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 RASHKB and author 74 R The historical figure of Li Ching had long been admitted into the Taoist pantheon. He was, in the year 760, enshrined with Chiang T'ai-kung (B★A or Chiang Shang) as one of the ten famous historical generals. In the anonymous work, Li Wei-kung Pieh-chuan (A4), it is said, "When Li Ching was poor, he took a journey in the valleys and stayed in a cottage. When it was mid-night there came a woman who handed him a vase and said, 'Heaven has instructed you to pour down rain ...' and as we know in the Buddhist legends that it is Virupaksha (not Vaisravana) who is the king of the nagas, we understand that even in the T'ang dynasty the popular mind could not properly distinguish the function of these guardians of Mt. Sumeru. In an inscription on a tablet erected in the Temple of Vaisravana in Ning-hwa District (LM), Fukien, dated about 920, we read, P'i-sha-mên (Vaisravana) is a Sanskrit word which means "universal or much hearing" (to-wên SH). He dwells on the north of Mt. Sumeru, in the crystal palace, and is the chief of yakshas,10 From this narrative we see why in so many Chinese records it has become an undeniable fact that yakshas are believed to live at the bottom of the seas with the dragon-kings in marvellous crystal palaces loaded with wonderful treasures. The legends of these two heavenly kings have long been mixed in the popular mind." As Li Ching was such a famous historical hero, the Taoist priests could not forgive themselves if they failed to utilize his prestige. It is said in an anonymous work of the T'ang dynasty, Yuan Hsien Chi (E), that Li Ching was still alive in the epoch of Ta Li (766-779) and became a Taoist immortal, In addition to the book on military strategy attributed to him in the Bibliography of the Hsin T'ang-shu (MEBOXZ), the Taoist priests also ascribed to him some canonical texts dealing 12 • Hsin T'ang-shu (), Ch. 15, Li-yüeh Chih (M), 5. • Ku-chin Shuo-hai (546), Shuo-yüan Pu (R), Vol. chi (2) Also Tsung-shu Chi-ch'êng Ch'u-pien (£). 10 See Ninghwa Hsien-chih ("Annals of the Ninghwa District") of the Ming dynasty, quoted in Ku-chin T'u-shu Chi-ch'êng (4), Shên-1 Tien (R), chüan 54. The essay was composed by Huang T'ao () for Wang Shen-chih (E). 11 In the Ta-Tang San-tsang Ch'ü-ching Shih-hua (ERR), chüan 1, “...A" ("To-day, Vaisravana of the Indra Heaven, the Guardian of the North, will feed Buddhist priests in the Crystal Palace.") 12 Quoted in Chiu Hsiao-shuo (R), 2nd Series, Shanghai, Commercial Press Ltd., 1910. ================================================================================ 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 103 of Buddhist literature, chiefly sutras in Chinese, and is open to the public (although only members are allowed to take books out). It is headed by Abbot T'aam Hui of the Wang Faat Tsing She, and staffed by his disciples. There is another, much smaller Buddhist library on the Hong Kong side (the Bo Fat Tripitaka Library, Queen's Road East), under the direction of Abbot Fat Ko of the Po Lin Tsz. By far the most numerous category of Buddhist institutions in Hong Kong is the tsing she, or hermitage, most of which - at least 120 are registered under the Temples Ordinance - are to be found in secluded parts of the New Territories (over 80 on Lantao Island alone). These are small private institutions where five or ten persons lead a peaceful life, eat vegetarian food, worship morning and night, and (in the case of the intellectually inclined) more or less diligently study Buddhism and practice Buddhist meditation. Many of the hermitages are headed by an ordained monk: in others, one or two monks may live as honoured guests, teaching the laymen who, in almost all cases, form a majority of the inmates of each institution. Little distinction is made as to sect: each inmate is free to take the approach that he finds most congenial. Women as well as men may be found in tsing she (offering little distraction, since they are usually elderly), but most Buddhists lay women prefer the institution known as the chai t'ong, or vegetarian hall, which is a species of tsing she and follows the same regime. Here no men are to be found. Amahs and other women who have saved a little money make it over to the head of the chai t'ong in return for her commitment to support them until they die. Sometimes the spirit of the commitment is not lived up to. The proprietor tries to make life so spartan for one of her guests that the latter will leave in disgust. Her purpose is then to acquire another lump sum from the person who replaces the disgruntled member. This kind of sharp practice often leads to disputes that the District Officer must solve. III. FINANCES Tsing she, including chai t'ong, receive practically no money from public sources. Outsiders are not encouraged to attend worship there except in cases where they are potential candidates for admission. The income comes from members only and, where the latter are well-off, the standard of living can be high. The income of the funeral specialists is entirely in the form of fees for services performed. The various study centres and libraries depend on donations from well-to-do Buddhist devotees, who, in many cases, wish to acquire merit by helping to spread the dharma. Since their personnel is usually small and their ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f Hakka kept themselves to themselves in different villages and there has been a general antipathy between them until recent times. Whether Punti or Hakka the villages were inhabited by clans: either in villages in which there were only persons of one clan descended from a common ancestor; or in villages in which lived several groups of families of different name, that is several clans, having come there together or at different times. Examples of both kinds of villages, large and small, are to be found all over the New Territory. Both Punti and Hakka clans have a history of wandering from the north throughout the last ten centuries at least and it is clear that for all the families who came to what is now the leased territory it was the end of the line, the end of a chapter of wandering that was often interrupted for centuries in some location elsewhere in the province. At Fan Pui, for instance, a small village on Lantau Island, the FUNG clan5 arrived there in the eleventh generation after the first ancestor had entered Kwangtung province. The twenty-second generation are living there still in an adjoining bay, having had to make way for the Shek Pik reservoir scheme. The family came from Ma Tau Wai in Kowloon and had made their way there from Nam Hung district in the extreme north of the province after spending some time in Hok Shan district on the way south. Their neighbours the TSUI clan* of Shek Pik claim twenty-seven generations in Kwangtung and fifteen in Lantau: that is, nearly four hundred years. The first ancestor came from a village in Nam Cheung district in Kiangsi province and settled in Tung Kun district. Eventually, following the example of other members of the main branch who gradually moved southwards, a TSUI of the thirteenth generation came to Shek Pik and was buried there. Their clan history mentions that members of successive generations before the move to Lantau were officials and military officers who won the imperial favour in the Ming dynasty, whereas the FUNG genealogy gives no such claims to fame for its progenitors. Both these clans are Cantonese. The condition of the peasantry impressed Lockhart favourably on the whole, "The inhabitants, though by no means wealthy, seem to be, as a rule, comfortably well off and able to earn Page 80 Page 90 Page 91 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 87 Heaven. In Canton itself there was a serious plot to seize the city in October 1894, which led Consul Fraser to write in his next report There is little doubt that dissatisfaction with the administration of their native country is growing among the Southern Chinese, and if no attempt at reform is made, may result in a serious insurrection". He mentioned the plot but remarked that its failure was due more to the ineptitude of its organisers than to the vigour of the local authorities.33 His colleague at Pakhoi, in the south-east of the province, was more critical. Such as is Chinese civilisation, Pakhoi is of its outskirt only and shows a lower level than I have seen anywhere else in this country. Piracy is in the blood of the race. A glance through the year's diary shows a monotonous record of petty coast raids, hoverings of pirate junks (which still terrorise the neighbouring coastline) and robberies of every degree of dignity from the sacking of the larger pawnshops to the plunder of a returned emigrant from the Straits or Sumatra. Of Chinese local authorities at Pakhoi itself there are practically none, the highest native Civilian within 20 miles being an officer of the rank of sub-district deputy magistrate armed with an amount of authority that barely enables him to call in question the theft of a matchbox. It would be invidious to say this much of the Pakhoi neighbourhood without adding that most of the adjacent areas are worse.34 Whilst these reports were confined to individual districts there can be little doubt that the general unrest was known and felt in the New Territory. It will be recalled that SUN Yat Sen was a Cantonese and some of his followers are credited with swelling the ranks of the village bands which offered resistance to the British troops who entered the New Territory in 1899.35 This tale of unrest and lawlessness, and weakness on the part of the civil authorities, provides a background to the unsuccessful reform movement of 1898, sponsored by the southern party at Peking, whose sequel was the incarceration of the emperor by his formidable aunt, the Empress Dowager, the stringent capital measures against the reform party and their dispersal overseas or in foreign concessions in China. The leader of the movement and adviser to the emperor was KANG Yue Wei, a prominent scholar and mandarin, and himself a Cantonese. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 91 which it had supplanted eighteen years before. Great hardship was encountered which is hardly surprising, and the people were eternally grateful to their benevolent officials and commemorated them in several temples dedicated in their honour. One of these was burned down in 1955 during the fire which destroyed Shek Wu Hui near Fanling, and others are to be found at Sha Tau Kok and Kam Tin, and Sai Heung in Chinese Territory. In addition a school was named in their honour at Kam Tin, and when it was repaired in 1744 the San On magistrate of the time composed a Confucian discourse which was inscribed on the wall of the restored building, to instruct the pupils and their parents. An interesting survival which still existed in 1898 was the appearance of an old beggar in the Yuen Long villages every Chinese New Year who brought statues of WONG and CHOW for the people to worship, and incidentally to supply him with food and money.'' To these men-become-gods for whom the construction of a temple was necessary to ensure their better worship and resulting favours, there must be added an equal and possibly much older faith in sacred tree spirits and the multitude of earth spirits known as pak kung ih, tai wong ★, and ordinary she taan 4, who look after villages and localities such as passes, bridges, and fords over streams. This insurance with the spirits who ruled this world and would assuredly be encountered in the next was expressed in the continual reconstruction of temples. A great many of the temples in the New Territory to-day owe their present fabric, or a great part of it, to repairs made during the last fifty years of the Ching dynasty. It was evidently a highly necessary part of the proceedings that the god should be informed of the names of the contributors so that his benefits should not pass anyone by, since their names, and often the amounts they gave, were scrupulously inscribed on the commemorative tablet which was always let into the wall to mark the occasion. Sometimes over a thousand names had to be recorded in this way, most of them in respect of trifling amounts, even for a small and out of the way temple, as in the reconstruction of the Tin Hau temple at Cheung Chau in the second year of the last Ch'ing Emperor (1909). The magistrate, too, was expected to play his part in warding off disaster. The District History mentions that CHAN Kuk ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 94 J. W. HAYES land and the clan. The popular religion too, was but an ephemeral thing, something to meet the needs of the moment; something too that was not so respectable as the austere worship which fell within the Confucian canon. In short, the impression left by the brief excursion into the past which forms the basis of this article has left me with the firm impression that Confucianism was the dominant influence over people and government in the New Territory in 1898. I hasten to point out that in itself this is not in any way surprising: but in view of the remoteness of the area and its late settlement by Chinese of different race with their undoubted absorption of earlier inhabitants this impression of its pervasiveness and brooding presence everywhere in the Territory at this time is probably worth restating. NOTES As far as possible the notes are designed to supplement the text and not to be a necessary part of it. I have used local source material which has come to my notice during a tour of duty as District Officer South (1957-60) and Islands (1961-62) when I have been in a favourable position to hear of, find and utilise whatever happened to come my way, besides the authorities cited in these notes. I have scarcely used the District History, the San On Yuen Chi (⛧人元誌, last edition 1820, but reprinted by Kwong Tung Printers, Canton, in 1933) nor Mr. Lo Hsiang-lin's Hong Kong and its external communications before 1842 which uses the District History extensively. (It is good to know that a translation of the latter is in the Hong Kong University Press and will appear shortly, so making available in English part of the District History). I ought also to say here that this is my first excursion in the field of Oriental Studies, with all that this implies. I wish to thank Mr. Lo Chi Chung of the District Office for his valuable help. A Cantonese form of romanization has been used throughout. 1 James Haldane Stewart Lockhart (1858-1937) became a Hong Kong Cadet in 1878. He was appointed Colonial Secretary in 1895, the post he held at the time of his Report (8th October 1898) for which he received the thanks of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was created C.M.G. in 1898 and K.C.M.G. in 1908. In 1902 he became first Commissioner of Wei Hai Wei, a territory of 285 square miles on the coast of Shantung with an estimated 330 villages and a population of 124,000 which had been leased to Britain in 1898. He remained in this quiet backwater for the next twenty years. Lockhart was a sinologue of some note in his day and wrote a Manual of Chinese Quotations (Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 1903), The Currency of the Far East, 3 vols (Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1895, 1898) and a monograph, The Stewart Lockhart collection of Chinese copper coins, (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1915). Page 105 Page 106 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 95 2 Extracts from the Report are given between pages 181-209 of Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong 1899, (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1900). For this quotation see p. 198. Lockhart was referring specifically to development which was noticeably lacking. The same cannot be said of the population during this period. The evacuation of the coastal areas (1662-69) caused a great disruption to the villages at the time. For a brief mention in English, based on Chinese authorities, see S. F. Balfour, "Hong Kong before the British", an article in T'ien Hsia, Vol. XI, No. 4, 1941, p. 334. In any case there has been a continuous inward flow of both Cantonese and Hakka since then, more especially of Hakka in the 19th century, from which time many of the hill villages in the Colony take their origin. It is interesting to compare this report with a book on Wei Hai Wei, Lion and Dragon in North China (London, John Murray, 1910) which was written by a junior colleague from Hong Kong, R. F. Johnston (1874-1938) who went to Wei Hai Wei as Magistrate and Secretary to Government in 1904, probably at Lockhart's request. Johnston, later knighted and Professor of Chinese in the University of London was a man of great application and erudition who became tutor to the deposed boy emperor, P'u Yi, (1919-25) and wrote the well-known book Twilight in the Forbidden City, (London, Gollancz, 1934). He was himself Commissioner of Wei Hai Wei 1927-30. His detailed description of Wei Hai Wei, its people and their customs leaves an impression of the striking similarity of life and thought between that remote part of Shantung and this small corner of Kwangtung. The means of government was of course the same, but so also are the ways of doing and thinking which seem, in my own experience, hardly to differ at all despite the different agricultural background. To anyone interested in the Chinese peasant Johnston's book is a mine of information. The annual reports on Wei Hai Wei presented to both Houses of Parliament are, too, an interesting commentary on life in this northern leased territory. The market towns of the New Territories in 1898 were Tai Po, Yuen Long, Tai O, Cheung Chau, Sai Kung and Tsuen Wan. A despatch of 1905 in connection with the Kowloon-Canton Railway No. 59 dated 11th January 1905 from Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to the then Secretary of State, Mr. Lyttelton gives some figures. Yuen Long had "seventy-four shops of which twenty-five are large and deal in rice, oil, samshu etc. The remainder belong to barbers, doctors, jewellers, vegetable sellers, piece goods dealers etc." Tai Po Market consisted of twenty-three large shops and fifteen smaller ones, Tsuen Wan had a few shops supplying the local needs". No figures are given for Cheung Chau or Tai O with which the railway was not concerned, but an inscription of 1878 inside the grounds of the Fong Pin Hospital at Cheung Chau states that there "used to be over two hundred shops trading here". Lockhart Papers 1899, p. 207 gave Cheung Chau a population of 5,000, whilst Tai O with its fisheries and salt pans was reported to have about 3,000. These were larger towns than Yuen Long (no figure given), Tai Po (280), Sai Kung Market (800) and Tsuen Wan (900). The present New Territories towns were not the largest in the San On district. Pride of place went to Sham Chun, now on the Chinese side of the border, with sixty-one large shops and three hundred and twenty-three medium sized shops, and to Kun Lan Hui, also north of the border which was the cattle centre of the whole district with fifteen large and one hundred and thirty-six medium sized shops. (Enclosure C to No. 59). See Eastern No. 88 Correspondence relating to the Kowloon-Canton Railway (London, Colonial Office, 1907). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 96 5 J. W. HAYES See a tablet in the Chow-Wong School at Kam Tin. * Papers 1899 p. 188. * Papers 1899 p. 188. 'Lockhart's figures, given in Appendixes 3 and 5 to his Report are not exact, and he has emphasised his sketchy estimate of the land population "in default of any reliable statistics possessed by the Chinese Government" and said he had been unable to obtain even an estimate of the boat people Papers 1899 pp. 187,189. Taking areas within my own detailed knowledge I have found that villages established long before 1898 have not been included in the returns or else have been linked with other villages without special mention, The population figures for the Islands, in particular, are not above suspicion and are probably greater than shown in Appendix 5. * Papers 1899 p. 189. Papers 1899 p. 189. 10 Universal ownership was clearly shown by the land survey which followed the lease of 1898. This was carried out by surveyors and staff on loan from the Government of India, and was followed by a registration of titles which was enlivened by land courts which sat to determine possession in disputed cases. The survey sheets and the Crown Rent Rolls which form the schedules to them can be found in the District Offices of the New Territories Administration and they are a valuable record of land ownership and land classification at the time of the lease. At Shek Pik and Fan Pui in 1958 out of sixty-six families four owned between 3-4 acres, nine between 2-3 acres, nineteen between 1-2 acres, fourteen owned between a half to one acre, twelve owned between a quarter to a half, and eight between 10 to 25 acres. Except a few late arrivals, therefore, every family owned land of its own. The position was much the same as in 1898. The same was true of Wei Hai Wei, of which Johnston wrote Lion & Dragon, p. 148, "Whatever the faults of the Chinese social system may be there is no doubt that in Wei Hai Wei it very largely accounts for the complete absence of pauperism (though no one is rich) for the orderliness of the people (nearly everyone has a stake in the land and has nothing to gain and everything to lose from disorder), for the uninterrupted succession of father and son in the homesteads, and for the long pedigrees attested by family graveyards and ancestral tablets". 11 See Johnston Lion and Dragon pp. 134-54. I have compared customary deeds of sale and mortgage from the New Territory between the years 1898 and 1958 with those cited by him and find that they invariably follow the same form (see especially Johnston pp. 144-145). These deeds are known as white deeds (as in Ching times) and had not been put through the formal process of registration in the District Office which would turn them into legal documents; or, as formerly in Ching days, in the Magistrate's yamen when they became red deeds (RI #). They were common until the Pacific war and even now are occasionally known to be drawn up in addition to the Memorial registering the conveyance in the Land Office. To select an example at random here is one from Shek Pik on Lantau Island dated the second year of the Republic (1913) which reads ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 98 J. W. HAYES approval. This authority, with powers of discretion, was given to the D.O. to help preserve the traditional way of managing land within the clan, and to provide a cheap and impartial arbiter in case of dispute. 13 In Shek Pik village the TSUI, CHEUNG, HO and CHI clans owned 1.1, 0.39, 0.55, and 0.04 acres of agricultural land in 1898. With the exception of the HO clan, they were intact in 1959. The TSUI tso probably dates from the fifteenth generation, and is therefore three hundred years old. The FUNG clan in Fan Pui owned 9.2 acres in 1898 but this was sold in 1953. 14 At Fan Pui I dealt with a disputed case of ownership in which the defendant stated that eight lots totalling 9,581 square feet of agricultural land had been specially set aside as joss and oil fields (shen you tian). Fields are also set aside for the worship of earth spirits. At Cheung Kwan O village in 1898 the two clans of CHAN and NG administered 1.41 acres of agricultural land under the name of a to tei wui. The rentals were originally devoted to the maintenance of the to tei or earth spirit who looked after the village, but for many years the revenue has simply gone to the clans. Many other cases are known at Mui Wo and Tung Chung. 15 See Chapter III (iii) and (iv) of H. B. Morse The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1908) which is based on an article by Byron Brenan "The Office of District Magistrate in China” Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XXII, (1897-98), 36-65, and incorporates his own wide experience of China and her officials in the course of over thirty years' service in the Imperial Maritime Customs. Brenan himself (1847-1927) had served in China from 1866 and was H.B.M.'s Consul-General in Shanghai 1898-1901. Of the district magistrate Brenan wrote, "The magistrate is the unit of government; he is the backbone of the whole official system; and to ninety per cent of the population he is the Government"; op. cit. p. 37. 16 Papers 1899 p. 583. The text of the stone tablet outside the Tin Hau temple at Kat O, referred to elsewhere in the article, uses this picturesque phraseology. Contrasting their sorry lot beside the power of the yamen officials they had written in their petition to the Viceroy "We, civilians, whose lives are cheap as ants... who are we to start a lawsuit against the district yamen's worms?" An interesting feature of this inscription is that it follows the customary form of Ch'ing document in which reference is made in the text to other papers, by summary or quotation, instead of the western method of adding enclosures. See John K. Fairbank, Ch'ing Documents, an introductory syllabus, (Harvard University Press 1952) p. 21. 18 When I asked an old gentleman who graduated sau choi in 1896 about extortion and venality among magistrates, he replied in distinctly extenuating tones "Some did; but then they had so many people to look after". He observed that there were some rich districts in Kwangtung in which a magistrate had to do nothing to obtain money as it came rolling into the Office in the way of presents, inducements, additions to land and other taxes etc., whilst there were others which were so poor that the magistrate could squeeze very little from them even if he tried very hard. This is curiously echoed in Morse, Trade and Administration p. 92 “In Kwangtung we (the Imperial Maritime Customs) have regularly applied to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 100 J. W. HAYES exerts itself with unprecedented vigour and hardihood in local affairs. No dispute arises but one or more of these social pests thrusts himself forward between the contending parties, and no fraud on the revenue or wholesale extortion is free from their similar influence". Lockhart (through Governor Blake) says that the New Territory's literati "have hitherto lived by irregular "squeezes" from the people" and he blamed the opposition to British rule to them and to "gamblers and bad characters banished from Hong Kong" and not to the people who were incited by the gentry and elders. See Papers 1899 pp. 520 and 554. 26 Papers 1899 p. 194. 27 Papers 1899 p. 554. 28 Arthur H. Smith Village Life in China (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, about 1900) p. 121. 29 These affected the coastal and riverine regions of Kwangtung. See C. F. Neumann's Translations from the Chinese and Armenian with notes. 1. History of the pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, (London, John Murray 1831). This includes, pp. 97-125, a very interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with the pirate fleet in 1809 by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman. The pirates spent a considerable time on and near Lantau, which must have suffered from their depredations. The clan record of the HO family of San Tsuen, Pui O, on the south side of the island mentions pirate raids and a decision to fortify the village with walls which can still be seen, with several embrasures for cannon. Piracy continued until a much later date. The Cheung Chau police station was attacked and burnt in 1912, necessitating its removal and enlargement, one of the Cheung Chau ferries was pirated in 1923, and in 1925 a band of sixty robbers from the Delta entered Tai O by way of Po Chue Tam creek, killed a woman and made off with young men and a fair amount of booty without any difficulty. The Police Station is situated at the other end of the town and knew nothing of the attack until it was over. See Administrative Reports, District Officer, New Territories 1912, 1923 and 1925. 30 Papers 1899 p. 528. 31 Foreign Office Report 1606 on Trade of Canton 1894. 32 Salt was smuggled into China from Tai O as the government monopoly and price ring made it profitable to do so. See also Enclosure D to Sir Matthew Nathan's despatch No. 59 of 11 January 1905 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway which mentions rice smuggling from Shum Chun and Deep Bay into Hong Kong. The export of rice from China was forbidden, and checked by the Imperial Maritime Customs. **F O Trade Report No. 1778 for 1895. 34 F O Trade Report No. 1983 for 1896. 33 Papers 1899, p. 540. Brenan, with his thirty-two years' service wrote feelingly "The Chinaman is happiest who never sees an official, who does not even know the name of one". J N CBRAS XXXII (1897-98) 37. 31 Foreign Office Trade Report for Canton No. 1606 for 1894. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 101 See paras. 38 These feuds, often of long standing, persist to-day. 77-79 of Mr. K. M. A. Barnett's annual administrative report for 1955-56 as District Commissioner New Territories for a good instance of traditional hostility. For other cases see paras. 97 and 43 of the annual departmental reports for 1957-58 and 1958-59. See Smith Village Life in China p. 286, also p. 222 "The local Magistrates take care not to intervene too soon or too far, lest it be the worse for them. When the fight is over the officers put in an appearance, arrests are made, and the machinery of government recovers from its temporary paralysis", and pp. 282-86 for a northern instance of clan violence. 40 According to Dyer Ball Things Chinese (Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 1903) p. 326 "a dreadful internecine strife, in which 150,000 at least, perished, took place between the Hakkas and the Punteis 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". See also pp. 369-70 of B.C. Henry's Ling Nam (London, Partridge, 1886), 41 From information supplied by elders of Ho Chung village who were at school during or before 1898. 42 See the section on Disasters in the San On Yuen Chi. 43 See stone tablet outside Tin Hau temple, Kat O, Tai Po district. 44 From a stone tablet dated Ch'ien-lung 42/4/26 (1777) at Yuen Long Old Market. 45 From a stone tablet dated Chia-ch'ing 7/3/23 (1802) at the Tin Hau temple, Kat O. 46 From a stone tablet dated Ch'ien-lung 42/lucky month, lucky day (1777) at the Hau Wong temple, Tung Chung. 47 From a stone tablet dated Tao-kuang 21/7/19 (1841) at Tin Hau temple, Peng Chau. 48 From a stone tablet whose date is uncertain, at the Tai Wong temple, Yuen Long Market. 49 Variously, as above. 50 Reminiscences of Mr. TANG Kiu Fong of Fui Sha Wai near Yuen Long, in an article in the New Territories Weekly for January 1962. 51 Tree spirits are quite common in the New Territories where many old trees have joss sticks and red paper inscriptions placed under them on a rough altar. There is, in particular, a very large old banyan tree at Long Kang a few miles east of Sai Kung Market which must surely be the oldest tree in the Southern District. This is visited regularly by devotees. From personal experience of every part of the old Southern District I can say with confidence that belief in tree and earth spirits still exists to-day, and might indeed be said positively to flourish. 52 An ancestral temple is not open to the public: it is for the private use of the clan, for whom alone it has any meaning. Most villages of any age and consequence have ancestral temples, and in multi-clan villages ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 102 J. W. HAYES there are sometimes several. As a general rule they are small buildings, but the major clans have constructed large high spacious buildings with several courtyards and side rooms. Among the largest in the New Territories are the ancestral temples of branches of the TANG clan at Ping Shan and Ha Tsuen near Yuen Long. These are fine and impressive buildings but are not, unfortunately, kept in good repair. Much of the opposition to the British troops in 1898 was planned in the ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Beside the Ping Shan hall there is a school/library building, now used as a private residence. 53 The reason is always said to be lack of funds though I suspect a lack of leadership is also a prime factor. The clan usually waits until something is seriously wrong, by which time it is often too late; a storm completes the ruination. There seems to be some truth in this as I have found newly built ancestral halls in several villages, e.g. the CHEUNG ancestral hall at Lo Wai, Pui O which was rebuilt in 1960 on a new site, the old one having been in ruins for twenty years. 54 Clan worship at the graves still goes on, but is much more informal than in 1898. Mr. TANG Kiu-fong of Fui Sha Wai, a retired schoolmaster, previously quoted, who was born in 1894, tells me that when he was a boy the ceremony was taken very seriously. Everyone wore the long robe, elders were carried to the graves in sedan chairs, and male members of the clan were drawn up in ranks by generations and worshipped in strict seniority, under the direction of a master of ceremonies. 55 These ancestral obligations often imposed considerable inconvenience and up to several days' travel for the whole family. Mr. CHEUNG Yau of Tai Ping village, North Lamma, (b. 1883) tells me that his grandfather settled on Lamma Island from his native village of Wai Tau in the Lam Tsuen valley in the present Tai Po district. Ever since he can remember, and until old age interfered with visits a few years ago, he has gone back to his ancestral village at least three times a year, as dictated by custom. For the first twenty-five years there was no railway and his family used to go by junk to Kowloon and walk the rest of the way, children included. Others went further afield. Mr. LAM Shue Chun, Chairman of the Peng Chau Rural Committee, told me that his family went regularly to their ancestral village of Nam Leng Wai in Po On, north of the border, and were interrupted in their journeys first by the Japanese and latterly by the Communists. He has been twice since 1942 and an uncle has been visiting fairly regularly up to last year. The family travelled to Kowloon by junk, then used the railway and had a long walk from Sham Chon Market. Sometimes there was no need to go from home as contact had been lost with the ancestral village which was too far away. 56 They were full at any time. There is an interesting count of travel on the Colony's border roads and the Shum Chun ferries taken 11th and 12th December 1905 in Enclosure E to Despatch No. 59 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway already quoted. The first was a market day, when the count of persons, with and without goods, roughly doubled the figures for the second, or ordinary day. On the two main ferries, for instance, the count on December 11 was with goods 1126, without goods 1379 and on the Shum Chun-Sha Tau Kok road 521 and 1302. On the day following the figures were 468 and 1124, and 158 and 550 respectively. At New Year and the two grave festivals the number must have been very much increased. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 122 NOTES AND QUERIES QUERIES PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE FINDS AT SHEK PIK At the beginning of March 1962 a bulldozer employed by Messrs. Dragages on the reservoir site at Shek Pik, south-west Lantau, uncovered coins and pottery on the hillside above the abandoned village of Shek Pik Wai. Unfortunately, the find was not reported by the Company and it was only after a member of the Chief Resident Engineer's staff got to hear of it that steps were taken to recover as much as possible from the workmen. Some three hundred coins and several small sherds of pottery and porcelain were handed in to the Waterworks Office by the Chief Resident Engineer, Shek Pik and these were sent to the Curator of the City Hall Museum, Mr. J. M. Warner, who passed them to me for a preliminary examination. On Sunday, 11th March, members of the Archaeological Team of the University went out to Shek Pik and spent the better part of a day looking round the area which had been cleared by the bulldozers. We managed to recover over a hundred more coins and, which was possibly of greater importance, picked up fragments of porcelain from the site. The coins have now been given a preliminary classification in the District Office, Islands. Fortunately, despite their long burial, the characters on most of the coins are still decipherable and it has been possible in all but a few cases to determine to which reign dates they should be assigned. They appear to be copper coins and with the exception of two small groups, have reign titles in the Sung Dynasty (960-1278). Of the sixty reign titles of the eighteen emperors of this dynasty, both Northern and Southern Sung, twenty-nine are represented among the coins which have already been recovered. There is also a group of coins which bear the characters Wang Sung, Shêng Sung, and Ta Sung. These appeared along with coins bearing a reign title, and can also be fixed accurately in time, in these cases 1038-40, 1101 and 1226 respectively. The date of the coins covers the whole length of the Sung period, that is approximately three hundred years from the mid-tenth to the late thirteenth centuries. Besides Sung coins there is a small ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 90 J. W. HAYES (1878-9 and 1906-7), stands in the street outside the Fong Pin hospital12 telling how it came to be established; and the third, in an old house in Tai Shan Street, commemorates the establishment and repair of a defence office in the 2nd and 10th years of T'ung-chih (1863-4 and 1871-2). The three tablets give information about the island population towards the end of the Ch'ing dynasty and, for instance, tell something of the various sections of the community, especially those where local leadership and authority rested; their links with other parts of the San On district and the Kwangtung province; their relations with the district government and other officials, civil and military; and the way in which such local communal needs as a hospital, schools, and a defence corps or local militia were met. The nucleus of Cheung Chau society seems always to have been the community of fishermen and shopkeepers, the two being interdependent to a great extent though separated by many basic differences. There has, in addition, always been a farming community, but it has ever taken a third place. A hundred years ago it is likely that the majority of the land dwellers were connected with the island's shops, as proprietors or fokis, and in subsidiary trades and occupations associated with the three main sections of the community. Cheung Chau also served as the market town for over a dozen villages on the central and southwest coast of Lantau, the largest of which was Shek Pik with a population of 363 in 1911, and for the inhabitants of the outer islands. The Fong Pin tablet states that there were two hundred shops in the 1870's, from which it can be deduced that Cheung Chau was a flourishing commercial centre at that time. This is borne out by the house in which the defence association tablet was found, which is long, narrow and surprisingly large, with a small open courtyard in the middle. It has changed very little in the last hundred years, like many other houses in the town which date from this period and before. In this urbanized community local power lay with two groups: the members of the WONG Wai Chak Tong*** of Nam Tau and Cheung Chau; and the larger traders and shopkeepers. The two were probably intermingled to some extent, in that some Tong members would be business men, but more investigation ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 92 J. W. HAYES 14 philanthropic work, probably one of many such, since the Po On tablet (1866) also mentions that "our Tung Kwun natives are flowing in for business". The lists of donors on the various tablets in temples and old buildings underline Cheung Chau's business and kinship links with the outside world. The local members of the WONG Wai Chak Tong seem to have maintained close contact with their parent body in Nam Tau; and, in much the same way, persons who had come to Cheung Chau to farm or do business, and had prospered during their stay, kept in touch with their families and friends in San On, Tung Kwun, Wai Chau, or from whichever district of the province they happened to come. Relations with the minor officials in the immediate area also seem to have been close, as one might expect. The officers of the Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) battalion of the regular land forces, which was scattered in forts and guard posts throughout the eastern half of San On, seem to have contributed quite often to various repair schemes, whilst the salt, stamp, and Customs posts on the island automatically became victims for the collection of funds.15 17 1G Some of these contacts were useful when it came to collecting subscriptions and also when it was necessary to contact or bring pressure upon the district government; in this case the district magistrate of San On, whose yamen was at Nam Tau, the seat of their own WONG Wai Chak Tong. Fortuitously, the tablet in the defence bureau provides an instance of an approach to the district government. Four graduates, three of them almost certainly members of the Tong, and the managers of four large shops, besides other persons, petitioned the district magistrate WU16 when piracy and lawlessness threatened the lives and property of island people in the Hsien-feng reign (1851-61). It is interesting to note that they did not request the magistrate for direct assistance, but asked only that he issue a public notice urging the people of Cheung Chau to unite and provide "brave and strong village guards" for the defence of their island. One of the reasons why the magistrate was approached when this security organisation was being debated was very likely because his permission was required to raise and arm any body of men for defence purposes.18 Page 105 Page 106 ¦ F ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 96 J. W. HAYES popularity with businessmen and others, and of the degree of wealth and general prosperity there in the middle of the last century: since district associations, like present day Kaifong in the urban area, can only operate effectively (and, indeed, come into existence) inside a community which possesses prosperous elements. The district associations must also have been a useful counterpoise to the political dominance of the WONG Wai Chak Tong. The association for natives of Tung Kwun is the largest, richest and probably the oldest of the Cheung Chau societies. It seems to have been established in the fifth year of Chia-ch'ing (1800-01) and in 1898 owned five shops, office premises and an ancestral hall which had been in existence for at least forty years, judging by an incense holder dated the ninth year of Hsien-feng (1859-60). Members and destitute persons of Tung Kwun origin could receive relief assistance from its funds and contributions, with which the Po On study, the ancestral temple, and later three large communal urn graves were also managed. Practically all the way from the cradle to the grave the member and his children could benefit from the operation of his association.26 The association laid emphasis on social cohesion and the observance by its members of the customary proprieties. There was the traditional feast for all members every year at the lantern festival on the fifteenth day of the first moon, on which day the managers for the new year were elected, and the yearly worship of Kwan Tai, the god of war and patron god of the association, on his birthday on the thirteenth day of the fifth moon, when each subscribing member received a share of roast pork. Confucius' birthday and the two grave sweeping festivals were also celebrated by members gathering together. Other commemorative tablets existed until only a few years ago which would have provided useful information about two other similar associations of long standing; those of people from Wai Chau and Chiu Chau (combined) and from 惠州及潮州 Sei Yap. One in the Wai Chiu clansmen's office was turned out 27 during repairs after Typhoon Mary in 1960 and not replaced; and what was probably the foundation stone of the Yik Sin Tong, an association for Sei Yap natives, was taken down and T J I ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v CHEUNG CHAU not put back when the house next door, wall, was renovated about ten years ago. of these tablets. 97 which shared a party There is now no trace However, two inscriptions still remain from these institutions. One, removed to the Wai Chiu section of the Kwok Man School in 1952, is dated the wu-shen year of Kuang-hsü (1908-9) and is an ornamental granite head-slab with two side pieces, all with carved and painted characters upon them, the gift of wealthy members or else a sign of general prosperity in the Wai Chiu community. The present leaders of the association say that the date refers only to the handsome inscriptions and not to the establishment of their school, which is believed to have been in operation for many years before. This is likely as the office building is an old one and was already registered at the time of the lease of the New Territories as the Wai Chau and Chiu Chau Club, and the association has a reputed existence of over two hundred years. 24 Similarly a head stone is still in position inside an old building on the Praya belonging to the Sei Yap Yik Sin Tong, which records its repair in the 23rd year of Kuang-hsü (1897-8), the inscription being the work of WONG Wai Sum ✯✯✯, said to be a teacher in the Tong's school. This Tong has an interesting origin, if the tale told by its present managers is reliable, in that it arose from a shipwreck which washed up a body carrying money on one of the Cheung Chau beaches. The ship was supposed to have been carrying emigrants back to China from San Francisco. The body was given decent burial by some Sei Yap persons who hit upon the idea of forming a Tong for the unity and betterment of their fellow countrymen on the island, and with additional subscriptions the initial windfall was used to build or purchase the present building, which was the only property owned by the Tong in 1898. A feature of the building was the establishment of an altar on the ground floor on which were placed the tablets of the original organisers and principal subscribers, but these have now all gone, though a shrine remains.29 The fourth of these district associations of long-standing is the Po On which has no connection with the old Po On study run by the Tung Kwun association. Its leadership in 1898 ! 1+L F ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 98 J. W. HAYES rested with the senior members of the WONG Wai Chak Tong, as it does today. It controls the old defence bureau which is rented out and the proceeds added to the association's funds. Very little information is at present available concerning its history beyond the fact that it existed in the Ch'ing period*1 and that it had a close connection with the members of the Tong, who were its principal patrons and sponsors. Two other instances of communal enterprise remain to be mentioned. There was, before the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, an organisation of local leaders known as the Kaifong##, which is now represented in most things by the Cheung Chau Rural Committee. The Kaifong had an informal constitution and its leaders were generally those persons who were already playing a leading part in the affairs of the four old district associations. The Kaifong had a general concern in Cheung Chau affairs whereas the district associations may be said, in the best sense, to have had a sectional interest. The history of the Kaifong is less easy to trace than that of the associations, very likely because it was a less tangible body. However, it seems to have existed before 1898 because the land registers list a club house or kung soA which was described as public property. This must have been built and administered by somebody and the Kaifong is the most likely candidate. In the early part of this century the building probably housed a school and is known to have served as a headquarters for the town's watchmen.* These were both likely activities for a Kaifong, and it is probable that it ran these and other central services before the British lease. Presumably, too, it administered CHOI Leung's Fong Pin hospital, which the registers describe as an asylum* and as public property. But whilst I am satisfied that there was a Kaifong on the island before 1898 which organised various functions on behalf of the whole community, there is, as yet, no information as to the date of its origin, though there is one clue which takes its history back another twenty years at least.*2 This was the provision of what are still known, to-day, as kaifong junks or kai to*. These are cargo vessels which are managed by prominent persons for a group of financially interested ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 100 J. W. HAYES NOTES The notes are intended to amplify the text. The subjects of the longer notes are chosen rather arbitrarily and represent my particular interests, J. W. H. 1 A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. (Hong Kong Government Printer, 1960) p. 88. 2 Crown Rent Rolls, District Office Islands, New Territories Administration. * Under the Convention of Peking signed on 9th June, 1898, *Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, hereafter styled Sessional Papers. (Hong Kong, Noronha & Co., 1911) p. 103 (22) and (26). This article is mainly concerned with the land population, but for a good short description of the life, work and general background of the boat people, see G. N. Orme "Report on the New Territories 1899-1912" in Sessional Papers 1912, pp. 53-55. 5 The help of the Chairman, Vice-Chairmen and members of the Cheung Chau Rural Committee in tracing and gaining access to these tablets is gratefully acknowledged, and the great assistance given with transcription and translation by Messrs. LO Chi-chung, LEUNG Kun-siu and LEW Pang-fei, my former colleagues in the District Office. * I have translated shue-shat as study, rather than school, since it was intended for the private use of members and their children and not for outsiders. The association became known as the Tung Kwun Wui So on 16th September, 1926 (see Land Registers), previous to which it had been registered as the Po On Shue Shat. I have presumed that with such a name, a school was operated as well as the office and ancestral temple. (See note 26 and text to which it refers.) For the distinction between the names Po On and San On see Notes and Queries, p. 146 below. The character inscribed on this tablet is a simplified form of the character. Local trades included shipbuilding: see Orme's report in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 55. — * The number of Cheung Chau shops subscribing to the various schemes recorded on the tablets is as follows: Po On study (1866) 38; Defence Office (1863-70) 66; Fong Pin hospital (1878) 98, and Tin Hau temple (1879) 125, from the 200 odd mentioned in the Fong Pin preamble. * Many shops are mentioned on the tablets, but they are all listed by their business names and not by the names of the owners, in which custom the Chinese does not follow the English. 10 The Tong has a substantial genealogical record, last produced between eighty and a hundred years ago and printed from stone blocks on hand-made bamboo paper. I am indebted to Mr. WONG Shing Yip of Cheung Chau who very kindly let me see his copy. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v CHEUNG CHAU 101 11 "The whole of the island (Cheung Chau) was adjudged to belong to the WONG family and it is let out to various tenants on leases renewable every five years. All these leases were registered in 1906". Administra-tive Report for 1909, District Officer, New Territories. But see also G. N. Orme's unfavourable opinion of the initial survey and Crown rent roll in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46. 12 For example, before its tax-lord rights were extinguished (along with others') by the Hong Kong Government after 1898 as "not compatible with the principles of British administration" (Orme, Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46), the LI Kau Yuen Tong of Sha Wan appears to have owned a considerable proportion of all the cultivated land on Lantau island under an imperial grant made in the Sung dynasty (see LO Hsiang-lin "The Sung Wang T'ai and the location of the Travelling Courts by the sea-shore in the Last Days of the Sung", Journal of Oriental Studies III No. 2 (July 1956) p. 217, note 29). Nineteenth Century land deeds from the village of Shek Pik show that much of the village land paid tax to the LI family, a burden which was passed on to the purchaser when a "sale" took place. It is not known whether this Tong owned land elsewhere in the present New Territories but its main estates lay elsewhere. It is curious how the WONG Wai Chak Tong maintained its tax-lord position whilst the LI family's was extinguished. It is a pointer to the island's increasing prosperity, as well as to its favoured geographical situation, that when the Chinese Maritime Customs first began to operate in the Hong Kong region in 1887 they set up a post on Cheung Chau. This had previously been operated by the Canton authorities as part of the "blockade" system set up in 1868-71. See Stanley F. Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast, William Mullan & Son, 1950) pp. 385-6, 584-6 and 708, and his earlier Hong Kong and the Chinese Customs (Shanghai 1930) which I have not yet seen. See also note 15. Old villagers on the Lantau coast opposite Cheung Chau can remember having to pass through the customs every time they came to the island to buy daily necessaries and sell their produce in the market. It is not the place to discuss whether Cheung Chau's expansion was due to the rise of Hong Kong, or whether it was already in a flourishing condition by the time Hong Kong's expansion began in the 1840's, but available information points to a community which was already well-established and prosperous by the Hsien-feng period (1851-61), which would be rather early for Cheung Chau to owe its rise mainly to Hong Kong. The preamble to the tablet in the defence bureau mentions that "our forefathers came and lived in Cheung Chau several hundred years ago"; whilst the attention of pirates in the early years of Hsien-feng, also mentioned in the same tablet, seems more conclusive proof of the island's established prosperity than any other. A spate of repairs and expansion seems to have been going on apace in the T'ung-chih period (1862-75) when most of the island's temples were repaired, the CHU family ancestral hall enlarged, many old houses were built or reconstructed, and the public buildings erected which these tablets commemorate. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v CHEUNG CHAU 103 20 See T'ung-tsu CH'U Local Government in China under the Ch'ing (Harvard University Press 1962) chapter 9, especially pp. 161-164. I am indebted to Mr. W. Schofield, a former District Officer, and Cudet Officer, Hong Kong Government, for a reference to an inscription, now lost, relating to the foundation of the Lung Chun Yee Hok *** in 1847. The school, which is still standing inside the former Kowloon walled city, was opened by the district magistrate WONG Ming Ting after the sub-district deputy magistrate HUI Man Sham had reported that it was being built. Orme in his "Report on the New Territories 1899-1912” in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 63, Appendix G, gives a school census for April 1912, by which time there had apparently been little change since 1898. There were 10 schools on Cheung Chau, average attendance 20, average monthly fee 38 cents. 21 See HSIAO op. cit. pp. 235-240 and CH'U, op. cit., pp. 161-162. Occasionally government-sponsored schools were granted land for their maintenance. In the 28th year of Kuang-hsü (1902-3) four years after the lease of the New Territories to Great Britain, land inside the boundary, previously used for the purpose of aiding a school still in Chinese territory, was sold by order of the Commissioner of Education for San On district. Part of the proceeds had also been used for offerings at the Confucian temple (in Nam Tau). 22 The group of titles on the defence bureau tablet is another demonstration of the widespread sale of degree titles and positions in the late Ch'ing period already remarked in several places. (see HSIAO Kung-Chuan Rural China p. 415 and chapter 10 of CH'U's Local Government in China under the Ch'ing op. cit., pp. 168-173 and notes and, in more detail, Chung-li CHANG, The Chinese Gentry. Studies on their Role in Nineteenth Century Chinese Society, (Seattle, University of Washington Press 1955) pp. 102-111. For contemporary notices see Rev. Krone "A Notice of the Sanon District" in Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong), Part VI (1859) p. 84 and Arthur H. Smith Village Life in China (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier c. 1900 p. 121, amongst others.) No fewer than twenty-one persons have titles prefixed to their names, many of them minor ones, of which three-quarters were probably purchased. the first Of the purchased titles and posts five were chien-sheng degree by purchase, which was the prerequisite to purchasing any superior post, such as that of district magistrate or prefect. It was the most commonly purchased degree. Two others were styled chih-chien and chih-sheng. There were four chin-kung and four chih-yüan 職員。 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 104 J. W. HAYES There were also examination titles among the organisers and subscribers to the defence office. There were three scholars, who held higher grades of the hsiu-ts'ai or first degree by examination. One was a kung-sheng, another a sheng-yüan, and the third held the grade of lin-sheng, all normally obtained by additional examinations by a literary chancellor appointed from Peking to examine hsiu-ts'ai in the provinces, though occasionally granted for merit. Another was a wu-sheng ±, a military hsiu-ts'ai, an officer by examination, not purchase. These four were WONGs, almost certainly members of the Tong. A fifth, named TSUI, was a tu-szu or first captain and was probably a serving military officer in the locality. The final title is ching sheng #. Of these various degree and title holders sixteen were named WONG *. The coincidence is probably too great to be accidental and the number of purchases testifies to the Tong's wealth, whilst the presence of genuine scholars, probably from the Cheung Chau branch, and the genealogical record, confirm its gentry status in the late Ch'ing period. There is no doubt that the main Tong was well entrenched and able to exert an "interest" with the district ruler and perhaps also with the prefect and viceroy at Canton. 23 HSIAO illustrates the slight degree of local control on another island, Ch'a K'eng, off the coast of Sun Wui district, Kwangtung, in Rural China, pp. 344-348. For his views on the effectiveness of imperial control see pp. 320-322 and pp. 316-320 for the role of the gentry in local affairs. CH'U, op. cit., chapter 10, also examines the problem in general. Krone's article (see note 22), apparently written from long, first-hand knowledge of the western part of San On shows that the district magistrate and his deputy and sub-magistrates had little control over the population (see especially p. 81), and perhaps wanted it less, e.g. "... the Mandarin of Fuk Wing (a sub-magistrate) confided to me, in a conversation that I had with him that he had nothing to do but to eat, to drink and to smoke”, though over 200 villages were in his charge. 24 The district association is of considerable antiquity in China. They were known in Sung times: see J. Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-76 (London, Allen and Unwin 1962) p. 222; see also Y. K. Leong and L. K. Tao Village and Town Life in China (London, Allen and Unwin 1915) pp. 78-9 for "the guild of co-provincials" and H. B. Morse, The Gilds of China (London, Longmans, Green 1909) pp. 35-48 for the provincial club with a mercantile bias. 25 With consequent language difficulties. See R. A. D. Forrest (a former Hong Kong Cadet Officer) "The Southern Dialects of Chinese", Appendix No. 1 to V. Purcell The Chinese in South East Asia (Oxford University Press 1951). 26 The word "member" may have too strong a connection with the modern club where one pays an entrance fee and monthly subscriptions. In fact, one was born into membership of these early district associations and participated in their activities by subscription, as required. Mr. LEUNG Yau (see note 28) confirms this for his own association, the Wai Chiu. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v CHBUNG CHAU 105 Because of their loose organisation and lack of proper safeguards, these associations often ran into trouble over money. To quote an elder's reminiscences from the manuscript note book of the Tung Kwun association (which the present Chairman has kindly allowed me to see and use), compiled about 1928 but referring to the previous sixty years, "in the past there were upright managers, but there were also embezzlers, who appropriated public funds without authority. When X was in charge of our association's funds he reported that he had lost the account books, so nothing could be audited. It was through my persuasion he produced fifty dollars to end the matter". Similarly, he records how, on the death of a leading member who had been instrumental in purchasing new property for expanding the association, the members asked his family for the accounts and title deeds in his possession. The relatives refused to part with them unless a payment was made first. Members naturally refused, "which is why no title deeds or accounts are available from the early period". The manuscript also contains interesting material which illustrates difficulties faced by conscientious managers, e.g. "This house was originally the property of X. Unfortunately he was murdered and the body could not be found. His relative Y donated the house to the association. At first no tenant would take it and the fabric deteriorated. In the second year of the Hsuan-t'ung reign (1910-11) repairs were suggested, but there were no funds. Loans of five and ten dollars were raised from district members at 1 per cent interest. I loaned over a hundred dollars interest free, but it was still insufficient, so the association joined a ten dollar (share) money association and drew the necessary balance. The repair then started and the front is now let for $5.50 per month and the rear for $4 per month." There was also the lighter side. Speaking of the annual dinner party on the 15th day of the first moon an elder recalled "this year there were 28 tables with over 220 people. The caterer was X and the cost was $7.20 per table. The food was no good and those present were dissatisfied and there was a lot of grumbling." 27 A search was made for this and the Ser Yap tablet but, though hot on the trail of the first named with what appeared an infallible clue, a digging party regrettably drew a blank, 28 In the Crown Rent Rolls the association is termed kung sor 2 in Chinese and "club" in English. An inscription on one of the stone lions outside the Pak Tai temple, the largest on the island, states that it was donated by the Wai and Chiu Chau community in 1861. Mr. LEUNG Yau , born on Cheung Chau in 1875, attended the Wai-Chiu school, in the association's premises for two years (1885-86). 2o There was also a shrine in the Po On study. The tablet states that "a small fixture, known as the Tun Sin temple ('promote charity') has also been placed at one side of the hall, where wooden tablets bearing the names of the organisers are placed therein in commemoration of their devotion to the cause, irrespective of their parentage and place of origin." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r PENG CHAU 81 The first ancestor came from Po Kat in Po On, then San On, district. He settled not far from the anchorage and the shops nearby, and the family flourished there for several generations, farming most of the cultivable land and planting an extensive forestry lot.29 But the position had changed for the worse by 1899. At the land settlement which followed the British lease, though the LUIs were credited with owning house land, four and a half acres of paddy fields, and nine and a half acres of dry cultivation and vegetable land on Peng Chau, all except their houses were mortgaged to different persons without hope of return.30 When my informant was a boy, the LUI houses were in a broken-down condition. They also owned a lot of land on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau, but much of this too was mortgaged by the end of the century.31 The CHUNG family are said to have been the next arrivals. According to old Mr. CHUNG, his great-grandfather, who was the family's first ancestor to live on the island, came together with his son, a boy of ten. Consultation of the grave tablet, which is dated 1834,32 shows that he probably arrived in Peng Chau in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, not long after the LUIs. He came from his parent village of Tin Liu Ha in the Lam Tsuen Valley near Tai Po in the present New Territories. In 1899, the family still owned very little land of its own on Peng Chau, having, besides houses, only one-third of an acre of dry cultivation, but they held the mortgages of nearly nine acres of the LUI land, including most of their paddy fields.33 The family farmed their own and the mortgaged land, but, as I have said above, fishing was their chief concern about ten years before the British lease, another seeming "irregularity" which warns against the assumption that our local communities have separate characteristics and perform distinct functions which do not overlap. It was very likely Mr. CHUNG's grandfather's success at sea which enabled him to loan money to the LUI family and so gradually obtain their land; and the lack of land which made this family concentrate on the sea in the first place. Another family of Hakka settlers are the LAM ✯ clan who came in the mid-nineteenth century. According to family tradition, three brothers who were operating a pawn-shop in Shum Chun Market were "squeezed" by yamen runners when a murder... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 82 J. W. HAYES was committed outside their shop. Fearing further complications, the brothers left their native village of Nam Ling Wai nearby, two of them going to Jamaica and the third to Peng Chau. The reason for his selecting Peng Chau is an interesting one. There had been difficulty in finding a bride with a suitable horoscope and a go-between in Yuen Long Market with contacts on Peng Chau had arranged his marriage with a girl of the LUI family. The family were not poor, and by the end of the century had secured a considerable area of fields on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau by giving mortgages to incautious or unlucky farmers. Some light on Peng Chau's development in the nineteenth century is given in the tablet commemorating the repairs made to the temple in 1878. Though the total number of subscribers is less than in the 1798 tablet — 181 instead of 218 — the number of shops is greater, and their locations specified. Fifty Peng Chau undertakings were listed, including one factory, though what manufacture it carried out is unknown. Some of the local shops listed on the tablet were quite large concerns by the end of the century. Among their number the San Tai Li business owned six or seven adjoining shops on the east side of Wing On Street, near the present ferry pier. It is said to have handled several lines of business including ship-chandlering and the production of sails and tackle, fishmongering and general dealings with fishermen, grocery and general goods and Chinese medicine. It also owned several junks for cargo and ferry purposes. A WONG of the third generation was managing its affairs in 1899, the business having been started by his grandfather, who was a Cantonese from Shun Tak district. Besides the shops, and the lime kilns, of which there were almost a dozen by 1904, there were at least two boat building and repair yards, and a business which specialised in beaching boats. The repair tablet lists numerous outside subscribers, which indicates the business and social contacts which the island had with neighbouring areas. Eighteen Hong Kong businesses, including seven fish laans, and another seven shops from Shaukiwan, contributed to the fund, and so did shops from Tai Ping, Shek Wan and Kong Moon in the Pearl River Delta. A ferry boat business from Heung Shan, had ================================================================================ 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 95 from his own or adjoining villages worked with him. The Shek Pik people were therefore closely connected with the sea despite the fact that their fields were extensive and well-watered. Elsewhere on Lantau, an old account book of the Hakka CHEUNG Kung Tak Tong at Pui O, which is dated 1897-99 (Kuang Hsu 23rd-24th years), shows that the Tong had a regular income from a fishing sampan. 41 It has been shown that the Peng Chau shopkeepers always contributed to the temple repairs. A more illuminating instance of merchants' concern for the safety of local waters is to be found in the Tin Hau temple at Fan Lau on the south-west tip of Lantau, facing Macau and the mouth of the Delta, a remote area two hours' walk from Tai O Market. Here tablets survive from the Chia Ching and Hsien Feng periods (1796-1820 and 1851-61) and contain the names of many Tai O shops. One imagines that few of the donors would ever visit the temple, but they were obviously intent to ensure Tin Hau's benevolent care. 42 Information received from CHEUNG Kai Chun of Ham Tin, Pui O, Lantau (born 1886). But this was not true everywhere. At Shek Pik several families of Tanka used the anchorage for at least fifty years. There was no remembered animosity during this time and these fishermen were allowed to cut grass and firewood without charge. However, they rarely strayed far from the beach and the two groups did not intermarry or have much to do with each other, except in casual contact at the main festivals and when villagers bought fish from them at the jetty, which was over a mile from the village. The fishermen would not go to the village to sell their catch. 43 Information received from the present leaders of the WONG Wai Chak Tong ✯ of Cheung Chau. 44 This statement is based on close knowledge of the Southern District of the New Territories and of the District land registers. 45 Barbara E. Ward "A Hong Kong Fishing Village”, Journal of Oriental Studies (University of Hong Kong) volume 1, no. 1 (January 1954) pp. 195-214, especially p. 211. See also note 42. 46 See my Cheung Chau article for the Cheung Chau district associations before the British lease. At Tai O in the same period there appear to have been associations of Tung Kwun and San On origin, each with a club-house. 47 The number is wrongly given as 28 in note 14 to the Cheung Chau article. 48 A tablet in the Pak Tai temple at Cheung Chau dated January, February 1906 (a lucky day of the first month of spring of the thirty-second year of Kuang Hsü) shows that Peng Chau people also contributed to its repair. 49 See the Cheung Chau article for this institution. 50 The Kaifong of the Hong Kong region, and their like, are local institutions with a fairly long history. The Peng Chau Kaifong is quite likely to have an early date in relation to the age of the present settlement. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r NOTES AND QUERIES 149 An expert could say what the ranges of such cannons were, but after you have landed at the pier and walked to the fort, you will appreciate that it is 1,200 yards from the coast. It is unlikely that guns in the fort could be really effective at this range, so that one questions the wisdom of its planners in placing it so far from the sea, if it was meant to be a work of coastal defence. What of the garrison? In the later Ching period there were at least three military installations on Lantau at Tung Chung, Tai O and Fan Lau, another on Cheung Chau, and a considerable number of troops in the Kowloon Walled City. These were all sedentary garrisons drawn from the Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) battalion of the Chinese regular forces, which was scattered in forts and guard posts all over the eastern and southern part of the Sun On district, of which the present Crown Colony of Hong Kong formed the major part. The garrison at Tung Chung was commanded by a subordinate officer and probably consisted of a score or two men who were very likely without modern weapons. Writing in 1903 Dyer Ball said of the Chinese military forces that "matchlocks, gingals, bows and arrows, spears and lances are still the weapons of many". Their military efficiency was probably very slight. A missionary, who wrote an interesting account of the San On district for the last number of the transactions of the old Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, has an amusing description of the guard post at the Shatin Pass. However, they probably had a deterrent value, but owing to the poor state of local communications at that time, they were much too far away to assist if anything happened elsewhere on Lantau, particularly on the south side, though their influence was felt there. When the local leaders of the Pui O community (South Lantau) rebuilt the Hung Shing temple there in 1875, they persuaded the garrison commander at Tung Chung to make a contribution. In the commemorative tablet recording the event he is styled Fu Ye, a respectful form of address for this subordinate officer. To bring these rather rambling notes to a close, the fort was used after 1898 as a police station. The District Officer who recovered the cannons for the fort has left a vivid picture of his occasional magisterial visits there about 1920: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 142 VETCH, H. VETCH, Mrs. H. VIO, Dr. E. G. - VISCHER, Mrs. H. B. VISICK, Mrs. M. - VOGEL, E. F. WALDEN, J. C. C. WALKER, P. R. - - WALSH, Miss A. T. WARD, Miss B. E. WARD, Miss J. E. A.* WARD, W. L. WATSON, K. A. WATTS, Major, E. V. WEI, Dr. Tat WEINREBE, H. M. WELCH, H. H.* WILLAN, E. G. - WILLIAMS, B. V. · · WILLIAMS, Mrs. H. · WILLIAMS, Miss H. M. WILLIAMS, P. B.. + WILMOT-MORGAN, Mrs. D. M. - WILMOT-MORGAN, E. WILSON, B. D. - WINKLER, Mrs. E. → - Hong Kong Univ. Press, The University, H.K. As above. 315, H.K. & Shanghai Bank Building, H.K. A-23, Estoril Court, 15 Garden Road, H.K. Dept. of English, The University, H.K. 3A, Marigold Road, 1st floor, Kowloon. N.T. Administration, North Kowloon Magistracy, Tai Po Road, Kowloon, c/o Resettlement Dept., Pui Ching Road, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Flat 5, 137 Pokfulum Road, H.K. c/o Dept. of Anthropology & Sociology, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, W.C.1., England. c/o National Provincial Bank Ltd., Bideford, N. Devon, England. Apt. 3, No. 7 Magazine Gap Road, H.K. c/o Lammert Bros., Pedder Building, H.K. HQ. Land Forces, B.F.P.O.1., H.K. H.K. Anti-Tuberculosis Assn., Queen's Rd., E., H.K. Weinrebe & Pennell, Ltd., 1103-4 Yu To Sang Bldg., H.K. 33 Lexington Road, Concord, Mass., U.S.A. c/o Colonial Secretariat, H.K. N.T. Administration Headquarters, North Kowloon Magistracy, Taipo Road., Kowloon, c/o District Office, Taipo, New Territories. 612, King's Park House, Gascoigne Road, Kowloon. c/o Colony Headquarters, Arsenal Street, H.K. 93 Kadoorie Avenue, Kowloon. As above. 3-C Homestead Road, The Peak, H.K. 402 Clovelly Court, 12 May Road, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 JAMES HAYES type based on the Tai Shek Kwu temple, the kaifongs usually deliberated in a temple. The Yau Ma Ti Kaifong was closely linked with the Tin Hau Temple. This temple was apparently removed from another site in 1876-7743 and it is almost certain that the Kaifong took the lead in its removal and reconstruction. They also took the opportunity to construct a school building to one side of the temple about the same time. These building projects were considerable undertakings and as such were highly creditable to the Kaifong members. Some years later (1888) the Kaifong presented the temple with a large cast iron bell which bears their name. Finally in 1894, the growing wealth of the Yau Ma Ti community enabled the Kaifong to build a separate community office or kung sor (2) on the other side of the temple building. The commemorative tablet recording this event comments: "Yau Ma Ti district has undergone many changes and it can hardly be said that it still remains as it used to be. Consequently there was a need for larger premises in which to handle the affairs of a growing population. As the organisers put it: "Persons who desire that right and wrong can be clearly discerned must help to set up a community office". The tablet concludes: The organisers and donors confidently expect to see the new office uphold justice and righteousness". This temple, school and community office still exist today. They stand on Public Square Street, Kowloon, in substantially the same form as when they were erected in the last quarter of the nineteenth century by the leaders of the Yau Ma Ti Kaifong, to whose enterprise and community spirit they are a fitting memorial. Fortunately we have a good example who spans the two localities considered in this article, the one a group of villages and the other a township. This man, WONG Lan-sang (£), 1878-1935, came from one of the villages. His father was a small farmer whose ancestors had come previously to Mong Kok village from the Wai Yeung region of Kwang Tung. The son is a good Page 130 44 +1 Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 OLD BRITISH KOWLOON 131 example of a local boy making good, whilst his public activities demonstrate the sustained zeal to perform charitable works that continues to typify leading members of the Chinese community of Hong Kong to this day. Farming was not for him. When in his twenties he set up a general store in Yau Ma Ti where his elder brother was already running a wholesale vegetable business. Very soon he turned his energies in other directions and established two cross-harbour ferry services with steam launches running from Yau Ma Ti and Mong Kok. At the same time he also went into the confectionery and soft-drink business in Hong Kong. These activities prospered to such an extent that whilst still in his thirties they enabled him to undertake public affairs. He served on the Yau Ma Ti Kaifong for many years and, up to the time of its removal, he was also the leading manager of the Tai Shek Kwu Temple which, as you will recall, was a particular concern of his own village of Mong Kok and the adjoining rural settlements. In 1917 he became founder President of the Kowloon branch of the Hong Kong Confucian Society and two years later he was appointed a director of one of Hong Kong's oldest charitable institutions, the Po Leung Kuk. These appointments mark the summit of his career. He responded to the traditional Chinese concern for his family ties and background by founding the Wong Clansmen's Association of Hong Kong in 1925, and when the universal flood disasters of 1924 affected his family's home district of Wai Yeung he had become founder President of the Wai Yeung Relief Association and was responsible for raising the then considerable sum of $9,000 to help flood victims there. He was also president of the Chinese Steamboat Association for some time.45 With its varied activities his career is a useful reminder that a person can be involved in various public capacities at one and the same time. The various community and welfare groups which characterised Hong Kong society at this time and later were operated on a complementary basis and not one of exclusion. As in his case the strands of village, town, business, family and district are all interwoven to form the traditional pattern of Chinese charitable activities. Finally, I wish to touch on another aspect of village and town life in Old Kowloon. Because of its proximity to Hong Kong, where a variety of religious bodies from the West established ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 OLD BRITISH KOWLOON 133 NOTES The place names are all in Cantonese and can be found in the Hong Kong Government's publication The Place Names of Hong Kong and the New Territories (1960). Where not otherwise stated my authority for information given in the paper comes from the old people mentioned in note 16. The aim of this article is to recover as much of the pre-1899 past of the Hong Kong region as possible, with special reference to the nineteenth century. 1. E. J. Eitel, Europe in China, London: Luzac & Co., 1895, p. 360. 2. The Convention of Peking, 9 June 1898. The text can be found on pp. 198-199 of the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers, i.e., papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899. 3. Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong and Kowloon for 1864... presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty in 1865 to be found in Parliamentary Papers, China, 1861-66, p. 16. 4. C.O.129/85 in the Public Record Office, London. 5. The Commissioners sent an abstract of these documents to London. These were as follows: "No. 1 | List of Red Deeds Owners not belonging to the Teng Family—contains 91 Deeds, comprising an area of 176 acres value computed at $25,865.32 No. 2 List of Deeds belonging to the Two Branches of the Teng Family contains 78 Deeds comprising an area of 276 acres value computed at $40,561.52 No. 3 List of squatters showing the number to be 222—spread over 90 acres value computed at $13,226.16* The "Teng" family mentioned in Nos. 1 and 2 above is the Tang (*) family of Kam Tin, who are Cantonese and are the oldest, richest and best-known of the New Territories landed families. See SUNG Hok-Pang. "Legends and Stories of the New Territories" Parts III-IV, Kam Tin, in The Hong Kong Naturalist, Vols. VI and VII. 6. Hong Kong Government Gazette, Government Notification 41 of 1860, dated 24 March 1860. The population at this time contained a preponderance of men; 3356 to 971 women and 778 children (Hong Kong Government Gazette, 22 February 1862). 7. For instance, the genealogies (##) of the Ng (吳) clan of Nga Tsin Wai and Sha Po and the Lam (林) clan of Chuk Yuen and Po Kong show that their settlement dates back to this period. 8. I base this statement on personal knowledge of the fifty or more Hakka villages in the Sai Kung district of the New Territories. 9. Hong Kong Government Blue Book for 1871 p. 148. 10. See G. N. Orme's "Report on the New Territories 1899-1912" in Sessional Papers 1912 p. 55 and J. H. Stewart Lockhart in Sessional Papers 1899, p. 189. My second statement is based on conversations with families of Hakka stonecutters at Ngau Tau Kok Village, Kowloon. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 24 II. KUAN-FU JEN YU-WEN Where was Kuan-fu Ch'ang? It can be definitely identified with no other place than the eastern side of the Kowloon Peninsula. For several hundred years from Sung to mid-Ch'ing Kuan-fu was the official name of the area, while Kowloon was the vernacular name used by the local people. To avoid confusion, we must carefully differentiate Kuan-fu Ch'ang from Kuan-fu Tsai (stockade), Kuan-fu-shan (mountain) and Kuan-fu hsun-ssu (sub-district). Kuan-fu Ch'ang meant Kuan-fu Field, one of the four salt-producing fields in the Tung-kuan District amongst the thirteen fields of the whole province of Kwantung in the Sung Dynasty. The area of the Field covered not only the entire peninsula but also the nearby islands, including the present Hong Kong. It was under the administration of an office in the stockade called Kuan-fu Tsai, the present so-called Kowloon Walled City. During the last years of the Emperor Tu Tsung (1265-75) the administrator of the field was Yen I-chang of Kaifeng, Honan Province, who had the engraved stone made at North Fu-t'ang in 1274, less than three years before the royal visit to Kuan-fu.6 My interpretation is that the name Kuan-fu has a political and economic meaning: “Kuan" means Tung-kuan District and "fu" means rich. The field was thus christened by officialdom to signify the rich resources of Tung-kuan. Or else, it might signify the riches of the Emperor, for Kuan Chia was a popular term for the emperor. Anyway, it could not be a natural name and it may be inferred from this that the name of Kuan-fu Mountain, which was a long range of mountains with many hills, was adopted from the Kuan-fu Ch'ang and not vice versa. Researches into the Gazetteer of Hsin-an District, the writings of some historians and maps furnished by the Public Works Department of the Hong Kong Government lead to the conclusion that the Kuan-fu Mountain was along the western side of the Kowloon peninsula (see Plate 12). There were a number of hills of various heights inside the area and the highest, the rocky peak west of Ma-tau-wei Road, reaches a height of 405 feet. On the plain and in the valleys at the foot of the hills were separate salt-producing fields. Certainly, there were other such fields all over the Kuan-fu ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung 35 its followers to a nearby islet, Ku-ta (†) or Ancient Pagoda, Tung-lung Island.19 In the autumn they proceeded to Ch'ien-wan (*) which is now definitely identified as Tsun-wan (now written) along the western coast of Kowloon. Two months later, the Mongol army, which had been pursuing them along the shore, began to attack. The boy Emperor sailed to Hsiu-shan (ƒ), now known as Hu-men or the Bogue. Continuously under pressure from the Mongols, Tuan Tsung passed by Hsiang-shan District (at present Chung-shan) and reached Tseng-o (#4), south of Macao, where his ship was badly damaged by a typhoon. He himself fell into the sea but was rescued. The terrible shock led him to contract a fatal disease. He was sick on board ship until the spring of 1278, when the whole fleet sailed northward back to the harbour at the mouth of the Pearl River. By that time Canton had been recaptured by some royalists and so they felt safe enough to anchor and encamp at Kang-chou which is identified as Ta-yu-shan or Lantau Island20. Two months later he died there. His younger brother Ping succeeded him on the throne and became the last emperor of Sung. He named the new reign Hsiang Hsing (#) and the 1st year began in the next month, still 1278. In the 6th month the new emperor had to sail away with the whole fleet southwestward until they arrived at Ya-Shan of the Hsin-hui District. Finally, in the 2nd month of the next year (spring 1279), they fought the last battle against the Mongol forces commanded by the arch-traitor Chang Hung-fan (K). As a result of the defeat the whole army perished. The boy Emperor with his royal seal was tied to the body of his prime minister, Lu Hsiu-fu, who plunged into the sea, to be followed by thousands of court officials in a mass suicide. When the Queen Mother Young heard of the tragic and heroic death of the Emperor she also drowned herself, thus ending the long reign of 315 years of the Northern and Southern Sung Dynasty. Before concluding this talk let me point out that besides the above story there is a deep and important meaning to be derived from our study of the Travelling Palace of Southern Sung in Kowloon. Throughout the Sung Dynasty, China was frequently invaded by neighbouring foreign tribes. Almost every year there was war, not only against the Hsi Hsia (the Tangut), but also, in turn, the Liao (Khitan), the Chin (Nuchen) and the Mongols. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 36 JEN YU-WEN At the close of Southern Sung, the last two emperors had to flee and seek refuge by the shores of the sea, from where they led a hundred thousand odd officials and soldiers in the noble endeavour to restore the empire. The Kuan-fu area, with the three big characters Sung Wong Toi still remaining, commemorates one of the last portions of Sung territory on which the two emperors stood. Shortly afterwards they met their ultimate defeat and the whole country was lost to a foreign tribe for the first time in China's history. But what we commemorate is not this unfortunate event in our national history; it is the spirit of nationalism and patriotism displayed in the last struggle of the Sung patriots for the recovery of the mother country. The independence and freedom of China had a higher claim to their lives. This unconquerable spirit, expressed in the unceasing revolutionary efforts of the Chinese people to fight against the Mongols ever since the last days of Kuan-fu and Ya-shan, was finally crowned with success in the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty less than 90 years afterwards. Today, when we pass through the ancient site of the Travelling Palace and look at the Sung Wong Toi monument, we see the symbol of this same spirit, which is the essential quality necessary for the survival of any nation on earth. NOTES 1 This lecture is a condensation of my Chinese article Sung Kuan-fu Hsing-kung K'ou (†‡3hB) published in the Continent Magazine († A), Taiwan, September, 1966. 2 Such as Ch'en Chung-wei, Erh-Wang Pen-mo (RR#i, =±**), Shu Mou-kuan, Hsin-an Hsien-chih (Chia-ch'ing), Gazetteer of Hsin-an District (**T. ** **BA), K'o Wei-ch'i, Sung-shih Hsin-pien (MM. ER #), Chang Hsu, Ya-shan Chih (HM, AJA), Nan Sung Shu (ET). * Mother Yu was never again mentioned in historical records; probably she had died. 4 For references, details and discussions on the royal itinerary from beginning to end, see my treatise Sung-mo erh-ti nan-ch'ien nien-lu k'ou (**=*64***) in Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume (edited and compiled by myself), Hong Kong, 1960, pp. 122-174 (X£b444). 5 It is alleged that there were eight mountain ranges spreading over the peninsula which look like running dragons (lung), and that when the boy Emperor stayed at the place, people pointed out that he himself represented the ninth, as an emperor was commonly believed to be symbolized by a dragon. But the more rational and reasonable interpretation for the origin of the name would be that there are altogether nine mountain ranges spreading over the peninsula. According to Hsi-nan I Chuan (§§ AM) in Hou-han-shu (**後漢書**), the Ai-lao-i (‡‡✯ aboriginal tribe Lao) in Yunnan Province called back “k'ou" and seat "lung". Hence to them, Kowloon meant ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g the market, permitted themselves to claim excessive privileges and to harass marketers from other lineages. Tang control of the market was repeatedly challenged by the Man people of another village, and on suffering a decisive setback in their campaign to force a relaxation, the latter organized a league of already existing intervillage units in order jointly to establish, in 1893, a new market in the close vicinity of the old.10 53 Also, Tai Po was relatively distant, and by rowing-boat the trip there would take a couple of hours in good weather. The conditions prevailing at the Tai Po Old Market will have created economic difficulties that did not exist in the Sai Kung Market, and which placed the Big Stream people in a relatively bad situation. The Plum Grove villagers used the market at Sai Kung, and often do so still but its possibly declining importance may have been less decisive in determining the extent of their work outside the old-style village economy. The land under cultivation around this settlement is regarded as the best land in the valley, though a large proportion of the fields here is owned by people from Grass Field Village, and also by people from Yellow Bamboo Mountain Village in another valley. In a small village the agricultural output might still have been sufficient enough to make emigration less attractive. The Plum Grove people also had some bad experience as some 10 men left the village for Southeast Asia around 1910 and were never heard of since. III I wish now to turn aside to provide a background for migration in the context of the social structure of these villages. The youngest children in Grass Field Village are of the 25th generation of a patrilineal kin group, all members of which share a common surname, Lau. The early ancestors lived in Mui Yuen (Mei Hsien, M), a Hakka district in the north-eastern corner of Kwangtung Province. A branch of the Mui Yuen people migrated down to what is now the New Territories, where they first settled in the Sai Kung area. A group soon branched off, and left the immediate coastal area, supposedly because of the constant threat Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 74 L. G. AIJMER 16 The still wider surname groups, hsing (M), in Chinese society, based on entirely fictitious agnatic relationships, expressed in at least preferred exogamy, have often indiscriminately been designated 'clans'. See e.g. Lee 1960, p. 134f. and Willmott 1964, p. 33. This purely conventional consanguinal kin group comes close to the sociological concept of 'phratry', and kin group constellations of this kind may be described better as units of this higher order. The Hakka nomenclature may vary but the units discussed are always conceived of, 17 Freedman 1958, pp. 47, 129. 18 Census 1911, p. 103f. 19 Nine villages with Cantonese-speaking Punti population in the same district at the same time display numbers ranging between 346 and 9, with an average of 108. 20 However, Jean Pratt, in her account of a Hakka village to the north of Tolo Harbour in the New Territories, gives an example of a non-symmetrical segmentation, reflected in the establishment of a new ancestral hall; Pratt 1960, p. 148. 21 This also applies to the Hakka village studied by Miss Pratt: 'The three lineage halls are merely buildings in a row like an ordinary dwelling house'; Pratt 1960, p. 148. 22 Freedman 1958, p. 50. 23 Skinner, in discussing the importance of marketing communities, points out that in Szechuan there existed organizations of Hakka 'composite lineages', with headquarters in teahouses in the market towns (Skinner 1964/65, p. 37). I have no knowledge of similar organizations in the New Territories. One would have expected something of this kind in a portion of China where the Hakka groups suffered political strain from the Punti population. Local groupings on a non-kin basis may sometimes have fulfilled a protective function. Such local organizations, with headquarters in small temples, are for instance to be found in the Sha Tin Valley, and in the Three Fathom Cove area. All three villages studied belonged in pre-British times to an administrative organization called Luk Yeuk, focussed on the old government centre of Kowloon City. Freedman (1966, p. 86) sees yeuk organizations as means for weak communities to seek 'protection against being molested by local powers'. For a discussion of yeuk see op. cit., pp. 82-89 and for the Luk Yeuk especially pp. 85f. 24 A map of Hakka migrations is, for instance, provided by Kuo 1964, facing p. 6. But there are also other views as to the origin of the Hakka, see e.g. Barnett 1958, p. 2. 25 Izikowitz 1963, p. 171. 26 One man from Grass Field Village has settled for good in Borneo. He has taken his wife and children there. This is the only instance of permanent overseas settlement I have come across. 27 This particular migration is said to have been encouraged and even given financial assistance by the Chinese Government as an aftermath of the war mentioned below; Dyer Ball 1925, p. 282. Another author thinks less of the generosity of the government: 'Comme ces tribus Hak-ka se montraient particulièrement turbulentes, les mandarins chinois ne pensaient qu'à les éloigner de leur territoire; c'est ainsi qu'en 1864 et 1866, à la suite de nombreuses revoltes, ils furent expulsés dans le sud du Kouang-Si, vers ces marches frontières qui, comme la province de Moncay, étaient peu habitées et dans un état habituel d'anarchie politique.' ================================================================================ 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 107 of the mountains, in order to procure a more luxuriant herbage, and these conflagrations seen at night have a very picturesque effect. The height of the Mountains is not very considerable, but some of them reach to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. The Islands usually consist of mountains and rocks; the Chinese therefore very seldom use the expression “island” — Hoi-taou, but call them "mountains" — Shan, as Lin-tin-shan 零丁山. There are only three Plains of any extent in the district. The most important lies in the N. W. part of the district, and is well watered and covered with villages; it is under the government of the Mandarin of Fuk-wing, who, by-the-by, though he is supposed to rule over 200 villages, confided to me, in a conversation that I had with him, that he had nothing to do but to eat, to drink, and to smoke. The important towns of San-keaou, Wong-kong, Cap-sui-hou✯, and Sha-tsing #, are situated in this plain, and it might be named the San-keaou plain, San-keaou being the largest and most influential of its towns. The inhabitants of the plain are industriously occupied in the pursuits of agriculture and trade; and in the more populous and richer towns, is found the highest degree of cultivation and learning which the Sanon district affords. The north-west angle of the plain lies very low, and is covered with rushes, some parts of it only being under cultivation, and in these only a certain kind of rice will flourish. The second plain extends from Si-heong to Deep Bay, and is continued on the southern side of that bay, there forming a triangular perfectly-even plain, the sides of which measure about five miles. The third plain occupies the eastern part of the district, near the city of Ti-pung, and is not personally known to me; even these plains have ridges of hills running through them. Amongst the principal mountains, that of 'Ng-tung † ♫ is said by the Chinese to be the highest and the most powerful; all remarkable mountains are supposed by the Chinese to have some spiritual influence over the affairs of mortals. It lies in the eastern part of the district near Mirs Bay, and is probably about ================================================================================ 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 115 The Wai are of two kinds: the one comparatively of small size, is used, as stated above, merely as a place of refuge in times of danger, and is not a permanent residence, except for a few of the poorer class who build in it as a waste place; it is in fact a fort. The other would more properly be called a fortified town; it is of much larger extent, containing within its walls many dwelling-houses, which are generally of a superior class, and are occupied by rich men, who esteem themselves more safely and more agreeably located here than in the open village. The Cities (i.e., places fortified by government), are four in number, viz: The district town, San-on, ✯✯, also called Namtow; Tai-pung, at the eastern extremity; Kow-loong, opposite Hongkong; and Tung-chung, on the island of Lantao. It must not, however, be thought that these are the most important and populous places in the district. They are the seats of Mandarins, and with the exception of Sanon (which has about 8,000 inhabitants), the population within the walls is very small. The Population of the entire district cannot be given with certainty. A census at the time when it was first created a district, gives only 34,000 inhabitants. In 1819 it was estimated to contain 240,000, of which number 150,000 were males, and only 80,000(7) females. To these must be added 13,000 strangers (with their wives and families) who served as soldiers, inferior officers, and as labourers in the Imperial rice and salt fields. When Sanon first became a district, about 3,000 king of land paid Imperial taxes. A king, is equal to from 13 to 15 acres. In 1662, the tax-paying lands had increased to 4,000 king. Their present number I have not been able to ascertain. The district is governed by seven civil Mandarins. The chief of these is the Chi-yuen, or district magistrate, and he resides within the walls of Sanon. He is addressed by the title of "Ti-ya” great or venerable father. Second to him is the sub-magistrate, "Yuen-shing," who resides at Tai-pung. This office was first created in the first year of the Emperor Yung-ching. This magistrate's jurisdiction extends over 104 villages, besides the city of Tai-pung. Sixty of these villages have Pun-ti inhabitants, and 44 Hak-ka. The two mandarins next in rank to... ================================================================================ 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 133 a rock on this hill, and on another rock near the tomb is inscribed the name of the interred official. When this Emperor passed the island of Lintin with his faithful minister Man, he asked the name of it; and on being told, he remarked how well the name of the island applied to his own solitary situation. On this the Minister Mân composed the following ode: 過零丁洋 彈 身世 零丁洋裏嘆零丁 惶恐灘頭說惶恐 人生自 死丁 山干妾 世河戈浮破落 沉碎 風水 辛苦遭逢起一經 零惶打飄 彈絮星經 留取丹心照汗青 宋·文大祥1 Page 140 On passing the Linting Sea. "We have gone through bitter experience from beginning to end. Shields and spears (or the weapons of war) have surrounded us, just as if stars had fallen from heaven. Our dominions are dismembered, like as the flowers of the willow are scattered by the wind; we ourselves are tossed about by fate, like the ping grass which floats on the waves. Tong-kiang-shan by its name proved to us a dreadful omen; at Lin-ting in the ocean we bemoaned our solitude. Since man exists, his fate is also to die; let us only preserve our innocence, and the brightness of it will reflect even up to the milky way." This minister, who remained faithful to the Emperor, was afterwards taken prisoner by the Mongols, and suffered much maltreatment from them for three years, when he was put to death with many tortures. A younger brother of his proved less faithful, and delivered the city of Wei-chau# into the hands of the enemy. His nephew, a son of the minister, was so much ashamed at the treason of his uncle, that he retired with his two sons into seclusion, and settled down in the west of the Sanon district. The numerous and powerful clan of Mân, which dwells in the plain of San-keaou, and whose chief place is the village of Poo-mee 莆尾, claim to be descended from this man. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g SALT MANUFACTURE IN HONG KONG 139 a single farmer can harvest about 500 piculs of salt within a year. Most of the salt farmers of this type are natives of Lantau island and leaching is the only method inherited from their remote ancestors. Salt-farmers of the other type are mostly natives of Swabue, Haifong district, who, being not quite familiar with the leaching method, employ the ordinary solar process exactly as they used to practice it in their native land. With a man as their head, a group of 18 to 20 salt-farmers is engaged by the company, or by the capitalist. These men receive no wages but a share of the harvest and do not receive the money until all the salt manufactured within a year is completely sold and the value collected. The company, as a general rule, pays each farmer engaged $9.00 each month for board and sometimes advances him some money when needed; but all these monies are placed on his account and will be subtracted from his share of the harvest. Whilst the share of one-third of the total harvest of the year must be divided equally among all the farmers, the head-man usually receives 10% extra. San Hui has only two unit-salines in which salt is prepared by the leaching method. In Shataukok, about 20 acres of low-lying land are available for salt preparation; the leaching method is used. The salt company leases the land from Government and then engages workers to make the salt, which is divided equally between the company and the workers. The workers receive no pay but are free to sell their own shares of salt. The rental of one unit saline, consisting of a vat, six concentrating fields, storage tanks, and crystallization ponds, paid to Government varies between 18 and 25 dollars per year, depending on the size of the saline. The two simple local methods are described as follows: I. THE LEACHING METHOD. This is the oldest method practiced in Tai O, Shataukok, San Hui, and perhaps in most salt-producing districts of China as well. At Tai O, there are thirty-three salines, built side by side on the low-lying flat land adjoining the bay, which are enclosed by high dykes to prevent flooding at high tide or by storms. Each unit saline occupies one acre; around each are constructed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 80 GORAN ALMER position of their ancestral hall into which the dragon of the hill behind is 'crashing' all the time. By way of summing up, we may say that social and economic differentiation is projected on the natural surroundings. The phenomena of nature in their symbolic aspect project back the image of differentiation in the form of rational models concepts of systems of natural influences affecting man and social life. These models can be manipulated by their constructors. They also carry messages that can be communicated between individuals and between groups. NOTES 1 For a somewhat fuller description of the two villages, see Aijmer 1967. Big Stream Village (Dashuikeng) and Plum Grove Village (Meizilin) are in Hong Kong known under the Cantonese designations 'Tai Shui Hang' and 'Mui Tsz Lam'. Grass Field Village (Maoping) is 'Mau Ping'. They can be located with the help of Gazetteer 1960. Standard Chinese is given in pinyin form. Field work was financed by six Swedish funds; I gratefully acknowledge their support. Thanks are due to Mr. James Hayes, Hong Kong, and my wife for comments. 2 Freedman 1966, 118f; 1967; Baker 1965. 3 An alternative to, or perhaps rather a facet of, manipulating was fleeing. Examples of how people broke away from localities considered having bad fengshui have been given by Hayes (1963; 1967). 4 It may be of interest to point out that nets are instrumental in exorcistic ceremonies, when malevolent spirits may be caught or scared away with fishnets. I have this from a Buddhist monk whom I interviewed in Macau in 1965. 5 Census 1911, 103:27. 