen-en alias Li Syong-kong, was baptized in Hong Kong in 1859. Following the footsteps of his father, he served as Catechist in the Sai Ying Poon Hakka Congregation from 1883 to 1888. He then emigrated to Sabah, North Borneo, where, under the auspices of the Basel Missionary Society, he organized a congregation of Hakkas. He married Lin Loi-kyau, a daughter of Rev. Lin Khi-len. She was a teacher at the Girl's Boarding School at Sai Ying Poon from 1882 to 1894.

Li Tsin-kau had one daughter, Li En Kyau, born in 1860 and baptized as an infant. She attended the Sai Ying Poon School and also taught there from 1877 to 1902; in addition, she did volunteer church work among the women.

The services rendered by the several generations of the Li family to the congregations and schools of the Basel Society well repaid the initial interest and attention given to the young Li Tsin-kau when he first turned up in Hong Kong in 1853 as one displaced because of his connection with the leader of the Tai Ping movement. Details of the family are largely taken from Archives of the Basel Society and a mimeographed Geschichte der Hongkonger Gemeinden kindly lent to me by Mr. James Hayes.

JEN YU-WEN'S ADDITIONAL NOTES

Professor Jen Yu-wen (MX), the eminent and lifelong historian of the Taiping rebellion, has kindly added the following notes:

(1) Feng & Gützlaff

Aside from this account [i.e., from the Hong Kong Register, 27th September 1853], there were a few others alleging that Feng, having been taught and baptized by Gützlaff, was a member of his Chinese Christian Union (4). Nevertheless, I find great difficulty in believing this story. First, there is no documentary evidence supporting it. Secondly, a careful checking on the time that Gützlaff founded and promoted the Union since 1844 does not permit Feng, who went to Kwangsi with Hung Hsiu-Ch'üan also in 1844, to come to Hong Kong to establish any relationship with Gützlaff, as Feng was at the same time busy running the affairs and directing the activities of the God-worshippers' Association in Kwangsi. There is no persuasive evidence that Feng and
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United States to arouse interest in his new venture.

Reichelt later established himself in rented quarters in Nanking and did not have to wait long before the first wandering Buddhist monks found their way to his new Christian monastery.

But differences arose between Reichelt and the Norwegian Missionary Society and there were misunderstandings and criticisms of his methods. Facing a choice of closer co-operation with the society and going it alone, Reichelt decided on the lone path.

Reichelt continued to work in Nanking until 1927, when the "Nanking Incident" took place. His premises wrecked during this period of political unrest, Reichelt was lucky to escape alive and he based himself in Shanghai for two years before moving on to Hong Kong "fully determined to locate the mountain which we know Providence had prepared for our future work in south China."

That place he found on a hill overlooking Shatin. Reichelt stayed there until his death in 1952 and his grave is to be found there still, in the grounds of the mission he built in 1931.

The design for the monastery was produced as a result of a meeting in America between Reichelt and the Danish architect Johannes Prip-Moller, who had long been interested in Chinese building and was an authority on Buddhist architecture. Prip-Moller's book "Chinese Buddhist Monasteries" published by Hong Kong University in 1937, is a standard work on the subject. The design of the church itself is seen as an outstandingly successful blend of Christian and Buddhist influences and the architect's work is commemorated by a plaque mounted on the church wall.

Today the Tao Fong Shan Christian Mission to Buddhists continues its work yet has adapted to changes in religious needs. Church groups attend seminars and lectures and accommodation is available for those who seek it, just as there was originally for pilgrim monks. The mission has also changed its name to the Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, in order to integrate earlier...
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cepts with the needs of today.

The Director of the centre is Dr. Peter Lee, who succeeded to the post previously held by other notable scholars in the field pioneered by Reichelt, such as Professor Robert Kramers, now Professor of Sinology at Zurich University, Dr. Richard Bush, now teaching at Oklahoma University, and Dr. Winfried Gluer, now in Germany.

What was it that helped Reichelt to succeed so remarkably in an area of Asian religious belief that many would have dismissed as being antagonistic to the deeply held Christian views of so many other missionaries?

Dr. Lee explained: “First, Reichelt is recognised for his accomplishments in the study of Chinese religion, which were quite considerable. As a Christian he struggled with the theological tensions all his life. He remained an evangelist and wanted to preserve the Christian message. In that sense he was a typical evangelist but he was unusual in that he saw something in Buddhism that many missionaries were not able to acknowledge. There was a tendency to look down on non-Christians, to impose Christianity on others regardless of background. Reichelt understood the value of Buddhist piety. It was a remarkable achievement for one to make who belonged to another religion. He was well ahead of his time for one with a Christian church background. His society in Norway were horrified when they knew of his approach but he was totally dedicated to the course of meeting Buddhists and he succeeded in converting some to Christianity he became a legendary figure.'

