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 43 Until the Tibetan form of government was abolished in 1959, it was possible to trace its ancestry back through thirteen centuries and to find there the seeds of institutions that one could see in operation with one's own eyes. The script and the language have changed very little in the course of these thirteen centuries. The script, which was borrowed from India in approximately 640 A.D., can still be seen in inscriptions of about a century later. Any literate Tibetan today can read those inscriptions and can understand them pretty well except for a few archaic words. But I suppose the greatest example of conservatism and mystery in the eyes of the outside world is the supremacy of religion, as seen in the rule of the Dalai Lama. This, however, is a fairly recent development. Buddhism reached Tibet in the seventh century; as you know, it came both from China and India, but the Indian stream eventually proved the stronger. In less than two hundred years after its introduction, Buddhist monks were holding office as chief ministers of state. The kings, it is true, were laymen, but Buddhists were already powerful officials. Then there came a setback of two centuries, after which religion resumed its rise in importance. The great monasteries acquired larger and larger estates and more and more temporal influence. Indeed, for about seventy years, at the time of the Yuan dynasty, a religious leader was made viceroy of the country. This was never fully accepted by the lay princes and very soon there was a return of supreme power to secular hands. It was not until 1640 (a thousand years after Buddhist religion reached Tibet) that, with the help of the Mongol Khan in the Kokonor, the line of Dalai Lamas emerged as the actual rulers. Although their role as reformers of the church had begun two centuries earlier, other lines of incarnate Lamas in Tibet, which exercised great influence until they were suddenly swept away in 1640, could trace their ancestry to the early years of the twelfth century. That is why I have described the Dalai Lamas as relative newcomers. The rule of the Dalai Lamas, after a first brilliant appearance in the hands of a figure known as the Great Fifth, faded out. There was a period of seventy years when the laymen resumed sway and there was even a lay king. Though religious power was restored in 1750, for a century Tibet was ruled not by Dalai Lamas but by monastic regents acting for minor Dalai Lamas who died at an early age four times in succession. The system of supreme personal rule by the Dalai Lama, both temporal and spiritual, was only firmly restored by the thirteenth incarnation—that is, the predecessor of the present Dalai Lama. So you see there was nothing static about the Tibetan system, nor was it a simple one. There have been a whole series of adjustments and balances. The Dalai Lamas, for example, although they are in theory autocratic, are in fact the creation ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 80 that a Taoist priest entered her chamber. She was indignant and shouted, "This is my inner room; how dare you, a stranger, come in!" The Taoist priest said, "Hurry up, madam, receive your marvellous child!" Before she had had time to reply, the priest pushed something into her arms and she awoke, and her body was wet with cold sweat. She was frightened and before she could tell her husband all about the dream, she was again seized with a birth spasm. Li Ching went to the sitting room which was adjoining and thought over the matter. Suddenly two maids came out exclaiming “Madam has given birth to a monster!” Li Ching held his sword and rushed into the chamber. The room was filled with red mist which emitted a strong fragrance. A lump of flesh was rolling round the room like a wheel. Li Ching cut it with his sword and a baby jumped out, bathed in red light. The boy was very handsome; his face was as white as powder; on his right wrist was a golden bracelet; and his belly was covered with a piece of red silk gauze, which shone with a golden glow. He was a god, a re-incarnation (avatar) of the Ling-chu-tzu (Master of the Intelligent Pearl) and was destined to be the vanguard under Marshal Chiang Tzu-ya. To give birth to a lump of flesh is something unusual in Chinese legends. But similar cases can be cited from the Buddhist sutras translated into Chinese as early as the third century. In the tale of Putrah (7) in chüan 7 of the Avadanasataka (# E), it is said that "when the Buddha was in the country of Kapilavastu (E6) under the nyagrodha tree (ficus Indica), there was an elder who was very rich and his treasures were abundant and beyond measure. He married a wife from a notable family whom he loved very much, and with music and dances he used to entertain her. Now she conceived and when ten months elapsed she gave birth to a freak—a lump of flesh. The elder was vexed about it and thought it inauspicious. In the Fu-kuo Chi (DE "A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms") under the "stupa in the Vaisali” (œÊME) it is recorded, + · • • On the upstream of the Ganges River there was a king whose concubine gave birth to a lump of flesh. The formal wife was jealous and said it was inauspicious, so she ordered this lump to be put in a wooden box and thrown into the river. Another king went out for an excursion on the river and opened the box in which he found a thousand babies who were extraordinarily handsome and dignified. The king took care of them until they grew up, when they were brave 23 No. 20, The Tripitaka in Chinese. ================================================================================ 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 81 and strong and victorious in fighting. Now the king sent them to invade their own country, and the father was much worried. 24 This kind of Buddhist story would not pass without leaving some traces in the prompt-books, sources of which are predominantly Buddhist ballads. For instance, in the prompt-book Hsin-pien Wu-tai Liang-shih P'ing-hua (“Popular Tales of the Five Dynasties, Period of Liang”), chüan 1, we read, The wife of Huang Tsung-tan was pregnant for fourteen months. One day she gave birth to a substance which looked like a lump of flesh, but inside it was a piece of purple silk gauze in which was wrapped a baby. When the wrapper was opened, purple mist of dazzling brilliance filled the room. 25 Thus his mother gave birth to Huang Ch'ao. Again in the Ch'ien Han-shu P'ing-hua (“Han Hsin's Death at the Hands of Empress Lü”), chüan 3, when "Madam Po (a concubine of the first emperor of the Former Han dynasty) was in labour, Empress Lü went to see her. She was glad to find that the baby was a freak without eyes or eyebrows, like a lump of flesh." In the anonymous Yüan play, Chin-shui-ch'iao Ch'ên-lin Pao Chuang-ho, in Act 2, when Empress Liu ordered the palace maid K'ou Ch'êng-yü to stab the baby prince and throw him into the river from the bridge, the latter hesitated for she saw "red light and purple mist enshrouding the body of the prince." We may now admit that the novel Fêng-shên Yen-i has a closer relation with the "Four Travels" than with other prompt-books. In Ch.8 of the Nan-yu-chi, the Buddha of Light told the Flowery Light “to be re-incarnated in the shape of a lump of flesh.” Consequently the Flowery Light, floating about in the air, arrived at the village Hsiao-chia Chuang of Wu-yüan, Anhwei, and darted into the womb of Madam Hsiao who had been pregnant for twenty months. "Now the maid came out to report to the elder, 'Madam has given birth.' 'A boy or a girl?' the elder asked. 'It is neither a boy nor a girl. It is just like the belly of an ox.' The elder was very much frightened. When they decided to throw the lump away into the river, it... 24 Fu-kuo Chi, translated by James Legge as "A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms", Oxford, 1886, Ch. 25, p. 73. 25 Hsin-pien Wu-tai Shih P'ing-hua, photolithographed edition, published by Prof. Tung K'ang, Wu-chin Tung-shih Sung-fên-shih (AAS), 1911. There are also several popular editions available. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 58 HEROLD J. WIENS mountainous regions of south China but also across the southern borders in Burma, Laos and Vietnam. The Yao, like the Miao, also are mountain-loving people, but appear to have originated as ethnic groups in the hill country of east-central China, in such regions as the present provinces of Anhwei, Chekiang and Kiangsu. They were here as early as Chinese records mention them, but they appear to have gradually abandoned these areas, as Han-Chinese settlement increased in density, and friction over land and other matters led the Yao to seek more isolated mountains. Since they were like the Miao in their type of fire-field or forest-burning, shifting cultivation, they inevitably came into close contact with the Miao and have many cultural features in common with the Miao. Elements of the language also appear similar. Some Chinese ethnographers have considered the Wu-ch'i Man a Yao rather than a Miao group, and others believe them to have common origins. This confusion is probably due to strong Mon Khmer influences originating from India and Southeast Asia in the earliest times. 4 One of the supporting arguments for the common origin of Yao and Miao is the common cult attached to the dog and the tiger. The Yao trace their ancestry mythically to the union of a princess with a supernatural dog-hero called P'an-hu. Yao myths trace their movement southward from both the central Yangtze valley regions and from the Chekiang-Fukien mountains. Folk songs of the Yao indicate further that they crossed over the Nan-ling mountains in great numbers during the period of Huang-ch'ao's rebellion in the reign of the T'ang Emperor Hsi-Tsung (A.D. 874-889),4 When the Miao moved into the Kweichow region in the earliest times, they probably found the Yi or Wu-man peoples already in occupation of western Kweichow. The Yi certainly preceded the Han in this part of China, and the Han Chinese have known of the Yi in their present habitats in southwest China for over 2,500 years. The peculiar manner in which the * Chiang Ying-liang, Hsi-nan pien-chiang min-tsu lun-ts'ung (A discussion of the peoples of the southwest borderlands), Canton, 1948, 74-79; see also Ling Shun-sheng and Jui Yi-fu, Hsiang-hsi Miao-tsu t'iao-cha pao-kao (Report of research on the Miao of west Hunan), Academia Sinica, Shanghai, 1947. 4 Hsu Sung-shih, Yueh-chiang liu-yü jen-min (The peoples of the Yueh river drainage), Shanghai, 1939, 130-135. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r FENG CHAU 93 26 Dated the thirteenth day of the sixth Moon of the 8th year of Kuang Hsü (27th July 1882). 27 Other examples of local tax-lords are quoted in note 12 of my Cheung Chau article. For an interesting instance from another part of the New Territories see Appendix II to the Report on the New Territory for the year 1900, Hong Kong Government Gazette, vol. XLVII (1901), pp. 1403-4, where a claim by members of a branch of the TANG family of Kam Tin to ownership of the whole island of Ts'ing I was investigated by a member of the Land Court. He wrote "I have taken special pains to go thoroughly into this case because it seems a very typical example of the curious and unwarrantable pretensions to the ownership of very large tracts of country which are perhaps the most striking feature in the economy of what we call the New Territory." Like the TANGS, the CHANS may have owned part but claimed, or aimed to control, the whole. 28 It is interesting that the earliest grave known on the island has a tablet dated Chien Lung fifteenth year (1749) and that the person buried there is a CHAN Yiu Hong & and the person responsible for erecting the tablet (no relationship is given) CHAN Hing Sin. These men may conceivably have had something to do with the CHAN Yan Hop and Yee Ka Tongs. The grave is unlikely to be that of a fisherman and most likely to be that of someone who was living on Peng Chau at the time of his death. Not everyone is provided with a formal grave, and therefore he was probably a person of some consequence. Also, at the time of the land settlement, various persons named CHAN who were not local villagers but belonged to Peng Chau and Nam Tau (BCL) owned land on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau. One of them was the CHAN Yan Hop Tong of Nam Tau. This land may represent the remains of larger holdings left over from an earlier period but mostly sold or mortgaged by 1899, or else not recognised by the Land Court during the re-registration of titles, as being "not compatible with the principles of British administration" as happened with some other tax-lord land in the New Territories—see note 12 to my Cheung Chau article. 29 Peng Chau M.S. 30 BCL. 31 BCL, Lantau coast. 32 A lucky day of the first winter month of the year of Tao Kuang (1834), 33 BCL. 34 BCL. 35 BCL. 36 Peng Chau M.S. 37 At the 1911 census (see note 7 above) the population of these villages was Nei Kwu Chau 78, Tai Pak 52, and Yee Pak 59. There were also families living in hamlets at Nim Shue Wan, Cheung Sha Lan, Hai Tei Wan, Hung Shui, Kau Shat Wan and Man Kok, but they are not listed in the Census. 38 There is conflicting evidence about the prosperity of the area in the second half of the century. The decline of population on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau has been noted. This is more noticeable elsewhere on Lantau, where some of the more important villages can be shown to have Page 105 Page 106 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 20 JOHN 1. NOLDE of the six Englishmen, no one can deny that they did venture into the country-side in December, 1847, and that their bodies were found in the river several days later. But no one knows exactly what happened. They may have brought the attack on themselves by an ill-considered use of fire-arms, or they may have blundered into some kind of inter-village, or inter-clan, feud. In any case, we don't know that they were murdered simply because they were foreigners. 30 As to the events of 1849, it may well be that they were organized not so much to keep the foreigner out of the city per se but to prevent serious rioting and looting within the city, which, the authorities well knew, could, and probably would, be turned against themselves. The presence of the barbarian with his goods and gold within the walls would attract every villain and trouble-maker for miles around. The problem of the 1840's was the same as that which existed in the previous two decades: the continuing erosion of Imperial authority. Chinese documents, most of them un-official, suggest a pattern of turmoil and tumult even exceeding that of the 1820's and 1830's. Triad outbreaks occurred in 1843 in the districts of Tung-kuan and Hsun-teh. In the latter, in December, "above a hundred were killed and several hundred wounded".31 Hsiang-shan district witnessed a serious Triad disturbance in 1844, as did P'an-yu in 1845.32 A high Chinese official, home on leave in Hsiang-shan reported that brigands ran wild in the White Cloud Mountains northeast of Canton and that the authorities were unable, or unwilling, to act.33 In 1846 the yamen of the prefect of Kwang-chou was attacked and looted.1⁄4 So serious had the situation become by that year that the Governor-General called a meeting of his chief advisors to discuss the matter. Apparently little was done, for it is reported that in 1847 a bandit chief in Hsiang-shan had gathered together more than 10,000 men and had established a "puppet government".35 One account notes that in 1847 and 1848 members of unlawful societies in hundreds and thousands, "carrying tents and armed with swords", were terrorizing the districts north of Canton.36 At the height of the "entry" crisis of 1849, Governor Yeh Ming-ch'en reported to Peking that should the foreigner be permitted to enter the city troublemakers ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY 75 Vaillant 1920, p. 85. Leaving this discussion open, there is still reason to assume that both the disturbances in Kwangtung and the Hakka expansion to the south were correlated with a search for new areas for resettlement. 28 'A dreadful internecine strife, in which 150,000 at least, perished, took place between the Hakkas and Pún-téis in the south-western districts of the Canton province, from A.D. 1864 to 1866, and arms and even armed steamers, were procured from Hong Kong by both parties. Ball 1925, p. 282. A Hong Kong resident reports that the Peninsula of Kowloon presented for several days in August, 1862, the novel aspect of an animated battlefield, as the Punti inhabitants of the neighbouring villages were engaged in a bloody warfare with Hakka settlers at Tsimshatsui." Eitel 1895, p. 380. See also n. 27. 29 "Every year is marked unfortunately by an increasing influx of unattached and often undesirable characters from Chinese Territory, most Hakkas from the Wai Chau and Hing Ning District. It is impossible to keep track of the movements of these persons, and many of them are tempted by their opportunity of acquiring unlawful gains by means of robbery, kidnapping, 'White pigeon', and kindred offenses. It is hoped that these undesirable additions to the population will be considerably curtailed before long." New Territories Report 1917, p. J2. 30 The quarry-men are nearly all Hakkas from Kweishin, who settle at the quarries until they have made some money and then return home." New Territories Report 1899-1912, p. 55. 31 This type of extension might also have served as reconnaissance for a future settlement of a permanent kind. The following note from the New Territories could be interpreted in this direction: In the 24th year of the reign of the Emperor Kwong Shu, which was 1897, there came to the Land of the Jumping Dragon a Hakka by the name of Kong Tai Kuen. Up to that time none but Tangs had lived there. Kong rented a house and became a tenant-farmer. He recommended two of his relations to come along also, but they stayed only three years and then returned to the Kong ancestral village at Li Long north of the Shum Chun river, while Kong Tai Kuen gave up farming in the Jumping Dragon Land and moved to Fan Ling, Ingrams 1952, p. 162. 32 I use the word 'sojourner' in a freer sense than Paul Siu, to whom the term implies a stranger 'who spends many years of his lifetime in a foreign country without being assimilated by it;' Siu 1952, p. 34. My term signifies a person who temporarily lives geographically separated from the locality constituting his main focus of social interest. 33 SCPH 1965; Hong Kong 1964, p. 30. Apart from going abroad, some young men from Plum Grove Village and Big Stream Village work as police constables in Sha Tin and Kowloon. One man from Grass Field Village works in a textile factory in Kwun Tong, New Kowloon, 34 This is confirmed by other sources. For instance, the New Territories Report 1900 remarks upon the fact that 'Hakka women work as hard, if not harder, than their men,' (p. 269). An observant traveller noticed that in Mei Hsien in Kwangtung, the Hakka district where both people in Big Stream Village and Grass Field Village had their clan foci. 'it seems to be mainly the women who do the hard work. They do not bind their feet. The women are strong and erect, though excessive toil begun too early in life may account in part for their tendency to be undersized... the women do all ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT 117 often held by a Keu-jin or a Sew-tsai, whilst a Keu-jin very seldom accepted the office of Fan-to. The chief officers of a town-ship were generally such as had purchased a low rank, and who frequently had been long in the service of high mandarins. Throughout a long list of these officers, only two Man-chu names appear. During the Ming dynasty, graduates, even Seu-tsai, thought it beneath their dignity to accept this office, as they might fairly hope for higher employment; but at present the sale of places has reached so great a height, that even this low office is not bestowed on them gratuitously; and accordingly we find that, as the most learned are not always the most affluent, many meritorious men are lost in obscurity. We must now proceed to cast a glance at the Military Mandarins and their establishments. There are two Ying-pun camps in the district: the one at Nam-tou, the other at Tai-pung. At the former place the force consists of one “Yau-kik”, or Lieutenant-Colonel; one "Shou-pe", or Major; two "Tsing-tsung", or Lieutenants; four “Pa-tsung”, or Sergeants; and five "Ngai-wai", or Corporals. They are in command of 995 soldiers, of whom 20 are cavalry, 293 infantry, and 682 garrison soldiers. The pay of the whole establishment amounts to 14,000 taels per annum, with an allowance of 3,650 piculs of grain, and 15,000 bundles of straw, (principally used as fuel.) Extra emoluments are derived from the Imperial rice-fields, which are cultivated by the soldiers. This force is employed in garrisoning the district town and three forts, one of which is in the neighbourhood of Sanon, and the other two occupy the promontories of the bay of Chik-wan. It has also to supply men for twenty-four guard stations. The three forts above mentioned are ordered to have a garrison of twenty men, and to mount six guns each. I have visited these three places, but found neither guns nor soldiers, and the places themselves showed no signs of fortification, save a dilapidated wall. The guard stations should be furnished with from two to six soldiers each; they are scattered over the whole western part of the country, and are intended to serve as a check against the frequent highway robberies. I never found one of these stations ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT 125 and so drowned in all manner of wickedness, as to have lost their human nature. If I proceeded further into the interior, he told me, I should find the people more friendly, and more willing to listen to my errand. The mandarins in the Sanon district have very little power. The people pay the taxes, but do not allow the mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law-suits, differences, and offences are very seldom brought before the mandarins. The mandarin from whom I learnt the preceding facts had not, as far as I know, during a period of several years, more than one case brought before him for decision; in this instance he was both plaintiff and judge, — the criminal being a youth who was caught stealing fruit in his garden. Anxious to give the people an impression of his severity, he had the prisoner scourged, and continued the punishment till he was obliged to desist for fear that the prisoner might die. This excessive severity was caused by his vexation at not being able to get a groan, or a cry, or a prayer for pardon, from the culprit, as a proof of his power. This solitary act of justice of the mandarin was much laughed at by the people. The disputes between villages and clans are settled by the gentry. If they cannot come to an agreement, all connection is broken off, and without any declaration of hostilities, the disputants commence a predatory war on each other; in these quarrels, many a bloody battle is fought, hundreds of men perish, and whole villages are destroyed. Men of neutral villages or clans are generally well distinguished, and their rights respected; but it often happens, when a league of several powerful villages or clans are in arms against their enemies, they are not so particular, and will attack and plunder any man who falls in their way, except he belongs to a clan whose strength they fear. If, for instance, the clan Tang is at war with the clan Man, any person of a different surname may safely pass through the theatre of war. Missionaries also are considered neutrals; even if they dwell in the country of one of the belligerents, they may safely pass through the villages of the hostile clan, provided only they take care that the coolies with them are also neutrals. The following is an example of these feuds: There are two villages respectively named Sha-tsing, and Pak-tau-king which carried on a war for five years; with each of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g NOTES AND QUERIES 169 NOTES I am most grateful to Mr. Yuen Chun-fang, Liaison Officer, Secretariat for Chinese Affairs for help with the interviews which yielded part of the information given above. 