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-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 122 NOTES AND QUERIES 2. With the high rates of interest on loans and/or the continuing need over several years to have money ready to pay the instalments in a money-loan association, it is not surprising that people got into difficulties and there are good instances of this in the papers. One man borrowed thirty-four silver dollars from the Tong at the end of 1886, and three years and two months later owed eighty-eight dollars, representing principal plus interest. Of this sum ten dollars had already been paid off by selling land to offset the debt. The remainder was extinguished by the debtor waiving his turn for payment in a money-loan association in favour of his creditor. Yet this experience was not a case of 'once bitten, twice shy' for either side, for in the month following the settlement of his affairs with the Tong he asked it for, and secured, another loan of sixteen dollars "due to dire need of money." This loan was made on the mortgage of more of his inherited farmland. We do not know the sequel. Another villager who had failed to pay his share or instalment in a money-loan association mortgaged a house in pledge and was to lose if he had not paid the money by the end of that lunar year. 3. The Tong was not the only source of money loans available to the Shek Pik villagers. Shops in the neighbouring market centres of Tai O and Cheung Chau would advance credit, or give loans as would two other local Tongs. They were not organizations belonging to Shek Pik, one being composed of merchants from Tai O and the other a family organization belonging to a clan in another village. 4. These papers came from only one of the clans living at Shek Pik and there is reason to think that similar activities were taking place in other clans and amongst other groups of persons in the village. J. W. HAYES A CEREMONY TO PROPITIATE THE GODS AT TONG FUK, LANTAU, 1958 In the course of opening new roads and other works the developers usually run up against feng shui (geomantic influences). This ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 NOTES AND QUERIES 123 happened recently at Tong Fuk on Lantau Island, a multi-clan Cantonese village with a population of 198 at the Hong Kong Census of 1911. Its present population is about the same number. In 1958 the scheme to build a new reservoir at Shek Pik was confirmed and work went ahead on the dam and associated works. Behind Tong Fuk there were to be catchwaters for which an access road had to be constructed to the west of the village. This led to difficulties with the villagers, because in feng shui ideology the place was held to be the seat of the White Tiger. They therefore requested a ceremony known locally as a tun fu (符) — to propitiate the gods and spirits who would, as they thought, be aroused by digging earth and blasting stones in this particular place. Precedents were cited by the village elders. They said they had carried out such a ceremony thirty-five years before, following several unexpected deaths in the village. The inhabitants had worshipped at the Hung Shing (廟) temple on the beach nearby, praying for the removal of the malignant influence. It transpired that a villager had cut stone from this particular spot to build a house. The elders then invited a Taoist priest — a Hakka — to come from one of the neighbouring villages to carry out the propitiatory observances usually made under such circumstances. They also said that a similar ceremony had also been conducted twenty years before in the adjoining Cantonese village of Shui Hau, this time by a priest engaged from the urban area. Deaths had also occurred there and had been traced to one of the villagers having constructed a cowshed in front of his house on ground with feng shui properties. Returning to the 1958 case, the elders proposed to call in the services of the nephew of the priest who had supervised the ceremony thirty-five years before. He was a man of forty years of age who had followed in his uncle's footsteps. Such persons are known locally as feng shui hsien sheng (風水先生). This ceremony was supposed to cause considerable inconvenience for the villagers, in theory if not in practice. One week of vegetable diet was obligatory for all and there was also a three-day prohibition on entering and leaving the village: that is, if the ceremony was to realize its full value. This meant that no cows could be grazed or grass or firewood cut on the hills; nor, presumably, could men go out to work in the fields. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 200 NOTES AND QUERIES ains in Kiang-Si, the charcoal burners constitute the population of almost all the villages. The houses of these landowners may be at once recognised by the vast piles of charcoal in front of them.' ** Gray may be right in implying that charcoal was in great demand for domestic use at the time he wrote, but observation and enquiries in New Territories' villages show that wood has long been in general use at the kitchen stove and even in the portable earthenware stoves known as fung lo () in this area. The observant traveller on the local hills can still find evidence of charcoal burning in the past, but first-hand information is now hard to come by. This note only deals with a few areas where I am familiar with the older local people. On Lamma, for instance, an old person born in Yung Shue Long Village about 1887 recalls that there were a lot of charcoal burners on the island when she was a girl, mostly outsiders who employed the village women and girls to carry the charcoal from the kilns to the waiting junks or to barges towed by steamboats. These Lamma kilns were mostly situated in the more wooded south of the island, at the village localities of Mau Tat, Yung Shue Ha and Tung O. Too young to help, she followed her mother and her aunt there from their village in the northern part of Lamma. Along with other villagers, they were paid 2 cents (sin) a day for the work. On the south coast of Lantau Island an old villager of Tong Fuk, born in 1889, recalled, as a boy, having seen charcoal burners at work near his village and on the hills above. He said that (as on Lamma) these were not local people. A few miles east, there are pits on the hills above the Pui O group of villages; but though linked by village tradition with charcoal burning, the oldest men said they had not been worked in their lifetime. In the first few decades of this century charcoal burners were still to be seen on the hills behind north-west Kowloon, near the present Shek Lei Pui reservoir, formerly the site of a Hakka farming village of that name removed for the water scheme in 1923. An old village woman from Cheung Sha Wan, born 1892, recalls seeing them there as a young girl when grass cutting in the area. A