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) ISSN 1991-7295 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 36 The next example is from Li Po, who, having been a knight errant himself, naturally eulogized them in his poetry. In his "Song of the Knight Errant", he describes a knight thus: The man from the North wears a tasselled hat And a curved sword as bright as frost or snow. His silver saddle shines on his white steed On which he rides as fast as a shooting star. He can kill anyone within ten paces And will not stop till he has gone a thousand miles. Shaking the dust from his clothes, he goes into hiding, To shroud in secret his person and his name. After mentioning two famous knights of antiquity, the poet concludes: After death, their chivalrous bones are fragrant; They can compare with any heroes in the world. Who cares to imitate the pedantic scholar Writing books until his hair grows white? In another poem he again says: It is better to be a knight errant than a scholar: What is the good of studying hard when your hair is turning white?12 Finally, a poem by Chia Tao (A.D. 777-841), which seems to me to sum up the spirit of knight errantry in four lines: The Swordsman This sword I have been polishing for ten years; Its frosty edge has never been put to the test. Now that I've shown it to you, pray tell me: Is there anyone suffering from injustice?* But the richest fruits of chivalric literature are naturally to be found not in poetry but in fiction. Among the romances in classical prose of the T'ang period, we find many tales of chivalry. Apart from their generally high literary standard, these tales are remarkable for two interesting features: first, in many of them, a supernatural element is introduced; secondly, we encounter as many female hsia, or chivalrous ladies, as knights. The story of Hung Hsien is a typical example. Hung Hsien, or "Red Cotton", was a maid in the household of Hsüeh Sung, the military governor of Lu-chou, in the T'ang dynasty. She was a skillful p'i-pa player 11 Li T'ai-po shih-chi, chüan 3, 31. 12 Ibid., chüan 3, 14. 13 Ch'üan T'ang shih, chüan 571. (In the Peking, 1960 edition, p. 6618). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 116 CRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD which lies in the mouth of the Pearl River estuary between Macao and Castle Peak on the opposite headland. However, during the south-west monsoons the anchorages of Kapsuimun門 pq 29, and Hong Kong were used because they provided greater protection. The Kapsuimun anchorage was situated south of Ma Wan island and sheltered to the west by the headland of Lantao and to the east by Tsing I island. Because of the smuggling of opium from depot ships at these outer anchorages the capabilities of the anchorages off Lantao island and between Hong Kong island and Kowloon on the mainland became thoroughly known to British merchants and sea captains. In 1835 a former member of the British East India Company published a book in which he advocated the need for Britain to obtain some island from which trade with China could be carried on because of the uncertain conditions of trade at Canton following the ending of the Company's monopoly30. In a review of this book published in the Chinese Repository the reviewer remarks on the fact that the author pressed the idea of Britain acquiring Macao from Portugal, which he considered ill-advised. He wrote The want of a good harbour, and its dangerous position in the season of typhoons and strong north or east gales, unfit it for the possession of a commercial nation, as point d'appui. Lantao is better, and this we should prefer of the places named by our author. It is an island, capable of defence, producing abundant supplies of food, with many good harbours, is not so near the provincial city as to render it dangerous for natives to resort to it, for the purpose of commerce.31 Thus in 1835 Lantao was still considered eligible as a possible British settlement. In May 1839 the British Superintendent of Trade, Captain Charles Elliot, and all British subjects, left Canton as a result of the measures taken by the Imperial Commissioner Lin Tse-hsü, and retired to Macao. However, when in mid-August of 1839 the British were forced out of Macao by Chinese pressure it was to the anchorage of Hong Kong that the English ships went. Although Hong Kong was eventually ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Nanking 1842 this had not always been an automatic choice, the possibility of forming a settlement on Formosa, the Bonin Islands, and on Ma Wan and Lantao island had previously been given serious consideration. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM 79 tions, he spent the first year on language study in Tokyo, then a year at Otani University, and a final year at the Mampukuji outside Kyoto, which is the most Chinese of Japanese Zen monasteries. He was very politely treated. When I asked (perhaps tactlessly) whether the Japanese Government did not have a policy of trying to use Buddhism to subdue China, he replied with some sharpness: "I was not utilized by them. That was not the way they behaved towards me." He said, however, that other monks who had gone to Japan were looked on as collaborators when they returned, and some had had to change their names. Other informants have stated that after victory in 1945 several high-ranking monks in Shanghai were imprisoned for collaboration with the Japanese and one was executed in Canton.18 33 Quaritch Wales in an article written at the height of the war summarized the Japanese use of Buddhism as follows. “Buddhist propaganda has for several years been carried on by the New Asia Bureau of the Dai Nippon Buddhist Association, which is under the joint control of the Japanese Education and War Ministries. It is responsible for all missionary work in East Asia and long before Pearl Harbour was already deeply entrenched in north China. There, the more systematically to further its ends, the New Asia Bureau had established Sino-Japanese Buddhist Associations at Hangchow, Amoy, and Nanking, subsidized by the Special Service Section of the Army, naturally not with purely religious motives.”19 Most of this, sensational though it may sound, is confirmed by the semi-official Japanese source already referred to in the notes, that is, the 1943 Yearbook of the Great Harmony Religious Alliance of Central China. The Great Harmony Alliance had been set up in accordance with a religious work policy formulated by the Japanese Military Intelligence Bureau in October, 1938.20 It was "under the direction and supervision of the military authorities." Throughout a series of bureaucratic changes over the next four years, its purposes remained the same: 1) to coordinate and control Japanese religious groups in central China; and 2) to promote their cooperation with Chinese counter-parts. To this latter end the Alliance set up at least a dozen Japanese-Chinese Buddhist associations, of which those that existed in November 1940 formed the Japanese-Chinese Buddhist 21 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 207 HERRIES. Hon. M. A, R. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. d'HESTROY, Baron P. de G. Belgian Embassy, 1653 Calle Viamonte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. HILL, D. A. HỌ, Mrs. Hung Chịu CIECD Engineering Consulting Group, P.O. Box 23, Taipei, Taiwan, HO, Teh-Kuei 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. HO, Tickon* Lake Side Building, 13th floor, "B", 259 Gloucester Road, H.K. HOCHSTADTER. Dr. Walter 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. HOGAN, Sir Michaci 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. HOLMAN, J. P. Chief Justice's Chambers, Supreme Court, H.K. HOLMES, Hon. D. R. 15A Vivian Court, Mt. Kellett, Peak, H.K. HOLTH, Dr. Sverre c/o Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, International Building, 10th Floor, H.K. HONG, Sheng-Hwa Tao Fong Shan Christian Institute, Shatin, N.T. HOPKINSON, Mrs. J. E. c/o U.S. Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K. HORSTMANN, Mrs. C. 12, Mt. Nicholson Gap, H.K. HOWNAM-MEEK, R. S. 104 Ocean Terminal, Kowloon. HOTUNG, Eric Edward P. O. Box 70, H.K. HOWARD, W. L.* 10 Stanley Street, H.K. HOWE, D. H. P. O. Box 282, H.K. HOWE, Mrs. P. M. - 45 Sassoon Road, Ground floor, H.K. HOWORTH, J. F. As above. HOYNINGEN-HUENE, Baron Ture von c/o Leigh & Orange, Room 2015 Union House, H.K. HSIA, Tung Pei. 9-A Stanley Beach Road, H.K. HUGHES, G. M. 131B, Wanchai Building, 8th floor, 131 Wanchai Road, H.K. HUGHES, Mrs. G. M.*. American International Assurance Co., Ltd., American International Building, H.K. HUGHES, Prof. W. I. RBL 175 Sassoon Road, H.K. HUI, Miss Wai-haan Coleg Harlech, Harlech, North Wales. Dept. of Chemistry, The University, Pokfulum, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 80 W. SCHOFIELD Antiquities in 1939, bulletin no. 11. On the Danh Do La site, a sand-bank, he describes a section 4.5 m. above sea level, where at 45 to 89 cm. below the ground surface is a culture stratum with potsherds, stones and pumice. His derivation of the pumice from the East Indies, while possible, is perhaps less likely than my suggestion of a more northern origin, as the prevailing winds in the South China seas are undoubtedly north-east to south-east, and typhoons generally make their approach felt by violent easterly gales. All but three of the pumice-bearing sandbanks in Hong Kong face east, and one of the three, Tai Wan in Lamma, faces south. LIFE AND INDUSTRY OF THE INHABITANTS The only industry of which we can be certain is that still carried on by boat-people living near Tung Kwu, namely, fishing: yet there is little direct evidence of it in the finds. A rough stone ring collected by Professor Shellshear, and a stone axe blunted almost beyond recognition, with a notch on each side for attaching a rope or rattan, most likely used as a net sinker, and found loose on the surface of the isthmus during a visit by Professor Andersson, are the only direct traces. Yet if people ever lived on the island, this was almost the only resource open to them apart from the primitive 'slash and burn' cultivation indicated by the digging-stones. The food vessels left for the dead, the store jars, and the cooking stands they placed their hot round-bottomed caldrons on, indicate not only a settlement, probably shifting, but a cemetery. Tiled houses were no doubt a later development, going back no further than the Tang dynasty. The main interest of the relics found lies in the light they throw on the culture and life of the men who lived there before the coming of the colonists from the feudal principality of Yuet, and so before Chinese influence was strongly felt.* * James Watt writes: L Since Mr. Schofield worked on this site, later excavations in China have confirmed that the whole class of stamped designs found on the soft pottery of Tung Kwu (Plates 7 & 8) is unmistakably derived from the decorative art of the Shang culture in the north. Similar, and some identical, designs are found on Shang pottery of all periods (including those from the recently discovered early Shang site at Erh-li-t'ou in north-western Honan). The pattern of raised studs set in the meshes of a rhombic lattice or a "compound lozenge" is also one of the chief decorations appearing on bronzes of the Anyang phase of Shang culture. Further evidence of Shang ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d THE LIBRARY Taipei, Literature House, 1964. HENSMAN, Bertha, and MACK, Kwok-ping (AMA) 181 H52 Hong Kong tale-spinners; a collection of tales and ballads transcribed and translated from story-tellers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, 1968. HILL, Dennis S. H645 Figs (Ficus spp.) of Hong Kong. [Hong Kong] Hong Kong University Press, 1967. *KOLLARD, J. A. PAM K81 Early medical practice in Macao. Macao, Inspecção dos Serviços Economicos, Agencia de Turismo, 1935. MARTIN, W. A. P. M383 A cycle of Cathay; or, China, South and North, with personal reminiscences. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966. MAYERS, William Frederick, M46 The Chinese reader's manual: a handbook of biographical, historical, mythological and general literary reference, Taipei, Literature House, 1964. MAYERS, William Frederick, ed. M46 t Treaties between the Empire of China and foreign powers; together with regulations for the conduct of foreign trade, etc. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966. MICHIE, Alexander. M624 The Englishman in China during the Victorian era, as illustrated in the career of Sir Rutherford Alcock many years consul and minister in China and Japan, Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966. MORSE, Hosea Ballou. M88 t The trade and administration of the Chinese Empire. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966. REMER, C. F. R38 f The foreign trade of China. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1967. WHISSON, Michael G. W576 Under the rug: the drug problem in Hong Kong. A study in applied sociology. [Hong Kong] Hong Kong Council of Social Service, 1965. WILLIAMS, S. Wells. W727 The Chinese commercial guide, containing treaties, tariffs, regulations, tables, etc., useful in the trade to China & Eastern ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 92 A. D. BLUE and Canton, and the shorter passage between Hong Kong and Macao, was for many Chinese passengers an opportunity for a prolonged gambling and drinking session. The peak years of Chinese emigration to South-east Asia were those immediately preceding the world-wide economic depression of the early 1930s. The rubber and tin industries of South-east Asia were particularly hard hit by this depression, and Chinese immigration into all the countries of the region was severely curtailed. There had only been a very partial revival to pre-depression levels when the Pacific War broke out, soon after which Chinese emigration completely ceased. Owing to the different countries of South-east Asia adopting different methods of classifying nationality, it is practically impossible to obtain an accurate estimate of the number of Chinese in the region at any time; but well-informed authorities agree that at the outbreak of the Pacific War the number of people who regarded themselves as of Chinese race was about 8 million, that is between 5 and 6% of the total population. By far the greatest concentration of Chinese was in Malaya, where in 1947 the Chinese population of the Federation and Singapore was 2,605,000 out of a total population of 5,823,000. Singapore was, and still is, almost a Chinese city, and in 1947 there were 730,000 Chinese in a total population of 941,000. It is even more difficult to estimate how many Chinese were moving between China and South-east Asia in any year, but considering isolated figures relating to different countries, this must have amounted to several hundred thousands when the traffic was at its height. In 1929 Indo-China had a surplus of Chinese immigrants over emigrants of 40,000; while in the same year 195,000 Chinese males entered Malaya. In 1937 again some 8,000 Chinese entered British North Borneo. Although mainland Chinese have been unable to travel abroad since 1949, Chinese still move between Hong Kong, Formosa, and South-east Asia; but their numbers are infinitesimal in comparison with the vast traffic during the colonial era. However, the China Navigation Company is engaged in two specialised passenger trades which bear a little resemblance to the emigrant and deck passenger trades of the old days. One is the carriage of indentured labourers from Hong Kong to the Pacific phosphate ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 136 S. F. BALFOUR The Tanka or the Tan people are the Cantonese-speaking fishing population. The word Tan is a proper name and dictionaries define it as follows: "Tan is the name of a people. They are held to be a branch of the Man tribe. They live in boats along the coast of Fukien and Kwangtung making fishing their livelihood. They are pearl divers. Since the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618) they have been counted by able-bodied males for purposes of taxation. In the year 1618 they were classified according to families, headmen were appointed among them and anchorages in the rivers were set apart for them. A yearly tax of fishing produce was collected.” In 1723 an imperial edit was passed allowing them all the privileges of ordinary Chinese citizens, except the right to compete in the public examinations which they never obtained. Let us now pass to the Hoklo. The word Hok is a dialect variation of Fukien and the Hoklo are the Fukienese fishing people of our region, but there is another term for them always used in literature, Man. We have already seen that the Tanka are considered a branch of the Man tribe. The word is very ancient and is used synonymously for "barbarian" or "uncouth". From the name alone you can judge that the Hoklo were once considered by the Chinese as barbarians. The Punti are the Cantonese-speaking peasants. The word means "native to the country" and it is a weak adjective of the type used by one man to describe himself in relation to a different person. It therefore gives no clue to the origin of the people bearing it. They themselves claim to be of pure Chinese stock and to have colonised the province of Kwangtung from North China, and they refer to themselves as men of T'ang, meaning the T'ang dynasty. In many cases they can trace their ancestry back to Chinese settlers of northern stock, though there is no record of any arriving in the region earlier than the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960). The word Hakka means the "stranger people", it is used to describe the peasants of a different dialect to Cantonese who have In the topographies for instance Man is used for Hok-lo. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 BOOK REVIEWS OBSERVATION ON BIRDS IN NORTH EASTERN CHINA ESPECIALLY THE MIGRATION AT PEI-TAI-HO BEACH, Axel M. Hemmingsen and J. A. Guildal, Spolia Zoologica Musei Hauniensis, Copenhagen, Volumes 11 (1951) and 28 (1968) In Two Parts: General Part, pp. 227: Special Part, pp. 326, Sales Agents: Vetch and Lee, Hong Kong. HK$130.00. Dr. Hemmingsen was stranded in China after the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941; as a Dane, he was not interned, and was able to spend the rest of the war years in a concentrated study of the birds at Peitaiho, on the coast of Hopei in North China. This area was already well known for migration studies from the work of Wilder, Hubbard, and others. The results of Dr. Hemmingsen's studies published here, form the most detailed study of a coastal area of China yet published, and therefore provide information on the migration down the China coast which is unobtainable elsewhere, The publication of the notes was made in two parts; the first, published in 1951, containing a number of articles based on the author's observations; and the second, published in 1968, containing a systematic list of all birds recorded from the area. There are few breeding species at Peitaiho, and therefore most of the general articles are concerned with migration. Particular attention is paid to the migrations of cranes and geese, which, being both large and noisy, are less liable to be overlooked than other migrants. These migrations are studied in great detail, in relation to temperature, wind-strength, time of day, etc., in an attempt to work out the reasons for the timing of their migrations. Conclusions based on one series of observations cannot, of course, be accepted as proved, and the author makes it quite clear that his conclusions should only be taken as theories. This caution is welcome, and it increases the value of the book to students of the Eastern Palaearctic migrations. The purpose of the author is stated as follows: 'It is thus not with any idea of finality, but with the purpose of suggesting a wide field of enquiry . . . . .'. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 128 SUNG HOK-P’ANG 1) as his son Hoh Wing (f) was a subordinate officer of this general. Hoh Wing was executed, and all his family punished. Hung Chi being considered a relation although it was only by marriage, was sentenced to banishment. His elder brother, who was the father of three sons, thinking him too young and ignorant and having no children to carry on his family, insisted on taking his place. So in the 26th year of Hung Mo (**) A.D. 1393 of Ming dynasty, Hung Yee went up North to Liao-tung (i★★). His banishment only lasted three years, but when he was free again to go where he liked Hung Yee appears to have been without means to get back to Kam T'in, because there is a story of his arriving in Nanking on foot, so poor that he was forced to beg in the streets and earn money by writing poems. One day a rich man named Ch'an (§) passed him in the street and noticing that his appearance and writing were those of an educated man, spoke to him and asked him his history. Touched by his story Ch'an befriended him, and made him the tutor of his children, but all the time Hung Yee longed for his own home and his own children. Eventually Ch'an suggested that if he provided him with a second wife he might be happier, so he arranged a marriage for him with his adopted daughter, Wong (*). Two years later a son was born called Kuen (§§), but after another year Hung Yee died. Then Ch'an provided the widow with money, and taking her little child, she set off to find her way to Kam T'in to bring Hung Yee's ashes back to the place of his ancestors. After many difficulties she arrived in Kam T'in only to find that Hung Yee's three sons Yam (†), Chan (14) and Yui (†) all grown up by now and not knowing anything of their father's history and second marriage, did not believe her story. Then Wong told them many old tales about Kam T'in that her husband had amused her with in the past in Nanking, and finally persuaded them to acknowledge her identity when she produced a fan with characters on it written in Hung Yee's own writing. So funeral preparations were at once made and customary rites performed in Hung Yee's honour, and Wong and her child were taken into the family. A year later the baby Kuen died and Wong was so upset that she threatened to take her life, and she was only prevented from doing so by Yam who promised to give her his son Naam K'ai () to be her grandson, that is, a son for her dead child. He also built her a house on Kwun Yum Shaan (4) where she could serve her husband's spirit tablet and study Bud- ================================================================================ 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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q The Ancient Mon-Pagan, Peru & NAKORN PATHOM 181 of the earliest is also one of the most unusual; the Nanpaya has beneath the spire four square pillars of stone each of which on two sides has a figure of Brahma holding lotus flowers in both hands. This is reputed to have been the residence of the captive Mon king Manuha, but this seems unlikely; it could have been his particular temple. The figure of Brahma in what was almost certainly a Buddhist temple is not impossible to explain away; the Brahma carvings face towards the central square pedestal which, originally, would have had a statue of the Buddha, possibly one looking in four directions; Brahma, a representative of Hinduism would be looking towards, and lower than, the Buddha. The temple is exceptionally faced with stone throughout, and the quality of the window pediments very fine. The Abeyadana temple, not far away, is attributed to King Kyanzittha but an inscription determines his chief queen as the founder. It has a prominent harmika or bulge on the spire above the central core and a large seated brick Buddha in a recess in the core to the north (the whole temple is oriented to the north). The temple's great importance is in the quality of the paintings it still possesses, with Hindu gods and deities of Mahayanist Buddhism round the core and some excellent Jataka scenes with Mon inscriptions in the walls of the front projecting nave. Almost opposite this temple is the Nagayon. It has good proportion and a very dark corridor pierced with five windows running round the central core. The quality of the paintings illustrating Jataka tales with Mon and Pali inscriptions is good. The two Seinnyet temples are a little further south; the Ama is a square temple with four main porches, and the Nyima a solid stupa on three terraces. Lastly in this group is the Lawkanada stupa, built in 1059 by Anawratha beside the Irrawaddi, over which a magnificent view is obtained at sunset. Of the temples in the central area, nothing remains of the bulbous Bupaya stupa which fell into the river in pieces in the earthquake. The Gawdawpalin of the later period suffered severely and its tall finial is no more. In style, however, it resembles the Thatbinnyu which was built in the middle of the twelfth century. Only the eastern porch projects from the main plan, and the first floor where the main Buddha is located is reached by two narrow passage stairways built into the walls. The effect is of considerably greater height than the earlier buildings. As it is still in use it is ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 188 MICHAEL SMITHIES the minority dances like those the repetitious groupings of the Karen, but in the pwe, a complicated form of popular opera where the narrative of a traditional story is intertwined with a modern play which, reaching its end about two or three in the morning, then reverts to the rest of the pwe story. Pwe has everything for the villager wishing to take his mind off current cares, for it includes love songs, stories of handsome princes chasing after princesses who can wiggle their bottoms, often in contrary directions, with regal exquisiteness, and the strident orchestra gives the appropriate support to the stage. Mandalay is the great centre for pwe activities. The Mon theme can be resumed in Thailand by a visit to Nakorn Pathom, a few hours drive from the city. Like Pegu, Nakorn Pathom is an ancient Mon centre, called Davaravati in Siam, and is thought to date from the 5th century. Just before arriving at the modern city, which was established in the 19th century, is the Phra Pathone; little remains of the original stupa which is probably the oldest Buddhist monument in Thailand. Nearby a kind of grotto has recently been erected by a deceased monk into which are inserted heads and objects found in the temple grounds; they are nearly