6 The sources classify Plum Grove land as third class land whereas Big Stream land is rated as second class. In the former place farming is done on terraced fields only. 7 In Plum Grove Village 35 houses were registered in 1906. If we compare this with the population figure of the Census of 1911, we will find that, if in use, each house unit was inhabited by 1.7 persons. This is an amazingly low figure, as we would have expected something around five or more as an average. Even if we allow for the ten men mentioned below, the figure would increase to just about two. The implication of these facts must be a reduction in population, perhaps by way of a lineage segment breaking away to settle elsewhere. In Big Stream Village 77 houses gave shelter to average families of 2.2 persons. Not even male absenteeism, discussed later, can explain this low figure to satisfaction. * Information obtained from the District Demarcation Maps and the 'New Territories Crown Leases of District No. 188' of 1906 and the 'New Territories Crown Leases of District No. 196' of the same year, to be seen at the Tai Po District Office, New Territories, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 162 ! : ITINERANT HAKKA WEAVERS In the course of general historical enquiries among old village persons in Kowloon and the Southern District of the New Territories, it has been established that in their youth it was a regular practice for itinerant Hakka persons, mostly men it seems, to come yearly to villages in this area some time after the second rice harvest (October-November) to weave locally-grown hemp thread into cloth. The finished product was then dyed and used by local people to make clothes, or sold to others for a like purpose. For example, one man born in 1885 in Nga Tsin Wai, one of the old-established Cantonese villages of Kowloon, said: Most families grew hemp when I was young. It was harvested in the 8th or 9th moons. None grew in the winter as the plants needed water. My mother manipulated it into thread and it could be woven at home or sold to weavers in the Kowloon City shops: sometimes these people came to the village to buy it. We villagers usually relied on strangers to weave our hemp. Every year about the 10th to the 12th moons some Hakka people from Mui Yuen and Hing Ning [districts in North-east Kwangtung] came round the village. They would rent an empty house and stay as long as there was work for them. Then they moved elsewhere. They only wove cloth. It was generally known as tai min po (***) and was very hard-wearing, lasting for several tens of years. The villagers made clothes, quilts, mosquito nets etc., with this cloth, and most clothes were home-made at that time. I went to sea at 18 and the Hakkas came regularly up to then. I didn't come back to settle in the village until I was 45 and by that time they no longer came, no doubt because ready-made clothes were available in the shops. I came across this kind of information by chance, but was pleased to have it corroborated by what Rev. Rudolf Lechler, the celebrated missionary of the Basel Mission [which specialised in evangelical work among the Hakkas from about 1850 onwards], has to say about this subject in an article "The Hakka Chinese" which appeared in The Chinese Recorder in October 1878: 15 In some parts as e.g. in the prefecture of Kia-yin chow, the women spin cotton, and are also able to weave the yarn into ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES AND QUERIES 163 cloth, of which they make their winter dresses. In the Jin-on district [= San On] the spinning of the hemp of which grass-cloth is made, is more frequently seen, but the women do not weave it, and there are journeymen weavers who go round in the villages with their primitive looms to do the weaving for the families. It is interesting to note that these Hakkas did not restrict their visits only to Cantonese villages in this region, but that their services were also utilised in Hakka ones. An old Hakka man born in 1886 in the village of San Tsuen at Pui O, Lantau Island states: When I was a boy we wore clothes made from hemp cloth. We grew the hemp ourselves and the village women cleaned and sorted it and prepared it for weaving. They did not weave the cloth themselves but relied on itinerant Hakka-speaking men from the Lung Kong and Tam Shui districts who came yearly to our village and the nearby settlements to weave the hemp yarn into cloth. They brought their tools with them. I think this was an old practice and had been going on for a long time before I was born. These people stopped coming when I was about thirteen or fourteen years old. The cloth they wove was very strong and hard-wearing, suitable for wear in both seasons but best for summer use. Though they did not weave, our village people knew how to make clothes. Clothes were much simpler then and much wider, the sleeves being 6-8 inches wide, San Tsuen is a Hakka village in a mixed Hakka-Punti complex where both dialect groups are of equally long settlement. According to his family's genealogical record, my informant's ancestors have been settled there since about 1710. Yet it appears that not all local Hakkas relied on visits from their fellow-countrymen from North-east Kwangtung. An old Hakka woman who was married into the Hakka stone-cutters' settlement of Ngau Tau Kok in East Kowloon at the age of nine in 1897, recalls that her sister-in-law bought hemp in Kowloon City market and brought it home to weave, took it back to Kowloon City to be dyed and later brought it back to the village to make into clothes for the family. Making bed-clothes and mosquito nets was also mentioned. Most items were dyed black in colour. Her ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES AND QUERIES 165 he charged two or three cash a chih, with food and a place to sleep as was the custom. That was a lot of money for a man to earn; he could live for a week on one day's labor. At page 53 it is mentioned that a few years later, at or about the Boxer time, the Old Weaver no longer came to the Chu home to weave cloth each winter, and that no one took his place, it being then cheaper to buy British or foreign cloth in the market. 1. For descriptions of hemp spinning wheels from Chekiang see pp. 167-169 of Rudolf P. Hommel's China at Work... (New York, The John Day Company, 1937). Photographs of two such wheels are at pp. 170 and 171. I have not yet come across any such relics from the Hong Kong region. 2. The Hakkas of Hing Ning district, mentioned above, appear also to have played a large part in weaving foreign cotton yarn imported via Swatow. Consul F.S.A. Bourne in his section of the Report of the Mission to China of the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce 1896-7 (Blackburn, The North-east Lancashire Press Company, 1898) at pp. 153-4 mentions them as using foreign yarn for weaving cotton cloth "sent down the Canton East River past Hui-chow Fu to Fatshan where it is dyed black and called ch'ung-ch'ang-ch'ing i.e. imitation long black. This cloth, like that of which it is a copy, is very largely exported to Singapore." 3. For local, i.e. Hong Kong, place names see A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1960). Hong Kong, 1968. JAMES HAYES THE TUNG CHUNG FORT (LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG) For earlier references in NOTES AND QUERIES see Vols. 3 (1963) and 4 (1964) of this Journal at pp. 144-145 and 146-152 respectively. In late January 1966, I heard of, and spoke with, an old lady aged 90 sui (歲) born on 2nd October 1877. She had spent all her days in the Tung Chung valley, having been born in Wong Ka Wai and married into Sheung Ling Pei village. A series of questions... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 166 NOTES AND QUERIES tions and answers produced an interesting picture of life among the soldiers at the Fort in the few years before they withdrew from it after Lantau and other parts of the present New Territories were leased to the Hong Kong Government in 1898. Put together they amount to this: I was 24 sui when the British came to take over Lantau. Tung Chung Fort had a permanent garrison of Chinese troops before then. I can't remember exactly how many troops there were or what the rank or title of the officer-in-charge was, but they were none of them local people. Their families lived at Tung Chung too, in several rows of brick houses outside the Fort and some inside the walls also. There was a house nearby in which soldiers or their family members were put when sick, with a burial ground behind. The garrison's provisions were brought in by ship, though they bought fish and vegetables locally at Tung Chung. There were military boats at Ma Wan Chung [where the main stream empties into the sea], about 7 or 8 of them of different kinds, but they were not under the command of the Tung Chung officer and came and went between such places as Canton [the provincial capital], Nam Tau [the district city], Shum Chun etc. The soldiers at the Fort had a big parade each year on the 1st day of the seventh moon. It was held on the level ground beside the Hau Wong temple (1) near the beach. Inspecting officers came from Nam Tau, Shum Chun and Canton, I think. There was much drumming and noise on that day, and the troops paraded with all their weapons. The soldiers had uniforms of all sorts, and many kinds of weapons too, but there was no uniformity of clothing or equipment. The soldiers were generally well-behaved and gave no trouble to us local people, though they did not have much to do as they didn't cultivate any fields, inside or outside the Fort. They did not ask for money, but kept watch. There was a guard station at Ma Wan Chung, though there were rarely soldiers in it. There were lots of robbers and pirates in this area when I was young. They came from ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 18 T. C. CHENG watchmen being paid for with subscriptions from the Chinese community.* In 1893 a District Watch Force Committee was formed with the Registrar General (Protector of Chinese) as Chairman, and from that time onwards up to 1941 many prominent Chinese leaders served on that Committee. Indeed, for many years, it was more or less a tradition for prominent Chinese who wished to render public service to the Colony to begin their public career with this Committee and then, in the case of those who had a knowledge of English, to proceed to the Sanitary Board (which was replaced by the Urban Council in 1935) and thence to the Legislative Council. For some years Wei Yuk was more or less an unofficial liaison officer between Hong Kong and the Manchu Government, and the latter was indebted to him in no small degree for the assistance he rendered in bringing to justice Chinese criminals who had fled from Chinese territory to Hong Kong. He was so respected by the Chinese in South China that, following the successful revolution in 1911, when Admiral Li Tsun, Commander of the Chinese Imperial Naval Detachments of Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces, declared his surrender to the revolutionary forces directed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen's deputy, Hu Han-min from Hong Kong, Mr. Wei Yuk was asked to act as the guarantor of good faith on both sides! In 1894, a fierce bubonic plague broke out in Hong Kong which accounted for over 2,000 deaths mainly in the oldest Chinese section of Hong Kong, viz., Tai Ping Shan (the present Po Hing Fong). In 1896 and subsequent years the plague recurred to a greater or less degree every spring. As there was little scientific knowledge of the plague and as there was no western treatment for this, Government decided to take drastic measures including the cleansing and disinfecting of infected areas, compulsory removal of the sick and house-to-house visitation carried out generally by the military. As it was very un-Chinese to allow sick parents or relatives to be removed from their homes to die in strange hospital rooms, and as the Chinese looked upon house visitation as interference and intrusion upon their privacy and personal liberty, they adopted an attitude of passive resistance and often hid away the dead and the sick. Wei Yuk was able to do See chapter 4, "District Watchmen" of Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, No. 13 of 1888. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE 39 The territory contained a number of markets: Yuen Long in the west, Tai Po old and new markets in the east, Shek Wu Hui in the north, and Sha Tau Kok in the extreme northeast. The markets at Yuen Long and Tai Po may be identified as standard markets. Shek Wu Hui and Sha Tau Kok were much smaller and may have been emerging from the status of minor markets. Sham Chun, to the north of the territory, was both a standard market and the intermediate market for the others. Let us consider the markets in more detail. Yuen Long market had a population of 559 in 1911. It served 22,200 people and a cultivated area of 13,100 acres, chiefly planted to rice and sugar cane. The two Tai Po markets had a combined population of 660, served 6,550 people and a cultivated area of 2,600 acres, principally planted to rice. Shek Wu Hui had a smaller population—43 in all. It was located in the Sheung Shui district, which had a population of 5,600, and a cultivated area of 3,100 acres. Sha Tau Kok had a population of 47. Estimates of the number of people served and acreage cultivated are not available. There are no corresponding figures for Sham Chun, but in 1907 it was described as the largest market in the San On (Hsin-an) district, having 61 large shops and 323 medium-sized shops.42 Each of the markets had its own periodic marketing schedule,43 as shown below: Table I Market Schedule Sham Chun intermediate market 2 5 8 Sham Chun standard market 4 7 Sha Tau Kok 1 7 Shek Wu Hui 1 7 Yuen Long 3 9 Tai Po old and new markets 3 9 It is evident that, although the schedules of the standard markets clash, none conflict with that of the intermediate market. In his discussion of marketing schedules Skinner says: "within inter- Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 56 R. G. GROVES Kinship ties played a large part in the organization of the resistance. In the Yuen Long area, leadership and probably manpower were overwhelmingly supplied by the three Tang lineages of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin. In the Shek Wu Hui district, it was a matter of cooperation between a number of lineages of roughly equal status. At Tai Po, the Man lineage of Tai Hang provided leadership, within the Ts'at Yeuk, for a large number of smaller lineages. Ties of clanship enabled the Tangs of Yuen Long to enlist the help of the Tangs of Pan T'in. They, in turn, received support from agnates living in Tung-kuan City. The Tang higher-order lineage of the New Territory did not act as a unified lineage during the resistance movement. The leaders of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin were concerned, first and foremost, to consolidate plans for resistance within the Yuen Long area. Leaders of the Tang lineages of Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau only subsequently became formally involved with preparations for resistance, along with other leaders from their respective marketing areas. The leaders of the three Yuen Long lineages carefully coordinated their plans. There is no evidence that representatives of Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau were similarly consulted. Moreover, the Lung Yeuk Tau settlement, along with others in the Shek Wu Hui area, was threatened with attack by the Tangs of Yuen Long. There is insufficient evidence to materially advance the discussion concerning the relationship between hsiang and marketing areas. However, the data strongly suggest that, for the purposes of resistance, the highest order of effective inter-lineage cooperation among the Tangs of the New Territory was achieved within the Yuen Long marketing community. There is also the possibility that long- or short-standing disputes between the various local lineages of the Tang higher-order lineage inhibited their cooperation across the boundaries of marketing areas during the resistance movement. But this would not necessarily weaken the argument that the standard marketing community was the optimum unit for inter-lineage cooperation. Wakeman, in his discussion of militia, has stressed the importance of gentry leadership. The documents concerning the resistance name 63 people as active in the movement, in that they: (i) took part in the meetings which organized it; and/or, (ii) acted ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE 57 as leaders during the fighting. Ten of the 63 leaders are identi-fiable as members of the gentry, in the sense that they are men-tioned in the documents as having degrees obtained either by purchase or by examination. examination. Most of the remainder could be termed 'local notables'. Some were substantial owners of agricul-tural land and village houses. Other owned shops in their local markets. It is probable that they were often --as was Man Cham-tsun managers of corporately-owned lineage property. The available information about these men is summarized below. — Table II LEADERS IN THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT (By Marketing area, District & Village, Surname)* Marketing area District, or other Association of sharing gradu-ates Village, or Surnames No. No. of leaders Yuen Long 5+ Ha Tsuen Tang 12 2 Ping Shan Tang 11 1 Kam Tin Tang 10 2 Pat Heung Tang 2 Li 1 Lai 1 Tse 1 1. +3 15 Shap Pat Heung Chu 1 Ng 2 2 15 Tai Po Tun Mun Ts'at Yeuk Tang 1 Lo 1 Tai Hang Man 3 1 71 Pan Chung Chan 1 Mak 1 - * +3 + ++ 7 ** Fan Leng Pang 1 Sha Lo Tung Li 2 " ** * * 2 Cheung Shue Tan Chan 1 7: * H 3. Hang Ha Po Lam 1 Tai Po Tau Tang * Shek Wu Hui Lung Yeuk Tau Tang I ++ +1 Sheung Shui Liu 1 Ping Kong Hau 2 1 ** Sha Tau Kok Sham Chun Wo Hang San Tin Li 4 Man 1 * All romanisations are in Cantonese. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 132 HENRY D. TALBOT Lo cheou-Lo Chau (Beaufort Island) = Mers Bay Mirs Bay Mew Is.-Mo Chau Nako chau-Papai (Nei Kwu Chau or Hei Ling Chau) Nine-pin-Ninepin Group Po-ke-long Point=Lei Yue Mun Point Psang-chau-Kau Yi Chau Ragged Island Steep Island Rat Island or Ling Ting-Ling Ting R. Povado or Iron River-Hebe Haven Sin-can-hien-Hsin-an Hsien (San On Yuen) or, rather, the district city of Hsin-an Singan Islands-Siu Chau and Tai Shan Shu-lap-ko Is.-Chek Lap Kok Island Sui-pak Siu Kau Yi Soko Cheou Is. the Soko Islands Song-kco Sung Kong Ta baco=Chung Chau Tat-hong Moon-Tathong Channel = Tay Pak Peng Chau Tay-pak-hoe Green Island (or perhaps the sea between Hong Kong and Lantao Islands) Tsa-cheou Is. =Sha Chau Tsan-Cheou-Kau Pei Chau (off Cape D'Aguilar) Tysa=Small island 1⁄2 mile south of East Brother Wang Laang-Waglan Island NOTES 1 Cf. The British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books (London, 1961) Vol. 100, Col. 222. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Maps. Charts and Plans (London, 1967) Vol. 7, Col. 359, Morse, H. B. The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635-1834 (Oxford, 1926-29) Lists of Ships. 2 Cf. Bonacker, W. Kartenmacher Aller Lander und Zeiten (Stuttgart, Hiersemann, 1966) p. 200, ================================================================================ 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 159 the conditions which reigned during that time were most undesirable. The text reads as follows; Memorandum presented to the High Commissioner on the harmful practice of pearl fishing:- "Wei Ying having seen that officials are being appointed to conduct the harmful practice of pearl fishing humbly presents his views on the subject for consideration. "In Kwangtung province, Tung Kun District, there is a place called Mei Chu Ch'i which is not recorded in any text except by the Cabinet Secretary Ch'an Chün in the Annals of the Sung dynasty, who stated that in the 5th year 5th moon of T'ai Tsu of Sung (A.D. 965) the military post at Mei Chuan was abolished. A footnote states that Liu Chang (Emperor of the Southern Han dynasty) recruited 3,000 persons from the coastal region to gather pearls under the military post named Mei Chuan and that every year a great number were drowned. On account of this it was abolished. "I note that when the false Emperor of the Southern Han dynasty, Liu Chen, usurped Kwangchow, the Sung Emperor in the 2nd moon of the 4th year of Hai Pao sent a general called Pan Mei and recaptured Kwangchow forcing Liu Chen to surrender, he then abolished the military post of Mei Chuan in the 5th moon of the 5th year. It was not that the Sung Emperor did not prize pearls but simply because of the harm to the country and people which made it imperative to stop the practice of fishing for them. If only expert divers could gather the pearls, why then was it necessary to organise a military post of 3,000? Because martial law was used to drive them to their death. Pearls are produced from oysters several fathoms beneath the sea and wherever there are oysters many water creatures and dangerous fish protect them. The method of gathering them is to tie stones onto a man and lower him into the sea so that he will sink quickly. Sometimes he gets pearls and sometimes not. When he suffocates he pulls the rope and a man in the boat hauls him up. If this is done a fraction too late the man dies. If he happens to meet dangerous sea creatures he cannot avoid their attacks. Besides out of one hundred oysters opened there are hardly one or two pearls ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 168 S. F. BALFOUR Emperor and his court were at a place called Ngai Shan in San Wui district. The army was gathered round him, waiting for news of Wen Tien-chiang's attack on Canton. But Wen Tien-chiang was defeated at Waichow and finally captured at Hai Fung. He was brought as a prisoner on a Mongol ship, from which he witnessed the final assault on the Emperor's army and fleet, which was conducted by the commander of the Mongol armies, Cheung Hung-fan. It is recorded that during the battle Wen T'ien-chiang received a message from the Mongol Emperor offering him a post in the government if he would change sides. In reply, he wrote a poem often quoted in books about our region since it mentions the Ling Ting Yeung or Desolate Sea between the islands of outer and inner Ling Ting in the Canton estuary. The poem may be freely translated as follows: "After many hardships I am come to a place where the stars foretell the doom of my arms. The waters toss my broken body like a tiny thread, the wind strikes at the wreck of my life. By the Sands of Huang Kung I tell my despair, in the waters of Ling Ting I sigh my desolation.23 Since life began nobody has escaped death, only honour has immortal record among men." This poem was sent in reply to the Yuan Emperor and Wen T'ien-chiang remained loyal to the Sung cause until his death which occurred in prison some years later. At the battle in the Canton estuary the Sung forces were finally dispersed. The last prime minister then took charge of the Emperor's person. Separating them from the army, whose treachery he feared, he led all the surviving members of the royal family to a place on the sea and exhorted them to commit suicide, saying that it was preferable to surrender. When the women had drowned themselves he walked into the sea with the boy Emperor on his shoulders. It remains to tell the legends which sprang up over the burial places of the Emperors. According to a story of the Yuan dynasty, one of the Mongol soldiers found a garment floating in the sea 23 惶恐灘頭說惶恐,零丁洋裏歎零丁。 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 174 S. F. BALFOUR and his friend Duarte Coelho. Alvares died at the beginning of the siege and was buried near the grave of his son. The siege lasted from July to September 1521 and before the final assault Duarte Coelho with three ships managed to evade the Chinese fleet in a thunderstorm and slip away. All the others perished. In 1522 another expedition set sail from Malacca. They were met outside T'un Mun by a large Chinese fleet and although they did not at first return the fire and tried to open negotiations they were chased to the western side of the Canton estuary near San Wui district where another battle took place in which they were all killed or captured. The Portuguese historian places the site of this second battle at T'un Mun also, but since few survived it is more probable that the site at San Wui which is mentioned in the Ming history is the authentic one. The Chinese had by that time under the energetic leadership of Wang Hung learnt to make cannon after the Portuguese model and were not any more at a disadvantage in this respect. But after the last Portuguese defeat the region of T'un Mun was left alone. A Chinese fleet patrolled the estuary and the islands continually from 1523 to 1524 but the foreigners did not reappear for many years. When the Portuguese established themselves at Macao they still recognised in T'un Mun a better trading centre, and although they were not allowed to colonise it, they were interested in preventing any other foreigners from doing so. The Spaniards who arrived at the end of the 16th century created a temporary trading station at a place they called Pinal, twelve leagues from Canton, but it is not certain where this is. The Dutch arrived in China in 1607 and tried in vain to open negotiations with the Chinese government but they were chased away from the island of Lantao by a Portuguese fleet. Later they attacked the fort at Fa T'ong Mun but were defeated by the Chinese. The history of T'un Mun can be carried right into modern times, for a port in its neighbourhood was the aim of the English in the 18th century when Anson was sent to take soundings on the north side of Lantau and Hong Kong island. IX. THE EVACUATION OF THE COAST AND THE HAKKA IMMIGRATION The advent of foreigners naturally made the China seas more turbulent than ever before and the history of our region during ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 84 CARL T. SMITH therefore in the hands of shopkeepers, compradors and pedlars of whom there are many, though their transactions when considered as a whole are but trifling.' 12 In his remarks on native trade, Gutzlaff states that an attempt had been made by a Cantonese capitalist to establish himself in Hong Kong. He is referring to Chinam, alias Chan Akuen, who with three other partners operated under the firm name of Tun Wo *. The Colonial Treasurer, R. M. Martin, also refers to him in his report: "One man of reputed wealth named Chinam, who had been engaged in the opium trade, came to Hong Kong, built a good house, and freighted a ship. He soon returned to Canton, and died there of a fever and cold contracted in Hong Kong. It was understood, however, that had he lived he would have been prohibited from returning to Hong Kong",13 In June, 1843, Chinam bought Marine Lot 54 from Richard Oswald paying $8,000. At the time it had on it a Singapore frame house14 with brick enlargements. On the lot Chinam proceeded to build a large Hong in the Chinese style, but before the building was completed, he died in July, 1844. With his death the firm closed down its operations in Hong Kong and most of the Hong stood unoccupied for a number of years. One of Chinam's partners, Chan Chun-poo, was appointed his administrator, but due to irregularities in his handling of the estate he was imprisoned in 1854, and remained in prison for two years. He petitioned the Government for his release on the grounds of his advanced age. The property of Chinam's firm was sold in 1854 to Ow Yeung Sun, a trader from the San Wui District in Kwang Tung. Another Canton firm that established itself in Hong Kong in the early days was Akow and Company. It was not in the same class as Chinam's Tun Wo firm, but its position was above that of the shopkeepers and tradesmen concentrated in the Bazaar areas. The company was granted Inland Lot 22 located at the corner of Queen's Road and Pottinger Street in the European section. The firm consisted of five partners, of whom Cheung Kam Cheong was resident in Hong Kong. He began to speculate in real estate and bought several lots at Government land auctions. His land investments were not successful and Page 90 Page 91 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 90 CARL T. SMITH capital with them. The Rev. Dr. Legge on reflecting upon the Colony's progress during his residence here remarks, It has always seemed to me that this was the turning point in the progress of Hong Kong. As Canton was threatened, the families of means hastened to leave it, and many of them flocked to this Colony. Houses were in demand; rents rose; the streets that had been comparatively deserted assumed a crowded appearance; new commercial Chinese firms were founded; the native trade received an impetus which it did not lose till it was arrested by the superfluous vigour of some of Sir Richard MacDonnell's early ordinances.23 A new category of Fukien brokers and merchants began to appear on the annual censuses. In 1848 two Fukien merchants and five Fukien brokers are reported, they too do not appear the following year. But in 1853 there are six Fukien brokers, and within three years the number had increased sixfold. Not all the brokers and merchants were from Fukien. A significant number were Cantonese or Tiuchau. In 1858 a new category, "Hongs", or large merchant establishments, was introduced into the annual census of Chinese shops and businesses. Thirty-five were listed in 1858, but sixty-five for 1859. Some of the capital brought into Hong Kong in the 1850s was invested in real estate, and a group of large land proprietors developed. These investments formed the foundation of the fortunes of several prominent Hong Kong families. One of these families is the Li from San Wui District of Kwang Tung Province. They have been among the Chinese élite for well over a century. The family established its interests in Hong Kong in a very modest way in 1854, when two brothers Li Sing 李昇 alias Li Yuk Hang 李玉衡 and Li Leong 李良 bought an Upper Bazaar lot. They soon had built up a money-changing business and were lending out money on mortgages. In 1857 they bought half of the lot where Chinam previously had built his large Chinese Hong. Here they established the Wo Hang firm which operated in many different fields. In 1865, along with two Americans, Lee Sing of the Wo Hang firm and Pang Wah Ping entered into partnership ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG 95 two European partners of the firm, with the intention of building Chinese houses of a better type to accommodate the wives and families of the growing class of well-to-do compradores. Previously the compradores had not brought their families to Hong Kong but they remained in their home village or in Canton. The editor of The China Mail comments that "Messrs. Dent and Company have shown both wisdom and kindness in disposing of their land for such purposes. Chiu Wing Tsun (†), one of the purchasers, and his elder brother, Yuk Ting (†), had both been compradores in Dent and Company. Their nephew Chiu Yee Chee () was compradore at Shanghai and became one of the organizers of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company in 1872. Chiu Wing Tsun died at Macao in 1873, leaving property in Hong Kong estimated at $111,000.27 Yeong Lan Ko (☎), the other Chinese purchaser of the Dent property, had succeeded his relative Yeong Atai (*) alias Yeong Chun Kum, to the position of first compradore of Dents at Hong Kong upon the latter's death in 1870. Yeong Lan Ko alias Yeong Sun Yow (), and also known as Asam (), was one of Hong Kong's largest landowners. In 1876 he was the nineteenth largest rate-payer and in 1881 had risen to fifth position. He died in 1884 at Pak Shan, the family village in Heung Shan District. Before Dents sold their property, the few substantial Chinese who had family residences in Hong Kong were located at the former Middle Bazaar site. When the inhabitants of the Middle Bazaar had been relocated at Tai Ping Shan, the Government replotted the area and laid off new lots which were meant to be bought principally by Europeans for their residences or business houses.28 Two of the more substantial Chinese bought lots at the sale in 1844: Ying Wing Kee (*) alias Ng Wing Kee (**), a compradore and merchant who died in 1849, and Tong Kam Sing, a contractor who died in 1845. Other Chinese of this class soon bought lots from European owners, that they might establish family houses in a better part of town. These included Wei Akwong, compradore of Bowra and Company and later of the Chartered Mercantile Bank; Ho Sek, compradore of Lyall, Still and Company; Lee Kip Tye, a Fukien broker who began his Hong Kong career as a Government interpreter; ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 110 CARL T. SMITH Boarding School at Singapore of the American Board. One was Leung Tsun Tak (梁遵德) who was employed as an interpreter at the Hong Kong Magistracy. He was a son of Leung Afat (梁亞佛) an ordained evangelist of the London Missionary Society,49 The other lad was Wei Akwong (韋阿光) whom Bridgman had picked up sick and starving on the streets of Macao some years previous. Akwong, unlike the other Chinese we have been mentioning, never received baptism. At first he assisted Bridgman in his missionary work in Hong Kong, but when Bridgman moved to Canton in 1845 Akwong remained in Hong Kong. He became compradore for the ship chandlers and storekeepers Bowra and Company, but in 1855 was appointed Supreme Court Interpreter in Chinese and Malay. In 1857 when the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China opened its Hong Kong office, Wei Akwong became the bank's compradore. He retained this office until his death in 1878 and was succeeded by his son Wei Ayuk (韋亞玉) alias Wei Bo Shan (韋寶臣). Wei Akwong was a recognized leader of the Chinese community, and his name appears on numerous petitions and memorials. Like Wong Shing he sent his sons abroad to study. His eldest son Wei Yuk married a daughter of Wong Shing, and followed in the footsteps of his father-in-law by serving on the Legislative Council from 1896 to 1917.50 He was knighted in 1919 and died in 1922. The Bishop of Victoria had under his patronage upon his arrival in Hong Kong in 1850, a young Chinese whom he had met in England. Chan Tai Kwong (陳大光) was a native of Pun Yu District of Kwang Tung, but he turned up in England in 1845 as a young man aged eighteen. How he got to England and what he was doing there, I have not been able to determine, but in 1849 the newly appointed Bishop of Victoria met him and took him under his patronage, with the hope that he could be trained as an evangelist among the Chinese. Soon after coming to Hong Kong, Tai Kwong was sent to Singapore to marry Gay Eng, also known as Sarah Hughes, a pupil in the school for Chinese girls conducted by Miss Grant. Upon his return to Hong Kong he was placed on three years' probation before ordination, but the Bishop did license him to preach to the prisoners in the Victoria Gaol. Chan Tai Kwong, however, had difficulties in adjusting to his new position. His experience in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 122 H. J. LETHBRIDGE Management and the Registrar General's Department, the more influence the former would have within the Chinese community. The Committee would be in a far stronger position to moderate government policies - or at least to influence the Registrar General by a flow of opinion and advice about the wishes of the Chinese than any committee which was remote from government. It seems likely that Wei Yuk, a shrewd man of affairs, understood that once the Registrar General brought the Committee within the colonial system of government, the latter would be forced not only to give the members of the Committee much 'face' but would have to engage in an intimate and prolonged dialogue with it: benefits would need to pass in both directions. Each, the Registrar General and the Committee would need to feel it gained from the special relationship25. Basically, the system created by Lockhart and Wei Yuk remained unchanged - there were a few slight modifications until 1941, the year of the Japanese occupation. The members of the Committee were nominated to their office by the Governor in Council, on the advice of the Registrar General (after 1913 renamed the Secretary for Chinese Affairs); and the Registrar General, before he put forward the name of a Chinese to the Governor, canvassed the opinions of prominent Chinese: nominees needed the support and approbation of both Chinese notables and the Registrar General. In 1917 the Committee was enlarged from 12 to 14, exclusive of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the ex officio chairman, by the addition of two members selected from the retiring annual committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk but holding their appointments for the term of one year only. Usually these special nominees were the retiring chief directors of the two associations26. They were probationers in a sense. But usually such 'short-term' members of the District Watch Committee were made full members at a later date; or, in some cases, after their year of office was up. This special device allowed the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to include on the Committee any promising, emergent leader in these two lesser associations; at the same time, it helped inflate the status of the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk by making possible a speedier transition for some to the key advisory board, the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g The District Watch Committee 123 District Watch Committee. In 1920 the post of Advisor (Ku Man) was created and the first occupant — and it would seem the only one — was the distinguished Sir Boshan Wei Yuk, the founding father of the Committee. By the end of the nineteenth century, relations with the Police had improved. In 1897 the district watchmen on duty in Victoria were placed on police beats and subjected to the supervision of police inspectors and sergeants on patrol duty. This was done on the recommendation of the Captain Superintendent of Police, F. H. May (a Cadet Officer like Lockhart), who remarked in his annual report for that year that 'the object was to improve the efficiency of this very useful auxiliary Police Force, and to bring them into closer touch with the Police'. The reputation of the regular police had improved by that date and the Committee concurred with the innovation. The efficiency of the District Watch was further raised by the secondment in 1918 of a European police officer27 to take charge of and train the detective staff, a practice that continued until 1949. As a result of this change, the number of convictions obtained by the district watch detective force tended to rise from year to year. The force became steadily more professionalised, especially its detective branch. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs claimed in 1922 that 'the connection with the Regular Police has been effectively used to the advantage of both sides, and without interference with the essential character of the District Watch'; and in 1924 he wrote 'the Captain Superintendent of Police was on occasion present by invitation at the Councils of the Committee, and it is satisfactory to note the close co-operation between the two forces'. However, the force did not increase markedly in size over time — there were only 48 watchmen in 1891 and 120 in 194128 — although the area patrolled and the urban population both increased over this period. In 1910 it was found necessary to extend patrols further as the Chinese population spread up to the higher levels of the town; in 1913 the Committee was obliged to raise money for District Watchmen's Quarters in Kowloon; and by 1925 the districts of Yaumati and Mongkok were being patrolled; and by 1930, Shamshuipo. The rate of voluntary subscription was also raised slightly29. The District Watch was a Chinese and not a European police force and its duties were more diverse than those normally ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 136 H. J. LETHBRIDGE census 13 of the 76 Chinese enumerators were district watchmen; in the 1901 census 5 out of 107 were. In the 1906 census the 120 enumerators were shown round the blocks (census sub-divisions) by district watchmen. They also gave help in the 1911 census, and in the 1921 one the bulk of the force was placed at the disposal of the commissioner of census, who wrote 'each Chinese watchman engaged was in charge of two sections; they helped clear up misunderstandings and kept a check on enumerators'. The Committee was thanked on many occasions by government for its public service; it was praised for the help it rendered to the police during the riots which occurred in 1894 during the great epidemic of plague. The Committee did all it could to help its sister organizations the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. Thus district watchmen were always employed on special duties at the Tung Wah Hospital during outbreaks of plague and the Chinese Public Dispensary Committee used Watchmen to prevent the dumping of bodies in the streets. The Po Leung Kuk's two principal detectives were serving district watchmen at the turn of the century. Co-operation was easy because most members of the District Watch Committee had served or were serving on the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. In 1895 head district watchmen were paid $240 a year, assistant head district watchmen $180 and watchmen from $84 to $96. 18 For examples of police corruption in nineteenth century Hong Kong see numerous references in Norton-Kyshe, op. cit. 19 After a distinguished academic career at Edinburgh University, J. H. Stewart Lockhart became a Hong Kong Cadet in 1878; Registrar General in 1887; Colonial Secretary in 1895. In 1902 he was appointed first Civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei and retired from this post in 1921. Among his numerous publications there are several of sinological value. See particularly: 'Contributions to the Folklore of China', China Review, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 352-353 and vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 37-39; also 'Some Chinese Folk-lore', Folk-lore, vol. 14, 1903, pp. 292-298. Lockhart was local secretary in Hong Kong of the International Folk-lore Society. 20 In 1892 new rules were drawn up under Ordinance No. 13 of 1888, with the advice of the Committee, for the regulation and guidance of the watchmen. 'Copies of these rules have been distributed among the contributors of the District Watchmen's Fund, by whom more interest seems to be evinced in and more assistance asked from the force than formerly': See Report of the Registrar General for 1892. Lockhart also persuaded two Chinese newspapers—the Tsun Wan Yat Po and the Wai San Yat Po—to publish weekly lists of cases brought before the magistrate by the District watchmen for the information of subscribers to the District Watchmen's Fund. Lockhart realised that publicity was good for the Committee: he saw that they got it. The report of the Registrar General/Secretary for Chinese Affairs always contained a section on the District Watch and news about members was given: deaths, resignations, appointments, etc. 21 Wei Yuk (1849-1921) was the son of Wei Kwong, compradore to the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. He was educated at the Government Central School in Hong Kong and in 1867, at the age of 18, became a pupil at the Leicester Stoneygate School and in 1868 of the Dollar Institution, Scotland. He returned to Hong Kong in 1872 to become assistant compradore in the Chartered Mercantile Bank. He succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1879. Wei Yuk married the eldest daughter of Wong Shing (Huang Shêng). He was the fourth Chinese to be appointed to the Legislative Council, the other three being Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Wong Shing and Ho Kai. He was knighted in 1919. During his public career he served on all the commissions appointed by government to inquire into matters affecting the Chinese. Ho Fook (1863-1926) was the younger half-brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung, reputed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g The District Watch Committee 137 to be the richest man in Hong Kong. When Ho Tung retired as chief compradore to Jardine, Matheson's in 1900, Ho Fook succeeded him. Ho Fook's assistant was Ho Kom Tong, another of Ho Tung's brothers. The members of the District Watch Committee were members of a small circle of businessmen, often related through ties of blood or marriage. When the Tai Yau Bank was established in 1914 with a paid-up capital of $6,000,000, the proprietors were named as Lau Chu Pak, Ho Fook, Ho Kom Tong, Lo Chung Shiu and Chan Kai Ming. Lau Chu Pak was compradore to A. S. Watson and Co., chairman of the Po On Commercial Association and chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce; Chan Kai Ming was manager of the Opium Farm; and Lo Chung Shiu, assistant compradore to Jardine, Matheson and Co., was Ho Fook's brother-in-law. All were or became members of the District Watch Committee. 22 T. C. Cheng writes that Wei Yuk 'was very much concerned about law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was founded in 1888. Mr. Cheng appears to be mistaken about the date and is no doubt referring to the ordinance of that year, no. 13 of 1888 rather than to its proper date of origin. Wright and Cartright, Feldwick, and Professor Woo all state that the Committee was formed on Wei Yuk's suggestion. See: T. C. Cheng, 'Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils of Hong Kong up to 1941', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 9, 1969, pp. 17-18; Arnold Wright and H. A. Cartright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports, London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., 1908, p. 109; W. Feldwick, ed., Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent Chinese at Home and Abroad, London Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917, p. 576; Professor Woo Sing Lim, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Five Continents Book Company, 1939, p. 4. 23 Unfortunately all the records in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs were destroyed or lost during the Japanese occupation and hence anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the District Watch must work mostly from scraps of information found in government publications, newspapers, books. 24 My guess is that a large number were traditional Chinese merchants from the Five Districts operating on a relatively small scale. The Committee after 1891 represented the views of a more westernised and modernised elite with a knowledge of modern business techniques and modern financial manipulations. Dr. Ho Kai, for example, played the stock exchange with great success and speculated in many fields, particularly land development. He was, properly speaking, a financier although his occupation is often given tout court as lawyer. He had also qualified in medicine at Edinburgh but gave up the practice of medicine soon after his return to Hong Kong in 1882 because of Chinese resistance to western medicine. 25 In 1903, for example, the Committee opposed the re-introduction of the night-pass system but suggested other remedial measures (see Index to Correspondence (General Register) 1894-1904, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1909, p. 100). In 1909 'at the request of the District Watchmen Committee, children who are hawking without a licence are on their first offence sent to the Registrar General who cautions their guardians. This procedure seems to have proved effective in each case' wrote the Registrar General in 1909. It is worth noting that both Registrar General and Committee wanted to end the night-pass system and were opposed by the Captain Superintendent of Police, who was unsuccessful. As for hawkers, very few Chinese regarded them as a serious menace although colonial administrators ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE 139 36 In 1917 there were 31 guilds for employers only (in trades such as silk, sandalwood, wicker furniture and copper), 35 skilled craftsmen guilds (sandalwood workers, masons, tinsmiths, etc.) and 5 guilds with mixed membership (employers and workers). There were also 17 district societies, such as the Heung Shan (Hsiang-shan) resident merchants association and the General Commercial Association of the Tung Kun (Tung-kuan) merchants resident in Hong Kong. See the list of exempted and registered societies in the Gazette, 27 April 1917. 37 Wei Yuk was appointed in 1891 and served until his death in 1929. He resigned several times in order to allow a newcomer to join the Committee but was soon re-appointed. Lau Chu-pak was appointed in 1902 and served until his death in 1922. Sir Shouson Chow was appointed in 1917 and was still a member in 1949, the year of the demise of the Committee. 38 During the years 1929 to 1931 and in 1936 the Committee met four times a year at Government House. Lennox Mills states that members had the right to a guard of the District Watch Force on the occasion of weddings and other festivities'. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs tells us in his report for 1936 that through the kindness of His Excellency the Committee was able to meet the members of the Mui Tsai Commission on the occasion of their first visit to the Colony, 'All members attended and there was a valuable discussion with frank interchange of views'. When the Governor, Sir Henry Blake, left the Colony in 1903 on the day of his departure he inspected the District Watchmen. Clearly, everything was done by the government to give prestige and éclat to the Committee and the force. 19 T. C. Cheng, op. cit., p. 18. 40 Of the Chinese land population in the 1901 census 227,615 returned themselves as natives of Kwangtung Province, 179,296 of this number belonging to the Kwong Chau Prefecture, 28,844 came from Tung-kuan hsien, 28,587 from P'an-yü hsien, and 27,221 from Nan-hai hsien. The situation was substantially the same in the censuses of 1911, 1921 and 1931. In 1911, for example, 311,992 out of 350,418 Chinese in Hong Kong, exclusive of the New Territories, spoke Cantonese, 41 Op. cit., pp. 399-400. 42 Heung Shan, present-day Chung Shan, is the arid county on the west side of the Pearl River, stretching down to Macau. It was the Heung Ha, the Cantonese term for the province, district or village from which each person derives his ancestry, of many prominent Chinese, including Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Yung Wing (Yung Hung), Wong Shing (Huang Shêng), and Sun Yat-sen. Many Chinese merchants in Hong Kong came from this county; for example, Wei Yuk, Ma Ying-piu (founder of the Sincere Company), M. Y. San (before 1941 the largest biscuit manufacturer in China), Tsang Foo, Look Poong-shan (founder of the Bank of Canton). Su Chao-cheng, organiser and leader of the Seamen' Strike in 1922, came from this county; in 1928 Su was elected to the Central Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. The anarchist, Liu Ssu-fu, was also born there. In 1938 the Chung Shan Commercial Association had a membership of over 4,000 in Hong Kong. 43 In 1905, for example, at least seven members of the Committee were compradores to important western firms; one was manager of a native bank; another of a prosperous pawnshop; a third ran a large export firm. Ho Kai was primarily a financier rather than an entrepreneur. See on this point the Chinese speculator Marie-Claire Bergère, "The Role of the Bourgeoisie' in M. C. Wright, ed., China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900-1913, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968, p. 236. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 140 H. J. LETHBRIDGE 44 Sir Robert Ho Tung was never a member of the District Watch Committee although he was at one time chairman of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee. Sir Robert's brothers—Ho Fook and Ho Kom Tong—and other relatives became members of the Committee. 45 Sir Chau Tsun-nin, who served on the Committee, was the son of Chau Siu-ki, a prominent financier and member of the Committee until his death. Chau Siu-ki (1863-1925) was killed in the collapse of a house during an abnormally heavy rainstorm. 46 I think one may conclude that by the time the Committee met the Registrar General most of the problems to be discussed had been thrashed over previously, most likely at the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce or at the Chinese Club, both located in Connaught Road. There was also a Compradores' Club. 47 For an account of Ho Kai's involvement in Chinese politics see Harold Z. Schiffrin, "The Enigma of Sun Yat-sen", in M. C. Wright, ed., op. cit., pp. 246 ff. 48 The Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was in close touch with the Canton Chamber of Commerce and members flitted between one and the other. Many members of the District Watch Committee had offices and businesses in Canton and invested heavily in Kwangtung enterprises. Many bought land. 49 Ho Kai, however, believed in the 'Open Door' policy in China, which he thought would be beneficial to both China, Hong Kong and the West. See the letter sent to Lord Charles Beresford in Beresford's book, The Break-up of China, London, Harper and Brothers, 1899, pp. 216-233. 