second woman who married into another of the Cheung ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 122 SUNG HOK-P'ANG who her father really was, and Yuen Leung was very troubled as to what to do with her. However when she became of marriageable age the elders of the village advised him to marry her to his son Tsz Ming (A) which, as she was quite willing, he did. Meanwhile the fighting between the Tartars and the Sungs had ceased. Peace was made, and Hong Wong had now become the Emperor Ko Tsung, who ordered that enquiries should be made concerning his daughter. All the district officers throughout the Empire were instructed to help and when the official notice was posted up in the vicinity of Kam T’in, Tsz Ming was much frightened at having married the princess without the emperor's permission. But the princess said, “Do not fear. My life was saved by the Tang family and I have willingly become your wife. Go and tell the District officer who I am." When the official heard the news he came at once and did obeisance to the Princess, and then sent a petition to the Emperor. Ko Tsung ordered Tsz Ming and his wife to come to the capital, where they stayed for about a year, but the princess pined for Kam T'in and begged to be allowed to return to the place of her adoption. So the Emperor let her go, but first he bestowed on her many wharves in the district as "powder expenses"; and a large area of hill and forest land as "toilet expenses". On the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the 8th year of Siu Hing (2) A.D. 1138 they started back for Kam T’in. When they got there, the princess gave orders that the hills and woodlands should be thrown open to the public, so that anyone could make graves on her land without paying tax. In the 51st year of Hong Hei (‡) of Tsing dynasty, A.D. 1712, when the princess' grave was repaired, her dowry was still being used by the country people for a free burial ground. In the 5th year of K'in Lung (†) A.D. 1169, the princess gave thirty-six wharves to the Tsz Fok Monastery (*) the oldest monastery in Tung Kwun. Among these wharves was that of Shek Kit (5) near Shek Lung. When the history of Tung Kwoon was revised in the 12th year of Sung Ching (†††) of Ming dynasty, A.D. 1639, only three out of ten of the wharves were mentioned as still being in use, but Shek Kit is still in existence now. In some books the princess is referred to as Sung Tsung Kei (***). Sung being the name of the dynasty, Tsung meaning royal, and Kei high lady. She is known, however, in the Tang family as Wong Kwu (2), the Emperor's Aunt, as her nephew became ================================================================================ 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-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d NOTES AND QUERIES 323 to the government for a lot on which to build a school. In granting the lot for charitable and educational purposes, it was stipulated that "the school should be built on that portion of the ground furthest away from the front of the native temple which is opposite. The villagers have asked that no houses be erected immediately fronting the temple, but they could not object to a playground. The latter should be fenced around.” (C.S.O. No. 700 of 1885) In 1898, the Roman Catholic Church bought a large piece of land behind the village for a church and a school. The Canossian Sisters, however, already had two lots on Bulkely Street in 1894 where they conducted a school (No. 59 & 60). (c) The Kwun Yam (††) and Pak Tai (†) temples. An old memorial board in the Kwun Yam Temple dated 1873-74 lists eleven individuals or shops who may tentatively be identified as the management committee.* I can only identify one, Li Shing Fat, listed as a rate-payer in 1875 and possibly as Lee A Fat on the 1867 squatter licence list. A Hop Shing shop is listed, and it is possible that the owner was Chan Hop Shing who appears on the 1873 rates list or Chang Hop Shing of the 1867 squatter list. Another possible identification might be the Kwong Lung shop with the Kwong "Leong" grocer in the 1884 Rate. In 1896 the Temple Committee applied for the grant of a Crown Lease for the lot on which the building stood. It was noted that "This Temple is a public temple, owned by the committee of Hung Hom. A notice was posted at Hung Hom on the 23rd (March, 1886) saying that anyone who objected to the issue of the proposed lease should report to the Registrar General within ten days. No communication has been made on the subject.... therefore recommend the issue of the lease." (C.S.O. No. 704 of 1896). In consequence, a lease was granted to Chung Kam Fuk, Chan Ying Cheung, and Ching Ki, Trustees. Of these, Chan Ying Cheung was a large property owner at Hung Hom who was also a wealthy contractor in Hong Kong. Upon his death, his will left his Hung Hom property to his sons. The two named temples date from this early period and have survived: one of them in its original location and another on a new *The names are listed as follows: 福隆號,兴有容,新順扣,勝扣廠,廣隆號,李富利,陳日新,怡興行,廣勝同,合勝號,李勝發。The board carries the large characters 法雨同沾and is dated 同治甲戌年仲春吉旦 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 178 DAVID FAURE Table 3. (Translation) Front: Annual festival 19th First Month, 15th Second Month, 23rd Third Month, 5th Fifth Month, 14th Seventh Month, 24th Twelfth Month, Tung Chi in Eleventh Month, Night of 30th Twelfth Month; she t'au (leaders of the she); ALL THOSE WHO LIVE IN PAK KONG VILLAGE HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO SERVE THE AFFAIRS AND PUBLIC INTEREST OF THIS VILLAGE; work collectively for the achievements of this village, do not follow the Monroe [Doctrine]. Back: GOLD Cheng Tso On, Cheng Chung, Lok Tso Po, Cheng Woh, Cheng Chan Ip, Lau T'in T'ing; WOOD Lok Shek Kam, Lok T'aai Ts'eung, Lok Shue Kam, Lok Foh Kau, Lok Yau T'aai, Lok Shai Ngau, Lok Tak Kwong; WATER Lok Ting Ngau, Lei Lam, Lei Kau, Lok Kam, Cheng Tso Ning, Lok T'aai Hei; FIRE Lok Tak Lam, Lok Shiu Ch'oh, Lok Lam Kwai, Lok Kam Uen, Lok Chi K'eung, Lok Shang, Lok Uet T'aai; EARTH Lok Fuk Shing, Lei Iu, Lei Kw'ai Cheung, Lok Kau Kei, Lok Tso On, Lei Shek, In a slight variation, in Tai Po Tsai (near Tai Mong Tsai) and Wo Mei, instead of collecting money to buy the pig at the time it had to be slaughtered, villagers bought a piglet at the beginning of the year and participating families took turns to feed it during the year. By the end of the year, it would be slaughtered, and the meat divided. In Wo Mei, the five lineages of the village also gathered into the Ng Woh T'ong for matters that affected the entire village.42 Less formal but not less important were the "marriage clubs" (lo p'oh wooi) found in many villages, such as Mang Kung Uk and Hang Hau, consisting of the unmarried young men of the village. The young men of the club were obliged to help