RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f EXCAVATIONS AT MAN KOK TSUI 107 The impressed designs on the pottery were geometric and appeared to have been stamped onto the pot with a die or paddle as over-printing was often noted. The patterns on the soft pots differed from those on the hard pots being, on the whole simpler and cruder. A 'string' pattern, running vertically up the sides of the pot and overprinting in criss-cross on the base was the commonest on the soft pottery, and 'zig-zag chevron' and basket-like designs also occurred. On the hard pottery the commonest pattern was a 'net' design of differing fineness, which sometimes covered the whole pot or was used in conjunction with one of the more elaborate hard pot designs: and 'lozenge', 'circle', and 'double-f' motifs; or with horizontal parallel lines, and the pricked stitch pattern described by Fr. Finn. 4 Many of the hard pots had, either on the base or the lip, a distinctive incised mark of dots or parallel lines—perhaps a potter's or owner's mark. None of these marks were alike. One spindle whorl made of stone and two made of pottery were found in the central valley at Man Kok Tsui, also many roughly fashioned rings of stone and pottery which may have been used as weights for fishing nets. CONCLUSIONS: 44 Although it is known that the sea level was higher and that primary forest covered the Colony in prehistoric times, it seems reasonable to suppose that the factors making an area desirable for settlement (for example: a reliable source of fresh water, shelter from the worst prevailing weather, good landing beaches for small boats, etc.) would still apply in historic times and up to the present day. This limits the possibility of undisturbed and "diggable" sites in Hong Kong, as many existing villages may be built on top of older settlements. We were lucky enough to find at Man Kok Tsui remains of a Neolithic culture, over-laid with very few traces of later habitation and to have a record of the cultivation and settlement of the valley in recent years. In spite of this little information was gained about where or how the people lived, except what could be gleaned from their tools and pottery—the fine workmanship in stone, the few pieces of bronze, the fish-hook, the presumptive net weights and spindle whorls. The heavy rains and high humidity of this area, and the acid nature of the soil may account for the complete absence of traces of animal and human bones, clothing and dwellings. Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 16 LINDSAY RIDE As we leave the church level to visit the terraces below, it is worth noticing that the corner of the balustrade behind the chapel is adorned with an old piece of Chinese porcelain in the form of a large peach. It is about a foot in diameter and carries on top, another small, almost parasitic one, about two inches in diameter; both have a delightful bluish-grey underglaze. These peaches, Chinese emblems of longevity, are most fitting and reassuring adornments to the approach of a Christian burial ground. The three most widely known personalities, and the most frequently visited memorials, in the cemetery are undoubtedly those of Dr. Robert Morrison, D.D., Captain Lord Henry John Spencer Churchill, R.N., the brother of Sir Winston's great-grandfather, and George Chinnery; but these people are so well known that they need neither introduction nor lengthy consideration. Chinnery will be mentioned again in connection with his portraits and we shall have to be content therefore with just one or two observations on the artist himself when we come to his memorial. The Memorials. The Upper Terrace contains forty memorials; thirty-eight of them are to be found on either side of a small central avenue, and the other two are at its far end; they are of Chinnery and Drinker. All these memorials mark the resting places of those most recently buried in the cemetery, from 1850 to 1859, as well as one relatively very recent one who unaccountably gained entrance in 1889, thirty years after the cemetery was closed! On the left, as we move along the central avenue from the entrance, the memorials nearly all stand back under palms and shrubs near the retaining wall below the chapel. They include American naval and merchant personnel, an Armenian and a few British. The majority of the Upper Terrace memorials however are on the right, their backs to the Lower Terrace. They include more American seafarers both naval and merchant, missionaries both British and American, a member of Perry's historic mission to Japan, and Joseph Adams, the grandson of the second President and the nephew of the sixth President, of the United States of America. Names associated with early Hong Kong, for example Duddell of Duddell Street, will be found in this row, as will also that of a famous Danish family of sea captains; in fact Captain Ipland has two memorials ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 68 W. SCHOFIELD east side of the inscribed rock. Here it bends at an obtuse angle and reaches a large boulder east of the rock, thus providing flanking fire in support of the defenders of the bank to south (see Plate 4). Beyond