RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 111 (4) to receive and examine reports on Buddhist activities abroad, and to submit to the Hong Kong Buddhist Association news of any interesting developments, particularly innovations that might be applicable in Hong Kong. The Centre has 30 members, of whom 15 are directors. These latter personally subsidize its budget which, owing to the nature of its activities, is small. The Centre has sent a Hong Kong and Macau delegation to each of the World Buddhist Fellowship Conferences. Because Hong Kong is an international communications centre and because it is a convenient point of entry to the Chinese mainland, the number of foreign Buddhist visitors is large, and the entertainment burden of the Regional Centre is at times quite heavy. In general, it can be said that Hong Kong's Buddhist organizations are more internationally minded than those in other areas. By the same token, the attitude towards non-Buddhists is one of traditional Chinese tolerance, fortified by the laissez-faire, cosmopolitan atmosphere of the free port. ### 3. THE LOTUS ASSOCIATION OF HONG KONG ** This was first established in 1933 as an association of lay Buddhists who desired to hold regular meetings for prayer and study. Like the Buddhist Association, it ceased to function during the Second World War, was revived in 1945, and incorporated in 1948. Although it is open to Buddhists of all sects and encourages the study of all forms of Buddhist doctrine, the form of worship on its premises is Pure Land. It has 204 members, who pay annual dues of HK$10 and $50, and meet annually to elect 15 Directors. Dharma meetings are held every Thursday in the Association's headquarters at 30 Leighton Road, where a large library (over 5,000 volumes) of Buddhist and general reference literature in many languages has been collected for the use of members. The principal concern of the Directors is the management of the Association's various welfare enterprises, which include the occasional distribution of American aid from Chinese in San Francisco (where the Association has a representative) to refugees and to the victims of natural disasters like typhoons and fires. The principal welfare efforts, however, are mainly in the field of education. The Lotus Association Free Evening School is operated in Leighton Road opposite the Association headquarters. Established in 1948, it offers evening instruction including books, stationery, and instruction, all completely free, to 100 girl pupils from the poorest families in Wan Chai. The curriculum is of primary level, and, because of the fact that many of the pupils have to work, they do not complete it until the age of 14 or 15. The expenses of the library and school are met personally by the Directors, there being no government subsidy. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 110 M. W. WELCH below the original level of the surface before artillery practice began). They prove only that there were people who spent some time there. Although I chose the sites as good places to live, I have so far found no strata, no remains of fires, and no other signs of habitation. I have combed the adjacent, unshelled, non-eroded areas for true surface finds, and, despite many days of search, I have found none at all. Hence I have a theory that the artifacts came to be where I found them as a result of shell penetration and explosion. After being thrown into the air, they fell around the area of the impact. (I have several items that seem to prove the point: one is a small chert adze—chert is an amorphous, massive stone, closely allied to flint—found in two pieces, each on opposite sides of a rock that it must have hit as it fell and then separated. Another is a larger adze, two fragments of which were found about twenty feet apart, and shattered in a way that can only be accounted for by an explosion. There are also two matching potsherds discovered on opposite sides of a ridge of hardened kaolin about three yards apart). The shells used on this firing range, I am told, penetrate about four feet and the objects found could have been located anywhere between the surface and the deepest point of penetration. I have not, as I have already mentioned, found any strata or deposits anywhere. There are several reasons why this might be the case. The inhabitants of the island may have been nomadic and lived here only during certain seasons, coming by boat to cut wood (there is a theory that Hong Kong was well forested in those days), or to dig kaolin for shipment to centres of pottery manufacturing (the latter I think is the probable raison d'être of my sites). The actual settlements of this area may have been located mostly where we find the present inhabitants, on sites which have been lived on without interruption until modern times. This would explain the absence of strata, and, if it is correct, no strata will be found until it is possible to trench on the site of an existing village. I understand that such a project is planned for the future. Before I describe some of the finds, I want to explain the basis on which I have classified them. Father D. J. Finn began his researches on Lamma Island and later on with Father R. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 32 SIR JOHN BOWRING race is thus augmenting, the causes which lead to the destruction of food, — such as the overflow of rivers, fires, ravages of locusts, bad seasons, and other calamities, — are to a great extent beyond the control of human prudence or human exertion. It would be difficult to show what new element could be introduced which would raise up the native supply of food beyond its present productiveness, considering that hand husbandry has given to cultivation more of a horticultural than an agricultural character. The constant flow of emigration from China, contrasted with the complete absence of emigration into China, is striking evidence of the redundancy of the population; for though that emigration is almost wholly confined to two provinces, namely, Kwangtung and Fookien, representing together a population of probably from 34,000,000 to 35,000,000, I am disposed to think that a number nearer 3,000,000 than 2,000,000 from these provinces alone are located in foreign countries. In the kingdom of Siam, it is estimated that there are at least a Million and a Half of Chinese, of which 200,000 are in the capital (Bangkok). They crowd all the islands of the Indian Archipelago. In Java, we know by a correct census there are 136,000. Cochin China teems with Chinese. In this colony we are seldom without one, two, or three vessels taking Chinese emigrants to California and other places. Multitudes go to Australia, to the Philippines, to the Sandwich Islands, to the western coast of Central and Southern America: some have made their way to British India. The emigration to the British West Indies has been considerable; to the Havana greater still. The annual arrivals in Singapore are estimated at an average of 10,000, and 2,000 is the number that are said annually to return to China.* There is not only this enormous maritime emigration, but a considerable inland efflux of Chinese towards Manchuria and Tibet; and it may be added, that the large and fertile islands of Formosa and Hainan have been to a great extent won from the aborigines by successive inroads of Chinese settlers. Now these are all males — there is not a woman to 10,000 men: hence perhaps the small social value of the female infant. Yet this perpetual out-flowing of people seems in no respect to diminish the number of those who are left behind. Few Chinamen leave * Journal of the Indian Archipelago, vol. ii, p. 286, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 133 J'HESTROY, Baron P, de G. Belgian Embassy, 1653 Calle Viamonte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1633 Compton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44118, U.S.A. HILL, D. A. HINDMARSH, R. H. Room 606, Gloucester Building, H.K. HỌ, Mrs. Hung Chiu HO, Hung-pong c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. HO, Teh-kuei 143 Wongneichong Road, 1st Floor, H.K. HO, Tickon* 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. HOCHSTADTER, W. c/o Mrs. N. du Breuil, 86, Main St., Stanley, H.K. HOGAN, The Hon. Sir M. Kr. Chief Justice's Chambers, Supreme Court, H.K. HOLMES, The Hon. D. R. Commerce and Industry Dept. HOPKINSON, Mrs. J. E. Fire Brigade HORSMAN, Miss A. M. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. HORSTMANN, Mrs. C. HOTUNG, Eric Edward HOWARD, Miss V. HOWARD, W. J. HOWE, D. H. HOWE, Mrs. P. M. Peninsula Court, Kowloon. HOWNAM-MEEK, R. S. Room 8 St. George's Building, H.K. HOWORTH, J. F. Sisters Quarters, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon. HOYNINGEN-HUENE, Baron Ture von P. O. Box 282, H.K. HSIA, Tung Pei D-1, "On Lee", 2 Mount Davis Road, Pok-fulum, H.K. HUGHES, G. M. As above, HUGHES, Mrs. G. M.* P. O. Box 70, H.K. HUGHES, Prof. W. I. c/o Leigh & Orange, 2013, Union House, H.K. 9-A Stanley Beach Road, H.K. 131B, Wanchai Building, 8th floor, 131 Wanchai Road, H.K. American International Assurance Co., Ltd., American International Building, H.K. RBL 175 Sassoon Road, H.K. Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, The University, 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-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 OLD BRITISH KOWLOON 135 24 With regard to the quantities of firewood brought on foot into Kowloon from as far afield as Sha Tin, see Sessional Papers 1903 p. 209 which list 66,521 loads of firewood, each estimated at 70 piculs (approx. 93 lbs.) as being carried over the hills in 1902. The Sham Shui Po Kaifong, through operating the Mo Tai (A†4) temple's public weighing scales, got its revenue from the vegetable and livestock market there. Much of the produce sold there crossed the harbour to Hong Kong. (See the Registrar General's Report for 1907 in Sessional Papers 1908, p. 194. Other information supplied by elders). I am also informed by Mr. WAI Tau Shue (b. 1885) that in his youth the Kowloon Lok Sin Tong levied a small weighing charge on each load of firewood sold in the Kowloon City market. In each case the proceeds were supposed to swell public funds for charitable work. For social advancement see the career of WONG Lan-shang described in this article. 25 The Third or Kowloon Police Magistrate was not appointed until 1925 (Colonial Estimates 1924-1926). For an example of police assistance in an emergency see the press reports of the two big fires at Hung Hom village on 11 and 16 December 1884 (Hong Kong Daily Press). 26 See Report from the Hong Kong Land Commission of 1886-87 on the History of the Sale, Tenure and Use of the Crown Land of the Colony published in Sessional Papers 1887 pp. XXVI-XXVII. 27 Between 1853 and 1862 the Hong Kong government paid village elders as tepos (18) in an endeavour to enlist their services in the public interest. See G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong 1841-1962, Hong Kong; University of Hong Kong Press, 1964, pp. 37-38. The Colonial Estimates for the period, under Registrar General's department, show that payment was not extended to the elders of the Kowloon villages acquired in 1860. 28 Eitel, p. 160. 29 See, for instance, pp. 8 and 9 and note 40 of my typescript article "Some villages in the North Western Part of the Kowloon Peninsula in 1898” presented to the International Conference on Asian History held at the University of Hong Kong, August 30-September 5, 1964. See also note 37 below. 30 The temple was re-erected in Shantung Street Kowloon in 1927 on a site provided by Government which also gave a grant of $6,000 towards the reconstruction. The rest of the money required for the new building was supplied by the Kwong Wah (Tung Wah group) Hospital, to whom the management of the temple was entrusted. 31 Shui Yuet Kung (KA) is an alternative name for a Kwan Yin temple. See S. Wells Williams, Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect, Canton; Office of the Chinese Repository, 1856, p. 650. See also E. T. C. Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, New York; The Julian Press, 1961, pp. 225-227. 32 See E. T. C. Werner, China of the Chinese, London; Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1920, pp. 196-197, and S. Wells Williams, Tonic Dictionary under p. 308 and p. 581 under A. 33) E. J. Hardy, John Chinaman at Home, London; T. Fisher Unwin, 1905, p. 86. See also W. Stanton, The Chinese Drama, Hong Kong; Kelly & Walsh, 1899, pp. 5-6 for a brief description of the position in "China and in the villages of Hong Kong". 34 Robert Morrison, A View of China for Philological Purposes. Macao; Hon. E. I. C. Press, 1817, p. 105. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 177 GARCIA, A. GARD, Dr. R. A. GARTNER, J. GEORGE, T. J. B. - L GIBB, H. GIEDROYC, M. J. H. GIMSON, C, H, - GILES, R. + GLASS, Miss M. A. GLOVER, Mrs. J. GOLDNEY, Miss C. M. GOODRICH, Prof. L. C. - c/o South Kowloon Magistracy, Kowloon. c/o U.S. Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K. 15 Guildford Lane, Melbourne, Australia. c/o Diplomatic Service Administration Office, King Charles St., London S.W.1, England, 74 Kenilworth Avenue, London, S.W.19, England. c/o P.W.D. Hq., 4th Floor, Main Wing, Central Government Offices Building, H.K. c/o Crown Lands & Survey Office, P.W.D., H.K. 14 Braga Circuit, Kowloon. "Crossways", 49 Christchurch Road, Sidcup, Kent, England. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. 504 Kent Hall, Columbia University, New York 27, New York, U.S.A. GORDON, Mrs. Charles R. 118 Pokfulam Road, H.K. GORDON, K. H. A. J Room 601 Marina House, H.K. GORDON, The Hon. S. S.* - Messrs. Lowe, Bingham & Matthews, 22nd Floor, Prince's Building, H.K. GUADAGNINI, Dr. P. GUILLAUME, Baron P. de HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G. - HALE, Richard E. - Via Buon Compani, No. 16, Rome, Italy, Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. New Territories Health Office, North Kowloon Magistracy, Taipo Road, Kowloon. The Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corpn., P. O. Box 64, H.K, HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton Road, H.K. HARDEN, Mrs. Guy T. Jr.* 15 Shek-O, H.K. HARRISON, Prof. B. T HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. HAYIM, E. J.* - HAYWARD, G. W. J HEANEY, Robert S. HECHTEL, F. O. P. HENSMAN, Dr. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. - Dept. of History, The University, H.K. The Supreme Court, H.K. c/o The Colonial Secretariat, H.K, 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, H.K. White Mill End, 5 Granville Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, England. Deer Park, Greenwich, Conn., U.S.A. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. + - Chung Chi College, Ma Liu Shui, N.T. c/o P. O. Box 70, H.K. d'HESTROY, Baron P. de G. Belgian Embassy, 1653 Calle Viamonte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 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-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 195 HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G. W. HEANEY, Robert S. HECHTEL, F. O. P. HENSMAN, Dr. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, H.K. White Mill End, 5 Granville Road, Seven-oaks, Kent, England, Deer Park, Greenwich, Conn., USA. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. Chung Chi College, Ma Liu Shui, N.T. c/o P. O. Box 70, H.K. d'HESTROY, Baron P. de G. Belgian Embassy, 1653 Calle Viamonte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. HILL, D. A. HINDMARSH, R. H. Hồ, Mrs. Hưng Chịu HO, Teh-Kuci HO, Tickon* HOCHSTADTER, Dr. Walter HOGAN, Sir M. Kt. HOLMAN, J. P. HOLMES, Hon, D. R. HONG, Sheng-Hwa HOPKINSON, Mrs. J. E. HORSTMANN, Mrs. C. HOTUNG, Eric Edward HOWARD, W. J.* HOWE, D. H. HOWE, Mrs. P. M. HOWNAM-MEEK, R. S. HOWORTH, J. F. HOYNINGEN-HUENE, Baron Ture von HSIA, Tung Pei HUI, Miss Wai-haan CIECD Engineering Consulting Group, P.O. Box 23, Taipei, Taiwan. Room 606, Gloucester Building, H.K. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lake Side Building, 2nd Floor B, 259 Gloucester Road, H.K. 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. Chief Justice's Chambers, Supreme Court, H.K. 15A Vivian Court, Mt. Kellett, Peak, H.K. Commerce and Industry Dept. Fire Brigade Bldg., H.K. c/o U.S. Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K. 12, Mt. Nicholson Gap, H.K. Peninsula Court, Kowloon. 10 Stanley Street, H.K. P. O. Box 282, H.K. D-1, "On Lee", 2 Mount Davis Road, Pokfulum, H.K. As above. P. O. Box 70. H.K. c/o Leigh & Orange, Room 2015 Union House, H.K. 9-A Stanley Beach Road, H.K. 131B, Wanchai Building, 8th floor, 131 Wanchai Road, H.K. 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-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 189 HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G. - HAFFNER, C. Hall, J. Unknown. Room 1002 Alexandra House, H.K. c/o Colonial Secretariat, Room 514, H.K. HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton Road, H.K. HARDEN, Mrs. G. T., Jr.* - HARRISON, Prof. B. - H.K. 15 Shek-O, H.K. Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada. HARTWELL, Sir Charles H. c/o Public Service Commission, Central Government Offices, H.K. HARTWELL, Lady - HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G. W. HEANEY, R. S. - HECHTEL, F. O. P. HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha HERRIES, Hon. M. A. R. T - As above. c/o The Supreme Court, H.K. c/o Secretariat for Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, H.K. British Embassy, Kastelsvej 38-40, Copenhagen. Deer Park, Greenwich, Conn., U.S.A. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. Chung Chi College, C.U.H.K., Shatin, N.T. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd. P.O. Box 70, H.K. PHESTROY, Baron P. de G. Belgian Embassy, 1653 Calle Viamonte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. HILL, D. A. HILSDALE, Mrs. E. P. HINDMARSH, R. H. HỒ, Mrs. Hungchiu HO, Teh-kuei - HO, Tickon* HOCHSTADTER, Dr. W. HOGAN, Hon. Sir Michael HOLMES, Hon. D. R. - 1633 Compton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44118, U.S.A. 6387 Bryn Mawr Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90028, U.S.A. Room 606 Gloucester Building, H.K. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lake Side Building, 13th floor, "B", 259 Gloucester Road, H.K. 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. Chief Justice's Chambers, Supreme Court, H.K. c/o Secretariat for Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy Page 195 Page 196 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 154 S. F. BALFOUR population who took on Chinese surnames and customs. The town of Canton itself, although parts were surrounded by walls, continued to be inhabited by a large matshed population. It was full of Arabs, Indians and Persians who were allowed to have their own administration and laws and to settle in the place without hindrance. Here is a quotation from the famous Arab book known as the Chain of Chronicles which is an account of the trade with China in the ninth century compiled by the Zaid Hassan of Siraf in Arabia. The merchant Soleyman states: "The reason why Chinese merchandise in Baghdad is at present rare is because fires are so common in Khanfu (Canton). This town is the principal port for ships and is the entrepôt for all trade between Arabia and China. The fires which consume the merchandise break out because the houses are built of bamboo and reed. Another cause of the paucity of merchandise (in Baghdad) is the large number of shipwrecks and the fact that the ships are so often raided by pirates or are forced to remain in port for long periods during their journeys." Another merchant states in the same book: "In 878 the rebel Ban Shua (Huang Chao) besieged Khanfu (Canton). After many days the town was taken. On this occasion 120,000 Mussulmans, Jews and Christians who were established in the city perished by the sword." Since this event preceded a decline in the trade with the west from Canton it is as well to try and form a picture of it up to this period. The boats used were larger than any of the native craft that are now seen on the Chinese coast. As early as 413 Fa Hsien the Buddhist pilgrim returned from Java on a boat which carried over 200 people. It drifted, he says, at the mercy of the wind without taking any particular course and "only by observing the sun, moon and stars was it possible to go forward." Fa Hsien's ship was set for Canton but was blown out of its course as far as Shantung where they landed without knowing in the least where they were. In spite of the difficulty of steering without a compass the trade route was very much helped, as it has always been, by the monsoons which blow from the north in winter and from the south in summer. There is some evidence that tacking was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 198 NOTES AND QUERIES known geologist and archaeologist. A few notes and articles from his pen on Hong Kong subjects appeared in Vols. 8 and 9 (1968 and 1969) of this Journal. These pile houses are the habitation of Tanka,(4) the boat people of South China, and Tai O has long been a considerable fishing port and market town, indeed the principal and only one of any size on Lantau Island. At the 1911 census of the Colony the land population was 2248 persons and was probably outnumbered by the floating population which stood at 5413 for the whole of Lantau. The pile huts were probably there long before the British took over the New Territories in 1899 following the Convention of Peking, 9th June, 1898. One of the early administrative reports of the District Officer, South (1911) mentions taking over responsibility from the Harbour Office for issuing licences to pile dwellers at Tai O Creek, when 221 new matshed permits were issued at $1 p.a., and in 1916 it was stated that there were still as many as 350 matsheds there. Fires were always a hazard to these dwellings of wood and palm leaves. A big fire was noted in the 1916 report and it is no surprise to read in a later report of a really big one in 1926 when 300 matsheds were destroyed. Fortunately there was no loss of life, due, it was related, to it being high tide at the time of the fire. Typhoons, too, were a constant menace to these frail structures and in 1927, the year after the big fire, the District Officer notes that a typhoon caused great damage to the matsheds. The photographs at plates 26 to 29 are by Mr. Schofield, and the plans at Figs. 1 and 2 are re-drawn from his notebook. I am greatly indebted to Mrs. Katherine M. Schofield for permission to reproduce her husband's valuable notes. The italicised sentences are my additions. The aerial view of Tai O Creek at plate 25 is by courtesy of the Hong Kong Government. Mr. Schofield's Text The accompanying plan (Fig. 1) is of a typical shed at Yee Chung (二涌) Second Creek, Tai O. It measures 9′ in width and 29′ 2′′ in depth (32′ 5′′ including the 1 metre deep veranda) and is 7′ high. It is 8′ above the waters of the creek at mid ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 222 GUILLAUME, Baron P. de HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G.. HAFFNER, C. HALL, Miss J. Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Unknown. Spence Robinson Architects, The Atelier, Broadwood Road, H.K. c/o Colonial Secretariat, Room 514, H.K. HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. c/o St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton HAMILTON, Bill G.--. HARDEN, Mrs, G. T., Jr.* - HARRISON, Prof. B. HARTWELL, Sir Charles HARTWELL, Lady HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G, W. HECHTEL, F. O. P. - HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. - - - Road, H.K. 13768 Hower Drive, Saratoga, Calif. 95070, US.A. 15 Shek O, H.K. c/o Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada, c/o Public Service Commission, Central Government Offices, H.K. As above. c/o The Supreme Court, H.K. c/o The Colonial Secretariat, H.K. 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, H.K. c/o British Embassy, Kastelsvej 38-40, Copenhagen. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., H.K. d'HESTROY, Baron P. de G. The Belgian Embassy, 1653 Galle Viamonte, HILL, D. A. HILSDALE, Mrs. E. P. · HỌ, Mrs. Hung-chiu HO, Teh-kuei. HO, Tickon* - HOCHSTADTER, Dr. W. HODGE, Peter HOGAN, Sir Michael - T - Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1633 Compton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44118, U.S.A. 2762 Woodshire Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90028, U.S.A. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lakeside Building, 13th Floor, B, 259 Gloucester Road, H.K, 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. c/o Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Unknown, * 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-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 70 ALINE K. WONG the changing urban conditions in Hong Kong and in response to altered Government policies. Much of the earlier efforts of the Kaifongs were directed toward charity and relief and toward general cultural-recreational activities. In recent years, many Kaifongs have changed their attention in two directions: firstly, from passive welfare work to active community development; secondly, from information transmission to more active promotion of government policies. The trends in the development of different types of Kaifong activities since 1949 show that while the traditional welfare work of the Kaifongs (including the giving of regular and emergency relief, medical services, free education, free burial and funeral services) has remained static or even has begun to decline, the organization of women and youth in both recreational and educational activities, and the organization of community campaigns, etc. have developed rapidly since the early 1960s. Furthermore, the rapidly increasing volume of Kaifong petitions to the Government in the past seven years or so also points to the growing significance of the Kaifongs' political function. In general, these changes in Kaifong functions can be attributed to two related causes: a) the financial difficulties of the Kaifongs, and b) the influence of Government policy. As community organisations the Kaifongs do not obtain any financial support from the government. In the early days, most of the Kaifongs derived their income from membership subscriptions and from private donations from their leaders and others. These form the two main sources for their income. Emergency operations such as relief after floods and fires were mostly financed by special fund-raising drives. While membership subscriptions are a constant source of income, private donations are not a dependable source. And as Kaifong membership grows, and as the demands for welfare services rise with the increase in urban population, the task of running the associations becomes more and more complicated. Structurally speaking, the Kaifongs become more complex and functionally more diverse. But as the Kaifongs have always operated on small or medium-sized budgets, the large part of which are devoted to meeting regular running and depreciation costs, what is left is only enough for small operations of various sorts. On the other hand, the Kaifong leaders are only amateurs in organizational management, besides ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g bination with rattan NOTES AND QUERIES 199 () for net frames only. The ropes were usually up to 20-28 in length and could be even 30+ ★, in which case the rope was turned round and carried part of the way back the rope road. Mr. Yue recalled that the first type of rope had been used by trawlers up to and through the Japanese Occupation but had stopped shortly after the Liberation. The second type had been made and used in local fishing craft up to his brother's death some 7-8 years ago. The ropes were twisted from three strands, so that there were three stands with handles at one end of the rope road and a single one at the other. Up to ten persons were employed in the work. Unlike dyeing, this business had been in the Yue family for several generations as both Yue's father and grandfather are reported to have engaged in this work. There were several pools at Ta Lam Lo filled with sea water and lime in which the ... was soaked for 10 days to soften it and preserve it. If fresh water was used salt had to be added. There is still some rope-making on Ap Lei Chau at a place beyond the Kwun Yum temple but the material used is nylon and wire. This place had also been used to manufacture the other kinds of rope in the earlier period and was known locally as Lam Lo Mei (44), being subsidiary to the main area. A short description of the calendering process is given at p. 190 of the 1970 Journal. This dates from the 1860s, and probably relates to Central China, Hong Kong, April 1971. JAMES HAYES CHARCOAL BURNING IN HONG KONG In his compendious work on China published in 1878 Archdeacon Gray of Canton wrote: "As coal is not used for domestic purposes, charcoal is in great demand, and charcoal-burners are to be seen daily on the hills. The hillsides of Pun-yu, Fa-yune, and Tsung-fa -districts of Kwun Tung- are studded with their fires; and on the slopes of the Lew-Shan range of mount- Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG 91 vinces of China in search of better fortunes under an administration which offered law and order. Thus, by May 1841 there were already over 7,400 Chinese resident on the island, of whom some 2,000 were boat dwellers. The increase of population was rapid and by October 1841 there were an estimated 9,000 persons in the Colony. This trend continued in subsequent years, so that by 1847 the population stood at nearly 23,900 persons, excluding the troops of the garrison. The Tai Ping rebellion which began in 1850 brought an influx of Chinese into the Colony, with the consequence that the population had increased to over 39,000 by 1853. The dramatic increases of population could not be anticipated by the administration and, as there was no planned provision of accommodation for the newcomers, living conditions soon became exceedingly congested. The colonial government, however, was mindful of the need for compliance with certain regulations in the interests of public health and safety. The Summary Offences Ordinance of 1845, for example, made it an offence for the owner or occupier of any house or building to neglect its repair or to permit it to remain in a ruinous or dangerous state. For such a misdemeanour a fine of up to $50 could be imposed. The need to set minimum standards in the construction of houses was also recognised by the Buildings Ordinance of 1856 which required, among other things, that dwellings should be provided with an adequate and safe place for the lighting of fires and the cooking of food. The same ordinance also required the provision of a privy and ash pit and specified a fine not exceeding $50 for the contravention of the regulations. The Buildings Ordinance, however, made no provision for the reservation of rear yards, the width of streets, height of buildings and adequate means of lighting and ventilation. Even if these matters had been included in the Ordinance, it is doubtful whether property developers would have given them much heed, for the law was seldom enforced. Houses were thus erected with the object of providing as much living space as possible, as cheaply as possible and at the expense of space normally provided for a toilet, bathroom and storage. Houses were built back-to-back to achieve the greatest economy in the use of land, and little or no thought was given to the provision of adequate roads or drains. It is perhaps understandable that in a community where the pressure of population was rapidly overwhelming the limited housing resources there was little inclination on the part of the administration to ensure compliance ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 136 : LINDA F. SULLIVAN a few free-standing houses and reinforced the fronts of their caves, again there was no fuel (timber or with the scarcity of livestock, animal manure) with which to heat this type of house. These caves suited the climate. They provided a warm shelter in winter without fuel and a cool house in summer. The people of the region took pride in their cave homes which represented to them a way of life with all its social and economic manifestations. In contrast, the predominant form of domestic architecture in the countryside of Hopei province is free-standing houses. This house is the most basic unit or type of house in China. It is a three-bay plan. The house is built on a North-South orientation with the main door facing south. As one enters the front door there is a large living room with an ancestral shrine placed on the back wall. On both sides of the living room there are the bedrooms. The k'ang, or platform beds, are placed on the south side of the rooms so that the windows with southern exposure allow the rays of the sun to warm the sleeping platforms. In regions further north, fires are built beneath the k'angs for added warmth in winter. The outside of the house is part brick and stone with a simple thatched roof. The three-bay house, being the simplest form of Chinese architecture, is the most easily adaptable to many types of geographical and economic conditions and is found with modifications in many regions of China. The next house in Hopei combines itself with a small store.9 The entrance to the house has been pushed to the southeast corner so that the more auspicious central southern door is given to the shop door. In this way, perhaps, the local geomancers felt that the man's business would be more prosperous. It also would be giving the customers the more honored position. After entering the southeast gate one is forced to turn by the spirit wall before entering the large but private courtyard of the proprietor. The privacy of his house is further seen by the lack of windows on the outside wall. The main door of the house faces south. As one steps in there is again a living room with an ancestral shrine and a bedroom to the left. The kitchen can be reached only by going outside. In the courtyard there is another bedroom. All the buildings in this group are on a foundation requiring two steps to reach the floor level. At the rear of the house there is a vegetable garden. Thus, within this private domain, the individual can find peace from the outside ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 187 had to endure many insulting references to their competence in the early days. I have referred earlier to the poor quality of much of the vegetables, and much was soft and often rotten by the time we received them. A tuber or leaf had to be pretty obviously rotten before it was rejected for cooking, but even so the wastage was high. I have also commented earlier on the varieties of fish we received and the time that had obviously elapsed since it left the water. We received some fresh meat from Japanese sources between April and July 1942. Between April and June 1942 we received some preserved meat and whale meat from the same sources. Thereafter meat disappeared from Japanese rations and reappeared only in May 1945. Fuel for cooking caused us recurring anxieties. The hospital's stock of coal was exhausted early in 1942, though we did scrape up practically every grain of coal dust from the coal yard and made briquettes which helped for a time. Wood for fuel was, like the rations, delivered at irregular intervals and on many occasions in Bowen Road working parties of our staff went out under armed guard to fell trees on the hillside and bring in the wood. These forays seemed to be authorised by Sergeant Seino acting on his own authority, and he always seemed anxious that the operations of the working parties should not be observed by Japanese not connected with the hospital. All wood delivered had to be chopped into manageable logs, but the fresh wood from the hillside could often not be left to weather and this caused us the most serious difficulties in the kitchen. We employed men specially for chopping wood and the cooks had often to be on their jobs long before daylight to get fires started. Our meals were sometimes very late. The Japanese did try to anticipate the shortage of flour and I think Seino was responsible for this. In August 1942 we were required to accumulate a stock of 100 bags of flour by 1 December. This showed very clearly that stocks in the Colony were running low, and we made many experiments using flour, atta, boiled rice and ground rice in varying proportions to try to get a product which would resemble bread and which would keep reasonably well. We did get more flour on 9 August 1943 quite unexpectedly and on 3 February 1944 we ate our last baking of bread in which a proportion of flour was used until 1945. When I refer here or in the food tables to bread as an article of food, the ingredients and the product Page 188 is not present, actual text is continuing from 187 to 195, 196 Page 195 Page 196 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 224 DONALD C. BOWIE Air alerts were frequent and raids were common, though no attacks were directed near to us. During alerts we brought our patients down from the upper two floors and the arrangement worked well enough though I was always a little fearful of our excitable guards urging haste to our patients whose gait and balance were disturbed by disease. Blackouts occurred regularly and added greatly to the difficulties of our night duty staff. I used to lie in bed on many nights when the hospital was blacked out but not alerted and listen to the big American planes flying over Hong Kong, probably from airfields in China on bombing raids on Japanese held territories. Emergency checks on our numbers continued to be held at night time about once a month in addition to the regular morning and evening checks. The night checks got us up from bed for up to an hour. In May we could still use our portable X-ray machines but this was of little value because we had no films. About the same time mosquitoes were a pest and we had a number of cases of fever among staff and patients. During 1943 I find recurring references in my diary to shortages of fuel and we had parties out regularly on the hillside behind the hospital felling trees. The cooks had an unenviable task trying to make fires with green wood. Food supplies, too, came at intervals which were not regular, and in June for example the rice intakes were so irregular that we had to juggle a good deal with issues. Stocks of sugar both from the Red Cross and Japanese sources dwindled also and we had to cut issues in order not to run out of supplies. By September 1943 eggs cost 1.30 yen each and rising costs generally compelled us to re-examine the system of issuing extra food for patients in need. We established that first priority should be given to patients with suppurating wounds or who had pulmonary tuberculosis; next came patients with gross loss of weight; then came those with acute fevers and those who could not eat rice and with these were banded some of the patients with visual defects, the result of deficiency diseases. In July we had to reduce the flour ration to 104 grammes a day, though to offset this the daily rice ration was increased to 384 grammes. We experimented with combinations of atta, boiled rice and ground rice to make something we could call bread and we even produced some small buns using a little flour as well. We made and issued a soup made from fish heads but this was unpalatable to most and when we abandoned the experiment we thereafter issued fish complete with ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 237 days in selected cases but without improving the condition of their patients. In addition to beautifying our cemeteries further by means of tiles removed from walls in the hospital, a wooden Memorial Cross was completed and erected in the front cemetery to those of 27 Company R.A.M.C. who had been killed. The names of the men had been skilfully carved by a patient, Private Medhurst. The ideas for beautifying the cemeteries and for the memorial cross as well as for many of the improvements made in the hospital came from many sources and I was able to give all encouragement to men with ideas and to provide materials when available. The year 1944 was a bad one for the supply of our Japanese rations and fuel. In February we had our last baking of bread using flour, and by that time the flour was very stale and weevily. In compensation the ration of rice allowed by the Japanese was raised from 384 grammes first to 570 grammes and later to 600 grammes daily. We were never able to issue rice on these scales because of the short weight sacks to which I have referred before. A typical disappointment came in March when the ration was cut back to 480 grammes, the cut being made retrospective to 1 March. March also brought news through Watanabe who told me that Red Cross bulk supplies would be delivered twice a month and I prepared lists of items we considered desirable, again keeping my suggestions within the bounds of what I guessed to be practicable in Hong Kong. Saito told me on 8 March that supplies I had asked for on 29 February after one of his searches could not be provided. This was an advance for me because so often in the past I never heard what the decision was on any request. In our first receipt of Red Cross supplies in March we received cod liver oil which I allocated to the medical officers for use as they judged proper. We had also received some shark liver oil from visitors and I used this by adding it to any stews we had in proportion of 5 minims for each person in the hospital. At this time we began to issue to all in hospital soy bean powder as such, instead of making what turned out to be rather repulsive milk from it. We continued to make soy milk for certain patients on the assumption that it might be more readily absorbed. Our meals were often late, mainly because of difficulty of getting good fires in the kitchen. Deliveries of rations were often irregular and we were generally uneasy about the system. Our guards seemed to share this anxiety. The quality of rations ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 242 DONALD C. BOWIE this feeling, but I still was troubled by a nagging fear of the dangers that closer American pressure and a final assault could bring for all prisoners in Japanese hands. In 1945 the order to move to Kowloon was given to me by Saito on 6 March and the move itself took place on 23 March. The place first named as our destination was the Heep Yunn School and I learned of the change only on arrival in Kowloon. Until we moved we continued to be short of ration wood, though we used a great deal of wood from floors in vacated buildings in the hospital with which to start our fires and often to maintain them. Early in January vegetable rations were short and many meals consisted of boiled rice only. On 26 January Seino began to store peanut oil in our boiler house, to protect it he said from incendiary bullets. We received 280 sacks of rice from a city godown followed in another day or two by another 60 sacks. Some of these sacks were taken into our store and some to the Japanese quarters, 200 were stacked in our casualty department for re-export. Altogether our men handled 400 sacks each weighing a nominal 100 kilos or about 40 tons over a few hours. They richly earned the small extra issue I arranged for them. Our men also had to carry 600 sacks of charcoal up the very steep steps to the old barrack room where it was stored, the doors being then locked. None of this charcoal was ever issued to us. It was about now that I was allowed for the first time to take on our books a nominal 100 kilos sack at 96 kilos and this was lucky, for we were already issuing less than the authorised Japanese rice ration in order to avoid running out of our short-weight stocks. In fact over a recent period we had actually received 370 kilos of rice less than the weight we had to take on our books. When I told Seino about this he asked me not to lower our rice issues below our entitlement, and asked also that we should make up one sack a month. This advice was, I believe well intentioned but was much less realistic than I expected from Seino. Arising out of our talk on shortages one day Kochi, an interpreter, said that the Japanese had been very busy during December. That was certainly true for the Americans were making much progress in their invasion of the Philippines. In January 1945 the system by which an amount of money was deducted by the Japanese from officers' monthly pay as savings was abandoned and so a lieutenant colonel, for example, got 160 yen in his pocket instead of 130. In the same month Seino gave me six dozen 11×14 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 243 Red Cross X-ray films but by then we had no developer. We were very glad to receive from the Japanese some bars of coarse washing soap which we badly needed. We were also given 200 envelopes of tooth powder, some material for sewing and for boot repairs and some drugs including T.A.B. for inoculations. In January 1945 we had to render yet another list of patients suffering from serious visual defects, arranged by nationalities, and this list recorded a total of 65. No mail had come in for some time but some did arrive on 18 and 19 January, my latest letter from home being dated August 1944. Christmas and New Year messages were delivered to us from Red Cross Societies in many of the allied countries. The month however was dominated by American air attacks on Hong Kong. By 8 January we had had 17 air alerts without a raid and on 15 January we had a two-hour raid. On 16 January occurred the most spectacular and effective of all our raids. It began about 8 a.m., went on till noon, was resumed during the afternoon and continued until dark. The all-clear was sounded at 9:30 p.m. During raids, all movement in the hospital was prohibited but we had to go out of doors to reach our kitchen and as the morning went on, I went out myself, as of course there was no interpreter about and by signs got the agreement of the guard to draw breakfast, which we eventually got about 11 a.m. It was 2 p.m. before we got dinner and not till after 6 o'clock was it possible to draw tea. All bearers of food had to hasten to get under cover with the greatest possible despatch. In the hospital, Japanese standing orders were to keep all shutters closed during raids or run the risk of being shot at. My little bunk in a converted lavatory overlooked the harbour and it was not difficult to open a shutter far enough to get glimpses of what was going on. Three large Japanese cargo ships were anchored in the harbour and the American air attack was pressed by dive-bombing through very heavy fire in the most courageous fashion. At times the whole atmosphere seemed full of the sound of sustained gunfire and bomb explosions and the amount of ammunition used in the defence must have made a serious inroad on Japanese stocks. I did not see any aircraft brought down though there must have been casualties, but at the end of the day three cargo ships were badly listing and clearly unseaworthy for a long time to come. Fires were left burning in oil storage tanks on Stonecutters Island and elsewhere, and this day was to us a most impressive... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 251 1056 packets of cigarettes costing 1.50 yen each and we sold them at a 10 sen profit on each packet. This allowed six packets per head for 176 patients and staff and all were taken up. We lost a clock from the kitchen on 19 May and concluded that trading was still going on. On 22 May we admitted an acutely ill officer from Sham Shui Po and on 24 May a Canadian soldier died and was buried at once. At this time we were very short of both Japanese and Red Cross food stores and though the compradore came on 26 May and took money he was not allowed to bring goods to us or to the other camps. On 28 May the Japanese warrant officer in charge of rations gave Mr. Campbell a new scale to be effective from 1 June. Staff and Employed Patients and Non-employed Rice G.510 + 30 32 + 32 Meat G.660 = + 60 Vegetable 540 = + 140 360 = + 70 Salt 10 = 8 No change ** + 3 Sugar 10 5 Tea 8 2 1 Nil = + 3 Oil 3 3 9 9 31 I Curry 20 + 20 15 +15 Beans Nil Nil 60 - 31 I imagine that these figures were target or even show figures for the Japanese, for the issues we could afford to make were always lower in practice. On 29 May I was passing the R.E. shop with Saito when he went in and Q.M.S. Tyas told him how badly we needed diesel oil and cement. I remarked that I was being pressed every day for these stores, to which Saito very fairly responded that I was troubling him every day too on the same subject. We were very short of cooking oil and I reported that our present stock allowed only 0.85 litre for the whole hospital daily. Saito also promised to look into the supply of beans which I told him had vanished from our rations. I pressed him about canteen goods and said we were exceedingly short of salt, and of wood for fuel and that we fed our cooking fires only on wood which we had stripped from buildings in Bowen Road. The same day Saito produced the old undertaking not to escape which all the staff and patients had signed in Bowen Road on 26 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 320 NOTES AND QUERIES Foo Akow. In 1877 some of the premises were listed by streets; viz Main Street with forty houses and shops, Back Street with twenty small family residences, the Praya with five substantial buildings recently built, and six wooden houses near the Dock. In 1880 the use of the premises are again given, though not all premises used for business purposes may be so recorded. The following summary, however, gives some indication of the business development of the settlement. There were seven chandlers, two eating houses, three barbers, and one each of druggist, rice shop, fruit dealer, and painter. By this date there were four more buildings on the Praya, and a fairly new group of houses opposite the entrance to the Dock premises. It might also be of interest to list the buildings contained within the Dock company's compound: the West Dock, ‘sheer legs', caisson, timber sheds on stone pillars and tiled offices, boiler maker's engine shop, moulder's shop and smith, the East Dock, pumping house, coal sheds, work shop, dwelling house, mat sheds, saw mill, boat building sheds, a new house with stores and new shops. The business of the village in 1884 consisted of thirteen grocers, three eating houses, six barbers, two opium shops, two druggists, and on the beach to the west of the village four boat-building establishments. In addition there were single individuals listed as carpenter, fishmonger, shoe dealer, fruiterer, vegetable seller, and painter. This is probably not an exhaustive list of business and trades carried on, but it gives a fair picture of the local tradesmen at that time. This year 1884 was a turning point in the physical development of the village, for in December of that year two fires within five days destroyed the major part of the settlement. The first fire broke out in a mat shed on December 11, and twenty-two timber houses with tile roofs for the temporary occupation of workers at the dock were consumed, whilst some dozen other buildings were pulled down to stop the progress of the fire. The newspaper notice (Daily Press, Dec. 12, 1884) remarks that "the loss of property sustained was not very great, but a number of pigs were burned to death." The more serious fire was on December 16th, "among the matsheds and shanties of a swarm of squatters who have settled down there.” The sight of the flames leaping into the sky seen from the Hong Kong side caused “a decidedly uncomfortable time to some of the shareholders of the Dock Company by the doubt as to whether the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 210 MAURICE FREEDMAN of a pauper, an idiot, or a rogue, so that they could not be relied upon to be elders in the final sense; effective and reliable community leaders. In fact, the affairs of the clan and its segments were not left in the hands of men selected solely for their genealogical status. Clan and segment elites developed which were composed of men whose riches, connexions in the world outside, and individual qualities endowed them with the qualifications to be leaders. Politically, and in some contexts ritually, they displaced genealogical elders whose only claim to status was their seniority. In some clans, of course, the effective leaders were also gentry. 33. In the course of British rule gentry-elders have disappeared, or virtually so. Elders as routine points of contact between state and people have been converted from despised underlings to political persons of high status (the present-day Village Representatives) Elders as genealogical superiors have faded further into the background as clan organisation in general and the segmentary system in particular have waned in importance. They are still to be seen, especially on the occasions of ancestor worship, but they appear to have even less influence than their predecessors had two generations ago. But elders as effective leaders of their clans and villages are still very much to the fore. The idiom in which they express themselves may have changed in the course of sixty years, but these men continue to be definable in terms of their wealth, their contacts with the outside world, and their personal qualities. 34. The question is mooted in the New Territories today whether it is the Village Representatives or the elders who have the greater influence. If 'elders' means what I have put into the fourth group then the question is of course largely meaningless because the Village Representative is the same kind of person as an elder. Naturally, the Village Representatives as a collection differ very much from one another: they are thrown up by differently structured village communities, so that, for example, the Village Representative of a rich community which has for long produced educated men will not resemble very closely his counterpart from a village both poor and largely illiterate. But each Village Representative is likely to be drawn from a group of men in his community who share many characteristics. In many cases, the Village Representative is a kind of primus inter pares, working with his equals to produce what, if the language be not too inappropriate, is a local power elite. Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 16 LEIGH WRIGHT porcelain cup full, the size of an egg, of a distilled liquor made from rice. We ate also rice and sweetmeats, using spoons of gold shaped like our own. In the place where we passed the two nights, there were always burning two torches of white wax, placed on tall chandeliers of silver, and two oil lamps of four wicks each, while two men watched to look after them. Next morning we came on the same elephants to the sea-side, where, forthwith, there were ready for us two praus, in which we were re-conducted to the ships. The city is entirely built in the salt water, the king's house and those of some chieftains excepted. It contains 25,000 fires or families. The houses are all of wood, and stand on strong piles to keep them high from the ground. When the flood tides make, the women, in boats go through the city selling necessaries. In front of the king's palace there is a rampart constructed of large bricks, with barbacans in the manner of a fortress, on which are mounted fifty-six brass, and six iron cannon. During the two days we passed in the city many of them were discharged. That king is a Moro and his name Raja Siripada. He was forty years old and corpulent. No one serves him except women who are the daughters of chiefs. He never goes outside of his palace, unless when he goes hunting, and no one is allowed to talk with him except through the speaking-tube. He has scribes, called Xiricoles who wrote down his deeds on very thin tree bark. Thus Pigafetta's description of Brunei. II The nature of the traditional kingdom in the Malay world differs markedly from the western conception of state. In very general terms it consisted of a ruler and his followers whose kampong or court was at a relatively strategic location such as on a narrow strait, (e.g. Malacca), at the mouth of a large river, or at the confluence of two streams where his forces could collect tolls on water traffic and his city could act as a trading center or entrepot. From his court the sultan's power radiated outward along the coasts, up rivers and along waterways as far as both his revenue collectors could operate, and his ecclesiastical title as sultan was respected. His kingdom or “empire” had no bounds as such. He "owned" ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 160 NOTES AND QUERIES brown and, apart from being somewhat darker at the surface, there is no sign of layers. Vegetation: The kind of vegetation on different parts of Tai Mo Shan depends on a variety of factors: altitude, soil conditions, exposure, and frequency of fires. Furthermore, trees have been planted on a considerable scale upon the upper slopes by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department; the main species are Acacia confusa (native), Pinus elliottii (from Caribbean region) and Tristania conferta (related to Eucalyptus sp., from Australia). Briefly, in sheltered sites where the soil is reasonably deep, with adequate moisture, but which have not experienced a fire for, say, twenty years a natural woodland will probably be present. Elsewhere, either grassland or scrubland will exist. Even where fires occur every few years, belts of natural woodland may survive beside water-courses—a situation that is analogous to the "gallery forest" of East Africa. Definitions of the kinds of vegetation have been compiled by the Hong Kong Government (1968), and the possible inter-relationship of the vegetation types have been discussed by Thrower (1975). The Route in Outline: 1. Route Twisk to Tai Mo Shan Road a) The starting point was in Tsuen Wan, which is situated at approximately sea level and has a rainfall of about 200 cm. b) Beyond the outskirts of Tsuen Wan, note: — beside road on left-hand side is a border of Casuarina equisetifolia trees, which have some resemblance to pine trees; they are widely planted in Hong Kong and the western Pacific. — on right-hand side are constructed terraces with cultivation (including bananas), and burial urns, kam taap (金塔). c) As the 'bus climbs higher, note the hillside directly ahead: the plantation of Tristania conferta has been badly burnt. Many more examples of serious fires will be seen. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 161 d) Just beyond the concrete ford on the right-hand side, note the profile of the krasnozem. e) Beyond the Gun Club, note the picnic places set out by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department on both sides of the road. 2. Stop A—car park at road junction (altitude ca 480 m.) The countryside around the car park is essentially a grassland—probably maintained by repeated fires—which is now being changed in various ways, e.g. (i) pine trees (Pinus massoniana, a native species) have been planted extensively, and the process of succession is taking place beneath them. (ii) the adjacent hillside has been planted with Acacia confusa, also native. (iii) the grassland is being invaded by shrubs, as a stage of natural succession to scrubland. At Stop A, note the following: a) Between car park and road, there is a large grave. One may surmise that before the car park was made, the fung shui (feng shui) of this site was probably better than it is now. b) To the west, below the car park, there is a large patch of even-aged Pinus massoniana. The broad-leafed shrubs beneath the pines are mainly Eurya japonica; this species is typical of scrubland in Hong Kong, and here is flourishing beneath the canopy of the pines. c) Beside the car park are scrubland species such as Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, Rubus reflexus (cf “blackberry”) and Eurya as well as the fern Dicranopteris linearis; there is also some "European bracken" (Pteridium aquilinum). Although the vegetation is moving toward scrubland, the insects are probably mainly grassland forms. d) The number of insects to be seen is highly dependent on the weather conditions. Many flying insects (butterflies etc.) are temperature-dependent and fly only when the temperature is above a certain minimum value. In grassland, as in other vegetation, the distribution and species of animals will depend on the availability of food. One may distinguish three arbitrary groups—plant eaters, eaters of debris, and predatory animals. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA 77 Our findings lend support to my earlier suggestions as to the nature of the Qingming festival and its place in the annual calendar. What is new is a vague hunch that the yin and yang aspects of the ancestors, manifest in graves and tablets, are less clearcut categories than we have hitherto assumed. I even suggested as a guideline for future research that the bones needed the animation of the ancestral force associated with the tablets to be productive. What remains puzzling is the distribution of ritual events in time. It is as if there was a 'vocabulary' of complex signs which conveyed some sort of basic messages; but there is no clear fixed order between the ceremonies. In our survey of the Dongting area we have found that, for instance, grave worship was part of the New Year celebrations, Earth God Day, Qingming, and occurred further in the sixth, eighth, and tenth lunar months. In the Chinese 'standard' calendar as we know it from late imperial times, Qingming is the grave day—although, in some parts of the country, Chongyang forms a counterpart. Unless we satisfy ourselves with a reference to the ever-present diversity of local custom, we should attempt at explaining the distribution of ritual events within the annual cycle. The oldest record of customs from the Dongting area I know of is the Jingchu shuishi ji, compiled in the Liang dynasty of the early 6th century. It is a calendar which describes the annual festivals and in which is added a philosophical commentary to explain the popular customs in terms of celestial phenomena, and so on. This work gives us a picture of the ritual year which may serve as a baseline for an understanding of historical processes affecting the system. It is possible, of course, that there was just as much variation in the Liang dynasty; still, the source may be useful in forming a hypothesis about the calendar system. If we look at spring in the seasonal records of Jingchu, we may say that this season is ritually introduced on the Spring Equinox when sowing was started. On that day people did not burn grass. The avoidance of fire marks that the day was under special yin influences. On the Earth God Day there were offerings of meat and wine. People moved out to huts among the trees'. Meat was offered also to the shen spirits of the deceased. Then comes Cold Food when it was forbidden to make fires for three days — again a marker of a yin dominated period. The source mentions ritual cock fighting and swinging. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 59 Father Szeliga, who was untied, handed it around and we all took a sip of the precious liquid, but the half-full canteen did not go far among thirty-four parched throats. Later on, a second canteen was handed in, and we had another swallow. We continued to ask and make signs for food, and at length, at four-thirty in the afternoon, we heard a commotion outside. Our door opened a little wider, and a few Japanese soldiers, one apparently a petty officer, brought in and distributed to each a small package of army hardtack and a can of evaporated milk undoubtedly from our own store. We found some sort of implement to open the cans, and we had our first meal of hardtack and milk. Not knowing what the future had in store, we drank only half the milk and kept the remainder for the morrow, just in case! An attempt to explain to the officer who came with the food that two of our men had dysentery met with no response. Then we pointed to our bound hands and asked to see a higher-ranking officer. To this, he replied that tonight we would be taken to the headquarters of the gendarmes, and hope sprung up anew in our breasts. However, as the night came on, no officer appeared, and we sought our bed on the floor as on the preceding night, but with a little less inconvenience, as during the day we had managed to clean up a little more of the debris, or at least to push it aside and thus made a little more sleeping space. During the course of the day, a few Japanese soldiers came along and peeked in through the crack in our door, and one of them threw in a couple of pieces of dirt or stones. As we lay down to sleep that night, we noticed shadows playing on our wall, and looking out surreptitiously, we saw that the Japanese had kindled some fires nearby, the flames of which partially illuminated our quarters. A second look confirmed our suspicion - they were cremating the bodies of the dead. A little later on, we thought we heard English voices outside, but could not distinguish them clearly. The next morning, we found that some captured British soldiers had been billeted in one of the rooms on the ground floor of the house to which our garage was attached, but not being allowed outside, we, of course, could have no conversation with them. Dawn of the twenty-seventh came, and we had breakfast in bed! Sitting or standing in our crowded quarters, we finished the few ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 142 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS whatever food for the Club which could not be bought in the market. Father Meyer in October notes that the money exchange rate for the U.S. dollar was HK$7.50, although the official rate given by the banks was only HK$4.00. He opined that this difference came about because the U.S. dollar had become a sort of "super currency" for South China because the Chinese considered it much safer than their own. During the "post occupation" days when everyone in Hong Kong was trying to put the pieces together again, the U.S. Navy was a great help to Father Meyer, particularly Father Hargreaves who often stayed at the Maryknoll House in Stanley. Father Don Hessler, who had volunteered to remain in the Internment Camp with Father Meyer in order to care for the people not repatriated on the Gripsholm, was recalled to the U.S. after Father Tennien's arrival in Hong Kong to take over the Stanley House. Father Don had organized a school for the children of Stanley Village, and continued to work for the warders and prisoners in the jail. He and the Carmelite Sisters also took care of the Japanese internees who had been transferred to the barracks