1 Reports on the Past and Present State of Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions, 1845 (London, W. Clowes & Sons, for H.M.S.O., 1846) p. 147 and the same for 1846, p. 230. 2 G. R. Sayer, Hong Kong, Birth Adolescence and Coming of Age (Oxford, University Press, 1937) p. 208, quoting from the Canton Press, February 1842. 3 Sayer, p. 91. 4 Sayer, p. 30. 5 A. R. Johnston (H.M. Deputy Superintendent of Trade) "Note on the Island of Hong Kong" first published in the London Geographical Journal Vol. XIV, and reprinted in the Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846. 6 Hong Kong Government Gazette for 28 March 1857 p. 4, Table No. 4. 7 The Last Year in China......by a Field Officer actually employed in that Country. 2nd edition (London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1843) p. 75. 8 K. S. MacKenzie, Narrative of the Second Campaign in China (London, R. Bentley, 1842) p. 160. 9 See Hong Kong Administrative Reports for 1934, 1935 and 1936 at pp. Q.86, Q.84 and Q.81 respectively. 10 This information, like any other for which no specific source is quoted, comes from Mr. CHOW Chik-san of Kau Wai, aged 77 and Madam CHAN CHOW Ping of San Wai, aged 81. 11 Rev. W. Lobscheidt, A Few Notices on the Extent of Chinese Education and the Government Schools of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China Mail office, 1859). 12 See Summary of Report of Squatters Commission 1891-1906, pp. 97-103. This volume of MSS. is kept in the Library, Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong. 13 For accounts of Cantonese and Hakka see J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese (Hong Kong etc., Kelly and Walsh Ltd., 4th edition, 1903) pp. 202, 211 and 323-326. 14 LO Hsiang-lin and others, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, 1963) pp. 80-88. This is the English translation of the text, but not the notes, of their work published in Hong Kong in 1959. 15 This information is taken from the accounts given at p. 5 of Prof. Woo Sing-lim's The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, The Five Continents Book Co., 26th year of the Chinese Republic, 1937) published in Chinese and English and at pp. 578-579, under the name CHOW Cheong-ling, of Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad, published in London, Shanghai etc. by The Globe Encyclopedia Company, 1917. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 186 BOOK REVIEWS (2) to instill elementary knowledge of Confucian classics in the mind of the young; and (3) to familiarize children with the most widely used quotations, proverbs and stories from historical and literary writings. This booklet falls into the first of these categories. Although this type of work had undergone a continuous process of revision and development, some of the early texts had been kept in use since their first appearance in Han period. A few examples of Tang times can still be seen in collections of Tunhuang scrolls preserved in China and abroad. The Sung Neo-Confucian scholars first advocated and worked for a more relevant language teaching method for children and quite a number of standard work in this field were compiled during the Sung and Yuan Periods. But it was only in early Ming Dynasty that illustrations of the kind included in this primer were added. Thus this slim volume will be of special value to those interested in the study of Chinese educational techniques, particularly in regard to the study of basic language teaching. At the same time it is of considerable use as a historical reference work since the characters and illustrations are drawn from everyday life, thus providing us with additional information on physical surroundings of the period. Professor Goodrich has also given us in his notes, romanizations and brief explanations of individual characters and compounds, which further increase the usefulness of the work as a small but comprehensive source book of the times. MA MENG Hong Kong, 1967. CHINA: THE PEOPLE'S MIDDLE KINGDOM AND THE USA John K. Fairbank; Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, and London, Oxford University Press, 1967, pp. xi, 145. HK$27.50, How refreshing it is to read a volume of essays on China instead of one of the many tomes which issue from the world's presses on this abstruse country. Professor Fairbank is a famous historian, but his book shows him as what many experts at their own subject cannot manage to be, a populariser in the very best sense of the word. He has been able to distill from his many ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g BOOK REVIEWS 187 years of research on Chinese history and politics a number of profound thoughts on the situation of China which he lays before the reader simply, almost conversationally, without any of the impedimenta of scholarship to restrict his book to the expert. The result is a stimulating book which is effortless to read. All these essays were published earlier in magazines, and though this might have meant a rather disorganised book, in fact the aspects of the China problem which he covers in this rather small volume are the crucial ones, except possibly for the gap left by his silence on China's relations with Europe and the Soviet Union. On the whole the book is oriented towards the American reader, but this is justified in the preface in which Fairbank explains that his conception of the China expert is as a middleman, explaining China to his own country as much as studying it in vacuo. He fulfils this function himself beautifully in several pieces which show how China developed her hostility towards the U.S. and other foreigners, and one can hardly escape his conclusion that, if the American imperialists had not existed, Peking would have had to invent them. There are a couple of first-class essays on Taiwan, and, at the end, an assortment which includes a piece on the journalist Edgar Snow and another on the protestant missions in China. Both of them drive home vital aspects of the gap in understanding between China and the U.S. Hong Kong. COLINA LUPTON 1. LOCAL PUBLICATIONS NOTED MAKING ENDS MEET; Majorie Topley (Ed.) being Vol. 1, Journal of the Hong Kong Institute of Social Research (1965), pp. iv, 117, published in Hong Kong by the South China Morning Post. H.K.$5. CHILDREN WITH PROBLEMS — CHILD GUIDANCE IN HONG KONG: by Gennie Gen-hwa Lee, Anita King-fun Li and Beryl Robina Wright. Hong Kong, 1966, pp. xii, 88, H.K.$6.00. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM 99 sources the bestness and most curiosity of the new breach-loading cannon invented by Sir William Armstrong I was eagerly desirous of obtaining one small gun for my own enjoyment or play to see the power and curiosity and usefulness etc. thereof....."6 He was too fond of women but he is said to have treated his wives well and to have loved all his enormous nursery of children. If his harem may be regarded as a mark of eastern backwardness in a changing world his social and economic reforms vastly outweighed this defect. Mongkut was the pioneer in the modernisation of Siam. He had vision for the future of his country. Harry Parkes writing on the negotiations records this impression of the man: "I was fortunate in securing and maintaining the friendship of the First King who listened to several of my propositions even against the will of his Ministers. He is really an enlightened man.... It is scarcely a matter of surprise that he should be capricious and at times not easily guided but he entered into the treaty well aware of its force and meaning and is determined, I believe, as far as in him lies, to execute faithfully all his engagements which are certainly of the most liberal nature." The "force and meaning" of the Treaty was the opening of Siam to western commerce and ideas, social and economic reform and her continued independence. Balanced between competing empires, Siam accepted reform and western influence and by yielding, averted domination. The circumstances of Mongkut's death were typical of the King. He predicted an eclipse of the sun in 1868 and made elaborate arrangements to observe the event. He chose a place far to the south, near the Malay States, and invited Sir Harry Ord, Governor of the Straits Settlements, his officials and their ladies to attend. Invitations had gone to Paris to send French scientists. A palace and residences for the distinguished visitors were built, and quantities of European food and wine were brought to this remote spot. The King with his suite of nobles and their wives sailed south for the occasion. Mongkut's prediction was right, and at the last moment the clouds cleared to reveal the eclipse. The foreign visitors were much impressed and Mongkut Page 105 Page 106 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH 137 settled in the hills and along the coasts of our region. They themselves acknowledge that they are the latest comers into the region, and that they have migrated from exclusively Hakka-speaking country between Kwangtung, Fukien and Kiangsi provinces. The Hakka of those parts declare that they migrated from North China and this tradition is confirmed in every way by scholars, often Hakka themselves, who have collated separate family histories. From these studies it is possible to know that the Hakka did not migrate south of Kiangsi before the 10th century A.D. and we can infer from this that their appearance in this region was several centuries later. 7 From the evidence of their names we can begin to distinguish two kinds of inhabitants--one pure Chinese and one of non-Chinese origin. But on the other hand there is much negative evidence that could be brought forward. In the first place in customs and religion the Tanka and Hoklo seem to follow Chinese tradition; they have the same reverence for ancestors, the same surnames, they marry and bury the dead with the same ceremonies. They have an identical calendar of feast days, and their dialects, Cantonese and Fukienese, have nothing either in place-names, or vocational expressions or any other vocabulary which might contain archaisms to suggest that they ever used another language. In the second place there is absolutely no apparent evidence that the Tanka and Hoklo are of the same extraction. They do not look alike physically and they do not intermarry nor mix freely in spite of being in close contact with one another. Indeed, the Tanka are much more akin to the Cantonese in outward appearance, and but for a difference of pronunciation it would be almost impossible to distinguish between them. In the third place, the Hakka and Punti differ in their religious customs on one important point. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by the Punti, Tanka and Hoklo on the 5th day of the 5th moon every year. The Hakka do not keep this feast. The importance of the Dragon Boat Festival as a clue to origins of culture will be described in a later section of this article. However there is one broad distinction which can be made. In their differences in occupation and dwellings the population divides 7 For instance, Lo Hsiang Ling (#); K'o Chia Yen Chiu (3 RMX). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL SALVATION 35 treaty of Nanking, in 1842, which was the result of these troubles, opened four more doors in the wall of exclusiveness with which China had surrounded herself. Amoy, Foochow, Ning Po and Shanghai were added to Canton, thus making five points of touch between China and the West. This did something to rouse China from the Saturnian dreams in which she had been so long indulging; but more was wanting to make her wide awake. It required the fire of the Summer Palace to singe her eyebrows, the advance of the Russian in Kuldja and the Frenchman in Tong-King, to enable her to realise the situation in which she was being placed by the ever-contracting circle that was being drawn around her by the Europeans. By the light of the burning palace which had been the pride and the delight of her Emperors she commenced to see that she had been asleep whilst all the world was up and doing; that she had been sleeping in the vacuous vortex of the storm of forces wildly whirling around her. In such moment China might have been excused had she done something desperate, for there is apt to be a good deal of beating about and wild floundering on such a sudden awakening; but there was none in the case of China. A wise and prudent prince counselled China to pay the price of her mistakes, whilst the great Chinese statesman who is now in power, and who, since 1860, has rendered such incalculable services to his country, began that series of preparations which would now make it difficult to repeat the history of that, for China, eventful year. It is not a moribund nation that can so quietly accept its reverses, and gather in courage from them, set about throwing overboard the wreckage and make a fair wind of the retiring cyclone. The Summer Palace, with all its wealth of art, was a high price to pay for the lesson we there received, but not too high if it has taught us how to repair and triple fortify our battered armour; and it has done this. China is no longer what she was even five years ago. Each encounter and especially the last has, in teaching China her weakness, also discovered to her her strength. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 40 CHIU LING-YEONG be what her many well-wishers fondly desire her to be unless she will first cast aside all her unjust dealings with her own children and learn to dispense justice with an impartial hand, — to discountenance official corruption in every form and to secure the happiness and unity of her people by a just and liberal policy. In short, before undertaking anything else, she should look after the all-necessary reforms in her internal administration. She must not wait for another more convenient season, but begin at once 'to set her house in order', even before she feels that she can rely on the bolts and bars she is now applying to her doors.' Bad servants are worse than thieves and robbers while a united household is in itself a strong bulwark against any external eruption. Of what avail are bolts and bars where, in terms of danger, no one is found competent or faithful to attend to them. As for equitable rule and right government, Ho Kai said it was not the emperor but the people who built up the country. It was also the people, not the emperor, who could make a country become prosperous. The duty of an emperor, therefore, was to protect his subjects and direct them to establish the empire. His responsibility was to benefit the people and to direct them to make their country prosperous. The administrators, especially those in the Court, often thought that they had already made their best attempts and put their best efforts into fulfilling their duty. But, whatever they had done, it was only the common people who fully realised, whether it was beneficial or not, whether it was profitable or not, because it was they who actually experienced their ruler's administration. Therefore, even though the emperor was so overburdened with his responsibility of ruling that he could neither sleep nor eat peacefully, the people still could not see any good in his rule. Ho Kai believed that there was no difficulty in governing the people. He continued: The people may not be very learned and yet they cannot be ill-treated. The people may be ignorant and yet they can be easily enlightened. Therefore, there must be some reasons within. If those who rule the country want to understand such factors, they have to learn the principle of knowledge and adopt the most efficient way of ruling. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART: COLONIAL CIVIL SERVANT AND SCHOLAR HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE* THE HONG KONG CADET 'I had some amusement,' wrote Sir William des Voeux, 'in watching the other guests. Mr. Lockhart (the official protector of Chinese), who sat opposite to me, attacked all the dishes like a man, and would alone have redeemed the credit of our party with the Chinese for gastronomic taste. Possibly having been for some years in China, he has become accustomed to what European new-comers are apt to regard as repulsive. Otherwise his control of the facial muscles was almost superhuman.' Sir William des Voeux, Governor of Hong Kong from 1887 to 1891, was attending a dinner given by the prominent Chinese of Hong Kong and the Lockhart he mentions was James Haldane Stewart Lockhart, who later became known as a distinguished colonial civil servant and one of the best Chinese scholars among the foreigners of his time in China. All in all, he was probably one of the most intelligent, efficient, and scholarly colonial secretaries that Hong Kong has had. This article is designed to give a brief account of his life, work and writings. Lockhart was born at Ardsheal, Argyllshire, Scotland on 26 May, 1858, the fourth son of Miles Lockhart of Lanhams, Essex, and grandson of James Lockhart, Lord of the Manor of Marston and Oving, Buckinghamshire. On his mother's side she was born Anna R.C. Stewart, daughter of Major Stewart, 91st Regiment. He inherited Stewart blood, for she was the niece of Charles Stewart, eighth of Ardsheal, male representative of the Stewarts of Lorne, Appin and Ardsheal. Appin was the country of Lockhart's mother's branch of the royal Stewarts, and the scene of much of Stevenson's Kidnapped. Lockhart was educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, George Watson's College, Edinburgh, where he achieved distinction as a Greek medallist, and at Edinburgh University, where he was awarded the gold medal for Greek. * Mr. Lethbridge is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. He is well known as a contributor to Hong Kong studies. His article on Hong Kong Cadets 1862-1941 [Journal, Vol. 10 (1970)] is relevant to the present study. Plates 1-7 illustrate this article. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 166 W. SCHOFIELD and exported them to Hong Kong. Even a scrap of tin, perhaps smelted from ore obtained on the Kwangtung coast, was found during excavation at one site where bronze axes were cast. At the same time, the bead trade, so active in Malaya and the great islands, and even in the Philippines, appears to have passed South China by, for the only beads found are either of jade or of soft greenish local stone used as a substitute. This bead trade is in fact coextensive with Indian influence in the Archipelago. Fifth, these finds raise the vast question of the immigrations of the Polynesians and Indonesians from Asia into the Pacific, and the routes they followed. Having regard to the distribution of anthropological types today, we cannot suppose that any large number of Polynesians ever visited the China coast; but there is the strongest probability that tribes of the types of those inhabiting Hainan, Formosa, the Philippines and Borneo frequented the coast, and perhaps started from it to their present seats. It may be possible eventually to prove that survivors of these peoples still live on the coast; personally, I am disposed to regard the Tan Ka or boatpeople of the Kwangtung coast as such survivors. Certain tribes of the interior, the Yui or Yao, and the Siapo of Foochow, may be similar remnants. The archaeology of the historic periods has, inevitably, been comparatively neglected in the attractions of unearthing ancient and unknown cultures. Pottery of types familiar to archaeologists in Canton, and attributed to the Han and the Six Dynasties period (100 B.C. to 600 A.D.), has been found at several Hong Kong sites: urns probably of pre-T'ang date (615 A.D. or earlier) have been unearthed at Sheung Shui near the border and elsewhere; and pottery and porcelain of Sung, Yuan and later dynasties can be found everywhere, especially near villages. Forts and watch-posts are to be seen on islands and promontories, and walled towns and villages are frequent inland; such fortifications are, however, post-mediaeval, and the oldest are late Ming, designed for coast defence against Japanese pirates. Of megalithic remains, such as are known as near as the Laos country in Indo-China, no trace exists. No ancient porcelain kilns, such as exist in North and Central China, were ever started within the Colony, though one small establishment for making rice bowls and cooking pots has been found. In one road cutting a mass of broken porcelain of early Ming date, much ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 198 Chinese Woodcuts NOTES AND QUERIES by Max Loehr (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 1. Columbia University, 1971. L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH UNUSUAL TREES IN HONG KONG: THE CANTON WATER PINE If you leave Kowloon and proceed along the Tai Po Road, shortly after passing the Hong Lok Yuen orchard, you will come to an open area with villages and flower farms by the roadside and with hills in the background bounding the valley. Near milestone 184 on your left is a large Cantonese village, Tai Hang, and in this village at the back of Fei Sha Wai, there are two fascinating but often overlooked trees standing at no great distance from the road. These are Chinese Deciduous Cypress, or Canton Water Pine as it is sometimes known. The scientific name is Glyptostrobus pensilis. Belonging to the family Taxodiaceae, Glyptostrobus is a genus which contains only the single species pensilis. Its distribution is confined to the Provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung in South China, and mature specimens are very uncommon in Hong Kong. The tree may be recognised by its light-brown, fibrous bark, and its foliage which demonstrates two types of leaves: overlapping scales on fruiting twigs and thin needles on the sterile twigs, both of which are a delicate green in spring, turning brown and falling in autumn. The long-stalked cones are pear-shaped and about one and a half inches long. These two old specimens are said to have been planted by one of the ancestors of the village. On asking about the possible age of these two trees, the Village Representative Mr. Man Tse-leung said that they had been planted by one of his ancestors in the Ming Dynasty with seedlings from Law Fu Shan, Canton from where the Man family came some 400 years ago. The Village Representative's account of the origin and age of these two ancients is not without precedent. It is a world-wide practice for an emigrant to take something representative of his old country with him to his new home, in order to give later generations something from his country of origin. Mr. Man's ancestor apparently did just such a thing. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 66 CHIU LING-YEONG The style of I-seng was of Iranian origin, in which modeled and shaded polychrome figures seemed to stand out in relief, or even to float free from their background. His style is believed to have influenced Wu Tao-hsüan and to be traceable in the caves of Tun-huang. 