the boulder its course is less easy to follow, but it probably runs north-west about 30 metres, and then north again, past the inscribed boulder, and following the steep edge of the hill, for some 70 metres. Here it bends west at a right angle and becomes a large earth rampart, with a front face to north about 5 metres high protected by a ditch, now partly silted up, about 1 metre deep at its outer edge, where the counterscarp rises; the throw-out from the ditch forms a short glacis in front merging into the hill slope. The rampart and ditch run about 55 metres across the north declivity of the hill ridge, cut at two points by modern paths (see Plate 6). At intervals of 20 metres behind it two smaller banks, parallel to it, cross the hill, both ending where the slope steepens to west: the more northern one has a short length of bank running north and south at its west end, which represents the only discoverable trace of the hill's western defences, for field terraces of later date appear to have destroyed the rest of them. The Inscriptions* 1. The well-known principal inscription on the hill, today standing in the Sung Wong T'oi park, needs no further notice here, as Professor Lo has dealt with it. 2. On a small stone on the north side of the hill crest is an almost illegible inscription of seven, possibly more, characters, which the writer copied as follows: 宋(or本) £ ? 公 ?? + It may be conjectured that this was part of an earlier commemorative inscription. 3. On a squared pillar of local granite standing on the west side of the hill, facing a rocky hill a mile away, about 85 metres high; 泰山石敢當 This was probably put up by someone in an effort to correct the Fung Shui of a grave. The next three inscriptions noted are certainly grave inscriptions, showing the hill was used for burials up to recent times. *The approximate whereabouts of each inscription is shown by its number on the sketch plan. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 36 WELLINGTON K. K. CHAN and the Tung Wah Hospital asking them to discourage the populace from rash and violent reactions.25 The merchants themselves also looked to them to provide leadership. In the same episode, the large Chinese Landsmannschaft (Chung-hua hui-kuan) in San Francisco sent an account of the riots to these two organisations and asked them to petition the Chinese government on its behalf.26 Contemporary newspapers reported many instances in which merchants and officials referred cases to them for arbitration.27 In 1901, the Hong Kong newspaper, the Hua-tzu jih-pao, summed up the development of the charitable halls in Canton in this way: The charitable halls had begun with the aim of offering private social welfare, but they had since assumed a number of political roles. They were consulted by the officials on various occasions; as when surtaxes were needed, when commercial policies were decided upon, and when social disturbances in the community arose. The government regarded them as an organ where "titled merchants" (shen-shang and shen-tung) expressed the opinions of the merchant community. When the government sought their opinion, they deliberated with representatives of the various guilds, assessed their views, and then passed their judgements on to the government.28 Towards Community-wide Organisations Besides the charitable halls, there were other types of merchant organisations which sought to embrace community-wide concerns. Mark Elvin's recent study on Shanghai shows the rise of specialised agencies in which gentry and merchants joined efforts in providing municipal services from the mid-nineteenth century on. In 1905, their activities culminated in the formation of the City Council of Shanghai.29 In Newchuang and in Swatow, the guilds in each of these localities got together and formed permanent assemblies. The Newchuang Grand Assembly (ta-hui) was composed of principal Chinese merchants and financiers of the city. It had two areas of responsibilities. First, as a combination of merchant guilds it was concerned with the laying down and the enforcement of trading rules between guilds. Second, it provided unofficial municipal services supplementing what the local government did. They included maintaining the streets, a public water supply and some social welfare.30 In Swatow, the Wen-nien-feng Assembly was concerned with regulating differences between the guilds. It also dominated the Swatow Landsmann guilds in the various cities, so ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 180 MICHAEL SMITHIES development from this, a temple built around a solid core. A narrow passage runs around the central core in which is set a niche containing the principal Buddha statue. The hollow temple, with immensely thick walls to support the weight of the vaulted roof, was in its early stages a core with the passage around and an antechamber or nave in front, usually on the eastern side. The stupa rising above the core could be of any shape, the Singhalese bell form or the stepped figured squares topped with a pinnacle, a form inspired by Pala architecture from India (particularly from one of the sacred Buddhist shrines at Bodh Gaya where the transformation of