on the tip of the Stanley peninsula. They found 12-15 Catholics among them. General Festing, who was in charge of the Japanese internees, was a Catholic and very helpful to the Sisters and to Father Hessler. There were some 8,000 Japanese internees and Father Meyer had been toying with the idea of asking Maryknoll to send Japanese-speaking Maryknollers to take care of them. He himself would have done this but his time was completely taken up with the organization of the Catholic Club in town, and organizing Catholic Action Groups. The Club opened on October 19—Armistice Day. It served 1,722 meals that day. Catholics made up 20 per cent of those who patronized the Club in order to eat something other than barracks' and ships' rations. Father Tennien arrived to take over Stanley on November 26th. His first report on the House was: "Not bad considering most of the homes and institutions in Hong Kong, although the flooring had been pulled up. Open fires for cooking in the rooms had blackened all the walls but did not damage them." He held off on major repairs due to the almost impossibility of getting materials, and the inflated cost of labor at the moment. Government was selling ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 4 NOTES AND QUERIES Work of the Association in its early years 217 Soon after the port of Hong Kong was opened [again] in the last year of the reign of Hsien Feng in the Ch'ing dynasty (1860-61), there used to be a Nam Pak Hong Street (later renamed Bonham Strand West). At this favourable location our predecessors set up firms dealing in native products from south and north China. The following firms were among those then established one after another: the Kwong Mau Tai Hong and the Woo Kee Hong of Mr. Chiu Yue-tin, a celebrity of Kwangtung origin, the Hau Fung Hong of Mr. Lo Chor-san, the Hop Hing Hong of Mr. Lau Lo-tak, the Siu Fung Hong of Messrs. Fung Ping-shan and Kwong Tsz-ming, the Kwan Mau Hong (in Wing Lok Street West) of Mr. Li Sau-hin, the Wah On Hong of Mr. Chan Yue-fan, the Yue Wo Loong of Mr. Chan Sik-nin, the Yuen Fat Hong of Messrs. Ko Mun-wah and Chan Chun-chuen, celebrities of Chiu Chau origin, the Yuen Sing Fat Hong, the Kam Yue Fung Hong and the Kam Sing Lee Hong of Mr. Choi Si-kit, the Yue Tak Sing Hong and the Kwong Tak Fat Hong of Mr. Chan Tin-san, the Kin Tye Lung of Messrs. Chan Wun-wing and Chan Tsz-tan, the Ng Yuen Hing Hong of Mr. Ng Lei-hing, a celebrity of Fukien origin, the Chui Tak Loong Hong of Messrs. Wu Ting-sam and Wong Ting-ming, the Hau Tak Hong of Mr. Kwok Yim-sing and his brother(s), the Yi Tai Hong and the Lee Yuen Cheung Hong of a business group of Shantung origin. With the exception of Messrs. Chan Yue-fan, Chan Sik-nin and Kwok Yin-sing, all the aforesaid gentlemen have now deceased. In 1868, with the concerted initiative and efforts of the said Messrs. Chiu Yue-tin, Chan Chun-chuen, Fung Ping-shan, Choi Kit-si, Chan Tin-sau and Wu Ting-sam, the Nam Pak Hong Association was founded in Bonham Strand West near its junctions with Wing Lok Street and Queen's Road. Then the objectives of the Association were to promote members' welfare and market prosperity, to assist the police in the maintenance of law and order in the neighbourhood and to formulate plans for the prevention of fires and alleviation of disasters. On the first floor of the Association building was the office, where regulations and business rules of the Association were decided, Directors and Managers of the Association mutually elected, and monthly meetings held. For the first term, the Chairman of the Board of Directors was Mr. Chiu Yue-tin and the Manager was Mr. Lau Lo-tak. The latter mana- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SILK & SILVER: MACAU, MANILA TRADE 67 affairs clandestinely. This greatly encouraged them to develop autonomous merchant communities with what amounted to extra-territorial rights. The most important of these Chinese merchant communities at the end of the 15th century was in Malacca. Ships went to and from Malacca as far as India and China, trading in a wide variety of Indian and Chinese goods which were exchanged for the products of the Indonesian islands. Malacca, the "city made for merchandise", was essentially an entrepôt the very existence of which depended upon its carrying trade. It had an excellent and easily defensible harbour, protected on either side by the narrow straits between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula and strategically placed, as Pires put it, at the end of one monsoon and the beginning of others. When Afonso de Albuquerque captured Goa in 1510 he was quick to see that Malacca's unrivalled position as an emporium and as a centre for the dissemination of Islam in South East Asia made it essential that he gain control of it also. He could thus fulfil Portuguese obligations to the Holy See and acquire a base for their commercial activities in the archipelago, in particular the carrying trade in spices and other precious goods from Indonesia to Goa and Lisbon in which the Portuguese sought to gain a share, if not a monopoly. At the other end of the maritime area with which we are here concerned was another important trading centre. This was the Ryukyu Islands. The inhabitants of these islands, known to the Europeans as Lequeos or Loochoos, were actively engaged in the carrying trade between the northern and southern parts of the area from the 13th to the mid 16th century. The islanders carried to the south Chinese porcelain, silks and other textiles, metal goods and drugs, Japanese weapons and armour, lacquer and gold, all of which they exchanged for spices, aromatic woods, dyewoods and exotic beasts and birds from the Indonesian archipelago — goods that they could sell in China for several hundred times the buying price.2 Technically this trade with China remained an imperial monopoly and was carried out under the pretence of tribute. As Ming seapower dwindled and piracy in the China Seas accordingly grew, and as the Portuguese extended their trading activities in the years following their conquest of Malacca in 1511 into the Indonesian archipelago and beyond to the spice islands, to Timor and the Solor Islands, to Makassar and eventually to Macau—so the Ryukyu trade became increasingly circumscribed until it was con- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SILK & SILVER: MACAU, MANILA TRADE 69 the imprisonment of Tomé Pires, whom they had sent as ambassador to the Emperor, and to the closure of Canton until 1530 to all foreign commerce. Henceforth the Portuguese had to trade clandestinely around the Bay of Amoy and at Ningpo in Fukien in the various goods, notably pepper and sandalwood, for which no amount of imperial prohibitions could lessen the demand in China. The commercial losses suffered by the Chinese as a result of their isolationism and the prohibition of their own navigation were gains for the Portuguese. As the American scholar George D. Winius has aptly put it, "in the Atlantic the Portuguese were explorers; in the Indian Ocean they were conquerors and in the Far East they were businessmen". Before long their trading activities in the China Sea had developed sufficiently to make inadequate the temporary shacks and tents in which they stored and displayed their wares in such places as Shang-ch'uan (Portuguese Sanchao or São João, where St. Francis Xavier died of fever in 1552), and they began to press the Chinese authorities for a trading centre of their own. In 1555 the Jesuit Father Belchior Nunes Barreto described Shang-ch'uan as a centre for trade with the Chinese where "silk, porcelain, camphor, copper, alum and China-wood are bartered for many kinds of merchandise from this land" (i.e. Japan).7 In the previous year Leonel de Sousa had secured permission for regular trade with China on payment of customs dues and in 1557 the Portuguese were allowed to establish themselves at Ao-men (Gate of the Bay), otherwise known as Amacon, Macau or the City of the Name of God in China.8 There was no written agreement with the Chinese for the establishment of Macau as a Portuguese enclave in China and, though the Portuguese continued to pay rent to the Chinese government till 1849, their sovereign rights in Macau were not fully conceded till 1887. But from the outset, Macau's extra-territoriality was admitted in practice because it suited both parties to the agreement - the Portuguese because it gave them a secure place in a highly profitable commercial network and the Chinese because, as later with Hong Kong, they could now enjoy most of the benefit of foreign trade without having to abandon their restrictions on foreigners entering or Chinese leaving China. A gate was erected across the isthmus joining Macau with the mainland - the Porta do Cêrco - upon which the Portuguese placed a grandiloquent inscription: "Dread our greatness and respect..." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 78 JOHN VILLIERS commercial acumen, of piety and profit. It demonstrates how in Macau as elsewhere in their far-flung empire, the Portuguese desire to win both converts to Christianity and fortunes by trade went hand in hand. The Macaonese received the news with "tears of joy in their eyes, congratulating each other on such a piece of good fortune, especially the families and relatives of the martyrs, all of whom dressed not in mourning but in gala clothes. They did not shut the windows of their houses from grief, but opened them wide, placing many lights in them, and sounding shawms and other musical instruments for many days, singing many tuneful songs as a sign of their joy. It is a most noteworthy thing that, as the welfare, maintenance, and almost the very existence of this city depends chiefly on the Japan trade, if the news that the embassy had failed in its purpose had come without that of this glorious triumph, the citizens of Macau would have been aghast and their spirit would have sunk to their shoes. With this glorious news, however, everyone rejoiced exceedingly, and nobody spoke sadly or showed any sorrow because the trade was not reopened. On the contrary, they all rejoiced in the comforting thought that they had their ambassadors in Heaven, hoping with good reason that through their intercession, God would cast his eyes on that commonweal to save and sustain it, either by restoring the Japan trade or by opening some other way for its preservation".34 FOOTNOTES 1 Tomé Pires Suma Oriental. Trans. and ed. Armando Cortesão. 2 vols. Hakluyt Society 2nd series. LXXXIX, 1944. 1. p. 286. 2 Pires, op cit. 1 pp. 128-134. João de Barros. Da Asia, dos feitos que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento das terras e mares do Oriente. Ed. N. Pagliarini 3 vols. Lisbon, 1777-1778. III. 2. ch. 8. 3 O. H. K. Spate. The Spanish Lake. London, 1979, pp. 147-148. 4 On Sino-Japanese relations and European dealings with the Japanese in the 16th century see C. R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan. University of California Press and Cambridge University Press, 1951, G. Sansom, The Western World and Japan, London 1950, Idem, A History of Japan 1334-1615, London, 1961, J. Murdoch, A History of Japan II. 1542-1651, London 1949, M. Cooper S.J. (ed.), The Southern Barbarians. Tokyo, 1971, especially D. Pacheco SJ. The Europeans in Japan, 1543-1640, Knauth, Confrontación Transpacifica, el Japon y el Nuevo Mundo Hispánico. Mexico, 1972, and Kuichi Matsuda, The relations between Portugal and Japan. Lisbon, 1965. 73 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT 97 the darkness of the world of Yin, making the night seem as day, and lighting the temple votive lamps with a new, life-bringing fire, Saso's interpretation clarifies several important aspects of the ritual but is also confusing in some instances. The ritual chanting of the forty-second chapter of the Tao-Te ching appears to be an adaptation that does not truly illustrate the nature of the ritual: it does not merely allude to the "protogenesis of the myriad creatures" but is here interpreted as and applied to the proceeding of the original Triad of Taoism: three lamps are lit to symbolize and to honor the successive forthcomings of the Three Primordial Worthies: they are the projections of the creative powers of the universe. The emphasis is not on the creation process but on the origin of the creators. The new light, lit from one flame but used to light three candles in succession, vividly symbolizes the successive births of the three primordial "breaths". Therefore, from a phenomenological viewpoint, there is a kind of discrepancy between the text of the ritual (expressing the forthcoming of the Three Primordial Worthies) and the ritual action itself, which points to the creation of light. This may be an indication of a non-Taoist origin of the ritual act itself. The possibility of a non-Taoist but Chinese origin of the fen-teng is suggested by J. J. M. de Groot in his Fêtes Annuellement Célébrées,12 He refers to a custom widely spread among various sun-worshipping civilizations of extinguishing their 'sacred fires' especially before the spring equinox and of relighting them soon after the equinox: this symbolizes the sun's victory over darkness. Examples are given from ancient Rome, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The custom also existed in ancient China, at least in the North. The original custom in China was to renew the fire in all the four seasons, but since the Han times, it was done only once a year in spring. De Groot refers to a text in the Chou Li ♬ which explains this ritual act13: with the help of a mirror, fire is taken directly from the sun to light the sacrificial candles. The date of this spring renewal of fire was the 105th day after the winter solstice: this would correspond with the fourth day of the fifth month. On the other hand, the relighting of the fires took place on the third day of 'cold food' called ch'ing-ming in Amoy: that also coincides with the 4th or 5th of the fourth month. In other ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 98 JULIAN F. PAS words. The Ch'ing-ming festival, now usually seen as a festival to commemorate the dead, was in its origin a celebration of spring: all the fires, including the kitchen fires, had to be extinguished in the country; only cold food was used for two or three days. On the third day, new fire was struck, and the spring festival taking place was called “pure” and “bright”: the new fire was pure since taken directly from the source of light, the sun, and bright since it symbolized the growing strength of sunlight that was on the increase after the equinox. This interpretation of the Ch'ing-ming makes better sense than the more usual and popular explanation.14 Although the old name was retained, the meaning of the festival shifted at a later time, probably due to Buddhist influence. De Groot sees this relighting of the fires in ancient China as a parallel with the Easter festival and with similar celebrations taking place in the ancient world, where every year the god's ritual death was followed by his resurrection: All those legends speaking of death and resurrection, all those feasts passing from mourning to the most exuberant joy have all had one only purpose: the symbolical reproduction of the history of the sun's light and of the phases through which it passes on earth. What one worshipped was this sacred fire of Nature, which is the soul, the life of the universe, and which finds itself engaged in an ever recurring struggle against the god of Darkness, of Death, which exerts itself incessantly to obstruct it in its dispensation of benefits to man. The most significant of all the phases in this solar cycle is the one when the sun reaches the spring equinox, celebrates its victory over darkness and the days grow longer than the nights. The whole earth then starts a new life.15 Whereas in many societies the god's death and resurrection was thus ritually enacted, the Chinese example is characterized by a more rationalistic, naturalistic tendency: the object of the cult was not a particular god for whom a new name was created, but was the sun itself, as one of the heavenly bodies without strong supernatural overtones. That this ancient custom might have inspired the Taoist priesthood to introduce it in their own rituals is not unlikely. The relationship between imperial sacrifices, Buddhist rituals, and Taoist practices is not an exception: the eclectic nature of Taoism has ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT 101 Holy Saturday night was taken. In the following century, under St. Leo IV, whose pontificate lasted from 847 to 855, the custom of procuring new fire every day from a flint was extended also to Holy Saturday.2 20 In modern times, this ceremony is no longer performed except once a year on Holy Saturday on the eve of Easter. Although the significance of the ritual has been adapted to the Christian doctrine, it remains clear that the structure of the ritual itself points to a different origin. The event takes place outside the Church proper. All the lamps in the sanctuary have been extinguished and as Abbot Guéranger mentions,21 the faithful had previously put out the fires in their own homes as well; they would relight them on their return from the church service with the new light consecrated at the Easter service. The structure of this blessing of fire closely resembles the parallel tradition observed in ancient China: it is a renewal of fire as a life-giving force and is related to the victory of the sun after the spring equinox. Fire was kept burning in the homes both for cooking and for light-giving at night, but it was believed to grow old and weak, and needed to be renewed occasionally. In China the custom was probably observed during the day-time, since fire was taken from the sun directly; in the Roman and Christian tradition, it was struck from a flint stone in the evening. The Christian liturgy has maintained this tradition but adapted it skilfully to the new faith: whereas the old form remained unchanged, its symbolic meaning was reinterpreted: the new light represents Christ "Light of the World"; the spark of light struck from the flint represents our Lord rising from the rock-hewn sepulchre, through the stone which sealed it".22 In the present-day Roman liturgy, after the new fire has been struck from stone, charcoal is lit from it and this new fire is then blessed by the officiating priest. After the blessing, some of the consecrated coal is put into the thurible and the new fire is censed with it. After the inscription of the large Easter candle has been made by the priest, five grains of incense are inserted in five small openings, symbolizing the five wounds of Jesus inflicted at his crucifixion. Next, one of the assistants lights a small candle from the new fire and with it again lights the Easter candle. The priest consecrates the newly lit candle with this prayer: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT 113 seven days, although the chiao was called wu-ch'ao (or five days). The fen-teng ritual took place in the evening of the 2nd day of the 5-day celebration, or on the 4th day if the two preliminary days are also counted. This distinction is not sufficiently made clear by K. Schipper in his fen-teng discussion, nor by M. Saso in his chiao monograph. 11 Saso, Cosmic Renewal, p. 73. 12 De Groot, Fêtes Annuellement Célébrées, p. 210. 13 Chou Li, Book 37: Officers in charge of keeping the fires; folio 27: "They are in charge of receiving, with the mirror fu-su the bright light from the sun; (and) of receiving with the simple mirror, the bright water from the moon." After E. Biot, Le Tcheou-li ou Rites des Tscheou (Paris, 1851, Taiwan Ch'eng-wen reprint, 1969), vol. 2, p. 381. 14 See W. Eberhard, Chinese Festivals (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, vol. 38). (Taipei: The Orient Cultural Service, 1972), pp. 65-75. 1 De Groot, Fêtes, p. 219 (My trsl.). 18 To cite one example: the Taoist ritual garments, says de Groot (Fêtes, ch. 1, "Messe Taoïque", pp. 61-62) are often embroidered with motifs borrowed from the old imperial sacrificial garments, 17 'Sacramentally' here refers to the sacramental nature of these rituals: A sacramental act is a rite in which both words and deeds not only have a symbolical meaning, but moreover are understood to actually produce the signified effect: here the active pacification-and-expulsion (or control) of the potentially dangerous spirits. 18 The confusion of the various ritual acts of a chiao festival is increased by another rite of great importance in present-day renewal celebrations: the su-ch'i. Here again 'water' and 'fire' are present, but as parts of the total cycle of five agents (active powers). See M. Saso, Cosmic Renewal. pp. 75-77. 10 De Groot, Fêtes, pp. 215-6. 20 Abbot Guéranger, The Liturgical Year. Passiontide and Holy Week. London, 1880 and 1929), pp. 498-499. 21 Ibid., p. 499. 22 Ibid., p. 499. 23 The Easter liturgy has in several instances been changed: the text and rubrics of the modern Roman Missal are different from the old liturgy, used in Abbot Guéranger's text. The present prayer refers in the blessing of the newly lit Easter candle, whereas in Guéranger's text as in the older liturgy it is a prayer to consecrate the incense grains. 24 Ibid., p. 502. The Roman Missal, p. 180. 25 Abbot Guéranger, op. cit., p. 505. 26 Ibid., p. 507. 27 Already J. M. M. de Groot, Fêtes (p. 217), was struck by the similarity of the Taoist and Christian ritual: "It is beyond doubt that the ceremony of extinction and renewal of fire, which is a custom observed at the same time of the year in the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 164 WEI PEH-T'I Governor-General of Yunnan and Kweichow. By this time he was over sixty, a venerated official who had served three reigns. He was an author and scholar of distinction. He had a solid reputation abroad as a pragmatic and honest official. His family was large and despite the loss of a young daughter under tragic circumstances in 1823, by his own assessment he was pleased with his Canton years. The grain storage was full. Fortifications and new examination facilities were constructed. Other public buildings and historical sites were restored, and, of course, the famous Hsueh-hai-t'ang Academy was a reality. The seas were free of foreign war vessels, and at least on the surface, and for the time being, foreign traders and hong merchants were under control. It was not until more than a dozen years later that British commercial interests were able to garner support from their government to challenge the Canton system by force. 