RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704
Vol. 1 (1961).

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

RASHKB and author

ISSN 1991-7295

85

No-cha then partially pulled off the celestial robe of the dragon-king and revealed the scales under his left ribs. He tore off some forty or fifty of the dragon-scales and the dragon-king was wounded and suffered a violent pain. He begged his assailant to spare his life. No-cha said, “If you want me to spare your life you must give up your law-suit against me before the Jade Emperor, and follow me back to Ch'ên-t'ang Pass." The dragon-king could not free himself and yielded to No-cha. Transforming himself into the shape of a small black snake, he hid in No-cha's sleeve and they descended from heaven. (Ch.13)

Some references can be cited here for comparison and we can see how clever the author was in composing his ingenious and complicated plot which surpasses all the materials he made use of.

In the prompt-book Ch'in Ping Liu-kuo P'ing-hua ("The Annexation of the Six States by the Emperor of Ch’in”), chüan 2, there is a sentence, "to fasten the cuirass he should use the sinews of the old dragon." In the Ta-T’ang San-tsang Ch’ü-ching Shih-hua ("Tripitaka's Search for Buddhist Sutras"), chuan 2, (7), the Monkey-monk (Hou Hsing-chê) pulled out the sinews from a dragon with nine heads for a belt to hold the cuirass.

According to the Min Shu (M), there was a Taoist priest named Yu Chên-chai (2) living in the epoch of Hung Wu, who was called upon by an old woman:

She was a female-dragon... and was to be struck to death by lightning on account of her failure in regulating the rains. She begged him to save her life. Yü said, “Can you transform yourself to a small shape so that I may hide you in my alms-bowl?" The dragon followed his advice and transformed herself into a snake wriggling into the bowl.

The story of No-cha goes on as follows:

One day as the weather was excessively hot, he felt restless and annoyed, and ascended the tower over the city-gate. On the weapon-stands he found a wonderful bow called ch'ien-k'un kung (the cosmic bow) and three arrows called chên-t'ien chien (heaven-shaking arrows) which he appreciated very much, and did not know that they were left by the Yellow Emperor and since then no one had been strong enough to use them. He was so glad of this discovery and he seized the bow and shot an arrow toward the south-west. With a startling sound the sky was covered with red mist and auspicious clouds floated around. (Ch.13)

In chuan 13, in the chapter of the "Competition in Martial Exercises for the Hand of Yasodhara" of Abhiniskramana-sutra (DATE · #), we have the following paragraph:
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r
NOTES AND QUERIES

167

By way of comparison, the tour also visited Ayuthia and saw the gigantic Buddha at Wat Phanan Cheong, by the river, and the ruins of Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, Wat Phra Sri Samphet, and Wat Phra Ram. The magnificent Wat Na Pramane in its peaceful country setting, with its elaborate carved pediment (the only one to survive the holocaust of the Burmese attack in 1767), its fine ceiling and remarkable bronze Buddha in kingly attire of the Ayuthia period in the main bot and the no less striking stone Dvaravati Buddha seated in the European fashion with its characteristically placid Mon face left a deep impression,

Before leaving Bangkok a visit was made to three representative temples of the Ratanakosin period, Wat Suthat, with its wealth of Chinese statuary and carved and gilded doors said to be the work of Rama II (the vihara was unfortunately closed and its murals could not be seen). However at Wat Borworniwes the unusual murals depicting scenes of western eighteenth century palaces introducing alien perspective were noted; the bot also contains the revered statue Phra Buddha Chinasara, a good example of Sukhothai statuary. The peaceful temple grounds with their canals full of turtles were in considerable contrast to the roaring city outside the temple walls. The better known Wat Benjamabhopit with its copies of various statues, including that at Pitsanuloke of which the original had been seen, was also visited. Most interestingly perhaps, on the last day the group visited the gold-leaf beaters' lane where for several days layers of gold are pounded by hand to produce the wafer-thin pieces which are applied on statues by the devout.

It should not be thought that the members of the tour remained aloof to daily life of contemporary Thailand; elements of this were seen at the weekend market at the Pramane Ground, and, in the country, working elephants, the pounding of rice flour in villages and the releasing of birds to gain merit in temple courtyards left their impression.

In what was effectively four very full days, a great deal was seen and much ground was covered (it took ten hours by bus to reach Pitsanuloke from Bangkok). The pace was intense but rewarding. The tour was considered culturally illuminating, revealing the many facets of the rich artistic heritage of Thailand.

Hong Kong, 1973.