the bridegroom during wedding ceremonies, and they themselves would be helped when their turn came. In general, village ceremonies, not only weddings but also funerals, required the participation of members of the village, including those outside the immediately affected lineage. It was commonly understood that on these occasions members of the village had the right and duty to participate and to help. 43 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND CEREMONIAL LIFE OF TWO MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES IN HOI-PING COUNTY, SOUTH CHINA, 1911-1949 YUEN-FONG WOON* The two villages to be discussed in this paper are: Na-loh Ts'uen (###) of Lo-yeung Heung (✯✯) and Lung-tsai She (** #) of Tsung-long Heung () both in Hoi-p'ing County (BI *) of Kwangtung Province in South China.1† Na-loh Ts'uen was a richer village and had a longer history of settlement. It was founded about 1350. This village was on the outskirt of the general area known as T'oh-fuk (4) which included four Heung—Lo-yeung, Chung-miu († $), Ling-uen (✯) and Ng-wing (). These four Heung were dominated numerically as well as economically by the Kwaan (§§) lineage,2 with its ritual centre at Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall (***) in the intermediate market-town of Che-hom (). Na-loh Tsuen itself was multi-surname: there were one hundred Kwaan families and sixty Oo (*) families in the village. Lung-tsai She was separated from T’oh-fuk by six li (two miles) and was part of Ts'ung-long Heung. Between T’oh-fuk and this village were the Oo lineage of Ue-leung Heung (f), the Chau () lineage of Hin-kong Heung (L) and the Wong () lineage of Paak-hop Heung (). The village was founded about 1500. There were about 200 inhabitants: eighteen Kwaan families, twenty Wong families and four Tang (4) families. It was not known when the Tang and the Wong came, but the Kwaan founder was Yan-waang Kung (#) who came from Na-loh some 160-170 years ago when the latter village had become over-populated. Both villages had ritual ties with the Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall at Che-hom. The Kwaan at Na-loh had an ancestral hall of its own, but the elder members went to Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall to take part in the annual rites there. The Kwaan in Lung-tsai She did not have an ancestral hall of its own, but the elders also attended rites * Dr. Woon is on the faculty of the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C. † The residents of both villages were Punti speakers. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 102 YUEN-FONG WOON at Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall and all male members were entitled to the ritual pork there. In Freedman's terminology, the Kwaan of Na-loh was a segment of the "localized lineage" of T’oh-fuk, while the Kwaan at Lung-tsai She was a branch of "the dispersed lineage" of the Kwaan at T’oh-fuk with an intermediate market town, Che-hom, as its ritual headquarters. Besides ritual connections with T'oh-fuk, the two villages were similar on two other counts. Firstly, both exhibited a pattern of residential segregation. In Na-loh, the Kwaan occupied ten alleys to the east of the village while the Oo occupied the remaining six alleys to the west. In Lung-tsai She, the Kwaan lived at the village head, the Tang in the middle and the Wong at the village tail. Secondly, there were very little intra-village marriages. My Kwaan informants from Na-loh had not heard of the Kwaan marrying the Oo there. One said, "They might marry the Oo from other villages but never in Na-loh itself." When asked why, he replied, "I do not know, it just didn't happen. The Oo were low class people, no one knew how they supported themselves." Informants also answered in the negative when I asked them about the incidence of marriages between the Kwaan, the Tang and the Wong in Lung-tsai She. Despite these similarities, the two multi-surname villages were very different in ceremonial life. Na-loh exhibited a pattern of ritual segregation. There were two ancestral halls in the village: the bigger one in the middle for the Kwaan, the smaller one in the western corner for the Oo. Each had its own corporate property to sustain the rituals. These ancestral halls were similar to the ones found in the vicinity. In the middle of each hall was an altar. Under it was the Earth God Shrine. On top was hung a wooden board with the name of the hall. Below this board were two large ancestral tablets dedicated to the founder and his wife. On the altar itself were numerous tablets which were placed according to the genealogical hierarchy. These were admitted any time into the ancestral hall without a fee. But during the period of major repair or enlargement of the hall, a fund raising campaign would be held and any member who wanted tablets to be admitted ahead of the genealogical position would have to pay five dollars for each tablet. During this period, some even put their own tablets, known as "long-life tablets" (寿牌) there. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n CEREMONIAL LIFE OF 2 MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES 105 Goddess came, firecrackers would be lit. That was when the fa-paau event occurred. The Spring Rites ceremony and the hoi-tang ceremony took place at the same time. After the Goddess of Heaven was installed in the Lung-tsai Hall, the Kwaan, the Wong and the Tang performed the kowtow and the three prostrations in no special order whatsoever. Whoever had a son born that year would hang the lantern there on the same day. After the ceremony, there was a feast. As there was no temple property, each villager brought his own meat for the feast. Occasionally, the village opera would crown the event. The Goddess of Heaven then remained in the Hall until the end of the year when it would be sent back to the same heung temple just for a few days before the next New Year. Besides the fa-paau, the hoi-tang ceremonies, the Spring Rites, and the village opera, there was also the worship of the Earth God on the twenty-eighth day of the seventh lunar month. This again was participated jointly by the Kwaan, the Wong and the Tang together in the Lung-tsai Hall. Not only were the three lineages in Lung-tsai She co-operating in celebrating their festivals of the year, they were also very integrated in their economic life. Those who wanted to rent or sell land would offer it to the villagers first, be they members of the Kwaan, the Wong or the Tang, before they would offer it to people outside the village. This was in direct contrast to the practice in Na-loh. There, both private and corporate property were open to bidding every three years. Only the Kwaan could bid for Kwaan land and the Oo for Oo land. If no tenants were found among the Kwaan in Na-loh, Kwaan land would be offered to