50 This is made clear, I feel, by a perusal of the commissions of enquiry into the workings of the Po Leung Kuk and the Tung Wah Hospital. In both cases Ho Kai worked in concert with Lockhart to protect the interests of the Chinese community. Ho Kai was no yes-man. On the other hand, he did use his inside knowledge of government activities to line his own pockets. Endacott states that Ho Kai and his cronies were suspected of spreading rumours about British intentions in the New Territories before the takeover in order to reduce land prices. Endacott, op. cit., p. 263. See also Despatches and other papers relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, Sessional Papers, No. 32 of 1899, p. 20. 51 For example, Ho Fook, Chau Siu-ki and Wei Yuk all died in office. 52 This board was set up to oversee the working of the managing committee and to see that continuity in policy was maintained. 53 See note 52. An important function of the Advisory Board was to see that money was spent wisely. 54 The Committee controlled fee-paying cemeteries at Aberdeen and Tsun Wan. Burial was reserved for Chinese who had been permanently resident in the Colony. 55 This Committee, like the others listed above, was under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. Chinese temples were controlled, in accordance with Ordinance No. 7 of 1928, by this Committee. 56 The Chinese Recreation Ground was an open space situated off Hollywood Road. Funds derived from the rents of stalls in both Hollywood Road and the Yaumati Public Square in Kowloon. 57 Before 1941 there were 9 Chinese Public Dispensaries controlled and maintained by a committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. They were originally established to help combat plague. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h THREE CHINESE DEITIES 175 expert, a geomancer. In general everyday use, prognostications are looked up in the farmer's almanac which is still published annually in Hong Kong and Taiwan and sold widely. In former days the source of information on this subject contained in the farmers' almanac, was the Imperial Calendar, the Hwang Li (). This, until the end of the Empire in 1911, gave the details of T'ai Sui's position every year. Nowadays the birth hour and date of an individual is matched to the movements of T'ai Sui given in the farmers' almanac, thereby obtaining the auspicious and unauspicious dates for most social functions, such as weddings, travel, initiating business, starting building, launching a ship or burying the dead. As can be seen T'ai Sui is important in the life of individuals: but, despite this importance, T'ai Sui is worshipped on as few occasions as possible. Persons fear approaching him too frequently as he is so alarmingly unpredictable and, being so awe-inspiring, he is given a very wide berth. Very rarely indeed, will you see devotees worshipping before his altars in comparison with other altars in the folk religion temples. In the Yangtze Valley, and elsewhere in central and southern China, at the start of Spring, a clay bull and an image of T'ai Sui were carried on a float through the city with the civic officials bringing up the rear. The bull was constructed in a special pattern consisting of sixty separate parts. Hodous3 in 1929 tells of this image of the spring bull, a clay and coloured paper bull, being carried through the streets of Foochow together with T'ai Sui, the tutelary god of the current year. When the procession arrived at the Yamen the district officials formed a circle about the bull and each one struck it with a vari-coloured stick three times, breaking off pieces of clay. The bits of clay and other parts of the bull were picked up by the crowd and thrown to their pigs to stimulate their growth. Hodous also continued that "the position of T'ai Sui behind or in front of the bull tells the farmer whether to begin planting late or early; and upon the position of the tail, or the opening of the mouth of the bull depends the Yin and Yang principles of the year. The tutelary god of spring and of the year is Kou Mang () who holds a whip in his hand. The age of the image, the colour of his clothing and his belt and the position of his coiffure, the holding of his hand over his right or left ear, is determined by the 3 Hodous, L., Folkways in China, Probsthain's Oriental Series Vol. XVIII (1929). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 96 CHUANG SHEN Thus, instead of saying that the compilation method of the T'ing-fan-lou shu-hua-chi was an imitation of the system used in Wu Yung-kuang's art catalogue, rather, it would be more appropriate to say that Pan compiled it according to his own ideas, Thirdly, if this assumption is reasonably correct, then the fact that Pan, in the preface of his T'ing-fan-lou shu-hua-chi regarded Kao Shih-ch'i's Chiang-ts'un hsiao-hsia-lu as one of the representative art catalogues in the Ch'ing dynasty was due to his high esteem for Kao's work, which incidentally was a view shared by Wu Yung-kuang. Moreover, it is possible that he came under Wu's influence while undertaking the collating work for the Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi, thus regarded Kao Shih-ch'i's work of special importance. Fourthly, Pan Chêng-wei considered Sun Ch'êng-chê's Kêng-tzu hsiao-hsia-chi and Kao Shih-ch'i's Chiang-ts'un hsiao-hsia-lu as the most representative art catalogues compiled in early Ch'ing. This point of view is worth our notice. It should be noted that though Sun's catalogue was completed in the 16th year of the Shun Chih era (1659), it was being collated only less than a century after its publication, by Ho Cho2 (1661-1722), a well-known scholar of the Chiang Nan district21 and active in the K'ang Hsi era. Moreover, in the Chien Lung period, distinguished scholars like Lu Wên-ch'aoAx 3 (1717-1795), Pao T'ing-po3* ty (1728-1814) and Yu Chi (1738-1823) at one time or other wrote prefaces and colophons for this catalogue3, and in particular, Pao T'ing-po even included it in his Chih-pu-chü-chai ts'ung-shu1 * F & *** in order to publicize it. Not long afterward, it was well appraised by the Ssu-k'u-ch'uan-shu tsung-mu t'i-yao★ATAIRE, an official catalogue completed in the 48th year of the Chien Lung era. Thus, it can be seen that during the 124 years between the 16th year of the Shun Chih era and the 48th year of the Chien Lung era, in regard to the connoisseurship of painting and calligraphy, no matter whether it was in Chiang Nan or in the capital, and regardless of whether privately or officially, there was no one who did not consider Sun Ch'êng-chê's Kêng-tzŭ hsiao-hsia-chi as an important work for reference, However, the situation was not quite the same in Kwangtung. Probably up to the Chien Lung era, no Kwangtung scholar had ever noticed the Kêng-tzŭ hsiao-hsia-chi. Even Wu Yung-kuang and Yeh Mêng-lung, relatives who both served for a long time in the ================================================================================ 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 116 SUNG HOK-P'ANG Tang Foo's own grave is well known, as it was mentioned in the "To Shue Tsap Shing" (4) a large encyclopaedia of 10,000 volumes written in the 4th year of Yung Ching (£) A.D. 1726 of Tsing dynasty, by order of the Emperor. The volume which refers to the grave is known "Chik Fong Tin” (*) and it says, "Tang Foo's grave is in Ab Kai 鄧符墓在横洲丫髻山 Shaan, Wang Chau". Even if it is accepted that Tang Foo was the pioneer in settling at Kam Tin, or Kwai Kok Shaan as it was then called, there is very conflicting evidence as to when he actually went there. Although his grave-stone records that he passed the Tsun Sz (±) degree, Government civil examination in the 2nd year of Sung Ning (##) A.D. 1103 of Sung dynasty, there is no record of it in the lists of people who passed the Government examinations (Suen Kui Piu ***), in the annals of Canton, Kwong Chau Foo Chi (✯✯), Tung Kwoon, Tung Koon Yuen Chi (4) or San On, San On Yuen Chi (##) which points to the fact that Tang Foo passed his examinations in Kiangsi before coming to Kwang-tung. Each of the three books mentioned above has a biography of Tang Foo. On the other hand, it is known that after Tang Foo had held the office of district magistrate of Yueng Ch'un (1★-) district and had been promoted to "Naam Hung Sui" ( ) he retired to live in Kwai Kok Shaan, and built a famous school there called Lik Ying Tsai () which was mentioned among “The hundred poems of Po On (Po On Paak Wing (*)" by Yung Ping(), where it was stated that during Sung Ling time A.D. 1102-1106 Tang Foo lived in Kwai Kok Shaan and founded a school called Lik Ying Tsaai (A) and kept a lot of books in the library. This book has unfortunately been lost, and only two poems are still in existence, neither of which deal with the school. Yung Ping was a native of Tung Koon. He was "Tak Tsau Ming Tsun Sz” (*★21) in the 8th year of K’in To ($) A‚D, 1172 of Sung dynasty. Another learned scholar, Fok Wai () of Naam Hoi () district, wrote a long article named Lik Ying Tsaai Kei (4) giving an account of the school. During the reign of Shun Hei ( # ) A.D. 1174-1189 the emperor caused Fok Wai to be admitted to the T'aai Hok (*) (Imperial College) as being a "man possessing the eight virtues." Paat Hang Aff. Only one other scholar... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 118 SUNG HOK-P'ANG () as they were called, with themselves ruling almost independently of the Emperor. When the Five Dynasties ended, and the Sung dynasty began, the emperor Sung T'aai Tso (in), in the 3rd year of Kin Loong (1) A.D. 962 made an attempt to unite China and break the power of the generals. He sent certain able and trustworthy men from his own court at the capital, to be responsible for the different districts. They were appointed for three years only, and were called Ling (†). A year later, in the 1st year of K'in Tak () A.D. 963 more civil officers were appointed to take charge of the “Chau” (#) which in the Sung dynasty were as large as provinces although later on they became as small as districts. These officers were called Chau Sui (H}}) or T'ung P'oon (*), and had full power to control the military administration and civil administration of their own Chau. Such officers were under, and reported directly to the capital, and were independent of the generals of the feudatory states, and on an equal footing with them. Thus the generals were gradually deprived of their power, and little by little their armies were taken from them until they were no longer a menace to the crown. It will be seen then, that Tang Foo was a man of considerable importance in his time, having been firstly a "Ling" of a district, and then a “Sui” of Naam Hung Chau. [2] Kwai Kok Shaan where Tang Foo built his school is one of the five famous hills of San On, and is mentioned in the book of "To Shue Chaap Shing". The name was originally Kwai Kok (±✩), Kwai meaning sceptre made of jade; but later it was changed to Kwai Kok (⇓), being the Chinese name for olea fragrans, a flower that is considered to be very lucky. There is an old saying, Shim Kung Chit Kwai (#), "eager to break a branch of the Kwai from the Palace in the Moon." Shim Kung means Toad's Palace. According to an old Chinese legend the moon was inhabited by a toad, who was originally Sheung Ngoh () the wife of a feudal prince and famous archer named Ngai (#) who lived in the time of the Emperor Yiu (4) B.C. 2357. Ten suns are said to have been in the sky at that time, and the heat was so great that all the grass was burnt up. The emperor commanded Ngai to shoot the suns down which he did, and as each sun was inhabited by a large ================================================================================ 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 121 is called Lo Foo Ts'z T'ong (老虎祠堂), Tiger Hall. The floor of the cave is quite smooth with a lot of small stones almost like a mosaic. Though the actual site of the school is not known, old tiles have been found from time to time on the hillside, and one of these can be seen in a house called Cheung Ch'un Yuen (祥泉園) of Shui Tau (水頭) village. In the same house is a flower vase of interest that was dug up on Hong Kong island about 30 years before the British settled there. As mentioned before, four of the "five Yuens" eventually left Kam Tin and founded branches of the Tang family elsewhere, and it has even been said that Yuen Leung, the ancestor of the Kam Tin branch, moved to Mok Ka Tung (莫家洞) near Shek Lung, but this removal is generally attributed to Yuen Leung's daughter-in-law, a princess of Sung dynasty whose story reads almost like a romance. She was a daughter of the Emperor Ko Tsung (高宗) of Sung Dynasty, who before becoming emperor of China was Prince Hong Wong (康王). The Tartars at that time were attacking the North of China, and in the 2nd year of Tsing Hong (靖康) A.D. 1127 they entered the Sung capital, captured the two emperors Fai Tsung (徽宗) and Yam Tsung (欽宗) together with both the mother and wife of Hong Wong, who was himself away in another part of the kingdom fighting the Tartars as he held the appointment of Tin Ha Ping Ma Tai Yuen Sui (天下兵馬大元帥), the commander-in-chief of all the emperor's forces. Hong Wong's little daughter was only ten years old and she was protected by her women servants who fled with her to the South. In the 3rd year of Kin Yim (建炎) A.D. 1129 they arrived in the Kiangsi province where Yuen Leung was district officer of Kung Yuen (贛縣) district. He was very zealous to help the Emperor and had collected together an army of soldiers, with the intention of marching North. Kiangsi was full of the Tartar forces, and the princess found herself surrounded by enemies. One day she saw the Sung flag over the encampment of Yuen Leung's army and she went to him for protection. She stayed with Yuen Leung, moving about with his soldiers, and eventually when he returned to Kam Tin he brought her back with him. He did not know who she was, as the servants had told him only that she was the daughter of a high official in the North. The princess found happiness and security in Kam Tin. She was like a daughter in Yuen Leung's house, helped with the household duties and was quite content. Eventually she revealed ================================================================================ 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 125 been repaired and colour-washed in red and white. For a long time this grave was lost, much to the sorrow of Tsz Ming's descendants. In the 33rd year of Hong Hei (R) of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1694, Tang Lui Taan (12) of Ha Ts'uen (†) happening to read the old history of Tung Kwun came across this passage. "Tang Tsz Ming's grave is in Kau To (A) on Fat Au Leng Shaan. It is now called Ng To (£) of San On district." Lui Taan reported this to a relation, Tang Ng Shaang (£) who immediately collected a party of Kam T'in men to go out to the hill and find it. They found a grave there, but on it was a stone stating that it belonged to Tang Maan Lei (£) a cousin of Tsz Ming and the first ancestor of the Ping Shaan family of Tangs. The Kam T'in men were preparing to go away disappointed, when Ng Shaang discovered another and much older stone nearby with the characters almost obliterated. He took the tea he had brought to drink, carefully washed the stone with it and found the following on it ẞ and part of the two characters Kwan # and Ma which were in Tsz Ming's title. After consultation it was decided to dig up the grave and a sham tomb with bricks inside it of a very old style were found exactly the same as in the princess' grave. At last they found the real tomb itself and Tsz Ming's bone-pot could be seen through a hole in the top. So the Kam T'in men were very glad indeed, and to show their gratitude every year about the third month, at the Ts'ing Ming () festival of worshipping at the graves of their ancestors, the Kam T'in people always presented Ng Shaang with some roast pork taken from the offerings for the husband of the princess. [3] During the Sung dynasty the titles of She Yan (4A) or Siu She (J) were used to address young men of high rank. As the four sons of Tang Tsz Ming and the Princess were the nephews of the Emperor they received the title of Kwok She (4) which means "Kingdom's young men." The eldest, Lam (*) was known as Taai Kwok She, the others Kei (2) Waai (†) and Tsz (†) were called Yee, Saam and Se Kwok She respectively. It is the custom in Kam Tin even now for the young people to address their fathers as "She" instead of “Ah Dae" (E) the Cantonese equivalent to "Daddy." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 THE HONG KONG REGION 111 October 1860, and again by the lease of the New Territories by the Convention of Peking in June 18981. The population of the region was probably around 100,000 in 1898, including boat people. These persons inhabited — in round figures — a thousand villages and a number of market centres. Seven hundred of these settlements were located within the present New Territories of Hong Kong, with many others around Sham Chun and in Hong Kong island and Kowloon. The Punti or Cantonese-speaking element accounted for rather more than half the land population, with Hakka speakers comprising most of the remainder. The boat population, mainly Tanka, lived afloat in the main.2 Descriptions of the geography and climate of the present British Crown Colony are generally applicable to the Hong Kong region. They have long been given in the Hong Kong annual reports. The most recent is supplied in the opening sections of chapter 18 of the report for 1974.3 1. The Hong Kong Region in the wider scene: some historical and geographical considerations In Ch'ing times Hsin-an was one of the 14 hsien of the Kuang-chou prefecture. The designation fu or 'prefecture' was adopted only at the start of the Ming dynasty but the area of Canton and the Delta had long been administered under various designations that changed through the centuries and with dynastic change. The oldest of its hsien, Nan-hai, was established in the Sui dynasty in the year 590-591; the next, P'an-yu in 703-704 during the Tang; with the rest becoming separate districts at various times until the first year of Wan Li of the Ming (1573-1574) when, finally, Hsin-an was created from one of the former commanderies of Tung-kuan district (a hsien of 973-974) established in the 27th year of the first Ming ruler (1394-1395). 1 The relevant documents are given in Alabaster, III, pp. 2-4 and 6-8. 2 See Baker 1968: 3-4. Also the Colony Census for 1911 in SP1911: 103(27-36) and (37-38), though it does not list all the villages of the Southern District of the New Territories or of New Kowloon. 3 CR1974, pp. 176-178. 4 See e.g. TCITC 41/1 and KCFC 6/10. 5 KCFC 6/1-10 and YCKC 4/1-9. 6 KTTC 2/93 and KTKKCY 1/1. The administrative areas to which the Hsin-an district belonged from the Ch'in dynasty (221-207 B.C.) onwards are shown in KCFC 6/24 and in HNHC 1/1. The date of the establishment of the commandery is given as Hung Wu 27 in HNHC 1/3, KTKKCY 1/1, TCITC 41/3 and KTTC 2/93, but as Hung Wu 14 in KCFC 6/24. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 113 fu. In the long entry on hills and streams, which covers three chuan (6-8), only one local feature is named: the Pui To or Castle Peak hill. There is another single entry, for Tuen Mun—the old name for the settlement at the foot of Castle Peak—in the chüan (10) dealing with customs and check points. Only one monastery, the Hai-kuang Ssu of Hsin-an city, is included in the chüan (14) dealing with Buddhist and Taoist temples: by comparison, 37 columns are given to those of Kuang-chou, Nan-hai and P’an-yu, and no doubt with good cause. Only when we come to the chüan dealing with residences (13) and tombs and graves (15) does Hsin-an attract a little more attention from the compilers. The entries in chüan 13 and 15 identify those items that most interested scholars attracted to local history and show how Hsin-an has been notable for two widely different topics. It had been one of the areas that had sheltered the last two boy emperors of the Sung in their flight and final struggles against the victorious Mongol invaders of their empire: and it was a coastal district that had forever been plagued by pirates and bandits. These entries are typical items of Chinese historiography and relevant to the scholar official view of Hsin-an. One item, in chuan 13, relates to the temporary stay of the Sung court and army in Kowloon in the winter months of 1278. A watchtower had been constructed as one of the measures taken to deal with the near-starvation conditions that afflicted the fugitive army. The tower was used as a vantage point from which to look over the encampment. Relief visits were made to any dwelling from which no kitchen smoke was seen to rise in the early morning. This is a graphic and unusual way of conveying an impression of impermanence and suffering. The second entry on the Sung is in chüan 15 which deals with noted graves and tombs. It relates to the grave of Lady Chin-fa, also in Kowloon. The brief statement is that the empress Chi-yuan lost her daughter by drowning, and that she ‘filled the body with gold' for burial at Kwun Fu Mountain.2 1KTKKCY 13/5. Two Sung 'travelling courts' are also recorded for the Hsin-an district in this section. See also Lo 1956. 2KTKKCY 15/2. Lo (1963) renders this as 'made a gilt statue', p. 67. The Government of Hong Kong established a Sung Wong Toi memorial park in Kowloon in 1960, and to mark the occasion the Chiu Clansmen's Association published a memorial volume edited by Jen Yu-wen entitled Sung Wang T'ai Chi-nien Chih which usefully brings together many old writings on this subject. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 122 JAMES HAYES the settlement into a fortress to guard against marauders. This involved construction of a walled enclosure, built of stone, and the replacing of the existing wooden gateway by a stone structure on the advice of the writer of the clan record, then an old man. As the positioning of the wall and its main gate was of great importance, for geomantic reasons as well as military considerations, a message was sent to Shing Mun* to invite a man named Cheung Lam-to, presumably a noted geomancer and perhaps a distant relative, to advise on the siting and on auspicious days for carrying out the work. The record ends: Work began on the 13th day of the 8th moon of the 8th year of Chia Ch'ing, and the gate was fixed on the 16th day. All the village men and women co-operated in the work which took a month to complete. Other areas of the Delta suffered in these years. In 1789, the 54th year of the Ch'ien Lung reign, an official of Hsiang-shan, the district in which Macau is situated, led an expedition in person against a considerable pirate known as the "wave-leveller".1 The scourge continued in the Delta and riverine areas of Kwangtung for over twenty years, and reached its worst proportions in the years 1807-1810. An interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with a pirate fleet in 1809 was given by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman, who was captured by them. This fleet spent a long time on and near Lantau which probably suffered from their levies and depredations. One of these pirates, Cheung Po-tsai, is remembered today in the Hong Kong region, where local stories link many places with his activities.3 With the help of the Macau authorities whose squadron fought a sea battle off Lantau in January 1810, Cheung was blockaded in the shallow waters of the bay of Hsiang-shan and was induced to capitulate with over 270 junks, 16000 men, 5000 women, 7000 swords and jingals and 1200 guns.4 1 Waley, 1956, p. 176. 2 Neumann, pp. 97-125. 3 Lo, 1963, pp. 106-118. See also the Ch'ao-lien of Hsin-hui gazetteer pp. 281-284 and Centenary History of Hong Kong, pp. 12-14. Cheung's memory lingers strongly in the region, though most attributions are unsubstantiated and many stories are probably apocryphal. 4 Montalto de Jesus, pp. 231-248: he calls him Ĉam Pao Sai or Chang Pao. *In the Tsuen Wan sub-district of the New Territories. See Gazetteer, pp. 147-148. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 129 the Kam Tin and Ping Shan branches of the Tang lineage, mediated by the Tai Po and Yuen Long branches of the same clan.1 The chronic warfare inside Hsin-an and other districts of Kwangtung was perhaps not too well known to the Hong Kong authorities, but was all too plain to the mandarins. The Viceroy of Liang-kuang, commenting on representations from the British about the alleged help given by the provincial military forces to the village bands that were opposing the occupation of the New Territories, wrote: The Governor of Hong Kong suspected that they were regular troops from the fact that they had guns, cannon and uniforms. He was not aware that the villagers of Kwangtung, in their constant fights with each other, are always erecting forts, and use guns and cannon, and wear uniforms. This is a matter of common notoriety.2 The less populated parts of the district do not seem to have experienced trouble on this scale, probably because pressure on the land was less great and there were no large lineages competing for power and struggling to retain or improve their position. However, disputes did occur and are remembered by older villagers. On Lantau, fighting between Shek Pik people and villagers from Sha Lo Wan over a grave has been mentioned to me; relations between Tong Fuk and its neighbour Shui Hau were never very good; and a fight between Pui O villagers from San Tsuen and adjoining Lo Wai took place pre-war over the mining of kaolin in a spot behind the two villages that the Lo Wai people held was disturbing the local feng shui3 It appears that in days when communications were poor and the officials at a distance, such disputes would not always come to the attention of the authorities, even if deaths occurred. This must often have been the case in the 19th century. It was thus not without good reason that the Hsin-an magistrate of 1847, quoted at the beginning of this article, considered that his difficulties were many and real, and that they were not always appreciated as such by his colleagues and superiors. 1 ARDONT, 1921, J2; with some background at J2 of his 1920 Report. 2 Quoted by Groves, p. 63, note 65. Balfour shows 23 Punti villages with outer walls at Plate 16 in JHKBRAS, 10, 1970. Many other villages, including Hakka ones, had lesser defences, as at Pui O (Lo Wai), Lantau, pp. 14-15 above. * Information secured from local elders. Page 130 is missing, directly followed by Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 135 Chu Ch'ih-shih #, Notes on the History of Canton *** 8 chuan, Chia Ch'ing year, 1806-07. [YCKC] Ho lineage of Pui O, South Lantau, Hong Kong **1*4*££*...✯ Family record: apparently 1930s. In manuscript. Hsu Ch'ien-hsieh, A Comprehensive Geography of the Ch'ing Empire #₺ 356 chuan, first edition, 1743. [TCITC] Jao Tsung-i ✯ ✯ 1 (Compiler), The Ch'ao-chou Gazetteer # # & Swatow, circa 1946-48. [CCC] Jen Yu-wen § 2 x (Compiler), Kwangtung Art and Scholarship ✯✯X» Hong Kong, Committee for the Advancement of Chinese Culture, 3 vols, 1941. [KTWW] Jen Yu-wen § 2x (Compiler), Sung Wong Toi—A Commemorative Volume *££*** Hong Kong, Chiu Clansmen's Association, 1960. Juan Yuan and others ¥, Gazetteer of the Kwangtung Province ★★ . 334 chüan, revised edition, 1823, reprinted 1864 and reissued 1933 in 5 vols. by Commercial Press, Shanghai. [KTTC] Li Chin-wei (Editor) ###, Centenary History of Hong Kong ✯ * 4. Hong Kong, Nan Chung (†) Printing House, c. 1947. [Centenary History] Lo Hsiang-lin 4*, Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas #Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture +**, 1965. [LO1965] Mao Hung-pin and Jun Lin, Atlas with Commentary of Kwangtung ★★☆. 92 chuan, Canton, about 1865. [KTTS] Mao Yuan-¡ *, Record of Military Preparations. 240 chüan, Canton, late Ch'ing reprint of Original of 1620. Shu Mou-kuan 4 and Wang Ch'ung-hsi 1, Gazetteer of the Hsin-an District #✯.§. 24 chüan, revised edition, 1819. [HNHC] Tai Chao-chen and others A, Gazetteer of the Canton Prefecture ★★✯✯. 163 chüan, Canton, revised edition, 1880. [KCFC] + ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS AND STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES. KAM T'IN 4 (continued). SUNG HOK-P'ANG [4] All the members of the Tang family living in Kam T'in now are the direct descendants of Hung Yee, so besides Hon Fat, whom they venerate as the first ancestor to settle in Kam T'in and Yuen Leung as the first ancestor for the new generations that dated back to the "five Yuens”, they also venerate Hung Yee as their Hoi Tsuk Tso (*) “the ancestor who started the present clan"; but no new series of generations was made dating from him and on his gravestone Hung Yee is named as the 15th generation ancestor after Hon Fat. As Tang T'ing-Ching (***) a grandson of Hung Yee passed the Kui Yan (A) degree in the 7th year of Shing Fa (✯Ł) A.D. 1471, and was appointed the district officer of T'ang Yuen (B) Kwangsi province, Hung Yee, according to Chinese custom, received the honour of Man Lam Long (p). Both the graves of Hung Yee and his second wife Wong are to be found at Tung Haang Leng (*) about a mile away to the East of Kam T'in. According to Wong's gravestone she is supposed to have gone with Hung Yee to the place of his banishment, but this is different to the story in the Kam T'in family-tree book where it is stated that Hung Yee married Wong in Nanking after he was set free from his banishment. Hung Yee's original house was situated outside the North Gate of Kam T'in Market, but it no longer exists and the place where it stood is now called Naam Wai Tun () “South surround mound". The ancestral hall in Kam T'in Market which is to be found there now, is the one that was built for Hung Yee by his descendants. The three sections printed herein conclude the reissue of this article which first appeared in The Hong Kong Naturalist between December 1935-March 1938. The first three sections appeared between pp. 110-132 of the 1974 Journal, together with a memoir of the author. The photographs illustrating all six sections are printed in this issue. ================================================================================ 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 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 167 more!" Seeing that he would persist in his strange philosophy the village elders left him alone. Another of his practices was to walk round the market in the evening to where his poorest relations would be hawking fish and pork. When he found any of them had something they couldn't sell he would note down in his pocket-book the price of the thing and ask to have it sent to his house. Quite a lot of food would accumulate in this way so Hei Sui would end up by asking the hawkers themselves to come and dine with him. At the end of the meal he would bring out his note-book and money and insist on paying each hawker for the things he had bought from him. His relations would be much embarrassed and did not like to take his money as besides eating their own produce Hei Sui had given them rice and wine. He would say "Nothing could be happier than to have so many cousins to dinner every night! If I give a feast I must needs go to the market and buy things, then why should I not buy them from you? If I have guests, why should you not be my guests?" If his cousins still demurred he would exclaim, "Alas, I was only able to invite you, and not your families as well. Pray take this money home and buy a feast for them which I ought to have provided myself!" This sometimes made the more sensitive hawkers very uncomfortable and they would in future avoid Kam T'in and sell their goods in another village. When Hei Sui was fifty-six he died. Two years later a pedlar from Pok Loh (†) district came to Kam T'in one day with a strange story. He said that in his district city a Shing Wong (城隍) (the guardian god of a city wall) temple had been built about two years before and at the opening ceremony of the temple it was found that the characters Tang Lung Man (鄧龍文) had appeared miraculously painted on the bottom corner of the long gown of the idol. Thinking that some mischievous person had put them there, the people tried to rub them off, but the harder they rubbed the clearer the characters showed. Now Tang Lung Man was the "friendship name" of Hei Sui, and on asking the date of the opening ceremony his descendants learned that it was on the very day he had died in Kam T'in, so they decided that his spirit must have entered the guardian god of Pok Loh district city. After several years when the time came for his re-burial Hei Sui's heart was found to be quite intact. The people standing round were staring in amazement at this when a strange dog suddenly sprang into the grave and seizing ================================================================================ 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 170 SUNG HOK-PANG Shui T'au village in the Shing Fa years of Ming dynasty, and at the same time, Tang Wan Kuk #Tang Shuk Lun and Tang Kwai Yin started the village of Shui Mei, while Tang Chung, Tang Shue and eight others formed the village Ying Lung Waai near Yuen Long Market. When these villages were built on the advice of “fung shui" men a pagoda was also erected to the west of them, called Man Ch'eung Kok. In the 30th year of To Kwong, A.D. 1850, of Ts'ing dynasty the Tang family seemed to have reached the height of their prosperity. Many of them had passed the highest government examination and a census taken in that year shewed that there were more than eighteen hundred males living, belonging to the family. Not content, the elders consulted with ignorant "fung shui" men as to how to increase their numbers even more. They were advised to pull down the pagoda, to alter the course of the river, making three ponds, and to build a school that would hide part of the river from the view of the village. From that time the family decreased considerably, and many of them regretted having taken the advice of the "fung shui" men. In 1930, however, they repaired the banks of the river and built houses called Ch'eung Ch'un Lei near where the pagoda had stood, and since then the Kam T'in people declare that more male children have been born and family is once again on the increase. [5] During and since the Ming dynasty Kam T'in has been able to boast of many scholarly and notable sons. Tang T'ing Ching who passed the Kui-yan degree in the 7th year of Shing Fat of Ming dynasty, A.D. 1471, of Maan On was appointed to the office of Kau Yue district in Kiangsi province, promoted later to District Magistrate of T'ang Yuen Kwangsi. He was a great friend of Hau Kui, a well-known poet of the New Territories. His poems are included in an anthology named "Ling Naam Chue Yuk" and also in the Record book of San On and among them is a poem written as a farewell to Tang T'ing Ching when he left to take up his new official post. The oldest family tree book of the Tang family of Kam T'in in existence now was compiled by Tang T'ing Ching. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 172 SUNG HOK-PANG He then returned to the capital, and stayed in General Ngai's house where he was able to make friends with many famous scholars. He wrote a book named "Yin t’oi san ngai” which had a preface written by Ts'oi Shing Yuen ## Noi Kok Hok Sz a political minister of high rank. Three years later Tang passed his Tsun sz degree, and was appointed district magistrate of Lung Yau Yuen in Chekiang province. Tang Man Wai was of a kind-hearted disposition and some say that through this the wall of T'aai Hong Wai was built. The story goes that when Tang passed his Sau Tsoi degree he was sent to Kwai Shin district, now Wai Yeung, to collect the rent due on cultivated lands, belonging to his family property. While there he came across a young man named Lei Maan Wing * hanging upside down as a punishment. On asking the reason why, Tang learnt that Lei had contracted gambling debts and was unable to pay them. Tang was sorry for the young man, paid all his debts and was able to use his influence in obtaining a military post for him. This happened during the end of the Ming Dynasty. Later on when the Manchus drove out the Mings in the North and the Ming Emperor Wing Lik✯✯ had retreated to Kwangtung, Lei was a colonel under Cheung Ka Yuk ✯ who was fighting against the Manchus. When Cheung was defeated in battle in the 4th year of Shun Chi A.D., 1647 of Ts'ing dynasty, and drowned himself, Lei, who was with him, fled with about a hundred soldiers. Gradually many of Cheung's soldiers were able to rejoin him, and with a strong army he attacked both Tung Kwun ✯✯ and San On ✯* districts. He drove out the Manchus, and made his headquarters in what is now known as the New Territories. One of Lei's camps was situated in the district round K'ei Lun Wai LP'ing Shan A and T'sing Leung Fat Yuen ****. Before the latter, which is a nunnery, was built, the locality had been known as Ying P'oon Tei, "The ground of the camp," and while the building was in progress the workmen dug up many old coffins which were supposed to be those of Lei's soldiers. Among them was found a general's sword, broken in many pieces. Anyone going to Kwun Yam Shaan to visit the Ling Wan monastery would notice half way up Taai Mo Shaan, far above the cultivated land, a stretch of hillside that has been terraced and flattened out in some former time. This is supposed to have been another of Lei's encampments. Lei burned and pillaged, and most of the + ================================================================================ 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-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 175 found in Wing Lung Wai where his portrait in military officer's uniform is to be seen. Tang Ming Luen, the son of Tang Kuen Hin, was another military officer. He was a very powerful man with exceptional strength in his arms. When he was young and before he studied the military arts, he came across, one day, two water buffaloes fighting in a road. The people standing by were unable to pass and yet could do nothing to separate the animals. Tang Ming Luen, seeing this, seized each buffalo by the horn, wrenched them apart, and stopped the fight. It happened that a newly passed Kui Yan named Tang T'in K'ei, who came from Tung Kwun district, was visiting Kam T'in to worship at the ancestral hall, and, according to old Chinese custom, to report the good news of his degree to his ancestors. He witnessed Tang Ming Luen's feat of strength and greatly admiring him, he encouraged him to study for the army, giving him ten taels of pure silver sycee as a reward. Tang Ming Luen passed his Mo Sau Tsoi in the 25th year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1820, and the Mo Kui Yan in the following year. There is another story that Tang Ming Luen dug up some hidden treasure in his orchard, which was near Sui T'au Ts'un. To the North of the garden, there was a large banyan tree and close by it a rock covered with creeping plants. On dark days, it was said that a light used to shine near this rock and at a distance, it appeared like a big white horse. One day, Tang told a labourer to dig a hole for planting a fruit tree in a corner of the garden where a lot of long grass was growing. In doing so, the man dug up a large earthenware jar with a lid on it, which was full of silver sycee. He seized a handful of them and started to carry them home, but at once, his eyes became dim-sighted and he was unable to see his way. Thinking that it must be a punishment for trying to take money that did not belong to him, the man put the coins back in the ground, and his sight recovered at once. When he told Tang of his discovery, Tang had the ground thoroughly dug, and many more jars, each full of silver coins, were found. Tang Kuen Hin was born in the 20th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1755, and he built a school called So Lau Yuen in Shui Tau Tsuen, one of the Kam T'in villages. This building has a curious carving inside, rather like the face of a clock with Roman lettering on it, the origin of it being unknown. Another building called Ch'eung Tsun Yuen was built by one of his descendants. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 176 SUNG HOK-PANG dants, a picture of this is shown on plate. Tang Kuen Hin was very rich and was very proud of his family. He had four sons and twenty-four grandsons and the number of his family and servants together are said to have totalled two hundred. To the northwest of Yuen Long market are some very fine fish ponds situated in particularly pleasing scenery. This land was Tang Kuen Hin's property, it now forms part of the "Ching Sheung" * entailed property, the proceeds of which are applied to ancestral worship. Notes on Some of the Government Examinations of China. The Sau-ts'oi was the first examination and in many respects could be likened to that which is held for the Bachelor of Arts degree. The Candidates for this examination, which was held in the capital and several other towns of each province, were very numerous, as all with any pretence to education, were anxious to graduate in Sau Ts'oi. In consequence it was necessary for each candidate to be guaranteed by a man specially appointed to the office called "Lam Shang," whose duty it was to stand as surety for the identity of each of his examinees. Another examination, Heung Shi, to be attempted was for the Kui Yan degree which was also held in the capital of each Province. Possessed of this degree a man was eligible to hold the office of District Magistrate, etc. Between Sau Ts'oi and Kui Yan were five different titles of Kung Shaang the holders of which could be appointed as District Magistrates, etc. Wui Shi was a higher examination held in the Capital of China. The degree which was known as Tsun Sz, was instituted in A.D. 606, and could be compared with a Doctorate. Candidates who failed in this examination, and yet had written papers of a high standard could have their names put on a list called Ming T'ung Pong ", which made them eligible for holding the posts of Hok Ching, the Director of studies in a “Chau” or department, or in the Imperial Academy, and Kau Yue, the Director of studies attached to a District. After a man passed Tsun Sz degree he attended an examination in the Imperial Palace. This was called Ch'iu Haau, Court examination. If he passed he then obtained the title of Shue Kat Sz 庶吉士, He then went to the Hon Lam Yuen 翰林院 where he stayed for several years drafting documents for the Emperor and ================================================================================ 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 181 It is an ancient custom in China when a man passes a Government degree examination or is appointed as a Government official, for him to have his new official title carved on a wooden tablet and hung in the Hall of his ancestors. By this means the good news is reported to the ancestors that their descendant has become a man of rank, and at the same time an example is set to future generations to encourage them to do their best to rise to the same honour, as the tablet is left hanging in the hall permanently. There are many of these title-tablets hung in Sz Shing Tong, put there not only by Kam T'in men, but by other descendants of the Tang family who have sent their tablets from places far away, where they have gone to live. The oldest among them is the "Man Fui” or Kui Yan degree put there by Tang Ting Ching who passed it in the 7th year of Shing Fa, A.D. 1471. The most highly honoured title-tablets are the two from Tang Yung Keng from Tung Kwun district. He passed his Kui Yan degree in the 3rd year of Tung Chi, A.D. 1864 and became "Hon Lam Yuen Shue Kat Sz" (H.K.N. VIII, p. 110) in the 10th year of T’ung Chi, A.D. 1871. He held the office of On Ch'aat Sz (Provincial Judge) of Kiangsu province, and in 1900 during the Boxer trouble he was appointed by Lei Hung Cheung, the Prime Minister and then Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, to be the Superintendent of volunteers in Kwangtung. Tang Ts'ing Lok's eldest son, Tang Wan Kuk was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in San On District. During his time there were twenty-eight Sau Ts'oi (B.A.'s) and nine very rich men all members of his family and living in the same street where his house was situated in Shui Mei village. His house was called Kam Ts'un Tong "ornamental stream hall"; it has long since been destroyed and a vegetable garden is on the site of where it once existed, but the remains of a large stone gateway can still be seen (plate 20). Tang Wan Kuk owned a large library in this house, and a fine stone fish-tank, made of pink coloured stone, 2 Chinese feet high, 14 wide and 24 long. (Plate 19). Two scholars of the Tang Family have written inscriptions about this tank, speaking very highly of it, but it now lies in a destroyed school building in Shui T’au village, and no-one cares about it. The dates of Tang Wan Kuk's birth and death are not recorded, but we know that his grave, which is in Noh Mai Ham about seven li from Kam T'in was made before the 8th year of Ching ================================================================================ 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 183 road,” now Victoria city, and So Kwun Po (7). From the fact that these references occurred in the Leung Ch'aak (##) or Register Book of Tung Kwun district, one may judge that the land was owned by the Tangs before the 1st year of Maan Lik, A.D. 1525, as after that the San On district was formed. To the East of Shui Mei village there is an ancestral Hall called Mau King T'ong (N). It was built by the descendants of Tang Chan (1) Tang Yui (*) and Tang Kuen (#) the three younger brothers of Tang Yam (3) the father of Tang Tsing Lok. When the descendants of Tang Yam completed the building of Sz Shing Tong, the descendants of the three younger brothers felt it was a disgrace that there were no ancestral halls for their respective ancestors. However they were far from being rich, so they decided to combine together and build one hall under the leadership of Tang Man Wai (4X4), who was a man of rank and a descendant of Tang Chan. On the top of the front door they carved the characters §; › §¡› ✯ ✯✯ “Chan, Yui, Kuen, the three Ancestors Hall," and on a signboard the three big characters ✯✯ Mau King Tong, were written by Ts'oi Hok Yuen (4) a scholar of San On, and hung in the hall in the 22nd year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1817, of Ts'ing dynasty. The reason why the name Mau King Tong was chosen was on account of the old story "Tin Shi King fa fook mau” ( # A#*M*) “the Judas-tree of T'in family again becomes luxuriant." The story is as follows:-- T'in Chan (₪) and his two younger brothers T'in Hing (w A) and T'in Kwong (□), natives of Chiu Shing district (#K) of Shantung, during the Hon dynasty, decided to divide their family property between them. Among other things, they owned a Tsz King (**), judas tree, and the evening before the dividing up was to take place they found to their surprise that the tree was withered. This upset T'in Chan's feelings very much, he sighed and said to his younger brothers, "The different branches of the tree come from one root; now that they have heard that they are to be divided up, they have become melancholy and look sorrowful. Now we brothers are human beings, but although we have separate bodies we all came from the same parents, so why should we divide the family property and live separately? Do we not feel ashamed in seeing the appearance of this tree?" Then the younger brothers were moved by this, and they never mentioned the idea of dividing the family property ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 198 NOTES AND QUERIES Dock Company for $150,000. In turn, the Company sold the property in 1883 to a Chinese consortium composed of three members of the Li Family and Chan Kun, with the proviso that the premises were not to be used as a dock or slip except for Chinese style ships. This was to prevent Chinese competition to their Dockyards at Hung Hom and Aberdeen. In time other industries were developed on the site: a soy factory, and a lard manufactury, and godowns were built along the Praya. The Li family of Tsat Po Heung, San Wui District, had established its interests in Hong Kong as early as 1854, and under the astute leadership of Li Sing it had become probably the wealthiest family in Hong Kong by the turn of century. Shortly before the death of Li Sing in 1900, he divided his extensive real estate holdings among his eight sons. Marine Lot 239 was included in the share of Li Po Lung (***), also known as Li Wai Tong (*). He sold out most of his interests in the property in 1921. ** In 1918 new Crown Leases were granted to Li Po Lung in lieu of the original lease of 1873. The upper part of the original lot was then set off as an Inland Lot numbered 1355. The top left-hand corner of the Lot (as seen when standing on the seafront facing the hillside) had some years previous been given to the Contractor's Guild to build the 'Lo Pan' Temple, and a path led up to it bearing the name of Li Po Lung. The hillside was terraced for building sites. The first row was known as Li Po Lung Terrace, situated between Belcher Street and the present Tai Pak Terrace. Ching Lin Terrace upon which the Temple is located was formerly known as Li Sing Kui Road and To Li Terrace was formerly Tam Woon Tong Road. 44 Li Sing Kiu, Tam Woon Tong, Look Poong Shan, Li Tsz Chung and Chung Sek Fan had purchased the site of the Temple along with other land from Li Po Lung in 1921. They, in turn, in 1923, sold the Temple site as Section E of Inland Lot 1355 for a sum of $4,222.40 to Lam Lau, Lam Sheung, Yu Cheuk, Ng Wah and Ng Tsz Mei, representatives of the Temple, though the conveyance stated they were tenants in common in equal shares rather than Trustees. 44 Due to difficulties over payment of the Crown Rent for Inland Lot 1355, the Government re-entered the lot in 1926 in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 204 NOTES AND QUERIES there is a shrine at the rear inscribed Tao Kuang 27th year (1847-48). Points of interest are the excellent granite work screen and balustrade along the whole front of the temple: the Shek Wan pottery decorations on the roof (Hsuan-Tung 1st year: 1908-09) and the large boulder inside the building which was probably the uncovered site of the original shrine. (There is a similar one inside the Lin Fa Kung temple at Tai Hang, which is of approximately the same age.) 3) The Sui Tsing Pak temple at Tik Lung Lane. This is not housed in a temple building but in several houses in a terrace. The god is said to have been a man named Chan (**陈**) enobled as marquis (**侯**) who lived in the Sung dynasty and performed many good deeds. His title means the 'Pacifying Marquis' (**遂清侯**). The date of its establishment is not known, but several of the memorial boards inside the temple carry inscriptions in the late Kuang Hsü reign (1875-1908). Among them are boards presented by residents of 'The Thirty Houses' (the local Chinese name for Staunton Street, in Central District) and another by the community of Hung Hom village in Kowloon. The upstairs rooms are devoted largely to the care and worship of memorial tablets, many with photographs of the deceased, placed there for a subscription by friends and relatives. This temple is of particular interest for the various art objects and antiquities kept inside the upper rooms, which make it almost a museum. They include paintings and porcelain. The interior decoration of the temple should also be noted especially the screens and fittings for the various altars upstairs which are probably at least 60 years old. 4) Yuk Hai Kung Temple (**玉皇宫**), Stone Nullah Lane. This temple to Pak Tai, the god of the North (**北帝**), is again of early origin. According to an inscription above the entrance, the present structure dates from the first year of the T’ung Chih reign (1862-63). This is a large temple with side rooms which is still in an excellent state of repair. The building on the right of the temple is a public office or kung sor (**公所**) in which the temple management committee met to discuss the affairs of the temple and the neighbourhood. It was, as Carl Smith remarks, under the control of the Wanchai Kaifong from 1882 and before. Page 210 Page 211 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 232 Sam Tung Uk NOTES AND QUERIES The Sam Tung Uk (village), is a small, square-walled lineage village dating back to the 18th century. It was settled by the Chan (陳) family. Before the Ch'ien Lung period of the Ch'ing Dynasty (清朝), the Chan clan lived in Ning Fa District, Ting Chow prefecture in Fukien Province (福建省). One of the branches then moved to Lo Fong, of Po On District* in Kwangtung Province (廣東省). Later Chan Yam Shing (the 13th generation) came to Tsuen Wan (old name Chin Wan meaning shallow bay) with four sons. Guided by his uncle (ancestor of Kwan Mun Hau Village, Tsuen Wan), they took up farming. They worked very hard, put up sea walls, reclaiming much land, and were content. Straw huts were built firstly at Lo Uk Cheung (羅屋丈) (where Block 2 of Tai Wo Hau Estate, Tsuen Wan, is now located) in the 22nd year of Ch'ien Lung, (1757). The elder son, Kin Sheung (堅常) was a herbalist doctor, renowned in fung shui and possessed a wealthy home. The other sons, Ying Sheung (應常), Wai Sheung (維常) and Cheuk Sheung (卓常) were farmers, living moderately. Kin Sheung, after settling down, searched around Tsuen Wan hoping to find a suitable site to establish a village. He found that a piece of land situated on the right side of Ngau Kwu Tun (牛牯墩) (present site of Tsuen Wan Government Secondary Technical School) would be the best, but it belonged to the Sun clan of San Tsuen at that time.