12

That Reichelt succeeded where others faltered may be due to his philosophy of mission, which was based on the so-called Johannine method. His understanding of the missionary task involved the theory of a pre-existent logos, or word of God, which had been active in the creation of the world. Reichelt believed that in spite of what he saw as superstitious and perverse elements marring non-Christian religions "grains of truth and beams of light are to be found in them”. Reichelt believed that these factors could be used as points of contact.
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NICHOLAS TAPP

Hsieh, Jiann. ‘China's Nationalities Policy: Its Development and Problems': Anthropos 81, 1-20, 1986.

Lemoine, J. ‘Ethnologues en Chine': Diogene 133, 82-112, 1986.

Mao Tse-tung. The Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Peoples' Press, Beijing 1966).

Moseley, E. The Consolidation of the South China Frontier, Univ. California Press, Berkeley 1973.

Tapp, N. "The Relevance of Telephone Directories to a Lineage-based Society: A Consideration of Some Messianic Myths among the Hmong'. Journal of the Siam Society, 70, 1982,

Categories of Change and Continuity among the White Hmong, Unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. London 1985.

'The Impact of Missionary Christianity upon Marginalised Ethnic Minorities: the case of the Hmong'; paper presented to the 32nd International Congress for Asian and North African Studies, Hamburg, August 25-30, 1986.

Wiens, H. Han Chinese Expansion in Southern China (Shoe-String Press, New York 1967),

Winnington, A. The Slaves of the Cool Mountains: The ancient social conditions and changes now in progress on the remote South-Western borders of China (Lawrence and Wishart, London 1959).
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CARL SMITH

Upon reading it Hung believed he had found the key to explain the strange things that had happened to him in his dreams and visions.

Soon he was formulating the initial ideology upon which the Taiping movement was based. It was a strange mixture of that which was traditionally Chinese and new elements derived from the Christian teachings of the foreigners.

Liang A-fa lived for a short time in Hongkong, long enough for him to acquire a property in the Lower Bazaar. This and the one next to it, purchased by his son, were used by the Rev Mr Elijah Bridgman for a school and dispensary.

In 1845 Liang A-fa left Hongkong disillusioned with life in a British colony. Both he and his son had experienced rough treatment on the streets of Hongkong from Europeans.

He was in the unhappy situation of not being accepted by his countrymen because of his foreign faith and his connections with foreigners. At the same time he was not able to adapt to life in a place governed by foreigners.

A STUDENT AND TEACHER WHO BECAME A TEAM

Ho Fuk-tong, or as he was also known, Ho Tsun-shin, met the Rev. Mr. James Legge at the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca.

Fuk-tong, 22 at the time, was only two years younger than his future teacher and colleague, when they met. Mr. Legge had recently arrived from England to assist the ailing principal of the college, the Rev. Mr. John Evans.

After some months, Mr. Evans died and Mr. Legge took charge. Ho Fuk-tong was his star pupil.

Fuk-tong was the son of a woodblock-cutter and printer brought from China to work in the Malacca press of the Ultra-Ganges Mission of the London Missionary Society. After the father had been away from home for some years, his son left China.

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Dr. Hickling suggested that the space required for each worker should be put at twenty square feet floor area. This suggestion was accepted. Another minor change was made by eliminating the word "overtime" in reference to work after 6 p.m.

6

The editor of the Daily Press, in commenting on the proposals of the Sanitary Board, reviewed some of the steps which had led up to them: Miss Pitts' talk, followed by Mr. Bowley's statements at the meeting of the Church of England Men's Society. Their efforts were seen as examples of the good results "that may flow from the discussion of matters of public concern by private individuals, and should encourage interest in local affairs". The editor was confident the proposal would appeal to British pride, "For every Briton in Hong Kong whose pride of race is based upon his country's efforts on behalf of humanity must hope that the resolutions passed by the Sanitary Board will be endorsed by the Legislative Council". He believed that the enlightened members of the Chinese community would have no objections to them, as, in his opinion, they were extremely modest and were submitted in the interests of public health.

The editor recognised that the root of the problem lay in the Colony's educational efforts, but he contended that no matter how many schools were provided, there would not be enough “unless we are willing to educate the whole of South China". A policy of unrestricted immigration made it impossible to make school attendance either compulsory or free.

The editor restated the views of Mr. Alabaster that it was better for the children to accompany their parents to work, so long as their little bodies are not strained beyond their endurance, as they would thus be both physically and morally better off than left to their own devices, and their earnings provided them with more food than they otherwise would have. He did advocate that some restriction be placed on the load they carried, as this responsibility could not be left to the parents' discretion.

Case of Child Labour before the Magistrate

April 1920

The principles in the agitation for child labour laws had been a missionary and a solicitor, but in April 1920 a doctor publicly took up
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

RASHKB and author

Vol. 28 (1988)

ISSN 1991-7295

David Faure

203

THE ARCHIVES OF THE BASEL MISSION

In June 1988, I visited the Archives of the Basel Mission located in the Mission House at 21 Missionsstrasse, CH 4003 Basel, Switzerland. This archive is rich in material on the Hakka communities in Kwangtung Province. These archives are not as well known as some other mission collections. The earlier records are written in the old German script and present difficulties to those who have not been trained in reading it. Along with missionary matters, the correspondence from China also contains much material of anthropological, sociological and historical interest. In my visit my chief interest was to gather data on the work of the mission in the San On and Tung Kun Districts of Kwangtung, particularly their school and seminary at Li Long. I did not have time to transcribe items of more general interest, but I did copy the following. My translation was checked and corrected by Rev. Dr. Richard Deutsch, a close friend and a former colleague in the Theological Division of the Chinese University, Hong Kong, who is now on the staff of the Mission House.