all Davaravati period and some Buddha heads are of much beauty. Not far from this is the unimpressive brick remains of Wat Chulapathone which has however yielded considerable artistic riches in the form of terracotta bas-reliefs which were originally placed around its base. These illustrate Mon versions of the Jataka tales and are to be seen in the new museum to the south of the giant chodi in the town. Wat Pramane is a much-excavated brick ruin to the south of the city giving but a faint idea of its early importance. But the chief pride is the 19th century stupa erected over the original stupa that was Phra Pathom. The work of building the enormous tiled cupola was started by King Mongut, who discovered the original stupa when still a monk, and was continued by his son Chulalongkorn. The stupa may be higher than the Shwe-dagon in Rangoon but it cannot begin to compare in interest. At its base, on the upper terrace, are twenty-four small turrets with bronze bells for the faithful to ring. The projecting chapel to the north contains a venerated statue in the Sukhotai style, and in a detached prayer hall to the east is an excellent Davaravati stone Buddha seated in the European fashion. Also of interest in Nakorn Pathom is the Sanam Chan palace built by King Vachiravuðh ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 244 MAURICE FREEDMAN among them is very irregular, even when allowance is made for the differences in size between the communities. There are clearly specialisations here, and sets of comparable statistics for other areas would be a necessary preliminary to a study of why, despite the fact that overseas migration has been very general in the New Territories in recent years, some communities have not contributed to it or done so on a very small scale. This problem has often been raised in studies of emigration from southeastern China, but it has never been thoroughly gone into, and it would be a pity if the opportunity to study it in the New Territories were missed. 82. Why do people emigrate? New Territories men do not go abroad to make a new life or even, it would seem, to see the world. They, like millions of men from Fukien and Kwangtung before them, have sought a way of earning a better living; they have not intended to settle abroad (whatever later circumstances and opportunities may have suggested or dictated) and have hoped to be able to return home with enough money to sweeten their old age. Although, as we have seen, a few hundred New Territories women have gone to the United Kingdom to join their men, the general character of the migration has been male. In an ideal pattern, men go abroad, earn, remit money, and return. But a large-scale exodus of able-bodied men entails some serious consequences for the social and economic life of the people left behind. In some areas of the New Territories the absence of young and middle-aged men is so striking as to be obvious even to the casual observer. Inferences from the census data are not easy to draw, because the absence of men from the old-established communities may be marked in the figures by surpluses of men among the new population, but the 1961 data show significantly that of the five Districts Sai Kung has the lowest ratio of males to females (951:1,000) and that within the Tai Po District Sai Kung North and Sha Tau Kok stand out very sharply as areas with low ratios (794 and 782 respectively, whereas the ratio for the District as a whole is 1,019). Moreover, Sai Kung has had a low ratio over a long period (859 in 1921 and 800 in 1931). (See K.M.A. Barnett, Hong Kong, Report on the 1961 Census, vol. II, p. 25, Tables 110 and 111. Population figures, by sex, for individual villages and settlements are available from the 1961 census, although not published in the Report; they provide a valuable guide to the communities from which male emigration has been heaviest, although again, the presence of new ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 68 J. T. KAMM system of land distribution had its origins several centuries ago. At the time when the land was distributed, the tenant paid the landlord a certain sum; this sum represented the rent which the tenant thereafter handed over each year. The landlord could not increase the rent, nor could the tenant refuse to pay it. Furthermore, the landlord could not investigate his tenants in order to take back the land.” (G236). 28 Data from the land memorials, which register sales of subsurface values, indicate that a one-mow plot of land seldom exceeded 6 taels during the late 18th century. As we shall see later in the text, these prices necessarily remained constant into the 19th century. In the Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, we learn that the tenants valued each mow of rice paddy at $40.00 (1 tael = 1.11 Mexican dollars in 1846). Granted that tenants made good profits from the sale of land, still this example tends to illustrate the great potential disparity between the two values. (Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, Note on the Island of Hong Kong by A. R. Johnston; written in 1843). 29 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 7. 30 CSO306/1899 Extension; "With reference to the petition of Tang Yung Ping and others they naturally, at present, prefer the old feudal system of payment of rent in kind." 31 HKTCSMTC: Hong Kong Almanack, “Note on the Island of HK”. 32 CSO150/1901 gives a detailed account of these negotiations. 33 In general, the maintenance of perpetual tenancy systems presupposes the existence of communal landownership. The British found over 25% of all lots held in clan names in 1898; later Chinese sources place the estimate at 30%. These figures are probably not reliable for the earlier part of the century. The Tangs, as we have seen, held landlord rights over all of Hong Kong Island. They similarly held over 60% of the territory in Kowloon ceded to Britain in 1860, Land in North Kowloon was lost by "fraudulent sale” in 1898 (CSO2982/1898). Other clans, besides the Tangs, apparently lost sizable tracts as “individual initiative” replaced clan solidarity throughout the period, 34 CSO150/1901. 35 CSO109/1902. 36 Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u, "Notes on Land Tax." 37 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 18. ESSAY II: TAXLORDISM The peasants and gentry of Hsin-An witnessed two concrete manifestations of the growing power of foreign countries in China during the waning years of the nineteenth century. In April 1887, the Kowloon Customs House of the Imperial Maritime Customs was established under provisions of the Anglo-Chinese Opium Agreement of September 1886. As was the case with all customs houses established during the era, supervision of the revenue stations was entrusted to a European career officer in Sir Robert Hart's service, J. McLeavy Brown. A great expansion in customs activity ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 82 J. T. KAMM lawsuits. In some instances the smaller villages pay their land tax through the influential clans." (p. 20). 18. Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1921), 3:4a. 19 For details on Hakka migration into the area, see Lo Hsiang-lin's K'o chia shih liao hui p'ien (***** Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas). See also Essay I. 20 Krone, op. cit., p. 125. 21 Sung Hok-p'ang, "Legends and Tales of the New Territories” in The Hong Kong Naturalist, VII: 3 and 4. For the tale of the "Hungry Bug" see pp. 249-250 in number 3. 22 CSO6269 in 1909, 23 Extension Papers, p. 227. 24 See statements by Tang Kok-lam in the Extension Papers (pp. 216 and 293-294): "... the reason for the resistance is that there were rumours that there would be an increase in taxation, numbering of houses, and taxes on fruits and houses." See similar reasons put forth in the petition from the Tung Wo Kuk of Sha Tau Kok Tung, p. 319. 25 CSO130 in 1902. 26 Pat Heung and Shap Pat Heung are districts whose natural boundaries are made up of two major valleys of Un Long to the southeast and northwest of Kam Tin, respectively. These hsiang consist largely of small, multi-lineage settlements with substantial Hakka populations. In some of the documents in the Extension Papers, tung is appended to these districts, a usage still heard among the older elders in the area. The hypothesis which I develop later in this paper refers specifically to the large-order tung; however, it applies equally to the smaller-order tung insofar as they constitute districts treated as a whole for the purposes of revenue collection. 28 CSO6269 in 1909. 29 The only mention of this decision which I have seen is Tratman's account of the opening of a new market at Un Long in CSO3172 of 1915. "Of the existence of this feud there can be no doubt. It began in the endeavors of Pat Heung to free their land from the ground-rent claimed by Kam Tin as first settlers and so overlords of the whole district. The actual bone of contention fell to the Pat Heung when the Land Court disallowed all the "taxlord claims" in that district; but the bad blood still remains. Its fast manifestation was in the form of an organized assault by the people of Un Long on certain Kam Tin cultivators in 1911.” 30 Hugh Baker, "The Five Great Clans of the New Territories," Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 6. pp. 25-48. 31 “If a person is arrested by a village constable, he is taken before the gentry and elders of the village, who assemble in a place specially appointed for the purpose. The gentry and the elders, who are the representatives of the clans inhabiting the villages, are selected by the inhabitants to deal with cases in the village council, The usual cases are those of theft, disputes about land, domestic squabbles, and cases of debt. Most of these cases are summarily dealt with by the village council, and as a rule, the decision of that council is accepted as final. But if either of the parties to a case is dissatisfied, he can appeal to a council of the Tung, or to a general council, made up of representatives of the different Tung. A reference to Map VI will show how the newly leased territory is divided ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 42 KEITH STEVENS In addition there were scraps of cotton, threads, one or two grains of rice, a tiny sac of cotton cloth stuffed with more cotton and several beads and slivers of mica. There were also two dried sea-horses* in the image dedicated in 1871 though there were no signs of any other remains. The strips of paper are not all that usual and are rarely found in Southern Chinese images. Precis translations of the six strips of paper are included later in this note. The papers show that five of the seven images were dedicated and placed on altars in the County of Wu Kang (A) in South East Hunan, one hundred miles due north of Kweilin and three hundred and seventy-five miles NNW of Hong Kong, near the Hunanese boundaries with its neighbouring provinces of Kwangsi and Kweichow. The west and south-west of Hunan were not easily accessible until the 1930's due to the dangerous rapids in the upper reaches of the plentiful rivers. Then a system of highways opened up the area. Prior to that, apart from the occasional traveller, traders and, of course, the petty officials sent to such "punishment" posts, all that was known of the area came from tales passed on from mouth to mouth. Wu Kang is in rising country, on the edge of an area marked on old maps as the lands of the Thai minority peoples, the Ko Lao (z) and another larger minority people, the Miao (δ). The other two images come from Chi An prefecture () in Kiangsi province, some two hundred and eighty miles due east of Wu Kang. Chi An, an old walled city and a major centre on the north-flowing Kan Chiang, had closer cultural links with central rather than south China. The first image (Plate 2), from Wu Kang and dedicated in 1756, is a household deity to protect the home and family and to bring blessings. The slip of paper relates that Worshipper Fu Shih-hsiang, together with his three sons and others from his family, all of Hsin Wu Chang Village, Yen Shan, Lung Chu district of Wu Kang county in Pao Ching prefecture (now Shao Yang), Hunan, on the 4th day of the 7th moon of the 20th year of Ch'ien Lung (1756), offered sacrifices to the gods at the City God temple in Shih Pei.† He also reported to them in writing that he and his whole family * Seahorses, found as far inland, would have a rarity value, though they are commonly used by Chinese herbalists & pharmacists. † Chinese characters are to be found on the illustrations of the slips of paper. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 32 KEITH G. STEVENS include the burning of incense every day. This amongst other things saves the individual having to perform the rite before his ancestral tablets daily. 4 There are no Confucian temples in either Hong Kong or Macau. 