† His brothers were told to contact the Sun family, hoping for a possibility to purchase it. One day a member of Sun clan turned up being, at that time, urgently in need of money. He offered to sell the much-desired land but no decision could be made as Kin Sheung was not at home. Mr Sun then said that he would go to Shing Mun to consult with other rich men who were likely purchasers. The brothers debated what should be done but in their elder brother's absence were unable to make any decision. When their elder brother returned home and heard of the Sun Clan's proposal, he was delighted and rushed to Wo Yee Hop (old name Woo Lee Hop meaning Fox's Valley), and the bargain was made. * Strictly speaking, San On (新安) at that time. †新村孫旗 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d NOTES AND QUERIES 311 Fukienese communities but also on the Yangtze, possibly in at least two areas, and is not only the patron of most entertainers (musicians, boxers, wrestlers, actors etc.) but also has the secondary function as a health and fertility god, possibly performed by the middle brother. Mersham, Kent, 10 February, 1975 KEITH G. STEVENS CHANG YU-TANG AND AN OLD HANGING SCROLL FROM CHEUNG CHAU This note relates to an interesting local figure and Kwangtung worthy. It is thought that readers will be interested both in the content and style of writing of such literary pieces. It is not known where the following material (First and Second Accounts) was obtained, nor why there should be two similar pieces in the Hong Kong Wai Chau General Association Bulletin. There are no biographies of Yu-tang in the Kwei Shin district gazetteer (last edition seems to be Ch'ien Lung 48, which is, of course, too early) nor in the Kuang Hsü 7 edition of the Wai Chau prefectural gazetteer, the most likely sources for biographical aid. (Information supplied by Mr. Arthur Lai Shue-tim of the Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong, who kindly checked them at our request). FIRST ACCOUNT [translated from the Chinese of p. 109 of the Hong Kong Wai Chau General Association Bulletin, 1964 by Francis Sham Shui-yu]. Gen. Cheung Yuk-tong* was appointed as the Kowloon Deputy Garrison Commander at Taipang (A). Under his charge, the inhabitants along the coasts enjoyed security and peace. Later when the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula was ceded to Britain as a colony [in 1860] he contributed immensely to establishing the demarcation line which forms the Boundary Street of today. The relics in connection with him which are partially left behind are what is called the "Spare-the Waste-Paper Pavilion” (***) as well as his fist-writing (*) of Chinese calligraphy. One can hardly refrain from sighing with admiration whenever we think upon the historical relics. * Cantonese romanization. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 312 NOTES AND QUERIES The Deputy Commander at Taipang was the highest ranking officer in the locality of Kowloon during the Ch'ing Dynasty. At that time, the headquarters was set up within the Kowloon Walled City. This office, which also served as a garrison, still existed before the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, but had been converted into a Home for the Aged run by a Catholic Mission. In accordance with the [Kwangtung] military system adopted in Ch'ing Dynasty, there were altogether 6 battalions of armed forces under the Kowloon garrison commander. The reason why the Kowloon headquarters was named the Taipang Garrison is that the geographical name of Kowloon was once alternatively called Taipang Shan (⚟) and was politically under the sovereignty of Po On (then San On) District Magistracy.* Besides, there is also a very good harbour by the name of Taipang Bay located at the southeastern part of Po On District and east of Kowloon. In Taipang harbour the water runs to 5-10 fathoms deep where large warships can cast anchor. It was partly due to the importance of local coastal defence and partly due to the necessity of civil administration that such a garrison was established at Taipang Bay. The post of Deputy Commander was normally held in a 3 years' term; and among all the previous commanders, General Cheung was the most important in terms of historical significance. Cheung Yuk-tong, alias Hon-sang,† was born in Wei Yeung District, Kwangtung, and for many generations the Cheung's family lived in the Peach Garden in the capital town of the Wai Yeung District. In the 4th year of Hsien Feng (A.D.) (1853) he was appointed as Deputy Commander at Taipang, being promoted from staff officer at the Chin Shan Checkpoint [near Macao]. For four successive tours of service, in all a total of 13 years Gen. Cheung had been holding this post, and in those days the local inhabitants enjoyed a very peaceful time. It was not until the 5th year of Tung-chih reign (1866) that General Cheung retired from the military service at the age of 72. When the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula was ceded to Britain as a consequence of the signing of the Peking Treaty he was still in office. As the Treaty was signed by the Imperial Court, *This is not so, but the Taipang garrison force served in and controlled Kowloon and district. Except where stated footnotes are supplied by James Hayes. † ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 314 NOTES AND QUERIES the plaque with its inscription there was a pavilion [inside the City] with the title of "Spare the Waste-Paper Pavilion" (*) built through his financial contributions, with the object of advising the people to save the used paper and then try to make the most use of it.* The Pavilion was originally built at the East Gate of the Walled City, but now it is almost demolished with the ruins of only 2 walls left, one at the back, the other on the left. In meditating over the past one can hardly refrain from sighing and grief whenever we come across such valuable things in connection with the General, General Cheung's ability is two-fold—civil as well as military administration. In spite of being a military officer he was well-versed in letters, and talented in the composition of verses and Chinese calligraphy. He was not only skilful at handling brushes but also acquired the technique and skill in applying his fist and fingers to writing. The method he adopted for fist-writing is to wrap his fist with moistened cotton. On the four walls of the Spare Paper Pavilion there used to be his fist and finger calligraphy, but unfortunately all these valuable things have disappeared. The only remaining fist-writing by him is the sole big Chinese character of (literally means longevity) which still exists in the Hau Wong Temple at the wall exposed to the open air. In addition there is another wooden plaque, about 10 feet in width, on the inscription of which are two big Chinese characters" (literally "the mirror of the sea") which appears inside the Ma Kok Temple ( * M) in Macau. Among the General's literary works, there are two books written by him; one being Poems Composed at Leisure (2 volumes); the other being Journal at Leisure (1 volume).† From this, we may say that General Cheung is a scholarly general. ANOTHER ACCOUNT (translated from p. 96 of the same Journal, again by Francis Sham). Cheung Yuk-tong (†), alias Hon-sang (±), was born in Wai Yeung District () until the early Republic known as Kwei Sin district (歸善縣) Actually to prevent written papers, which were held in respect because of the Chinese characters on them, from being trampled under foot or otherwise disregarded. ↑工餘日记,and 工餘開詠,Regrettably not available in Hong Kong libraries. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 316 NOTES AND QUERIES In talking about his literary works, it should be noted that the general wrote two books; one being Poems Composed at Leisure (2 volumes), and the other being Journal at Leisure (one volume only). Moreover, as a calligrapher, the general was noted for his fist-writing (*) as well as finger-writing (#). According to his Diary, the method he adopted for fist-writing was to wrap his fist with damp cotton. There still remained, on a big rock at the Ma Kok Temple (M) in Macau an inscription of two big Chinese characters each ten feet in width, with the literal meaning "the Mirror of the Sea". In addition, there were also inscriptions there of two poems composed and written by him; one in the autumn of the 23rd year of Tao Kuang reign (✯✯) (1843) and the other in the spring of the same year. In another Buddhist Temple in Macao, the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy by name (***) there was also an inscription of one of his poems, în a special style, of a stanza of 4 lines with 7 characters to a line. It is said that his grandson, Ching-san, still kept a scroll written by his grandfather, and that this scroll had been returned to him by an aged gentry in Kowloon Walled City. In the spring of the 29th year of Tao Kuang reign (1849) General Cheung had also written a scroll, a duplicated copy of which is still now hung in the Lok Sin Tong School in Kowloon. As far as the calligraphy is concerned, the General wrote in a style that was a combination of two famous schools—the Au-Yeung Sau (1) school and Lau Chung-yuen (#) school.* Although each character was usually as large as 4 to 5 Chinese inches in size, they appeared both energetic and elegant; and if one does not pay attention to what he mentioned by himself in his note, one would hardly know it was written with the fist. It is really a great pity that the original piece of writing was destroyed by fire during the foreigners' invasion into his home town. The old residence of Cheung's family was in Wai Yeung District, but it was not named "Peach Garden” until his grandson Ching-san, in the middle of the Kuang Hsü reign (4), spent a lot of money to renovate and develop the place. According to Ching-san's self-explanation, it had been more than 900 years since their ancestors immigrated from Ku Kiang District (1) and settled down * 1007-1072 and 773-819 respectively: see Herbert A. Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (London and Shanghai, 1898) pp. 524, 606-607 for these famous literati. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 165 Originally, many Sai Kung villagers owned their land only indirectly. In a system of multiple ownership, the Lius of Sheung Shui and the Tangs of Lung Yeuk Tau, as registered land-owners, collected rent in many places in Sai Kung. Sai Kung villagers who paid rent to them nonetheless held their right to the land in perpetuity, and the registered land-owners merely paid the tax and kept the balance from the rent. When the land was registered by the Hong Kong Government, the Lius and the Tangs lost their tax collection rights, and the Crown Rent that was collected by the Hong Kong Government was usually smaller than the former rent that had been paid. For many villagers, then, this must have meant an increase in income.12 Elderly villagers in Sai Kung still remember the "taxlords". Eighty-seven year old Mr. Wong of Tam Wat had heard of the "great red hats", and Mr. Lam Kaap Shau of Tai Long of the "Koreans" who came here to collect the tax. Mr. Cheung Kau of Ping Tun had heard of the Sheung Shui people collecting rent here, and elderly Mr. Cheung of Tai Po Tsai (near Tai Mong Tsai) of the Lius and the Tangs doing so. Mr. Cheng Yung of Uk Tau called them the "Heung Shui Lo", and knew that they collected rent in his village in his grandfather's days, while Mr. Yau T'aam Shang of Wong Keng Tei actually saw his father among a group of villagers who drove out the rent-collectors from Sheung Shui after the villagers started to pay Crown Rent directly to the Hong Kong Government.13 Yet another influence that affected some villages, although it left no impact on Sai Kung District as a whole (except in the field of education), was the introduction of Christianity. As early as 1861, a Roman Catholic priest had reached Wun Yiu in Tai Po. In 1873, the records of the Roman Catholic Church noted that a priest from Sai Kung visited the San On magistrate. In the 1870's, Sai Kung was noted as one of three centres of the Church in the New Territories, the Sai Kung church being responsible not only for the eastern New Territories but also for Wai Chau and Hoi Fung. By 1934-35, Roman Catholic communities were established in Sai Kung Market, Yim Tin Tsai, Wong Mo Ying, Pak Tam Chung, Long Ke, Leung Shuen Wan, and Kei Ling Ha. There were also converts in the 1930's ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 166 DAVID FAURE in Sheung Yiu, Tsak Yue Wu, Tai Mong Tsai, She Tau, Shek Hang, Tai Long, Wo Mei, Nam Wai, and Ho Chung.1 Finally, the pirates must not be omitted in any discussion of the early history of Sai Kung. It would seem that, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the pirates were most rampant in the outer reaches of the region. Seung Sz Wan and Hang Hau Village kept two guns on the two arms of the bay to be directed against pirates. Madam Lau of Seung Sz Wan remembered that the pirates once came into the village, and took away the villagers' pigs. In Tan Ka Wan, there were bandits in the late 1920's and 1930's, and the young men had to keep watch regularly.1 15 Up to the early 1900's, despite the economic development, Sai Kung was not yet in any strict sense a "district". There is no indication that the villagers of the time thought of the area that is now Sai Kung District as a single territorial unit. Crucial to the creation of the district was the founding of Sai Kung Market. SAI KUNG MARKET AND ITS TRADE The San On Gazetteer of 1819 did not consider either Sai Kung or Hang Hau to be a market. Unlike other markets in the New Territories, periodic market gatherings were not held here at any time. As Mr. Yau T’aam Shang explained it to us, "Sai Kung in those days was not a market; it was a moorage inlet."10 In 1835, Lai Tak Yau, a Tanka fisherman who sometimes served as pilot for Western sailing boats, took by force some four thousand dollars from one that was hit by storm. Out of this, he spent over a hundred dollars to settle his debts with the general store San Ue T'aai on Leung Shuen Wan. He went on a shopping spree, and spent more than a hundred dollars on Peng Chau and Cheung Chau, buying silk goods from the shops in the latter place. He left most of the balance with a certain Wong Yau Kwong, of Kowloon, a Tanka boatman who owned a large fishing boat and moored at Fat Tong Mun. Wong, in turn, went to San Ue T'aai, and purchased four hundred and fifty dollars' worth of provisions, and then, because he thought ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 64 DOUGLAS W. SPARKS dually pushed into the hilly regions further away from the coastal areas and the majority were eventually exterminated or assimilated after a series of rebellions during the seventh and eighth centuries (Chan, 1974:123). In successive dynasties, as southern Fukien became over-populated, there was further extended migration into Teochiu beginning at the end of the T'ang Dynasty and lasting until the 1660's (Chan, 1974:125). There are a few settlements of the original natives of Teochiu that have survived until the present in several of the Teochiu districts (Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce, 1971:66; personal communication with Jao Tsung-i of The Chinese University of Hong Kong). Hoi Luk Fung was presumably populated during these successive waves of southward migration by groups who moved a short distance beyond the present day boundaries of Teochiu. According to Jao Tsung-i, who has edited and compiled Teochiu local histories or gazetteers, a separate administrative unit was first established in Teochiu in the Ch'in Dynasty (221-209 B.C.) and was a part of the Nan Hai prefecture (☞☞) (Jao, 1965). There then followed a confusing series of boundary and name changes which will not be mentioned here. The name Teochiu first appeared in 591 A.D.; this name was chosen because it refers to a coastal area where the tides move constantly and the first character of the name () has the literal meaning of “tide” (Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce, 1971:59). Although there were later name changes this particular name survived into the present. There were also frequent internal boundary changes. To simplify, in 1936 Teochiu was divided into 9 districts, one city and one supervised area (Chan, 1972:93). After 1949 other surrounding districts, including Hoi Luk Fung, were added to the traditional districts to make a larger administrative area, In the late 15th century the town of Hui Lai, three surrounding districts of Teochiu (which was then known as Chiu Yeung, * () and a small subdivision of Hoi Fung were joined together to form the administrative district of Hui Lai (Chiu Kiu, 1975:33; Hui Lai Gazetteer, 1930:80). At that time the village of Kap Jih was part of Hoi Fung and everything 5 li inland from Kap Jih became a part of Hui Lai and the villages and towns along the banks of the river running into Kap Jih became part of Hui Lai (Hui Lai Gazetteer, 1930:59). This new district contained 160 square miles. The district was established as a result of a petition from a local official stating ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q ETHNICITY IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN HONG KONG 65 that the area was far from administrative centers, was very hilly and a refuge for bandits. The local people were described as rough, uneducated and rebellious. It was suggested that another administrative unit be established in the area to suppress bandits and establish schools in order to civilize the inhabitants (Hui Lai Gazetteer, 1930:81). Prior to the establishment of this separate district (the local administrative unit at that time being #), the area that was to become Hui Lai was part of the administrative unit of Hoi Fung. The latter first appeared as an administrative unit in 627 A.D.; prior to that Hoi Fung had been a part of Nan Hai (✯✯) and later administrative units in southern China (Hoi Fung Gazetteer, pp. 11-12). In 1142 Hoi Fung was combined with surrounding units to form Wai Chow prefecture () (Hoi Fung Gazetteer, pp. 11-12). According to the Hoi Fung Gazetteers, during the Ming Dynasty, in 1524, some of the Wai Chow sub-units were combined to form the district of Hui Lai, leaving Hoi Fung with only 7 districts (Hoi Fung Gazetteer, p. 11). Evidently Hui Lai then became administratively subordinate to Chiu Yeung, as Teochiu was then known. During the Ch’ing Dynasty, in 1731 Hoi Fung was divided into two units, Luk Fung and Hoi Fung, which remained a part of the larger unit of Wai Chow (Hoi Fung Gazetteer, p. 11). Prior to the establishment of Luk Fung, Kap Jih had always been a part of Hoi Fung and in 1731 when Luk Fung was separated from the rest of Hoi Fung, Kap Jih became a part of Luk Fung (Wai Chow Gazetteer, section on the geography of Luk Fung). Kap Jih was originally a small horse changing station for government messengers. It was always a part of Wai Chow Fu (AF), and except for one brief period, was never a part of Teochiu. From 1914 to 1921 Wai Chow, including Kap Jih and Hoi Luk Fung, were combined with Teochiu into a larger administrative unit containing 25 districts (personal communication from Jao Tsung-i, October, 1976). After 1921 this larger unit was disbanded, and Kap Jih and adjacent Hui Lai villages became parts of different administrative units, as had traditionally been the case after the early 1500's. This brief administrative history, although confusing to follow, is important in indicating the following points: (1) The district of Hui Lai was a part of Hoi Fung until about 1500, a fact which is virtually unknown to Teochiu in the housing estate who think that Hui Lai has always been a part of Teochiu. Aside from indicating ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 74 DOUGLAS W. SPARKS was always within the Hui Lai boundary until 1949 when the district government in Hoi Fung successfully petitioned the government to transfer authority of the village to Hoi Luk Fung. According to the historical materials discussed above, Kap Jih was never administratively subordinate to Hui Lai and was always administered by Luk Fung. I have found no other historical source to verify the transfer of a border village from Hui Lai, and I suspect that the claim was made to establish a link with Hui Lai and hence with the Teochiu population of the housing estate. This particular man identified himself to me as Teochiu. Considerable confusion exists among Teochiu as to the ethnic identity of local Kap Jih. Initially they were described to me as Hoi Luk Fung, presumably in order to simplify the local situation. Two men with some knowledge of the history and geography of Teochiu later explained to me that all of Kap Jih originally belonged to Hui Lai, and hence some Teochiu consider them to be Teochiu. Teochiu in the housing estate are mostly uneducated and are only vaguely familiar with Teochiu history. The belief that Kap Jih was once a part of Hui Lai permits some to more easily accept the former as Teochiu today. I was further told that people from other Teochiu districts not so close to Hoi Luk Fung considered Kap Jih to be Hoi Luk Fung. Many of the Teochiu in the associations classify Kap Jih as Teochiu, but there are also those who classify them as Hoi Luk Fung. The difference is primarily a function of participation in networks which include a number of Kap Jih. That is, those individuals who have friends who are Kap Jih and who interact with those friends in the context of interaction with fellow Teochiu, generally classify Kap Jih as Teochiu. Those people who classify Kap Jih as Hoi Luk Fung are less likely to have Kap Jih friends and are less active in the networks mentioned above. Kap Jih themselves have the option of labelling themselves as Teochiu or as Hoi Luk Fung. Most have chosen the Teochiu label and would strenuously deny that they are Hoi Luk Fung. A few individuals have chosen to retain both identities in different spheres of interaction. They are able to do so because Hoi Luk Fung claim Kap Jih as their own. Thus the only interethnic passing among Teochiu occurs when a Kap Jih person develops contacts within both ethnic communities. I have never heard of a person from Hui Lai attempting to become involved in Hoi Luk Fung networks and proclaiming a Hoi Luk Fung identity. There are ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 229 her grave was on the head her descendants would be very great men: but if on the tail they would be more humble people, perhaps officers of low degree, and, although prosperous, none would succeed to high rank.' The princess chose the tail because she preferred her descendants to stay humble, she herself having suffered so much. See Sung Hok-p’ang, ‘Legends and Stories of the New Territories”, IV. Kam T'in (continued)', The Hong Kong Naturalist, vol. VII, no. 1, April 1936, pp. 34f.) 62. The term fung shui is often used to mean simply a grave, and there is no need to stress the point that burial lies at the heart of geomancy. But in fact fung shui covers all aspects of men's dwellings on earth. Every territorially defined unit of society has its fung shui, from the household up to the state. The residence of the head of the state affects the prosperity of the country. (For this reason great emphasis is often placed on the geomantic excellence of Government House). The fortunes of cities, towns, and villages depend on their physical arrangement and dominating buildings. Political units take their fate from government offices. (The fung shui of the new Fanling District Court has impressed many locals). The fung shui of an ancestral hall determines the fortunes of members of the clan. (For this reason it is hardly ever to be found inside a wai, a walled enclosure; it must have free access to its site). A house shapes the destiny of its master and those for whom he is responsible. Consequently, geomancers are often employed to advise on the siting, orientation, certain architectural features (especially height), and work—and opening-dates of domestic and other buildings. Indeed, there appears to be some specialisation among fung shui sin shaang in the New Territories, some of them putting themselves out to be experts on graves and others on buildings. 63. Burial and the fung shui associated with it differ markedly in city and countryside. Only the rich among the people in the urban area can afford to escape the regimentation of their dead in cemeteries and seek geomantically favourable sites in private plots. (Some in fact acquire the right to bury their dead in land forming the traditional preserves of village communities. They may have to pay dearly for the privilege. Along one of the main roads in the New Territories there stands a pavilion, now many years old, which was put up as part of the compensation to the local people for the geomantic disturbance caused them by the burial in their area of a ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 170 DAVID FAURE now be described. In general, villagers from Ho Chung all the way east to Ko Tong, and those from the islands in Rocky Harbour, went to Sai Kung Market. Tung Sam Kei, and Hoi Ha villagers went to Tai Po and Tap Mun, but a boat from Pak Tam Chung came regularly to collect firewood, which was sent to Sai Kung. Pak Sha O villagers went to both Tai Po and Sai Kung. Shap Sz Heung, and Sham Chung, were in the Tai Po marketing area rather than in that of Sai Kung. To the south, villagers from Tseng Lan Shue and Pik Uk obtained their supplies from Kowloon. Villagers from the Tseung Kwan O to Seung Sz Wan area went to Hang Hau. Tin Ha Wan had several shops, but its residents, as well as those from Po Toi O and Tai Wan Tau usually went to Shaukiwan. In general, if the transport linkage between Hang Hau and Sai Kung is taken into account, the Sai Kung marketing area went from Seung Sz Wan to Ko Tong, beyond the present administrative boundary of Sai Kung District,29 So far as can be discovered, except for several from Tam Shui (Wai Chau), the shop-keepers of Hang Hau came from its own marketing area, i.e. from Mang Kung Uk, Pan Long Wan, Tseung Kwan O, and Ha Yeung. There were several general stores, selling food, including grain, meat, oil, salt fish, and salt. There was a goldsmith, a stationer, a tailor, and there were several ferries.3 By 1916, when the Sai Kung T'in Hau Temple was renovated, Sai Kung had for some time been the bigger town. There were at least eight general stores, two butchers, a teahouse, a tailor, a Taoist priest, a herbalist, a draper's, and two shipyards. Many of the owners came from outside the Sai Kung marketing area, from Shuen Wan and Sham Chung, both in the Tai Po marketing area; Sham Chun, Po Kut, and Sha Tseng, all three in Po On county; Wai Chau; and San Wooi.31 Brief information on some of these shops can be found in Table 1. The biggest shop in Sai Kung Market was Saam Shing general store, followed closely by T'aai Shing. Saam Shing was the older, but T'aai Shing caught up quickly. Mr. Lei Yiu T'ing, who worked in T'aai Shing just before World War II, remembered that letters for Sai Kung villagers were brought to the shop with goods from Hong Kong. Mr. Lei Shiu Yam remembered that T'aai Shing used to help villagers collect their overseas remittances. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN 81 buyers and sellers of commodities and to effect a transaction between them.” By the late 1920's, "its importance to the Hopei provincial finance was only second to that of the land tax." It is difficult to weigh the relative importances of the various taxes in Hsin-An, but we do have figures on the revenue collected on trade between local markets in November 1911, which indicate a relatively low volume of local trade (see Imperial Maritime Customs, 1902-1911, Volume II, p.156). Also, refer to Appendix II, which Lockhart credits as a reliable source. The Tangs of Kam Tin and Lung Kwat Tau (A) were apparently farmed the monopolies of collecting market taxes in Un Long Kau Hui (±##4) and Tai Po Kau Hui (£# #). The Tongs who oversaw the markets in turn "sub-leased" the brokerages to traders, merchants, and shop-owners. 4 The CSO files held in the Government Archives of Hong Kong constitute one of the richest stores of first-hand knowledge about local political economy and society in Hsin-An during the period 1890-1910. I am very grateful to Mr. Ian Diamond, Government Archivist, and his staff for their assistance in helping with my research. 5 C. M. Chang, op. cit., pp. 826-828. 6 Lien-sheng Yang, "Buddhist Monasteries and Four Money-Raising Institutions in Chinese History," in his Studies in Chinese Institutional History, pp. 198-199n. 7 Yeh-chien Wang draws heavily on the Ts'ai-cheng Shuo-ming-shu for his research on the land tax in China (Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750-1911). On the basis of the material presented in this paper, Hsin-An conforms to his general thesis of the declining relative importance of the land tax throughout late Ch'ing. 8 Correspondence Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony (hereafter Extension Papers), p. 60. 9 For a fuller discussion of li-chia, see Kung-chuan Hsiao's Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 84-143. 10 The annual rotation of these positions (44) constituted the primary mechanism whereby the local magistrate attempted to maintain some measure of centralized power by restricting the excesses of local magnates. 11 Hsiang-kang Teng-ch'u-shui-mau Ts'ung-ch'eng (44¥Æ#*# Z), p. 2: "All together the cultivated land measured 8 ch'ing 3 mau 6 fen 1 li 9 hau 2 ssu 5 hu (i.e., 803.61925 mau) and was registered under the name of Tang Tin-luk, 6th tu, 7th p'i, 2nd chia. In addition, Tang Chi-cheung and others had purchased from Ho Ch'iu-ping and others plots of land at Wong Nei Chung... having a total area of 1 ch'ing 89 mau registered in Tung-Kuan under the name of Tang Chi-fu of the 2nd tụ, 18th p'i, last chia." The formula is often repeated in the land memorials held at the Land Office of the Registrar General in Hong Kong. 12 Kwangchow Fu-chih (1759), ch'uan 4: 43a-b, 46b. 13 Hsin-An Hsien-chih (1819), ch'uan 2. 14 Kwangtung T'u-shuo, Hsin-An Hsien-t'u. 15 Krone, "A Notice of the Sunon District", originally published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6:5, 41-105. This quote, as all the others, is from the reprinted copy in the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society V: p. 119. 16 Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1797), 10:10b-11. 17 Lockhart, in the Correspondence Respecting the Affairs in China, writes: "Small villages and hamlets often place themselves under the protection of large and influential clans to which they refer all complaints and from which they expect assistance in case of attack, robbery, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 82 J. T. KAMM lawsuits. In some instances the smaller villages pay their land tax through the influential clans." (p. 20). 18. Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1921), 3:4a. 19 For details on Hakka migration into the area, see Lo Hsiang-lin's K'o chia shih liao hui p'ien (***** Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas). See also Essay I. 20 Krone, op. cit., p. 125. 21 Sung Hok-p'ang, "Legends and Tales of the New Territories” in The Hong Kong Naturalist, VII: 3 and 4. For the tale of the "Hungry Bug" see pp. 249-250 in number 3. 22 CSO6269 in 1909, 23 Extension Papers, p. 227. 24 See statements by Tang Kok-lam in the Extension Papers (pp. 216 and 293-294): "... the reason for the resistance is that there were rumours that there would be an increase in taxation, numbering of houses, and taxes on fruits and houses." See similar reasons put forth in the petition from the Tung Wo Kuk of Sha Tau Kok Tung, p. 319. 25 CSO130 in 1902. 26 Pat Heung and Shap Pat Heung are districts whose natural boundaries are made up of two major valleys of Un Long to the southeast and northwest of Kam Tin, respectively. These hsiang consist largely of small, multi-lineage settlements with substantial Hakka populations. In some of the documents in the Extension Papers, tung is appended to these districts, a usage still heard among the older elders in the area. The hypothesis which I develop later in this paper refers specifically to the large-order tung; however, it applies equally to the smaller-order tung insofar as they constitute districts treated as a whole for the purposes of revenue collection. 28 CSO6269 in 1909. 29 The only mention of this decision which I have seen is Tratman's account of the opening of a new market at Un Long in CSO3172 of 1915. "Of the existence of this feud there can be no doubt. It began in the endeavors of Pat Heung to free their land from the ground-rent claimed by Kam Tin as first settlers and so overlords of the whole district. The actual bone of contention fell to the Pat Heung when the Land Court disallowed all the "taxlord claims" in that district; but the bad blood still remains. Its fast manifestation was in the form of an organized assault by the people of Un Long on certain Kam Tin cultivators in 1911.” 30 Hugh Baker, "The Five Great Clans of the New Territories," Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 6. pp. 25-48. 31 “If a person is arrested by a village constable, he is taken before the gentry and elders of the village, who assemble in a place specially appointed for the purpose. The gentry and the elders, who are the representatives of the clans inhabiting the villages, are selected by the inhabitants to deal with cases in the village council, The usual cases are those of theft, disputes about land, domestic squabbles, and cases of debt. Most of these cases are summarily dealt with by the village council, and as a rule, the decision of that council is accepted as final. But if either of the parties to a case is dissatisfied, he can appeal to a council of the Tung, or to a general council, made up of representatives of the different Tung. A reference to Map VI will show how the newly leased territory is divided ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n # “LITTLE FUJIAN (FUKIEN)” 127 Kong's North Point feel more familiar and therefore more comfortable. Overhearing a conversation between friends in the accents of the homeland while listening to a soft Fujianese melody wafting gently from a shop, one could close one's eyes and imagine being back in Fujian. With eyes open again, though, Little Fujian would have to suffice. NOTES 1 E.g. Fujianese (Fukienese) and Shanghaiese in North Point; Shanghaiese in Tsim Tsa Tsui; Chau Zhou (Chiu Chau, Teochiu) in Chai Wan, Western District and Kwun Tong; Boat People in Aberdeen and Tai Po. See Guldin (1977) for a discussion of Han Chinese ethnicity and identity levels. 2 See below, fig. 3. 3 In the parlance of the times, and to a lesser extent even today, "Shanghaiese" often referred broadly to all Central (and sometimes even Northern) Chinese. 4 Accurate figures are lacking; no detailed colony-wide or North Point censuses were conducted between 1930 and 1960. 5 Based on analyses of Census Block Tally Sheets from 1971 Census made available to me through the kindness of the Commissioner. 6 By "Fujianese" I refer specifically to "Southern Fujianese," the Min-Nan speaking Fujianese of Xiamen (Amoy), Quan Zhou (Chuan Chow), Zhang Zhou (Chang Chow) and the surrounding counties. Other Fujianese are present in Hong Kong but Southern Fujianese are the overwhelming majority. 7 Based on 1971 Census: table 4; Wai 1957:5; Lam 1967:35; 1975 Census Update. 8 Based on 1971 Census, immigration statistics, and 1975 Census Update. 9 A problem with these categories is the Hakka, a distinct ethnic group, whose places of origin often overlap with those of ethnic Guangdongese. One source though (Kuo 1964:65) has estimated the Hakka population of Hong Kong as 12% of the total. For urban North Point the percentage of the predominantly rural Hakka would be substantially lower than for Hong Kong as a whole. 10 Although membership in these "Fujian" associations is theoretically open to all Hong Kong Fujianese and some non-Southern Fujianese do indeed belong, the Northern Fujianese of the Fuzhou (Foochow) area have set up their own associations. 11 Fujianese organizations not aligned with the PRC do exist in Hong Kong but are mostly "paper" associations. 12 Few Fujianese in Hong Kong are Christians (perhaps 4 or 5%), but those that are mostly arrived in Hong Kong earlier than the bulk of late 1950s and later immigrants and have been largely isolated (both physically and socially) from most aspects of life in Little Fujian. 13 Aidan Southall (1973) makes a related point in using the concept of interaction intensity as key to a definition of "urban." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH 155 crews, who had no permit for that beach, were driven off without their sand. One of my duties was to discover and report beaches that could be dug without injury to cultivated land. Some of these have since then been completely worked out, notably on Sha Chau, as I found in 1938 during archaeological researches. Eventually the P.W.D.* started a scheme for dredging and working sand from the sea bottom off Tai Lam Chung about 1929, which enabled the builders to get what they wanted. The beaches at Tai Long in Lantau and Tai Wan in Lamma were specially reserved for the waterworks filter beds because of the cleanness and high quality of the sand there. One of the interesting communities on Lantau was the group of Buddhist temples and chai tong or fasting halls on the well-known high plateau between Tung Chung and Tai O figuring as 'Ngong Ping' on the maps. It lay at about 800 ft. above sea level and its members maintained a good pathway from Tai O across a stream and up the hill to their settlement and ran their buildings, somewhat in the manner of vegetarian youth hostels. They occasionally harboured strange characters, as might be expected in unsettled and revolutionary times. One such, I believe, was a big-scale opium smuggler and den-keeper who had operated in London, and was nicknamed ‘Brilliant Cheung'; I think he got banished from the Colony. The track from Tai O to Tung Chung was a favourite walk for many people: I unfortunately never did it. As I notice that Hong Kong seems to have become more and more a tourist attraction of late years, I may perhaps conclude these reminiscences with a few notes on the sites of historical or archaeological interest which can be found in the Southern District, and which may be thought worth preserving. Our chief site, Sung Wong Toi, was I know wrecked by the Japanese as an anti-Kuomintang measure, though the inscription has been preserved. Kowloon City was full of interesting things when I visited it, such as old yamens, drill grounds for Chinese troops, ancient cannon with inscriptions, and above all the old walls and gates; I once sat in the gate to conduct an enquiry, after the manner of King David, with the people assembled round. Close by was a walled and moated village, shown on maps but hard to find, named Nga Tsin Wai, which I hope will not be ‘improved' out of existence by planners! On the low hill west of Kowloon City a loopholed wall and gateway with a ruined guard-house barred the path crossing a gap * Public Works Department. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES The total cost is therefore: Resumptions for sites $ 3,839.31 Site-preparation 31,500.00 Wells 2,400.00 170,148.00 Houses 8,346.00 Agricultural Resumptions 54,122.47 Forestry resumptions 15,250.00 Pineapple resumptions 8,428.00 Fung Shui or fruit trees 2,165.00 Incidental expenses 700.00 $296,898.78 197 J. A. FRASER, District Officer, North 9th January, 1928. D. AU-YEUNG OF LAN NAI TONG'S ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR Round about a century ago, there were a number of small villages in Tsuen Wan. They were the CHENGs and CHEUNGS of Shing Mun Village, the AU-YEUNGs of Lan Nai Tong, the LAWs of Shek Lei Pui Village, the HUIs, TSANGs, WONGS, LAUS of Lo Wai, the YAUs of Kwan Mun Hau and others. The villagers, totalling over one thousand people, made their livelihood out of farming. Although life was hard, they were sufficiently fed and clad. As the villages were connected by intermarriages, feasts and gatherings in which every member participated were held during festive occasions. One day, two brothers of the AU-YEUNG clan returned from abroad,* bringing with them a lot of luggage and gifts. On their way to the village, they met some Shing Mun villagers who happened to be carrying brushwood to Shamshuipo (Kowloon) for sale. *'abroad' could mean anything, including Hong Kong! See District Commissioner New Territories Annual Departmental Report 1956-57, para. 3. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 202 NOTES AND QUERIES in the shuffle. As a consequence, phenomena of this order are hardly understood. In my opinion, as large corporate groups continue to disintegrate in the New Territories, a complex structure of social life will emerge to fill the vacuum. This structure will be composed of 'popular' elements, previously considered 'incongruities' by most theoreticians, which are no less traditional than the Confucian ideal, yet more resilient. It is precisely within the corpus of oral tradition that the historical basis of this structure comes to light. Aside from these reasons, the project would provide useful materials for the study of Hong Kong history in the lower and middle schools, while being of general scholastic worth to advanced research. The initial project would hopefully be attached to the District Office, its scope of research encompassing the villages and townships of a single Administrative District. I estimate that a staff of three or four researchers working for a minimum of two years would complete an adequate history of Yuen Long. At this time, I would like to thank the New Territories Administration, and most especially your office, for the assistance and encouragement offered the pilot project over the last few months. I look forward to a further exchange of opinions on the points touched on above. Yours, [Signed] JOHN THOMAS Kamm FIELD NOTES ON THE SOCIAL HISTORY AND FUNG-SHUI OF KAM TIN* 1. Kam Tin is properly the name of a community; it is a generic term applied to a number of settlements (walled and unwalled villages - respectively wai (圍) and tsuen (村)) clustered together to form a heung (鄉). Until recent times (mid-1930's), with the notable exceptions of servile families (sai-man (世民) and ha-fu (下夫)) and tenants, this heung was inhabited exclusively by members of the large and powerful Tang (鄧) clan. Indeed, Kam Tin, * As such, these notes should be read in conjunction with the various papers to which reference is made in the text. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 206 NOTES AND QUERIES a temple outside Tung Kwun city whose upkeep and ritual observances were financed by large joint landed estates. 14. Yeung-leung's son, Tsz-ming (8) was married off, albeit unwittingly, to a princess of the Sung Dynasty. I have little to add here that Sung and O'Dwyer do not mention, but I believe it is important to stress that this tale (popularly known as the Wong Ku (*) story) served the important function, at least prior to the 1930's, of defining Tangs relative to outsiders (the powers-that-be) and locals (especially surrounding great and small lineages). 14. a. The San On gazetteer (a rare copy of which exists in the Fung Ping Shan Library of Hong Kong University), compiled in 1819, gives the tale in complete detail. 14. b. The Rev. Krone's "A Notice of the Sanon District," published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, contains the following passage: "The inhabitants of a pretty little village on Deep Bay called “Kam-Tin”... also trace their origin up to the Sung dynasty. A high mandarin, they say, of the name of Tung, came to San On from the interior of China, and was so much pleased with the county around Deep Bay, that he settled down and made himself very popular, by giving gratuitous instruction. The grandson of this man having done some meritorious service to the State, the emperor Ko-tsung of the Sung dynasty, gave him his daughter in marriage.' 14. c. It will also be noted that the plaque commemorating the return of the iron gates to Kat Hing Wai makes especial reference to the tale. Several elders of neighboring villages, when asked why the Tangs were so powerful as to be able to concentrate five wais (walled villages) in the district, cited this imperial kinship link. 15. The second major migratory movement of the Tangs occurred during the generation of Wong Ku's sons. Lam (*) settled at Lung Kwat Tau (##), Kei (*) settled in Tung Kwun at Shek Tseng &✯✯, Wai (*) established the Tang branch-settlement at Tai Po Tau (†). Chi (#) remained in Sham Tin. [Chi's grandson Chu-on (₫) established the Ha Tsuen lineage-village.] * Reprinted in JHKBRAS 7(1967). See p.134. † See P. Wesley-Smith's article in JHKBRAS 13, 1973: 41-44. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 209 20. b. Structure B. An organic/alliance model which stresses relationships of an egalitarian, contractual nature. Power is not usurped, but "won" through cooperation/conflict of equals. This structure, represented prior to 1898 by the Tung (董) system [especially the Tai Ping Kuk (太平局) of Sham Chun] has become the dominant polar type of the modern New Territories (examples: The Yuen Long Hop Yick Co. and The Tai Po Yeuk alliances, which dominate local markets to the exclusion of the Tangs; these alliances only become possible with the cooperation of Hakka and Punti, great clan and small clan alike.). 20. c. Both these structures (ideal types) existed as systems of unofficial control in Southern San On prior to British occupation. 21. The period dating from the beginning of Suen Tak (宣德) to the end of Sing Fa (成化) reigns of the Ming Dynasty, roughly from 1426-1487 A.D., was a period of great prosperity and expansion for the Kam Tin Tangs. 21. a. During this period, the Tangs moved out of their "neighborhood" of Sham Tin and took over complete dominance of the settlement. We can think of the settlement at this time as being a multi-lineage settlement, with at least three surnames present, Tangs, Lais (黎) and Shams (沈). The Tangs apparently drove out the Lais (turning them into "sai chuk") and enslaved the Shams (as "sai-man"). How they accomplished this is related in the Lai vs. Tang tale transcribed and appended below.* 21. b. The members of the 2nd fong (descendants of Hung-yi's 2nd son) constructed Ying Lung Wai (應龍圍), and from this wai they controlled the access to the Pat Heung (八鄉) valley and eventually established Yuen Long Old Market. 21. c. The building of Ling Wan Tsz (靈雲寺) at the head of Pat Heung valley can be viewed as part of the general process of expansion by which the Tangs gained control of the entire valley [that area now included in Demarcation Districts nos. 103, 106, 107, 109, 113]. A Tong (堂) was established to finance the upkeep of the temple, to which the Kam Tin Tangs contributed up to the early years of the Republic. The nuns continue to perform important * Not available. † Demarcation Districts are survey districts, the sheets and registers pertaining thereto being kept in the District Land Offices of the New Territories Administration. Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 213 dation of the Land Court, the Governor decided that 14 elders of the Northern District should be compensated for certain "tax-lord" rights claimed by them to have existed before the convention, but not compatible with the principles of British administration, by the grant of 252.33 acres of Crown land in the Northern District, to be selected by each "tax-lord" in proportion to the value of the right claimed by him." Also, see Enclosure 7, no. 172 mentioned above, to the effect that Kam Tin collected taxes in the Pat Heung Valley on land it didn't own. Much more is to be learned on this tax-lord system; I expect to glean more information from the records of the debate before the Land Court, 1904, which may be contained in the CSO reports.* 28. The Tangs of Kam Tin existed as a power often beyond the reach of the local magistracy. There is evidence of widespread non-payment of land-taxes and squeeze. On the former point, see the San On Letters appended below. Squeeze was collected primarily from the Tai Ping Kuk and similar organizations of Structure B type. The Tangs of Kam Tin were apparently not members of this Sham Chun group [see Petition to Lockhart in Extension Papers.] Also, note Sung's tale regarding the use of the Wong Ku relationship in the successful refusal to paying squeeze, the major source of revenue in San On county. 29. In summary, then, the Tangs were land-lords and tax-lords who existed and operated as a power unto themselves, dominating the local scene and ignoring the tendons of local government whenever possible. 30. Two statements regarding the status of sai-man (*R,): “We give them cows, we give them houses, we even give them women”. Also, "When the bridal procession passed through Kam Tin on its way to Pat Heung or Sap Pat Heung, the bride and groom were forced to descend and kow-tow." There is general agreement among Tangs and non-Tangs in the Kam Tin area that sai-man and sai-chuk (clans "with same name") were constantly reminded of their "place". 