the Buddha took place). A development from this simple shrine is the Greek cross plan exemplified by the magnificent Ananda temple built by Kyanzittha, Anawrahta's son, in 1091. This still has the solid core but a double gallery around and antechambers on the axes of all four sides. A further development of this was where the whole temple was raised a level and the central core shifted slightly to contain and enfold the main Buddha facing east; the Thatbinnyu and Sulamani temples are good examples of this later style. Of the early buildings the Ananda is undoubtedly the most impressive, and the recent (mid-1975) earthquake, far from apparently damaging the building, has removed in parts the plaster and whitewash and shown the arching to be of bricks of alternating light and dark colours. The four main statues in the teaching posture have with overgilding lost their interest, but they impress by their size and the illumination from the hidden upper windows which show the Mon craftsmen as highly skilled technicians. The numerous glazed terracotta plaques ornamenting the base of the temple tell different Jataka tales (the lives of the hundreds of Buddhas before the Gautama Buddha and often taking the form of morality fables) and the small stone sculptures set in the internal walls tell the story of the life of the Gautama Buddha himself. The terracotta plaques (the great invention of Pagan, as the distinguished archaeologist Bernard Groslier indicated in a lecture to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society at Pagan) can be seen at their best at the very late (1284) Mingalazedi temple, a little damaged by the earthquake, and the two Petleiks of the 11th century, where the exceptional series is preserved almost in entirety. The early temples near Myinkaba are remarkable for their excellent preservation and for the quality of their decoration. One Page 195 Page 196 ================================================================================ 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 163 neat grave on the far side of the burnt-out area; where the fire may have started. h) The cutting beside Tai Mo Shan Road (about 100 metres up hill from the car park) shows the parent rock quite well. The soils in this region, and from here to the summit, are red-yellow podzols. i) Small mammals that have been identified from the adjacent countryside in recent years include: Paguma larvata (masked palm civet or 果子狸), Melogale moschata (ferret-badger or 獾) and Rattus rattus sladeni (Sladen's roof rat or 司氏屋顶鼠(田鼠)). 3. Stop B-car park near summit (altitude ca 700 m.) On many days of the year, as on the day of the RAS visit, this site is covered with drifting cloud or mist which undoubtedly increases the effective precipitation. The vegetation here is a grassland, probably maintained by fire and lack of seed etc. of other life forms. However, improvement is feasible, as may be seen from the reasonable growth of planted trees. a) Extensive views can be obtained from this site: see inset on the sketch map. In order to see Deep Bay (后海灣) it is necessary to walk ca 100 m. down the road & on to the knoll beyond the signals hut. b) To the west of Tsing Yi Island can be seen the badly eroded hills surrounding the Tai Lam Chung (大欖涌) reservoir. These hills are composed of granite of several kinds. Granite weathers much more readily than the volcanic rock of which Tai Mo Shan is composed, so that the hills are denuded of vegetation and are pale brown in color. c) The sloping terraces on the far hillside and close beside this car park are intriguing because their original purpose is seemingly unknown. However, recent investigation suggests they were concerned with control of water flow, either retention of water or control of run-off; a record of these terraces is being prepared for submission to the JHKBRAS. Tea bushes (Camellia sinensis) were formerly cultivated on Tai Mo Shan and the sloping terraces ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 41 “courtyard” effectively forms a more sinister, hostile and impregnable wall against outsiders than the one before. The government's recent proposal to clear the area no doubt produces a collective sigh of relief for the departure of this abomination. However, fragments of the old City - the cannon, parts of the former military office, some stone lions, the odd inscription, old residents' memories deserve preservation. Since the government plans to use the area as a park, perhaps we could revive the 1934 proposal to make it a place of popular resort and historical interest. In this way, we can preserve the memory of a unique international arrangement and a fascinating chapter in the history of the region. Plates 1-7 at the rear of the Volume illustrate this article. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 226 question was asked, where then would the memorial be to mark the fact the Golden Jubilee was celebrated in 1887. It was suggested that if the plan was executed some special object such as a pillar, gateway or statue should be put up. If the public did not take up the suggestion "perhaps one of our merchant Princes might in the course of time, be moved to complete the scheme of the Park by their crowning it with the representation of the Royal Lady whose name it bears, and whose name is also borne by the city in which we live.” It is interesting to note that today a statue of Queen Victoria stands in Victoria Park. COMMITTEE STEPS DOWN Following the public meeting of March 2, 1887, an editorial in the China Mail noted that, “a large section of the residents of Hongkong seems to have gone quite crazy over the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.” As evidence of the public lunacy it pointed to the absurdity of everyone promoting his own pet scheme. None of them, in its view, was properly thought through or presented with sufficient detail. It characterised them as "humorous and perplexing, as well as ill-timed and ill-digested." There was little enthusiasm for the decision of the meeting in raise money for the formation of a park in the Wongneichong Valley to be named after the Queen. Proposals were still being thrust upon the public in the hope that the park scheme would be dropped. The correspondence columns of the newspapers were flooded with letters on the topic. There were calls for a new public meeting in order to rescind the decision of the recent meeting. The charge was made the voting had not been representative of public opinion as a substantial number of those attending had abstained from casting their vote. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 215 role in this “secularization” process, comparing Legge's leadership in the new Board of Education with the manner of a “born bishop” I believe his motivations must be read in the light of his postmillennial leanings. See n. 55 on postmillennialism. Also see James Legge, "The Colony Of Hong Kong", The Journal Of The Hong Kong Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society, op. cit., p. 188; also E. T. Eitel, Europe In China: The History Of Hong Kong From The Beginning To The Year 1882 (Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh Ltd, 1895; reprinted in Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 347, 390-394, 466. See Gwenneth and John Stokes, Queen's College: Its History 1862-1987 (Hong Kong: Queen's College, 1987). A number of the details of the origins of the school in relation to Legge are not correct, and should be compared with my article in Ching Feng (1988), op. cit. 51 Prof. Legge's participation in the initial stages of the drafting of the Somerville College rules is not mentioned in some of the more recent texts on Somerville College, but his role as a member of the council (1881-1883) is found in Somerville College Register, 1879-1959 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 272. In the minutes of the Provisional committee which later incorporated the College, Prof. Legge apparently helped to draft and support a college rule which, in its final form, read as follows: "Prayers will be read daily in the house, and on Sundays the students will be expected as a rule to attend a place of worship chosen by themselves or their parents"; an earlier proposal to eliminate family prayers, and a later proposal requiring instruction in the Bible provided by each House, were both voted down. It is also significant that the provisional committee set a rule that the members of the Council should include equal numbers of women and men. See the Notes of the Provisional Committee meetings for the year 1879, dated February 7, 15, and 28, held at Somerville College. * This picture is kept at the Library of the Oriental Institute at Oxford, and was recently used for the cover of T. H. Barrett's Singular Listlessness: A Short History Of Chinese Books And British Scholars, op. cit. His reaction was primarily against the legalistic trends of Scottish Reform theology, particularly as it related to the harsher restrictions enforced on the Sabbath. At one point Legge, writing about his youthful days in Huntly, complained: "The voice of Moses was allowed in our household too often to overpower the voice of Christ". See Notes Of My Life, op. cit., p. 15, and James Legge, John Legge, ed., Lectures On Theology, Science, And Revelation (Papers by the late Rev. George Legge), XXII-XXIV. Still one must point out that the memorization of the Shorter Catechism left its mark in many of the themes discussed in Legge's The Religions of China. He may have rejected its ethics, but he was nursed and matured in its theological worldview. 