1 NOTES J. K. Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast, (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), p. 55. 2 The Chia-ch'ing Emperor's accusations were communicated to Juan Yuan through court letters. See, for instance, Kung-chung-tang – CC 019639 (Palace Memorials, hereafter referred to as KCT). Similar charges were levied against Juan Yuan by the Tao-kuang Emperor in KCT – TK 000013. Both emperors were angry at Juan Yüan because they felt that he was not doing enough to suppress secret society activities in the provinces under his jurisdiction. J. K. Fairbank, op. cit. p. 20; on the other hand, cited Juan Yüan as an example of the "intellectual unpreparedness for Western contact" on the part of Chinese officials of the early nineteenth century. May, 1818. H. B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635–1834, (Taipei reprint edition), III, 316. Select Committee Reports on the East India Company and Trade with China 1821-321, Parliamentary Papers, (Irish University Press edition), 36:540. 5 Chinese Repository, II: 71–72 (June, 1835). 7 Draft Biography, Palace Museum No. 1266(1) Lei-t'ang an-chu ti-tzu chi, 5:106-11 (Chronological account of Juan Yuan's life by his students) hereafter referred as Ti-tzu chi. 8 Hsin-hui hsien-chih (Local gazetteer of Hsin-hui district) 12:16. This is a rather liberal translation. 10 9 Yen-ching shih-chi, (1820) compiled by Juan Yüan, II:7:24-25b. I am grateful to Father Benjamin Videira Pires of Macau, who took me to visit the fort in December 1979, just as the fort was being converted into a tourist hotel. Father Videira is the author of “As Fortalezas de Cidada, em 1741”, in Comunidade, a newspaper published in Macau. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m NOTES AND QUERIES 195 Taoist heaven would be held on the seventh night after the death; but it is probable that these rites were more frequently combined with the rites of funeral night and conducted then. In most areas the most important rituals during the mourning period were the preparation for the return of the spirit of the deceased to visit his family, and, a little after this, the visit of the family to a spirit medium to consult the deceased to check that he was contented and comfortable. On the twenty-first day early in the morning members of the immediately bereaved family would go to the grave, place new offerings there, and pay the family's last respects. (In Sheung Shui this rite was done on the third day after death). The family would then put on full mourning, which would not have been worn since the day of the burial, or the day the seventh day rituals were held. They would attend Taoist rituals in front of the temporary spirit tablet, thereafter take the tablet to a suitable spot, in some cases near a river, where it would be burnt. In some cases this was done within a ritual enclosure purified by the sons of the deceased, together with all the objects used in the various rituals, and with gifts of paper money and objects to the deceased and to other deceased family members. The family would, in many cases, then remove mourning, in some cases at a spot outside the village. The mourning would then be burnt. All mourners would put on new clothes which had been passed through the smoke of the fires. Led by the Taoist priest the family would return to the place where the temporary spirit tablet had been placed, now stripped and swept, and would assist the priest in the placing and worshipping of a new paper tablet to the deceased, after which new lucky papers would be pushed up, the ex-mourners would put on pieces of red tape or cloth to signify their final removal of mourning, and go to welcome their friends and relations in another meal prepared by the elders of the village. This extremely condensed statement represents the basic ritual of a Punti village funeral. In Hakka villages customs differed substantially. Thus, for instance, the burial usually took place in such villages at dawn, and many of the family rituals, such as buying water, were correspondingly brought forward to the previous day, to before the main Taoist celebration. Again, Hakka custom demanded in many areas a daily visit to the grave throughout the mourning period whereas Punti custom demanded only a daily visit to the spirit tablet. In many other places similar divergences are to be noted. This note, therefore, represents only a very bare skeletal framework of rituals common to most Punti villages; it ignores the numerous intricate, but fixed and essential, minor ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 101 The There are two similar settlements nearer the Police Station. boatpeople's huts are designed on the model of a sampan or junk, it would seem. Almost certainly the boatpeople are a sign of a non-Chinese element in the population. Several fires have happened, the last in 1930, since when galvanised iron has become popular as roofing, replacing the older roofing of woven palm leaf matting. Temple funds are often applied to small public works, and in such cases the District Officer gives dollar for dollar from his vote. Works such as repairing tracks, or steps to the water, or paving streets in Tai O often use this source of funding. The District Officer often holds court in the charge room of the Police Station, which is one of the coolest and healthiest in the Territory. A little to the south of Tai O is Yi O (“Second Heaven"), which is a mere village, and a little further south again Tsin Yu Wan ("Arrow Fish Bay") which has a beautiful sandy beach with a temple, but is otherwise deserted. 1.1 0 On the extreme south-west tip of Lantau is Shek Sun (“Stone Bamboo-shoots") on a typical dumb-bell isthmus of sand between two bays. The isthmus connects Lantau proper with the low granite hills forming Fan Lau point which is the end of British territory in this direction. On one hill is an ancient fort, thought to be Dutch; if so, it was probably built and occupied at the time of their attack on Macao in 1622. (The failure of this attack led to the Dutch occupying Taiwan in Formosa, thus drawing Chinese settlers there, who expelled them about fifty years later.) The fort may, however, in fact be Chinese. The name of this village probably comes from the way the boulders stick out of the hills above it, like low pillars. There are some fields on the hill above Shek Sun enclosed by dry-stone walls: evidently these were once used for dry crops, but they are now abandoned. They were not pastures: animals are never enclosed when grazing. Turning to the south coast of Lantau, and moving eastwards from Fan Lau Point, you see in succession three valleys each with a group of villages, all of which are purely agricultural and fishing. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 246 plough back as possible. The first rice crop was harvested as close to the soil as possible as the ploughed back straw was of less value; it was the straw of this harvest that was kept as cattle feed and for other similar purposes. Fallowing of fields and crop rotation to permit natural regeneration of fertility was not regularly used, and seems to have been extremely rare in valley padi or even moderately good hillslope padi. Dry ground and poor hillslope padi was, however, fallowed intermittently, but with little regularity or customary detail. The practices noted here represent the major, but by no means the only fertilisers in regular use in New Territories villages before modernisation. Other organic wastes were used as and when opportunity arose. They represent the practice of the New Territories area, but not necessarily that even of other parts of Kwangtung. In Swatow and parts of Waichow, for instance, feces and urine were, it would seem, stored up together and used as liquid fertiliser when they had broken down and matured into a black oily liquid; in these areas ashes are collected separately and form the only dry manure used. J. Dyer Ball, in his article quoted, speaks of slow burning of vegetable wastes in clamp fires under turf to form a charcoal-like rich ash used particularly to prepare seedbeds; this seems to be a practice of the Canton area and would seem to be unknown in the New Territories area. These practices, which alone accounted for the continuing high fertility of rice fields even in the face of relentless year-in-year-out cropping, while unsavoury, are obviously important and warrant further study: this Note aims only at indicating the types of information to be found. NOTES 1 J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1982, (reprint of 5th Edition, 1925, Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai), pages 22-23, "Agriculture", partly quoted from other writers. Villagers from Sha Tin, North Sai Kung, and Sai Kung were questioned, with about 6 villagers assisting. The Note does not attempt to identify particular points with particular contacts: the points made represent the general consensus view. Most points were confirmed by several contacts. 8 Personal observation of the author in 1982. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 269 My notebook says “We had tea at all these villages all locally grown". The list includes Tai Hang Hau, Sheung Sze Wan and Ha Yeung, but I visited others in the group without making special mention of tea. At Ha Yeung I was told that they had 100 trees of what they called shan cha (山茶) (“hill tea”), not wild but planted by themselves. Tai Po Tsai, one of the larger villages of the area, claimed to have 50 trees, but the largest village settlement, Mang Kung Uk, reported "only a few tea bushes not many." However, the little island settlement of Fu Tau Chau in Junk Bay gave me hill tea to drink, from its own trees. Further towards Sai Kung Market, I was given hill tea to drink at Nam Wai, and also at Pak Kong Au, though the village reported "only 8 to 10 trees". East of Sai Kung, people in the hamlet of Shan Liu said that “tea was formerly grown (i.e. cultivated) but only wild bushes are now harvested”. But it was at Nam A, east of Sha Kok Mei, that I learned most. "A really nice, almost English village", I wrote enthusiastically. "We drank hill tea (excellent) from trees planted twenty years ago in the hills behind the village, but not many. It is best brewed in porcelain, they said. Their supply lasts six months in all, but is harvested four times a year - once in the winter months, once at Easter and twice in the summer. The best is the Easter crop.” Nothing was said, or asked, about preparation but each crop was kept in a drawer for two months. My note ends "The cows like to eat it!”. On Lantau, the villagers of Pa Mei, otherwise known as Shan Ha, said they collected hill tea from Tai Tung Shan Keuk (大東山腳), that is the north western slopes of Sunset Peak. On South Lantau the people of the Pui villages also went up to Tai Tung Shan to collect leaves from wild bushes there in the second to fourth moons. Previously there had been many trees, but hill fires had reduced their number. It was used as leung cha (涼茶) for cooling the system. At Tong Fuk my notes state, "they gather tea leaves from bushes on the hill and use it a lot. The tea comes from the Fung Wong Shan peak behind the village, and the leaves used are plucked in the second and third moons.” Rather surprisingly, the villagers of Upper and Lower Keung Shan, though located on the mountain slopes of a sheltered valley with good tree cover, had never cultivated tea bushes, or at least not within living memory. ================================================================================ 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-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 168 38 /hid WEI PEH T'I 39 Rowe letter dated 29 January 1903. 40 Rowe letter dated 17 February 1904. 41 Rowe letter dated 5 January 1905. 42 Rowe letter dated 1 October 1903. 43 Rowe letter dated 5 April 1904. 44 Rowe letter dated 24 August 1905. 45 Ibid. 46 Rowe letter dated 5 January 1905. 47 Rowe letter dated 2 March 1905. 48 Rowe letter dated 5 April 1906. 49 Rowe letter dated 1 October 1903. 50 Rowe letter dated 5 April 1906. 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid. Appendix: Letters from Edith Rowe to Louise Strawbridge (Mrs. George Strawbridge) of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania: (1) Yangchow January 29-03 My dear Louise: It was so kind and thoughtful of you to write to me here and send the book "The First Christmas". Both the letter and book came to me Christmas afternoon, so they had a double appreciation. My hands are so cold today I cannot hold my pen very well. Our house here is very comfortable, but we have no fires except in the sitting room and dining room, so the thermometer ranges from 30 degrees to 40 degrees in my room. I enjoy it for our Chinese clothes are very warm. You would laugh if you could see me, so we did at each other when we first put them on. Would you be interested for me to describe what I have on? We wear foreign underclothes, but try to dress as much like the natives as possible. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 211 was ill-constructed so that it broke up, or caught fire, in mid-air, or if the night was very windy so that the paper dome tore, or the balloon was driven down by a squall, then fires were quite likely. Hill fires, and, worse, crop fires and fires burning houses, cattle sheds and other buildings as a result of hot air balloons are known to villagers in Sha Tin, Sha Tau Kok and Tuen Mun. At present hot air balloons are still made, particularly by villagers in the North District, and the numbers of balloons is still high - the author saw seven in the sky within one hour during the 1986 Mid Autumn Festival and more than ten within one hour during the 1987 Festival. The current generation of village elders, in their late 70s and early 80s, are unanimous that the current balloon construction and flying practices are identical with those they used in their youth (i.e. in the 1920s), and that the elders in their youth said that the practices when they were young (i.e. in the 1870s) were also the same. The elders specifically said that the rim of the balloon was stiffened with thin wire in their youth. The only changes are the switch from hemp cloth rags or kapok to cotton waste, and from peanut oil to diesel. The paper used for the balloon skin has changed a little as the older, coarser paper is not now available, and a shinier paper is now used. The elders all feel the modern paper is better, as the shine allows the paper to "slip through the air easier", but they are dubious about the switch to diesel: while easier to light, it does not give so clear a light, nor does it burn for so long. It would seem likely, however, that at some stage the balloons may well have been smaller, and used green bamboo shavings where the modern balloons use thin wire, but this is only a guess. At all events, the memories of the elders make it clear that balloons of the sort described above have been a widespread tradition in the New Territories for at least the last 100 years. 5 Needham in his Science and Civilization in China refers to setting off hot air balloons as "an ancient sport" and a "pastime", and refers to cases in Fukien, Cambodia, and Yunnan. The Yunnan case is particularly interesting as it refers to activities by a certain minority tribe in Yunnan during the slack period between the planting and weeding of the rice and the harvest. The Mid Autumn Festival also falls in this same slack period, although, in the New Territories double harvest... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 118 1 left by steamer for Canton, the great southern Chinese town, which sprawls along the shore of the Pearl River; and spent a few days on the Shameen mud-bank, just off the city, where the small British and French Concessions are. The Concessions were untouched; but, across the narrow creek that separates them from the shore, the city had suffered heavily from bombing, and from the fires which raged furiously in the congested native districts after each raid. One morning I crossed to the South bank and took the branch line to Samshui on the West river, where I caught the steamer for Wuchow in Kwangsi province. Although owned by a Chinese company, the small river steamer flew the British flag. That was a phenomenon common enough on the inland waters of China. The foreign flag protected the ship from being commandeered by the local war lord. Sometimes for months on end steam traffic, on this water-way or that, would be completely disorganised. The Chinese ships would be impressed to carry the troops of the various armies contending for power. It was only under a foreign flag that they could find the security which would justify their remaining in operation at all. The British government did not welcome this use of the British flag, and introduced regulations to control abuse of the privilege. In order to qualify for British registry a ship must at least carry a British captain and a British chief engineer, and must comply with the Board of Trade regulations in regard to safety measures. But even so, the Chinese owners would make every effort to obtain British registry for their ships, thus in one direction taking advantage of the treaties between Britain and China while, in the other, probably contributing to the Kuo Min Tang party funds, which were used to denounce the iniquities of those very same treaties. In order to comply with the letter of the regulations, the particular ship I now found myself on carried three British officers, whose aggregate age exceeded 200 years. They were, of course, mere figure-heads, the actual work being done by the Chinese officers and crew. These river-boats kept communications open and provided a measure of security for travellers - owing to the presence of British gunboats these small ships moving on inland waters were seldom attacked by bandits which otherwise would have been lacking. ― In Kwangsi the road system had been extended to connect Wuchow with the other large towns of the province and I left by car for Kweilin, the capital. An American aviator, who had been down to Hongkong on a shopping expedition, travelled with me as far as ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 THE OFFERING TO THE WHITE TIGER IN CANTONESE OPERA SAU Y. CHAN* 169 Introduction Symbolically, the White Tiger is a mystic figure in Cantonese folk religion. Though it can also bring merits to people, it is often referred to as a fierce devil. Thus the ritual known as zae bak fu (Offering to the White Tiger) should be held from time to time so that the harm caused by the White Tiger could be minimized. It is performed in a variety of Cantonese folk religious practices and a comparatively more elaborate form of the ritual has been preserved in the tradition of Cantonese opera, where it is also called zuk bak fu (capturing the White Tiger), zae toi (offering to the performing stage), po toi (breaking or initiating the performing stage), da mau (beating the cat) and occasionally as tiu coi sen (dance of the Deity of Fortune) and tiu jyn tan (dance of the Jyn Tan deity). As it has often been criticized as a superstitious act in mainland China, troupes there have, according to some informants, ceased to perform this ritual in recent decades. Nowadays this operatic form of White Tiger ritual is mainly preserved by troupes performing in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. I The Exorcistic Function of the Offering According to interviews with many Cantonese operatic employees, whenever a theatre, whether temporary or permanent, is built on a piece of land that has never been used for such a purpose, the performing stage is called a sen toi (new stage) and the White Tiger ritual has to be performed for the protection of members of the troupe and the community which hires the troupe. It is believed that a tiger turns white when it reaches the age of 500. It would then make use of people's mouths to harm other people. Before the ritual is done, if one calls the name of another person, or simply talks, the words will be made use of by the White Tiger and the one who responds will be harmed. In the past, disasters such as the flooding, collapse and * Music Department, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 171 The Non-Operatic Performance of the Offering The introduction of the present paper has already mentioned that the White Tiger ritual is often undertaken in contexts other than the initiation of a new Cantonese operatic stage. The other forms of the ritual are discussed below. In modern Hong Kong, one of the other rituals that makes use of the White Tiger ritual is known as da siu jen (beating the petty or debased person), which is performed by a male or female religious practitioner for his or her client who suffers misfortune or bad luck. According to Chien Chiao's study, the ritual can be held for “general blessing or exorcising purposes" (Chiao 1986:213) but it is often aimed at a certain spirit or real person who brings bad luck to the practitioner's client. During the ritual, the practitioner pierces or beats with a sword or shoe a small paper figure cut in the shape of a human being, as an act to punish and defeat the petty person's harmful power. The practitioner also puts a piece of pork in the mouth of a stone statue of the White Tiger as a simple form of offering, which is supposed to be a similar exorcistic action to the more elaborate ritual involved in the initiation of an operatic stage. When a temple is newly opened or re-opened after its renovation, its management sometimes hires priests, operatic actors or puppeteers to perform the White Tiger ritual. According to some Taoist priests, for such an occasion, an offering to the White Tiger should better be staged by puppets as the fierce spirits and evil deities surrounding the temple might harm the priests and actors if actual human beings were to perform the ritual. Sometimes the management chooses to hire a Cantonese operatic troupe to stage operas to celebrate the opening and also requires the troupe to hold the White Tiger ritual for the occasion, even though the stage may not be a "new" one. If no operatic troupe is hired, the temple management might hire a group of priests, who are often Cantonese operatic employees, or a group of Cantonese operatic actors and accompanists to stage the offering. Whether performed by puppets, priests or actors, the ritual appears in a form similar to that used for the initiation of a new stage. Some building managements also arrange to have the White Tiger ritual staged either at the time the construction work begins or concludes. Ward has described this form of non-operatic White Tiger ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 10 [bid || 63 &£#* (The He You sheng, "Chen Lan Fu di xue shu ji chi yen yuan" [learning of Chen Lan Fu and its origins], Gu Gong Wen xian 2.4 (Taipei, 1971), 1-19. He's study on Ruan Yuan can also be found in "Ruan Yuan di jing xue ji chi zhi xue fang fa" [Classical scholarship of Ruan Yuan and his education policy], Gu Gong Wen xian 2:1:19-34 (1970). 