31. We uncovered a great deal of smouldering resentment and bitterness in Kam Tin, directed against the Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan branches of the clan. One tale concerns a "war" with Ping Shan over tax-collection rights in the vicinity of Shun Fung Wai. * Kept in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 189 although military power was much needed at the time. In fact, it was quite ineffective against the bandits. Several months into the occupation, the office was burnt by the bandit Wong Chuk Ts'eng.70 Mr. The burning of the Wai Ch'i Wooi was well-known. Chan Tsz K'eung, of Sai Kung Market, thought that a Japanese spy had been sent to investigate the guerrillas in Sai Kung and that this was a reprisal. Mr. Lei Yun Shau thought that it was due to a dispute between Wong Chuk Ts'eng and the Wai Ch'i Wooi. Mr. Loh Kai Faat of Kau Sai thought that Wong Chuk Ts'eng, having made a fortune from banditry, was wavering between looting and working for the guerrillas; the Wai Ch'i Wooi, however, was on the verge of deciding to capture him. Mr. Sham Kin K'eung, who spent most of his war years in Tai P'ang, said that Wong had fought on the side of the Nationalist forces in Tam Shui at Pak Mong Fa. He was a bandit and a smuggler who operated from Sham Chun to Wai Chau, and he had many small groups working under him. Mr. Sham thought it unlikely that Wong would have come to Sai Kung himself, and believed it must have been one of these groups working for him that was responsible for burning the Wai Ch'i Wooi. It is not at all clear what the disputes between the Wai Ch'i Wooi and the bandits amounted to. Several months after the burning of the Wai Ch'i Wooi, Mr. Lei Shiu Yam resigned as chairman, and the post was given to Mr. Hui Mei Naam of Lai Chi Chong. This change might not have had anything to do with the burning of the Wooi. Several months into the occupation, the Japanese Government could afford to strengthen its presence in the districts. On July 20, a new system of district administration was promulgated, dividing the whole of Hong Kong and the New Territories into twenty-eight districts, Sai Kung being one of them. Each one of these districts was represented by a K'ui Ching Shoh (District Administration Office), and this name came to be used in place of Wai Ch'i Wooi. The extent of the district was the entire peninsula east of Ma On Shan, including not only the villages from Tseng Lan Shue to Man Yee Wan, but also those north of Pak Tam Chung, those in Shap Sz Heung, and those near Hang Hau. The K'ui Ching Shoh office was set up at the Sung Chen School, and at about this time, a small contingent ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 44 KEITH STEVENS 1871) offered sacrifices at the City God temple and reported, in writing, that he and the whole family with gratitude had made an image of the Duke Wei which he presented to undergo the rite of consecration, so that it would protect all members of his family and all his domestic animals and poultry. The image is of a seated soldier, dressed in armour and military cap, his right hand is clenched and rests on his right knee. His left hand, the first and fifth fingers only, pointing vertically, is held at waist height in a magical sign. Wei had a gilded face, traces of which can still be seen, five tufts of black beard, the stubble only remaining and gilt armour covered by a red and blue robe again only traces of which are still visible. This image was blackest and greasiest of all and is quite surprisingly handsome now that the film of filth has been removed. Wei could possibly be Yu-ch'ih Ching-te (*), the Door Guardian who according to Mathews' dictionary is well-known as one of the two door guardians on temples and is “depicted with a black face and the fingers of one hand twisted up". The image, dressed in loose robes over armour and chain mail, has a gilded face but otherwise, has his fingers twisted up. In reality Yu-ch’ih was a general who served the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung in his wars against rebels and died in 659 A.D. The fourth image (Plate 5), also from Shan Men district, Wu Kang county in Hunan and dedicated in 1938 is of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. The image, easily identifiable as such by her five-leafed bodhisattva crown, beads and vase, is seated cross-legged on a lotus, and dressed in gilded robes, The slip of paper in Kuan Yin's back relates that Petitioner and worshipper Mrs. Yin Wu-chi together with her five sons, four daughters-in-law, and one grandchild, on the 21st of the 6th moon of the 27th year of the Chinese Republic (18th July 1938) offered sacrifices to the Earth God at the City God temple in Lao Chai, presented and installed a new image of Kuan Yin. This has been done, the slip said, so that this Buddhist deity can be resorted to in her natural form and can kindly bestow good luck and eternal protection and prosperity on the Yin family and its future generations. In words of glowing praise, the petitioner described the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the soul, the gall, the eyes, teeth, the bones, the bowels and the spirit of Kuan Yin, as 'the liver of a green dragon', 'lungs of a white tiger', ‘kidneys Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION 95 going into a small red numbered membership book, which the worker keeps in his possession at all times, and which has a space for stamping receipt of dues, as well as a list of union regulations. A numbered badge is also given out to new members, on which is embossed a yellow star on a red background, with the carpenter's hammer, the carver's carving tool, and the painter's brush crossed beneath and tied with a ribbon, and the union's name around the lower perimeter of the badge. The union keeps scrupulous records of every action and transaction that occurs within its purview. Every member who has given money, bought a ticket, received a magazine, or whatever, is given a chit to receipt his every transaction, all of which are dutifully recorded in the account books. In August-September, 1973 a membership drive began and a chart posted on the bulletin board showed in bar graphs the increases in membership for the various districts in which art carved furniture factories are located: Cheung Sha Wan, San Po Kong, Kwun Tong, Chun Shek Shan (Diamond Hill), Tsim Sha Tsui and New Territories/Tsuen Wan, with Kwun Tong well in the lead. Kwun Tong is the site of the largest carving factories in Hong Kong where it could be argued the concentration of capital, and the alienation of the worker from his tools and from his product have progressed furthest. According to the union vice-chairman, about 200 additional members were recruited in the recent drive bringing current membership up to somewhere around 800 workers. I had occasion to witness the actual recruitment of a new member in progress at Heng Lung Co. where I worked. There was quite an enthusiastic union member working there, one who had been back to visit his native village in Kwangtung province in the San Wei district several times and came back with glowing reports about the progress of his home village under socialism. He even had several arguments with other workers in the factory concerning how accurate his observations and glowing reports were. This fellow began working on a younger worker in the factory proselytising. The younger worker had previously explained to me that he had no use for the union or anything political at all. In the course of their work the older worker talked to the younger one about the benefits of union membership and ultimately invited the younger worker to a weekly meeting. While I have no idea what the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933 143 According to the theory, each Chia or Pao should select one of its members to serve as a headman, and this headman, when approved by the magistrate, becomes Ti-pao. In practice, however, the Ti-pao will stand at the head of a whole village, or of several small ones, as the agent of the magistrate. How the Ti-pao is selected is not a matter of agreement. The official government view is well expressed by the Ta Ch'ing Hui Tien: "The scholars and people shall elect to this office men of probity, education and property.” Or, in the Ta Ch'ing Lü Li: "In every District 100 Families shall elect one Headborough (or Hundred man) Li chang, and ten Tithing men Chia shou, who shall be charged for the year with the collection of the revenue and the arranging of other public matters. Any person who without warrant assumes the title of Chu-pao, Li-chang, Pao-chang or other title of authority, and takes advantage of that to exact levies from the people, shall be liable to 100 blows and banishment for two years. The elders from among whom the above elections are to be made, must be men of mature years and known merit, belonging to the locality, as approved by the majority, and no one who has held office or been employed as a Yamen underling, or been convicted of offence, shall be eligible. A breach of this law shall entail a punishment of 60 blows upon the offender, who shall also be deposed from office, and any official sanctioning such illegal election shall be liable to 40 blows, and in case of bribery to such severer penalty as the law against bribery for an illegal purpose may entail.” Thus it will be seen that in theory the Ti-pao is chosen freely by the people, without interference from the magistrate. Hsieh is authority for the statement that the government even issued orders to the magistrate not to interfere in these elections.3 A dissenting view is expressed by Morse, who states that the Ti-pao is nominated 1 Jamieson; op. cit., p. 68. 2 Ta Ch'ing Lü Li (division of Hu Pu), Sec. 83, Lü. Translated by Jamieson, ibid., p. 63. Most of this passage has also been translated into French by Bazin and by Boulais, who also give the text: Bazin; op. cit., I, p. 25 ff.; Boulais; op. cit., p. 183-184. Also cf. Staunton, G.; Ta Tsing Leu Lee, p. 88-89, According to Dr. C. H. Peake the text should be broken after the words; "banishment for two years." The further discussion would then apply not to the Ti-pao, but only to the village elders. This distinction is not clearly brought out in any of the Western texts cited. 3 Hsieh, Pao Chao; The Government of China, p. 309. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 150 C. MARTIN WILBUR Before the sale can be considered official it must be stamped by the Ti-pao, and it is then registered at the office of the district magistrate. This process is called kuo kê (#1), "passing the cutting off", meaning the transference of the tax liability of the old owner to the new; or, cutting off the slip showing the tax liability from the old deed and pasting it on the new. Since registration costs to the amount of five or six percent of the purchase price, excluding extras, it is common, and perhaps universal, to understate the sale price on the copy of the deed sent in to the magistrate. Thus do the people do their part to equalize the excess taxation to which they are subjected on all occasions. For his part in the deal, the Ti-pao gets a small fee. III Beyond its interest in collecting taxes the central government feels in some measure bound to preserve peace and prevent crimes in the villages. To affect these aims it works both through the Ti-pao and through the recognized village elders (when the two are not synonymous). The Ti-pao is the accredited police chief of the village. A good idea of the multifarious nature of his duties is given by a description of them in the Ta Ch'ing Hui Tien: If any of the undermentioned offences are committed within the Tithing, the Tithing man shall be specially responsible for making the necessary inquiries and reporting the fact, viz: theft, corrupt teaching, gambling, hiding and absconding from justice, kidnapping, coining, establishing secret society, and so on. He shall also be required to report all suspicious characters arriving within his bounds, and see that the necessary alterations are made from time to time in the Register of Individuals in each family. If constables from a neighboring jurisdiction come in pursuit of offenders in virtue of a warrant, he shall assist in arresting, but if any of the Yâmen constables wrongfully arrests an innocent man, he may lay the facts before the district Magistrate. 1 Jamieson, op. cit., p. 97. 2 Ibid., p. 98. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933 trate for investigation.' 151 He has the position, therefore, of chief investigator of and informer against anything suspicious or evil. But his powers of arrest seem to be limited. Meadows reports that while it is his duty to point out any person to police (Yâmen) runners who may be looking for a man, he is not called upon to execute a summons; and likewise that in grave cases of robbery he is not held responsible, but must report to the magistrate as soon as such a case occurs.2 The Ti-pao organizes part of the militia in his district for the use of the magistrate in protecting public granaries and treasuries, or for dispersing bandits.3 Although the agent of the central government in preserving peace and order, the Ti-pao is also the defender of the people. In case of wrongful arrest he should inform the magistrate, giving circumstances, and has the right of bailing out citizens of his own district who are held in the magistrate's gaol. If any of his constituents presents a petition or otherwise has dealings with the magistrate's court it is the Ti-pao's duty to be able to identify him. For this purpose he has a wooden stamp which he must affix to such an application before it will be accepted at the Yamen.4 While it is thus the Ti-pao who is the chief agent of the central government in the rural village, it is the village elders themselves who are held by the government to be responsible for the village as a whole. The village peace and morality is in their hands, and the proper subject of their supervision. This resting of authority in the hands of a few responsible individuals is founded upon several sensible considerations. Firstly, the plan is practicable: villages are compact and coalescent units due to their relative isolation, 1 Ta Ch'ing Hui Tien, Chuan 134, sec. (1% T) translated by Jamieson; ibid., p. 68. "Tithing man" means in Jamieson's translation the Ti-pao. Hsieh seems also to use this passage to describe the duties of the Ti-pao, and cites one or two more malpractices which the officer must report against, such as transport of counterfeit goods and swindling, though he does not mention his source. Hsieh, Pao Chao; The Government of China, p. 309. An ordinance by Hsien Feng (41) in 1852 gives an even fuller account of what was expected of the Pao-chia (T), (presumably Ti-pao). Boulais; op. cit., 162-163. 2 Meadows, Thomas T.; Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China, p. 118, 119. 3 Hsieh; op. cit., p. 309. 4 Meadows; op. cit., p. 117. 5 Leong and Tao; op. cit., p. 36. ================================================================================ 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-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 NOTES AND QUERIES 203 Territories and neighbouring areas. In this district there was a hill called Kwun Fu Shan, which is said to have been where Argyle Street is now. The San On district records published during the reign of Ka Hing: A.D. 1796-1820: state "Kwun Fu Shan lies to the east of Kap Shui Mun and in the neighbourhood of Fat Tong Mun. The royal barge anchored here, near where the foundations of the Emperor's Palace still stand". Fat Tong Mun is the passage lying between the Mainland and Lam Tong Island, to the east of Lei Yue Mun. In the chapter "Kwun Fu Chu Fat" meaning Kwun Fu where the Emperor halted when on tour, the same records contain this section under the heading "Court Circuit". "In the fourth moon of the year Ting Chau (A.D. 1277) the royal barge arrived at this place, where the Imperial Palace was erected, the plinths and pillars as well as the site of this Palace were still existing until the local residents built on the site a temple dedicated to Pak Tai." It is now over a hundred years since this was written and during that time old landmarks have long since been altered or removed. The true site of the Imperial Palace is now unknown but the scholar Chan Pak To has reported that there is known to have been a village called Yee Wong Tin, the Palace of two Kings, on the right of the Pak Tai Temple. But this temple has itself been at some time moved and rebuilt. The site of the village of the Palace of the two Kings is also therefore uncertain although an old map suggests that it may have been to the west of Sung Shan which lay south of the original Sung Wong Toi. There was however yet another temple nearby. Once known as the Temple of the Supreme Ruler, it was built where this Rest Garden is now. This Temple of the Supreme Ruler had within it a stone tablet recording that a Pak Tai Temple in the old Ma Tau Wei Village, which used to be known as Kwu Kan Wai was repaired during the reign of Ch'ien Lung (A.D. 1736-1796). That Pak Tai Temple is believed by some to have been the same as the one mentioned in the San On district records and built on the site of the original Palace at Kwun Fu. Whether this is so or not, it later disappeared from within the old Ma Tau Wei Village and thereafter the village elders used to perform their sacrifices at the Temple of the Supreme Ruler. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 NOTES AND QUERIES 207 One day he asked Liu Kung-ch'üan about the proper methods whereby a person could become a good calligrapher. 'The movement of the brush is directed by the mind,' Liu replied. "The brush will move properly if the mind is rectified." The emperor changed his expression immediately since he knew that Liu's remarks had a double meaning. They were a remonstration, though indirect and implied. Of another famous calligrapher, Tung Ch'i-ch'ang of Ming, it was written Tung Ch'i-ch'ang was equally famous for seal carving and calligraphy. Hardly did a day pass without someone requesting his work. Even a letter or a brief note of his became a collector's item, and people were willing to pay a high price for it. He was profound and discriminating as a critic—a single word in his own handwriting commanded such attention that a collector would consider it a matter of great prestige to have obtained it. Our abbot, then, followed in a great tradition and his work on presentation boards and inscriptions, done in various styles, can be appreciated by visitors. He used three pen names, *, *, and *. The abbot also took a great interest in natural beauty and was instrumental in calling attention to various local beauty spots which he and his friends and disciples proceeded to embellish by carving names and inscriptions on rocks. They added, in a tasteful way, to the amenities of the area since many persons would come to visit them. The most famous of these places is Sam Dip Tam (=the three saucer-like pools) to the west of the Monastery, which owes its present name to Abbot Mou Fung. Closer by is a small garden area, now neglected, with a pool called Kan Lo Chi (*) commemorated with an inscribed tablet and formerly nicely laid out with statues of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, a popular Buddhist deity. The Abbot chose this area because of the two rivulets of clear water which ran through this small area. Unfortunately, they have since been polluted by pig farms and bean curd factories above the site and the area has been neglected. However, the District Office Tsuen Wan intends to assist in restoring the place and put it under proper management, so that visitors to Lo Wai village and the monasteries can again enjoy its former charms. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 PERSISTENCE & PRESERVATION OF HAKKA CULTURE 53 CHTCH 1970 Chiao-kang Huei-chow tung-hsiang-huei Ch'üan-wan fên-huei t'e-kan (A Special Publication of the Waichow Main Union, Tsuen Wan Branch). CHTH 1964 CHTPC 1973 СРТНН 1976 CTTH Chiao-kang Huei-chow tung-hsiang tsung-huei huei-kan (Journal of the Waichow Clansmen General Association, Hong Kong, Ltd.). Chiao-kang Huei-chow tung-hsiang tsung-huei Ping-chow fên-huei t'e-kan (A Special Publication of the Waichow Clansmen General Association, Hong Kong, Ltd., Peng-Chau Branch). Chiao-kang Po-lo tung-hsiang-huei huei-kan (A Publication of the Pok-law District Association). 1969 Chiao-kang Tzu-chen tung-hsiang-huei huei-kan (A Publication of the Tze-kam District Countrymen's Association, Ltd.). HKCCTH 1971 Ch'ung-chêng tsung-huei chin-hsi ta-ch'ing t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary, Tsung Tsin Association). HSKOCT 1973 HTSCT 1978 SSHTTL 1978 STTCCS 1978 STTCCY 1976 YHTTL 1969 Huei-chow shih-shu kong-huei chêng-li chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the Grand Opening of the Ten-Districts of Waichow Association). Huei-chow tung-hsiang tsung-huei san-shih ch'ou-nien chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Waichow Clansmen's General Association). Hsin-chiai Shang-shui Huei-chow tung-hsiang-huei ti-êrh-chiai li-chien-shi chiu-chih t'ien-li t'e-kan (A Publication in honor of the Second-Term Members of the Executive and Supervisory Committees, the Waichow Union Sheung Shui Branch, Hong Kong). Shih-chieh Tsêng-shih tsung-ch'in-huei Chiu-lung fên-huei chêng-li san-ch'ou-nien chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the Third Anniversary, the Kowloon Branch of Tsang Clansmen Association, Ltd.). Shih-chieh Tsêng-shih tsung-ch'in-huei Chiu-lung-fên-huei chêng-li san-ch'ou-nien chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the First Anniversary, the Kowloon Branch of Tsang Clansmen Association, Ltd.). Yi-lan-lang Huei-chou t'ung-hsiang-huei ti-san-chiai li-chien-shi chiu-chih t'ien-li chi huei-yüan lien-huan ta-hui t'e-kan (A Publication in Honor of the Third-Term Members of the Executive and Supervisory Committees and the General Meeting, Waichow Un Long Residents Association). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES the Chien Lung period, it was turned into a guard-station 143 Villages rebuilt at that time were Tze Tuen Tsuen, Tuen Mun Tsuen, Siu Hang Tsuen, Po Tong Ha Tsuen, So Kwun Wat Tsuen and San Tsuen Wai.12 In the 16th year of the Chia Ching reign (1811), the Tuen Mun guard-station was strengthened. Besides the original garrison, a Pa-Tsung was posted to be the assistant. Five guard-stations, each under a Ngai-Wai with four men, were erected at Shing Mun, Wang Chau, Kwun Chung, Tsiu Keng and Ma Tseuk Leng. They were all under the command of the Tsin-Tsung of the Tuen Mun Guard Station. At that time, villages in that area were all under the charge of the Kwun-Fu-Shi TO: namely: Tuen Mun Tsuen, Tsing Chuen Wai, Tsz Tuen Wai, Siu Hang Tsuen, Po Tong Ha Tsuen, Sun Fung Wai, Chung Uk Tsuen, Nai Wai Tsz Tsuen, San Tsuen, So Kwun Wat Tsuen, Tai Lam Tsuen, Tin Fu Tsai Tsuen and Un Tan Tau Tsuen.4 During the early years of the Tao Kuang reign, a Pa-Tsung and a Ngai-Wai with sixteen men were posted at the Tuen Mun Guard-station, sixty men were placed in the following six guard-stations which were all under the command of the Tuen Mun Guard Station. These guard stations were at Mong Tseng, Wang Chau (ten men), Kwun Chung (five men), Tai Po Tau (fifteen men), Shing Mun Au (fifteen men) and Tsiu Keng (five men).15 This continued until the 24th year of the Kuang Hsü reign (1898), when the Ch'ing Government leased the New Territories and the adjacent islands to the British, after which these guard-stations were abandoned.16 In 1899, the area was divided into the three sub-districts of Tuen Mun, Tai Lam Chung and Lung Ku Tan belonging to the Un Long District. Villages in these sub-districts were as follows:17 Tuen Mun Sub-district:- Chung Uk Tsun, Shun Fung Wai, Tsing Chun Wai, Tsz Tin Wai, Nai Wai, Tun Tsz Wai, Po Tong Ha, Siu Hang, Lam Ti and San Tsuen. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 144 NOTES AND QUERIES Tai Lam Chung Sub-district:- Tai Lam Chung, So Kun Fat, Tai Lam, Tsing Fai Tong, Un Tan and Tin Po Tsai 田箭仔、 Lung Ku Tan Sub-district:- Nim Wan, Tai Shui Hang 大水坑, Pak Long 北朗, Ha Nam Long 下南朗, Sheung Nam Long 上南朗 and Tuk Mi Chung 篤尾涌. 18 At present, Tuen Mun consists of thirty-two villages; namely: Chi Tin Tsuen, Ching Chuen Wai † (mainly surnamed To 陶), Ching Shan Keuk 青山脚, Ching Shan Tsuen 青山村, Chung Uk Tsuen (mainly surnamed Chung), Fu Ti Tsuen 虎地村, Fu Hang Tsuen 福亨村, Ho Tin Tsuen 河田村, Ki Lun Wai 麒麟圍 (mainly surnamed Chan 陳), Kwong Shan Tsuen 礦山村, Lam Tei 藍地 (mainly surnamed To 陶 and Kwan 關), Lam Tei San Tsuen (mainly surnamed To), Leung Tin Tsuen 良田村 (mainly surnamed Ho 何), Lung Ku Taan 龍鼓灘 (mainly surnamed Lau), Nai Wai (mainly surnamed To 陶), Nim Wan 稔灣, Po Tong Ha 寶塘下 (mainly surnamed Tsui 徐), Sam Shing Hui 三聖墟, San Hing Tsuen 新慶村 (mainly surnamed Siu 蕭), San Hui 新墟, San Wai Chei 新圍仔, Shun Fung Wai »§ £, ♬ (mainly surnamed Cheung 張 and Leung 梁), Siu Hang Tsuen 小坑村 (mainly surnamed Tse 謝), So Kwun Wat 掃管笏 (mainly surnamed Lee 李), Tai Lam Chung (mainly surnamed Wu 吳 and Wong 黃), Tin Fu Chai (mainly surnamed To and Choi), To Yuen Wai (mainly surnamed Lee 李), Tseng Tau Tsuen 井頭村, Tuen Chi Wai 屯子圍 (mainly surnamed To 陶), Wo Ping San Tsuen 和平新村, Yeung Siu Hang 楊小坑 and Luen On San Tsuen 聯安新村. Tuen Mun has now been developed into a large new satellite town. A major road, the Tuen Mun Highway, has been built, joining it with Tsuen Wan, and a light rail system within the town area will be developed in the near future. NOTES 1 The name 'Tuen Mun' appeared first in Chapter 43 of the New History of T'ang. 2 Tuen Mun Shan was also known as 'Pui To Shan'. Nowadays, it is also called 'Castle Peak'. The Bay was also known as Tuen Mun O. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES 4 See Chapter 73 of the Tang Hui Yiu. 5 See Chapter 43 of the New History of Tang. 6 145 7 See Chapter 124 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1822 edition. 8 See Chapter 11 of the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition. 9 See Chapter 1 of Cheung Wai-wah's An Annotation of the Chapters on Ferrangi, Lushons, Hollanders and Italians in the Ming History. 10 See Chapter 14 of the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition. 11 See Chapter 32 of Yuet Tai Kee, Wan Li edition. 12 See Chapter 11 of the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition. 13 See Chapter 3 of the Sun On Yuen Chi, 1688 edition. 14 See note 11. 15 See Chapter 2 of the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition. 16 See Chapter 175 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1822 edition. 17 See Chapter 13 of the Kwangtung To Shuet, Tung Chih edition, and Chapter 73 of the Kwangchow Fu Chi, 1879 edition. 18 See Government Notification No. 287, Hong Kong Government Gazette, 8th July, 1899. 19 See the 1981 "List of Villages and Village Representatives of Tuen Mun District, New Territories," supplied by the Tuen Mun Rural Committee. Hong Kong, 1981. ANTHONY K. K. SIU IS "CHUN FA LOK" THE OLD NAME OF TSING YI? The map of the Kwangtung coast-line in the Ming work Yuet Tai Kei is a long and continuous one which occupies thirty-six pages. It shows the whole of the Kwangtung coast. On page 21 of this long map, located at the middle of the page is Hong Kong Island. To the north of that island, there is another called Chun Fa Lok. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES 153 tinuing solidarity and sense of community is, I believe, quite noteworthy. The indigenous multilineage alliance feels threatened by the changes imposed on its quiet valley both by the influx of immigrant farmers and by the new government development plans. In the tun fu ceremonies, I would suggest, it fights back symbolically at both foes. The government is committed to keeping, at least symbolically, the promise made by Blake that Chinese "usages and good customs will not in any way be interfered with." Although these villagers are in reality helpless in the face of tumultuous change, they can in the short run pressure the government to give them "face" by providing financial support for the ritual reaffirmation of their exclusive symbolic rights in the lands of their ancestors. The presence of the outsiders in Fung Yuen, ritual statement notwithstanding, is very real, as is the power of the state which is likely to claim more than the domains of the Green Dragon and the White Tiger in the very near future. In the meantime, the tun fu ceremonies, like other rituals, provide us a glimpse of the structure of social as well as religious meaning in a sector of Chinese society that carries on old traditions in a changing world. Berkeley, California, 1982 JUDITH STRAUCH LYCHEES OF TSANG SHING COUNTY, KWANGTUNG. In May 1979 I was invited to inaugurate a new term of office-bearers of the New Territories Tsang Shing Fellow Countrymen's Association*4, and at dinner enquired into special local products. Among other items, a rare type of lychee was mentioned. The lychee is a kind of sub-species, and is supposed to be red with a green stripe. None of the persons at the table had seen it, and in conversation they presumed that it came into the category of folk myth. (1921), 2. The latest edition of the country gazetteer chüan 9/3a has this to say about the lychees of Tsang Shing District: Sei Mong Kong in Sa Pui, Tsang Shing County, produces the prime quality of lychee in Kwangtung because the soil there is rich and sandy. Species ranging from "Kwa Luk" (##) to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 154 NOTES AND QUERIES numerous minor grades excel those of other places in their colour, fragrance and taste. Chu Yi-chuen of Sau Shui remarks, "There is no fixed standard as to which place in Fukien and Kwangtung produces the best quality of lychee, but in my opinion “Kwa Luk” from Kwangtung tops all." The three most outstanding selections of "Kwa Luk” are "Siu Fa Shan”, “Luk Law Yi” and "Kau Kei Wan”. A species named "Sheung Shu Wai", literally "being carried (wai) by the Minister (Sheung Shu)", originated from a minister Cham Man-kang who brought back a pip of lychee from Windy Pavilion. Most lychees fall into this category. The most valuable lychee tree whose fruit is priced scores of times more than others is the one growing in the West Garden located outside West Gate of the County Seat. In fact, there were other lychee trees which were as good as, or even better than, that tree. Another species called “Crystal Ball" of Cha Kong is of the same grade as "Kwa Luk”, and also on the list of the delicious lychees are "Sai Kok" (rhino's horn), "Kwai Mei” (taste of osmanthus), "Nor Mai Chee" (like glutinous rice), "Sung Ka Heung" (fragrance of Sung Family), "Chun Fung Yuk” (jade offered to emperor) and Ho Pau (wallet). (translation by District Office, Tsuen Wan) 3. By chance, I heard recently of the existence of at least one tree of the special type of “Kwa Luk” mentioned in the opening paragraph from the father of a friend. This gentleman, a Hakka from Ng Wah District, served pre-war in the provincial administration of Kwangtung at Canton. He had a friend Mr. Wong Ping-kwan (*A), who was the district magistrate (*) of Tsang Shing at that time (about 1937-38). This official used to send a parcel of this special lychee to his superiors in Canton. The fruit came from trees in the courtyard and gardens of his office in Tsang Shing. It was not for sale, and although my friend said he had heard of some being available on the market in recent times, he was sure they were not the genuine article. Hong Kong. December, 1979. JAMES HAYES ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 26 JANET LEE SCOTT NOTES It might be mentioned that the adult population of Hong Kong was, at the time of Mutual Aid Committee formation, already well acquainted with the idea and work of urban organizations. While the Mutual Aid Committees had (and still retain) their own unique design, their structure (and their functions) were not unfamiliar and they were not viewed as mysterious committees having no resemblances to other, more traditional, Chinese organizations. * The other five subdivisions are: Kam Kwok Mansion, Luen Hop Building, Mei Tung Estate, Pui Man Tsuen Cottage Area, and Pok Oi Village (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271). * The exact total, provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, was 21,221 at the end of February, 1983. • At the end of 1982, the exact figure was 523,927. * The Mark I blocks include Blocks #1-5, #9, #10, and #12, and the Mark II group is made up of Blocks #13-20 and Blocks #22 and #23. The remaining blocks (#6-8, #11, and #21), already rebuilt, are now referred to as Converted Buildings (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:272). • This information was provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate. * At the end of February, 1983, there were 26 Mutual Aid Committees in the Lok Fu Area and 286 Mutual Aid Committees for the entire Wong Tai Sin District. * The selection of male members is because all but one of the chairmen of the Lok Fu Estate Mutual Aid Committees interviewed were male. In addition, the opinions of female members towards participation were investigated during the research period of 1976-1978. * Block #23 of Tung Tau Estate is still divided into floors for the purpose of MAC formation. In early 1983, it had five MACs, one for each three floors. 10 In 1982 the old titles of City District Commissioner and City District Officer were changed to District Officer and Assistant District Officer respectively. At the same time the old Home Affairs Department and New Territories Administration were amalgamated into a new department known as the City and New Territories Administration. 11 The official certificates of registration are framed and prominently displayed in the committee's office, or if the committee lacks an office, are kept by an officer, most often the chairman. 19 However, given the apathy of many residents and the low attendance at many MAC meetings, one might wonder if any committee has been dissolved by popular action, the second alternative. 10 This is the schedule as described by the Wong Tai Sin District Office, Tung Tau Sub-office. The office of the Housing Manager, Lok Fu Estate, explained that the conversion has already been completed and that 114 families (the figure as of March, 1983) had already moved in. "These figures have been provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, and are accurate as to the end of March, 1983. 16 The C.C.C. number is a code number found on the Hong Kong Identification Card and is written under the Chinese characters of the individual's name. 10 According to the Tung Tau Sub-office of the Wong Tai Sin District Office, there are no instances of the mishandling of MAC funds known in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 97 * For Fang Han-ch'i, see Note 10. Li Ming-jen "I-pa-ssu nien Hsiang-kang pa-kung yün-tung" ("The Strike in Hong Kong in 1884), Li-shih yen-chiu (Historical Studies), 1958:3 (March, 1958) 89-90. Lloyd E. Eastman, "The Kwangtung anti-foreign disturbances during the Sino-French War", Papers on China, 13 (1959) 1-31, Lewis M. Chere, "The Hong Kong Riots of October 1884: Evidence for Chinese Nationalism", JHKBRAS, Vol. 20 (1980), p. 54. * Chinese Prisoners, Papers respecting the confinement and trial of Chinese prisoners in Hong Kong 1857 (155, Sess. 2) XLIII, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1971) Vol. 24: China, pp. 151-188. For a narration of the event see James Pope-Hennessy, Half Crown Colony: A Hong Kong Note Book (London: Jonathan Cape, 1969), pp. 55-58. Marsh to Parkes, 4th October, 1884, enclosed in F.O. to C.O., 2nd February, 1885: CO129/224. Marsh to Parkes, 6th October, 1884, Telegram enclosed in F.O. to C.O., 9th December, 1884: CO129/219. Tsungli Yamen to Parkes, 10th October, 1884, enclosed in F.O. to C.O., 13th December, 1884; ibid. **For Paou-chong, see Ordinance No. 13 of 1844; for Tepo, see Ordinance No. 3 of 1853; for the Registrar-General, see Ordinance No. 7 of 1846. The Registrar-General's duties were redefined by Ordinance No. 6 of 1857, and again by Ordinance No. 8 of 1858. For the Chinese elite, see Carl Smith's works cited in Note No. 59. See also his "An Early Hong Kong Success Story: Wei Akwong, the Beggar Boy", Chung Chi Bulletin No. 45 (December 1968), pp. 9-14; "English-educated Chinese Elites in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong", Symposium Paper, Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, (November 1972), pp. 65-96; and H.J. Lethbridge, "A Chinese Association in Hong Kong: the Tung Wah", "The Evolution of a Chinese Voluntary Association in Hong Kong: The Po Leung Kuk" and "The District Watch Committee: The Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong?" in his Hong Kong: Stability and Change. **Marianne Bastid, "The Social Context of Reform” in Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker, ed., Reform in Nineteenth Century China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 117-127; 118. Li Tak Cheong was a director in 1872, chairman in 1883, and a hip-li in 1873 and 1884. Ho Amei was chairman in 1882 and a hip-li in 1883. Leong On was a founding chairman, and chairman again in 1877 and 1887, and was a hip-li in 1872, 1878 and 1888. **Ho Kai's father, Ho Fuk Tong and his brother-in-law Wu T'ing-fang were both founding chi-shi. See Note No. 34. Marsh to Derby, 24th March, 1886, Despatch No. 91: CO129/225. **This refers to a meeting called by Europeans in Hong Kong to discuss the rise of crime which they believed resulted from the leniency of the new Governor Hennessy. Some of the Chinese leaders however supported him and the meeting developed into a confrontation between Europeans and Chinese residents in Hong Kong. See James Pope-Hennessy, Verandah (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.), pp. 203-205. This was also fully reported in the Daily Press and China Mail throughout October 1878. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 304 NOTES AND QUERIES be constructed to safeguard the tree which will become a roadside tree when the road widening is completed. In order to maintain this rare species in Hong Kong, Agriculture & Fisheries Department has collected seed from these two veteran trees and this has been germinated and used to grow several hundred seedlings. These have been planted out in a variety of sites in the Country Parks where many of them are now well established. The most successful is a group of four trees growing near the head of Jubilee Reservoir which have reached a height of 6.7m and a girth of 0.37m in ten years. The former Village Representative, Mr. Man Tse-leung, whose picture appeared with the original article, is now 86 years old. Though not able to walk, he enjoys good health and still has a good memory. He recalled that during his childhood, the trees had already attracted the attention of a lot of people, from dignitaries to thieves. A former Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Cecil Clementi, had once made a special visit to the village to see them while serving as District Officer in the New Territories early this century. The unique quality of their timber for making wooden bracelets had caused a greedy craftsman named Lau to come over 50 miles from Po On County. However, when he started cutting the branches, he fell onto the ground. With his back broken, he had to abandon his illicit attempt. Mr. Man added that it was because of their "fung shui" value, that these two trees and several other mature camphors (Cinnamomum camphora) and banyan (Ficus spp.) were spared from the widespread felling during the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1945. The present Village Representative, Mr. Man Tat-pui, welcomed our proposal to plant new young seedlings in the village environs to replace the old trees. The name of the Tai Hang Village is of some historical and geographical interest. The official publication A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories gives the following description:- "Tai Hang (†); KVO65877; 534212; also known as Cha Hang (i), sometimes (#); a large village in three ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 43 time at Tai Po (1949-51), a separate District Officer (now Sir Donald Luddington) had undertaken the Court duties. My Court duties in Yuen Long provided yet another insight into local custom. For instance, if it were not for the several cases that arose in the Small Debts Court, I might never have understood the workings of money loan associations. The frequent Land Courts (often two a day in 1955) provided a wealth of information about agricultural leases, inheritance, graves, and fung shui, In 1951, I served for a time in the former Secretariat for Chinese Affairs where my duties required me to spend part of every day attempting to resolve family disputes, mostly matrimonial. This provided much background material on the status of parties. In those more settled days, when communications were difficult and New Territories villages lacked newspapers, radio and television, tradition tended to rule the conduct of villagers, just as rice cultivation ruled the village economy. Traditional customs no longer carry the same weight these days, and in some cases are all but forgotten. Rice cultivation continues in only a few remote corners of the New Territories. Its implements and associated equipment (such as ploughs, harrows, winnowing machines) are hardly recognised by the new generation which may have little idea of how their grandparents lived. Wealth in those days was equated with the number of rice fields owned, and rice depended on a plentiful supply of water. Hence the old Chinese saying "Shui wai choi" (**水為財**), meaning "Water makes riches". The English reply might be that, since then, much water has flowed under the bridge. 2. Succession (a) By Chinese custom there is no such thing as testamentary disposition of property. All a man's "will" can do is permit his widow(s) to remarry, and to moralize for the sons' edification. There may have been some doubt in the past whether by English law a New Territories domiciled person can make a valid will disposing of New Territories property otherwise than as custom would have directed anyhow. But this of course is no ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 112 Haven". Pui O at present often uses for its name characters meaning "Shell Harbour". 1* Yi Long Wan ("Second Wave Bay"). 1 These villages used to stand just south of Discovery Bay but have since given way to the major housing project of that name. " Tai Pak Island is now called Tai Lei ("Great Profit"). 19 Shau Chau is now called Sha Chau ("Sand Isle"). "Tongkwu is now called Lung Kwu Chau ("Dragon Drum Island”). "The Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts (SARDA) has had a treatment centre here since about 1960. 31 * Capital of San On District. ** No villages now survive on Hei Ling Chau, which, after the closure of the leprosarium, is now occupied solely by the Correctional Services Department. The remaining villagers were resited to various places on Lantau in 1952-53. ** Chau Kong is now called Sunshine Island (Chau Kung To), after an agricultural rehabilitation programme for refugee families launched there in the 1950s by Mr. Gus Borgeest (of Hong Kong) and others. "Kau Yi Tsai is now called Siu Kau Yi Chau, with the same meaning. **A prewar periodical magazine containing many items of great interest, including Father D.J. Finn's contributions on local archaeology, 1933-36. These were reprinted, edited by Rev. T.F. Ryan S.J., by Ricci Hall, University of Hong Kong, 1958, entitled Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island (M) near Hong Kong. ** Waglan at present uses for its name characters meaning "Barrier to the Waves". #T Respectively Cheung Shek Pai, Ngan Wu, and Shan Liu. " Also known in English as Junk Island. At present the island is known in Chinese only as Fat Tau Chau ("Buddha's Head Island"). Nam Tong Island is now known as Tung Lung Chau ("Eastern Dragon Island”). * This is the Tin Hau Temple (Tai Miu) on Joss House Bay. After partial excavation, it is now listed as an ancient monument under the care of the Urban Services Department. ** Respectively Pak A, Leung Shuen Wan, and Pak Lap. ** These inlets were drowned in the mid 1970s to form the High Island Reservoir. *Tolo Harbour. Yuen Chau Tsai, see note 2 above. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 122 outbreak of bubonic plague in 1894.22 The reason given by old members for establishing a Fuk Tak Kung(4) is that in his lifetime the god was a noted Chinese medical practitioner, and therefore well suited to become the guardian god of a crowded city district. The shrine may, however, be even older than this. The district was already well established by the 1850s,28 and probably had guardian shrines from the outset. The god looked after a specific area of the city. The old 'chops' and wood-block charms that survive from pre-war days carry the name Sai Ying Pun in the title. The boundaries, as given by the leaders active in the mid 1960s, some of whom had been associated with the committee from their earliest years through their fathers and grandfathers' service as managers, centred on the shrine's location at Sheung Fung Lane. However, it is said that, in pre-war years, among the many persons who came regularly to worship at the shrine on the god's birthday on the 18th day of the first lunar month, were people from outside the boundaries and even from Kowloon, so great was the reputation of the shrine. Many of the outside worshippers came in groups known as pao wui.(4)25 It was stressed, too, that this shrine had no connection with the Tai Ping Shan Fuk Tak Kung described below, for that earth god shrine lay in, and the god looked after, a completely separate locality. The shrine was tended by a keeper appointed by the managers. When my informants were young, the keeper was an old woman who lived on the premises and died there about 1930, aged over 80. There is a splendid photograph of her still kept in the shrine. The body of managers comprises a minimum of 34 persons each year, but has often been around the 40-50 mark. Its duties are solely to do with arranging for chanting by nam mo lo(1) (Taoist priests) at the god's birthday in the first moon and at the Yue Lan or Hungry Ghosts festival in the seventh moon. At the god's birthday, but not at Yue Lan, the religious rituals have always been accompanied by a puppet show (never opera) for the traditional three days and four nights.20 The managers also have the responsibility of arranging for the procession of the god through the district under his protection ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 125 The population of the district was already large by an early date. The census for 1858 lists 7,261 males and 4,338 females; of whom were presumably children. By 1891 the population had risen to 31,302 persons. It was a mixed group, as in the Ap Lei Chau case, but very much larger. some 29 29 The persons providing the information that follows had lived in the area for 33 and 41 years respectively when I discussed the shrine with them in 1966. The first, a woman, was the chairman of the 1960 committee. The second, a man, had attended to the shrine since 1954 and had been secretary to the committee since then. As at Sheung Fung Lane, puppet shows were given each year in the first moon in the pre-war period and after; but since 1954 they had been replaced in Tai Ping Shan with performances of Cantonese songs (...). Again, as with the other shrine, it has long been the custom for pau wui (...) from in and outside the Tai Ping Shan district to worship there on the god's birthday. In 1961 there were nine of these wui in attendance, consisting of groups from associations of vegetable hawkers, fruit hawkers, fish dealers and hawkers, florists, construction workers, catering workers, carpenters, traders, and even workers from a funeral parlour. Many of these groups were regular annual visitors. The committee comprised about thirty local residents. Each contributed an agreed amount sufficient to cover the cost of the worshipping and puppet or singing performances; no subscriptions were solicited from local people or from the worshippers, though it seems to have been customary for the pau wui to make contributions. The selection of managers seems to have been conducted along the same lines as at Sheung Fung Lane. Lots were drawn before the image of the god to determine the managers. On another occasion, those selected drew papers among which three were marked for the senior management positions. The rest were marked tai kat, as at Sheung Fung Lane. The two-stage election was probably held here pre-war also.20 As with the body that looked after the shrine at Sheung Fung Lane, the Tai Ping Shan committee was concerned with religious ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 217 was great and must have left them with little time or money to spare for their ruined temple. Finally, and almost certainly the most seriously, the influx of a new population, and immense schemes of redevelopment completely altered the generally rural background of village and market town life that still characterised pre-war East Kowloon. Thus, in the Tung Shan Temple we can see a temple, founded for purely rural reasons slowly growing until it became the predominant community temple of the whole of rural East Kowloon. During this period its management changed from a purely private, clan-based system to a typical community temple structure of committee members and chairman of a type typical not only of the rural community temples in the rest of the New Territories but also of those in urban Hong Kong at this date. Founded in a rural community this temple could, and did, develop both physically and in its management structure to reflect the needs of that community. It could not, however, survive the complete destruction of that community, and its ruination directly reflects the collapse of its founding community in the face of massive urbanisation, and the establishment of the new urban communities created by that urbanisation. The new urban communities have formed their own shrines, and their flourishing condition, alongside the continued ruin of the main temple of the defunct rural community, show more clearly than anything else can the essentially community basis of the temples of this area and their management groups. NOTES In the 1904 Block Crown Lease for Survey District No. 3, New Kowloon, the ownership is recorded in the monk's name Shing Kin (Hsing Star Bridge) and the property is listed under Lot 1101 as temple 0.7 acres, house 0.2 acres, and potato ground 0.33 acres. An entry "Kwun Yam Temple, Ngau Chi Wan" had been crossed out by the Assistant Land Officer who recommended that a lease for the temple buildings and site be given to the Registrar General, 28 April 1904. From south-east Kowloon, Ngau Tau Kok and Cha Kwo Ling; from east Kowloon, Ngau Chi Wan, Ping Shek, Sha Tei Yuen, Upper and Lower Yuen Ling and Chu Shi Liu; from central Kowloon, Tai Hom, Po Kong, Nga Tsin Wai, Upper and Lower Sha Po, Nga Tsin Long and Kak Hang; from Kowloon City, the commercial areas, Sai Tau, Tung Tau and Hoklo Village. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 270 P.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU In the 1970s when District Officer and Town Manager, Tsuen Wan, my contacts with local village people established that there were families in Lo Wai which had tea bushes on the mountain slopes of Tai Mo Shan. The Hui (4) family of Lo Wai village collected tea from wild bushes near the present radar station at the very top of Tai Mo Shan. One old man, born in 1896, used to collect ten catties a week during the season, commenting that the best time for plucking the leaves was in the third lunar month: the leaves become older and coarser thereafter. This type of tea was described as wan mo (雲霧) ("cloud mist"). He began doing this when he was about 10 years old, selling to other villagers and not to shops or teahouses. He also collected medicinal herbs on the mountain. Another favourable location for wild tea trees on this mountain, he said, was Nam Tong To (南塘肚) where the Shing Mun villagers collected leaves from wild tea bushes there of the same type. Such trees could not be replanted and grown elsewhere, he stated. Separately, old Shing Mun villagers living in Kam Tin since their removal there in 1928 for construction of the Jubilee Reservoir, themselves confirmed their taking of leaves from trees in this locality. In the foothills west of Tsuen Wan, villagers of Yau Kam Tau also collected leaves from wild tea bushes.12 Lantau island possessed a rather special type of red "tea", with a brilliant red infusion, known as tsz pooi tin kwai (紫背天葵). Tsz pooi tin kwai was described to me as being “half herb half tea”. It was used as a kind of cooling tea (清熱茶) for “over-heating” from food or drink, sore throats and the like. The leaves came from a plant growing between cracks in rocks and stones in high gulleys where there was much moisture. The people of Tong Fuk village on south Lantau, at the foot of the Fung Wong mountain, used to collect these from upper slopes. It was also collected by the women inmates of the religious houses of Ngong Ping and others living at the Po Lin monastery there. Some of the produce found its way to shops in Tai O market where one of the leading shopkeepers, chairman of the Rural Committee, gave me some at intervals. According to Shiu-ying's Hu's An Enumeration of Chinese Materia Medica (Hong Kong, Chinese University Press, 1980) page 153, it is to be described in English as the Tea Begonia (Begonia fimbristipula) and in Chinese as (紅天葵/紫背天葵).13 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 42 NOTES Anthony K.K. Siu, "The Kowloon Walled City”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, (hereafter, JHKBRAS) vol 20 (1980) 139-140; his Chiu-lung ch'eng shih lun-chi ” (“Studies on the Kowloon Walled City") (Hong Kong: Hin Chiu Institute, 1987) p. 27. It was called miserable by the Rev. Krone in his “A Notice of the Sanon District” China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Transactions 6 (1859) 71-105, reprinted in the JHKBRAS 7 (1967) 104-137, 132. 2 Chou-pan i-wu shih-mo (The complete account of the management of barbarian affairs) 260 ch'uan (Photographic copy of original compilation, Hong Kong, 1964), ch'uan 70: 18b-19b. The hsun-chien originally administered 496 villages in the county; with the cession of Hong Kong Island, 5 were taken out of his hands, and in 1860, another 12 were lost with the cession of the Kowloon Peninsula. Thus by 1898, he was only responsible for 479. See Siu, Chiu-lung ch'eng, pp. 16-20. 3 ibid., p. 28. 4 Chou-pan i-wu shih-mo, ch'uan 76: 3a-4a. 5 J.H.S. Lockhart, [Report on the New Territory], enclosed in Lockhart to Chamberlain, October 8, 1898 in Great Britain. Colonial Office. Original Correspondence (Series 129) (hereafter CO129)/289; p. 74. According to a later account, however, the wall was about 23 English feet high, and the width at the top between approximately 5.8 feet and 11.75 feet. See Chiang-shan ku-jen LA, “Hsiang-kang hsin-chieh feng-t'u ming-sheng ta-kuan" (A panorama of local customs and famous places in Hong Kong and the New Territories) part 104. These articles appeared in the Hua-chiao jih-pao between 1935-36, and are collected in an album deposited at the University of Hong Kong Library. Based on observations, these articles are an important source of geographical and historical information of places in the territory. However, it seems that Lockhart, who had been commissioned to reconnoitre the newly leased territory, might have gone to greater lengths to obtain accurate measurements. 6 Another detailed observation of the wall and guard houses was made by Walter Schofield in 1928, and his notes are reproduced in JHKBRAS 9 (1969) 154–156. 7 Chiang-shan ku-jen, “feng-t'u”, part 104. 8 Lockhart, p. 75. 9 Lockhart, p. 75. 10 Chiang-shan ku-jen, “feng-t'u”, parts 109-110. 11 See the inscription recorded in David Faure, Bernard Luk and Alice Ng Lun Ngai-ha ed. Hsiang-kang pei-ming hui-pien (Historical inscriptions of Hong Kong) 3 volumes. (Hong Kong: Urban Council, 1986) vol. 1, p. 101, James Hayes, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1977 (Hamden, Connecticut, 1977) pp. 167-168. The building was partially demolished in the early 1980s, and a high-rise apartment building was built over it. At the moment (1988), the frame of the entrance with the original couplet is still in place, and an altar, said to be from the school, still stands on the ground floor. 12 Hsun-huan jih-pao June 13, 1883. 13 Hayes, p. 168; Chiang-shan ku-jen, "feng-t'u”, part 107. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 73 At first Maang's father refused to go, but Maang said to the pirate, "My father is old and half mad, do not listen to him", and then turning to his father, he said, “Do not weep for me. Go home and look after our family. My younger brother will serve you in my stead as a good son, and he will grow up and rear more sons for you." So the father was hustled back to the shore and the ship sailed away with Maang on board. Then Maang was filled with grief, and crying, “I will never serve these wicked men”, he jumped overboard and was drowned. His body was subsequently washed up at Taipo and buried near by. In the fourteenth year of Maan Lik A.D. 1586 when the district Magistrate Yau T'ai Kin (游太卿) wrote the "History of the Sun On District' he included the story of Maang in it. Twenty-seven years later the then district magistrate Wong Ting Yuet (黃廷越) petitioned the emperor for leave to put Maang's spirit table in the "Heung Yin Ts'z” (鄉賢祠) Temple for worthy villagers, and later on the descendants of Maang's family Tang (鄧) collected enough money to build a special temple at the place where he was buried. This temple has since been destroyed but the grave still remains and a tablet about 5 feet high and 4 feet wide can be seen with the following inscription on it “[written in large characters] Grave of Tang Sz Maang, devoted son of Ming dynasty [then in smaller characters] repaired in the seventeenth year of Kin Lung (乾隆) 1752, the eighth month, lucky day". In the eleventh year of Hong Hei A.D. 1672, two descendants of the Tang family bought from the government enough land round the temple to make a market there. Shops were built and sub-let and the proceeds went to the upkeep of the temple. Thus old Taipo market was started. During the reign of Ka Hing of Ts'ing dynasty 1796-1820 a man named Man Yuen Chue (文元柱) of Man Uk village (文屋村) (See Note 4) wanted to build some shops for himself in old Taipo market. The Tang family objected and a lawsuit followed. The magistrate who judged the case finally gave leave to the Man family to build dwelling houses only, in the village, not shops. In the twelfth year of Tung Chi (同治) 1873 of Ts'ing dynasty a typhoon destroyed the whole of Man Uk village, and the Man family again wanted to build shops in old Taipo market. Another lawsuit resulted, as the Tang family again objected. On the fourteenth day of the fifth month of the eighteenth year of Kwong Sui (光緒) A.D. 1892 of Ts'ing dynasty it was finally settled that only the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 74 Tang family had the right of building shops there, and a stone with an inscription to that effect, was put up in the temple of T'in Hau Kung(g) which can still be seen in old Tai Po market. When the Man family lost their case a wealthy friend called a big meeting of the elders of the seven districts round about Taai Haang (林村), Fan Ling(K), Lam Ts'un(#1), Yip Woh(), Sheung Wan(), Ting Kok(TM) and Cheung Shue Tan(). At his suggestion, and financed by him, they built a new market where the present market now stands. It was called Taai Woh Shei (utmost friendship market)(★Fifi) and was officially opened on the twenty-third day of the 6th month of the twentieth year of Kwong Sui, A.D. 1894. All the trade at once went to the new market and the old one gradually fell into disuse and can now be seen as a very poor and derelict village. Note. 1. The district of Sun On was formed in the sixth year of Lung Hing() A.D. 1572 of Ming dynasty. Fourteen years later the **History of Sun On District** was written by Yau Tai Kin the district magistrate. It was revised for the first time in the eighth year of Sung Ching(), but this edition was not published until eight years later when a third magistrate Chau Hei Yiu(2) added slightly to it. A second edition was published in the eleventh year of Hong Hei(E) A.D. 1672 of Ts'ing dynasty, a third appeared sixteen years later, and the present edition was published in A.D. 1819. Note. 2. The second character(W) is read yeuk in Cantonese but in the New Territories dialect it is read as Kwat. # Note. 3. Lam Fung is "Limahong" (= Lim a hong, not Li ma hong) whose name is already mentioned in the history of the Philippine Islands. It is also translated as in some Japanese books, and Limahong or Lin Ah Hong in some of the European books. = Lam Fung Limahong was a native of Raoping district(ATM) In the 10th month of the 2nd year of Lung Hing(), A.D. 1568 of Ming dynasty, he took sixty-two battleships with 2,000 sea-soldiers, 1,500 women, and a large store of food and ammunition to attack the Philippines. He was defeated and his fleet dispersed by the soldiers of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 76 LEGENDS AND STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES [E TS'ING SHAAN UI OR CASTLE PEAK* SUNG HOK-P'ANG The original name of Tsing Shaan was Yeung Haang Shaan (meaning "Sheep or Goat Ditch Hill", and nearby there is still a village called Yeung Siu Haang "Sheep or Goat Little Ditch", but later on the Peak was called simultaneously Shing Shaan “Saint Hill", and T'uen Moon Shaan “Military Colonist Gate Hill". The latter name was given because in olden times the Chinese Emperor sent soldiers there to cultivate the soil, and at the same time protect the countryside from the numerous pirates that infested the coast. In A.D. 428 a certain monk named Pooi To became abbot of the monastery, and then the name of Pooi To Shaan was used. Nearly five and a half centuries later, in the 12th year of Taai Po of Naam Hon dynasty, on the 18th day of the 2nd month (A.D. 969) the Emperor gave the hill the special name of Sui Ying Shaan "Good omen hill", and caused a stone tablet to be erected on which was carved the history of the monastery. This stone recorded that in the 11th year of K'in Woh A.D. 954 a military officer named Ch'an Ts'un had paid a stone mason to carve a figure of Pooi To which he put in a cave near the monastery, and which can still be seen. In the 4th year of Yuen Yau A.D. 1089 of Sung dynasty a general in Canton named Tseung Chi K'ei wrote an account of the hill, and put it on a stone tablet in place of the old one. This second one has now disappeared, but fortunately the account is in the "History of the Sun On District", and from it can be learnt that formerly there was a castle at the north of the hill, and to the west * The Hong Kong Naturalist July 1935. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 259 NOTES There are several instances where Faure distorts the anthropological literature completely. The “frontier” which Pasternak (1969) refers to, for example, has to do with the socio-political consequences of a certain economic relationship between man and his use of specific strategic resources, namely water and land. Land reclamation is not an accurate translation of this frontier situation. Faure also reads Freedman's (1958:2) interpretation of a passage by Fei (1946: 1) superficially and without much understanding of its context or rhetorical intent. Freedman's purpose in quoting Fei was to argue that the function of the lineage as a political and local organization transcends its identity "in name” as a descent group. But it should be noted also that Freedman deliberately distorted Fei as well. Had Faure actually read Fei, he would have also discovered that the phenomenon which Fei (1946:5) was describing was not even a descent group at all, which should make it quite enigmatic indeed. Sometimes among the peasants, the clan is found, but it is of another kind. In Yunnan, for instance, I have seen that in villages local organization is formed in terms of clan which includes even members of different surnames. Functionally these are not strictly kinship groups. I shall leave open as to the nature of the so-called clan-village. I rather suspect that such an organization among the peasants is a local organization, not a kinship organization. When reading Fried as he does Freedman, Faure confuses the model for empirical reality. Underlying the petty disputes over the definition of lineages and clans as analytical constructs, Fried (1970) was trying to make a more important point about the political functions of a genealogy in allocating differential access to scarce strategic resources (i.e., lineage property), this according to Fried being more important than the existence of property per se. The relative distinction between stipulated and demonstrated descent must be understood in this light. Sheer numbers never mean anything. Even in Faure's (p. 96) analysis of a Chinese funeral, there is no a priori reason to believe that the lineage or village should have any role or obligation to play in ritual preparations. The scale of any such operation is always determined by the family of the deceased. “Work” is delegated among volunteers within the community (not necessarily a territorial one), whether it be neighbours, colleagues, or friends. Correspondingly, compensation for services rendered is made either as payment or as fa see. I suspect that variations in village organization and relationships within village clusters were shaped during the formative period prior to the time when the village had any formal identity. The diversity of local experience can only be attributed to the diversity of interaction within different villages. Rules prohibiting intermarriage in Man Uk Pin and the lack of an ancestral hall in Wong Keng Tei are other examples of local phenomena which must be understood in reference to the way the villagers themselves define or interpret the nature of their own community. See Strathern's (1984) study of the "community" in an English village. The whole problem with Faure's description of “lineage-building” is that it is too easy to project a genealogical structure onto residence patterns, especially with help from Block Crown Lease Demarcation District Maps and the like. As for the Sha Tin Wai example, I doubt whether Faure bothered to match up the registered ownership of houses with its actual inhabitants or even to seek informant testimony with regard to this period of household mobility. In practice, villages rarely update actual ownership records unless there is a conveyance of sale or other transaction that requires re-registration. That registered ownership is usually a couple of generations behind is thus the norm rather than the exception. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 119 NOTES 1 Ch'ü, Ta-chün, Kuang-tang hsin-yü [New Tales from Kuang-tung], Hong Kong: Chung-hua ch'u-pan-shê, 1974, reprinted from 1700 edition, p. 677. 2 ibid, pp. 674-676. 3 Yung-yen, “Hong Kong ti ming k'ao” [The Origin of Place Names in Hong Kong], in: Li Chun-wei (ed.) Hong Kong pai nien [Centenary History of Hong Kong], (Hong Kong: Nan chung pien yi ch'u-pan-shê, 1948), p. 68. 4 Hong Kong Daily Press, February 5, 1873. 5 Siu, A.K.K., “The Hong Kong Region Before and After the Coastal Evacuation in the Early Ch'ing Dynasty”, in: Faure, David, James Hayes and Birch (eds.), From Village to City, (Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1984), p. 2; Fêng K'ê-pin (ed.), Hsiang chien [Notes on Incense], in: Kuang pai ch'uan hsüeh hai (1), 1998. (Taipei: Hsin-hsing shu-chü, reprinted in 1970). 6 Balfour, S.F., “Hong Kong Before the British”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 10, 1979, p. 176. 7 Ch'ü, p. 677. 8 Chang, Y.N., "Hong Kong Ts'un (Hong Kong Village) and the Cultivation and Exportation of Incense from Kowloon and the New Territories”, in: Lo, Hsiang Lin (ed.), Hong Kong and Its External Communications Before 1842, (Hong Kong: Institute of Chinese Culture, 1963), p. 114. 9 Tung-kuan Hsien-chih [Tung-kuan Gazetteer], compiled by Ch'ên Pai-tao, (Tung-kuan yang-hêng yin-wu-chü, 1910), Section 14, p. 13; Dunn, Stephen Troyte and William James Tutcher, Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong, (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912), p. 9. 10 Iu, K.C., "The Cultivation of the Incense Tree (Aquilaria sinensis)”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 23, 1983, pp. 247-249. 11 “Imports for the Year 1846”, Hong Kong Blue Book 1846, p. 200, 204, 207. 12 “Imports for the Year 1847”, Hong Kong Blue Book 1847, pp. 200-212. 13 “Imports for the Year 1848”, Hong Kong Blue Book 1848, pp. 251-254. 14 Hsü, Kuang-ch'i (ed.), Nung chêng ch'üan shu [Encyclopedia on Agricultural Techniques], (1847), Section 18, pp. 13-15. 15 Yung-yen, p. 68. 16 Lockhart, S. "Extracts from A Report by Mr Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong on October 8, 1898”, Sessional Papers concerning the Acquisition of the New Territories 1899, p. 190. 17 Nathan, cited by J.W. Hayes. "Notes and Queries: Sandalwood Mills at Tsun Wan". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 16, 1976, pp. 282-283. 18 'Report on the New Territories for the year 1925; B. Southern District", Hong Kong Administrative Reports 1925, p. J13. 19 'Report on the New Territories for the Year 1931; B. Southern District" Hong Kong Administrative Reports 1931, p. J18. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 136 Lei (#) clans were settled in the area then, and the Ho family at least must have been there from the late Yuan." It seems likely, however, that no Ming political groupings survived the chaos of the Coastal Evacuation (1662-1669) in the area - the returning villagers must have had to re-create their society more or less from scratch. Soon after the rescission of the Coastal Evacuation Order Hakka groups moved into the Ta Kwu Ling area. There is no evidence that there was any opposition to this, and the area has been one of marked Punti/Hakka co-operation throughout the last three hundred years." The first, and the most important, Hakka group to enter the area was the Chan (B) clan, of Ping Yeung, Nga Yiu Ha, and Wo Keng Shan. Other Hakka groups arrived mostly during the eighteenth century. These villages began to establish alliances between themselves from early in the eighteenth century. The Chans of Ping Yeung, Nga Yiu Ha, and Wo Keng Shan allied themselves with the Fus and the other tiny clans of Wo Keng Shan to form the Sam Heung (, "Three Villages"), and this alliance in turn allied itself with the Mans of Ping Che to form the Ping Yuen Hap Heung ("Ping Yuen United District'). The Tin Hau temple at Ping Che was founded by this group of villages, probably in the early eighteenth century, and they celebrated the Ta Tsiu festival in front of the temple from the eighteenth century until the 1930s." The groupings of Kan Tau Wai, Tai Po Tin, and Lei Uk; and of Lin Tong, Wang Kong Ha, and Au Ha2 are very probably of the same sort of date. Several villages in the area were genealogically related, and these also tended to form loose groups around their main ancestral graves during this period. However, inter-village alliances in the area in the eighteenth century do not seem to have been particularly strong or socially significant. Each individual village had its own Tai Wong (AE, “Superior Earthgod Shrine"), and the groupings of villages around a single, shared shrine found in many places in the New Territories were unknown here. Thus, when the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz was founded towards the end of the eighteenth century, it was founded within a region with a weak political structure, marked by numbers of villages without alliances with others, or only weakly grouped with others. The strongest grouping, the Ping Yuen Hap Heung, consisted of only four villages, two of them very tiny. It is entirely likely that the area was in this period dominated politically by “major lineages" from outside the area -- particularly the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 137 Cheung (張) lineage of Wong Pui Ling. The area, however, was fertile, rich, and, by the later eighteenth century, becoming relatively densely populated. Growth of stronger and less politically quiescent inter-village groupings could be expected, and the clearest evidence of this comes from the nunnery. The nunnery was founded by the villages of the Ping Yuen Hap Heung on the one hand, and Loi Tung and Man Uk Pin on the other. Loi Tung was a tight lineage alliance of three large villages of the Punti Tang clan (Loi Tung Lo Wai, San Wai, and Tai Tong Wu), and Man Uk Pin was a single, large Hakka village, predominantly of the Chung clan. The nunnery lay in six shares: Ping Che, Ping Yeung, Wo Keng Shan, Loi Tung, Tai Tong Wu, and Man Uk Pin. Of these, the Wo Keng Shan and Tai Tong Wu shares were probably there to reflect the greater size and strength of the Chan and Tang lineages within the grouping. In practice, however, the nunnery was controlled by the four clans of the Mans, Chans, Tangs, and Chungs, and normally probably had one Manager drawn from each lineage.” This group of eight villages, most of them large and wealthy, clearly represents a new generation of inter-village grouping in the Ta Kwu Ling area. The importance of the road through the Miu Keng pass has been discussed above. The position of the nunnery on the road was not only of value to travellers seeking shelter, it was also of major strategic and political significance. The road was the only passage through the hills, and could not be by-passed. Whoever controlled this pass controlled much of the Sha Tau Kok to Sham Tsun road. The foundation of the nunnery was the result of the grouping together of a few villages which were clearly seeking to capitalise on their strategic location, and thus to increase their local political leverage and district significance. The political significance of the foundation should not be downplayed. The religious impetus behind the foundation should not, of course, be ignored, but the strategic significance of the grouping is too strong to be overlooked. The nunnery-founding group of villages seems to be, in fact, an early example of a Yeuk (約) mutual defence and support inter-village alliance. The villages which had founded the nunnery seem to have worshipped there together at the Yu Lan Festival in the summer, when vegetarian food was served to the elders and faithful in front of the nunnery. It is likely that the Ping Yuen Hap Heung people used their alliance with the groups east of the pass to strengthen their position as against ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 148 villages in the neighbourhood. Of the nuns of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz, the abbess from before 1920 to 1931, Wong Tik-yuen, is believed to have come from Fu Tin (Futian), just west of Sham Tsun. Her successor (1931-1944) was Yip Yuet-kwan. It is not known from which village she came, but she, like Wong Tik-yuen, was definitely Punti. This strongly suggests that there was a tradition in the New Territories area among the long-settled Punti lineages which made it respectable for girls of those lineages to refuse marriage and instead to enter a nunnery. Those lineages or village groups which owned nunneries were proud of them, and proud of the fact that the nuns came from within the lineage or from the village group or a nearby village. Certainly, the Ling Wan nunnery holds a critically important position within the folktales of the Tangs of Kam Tin.43 — For a district to have a nunnery with a few dedicated women living a pure life, eating vegetarian food, and offering shelter and prayer to and for all men, certainly helped protect the district from spiritual disaster, but equally it must have helped reduce social tensions by providing a socially acceptable outlet for girls who did not wish to marry. It is probable that most of these indigenous Buddhist establishments were usually nunneries;14 the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz is called a nunnery ( ) on the 1789 bell, and in the Hsin An County Gazetteer of 1820* and the folktales of the Tangs about the Ling Wan house clearly presuppose that it was always a nunnery (it is specifically called a nunnery on the bell there, of 1755). The evidence for Ling To and Lung Lai before about 1900 is less clear.¶ However, these nunneries were occasionally handed over to devout men to live in, if such men presented themselves to the villages which owned them when the nunnery would otherwise have been vacant. Villagers remember that, before Wong Tik-yuen became abbess, the nunnery was lived in by a man, who was not a monk (he wore his hair “like a Taoist''), and who terrified the children of the villages.** Lei Pui-yuen may have run the nunnery in the same way. The Ching Shan monastery at Tuen Mun must have been founded for men, and this alone may have remained a house of men in the nineteenth century.¶ What is clearer, however, is that there were no Hakka monasteries or nunneries within the New Territories — presumably the Hakka in this area had no nunnery-based tradition of socially acceptable marriage-refusing women. The question of nunneries and marriage-refusing women in this area requires further study. 48 49 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 13 153 PP. 12 The inscription recording the rebuilding is at Faure, Luk and Ng, op. cit. Vol. I, 128-129, but it is unreadable through weathering, except for the heading and date. (4). Loe An-lim (羅安廉) (42), Qianren Wenxian (千人文献), ÑÍAL. [Collected Writings of Men of Past Ages], unpublished manuscript collection, Vol. 2, ff. 75a. (Copy in library of Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Kowloon Central Library, Hong Kong). Lee An-lim was a villager of Sheung Wo Hang. (3) Lee An-lim, Qianren Wenxian, op. cit. ff 73-78. + As honour board recording the donors to the 1920 repair has recently been found. It lists the donors by village. Every village in Ta Kwu Ling donated (except Ping Che, Chuk Yuen, Nga Yiu Ha, very probably included with their lineage brethren in Tong Fong, Law Fong, Ping Yeung), as did the villages close to the road both in the Sha Tau Kok area (Shan Tsui, Yim Tso Ha, Yim Tin, Wo Hang, Nam Chung, Luk Keng, Wu Shek Kok and Sha Tau Kok Market) and in the Sham Tsun area (Sham Tsun Market, Lo Wu, and Wong Pui Ling). Shek Wu Hui from further away also donated. See Win Wen Wei Pao (SCHEW) of 17 September, 1991. U¿÷ 16 Detail from the tablets commemorating the departed leaders of the monastery, and from information given by the recently deceased resident nun. The tablet of Kuk Shan Kit reads: 羅浮山寶積古寺監裤正宗第上三代主持上谷下山潔老和尚莲座. The tablet Kuk Shan Kit placed to commemorate his deceased predecessors names the "ordained monks" HIBA · MAZA + J # and Ki£*, all of whom were dead by the date of erection + 1 of the tablet, and ✯, at that date still alive, as well as predecessors as rulers of this monastery" ALLKILMINER and "those monks who founded this monastery", A WILDFORIKA BAIMM- L 17 See P.H. Hase, “Notes on Rice Farming in Shatin', in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 21, 1981, pp. 196-206; D. Faure, The Rural Economy of Pre-Liberation China: Trade Increase and Peasant Livelihood in Jiangsu and Guangdong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 46-57 and 212; and Hong Kong Annual Report: Report by District Commissioner, New Territories for Year Ending 31st March, 1950, Noronha and Co., Hong Kong, 1950, p. 5. TH The Ho clan of Tsung Yuen Ha descends from Ho Chan, the Earl of Tung Kuan in the early Ming, and the Ho family history (CBMGKR — a manuscript volume in the University of Cambridge Library) suggests this area was in Ho Chan's hands before the end of the Ming. It was certainly in Ho family control before 1393 when Ho Chan's family were proscribed. The Tang family has occupied the Lung Yeuk Tau villages, Loi Tung and Tai Tong Wu since the fourteenth century at the latest. A Tang clan also occupies Au Ha (PUF Aoxia) and Wang Kong Ha (Huanggangxia). I have not been able to discover if these two villagers are genealogically connected with the Loi Tung and Lung Yeuk Tau clan, although this is unlikely. The Man family has occupied Ping Che for **18 generations", according to village elders, i.e. probably from the fourteenth century. The same family occupies Tong Fong, Heung Yuen Wai, and Lin Tong, Liantang), and a branch of it was resident at Man Uk Pin (**Man Family Houses") before the present residents, the Chung (鍾) clan moved there in the early eighteenth century. The To clan has been resident at Chau Tin village for **500 years". Local villagers consider that the Lei family has been resident at Lei Uk for as long as the To and Man clans have been at Chau Tin and Ping Che. All these clans are Punti, although sections of the Man clan at Tong Fong, and those at Heung Yuen Wai and Lin Tong, now speak Hakka. Shan Kai Wat (Lam surname, 林), Fung Wong Wu (Yip surname, 葉), and Law Fong (Law surname, 羅), are all included in the list of villages in existence in 1661 included in the 1688 Hsin An County Gazetteer, along with Au Ha, Tsung Yuen Ha, Ping Che (Ping Yuen 平遠), and perhaps Ping Yeung (坪洋) (Gazetteer, Ch. 3, f 12-13). Other Punti clans in the Ta Kwu Ling area (Wong, 黃, Chan, 陳, and Law, 羅, at Kan Tau Wai, and Hau, 侯) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 154 19 , at Law Fong) are believed to have entered the area after 1700. See Map of Ta Kwu Ling. It is interesting to note that, of the 21 villages in the Ta Kwu Ling area, seven are purely Punti, nine are purely Hakka (including two of originally Punti but now Hakka speaking Mans), but five are of mixed Punti and Hakka residents, including the large village of Chau Tin (which has only a tiny handful of Hakka residents), Fung Wong Wu, Kan Tau Wai, and Law Fong, and Tong Fong which consists partly of Punti speaking Mans, and partly of Hakka speaking Mans. + 1 Yeung, and Ng, at Fong Wong Wu; Siu, and Ho, at Chau Tin; Wong, at Kan Tau Wai; Pang, and Au, at Tai Po Tin; Fu Lau, (and others) at Wo Keng Shan; Yiut, at Chuk Yuen; Chan, and Yiu, at Law Fong (Luofang); Chau at Wang Kong Ha; Yeung, and Kwu, at Sai Ling Ha (Xilingxia), and others. 21 The temple bell, of Chien Lung 21 (1756) was donated by "all the faithful people of the Ping Yuen Hap Heung... ...to stand for ever before the altar of the Lady Tin Hau*. Faure, Luk, Ng, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 670. The only earlier dated item in the temple, a Cloud Gong of 1727, was donated by a single family from Ping Che, Faure, Luk, Ng, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 661. The temple continued to be owned and controlled by this group of villages. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Oxford Univ. Press, Hong Kong, 1986, p. 104 is incorrect in saying that the temple was owned by Ping Yeung. In the Block Crown Lease, the Manager of the temple was Man Shan-fung, of Ping Che. The Tong Fong people, although closely related genealogically to the Ping Che people, were not part of the Ping Yuen Hap Heung, and did not take part in the Ta Tsiu.22 Faure, op. cit., p. 103. + + 23 The four managers at the time of the Block Crown Lease were Tang Hung-wai (a houseowner of Loi Tung), Chan Shing-pong, called a houseowner of Ping Yeung in a District Office report of 1979), Man Ying-shau (probably a villager of Ping Che, a relative of the houseowners Man Ying-kei, Man Ying-wai, and Man Ying-fat), and Chung Choi-wah (a houseowner of Man Uk Pin). These died in 1938, 1926, 1925, and 1942 respectively, according to a report made to the District Office in 1979. The abbess, Wong Tik-yuen, was appointed a manager in 1926, but she died in 1931. After the War, the lack of managers caused trouble on a number of occasions. A temporary manager was appointed in 1968. In 1979 the Chairman of the Sha Tau Kok Rural Committee and others were appointed as managers, although he, as a Lin Ma Hang villager, had no connection with the nunnery. This seems to have been with a view to rebuilding the nunnery. This proposal has led to a string of vigorous complaints from the elders of the six villages with shares during the last three years, but the situation remains, at present (1991), unresolved. 24 See Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 100-127, for a discussion of the Yeuk. 25 The only alternative was a dangerous, difficult, and often impassable waist-deep ford, as the 1896 Kwong Fuk bridge tablet makes clear. See Faure, Luk and Ng, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 298. 26 See Robert G. Groves, "The Origins of Two Market Towns in the New Territories", Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories, Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Symposium Report, 1964, pp. 16-20, and Alice Ng Lun Ngai-ha, "Xianggang Xinjie xushi zhi xingqi yu shuailao: Dabuxu yanjiu" [The Foundation and Decay of Market Towns in the New Territories of Hong Kong: A Study of Tai Po], in Chinese Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1985, pp. 633-655. The very widespread support for the Tsat Yeuk can be gathered from the list of donors shown on the Kwong Fuk bridge tablet, Faure, Luk and Ng, loc. cit. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 no Kankyo [Village Festival in China: Background of Local Theatres] (1989). The Jiao festivals studied by Tanaka are as follows: Communities Year Cheung Chau 1979 1979, 1983 Recorded in 1981:74-99 1985:227-302 Ha Tsuen 1981 1985:199-226 Hung Hom, Kowloon *1 1978-80 1981:771-780 Kam Tin 1985 1989:915-996 Lam Tsuen 1981 1985:359-528 Leung Shuen Wan, Sai Kung 1980 1981:99-113 Lin Fa Tei *2 1967 1985:558-572 Lung Yeuk Tau 1983 1985:609-720 Sha Tin, Kau Yeuk 1985 1989:1041-1112 Sha Tin, Tai Wai 1987 1989:977-1040 Sha Tin, Tin Sam 1986 1989:1040 Tai Po Tau 1985 1985:121.131-138 Tuen Tsz Wai 1986 1989:817-913 Yuen Long 1983 1985:139-198 43 *1: From the context, this festival, held on the 14th of the seventh moon, can be best seen as a ghost festival organized by the Hoklo dialect group. *2: Tanaka did not attend this festival. Analysis of the festival was mostly based on the 1967 account collected by H. Baker. See map for the location of places. JH Tanaka, Ritual Theatres, 5. 班 Tanaka, Lineage and Theatre, 11. 40 fbid., i-ii. 41 Tanaka, Village Festival, i-iij. 42 Faure, David, The Structure of Chinese Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986), 81. 4.3 Segawa, Masahisa, "Daa Chiu: matsuri ni arawareru Hon Kon no mura no sugao” [Da Jiao: facets of villages in Hong Kong as shown in the festivals] Kikan Minzoku Gaku Ethnography Quarterly 33 (1985): 21-35. 14 Segawa, Masahisa "Ta-tsiu [Da-Jiao], feuds, and village alliances: the case of Pat Heung" (unpublished manuscript, 1991). 45 Choi, Chi-cheung, “Chi o urai ekibyo o harau taihei shinsho" [Jiao festival: to wash: the land and remove illness] Kikan Minzoku Gaku 40 (1987): 90-105. 4 40 Choi, Jiao festival", 1046. 47 Choi, "Kinship", 147-149. 4# Though Tanaka wrote that only a few communities in the New Territories celebrated the festival during his seven and a half years' observation (Tanaka, Lineage and Theatre, 608), we are still unclear as to how many communities continue to celebrate it. For instance, the Cheung Long Wai case was not mentioned by any informants. It was known only by an occasional visit to the village. A likely source is the Police since theoretically every festival celebrated in Hong Kong has to receive permission from the police for security measures. The district offices in the New Territories are another source of information. Certainly there were in the past other celebrations which have now ceased for one reason or another (e.g. at Sha Tau Kok, Shuen Wan and Ta Kwu Leng). 49 Segawa, "Daa Chiu', 35. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 276 the river more or less helpless unless a steam launch either towed them out, or at least assisted in turning them round. The wharf proposed was to be built very close to the Imperial Maritime Customs station: the Customs supported the proposal since it would make their anti-smuggling work in the area far easier. ― A lease (for a smaller area of 850 feet not so obviously blocking the channel) was granted by the Hong Kong Government. The Tung Ping Kuk, however, (represented by two Cheungs and a Wong; by this date the Wongs were normally allies of the Cheungs, being united by their mutual antagonism to the Tsois whose land lay between them) complained to the San On Magistrate, who promptly had the Yuen elders imprisoned for the "fraudulent attempt to divert the toll from the Kuk to themselves". The District Magistrate also made a strong statement of the rights to take toll being a Government right, founded on Government ownership of the wastes of the river bank. The Kuk sent young men to tear the new wharf down. The affair then petered out - the Magistrate was willing to take a far more active role in 1903-1905 than in 1875 or earlier, and the opening of the railway a couple of years later made all discussions of rights to toll somewhat academic, since trade now began to flow in different directions altogether. These documents show three points of interest: the ineffectiveness of the Magistrate in settling affairs of this sort in the mid/late-nineteenth century; the critical importance of control of markets, roads, ferries, bridges and other nodal points of the traffic system in local politics; and the blood-thirsty and implacable nature which inter-village disputes could assume. The disputes over the ownership of the landing place at Sham Chun lasted some seventy years, from the 1830s to 1905. Effective action by the District Magistrate seems to have been limited to the period 1903-1905: the actions of the Magistrate in 1875 were ineffective in the extreme, and there seems to have been no action at all in earlier disputes. In 1875, it was only when the dispute had escalated to such a state that the army was forced to intervene that any effective Government action was seen but it came very late. In other inter-village disputes in the area in this period the same ineffective inaction by the District Magistrate can be seen. There seems to have been no action taken by the District Magistrate in the bloody fighting (about 1850-1860) between Wong Pui Ling and Ta... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 Kwu Ling, for instance," and official action is not remembered in the fighting between Tsuen Wan and Shing Mun, or in that between Tai Wai and Cheung Sha Wan, at about the same dates. Between 1850 and 1880 it would seem that the policy of the District Magistrate was to turn a blind eye to inter-village disputes unless this was impossible. Krone, in his 1858 "Notice of the Sanon District"2 speaks at some length on inter-village warfare in the area and the ineffectiveness of the District Magistrate in responding to it. The District was "troubled and insecure... internecine wars are almost always raging between some or other of the villages, and these wars ... are often long-continued and sanguinary. The people are of a quarrelsome nature, and fond of rapine [and, in the sub-mandarin's view,] depraved and so drowned in all manner of wickedness as to have lost their human nature. ... The Mandarins have very little power. The people do not allow the Mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law suits, differences and offences are seldom brought before the Mandarins. 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.... etc'. Krone notes particularly a long-fought inter-village war at Sha Tsing (7 JP, Shajing). Here, the District Magistrate eventually came with 1,000 soldiers to make peace (this was probably in 1852 or 1853), and was not only ignored, but threatened by both combatants; intervention by neutral clans allowed the Magistrate to retreat with his "face" intact, but his intervention had no effect on the course of the dispute. The Basel Missionaries also had a low opinion of the District Magistrate in this period. One said, in 1861, “The San On Magistrate is a miserable, dirty fraud and hypocrite. He demands outward respect, but does no justice. Hence differences, by being denied a hearing, grow to quarrels, then to blows, then to war, while he sits at home and does nothing”.13 This ineffectiveness may not have been the normal situation of the district. The military posts which Krone found empty and ruinous Page 300 Page 301 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 278 had been manned once. It is possible that the District had seen a steady decline in the effectiveness of its official government since the early nineteenth century, so that inter-village disputes came more and more to be settled by fighting rather than by an airing in the Yamen. The onset of the Tai Ping rebels must have reduced the effectiveness of the Magistrate to a very low level (groups claiming to be Tai Ping rebels, threatened Sha Tau Kok and captured Kowloon in 1854, although the Hong Kong Government doubted to what degree these groups were really Tai Ping, and not just opportunistic bandits using the name to frighten possible opponents). By the end of the nineteenth century there seems to have been a definite improvement in effectiveness, as the action at Sham Chun in 1903-1905 shows. The period of ineffectiveness seems to have lasted from the 1830s to the 1880s, with the low-point in the 1850s and 1860s. Most of the known inter-village warfare in the area occurred within these years. The importance of control of the nodal points of the traffic system is quite clear, as can be seen from the table below. There can be no doubt that the Sham Chun dispute, as a dispute over control of markets and traffic nodal points, fell into a clear local pattern. These inter-village disputes were often blood-thirsty and implacable, and the nineteenth century has evidence of enough inter-village wars to make it clear that Krone was in no way exaggerating the lawlessness of the period. The list below is not exhaustive, but merely lists those inter-village wars in the immediate Hong Kong region known to me. It is interesting to note, as a measure of the ease with which local politics could degenerate into warfare, that the single village of Wong Pui Ling was involved in local wars at least four times between 1850 and 1875. Between 1911 and 1925, the District Officer, in his Annual Reports, every year mentioned as a serious problem cross-border armed raids by "bandits". Some of these bandits were, certainly no more than that "enemies of the people". Some, however, were probably recrudescences of old inter-village rivalries. Not all "bandits" in the area were necessarily seen as bandits by themselves. In the warfare at Po Kat in 1853, the Basel Mission station which was outside the town, in the countryside between the two sides was at first ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 280 16 treated as a neutral, and ignored,' apart from numerous stray bullets which hit it accidentally. However, eventually "more than a hundred bandits" decided to come and kidnap the missionary's wife, and hold her for ransom. The missionary at this point gave up and fled for shelter to Hong Kong. Were these "bandits” a gang of opportunistic thieves and robbers who had come out of the mountains to take what they could in confused times, or one of the antagonists attacking a neutral in an attempt to fill the "war-chest? Clearly, "bandit attacks" were generated by, and cannot always be safely distinguished from, inter-village warfare. From all this evidence, it can be assumed that inter-village warfare in the mid-nineteenth century was endemic in the Hong Kong region, and that the evidence for the serious outbreak at Sham Chun given above merely fits the wider pattern. NOTES P.H. HASE 1 "The Archives of the Basel Mission", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, 1988, pp. 203-207. 2 It is Basel Mission Archive document A1-9, NR. 31, Quarterly Report, Lilong Station, 1875. I am indebted to Mrs. E. Gilkes for assistance in translating this document. 3 The markets in the area in the Ming are listed in the 1688 County Gazetteer. "Kim Hau Market" is mentioned in the list of villages → this market may, therefore, already have been abandoned by 1688. 4 Enclosure C in Item 59 "Despatch, Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton”. Jan. 11, 1905, in Eastern No. 88 Confidential: Hong Kong 'Correspondence Relating to the Proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway', printed for the Colonial Office. 1907, p. 87 mentions "61 large and 232 medium-sized shops" there, plus, presumably some smaller places. 5 Lilong (F) was the main Basel Mission station in San On (X) District. It lies close to the railway to the north of Sham Chun. 6 Tsoi Uk Wai. 7 Of Wong Pui Ling. 8 At Nam Tau on the coast of the Pearl River. 9 For the she hok (*, "Community School"), see D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 130, 136-138, 222 (n. 16-17), 223 (n. 18). 10 The documents are in File CSO208/1902(Ext) (no title), Public Records Office, Hong Kong, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 281 See P.H. Hase “The Cheung Shan Kwu Ts'un: an Ancient Buddhist Nunnery in the New Territories, and its Place in Local Society”, in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29, 1989, pp. 121-157. Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 104-137, reprinted from Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 6, 1859, pp. 71-105. Der Evangelische Heidenbote, Jan. 1862. See also P.H. Hase "Ta Kwu Ling, Wong Pui Ling, and the Kim Hau Bridges" elsewhere in this issue. Krone, loc. cit. says that missionaries were usually treated as neutral and ignored in fighting. Der Evangelische Heidenbote, Feb. 1906. SHA TAU KOK IN 1853 The Rev. Carl Smith drew my attention some time ago to the wealth of material available in the Basel Mission Archive on Sha Tau Kok in the middle of the nineteenth century. Through the courtesy of the Mission Archive, photostats of a number of documents were received and studied. Among them was a most interesting general description of the District and Market at Sha Tau Kok dating from 1853. Given its general interest, a translation of this document is printed below. Comments in square brackets are editorial clarifications. "Tungfo. Tungfo* | Tung Wo, 41, the formal name of Sha Tau Kok Market station is situated in the Province of Quang-tung [Kwangtung], in the District of Sinon [San On #1. The southern border of this District is formed by the China Sea, whereas, to the east and west, the borders are formed by inlets of this sea. The western inlet is the larger, although it is too small to be called a gulf. The English call it the "Canton River". The city of Canton is situated on this estuary. Because of the Canton River, traffic between Canton and Hong Kong is very easy, and * All placenames in this document are given in the original Hakka transcription. Placenames in Hong Kong are also given in square brackets according to the Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories; placenames in China are also given in square brackets in Cantonese transcription and characters. ================================================================================ 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 52 Zang Yungtang (1767-1811) had studied in Suzhou in 1793, the centre of Han Learning at that time, and was invited by Ruan Yuan to edit the classical dictionary, Jing ji zhuan gu. In 1800 he was asked again by Ruan Yuan to collate the Thirteen Classics. He stayed on Ruan Yuan's personal staff until 1802. After failing the Metropolitan Examination, he went into business; then joined the personal staff of Yi Bingshou (1754-1815), who was then the Prefect of Yangzhou, in 1804, to write about the topography of Yangzhou. From 1807 onwards, he went back on Ruan Yuan's payroll, compiling Wu Dai shi [History of the Five Dynasties] at the behest of Liu Fengao (1761-1830). Qian Taxin (1728-1804) came from a scholarly tradition, a grandson and son of noted men of learning. After obtaining his first degree at the age of 17 sui, he became residential tutor in a family with an excellent library which he used extensively. After attaining the jinshi degree in 1754, he remained in Beijing where he became friends with Dai Zhen and Ji Yun (1724-1805) who later became chief editor of the Si ku chuan shu. He directed the Chong shan Academy in Nanjing, and joined Ruan Yuan on the dictionary project in Hangzhou. He was the author of the critical notes on Er shi er shi kao yi [Twenty-two dynastic histories], 100 juan, 1782. Ruan Yuan's subordinate wife, Liu Wenru (1777-1849) was to compile the same for Er shi si shi [Twenty-four dynastic histories]. Chen Shouchi (1777-1834) of Minxian, Fujian had started his career with Zhu Gui. Afterwards he joined the faculty of Gu jing jing she and the Fu Wen Academy. He was recruited to work on Jing fu and Hai tang zhi by Ruan Yuan. At a later date, he served as editor-in-chief of Fujian tong zhi [Provincial gazetteer of Fujian] and Li xian fang zhi [Local gazetteer of the Li District of Jiangsu]. His own essays on the Classics, with several letters from Ruan Yuan, were printed in Zuo hai wen ji [Essays by Chen Shouchi]. Chen Wenxu (1775-1845) of Hangzhou was a “student” of Zhu Gui, who introduced him to Ruan Yuan. Ruan considered Chen one of the foremost poets of the province, and appointed him to his personal staff. He gained expertise in sea transport, salt administration, grain transport and flood control. He helped Ruan Yuan establish a humanitarian social welfare policy, including famine relief. He collected a large number of women students. Both his subordinate wives were acknowledged poets. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 166 descendents experimenting with the locations in the light of family events over that time, since anything untoward would be attributed to bad siting of the urn.* If, however, good fortune smiled on the family, it might then be decided to prepare a formal, horseshoe grave on that site, or perhaps on another equally auspicious or even better location. The services of a geomancer were obligatory on such occasions as few families would possess a member with the necessary skills. Thus, by the time a new grave appeared on a hillside, there had been a great amount of prior thought and activity among the responsible persons in the family, as well as considerable expenditure. Sometimes, this included paying those villagers living in the vicinity of the grave, persons with customary rights of grazing, and somebody to cut the grass around the grave occasionally. Some Typical Grave Inscriptions The following inscriptions on two old graves recorded from the Tsuen Wan District, with translations and comments, will indicate the care taken with burials, and the obvious importance attached to the process. The first is from a grave belonging to the Tang family of Kam Tin, New Territories. This inscription, dated 1853, has been chosen from among many others of the kind, because it exemplifies the strong family feeling that motivates descendents in regard to ancestral worship and their duties toward the living and the dead: Ancestor Wing-shing, alias ...-yue, alias Shan-fung, was the second son of Ancestor Kwan-leung. He was born in Chien Lung ping-san year (1736) and died in Chia Ch'ing kap-shut year (1814). By his wife, who was from the Man family, he had one son, Ying-yuen, a kui-yan of 1789. Ancestor Hin-sing, alias Kwing-yue, alias Kang-sham, was the only son of Ancestor Kwan-chak. These two gentlemen were grandsons of Ancestor Kwok-yın. [Hin-sing] was born in Chien Lung mou-san year 1748, and died in Chia Ch'ing san-mei year 1811. By his wife, who came from the Liu family, he had two sons. One, Ying-..., who held fu kung-sang degree had a [second] wife from the Man family, by whom he had two ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 185 high standards, and took care to employ good teachers. The school must always have had several teachers - the building is just too big to have been feasible for just one. In 1923 there were five teachers. Three were Shap Yeuk area people. One, Chan Kan-cheung, from Luk Keng, was a returned student from USA - he taught English and Physical Education. Another teacher from Luk Keng was Chan Ping-long, a graduate from Canton. He taught "the new books". The third teacher from the Shap Yeuk area was Lau Woon-kwong, from Keng Hau (Jinghou) in the Chinese part of the Shap Yeuk area. He taught classical Chinese and Music. The other two teachers were outsiders: Lei Wai-lau was a Sau Tsoi from near Yuen Long, a Punti speaker - he taught classical Chinese. The fifth teacher, Wu Fan-ng, was from Shaoguan in the north of Guangdong. He had lived for many years in Sha Tau Kok, and spoke and taught in Hakka. He, like Chan Ping-long, was a graduate from Canton, and taught "the new books". Right down to the 1930s, the desire to keep their school one of the best and most advanced in the region was a major aim of the elders of the Shap Yeuk. In the 1920s, the standard of the school was as advanced as the Government schools which the Hong Kong Government had started to open in the major centres of the New Territories. By having this group of well-educated and cultured men living in the market, the elders of the Shap Yeuk demonstrated that their town and district comprised a full and viable community - not only having artisans and labourers and merchants, but scholars and gentry as well. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 recorded as having 29 males and 10 females resident. The boat people at Kowloon City and Sham Shui Po may have been included in the Victoria Harbour grouping. But it seems likely that the bulk of the Northern boat-people population was omitted from the statistics in 1911. At Cheung Chau, 4,442 boat-people are recorded in 1911, 2,601 of them male. This probably includes those boat-people usually anchored at Ping Chau and Mui Wo. At Lantau, 5,413 are recorded, 3,159 of them male.** The Lantau figure probably includes, not only the floating population at Tai O, but also the people living in "boat-huts" on stilts there. It also probably covers those boat-people anchored at Tung Chung, and may cover those at Tuen Mun as well. In 1921, 3,552 boat people are enumerated at Cheung Chau, and 3,894 at Tai O (probably not including the “boat-hut” residents). Given the absence of some deep sea fishing boats during the 1921 Census period, it seems that the Southern District floating population statistics are broadly similar in 1911 and 1921. The careful notification of New Territories residents as to the purpose of the 1911 Census, and the use of local men as enumerators, led to a lack of practical problems with villagers, who seem to have responded surprisingly well to the process. The police escorts had "not very much to do,” and “no trouble whatever" occurred. On a more detailed basis, the civilian enumerator teams in the mainland New Territories, and the police on Lamma, in the Sham Shui Po area, and, to a lesser extent, on Lantau, seem to have done a more careful job than the police on Cheung Chau, and in the Tsuen Wan and Kowloon City areas. 598 villages were separately enumerated in the nine mainland civilian enumerator districts," 18 on Lamma, 49 on Lantau, and 23 in the Sham Shui Po district." Very few of the villages or hamlets on Lamma or in the mainland New Territories outside the Tsuen Wan and Kowloon City areas were not separately enumerated. The few that are not are hamlets closely connected with a nearby village and enumerated with it. On Lantau, however, some villages are not separately enumerated. The villages to the south of Tai O (Fan Kwai Tong, Yi O, Fan Lau), those immediately east of Tung Chung and along the upper edges of the Tung Chung valley (Tai Po, Tung Chung Hang, Wong Lung Hang, Lam Che, etc.), most of those in the Chi Ma Wan peninsula (except Shap Long), and most of the very tiny villages in the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 32 to say. These came from the Wai Chau Prefecture, particularly Kwai Shin District, and from Ka Ying Prefecture, especially Cheung Lok District - 556 males are recorded in the 1911 Census from these Prefectures, 488 from the two Districts of Kwai Shin and Cheung Lok. Only 110 females from these areas were recorded, making it clear that the bulk of the people from these areas were not accompanied by their families. The third group of Northern District men recorded in the 1911 Census as born outside the New Territories are probably mostly shop-keepers in the small market-towns, people from all over the Canton Delta (273 males and 119 females), but only a few from any one place. A few may be children born while their New Territories parents were living temporarily away from home, as doubtless the three males born in Honolulu. It is clear that, in 1911, the 556 Northern District males born in the north-east prefectures, and the 273 born in the Delta, could not have affected the basic structure of society - they together represent only 2% of recorded males. Females born outside the New Territories were more numerous than males born outside the New Territories in 1911 in Northern District, as it had long been the custom of the area to seek wives for sons from some distance away from the village. Doubtless, the 1,536 females recorded as born in San On District, and the 2,383 born in Hong Kong and Kowloon were mostly wives brought in, and thus not likely to affect the basic structure of society. Females from further away constitute only 308, a mere 1% of the recorded female population of the Northern District in 1911. In the islands, however, a full 26% of males recorded in 1911 of the land population (1,631 males) were born outside the New Territories. As in the Northern District, some of these were probably shop-keepers resident with their families (246 San On males, and 265 San On females: 195 Tung Kun males, and 144 females: 40 Macau males, and 63 females), but many were businessmen or coolies living apart from their families, in businesses supporting the coastal shipping trade. 51 males from the Chiu Chau area (only 7 females), 536 from the Hoi Luk Fung area (only 28 females), and 32 men from Lo Tung (no females) were ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Table 28 Urban Population: New Territories. 1911 63 Northern District: Town Males Females Total Yuen Long 458 81.9% 101 18.1% 559 Sai Kung 320 62.5% 192 37.5% 512 Hang Hau 262 67.7% 125 32.3% 387 Ha Tsuen Sh 120 67.4% 58 32.6% 178 Shek Wu Hui 29 67.4% 14 32.6% 43 Tuen Mun San Hu 72 67.3% 35 32.7% 107 Tai Wo Shi 377 79.9% 95 20.1% 472 Tai Po Old Market 104 53.3% 84 44.7% 253 Tap Mun 168 66.4% 85 33.6% 253 Sha Tau Kok 43 70.5% 18 29.5% 61 North District Total. 