34 Legge gave his views on the sixty-fifth anniversary of the London Missionary Society, celebrated at Moorfields Tabernacle. See his "The Land of Sinim," (London: John Snow, 1859). +4 — This perspective was technically supported by nineteenth-century "postmillennialism," a view which generally interprets Biblical prophecies regarding the end of human history as one in which there will be no personal return of Christ. Postmillennialism claimed that God will reign on earth indirectly in a kingdom of peace established by his own people, the Church. This view normally involves the corollary that human achievements, particularly the advance of Christian civilization, would bring about the final state in which the Kingdom of God would be achieved. James Legge had been exposed to this position through the theology of his older brother, George Legge, and apparently accepted its arguments. See George Legge, Lectures on Theology, Science, and Revelation, ed. James Legge, et al., op. cit. Belief in a postmillennial view of history explains two important aspects of James Legge's academic work. First, it explains why he was concerned to locate a trace of revelation in the foundations of Chinese ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 145 a file-brand, his actions were dictated by his intense interest in his native town and its welfare.' A final judgment: “No matter how bitterly he might differ with any of his colleagues, and in his early years in the Council particularly he figured in many a heated scene, he left all rancour behind at the Council table. Next day he would greet his opponents as cheerfully as though nothing had happened to ruffle them and be good friends." We know that in Hong Kong, Lockhart and Francis had not responded to him, In the end, how should we appraise Lowson and his diary? You will agree with me that he would appear to have been a rather difficult man; otherwise, he would not have clashed with authorities wherever he worked, in Hong Kong, India, and Forfar. You will recall that at the early stage of the Epidemic, he, a relatively junior doctor, offered to take sole charge but was turned down. This shows that he was probably the type who would prefer to give rather than take orders. But he was undoubtedly a forthright and strict character, uncompromising in disputes when he thought he was right and entirely honest in his intentions. I am sure all of us have come across such traits among our friends and colleagues. But neither Lowson nor history should accuse any of the people he criticised of mishandling the situation in any way. There was nothing else they could have done without the means that we now have at our disposal and the knowledge of the disease we now possess. Lowson's diary, though covering only the first phase, is undoubtedly a valuable addition to the literature on the Hong Kong Plague Epidemic now that it has become available. In recent years, there has been much talk about Hong Kong's resilience, its capacity to recover quickly from one financial crisis after another, becoming even more prosperous each time. We seem to have forgotten Hong Kong's resilience in having survived the devastations of diseases, such as malarial fever in its infancy, bubonic plague in its adolescence, and occasional outbreaks of cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, and others all through the years. There was a time when living in Hong Kong was a hazard, for one never knew when life or health would be threatened. The Plague Epidemic of 1894 was a real calamity for Hong Kong, as Sir William Robinson had said. But it can be regarded as a watershed for, after it, Hong Kong became a healthier and cleaner place. To mark its centenary, let us pay tribute to all those who contributed in the long fight against the Epidemic in their various capacities, as administrators, legislators, and medical and health officers, among them our unsung hero, Dr. J. A. Lowson. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 217 REPORT ON VISITS TO THE SWIRE INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE AND CAPE D'AGUILAR, 1993 AND 1994 GEOFFREY ROPER On Saturdays, 6 November, 1993 and 5 November, 1994 parties from the Branch visited the Swire Institute of Marine Science at Cape D'Aguilar, Hong Kong Island and also toured areas of historic interest on the Cape On the first visit, the Institute was still known as the Swire Marine Laboratory but by the second visit had become an Institute - a mark of the progress it had achieved in the study of marine science in Hong Kong. Progress was also demonstrated by the expansion of facilities seen on the second visit and by the imminence of marine protected area status for the adjacent sea shore ecological research area, Lobster Bay. Professor Brian Morton, Director of the Institute, and a very welcoming host, addressed the Society on both visits. He spoke in particular on the recent history of marine biology in Hong Kong, the work of the Institute, support from the Swire Group, problems caused by increasing sea pollution, and a wide range of items of local natural science interest, including the bird life. On both visits the parties visited the nearby Cape D'Aguilar Lighthouse, first put into service in 1875, and viewed the remnants of the Cape D'Aguilar Gun Battery. An area of especial historical interest visited on both occasions was Hok Tsui (Crane's Bill) Village, with its mid-to-late 19th Century granite watchtower and Pak Tai Temple. For the second visit we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by Dr. James Hayes, Past President of the Branch, who spoke about the pattern of pre-1841 (i.e. pre-British) settlements in Hong Kong, of which Hok Tsui was one of the few remaining examples on Hong Kong Island remaining close to its original form and still settled, at least in part, by descendants of the original settlers. According to clan records, quoted by