A Revolutionary Plot at Canton

A-1.29

No. 51, 28 November 1895, Rev. Mr. Kircher, Hong Kong.

“A few weeks ago, a Christian in the Berlin Mission House at Canton told the missionaries to seek safety as a revolution would break out in
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"of the respect which constituted authority commands. They keep up soldiers and police to enhance the dignity of their own positions, and, incidentally, to suppress rebellions and catch, castigate, torture or behead such persons as they consider to be malefactors; but all their actions are limited by what public opinion will allow."'"

A decade earlier, the American missionary educator, Bishop Graves of Canton, long acquainted with the popular will, had explained what it was and how it had to be taken into account by the authorities at all times:

"China's government consists of two elements: the Imperial authority, as represented by Mandarins, high and low, with the underlings and police runners connected with the various official courts, and the popular will represented by the village elders, the Kung-Kuk, or councils of literati, and the Kai-fong or assemblages of householders in cities and towns. Public opinion, which is, perhaps, practically the strongest element in Chinese society, is based on local traditions, clan feeling and provincial pride, modified by a sense of nationality founded on allegiance to the Emperor as the Son of Heaven or Divinely-sent Ruler.

No one can understand China who regards its government as a pure despotism, an Autocrat imposing his own will on subservient subjects. The popular element must also be taken into consideration in estimating the forces which bind Chinese society together.

Much was expected of their rulers by the ruled. It was assumed that they would be guided in their actions in accordance with the ethical code, and rule by the moral authority and example of righteous action rather than by despotic whim or tyrannical decree. When this was not the case, it was open to the oppressed people to remove their rulers. Such conduct had been openly endorsed by the sage Mencius. A propos the overthrow of the last Hsia dynasty king he had said bluntly, "I have heard about the killing of a ruffian called Chou; I have not heard about the killing of a king". The phrase long in use for a rising against unjust rulers is hei yi; which means literally "to raise righteousness". The ordinary people of China justified actions against oppressive or neglectful authorities by transforming themselves

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disasters. the second is for those who died because of plague. The final reason is to thank the benevolent governors Wang Lai-ren and Zhou You-de of the beginning of the Qing dynasty. In my opinion, all these reasons can be integrated into the first one.

(d) Chan Wing-hoi "The Tangs of Kam Tin and their Jiu festival", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29 (1989) 302-375, a rich and detailed account of the lineage, its temples and villages, and the festival which draws them together.

Dr. Faure gradually switched his interest to the Pearl River Delta while Prof. Tanaka, as I was told, is now looking at Sichuan province. Talk on publishing a book on Hong Kong Jiao festivals has been going on for years by members of the "Research Circle of the Regional Society of Southern China''. In 1990, the editorial board of the society set up a schedule to compile a book focusing on the Jiao festival. It is expected that papers on various aspects will be completed by the end of April 1991. (Correspondence from the society dated 28.12.1990)

Schipper, Kristofer M., "The Written Memorial in Taoist Ceremonies" in Wolf, Arthur P. (ed.) Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 324,

For example, according to Chan Wing-hoi, villagers of Shek O celebrated their 16th Jiao in 1986 (Chan, 78). The Dengs in Kam Tin claimed to have celebrated their Jiao since 1684 (Tanaka, 918).

See for instance Basel Mission Archives, doct. Al-6, No. 51 (1869), and doct. Al-7, No. 51 (1870) and Der Evangelische Heidenbote, July 1867, in which a missionary describes how he was forced to go to the Magistrate to get his support before he could avoid having to pay his share of the Jiao expenses. All these cases are from Hsin An County. The Sha Tin poem will, it is hoped, shortly be published by Dr. P.H. Hase.

These two series are part of the 15 series of historical documents collected by Dr. D. Faure and others in the New Territories. Copies of the collections are kept in the libraries of CUHK, Hong Kong University, Sha Tin Regional Council Library, and Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University.

31

Tanaka Chugoku no Sozoku to Engeki [Lineage and Theatre in China] (Tokyo Univ. Press 1985), 608. Jiao festivals celebrated by the powerful communities in Hong Kong like Kam Tin, Ha Tsuen, Lung Yeuk Tau etc., were all performed by the Zhengyi Taoist group, led first by the late Master Lin Pei and now by Master Chan Kau. Another Zhengyi Taoist group is led by Master Chan Wah. However, many Taoist priests work for both groups. There are also other Taoist groups who performed for the Jiao festivals, like a Cantonese group which performed for Ho Chung and a Heklo group for Cheung Chau. In 1983, four out of five Jiao festivals were performed by monastery Taoists. It is not clear whether it was because of tradition or out of economic reasons. A comparison of the two Taoist groups has yet to be made.