5 Although there are obvious and major differences between Daoism, Buddhism and Folk religion, their beliefs and practices are so interwoven and syncretized beyond description, that in practice there is almost a single religious scheme of things. A handful of folk religion temples, mostly in Chaozhou and Min An community resettlement areas, are also centres for spirit medium activity. Chaozhou and Min An people customarily communicate with the major gods through minor gods and spirit mediums, Folk religion is very occasionally referred to as "Spirit worship” (Shen jiao), albeit more by foreigners than by Chinese. Chaozhou and Min An spirit mediums are usually males who speak with the more junior gods, whilst Cantonese spirit mediums are normally female and speak with the spirits of the dead. * The natives in both Hong Kong and Macau are Cantonese. Immigrants over the centuries who brought their own cultural heritage with them are the Hakka, Min An, Hoklo, and Chaozhou. The Chaozhou are speakers of the Chaozhou (sometimes called Swatow) whose native area is eastern Guangdong province. In folk religion the Chaozhou have more in common with their immediate neighbours to the north, the Min An and other Fukienese rather than with their Cantonese neighbours. The total of 450 temples reflects the number found and visited by the author. The total given by the Hong Kong Government Temples Committee of the Home Affairs Department of over 500 private temples registered in Hong Kong is misleading in that their total includes to the author's knowledge quite a number of small temples which have been destroyed, removed or closed down. The author's number of 450 is also inaccurate as there are bound to be a number of very small temples hidden away in residential blocks of flats which would defy discovery without a visit to every floor of every apartment building. * County towns were the centres for official, commercial and religious activities. Villages within present day Hong Kong before the arrival of the British came under the jurisdiction of the mandarin at the county town of Hsin An (present day Pao An), north of the Sino-Hong Kong border. * However, an engraved title can easily be superseded when a more popular deity has been promoted to the main altar, without the title over the entrance being changed. 10 Images on, beside, before and under altars can be categorised into the deities themselves, and their disciples, guardians and attendants. There are also two other categories of figures, seen only on separate altars in some Buddhist temples. These are the likenesses of the founding Abbot and of major donors and their wives. 11 Urban and rural are terms used for the areas where the temples were established, and many a rural temple is now lost in the centre of a vast modern housing estate. Urban temples do not include village temples, they do however include the temples of the market towns such as Taipo and Yuen Long. 12 These "pensioners" are normally the most needy and worthy elderly males or females of the community, voted or appointed into the post and supported there by subscription. 13 See Hong Kong 100 Years Ago (Hong Kong City Hall, 1970) on the sixth page of photographs, though under another titling. Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 FUNG SHUI: ILLUSTRATED BY KAT HING WAI, N.T. 87 valley surrounded by hills in the east, north and south forming an armchair embracing it. It is located at the crosspoint where the breath of the azure dragon and the white tiger meet. The entire valley is fed by flowing streams like the sinews and veins within a body. It is also the confluence of meandering tributaries before the main river runs off to the sea. According to a geomancer who never saw Kam Tin, "It is said [in the geomancy classics] that the Dragon [Water Dragon, not the same as the Azure Dragon] follows the watercourse, and the meeting-place of waters is the meeting-place of the dragons, where the virtues of hills and streams are united and the grass ever green." He continued, "In the distance there should be groups of mountains with streams of water encircling them; in front a stretch of level plain, a pond, or lake. In the wider circuit, the space should be large enough for 10,000 horses, and the watercourse be sufficient to admit a dragon [large] boat... If the expanse be wide, children and grandchildren will multiply and be strong. From the top of the hill the view should extend for miles, with mountains and streams interspersed."16 Such vivid and precise description of the geographical features of Kam Tin by a fung-shui professor who never saw the place can only lead to the conclusion that the siting of Kam Tin was done piously in accordance with the geomancy canons. Moreover, "the place where the flow out being low, with no hill or high embankment to obstruct the escape of good influences, a pagoda is erected to check these influences and throw them back over the land.”17 Indeed a fung-shui pagoda called Man Ch'eung Kok was erected near where I Tai College now stands in Shui-tau hamlet.* By the year 1850, "the Tang family seemed to have reached the height of their prosperity. Many of them passed the highest government examination and a census taken that year showed that there were more than 1,800 males living..."18 But the family experienced a decline in population and wealth after the pagoda was torn down and the course of the river was altered to accommodate three fish ponds and buildings of a school that blocked the view of the village.19 This mistake was remedied by repairing the banks of the river in 1930 and family membership was said to be on the increase again. Fig. 2 in the original version of this article, published in Asian Architect and Builder, October 1979, which contains many other drawings and diagrams not reproduced here. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 126 JOHN KARL EVANS above all food and drink.29 These were placed in the tomb at the time of burial, but this act alone was insufficient. Periodic sacrifices were also required, in the absence of which the dead would be tortured by hunger and thirst. Thus the plea, on a gravestone near Syrian Antioch, that the passer-by "tearfully propitiate me with libations on the tomb and garlands of flowers in season” (SEG 7.69), or the request on the Roman inscription cited above (CIL 6.2357 Buecheler, Carm. Epigr. 838 = ILS 8204) for wine to be poured into the tomb.30 This was effected by libation pipes, which are frequently found in tandem with cremation urns, such as that on display in Wales at Caerleon; and with sarcophagi, of which there is an excellent example at the Colchester and Essex Museum, again in the United Kingdom.31 When they could afford it, the Romans even equipped their tombs with a mortuary kitchen (the culina), and with a dining-room (triclinium) and gardens (horti),32 32 When the sacrifices were carried out in a timely manner, the di manes were uniformly beneficent. Neglect of the sacrifices, however, would cause the tortured spirits to issue forth from their graves and inflict reprisals upon the living as savage as those attested among the LoDagaa in present-day Africa, or the Nāyars in India.33 Typically, punishment was limited to the individuals who had failed to comply with their obligations,34 but the Augustan poet Ovid tells us that, on one occasion, the people at large neglected the parentalia, the one ancestral rite mandated by the state, with the following results: This did not go unpunished, for it is said that from that ominous Day Rome glowed with the funeral fires without the city. Indeed they say, although I can scarcely credit it, that the Ancestors went forth from the tombs to wail in the hours of Darkest night, and hideous ghosts, they say, a spectral throng, Howled throughout the city streets and the wide fields. Afterwards, the honours which had been neglected were again paid To the tombs, and a limit was set to prodigies and funerals. (Fasti 2.549-556) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 HAINAN ISLAND: A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH D.L. MICHALK* 115 Introduction Hainan Island forms the extreme southern limit of the People's Republic of China, save for the Paracel Reefs. Sometimes referred to as the Tail of the Dragon, Hainan lies between longitudes 108°30′ and 111° east and latitudes 18° and 20°31' north. It is separated from the mainland by the 25 km Qiongzhou Straits, and is part of Guangdong, accounting for 15 percent of the Province's area. Located in the South China Sea, Hainan is about 300 km east of Vietnam across the Gulf of Tonkin, some 500 km southwest of Hong Kong, and a similar distance from the provincial capital, Guangzhou. Hainan is oval-shaped with the longest NE to SW axis measuring 309 km and the shorter NW to SE axis, 221 km. With an area of 34,077 km2 (Anon., 1982b), Hainan is about half the size of Tasmania and ranks as the world's twenty-sixth largest island. Although it accounts for less than 1 per cent of China's land area, its tropical climate, rich mineral and petroleum resources and strategic location make it an important, yet undeveloped region of China. Hainan has always been regarded as a backwater by successive Chinese dynasties and a mystery to foreigners. Indeed, had it not been for a handful of inquisitive academics and devoted missionaries who "found Hainan" around the turn of the century, our knowledge of the island would have amounted to little more than folklore. Using these western sources, the aim of this paper is to provide a brief insight into the history of Hainan, particularly the role played by foreigners in its development. * Senior research agronomist, Agricultural Research and Veterinary Centre, New South Wales Department of Agriculture. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 203 The Daily Press publicly launched the discussion of this prickly topic by suggesting that Hongkong make a contribution to the Imperial and Colonial Institute to be set up in London. His Highness the Prince of Wales had intimated that Her Majesty, his mother, looked with favour on this project as an expression of her subjects' gratitude and loyalty. It was felt that there ought to be a local memorial. Especially, as the paper reminded its readers, "Hongkong was the first colony acquired by the British Crown after Her Majesty's ascension though Natal runs it rather close and the whole of its history is included in that of Her Majesty's reign, and it seems only reasonable that the present generation of colonists should transmit to their successors some permanent memorial of the jubilee of a sovereign who has endeared herself to her subjects in all parts of the world and in whose reign the Colony was settled and has grown to the state of prosperity it at present enjoys.” The paper then anticipated the suggestion Mr. Chater was to make to the Government, that of a public park. Several years earlier Governor Bowen had turned the sod for a park in Wongneichong Valley. It was intended to bear his name. But as far as the paper was concerned there was little likelihood of the Government carrying out the scheme for a quarter of a century. Hence, the paper suggested that "the community might take the matter in hand and change the name to Queen's Park." The public was assured that “there would be no discourtesy to Sir George Bowen in changing the name under the circumstances, seeing he was unable to carry out his intention of having the park made during his government and that the work is practically uncommenced." Another suggestion put forth was that inasmuch as Hongkong had done little to provide education for girls it "establish and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 130 ―T towards the end of the century. The original market for the Sha Tau Kok area was Sham Tsun; it was only from about 1825 that the population of the Sha Tau Kok area rose to the point where it could sustain a market of its own, at Sha Tau Kok. The main impetus to the foundation of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz, apart from the purely religious one, and the political one to be discussed below, was to provide a resting-place for travellers on the road to Sham Tsun. This road was long, and the two-mile-long deserted section through the mountains was without shelter, either from the elements or from wild animals (tigers were a serious problem in the area, as village tales and placenames demonstrate). The nunnery was founded, in part, to provide services to wayfarers; in particular, according to elderly villagers, free tea was given to anyone stopping to rest there. Traffic on this road was heavy. At its peak, between 1900 and 1915, about 20,000 people a month passed by, carrying up to 400 tons of goods, according to surveys conducted in 1904 and 1910 by the Hong Kong Government to assess likely traffic on railway lines in the area. 10 The road from Sham Tsun to Sha Tau Kok was important not only because of its local significance to the two market towns, but to a wider area as well. It was part of the main road from the county city of Nam Tau (Nantou) to the Deputy Magistrate's city of Tai Pang (Dapeng), which was the most important east-west route in the county. The main north-south routes in the county were those which linked Kowloon with Sham Tsun, and then on from Sham Tsun with the towns further north, and, eventually, with Canton. There were three main crossings of the Sham Tsun river between the New Territories area and Sham Tsun: the Liu Pok ferry to the southwest of Sham Tsun, which carried the traffic on the Yuen Long-Sham Tsun road, and the Lo Wu ferry and the Law Fong bridge, which between them carried the Kowloon-Sham Tsun traffic. The most direct route from Kowloon to the north was the road from Tai Po to Sheung Shui, and thence over the Lo Wu ferry. This ferry, however, was expensive, and could only be bypassed by using a waist-deep ford, which was difficult and dangerous, and impossible after rain. Many travellers, therefore, preferred the slightly longer, but cheap and safe Law Fong bridge crossing. There were two routes from Kowloon to the Law Fong bridge. One crossed the mountains north of Tai Po by the Kat Tsai Au pass, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 186 who evidently had no 'tender cares' to occupy them, manfully maintained their seats in front, and remained so spellbound as to forget entirely the courtesies of gallantry and good breeding. We are of opinion that a perusal of Lord Chesterfield's 'Hints' might be a useful exercise for such as have no innate impulses to enable them to understand and practice what is conveyed in the phrase 'Place aux Dames' when those fair patronesses choose to honour public entertainments with their presence". 