MICHAEL SMITHIES
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
DO WORDS FROM EXTINCT PRE-CHINESE LANGUAGES SURVIVE IN HONG KONG PLACE-NAMES ?*

By K. M. A. BARNETT

Introduction

Anybody whose work takes him into the rural parts of Hong Kong will soon be made aware of the badness of the maps. The errors in topographical detail I must leave to the cartographer to explain. The errors which concern me are those in the nomenclature. It is apparent after the most cursory check that a large proportion of the place-names are incorrect — either the wrong name, or the right name wrongly spelt, or the right name in the wrong place.

Putting the right name in the wrong place is presumably due to the misreading of field notes. Wrong spellings are always to be excused in the absence of a generally accepted, scientific method of transliteration. And even the registration of a wrong name is not so easy to avoid as might be thought.

In the past, many field workers were entirely ignorant of the local languages and had to rely on interpreters. There are good interpreters in Hong Kong — in 24 years' service I have met four... but they are not available to accompany field survey parties. Field survey parties have to rely on less than the best interpreters, or even on pidgin English, with some amusing results in the early days. It was for this reason that the island of Ma Shi Chau1 is still marked on some maps as No Kot Choi — i.e. No got choy, pidgin English for 'No food to be had'.

Later, the field workers themselves had some knowledge of Chinese, but even that had its pitfalls. For the Chinese they would know is Cantonese, either the Sai Kwan162 or the Pun Yue161 dialect. But the languages of the New Territories are Nam Tau156 Cantonese,

*This article is reprinted, with some revisions and additions by the author, from pp. 1-13 of T. R. Tregear's Hong Kong Gazetteer (Hong Kong University Press, 1958). Mr. Barnett is well known to readers of this Journal. He served for 37 years in the Administrative Branch of the Hong Kong Civil Service from which he retired some years ago, his last post being Commissioner of Census and Statistics.

Superior figures refer to characters which can be found in the Notes and Character Index at pp. 157-159.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
244

DONALD C. BOWIE

sive demonstration of American air power. I do not know if any Japanese planes took part in the defence. After the raid we picked up a great many jagged fragments of bombs and shells in our grounds though the hospital itself suffered no obvious damage. The history of the war shows that this raid came from Admiral Halsey's Sixth Fleet which had passed to the north of the Philippine Islands and approached the China coast searching for some remaining ships of the Japanese fleet. On this occasion the attackers failed to find the ships which at the time were lying up much further to the south but we got enormous encouragement from the successes we saw. The bombing was very accurate but during one raid on another occasion a fleet of large American bombers came in from the sea aiming from high altitude no doubt at dockyards and Japanese headquarters. Unfortunately their bombs fell short and damaged a large part of Wan Chai. As maybe imagined we had no newspapers for some days after these occasions.

On 21 January bombs from another raid fell very close to the hospital and we lost a good deal of glass and plaster and picked up many fragments of shells and bombs in the grounds. Our guards never overcame their excitement during air raids and added their own defence contribution by rapid fire from their rifles at the attacking aeroplanes. It would be interesting to learn how much ammunition the Japanese had left at the date of their surrender.

From the end of January 140 men from Sham Shui Po camp were accommodated on the top floor of the hospital which was wired off from the rest of the building. They were marched off daily to prepare ground in Happy Valley to grow vegetables there and were accompanied each day by one of our nursing orderlies. The original orders to me were to house the working party in the now vacant barrack block from which the hospital was by now wired off, but when these orders were changed Seino quite courteously apologised for the alteration. We cooked for the newcomers and helped their own 10 maintenance men to draw and hoist water daily to their quarters. The work in Happy Valley was arduous at first and the weather was cold and wet. Later the conditions were easier and the hours of work were less. The ration scale allowed by the Japanese for the working party was on a substantially higher level than that in the hospital in rice, fish, vegetables, beans, oil and sugar. I pressed this precedent and I got our official rice ration raised by 30 grammes to 510 grammes; the
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n
MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH 

155 

crews, who had no permit for that beach, were driven off without their sand. One of my duties was to discover and report beaches that could be dug without injury to cultivated land. Some of these have since then been completely worked out, notably on Sha Chau, as I found in 1938 during archaeological researches. Eventually the P.W.D.* started a scheme for dredging and working sand from the sea bottom off Tai Lam Chung about 1929, which enabled the builders to get what they wanted. The beaches at Tai Long in Lantau and Tai Wan in Lamma were specially reserved for the waterworks filter beds because of the cleanness and high quality of the sand there. 