14 Choi Chi-cheung **Sho matsuri no jinmei risuto ni mirareru shinzoku ban'i” [Kinship as seen in the name lists of Jiao festival] Bunka Jinnú Gaku 5 (1988): 131, table L. 35 **Shinshi men" [Section of Believers] in Fanling Wenxian (Historical Literature of Fanling) vol. 8. This brief account records details of the arrangement of the Jiao area, including the contents of couplets, names of deities invited, location and direction of matshed stages, and the sacrifices prepared etc.. See n. 32 for the depositories of Fanling Wenxian.

36 See (1972) Lin Chuan [Lam Tsuen] Xiang Taiping Qingjiao huiyi jilubu in Dapu [Tai Po] Wenzian [Historical Literature of Tai Po] vol. 1. (see n. 32 for depositories)

37 Tanaka Issei's three books, all published by the Tokyo Univ. Press are: Chugoku Saishi Engeki Kenkyu [Ritual Theatres in China] (1981), Chugoku no Sozoku to Engeki [Lineage and Theatre in China) (1985), and Chugoku Kyoson Saishi Kenkyu: Chihogeki
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280

16

treated as a neutral, and ignored,' apart from numerous stray bullets which hit it accidentally. However, eventually "more than a hundred bandits" decided to come and kidnap the missionary's wife, and hold her for ransom. The missionary at this point gave up and fled for shelter to Hong Kong. Were these "bandits” a gang of opportunistic thieves and robbers who had come out of the mountains to take what they could in confused times, or one of the antagonists attacking a neutral in an attempt to fill the "war-chest? Clearly, "bandit attacks" were generated by, and cannot always be safely distinguished from, inter-village warfare.

From all this evidence, it can be assumed that inter-village warfare in the mid-nineteenth century was endemic in the Hong Kong region, and that the evidence for the serious outbreak at Sham Chun given above merely fits the wider pattern.

NOTES

P.H. HASE

1 "The Archives of the Basel Mission", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203-207.

2 It is Basel Mission Archive document A1-9, NR. 31, Quarterly Report, Lilong Station, 1875. I am indebted to Mrs. E. Gilkes for assistance in translating this document.

3 The markets in the area in the Ming are listed in the 1688 County Gazetteer. "Kim Hau Market" is mentioned in the list of villages → this market may, therefore, already have been abandoned by 1688.

4 Enclosure C in Item 59 "Despatch, Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton”. Jan. 11, 1905, in Eastern No. 88 Confidential: Hong Kong 'Correspondence Relating to the Proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway', printed for the Colonial Office. 1907, p. 87 mentions "61 large and 232 medium-sized shops" there, plus, presumably some smaller places.

5 Lilong (F) was the main Basel Mission station in San On (X) District. It lies close to the railway to the north of Sham Chun.

6 Tsoi Uk Wai.

7 Of Wong Pui Ling.

8 At Nam Tau on the coast of the Pearl River.

9 For the she hok (*, "Community School"), see D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 130, 136-138, 222 (n. 16-17), 223 (n. 18).

10 The documents are in File CSO208/1902(Ext) (no title), Public Records Office, Hong Kong,
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[1849] it numbered 25 boys. The free tuition he offered brought him goodwill in the eyes of the people, without much cost, since the boys provided their own food and brought their own books to the school.

It was very difficult for Brother Hamberg to live alone and lonely in this way, in the midst of a great crowd of Chinese people, far from any of his Brethren or friends.

110

297

NOTES

P.H. Hase

See C. Smith, "The Archives of the Basel Mission”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203-207.

2 Basel Mission Archive, Document A-1,2 Nr. 44, "Half-Yearly report of the Missionary Rev. P. Winnes, from 1st January to 1st July, 1853**.

1 I am grateful to M. Anne-Maria Pordes for her help in transcribing and translating this document.

#

Unfortunately, the Mission in Sha Tau Kok was closed down and moved to Lilong in 1853, so no further descriptions of Sha Tau Kok of this type were written.

6

5 Jahresberichte der Basler Mission 1849, pp 141-143.

Hamberg was forced to abandon his work at Sha Tau Kok in 1849; the Mission there was taken up again by P. Winnes and R. Lechler in 1852, but it was effectively abandoned again in 1854.

THE BUDDHA, THE HEAVENLY TRUE WARRIOR

An interesting phenomenon seen only in Taiwan was first noted in 1984 in Tainan. From an iconographic point of view, the sudden appearance on altars of a wooden carved image portraying a middle-aged scholar sitting sideways cross-legged on a crouching winged mythological creature with a dragon's head* was most unusual.