Dr. Hayes, the first ancestor of the Chu family arrived in Hong Kong in 1762 and opened a stone quarry in Shek Tong Tsui, Western District. He prospered and started a farming village at Hok Tsui before dying there in 1781 A highlight of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 151 Recent Developments The Government formally re-adopted a forestry policy in 1953, the aims of which were to afforest the waste hills of the Colony, many of which were eroded and bare and as such were a threat to effective water catchment; to manage the forest so that it would produce a sustained yield of poles, fuel and small timber; to encourage private forestry and assist the villagers in the New Territories to establish and manage their plantations. By 1963 there were about 10,000 acres (4166 ha.) of Government plantations and around 2,000 acres (833 ha.) of Government-assisted village plantations. The erosion control planting in particular was often on a heroic scale, and it is this planting which characterizes much of Hong Kong's Country Parks today. Around this time, however, the programme was scaled down considerably. The village population was declining as people emigrated or moved to the urban areas; the demand for wood fuel was declining as alternatives became available; and the problem of hillfires was as serious as ever. In 1966-67, the area of Government coniferous forest alone which was burned was 1,265 acres (527 ha.), and village plantations and naturally regenerating woodland also suffered. From 1970 to 1985, the total number of trees killed exceeded those planted, and the total area affected by fire was nearly twice as large as the woodland cover in 1985. In the event, the total planting programme was reduced, and the replanting of village woodlands was discontinued (Daley 1975). For better facilities for informal "countryside" activities, such as walking and observing wildlife, more effective management of the hill areas was required. In 1977, the first Country Park was established in Hong Kong (Neil & Harding, 1983). Some 40% of the area of Hong Kong and the New Territories, covering most of the upland area, had been designated under 21 Country Parks by 1979. Under the Country Parks Ordinance, all development within the Country Parks is strictly controlled. As well as the Parks, the conservation framework in Hong Kong includes 13 special areas and 37 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which are sites chosen for their rare flora, fauna, and geology, or because of special educational, archaeological, or historic interest. The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, which manage the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 156 In recent years, mass emigration to the cities has further weakened the lineage tradition at some villages. Only the Mos at Mok Ka and the Los at lower Shek Lau Po seem to have maintained the status of their lineages. As the strongest lineage in Tung Chung, the Mos managed to rebuild their ancestral hall, the Mo-yu-t'ang, and continue to visit the graves of their focal ancestors collectively. As for the Lo lineage at lower Shek Lau Po, the reconstruction of their ancestral hall, the Lo-yu-chang t'ang, in the 1970s, as a centre for ancestor worship, contributed to the reinforcement of lineage identity. Nevertheless, the majority of Tung Chung's villagers worship their ancestors inside their family halls. The worship of the earth god in Tung Chung also occurs on a small scale. Symbolically, the earth god stands for the spirit of the village at which he is located, and is represented usually by a rock at an open-air shrine or by an old banyan tree. Variously known as Ta-wang (great king) or Po-kung (lord or paternal great-uncle), the earth god guards a village at its entrance or rear. As a guardian deity at the basic level of rural organization, the god helps to mark the territorial line between villages. In Ngau Au, for example, four Po-kungs are located there at both the entrance and the rear of the village. Three of them, as a village elder confirmed, are more than three hundred years old. At Mok Ka, earth gods are enshrined, two by the stream and one at the village entrance, and one at the rear of the village. As the oldest village, Shek Mun Kap has the largest earth god, represented by a giant boulder. On the 1st and 15th of every lunar month, during the major festivals, and on the earth gods' collective birthday, Ta-wang or Po-kung are offered sacrifices. On auspicious days of their choice, villagers also come to pray for the god's blessings and repay his protection. The ceremonies concerned include the display of wine and animal sacrifices in front of the shrine, the spraying of the wine on the ground, the burning of paper offerings, and kowtow to the god. Compared to ancestor worship, the earth god worship functions more directly to enhance the village identity, especially among individual members of a mix-lineage community. In Tung Chung, however, the ceremony has never taken the elaborate form of the tso-she (doing the she), i.e., special collective rituals and celebratory activities consisting of a feast in honour of the neighbourhood god at