35 From Chinese sources, Ta Yü-chih had three paintings extant in T'ang period, namely: (1) Liu-fan tu; (2) Wai-kuo pao-shu tu (the six foreigners); and (3) Po-lo-men tu (exotic tree from foreign country); (the Brahmara). However, according to Hsüan-ho hua-p'u, there were seven paintings of Hsiao Yu-chih's work, kept by Sung Hui-tsung, namely: 1. Icon of Maitreya 彌勒佛像一; 2. Buddhist icon 佛鋪圖一; 3. Buddhist followers 佛從像一; 4. Buddhist followers from foreign country 外國佛從像一; 5. Avolokitesvara 大悲像一; 6. Vidyaraja 智; 7. Foreigners36; These seven masterpieces were kept by the Emperor in the Inner Palace. Some of I-seng's paintings are still kept by collectors either in China or America, like the Dancing girl of Kucha #✯✯; A Sitting God 坐神; Buddha under the Mango Trees 吉羅林果佛; and Drunken Monk 醉僧圖. The Yu-chihs were also masters of mural-paintings. Some of their works can still be found in temples and pagodas in China. In the Sung period, their works were classified as shen-p'in (divine category). I-seng also introduced the 'iron-wire' line to China—the Western technique of using a line of unvarying thickness to outline figures.37 I-seng, according to Chang Yen-yüan, had brought new light to Chinese painting and made more paths for painters of the later generations to develop. Ch'in Ming-ho At th... In the field of medical science in T'ang China, Professor Lo Hsiang-lin inclines to believe that Persians had made tremendous contributions, especially in surgical operations. In A.D. 683, a Persian known as Ch'in Ming-ho, performed a neurosurgical ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS AND STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES KAM T'IN 錦田 SUNG HOK-P'ANG Kam T'in is one of the oldest villages in the New Territories. During the dynasty of Hau Chau (後周) A.D. 951-959 most of the villagers belonged to the family of Ch'an (陳) and the place was called Ch'an Tin (陳田) meaning Chan's field. In the 6th year of Hoi Po (開寶) A.D. 973 of Sung (宋) dynasty Tang Hon Fat (鄧漢黻) who is said to be the first Tang (鄧) ancestor to come to Kwangtung (廣東) settled in the village, and built the first house at the bottom of a hill called Kwai Kok Shaan (龜角山) about ¼ of a mile away from the present Kam T'in. It was at first called Sham Lei (岑里), but later on they cultivated the surrounding country and the name was changed to Sham Lei T'in (岑里田) which was soon shortened to Sham T'in (岑田) meaning fields surrounding a small hill. The present name of Kam T'in (錦田) or ornamental fields, was given to the village in the 15th year of Maan Lik (萬曆) A.D. 1587 of Ming dynasty (明朝), and it came about in this way. At that time there was a very bad famine in the San On district (新安縣), and the district magistrate Yau T'ai K’în (游大乾) was obliged to open the government granaries and distribute the rice to relieve the people. But when it was finished they were still in need, and the magistrate then sent his officers to all the rich men in the district asking them for donations to help the poor. Most of them contributed a few piculs of rice, but none of them more than a hundred. Then Tang Yuen Fan (鄧元藩) of Sham T'in was visited. He was the richest man in San On district, and was noted for his generosity. He owned over 10,000 Chinese acres of cultivated *There are six sections to this long article, each printed in different numbers of The Hong Kong Naturalist. In this reissue the separate parts will be indicated by figures within square brackets. The first three sections, given here, appeared in the issues for December 1935 and April and June 1936. The rest will follow in the next issue of this Journal. The romanizations used in the original included figures to indicate tone values. These are now excluded. Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 112 SUNG HOK-P'ANG land, distributed in various parts of the mainland, and on the island, having fields in Kowloon, Ch'eung Sha Wan (*) Kw'an Taai Lo (###) (where the city of Victoria now stands) Causeway Bay, Pokfulum and Aberdeen. He immediately promised to give one thousand piculs. When Yau Tai K'in heard of it he thought there must be some mistake, but the officer said, “At first I also thought he made a mistake, so I asked him again, and he said quite plainly, one thousand piculs!” So Yau T'ai K'in was very pleased, and he at once went off to visit Tang Yuen Fan, who said, “My rice is quite ready in the granary.” The magistrate sent off word to the "Yamen" to have junks sent to collect the rice, and on the day it was collected the river was so covered with the junks that the water could not be seen, and all the people gathered to watch shouted for joy. Yau remained with Tang several days and spent much time walking about the country admiring the scenery. He was much impressed by the fine buildings, open fields and pleasant woods, and exclaimed, “Why should the village have such a name? Sham T'in, it should be called Kam T'in instead!” The villagers were delighted with the new name, and it has remained till the present day. The name, however, now embraces quite a large collection of villages each with its own name, but most of the villagers still belong to the Tang family and the name of Ch'an has disappeared. There are a certain number of people with other surnames to be found among the Tangs, but they have come in from other places at different times and are not really native to the place in the same way as the Tangs are. A new village which goes by the name of San Ts'uen (††††) new village, has been built very recently for the Cheng (*) family who had to move from the Shing Moon (M¶) district when the reservoir was started. The only trace of the old Ch'an T'in village that remains is the temple known as Hung Shing Kung (g) in Shui Pin Ts'uen (k). This temple which was built by the Tangs is known in the village as the Big Temple although small, because formerly it was merely a shrine and was enlarged to its present size at a later date. The exact date of the temple is not known. Some say it was built when the first Tang came to Kwai Kok Shaan; others, that it was built first as a small shrine in the time of Shing Fa (✯ft) A.D. 1465-1487 of Ming dynasty when the Tang family built the village ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 113 of Shui Pin Ts'uen, and enlarged to the size of a temple very soon after. It remains almost unaltered since except for the written characters over the door which were put there by Tang P'ooi Ch'oh (**) in the 27th year of Kwong Sui (***) of Ts'ing ( ) dynasty A.D. 1901. It is the custom in China for men to count back the generations to their "first ancestor." Thus a man may speak of himself as being the twentieth or fortieth generation meaning that he belongs to the twentieth or fortieth generation after one particular family ancestor who, by being the most ancient known forbear, or the founder of a particular branch or even the first of a particular name to settle in a certain locality, is given the title of "first ancestor". In many families there are more than one "first ancestor", the Tang family have several whom they venerate equally. First they have Tang Yue ($) their earliest known ancestor. A native of San Ye (†) now Honan province, (i) he was born in the second year of Hon Ping Tai (+) A.D. 2 and died 52 years later in the 1st year of Wing P'ing (†) of Tung Hon (**) dynasty. He was a very famous and high officer, and a personal friend of the first emperor of Tung Hon, Kwong Mo (†). He was only twenty-four years of age when Kwong Mo became emperor, but he was given the high office of "Tai Sz To," (✯a✯) equivalent to Prime Minister (during Tung Hon dynasty), for having helped him to rid the country of the numerous bandits that infested it. After Kwong Mo died his son Ming Tai (8) gave him the honour of “Taai Foo (AM), the second highest honour it was possible to receive from the Emperor, at that time, and he was created "Ko Mat Hau" ( 4 ) which means Marquis of Ko Mat, now Kiaochow (*) in Shan Tung (R) province. After the death of Tang Yue his portrait was placed first among those of twenty-eight generals in one of the Emperor's palaces called Wan Toi (雲臺) Tang Hon Fat, forty-seventh generation after Tang Yue, is also venerated by his descendants. It is believed by some, that he was the first of the Tang family to settle in Kam Tin. He was a government officer holding the post of "Shing Mo Long” (**) and was a native of Paak Sha Ts'uen ( & ††) of Kat Shui ( #7†) district in the province of Kiangsi ( ¿1). According to one old family history he was visiting Kwangtung (*) and coming by chance ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 114 SUNG HOK-P’ANG to Kam T'in he was much taken by it, considering the people were more friendly and honest than those of his own country, and it was said that he came to live there in the 6th year of Hoi Po (HT) A.D. 973 of Sung dynasty. During the 8th year of Shing Fa (APC) A.D. 1472 of Ming dynasty when the Kam T'in people revised their family tree, they added a note which cast doubt on the veracity of this, and instead they were inclined to believe that Tang Foo (#) the great grandson of Tang Hon Fat was really the first to come to Kam Tin, and that he transferred the bones of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather to Kwangtung from Kiangsi. Be that as it may, and although there is no actual proof that one or other was the original Tang to settle in Kwangtung, Tang Hon Fat remains a "first ancestor" as his is the oldest Tang grave near Kam T'in. It can be found at Ah Kai Shaan (Y), Waang Chau (H) village. Six generations after Tang Hon Fat there were two brothers, Kwai (3) and Sui (). Kwai had two sons called Yuen Ying (* ) and Yuen Hei (†), both of whom left Kam T’in and founded branches of the family elsewhere. Sui had three sons, Yuen Ching (元祯), Yuen Leung (元亮) and Yuen Woh (元和). The first and last of these also left for other districts but Yuen Leung remained behind, and the Tangs in Kam T’in to-day are his direct descendants. These five cousins were known as the "Five Yuens", and after their death their descendants who by then were scattered in various parts of China built an Ancestral Hall, common to all the Yuens, called To Hing T'ong (*). It is at the South gate of the district city of Tung Koon (✯✯), on the Kowloon-Canton railway not far from Sheklung (). In the hall Tang Hon Fat has been given premier place, but the "Five Yuens" are venerated in the same way as he and Tang Yue are, as being "first ancestors”. As mentioned before, Tang Foo, the great grandson of Tang Hon Fat is said to have found the sites for the graves of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, himself. They were all acknowledged as being lucky places by the "fung shui" men, who were, of course, consulted. That of Tang Hon Fat is called Yuk Nui Paai T'ong (£#*) jade girl reverence; and his son's grave which is on Yuen Long Hill (₪), is called Kam Chung Fau Tei () gold bell cover ground. The grave of Tang Foo's father is called Poon Yuet Chiu T'aam (#AM) half moon shine lake, Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 117 from Kwantung province Wong Chi Tsoi (£*) of Tung Koon district was rewarded with this privilege. The Lik Ying Tsaai had a large library which housed many thousands of books, and outside the North gate of the village Tang Foo built several hostels for the students to live in. He cultivated the surrounding fields, and the income derived from them was used for forming scholarships for poor students. Tang Foo lectured to the scholars himself sometimes, but he also paid learned men to teach regularly. In the 24th year of Ka Hing (✯✯) A.D. 1819 of Ts'ing (†) dynasty when "The History of the San On district" was revised the ruins of the school were still to be seen, but now there is no trace of it left. According to a copy of the family tree belonging to the Ping Shaan (1) branch of the Tang family, the original stone on Tang Foo's grave was replaced in the 45th year of Ka Tsing (†) A.D. 1566 of Ming dynasty, by a man named Tang Shui Faan (†4K) as it was broken and illegible. On the new stone it was said that the date of Tang Foo was not obtainable, but it stated that he lived during the Sung dynasty. In the 33rd year of Hong Hei () A.D. 1694, of Tsing dynasty another stone was erected, and it is this one, that gives the date of Tang Foo passing his Tsun-sz (+) examination to be the 2nd year of Sung Ning ($) of Sung dynasty A.D. 1103, but considering that his great grandson Tang Sin (#) (or Tang Yuen Leung, one of the "five yuens”) is known to have been district officer of Kung Yuen (4) Kiangsi province in the 3rd year of Kin Yim (£ƒ) A.D. 1129 of Sung dynasty, it is probable that Tang Foo lived a good deal earlier. In fact in the 8th year of Shing Fa (1 ) A.D. 1472 of Ming dynasty the Tang family wrote in their family tree the suggestion that perhaps the 2nd year of Sung Ning () was miswritten for 2nd year of Hei Ning ( ) which would put the date of Tang Foo back to A.D. 1069, a far more possible date. The system of district magistrates in the Sung dynasty was quite different to the system in the modern dynasty of Ts'ing (). When the "Five Dynasties” Ng Toi (£†) A.D. 907-959 began China was in a state of rebellion and disunion. Large armies under their separate generals had to be sent to the various localities to keep order, but far from supporting the Emperor the generals turned the country they were sent to control, into feudatory states, Faan Chan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG 39 tic, sly campaign that gradually revealed Mayréna's shady past. Bain at first simply published extracts about Mayréna from the Courrier d'Haiphong and other sources. On 24 December the Mail reported that there was a rumour in town that M. de Mayrénna (sic) King of the Sedangs, has placed his country under a German protectorate We can scarcely believe the report, although the king does not seem to be consumed with a desire to speedily revisit his new found subjects, and might not regret if he were pensioned and the very heavy responsibilities of Kingship taken off his shoulders'. On 26 December two columns were again published on Mayréna and this time the Mail quoted from an article by Father Guerlach in the Courrier, which made clear that the Mission had been swindled by Mayréna and that he was appallingly dishonest. The attacks upon Mayréna's integrity by Bain did not go unchallenged. The King was defended with magnificent pomposity by Fraser-Smith, editor of the Telegraph. The rival editors excoriated each other's opinions with a ludicrous solemnity, reminiscent of the pen-and-ink duels fought daily by Mr. Pott and Mr. Slurk at the time of the Eatanswill election in Pickwick Papers. Father Guerlach's disclosures, for example, were dismissed by Fraser-Smith in these words: 'like most missionary utterances, this one breathes hatred and uncharitableness throughout, and on that account loses any influence on the impartial reader',35 On 14 January Bain further disclosed that there were 'warrants out for the arrest of the "King of the Sedangs" should he touch French territory. He is accused of having declared himself King of a country under French protection; and for one or two other reasons our local monarch would find Saigon an extremely hot place if he returned there'. The next day Bain reported that another letter from Father Guerlach had been published in the Courrier and ‘the charge therein made against the "King of the Sedangs" is of so serious a character that we hesitate to translate it, not being in a position to verify the statement. We may say, however, that the letter contains a warning against placing reliance on a letter of credit for 200,000 frs, purporting to be signed by Monseigneur Van Camelbecke, Bishop of Quinhon, no such letter having been written or signed by the Bishop.' On 7 January 1889 the Mail published a long editorial entitled "The King of the Sedangs-Some Interesting Revelations', in which Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG 41 however, he was attempting to start a company with the professed intention of working his new-found country, we thought it our duty to let Hong Kong know both sides of the story of his adventures. Even supposing the adventurer's conduct to have been straight, we can scarcely conceive how any speculators in Hong Kong could be induced to embark in such an enterprise. Meantime for a Hong Kong Company to think of opening up trade with such an inaccessible country as the Sedangs is the most Quixotic project that has ever been mooted in Hong Kong."37 The next day the vitriolic but loyal Fraser-Smith dashed into print to defend the departed King in a long diatribe against the Mail. The article, as a good specimen of Hong Kong journalism at the time, should be quoted from in extenso: The article in last night's China Mail regarding M. de Mayréna the King of the Sedangs, is like the former attacks made by this religious journal on that gentleman, a tissue of barefaced falsehoods, published out of sheer malice. “Another King" has not gone into exile, as the gutter scribe of the China Mail gleefully records. M. de Mayréna has gone to Paris to assert his rights, and where he will have some chance of obtaining fair play and justice. With his influential connections in the French capital, there seems no reason to doubt that his position and claims will be fully vindicated. And when he does return to this colony, which will probably be in about four months' time, the cowardly libeller of the China Mail will summarily be called to account. We should do it with a strong horsewhip; M. de Mayréna will take criminal proceedings for defamatory libel. As we have already indicated, our contemporary's latest attack on the King of the Sedangs—prudently made after that gentleman had left the colony—bristles with inaccuracies and ignorance. The writer is as weak in his geography as he is reckless in his alleged facts. He does not even know where the Sedangs country is. The "one reader" of the China Mail is assured that if the cruiser Filipinas had been purchased by the King "it could never have even reached the country unless it was transported overland." The Mekong, by far the largest and most important river in Indo-China, runs right through the Sedangs country, dividing it from Siam, and is navigable beyond Stung Treg, the chief town in Sedangs. It is further untrue, as affirmed by the China Mail, that M. de Mayréna attempted "to start a company in this co- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 42 H. J. LETHBRIDGE long with the proposed intention of working his new-found country." He merely wished to form a syndicate to prospect the country, and agreed if their report was favourable to grant certain concessions. And the China Mail writer ought to know, since he claims to have taken so much interest in the King's personal affairs as not to be ashamed to pry into his private life, who he took to supper, and other details which only a hypocritical Pharisee and blackguard of the deepest dye would have had the audacity to set out in print, that the syndicate in question had been duly formed and the agreement signed. Had M. de Mayréna been the adventurer and swindler he has been called by the China Mail he would have surely tried to raise money by his promised concessions but he made no such attempt. He asked for nothing until his bona fides had been clearly established and the enterprise he proposed was thoroughly tested and shown to be genuine. That he may have acted foolishly in some respects during his stay in Hong Kong is probable enough, but we doubt if the China Mail's self-constituted censor is so immaculate a being that he can afford to throw mud at an erring brother. The China Mail oracle says he cannot conceive, even supposing M. de Mayréna's conduct to have been perfectly straight, how any speculators in Hong Kong could have been induced to embark in such an enterprise. That merely proves poverty of conception and further shows that the writer knows nothing whatever about the subject which he pretends to elucidate for the benefit of the public.38 It is at first sight difficult to understand why Bain and Fraser-Smith attacked each other with such rancour, but a clue is provided by the following comment in the Mail: 'Imitating the example of the old Kings of France, the King of the Sedangs showed a remarkable affection for literature; and, one night, when the "flow of soul” was especially strong, he knighted the whole staff of a local newspaper which had kindly taken to espouse his cause.39 The newspaper was of course the Telegraph, which had a staff of five Europeans in 1888. The journalists of the Telegraph, all of whom had suddenly become 'chevaliers' of the Kingdom of Sedang, no doubt swelled up with pride at their elevation and infuriated the puritanical Bain by their airs. There is a pendant to the story of Mayréna's odyssey in Hong Kong. In Sir Hugh Clifford's words: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF DE MAILLA 95 His own writings may, however, have suffered just this fate, for the section of Ming-ch'ao chi-shih pen-mo dealing with the Tung-lin party is identical with Chiang P'ing-chieh's10 Tung-lin shih-mo✶✶✶✶. Hsieh Kuo-chen explains this as due to the fact that historians of the late Ming period freely exchanged their materials and copied each other, so that portions of a complete work were sometimes published by more than one man and under different titles. 2. Chu Lin14 (T, Ch'ing-yen†) was a native of Shang-yü, Chekiang,11 who rose to be prefect of Nan-yang Honan, in 1690.12 The Ming-chi chi-lüeh •*#* (based on the Huang Ming t'ung-chi✯ of Ch'en Chien [1497-1567]) which he compiled, was published in 1696 in 16 chüan.13 As Wolfgang Franke writes, this is found in various editions, one of them being the T'ung-chien Ming-chi ch'üan-tsai ih # 124,4 which is cited as one of de Mailla's sources. The preface, dated 1696, was written by Chang Ying15 (minister of ceremonies in 1692, who served as grand secretary in 1699-1701),16 who is credited by the note with the publication of T'ong-kien-ming-ki-tsuen-tsai. The Ming-chi chi-lüeh had an interesting history after de Mailla's time. In 1771 the ministry of ceremonies entertained a request from the Korean court for the "correction" of that portion of the Chi-lüeh pertaining to the palace revolution of 1623.17 But a search of the capital at this time revealed not a single copy for sale. The Board concluded that it was no longer circulating in China, and its recommendation that “the king be ordered to search for them18 in his own country and [if found] prohibit and burn them in order to stop doubts" received imperial approval. Four years later the sending of a copy of the Chi-lüch to Peking to be burned occasioned a special imperial edict explaining why suppression was unnecessary, in which no mention was made of the objection raised by Korea.19 3. It is true that Chung Hsing (T, Po-ching (k), a native of Ching-ling, Hukuang, who lived from 1574 to 1625, is generally credited with writing the first eight of the twelve chüan Ming-chi pien-nien %, which covered the years 1368-1627.19 But this is obviously out of the question as he died two years before the terminal date. Wolfgang Franke20 suggests that Chung Hsing may have left the work unfinished, or that, as he was primarily a poet, his name may have been "used after his death by editors and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 112 JAMES HAYES This recital tells its own story. Hsin-an hsien was not one of the glories of the prefecture. In that useful compendium on the Kwangtung province, the Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao of 1893, only the counties of Nan-hai, P'an-yu and Tung-kuan were singled out for mention in the section dealing with the customs and traditions of the Kuang-chou prefecture. These entries speak of the elegant dress and manners of Nan-hai, of its literary and cultured atmosphere, and of how every palace examination brought forth the names of successful local candidates; of the profusion of foreign and local products, and the native and foreign merchants, stationery and itinerant, and the immense shipping of the port.1 Tung-kuan found fame as the ancient examination centre for the province; but no other place is mentioned. In scholars' eyes, the two metropolitan districts of Nan-hai and P'an-yu completely eclipsed the country and coastal districts of the prefecture like Hsin-an and another late creation, Hsin-ning, established in 1498-1499.2 As late as 1745 the district magistrate of Hsin-an when composing an inscription for the repair of the Chau Wong memorial school at Kam Tin, styled it as a place where the Book of Poetry was read as early as sunrise; and culture had spread even to this remote place near the sea. The Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao, a typical work of Chinese historiography, lovingly compiled, was the work of four Hunanese who had long been employed in the province as huan or officials and mu-fu or private secretaries to senior mandarins. It deals, in 46 chuan, with the wide variety of subjects usually found in district gazetteers and other works on administrative geography. Those chüan dealing with subjects on a geographical basis included material, arranged by prefecture and district. Hsin-an is included whenever, in the opinion of the compilers, there was anything in its records that warranted an entry.4 As in the chuan on customs and tradition the entries for Hsin-an in other chüan are much fewer than for the older hsien of the 1 KTKKCY 4/1, 2 KTKKCY 1/1 and KCFC 7/4. 3 Tablet dated Ch'ien Lung 10th year, 1st moon, lucky day, inside the building. 