The image, now observed in some sixty temples in most areas of Taiwan, labelled T'ien Chen-wu Fo ADA is gilded, though the creature is usually brown. The scholar, clean-shaven, with a full face, holds a seal in his right hand bearing the inscription, 'With

* See Plate 6
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Fr. Decooman who succeeded Becquaert as an entomologist, was appointed Director of the Museum after the war. He did not belong to the same Society or Order as his predecessors. He was a member of a Belgian Order. He had come from Vietnam (French Indo-China) where he had spent some 40 years. As a missionary in remote areas, he spent his free time collecting insects. He was a trained entomologist, specializing in the Scaritidae family. He first directed his attention to reorganizing the museum that had suffered neglect by his predecessor and had thousands of insects mounted from collections still lying unpacked in the drawers. He also looked for manuscripts which could be published. At that time, I was part-time in charge of the Botany Section of the Museum, Fr. Decooman approached me and suggested that I should prepare Belval's manuscript as well as one of my own: Trees and Shrubs of Shanghai for publishing. I was working on these two projects when I met the young Hsu Pin-shen, already a keen botanist, now Professor and President of the Botany Department in Shanghai and in all China. We worked together on the Trees and Shrubs of Shanghai; that was in 1950-52. Needless to say, the events that followed did not allow the publication of these two manuscripts. But between Hsu Pin-shen and myself, a lasting friendship had developed which was delightfully revived when Prof. Hsu kindly invited me to spend a month with him at Fudan University.

The purpose of my visit to Shanghai is actually to update not exactly Belval's manuscript but one based on it; one more complete and developed, written by my colleague Paul August and to which I contributed as we were working in collaboration. Besides updating the manuscript, I must also include the section on the Pteridophytes which was lacking in both manuscripts. To this effect, I was invited by Prof. Zhan Sho-Ling and the municipality of Shanghai to spend six months here, in this country which was for 18 years my country of adoption. The project is sponsored by the University of Melbourne and funded by The Australia-China Council. My work so far has been made easy, thanks to the great help given to me by the Museum of Natural History and to the friendly collaboration of the office staff.

I must thank Prof. Hsu and my colleagues at the Botany Department for the invaluable help they have been giving me. But their acceptance of an old foreigner among the staff, the attention and friendship they have shown to me will be valued much more and will last as long as I live.
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14 The oldest surviving dated object is the bell, of 1922 (D Faure, A Ng B Luk, F. M. Xianggang Beiming Huabian, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, Urban Council, Hong Kong, Vol 3, p 733) The temple, however, appears in the Block Crown Lease (1905), and the local villagers believe it is old

15 The Sam Heung villagers have recently elected a tablet at the resited replacement temple, stating that the temple was first built in the Chia Ch'ing reign (1796-1820), and that the Ta Tsiu was instituted as soon as the temple was built While the grounds for these statements are not given, they are reasonable, and probably correct, although a date late in the reign is likely

16 D Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op cit. p 107

17

A copy of this genealogy is in the collection of New Territories historical documents at United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong I am indebted to Dr D Faure for drawing my attention to this reference

Our information on mid-nineteenth century Sha Tau Kok comes primarily from documents of the Basel Mission, which had a Mission Station in the town 1849-1854, and whose missionaries regularly visited it in the late nineteenth century The missionaries rented four houses from a local village elder, near the western end of Upper Street, backing onto the wall The missionaries drew a map of the town in 1853, plans of typical shop units in 1849 and 1853, and wrote a long description of the town and district in 1853 – Map 2 is a re-drawing of the missionaries' map of 1853, corrected by measurements taken from the 1924 aerial photograph of the town (13 November 1924 original in the Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong) The written description of 1853 is Basel Mission archive, doc Al-2, Nr 44, “Half-Yearly Report of the missionary Rev P Winnes, from 1st January to 1st July 1853", printed in translation in P H. Hase. "Sha Tau Kok in 1853”, in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 30, 1990, pp 281-297 See PH Hase, "The Alliance of Ten", op cit, for redrawings of the plans of mid-nineteenth century shop units, and also for a drawing of a cross-section of such a shop unit I am indebted to Rev Carl Smith for drawing my attention to the importance of the Basel Mission documents to the history of Sha Tau Kok, and for allowing me to use his transcripts and notes I would also like to thank Mrs W Haas, and the staff of the Basel Mission archive in the preparation of this article

19 The Tung Wo Kuk was so named in direct emulation of the older Punti Council in Sham Chun, which was also known as "The Council for Peace in the East", PA, Tung Ping Kuk - the choice of the name Tung Wo Kuk must be seen, in these circumstances, as a marked sign of local pride and self-confidence

20 See n 11

21

The villagers believe that the name Sha Tau Kok is taken from a poem by a Ch'ing official who passed by and was so impressed by the beauty of the sun rising above the sand-dunes that he wrote a poem on it ADV AEAA. "The sun rises from the sand-dunes the moon hangs where land and ocean meet" I have heard this story from a Sheung Wo Hang elder, and see also Shatoulaode quwer xuanguanbu (Sha...
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Gutzlaff was not unaware that his Union needed closer supervision. He appealed to German missionary societies to send out agents to assist him in his project. In response the Rhenish Missionary Society at Barmen and the Basel Missionary Society each sent two men in 1847. After a brief orientation period in Hong Kong, they were sent into China where they worked severally in areas where Cantonese, Hakka and Tiu-chau speakers lived. During the second Sino-British war they weathered out the war in Hong Kong and Macao. It was also the time when some took home leave. On the return of Rev. Rudolph Lechler of the Basel Missionary Society in 1861, he built a mission house, school and chapel at Sai Ying Pun. The church and school served the Hakka speaking community in Hong Kong. The congregation is now the present Kau Yan Church on High Street.

