RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES

161

Another ancestral hall, built by the Tang family was less fortunate. The story goes that in the 1st year of Ka Hing (✯✯) A.D. 1796 of Ts'ing dynasty, the sons of Tang Yue Cheung (**) decided to build an ancestral hall worthy to house the tablet of their illustrious ancestress, the princess. So they built a house of “kak muk” (**) in T’aai Họng (✯✯✯) village, and in shape the house was like a king's palace. At that time the district magistrate of Sun On was a man nicknamed “Hungry Bug" on account of his habit of collecting "squeeze" wherever he could. When he heard of the new building being erected in Kam T'in, and how magnificent it was, he scented a chance to make money. So he sent a message to the Tangs to say he would like to inspect their new acquisition.

The Tangs were much dismayed; being familiar with the character of their district officer they knew quite well the object of his visit, they did not want to pull down the house yet its very existence was an indication of their wealth and prosperity. In the village of Lung Kwat T'au (#) where the villagers are Tangs too, being descendants of the first son of the princess, there was a portrait of the princess and the Tangs of Kam T'in borrowed it and hung it up in the entrance of the hall. When the district officer saw it he was filled with awe, and hastily made obeisance to it. He was so impressed that he dared not demand money from the descendants of so distinguished a lady, and after making a show of being pleased he stayed one night, and then took his departure.

Eventually the picture had to be returned to its rightful owners, and the Kam T’in men fearing further trouble, pulled the hall down, but the foundation stones, overgrown with weeds and grass can still be seen.

The legends of Kam T'in are curiously mixed up with tales of buried treasure. One story tells how at the end of the Ming dynasty the Tangs wished to build an ancestral hall for the tablet of their eleventh ancestor, Tang Kwong Yue ( ). Tang Ping Yee (*) (a grandson of Tang Kwong Yue) and eight of Tang Ping Yee's cousins chose what was, according to one "Fung shui" man, a very lucky day to put up the central beam of the house, but a few days later they found that the beam was putting forth shoots. The people considered this to be a bad omen, so they consulted a more reliable fortune-teller, who declared that the day had been a lucky day, but for building boats, not houses! The people at once pulled down the beam, the time happened to be the season of the dragon boat festival, and the villages decided to make the discarded
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q
to be the official collectors of pearls. They were paid by the Government, and in the fourth year of Yin Yau (#) A.D. 1317, three government officers were put in charge of them, who were very highly paid, and ranked among the highest officials.

The collecting was thus carried on, the same primitive methods being used, until the first year of T`aai Ting (4) A.D. 1324 when a local elder Cheung Wai Yan (30) protested with such force against the loss of life and suffering involved that in the seventh month of the same year an order was sent out abolishing all the pearl fishing.

During the following fifty years the industry was resumed and discontinued several times, but the pearls were gradually getting less and less in number. Eventually in the seventh year of Hung Mo (PA) A.D. 1374 of Ming (]) dynasty, it was found that half a catty was all the result of five months labour. It was then finally stopped, and pearls for imperial use were collected from the sea near Lui Chau (HM) and Lim Chau (EH) instead.

The present Tai Po market is not the original one, which was situated to the east of the present one, and is now called Old Tai Po market by the country people and can be found on the map under the name of Yin Pun Ha. Old Tai Po market was built in the time of Maan Lik (46) A.D. 1573-1619 of Ming dynasty, to commemorate the devotion shown by the son of an inhabitant of Lung Kwat T'au ( ), a village near Fanling. (See Note 2). This young man, named Tang Sz Maang (BE) lived during the period of Lung Hing (M) 1567-1572 of Ming dynasty. Maang's father was captured by a noted pirate Lam Fung (#) who held him up for ransom. (See Note 3). Maang went to his father-in-law and said, "We are too poor to pay the ransom and redeem my father, so I shall beg the pirates to take me in his stead“. His father-in-law would not agree and tried to stop him, but Maang slipped away secretly and found his way to the pirate ship. With much eloquence he pleaded for his father, saying, “If you keep my father it will mean that I and my brother will have no father, and my father will have no son, but if you free my father then my younger brother will still have a father, and my father will still have a son. Moreover my father is old, he cannot work as well as I, because I am young and strong”. Then he knelt to the pirate and kept on begging with many tears, until his request was at last granted.
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