RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 154 S. F. BALFOUR population who took on Chinese surnames and customs. The town of Canton itself, although parts were surrounded by walls, continued to be inhabited by a large matshed population. It was full of Arabs, Indians and Persians who were allowed to have their own administration and laws and to settle in the place without hindrance. Here is a quotation from the famous Arab book known as the Chain of Chronicles which is an account of the trade with China in the ninth century compiled by the Zaid Hassan of Siraf in Arabia. The merchant Soleyman states: "The reason why Chinese merchandise in Baghdad is at present rare is because fires are so common in Khanfu (Canton). This town is the principal port for ships and is the entrepôt for all trade between Arabia and China. The fires which consume the merchandise break out because the houses are built of bamboo and reed. Another cause of the paucity of merchandise (in Baghdad) is the large number of shipwrecks and the fact that the ships are so often raided by pirates or are forced to remain in port for long periods during their journeys." Another merchant states in the same book: "In 878 the rebel Ban Shua (Huang Chao) besieged Khanfu (Canton). After many days the town was taken. On this occasion 120,000 Mussulmans, Jews and Christians who were established in the city perished by the sword." Since this event preceded a decline in the trade with the west from Canton it is as well to try and form a picture of it up to this period. The boats used were larger than any of the native craft that are now seen on the Chinese coast. As early as 413 Fa Hsien the Buddhist pilgrim returned from Java on a boat which carried over 200 people. It drifted, he says, at the mercy of the wind without taking any particular course and "only by observing the sun, moon and stars was it possible to go forward." Fa Hsien's ship was set for Canton but was blown out of its course as far as Shantung where they landed without knowing in the least where they were. In spite of the difficulty of steering without a compass the trade route was very much helped, as it has always been, by the monsoons which blow from the north in winter and from the south in summer. There is some evidence that tacking was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH 155 not a general practice, it was probably due to the easiness of running before the wind that the ships could become such large hulks. Unfortunately, we do not know who built them. By the eighth century, the boats had become huge. "Ladders several tens of feet high had to be used to get on board." The trade was organised. Foreign captains had to be registered with the Office of Trading Ships, which inspected manifests and collected export and import duties. These captains had legal powers to deal with offending passengers when at sea. In 758, the Mohammedans had so much the upper hand in Canton that they yielded to the temptation of sacking and burning the city and making to sea with the loot. However, trade continued to flourish, the principal imports being, according to Soleyman, ivory, frankincense, ingots of copper, turtle shells, and rhinoceros horns (with which the Chinese used to make girdles), and the principal exports: silk and porcelain. The foreign ships also carried as passengers Chinese Buddhists visiting the holy places in Java and India. In the biographies of sixty pilgrims composed by I Ching,12 37 of them took the sea route to India. Some of these went from the Tonkin delta region, but the majority started from Canton or returned thither. The compass was still unknown in those days, and the first mention of its use for navigation in Chinese literature occurs at the beginning of the 12th century. V. T'UN MUN In the preceding sections, a picture has been given of the elements which made up the population of South China up to the end of the T'ang dynasty. We now come to our region — the peninsula South East of the Canton delta, and we must do our best to piece together such fragments of historical knowledge that we can find into a sequence which will indicate how its population developed and thrived. The first historical reference to any place in the region occurs in a list of itineraries from China to the Persian Gulf collected 11 Tang Kuo Shih Pu, by Li Chan. 12 義淨,大唐西行求法高僧傳 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 60 CHIU LING-YEONG Chinese inquiry into the matter. The Chinese in Ch'ang-an and in the coastal regions were not at all happy about the evil-doings of these foreigners and finally in A.D. 836 a large-scale anti-foreign movement began. In that year, it was decreed that private intercourse with various ‘coloured-eye people' was prohibited. Lu Chün, newly appointed governor of Canton in A.D. 836, also forbade Chinese and foreigners to continue living together unsegregated; intermarriage was not allowed and foreigners were prohibited from owning houses and land. There were different kinds of regulations governing foreigners if they violated the law. Persians, Arabs, Uighurs, or in short, all aliens, if they became involved in legal complications among themselves, would be judged according to their customs; however, if they were involved with Chinese, they would be put under Chinese jurisdiction. The Persians and Arabs, according to Soleyman, had their Kādi appointed by the (Chinese) emperor and also had several sheikhs to assist him.10 It must be due to the policy of segregation which forced the aliens, say the Persians and Arabs, to form their own settlements outside the city known as fan-feng.11 Most of these foreigners preferred to stay in T'ang China permanently, were all rich and seldom had their own families lived with them. To avoid unnecessary implications, the government had to introduce regulations to govern the inheritance of property.12 With regard to properties of the deceased Persians and Arabs, it was decreed that only the following next-of-kin had the right to inherit: a) Parents, b) First wife, c) Sons and daughters, d) Blood brothers, e) Nephews, and f) Blood sisters Married daughters would automatically lose the right of inheritance. Blood brothers, blood sisters, and nephews (sons of blood brothers) must live with him at the time of the property-owner's death or they would not be qualified for the right of inheritance. Unmarried blood sisters could only inherit one-third of the property. Adopted sons and daughters had no right of inheritance. A first ================================================================================