The Rev Heinrich Cocking, also a medical doctor, arrived in Hong Kong in 1855 as an agent of the Berlin Missionary Society. He opened a small dispensary and hospital in 1858 at the foot of Morrison Hill in Wanchai. It was principally for Chinese but German sailors were also treated there.

Agents of the Berlin Ladies Mission for China opened a home for foundling children on the top of Morrison Hill. The Berliner Frauenverein für China had been organised in response to the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff's appeal for support for his vision of the speedy conversion of the Chinese nation. The home was moved to No. 1 High Street in 1861 where it had built a large building, which was named Bethesda. It was not far from the mission house and chapel of the Basel Missionary Society.

Before the removal to High Street of the Berlin foundling home, German speaking services were held on Sundays at their establishment on Morrison Hill. At an earlier time these services were held in a tavern on Queen's Road East operated by a German. The Rev. Philip Winnes, of the Basel Mission, reported in 1858: “In this manner, I preached until the sailors had enough, and that they had quite soon". The Hong Kong Blue Books in their ecclesiastical returns list a place of worship for Europeans from 1871 at the chapel of the Berlin Mission House on High Street. A small chapel was built beside the foundling home in 1881. Its entrance was off Bonham Road. The services were moved to the hall of Union Church on Kennedy Road in 1902. They remained there until 1904 when they were moved back to the Bethesda Chapel where services were held.
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00

until the outbreak of war in 1914. During the period when the congregation met in the Union Church Hall, the community also conducted a school there. The group meeting there was called the Deutsche Kirchen und Schulegemeinde (Rev. Albert Plag, "Bethesda and the Berliner Frauenverein Für China”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1969, v. 9: 149-150, Carl T. Smith, “The German Congregation in Hong Kong until 1914", ibid, 1975. v. 15: 292-295).

In the 1896/97 the Hildesheim Mission opened the Ebenezer Home for the Blind. There were two homes, one on Hong Kong Island and one in Kowloon. During the First World War they were placed under the supervision of the Church Missionary Society, though the Sisters in charge were allowed to continue to care for the children. Among the first Germans to return to Hong Kong after the end of the war were several deaconesses of the Hildesheim Society. The Ebenezer Home and School for the Blind is now located on Pokfulam Road.

Two German missionaries became Inspectors of Schools in Hong Kong. Rev. Wilhelm Lobscheid was sent to China in 1848 by the Rhenish Missionary Society, but in 1857 he changed his allegiance to the British-based Chinese Evangelization Society, yet another of the groups inspired by Gutzlaff. He was Inspector of Schools in Hong Kong from 1855 to 1859. He published in 1859 a valuable historical account entitled A Few Notices on the Extent of Chinese Education, and the Government Schools of Hong Kong; with remarks on the history and religious notions of the inhabitants of this island. From 1861 to 1866 he acted as an emigration agent, recruiting labour for British colonies in the West Indies. His labours in this endeavour again produced a book which contains much of interest as its title suggests, Chinese Emigration to the West Indies: A Trip through British Guiana undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of the Chinese who have emigrated under Government Contract With Supplementary Papers Relating to Contract Labour and the Slave Trade.

Another German, Rev. Ernest J. Eitel was Inspector of Schools from 1878 to 1896. He was influential in setting policies for the development of education in Hong Kong. He was sent to China in 1862 by the Basel Missionary Society. Three years later he transferred to the London Missionary Society. He married Miss Eaton, an agent of the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East. She was head-mistress of the Diocesan School for Girls. Mr. Eitel became a naturalised British
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Urban Historians

We may discern yet a fourth group, those studying the local history of urban Hong Kong. Their work started later in the 1960s, and among the pioneers were political scientists, legal scholars, sociologists as well as historians, many being teachers at the University of Hong Kong. Again, up to the mid 1970s, most of them were Westerners. The source materials they used were primarily government publications, archival materials and newspapers, and since most read only English, they either had no access to Chinese sources, or had to rely on research assistants.

There was an attempt to tap a new source, oral history, which Alan Birch of the History Department, HKU, carried out with great fervour in the early 1970s. Later in the decade, he organized two radio programmes interviewing those who had lived through the Japanese invasion and the Japanese occupation, and two books based on these interviews were published. However, since Birch only speaks and reads English, his interviewees were confined to expatriates and English-speaking Chinese, and the stories that he could reconstruct were inherently one-sided.

Among urban historians, Carl Smith was rather exceptional. A genealogist by training, he began his research on Hong Kong in 1960 with the history of the Protestant church, looking at the impact of the church's activities on Hong Kong society, before going on to examine many other aspects. His studies on localities include detailed works on Shamshuipo and Wanchai. He has, moreover, written many biographies of local people and on the different ethnic and national groups in Hong Kong. His research is based on a broad range of materials, both English and Chinese. Besides government records and newspapers, he uses church records, missionary archives, wills, company records, genealogies, inscriptions on headstones, land records, commercial directories, to name just a few of them.