129 Once front seats were shunned by ladies, but that was not the case in mid-century Shanghai. In the Regulations to be Observed on the Evenings of Performances at the Shanghae Theatre printed in the North China Herald of February 14, 1857, it was even stipulated that, "after the front row had been set apart for the exclusive accommodation of H.B.M. Consul and the French and American Consuls, the seats numbered 2 to 6 will be reserved for ladies, and the gentlemen who escort them." VII. The Plays From the references above, and even more from the Calendar of Performances, it will be clear that the dramatic fare in Shanghai consisted for the greater part, nay for nearly one hundred percent, of pieces that could easily amuse the people. That is to say: farces, comediettas, burlesques, melodramas, burlettas, musical comedies or whatever name may be invented for the genre. There is no space here, nor is it within the scope of this Survey, to give an analysis of these plays, so I shall keep myself to some general remarks. Most pieces that were performed dated from the 19th century, but there were some from the previous one, like Henry Carey's The Dragon of Wantley (1737), a short three-act opera with music by John Frederick Lampe which burlesqued the Handel style works which were then in vogue (but hardly a century later); and James Townley's (or was it David Garrick's?) High Life below Stairs which one rather antiquarian critic thought "worth whole bales of farces of the 'Box and Cox' pattern". Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) was also on the programme several times (although not on that of the local amateurs) but it is remarkable (and, considering the travesties that were common, maybe just as well) that a classic comedy like Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer was not tackled. 130 Of contemporary authors the most prolific was John Maddison Morton and it should cause no surprise that his plays took top of the bill: no ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 246 King, F.H.H. and P. Clarke: “A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers 1822-1911”, Cambridge (Mass), 1965. Kosch, Wilhelm: "Deutsches Theater Lexikon", Klagenfurt, 1960. Kounin, I.I.: "The Diamond Jubilee of the International Settlement of Shanghai", Shanghai, n.d. (c. 1939). Kunitz, Stanley (Ed.): "British Authors of the 19th Century", N.Y., 1936. Lang, H.: “Shanghai considered socially", Shanghai, 1875. Lanning, G. and S. Couling: "The History of Shanghai", Vol. I.; Shanghai, 1921. MacGuire, Paul: "The Australian Theatre", Melbourne, 1948. MacLellan, J.W.: "The Story of Shanghai from the opening of the port to foreign trade". Shanghai, 1889. Makepeace, Walter, Gilbert E. Brooke and R. St. J. Bradwell (Ed): 'One Hundred Years of Singapore", 2 vols.; London, 1921. Maybon, Charles B. & J. Fredet: "Histoire de la Concession Francaise de Changhai'', Paris, 1929. Maude, Cyril: "The Haymarket Theatre, Some Records and Reminiscences" London, 1903. Mullin Donald (Ed.): "Victorian Actors and Actresses in Review", Westport, 1983 National Union Catalogue. 1 Nicoll, Allardyce: "A History of English Drama 1660-1900", 6 vols,; Cambridge 1952ff. Pal, John: "Shanghai Saga", London, 1963. Pearsall, Ronald: "Victorian Popular Music", Newton Abbot, 1973. "The Player's Library. A Catalogue of the Library of the British Drama League”, London, 1950. Pope, W.J. Macqueen: "Haymarket, Theatre of Perfection", London, 1948. Reynolds, Ernest: "Early Victorian Drama (1830-1870), New York, 1965 (reprint of 1936 edition). Riemann, Hugo: "Musik Lexikon", Berlin, 1916 (8th edition). Rowell, George (Ed.): "Nineteenth Century Plays”, Oxford, 1972. “Shanghai Alamanac” 1855, 1856, 1858, 1862; Shanghai, 1854ff years. **Shanghai t'ung yen-chiu tzu-liao (Shanghai Research Materials), Hong Kong 1972 (reprint of 1936 edition). Smith, C.; "The Hong Kong Amateur Dramatic Club and its predecessors" in: "Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the R.A.S.", Vol. 22 (1982), p. 217-251. Thomson, Peter: "Plays by Dion Boucicault", Cambridge, 1984. Toll, Robert C.: 'Blacking Up. The Minstrel Show in 19th century America”, New York, 1974. Troubridge, St. Vincent: "The Benefit System in the British Theatre”, London, 1967. Wearing, J.P.: "American and British Theatrical Biography", London, 1979. White, Walter: "China Station 1859-1864", London, 1972. Williams, Harold S.: "Tales of the Foreign Settlements in Japan", Tokyo, 1972. Wright, Arnold and H.A. Cartwright: "Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong. Shanghai and other Treaty Ports of China", London, 1908. Abbreviations: NOTES BGM: Boletim do Governo de Macao. NCH: North China Herald. SCR: Shanghai Commercial Record. 1 Performance 6.5.1852. NCH 8.5.1852. Only passing attention has been paid to the early theatre in Shanghai: Lanning & Couling. p. 429-430: MacLennan: p. 85-86. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 211 the loading and unloading of cargo, listening to the varied languages of the coast in Foochow, Amoy and Swatow. It was always a thrill to catch the odd Cantonese phrase as we neared home. At one port we took on board a large number of pigs which were housed in pens on the deck forward of the accommodation. The loading of these pigs involved tremendous squealing generated by the beating of the pigs to make them move. We thought this was cruel so, in the evening, when the loading was finished, several of us sought out the bamboo poles that had been used for beating the pigs and threw them overboard. At sea off the ports we would come across massive fishing fleets. On one occasion our ship was in collision with one of these fishing junks and took the crew on board. We heard that one man had been lost but the rest rescued, including the family of the owner. They looked a miserable wet group on board and I imagine there was a good deal of argument about whose fault the collision was and bargaining about compensation. In any event the ship was stopped for several hours before the fishermen were taken off by one of the other boats. Storms and Pirates These journeys were made in the winter so there was no danger from typhoons but the North East Monsoon produces almost continuous gales in the Taiwan Strait and China Sea. This monsoon sped us on our way south and held us up on the way back. The little ships bucketed about all over the place but any seasickness was soon over. It was great fun hanging over the very bows in a big sea watching the ship's stem come right out of the water and plunge back. The year when the sea froze over we found the first ice in the form of tiny plates like fish scales. These got larger and larger until we found drifts of serious ice. The ship had to take one or two runs at some of these drifts and we had a great struggle to get alongside when we reached the port in Chefoo. Pirates were common on the China coast but only once was a school party involved in a piracy. This was the Shanghai party travelling back to school on the Tungchow in, I think, January 1936. The pirates, believing that this ship had a load of silver, got on board in Shanghai as deck passengers. The deck passengers were segregated from the cabin area and bridge by bars and locked gates while armed White Russian guards patrolled the decks near the bars day and night. Once at sea the pirates killed the White Russian guard and took over the ship. The ship disappeared for days. Nobody had any idea where on the thousands of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 116 who watches over the health and welfare of the community, though one story claims that he was originally worshipped by agriculturists probably due to his acclaimed ability to cause rain during droughts. Although revered in temples dedicated to him he is, however, nowadays more widely worshipped in other temples where he is a secondary deity. The cult which developed around the memory of a long dead Buddhist monk, a Sung dynasty Ch'an Master, has now become interdenominational with him being worshipped in folk religion temples using Taoist rituals. Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih is consulted by devotees to obtain treatment for and cures from their infirmities, and is also offered regular reverence for the protection of health by the hale and hearty, and for peace of mind and tranquillity. In some places he is believed to be particularly efficacious for the treatment of deafness, insanity and blindness. In a great number of folk religion temples in which his image is housed there are mediums who speak with his voice providing answers to queries, prescriptions and protective talismans. Exorcists also operate before images of Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. He is moreover revered as a loyal Chinese, violently anti-Mongol [claimed so even to this day!], tales being told of his loyalist activities against the usurpers. His image, despite being a popular folk religion deity, is easily identifiable firstly by the robes and hat of a Buddhist monk, and secondly by his black face and in particular, by his comparatively large hooked nose and jutting chin. His face is pinched and drawn, looking remarkably like the preserved bodies of certain monks seen on Buddhist altars, and also looking for all the world as if he has lost all his teeth. His images, depicting him sitting cross-legged, are usually swathed in silken robes donated by devotees annually on his birthday. He is also portrayed holding a fly switch or a bowl and rattle staff. In several temples, all near to Hsikang just north of Tainan, three images side by side represent this one deity: they are said to be three brothers, of whom the eldest represented the deity with his black face, the other two, without individual names, having red and yellow faces, but all three together are believed to be a Unity. There did not appear to be any legend supporting this concept, though the three each has a separate annual festival [There appears to be a possible confusion here with the cult of San Tai Tsu-shih : see below]. Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih's cult centre is located at his major temple in P'englai in Anhsi county in Fukien province. He is also the patron of Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 191 Have, P. (1992) Sheung Wo Hang In Knapp, R. (ed) Chinese Landscapes, the Village as Place University of Hawaii Press, Hong Kong Baptist College Lo, Raymond (1992) Feng Shui and Destiny Tynron Press, Leis, UK Lovelace, G.W. (1983) Man, Land and Mind in Historic South Coastal China, an ecological and diachronic consideration of Chinese wet-rice agricultural settlements in the North West New Territories of Hong Kong. Unpubl. PhD thesis University of Hawaii Mansberger, J.R. (1991) Ban Yatra. A Bio-Cultural Survey of Sacred Forests in Kathmandu Valley PhD thesis University of Hawaii University Microfilms International Ann Arbor Michigan Ng, P.Y.L. & Baker, H. (1983) New Peace County A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong Region Hong Kong Hong Kong University Press Skinner, S. (1982). The Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui. Routledge and Kegan Paul London Ward, B.E. & Law, J. Chinese Festivals in Hong Kong The Guidebook Company, Hong Kong Webb, R. (1995b). The Fung Shui Woods of Hong Kong A Study of Culturally Protected Woodlands in the New Territories of Hong Kong Unpublished PhD Thesis School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g I Jul 95 19 Aug 95 23 Sept 95 18 Nov 95 Traditional Trades and Crafts of Hong Kong - HK Museum of History (Exhibition) Heaven's Embroidered Cloths A Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles (Exhibition) - HK Museum of Art Life Under the Japanese Occupation 1941-45 (Exhibition) - HK Museum of History Exhibition of Chinese Folk Art - HK University Museum and Art Gallery New Territories Temples and Da Jiu at Kam Tin 26 Nov 95 16 Dec 95 Jade Exhibition - HK University Museum and Art Gallery 13 Jan 96 Prince of Wales Barracks and former HMS Tamar Site 20 Jan 96 Villages of the north eastern New Territories 10 Feb 96 Walk through the deserted villages of Sai Kung 9 Mar 96 Maritime Silk Route (Exhibition) - HK Museum of History 16 Mar 96 Organic Farm on Lamma Island Visits outside Hong Kong: 