1910 70.8% 789 29.2% 2699 Southern District: Town Tai O land population 1159 51.6% 1089 48.4% 2248 .boat population 3159 58.4% 2254 41.6% 5413 Total 4318 56.4% 3343 43.6% 7661 Cheung Chau land population 1918 59.1% 1326 40.9% 3244 :boat population 2601 58.6% 1841 41.4% 4442 Total 4519 58.8% 3167 41.2% 7686 Ping Chau 434 67.6% 208 32.4% 642 Mui Wo Kau Chun 11 61.1% 7 38.9% 18 Southern District Total 9282 58.0% 6725 42.0% 16007 New Territories Total. 11192 60.0% 7514 40% 18706 * Most of Sha Tau Kok was in China this is the New Territories part of the town Tsuen wan is not included as the census includes a large rural population with the town. Some of the Cheung Chau boat population was probably at Ping Chau, and some of the Tai O boat population was probably at other anchorages on Lantau, but only a small percentage in each case It will be noted that there was no town in the Northern District as large as Ping Chau, and that Cheung Chau was more than 24 times as large as all the Northern District towns put together. There were rural populations included within the total for, especially, Tai O, but, nonetheless, the differences are very real. The 1921 Census includes population figures for only one town, Sai Kung the figure it gives (an overall figure of 606) is in line with the 1911 figure. It is noticeable that the population engaged in “urban” occupations can be comfortably fitted into the recorded populations of the Southern District towns, with a substantial excess over to cover the fishermen and ocean-going seamen living in the towns In Northern ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 65 burners, who oral evidence suggests were common, are noted in the 1921 Census16 in Northern and 183 in Southern District, as also are the brick and tile makers, with 83 male and five female workers noted in Northern District in that year. The other traditional trades noted by the 1921 Census as present in numbers (vegetable oil pressers, shipbuilders, blacksmiths, carpenters) were mostly working within the market towns. In some places the “industrial” villages can be traced in the 1911 Census, even though the residents in them do not appear specifically in the "Occupations" Table. Thus, there was an area where incense wood was pounded into dust for manufacture into joss-sticks at Pak Kiu Tsuen outside Tai Po Market, and another at Tso Kung Tam outside Tsuen Wan. At the first, the census records the village of Wong Ka Uk, with 10 males but no females, and, at the second, the villages of Tso Kung Tam and Pak Shek Kiu, with 36 males and only nine females between them. These imbalanced populations strongly suggest that the villages in question were essentially industrial. Shek Tsai Po, outside Tai O - a centre for the drying of fish and the manufacture of shrimp paste - had a similarly imbalanced population of 71 males to 47 females. Villages next to important ferries - Liu Pok, Lo Wu, Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Kong, Ha Mei, Mui Wo - also tend to have recorded populations with more males than females, reflecting the boatmen and similar traders living at the ferry pier. Suburban industrial trades are probably the reason also why many of the villages on Hong Kong Island and the rural parts of Kowloon (especially Ma Kong, Chung Hom Kok, Lan Nai Wan, To Tei Wan, Tai Tam Tuk, Tong Po, Deep Water Bay, and the Quarry Bay villages on Hong Kong Island, and Ma Tau Kok, San Shan, Shek Shan, Lo Lung Hang, Wong Nai Yue, Fo Pang, Tai Shek Kwu, and Ho Man Tin in Kowloon)* show a significant excess of males over females. Suburban villages with significant excesses of males are also to be seen immediately outside most of the New Territories market towns in 1911. These villages had commercial market-gardens, industrial premises which required large areas (dyers, joss-stick makers, sawyers, etc.), and offensive trades (tanners, lime-burners, brick and tile works, etc.), and should be considered as part of the market town complex. The ring of villages with high male-female ratios around the city in 1911 should be seen in the same way, as subordinate to the commercial life of the City. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 71 villages and depopulated districts”, and by 1906 they were remarking on villages “with no adult males left at all.” As noted above, the district officer in 1912 also identified heavy temporary emigration of young adult males as a notable feature of the New Territories. Up to the 1870s, the emigration noted by the missionaries was of indentured coolies, leaving by ones and twos following inducements offered by more or less dubious emigration agents, and the missionaries castigated it as a "slave trade." However, after the reforms of the coolie trade in the 1870s, emigration became more respectable, with elders of the villages arranging for the emigration for a few years of groups of youths from the village, through well-trusted contacts with particular shipping lines. A tablet of 1894 in the main temple of the Sha Tau Kok area (the Kwan Tai Temple at Shan Tsui), lists the donors to the temple rebuilding of that year. The elders decided to seek donations in the first place from residents of the Sha Tau Kok area living away from home. Over a thousand donated and are listed, with their place of residence given. Apart from a substantial group living in Hong Kong, villagers of the area were at that date living in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria in Australia, in New Zealand, in Hawaii, British Columbia, California, Peru, Panama, and many other places. Today, in villages of the area such as Shan Tsui or Sheung Wo Hang, elders will state that the best of the older surviving houses in the village were built by people who returned from emigration to marry and raise their families in the village in the period 1910-1930. In a few, portraits of these rich returned emigrants still hang on the walls of the houses they built. Similar tales are told of rich returned emigrants in Sha Tin; the village of San Tin there was founded by a returned emigrant of Au Pui Wan village about 1890-1895. For most of Tsuen Wan district, the 1911 Census does not give enough information to identify villages with abnormal population balances, but there is a further tablet recording donations to a temple rebuilding there, in this case of 1900, which demonstrates that some hundreds of the villagers of that area were abroad then. Those villages which can be shown to have had villagers living away from the village from the Shan Tsui tablet, or which have "returned emigrant” houses, all have low male-female ratios in 1911. There can be no doubt that the information at Appendix I and Table 31 shows the degree to which, and the area where, early emigration was a significant social factor in the New Territories. 100 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 72 Of course, in some cases the emigration was over a short distance, to the nearest market town. It is likely, as noted above, that the absent males of the Yuen Long plain villages were working in the Yuen Long markets, and possible that some at least of the Lam Tsuen males were in the Tai Po Market. Some Lamma villagers were probably working in Aberdeen, and from all over the New Territories there were villagers working in the city - so many that their return to the villages for the Ching Ming Festival in 1921 could bias the census in that year, as noted above. But much of the emigration, as the Basel missionaries, the temple donation tablets at Shan Tsui and Tsuen Wan, and oral evidence, all make clear, was to overseas. The implications of villages with surplus males are less easy to identify (see Appendix II and Table 32; these identify villages with more than 56% recorded males in their populations: villages with fewer than 35 total population are excluded, except where the surplus of males is extreme). In many cases, just as the villages with low male female ratios identify villages with significant temporary male emigration, so villages with high male: female ratios identify places with temporary male immigration. One group already discussed which stands out is the market towns, almost all of which have high male: female ratios. Nearly 82% of the recorded population of Yuen Long market was male, and almost 80% of that of Tai Po new market (Tai Wo Shi). Even Shek Wu Hui, Ha Tsuen and Tuen Mun San Hui had over two-thirds of their tiny populations male (Table 28). These figures need to be put into perspective. In 1911, within the City of Victoria (i.e., omitting the Peak and the Hong Kong Island villages) there were 151,303 males out of a total Chinese population of 217,668. Males represented, therefore, 69.5% of the total Chinese population.1 Thus, the male domination of the larger New Territories market towns was significantly more substantial in 1911 than that of the city, and even the smaller New Territories markets had at least as high a level of male domination. The only exceptions to this are Cheung Chau, and Tai O, in Southern District. While these towns have more males than females, the imbalance is less than in the Northern District towns or the city: however, it seems likely that small rural populations are included with those towns, and that this causes distortion in these cases. Most of the New Territories towns also, as noted above, had suburban villages which shared the male domination of the town itself. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 77 Appendix I Villages with Low Male: Female (Less than 47%) Population Ratios, 1911 District Village No. of males Total population Age of males N San Tong Po 15 47 31.9** N Ngau Ha 6 16 N Sam Tam Lo 1 6 33.3** N Mo To Hang 2 6 33.3** N Ko Tan 8 21 38.1** N Tsiu Keng 15 43 34.9** N Wo Hop Shek 21 48 43.8 N Sheung Tan Chuk Hang 43 102 42.2 N Ping Che Yuen Ha 27 61 44.3 N Tai Po Tin 25 56 44.6 N Fung Wong Wit 39 84 46.4 N Lo Shue Ling 98 209 46.9 N Lei Uk Tsuen 41 94 43.6 N Chuk Yuen 18 44 40.9* N Tsung Yuen Ha 39 85 45.9 N Muk Wu 81 174 46.6 N Luk Keng 182 484 37.6** N Yim Tso Ha 18 47 38.3** N Shek Kiu Tau 37 98 37.8** N Ma Tseuk Ling Tai Long N 47 125 37.6** N Ha Wo Hang 20 46 43.5 N Sheung Wo Hang 66 160 41.3 N Nam Chung 175 443 39.5* N Wu Kay Tang 152 348 43.7 N Lin Ma Hang 165 423 39.0** N Ha Wang Shan Keuk 199 516 38.2** N Ha That Muk Kiu 16 43 37.2** N Kau Tam Tso 27 76 35.5** N Kai Keuk Shue Ha 13 42 31.0** N Fung Hang 47 108 43.5 N Kuk Po San Wai 61 143 42.6* N Tong To 56 126 44.4 N Shan Tsui 47 104 45.2 N Kong Ha 162 367 44.1 N Pok Wai 63 135 46.7 N Tai Che 100 225 44.4 ST Ngau Kok Wo 7 18 38.9** ST Tsung Tau Ha 3 8 37.5* ST 3 9 33.3** The table has been reconstructed for better readability while maintaining the original content and order. The column headers have been inferred as "District", "Village", "No. of males", "Total population", and "Age of males" based on the content. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Appendix II Villages with High Male: Female (More than 56% Male) Population Ratios 1911 81 Village District No. of males Total population Age of males Liu Pok Shek Wu Hui 136 237 57.4 Lo Wu 37 56 66.1** Tai Tau Tong 8 18 44.4* 100*1 5! 91 56.0 Tsung Pak Leng N 105 184 57.0 Yin Kong N 21 35 60.0+ Tiu Keng Wan N 38 56 67.6 Sau Hang N 25 42 59.5* Ma Wat Wan N 28 49 57.3 Wan Shan Ha N 38 66 57.6 Loi Tung N 107 191 56.0 Kuk Po Lo Wai N 140 247 56.7 Hung Shek Mun N 49 87 56.3 Wu Chau Tong N 28 48 58.3 Sha Tau Kok N 14 14 100** Yim Liu Ha N 29 47 61.7+ Ngong Ping ST 7 9 77.8** San Tun ST 77 109 70.0** Pak Tin ST 2 3 66.7** Wang Pok ST 8 9 88.9** Sheung Wo Che ST 70 100 70.0** Chek Mei Ping ST 70 122 57.2 Shek Wu Wai YL 37 56 66.1++ Tung Tau Yuen YL 26 38 68.4** Kak Hang Yuen YL 16 25 64.0** Lei Uk YL 32 48 66.7** Sha Kong Miu YL 5 6 77.4** Yuen Long Market YL 458 559 81.9** Tong Fong 83 148 56.1 Sha Kong YL 5 6 83.3** Kong Tau YL 26 46 56.5 Ha Tsuen Shi YL 120 178 67.4** Wang Che SK 4 5 80.0** Wu Lei Tau SK 6 9 66.7** Yau Ma Po SK 24 31 77.4** Uk Cheung SK 4 6 66.7** Hang Hau SK 262 387 67.8** Mau Fa Tsuen SK 28 47 59.6* ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 86 Orme Report, op cit, paras 87, 89, 91, 101-102 12 Census Report, 1921, pages 160, 162 11 Census Report, 1911, para 48. By 1921, the Districts were called North and South Districts, but in this paper they are called Northern and Southern Districts throughout, for the sake of uniformity and simplicity Census Report 1911, paras 8, 41 Census Report, 1911, paras 6, 7 7 Census Report, 1971, para 7 1 Census Report 1911 para 3 Census Report, 1977 para 44 Census Report, 1911 para 22, and Tables XIX and XIXa Census Report, 1911 para 3 Census Report 1911 para 5, 6, 8, 44 2 Census Report 1911 para 19 Census Report, 1911 para 22 Census Report, 1911 para 2 20 Census Report, 1921, Table XXXIVa See below, n 63 Census Report, 1911 Table XVII 20 Census Report, 1911, paras 41, 48 Census Report, 1911, Table XIX San Tin district enumerated 73 villages, the Mui Bay Launch District 34, Sheung Shui 59, Sha Tin 62, Au Tau 62, Sha Tau Kok 67, Ping Shan 73, Tai Po 102, and Sai Kung 126 Census Report, 1917, Table XIXa Tsing Fat Tong, Ha Fa Shan, Yau Kam Tau, Ting Kau, Tso Kung Tam, Sham Tseng, Chuen Lung and other villages west of the Tso Kung Tam stream are enumerated separately ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 87 under the Au Tau Enumeration District, and the Shing Mun villages are similarly separately enumerated under the Tai Po Enumeration District. The villages of the "Stone Hill" - Ngau Tau Kok, Sui Cho Wan, Cha Kwo Ling, and Lei Yue Mun - are enumerated separately, under Kowloon City enumeration district. * Census Report, 1911, Tables XIV, XV. * Census Report, 1911, page 6. * On Lammia, 18 villages, population 826 (perhaps 3.6 villages, 181 people per day), in Au T'au, 62 villages, population 1873 (perhaps 1 village, 181 people per day), Sha T'au Kok, 67 villages, population 8570 (perhaps 1 village, 143 people per day), Ping Shan, 74 villages, population 10797 (perhaps 1 village, 190 people per day), Sai Kung, 126 villages, population 9243 (perhaps 2 villages, 154 people per day). * Census Report, 1921, pages 159-160, Para 1. * Census Report, 1921, page 160, para 6. * Census Report, 1921, page 151, para 4, 6. * Census Report, 1921, page 152, para 9. * Census Report, 1921, page 152, para 9. * Census Report, 1927, pages 166-167, paras 5, 7. 12 In 1921, Tsuen Wan district had only 135 boat people; if, as is likely, the numbers of boat people there were the same in 1911, then the boat people were only 5% of the population of Tsuen Wan. * Preliminary Census Report (23rd June 1921), op cit, para 4 - 5, Census Report, 1921, page 155, para 9, page 160, para 3, 4, page 162, para 13, Table XI. 14 Preliminary Census Report (23rd June 1921), op cit, para 4, Census Report, 1921, page 160, para 1. 15 Taken from Census Report, 1911, Table XXI, and Census Report, 1927, Tables IX, XIV. 47 That the figures in 1911 are the result of under-reporting of young boys can be seen by checking the figures in the 1921 Census for boys aged 10-14 and 15-19. Since the Northern District population was basically static, these are largely the same group as those aged 0-4, 5-9 a decade earlier. The Census gives 4146 and 3479 for these two groups, thereby confirming the under-reporting of 1911. * Preliminary Census Report (23rd June 1921), op cit, para 3, Census Report, 1921, page 156. * Census Report, 1927, page 161, para 9, page 162, para 1. However, see also note 65. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 66 13 Despite this, the Pangs are free to rent it to outsiders for profit because this will not change their legal ownership. This social phenomenon manifests villagers' two underlying distinctive concepts, as David Faure suggests, that is, the right of settlement and the right of residence. He points out that not all residents in the village enjoy settlement rights, as the rights can only be inherited by the lineage founder's male descendants.1 One will be considered as a lineage member if one can trace common descent and hold the same settlement rights. Residents who do not hold settlement rights are defined as outsiders. They have no right to elect anybody or to serve in any posts (such as the village guard and Village Representative) in the lineage, nor can they participate in or benefit from lineage religious activities. Therefore, keeping village houses by lineage members is synonymous with maintaining their prescribed settlement rights to sustain their lineage community. As a matter of fact, property dispute is not unknown in Fanling Wai. The following case study demonstrates the way in which the Pangs strategically manipulated the spatial differences between agricultural land and housing land to prevent a married-out daughter from inheriting the zu wu. In the dispute, patrilineal ideology is commonly articulated by different parties involved, namely, the Village Representatives (who are elected by male villagers to speak for their interests and whose power is legitimised by the government) and the female villagers, to safeguard their interests. Pang Chiu Sun had only a daughter, Pang Mei Fan (see Diagram 1). In the late 1970s, after her parents' death, Mei Fan applied for the inheritance of her father's property, which included nine plots of agricultural land and two village houses. Her application, however, was objected to by Pang Man Si (Mei Fan's father's brother's wife). Man Si complained to the District Officer that Mei Fan should be precluded from inheriting her father's property. She argued that, according to the Pang lineage custom, married-out daughters enjoyed no rights to inherit the housing property in Fanling Wai. Village Representatives arbitrated this case. In 1979, they arrived at the resolution that Mei Fan inherited her father's landed property and the village houses were managed by Man Si as a trustee. Their rationale is that, by custom, zu wu should only be inherited by male ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 78 47 # Government Press The total land area of Fanling and Sheung Shui was 13,184 acres (20.6 square miles). See Heung Yee Kuk, Xin Jie Xiang Yi Ju Cheng Li Lu Shi Zhou Nian Jin Dian Te Kan (The Special Issue for the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk's 60th Anniversary [published in 1986]), p. 182 A name list of successful applicants was posted on the village notice-board in 1991. A total of 69 ding houses were allowed to be built. But unsuccessful applicants tore down the list and then submitted objections to the District Office. They complained that some successful applicants were found to be living abroad, some came from the same family, and that most village council members of Fanling Wai (cun wei hui cheng yuan) were successful applicants. The result was considered unfair because many of these successful applicants were said to have bribed the Village Representatives for their applications. So the District Officer and Village Representatives had to set up new criteria for reconsidering the applications. "The detail of the criterion is as follows (Data collected from the Fanling Wai village notice-board in 1994): (1) Villagers having large families and those whose present living conditions were comparatively less desirable. (1) Villagers who could afford the construction costs of the houses and were unlikely to dispose of the completed houses to outsiders. (11) Villagers who were enthusiastic towards serving fellow villagers and were benevolent towards the affairs of the village. (iv) Villagers who had submitted applications before June 1989. (v) Applicants who were or had been members of either the village committee, or Da Jiao Committee or Village Guard would be considered to have served their fellow villagers and to be benevolent towards the affairs of Fanling Wai. (Da Jiao is a lineage-based religious festival, see footnote 10). (vi) Where two or more applicants having a father and son relationship were successful in this selection exercise, only one application would be selected for allocation of a Small House site. "Some villagers anticipated that their building rights would not be realized in their lifetime due to the keen competition or to their lack of money, so they decided to sell their "right to build" (ding quan) to land developers to profit. That is, land developers have offered villagers money to make use of their building rights to apply to build houses elsewhere. During my fieldwork, I found a total of seven Pangs who had successfully applied to build ding houses outside Fanling Wai. Six were built in San Wai of Lung Yeuk Tau (the Tang lineage settlement in Fanling), and one in Long Chai, Fanling. In fact, the phenomena of selling ding quan by villagers to make a profit has been a common one. For example, according to the Far Eastern Economic Review, ten villagers living abroad who had no intention of returning to Hong Kong made a total profit of $500,000 by selling their ding quan to land developers (1982: 55, quoted in Allen Chun, op. cit., p. 222). * In 1976, in order to discourage villagers from making profits by selling their ding wu, the government amended the policy to pay the government full market value premium if houses are sold within five years of the end of construction work. 27. The emigrant Mans also built new village houses in San Tin as the ultimate proof of their stake in the community of their birth. See James Watson, op. cit., p. 165 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 91 Kong village in 1936, thus providing access to the proposed second airfield site at Pat Heung. In the following year the first roadworks on the outlying islands were undertaken at Muk Wo (Mui Wo) on Lantau, primarily to provide access to the ferry pier. Drainage In 1843, a particularly bad year for disease, some essential drainage was begun and, by 1847, 740 metres of city drains had been laid in Victoria. At Happy Valley the muddy waters discharging from the surrounding hills via Wong Nei Chong (literally yellow mud stream) created swamp and healthwise lethal conditions, in particular following heavy rain. By 1846 the rice and sweet potato farmers at Happy Valley were bought out and the flat land drained, thus making the area less unhealthy than before. In spite of drainage improvements in and around the city, the mortality rate amongst European troops remained exceptionally high, for instance in 1851 it reached 24% compared with 10% for the civilian population, this latter percentage being swollen by the deaths of seamen. In the early days, to avoid flooding in low-lying areas, main drainage nullahs (large open channels) were constructed, the earliest in the central district probably being the Murray Barracks Nullah, which ran through the naval dockyard area, and the winding Victoria Barracks Nullah. At East Point, an impressive 6m-wide and 3.6m-deep nullah, the Bowrington Canal (now decked and located under Canal Road) which carried the run-off from the Happy Valley catchment area was planned as early as 1842. In Wan Chai, Stone Nullah Lane was located above a stream which ran below Hospital Hill (to the east of Morrison Hill). The quality of design/workmanship in the original drainage system clearly left a lot to be desired as, in 1860, a very heavy rain storm is reported to have burst most of the drains and also caused the collapse of some houses in Canton Bazaar (off Queen's Road opposite to the naval dockyard). During the violent typhoon in 1874, mounds of soil were again thrown up by bursting drains. The sewers also had other uses, for instance in 1863 twenty-two prisoners were known to have escaped from the old gaol in Hollywood Road by way of the monsoon drains whilst, in the next two years, the ingenuity and engineering skill displayed by “drain gangs" was such that a godown, jewellery store and even the vaults of a bank were entered by using storm-water drains. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 172 in the Colony), it could also be seen at Sha Tau Kok and at San Hui in Castle Peak Bay.7 In certain places along the route on our way to Huizhou, where there was apparently good fung shui, there were concentrations of graves and funerary urns, the latter, in Chinese, known as 'golden pagodas'. These contain human bones, placed in anatomical order, in the shape of a foetus, ready to 'return to the womb' for rebirth at reincarnation. Often, as one sometimes sees in Hong Kong's New Territories, small clusters of these urns were placed in tiny shelters. In some places however, along the road to Huizhou, these small structures were painted in garish colours. Often one would pass in China brick and tile kilns very similar to those simple kilns which one could find in the Castle Peak district of Hong Kong in the 1950s. A few years later these small firms were put out of business by less expensive clay, building-products which were imported into Hong Kong from Guangdong. The author contrasts this visit to Huizhou, in beautiful short-sleeve-shirt weather, with a visit led by RAS Member Phillip Bruce, also undertaken in November, about a decade earlier. The previous visit took place on one of the coldest November days on record with temperatures down to freezing. The author wore a deerstalker hat with ear-flaps to protect him from the biting wind! At the time, limited development had taken place in Huizhou. It is surprising how things have changed. Acknowledgements The RASHKB is grateful to Geoffrey Roper and his Activities Committee members, and especially to Dr Joseph Ting and Peter Rull, for organising this visit. The author is also grateful to RAS Member Charles Slater for the three photographs which illustrate this article. NOTES Peter Rull and Joseph Ting, Outline Programme for RAS Huizhou Visit 15 and 16 November 1997, handout Geoffrey Roper, An Introduction to the Tan Gong (Tam Kung) Temple below the Julung ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 211 future years was missing in 1881, a point made by Elizabeth Sinn in her study of the Tung Wah Hospital15 New Legislation - 1888 In March 1888 "The Regulation of Chinese Ordinance' (No. 13 of 1888) was introduced under the governorship of Sir William Des Voeux. Chapter IV of this Bill related to the District Watchmen and was entitled appropriately 'District Watchmen.' Despite the passage of more than two decades, the wording of the new ordinance was almost the same as the 1866 version referred to earlier. A few years later James H. Stewart Lockhart, who occupied the combined posts of Registrar General and Colonial Secretary, recommended the establishment of a board of prominent Chinese men to oversee the running of the District Watch Force. He appears to have been encouraged greatly in this endeavour by Wei Yuk, the rich comprador of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. Thus at the end of 1890, General Barker, the acting Governor, appointed a group of twelve Chinese gentlemen as a committee to co-operate with the Registrar General's Department in the administration of the District Watch fund. In his annual report of 1892 Lockhart, in his capacity of Registrar General, stated that the introduction of this Committee had been a resounding success. He also maintained that, not only had the Committee proved to be of great assistance in increasing the efficiency of the District Watchmen's Fund because of being able to exercise closer supervision, 'it has also by its advice on several important questions connected with the affairs of the Chinese community been a great help to this Department.' However, despite the creation of the twelve-man Committee, the Government's control over the District Watch Force did not diminish. On the contrary, Lockhart noted that 'New Rules were drawn up under Ordinance 13 of 1888, Chapter IV, Section 19, with the advice of the Committee, for the regulation and guidance of the District Watchmen, and approved by the Governor on Council. Copies of these rules have been distributed among the contributors of the District Watchmen's Fund, by whom more interest seems to be evinced in and more assistance asked from the Force than formerly.'17 The newly formed Committee was concerned about the state of the Force and during 1892 new pay scales were considered. As a result of these increases it was hoped that a 'better class of recruits' could be enticed to join the Force. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x the whole area remained a Restricted District, and closed to civilian settlement. The earliest civilian settlement in the area that we know of dates from the middle-late twelfth century. The Lam clan settled in this period at Po Kong, and, as will be discussed further below, the Chan clan settled in the Nga Tsin Wai area at about the same date. The foundation date of Ma Tau Wai is probably middle-late twelfth century as well. It is noticeable that the Salt Intendancy moved at precisely this period (1163) to Tip Fuk, in the still unsettled Mirs Bay area: it is likely that a decision to allow civil settlement around Kowloon City was coupled with a decision to keep the Restricted District in place around the Mirs Bay salt-fields, and to move the Salt Intendant's yamen into this still secure part of its old district. The most significant event in the early history of the area was the visit to Kowloon City of the Sung boy-Emperor Ching and his brother Ping (himself Emperor from the Third Moon, 1278) in 1277. The boy-Emperor and his remnant Court were being pushed down to the south by the Mongol troops, and, from the 2nd Moon in 1277 until the final destruction of their forces and the death of the Emperor Ping in the 2nd Moon, 1279, they were unable to leave the area around the mouth of the Pearl River, which was all they were able to control. During this period they stayed at Kowloon for five months (4th to 9th Moons, 1277). It is likely that the Imperial family stayed in the Salt Intendant's yamen, but a wooden "Travelling Palace" was also built for the Court. This may well have been built at the site of the later village of Yi Wong Tin, E, "Palace of the Two Kings" - this name is clearly rather suggestive (this village stood under today's Tam Kung Road, near Mok Cheung Street). Yi Wong Tin village stood just below the Sacred Hill, which was crowned by the Sung Wong Toi Rock, which has commemorated the boy-Emperor's stay here since the Ming dynasty at least. The presence of the Sung remnant Court for this period must have had major implications for the residents of the area, although it is difficult now to discover details. Many villages in the area (including Nga Tsin Wai) claim to have been founded by remnants of the Sung Court left behind when the Court moved away in late 1277, but in many cases (including Nga Tsin Wai) it can be shown that this is unlikely. One nineteenth century clan of Ma Tau Wai, indeed, the Chius, claimed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 9 of hardship immediately after it. One point of considerable interest in the Chan clan Tsuk Po to the history of Nga Tsin Wai is the reference to a village, or district, in the Kowloon area, called Nga Pin Heung, as the residence of the clan from the middle twelfth to the middle sixteenth centuries, and the explicit reference to Chan Chiu-yin as being the first of the clan to settle in Nga Tsin Wai. The only yamen there has ever been in the broader Kowloon area was at or very near Kowloon City, and Nga Pin Heung, since it lay “in Kowloon” must, therefore, be in the wider Kowloon City area. Nga Tsin Wai (7, "The Walled Village in Front of the Yamen") could not have taken this name before the walls were built. Nga Pin Heung (AMA, “The Unwalled Village, or District, Beside the Yamen”) sounds very much like what the name of Nga Tsin Wai would have been before the walls were built. This is especially so since the village is not, in fact, in front of the yamen, but beside it, so “Nga Pin” is a more accurate name for the area than "Nga Tsin". The Kowloon area has two other place names referring to the yamen, that is, Nga Tsin Long Village (, "The Fields in front of the Yamen") immediately south of Kowloon City, and the upper end of Ma Tau Wai Village which was known as Nga Yau Tau (H, “The Right-hand Side of the Yamen“). Both are very close to Nga Tsin Wai. If "Heung" in Nga Pin Heung means “District" rather than "Village", then all three places may once have stood within the Nga Pin Heung District. In any case, Nga Pin Heung must have been in the immediate vicinity of the yamen, and must either have consisted of Nga Tsin Wai, or else comprised the whole district, including Nga Tsin Wai. When the Chans settled at Nga Pin Heung in the twelfth century, therefore, they must have settled either at, or very near Nga Tsin Wai. The Tai Wai villagers have a date for the building of the walls of their village - 1574. They also have a tradition that their village was set out by Lai Po-yi (fi), a famous Fung Shui master. This man had come to the notice of the Tai Wai villagers, the Tai Wai elders informed me, while he was setting out the walls of Nga Tsin Wai, and they invited him to come to set out Tai Wai as soon as he had finished work at Nga Tsin Wai. Since Tai Wai is almost a perfect copy of Nga Tsin Wai, and since these two walled villages differ in detail from most of the other New Territories walled villages, it is very likely that they Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 24 eighteenth century. The Fungs () came there much later, at the end of the nineteenth century: they had fled from the Tai Ping rebels to Shek Lung Tsai in Sha Tin, and from there moved to Ngau Chi Wan. Very little is known of the Six Villages Alliance, and it is likely that it was more loosely structured than the League of Seven. It will be noted that Tai Hom, of the League of Seven, is completely surrounded by land that formed part of the Six Villages Alliance. Tai Hom, which is a single-surname village of the Chu (*) clan, is the only village of the League of Seven with no genealogical connections with Nga Tsin Wai. That it formed part of the League of Seven, rather than the Po Kong Six Villages Alliance is probably due to the circumstances of Tai Hom's foundation. The Founding Ancestor of the Chus, Chu kui-yuen, was a Hakka from Ng Wah District far to the northeast of Hong Kong22. He was a stone-cutter. He came to Hong Kong in 1762, to look for work in the quarries which were at that date starting up in the eastern part of what is today Victoria Harbour. He prospered, and established a quarry at Shek Tong Tsui in 1771. Later, he found Shek Tong Tsui rather remote, and exposed to pirate attack, and moved to Sha Po near Kowloon City. Later still, he bought quarry-land at the tip of Cape d'Aguilar Peninsula, and founded nearby the village of Hok Tsui. He had eight sons. His eldest son died unmarried, and Hok Tsui is today lived in by the descendants of his second, third and fourth sons. The fifth and sixth sons died unmarried or disappeared later. Chu kui-yuen bought more land, at Tai Hom, for his seventh son, Yan-fung, leaving his youngest son, Cheung-fung, , the land at Sha Po. After Kui-yuen's death, his widow lived at Tai Hom with her seventh son, who acquired a minor official post at Kowloon City, presumably after the re-establishment of the yamen there in 1841. Yan-fung was born in 1781, and died in 1857. Tai Hom was, therefore, a late settlement. It is unlikely to have been founded earlier than 1800. The land at Tai Hom was not fertile, and was steep and rocky (the Chus ran a quarry there, which supplied poor quality stone used for laying foundations in the Kowloon City area). Until 1992 a few remnants of Tai Hom, including the Chu clan Ancestral Hall, remained, buried within the Diamond Hill Squatter Area. It is likely that Po Kong refused to guarantee the good behaviour of these incoming Hakka (some already settled family was always required to guarantee incomers under the Pao-chia rules), while Nga Tsin Wai was willing, and that it was this which brought Tai Hom into the League of Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 28 of Cheung Yuk-tong (E) arrived (presumably this relieving force came from the garrison at the County City of Nam Tau), and retook the Walled City after a day of very heavy fighting, in which two of the Government soldiers died, and "over 30" bandits. Presumably, the successful defence of Nga Tsin Wai took place during this same seven-day period, in September - October 1854. There were probably other occasions when bandits were forced away. For instance, the villagers of the Siu Lek Yuen inter-village alliance in Sha Tin have a story of a heroic fight by their combined manpower against a gang of bandits in the 1860s or 1870s. The Siu Lek Yuen villagers, having killed a number of the bandits, forced the rest to flee over the mountains to Nga Tsin Wai, where the Siu Lek Yuen villagers left them to the further attentions of the men of the League of Seven27. The Nga Tsin Wai villagers also remember an attempt by the Tang clan (probably of Kam Tin) to impose Tang clan political control on this area. They relate that the elders of the League of Seven met the Tangs, and showed them the bags in which the silver which had been gathered by the League as a defence fund was kept, and the guns and gunpowder at their gate. "Every tsin of silver, and every grain of gunpowder will be spent to fight you off", the elders said, and the Tangs eventually left, with their tails between their legs2. The last time the Nga Tsin Wai villagers closed and barred their gates against attack was in 1967, during the Riots. When the Riots broke out in San Po Kong, the villagers closed their gate, and put themselves into a position of defence, although their valour was not then put to the test. Nga Tsin Wai's position at the head of the League of Seven put it into a very important position in the traditional politics of the Kowloon area. The Chief Elder of the League of Seven - usually the Chief Elder of Nga Tsin Wai - was one of the two or three most important figures in the district. The Sub-Magistrate would certainly have included him whenever he needed to consult the gentry of the district. As noted further below, Nga Tsin Wai village trusts were the subsoil land-owners of a good deal of the land in the area, especially in the Market, and at Sha Po, thus reinforcing their predominant local political position. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 29 Nga Tsin Wai in 1902 A great deal of information on Nga Tsin Wai can be gathered from the Block Crown Lease, which in Nga Tsin Wai dates from 1902. Nga Tsin Wai forms part of Survey District 1, the very first area to be surveyed, and, as a result of experience gained, the later surveys were improved, particularly by the inclusion of the Chinese characters for the names recorded, and the recording of the village the landowner claimed to belong to. Although this useful information is omitted from the Nga Tsin Wai Lease, a good deal of information can still be had. At the Appendix is a summary of the land-holdings of Nga Tsin Wai as recorded in the Block Crown Lease. For the purposes of this summary, any villager owning a house in Nga Tsin Wai in 1902 is considered a villager of Nga Tsin Wai, even if he owned other houses elsewhere. Any villager not recorded as owning any house is considered an Nga Tsin Wai villager if the bulk of his farmland was near the village. Any trust is considered a Nga Tsin Wai trust if the Manager (or any one of the Managers) was a Nga Tsin Wai villager, or if it owned a house within the village: any manager of a Nga Tsin Wai trust is also considered a Nga Tsin Wai villager, even if he would otherwise not be. There were other landholders in the Kowloon City area - especially men of the Ng clan resident in Sha Po - who are here considered as Sha Po villagers rather than Nga Tsin Wai villagers, and so are not included in the summary. This is not entirely satisfactory since, in 1902, there was probably no clear distinction drawn between Nga Tsin Wai and Sha Po, and the distinction drawn here between Nga Tsin Wai and Sha Po villagers is one unlikely to have been accepted by the villagers in 1902. However, it is the best that can be done. The village consisted in 1902 of about 140 houses within the walls (not including the Tin Hau Temple and the Village Office), and some 48 outside the walls, plus the Ng clan Ancestral Hall and school. Six of these 188 houses were owned by village trusts: 73 individual villagers or groups of villagers owned the others. A further twelve house-owners classed here as Nga Tsin Wai villagers owned houses only in Sha Po, and five more owned houses only in Kowloon City. These villagers are here classed as Nga Tsin Wai villagers because of acting as trustees of Nga Tsin Wai village trusts or because the bulk of their agricultural land lay near the village, or because they formed part of groups of villagers. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 46 trust in his father's name (the Chan Hok Yin Tso) which owned 2.7 acres (Chan Tak-hing and his brother Chan Tsan-hing, ( , were the only beneficiaries - it is likely that much of the property of this trust was amassed by Chan Tak-hing). His son, Chan Kwok-yan, 1872-1937) succeeded him on the Lok Sin Tong Board, the Kowloon City Kaifong, and as trustee for the Chan Hok Yin Tso, but he took to smoking opium, and the family business was closed down in 1930, when the family shop in Kowloon City was cleared for re-development. As for the Lis, Li Ping-ngam, an "honest farmer, who, on coming back from a meeting in Kowloon City, would take off his shoes and go back to work in the fields", and resident in Sha Po, was an early Director as well312. He was probably dead by 1902. Li Ping-shang, who does appear in the 1902 Block Crown Lease, may have been his brother; if so, the lady Li Ip Shi mentioned above was very possibly Li Ping-ngam's widow, since Li Ping-shang owned a small piece of land jointly with the widow Ip. It is entirely likely that Li Ping-ngam was not quite the simple farmer he was remembered as. He may have been the dominant leader of the Li clan before Li Lai-ting (who could also have been called "an honest farmer"). Ng Shue-fan was also one of the Directors of the Lung Chun School within the Walled City () at the end of the nineteenth century33. This had been founded in the 1840s when the Sub-Magistracy was moved to Kowloon City, as a mark of the importance the Ch'ing Government placed on education and scholarship. Five trustees, who probably represented the local groups who had paid for the erection of the school in the 1840s, managed it: it is likely, therefore, that Nga Tsin Wai had been significantly involved in the foundation. By the end of the nineteenth century this school was being used as a Meeting Hall when meetings of the district elders and gentry were called. That Nga Tsin Wai provided one of the trustees is eloquent evidence of its local prestige and importance. Ng Shue-tong was similarly important in local charitable affairs outside the Lok Sin Tong. Thus, when the Hau Wong temple was restored in 1879, he was the Chief Manager for the project (at least seven other Nga Tsin Wai villagers can be identified from the Donation Tablet)34. When the Hau Wong Temple had been restored in 1822, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 63 16 The date is engraved on the earth god shrine in the village For the Ta Tsiu at Nga Tsin Wai, see J W Hayes, The Rural Communities of Hong Kong Studies and Themes, Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1983, pp 157-159 See also p 162 18 These guns were all sunk in the moat immediately to the south of the village gate when the Japanese came 19 In the 1902 Block Crown Lease, the Ancestral Hall is shown as the Ng Kit-san house, and the Ng Kit-san house as the Ancestral Hall by some strange error 0 1 ༣། Despatch from Sir M Nathan to Colonial Office, January 11th, 1905, in file CO882/6, printed in Eastern No 88, Confidential Hong Kong Correspondence [December 15 1903 to February 27 1907] Relating to the Proposed Canton Kowloon Railway', printed for the use of the Colonial Office, April 1907, No 59, pp 81-88 The slopes to the east of Lion Rock were under the protection of Kwun Yam These slopes were called Tsz Wan Shan (Fill, “Mountain of the Cloud of Compassion one of the titles of Kwun Yam) There has been a temple to Kwun Yam half way up to the pass since at least 1853, probably much earlier The early ownership of this temple is unclear Information on the Chus is taken from their Tsuk Po, a copy of which I was kindly given by Dr James Hayes, and from notes of interviews Dr Hayes had with Chu clan elders in the 1960s See also, Southern District Board, 1996, p 138 On the Tung Shan Temple, see J W Hayes, "The Kwun Yam - Tung Shan Temple of East Kowloon, 1840-1940”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Vol 23, 1983 pp 212-218 *For instance, in Aed (), Joint Publishing (Hong Kong), 1994, p 44, and RPF Lam, ed The Hong Kong Album, Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1982, p 66 25 I am indebted to Dr James Hayes for much of the detail of this section 26 See A Lui, Forts and Pirates, op cit p 31 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 31 execution of Qin Gui, the famous "traitor," as well as Wang Lun and Sun Jin, and the hanging of their heads in the streets to show to the public. For this, he was demoted to a post in Fuzhou (in 1138), from where he was transferred to Xinzhou in Guangdong province in 1142. Six years later, he was falsely accused by a man called Zhang (a member of Qin Gui's 'Death clique'), because of a couplet he wrote called Haoshijin, and was moved to the Jiyang military district. He retired to the Pearl Cliff to write a manual for officials, and set up a school. After the accession of the new emperor, he returned to the fray, holding a number of important posts before retiring in 1171. He died in 1180 at the age of 78. Zhao Ding was a Minister of State and a steadfast opponent of Qin Gui and his policy of making peace with the Tatars, for which he was banished to various places. He was born in Shanxi and died in a distant post at Jiyang, on the south-west tip of Hainan, in 1147. b] The Three Marquises, San Gong, is a separate group of deities, scholar-officials of the 9th and 10th centuries AD whose images or tablets have only been seen on altars in Hainanese temples on Hainan Island. The three are Li Deyu [one of the Five Marquises: q.v.], Lu Duoxun 廬多遜 and Ding Wei 丁謂, The second of the Three, Lu Duoxun, also a senior official exiled to Hainan, died some 136 years after Li Deyu. He was born in Henan province and he too became President of the Board of War in 979. La served a later dynasty, the Northern Song, and was also banished to Hainan following court intrigue. His poetry achieved the distinction of being remembered and quoted. The third, Ding Wei, was also a high official of the Song and the only one of the three to survive his banishment. He returned home from Hainan to die in 1040. Ding was born in Jiangsu province and rose to become a Minister of State. He was degraded and banished following accusations of witchcraft and of oppressive rule. He also wrote a large collection of poems whilst in Hainan. c] Su Shi is probably better known as Su Dongpo, and is referred to in Hainan as Su Gong. He is one of the eight famous men of letters of the Tang and Song eras and lived from AD 1036- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 257 250 square feet, to be known as the Sung Him Tong Sung Chan Wui Kei Tuk Kau Fan Cheung (#*******) near Tsung Hom [sic] Tong in D.D. [Demarcation District] No.83 of the Northern District of the New Territories of Hong Kong, 142 Another Chinese Christian cemetery was also appointed in 1931. It was known as 'Cheung Chau Chinese Christian Cemetery' and contained about 10,000 square feet. 43 In the same year, the "Tao Fung Shan Christian Cemetery' was also in use. 144 In 1932, both a cemetery and an urn cemetery were approved in the coastal market town at Tai O on Lantau Island, which was called 'The Tai O Cemetery'. The cemetery contained about 250 acres. A tiny cemetery was appointed in Stanley in 1933, which was 'to be known as New Stanley Cemetery, the piece of land containing approximately 2.5 acres, situated to the south of St. Stephen's College at Stanley.' 146 This cemetery was extended to approximately 4.26 acres five years later. 147 A government notice 148 in 1933 ordered that a certain Telegraph Hill Urn Cemetery be closed, however, no other reference examined has anything about this cemetery. In the same year, with the closure of Kowloon Cemetery No.1 (European Protestant) at Fo Pang near Ho Man Tin, a new European Protestant cemetery was authorized in Kap Shek Mi Valley in substitution for the closed cemetery. 149 The new cemetery, containing an area of about 11 acres, was to be known as 'New Kowloon Cemetery No.6'. 150 However, no further information in regard to this cemetery has been found yet, though the boundary of the cemetery is shown in a 1954 map. 151 The next new cemetery, 'Sai Kung Catholic Cemetery,' in Lot No.1697 'in D.D.221 of the Northern District of the New Territories,' was approved in 1934. In 1935 a Chinese permanent cemetery in Tsuen Wan, similar in nature to the Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen, was set apart for 'Chinese who shall have been permanently resident in the said Colony (of Hong Kong).' 153 Again, as with the Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen, the care and management of the new cemetery ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 146 "I'm really the end, the last generation of people who can reach through because the elders are still there, but they are getting very rare now. They are getting fewer." Dealing with the elders is difficult in many ways. There are areas that cannot be addressed, such as women's issues, and often the older generation will fall into their own native dialects, such as Wai Do, Yuen Long Wah or Hakka. Hase started telling me a joke about the differences in the dialects and how a sentence in Cantonese can be made to sound completely different, and not very pleasant, in another dialect. I didn't get it, but I enjoyed listening to the historian tell it. Hase worked for many years in Shatin as district officer, which made getting interviews with the elders a lot easier. When Hase retired from the civil service, he was deputy director of the Urban Services Department. He is currently running his own consultancy firm and most recently testified in the capacity of Fung Shui specialist in the Spur Line case, the controversy over the building of a railway through Long Valley, a bird haven that supports more than 200 species. Hase took over the RAS presidency in March and has agreed to serve for three to four years. "We are a middle-aged gweilo society, but I'd like to see us a little bit less," said Hase. "We're always going to be a middle-aged gweilo society but I'd like to have a lot, a much higher percentage of young Chinese members even if it was always to remain a minority. But how to do this? We've been thinking for 20 years and not been able to come up with any solution." Membership as of March 12, 2001 stood at 477, which includes 391 local and 86 overseas members. A hundred new members had been recruited between the end of January 2000 to March 13, 2001. Instead of trying to recruit from the public, the society hopes to get new members with the potential to best serve the society. These include graduate students in anthropology, archaeology, history and sociology. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 By the terms of this Contract dated this day of ... 19 77, I, the undersigned coolie recruited by the Wai-Hai-Wei Labour Bureau, hereby declare myself to be a willing labourer under the following conditions, which have been explained and made clear to me by the Wai-Hai-Wei Labour Bureau, viz.: Nature of Employment. Work on railways, roads, etc., and in factories, mines, dockyards, fields, forests, etc. Not to be employed in military operations. Rules of Pay, etc.: Daily Abroad. Labourer ... 1 Dollar Danger ... ... 6 cents Bonus (on embarkation). 15-20 dollars (additional to pay). Monthly in China to family, also. Compensation to Family in case of Accident. Death or total disablement ... 150 dollars Partial Disablement ... up to 75 dollars Additional ... ... 10 dollars Free passage to and from China under all circumstances. Free food, clothing, housing, fuel, light and medical attendance. Duration of Employment. Three years, with liberty for employer to terminate contract at any time after one year on giving six months' notice, or at any time for misconduct or inefficiency on the part of the labourer. Free passage to be given back to Wai-Hai-Wei or Port North of Wusung. Deductions. No daily pay abroad during sickness, but food given. Monthly pay in China continues up to six weeks' sickness. After six weeks' sickness, no monthly pay in China. No daily pay abroad for time lost owing to misconduct. In cases of offenses involving loss of pay for 28 days or more, deductions of monthly pay in China will be made. Hours of Work. Obligation to work ten hours daily; but a lower or longer period may be fixed by the Labour Control on a daily average basis of ten hours. Liability to seven days' work a week; consideration will be given to Chinese Festivals, as to which the Labour Control will decide. No. of Cooly 24499 Name ... Ar Jenny Jus Age ... 32 Province ... Ling District ... Home address ... Seal of the Wai-Hai-Wei Labour Employment Office Wai-Hai-Wei Labourer's thumb print ... San ================================================================================