His work opens up a whole new world to the reader, who discovers not just the lives of great men but ordinary men and women - school teachers, policemen, prostitutes, bank clerks, junior government servants, shopkeepers and their families and social circles. In his hands, Hong Kong's urban history is no longer just the story of one Governor following another, but of real people, living in real neighbourhoods, going to real churches and schools, and yes, based on cemetery records, dying and being buried in real graveyards.
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This third letter is to be found in manuscript form among the Fryer papers in The Bancroft Library, papers which Fryer deposited prior to his death in 1928, papers which he was selective about preserving. It is an essay no doubt written for "home" consumption, but in its holograph form is without salutation or signature. Creases in the holograph suggest that it was mailed; perhaps it was accompanied by a "covering" letter which has not survived. The manuscript consists of six large pages with two columns per page, tightly penned, each page completely and neatly filled with writing and numbered, clearly the product of much reflection, control and effort. The manuscript has the title "Account of Three days excursion on the Mainland of China." Many years later, perhaps after the typewriter became available, Fryer added the date “1862” in pencil. Other manuscripts in the collection have been annotated with a similar blunt pencil, probably prior to typing. The date was in error as the excursion could not have taken place before 1863, as will be described in a footnote that accompanies the "letter" below.

Fryer's origin was quite humble; his father was a Dissident itinerant Methodist preacher who appears to have had trouble finding his place in the society of Kent, his mother was a sometime school teacher and proprietress of a shop. Fryer was ambitious and was what we now call "upwardly mobile.” In this letter we find Fryer at age 23 and well on his way to becoming an accepted China hand. He is invited by the already prominent German missionary Rudolf Lechler, who had arrived in China in 1847 to represent the Basel Mission, to join a party which includes three other substantial Englishmen. Lechler had worked in Kwangtung (Guangdong) among the Hakka peoples, had established a reputation for having "gone native,” living in a Chinese house, wearing Chinese attire and probably a queue. The party included the Rev. Thomas Stringer of the Church Missionary Society and who had only recently arrived in Hong Kong, the Rev. John Irwin the Colonial Chaplain since 1855, and one "Captn Drummond of the 99th”. During the excursion, Fryer, the youngest of the party, is at ease in this company and appears to be well on his way to becoming accepted by the establishment. He apparently has no trouble socializing, sharing meals, rooms, yarns and jokes, and doing a bit of pheasant shooting with his fellow excursionists.

Little is known of Fryer's two years at St. Paul's College other
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to enter: another was knocked down: and after one or two had smelt the powder, and tasted some small shot, they all took to their heels and ran. They afterwards found the wounded man, and instead of giving him up, they extracted the ball, and he is now recovered and gone to another place: although some of the people say he is dead. They have not the least fear, although a stronger attack is rumoured. They are brave, noble men, who sacrifice all for Christ. They have done great good, but keep it quiet. A man whom they admit to baptism must be well known to be a changed character. Consequently their Christian professors are an armament1a to them. Their discipline is strict, yet salutary. They win the respect of the Chinese, even those who will not embrace Christianity. When I contrast the noble boldness of their character with that of those around me - and above all with my own, I see vast room for improvement. And here my story has found an end.

NOTES

* From the John Fryer Papers The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

"1862" added to the manuscript in pencil Fryer made similar notes in pencil on other manuscripts in this collection many years later when transcriptions were made by typewriter. Miss W Haas Archive Assistant at the Evangelical Missionary Society in Basel, Switzerland, has determined that the date must be 1863, because a letter by Philip Winnes dated February 5, 1863, mentions a visit by Rudolf Lechler "with four Englishmen". In addition, E.J. Eitel (b. 1838) arrived in Hong Kong on October 24, 1862. Thus this excursion began on January 28, 1863, after Fryer (b. 1839) had been in Hong Kong almost 18 months. Eitel and Fryer were thus about the same age. See note 11.

Rudolf Lechler (1824-1908) was a Basel Mission pioneer, he spent 52 years (1847-99) in China and worked in Kwangtung with Hakkas.

The Rev. John James Irwin was Colonial Chaplain at Hong Kong during 1855-67.

Thomas Stringer, M.A. (Oxford), worked for the Church Missionary Society.

1 As of this writing, Captain Drummond has not been identified.

? Perhaps it was good only to eat.

7 "Nets" in the sense of "Catches".

Perhaps a pun on his name.

"That is, Buddhist.
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Figure 1. The Basel Mission Station at Lilong was visited in January 1863 by John Fryer, Rev. Rudolf Lechler, Rev. John Irwin, the Colonial Chaplain, and Rev. Thomas Stringer. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission. copyright, Basel Mission Archive.
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Figure 2. Rudolf Lechler (1824-1908), who invited John Fryer to join an excursion to the Basel Mission Station at Lilong in 1863. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission. © copyright, Basel Mission Archive.