tenants in the rest of T'oh-fuk; if no tenants were found among the Oo in Na-loh, Oo land would be offered to the Oo outside the village. Burton Pasternak, in his work Kinship and Community in Two Chinese Villages (Stanford 1972), has given a detailed description of two multi-surname villages in Taiwan-Tatich and Chungshe--which may throw some interesting lights on the differences between the two multi-surname villages in Hoi-p'ing described in this paper. Tatich was similar to Lung-tsai She in social organization. Firstly, none of the lineages there had an ancestral hall of its own or owned corporate property. All the members worshipped in a community temple. Secondly, like Lung-tsai She, members had the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 108 YUEN-FONG WOON lineage of T'oh-fuk, the Kwaan of Lung-tsai She, whose ancestors had migrated from T'oh-fuk, came under its protective umbrella. Some of them had even succeeded in evading their head taxes through connections with the official leaders there. Thus, it was not surprising that the Kwaan in Lung-tsai She were eager to keep their separate identity by maintaining residential segregation from the Wong and the Tang while attending the annual Spring and Autumn Rites at the Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall in Che-hom. They only co-operated with the Wong and the Tang in projects of immediate concern such as irrigation and defence, since they were numerically a minority in Ts'ung-long Heung. The study of the centrifugal forces of the headquarters of higher-order and dispersed lineages on multi-surname villages in South China has been largely neglected by scholars in the field. G. W. Skinner, in his article "Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China" Journal of Asian Studies, XXIV (1964-5 pp. 36-40) asserts that once segments of a lineage had moved away from the parent settlement and were attending different standard market towns, they would lose their connections with one another. The case of Lung-tsai She discussed in this paper tends to refute this argument. Despite geographical separation, the Kwaan in this village was economically, administratively and ritually still an integral part of the Kwaan lineage of T'oh-fuk until at least 1949. In Taiwan and other parts of China, where lineages were weaker, members of multi-surname villages not only had more intra-village ties, they also had more contact with and reliance on affinal and maternal kin outside the village. Intra-village quarrels were as likely to be along class lines as along lineage lines. Village temples had much more educational, economic, administrative as well as relief functions than were the case in multi-surname villages in South China. NOTES 1 Hoi-p'ing County is one hundred and four miles (290 li) southwest of Canton. Heung (Mandarin: Hsiang) was an administrative unit above the Ts'uen (: village) but below the District. There were one hundred and three Heung in Hoi-p'ing, each administered by a Heung Office since 1930. All names in this paper are in Cantonese, following the Meyer-Wempe system of transliteration. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n CEREMONIAL LIFE OF 2 MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES 109 2 The two villages described in the paper have been based on my data of the Kwaan lineage. Na-loh Ts'uen was part of Lo-yeung Heung and Lung-tsai She was part of Tsung-long Heung. The county gazetteer, K'ai-p'ing Hsien-chih (Hong Kong, 1933) provides extracts of genealogies of the Kwaan and the Oo as well as other prominent lineages of Hoi-p'ing but does not mention Na-loh Ts'uen and Lung-tsai She. The table at p. 111 shows the historical origin of the Kwaan lineage of T'oh-fuk. This account is based on personal communications from elderly informants. Again, Na-loh and Lung-tsai She were not mentioned. Much of the data used in this article was obtained from 14 Kwaan in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. Canada 1973-74. They all came from Toh-fuk and Tsung-long areas. Of these six came from the two villages of Na-loh and Lung-tsai She as follows:- Name Birth Date Age Place of Origin Year Left Hoi-p'ing Kwaan F 1902 75 Na-loh Ts'uen 1915 Kwaan H 1911 66 Na-loh Ts'uen 1927 Kwaan I 1932 45 Na-loh Ts'uen 1953 Kwaan J 1941 36 Na-loh Ts'uen 1951 Kwaan K 1903 74 Lung-tsai She 1920 Kwaan L 1937 40 Lung-tsai She 1949 My Ph.D. thesis (Social Organization in South China 1911-1949: The Case of the Kwaan Lineage of Hoi-ping) deals with the general area.* 3 G. W. Skinner ("Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China," Journal of Asian Studies, XXIV (1964-65), 6-7, 20-31, 41-43) distinguishes between three types of periodic markets in traditional rural China: the standard market town, the intermediate market town and the central market town. The standard market town is a type of rural market which meets the normal trade needs of the peasant household. An intermediate market town serves the needs of the local elites of the standard market towns in the vicinity since it provides decorative items of quality which are inaccessible in the standard market towns. It serves as a centre for interclass dealings between the gentlemanly elite and the merchants of the market town itself. The central market town is normally situated at a strategic site in the transportation network and had important wholesale functions. 4 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society in Fukien and Kwangtung (London, 1966, pp. 18-42) distinguishes between a localized lineage, a dispersed lineage and a higher-order lineage. A “localized” lineage denotes a group of agnates who live together in the same geographical area. The members claim to be descended from a common founder. They usually have ancestral halls to practise ancestral worship together. A "dispersed lineage" denotes two or more groups of agnates with the same surname which are separated geographically. One group has an ancestral hall to practise ancestor worship. The members of other groups do not have a hall of their own. They would go to the first group to worship because it is believed that they were originally descendants of the first group but had at some point in time moved away from the parent settlement. A "higher-order lineage" denotes two or more groups of agnates with the same surname which are separated geographically. Each group has an ancestral hall of its own but there is also a common hall comprising all the members for the performance of ancestral worship together because it is believed that they were all descended from a common founder. 5 I collected the marriage history of informants up to five generations. Whilst of interest in itself, it did not shed any light on village origins. * Now accepted for publication by the University of British Columbia Press. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 178 NOTES AND QUERIES 29. Yet another bridge, in Central Tsuen Wan, still has its protecting shrine in place, with a stone tablet inscribed to the Fuk Tak Kung (福德公) of the Wing Fuk Bridge (#). The cyclical date would make it 1945 (which is obviously too late) 1885, 1825 or earlier. There is no means of telling which it is, but its style and appearance indicate an early date. Incidentally, all three bridges noted above have lost their original appearance, having been repaired post-war with concrete and reinforcing steel bars. Conclusion 30. A recent visit to the mountain took me from Lead Mine Pass, above the head of the Shing Mun Reservoir, to a point east of Chuen Lung, along paths formerly opened by villagers but in most cases now widened by the Agriculture & Forestry Department of the Hong Kong Government to assist their fire prevention and fire fighting activities. 31. The route ran through the Sei Fong Shan area, where there are many graves: so named (四方山) because there is access to it from four sides i.e. Tai Po, Pat Heung, Kwai Chung-Tsuen Wan and Chuen Lung (on Route TWSK). Then through the abandoned fields and village site of Nam Fong To, a single lineage village of the Law family (羅氏), evacuated in 1928 to Wo Hop Shek near Fan Ling (NT) for the construction of the reservoir. The site was enclosed by a thick low rubble wall and stands amid large boulders and (now) many trees. From the Tsuen Wan side the last stage of access was across a large stream and up a steep flight of stone (boulder) steps. West of the village the hills on both sides, but especially the opposite side of the valley, were marked by steep slides of water that became water-falls in places. Further on, the path overlooked the valley of Wu Yeung Shan (烏羊山) with many abandoned fields. The village of that name, on the main lower path to Wo Yee Hop village (*) and Kwai Chung, was inhabited by a branch of the Chengs (鄭氏) from Shing Mun Tai Wai. Moving SW and passing along the slopes of the mountain above Wo Yee Hop and Lo Wai well above catchwater level we encountered a few more graves placed in good locations. Also patches of abandoned cultivation built up here and there on stone-walled terraces above the path. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 188 DAVID FAURE There is little doubt that at least for several months, Leung Shuen Wan was a central bandit hideout. Mr. Lau Shang of Pak Lap Village on the island said that there were bandits who came there from the mainland, but they did not rob the villagers for they were themselves stationed in Tung Ah Village nearby. Villagers from Tung Ah and Pak Ah confirmed that there were bandits on the island and that the island villagers were not disturbed. Mr. Chung T'in Fuk of Pak Ah added that this might be because the bandits were from P'ing Shan (in China) nearby, and were afraid that the villagers might take reprisals against their own villages.73 Mr. Kong Ts'eung of Tung Ah knew that the bandits used the T'in Hau Temple of Leung Shuen Wan as their headquarters. The first group that arrived was Hoklo. Then came Hoh Shing Nin, from Aau T'au in China. Hoh was well-known among Sai Kung villagers as a bandit chief. But other bandits also came, and they began to fight among themselves. Hoh quarrelled with a certain Chan Nai Shau. According to Mr. Tse Koon K'au, for a short while Hoh had to leave Leung Shuen Wan for Tap Mun, and later Chek Keng. Chan took his guns with him in pursuit.74 Villagers from Leung Sheun Wan and nearby Kau Sai were apparently quite favourably disposed to Hoh Shing Nin. Mr. Chung T'in Fuk of Pak Ah thought that Hoh was a guerrilla, who was maintaining order in the area. Mr. Loh Kai Faat, a boatman from Kau Sai, made a distinction between Hoh and Chan. Hoh maintained order here, according to Mr. Loh, but Chan was a genuine bandit.75 The Wai Ch'i Wooi and the K’ui Ching Shoh The only government in Sai Kung in the very turbulent months immediately after the coming of the Japanese was the Sai Kung Market Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Lei Shiu Yam was its chairman. It was recognized by the Japanese Government as the Wai Ch'i Wooi, the local governing body that was set up in all local areas of Hong Kong and the New Territories in the early months of the occupation. The Sai Kung Wai Ch'i Wooi was located on the first floor of No. 34 Main Street, Sai Kung Market. It had little formal authority and no military power, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 212 DAVID FAURE Dates Name (and village) Mr. Chung P'oon (Wong Chuk Shan) interviewed INTERVIEW RECORD Name (and village) Dates interviewed 13.11.80 Madam Chiu I Mooi (Chek Keng) 7.5.81, 18.7.81 Mr. Chau T'in Shang 13.11.80, Mr. Lau Shaang 8.5.81 (Sai Kung Market) 18.5.81, (Sai Kung Market) 3.6.81, Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 8.5.81, 9.7.81 (Wong Keng Tei) 15.5.81, Mr. Lei Yau 13.11.80, 22.5.81, (Tso Woh Hang) 28.6.81 26.5.81, 31.7.81 Mr. Lee Yun Shau, J.P. 14.11.80 (Man Yee Wan) Mr. Wong Yung Ts'ing 8.5.81, Mr. Tse Kw'an 16.11.80 (Wong Yi Chau) 20.5.81 (Tan Ka Wan) Madam Laai Hung Tai 8.5.81 Mr. Shek Kwong Lin 16.11.80 (Sai Kung Market) (Kau Lau Wan) Mr. Lei Shiu Yam 8.5.81 Mr. Shek Fuk Fung 16.11.80 (Man Yee Wan) (Kau Lau Wan) Mr. Lai Foh 8.5.81 Mr. Chan Shing (Sai Kung Market) 21.11.80 (Tai Long) Mr. Chiu Lin Shing (Chek Keng) 11.5.81 Mr. Cheung Hing 28.11.80 (Tai Long) Mrs. Chiu née Cheung 11.5.81 (presently of Tai Po) Mr. Wan Ts'eung 31.11.80 (Tai Po Tsai) Mr. Lei P'aang Kei 12.5.81, (Shuen Wan) 19.5.81 Mr. Paul Tsui 1.12.80 Mr. Chan T'in Po 12.5.81 Mr. Wan Yat Ngo 15.1.81 (Ho Chung) Mr. T'ong (headmaster, 12.5.81 Yim Tin Tsai) Mr. Tse Ming 15.1.81 (Ho Chung) Mr. Cheng Yip 14.5.81 (Pak Kong) Mr. Uen Chiu Ming 16.1.81, (Mok Tse Che) 13.2.81, Fr. Lau Wing Yiu 18.5.81 7.3.81 Mr. Cheung 19.5.81 Mrs. Uen 17.1.81 (Sai Kung Market) (Mok Tse Che) Miss Fung Ping I 19.5.81 Mrs. Uen 18.1.81, Mrs. Ts'ui, née Lei 20.5.81 (Mr. Uen Tak 24.1.81, (Pak Kong) Ming's mother, 7.3.81 Mrs. Liu 20.5.81 Mok Tse Che) (Sai Kung Market) Madam Yung 18.1.81 Mr. Cheng Chung T'ing 21.5.81 (Mok Tse Che) (Pak Kong) Madam Chan 22.1.81 Mr. Lok Shaang 21.5.81 (Ho Chung) (Pak Kong) Madam Lok 22.1.81 Mr. Hoh King 27.5.81 (Ho Chung) (Nam Shan) 5.6.81 Mr. Chiu Sz 7.5.81 Mr. Chan Tsz K'eung 28.5.81 (Chek Keng) Madam Yung A Lin 7.5.81 (Chek Keng) (Sai Kung Market) Mr. Chan Kei Shang (Yim Tin Tsai) 28.5.81 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 214 DAVID FAURE Dates Dates Name (and village) interviewed Name (and village) interviewed Mr. Tsang Yau (Tai Mong Tsai) 23.6.81 Mrs. Cheung, née Chan 27.6.81 (Sha Kok Mei) Madam Tsang, Mr. Liu 27.6.81 23.6.81 Madam Cheung (Cheung Muk Tau) (Wong Mo Ying) Mr. Wong (Sha Ha) 27.6.81 Madam Lau 23.6.81 Mrs. Lau Lei Loi T'aai 28.6.81 (Pak Kong Au) (Wong Chuk Wan) Mrs. Loh, née Tsang 23.6.81 