RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 67 FURTHER NOTES ON THE SUNG WONG T'OI W. SCHOFIELD* The very interesting paper by Professor Lo Hsiang-lin on the Sung Wong T'oi and the travelling courts of the Sung Dynasty, in Volume III No. 2 of the Journal of Oriental Studies,† and the partial wrecking of the historic site by the Japanese in the war,‡ have prompted the writer to put on record some notes made during the years 1918 and 1937 on the earthworks, inscriptions and relics found by him on and near the site, which may help to supplement Professor Lo's paper. In what follows the hill is described as it was in 1937, as the writer has not seen it since 1938. It is a crescent-shaped hill, convex towards the east, where it rises steeply from the beach to a height of nearly 40 metres. It commands a good view of the south slope of the Kowloon hills and the plain beneath, the east half of the harbour, and of Lyemun channel and the west end of the Fat Tau Mun channel beyond, except for a few hundred metres at its north side by Slope Island (see Plate 5). A watch-tower on its summit would provide an observation post well over 40 metres above sea level. The concave side, on which lies the main path to the top, is terraced for cultivation up to 15 or 20 metres. The objects investigated on and near the hill can be classed in three categories, earthworks, inscriptions, and pottery and other objects, and will be dealt with in that order. The Earthworks (see sketch plan at Plate 3) There are signs that the hill was formerly fortified. On its top from the south end above the 20 metre contour as far as the great inscribed rock on the summit, there is a gentle rise from which the ground falls away steeply to the east, and rather less so to the west and south. At the south end of the ridge traces of a bank at the edge appear to form a rough semicircle, presumably as a flank defence, for a clearly defined earth bank about a metre high by three or four wide at the base runs northward from it nearly straight along the centre of the hill crest to a point near the south- *See biographical note at the end of this article. † Published by the Hong Kong University Press, May 1958. [See also Mr. Jen Yu-wen's article "The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung in Kowloon" in JHKBRAS, Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 21-38. Ed.] Mr. Schofield writes in the present tense, Unfortunately the hill has now disappeared completely, what was left by the Japanese being removed for the airport extension about 1958. Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 262 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: THROWER, Prof. L. B. TISDALL, Brian TOMLIN, Mrs. I. TONG, Louis TORRANCE, J. R. TOOGOOD, C. W. TRISTRAM, M. P. W. TSE, Charles TSO, Mrs. Priscilla TURNER, H. D. TWEEDIE, Howard TWITCHETT, Miss Yvonne TYLER, Mr. & Mrs. M. R. VEEVERS, Miss Kathleen J. VETCH, Mr. & Mrs. Henri VISICK, Mrs. Mary Flat 6B, University Residence No. 6, Chinese University of Hong Kong. 7, Stanley Mound Road, Stanley, H.K. 12A, Broadwood Road, 1st floor, H.K. Connaught Centre, 35th floor, H.K. A2, 2 Vista Panorama, Amonoda Road, Kowloon Tsai, Kowloon. c/o Oxford University Press, 5th floor, News Building, 633 King's Road, H.K. Rating & Valuation Dept., Murray House, Garden Road, H.K. 59-61 Wong Chuk Hang Road, 1st floor, Aberdeen, H.K. Dept. of Extra Mural Studies, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. History Dept., University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. Officers' Mess, Grenadier Guards, Stanley Fort, H.K. c/o Island School, Bowen Road, H.K. 402, Tregunter Mansions, 14 Old Peak Rd., H.K. 79, Mount Nicholson Gap, H.K. 10A, Belmont Court, 10, Kotewall Road, H.K. Dept. of English, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. WADIA, Mr. & Mrs. R. J. WALDEN, J. C. C. WATERS, D. D. WATT, J. C. Y. WEBB, Miss Susan M. WEBBER, Dr. & Mrs. J. H. WEI, Dr. Tat WENG, Mrs. Gloria WESTCOTT, K. WHITELEY, Mrs. I. E. 502, La Hacienda, 31 Mt. Kellet Road, The Peak, H.K. 1 Homestead, The Peak, H.K. c/o Education Dept., Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. Flat 4, 5A Garden Road, H.K. Fanling Hospital, Fanling, N.T. 3 Fontana Gardens, 5th floor, Causeway Hill, H.K. 1 Essex Crescent, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon. The British Council, Star House, 3rd floor, Kowloon. 8C London Court, 41A Conduit Road, H.K. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 134 W. J. HINTON The fishing fleet, or what part of it is in harbour, lies outside this floating village, and so do the salt and cargo junks, which occupy the centre of the harbour in lines on either side of the fairway to the pier, and boats ply to them from the beach all day and night. To the West are the boats of the Hoklo tribe, drawn up on the beach or riding to their stone anchors. Wonderful boats these, shaped like a crescent moon and able to ride the great waves in the monsoon, miles from land. They are heavy, yet easily rowed by a few men. These tribes like the Puntis and Hakkas keep their own distinctive customs, languages and crafts though so closely packed in one small island. Beyond the Hoklo beach lies the greatest temple of the island, the Pak Tai Temple, dedicated to the Guardian of the North, and the scene of an annual Theatrical display in honour of the God. The Guardian it appears was once an official under the Sung Dynasty, canonised later for his services to the Empire, and now worshipped in some parts of China. At the other end of the town, among the Hakka tribe is the Temple of the Queen of Heaven, goddess of sailormen. It is hung with votive offerings from the happy sailors whose ships and lives she has saved. One is reminded of the Church of Notre Dame de la Garde at Marseilles. Still farther to the east is a rock shrine, shared amicably by the genius loci, and the gentle and compassionate Kwan Yin. The streets show small shrines wherever a strangely shaped stone or tree is to be found, and of course the Kitchen god, can be seen in his smoky niche above the fire as one peeps through the open doors. Elsewhere in the island are two small shrines or temples. One is the beloved Kwan Yin, and the other a shrine for fishermen where some fish god gives luck to the devotee and receives his offerings and thanks when success has followed the fishing. At the little temple of Kwan Yin mothers often kneel to ask for favours, above all for children. Thus far the village is purely Chinese but some of the houses in the centre are built in the hideous style of the tenements of Hongkong, like a pile of empty boxes with the mouths gaping blankly at the spectator, but the majority are still Chinese in style and ornament. Most of the houses are of one storey, and they are built of a great variety of material. Some are of granite masonry (looking much more substantial than it really is, since the walls are hollow and the mortar practically mud,) and others of brick, Page 150 Page 151 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 110 The very latest is that some enterprising folk of these parts have committed a piracy on a junk there, and five or six of them are up before the District Officer, South, on a committal charge. At the northern end of High Island is the interesting feature called the Dry Channel or Kon Mun. It is a fiord formed by the sunken mouth of the valley running northwest by Lan Nai Wan, which is connected on the west with the other channels. Into it has poured the whole of the silt from the upper valley: and as this point is precisely where the two tidal waves sweeping round High Island meet, the silt is heaped up there without any chance of it getting carried away. Nothing bigger than a small sampan can traverse it, and then only at high water.3 Leaving this fascinating island group by the often stormy route past Conic Island and Fung Head, we reach the mouth of Taipo Harbour, with Kang Chau (a little rock built up of volcanic ash beds), Grass Island, with the fishing village of Tap Mun on it, and Port Island. This last island is uninhabited. The islands in Taipo Harbour are mostly of sandstone and shale, but are otherwise of little interest. They are Harbour Island, Centre Island, and lastly, the island near Taipo station where the District Officer, North, lives, though since the causeway carrying the road was built, this is no longer an island. Going out again round Bluff Head, we come to another island-studded stretch of sea. Three large and sixteen small islands occupy it, and it is a most beautiful piece of water. Double Island, the first you come to, is in two halves joined by a low, narrow neck: the Crescent Island, beside it, is uninhabited, but Kat ("Lucky Harbour") Island, not being very lofty, has a good deal of its surface under cultivation. There is yet one more island, and this is in some ways the most curious of all. It lies away across Mirs Bay, two miles from the Chinese coast, from which it draws a good deal of its drinking water by means of waterboats. It is called, very appropriately, Pingchau ("Flat Island"). When I was there, I did not see any paddy whatever; all cultivation was dry, and often the fields were unterraced and sloping, quite different from other parts of the New Territory, yet the island is populous, in ================================================================================