22/23 Apr 95 Dapeng, Xin'an County 2/3 Feb 96 14/17 Mar 96 Bocca Tigris Forts of the Pearl River Temples of northern Taiwan Such activity demands some very dedicated organisers and besides those already mentioned in the Activities Committee we are particularly grateful to Dr. Joseph Ting, Dr. Anthony Siu, Mr. John Wilson, Mr. Philip Bruce, Dr. Patrick Hase, Mr. David Sheil and Dr. Michael Lau for their help. Sometimes not all members can obtain places on these outings and I would like to say that we are quite willing to run the trip again provided we can find someone to assist in organising it. In fact, if any member is willing to propose any trip to somewhere of interest the Society will always be prepared to consider it. There is one other activity to which I would like to draw your ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 148 although the woodcutters have left but few trees there and at Wong-nei-chung, yet formerly it grew abundant there. In the time of the Hon Dynasty, this wood, it is said, was highly valued, and formed an article of tribute" (HKDP, 1873). The incense industry received a severe blow from which it never recovered during the coastal evacuation ordered by the emperor K'ang-hsi from 1662-1669. The Kuang-tung hsin-yu notes that, "there were very few people left after the evacuation, and less than one tenth of the incense growers were left. Most serious of all, old trees had been cut down, and those which were left were only ten to twenty years old”. Those who survived this evacuation experienced another disaster during the reign of Yung-Cheng (1723-1735) when a magistrate, obsessed with a love of high grade incense, killed a number of incense growers. The remaining growers then cut down the rest of their trees and fled (Chang, 1963). The trade in incense wood, however, continued with supplies of sandalwood from New South Wales imported during the nineteenth century and milled into powder by water-powered mills in the Tsuen Wan area. A detailed account of the history of this trade and the manufacture of incense is given in Chan (1989). The statement that Aquilaria sinensis is not native but was introduced from North Vietnam is questioned by Iu (1983), as the species appears to be indigenous to Hong Kong and is commonly found in fung shui woods where it freely regenerates to form a component of the subcanopy layer. Dunn and Tutcher (1912) stated that in 1912, in a one-acre plot of fung shui woodland on lower ground in Hong Kong, 31 out of 125 trees examined were Aquilaria sinensis (then known as A. Grandiflora). A report by Nichols (1978) found that at Uk Tau on the Sai Kung peninsula, a third of the trees in the fung shun wood were incense trees, ten times as many as in neighbouring natural woodland, and that an old man in the village said that heung trees were cultivated there in living memory for the incense trade. Because a tree was once grown in plantations, of course, has no bearing as to whether or not it is native. Whether or not the present-day incense trees are remnants of former plantations or whether incense trees were ever cultivated in fung shui woods may never be known, but none of the village representatives questioned during a study carried out by the author into fung shui woods between 1990 and 1995 ever ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 6 In New Kowloon, Tsuen Wan, and the Islands, enumeration was conducted by the police stationed there, or by the water police. The police were assisted by a headquarters team consisting of an experienced enumerator and translator. The enumerations undertaken by the police were conducted on the same house-to-house basis as those undertaken by the civilian enumerators, and the same books of schedules were used. 7 Details of age, sex, place of birth, dialect spoken, occupation, religion, married state, degree of education, and infirmities, were recorded for each resident. The schedules were worked up into tables by experienced tabulators in the Census Office, this work being completed by October 28th. Table 1 below gives a summary of the 1911 census tables which refer to the New Territories. For the New Territories the population was tabulated for each village as well (broken down into male and female), as a single-handed contribution to the census by Mr. S.B.C. Ross, the district officer - this was not repeated for later censuses. 20 Table 1 IX 1911 Census Tables Referring to the New Territories Table Description of Table Comments XII The total population of the colony By district, age, and sex XIII Birth places of the Chinese population of the NT (Northern District) Given for males and females separately XIV Birth places of the Chinese population of the NT (Southern District) Given for males and females separately Dialects spoken in the home (NT: North. District) Given for males and females separately Dialects spoken in the home (NT: Southern District) Given for males and females separately Chinese population of the villages of Hong Kong HK Island, Po Toi, etc. Given for males and females separately. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 XV XVII XIX XIXa XXI XXVII XXVIIE XXX XXXV XXXVI XXXVIII Chinese population of Old Kowloon villages Chinese population of NT by districts Chinese population of NT (North district) by villages Chinese population of NT (South district) by villages The ages of the Chinese population The married state of the floating population The married state of the Chinese population of NT The degree of education of the Chinese population The occupations of the Chinese population of NT (Northern District) The occupations of the Chinese population of NT (Southern District) The number of Chinese who described themselves as students Given for males and females separately Given for males and females separately Given for males and females Given for males and females By district and sex Not broken down By district and sex By district and sex Given for males and females separately Given for males and females separately By district and sex 7 21 The census officer was clearly satisfied with the success of this census He remarked on the greater detail included in the Census as compared with the previous Censuses (1901 and 1906). The methods of enumeration were "superior," and “very favourably reported on." The work done was “excellent,” “admirable,” “brought to a successful finish." He considered that returns relating to family members were incomplete (this is clearly true for the New Territories, where young boys, and even more unmarried girls, were under-reported, as noted in greater detail below), but, in general, the census seems to have been reasonably well-conducted.** It is clear that the care taken with the 1911 Census of the New Territories was due to the quite unsatisfactory nature of the 1901 Census of that area. In 1901, all that had been done was to ascertain the number of dwellings in a village, and then to guess the average number of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Table 8 Population Pyramid, North District Percentage Alive F 100 00 80 70 30 Percentage Alive > 100 90 70 60 50 Age 40 30 F MALES 20 FEMALES 10 1 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 4 1 50 60 70 00 10 100 Percentage Alive 23 However, to follow the exact instruction to output only HTML using for paragraphs (and only if absolutely necessary) without using table tags, here is the revised output: Table 8 Population Pyramid, North District Percentage Alive F 100 00 80 70 30 Percentage Alive > 100 90 70 60 50 Age 40 30 F MALES 20 FEMALES 10 1 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 4 1 50 60 70 00 10 100 Percentage Alive 23 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 31 62 out of a total population of 69,122 - 3.9%, while Southern District towns (including their floating populations) had at least 16,000 out of 21,355 - 74.9% - see Table 28). It is known that the Southern towns, for all their relatively small size, were socially dominated by groups of merchants from outside the marketing district. There can be no doubt that the recorded differences between the Northern and Southern District male land populations are due to the fact that the Southern figures record an essentially urban population, and the Northern figures an essentially agricultural one. Further, it is clear that the urban character of the small Southern District towns was different in quantity, but not in kind, from the City: both were marked by substantial numbers of immigrant prime-of-life males, temporarily resident without their families. Not surprisingly, the City shows this social pattern most clearly, but the basic pattern is common to the City, Kowloon, and the islands, and, as detailed study below will show, even to the small towns in the Northern District. That the Southern District was dominated by immigrant workers only temporarily resident there, while the Northern District was mostly a settled, agricultural, society is also shown by the 1911 statistics for the place of birth of the recorded land population in the two Districts. In Northern District in 1911 a mere 1,321 males (4% of the total male population), and 3,727 females (11% of the total female population) were born outside the New Territories. These 1,321 Northern District males born outside the New Territories fall into three groups. The first are the 243 born in San On District, the area immediately to the north of the New Territories. These people had formed part of the same basic society as the Northern District, and, although born outside the New Territories, should probably not be regarded as immigrants. Before 1899, indeed, the New Territories formed a single unit with the rest of San On from which the New Territories was cut. These men may have been accompanied by their families in some cases - 1,536 females born in San On were recorded, mostly brides of Northern District men, but possibly accompanying San On husbands in some cases. Villages in the north of the New Territories, close to the border, were particularly likely to have families whose ties lay equally on either side of the border. The second group of Northern District males born outside the New Territories were the migrant stone cutters, salt-workers, and weavers from the north-east, a group of whom oral testimony has a good deal Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 32 to say. These came from the Wai Chau Prefecture, particularly Kwai Shin District, and from Ka Ying Prefecture, especially Cheung Lok District - 556 males are recorded in the 1911 Census from these Prefectures, 488 from the two Districts of Kwai Shin and Cheung Lok. Only 110 females from these areas were recorded, making it clear that the bulk of the people from these areas were not accompanied by their families. The third group of Northern District men recorded in the 1911 Census as born outside the New Territories are probably mostly shop-keepers in the small market-towns, people from all over the Canton Delta (273 males and 119 females), but only a few from any one place. A few may be children born while their New Territories parents were living temporarily away from home, as doubtless the three males born in Honolulu. It is clear that, in 1911, the 556 Northern District males born in the north-east prefectures, and the 273 born in the Delta, could not have affected the basic structure of society - they together represent only 2% of recorded males. Females born outside the New Territories were more numerous than males born outside the New Territories in 1911 in Northern District, as it had long been the custom of the area to seek wives for sons from some distance away from the village. Doubtless, the 1,536 females recorded as born in San On District, and the 2,383 born in Hong Kong and Kowloon were mostly wives brought in, and thus not likely to affect the basic structure of society. Females from further away constitute only 308, a mere 1% of the recorded female population of the Northern District in 1911. In the islands, however, a full 26% of males recorded in 1911 of the land population (1,631 males) were born outside the New Territories. As in the Northern District, some of these were probably shop-keepers resident with their families (246 San On males, and 265 San On females: 195 Tung Kun males, and 144 females: 40 Macau males, and 63 females), but many were businessmen or coolies living apart from their families, in businesses supporting the coastal shipping trade. 