One of the interesting communities on Lantau was the group of Buddhist temples and chai tong or fasting halls on the well-known high plateau between Tung Chung and Tai O figuring as 'Ngong Ping' on the maps. It lay at about 800 ft. above sea level and its members maintained a good pathway from Tai O across a stream and up the hill to their settlement and ran their buildings, somewhat in the manner of vegetarian youth hostels. They occasionally harboured strange characters, as might be expected in unsettled and revolutionary times. One such, I believe, was a big-scale opium smuggler and den-keeper who had operated in London, and was nicknamed ‘Brilliant Cheung'; I think he got banished from the Colony. The track from Tai O to Tung Chung was a favourite walk for many people: I unfortunately never did it. 

As I notice that Hong Kong seems to have become more and more a tourist attraction of late years, I may perhaps conclude these reminiscences with a few notes on the sites of historical or archaeological interest which can be found in the Southern District, and which may be thought worth preserving. Our chief site, Sung Wong Toi, was I know wrecked by the Japanese as an anti-Kuomintang measure, though the inscription has been preserved. Kowloon City was full of interesting things when I visited it, such as old yamens, drill grounds for Chinese troops, ancient cannon with inscriptions, and above all the old walls and gates; I once sat in the gate to conduct an enquiry, after the manner of King David, with the people assembled round. Close by was a walled and moated village, shown on maps but hard to find, named Nga Tsin Wai, which I hope will not be ‘improved' out of existence by planners! On the low hill west of Kowloon City a loopholed wall and gateway with a ruined guard-house barred the path crossing a gap 

* Public Works Department.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n
NOTES AND QUERIES 

217 

is formed on top. Then pick out the thin layer with a bamboo stick, upon which it is allowed to dry. The end-product will be the delicious and nourishing bean skim. Being performed entirely by hand in the past, the whole process was not so simple as this brief description suggests.

Over eighty years ago, my great-grandfather with his two sons and their wives fled from famine-stricken Chi Kam hsien in Wai Chau prefecture, Kwangtung, and reached Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan where they started their occupation of bean skim making. At that time, there was no highway linking Tsuen Wan with Kowloon. In order to sell the bean skim and buy more yellow beans, my ancestors had to climb over rugged hills every day.

In those days, the yellow beans were first exposed under hot sun (or heated in a pot in case of dull weather). The impurities such as sand and stalks were carefully picked out from the beans, then the beans were crushed by manual labour until the husks were separated from the beans. Beans and husks were then poured into a bamboo container which was tossed up and down with both hands so as to cast out the husks. The pure beans were then put into a tank and soaked in water for four hours (six hours in winter). Then the beans were ground into a paste by pushing hard at the stone-grinder. The amount of beans could not be in excess of forty catties if the whole process was to be finished within one day, and one had to rise about 2 a.m. to start grinding. This paste was then wrapped inside a cloth bag and the fluid squeezed out. The refuse was then filtered off, while the pasty fluid was poured into twelve flat-bottomed metal pans and boiled, using grass as fuel. (The smoke as emitted from the fluid and the burning grass is not unlike tear gas, giving one a suffocating feeling.) The surface foam was removed, and the fluid kept at a temperature that kept it near boiling. A thin layer of membrane formed on the surface, which was taken off with a bamboo stick and allowed to dry. This process of heating, layer-forming and taking off was repeated again and again, until the paste in all the twelve pans became membrane i.e. bean skim. This process must have required the longest working-hours of the world, for one had to work at it twenty-one hours on end every day, from 2 a.m. to 11 p.m.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207
202

To

and

sites were also rendered ineffective by the emperor's golden pen. My knowledge, the elders knew of four sites. One of them was on Tiu Chung Chau at Kau Sai in Saikung. The fungshui of this site was ‘a golden bell hanging on a silk thread'. Every year at the Double-ninth festival, nine buffaloes came to worship at the grave; there was also the sound of a bell being struck. A second site was at Yuen Chau Chai at Kei Leng Ha Village. The fungshui name was 'the general comes down from his horse to drink three cups of wine'. In the middle of the sea, there is Wu Chau (with the adjacent island of Sam Pui Tsau) that resembles a pig, three cups of wine and two cups of tea. Another site was at To Tau Tsui at Wu Kai Sha, which is opposite Nga Chau (usually nowadays called A Chau) in the Tai Po Hoi. The fungshui name was crows going into the ocean. Legend has it that in the old days a mud embankment connected Wu Kai Sha to Nga Chau which sank into the sea after the emperor put down the dragon. The embankment has not been seen again. One more site was on Ap Chau opposite Kat O. The fungshui name was 'precious duck going through the lotus'. The legend is that Ap Chau used to be able to swim between Sam Mun Kan and Mirs Bay. Later, it was blocked by a duck pole, that is, the place currently known as Hak Ngam Kok. After that, when paddy ripened in the Yim Tin Village area near Sha Tau Kok, there was no rice grain on the stalk, because it was all eaten by the duck. After the emperor put down the dragon with his golden pen, the head of the duck... and then there was grain again.