4 There is, of course, no shortage of books dealing with Kwangtung and its many localities under similar heads, and in providing their Hsin-an material the compilers did not set out to provide a compendium of all that had ever been included in the successive editions of the standard works on the Kuang-chou prefecture and the hsien of Tung-kuan and Hsin-an, but rather a selection of important material. The KTKKCY seldom provides material after the end of Ming (1644), ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Manchu dynasty was at its strongest and most prosperous from the middle years of the K'ang Hsi reign on until late in the Ch'ien Lung period. This enabled the country to recover and consolidate after the disasters of the late Ming and the troubled period of transition to the Ch'ing; but it is necessary to remember that throughout these years Hsin-an remained a border region receiving new settlers. In the present New Territories this period saw many newcomers settle in old villages or found new ones. Besides the rehabilitation of old fields, there was apparently much new land to be opened for the taking. When the first ancestor of the So clan of So Uk, Kowloon, arrived in 1739 he called his new home Mau Tin Tsuen or Village of the Rough Grass Fields; and his descendants long used this name before 'So Uk' came into common usage.1 Life for all these persons was hard, and although the empire was in good hands, it seems likely that inhabitants of these coastal areas of the southeast were often subject to attack from marauders. The Ho family of San Tsuen, Pui O, Lantau say that a founding ancestor was killed by pirates; by calculation from the clan record,2 about the year 1710. This obliged villagers to site their settlements with care. In this period of resettlement and consolidation several of the Lantau villages, though getting a living from the sea, were by design located at some distance from it. It is only in more recent times, say the present elders, that they moved to lower sites nearer the shore.3 From time to time, pirates became a particular menace, and it was not possible for the authorities to ignore their activities. A period of especial distress began for the people of Hsin-an, Tung-kuan and other coastal counties in the later years of the Ch'ien Lung reign. The genealogy of the Cheung clan of Pui O records: In the 53rd and 54th year of Ch’ien Lung, a Tung Kuan man, Tam Ah-che became a sea robber. He robbed and killed, burned houses, in great measure, took away the men as slaves and women also. The local officials and soldiers would not dare to face these robbers.4 The Cheungs and other villagers later took steps in their own defence. The village council held a meeting and decided to turn 1 Hayes, 1970, p. 158. 2 Ho-shi Ts'u-pu; in manuscript. 3 Removals on feng-shui grounds are excluded from this statement. 4 Chang-shi Ts'u-pu; in manuscript. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 164 SUNG HOK-PANG On picking up the coins it was found that one large one, bigger than the rest, had two characters on it (*) Shing Kwong. The villagers accounted for this by believing that the coins must have belonged to a man named Shing Kwong who in some time of trouble had buried them. After many years the spirit of the silver had caused it to fly away to be bestowed on some lucky man who deserved good fortune. Thus the money was collected together and handed over to the house. When the baby, who played such an important part in this story, was a month old, he received his first name which was Tang Naan. Later on, when he was old enough to go to school he was sent by his grandmother to a country school. It is a Chinese custom for a new pupil to ask his teacher to give him a new name "shue meng” ✯ % (=a name for a pupil-book name) Tang Naam's teacher, who was not a Kam T'in man, and knew nothing about the story of "Ngan t'au Laam” in Kam T’in, strangely enough gave him the name “Shing Kwong,” exactly the same as the two characters on the largest coin. When evening came and school lessons were finished, the boy went back to his house with his books and much surprised the village elders by showing them his new name written on all his books. After that they were quite convinced that the money was meant for him. When he grew up Tang became a merchant and because of his wealth he was able to subscribe liberally to public funds which resulted in his receiving the honour of being made Chau T'ung (#) assistant officer of Chau, which meant that he was higher than a district officer. His official name of Tang Sz Taan was recorded in the History of Sun On. He built himself a very big house called Naam Teng, the remains of which can still be seen on the south side of Kat Hing Wai. The round outside wall and the stone doorway with the three characters on it (1) Lin Hing Lei, "Continuous Blessing Place" are still there. Two stories of this merchant have been handed down. One of his children married into a very prosperous family named To living at Ts'eng Chuen Wai, † near Castle Peak, and between Tang and the head of this family who was a farmer, owning several hundred acres, there existed a friendly rivalry. One day they were having a meal together in old Yuen Long market and both of them, heated with wine, contested that he was the richer. To declared ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 168 SUNG HOK-PANG the heart in his mouth went off with it. The villagers gave chase but after a while there was a terrific gust of wind and the dog disappeared. The present Kam T'in is divided into two distinct districts. The South, Naam Wai (南圍) was originally a large common or open space of grassland; the North, Pak Wai (北圍) was hilly country surrounded by mangrove swamp. The principal villages of Naam Wai are Kat Hing Wai (吉慶圍) the first village on the right-hand side as one approaches from the main road, which was built by Tang Paak King (鄧伯經) and two other men during the Shing Fa years 1465-1487 of Ming Dynasty; Wing Lung Wai (永隆圍) the village at the end of the road on the left-hand side, facing the open green where football is now nearly always in progress, which was started by Tang Shiu Kui (鄧紹舉) and seven others; and T'aai Hong Wai (泰康圍) the large walled village on the left just before one reaches the Cottage Hospital, which was founded by Tang Ts'ung (鄧聰) and four other contemporaries. Later on during the civil wars of the Hong Hei years 1662-1722 of Ts'ing dynasty these three villages were walled to protect the inhabitants from marauding bandits and soldiers. Tang Man Wai (鄧文蔚) and Tang Kaai Yuet (鄧啟悅) built the wall of T'aai Hong Wai; Tang Sui Ch'eung (鄧瑞昌) and Tang Kwok Yin (鄧國賢) built that of Wing Lung Wai and Tang Chue Yin (鄧珠彥) and Tang Chik Kin (鄧積堅) walled Kat Hing Wai. About the same time Tang Yuet Man (鄧悅民) of Kat Hing Wai and Tang P'ooi Hing (鄧培慶) of T'aai Hong Village both formed the village of Kam Hing Wai (錦慶圍), which is on the north of Kam T'in market; and Tang Chau Man (鄧秋文) of Kat Hing Wai built the village of Ko Po Ts'uen, on the left-hand side of the main road, on the west of Kam T'in market. These walls in many places are in a wonderful state of preservation to-day. Kat Hing Wai and Taai Hong Wai have very strong iron chain gates, and a tablet fixed in the wall outside the gateway of Kat Hing Wai explains the story of them. It can be roughly translated as follows: "The inscription on the tablet of Kat Hing Wai:— Since Foo Hip, the ancestor of our family Tang who was a Government officer, came from Kiangsi to Kwang Tung in the years of Sung Ning of Sung dynasty, we lived in both waais (villages) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 169 South and North of this country; later, when the number of descendants became very many, we lived apart in the two waais T'aai Hong and Kat Hing; round both of these waais were built tall walls and deep ditches were dug round them. We think that the idea of doing this by our ancestors, was to protect our houses and guard them against robbers only. When during the 25th year of Kwong Sui of Ts'ing dynasty, on Kei Hoi year, i.e. A.D. 1899, the Government of Ts'ing leased the South part of Sham Chan to the British Government, in that time, the Ts'ing Government did not inform the people of this beforehand, so when the British army arrived, the ignorant people of the country were inflamed by some persons and arose to resist them, the people of our waais being afraid to be disturbed, in order to avoid them they shut the iron gates firmly. The British army suspecting that bad characters were hiding inside, then assaulted and made the gates open. After they went into the Waai, they understood that the people inside were all good men and women, so did not give them any bad treatment, but just had the iron gates taken away. Now, the 26th descendant, Paak Kau, represented the people of these waais to petition the Hong Kong Government, asking the Government to bring the matter before London, and have the iron gates returned, and re-hung as before. All the expenses were paid by the Hong Kong Government. We also thank H.E. the Governor, Sir Edward Stubbs for his presence at the ceremony; from this can be seen the deep kindness and great virtue of the British Government, and shows that our people are pleased and sincerely submitted, therefore we specially carve the above on the tablet, in order to remember and never forget this kindness. Great Britain, May, 26th, 1925 Chinese Republic 14th year, on Yuet Hoi year the "yuen" 4th month, 5th, the lucky day. we carved.' Another ancient wall in the South district is Naam T'eng (†4) where the silver came to and where Tang Naam had his house. It is to be found to the South of Kat Hing Wai, but no houses are left inside. The North district, Pak Wai, has two villages, Shui T'au ("The head of the stream") and Shui Mei ( ) “the end of the stream," Tang K'ei Fong ( ) and Tang K'ei Wah ( ) both from T'aai Hong Tsuen were the first persons who lived in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 173 inhabitants of the New Territories fled. It was said that for three years the country presented the appearance of a battle-field, “The ground was covered with bones, in the day time nothing could be heard but the hum of flies, and at night the voice of weeping." Kam T'in might have shared the same fate as the other villages but for Tang Man Wai. Lei, remembering his former kindness, forbade his soldiers to go near the place, and seeking out Tang he taught him how to build strong walls to protect his village from other marauders. This story is still told by old people in the New Territories now, and, if true, what was stated in H.K.N. Vol. VII, page 255.... “during the civil wars of the Hong Hei years A.D. 1662-1721 of Ts'ing dynasty these three villages were walled is not correct.* Lei Maan Wing occupied the New Territories from A.D. 1647 until he surrendered to the Manchus in A.D. 1656 which means that the walls of Taai Hong Wai, at least, were built some time during that period. Tang Man Wai is also remembered for having built the old Yuen Long Market ⇓, in the 8th year of Hong Hei A.D. 1669. The date is inscribed on a tablet in the wall inside Taai Wong temple in the market. Tang also made three fish ponds to the west of the market place which can still be seen by the side of the main road. + + Tang Fong was a notable scholar who passed his Kui Yan degree in the 27th year of Kin Lung of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1762. He studied a great number of books especially the canons of Confucius and Books of Histories, and was considered very skilful in writing both poetry and prose. While he was still a Lam Shang he was employed as a professor of arts in Man Kong Shue Yuen * a high grade school in San On district situated in Naam T'au Shing the capital city. Students were prepared there for the Sau-tsoi examination, and it was said that while Tang Fong was there “learning was at its highest pitch." ♬ Tang Ying Yuen was a military officer and passed his Mo Kui Yan A degree in the 54th year of Kin Lung A.D. 1789 of Ts'ing dynasty. Although of a martial disposition, Tang was fond of books and his penmanship was highly thought of. Some of the characters that he wrote to be carved on stone tablets can still be seen in Ling Wan nunnery on Kwun Yam Shaan 音山 and in So Lau Yuen 泝流園 and Tsoi Shui Yat Fong 在水✈both school buildings in Kam T'in. He was a simple man and * See p. 168. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 174 SUNG HOK-PANG used to help his grandfather in the fields, working like the farm labourers and he was much beloved in Kam Tin. In the 15th year of Ka Hing A.D. 1810 the coast of San On was repeatedly attacked by a large fleet of pirate ships, and the district magistrate asked for sanction from the throne to move the fortress then existing at Fat T'ong Moon near Lyemun to Kau Lung (Kowloon) city. This was granted, but money to do the work was scarce. The magistrate went to Tang in his difficulty: Tang said, "The hill round Kau Lung are full of large stones. Why not explain to the local masons that they should work on such an important matter for their country, for low wages." The magistrate, knowing that Tang had a great gift of persuasion with the country people, begged him to undertake the task. Tang was successful, the stone masons agreed to do what he suggested and when the fort was finished Tang wrote four big characters Chan Hoi Kam Tong. Chan to guard, Hoi the sea, Kam the city was built by strong metal, T'ong hot water; i.e. the water in the city moat is like boiling water that no enemy would dare to cross. These characters were carved on a large stone tablet which was built in the wall of the fort; unfortunately it is no longer to be seen. The public dispensary outside the Kowloon city wall now occupies the original site. Another useful public work that Tang Yin Yuen was responsible for, was the rebuilding of Man Kong Shue Yuen, the high grade school for San On district. This building was originally inside the West gate of the capital city of San On, and owing to the low-lying ground it was most unhealthy for the teachers and students. A desirable site was inside the South gate but objections were raised by a native of the town who declared the land to be his own property. Tang went to law on his own responsibility, and when the district magistrate declared himself unable to give judgment he took the case to a higher court. He won and the new building was completed in the 11th year of Ka Hing A.D. 1806. A new name was given to the school, Fung Kong Shue Yuen, and Tang carved yat ch'an pat yim, "not soiled by a particle of dust” over the top of the main door. Before he died Tang wrote in his will that he hoped one day one of his descendants would teach in the school and help to train good citizens. This wish was granted in 1904 when his great grandson Tang Wai Man went to teach in the school where he stayed seven years. Tang Ying Yuen helped to compile the "History of San On," and his house is still to be Page 180 Page 181 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 56 J. L. CRANMER-BYNG however, and held another consultation with the Hong merchants, who again informed me that I could not possibly see the Viceroy, and that I must entrust the petition to their care. On this I thought it right to consult with Mr. Perry, Captain Craig, and some other senior commanders, whether they advised my yielding the point and giving up the petition. I however gave it as my own decided opinion that we should still persevere in demanding an audience, and in this I was supported by all but Mr. Perry, who thought we ought not to persist any longer. I however determined to resist, and informed the Hong merchants that nothing but force should compel us to leave the palace without an interview. I was the more inclined to persevere, from one of the junior merchants having whispered in my ear not to give up my point, and that he, and several other of the Hong, did not approve of what the seniors had been doing. After a long pause, Mowqua said to me, if I was resolved to see the Hoppo I must send away all the commanders and officers except one, and that he and I should then be admitted into the palace. To this I instantly agreed, and it was settled that Mr. Perry, the supercargo, should be the person to remain with me, and that Captain Craig and the rest of the party should retire out of the city, which they accordingly did. Mr. Perry and myself were now left in the court of the Hoppo's palace, surrounded by a great number of Mandarins, Hong merchants, and soldiers; the Mandarin who took the lead then showed us into a large and splendid hall in the palace, where we were accompanied by the Hong merchants, who appeared extremely disconcerted at our success. It was now near twelve o'clock, and from that time until four every effort by promises, persuasion, and threats, was made use of by the Hong to prevail on me to give up the desire of seeing the Hoppo, but without effect; I was perfectly decided and firm, although frequently and most anxiously urged by Mr. Perry to yield the point. Finding that I was not to be moved, Mowqua at last told me I should soon see the Viceroy,—"And now, Mister Commodore, when great man come, you must knocky head."—"What is knocky head, Mowqua?” said I.—"You must down on knees, and putty head on ground", was the reply.—"That's not my country fashion, Mowqua—I don't do so to my King, therefore will not do so to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A HAWAHAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881 95 accomplished linguist, went as personal attendant, to make up the Royal Suite of four.* In personal appearance, the King was a thick-set man with dark curly hair, long sideburns, and a drooping mustache. He had a striking appearance and a warm outgoing personality. His social ease and scholarly intellect brought dignity and prestige to the Hawaiian throne. To some people, however, the "Merry Monarch” was looked upon as a spendthrift who loved card games, feasting, dancing, and horse and yacht racing, 5 Armstrong had the exceptional opportunity to gather information, and he recorded his observations in a book, Around the World with a King. In the Hawaii State Archives are three folders containing correspondence and reports of Armstrong and Kalakaua about this long trip. For easier reading of the King's holograph, the Hawaiian Journal of History has published "The Royal Tourist-Kalakaua's Letters Home from Tokio to London.”7 As a farewell to the King, a Sunday morning service was held on January 16, 1881 at the Catholic Cathedral with over 1,000 people attending. The January 22nd issue of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser also reported a Sunday evening service at the Protestant Kawaihao Church which was filled to capacity. The Honorable J. N. Kapena took the occasion to note that His Majesty spoke at the church six years ago on the eve of his visit to Washington where he was successful in making the country richer and in the betterment of his people, as evidenced by new houses, ships, railways, and other improvements. This time the King was taking a Royal Commissioner of Immigration with him to look for people of brown skins to repeople these isles. Also, the King was going to observe other governments. "The great nations now look with respect on this little Kingdom and will have still more, when they see our King travelling among them for information to benefit his people." With this Aloha send-off, the Royal party started their nine-month tour. Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, W. L. Green, had already written ahead on January 15, 1881 to R. W. Irwin, Hawaiian Consul General in Japan, to anticipate the King's visit. Minister Green had also sent out a circular letter on January 17, 1881 to Hawaiian consular officials abroad about the Royal tour that "one of the objects is to obtain the best possible information in the different ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 170 C. MARTIN WILBUR of the Chinese terms the writer obtained the help of Dr. Robert R. Gailey and Mr. Ma Yü-fen (4), both of Peiping. Dates and prices have been included when they were given. I. THE SUBJECT IN GENERAL (LA) Chou Ch'eng (MB); Summary of Local Government in Shansi (縣政概要). Shanghai, Hsien Tai Book Store (現代書局). $1.40. Ch'en Han-sheng (£); The Relation of Rural Products to Feudalistic Society (農村生產關係與封建社會). Shanghai, National Central Research Bureau (國立中央研究院). $0.30. Chou Ku-ch'eng (&); New Theories Regarding Rural Social Organization (農村社會組織的新論). Shanghai, Far Eastern Book Company (遠東圖書公司). Ch'u Shih-chen (RM); Questions and Answers about Government in Districts, Villages and Hamlets (區村自治問答). Shanghai, San Min Company (三民公司). Feng Kuo-chen (*); The A.B.C. of Village Government (村治常識). Shanghai, Ching Yun Book Company (景雲書局). Feng Ho-fa (*); Principles of Rural Sociology (農村社會學大綱). Shanghai, Li Ming Book Store (黎明書局). $2.20. Ho Ping-hsien (MMK); Problems of Local Self-Government (地方自治問題). Shanghai, Hsien Tai Book Store (現代書局). $0.40. Hsing Chen-chi (#✯✯); Principles of Village Government in Shansi (山西村政綱要). Shansi Rural Government Bureau (山西村政處). Jen Hsi-lu (****); Laws for Self-Government in Village Confederations (聯村自治法). Peiping, Li Ta Book Store (立大書局), 1931. Ku Fu (#); Rural Sociology (農村社會學). Shanghai, The Commercial Press (上海商務印書館), 1928. Lang Ching-hsiao (***); Theory and Practice of the Pao-chia System for Maintaining Public Order (保甲制維持治安之理論與實際). Shanghai, Ta Tung Book Store (大同書局). $0.20. Lectures on Local Self-government (地方自治講義). Shanghai, T'ai Tung Book Store (上海泰東書局). Liang Shu-ming (***); The Most Recent Expressions of Concern for National Salvation as Revealed in the Chinese Peoples' Enterprises for Saving the Country (中國民族自救運動之最近動向). Peiping, Rural Government Monthly Publication Bureau (鄉村建設月刊社), 1932. $1.20. The New Era of Village Local Self-Government (鄉村自治的新時代). Peiping, Fu Wen Chai Book Dealers (輔文齋書莊). $1.00. Niu Jen-yen (BMT); A Complete Book of Local Self-Government (地方自治全書). Shanghai, Kung Min Book Store (公民書局), 1930. 4 vols. $5.00. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 202 NOTES AND QUERIES sister, now a spirit, had proffered good advice, he built a folk religion shrine in her honour. Her cult thrived, so much so that her image is revered by Ch'aochou emigrants in most areas of South Thailand and, so the story goes, also in Singapore and in Nakorn Sri Thammarat. The Bangkok god carver claims that Miss Lin is the only Chinese deity with a special urn donated by the King of Thailand who is well known for his tolerance towards and encouragement for other religions. He is said to have bowed in her honour before her image which consists of a simple, seated country girl with bare feet and large hands, dressed in working clothes Plate 3. Her festival is celebrated in her temples each year on her birthday, the 15th of the first lunar month. Hong Kong. March, 1980. KEITH STEVENS THE TEMPLE OF THE SUPREME RULER, NEAR SUNG WONG TOI, KOWLOON* In the thirteenth century A.D. the Southern Sung Emperor Tuen Chung was attacked by the Mongol Conquerors of the North. Driven from his provisional capital at Hang Chow, the Emperor retreated southwards through Fukien and on to Kwangtung province, stopping temporarily at more than 30 places on his way. Besides the well known Palace at Ngai Mun in the San Wui district of Kwangtung, that at Sau Shan by the Pearly River has been fully described in the Imperial Records which were published in the Yuen Dynasty. Such buildings provide evidence of the efforts of the Sung Emperor and his ministers to make that stand against their enemies which has long been cherished in the people's minds. In the spring of 1277 during the second year of his reign, the Emperor left Kam Tsz Mun of Wai Chau district in Kwangtung and reached Mui Wai. In the fourth moon he arrived at Kwun Fu Cheung, a district which included present day Kowloon, the New *This heading and the following text are taken from a memorial tablet erected in the Urban Council's Rest Garden at Lomond Road, Kowloon, site of this former old temple. A Chinese tablet is also provided. ================================================================================ 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-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 244 CHOI CHI CHEUNG Spring of 1662 the General gave him land in Uji to build the Temple. See “Fu Chin Hsien Chih Shu Lieh” (B) vol. 12, p. 14 (no date). 24 See a copy of the contract for a house in the underworld in the Appendix to this article. 