51 males from the Chiu Chau area (only 7 females), 536 from the Hoi Luk Fung area (only 28 females), and 32 men from Lo Tung (no females) were ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 37 and Hong Kong) where males found resident in the New Territories were born." Females are recorded in addition as born at Lung Chuen, Lo Ting, Ko Chau, and Lei Chau, but in each case only in ones and twos. It will be seen that the world of the New Territories villager was effectively bounded by the coastal strip, and the central, Delta, area of Kwangtung Province. The Islands were in contact with other ports from Chiu Chau to Lim Chau, but not much further. Neither the 1911 nor the 1921 Censuses refers to anyone born in Fukien, and there is only a single reference in 1921 to a man born in Vietnam. The coastal trade must have been essentially kept within the bounds of the province, although oral evidence mentions also traders from the very southernmost part of Fukien. At the same time, contact seems to have been close and easy with the Pearl River Delta area within 100 miles of the New Territories, but beyond 100 miles contacts were slight. Only one man is recorded from Ho Yuen, Ying Tak, and Yeung Kong. The three recorded in 1911 from Kwangsi fall into the same pattern, as also the single male recorded from Kiangsi in both Censuses. Above 100 miles from the New Territories, the only place with which the New Territories villagers were in significant contact was the Ka Ying area in the upper Han River valley, where the stonecutters and itinerant weavers came from, although oral evidence suggests that the villagers knew the name of the area, but not much more. It will be clear from Table 13 that the New Territories was in particularly close contact with a zone no more than about 50 miles wide, i.e., the districts of Kwai Shin (Wai Chau), San On (Po On), Tung Kun, Nam Hoi and Pun Yue (the Canton City and suburban districts), Heung Shan (Chung Shan), Shun Tak, and San Wui (Kongmoon). The villagers' contacts with Central and North China was almost non-existent. Many villagers emigrated for part of their life, but almost always without their families, and the contacts of the New Territories villagers with the wider world outside China is, as a consequence, understated in Table 13. The 1911 Census, however, mentions males born in Honolulu, the Philippines, and Malaya, and the 1921 Census adds individuals born in Japan, Italy, and USA. Probably, by 1911, the New Territories villager was more in contact ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Table 28 Urban Population: New Territories. 1911 63 Northern District: Town Males Females Total Yuen Long 458 81.9% 101 18.1% 559 Sai Kung 320 62.5% 192 37.5% 512 Hang Hau 262 67.7% 125 32.3% 387 Ha Tsuen Sh 120 67.4% 58 32.6% 178 Shek Wu Hui 29 67.4% 14 32.6% 43 Tuen Mun San Hu 72 67.3% 35 32.7% 107 Tai Wo Shi 377 79.9% 95 20.1% 472 Tai Po Old Market 104 53.3% 84 44.7% 253 Tap Mun 168 66.4% 85 33.6% 253 Sha Tau Kok 43 70.5% 18 29.5% 61 North District Total. 1910 70.8% 789 29.2% 2699 Southern District: Town Tai O land population 1159 51.6% 1089 48.4% 2248 .boat population 3159 58.4% 2254 41.6% 5413 Total 4318 56.4% 3343 43.6% 7661 Cheung Chau land population 1918 59.1% 1326 40.9% 3244 :boat population 2601 58.6% 1841 41.4% 4442 Total 4519 58.8% 3167 41.2% 7686 Ping Chau 434 67.6% 208 32.4% 642 Mui Wo Kau Chun 11 61.1% 7 38.9% 18 Southern District Total 9282 58.0% 6725 42.0% 16007 New Territories Total. 11192 60.0% 7514 40% 18706 * Most of Sha Tau Kok was in China this is the New Territories part of the town Tsuen wan is not included as the census includes a large rural population with the town. Some of the Cheung Chau boat population was probably at Ping Chau, and some of the Tai O boat population was probably at other anchorages on Lantau, but only a small percentage in each case It will be noted that there was no town in the Northern District as large as Ping Chau, and that Cheung Chau was more than 24 times as large as all the Northern District towns put together. There were rural populations included within the total for, especially, Tai O, but, nonetheless, the differences are very real. The 1921 Census includes population figures for only one town, Sai Kung the figure it gives (an overall figure of 606) is in line with the 1911 figure. It is noticeable that the population engaged in “urban” occupations can be comfortably fitted into the recorded populations of the Southern District towns, with a substantial excess over to cover the fishermen and ocean-going seamen living in the towns In Northern ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 69 males, while their families remained behind. In other words, those villages with an excess of females are the inevitable reverse side of the coin, off-setting the towns and cities of the area, with their excess of males. Not surprisingly, given the more urban character of Southern District, most of the villages with excess females were in Northern District, as this temporary male emigration was a feature of rural villages, just as temporary male immigration was a feature of the industrial villages, towns, and cities. Appendix I lists the villages with significantly low ratios of males to females (less than 47.0% of total population male, excluding villages with total populations of less than 35, except where the imbalance is extreme) Table 31 maps these villages It will be seen at once from the map at Table 31 that the villages with low percentages of males are concentrated in the mountainous east of the New Territories, and on Lamma. Because of this, more Hakka than Punti villages are low in males. This is, however, a factor of social and geographical conditions, rather than racial or cultural ones: large Punti villages within the eastern New Territories (such as Siu Lek Yuen, Ho Chung, Sha Kok Mei, Wu Kai Sha, Tai Hang etc) share a shortage of males with their smaller Hakka neighbours. Indeed, in Ta Kwu Leng, it is the Punti villages (Ping Che, Lo Shue Ling, Lei Uk Tsuen, Tai Po Tin) which are short of males, the Hakka villages having either a balanced population, or even a surplus of males (eg Heung Yuen with 53.4% of males, and Ping Yuen with 55.9%). Within the richer western parts of the New Territories, villages with shortages of males are less common, but a few clusters can be seen, such as around Ha Tsuen and Yuen Long Markets. These clusters are probably mostly of villages with significant numbers of males working in the markets (the shortage of males in all the Yuen Long villages with shortages was in total 242: the number of excess males working in the markets at Yuen Long and Ha Tsuen was 197) Similarly, it is likely that at least some of the absent males from Lam Tsuen were working in the market at Tai Po The shortage of males in the eastern New Territories is to be explained by emigration. The missionaries of the Basel Mission, who were active in the north-east New Territories from 1849 onwards, remarked on the high levels of emigration from villages in this area from 1851 onwards. By 1880, the missionaries were speaking of "emigration fever" in their reports on the area, by 1894 of "deserted ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 89 5% 2.992 females aged 25-30 in 1911, 2,795 in 1921 Census Report 1911, Table XXI Census Report 1921, Tables XXIV-XXVII Based on a figure of double the female population since the male population is clearly significantly distorted by immigration * See JW Hayes, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions in Town and Countryside. Hamden, Connecticut, 1977 ** Census Report, 1977, Tables IX and X. No detailed breakdown of Place of Birth of the Floating population is included in the 1911 Census C. I The statistics for Place of Birth in the 1921 Census give a somewhat different picture. There (Census Report, 1921, Table XI) the place of birth of 34,724 Northern District males and 36,311 Northern District females are given, of which only 88% (males) and 82% (females) were born within the New Territories. The sharply higher figures for persons born outside the New Territories seems to be due to three factors. The first is the time of the Census. The 1921 Census was taken during the cooler weather (March-April) as compared with the 1911 Census (April-June). Numbers of stonecutters, itinerant weavers, etc., are likely to have been higher in 1921 as it is known from oral evidence that many of these village-to-village traders went back to their own families in villages outside the New Territories for the summer and harvest seasons, and would thus have been enumerated in 1921 but not in 1911. This is doubtless the reason the 1921 Census shows a far higher figure for males born in Kwai Shun District (997 compared to 354), and also for males from the area north of Canton (241 as compared to 23), although the numbers from Ka Ying and other East River areas were lower (142 as compared to 177). This may also be the reason for higher recorded numbers of males from other inland areas in 1921 (Sze Yap 77 as compared to 25, and Shiu Hing area, 95 as to 19). With the exception of Kwan Shun, all the 1921 figures for these areas show far fewer females than males (Kwan Shun, 1507 females; north of Canton, 1-42; East River, 72; Sze Yap, 16; Shiu Hing, 45). The effects of the Ching Ming Festival, and the remaining 1920 refugees are responsible, almost certainly, for the much higher numbers of San On born males (1213 in 1921, only 243 in 1911), and may in part also account for the increase in Tung Kun males (385 in 1921, 163 in 1911). Most of the difference, however, must be due to a more careful enumeration of the boat people in the area. The higher numbers recorded in 1921 for males born in the Delta (750 as against 234), the Chin Chau area (143 as against 9), Hong Kong (226 as against 10), and Macao (25 as against nil), must be due to this factor. The reduction in the numbers of women recorded as born in Hong Kong (1208 as against 2383 in 1911) may be due to errors in the 1911 record. Because of these differences, it is difficult to compare the two Censuses directly with regard to these statistics. It is considered likely that the 1911 figures are closer to the actual position of long-term land population residents born outside the area. The information in the 1921 Census does not permit any direct comparison with the Place of Birth figures for Southern District in 1911, since the 1921 figures include New Kowloon as well as the Islands. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 90 65 Census Report, 1971, Tables II and XIII. No detailed breakdown of Dialect Spoken in the Home by the floating population is included in the 1911 Census * Oral evidence suggests that the boat people did have larger families than the land people, and a higher rate of infant mortality, but these figures still suggest that the “35 per thousand" figure given by the Census officer in 1921 may have been slightly under-estimated 67 Census Report, 1921, Table XXVI 68 Taken from the 1911 Table of Places of Birth (Northern District), and the 1921 Tables of Places of Birth (Northern District Southern District, Floating Population) 69 Census Report, 1911, Table XXVIII 70 The 1911 Census records 24,468 males of 10 years old and upward, and 22,460 of 15 years and upward, suggesting about 24,000 of 12 years and upward The married state of 24,378 males is recorded, of whom 881 were married before the age of 12 The corresponding figures for Northern District females are 27,926, and 24,378, suggesting about 26,000 aged 12 and upward, with the married state of 26,723 females actually recorded, of whom 902 were married before the age of 12 * The corresponding figures in 1911 for the Southern District land population were 0.8% and 1.1% * In 1911 the Married State figures for Southern District are not broken down into the Islands and New Kowloon, and are therefore difficult to use * The "Occupations" Table of the 1921 Census (TABLE XVIII) shows 31 male, and 104 female religious in North District, and 14 male and 71 female religious in South District in 1921 24 Census Report 1911, Table XXX 75 Census Report 1921, Table XII See also Alice Ng Lun Nga-ba, "Village Education in Transition The Case of Sheung Shui”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 82 (1982), pp 252-270 generally for this section of this article 76 In 1931, the Census Officer stated that he felt the 1921 Census figures for educational attainments of the floating population were inaccurate. He suggested 34.04% of floating population males over 20, and 1.38% of females over 20 were literate These figures, however, are not broken down by district See Sessional Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1931, printed by Noronha and Co, Hong Kong, 1931, No 5/1931, "Report on the Census of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1931" (the Census Report, 1931), p [4] * See Alice Ng Lun Ngai-ha, op cit p 266 Census Report, 1911, Tables XXXV and XXXVI ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 Publications Over the year Peter Halliday, our Honorary Editor, has continued to make progress. During 1997-8, volumes 34 (1994) and 35 (1995) of our Journals have been published. It means if two more Journals can be published over the coming year we have caught up with what was a sizeable backlog. In addition, after special software was prepared by staff at the City Hall Library, Dr Lauren Pfister and his assistants, at the Baptist University, have started work preparing a comprehensive index for all our journals. We are grateful to all of them. Meanwhile, Dr Patrick Hase has put in considerable time and effort editing chapters submitted by a small number of RAS members complemented by photographs taken by members of the Cathay Camera Club. After Brian Pierce left Hong Kong the leadership of the photographic team for our project was taken over by Charles Slater. The role has now been filled by Ian Masterton. Again we thank everyone for all they have done. Our new book, about Yau Ma Tei which should come out in mid 1998 will form a companion volume to Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong which we published in