Store-keeper 28.6.81 (Tai Mong Tsai) (Wong Chuk Wan) Madam Cheung 24.6.81 Visit to temple at 28.6.81 (Sha Kok Mei) Wong Chuk Wan Mr. Wong Yung 24.6.81 Mr. Foo Ts'ing's funeral (Tung Sam Kei) 28.6.81 Mr. Chan Uet Shing 24.6.81 Mrs. Tsang, née Lei, 28.6.81 (Tsiu Hang) Mrs. Hoh, Mr. Tse, née Lau 24.6.81 née Lei (Tai Tan) (Che Keng Tuk) Mrs. Cheng née Mo 28.6.81 Mr. Tse Shui Kam 24.6.81 (To Kwa Ping) (Che Keng Tuk) Mr. Wong Ping Lin 29.6.81 Mr. Hoh (Ha Yeung, 24.6.81 (Tai Wan) near Ko Tong) Mrs. Wong, née Sin 29.6.81. Mr. Wong (Ha Yeung, 24.6.81 (Tai Wan) near Ko Tong) Mr. Lei (Wo Liu) 29.6.81 Mrs. Wai, née Lei 25.6.81 (Sha Kok Mei) Mr. Chung Kam Faat 29.6.81 (Ma Nam Wat) Mr. Tsang 25.6.81 Mr. Wan 29.6.81 (Sha Kok Mei) (Ma Nam Wat) Mr. Tsang Yung 25.6.81 (Sha Kok Mei) Mrs. Hoh, née Lau 29.6.81 (O Tau) Mrs. Siu (Pak Tam) 25.6.81 Mr. Wan Koon Fuk 31.1.81, (Wong Mo Ying) 25.6.81 (Tai Nam Wu) 6.81, 5.8.81 Mr. Tang Kei Faat Mr. Lau Wan Hei 25.6.81 Mrs. Lau, née Lei 1.7.81 (Pak Kong Au), (Hei Tsz Wan) Mr. Kong Sai P'ing (Lung Mei) Mrs. Lau 1.7.81 (Hei Tsz Wan) Mr. Cheung Kau 26.6.81 (Ping Tun) Mr. Lei (Wong Chuk Yeung) (1) 1.7.81 Mrs. Cheung née Wan 26.6.81 (Ping Tun) Mr. Lei (Wong Chuk Yeung) (2) 1.7.81 Mr. Cheung 26.6.81 (Tai Po Tsai) Mr. Lei 1.7.81 Mr. Lei 26.6.81 (Tsak Yue Wu) (Muk Min Shan) Mr. Lei (Wo Liu) 2.7.81 Madam Keung 26.6.81 Mr. Lau Yun Shang 2.7.81 (Muk Min Shan) (Wong Chuk Wan) Mrs. Wai 27.6.81 Mrs. Yung, née Wan 2.7.81 (Sha Kok Mei) (Hoi Ha) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 102 The first valley is that of Shek Pik ("Rock Wall"). This lies right under the steep south-west face of Lantau Peak. The main village stands at some distance from a creek with a big sandbar which makes a good harbour for small boats. To the east is a little hamlet, Tung Wan ("East Bay"), where a sandbar has silted across the mouth of a stream, making a marsh. A bay a little west of the creek faces the surf, and so has no landing and is in consequence deserted except for cultivation and pasture1a. Shui Hau and Tong Fuk ("Creek Mouth" and "Banked Happiness"), which form the second group of villages, have poor landing-places. They lie at one end of the long stretch of beach which extends to Pui O (“Cup Haven")14 which is the name of the third group of villages. The chief features of Pui O are its fine woods with their ancient trees: the very long sand-spit enclosing a lagoon where boats can lie: and the double storm beach, the second one to the rear being the older. There is an old brick or pottery kiln built on this beach. Passes go from Pui O to Mui Wo and Shap Long. Beyond Pui O to the southeast is a rugged granite peninsula; it only has one village of importance, Tai Long ("Great Waves"). This village has one very fine sand beach with another to the west, which, because it is much more exposed, has no village15. To the east of Tai Long are the wells from where the Cheung Chau waterboats get their water. On the north coast of this granite peninsula are bays and hamlets where sand junks used to dig sand. At its innermost point is Shap Long ("Ten Ridges", but this translation is particularly doubtful), a plain with a sandbank in front; the sea is so shallow sand junks cannot approach. A few years ago an epidemic of smallpox made the villagers think something was wrong with their abode, so they left the houses all standing and moved into huts further down the valley, on its northern side. The next point of interest on the Lantau coast is the Silver Mine Bay, a beautiful valley with a big sand beach in front, and with four villages, Mui Wo ("Plum Nook"), Tai Tei Tong ("Big Land Pond"), Luk Tei Tong ("Deer Land Pond"), and Pak Ngan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 128 labourers' homes as well. The shrines to be described were connected with the villages of the Shau Kei Wan area, and not with Tung Tai Kai which, as the market town that served local villagers from the surrounding district had its own temples and shrines, managed by the market town shopkeepers, as at Ap Lei Chau.30 (1) Nam On Fong () The management committees of the shrines to be described mainly comprised land people from the villages in which they were situated, and not residents of the market town. The villages looking to the first of these shrines for protection, were collectively known as Nam On Fong. At the census of 1901 the main village of this area, Tsin Shui Ma Tau, had a recorded population of 740,37 The shrine, another Fuk Tak Kung, has an interesting history. In the first place, though old, its origins are in some doubt. Until its first removal about 1920 it was located under a large banyan tree beside a stone pier. This pier and the footpath leading to it had been built by the grandfather or great-grandfather of two of my elderly informants (born in the late nineteenth century and interviewed in 1968-70). These men had been local quarry masters and required a pier from which to ship their stone. The shrine was said to have been established after a man had recovered an image from the sea and placed it under the banyan tree at this spot. Using local contacts, I managed to trace the story to its source. The father of a local boatbuilder was the person responsible, though at the time of the find he had been only fourteen years old. A check on the ages of father, son and other relatives involved in the event showed that were this story true, it took place no earlier than 1890. This does not tally with the inscription on an incense burner in the modern Fuk Tak Kung. This is dated April-May 1877, but though it does not state that it was presented to Fuk Tak Kung, the managers state firmly that it has always belonged to the god and his shrine. Page 150 Page 151 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 135 14.8.1897, all three Ap Lei Chau residents belonging to the old Luk Hing, Sau Hing, and Fuk Hing Tongs respectively. Their evidence enlarges and confirms the information obtained from the record of the Squatter Board's proceedings. "Hayes 1977, pp. 99-101. The Tai O information is more explicit on this point, but the Cheung Chau practice was the same. ** See E.G. Pryor, Housing in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1983) pp. 15-17. These new urban districts were very susceptible to contagious disease. It is well to recall Governor Des Voeux's report of 1889 in which, describing the City of Victoria, he wrote: "Going ashore our visitor would see in the Chinese quarters houses, constructed after a pattern peculiar to China, of almost equally solid materials, but packed so closely together and thronged so densely as to be in this respect probably without parallel in the world.. It is believed that over 100,000 people live within a certain district of the City of Victoria not exceeding 1⁄2 square mile in area. It is known that 1,600 people live in the space of a single acre." (Sessional Papers 1889, pp. 303-304). 