25 26 Kulp, D.H., Country Life in South China, pp. 145-148. The Figure-maker of the Kyoto Chinese Ghost Festival is, however, a Japanese. 27 Several Japanese worked in the Kitchen, and two took care of the incense inside the Tao Ch'ang and other odd jobs like carrying things to burn etc. 28 See the document printed in the Appendix from the introduction to the Pang. 29 30 Plate 29. For the tablet in the "Ancestral Hall" see the drawing in the Appendix to this article. For the Ming-che see Plate 30. 31 Plate 31. 32 33 As shown, for instance in DK-NR. Plate 32. 34 See letter printed in the Appendix. 35 Personal interview, Oct. 13, 1982. 36 According to Li, in 1878, 357 Chinese lived in Kobe, 223 of them from Kwangtong and Kwangsi (Liang Kwang); 84 from Kiangsu, Chekiang, and Anhuai (Sankiang); and 50 from Hokkien. See Li Ta-shen, Shen-hu Ta-ban di Hau-chiao, May 15, 1943 (in the collection of the History Museum of the Kobe Chinese). Refer also to So Shi-sai, Fuku Sei no Pooru Unn, p. 12 ff. (unpublished thesis). 37 Kobe Chinese News, Sept. 10, 1977. Kansai Chinese News, Aug. 25, 1978; Sept. 25, 1979; Sept. 1, 1981; Oct. 1, 1982. Until 1978, it was reported that the worshippers were mainly Hokkienese. But, from 1979 it was changed to "Chinese worshippers from various places of Japan”. 38 On the one hand, the festival adopted elements that belong to the Japanese, such as: the interpretation of the ritual of Lantern Floating, the Japanese being the mediators, and Japanese was the medium for interdialect group communication. On the other hand, if compared with the Ghost Festival in Uji, Kyoto, the latter is a purely Hokkienese festival. The organizers were Hokkienese, and so were the worshippers. Moreover, the Hokkienese themselves, not the Japanese priests performed the Reporting ritual at the Kyoto festival; there, Hokkienese, not Japanese, was the language for communication. Because of the primary identification or origins, the festival in Kyoto serves more social functions that do not appear in the Kobe festival, e.g. entan (to talk and arrange for marriage). The Ghost Festival in Kyoto is thus one of the 3 main yearly gatherings of the Hokkienese in Japan. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 154 WEI PEH TI teachers and preachers in China. Jane Hunter, in her research on women missionaries of that era, found that women who went to China under the auspices of one of the forty-one American women's missionary boards had come from humbler background than those heading for the settlement houses at home." Perhaps that was why Edith had joined the China Inland Mission founded by an Englishman instead of a local Baptist mission. Philadelphia, despite being the seat of the Continental Congress that renounced king and country in 1776, had retained the British mystique. Perhaps it was this snobbish preference for things British that led Edith to the China Inland Mission, which, by that time, had established a recruitment centre in the United States. Apparently both Edith and Louese had toyed with the idea of becoming missionaries while at school. In one of the letters, Edith asked Louese, “Do you remember your desire to be a missionary? Can't you spare one of these darlings (Louese's children) and consecrate one for Foreign Service?” J. Hudson Taylor, who had worked in China under the China Evangelization Society during the 1850s, had become concerned that Protestant missionaries were more interested in establishing hospitals and introducing educational and social changes than in spreading the Gospel. He organized the China Inland Mission in London and brought the first group of twenty-four men and women missionaries under its auspices to China in 1866. As the name indicates, work of this organization was to be concentrated in the interior provinces, away from the treaty ports. The centre of the mission was located at Shanghai, with stations in the capital of each province and sub-stations in various towns. Despite hostilities shown by the local populace during the last decades of the nineteenth century and ravages on the missionaries and Chinese Christians during the Boxer Rebellion, the work of the China Inland Mission continued. By the time Edith arrived at Taiho in March 1903, a sub-station of the Anhui Mission at Wuhu, work in the vicinity had already begun. In 1905, there were 828 missionaries working in China under the umbrella of the China Inland Mission." Taiho was a market town at the juncture of the Sha and the Ying Rivers in the northwestern corner of Anhui. Even the most ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 41 saw one or more zhouyu at one time.) Ouyang Xiu had not chosen to provide a description of the animal. He was supposed to have made the remark: “Zhouyu? What is a zhouyu? I haven't the slightest idea". Ming dynasty accounts of the chouyu were much more specific, During the second year of the Yunglo reign (1404 A.D.), Zhu Su, an imperial uncle who had been in exile in Yunnan, today's panda country, brought into Beijing two rare animals, which he called shouyu. Unfortunately, there was no physical description of these animals. In 1413, a zhouyu was seen in Shandong. Again, there was no description of the animal. In 1429, however, the military governor in the region of Jiangsu and Anhui sent into Beijing two zhouyu by a "special courier". The Xuande Emperor was so excited that he called together all civil and military officials then at court, as well as all tributary envoys in the capital, to witness such a wondrous sight”. One eye-witness reported that these animals were "white and gentle". Another official present, the Minister of Finance, who, more likely than not, had never seen a wild animal before, but knew what they had looked like from his readings, proclaimed that the zhouyu had "a leopard's head and a tiger's body". He continued, "They were white, with black limbs. Such gentleness! Their appearance at this time must be harbingers of a bountiful harvest!" ConclusionS no winners While one must give credit to these research scholars of the 1930s for their diligence and ingenuity in lining up classical scholarship and historical sources in their corner, it is difficult for an objective observer today to accept their conclusions without demanding more convincing evidence. The pixiu was a legendary animal. Neither version of the mo seems completely fault-free. The zhouyu, if any of these animals has to be accepted as the giant panda, would be the least grudging choice. Still, powerful arguments can be mounted against such a selection. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q to be the official collectors of pearls. They were paid by the Government, and in the fourth year of Yin Yau (#) A.D. 1317, three government officers were put in charge of them, who were very highly paid, and ranked among the highest officials. The collecting was thus carried on, the same primitive methods being used, until the first year of T`aai Ting (4) A.D. 1324 when a local elder Cheung Wai Yan (30) protested with such force against the loss of life and suffering involved that in the seventh month of the same year an order was sent out abolishing all the pearl fishing. During the following fifty years the industry was resumed and discontinued several times, but the pearls were gradually getting less and less in number. Eventually in the seventh year of Hung Mo (PA) A.D. 1374 of Ming (]) dynasty, it was found that half a catty was all the result of five months labour. It was then finally stopped, and pearls for imperial use were collected from the sea near Lui Chau (HM) and Lim Chau (EH) instead. The present Tai Po market is not the original one, which was situated to the east of the present one, and is now called Old Tai Po market by the country people and can be found on the map under the name of Yin Pun Ha. Old Tai Po market was built in the time of Maan Lik (46) A.D. 1573-1619 of Ming dynasty, to commemorate the devotion shown by the son of an inhabitant of Lung Kwat T'au ( ), a village near Fanling. (See Note 2). This young man, named Tang Sz Maang (BE) lived during the period of Lung Hing (M) 1567-1572 of Ming dynasty. Maang's father was captured by a noted pirate Lam Fung (#) who held him up for ransom. (See Note 3). Maang went to his father-in-law and said, "We are too poor to pay the ransom and redeem my father, so I shall beg the pirates to take me in his stead“. His father-in-law would not agree and tried to stop him, but Maang slipped away secretly and found his way to the pirate ship. With much eloquence he pleaded for his father, saying, “If you keep my father it will mean that I and my brother will have no father, and my father will have no son, but if you free my father then my younger brother will still have a father, and my father will still have a son. Moreover my father is old, he cannot work as well as I, because I am young and strong”. Then he knelt to the pirate and kept on begging with many tears, until his request was at last granted. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 86 TS'IN, FUK (津復)* (being an account of how part of the coast of South China was cleared of inhabitants from the 1st year of Hong Hei (康熙) 1662 to the 8th year of Hong Hei 1669.) Sung Hok-P'ANG (宋學鵬) + The word "Ts'in" (遷) is a short form of "Ts'in Hoi" (遷海) a historic term which means "to shift inland people living by the coast". "Fuk" or Fuk Ts'uen (復遷) means "allow the people to return to their own villages", and the two words together is the term applied to that incident in Chinese history when part of the coast of South China, including the New Territories, was completely cleared of inhabitants by order of the Emperor. Although an incident of not much importance in Chinese history as a whole, yet the Ts'in Fuk caused much suffering and loss of life to many people. In the book Kwong Tung San Yue (廣東新語)* by Wat Taai Kwan (屈大均) a great scholar of early Ts'ing (清) dynasty, there is a passage referring to Ts'in Fuk which says **自有粵東以來 生靈之禍,莫慘於此** "since the establishment of the province of Kwangtung none of the calamities of human beings can be worse than this". The cause of Ts'in Fuk was Cheng Shing Kung (鄭成功) a Ming (明) general and native of Naam On (南安) district in Fukien province who since the rise of the Manchu Emperors continually attacked the coast of South China with his powerful navy. Using Formosa as his base he harassed the Ts'ing army from Kiangsu to Kwangtung and found the inhabitants of the country on the coast very sympathetic towards the Ming cause, and ready to help him. Cheng Shing Kung's father, Cheng Chi Lung (鄭芝龍) was responsible for the first Chinese settlers in Formosa and had been made P'ing Kwok Kung (平國公), a title conferred on him by the Ming Emperor Lung Mo (隆武). When Lung Mo was killed at Foochow by the Ts'ing army in the 3rd year of Shun Chi (順治) 1646, Cheng Shing Kung put his navy at the disposal of Emperor Wing Lik (永曆), his successor. Fifteen years later Cheng took Formosa, * The Hong Kong Naturalist November 1938. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 96 moved from Fukien to Heong Shan county in Kwangtung during the Sung dynasty (960—1279). About a hundred years later, his great, great, great, great grandson, Heen Bow, who was a student at the county school, founded the village of Cha In and established the West Branch (145 or 945) of the clan. Since he was born during the latter part of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and died during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) at the age of 56, Cha In village was settled about the mid-1300s. An ancestral temple was built to honour him as the 'First Ancestor' and to pray for the glory and prosperity of his descendants. A great, great, great, great, great grandson of Joong Goong, named Jun Hung, branched out to Poo San #1, as did another great, great, great, great, great grandson, named Bow Sung. The son of Heen Bow, named Kwong Joong, had two wives, the first of whom died before the marriage was consummated. The second wife bore him three sons. The eldest, Li Jung, branched out to start the East Branch 東堡 or 東房, The second son of Kwong Joong, named Li Jen, entered the emperor's service when he was only 15 and his feats of courage surpassed others. At the age of 19, while on a mission for the emperor at King Jow Prefecture, he met his death at sea. This service to his country brought glory to the clan. A temple was built in his honour and a statue of him was placed there for sacrifices to him. During the reign of Hong He of the Ming dynasty, an official named Iu Goong was commissioned to find out all about Li Jen's background for a report back to his superiors. Iu Goong visited the temple and was so impressed by what he heard that the Emperor bestowed Li Jen posthumously with many honours for his distinguished service, naming him to a government post in Taiwan and Adjutant to the Viceroy of Fukien, and noted that although Li Jen was dead, it seemed as if he were still alive. Iu Goong also presented to the temple a tablet of honour and a stone lion to enhance its appearance and to serve as an inspiration to others 'to serve the emperor with loyalty and devotion, to bear the lance and follow the emperor to battle, to win glory, to extend benevolence, to protect the race, and to respond whenever the need arose.' Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 106 that she did not follow through. During World War II the Japanese took over Uncle's Hong Kong home and the family had to retreat to the cellar, which fortunately was huge, roomy and above ground. Since communication between Hawaii and Hong Kong was impossible, we did not learn of the details of the deaths of both Uncle and Aunt. Uncle did have a history of bladder stones and Aunt, diabetes. Later, the Communists appropriated his home in Canton, and Po Ling subsequently sold the country estate and the Kennedy Road home. Po Ling, trained in law at the Soochow University and at University of Illinois, went into banking and finance like his father. He lived for many years in Malaysia, but, after suffering a stroke, he went back to Hong Kong where he started a finance company of his own. Because I felt deprived of a father early in life, Uncle seemed to fill that void in 1932 and 1935 when I was living in China. He opened his home to Mother, Dora and me, allowing us to live in the Hong Kong residence while his family lived in Canton. After Mother and Dora left for Honolulu, I could always have the key to the house and take the train from Canton to Hong Kong with several colleagues to spend a few days there. Small Aunt was an efficient manager of the household, a task given to her when First Aunt proved inadequate. She not only saw to it that Uncle and her son had every comfort but she was always thoughtful of me too. For example, she would often send a maid to True Light Middle School where I was teaching with specially prepared soup, or have some ready for me on my visits. She and Mother became quite close to each other and took a trip to Shanghai and Soochow, accompanied by Dora. They did not have an opportunity to see each other again after Mother returned to Hawaii in 1933, but they kept in touch by mail. My husband John and I saw Small Aunt for the last time on our visit to Hong Kong in 1972. In January 1976 she had a chance to fulfill her wish to see the United States once again, particularly San Francisco. Accompanied by her granddaughter, Rosita, she visited with Dora in Honolulu and with other relatives and friends in California. When Po Ling sold the Kennedy Road home, Small Aunt went to Australia to live with her grandson, Anthony, but after about a year she returned to Hong Kong to be with Po Ling, over whose health she was greatly concerned. In 1980, at the age of 92, she died in her sleep. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q Son Zhi Leong & Daughter How Ming W Son Zhi Gong EMI 115 Daughter Leong Yuk J R Zhi Leong, not yet married, is a secondary school teacher in Canton, and How Ming is in the performing arts. Little else is known of their education and their careers. In summary, Second Paternal Uncle was an ambitious man, unwavering in his goal for advancement. He worked hard to attain a profession which afforded his children more opportunities than he had and with which he served his country and humanity. His love for his parents and siblings was no less, as evidenced from the letters of concern, advice and encouragement he wrote to Father. Fourth Paternal Uncle A seventh child, a son named Ping Lim Wilff, was born to Grandfather and his second wife on 22 November 1883. He was five years younger than my father. I know little of his early childhood, except that he had left the village with his mother to join Grandfather when he was nine. It was not until December 1895, in a letter from Second Uncle to Father, that we learn he was attending the same school as Father, undoubtedly the Christian School for Oriental Boys in Honolulu. A bright and promising youth, he attracted the attention of a missionary, Miss Woods, who was instrumental in securing a home in Manoa for his convalescence before his death. She was evidently also a friend to Father because she gave my parents a wedding gift of a fine China fruit dish which we still treasure. Whenever Grandfather was unable to pay the full tuition for his two sons, he would ask for assistance from First Uncle, who would respond dutifully. There is no record of when Ping Lim finished high school. However, two of his letters to Father, then in Hilo, were especially interesting from a sociological and historical point of view. On 26 December 1899, he wrote that as a result of the discovery of plague in Honolulu's Chinatown, traffic among the Chinese had greatly decreased; that Aunt Chan Hoy's son had died suddenly; that the Chinese Church ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 205 of the reform party and that he had killed himself, or someone else had put him out of the way. Dr. Sun escaped to Hong Kong. When two mandarins came to Hong Kong to search for him and other conspirators, Dr. Sun with great daring and courage went to these people, after he found out the reason for their visit, and introduced himself to them. It is said he is now in Singapore because he didn't feel quite safe in Hong Kong. The political involvement of Christians in these undertakings causes great sadness to the missionaries, and there could be very serious consequences for Christians in China, especially Cantonese persons. The Government officials are quite angry that Christians were involved in the uprising. In the last couple of years, I have heard several complaints that arrogant, dark, selfish Christians in Canton made trouble for missionaries, causing them sadness. And it seems to me the Lord Himself had to bring this punishment upon them to sober them. I have hesitated somewhat to convey this information, but have done so because what I have written down is correct. Pu Kak:* How a Punti Village came into Hakka possession A-1.27. No. 62, 21 April 1893, the Rev. Mr Bender, Li Long, San On District, Kwangtung. A story heard from Pastor Lin, whose home is Pu Kak "Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty about two hundred and fifty years ago the Hakka male population of Hin Nen and Ka Yin Tshu left their homes to find work and a livelihood at places to the south. They found both at Pu Kak where rich Puntis of the Wan clan rented fields to them. Later, from time to time, others came from the upper country, so that gradually the Hakka tenants at Pu Kak numbered forty-eight. They built for themselves small huts and houses. Those who had wives and children in their home villagers had them come and join them. They had a good income from their agricultural labours and lived at peace with their landlords. Later there were some quarrels when they had to * Pu Kak a market town near the Kowloon-Canton Railway in San On District, Kwangtung Province, about midway between Li Long and Sham Chun. + The Rev. Ling Kai-lin 749/E (1844-1917). In 1865 appointed catechist of the Basel Mission at Nyen Hang Li; 1876 became catechist and house father at Boys' Boarding School, Li Long; 1883 appointed pastor of congregation at Li Long; retired about 1893 to his native village Pu Kak. He was one of the founders of Sung Him Tong village near Fan Ling in the New Territories. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 23 March Dr. Elizabeth Sinn "Management of the Chinese in 19th Century Hong Kong and the Role of the Tung Wah Hospital” The following Visits were made: 29 April 6 May 24 June 1 July Anita Wilson and Dr. James Hayes Visit to the Pottery Kiln at Tuen Mun, Ha Tsuen Tang Ancestral Hall and Old Market, Ling Wan Monastery (with vegetarian lunch), Lai Family Study Hall and Mansion at Sheung Tsuen, Hakka Mansion at Sham Ka Wai, and Yuen Long Old Market Dr. James Hayes and Ted Brown Visit to Kowloon Walled City, Again! Phillip Bruce Visit to Old Marine Police Headquarters at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Phillip Bruce Repeat of the Visit of 24 June 14 September Dr. Patrick Hase and Lee Man-yip Visit to Wo Hang for the Hot Air Balloon release at Mid Autumn Festival 25 November Dr. James Hayes 9 December Visit to places of interest on Hong Kong Island, including Waterfall Bay, the Aberdeen Country Park Management Centre, Chung Hom Kok, Shek O Village and Lei Yu Mun Barracks and Leisure Centre Rosemary Lee and Richard Gee Repeat of the N.T. Visit of 29 April 13-14 January Anita Wilson, Dr. Dan Waters, Rev. Carl Smith and Dr. Joseph Ting 22 January 18 February Week End Visit to Macao Phillip Bruce Visit to some interesting Naval and Military Graves in the Colonial Cemetery Phillip Bruce and Dr. Anthony Siu Visit to the Tung Chung Area, the site of Hong Kong's Future Replacement Airport This varied and interesting programme has again been due to the Activities Committee, which has worked hard under Dr. Elizabeth Sinn's ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 52 A second legend also tells of five scholars, again during the T'ang dynasty, on their way to the capital to take the imperial examinations when they overheard demons plotting to poison a village well with pestilence pills. The villagers themselves would not believe the scholars so the five jumped into the well and polluted it with their corpses. The Jade Emperor was impressed by their self-sacrifice and appointed them Pestilence Wang Yeh. This story was originally specifically told by people from Ch'uanchou in Fukien. A third legend claimed that five men, Li, Chih, Wu, Chu and Fan became blood brothers in order to serve the man who, after his military campaign, established the T'ang dynasty and became its first emperor, Kao Tsu. The five were appointed to various offices of state, served the country well, and after they died were appointed Celestial Inspectors, known colloquially as Pestilence Princes, Wen Wang (HE). Two further legends date the origins of the Pestilence Wang Yeh to the Ming, some four hundred and sixty years after the T'ang. The first tells of 36 literati ordered by an early Ming emperor to travel forth beyond the borders of China to tell the world about China's greatness and in particular about the history of the great Tang dynasty. On one of the voyages all 36 were lost in a storm at sea and according to one of the surviving sailors, an auspicious pink cloud drifted over the roaring waves and celestial music was heard as the 36 were borne aloft. The emperor ordered a new ship to be built to be called the Ship of the Wang Yeh into which was placed a tablet for each of the 36 together with a decree personally written by the emperor requiring the officials at every port where the ship docked to welcome and honour the spirits of the dead literati. Yet another local legend claims that towards the end of the Ming era five literati, Chih, Li, Chu, Hsing and Chin, on their way to invigilate at the local imperial examinations at Ch'uanchou fell ill and died of plague. They lost their lives in the service of the people of the town and have been worshipped ever since as the Five Excellencies (Wu Fu Wang Yeh). In a popular story teller's tale, the Feng Shen Pang, recorded during the Ming dynasty, Lu Yueh, a Taoist with his four disciples fought for the last of the Shang dynasty against the Chou forces, using germ warfare (pestilence weapons). All five were on the losing side and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 288 I had a good long yarn with Madame Baines on the verandah. When I told her what I was, she became very religious all at once; but I could see it was only hypocrisy, although she had an oily tongue. The Bishop of Victoria was there in 1856. The people were highly pleased with his visit, and all who I heard speak of him seemed to do so with respect. She was acquainted with a Mr King of the Scottish Free Church, who had returned from Scotland only three months ago; and promised to introduce me to him and drive me there in her carriage. At eleven o'clock I went to bed. My room was very fine and airy. All the beds in Java have to be curtained all round to keep out the mosquitoes, which would prevent sleep, and sting finely into the bargain. The captain and wife came from the ship to the hotel the next day. They made themselves such fools by wanting to appear grand that everybody laughed at them behind their backs. No sooner had the captain left the table, and the rest began to talk, when Mr Phillips began: “Well of all the disagreeable obstinate men I ever saw, I never saw anybody to beat him. I can see it in his looks although I have never spoken to him nor know who he is". When I told him it was our captain he wanted to know if he had not guessed right. I told him I must be excused from answering that question. Madam was finely laughed at, and reckoned up in just the terms she deserved. Since our return to the ship these parties have been equally run down by the captain and wife, A Two days I took a walk into the town in the middle of the day. I was afterwards told that no European would ever be able to do it, for it was enough to kill the strongest man on account of the sun's intense power. However it had not the least effect upon me. In fact I felt all the better for it. On the first day I started to go into town but took a wrong turning, and went out through one of the Chinese quarters into the country, where I had a few miles' walk. The scenery was very fine indeed. The palm and betel nut trees, and trees of which I have no idea formed a delightful shade. Even the country is intersected by canals. But whether in town or country, you always find the shore of the canal crowded with washermen. The clothes are never washed, but merely beaten. They get a smooth stone, and after soaking the clothes in the water, they keep dashing them on the stone, swinging them for that purpose round their head. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 290 although I knew he was fond of spirits and wines. He called me at last and begged me to help him and take care of him. So I treated him as a child, and took away about a quart of gin, and stowed it in my room. I sat up with him all night, and by trying hard I managed to keep him quiet, although he became delirious. The next day I persuaded him to take a drive in the country, and the fresh air soon restored him to his former self. He was very much ashamed, and if I had not been there he would have been robbed upside down. So much for drink. But he won't leave it off, and since, drinks his grog as usual. I got Madame Baines to drive me up to the Revd Mr King, of the Free Church. No sooner did I see him than I knew we should soon be friends, and sure enough in a few moments we were like brothers. He is a clever fellow, and a thoroughly good man. After a long conversation I agreed to come up to tea on the following day. His wife is a neat little Scotch woman, or rather lady, for I found afterwards that she is from a high Scotch family, although she married [a] comparatively poor man. She has a well cultivated voice, and sings very much like Anna. In fact it seemed almost as if I were hearing her sing. We spent the evening in conversation, and closed with family worship. It was such a treat to find a man whose ideas were at all like my own. Nobody can imagine it unless they had been shut out from society as I had been. I paid them a second evening visit, which was spent in a similar way. A mutual friendship has arisen between us, and he has agreed to carry on a correspondence with me. She has a brother at Hong Kong, about 19 years of age, who is in a good situation in a merchant's office. She wants me to find him out and exercise a little brotherly superintendence over him. Mr King is a good Dutch scholar, and can preach in Dutch and Malay. At present he officiates in the Church of England by permission, till he gets another church built for himself. He went over the orphan house on Ashley Down about a year ago, and we had a good chat about it. I returned on board ship on the Saturday afternoon with the captain, whom I met in Batavia. But there it was nothing but swearing, etc, as usual. He worried a man, and annoyed him in such a mean way, that he had to iron him, and then he went mad. On Sunday morning he became quite raving, and therefore since I found out we should not go till Wednesday, I made a start, and hoped to get out in the country by eleven o'clock, in time for Divine service. I had a pleasant row ashore alone with the Malays, and steered the boat, which is a thing I never attempted before. When however I got out to Madame Baines, I found she was Page 315 Page 316 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 13 even keel over the centuries. 3. Grounded in Education by Rote Education in these concerns began in the schoolroom and at home. This indoctrination was rendered the more effective because of the memorization process that was such a central feature of the Chinese teaching method. Looking back on his schooldays in San Ning Country, Kwantung, Dr. Ng Poon-chew wrote: "In the old method when I was a boy, we were compelled to study, but we were not required to know what we were studying about. We were simply set to memorize the Confucian classics, endeavouring hard to transform our heads into first-class phonographic records. --21 The feats of memorization, in a country which relied heavily on this method of teaching, often bordered on the phenomenal." In 1914, after fifty years' experience of China, Archdeacon Moule not only testified to the positive qualities of memorization but deplored its likely fate at the hands of the new Republican educators in their haste for change.22 4. Extended by Copying Teachers' Handbooks Apart from memorization of the classical books and the moral lessons imparted thereby, there was other work to be done in the classroom. For the smarter village boys who became the educated village elders of their generation, the process of absorption and indoctrination had been intensified by their teachers' practice of making them copy their own manuscript guides to social etiquette, useful exemplars and local traditions. Tsuen Wan fully exemplifies the old system of education (in the broad sense of ethical teaching), and its lingering force into practically our own time. Several of my friends among the indigenous population had told me about this copying before I came to realize its full importance and significance; and over a period, as the more educated elderly villagers produced their own handbooks and spoke of their education and the copying work their teachers had given them to do, the pattern became very clear to me. These men were the type of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 57 them 'Persian monasteries' (Po-Ssu ssu §†). In order that the true origin of these so-called 'Persian monasteries' may be known, the monasteries in the two capitals are to be re-named 'Syrian monasteries' (Ta-ch'in ssu). The same change is to apply to the monasteries in other prefectures and districts. This imperial decree seems to have been connected with a Nestorian mission from Mesopotamia which arrived in Ch'ang-an in 744, some months earlier, and received an impressive imperial compliment. We learn of this mission from the Sian tablet inscription: In the third year [of the Tien-pao period], in the country of Syria (Ta-ch'in) there was the monk Chi-ho. Gazing at the stars he turned towards reformation; looking at the sun he came to do reverence to the emperor. The emperor decreed that the priests Lo-han, P'u-lun and others, seven in all, along with bishop Chi-ho, should cultivate merit in the Hsing-ching palace. The emperor then composed a motto for the monastery, and its name-board carried the dragon-writing. The precious ornament was like a gem or a kingfisher, and was bright with the vermilion glow of sunset clouds.' Two separate sources, therefore, state that in 744 and 745 Hsuan-tsung showed interest in the official terminology of the Nestorian church in China. According to one source he ordered all Nestorian monasteries to be renamed; according to the other he supplied the Nestorian monastery in Ch'ang-an's I-ning ward with a sample of his calligraphy, in the distinctive vermilion ink reserved for emperors. Obviously the two accounts are connected. Chi-ho's mission, for whatever reason, resulted in a decision by the imperial authorities to have all Nestorian monasteries renamed 'Syrian monasteries'. The emperor also paid the Nestorian monastery in Ch'ang-an the compliment of personally writing out its new name, Ta-ch'in ssu § , 'Syrian monastery', for reproduction on the monastery's wooden name-board. The change of name in 745 came at a time when the Chinese government was more than usually interested in western geography. Chinese armies had wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 60 a year after the erection of the Sian tablet. During his stay in the Chinese capital he met the Nestorian archbishop, and the two men embarked on an ambitious project: "He collaborated with Ching-ching, a Persian priest of the Ta-ch'in monastery, on a translation of the Satparamita-Sutra from a Uighur text, and translated seven volumes in all. But at that time Prajna was not familiar with the Uighur language, and did not understand Chinese, and Ching-ching did not know Sanskrit and was not familiar with the teaching of Shakya. Although they claimed to have translated the text, they did not really extract its real value. They wanted to make a name for themselves, and gambled that they would not be caught out. They submitted their translation to the emperor [Te-tsung], expecting that he would have it published. But the emperor was not fooled at all. He was a shrewd man and a fine scholar, and had a great respect for the canon of the Shakya. He examined their translation and found that they had muddled the author's thought and obscured the clarity of his language.” The passage concludes with a direct quotation from a decree of the emperor Te-tsung: "The monastery of the Shakya and the Ta-ch'i monastery have different customs and conflicting religious beliefs. Let Ching-ching hand down the teachings of Mi-shi-he ba (i.e. Messiah) and the Shakya monks publish the scriptures of Buddha. The boundaries of the two doctrines must be kept distinct, and their followers must not intermingle. Orthodoxy and heterodoxy are two different things: the King and Wei rivers flow in two different courses. It may be possible to go further still. Besides the reference to Adam in the Sian tablet inscription already quoted, the Syriac notes at the end of inscription make another reference to a man named Adam. He is described as Adam mesamsona bar Idbuzid qurapisqupa, ‘Adam, minister, son of Jazedbouzid country-bishop'. We know from a number of references in the inscription rather more about this Adam. His grandfather, dead by 781, was a man named Milis, who had been a priest in the city of Balkh in the eastern Persian province of Tocharistan, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 74 5 Ta-ch'in ching-chiao is translated by Legge (The Nestorion Monument of Hsi-An-Fu, Oxford, 1888) as the 'lustrious Religion of Ta-tsin; by Saeki (The Nestorian Monument in China, 1916, and The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China, 1951) as the 'Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion', and by Moule (Christians in China Before The Year 1550. London, 1930) as the 'Brilliant Teaching of Ta-ch'in'. Moule's translation seems to me to be the best, though none of the three translations for ching brings out its full resonance. + 4 Ta-ch'in ching-chiao liu-hsing Chung-kuo pri K★*KAT¶M. See Plate 1. The Manicheans, who also originated in Persia, used in China the term 'the shining teaching", ming-chiao W, for their religion. The Hsü-ting Mi-shih-he ching FDM. P. Y Saeki (The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China) calls this work the Jesus-Messiah-Sutra. I have departed from Saeki's bizarre terminology here and elsewhere, but his names are given in notes where I have done so. 7 The xhen lun Saeki's Discourse on the Oneness of the Ruler of the Universe, is actually a compilation of three short essays, the F-r'ien lun or Essay on the One Heaven (Saeki's Discourse on the One Heaven); the Yu, or Parable; and the Shih-tsun-pu-shih fun 1942 fibili, or Essay on the Charity of the Creator (Sacki's Lord of the Universe's Discourse on Alms-Giving). H リ The Chih-hsüan-an-lo ching &£, Sacki's Sutra on Mysterious Rest and Joy. The Ta-ch'in ching-chiao Ta-shing-t'ung-chen-kuei-fa tsan K**HARIANZA, Saeki's Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion Hymn in Adoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. THE The Ta-ch'in ching-chiao San-wei-meng-to tsan ★*** ***, Saeki's Ta-ch'in Luminous Religion Morwa Hymn in Adoration of the Holy Trinity. J The Ta-ch'in ching-chiao Hstian-yuan-chih-pen ching ****, Sacki's Ta-ch in Luminous Religion Sutra on the Origin of Origins. נו The Tsun ching ** For example, in lists of metropolitan provinces. Amrus gives a list for 1343 in which Beth Sinaye, the old province of China created by the Nestorian patriarch Seliba-zekha around 720, is listed together with the contemporary province of Cathay and Ong (China and the country of the Ongut tribe). 14 The pronunciation of the characters ching ## 'scripture", and ching it. "brilliant”, differs only in tone. 1.5 Le Quien's Oriens Christianus (Paris, 1740), an invaluable prosopography of the eastern churches, contains the names of nearly a thousand Nestorian bishops, but no other bishop or metropolitan named Adam is recorded. The New Catalogue of the Teaching of Shakya in the Cheng-yuan period, composed by a monk of Ch'ang-an's famous Hsi-ming (Buddhist) monastery. 17 The Tien-pao-tsang ching KMR. E The To-hui-sheng-wang ching ZLI WEER. The A-wan-chi-li-yung ching EHFIYR. The Nestorian monastery at Tun-huang was apparently named after the nearby prefectural city of Sha-chou. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 216 culture, which would make Chinese culture all the more accessible to the influences of Christianization. Secondly, it explains why other missionaries who considered Chinese culture to be simply pagan refused to have anything to do with a fusion of Confucianism and Christianity. In their minds, such a combination would hinder the advance of Christian civilization, obstruct the work of the Spirit of God, and ultimately be destructive of God's plan to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. Legge's claim that God had left a trace in Chinese culture threatened their view of the desperate losiness of the Chinese people. In fact, Legge himself would agree with them in general on the issue of the need for salvation, but he disagreed with the missiological strategy which refused to look for any point of support for missionary activity within Chinese culture. Those who opposed Legge were in effect supporting a basic assumption: God would not employ the pagan Chinese culture for the purpose of establishing His spiritual Kingdom. This explained, from their point of view, why He did not send them any special revelation of Himself. It was precisely this latter claim that Legge vehemently denied: to overlook the Shangdi traditions in the Chinese Classics was to deny historical facts related to the destiny of the Chinese peoples. See Confucianism in Relation to Christianity, op. cit. See for details of the comparison "Some New Dimensions in the Study of the Works of James Legge (1815-1897); Part II", op. cit., pp. 43ff. 1 57 James Legge, Christianity and Confucianism Compared in Their Teaching on the Whole Duty Of Man (London: Religious Tract Society, 1883). SH James Legge, Christianity in China: A Rendering of the Nestorian Tablet at Si-an-fu to Commemorate Christianity (London: Trübner & Co., 1888). SV The original twenty-four-page manuscript, entitled "Sketch of Ho Tsun Sheen", was written by Legge in March 19, 1872, and is kept in the South China letters of the London Missionary Society archives. It was later published as an article in a volume called Gleanings From The Mission Field (London: 1873?). MI See The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle (January 1833), p. 34; (March 1853), pp. 121-129; (December 1853), pp. 697-707; (supplement), pp. 757-764. A The Taoist priest Legge mentions was one who restricted his study to Laozi's Daode jing, rather than the more esoteric doctrines passed down in esoteric Taoist training. Legge found him "more prepared than the Confucian literati to receive the message of the Gospel". The elderly woman convert, at whose deathbed Legge sought a final testimony of trust in Christ, had been "a professor among her country-women of Taoist superstitions", but after becoming a Christian she had been a faithful and effective witness for Christ. See James Legge, The Religions of China, op. cit., pp. 275-276, 296-297. In Alexander Wylie's Memorials of Protestant Missionaries (Shanghae: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1867), pp. 119-121, eighteen manuscripts, pamphlets, and books are cited as prepared by Legge in Chinese. At least one of these was done with his Chinese colleague, Ho Jinshan. See Shengjing Zhengju (Proofs of the Bible) (Fuzhou: Taiping Street Gospel Hall Press, 1870). Among these texts are two pamphlets in story-telling form on the lives of Joseph and Abraham which are of particular interest. I have seen a copy of the former in the Bodleian Library, and discovered that it was written in Cantonese dialect; I suspect that the latter is done in a similar fashion, but no copy of it has yet been found. In the context of this passage, Dr. Legge found it necessary to emphasize that he had spent as much time with Chinese people as he did with their books. Every day he claimed to spend several hours in visiting them, not only in their homes, but also in their shops. In the same recollection, he also mentions regular ministry in the Chinese prison as part of his vocation. Later on in this passage, Legge's wit also comes through: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 47 1820-1840. Ding xiang ting pi tan, 4 juan, 1800 and several other volumes. How Ruan Yuan managed his scholarly projects As Chief Executive in the provinces, with authority to allocate public resources and solicit private funding, Ruan Yuan was able to make decisions to sponsor academic and scholarly activities. With government affairs demanding his constant attention, the scholars around him, with expertise in various fields, were entrusted with the actual research and writing of the works. Ruan Yuan could draw from the large field of scholars he knew who either did not qualify or had preferred not to enter government service. A number of these scholars from Ruan Yuan's own home district, the Yangzhou and Jiangdu area, which had enjoyed a long literary and intellectual tradition, followed him throughout his career. From the provinces of Shandong and Zhejiang where the scholarly heritage was also exceptionally strong, and where there was a rich legacy of book collecting as well, he was able to recruit many scholars. In addition, as examiner for several provincial level examinations and in particular as Metropolitan Examination examiner in 1799, he could lay claim to a network of 'students' all over the country. Lynn Struve's observation about the Xue Brothers is equally applicable in Ruan Yuan's case. The opportunities to serve as examiners for the most important capital and provincial examinations, through which they could develop networks of "student-teacher" relations among the most promising examinees in the country.21 122 Ruan Yuan himself showed how he gave up all his time away from government affairs on literary production. “I have no time-consuming avocation. Nor do I enjoy a capacity for wine. Therefore, I tend to spend all my spare time with a brush in my hand, in the company of books and scholars.” He indicated in the preface of each work where the idea for its creation had originated. The subjects for his earlier works as a young Hanlin had been assigned to him. Two major subjects for compilation later on had been proposed by other scholars—the Chou ren zhuan by Li Rui (1765-1814) and the Shi san jing zhu shu fu jiao kan ji by Lu Wenchao (1717-1796). In addition to the scholarship needed for such tasks, Ruan Yuan provided the management for such productions. He wrote on how his writing projects were organized. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 57 Collectively, these secretaries were known as mu.38 There are a number of learned treatises on the subject in Chinese, but I do not think that the function of these people should be expounded here; suffice to say that they were treated as respected senior secretaries by the officials, including Ruan Yuan, and were assigned certain tasks. A few examples of Ruan Yuan's secretaries follow: Zhang Jian was with Ruan Yuan in Zhejiang, Canton, and after his retirement, in Yangzhou as well. He helped formulate and implement such policies as eradication of coastal piracy, famine relief, salt administration, and transportation of tribute grain by sea. Chen Hongshou's expertise ranged from river administration to coastal defence. Together with Chen Wenxu, Zhu Weibi, Shi Guoqi, and Ruan Yuan himself, he also drafted the memorials Ruan Yuan sent to the Jiaqing Emperor while he was Governor of Zhejiang. Scholars with "an extraordinarily fine hand"39 who worked as actual copyists for Ruan Yuan's memorials include Fang Pu, He Yuanxi, Shi Guoqi, and Wu Shucheng.40 Ruan Yuan found jobs for other scholars in academic institutions. The academies he founded, Gu jing jing she in Hangzhou and the Xue hai tang in Canton, had absorbed scores of scholars. Other academies took on dozens of others. Among the less commonly known academies founded or rejuvenated by Ruan Yuan were the An lan Academy41 in Haining, Zhejiang,42 and the Ta liang Academy in Henan.43 In appointing scholars he considered worthwhile to these academies, Ruan Yuan in fact helped to spread Han Learning throughout the country. Ruan Yuan must have been at his wit's end in trying to find a suitable place for so eccentric a scholar as Fang Dongshu (1772-1851). Fang, from Tongcheng, who only attained the first degree, was noted for his poverty and his inability to get along with anyone, except perhaps Ruan Yuan. In 1819, Ruan Yuan brought him to Canton to work on the Guang dong tong zhi under Jiang Fan. Jiang assigned him research and writing which was supposed to take two years to complete, but Fang finished the task in one month. Ruan Yuan then found him a job at Hai men Academy in Lianzhou, where he lasted less than one year; with a repeat performance at the Chang yang Academy for a similar period. Exasperated, Ruan Yuan took Fang onto his own personal staff. For scholars who worked on various literary projects sponsored by Ruan Yuan, see the Appendices to this paper. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 197 A NOTE ON HONG KONG'S WILDLIFE DAN WATERS In the mid-1960s, an Indian bird-watching friend counted 48 different species at King's Park, in the heart of Kowloon. In early 1955, when I first lived in Conduit Road, the western end resembled a delightful country lane and there you could occasionally hear barking deer call from Victoria Peak. Since late 1980 I have been going up and around the Peak regularly, four or five times a week. At first, I felt there was little wildlife left, but, more recently, largely because it is mainly nocturnal, my conclusions, agreeing with a second school of thought, are that there is far more than most people appreciate. On 26 April, 1989, I saw a dead masked palm civet in Barker Road. This was followed, on 11 November, 1990, by a dead ferret badger on Plantation Road, and, on 17 November, 1991, another on Severn Road. All had blood on their snouts and had probably been struck by vehicles. The last two were seen at daybreak. There are also 'good' years for snake sightings, and, in the autumn of 1991, I spotted a young cobra crossing Po Shan Road, near dwellings. The first snake I saw in 1992 was a cobra sunning itself, in mid March, on a hilly path off Hatton Road. Less frequently, one sees the odd fresh-water crab even as high up as Lugard Road, and blue-tailed skinks seem to appear in batches. Although not on the Peak, on the Royal Asiatic Society outing, on 4 March, 1989, high up near a plantation on Tai Mo Shan, RAS member Rosemary Lee and the son of Dr Elizabeth Sinn spotted what was believed to have been a crab-eating mongoose run across a track, off Route TWISK, in front of our coach. Patricia Marshall, in Wild Mammals of Hong Kong (1967), says, about the mongoose, 'Probably no longer exists in the Colony.' Nevertheless, according to a game warden at Mai Po Marshes, one was spotted by bird watchers at Tsim Bei Tsui at Christmas 1987. I have also been told of barking deer and porcupine being seen ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 117 withdrew partly into India and partly back into Yunnan. Kokang was left high and dry. Undaunted the Myosa from his own funds purchased what weapons he could from the retreating Chinese troops and the disbanded men of the Burma Rifles, who had been instructed to disperse to their villages with their weapons, which were to be retained for local protection until the British returned. He acquired several hundred rifles, a small stock of ammunition, and a few Bren guns, and organised his own force, the Kokang Defence Force. Fortunately the prowess of the force, which could scarcely have proved high in the face of the battle-trained troops of Japan, was not put to the test. The Japanese advance stopped at the Salween, a convenient barrier on which to consolidate their East Wall in Burma. The Myosa, left thus in a most dangerous situation, in the front line, as it were, of the Allied positions, applied to the nearby ally, China, for assistance. The Chinese who were themselves receiving equipment from America for their forces in this part of the world, could spare him no equipment, but undertook to train officers for his force. The quality of the training so provided will grow evident as this story unfolds. In 1943 the Myosa made the journey to Kun-ming to apply to the British authorities for assistance and it was at the British Consul General's* house in Kun-ming that I met him. I saw an alert slight figure, young looking and brisk for his 45 years, dressed in a western suit of Palm Beach cloth. He looked Chinese, but I believe there is also an admixture of tribal blood, possibly Shan; there is, of course, a good deal of intermingling throughout all that border country. The prince spoke Burmese and Chinese, but very little English: though his schooling on the border had probably been rough and ready, he possessed in a strong degree that charm, which goes with a courtesy so cultivated that it becomes natural and can conceal the aptitude for decision based on a habit of command. The prince was accompanied by his son, a capable young man in his early twenties, who had been educated at the Princes' School in Taungyi and spoke excellent English. The Myosa explained to us, his son serving as interpreter, the difficulties of his position, the trouble he was having with Chinese troops, a battalion of whom had been stationed in Southern Kokang, and the hope that we might be able to come to his support. We discussed the situation and the nature of the *Strangely, he had been the Consul at Kiu Kiang in 1927, from whose house we retired to the warships ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 130 the new officer to remove himself and his troops from the village where we were staying immediately. Poor man, he was only obeying his orders and did not know what to do; but he went. After that we were only watched by plain clothes men; but the dismissal of the escort, or prisoner's guard, as it would be called to the natives, showed the natives that we intended to be masters in our house, and helped to break down the fear under which they laboured. I was sorry to lose the men of the escort: they came from far away Hunan, and were good representatives of the salty peasant stock of a great nation. Except on certain main routes used by the Chinese troops the villages in Kokang were not deserted, like many of those we had passed in Yunnan. It is an old story. A British officer, H.P. Davies, who was travelling through these parts in 1895, wrote: 'Our first march only took us back to Na-hsang, the place I had passed through on my way to Tawnio. This village which appeared quite prosperous a month before, we found almost entirely deserted. On enquiry we learned that some Chinese soldiers were expected there soon as escort to the boundary commission. No doubt these worthy villagers had had previous experience of Chinese troops and were determined to hide themselves and their property as much as possible. Tawnio in Burmese, and Malipa in Chinese, is the name of the chief town in south Kokang; Na-hsang is a village across the border on the Chinese side. Here again it is most unfair to blame the Chinese troops. They are expected to move without commissariat and to live off the country; they have no money with which to pay for what they take, so no wonder the people of the villages make themselves scarce. At Nancha we came across the makings of a small tragedy. The old headman had two unmarried daughters - his son had been carried off by the Chinese to attend school at Kun-ming, in other words he was a hostage - the elder of whom had bound feet, and the younger not bound. The modern young men would no longer look at any girl with bound feet; that was out of fashion; but until the elder sister was married, the younger, a bright good-looking girl, could not marry. It was a puzzle to which there appeared to be no solution. But the women in these parts are very independent; I heard later that the younger girl had run away from home and married the swain of her choice by just going to live ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 17 ++ Very often, we designate terms such as “family”, “social class”, "teachers", "experts”, “democrats”, “Tibetans”, “Chinese”, “Americans” etc to delineate a social aggregate. It is because members in a group share some functional commonality, ascribed or achieved. They share some norms and beliefs which bind them together. They hence behave in a way as expected from a member in that particular group. If face is bounded by the three elements of status, role performance and moral conduct, then there is no reason why a group cannot have the right to a face basing on the status, role performance and moral conduct of its members in general. Furthermore, if members in the family share the same properties, status, prestige, outlook, surname, moral codes and a face in an ascribed manner, then there is no reason why members in a nation, sharing the land, the physical features, the economic achievement, political rights and so on, cannot share a face as well. The picture seems that there can hardly be any argument against leaving open the limit to the size and scope of a social aggregate within which its members can share a face. Face, theoretically speaking, can be societal, racial, national, continental and if interaction opens up among planets, planetary. While a global face may appear surreal, the hypothesis upon the presence of a nation's face may not. In fact, some scholars have found that an individual's sense of self may vary according to the prosperity or poverty of the nation to which the individual belongs (Volkan, 1985: 231). If an individual's face correlates with an image of self, as in Goffman's definition, then there is reason to believe in a relation between an individual's face with the fortunes of the nation in which he is embedded. People may share a sense of self, rising and falling, insofar as their nation does so. People may share a face, prestigious or notorious, dignified or unscrupulous, if that is what their nation appears. Images of nations are nothing new in the social sciences. Many scholars have already studied them. What is awaited from scholars is the research on a nation's image with a focus on the concept of face. Moreover, a nation's face does not seem to be an irrelevant topic of study and particularly regarding China. King and Myers have pointed out that the primary source of identity of people in the country has gradually shifted from family or village to nation. They have reported Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek as speaking of a nation's face and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 134 8 "These servants were unequalled, at the same time, they never considered themselves menials, but as makee learn; that is to say, serving in order to become familiar with pigeon English, that in due time they could become pursers or clerks in Chinese hongs or shops trading with people of the Western Ocean. While in service with their foreign masters, they were considered and known by the appellation "Se-tsai”, or business youths. They were usually relatives of the compradors who provided them with places and secured them." 11 My tinkee more better come by boat. 12 Have bilum no. I first chop. Fly goosoo, sit down goosoo (wild/domestic goose) All man chow-chow he. 25 All same sing-song (hei) Camphor trunk wantchee? Chess board hav got. No 1 first chop too muchee handsom. No. I cheap. 26 Man-ta-le talkee you ship what time walkee, what cargo got inside, go what placee Tum junter my shop. My show you Ka-pan ta Squeea No 9, He name Chang Ho. Too muchee cap-tan, too much chief mate come my shop. 27 Mus come my shop. No. 9. Sam Shoo hav got No. 1 good, No.1 cheap. Two dollar one bottlee, No. 1 cheap. 29 You tinkee my so cunning before? 30 The Hong Merchant, King-Qua, remarks triumphantly at the same moment, as he passes out in his sedan chair, "My tinkee you country no got so fashion pa-lo-pa" 32 As Pan-Kei-Qua said, “No good chance" - adding in a tone of surprise, “Too muchee curio! Kok-See No. 1 handsom man!" 34 Moorman, Sallie Mahommed Boo-Bull: "I not pay it rent. I makee try Factory, not make it up mind if keep." 45 Ming-Qua: numer one "curio pigeon”, “Oh yes, my savee alla." "Then", said I, “suppose you should insult a person and be called out, Page 165 Page 166 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 135 you would know what to do?” to which he replied, "Maskee! he call'um my. My no go." 53 too muchee trub 66 look see Joss Pigeon. 90 All man savee you long time. 101 King-Qua: ...he would guarantee "My makee secure" King-Qua shook everyone by the hand in great glee, and as we left the consulate together, said, “Just now can do. Man-ta-le look see sealee he too muchee fear," meaning that the Mandarin would be in a mortal funk at the sight of the consul's official seal. 105 Tai-ping rebel Ho-a-luh.... He spoke very good pigeon English. "My lun way, my go Hong Kong" ... "No cuttee head, he all same my lun way," (1852-1854) ++ 169 Quan-Shing (silk merchant). Te-loo-ly No. 1 curio. Mei-se A-le-fan you book. Te-loo-le No. 1 curio, only my China hav got too muchee more curio "Cunning", Note: this word in pigeon English was invariably used in the sense of “clever”, “intelligent" or "wise” 183 (1806-1836). Nankin Jack, Curio merchant; of a map: "This have Cheena country. Topside got Pih-Ching - large emperor house - my have see he. Bottom side belong Canton - plenty tea, silk, foreign gentleman hav got. Before, my sell-um ten dollar; just now, as you are olo flen, my sellum you one dollar." 193 (1841) Chinaman. "My show you. My long you No. 1 good flen. What for fightce" Large Man-ta-le makee fightee, he please; s'pose to molla hav got fightee, you no putee plum you gun, my no puttee plum my gun, puttee fire physic (powder) can do very well, makee plenty noise, makee plenty smoke. My no spilum you; you no spilum my!".. "My chin-chin you stop littee, my go odder (t'other) sy!” .. "My puttee head insi (inside) holo” 278 (1837), Howqua. "More better no go.", he said; if an accident occurred, "Man-te-le bobbery mee too muchee" ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 239 Two important things happened in October 1971: firstly, men were no longer allowed to take concubines and, secondly, every person had to have at least one full day off work a week. Up until then people in small Chinese firms frequently laboured seven days a week with a few days off at Lunar New Year and odd days off at major Chinese festivals - like Dragon Boat and Mid Autumn Festival. People Enough about statistics: what about RAS members who made things happen? I will always remember Dr J R Jones CBE, MC, MA, LL.D, JP, who served as our President from the time our Branch was reconstituted until 1970. I first met J R in early 1955 at a Dante Alighieri (the Italian Society) meeting. Then I learned he had a penchant for things antiquarian as well as languages — although he spoke little Chinese. There are a few short pieces written by him in early RAS Journals. I remember him in a pinstripe, blue suit and, although fairly tall, he could be described as dapper, polished and a ladies' man. He was gentlemanly, personable and, as such, made a splendid RAS ‘front man.' Much of the work behind the scenes, such as setting up the reconstituted Branch in 1960, was in fact done by Dr Marjorie Topley and Jack Cranmer-Byng, Honorary Editor. Marjorie Topley became our President in 1972. Dr Jones had led an interesting life including serving King, Country and Empire in two world wars, as well as helping to organise the Ukrainian Army soon after the end of World War One. He also went on archaeological expeditions to Italy and Africa. As a lawyer he practised at the High Court in London and later in Shanghai. In Hong Kong he was legal advisor to The Bank, as he always referred to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. In fact he advised 'the Bank' to buy a number of paintings by George Chinnery (1774 to 1852). The latter is often said to have been the most accomplished western artist to have worked in the East in the 19th century. These paintings, which the Bank purchased, were a splendid investment. In addition, JR sat on a number of government ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 284 Our guide, Cong, took us to visit the Citadel and explained that it was planned and constructed on traditional principles of intermingling Occidental and Oriental architecture as a result of the appropriate use of local geographical features. The Citadel of Hue was once a masterpiece of the Vietnamese people. The Imperial City, the second wall, is dotted with offices where the monarch and high-ranking mandarins came daily to work. The Forbidden Purple City, the third wall, was the private quarters of the Emperor and his family, which included hundreds of palace maidservants and dozens of eunuchs. It was fascinating to see that the walls and Royal Palaces of Hue were built on the principles of Chinese geomancy. The whole complex faces southeast, taking the Royal Screen Mount as a natural screen. Two islets in the Perfume River play the roles of "left dragon" and "right dragon", thus guarding the city. In general, the monuments of Hue are made chiefly of ironwood and other Vietnamese traditional materials. They are constructed, however, on a specific "module" and largely to suit the climate and environment of the region. After the Citadel, we visited the Tu Duc Tomb built between 1864 and 1867. Emperor Tu Duc was crowned King during this period of Vietnam's history when capitalism was developing in the West. He was an expert in philosophy, oriental history, as well as literature, yet he failed to rule the country successfully. Having no son to succeed him aggravated the situation. To seclude himself, he ordered the construction of his tomb as a fairyland with poetical features, making it a lifetime recreation ground and a special world for his eternal life after death. With several palaces and a specific man-made landscape, the tomb itself is a second ‘Imperial City', an ideal and heavenly world. That night we had an imperial banquet where we were all required to dress up as mandarins and someone needed to be King and Queen. There was no one better than Dr. Dan Waters, RAS President, to be the Emperor, and Pru, an RAS member, took the part of the Empress. With their costumes and majestic headwear, it was strange to see Dan and Pru looking so noble. We were all perspiring, and Dan and Pru were being fanned by waitresses, turned court servants, during the whole meal. The weather was so hot that once we had taken our group picture in which we were wearing costumes, the first thing we did was to get rid of the heavy mandarin dresses before we ate. But Dan and Pru took it so seriously that they wore their imperial gowns till the end. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 30 After the First World War and the return to China of the Powers, a movement to finance a new westernized Chinese élite began among the Powers. Each country hoped that the Chinese educated by them would naturally favour their country of education; gratitude, ties of friendship, as well as cultural and emotional orientations, would see to that. This also Leopold, the astute King of the Belgians, had foreseen. He had spoken of it urging that young men be sent to Belgium for training. "Ils seront des nôtres," they will be ours. About her own Western studies, she wrote the following equitable lines: I myself was, in 1935, a recipient of a scholarship derived from the Belgian Boxer indemnity fund; I went to study in Belgium, following in my father's footsteps. But it was, in the end, China's money which was being spent to educate me, it was the Chinese people paying the Boxer Indemnity of 1900 who paid for my years in Belgium. And so my gratitude must go to them, for making me in turn, as they made my father, a privileged person, a returned student from abroad. Later I was to study in England, on a British Council scholarship, and also be grateful to England. But this has not influenced me in the end. For truth is truth and it cannot be bought at any price. Vigilant yet dispassionate, non-compromising yet lacking even the slightest urge for revenge, always eager to unveil painful truths about enslavement of one people by another, Han Suyin is a born defender of human dignity and human rights. In the pages of her autobiographical/historical cycle, multiple shrewd remarks about interference of indigenous Chinese and foreign powers' interests in Old China are a most natural and therefore a matter-of-factly element, masterly interwoven in a vast political and economic panorama of Chinese life in that pre-1949 epoch. After all, the so-called 'gunboat diplomacy' and also the other forms of political blackmail, extensively practised by the white powers to threaten feudal, backward and corrupt society in order to press even more lucrative concessions out of it, had directly affected Han Suyin's and her family clan's existence on an everyday basis. Surprisingly enough and in the circumstances incomparably more neutral (or even favourable) for her, Han Suyin wrote a stunning and remarkable book - And the Rain My Drink - devoted entirely to the declining post-World War II period of the British ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 160 The Emperor Tang Ming Huang was the third son of the fifth emperor of the Tang. His personal name was Li Longji [AD 685-761], though popularly known as the Third Son, San Lang. He is now the patron of actors and professional musicians, worshipped backstage by Fukienese devotees in Taiwan and several places in South-east Asia. Prior to 1949 he was also revered throughout northern China as the patron of actors, actresses and musicians, with incense burnt before his altar prior to every performance [Photograph 1]. He succeeded his father who abdicated in his favour in 713, and ruled the country fairly. The first part of his reign approximated that of his great-grandfather, Tai Zong, in prosperity and glory. He began by economising and by 740 the country was reasonably prosperous. Being a man of the arts he surrounded himself by a brilliant court, welcoming such men as the poet Li Bo. It quickly became the most glorious period of Tang culture. He loved song and dance and he had built within his palace an area known as the Pear Orchard, Liyuan, to bring together the best actors and actresses, dancers and singers in all China. The title, Liyuan, later became a common designation for anyone who sang, acted or danced professionally. Many myths are particularly centred on Tang Ming Huang - and stories about him abound describing him as a very sociable man, fond of music and drama, with men and maidservants being trained as actors and musicians for whom he composed tunes. He also founded a school of dramatic art. There are at least six temples in Taiwan dedicated to this deity, in Taipei, Taichung, Changhua and Kaohsiung where his festival is celebrated on or about the 24th of the sixth lunar month. As a deity he is known by a number of titles, including Ming Huang Dadi 明皇大帝; Lao Lang Ming Huang 老郎明皇; Lao Lang 老郎; and in Beijing Xi Shen, the God of Happiness. In Sichuan, however, his images were simply referred to as the Bodhisattva Prince, Taizi Pusa and, as elsewhere, were worshipped backstage, principally to prevent actors and actresses from bursting out into uncontrolled laughter or forgetting their lines. He is the patron in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 33 could also be a day for worshipping at the graves—a spring practice spread over several possible days. There is likely to have been a link of association between the She and the dead—in a way similar to what can still be discerned in some southern parts of China today. The offerings on this day were sometimes made in a grand style with cavalcades and officiants engaging the spirits. It was an occasion for feasting, drinking and games. 31 There was another festivity in the second lunar month of the year which was called Hua Zhao or 'Flower Dawn,' which occurred on the full moon day, the fifteenth of the moon. The festival is mentioned in chronicles from Tongshan, Baling,32 Yingshan,33 Zhongxiang,34 and Gong'an.35 If the sky was clear on this day in Baling, then the cotton plants would have a good harvest.36 In Gong'an there were similarly good prospects for cotton if there was a clear full moon on this night.37 The Flower Dawn as a social event is not extensively described, but we learn that in Zhongxiang there were outdoor activities in the open country outside the town, and so there were presumably also picnics. It is said that gentry and commoners ta qing—‘trod on the greenness’—and they dou bai cao ‘gathered one hundred grasses.’ Ta qing is a name for a spring outing, and the designation for this festive picnic is in the wider Chinese world associated with various dates, like the eighth day of the first moon, the second day of the second moon and the third day of the third moon. It is also generally held to be among the customs of Qing Ming in early April, even signifying grave visits. In this present corpus of ethnography we find mention of ‘treading on the greenness’ at the Flower Dawn. Dou bai cao was a game in which people armed themselves with stalks of grass. From each of a pair of stalks was pressed a drop of liquid and the two drops were 31 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1223:風俗考2a. 32 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1166:風俗考4a. 33 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1142:風俗考2a. 34 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1193:風俗考3b. 35 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1223:風俗考2a. 36 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1193:風俗考3b. 37 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1120:風俗考6ab. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 212 PARTNER. ALWAYS USE PROTECTIVE MEASURE.' The next day started with a quick drive-past, with a photo opportunity, of the Punakha Dzong, said to be Bhutan's most holy. The first king was crowned there in 1907. This commanding fortress stands on shingle banks at the confluence of the Mo and Pho rivers. Its situation certainly makes it picturesque, but also vulnerable. A flash flood ten or so years ago caused extensive damage which is still being repaired. The sad thing is that this deluge was probably not an isolated flash flood at all, but the first of many - the result of the effect of global warming on the frozen Tibetan wastes. Anyway, by command of the king no expense is to be spared in the restoration work, as we would see later. Tomorrow was to be the start of a major festival, and we were to return to see it. The festival invokes Bhutan's principal deity and protection for the country in the coming year; it also marks the beginning of spring. But for the moment we had other things to see further up the Mo. People were drifting past in threes and fours in the opposite direction, including some members of the Laya tribe. I guess we could have appeared to them as no less unearthly than Princess Leia herself from Planet Alderaan. Our 'bus had to stop right next to a group of Laya, having to give way to some more fortunate people descending to the dzong in a vehicle. These Laya, a Bhutanese nomadic tribe, comprised mainly very old women and very young children and were, we were told, just coming to the end of a three-day trek to get to the following day's festivities. Quick as a flash, the old crones in the walking party whipped out from beneath their vestments some shining "jewelled" necklaces with which to tempt the wealthy tourists. They did not make a sale that day, but I felt it was only a matter of time before their family assets would be disposed of to some tourist or other in this manner. I also guessed that if one of us happened to take a shine to their shoes, they too would have instantly had a price attached. (Some of their shoes, more like embroidered felt boots, were indeed very fine.) Still no bacon It was with mixed feelings that I also saw a large pig, foraging by the roadside - the first I had seen in Bhutan. I happen to like pigs very much, but a very large part of me was wondering (again) if there would ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 Date 2002 April 13 May 4 May 18 June 1 August 10 August 31 November 23 2003 January 25 March 1 Local Visits Ha Tsuen Market Town, Deep Bay, led by Dr Patrick H. Hase (see also Lecture Programme) "Waglan Island Lighthouse, led by Dr Dan Waters & Tim Ko (see also Lecture Programme) Pak Sha O in Sai Kung Country Park, led by May Holdsworth & Dr Patrick H. Hase Ha Tsuen Market Town, Deep Bay, led by Dr Patrick H. Hase (Repeat Visit) Fing Ping Shan Museum, to visit the Da Qin – An Imperial Christian Site of the Tang Dynasty Exhibition led by Dr Martin Palmer (see also Lecture Programme) Roman Catholic Cathedral and Archives, led by Anna Kwong & Fr Louis Ha Visit to Ming Chi Sing Cantonese Opera Troupe: Backstage Visit, "The Sweet General", led by Stella Ma (see also Lecture Programme) Devil's Peak Fort, led by Lawrence Lai, assisted by Tim Ko (see also Lecture Programme) Hong Kong Museum of History, to visit the "War and Peace: Treasures of the Qin and Han Dynasties" Exhibition, led by Dr Joseph Ting Overseas Visits Date 2002 March 28-April 2 Xi'an, led by Dr Joseph Ting September 28-October 1 Angkor Wat, Cambodia & Saigon, Vietnam, led by Dr Patrick H. Hase 2003 January 30-February 13 Eastern Bhutan, led by Dr Brian Shaw xxxii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 # Appendix I: A chronology of events concerning Devil's Peak and its vicinity Date Event Source Remarks 1368-1643 Lei Yue Mun classified by the Ming Dynasty as one of the 16 major sea passages and placed under naval patrol. Siu, 1997, p.24 Circa 1646-1656 Lei Man Wing, a supporter of a Ming Prince, occupied Devil's Peak and established his own "customs post" at Lei Yue Mun. Siu, 1997, p.24 1656 Lee Man Wing surrendered to the Manchu Dynasty. Siu, 1997, p.25 Circa 1661 Cheng Sing King (Coxinga or Surname of the Royal Family) drove the Dutch out of Taiwan (Formosa), his general Cheng Kin settled at Lei Yue Mun. Siu, 1997, p.26 c.f. Leung 1980, pp.68-69 Circa 1735 Cheng Lin Cheng, the great grandson of Cheng Kin, a pirate, established his camp in Devil's Peak. The name Devil's Peak owed to the ferocity of Cheng. Empson, 1992, p.104 (Plate 1-19); p.106 (Plate 1-20) 1753 Cheng Lin Cheong built a Tin Hau Temple along the coast as an observation post. This temple has been repaired several times since then and still exists. Empson, 1992, p.98 (Plate 1-14) 1819 The name Devil's Peak appears in Hong Kong maps produced by James Wyld and Captain Belcher, Empson, 1992, p.128 (Plate 2-1) 1841 The term "Lei Yue Mun fort" appears in a map to the Sun On Gazetteer, referred to as "San On Country Directory", Empson, 1992, p.112 (Plate 1-24) The location of the fort is uncertain as the map is not to scale and not at all accurate. 1845 1860 The name Devil's Peak appears in the lease map for the Treaty of Peking 1860, by which Kowloon was ceded to Britain. 127 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 181 Significantly, this party was the only escape group without a regular military officer in their midst, and to have a Chinese to organise their escape and travel with them. All three Europeans were academics, without experience of up-to-date, modern military thinking. Moreover, given the nature of colonial society, they were used to being treated with deference. It would not have occurred to them to question why the Chinese along their escape route had been so helpful, or why they were met by Europeans in this very remote area, still bandit country, where few ventured, who were not only expecting them, but 'who were quite conversant with the route back to Kowloon and were assistants to FW Kendall, another member of the same organisation whose address... was c/o Col Chauvin, British Embassy, Chung King.' Lt DF Davies, formerly a Lecturer in Physics, solemnly advised that he understood 'Col LT Ride of our party was to attempt some sort of underground railroad back to the Camp...(and) if they could be persuaded and/or allowed to carry out this work, I would suggest that the Cloak and Dagger Group be approached.' Since the Cloak and Dagger Boys they met were Z Force, this was in fact one of the jobs they had long been trained for. The trip from Hong Kong had been stressful, not least because a commanding officer had told Ride in no uncertain terms before departure that he should be court-martialled on arrival in Chongqing for deserting his troops. From Lt Davies' report, we know that the group had talked with Z Force members about their organisation. Grimsdale was later to refer to Ride blaming Kendall as a 'complete failure' for delaying his departure from Kukong, then a safe town with Chinese Army presence. Ride himself makes no mention, describing the men later as mere escapees with the Chan Chak group. While still in Kukong, after meeting MacEwan and Talan, the group met Col Chauvin and Dr Wan Wan Yik Shin, a doctor who had served both in the Chinese Army and in the British RAMC. It was at this stage that Ride appears to have outlined his proposals to set up an elaborate escape and evasion organisation. By the time he arrived in Chongqing a few days later, he had formulated an elaborate proposal. Operational details were sketchy, to be left to others to sort out, naming Dr Wan and General Yu Mo Han, commander of Chinese forces in the area. On one point he was unequivocally adamant: that 'the section should be under the command of Lt Col Ride.' It was an absolutely essential prerequisite that the British authorities provide him with a letter confirming his ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 309 During their drive north to eliminate the War Lords and unify China under the Republic, the Nationalist [KMT] forces entered Zhenjiang in March of 1927 and at the same time took over the Concession. Most westerners left for Shanghai whilst those who remained lived aboard hulks on the River or as close to the River as they could get. Even the British Consul was withdrawn to Shanghai where he continued to carry out his Zhenjiang duties. Eventually, in 1929, bowing to the inevitable the Zhenjiang Concession was finally retroceded to Chinese control and the treaty port, as such, was no more. Gerald Yorke travelled to China in 1931 planning to spend a couple of years travelling around China and studying, to satisfy a childhood dream. Not long after his arrival, as Reuter's correspondent, he joined a party chosen by the Chinese Government to inspect the dyke systems of the Yangzi and Huai river valleys which had just been rebuilt as a result of the disastrous floods in 1931. During the tour with the party they departed from Shanghai and reached Zhenjiang early the next morning. They were greeted on the hulk by a band which played valiantly out of tune. After motoring through the town to a public garden they were entertained at a European luncheon. The weather was cold but presuming that any entertainment would be indoors an under-dressed Yorke froze in the open pavilion. A Shandong medicinal wine was served with the first course; appetising dishes came hot from the kitchen, all of which sat on the table waiting for the Chairman of the Provincial Reconstruction Committee to finish his welcoming speech. When the tepid lunch was over they were each given a pamphlet describing the flood protection work done and the reconstruction planned for the future, a perfect example of how provincial officials wasted their time and country's money by publishing, with their portraits next to the title-page, an account of rather more than they have done and of what they would like one to think they are going to do. The afternoon was spent sight-seeing at the monastery on Silver Island [Jin Shan], with its hundred or so monks and its ancient fir tree in the outer courtyard. The tree had but one branch still alive, its trunk bound in iron and its base enclosed in marble - a symbol of the passing of classical Chinese culture. The monastic treasures were all displayed, the bronze vessel from the Zhou dynasty, a drum from the Han, and a jade belt belonging to a former statesman, possibly Ming. There was also a small hexagonal column inscribed with the Daode Jing, the Daoist classic which had surprised Yorke as he had not expected to see a Daoist classic in a Page 375 Page 376 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 324 old Colonial Office in Great Smith Street. Sir Christopher Cox, who headed the interview panel, said: 'Waters, you would be more suitable teaching building subjects in Hong Kong than in Trinidad. Go away and think about it!' Rose, Rose I Love You was the first song originating in the People's Republic of China to become popular in Britain. Yet the composers never received royalties. They could not afford to be seen drawing money from a capitalist country. And as I listened to the refrain in Merry England, it all tied in. Serving in the Colonial Service in Hong Kong seemed terribly exciting and romantic. It made me think of Camp Coffee, Zam Buk ointment and other similar branded goods with scenes of Empire on bottles and tins which I grew up with as a child. 'You're not going to the Far East?!' an acquaintance exclaimed. 'The Communists have just acquired half Korea. There's fighting in Vietnam and Malaya. Hong Kong will be the next to fall!” In spite of adverse comments I accepted the offer from the Colonial Office which was shortly to become Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service. After all a considerable amount of a map of the world was still coloured red. Hadn't Winston Churchill proclaimed: 'I have not become the King's first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire'? At the time I could have been posted to any one of something like 55 different colonies or dependent territories within the British Commonwealth. For me, 'Go East young man!' was the watchword. Nevertheless, some said that the Hong Kong Royal Naval Dockyard was shortly to be closed down. So, in spite of discouraging remarks, I "burned my boats,” sold the family business as a going concern, and went shopping. I spotted cabin trunks made of sheet metal. 'Oh no," the shop assistant exclaimed, 'you only need those, Sir, if you are going to some humid place like Hong Kong!' 'I'll have two!' I replied. Shipboard In the early 1950s, if one flew to Hong Kong, one normally went by seaplane, landed on water and slept the night in a hotel. The journey took five days. But up until 1959 most of us travelled by sea. The Page 390 Page 391 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 332 Sir Robert had a wonderful funeral procession with 16 bands. In those days popular tunes at Chinese funerals were; Abide with me, Polly Wolly Doodle all the Day, and Yes, we have no Bananas! They were good, rousing tunes and most Chinese did not understand the words anyway. Bamboo ramps were a common sight in the 1950s to bring coffins and corpses down to street level. Ramps disappeared with traffic congestion and with the introduction of high-rise buildings, about 1960. Major Chinese festivals occur in the calendar when there are marked changes of seasons. People are then likely to feel "under the weather." When the body is at a low ebb a sick person is more likely to die. In 1956, it was said that Sir Robert had “passed over" Ching Ming and should be able to carry on at least to Dragon Boat Festival. However, it was not to be. In March 1955 I had managed to obtain a government quarter at 56 Conduit Road. At the time it resembled a quiet country lane, gay with flowers, where you could occasionally hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. A few people were still carried up to Mid-Levels by sedan chairs which, until the end of the fifties, were parked at the bottom of Wyndham Street. I engaged a Chinese amah to whom I paid $130 a month. She spoke Pidgin English and talked of "going topside” when she meant going upstairs. Indeed some of us old Hong Kong hands still use pidgin expressions. I, for example, still talk of a makee-learn, for someone learning a job, and I say small chow when I mean canapés which are provided at receptions. A Chinese colleague complained that, at $130, I was overpaying my amah. He gave his $70 a month. He also said that his amah had no time off. If she had anything important to do she would request a few hours off work. Several people had gold teeth in those days and the saying was that one should have enough gold in one's mouth to pay for one's funeral. The present-day, gold-coloured building, at Admiralty, is nicknamed the "Amah's Tooth." When I first lived in Conduit Road there were a number of quite palatial mansions standing in their own grounds, often with tennis courts, in the Mid-levels. One example was the house on the site, at No.41, on which I live today. The old building was demolished in the mid-1960s. From 1951 to '61 it was occupied by the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC). The film, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, based on Han ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 439 the walls (St Francis healing the sick etc) and statues around the altar. In the surrounding grounds, a garden seemed to have been abandoned; a large copper statue dominated. We managed to snap a few interior shots. With the light fading rapidly, we walked down to a nearby spring from where St Francis was supposed to have drawn his water supply. The stone upon which he is said to have died can still be seen. We were rushed onwards for our remaining sight-seeing: a huge, fat Buddha on the nearby hillside, an ex-PLA storage cave which had been turned into the Nine Dragons Cave, complete with waxwork figures, and Flying Sand beach - a lovely 2-mile stretch where our hotel was situated. A few weeks before our visit, the hotels had all been full for the Golden Week holiday in China, but now everywhere seemed deserted except for a few hopeful souvenir shops. The hotel itself was also empty but we were nevertheless given rooms right next to the disco and so were "entertained" (or changed rooms in our case) to the sounds of karaoke till 3am. We agreed on an early start the next morning, including a pre-breakfast swim despite a chilly wind, to enable us to include an extra sight on our tour, back on the mainland - a typical village with watch tower. Roger, our guide, was very accommodating on this, though as we sped through the outskirts of Tai Shan we also spotted a Ming dynasty pagoda in the distance which looked worthy of investigation: "No time” was Roger's response, which, at least, provided us a good reason to return. After lunch in Tai Shan, we walked around the central area and Roger showed us a recently completed pedestrian mall. The old facades of the buildings had all been renovated and painted in pastel tones - our photographs look like a typical Macau street scene. Tucked amongst the mall buildings was another church and we were invited inside by the female pastor, Huang Bi Juan. She gave us a brief history of the "Three Self Patriotic Protestant Church" and its present active role serving some 200 local families. We took the country road for our return journey and soon spotted a suitable village with watchtower. We wandered into our chosen village with its harvest of golden grain spread out to dry in the sun in front of the houses, and spoke to some elderly residents - one old lady was 105 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 454 had eight (some say nine) concubines. In 1928, the house was passed on to his son, Mr. Mok Hing Shung. Up until the 1950s and 1960s, there were several palatial mansions standing in their own grounds in the Mid-Levels. Some had tennis courts. One splendid example was Marble Hall, at 1 Conduit Road where Chater Hall now stands. Marble Hall was built by Sir Paul Catchick Chater, a wealthy Armenian merchant and philanthropist. It was said in his days: "What Chater does today Jardine does tomorrow." The general design of Marble Hall was similar in many respects to the old mansion at 41 Conduit Road. In addition to the photographs hanging in the entrance lobbies of the five blocks at Realty Gardens today, there is an artist's embellished impression of No. 41 in the Hong Kong Museum of Art at Tsim Sha Tsui.1 From 1951 to 1961 the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC), a period some members describe as its heyday, was ensconced in the splendid building at No. 41. One could drive to the Club then and either drive up the slope or, alternatively, there was space for about three cars to park at the Conduit Road level. One could then take the lift (the first installed in a private dwelling in Hong Kong) up to the main entrance. There were nine bedrooms on the upper floor and the fireplaces were of Italian marble. The whole house had a wonderful ambience. With a little stretch of the imagination one can almost picture Han Suyin sitting under a cupola on the roof partaking of afternoon tea. The FCC was offered the lovely old building for a mere HK$250,000 in the 1950s, but the political situation was considered too precarious at the time to contemplate purchase. I first came to live in Conduit Road in March 1955, at the previous (then newly completed) block at No. 56. I frequently walked past the old Foreign Correspondents' Club, sometimes when boisterous parties were in full swing. On Saturday nights it was considered the place to be. The FCC had its own band but it also hired bands from the armed forces. Private parties were common there as well as diplomatic corps and airline lunches. But, in spite of the noise emanating at times from No. 41, Conduit Road was generally quiet and peaceful. At the western end especially it was almost like a country road, with trees and undergrowth, and one ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 31 right, presently near a road bridge spanning the river at this point, has the picturesque name now, as it did then, of "Lady's Slipper," in Cantonese Ah Niang Hai. The merchant ships had to anchor here and report themselves to the Chinese force guarding the passage, and show their permits. This done, they were on their way upstream to the Whampoa Anchorage, twelve miles from Canton. The Whampoa Anchorage (Plate 3) was the furthest point to which merchant ships could come. It was a trans-shipment centre, a very busy place, year in year out, for centuries. Its warehouses, docks and repair yards, its hospital, its cemetery, all point to a long existence as the place in which - more than Canton itself - the real business of the China Trade was carried on. That is, other than at Lintin (“Solitary Nail,” a reference to its single peak), an island in the outer waters of the Delta which, since the 1820s, had become an opium depot and the port for a large volume of illegal trading, the amount (astonishingly enough) tripling the authorized regular trading conducted through the Co-hong, and under the official regulations.7 Whampoa was the Chinese countryside beside the river, lush and heavily populated. The Daniells, English painters who visited the Whampoa anchorage twice, in 1785 and 1793, particularly noted ‘...its sweet, romantic scenery. Nothing indeed can exceed the beauty of the country in this vicinity.’ Another visitor wrote in 1848: "Whampoa was beautiful. The vessels were displaying their different flags; Chinese boats were crossing and re-crossing in every direction, and the setting sun was shedding its gilded light on everything around, giving to the low, flat island, covered with rich, green-like velvet, the pagodas and the foliage of the trees, a touch of enchantment'. Above Canton, it was much the same story. "The river sides were planted with orange-trees, plantains, and lychees; while nothing but rice fields appeared inland'.10 Whampoa's famous seven-storey pagoda, built in the late Ming period, features in many China Trade paintings, and in paintings on porcelains and fans. The pagoda itself attracted the more energetic visitors. A 16 year old American girl who accompanied her sea captain father on his China voyage in 1856, climbed up the pagoda and wrote in her journal, '(after you arrive at the top, I found I was repaid for my trouble. Oh! There was such a beautiful view, for miles and miles I ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 32 could see, and it seemed as if it were one vast garden'." Parkinson, Trade in the Eastern Seas (1937) writes: "When the whole [EIC] China fleet was collected there, twelve or sixteen of the largest merchantmen in the world, together with the country ships, the spectacle must have been magnificent." He records that sometimes the Viceroy at Canton would come down to visit the fleet. The ships would be decked to receive the great man, with yards manned and officers in full dress.12 Canton Canton was, and is, the capital of the Guangdong Province. One of the larger and richer cities of the Chinese Empire, and dating back to pre-Han times, it had long been a major sea port for overseas trade, notably in the Tang Dynasty when it had a significant Arab and Muslim population. During the turmoil which accompanied the change of dynasty from Ming to Qing, it upheld the Ming, endured an eleven-month siege in 1650, and suffered a wholesale massacre of its inhabitants. However, it recovered, and by the mid-nineteenth century was credited with a population of around one million persons. It was renowned for its manufactories, carried on by human industry, without the aid of machinery, particularly in silk and cloth, women and children included, whilst trade - international and regional trade - was described as being 'the great business of life'.13 Canton was a walled city (actually two walled cities in one, the Old and the New) with major suburbs along the Pearl River, and to the West.14 As befitted its status, it contained the yamens (office-residences) of many senior government officials, including those of the governor-general of the two linked provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, the governor of Guangdong, the Canton prefect, two county magistrates, the Tartar general, the provincial naval commander, and the like, as well as those officials with charge of other, specialised concerns, and (of special status, since he was responsible directly to Beijing) the Hoppo or Superintendent of Maritime Customs, who oversaw the foreign trade and its accruing revenue. The Foreign Factories (British, French, Swedish, Spanish, Danish and Dutch) of the river suburb were so-called from their being the ================================================================================