12 Liang Chi chao, qing dai xue wen gai lun [A discourse on Qing learning], (1921, Taipei Commercial Press reprint, 1975), 22 13 Xiao Yi shan, ging dar tung shi [History of the Qing dynasty], (1935, Taipei Commercial Press reprint, 1976), 11 717. 14 Hu Shi, Dai Dong yuan di zhe xue [The philosophical studies of Dai Zheng], 138. 15 This is the only work of Ruan Yuan's that I have not been able to find. It was never printed because Ruan Yuan was not satisfied with the draft. The manuscript had been kept with Ruan Yuan's papers in his lifetime and subsequently disappeared. There was no indication whether it perished in the fires that destroyed the Ruan residence in Yangzhou in 1843, or that which burned down his studio, Wen xuan lou, in 1935. 16 Ruan Yuan himself, as well as contemporary and modern scholars, complain often of the many errors in this edition. Ruan Yuan gave the excuse of not having had time to proofread the manuscript himself. In fact, he had been receiving admonitions from the Jiaqing Emperor at that time that he was expending too much time and energy on scholarly activities instead of concentrating on the affairs of state. Gungzhong dang (Palace memorials) Jiaqing 017818 (1817/29). 17 This work was not printed during Ruan Yuan's lifetime, but is in Qing shi kao (Draft history of the Qing dynasty). 18 There are a large number of these biographies of individual scholars, not necessarily all Ruan Yuan, scattered throughout rare book collections in various libraries. Copies of the biographies are also among the Guo Shih Guan (Qing Historiography Office) documents in the National Palace Museum (Taipei). 19 For example, the Provincial Gazetteer of Fujian by Chen Shouchi, the Gazetteer of Yicheng by Liu Wenchi, and a new edition of the Gazetteer of the Prefecture of Yangzhou by Jiao Xun. 20 A contemporary print is in the collection of the Harvard-Yenching Library. 21 Struve, 233 22 Ruan Yuan, Ding Xiang ting bi ji [Informal notes from the Ding Xiang studio] 4:1b-2a. 23 [bid. 24 Ruan Heng, Ying zhou pi tan [Notes from Yingzhou] 1.4b; also Ruan Yuan, Yen jing shi ji [Notes written in the Yen jing studio] 11:8:8a. 24 Zhang Jian, et al, Let tang an zhu di zi ji [The life of Ruan Yuan as recorded by his sons and students] 1:19b. 26 The preface was dated 1804, but the work was not printed until later, in 1807 when the manuscript was finally acceptable to Ruan Yuan. 27 Preface of a work entitled Ji Gu Zhai Chong ding yi chi kuan shi, printed in 1853. A copy can be found in the Fu Ssu-nien Library of the Academia Sinica in Taipei. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 146 is made up for the job with any material handy. It may be fired electrically or by a spring designed specially for the purpose. There are three main kinds of spring: the pressure-switch, which goes off if you press on it; for instance, if you walk on it, or a train goes over it: the pull-switch, which is generally attached to a trip wire: and the release-switch, which goes off when you take a weight off it. When you set the trap, a cap is fitted to the switch. The cap fires a length of instantaneous fuse - this is a third kind of fuse - and that sets the charge off. Setting traps and dismantling them is a battle of wits. If you use the same kind of trap too often the enemy will tumble to it and learn how to discover and dismantle it: so you have to keep on ringing the changes. If you start with a simple pressure switch trap under a loose floor board, you can improve on it by putting a release-switch trap under a loose floor board, you can improve on it by putting a release-switch, duly connected up, under the charge itself. Then when the enemy comes along, he spots your trap, carefully eases up the floor board, maybe detaches the pressure-switch from the charge and thinks he is safe; but when he stoops to pick up the charge, the release-switch is set off and the trap explodes. That is a very simple illustration. In the course of several years of warfare the refinements in booby-trapping have been developed to the nth degree. It will be seen that traps can only be used in places which our side is preparing to vacate. They must be carefully tabulated so that they can be located and taken up should our troops return: also, special precautions have to be taken in a district where there are friendly natives, lest they suffer. In many ways the use of booby-trapping can be a two-edged weapon. At the end of November in 1941 I was included amongst several officers detailed to proceed to Chungking. Britain was still neutral in the war between China and Japan, and so we were instructed to wear plain clothes. We set out after lunch one day to motor the hundred miles to Lashio, where we were comfortably accommodated in the American hostel operated by the C.N.A.C. Next day, December 1st, 1941, we boarded the aeroplane and touched down on the island airstrip in the Yangking at dusk. Before leaving Burma I acquired two useful items of equipment, the one a felt hat, of the kind used by Australians and Gurkhas, a comfortable head-piece, which kept the sun out and also a certain amount of rain: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 165 rain had caused a number of minor landslides. At several places large rocks lay across the road, but we were able to move these sufficiently to allow the lorry to pass; then about midday we were told the road further on was entirely blocked by a heavy landslide. At the village nearest to the scene we stopped to collect as many labourers as Michael could get the headman to round up, and then went on to investigate the damage. We found it would be possible in time to clear the road, except for a large rock about the size of a billiard table. We could only blow it up, unfortunately we had not packed our lorry to meet such a contingency and, of course, the primers were stowed under everything else. However, in time the necessary material was collected and a Chinese engineer officer, a casual passenger, and I got down on our stomachs in the mud to scoop out a hole under the rock in which to place the charge. After you place a charge in a hole it is necessary to tamp it well with earth to ensure that the blast does not merely blow back along the hole you have made. Our first attempt was not very successful as the tamping was inadequate and most of the blast came back through the hole and blew the tamping, like a shrapnel fougasse, out over the countryside. For the second shot we used a larger charge and tamped it better, and on returning after the explosion found the rock shattered. Willing hands had soon rolled the pieces over the hillside, and we set to with shovels to clear the rest. It was late afternoon when we reached the Tsien Tang river ferry, to find that a regiment of soldiers had arrived on the opposite bank and had seized all junks and ferry boats for use in crossing. The invaluable Michael went over to see the commanding officer, who readily released one of the ferry boats which was sent over for us. The Japanese were only a few kilometres down river with a large fleet of junks and motor launches, and I was very glad when we had successfully negotiated the crossing. That day, owing to the various delays with which we had met, we were only able to cover about 100 kilometres. We stopped for the night at a village, where we had previously made friends when passing through. All the lights were out, and the village seemed deserted; the military police told us that only that afternoon they had opened fire on some farmers, whom they took to be Japanese plain-clothes men. The fact is that when Chinese troop movements take place the soldiers need coolies to carry for them; they impress these wherever they can find them with the consequence that on the approach of bodies of troops it is usual for the population of a place to lock their houses up and hide in the mountains. The soldiers are naturally annoyed when they arrive in a place to find everyone gone; no one to help them make fires, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 127 Although modern methods have reduced the danger of infections in the field, — plague, meningitis, cholera, typhoid, dysentery and small-pox all yield to inoculations or drugs — that still left typhus and the most dangerous disease to us, the deadly cerebral malaria, which lurked in these border valleys. Apart from the hazard of wounds and accidents, to be left without a doctor in such a situation was not too pleasant. At Tetang we were provided with an escort by the Nth Division, a Central Government Division, and we were instructed to call on one of their battalion headquarters on this side of the border to surrender our pass. Two days later, on arrival at these headquarters, I called on the colonel. I had already learnt that the main Chinese defence line here was well back from the Salween, not in Burma, but on the Chinese side of the boundary. The Japanese had small posts along the Salween, so that in Kokang we should be between the two forces, with only the Salween to separate us from the enemy. I began to take a close interest in the width of the river and the speed of its current. The battalion commander said that he would give us an escort and that the officer in charge of the escort would arrange with the local population for any services we might require in Kokang. One of the chief complaints of our parachute party, when they had been in Kokang in December, was that the escort provided by the Chinese acted to prevent the local inhabitants speaking freely to them; so I now explained to the colonel that in Kokang we would make our own arrangements direct with the natives, but I would, of course, keep him informed of all our movements. In view of our need for further supplies we were anxious to have a 'drop' as soon as possible, and as at the moment the only level place of which we knew was just inside China, where the first parachute party had been dropped, I asked the colonel whether he would have any objection to our receiving it there. He readily agreed and undertook to provide the necessary covering party. It should be remembered that during the next few months we were at no time more than a night's march from the Japanese; but the situation was not as dangerous as it may sound because we could expect to receive at least a few hours' notice of any unusual movement by the enemy. So we moved forward of the Chinese defence line into the valley next to Kokang, set up our W/T, and passed signals to arrange for the sortie. We went out to prepare the signal fires, and Stan showed me the clump of cactus thorn near which he had landed; the site of the long thick spikes ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 138 concerted a system of secret signs by which the Chinese troops watching the ferry could recognise our men; it was all unnecessarily complicated because with Jack there the Chinese, when in doubt, could quickly inform themselves; it was in fact part of their policy of making things as complicated as possible, the policy of obstruction. Meanwhile Stan was supervising the clearing of the d.z.; we hired men from the village to cut down trees and to burn off the long grass. At Lunghtang the mountain slope was less steep; we looked down into the small valley of a stream, which ran into one of the larger tributaries of the Salween at an angle, so that the far ridge interposed between us and the main river. Thus the fires which we would light at night on our d.z., to guide the aircraft, would be screened from the view of the Japanese posts on the far side. Lunghtang was a large village off the beaten track, and because of that it had grown larger; people had migrated from the troop nuisance on the more popular tracks. There were really three separate villages, grouped near each other; rice terraces had been cut out of the slopes below, and in other less level fields maize and the opium poppy were planted. The water supply was not good; it was led in by a ditch which had been dug a long way, following the contour of the mountain. The water also drove a series of wooden hammers for polishing rice. The method was ingenious; a log, scooped hollow at one end, was balanced so that when water poured in from a bamboo spout and filled the hollow, that end became too heavy and dropped. The drop would tip out the water, whereupon the other end, to which the hammer was attached, dropped down with a thump and the hammer fell into the small hole, scooped out of stone in which the rice was held. The movement repeated itself without end. The circle headman was a close relative of the Myosa; he was a heavy opium smoker and at first was cautious in his attitude towards us, but later gave us much help, information about local politics, and good advice. I decided to establish our headquarters at Lunghtang. The headman selected a site, to one side and above the villages, to which we could lead clear water from the mountain through split bamboo channels. The water was first to serve the kitchens, then the wash-houses, and finally it would flow through and flush out the latrines. We were very pleased with our water-works. The walls of the buildings were made of bamboo lath and mud plaster; the roofs were thatched. There were quarters and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 141 side. So we gave the gifts to the friends we made everywhere amongst the local population round us; we even broke up the cotton parachutes and distributed the cloth. We sometimes found when we could not buy such things as chickens or eggs with money, a piece of parachute cloth quickly brought results. In supplying us the R.A.F. ran great risks. They had to fly six hundred miles over enemy-held territory to reach us, and then they had to find their way about the mountains, locate our particular little valley, come in below the mountain crests, fly up the valley, turn sharp right at the head, where the d.z. ran up at a slope of one in three, and drop their men and containers within the length of the zone, which measured on the level could not be more than 200 yards. A stick would sometimes be as many as seven containers, but the spread was found to be too great; some would fall short of or beyond the d.z., way down in the thick jungle of the valley; and though we had many willing villagers, wondering at these new toys of the white man, to help us in the search, it would sometimes be days before all the containers were located. The white cotton 'chutes to which they were attached, of course, helped us to trace their whereabouts. The sticks were cut down to a maximum of three for men, or four for containers. Much credit is due to the pilots and their skilled crews who so successfully co-operated with us. The risk for the parachute men was also considerable. Sawn-off stumps of trees are not comfortable to fall on; fortunately they did not know about these until they landed. Sometimes the container-chutes would not develop owing to failure of the static cord, or the container might be too heavy for the 'chute and would break away from its straps. You would then hear a swish and a plonk in the nearby jungle. In theory the faulty 'chute would leave the aircraft like a bomb, and travel with the speed of the aircraft till it hit the ground, so that it should overshoot the dropping zone; but in practice it did not always work out that way, and the first we would know, straining our eyes up in the dark, would be the plonk near at hand. One container with explosives crashed and blew up one day not thirty yards from our lower signal fire. Many is the night we spent out on the d.z. in the bright moonlight, in vain; though the weather over us was perfect, it might be cloudy in India and the aircraft would not start. Or clouds might form up over us, while they were on their way, and after vainly searching for our fires, they would fly back, without result for their pains. It was nerve-wracking to hear our own aircraft, in the clouds amongst the dangerous mountain tops, searching for our ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 142 fires and flying away again unable to find them. Inevitably there were some accidents and losses. ― -- Rarely half a dozen 'planes would make a sortie the same night; we would then be busy for days collecting the heavy containers they would weigh up to three hundred pounds and carrying them back to camp. We received reinforcements; officers with long experience in the East; British wireless operators; Chin, Kachin, and Burmese assistants. Our money and our mail also came this way; Bren guns, Stens, Italian carbines, clothing, food and occasionally drink. Sometime later we were visited by two American officers attached to the Nth division; they spent the day with us. We discovered they had a partiality for Bourbon whisky, a thing most difficult to find in Calcutta. However, we thought we would plan a little surprise for them; we asked our friends in Calcutta whether they could not find a couple of bottles and include them in the next sortie. The sortie was made in due course, several containers crashed, and when we anxiously looked over the lists of contents, we sadly found that the precious bottles had "pranged" as Stan put it in his airforce jargon. The problem of cutting a way through the jungle was ever present in Burma. We decided we would equip one man out of every two with a cutting implement for the purpose. There were many opinions about which implement was the best; each officer had his own idea. We left it to our 'furnishers' to supply what they had, and I have never seen such a collection of deadly looking hacking weapons as the variety sent. It included dahs, the light Burmese single-handed sword, with a blade about two feet long and in my opinion not quite heavy enough for the job; kukris, a choice for the expert; the East African panga, which I like best, but then perhaps I am prejudiced it reminded me of my days with the King's African Rifles during the last war; a short two-edged stabbing sword, obviously borrowed straight from the Roman Legion; and some quite unrecognisable kinds, probably designed by enthusiastic cranks. The Italian carbines had been captured in Africa and were believed useful for our type of work; they only weighed four pounds, were short and handy but they had a very high muzzle velocity and kicked like an anti-tank rifle, without the rubber padding with which that rifle is fitted. They had fixed sights; on the little thirty yards range, which Stan had built in a fold of the mountain, we found they threw at least a foot off the bull; but they appeared to be fairly accurate at somewhere around ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 222 question and wrote the second book, because the first volume, good though it is, told a very incomplete tale. Low City, High City concentrates on the Low City, Shitamachi or the old part of the city that was originally built on swampy lowlands and into which were crowded the commoners when Japan was ruled by the samurai. "Commoner culture" may have been a contradiction in terms to the samurai and their culture, yet it grew and grew and attracted avid attention even from the samurai in the feudal period. The lure of commoner culture remained in the Low City and continues today to beckon to many observers. Kabuki plays, haiku poetry, "pictures of the floating world" or ukiyoe, and the entertainers of the nightlife districts are just some of the legacies of the Low City which provoked Seidensticker's eulogy. He also takes up the high culture of the samurai, Zen Buddhism, tea ceremony and gardens, but his first love is clearly the culture of the Low City. He takes his tale up to 1923 when the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed most of Tokyo and Yokohama, especially the part of the city which he lovingly portrays. The 'quake struck on September 1, at noon when cooking fires were burning throughout the city. Fire soon raged over the crowded Low City, killing an estimated 100,000 people in Tokyo and Yokohama. Although the Low City sprang back to life (Tokyo folklore had it that a business which could not reopen on the third day after a fire was one which would have failed soon anyway due to its owner's mis-management even if the fire had not occurred), for Seidensticker, and for many literary figures like Nagai Kafu and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro whom he quotes heavily, the old city and its culture failed to spring back, already having been changed by the new currents and culture flowing in from the West. Now, its physical base was destroyed as well. Fortunately Seidensticker did not leave his subject on such a negative note. He took up his own challenge to deal with the 'many exciting things [that] have occurred in the six decades since the earthquake.' The second volume is increasingly different from the first volume not, however, in terms of its excellence or the tender care it gives to its subject but, rather, it deals with the High City, the portion of the city which stretches far to the west and north of the Low City and in which the samurai class once lived, but which now houses the middle-class society that pervades Japan. Although the influences of the Low City are not absent in the new High City, the atmosphere changes dramatically as one goes up the low hills. The austerity and severe-mindedness of the samurai class spreads through Page 240 Page 241 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 