15 ** Victoria had seven officially-approved sub-districts in 1857, as listed and described in the Hong Kong Government Gazette for 9 May 1857, GN No. 69. They included "No. 1, or SEI-YING-POON — From the small village westward, called Cowee-wan, to the end of Circular Buildings, including all the houses on Bonham Strand, west of No. 1 Police Boat Station. The historical development of this area is given by Revd. Carl T. Smith's note at pp. 211-218 of JHKBRAS 14(1974) in "Programme Notes for Visits to Older Parts of Hong Kong Island (Urban Areas....) See also Chapter 3, Sheung Wan, of Frank Leeming's Street Studies in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1977) pp. 45-66. 24 Sheung Fung Lane itself is situated between Second and Third Streets in that section bounded by Centre Street to the East and Western Street to the West. ** An account of pao wui at the Tam Kung festival in Shau Kei Wan from a Secretariat for Chinese Affairs' file of 1958 is typical: "There were about 15 Kaifong elders in the Tam Kung temple who were enrolling pao wui (K), there were about 18 pao wu's from the sea and about 10 from the land. The wul's who brought their own roast-pigs with them had to pay "oil money" and "worshipping fees" from $10 to $30 to the elders before entering the temple. It is learned that the worshippers have no objection to pay these fees. In addition the temple keeper also charged $5 or $10 for each roast-pig brought into the temple plus $5 to $10 "oil money". 20 A recent account of the proceedings at Sheung Fung Lane is given in the article "Everyone's festival" in The Asia Magazine issued weekly by Asia Magazines Ltd., Hong Kong, Vol. 21, Number V7, 4th January 1981, pp. 3-6. 3-6. For a very well illustrated account of a similar old neighbourhood in Singapore, and its community festivals, see "Singapore's Vanishing Chinatown" by Joan Ogden in The Asia Magazine 25th July 1976. * "No. 3, or TAI-PING-SHAN From the end of Hollywood Road near Circular Buildings, to Gough Street steps, including all the houses on the south side of the Queen's Road between these two points." See the plan opposite p. 124 of Marjorie Topley (ed) Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today (Hong Kong, Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch 1967). This was drawn in 1882 (ibid, pp. 123-124). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 269 My notebook says “We had tea at all these villages all locally grown". The list includes Tai Hang Hau, Sheung Sze Wan and Ha Yeung, but I visited others in the group without making special mention of tea. At Ha Yeung I was told that they had 100 trees of what they called shan cha (山茶) (“hill tea”), not wild but planted by themselves. Tai Po Tsai, one of the larger villages of the area, claimed to have 50 trees, but the largest village settlement, Mang Kung Uk, reported "only a few tea bushes not many." However, the little island settlement of Fu Tau Chau in Junk Bay gave me hill tea to drink, from its own trees. Further towards Sai Kung Market, I was given hill tea to drink at Nam Wai, and also at Pak Kong Au, though the village reported "only 8 to 10 trees". East of Sai Kung, people in the hamlet of Shan Liu said that “tea was formerly grown (i.e. cultivated) but only wild bushes are now harvested”. But it was at Nam A, east of Sha Kok Mei, that I learned most. "A really nice, almost English village", I wrote enthusiastically. "We drank hill tea (excellent) from trees planted twenty years ago in the hills behind the village, but not many. It is best brewed in porcelain, they said. Their supply lasts six months in all, but is harvested four times a year - once in the winter months, once at Easter and twice in the summer. The best is the Easter crop.” Nothing was said, or asked, about preparation but each crop was kept in a drawer for two months. My note ends "The cows like to eat it!”. On Lantau, the villagers of Pa Mei, otherwise known as Shan Ha, said they collected hill tea from Tai Tung Shan Keuk (大東山腳), that is the north western slopes of Sunset Peak. On South Lantau the people of the Pui villages also went up to Tai Tung Shan to collect leaves from wild bushes there in the second to fourth moons. Previously there had been many trees, but hill fires had reduced their number. It was used as leung cha (涼茶) for cooling the system. At Tong Fuk my notes state, "they gather tea leaves from bushes on the hill and use it a lot. The tea comes from the Fung Wong Shan peak behind the village, and the leaves used are plucked in the second and third moons.” Rather surprisingly, the villagers of Upper and Lower Keung Shan, though located on the mountain slopes of a sheltered valley with good tree cover, had never cultivated tea bushes, or at least not within living memory. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-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-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 78 BARBARA E. WARD and the development of radio weather forecasts directed specifically to the fishing fleets, brought at least a measure of security which was quite new. I have stated that Kau Sai bay was not safe in a typhoon. Under sail the journey to the nearest relatively safe place, Sai Kung, might take anything up to two-and-a-half or even three hours. Given the unpredictability of typhoons any master who did not take his boat, with his family on board, off to Sai Kung at the first intimation of a possibly threatening storm would have been failing in his manifest duty. Many fishing days and nights in the summer were lost in this way. But with an engine there was nowhere in the whole territory which was more than an hour's journey from a typhoon refuge, and the journey itself was not dependent upon the very winds one was hastening to avoid. One of the most vivid and lasting memories of windy days in the summer of 1952 in Kau Sai, the first summer in which the village had had a properly mechanised boat at the anchorage, is of old Chung Fuk Hei chugging about here, there and everywhere to round up the stragglers and tow them into safety. He was unfailingly generous in this self-imposed task, and several times made two or even three journeys back to Kau Sai to make sure that no one was left behind. The lesson that engines spelled safety was very quickly learnt. Safety when proceeding under power was, of course, also a matter of official concern. The prohibition of petrol engines as a safety measure has already been mentioned. With the introduction of small marine diesels the Hong Kong Government, through the Marine Department, devised a simplified form of license for coxswains and engineers in order to make it possible for inshore fishermen with only a few years' schooling to obtain essential minimum skills in navigation and engine maintenance. If this had not been done it would have been necessary for the owners of mechanised junks to employ men with the existing unnecessarily advanced qualifications. Since such men could command salaries well beyond the range of ordinary purse-seiners or small long-liners, the mechanisation of the inshore fishing fleets would never have taken place. At about the time that the first small marine engines made their appearance the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 115 differences between liners and seiners can be expressed in the following diagram, which contrasts their basically different patterns of daily movement (blue and red solid lines) and annual (festival) movement (broken lines) with their basically similar territoriality (solid black line).” Unfortunately, the diagram was never prepared. 