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Figure 3. Philip Winnes of the Basel Mission Station at Lilong was host to a visiting group in 1863 which included John Fryer. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission, copyright, Basel Mission Archive.
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Figure 4. Ernest Johan Eitel (1838-1908), was at the Basel Mission Station at Lilong when visited by John Fryer in 1863. Dr. Eitel was author of Europe in China (Kelly and Walsh, 1895; reprinted Oxford University Press, 1983), a standard history of 19th century Hong Kong. Courtesy of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel, Switzerland, by permission, © copyright, Basel Mission Archive.

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himself, as well as the whole of their missionary activity in Asia and the Far East, including Macao, accounts for this. Sadly, as in Macao's Madre de Deus (which apparently was popularly called St. Paul's because of the Goa college and church), today only a pitiful ruin remains of this artistic and historic treasure, with merely a section of the entrance façade with its stone portal standing (Fig. 8).

The entangled history of the church's abandonment and final decay need not concern us here. But conveniently for my main arguments, the small section that does survive displays an Arch of Triumph integrated to the wall. Here engaged Corinthian columns, paired and elegantly fluted, standing on bases decorated with diamond-shaped reliefs and carrying a broken entablature frame the half-circular entrance arch. Artistically and technically this feature is close to the sophistication of Italian Renaissance architecture.

Since neither the famous college nor its church survives, Mário Chicó attempted to reconstruct the latter by means of drawings based on contemporary descriptions. He believed it to be the prototype for one of two types of Indo-Portuguese churches. He also convincingly argued that of the two types that of the façade of São Paulo is the closer to Serlio and Italian Renaissance architecture.

In Chicó's published drawing the façade of the church is shown as having three storeys, plus a pedimented attic. The three storeys are divided into three bays by projecting pilasters with entablatures, with openings for entrances and square and round windows. There is a niche for a titular image in the attic, which is joined to the floors below by the pilasters of the middle bay and by volutes.

It's an imaginative reconstruction, especially the fact that the façade has comparatively little decoration. It relies for effect on the more purely abstract lines of the design and on the main feature of its decoration, its Arch of Triumph.

The artistic and symbolic potency of the motif and its application as decoration to the façades of religious architecture was one that was not actually initiated by either the architects or the religious members of the Society of Jesus in Italy, Spain, Portugal or India. Rather it was one that the Jesuits had readily accepted and were able to effectively
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dynasty, shattering any sense that forceful treaties could ever provide a lasting spiritual peace between the former combatants.

PART SEVEN: After the golden light has shined...

It is only right to return to the Chinese Christians in Poklo once more and ask what, if anything, ever transpired in their tragic situation. In fact, there is much to say. Sometime in 1867 the house in Poklo and its keys were once more handed over to the London Missionary Society, and the former colporteur, Leung Man-shing, equipped with some lengthy experience as a hospital apprentice, entered the town both as a part-time physician and evangelist. By the beginning of the 1870s, another missionary under the London Mission Society, E. J. Eitel (1838-1908), took up residence in the area and, along with Chinese Christian help and support, soon had five functioning churches in the district. It should also be noted that, back in Hong Kong, the "son of the martyr of Poklo" was registered in the late 1860s as one of the baptized members of the Chinese congregation of Union Chapel under the pastoral leadership of Ho Tsun-sheen.97 The Qing dynasty finally fell in 1911, and in the rest of the 20th century there were changes of such devastating power that most of this past Chinese Protestant history in Bóluó has been completely lost and forgotten. In the most recent gazette for the Bóluó district published in 1988 there is information about some late 19th and 20th century activities and five churches maintained by German-speaking Lutherans from the Basel Mission Society in the region, but the editors humbly admit nothing else is known. Personal visits to the area and to pastors of the Three-Self congregation in Huizhōu in 1994 verified that no knowledge of these 19th century events remains even among the clergy now working in the region. Outside of the official congregation in Huìzhōu, only one or two acceptable meeting points currently exist for Christians in the two districts of Bóluó and Huizhōu.

98

Clearly, this essay offers much new light on these things from the not-so-distant past, allowing the "Golden Light" once more to shine within the thoughts and memories of Chinese Christians and others in that region, also for the sake of Christian missiological
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months he had physically broken down, and was dead in April, 1871. The loss for Chinese Protestants at the time was irreparable, for he was the only ordained Chinese pastor with lengthy experience and a notable record of creative publications in all of China at the time. Details on this event are given in Pfister's "A Transmitter but not a Creator"

94. The fact that Bruce was the younger brother of Sir Elgin, who ordered the burning of the imperial Summer Palace in 1860, is of some importance especially for impressing and reminding the Qing officials at the time of the destructive power of the British and allied forces.

95. See Legge's long letter including copies of the offending note sent by Bruce to Russell and Russell's response in China Mail #955 (June 4, 1863), p. 90. It is quite by coincidence that at the end of the 20th century in Chinese language the date "June Fourth" (liùsì) also immediately brings up images of persecution.

96. Much evidence for this exists in the South China correspondence with the London Missionary Society Directors for this period.

97. A note gleaned from the archives of Carl T. Smith in Hong Kong.

98. See Bóluóxiàn zhì, p. 330, where it simply states, "[We are] lacking any other materials." The total number of Chinese believers associated with the church work initiated by the Basel missionaries was over 300 in 1941.
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