late 1995. Our Branch has a large collection of photographs and we are grateful to Tim Ko for working his way through these with the possibility of publishing a selection of them at some stage in the future. Efforts were made during the year to increase sales of our publications. We have already started targeting academic institutions in North America and community and school libraries in Hong Kong. Our Newsletter continues to be an important link between the Council and Branch members. We have to thank Claire Hockaday, Sarah Parnell and Geoffrey Roper for preparing this Newsletter, over the past year, which is gradually increasing in size. Our Branch has a number of members among its ranks who are authors and this year, again, some of them have published. Details of these publications have appeared in our Newsletter. We are now prepared to accept advertisements in our Newsletter from outsiders and a schedule of charges has been drawn up. xiv Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 THE YANG FAMILY OF GENERALS Yang Chia Chiang 楊家將 KEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH 39 The story of the Yang Family of Generals is inextricably involved with the struggle between the Chinese of the Sung dynasty [early in the 10th century AD] and the invading hordes from Central Asia. Memories of the fearless Yangs, who were dreaded by the Tatars from beyond the Wall, are kept fresh by tea-house story tellers, Chinese opera, and tales told by temple keepers. We have, therefore, three versions of the story of the Yangs: first, as we read it in history books; then, the story as told in novels, by professional story tellers, and in opera; and finally, tales related by temple custodians and devotees about the deified Yang heroes. We shall never know the real story of the Yang family; nevertheless, the chronological story as told in history books is relatively straightforward. General Chao K'uang-yin became the first emperor of the Sung in AD 960 with his capital at Kaifeng and with the reign title of T'ai Tsu. He eventually achieved his primary aim and unified most of China under his rule, one of the exceptions being the small state, a princedom in the area of today's Shanxi province known by its dynastic title as the Northern Han, and also known by its regional name as Ho-tung [East of the (Yellow) River]. When the Northern Han refused to submit to him in the Autumn of AD 968, T'ai Tsu decided to invade and moved on Taiyuan, the capital of Ho-tung. The Prince of the Northern Han, realising that they were powerless before the Sung, called on the warlike and powerful Liao [Khitans'], a minor empire to the north of the Great Wall, for assistance. Also realising that outside aid could not arrive in time to save the immediate situation, the Prince made his most able soldier, Yang Chi-yeh, possibly better known simply as Yang Yeh, Generalissimo and ordered him and his five senior sons to lead the resistance against the Sung to allow time for the Liao forces to join up with them. The combined Northern Han and Liao forces were too strong for the Sung, and even though Taiyuan had twice been besieged by the Sung, T'ai Tsu pulled back and turned south where he subdued the Southern Han. Once more, in 976, he sent an ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 44 the news to Tsung-pao. At this point the commander of the Liao army arrogantly demanded that the Sung forces surrender. Miss Mu, angered by the enemy commander's comment about the Sung general dallying with her and being afraid to fight, fired a single arrow which took the helmet off the enemy commander's head. She then fired a second arrow at his left eye but he had already turned to flee and it struck his armour instead. Her popularity and prestige soared and the Liao Khitan forces' morale plummeted. Miss Mu led her force to victory whilst Yang the Fifth killed one of the Liao commanders and Yang Tsung-pao another, leading their forces in a rolling battle which lasted all of twenty-four hours. The defeated Liao Khitan fled, broken, back north leaving the field to the Sung. Peace reigned for the first time for decades and lasted for the following ten years. Finally, we have the tales told in temples, individual stories told not only by temple custodians and devotees about members of the Yang family with the father, Yang Yeh, the main character, but also by professional tea-house story tellers. One might expect versions of the lives of the Yang family as related by temple staff and devotees would reflect the religious traditional tales of story tellers and theatrical stories. As will be seen this is not always so. Yang Yeh, his wife, daughters and sons were deified for their heroism and loyalty to the Sung dynasty. Images of Yang Yeh, alone or with his wife, the Lady Yü, Yü Lao T'ai-chun, also known as Yang Ling-p'o, and with one or more of his seven [eight] sons, can be seen in two temples near the Great Wall in northern China as well as on Fukienese community altars in Taiwan and South-east Asia. Yang Yeh, when portrayed on altars, is also known as The Holy Prince of the Yang Family 楊老令公. In the majority of Singaporean and Taiwanese temples the staff were quite clear in their own minds that the two major deities of the cult are Yang Yeh, the powerful general and father of the family, and his Fifth Son. Confusion over definitive identifications of images on altars has arisen out of this almost universal belief. The reason for the popularity in temples of the Fifth Son, rather than the greater hero, the Sixth Son, is almost certainly due to the Fifth's religious background. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 257 and pleasure-grounds, all of which showed evident signs of great neglect. The suburbs were one dense mass of habitations of two stories in height; the lower portions of which were devoted to the handicraftsmen, who employed themselves in them, or to store rooms, in which merchandise was deposited. There were numerous public buildings, most of them appearing to be of a religious character, either dedicated to Buddha or Confucius. Mainly for safety reasons ships passing up and down the Yangzi tended to use the main channel which ran along the north bank of the Great River opposite Zhenjiang. Down the years spits have formed close to Zhenjiang, mainly off Ganlu Si [Consular Bluff] and Xiang Shan Bluff, whilst the Zhengrenzhou spit steadily advanced downstream from the west blocking off the approaches to the harbour. The flat sandy bottom, so the Admiralty Guide tells us, does not provide good holding ground, especially during autumn gales. The channel of the Great River at Zhenjiang is some two miles in breadth and had long been a ferry crossing point over the Yangzi, linking Zhenjiang with the major city of Yangzhou, a short distance upstream of the northern section of the Grand Canal. The long-mooted bridge over the River has still to be built. In the early days of the opening up of China by the West the city was believed to be the furthest point upstream on the Yangzi which seagoing vessels of the heaviest burden could reach with comparative ease. When Hankou, over five hundred miles further upstream, was opened to foreign trade it soon became apparent that trade at Zhenjiang consisted of little more than being an agency for steamers using the port as a stopping point, and for the Customs House for Chinese merchants. So it was that when vessels had access to the fountainhead of trade at Hankou, together with the fact that the harbour at Zhenjiang having silted up, the importance of the port became in great measure superseded. Sadly, the dolphins which not too long ago frolicked in the Great River and were commonly seen off Zhenjiang have been fished into extinction with today's oily pollution preventing any return, though a very occasional porpoise may still be seen. A Victorian writer described the climate and temperature of Zhenjiang as 'little different from that in Shanghai, whereas the varied scenery and hilly surroundings of Zhenjiang were an advantage which ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 269 the time ripe for an insurrection.. The rebellion began among the Hakka people in the southern provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong and by 1853 was spreading north and west, led by Hong Xiuquan, a schoolmaster who had picked up a smattering of Christianity. Whilst suffering from an illness he experienced severe hallucinations and saw that his mission was to free the Chinese from Manchu rule. He also convinced himself and others that he was the younger brother of Christ and a son of God sent to save mankind. The Taiping rebels were known colloquially by the Chinese peasants as the Long-haired Rebels, Chang Mao, as they refused to shave the front of their head. [China's Manchu conquerors had ordered that all Chinese males would shave the front half of their head and wear the rest tied into a lengthy queue or 'pigtail'.] Hong Xiuquan's liberated territory was known as the Kingdom of Great Peace, Taiping Tianguo and by 1860 he had more than a quarter of China under his control. Much of the fighting between the Manchu Imperial forces and the Taiping rebel armies took place across Zhejiang province and down the Yangzi, especially around the Taiping capital at Nanjing. With Zhenjiang captured by the Taiping in April 1853 [a mere eleven years after the British had taken the city], their control of the southern bank of the Yangzi was virtually complete. Zhenjiang lay deserted during the Taiping era, being no more than a fort occupied by the Taiping rebels. The pagodas and temples were all destroyed with the usual Taiping iconoclastic fervour, and in many places their stones used as fortifications. The city, surrounded on three sides by a remarkable line of Taiping trenches some ten to eleven miles in length, was besieged several times by the Imperial forces. Each time they were driven off, with the city remaining in Taiping hands until compelled by a failure of supplies the rebels were forced to evacuate it early in 1857. Zhenjiang never fully recovered. The Taiping were finally defeated in 1864 when their capital at Nanjing finally fell to the Imperial forces - assisted by several foreign-led armies of Chinese and western mercenaries, one of which was the Ever-Victorious Army under General Gordon. Rasmussen in 1905 refers to the decayed trench system as 'Gordon's trenches', with some of his guns still to be found sunk deep into the soil of their old embrasures. He added that 'the only reminder now [1905] of the Taiping Rebellion was the thousands of graves covering the countryside, and the ghost-ridden walled city where the whole population had been put to the sword'. Thomas Adkins, the British Consul in Zhenjiang, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 278 Beigu Shan The Ganlu Si [Sweet Dew Monastery] is situated in the north-west corner of the city on the summit of Beigu Shan, a low hill with steep cliffs down to the coast. It is the site described in the old legend of the marriage of Liu Bei, the ruler of the Kingdom of Shu. Traditional operas and tales of teahouse story tellers based on this legend are still popular today. The romantic legend, which may have a genuine historical basis, is said to have taken place during the Three Kingdoms period, 2nd century AD, when Liu Bei was the ruler of the kingdom of Shu [in what is today Sichuan and then, one of the Three Kingdoms]. Liu went to the rival state of Wu [nowadays Jiangsu province and part of Zhejiang] and married as his secondary consort the sister of its ruler, Sun Ce, whom we have already mentioned. He is said to have either courted or married her in the Sweet Dew Monastery during his stay there. Another version claims that Liu Bei was invited by Sun to visit the Sweet Dew Monastery to meet his future mother-in-law. Sun actually planned to have Liu assassinated though Liu learned of the plan and escaped taking the ruler's sister, Sun Shangxiang, with him. Yet another version describes how Sun Quan, the king of Wu and brother of Sun Ce, was displeased by Liu Bei's failure to return a piece of land he had borrowed from Wu. Sun offered Liu the hand of his sister in marriage but planning all along to withdraw the marriage offer when the ceremony was about to be held and Liu Bei was in Wu territory. At the same time he would require Liu to hand back the land. Liu's secret agents warned him of the plan and Liu managed to get Sun Quan's mother and, of course, the prospective bride, to meet him at the Ganlu Temple. They were delighted with what they saw and immediately consented to the marriage. Sun was furious at being outsmarted and not only losing his sister but without even regaining the land. The dating of Liu Bei's visit and the conventional date of the foundation of the temple during the Eastern Jin dynasty cannot be reconciled unless Liu Bei's host, Sun, had a palace on the site which two hundred years later was either converted into the temple or the temple was built on the site of the palace. The Ganlu Si iron pagoda was first built during the Tang, originally with nine storeys. However, down the ages natural disasters have removed the top five, though a further two storeys have been added. ================================================================================