various times of the year. Being ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 ARTICLES THE DICKINSON REPORT: AN ACCOUNT OF THE BACKGROUND TO, AND PREPARATION OF, THE 1966 WORKING GROUP REPORT ON LOCAL ADMINISTRATION TREVOR CLARK Much commentary on Hong Kong's internal affairs before its return to China focused on the alleged anomaly of having delayed the introduction of a wider franchise until the very last years of a century-and-a-half's span of power. There was also dispute over whether the evident split of faith among the indigenous Hong Kong leadership was in reality between those openly "pro-China" and those supposedly "anti-China"; or whether it was not more truly between those who are "pro-Hong Kong's people" and those simply (and more pragmatically) "pro-business." It is in this context that the death of William Vivian Dickinson MBE(Mil) reminded his past colleagues of 'The Dickinson Report', otherwise known as Report of the Working Party on Local Administration'. The recent discussion and controversy over institutional changes make a backward glance at this document and its provenance a matter for poignant reflection. It will be remembered that Britain's immediately post-war Labour Secretaries of State for the Colonies had required all Governors to accelerate the long-accepted progress towards dominion status, as independence with full membership of the Commonwealth had been known: pressures from the United States of America and the new institutions of the United Nations had demanded no less. Attlee's government was happy to require action, by way primarily of building upwards from local government reform, coupled with improved labour and trades union legislation, and attention to education - all this backed by development and welfare plans funded by acts of parliament, which had started with the ground-breaking Colonial Development & Welfare Act passed in the dark wartime year of 1940. Hong Kong had been treated no differently, and Sir Mark Young had returned as Governor after the Pacific War with plans for appropriate initiatives. These included a Municipal Council, with Mayor, 30 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 134 have therefore added it here for the record. The Sowerbys were an old family of Saxon stock that can be traced back to the time of Edward the Confessor, and possibly earlier to the first kings of Kent in the fifth century AD. Arthur de Carle Sowerby was the great grandson of James Sowerby, who died in 1822, the botanist who wrote English Botany and was one of the founder members of the Geological Society. His son in turn continued his work and helped organise the Royal Botanic Society and Gardens in Regent's Park. On his mother's side Arthur was descended from Pierre Séguier, the Chancellor of France in the reign of Louis XIII; he was also the great grandson of Anthony Stuart, the miniature and portrait painter of the early Victorian period. Arthur's uncle was part-founder and first Keeper of the National Gallery of Portraits in Trafalgar Square. At the end of his schooling he began his training to be an artist but soon left it for that of a scientist, working for his BSc. at Bristol. He returned to China having dropped out of College and after his arrival back in China he was appointed in 1906 in the double capacity of lecturer and curator on the staff of the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin. He served in France during World War 1 as Technical Officer in the Chinese Labour Corps, and on his return to China made his headquarters in Shanghai where he remained until the end of the Second World War. He developed an interest in Chinese Art and was impressed by the accuracy of ancient Chinese craftsmen in modelling pottery animals for the tomb, an accuracy that enabled him as a naturalist to identify the breeds of various domestic animals in use in ancient China. He wrote a series of articles for the China Journal on Birds in Chinese Art; the Owl in Chinese Art; The Flora in Chinese Art; Rocks, Mountains and Water in Chinese Art; Animals in Chinese Art; as well as Animals in the Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales of China. His interest in craftsmanship also led him to write a series of articles on Chinese arts and crafts, including four papers on the Chinese ivory industry. ================================================================================ 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-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 213 81 person named "Soo Hoy-ü." Once again Legge insisted that Soo be dealt with "in some way which should mark their sense of the enormity of his conduct." Both conditions were acknowledged and accepted by all of the officials Legge spoke to. Things went so smoothly, both in ritual form and placid acceptance of what must have been very difficult conditions for the officials, that Legge was both elated and disgusted. In his own mind at the time, the officials' display of timely submissiveness under pressure appeared only little more than blatant bathos." Cohen rightly points out how this kind of situation in the decade of the 1860s placed any Qing official between the Scylla