I know about the fungshui of only these four grave sites.

he cut off

Passage 2

Recorded by Ho Kei Fook

"An extraordinary person saw that Huang Hsiao-yang [rebel in the Canton area in the early fifteenth century] had features fitting to make him emperor and gave him a bamboo shoot to plant at home. When the 'bamboo grew to the height of his brows', he was supposed to be able to make an arrow out of it which he could use to kill the emperor with and thereby take over the throne. Huang planted the bamboo shoot as he had been instructed and a bamboo stem grew
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x
55 years the Nga Tsin Wai villagers blamed on this act of disrespect to the Goddess: those disasters were massive and permanent.

These disasters stemmed from the coming of the Japanese. When the Japanese came, the squatters living on the Nga Tsin Wai fields all fled, or were forced, back to China, and the villagers started the slow job of rehabilitating their fields. Before this work was complete, however, the Japanese decided to extend the airfield at Kai Tak. The pre-War Airfield was very tiny, and built solely on a narrow strip of reclaimed land seaward of today's Prince Edward Road, extending not much further seaward than the Airport Terminal Building as it stood before 1998. The Japanese saw that this was totally inadequate. They decided both to reclaim a further strip out to sea, and to clear a large area inland. They closed the very narrow road which the British had built along the sea-coast (approximately along the line of today's Prince Edward Road). They diverted all the streams of the area into a single huge stone-lined nullah, and built a new road along the inner side of this nullah (today's Choi Hung Road). To prevent floods, they built the banks of this nullah high, so that Nga Tsin Wai found itself at a level some four or five feet below that of the new nullah banks. Everything within the huge semicircle thus formed they confiscated and cleared. Po Kong, Sha Tei Yuen, Kak Hang, Ma Tau Chung, Kau Pui Shek and Nga Yiu Tau villages, with about half of Tai Hom, were all destroyed in a matter of weeks. The Sacred Hill, with the Sung Wong Toi Rock, was blasted for fill for the new reclamation.

The Japanese paid no compensation for the land they confiscated. It was just taken, and a barbed-wire fence erected: anyone crossing this fence was executed. According to the Nga Tsin Wai villagers, the villagers of the destroyed villages were allowed to take part in a ballot for huts in the “Model Village” (). This had been built by the Japanese in the area between Lancashire Road and Renfrew Road in Kowloon Tong (this area had been cleared for development in the late 1930s, but was still empty when the Japanese came in 1941). The Japanese divided this area into a number of tiny patches. Those successful in the ballot were given one of these patches, and permitted to build on it a tiny one-room hut, and to use the rest of the patch for market gardening. Those who succeeded in getting a hut here mostly survived the War: those who failed mostly died. At best a half of the villagers whose houses were destroyed and whose fields were confiscated got
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n
269

MODEL VILLAGE, KOWLOON TSAI, HONG KONG

JAMES HAYES

Dr. Patrick Hase made mention of Model Village in his article Beside the Yamen: Nga Tsin Wai Village, published in Vol. 39 of the Journal, pp. 1-82. As stated therein, this was a village created by the Japanese military authorities during their wartime occupation of the Colony for families displaced by the extension of Kai Tak airfield from the central Kowloon area near Nga Tsin Wai.

In 1966, I went to Model Village, and spoke with a number of persons living there. Some had been among the original inhabitants, whilst others had moved there after the war. Their accounts throw further light on this interesting place, and its wartime origins. Together with photographs taken at the time of my visit, they fill out the information given to Dr. Hase by the Nga Tsin Wai elders. On the basis of notes taken during our conversations, I have let the Model Village people speak for themselves. Ages are given by the Chinese reckoning, usually one or two years less than by Western computation.

My Informants' Account of Themselves and of Model Village

'I am Yip Choi, a Hakka, born in April 1897 in Tam Shui of Waichow County. When I was five or six years old, my father took me to Po Kong Village in central Kowloon. At the time of the extension of the airfield, I was living in a stone house in the village. It was ordered to be demolished and we were told to go over to Model Village. We had to help the contractor who was given the job of building the houses there by the Japanese authorities. There was no pay, but those persons who worked on the site got one catty of rice per day. This area was originally known as Shi Ling Village (Lion Ridge Village) but the Japanese commander in charge of the rehousing operation said this was not a peaceful name, and changed it to Model Village. I also have a vegetable field at the village, and am still farming.'

'I am Madam Ng Lin Tai, Cantonese, aged 77. My father's family (Ng) was originally from Ng Uk Village, near Nam Tau, but I know that my father and grandfather were born in Kowloon Tsai Village (I am not sure about the older generations). We kept up the Nam Tau...
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