137 Kowloon Walled City, February 1989 and After The Kowloon City tour was again very different. Some background is required. Excluded from the New Territories' lease in 1898, but in de facto British occupation since 1900, the "Walled City" had always presented problems for the Hong Kong Government, arising largely from its contentious legal status. No longer "walled" - its rectangular wall had been demolished by the Japanese during their wartime military occupation of the Colony - the enclave had soon after become a tightly-packed warren of unauthorized buildings without water supply, roads, or sewerage. In the 1970s - again without proper authorization - most of its four and five-storey structures had been replaced with high-rise buildings of twelve and fifteen storeys, greatly worsening its already unsatisfactory condition. The "Walled City" was notorious for drug-trafficking and other illegal or criminal activities. Most European residents of the Colony, and probably many middle-class Hong Kong Chinese too, kept well clear, and few of them had any real idea what it was like. 22 After signature of the Sino-British Joint Agreement in 1984, and with the agreement of the Mainland Chinese authorities, the Hong Kong Government had undertaken to remove, compensate, and re-house its population, and to demolish the buildings and replace them with a public park within the same boundaries. Here was a chance to show our members this rather infamous place that few had seen, and at the same time - as on the Chai Wan visit a few years before - let them know what was being done by the Government. By good fortune, one of my friends and former colleagues from the District Office, Tsuen Wan, was the officer in charge of the complicated negotiations with the City's business people and domestic residents, and he was very willing to make arrangements for a Royal Asiatic Society visit. In the end, the tour's extreme popularity with our members entailed three separate visits, each attended by well over 100 persons. On each visit, after a general briefing, the government officers who acted as our guides - they included two young police women inspectors - talked to us about their work as they led small groups through the twisting, narrow, and confusing thoroughfares to meet our own RAS tour speakers at a few places en route where points of interest were explained. In my case, I had stationed myself in the courtyard of the former military yamen (government office) whose pre-1898 buildings had survived many fires as well as the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 189 court robes and glided along the path only to disappear into the base of a tree once he drew parallel to the watcher. Villagers have also seen fires at the Paak Kung shrines even during rain The village with the greatest number of shrines, out of the 20 villages examined in detail in the study, is Sheung Tsuen (Pat Heung). The more important Tai Wong shrine is housed in the 200 year old temple and is the governor of the village. There are also ten other Paak Kung and earth god shrines located around the village. Six of the Paak Kung protect the village at night while four earth gods of a lower rank are located in each of the four directions and are 'on duty' for twenty four hours a day as general security guards and to prevent people from becoming lost. All the shrines are worshiped on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month and on major festivals Worship at the shrines varies from village to village, although it is common that worship is carried out on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar new year. Seven of the villages performed rites at their shrines at this time. Offerings may also be made with prayers at the main Chinese festivals, particularly during Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Harvest festival, as well as at weddings, births and the birthdays of elders and ancestors and for general thanksgiving. Some villages have their own special ceremonies. At Ma Mat Wai, the Paak Kung shrine to the earth god 'Hin Tan' is worshipped on 'farmer's day' on July 14th and at the harvest festival on August 15th. The shrine at Pak Kong is worshipped on the birthday of the popular sea-goddess Tin Hay. The Hei Shą Fuk festival is only carried out at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, at the end of the last month of the lunar year and at the end of the first month of the lunar calendar. Each family in the village contributes $30 to buy pork which is cooked with vegetables on stoves built into the Tai Wong shrine. February 13th of the lunar calendar is the god Hung Shing's birthday in Ho Sheung Heung, which is even more important for the village than Lunar New Year. For three days before the god's birthday, an opera is held in front of the Tze Tong while a feast and dragon dance takes place on the day itself. In June a feast day is also held to commemorate two officials, Chou and Wong, sent by the Emperor to save the village from pirates. This may represent those officials who came to rescind the Imperial evacuation order in 1669. The festivals in Ho Sheung Heung are organized by the master of the temple but in other ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 212 Stockholm Statens Etnografiska Museum, 1866 Skrine, CP, Chinese Central Asia, London. Methuen, 1926 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press) Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton, The Japanese at Home, 5th edition, with Bits of China, London and New York Waid, Lock and Bowden, 1895 Smedley, Agnes, Chinese Destinies - Sketches, New York Vanguard, 1933 - China Correspondent, London Routledge and Kegan. 1934 - Battle Hymn of China, New York Knopf, 1943 + Smith, Carl T, Chinese Christians Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1985 Smith, Richard J, Mercenaries and Mandarins: the Ever-Victorious Army in Nineteenth Century China, New York KTO Press, 1978 Smith, Ronald Bishop, A Projected Portuguese Voyage to China in 1512 and New Notices Relative to Tome Pires in Canton, Bethesda (Maryland) L Decatur Press, 1972 Spence, Jonathan, To Change China: Western Advisers in China 1620-1960, Boston Little Brown, 1969 The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, New York Viking Penguin, 1984 Staunton, Sir George Leonard, An Authentic Account of An Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, London G Nicol, 1798 Stein, Sir Mark Aurel, Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1921 Stern, Simon Adler, Jettings of Travel in China and Japan, Philadelphia Porter and Coates, 1888 (WB11894) Szczesniak, Boleslaw, The Writings of Michael Boym, Monumenta Serica XIV (1949-55), 481-538 Taylor, Francis, mss (Bodleian Library Ms Rawl D391/95-98) Letters of Francis Taylor to Dr Edward Browne April 25, 1703 off Ancuago on coast of China, Teignmouth, Henry Noel Shore, (b 1847), The Flight of Lapwing, a Naval Officer's Jottings in China, London Longmans, 1881 Thomas, James A, A Pioneer Tobacco Merchant in the Orient, Durham NC Duke University Press, 1928. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 219 the second was the Zhejiang clique under Jiang Jieshi. With Soviet aid and with Jiang Jieshi, Sun decided to embark on two important programs, the establishment of a central bank, and the setting up of a military academy in Huangpu. At this point, things came full circle. The merchants, threatened by what they believed to be a “red invasion” in Guangdong, tried to organize a heavy-armed merchant corps to fight against Sun. This is a story in itself; it will have to await another article. Suffice it to state here that it was in 1924, through the Compradore of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, that a large quantity of arms for the Merchants' Corps, a sort of militia equipped and hired by merchants for self-defence, were delivered. By late 1923, these troops numbered around 20,000, and their armaments included “4,850 rifles and 1,150,000 rounds of ammunition, 433 automatic pistols fitted with stock, and 2,060,000 rounds, 660 revolvers, large and small, with 164,200 rounds, and 40 machine guns with a huge quantity of ammunition.” These armaments, however, were confiscated by Sun on their arrival. The dispute led to a military confrontation between the Huangpu cadets and the merchant's corps at the West Gate of Canton. Almost all available forces under Sun participated in a military confrontation against the merchant corps. The attack began at 5:30 p.m. on October 14th. The Merchants' Corps had barricaded itself in the densely populated commercial section. Corpsmen fired down upon the invading corps from the strong towers which pawn shops used for storing valuables. But before the fighting really started, many parts in the West Gate were simultaneously on fire. By nightfall, much of the commercial section was in flames. The corps retreated to the roof floor of such Hong Kong-registered companies as the Sincere and Tai Sun Department Stores. Twenty-four hours later, the corpsmen were forced to surrender. They were disarmed, and then leaders fled to Hong Kong. Troops looted freely until the next day, when the government threatened looters with immediate execution. Property losses due to the fires were huge, around 600 to 1,000 buildings were burned and many others looted. With the confiscated arms, the Huangpu cadets moved northward for their national unification. Following this, there were several interesting developments. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 248 India in 1521 preparatory to a voyage to China. Fernão Lopes de Castanheda notes that he was from Santarém and João de Barros notes that he was the son of Jorge de Melo Lageo dalcunha. Now in various nobiliários Martim Afonso de Melo is said to be the son of Jorge de Melo O Lageo and of D. Branca Coutinho and that he returned very rich from China. In 1522 he sailed to China." According to João de Barros, Da Asia (Decade III Livro VIII Capitulo V, 1563 ed.) he returned safely to Portugal in 1525. In April 1526 he is already dead (cf. Chancelaria of D. João III, Doaões, Livro 11, folio 84v). A humble Portuguese Jorge Alvares was the first Portuguese to sail to China in 1513-1514 as is well known. His voyage was succeeded by the more principal voyages of Fernão Peres de Andrade in 1517-1518, Simão de Andrade in 1519-1520 and Martim Afonso de Melo in 1522, in which each of these captains sailed as captain-major of a Portuguese fleet, after which official contacts of Portugal with China ceased for many years. The voyage of Martim Afonso de Melo brought to a conclusion the epochal period of first Western contacts with China during the era of trans-oceanic navigation, of which he was one of the principal figures. I take the present opportunity to republish the inscription of Martim Afonso de Melo which appears on his sepulchral urn according to the version of Ignacio da Piedade e Vasconcelos in his Historia de Santarem Edificada, Parte II, Lisbon, 1740, p. 202 and add to it my version so much as the damaged state of the urn allows.' It does not appear to have been dated. INSCRIPTION NUMBER 1 THE INSCRIPTION OF MARTIM AFONSO DE MELO ON HIS SEPULCHRAL URN ACCORDING TO PIEDADE E VASCONCELOS Aqui jaz Martim Affonso de Mello filho de George de Mello, e de Dona Branca Coutinho, e sua nora Dona Maria Henriques Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 137 NOTES AND QUERIES A BRIEF HISTORY OF RECLAMATION IN MACAU THOMAS KVAN AND JUSTYNA KARAKIEWICZ Introduction Macau today is a city of 500,000 people living on 22 sq. km. consisting of three main areas: the peninsula of Macau (with approximately 50% of the population) and the islands of Taipa and Coloane. Most of the population lives on the peninsula itself. Over 7 million visitors visit the enclave each year. Primary industries are tourism (driven in large part by the casinos), light manufacturing and some trans-shipment of goods from China. In common with Hong Kong, the territory has experienced considerable physical change due to reclamation. This paper traces the history of reclamation and considers some of the implications for the urban form of Macau over the past four centuries. The Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries Macau saw development until the Portuguese occupied the peninsula in the mid-sixteenth century. When they arrived, it was a peninsula of approximately 3 sq. km. connected to the China mainland by a very narrow neck of sand that could be flooded at high tides. There were a few temples (already a few centuries old) and farm houses already constructed but the population was sparse. Within ten years, the population had grown to “over 5000, not including Chinese or slaves” (Pires 1987). By 1583, a Municipal Senate was formed and in 1586 Macau was designated a City. Places of worship began to be erected almost immediately upon settlement, with significant churches appearing from 1590 onwards. A protective wall was built in 1606 around the Jesuit settlement with a second fortress in 1629 and several more by 1638 (Duncan 1987). The enclave had evolved rapidly, therefore, from a poorly defined settlement on Chinese agricultural patterns to one based on an Occidental urban architecture of churches, fortifications and civic buildings. The former probably consisting of isolated buildings, most ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 144 collected history of the enclave. REFERENCES Brito, R. de S.: 1962, Imagens de Macau Agencia General do Ultramar, Lisboa Duncan, C.: 1987, "Development of Macau's City Landscape" in Macau, City of Commerce and Culture R.D. Cremer, ed. UEA Press, Hong Kong Hong Kong Museum of Art: 1996, Views of the Pearl River Delta Urban Council of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Hurley, R.C.: 1898, Tourist Guide to Canton and Macau Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company, Taipei, reprinted 1973 Pires, B.V.: 1987, "Origins and Early History of Macau" in Macau, City of Commerce and Culture R. D. Cremer, ed. UEA Press, Hong Kong Prescott J.A.: 1993, editor Macaensis Momentum Hewell Publications, Macau Seurre, J.: 1996, “Macau 1996: the Die is Cast" China Perspectives No. 4, March/April Wang W.J.: 1997 “Is There a Plaza in Chinese Public Space" in Proceedings of The Second International Symposium on Asia Pacific Architecture: The Making of Public Places, Hawaii Woodward, C.: 1992, Barcelona Manchester University Press, Manchester ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 Gillian Bickley, Ph.D., B.A. (Hons.), Cert. Ed., M.Litt., F.R.S.A., is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University. She has previously held posts in Hong Kong at the University of Hong Kong, Longman Far East, the British Council, St. Stephen's Girls' College, and the Hong Kong Examinations Authority. She has taught at the University of Lagos, Nigeria and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has lived in Hong Kong for 23 years. Paul Bolding, works as a financial journalist at the news and information organisation Reuters in London. He has been with Reuters since 1974. He lived in Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997 and has travelled widely in Asia. Mr Bolding has previously worked in Europe and the Middle East including Brussels, Berlin and Nicosia. He has a special interest in the silk route and is a co-author of the Insight Guide to Turkey. B.C. Fawcett, was born in the Far East where his father served with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. He also joined the bank and served from 1961 to 1978, being based in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1978. During that time he was also a volunteer with the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, now the Government Flying Services. He is a life member of the HKBRAS. Richard J. Garrett, M.A.(Cantab), C.Eng., F.I.C.E., F.I.Struct.E., F.H.K.I.E., is a director of an international firm of Consulting Engineers and based in Hong Kong since 1973. He has been a collector of antique arms and a member of the Arms and Armour Society of the U.K. for over 30 years. He has published a number of articles on the subject of early firearms. Sheilah E. Hamilton, B.Sc., M.Soc.Sc., Ph.D., is a long-time resident of Hong Kong and former forensic scientist with the Hong Kong Government from 1968 to 1988. Her passion for Hong Kong history began in 1992 and areas of interest include historical fires, forensic issues and security. R.G. Horsnell, is a Chief Property Services Manager with the Architectural Services Department, Hong Kong Government, and a ... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 130 already full. So off they went again across the Pacific by sea to Manila, Hong Kong and Shanghai before setting out for Cape Town where they remained for five months. They finally returned to Washington having stayed in Buenos Aires for a month en route. Back in Washington they found that he was still unable to obtain a residence permit. However, someone pointed out the small print that as a dependent of his wife they would be allowed to stay and there they remained for the next six years until Sowerby died on the 16th of August 1954 at the age of sixty-nine. His last years were confined to his sickroom from which he continued his researches and writing. For some twenty-five years of his life he lived in Shanghai, through its heyday, and for fourteen years he produced and published a creditable monthly periodical, the China Journal, aimed at ‘educating' Westerners in China to appreciate many of the aspects of Chinese civilisation and life under headings - Science, Art, Literature and Travel. It was to "encourage an active enthusiasm for the powerful and often enigmatic Chinese self-contained culture," though the Journal not only pursued interests concerned with culture and the Chinese social environment it also pursued the major leisure activities available in China - hunting, shooting and fishing - all subjects close to Sowerby's heart. His primary interest centred on the collection of scientific and geological specimens for museums in Britain and the United States, as well as retaining some specimens for a unique museum in Shanghai. The bimonthly Journal was originally titled The China Journal of Science and Arts, and edited by Arthur de C. Sowerby [Science] and John C. Ferguson, PhD [Literature and Arts]. Clarice Moise BA began as the Assistant-Editor and Manager but later simply became the Manager. We know nothing of Ferguson whose name continued on the editorial staff until the late 1930s. The first issue, No. 1 of Volume 1 was issued in January 1923 with a primitive sketch on the cover designed by A de C. S showing a mounted T'ang horseman, a dragon and bats. At first, the journal was based at 103 Ben Building at 23 Avenue Eduard VII in the French Concession though later, by 1928, its offices had moved to 8 Museum Street in Shanghai. The cover was changed in 1926, again designed by ‘A de C S', to a cross-legged Buddhist deity with his palms held together in front of his chest in prayer, with a flaming nimbus behind him and sitting on a pedestal. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 176 image with one of the other titles is the same god. The Fengshen Yanyi records numerous departments of the Celestial World including, for example, the Department of Thunder. It has a chief, General Wen, and twenty-four subordinates, amongst whom are the spirits of wind, rain and lightning; these are often referred to as the Five Spirits of Thunder, Lei Shen. Another is the Department of Fire Spirits. Its departmental head, Luo Xuan of Fire Dragon Island, called himself Yan Zhong Xian, the Immortal of the Flames, and was a fierce-looking iron-toothed, red individual. His immediate subordinate was Liu Huan, a yellow-faced demonic being who, during the Shang-Zhou struggle, brought along the materials with which they nearly destroyed the capital of Xi Ji, before being themselves routed. Luo Xuan was awarded the title The Chief Spirit Ruler of the Southern Region Three Atmospheres Fire Virtue Star: Nan Fang San Qi Huode Xingjun Zhengshen. Among his subordinates are a pig, monkey, tiger and snake spirits, all representing the different kinds of fires. The tiger is the 'tail fire' which is very hot; the pig is a 'house fire' which bursts out unexpectedly; the monkey is the 'nose fire' which comes suddenly through openings; whilst the snake is the 'winged fire' which leaps from one place to another. Liu Huan causes fires to spread. The story begins with the last ruler of the Shang making an offering at the temple of the goddess Nü Wa. Having written a poem on the wall of the temple, a graffiti that offends her, she sends three monsters to bewitch him. The following résumé of the last two chapters of the book brings into focus the tenor and style of the story. Jiang Ziya, about whom tales are told of his ineffectual efforts to become a trader and thus satisfy his wife's demands that he should do something useful, was eventually introduced to the Court and King Zhou Xin, who gave him a high position. Jiang antagonised Dan Ji, Zhou Xin's concubine, by getting rid of one of her vampire friends who had disguised herself as a human to share with the evil queen the flesh and blood of the victims she had slaughtered. Jiang was being taken away to be executed outside the palace but managed to slip through a hole in a bridge and disappeared. The guards sought him everywhere and finally assumed that he had been drowned. He had however been able to conceal himself. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 143 orders us to evacuate our positions and retire to Aberdeen. We are amazed at such an order but apparently the Japs have broken through over Mt Nicholson turning our left flank. We collect our small force and start our retirement. Heavy firing coming from Wanchai Gap where fierce fighting is going on. What a forlorn sight we make groping our way back through the hills in the dark. Finally reach Aberdeen, the Canadians going to Mount Gough and I take my men to the AIS. Atmosphere depressing and everyone falls to sleep through exhaustion. Up early, lucky for me, as a bomb lands on my bed just as I leave the room wrecking everything including my kit. AIS heavily shelled causing many fires and casualties. Wed twenty fourth and Thursday Xmas day. The retirement order was a mistake and back we go to Bennetts with guns and equipment. Just as we reach the top the Japs open up on us with mortars. We have no protection and lie flat. The shells land amongst us. Man next to me hit, also several others. Piece of shrapnel glances off my helmet and am half buried in flying debris. If we stay we shall all be killed so order the men to disperse and dash for cover and miraculously we make it. During the barrage I had noticed that one of our previous posts was still manned by Canadians who obviously had not received the order to withdraw. Cpl Blueman AC, Canadian, volunteers to go with me to try and get them out. We climb on our bellies through the thickest undergrowth but are fired on several times. Finally we get within hailing distance and get them all into a pillbox. We collect all the arms and equipment which we can't carry, pile them into the pillbox, and throw a couple of grenades into the pillbox. As we start back everything goes off at once and we have to duck flying bullets. Eventually we arrive intact at the AIS. No one seems to know where the Japs are so back we go to a new position guarding the bridge over Aberdeen reservoir. My party consists of twelve Canadians and ten RAF. Up to midnight all is quiet although every sound indicates Japs to the men. Soon after midnight heavy firing starts just across the bridge. The Japs weird war cry is plainly heard and soon a small party of Canadians retire over the bridge. They report a heavy attack by Japs who crept up on them and broke through. We open up with everything we have across the bridge. The Canadians are badly rattled, even their officer seems to have lost control of his men. The Japs start shelling us and confusion sets in and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 144 men start leaving their posts. A scene I never wish to see again. I am in an awkward position as I have no command over the Canadians. Just as they start moving back the road Major Baillee advances down the road waving a revolver and shouting to his men to get back to their posts. Some obey and some don't. The Major is highly excited and his voice rings out through the night calling his men all the names he can think of. The Japs must have a good idea of our positions. He calls his officers and men all the names under the sun and shouts for volunteers to cross the bridge. The Canadians refuse to budge so I, more of a desire to back the Major than of any thought of heroics, go across with him. We reach the other side safely whereupon he is violently sick and I realize he is drunk. Through overwork he worked himself into a state of complete collapse and should have been relieved of his command earlier. We retire still intact. We can hear the Japs wild animal calls and they appear to have gone another way. Most of the Canadians have disappeared and with the few left we set up a mortar which fires its first shell into a nearby tree, explodes, blowing the operator's right arm off and another man nearly loses a leg. Get the wounded into a dugout where there are some others badly wounded and try to stop their bleeding. We only have bandages and several of them are in danger of bleeding to death. Their moans are terrible and although I keep ringing up for an ambulance, none arrives. What a horrible mess and I try to restore some kind of order. After a good talking to, the men pull themselves together and go back to their posts. Thank God the ambulance arrives at last, also Lts Campbell and Park, Campbell threatens to put the Major under arrest and Baillee threatens to put every Canadian under arrest. Comes the dawn and most of the Canadians have disappeared. What a Xmas day, empty stomachs, tired out, and heaven knows what is going on. At ten am a message arrives saying there is a truce until midday. This news is immediately followed by a terrific bombardment of our positions. Not my idea of a truce. More Canadians melt away leaving our line practically undefended. I gather the few remaining men together and proceed to climb Mt Gough hoping to join up with our main forces. When we reach the top and strike the main road we run into several hundred Canadians retreating from Wanchai Gap. Wanchai Gap is the most vital sector of all and this means the end. We are told that the island surrendered at three thirty, over an hour ago. The troops have no arms and are completely worn out. A scene I will never forget with ammunition dumps going up everywhere and the Page 180 Page 181 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 288 front onto one street and back on to the street behind, thus, in a way linking two streets. All the houses are built of durable timber in a refined two-storey style. The front portion often serves as a boutique and the area behind is generally used as storage space. The interior living space has split levels with an inner courtyard open to the sky and a veranda linking several living quarters. One of the most remarkable features of these old homes is the diversity of their architecture. This varies greatly from one house to another in terms of space distribution, sculptural art, decoration and inner courtyard gardens. Space is utilized to the utmost. Walking in the streets of this beautiful and charming ancient town, a living vestige of the past, one can observe the influence of the architecture, sculpture and decorative Chinese and Japanese styles and the skills of the Vietnamese architects who have absorbed various influences and created something similar, yet somehow uniquely different. Our sixth day was spent in My Son Valley, 43 miles southwest of Danang. My Son was chosen as a religious sanctuary from the fourth century onwards. Many temples and towers were built here. Most were dedicated to kings and Brahman divinities, including the god Shiva who was considered the creator, founder and defender of the Champa Kingdom and the Cham royal dynasties. More than 70 architectural works of different styles and eras once stood in this ancient valley but today less than 20 remain. Tragically, My Son fell within a “free-fire zone” during the American War and was almost completely destroyed by bombs. The French did the present restoration work. The Cham towers were ingeniously constructed of dried bricks stuck together with resin from the cau day tree. Once the tower was completed it was encircled by fires, which were kept well stoked for several days. The intense heat fired the whole structure completely melting and sealing the bricks and resin together to form a structure well able to withstand the combined onslaught of time and the elements - but unfortunately not 20th century bombs. Our tour ended in My Son and the next morning we left Danang for Hanoi and flew back to Hong Kong. I returned to Hong Kong with many emotions about Vietnam. It was once a tribal neighbour of China and the Chinese influence there was strong. I felt much affinity with the place and its people when I saw the tombs and I tried to interpret ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 148 kept in the archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome and elsewhere, indicate that they were understandably interested in the names of their martyrs, but much less so in those of their artists, no matter what names contemporary researchers may have been able to find. Nevertheless, the sculptures of Chinese lions and the reliefs of Japanese flora, which decorate the façade, show that under their wing these mainly anonymous Asian artists were at least free to express their native sensibilities. The 1644 Annual Letter What cannot be established, except through a careful examination of the façade, is if these artists were under the influence of contemporary altarpieces. But again it should be recalled just how important the design of retables had become in the Iberian universe. Latin American Baroque and Rococo retable-façades clearly testify to the ascendancy of the features of retables over those of retable-façades." I would argue that a similar influence was already at work in the design of the façade of St. Paul's. The Litterae Annua of 1644 for the Japan Province penned by António Ferreira, in the archives of the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus, in Rome, is an exceptional document of exceptional relevance for this paper. It is already known to scholars from competent but slightly inaccurate eighteenth-century transcripts by Fr. José Montanha in the Archivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon, and has been quoted since 1955 by Fr. Videira Pires and others. But the original manuscript has remained quietly filed and largely ignored in the Archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome. The original passage in the Annua that describes the façade as it reached completion in 1644, and which I would like to quote to the honourable audience and members of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong for the first time in public form my translation of the Portuguese text, reads as follows: Alms were given this year to crown the main façade of this Church, which is all of carved stone in a Roman manner. From top to bottom it has three orders of columns with their pedestals, six arched niches in good proportion; four of the ones which are half domes are on the first frieze amongst the orders of the second order of columns, each by itself next to the opening of the three windows of the choir: in them there are the half length figures of our Saints Ignatius, Xavier, Borja and Gonzaga, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 159 Extremo Oriente. Vol. 1. Tomo 1. Em Tomo de Macau, (A.H. de Oliveira Marques editor). Fundação Oriente. 1998, p.489. More recently also M. Nishiyama, "The Church of St. Paul in Macao under the Transformation of Portuguese Architecture in their Colonies"; a paper presented in the Modern Asian Architecture Network conferences held in Macao, 22-26 July, 2001. To the best of my knowledge only two other papers on the Church of St. Paul's agree that its façade is a retable-façade. See G. Couceiro, "The Church of the College of Madre de Deus", and F.A. Baptista Pereira. "A Conjectural Reconstruction of the Church of the College of Mater Dei', as well as C. Guillén-Nuñez's commentaries to both papers; all in Religion and Culture: An International Symposium Commemorating the IVth Centenary of the University College of St. Paul, Macao, 28 Nov.-1 Dec. 1994, Cultural Institute of Macao, and Ricci Institute. Uni. of S. Francisco, Macao, 1999, pp. 177-248. G. Couceiro's paper was adapted from his PhD thesis. "L'Eglise de Notre-Dame de l'Assomption (ou de St. Paul) à Macao et L'Art de la Compagnie de Jesus en Chine: Art et Adaptation". Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (en Sorbonne), IV Sect. Sciences Historiques et Philologiques. It has been recently published as A Igreja de S. Paulo de Macau. Lisbon, 1997. Baptista Pereira's paper was published in As Ruinas de S. Paulo. Um Monumento para o Futuro / St. Paul's Ruins. A Monument Towards the Future, (bilingual exh. catalogue), Setúbal, 1994, pp. 63-85. Although both these papers missed or ignored a number of important arguments by previous researchers on the subject, including the original dedication of the church, the iconography of the decoration and my identification of the façade as a retable-façade, they have informative sections on the ground plan of the church and other points. Videira Pires first pointed out that the original dedication of the church was to the Assumption. Vid. B. Videira Pires, “Igrejas e Cemiterios Antigos de Macau (1)", Religião e Patria, Ano XLVIII - No. 14, 15 Abril, 1962, p. 214 and p. 216. Pioneering writings on the façade, its decoration and artists begin with J.F. Marques Pereira, "Em prol de umas ruinas (A proposito do frontespicio do Collegio de S. Paulo, em Macau)'', in Ta-Ssi-Yang-Kuo, Archivos e Annaes do Extremo-Oriente Portugues, Lisbon, 1899-1902, Serie I, II, pp. 483-92. This is followed by J.D. Francis's article, "Macao's San Paolo, A symbolical Ruin”, The Macao Review, Macao, 1930, pp. 3, 14. J.D. Francis first noticed that the iconography of the façade was a didactic sermon in stone. After these studies came those of J.M. Braga, "A Igreja de S. Paulo”, Boletim Eclesiástico da Diocese de Macau, April 1932, pp. 246-7. M. Teixeira, A fachada de S. Paulo, Macao, 1940. Macau e a Sua Diocese, Macao, 1956, III, pp. 178-81, passim. Page 210 Page 211 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 404 Ian Morrison's Last Dispatch POHANG IN HANDS OF NORTH KOREANS Annex TOWN IN FLAMES From Our Special Correspondent BIHAR ARMY HEADQUARTERS, August 12 — A serious situation has developed at Pohang on the east coast. North Korean forces, who for several days past were known to be working their way south through mountainous country inland from the coast, and who yesterday were reported at a point seven miles north-west of Pohang, attacked the town early this morning and are now threatening the airfield five miles to the south-east. Fires are burning in the town and it may become necessary to evacuate the airfield. For several weeks past the South Korean forces based on Pohang have been fighting in and around Yongdok, a small town 25 miles north of Pohang. Their supply line has been the road which runs along the coast. The mountains to the west are some of the steepest in Korea, but they have not deterred the North Koreans from making the obvious outflanking movement. The exact strength of the North Korean force is not known. Three days ago it was reported as two regiments. Probably it consists of a nucleus of regular troops and several hundred guerrilla troops who have long been established in these mountains. The allied command apparently minimized their threat, because it was only yesterday that reinforcements were hurriedly rushed to this coastal sector. These consisted of South Korean infantry and a small American task force equipped with light tanks. Exactly what happened is still obscure, but the American convoy was ambushed soon after midnight on the main road 15 miles south of Pohang and pinned down until dawn. Air support was called for, which eventually drove off the North Koreans, believed to have been a number of guerrilla troops, and permitted the convoy to continue after considerable delay. Mustangs were still using the airfield up to 5 o'clock this afternoon, and in some cases pilots were firing their guns only two or three minutes after taking off. The North Koreans had moved south of Yongdok, and pilots claimed to have destroyed two tanks, 10 vehicles, and two ammunition cars. Transport aircraft also were still flying into the airfield this evening and bringing out certain unessential staff such as ground engineers. According to these arrivals, North Korean mortar shells were landing in the general area of the airfield, but it was not under small arms fire. American gunners who have been supporting South Korean infantry in this coastal sector were shelling North Korean positions on the ridge about two miles north of the airfield between the airfield and the port. Large numbers of Korean civilians who had evacuated the town had gathered round the airfield, which is situated close to the shore of the bay, and two ships were standing by offshore in case evacuation should become necessary. Lieutenant-General Walker, commander of the Eighth Army, and Major-General Partridge, commander of the Fifth Air Force, flew over the area this morning. 97 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 114 The unauthorised cultivation of flowering plants and the erection of two pennant stands inside the redoubt may add to the attraction of the sites. However, the careless replacement of the old military path that linked Gough Battery and the 196m site by a new cement path is one example of human actions that can destroy the historic physique of the sites. The removal of the remaining beams and roofs over the firing trenches at the Devil's Peak Redoubt by unknown visitors or squatters is another example. The fixing of a pole outside the Yau Tong-facing external wall of the redoubt, which might have aggravated the settlement of the wall, is a third example. Hill fires caused by careless smokers and cemetery visitors are a fourth problem. Hill fires pose a big problem, as they lead to serious soil erosion, though such fires may expose some interesting features for pillbox hunters. The erosion is so serious that many natural and man-made features that existed on the 1:600 government survey plan of 1963 can no longer be seen now. An example is the waterway that drains the 6-inch gun emplacement of Gough Battery to the vicinity of the pillbox on the rock (referred to above) has disappeared. Although the area under study is not part of a country park, the two sites, under government ownership, have escaped the fate of being converted into a service reservoir in the late 1970s and have been protected passively since as a statutory Green Belt zone. Yet, the last government planning proposal to actively manage the area as part of an "urban fringe park," suggested in Metroplan, has yet to be taken up by a government department. It is in this context that the recent construction of a cement path that links the Gough Battery, the 196 m site, and the redoubt could pose a major additional threat to the survival of the remains on the sites, by improving access to a site without any facilities management. Acknowledgements The authors wish to express their thanks to Mr. R.G. Horsnell and Mr. Tim K. Ko for their useful advice on the military aspects of the structures on both sites in the course of finalising this paper. They also thank the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust for providing financial support. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 18 Restoring the damage done by the three years of Taiping destruction required a massive reconstruction project which lasted for nearly 30 years from 1871 to 1899. In addition to rebuilding the previous structures, several new halls which had not existed before were added during this time, including the Guest House (Ke Tang) and the Dining Hall (Zhai Tang) in 1887; the Goddess of Mercy Hall (Guan Yin Dian), Ancestors Hall (Zu Shi Dian), and the Kshitigarbha Hall (Di Zang Dian) in 1890; and finally the 500 Arhats Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) in 1896. The Republican era, 1911-1949 At the beginning of the Min Guo Republic (1912), all the monks were forced to move out by armed soldiers who moved in and used the temple as a barracks. The soldiers looted the golden statues from the temple, and wooden parts of the temple such as window frames were used by the soldiers to make cooking fires. However, in 1920 the temple and the pagoda were both repaired, and after being closed for a whole decade the temple finally officially reopened in 1922 when all the monks came back. Holmes Welch's otherwise authoritative 1967 study of Buddhism in China mistakenly stated that Longhua Temple was occupied by the Chinese military for the entire Min Guo period. Photos from D. C. Burn's brief 1926 study of the temple show that the Qing Dynasty 500 Arhat Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) was still intact then, although it no longer exists now. Longhua Temple enjoyed 15 years of peace and tranquility until September 11, 1937 when the temple was badly damaged during the Japanese attack on Shanghai. Nine Japanese airplanes dropped 30 bombs on the Longhua area. Most likely they were targeting the nearby Longhua Airport and the Guomindang's Longhua Garrison military camp next door, but they accidentally caused severe damage to the temple. Before the attack there had been 80 monks living in the temple, but afterward there were only 7 monks remaining. During the first five years of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1942, the internal affairs of the temple were confused and disorganized, with rival masters claiming the post of Abbot, and unqualified persons claiming to be Buddhist monks for the sake of seeking safe haven in the temple. On September 9, 1942 a reorganization committee was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 33 residence of factors or agents, and not because anything was manufactured there. Built and owned by the merchants charged with the conduct of foreign trade, they were let out to the foreign merchant houses, and comprised a series of 13 hongs placed side by side of each other, which formed a terrace fronting the river.15 (Plate 4) Each Hong consisted of a series of buildings placed one behind the other from the river backwards, for a depth of from 550 to 600 feet to the first street running parallel to the river.15 Spread over 21 acres, the factory grounds and buildings were rented from the Chinese merchants charged with the conduct of the foreign trade. They impressed visitors, especially in contrast with their proximity to 'low, dingy Chinese houses on the one hand, and the densely populated river on the other', and as another newcomer put it, 'sparkling like diamonds in a heap of old rubbish'." (See Plate). Like the Old China Trade itself, the Factories are long gone. They did not survive the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Chinese War in 1856 (the so-called "Arrow War," after the vessel which became the casus belli) when they were destroyed by fire on the orders of the Chinese authorities. However, they have been immortalized in the many pictorial representations that have come down to us of the sights and scenes of Old Canton. These are known collectively as "China Trade Pictures" because they were objects of trade, painted to order for the foreign merchants and ships' crews connected with the trade. The earliest panoramas date from the mid-eighteenth century, and from them we can trace the Factories' architectural history, notably the re-buildings that followed periodic disasters, such as the fires of 1822 and 1842.18 19 A salient fact is that most of these paintings are by Chinese, sometimes associated with a particular school of professional painters and sometimes unidentified. Such works were in the Western style, meant to suit Western tastes. Traditional Chinese style "views" were, of course, very different. Honam Part of Honam Island, on the south side of the Pearl River, opposite ================================================================================