of imperial duties to follow the treaty stipulations and the Charybdis of the anti-foreignism of local gentry who carried much popular support.82 Having bent over backwards for months previous to Legge's arrival, trying to use more humane means to obtain compliance from the literatus Soo and his supporters, the district magistrate had to battle at cross purposes with the popular demonology supporting anti-foreignism and the additional shame of recent military defeats. To act too abruptly or harshly would earn the magistrate the epithet of being a “friend of foreigners,” and so even risk his imperial role as an appointed civil authority. On the other hand, any blatant refusal to respond to the treaty conditions would merit imperial disfavour and severe reprimand, possibly including imprisonment. The double bind working on officials in this Guangdong setting could not have been any stronger. 83 Early in the morning after the handover ceremonies Legge was woken by the River Superintendent ("Hoppo") and urged him to get an early start in his boat headed toward Canton. After the ceremonies the day before Legge had left the keys of the house in Ch'ea's hands, nominating the former keeper of the temple of Master Kong now the keeper of the new chapel dedicated to shangdi. When Legge mentioned to the Hoppo that he wanted to leave parting words with Ch'ea, the Hoppo apparently promised to pass on any message, and so Legge compliantly entered the waiting boat and headed off before sunrise. What motivated the Hoppo to treat Legge in this manner is ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 232 the former found in CWM/South China/Personal/Legge/Box 5). There is no written record of Ho's sermons, but one could search certain passages of his commentaries to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark for suggestions. 62. Both the cults of Guanyin and Guandi (or Guangōng) have been very popular in different periods of Chinese history, the former originally a Buddhist bodhisatva and the latter originally a military general made famous in the early Weijin period novel, Three Kingdoms, and later honoured as a warrior spirit. Devotion toward them both is still a regular feature of traditional Chinese practices. For initial information, see articles and cross references on Guanyin [Kuan-yin] and Guandi [Kuan-ti] in Jonathan Z. Smith, ed., The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco: HarperCollins Pub., 1995), p. 647, and a fuller article involving the origins and reverence shown to Guanyin in Raoul Birnbaum, "Avaloketsvara," Mircea Eliade, ed. The Encyclopaedia of Religion (Chicago: MacMillan Pub. Co., 1987), Vol. 2, pp. 11-14. See broader discussions about the influence of the cult of Guanyin in the past and present in John E. C. Blofeld, Bodhisatva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin (Boston: Shambhal, 1988), Wen Guangxi, Guānshìyīn pusà běnjī yinyuán (The Causes of the Various Expedient Manifestations of the Bodhisattva Guānyin) (Hong Kong: Library of the Tripitaka Temple, 1986), Tay C. Y. (M. Zhèng Sēngyǐ), Guānyīn: Bàngè yǎzhōu de xìnyǎng (Guanyin: A Faith [Expressed throughout] Half of Asia) (Taipei: Hui Chu Pub., 1993). Recent studies on Guandi include Hong Shuling, Guangōng mínjiān zàoxíng zhī yánjiù: yǐ Guāngōng chuánshuō wèi zhōngxīn de kǎochá (Studies of the Models Of Guāngōng Found among the People: Investigations taking the Traditional Stories about Guāngōng as the Central Focus) (Taipei: Taiwan National University Pub. Co., 1995). 63. "Sabbath culture" is a technical term I developed in Striving for "The Whole Duty of Man" in order to describe the Chinese Christian form of life which had been adopted and transformed from Scottish Dissenter precedents. It involved resting from all normal work on the Christian Sabbath, devoting oneself to church worship in Christian community for part of the day, and doing works of charity and witness at other times, whether with family, church friends, or by oneself. 64. In his "Reminiscences" Legge tells how Ch'ea at first found the German missionaries being treated meanly by a group of local people, and so he rushed up to the crowd, yelling at them not to disturb them but to listen, because "they are servants of the Most High God". See Reminiscences, p. 15. 65. See EMMC/MM 24 (February 1860), pp. 39-40. 66. Days before Ch'ea's murder the two men were together again in a boat, and Legge noted how Ch'ea made it his personal goal to speak to each of the crew members about spiritual matters. His evangelistic approach was thorough and consistent, positively impressing Legge especially during the time when his own reappearance in Poklo was taken as a self-conscious risk (as will be described below). The very same zeal, however, was evaluated in very different terms by Ch'ea's enemies, See Legge, Ch'ea Kin Kwáng, typed manuscript, p. 6. 67. When in the presence of the mandarin Wang, Legge and Chalmers spoke Cantonese, and this was assumably translated into either Mandarin or guanhua by Ch'ea (a more literary form of the Mandarin used among the Chinese gentry) ================================================================================