33 Readers interested in Chinese junks from the marine architect's point of view are recommended to the several beautiful studies by Worcester listed in the Bibliography below. See also Stanley S.S. Yuan Fishing Junks, a paper presented to the Engineering Society of Hong Kong, Vol. IX, No. 2, January 1956, pp. 41-78 (and 78a-y), and Needham (1971) [Possibly G.R.G. Worcester, The Floating Population in China, an Illustrated Record of the Junkmen and Their Boats on Sea and River (Hong Kong reprint, 1970) and Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China (Cambridge, 1954-)]. 34 Reference to Needham (and Yuan op. cit., p.53). [See n.33]. 35 Yuan: ibid. 36 Ref. Worcester and Needham et al. [See n.33]. 37 [A diagram showing the layout of the holds and deck space was to be provided at this point]. 38 [Not found in manuscript.] 39 [A note was planned at this point but not written.] 39 [Chapter 6?] 40 [An unfinished paragraph follows: "In 1970 I asked my friends in Kau Sai to make another count at the time of the festival, and to indicate which members of which boat families were now living ashore. The results, received by post, were as follows:") 41 [Term marked in manuscript, probably to be replaced in subsequent revision.] 42 [Not included in manuscript.] 43 [Manuscript includes this line in parentheses: "(etc. see annual report on this and include details)."] 44 [See p. 112.] 45 [Not included in manuscript.] 46 Particularly in Chapter 9 below. For economic aspects see also Chapter 8. [Unfortunately, neither chapter appears in the manuscript.] 47 Indeed, the boat itself and all the persons aboard were always (and solely) identified by reference to the master's (personal) name. Thus one heard of Wing Toh's boat, Fuk Hei's employee, Fung Shang's wife, Shing Chui's son, etc, etc. 48 Other terms used, usually more formally and in written contexts were shuen cheung (lit: boat exalted, boat leader) and shuen chu (lit: boat lord). Each of these also translates fairly well as "boat's master". (Cp. also uk cheung, uk chue (house leader, house lord, i.e. head of household); ghaah cheung (family leader, mandarin: chia chang); tsuen cheung (village leader) etc. 49 [Not found in The Census Report of 1961, K.M.A. Barnett, a long-time member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, was then Commissioner of Census.] ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 84 CHAN WING HOI not give any figures for the ratio between indigenous residents and newcomers among the members, but he stressed that no distinction was made between the two groups (mou-san pei-chi). It seems, nonetheless, that the Hoklo, Wai Chau and Chiu Chau residents see themselves as distinctive groups in the settlement. There is probably a separate association for them, for many of the flags put on display in the entrance area were styled "to the Fuk-Wai-Chiu [a short term for Fuk Kin, Wai Chau and Chiu Chau] fellow townsmen" or their Association.' I found out less about Tai Long Wan and Hok Tsui. In these two settlements, too, the indigenous villagers had been Hakka and Punti people who practised paddy cultivation and fishing. Many of the men of more recent generations worked as seamen and their descendants were able to obtain jobs in the city. As in the case of Shek O, outside interest in their scenic surroundings has been a major factor in the changes in the last few decades. I talked with Mr. Yau Ho Sam, who moved to Tai Long Wan about 40 years ago. His native place was Zheng Cheng, but before he moved to Tai Long Wan, he had lived at Wong Chuk Hang. There were only some ten families at Tai Long Wan when he arrived. Now there are more than 100. The original inhabitants were mainly Hakka although some were Punti. According to Mr. Wong, Tai Long Wan is still a mainly Hakka village, although there are also some Punti, Chiu Chau and Hoklo people. Tourist facilities can be seen in the village, and there are some Westerners' residences. For Hok Tsui most of my information comes from the man who drove the Taoist priests to his village in his van for the daily haang-chiu procession in the festival. In the past the village had 40 indigenous households. Now there are fewer. The villagers were mainly Hakka. His family has been here for ten generations, counting to his grandsons. In the past many worked as seamen. They probably became wealthy in that occupation. There is a watch tower (diu-lau) in the main village (jing-chyn) for protection against bandits, said to be the only watch tower left on Hong Kong Island. I observed that many of the present houses were not in the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 149 to join him. The boy had already shown great promise as a student and his teacher had urged his village to sponsor his future studies, but the money for this could not be found. When he arrived in Malacca, however, he began attending classes at the Anglo-Chinese College, it being in the same compound as the press. He excelled in the classroom and when the son of the principal was to be sent to the Bishop's College at Serampore in India to further his studies, Ho Fuk-tong was selected to accompany him as a companion. There was an understanding that he could also attend classes if, in return, he taught a class the Chinese language. After a few years the two young men returned to Malacca. Here under the direction of Mr. Legge, Ho Fuk-tong began the study of Greek and Hebrew along with other advanced subjects. He made remarkable progress in the languages and seemed destined for a career as a scholar. An unfortunate incident happened, and, but for the humane understanding of his teacher, this incident could have cut short their association. One day Mr. Legge discovered his student had committed a moral indiscretion. Ho Fuk-tong had some years before been baptised into the Christian church. Fortunately Mr. Legge was not as strict in applying church discipline as some missionaries of the period were. He believed the transgressor was truly penitent for his misdeed and, after a period of probation, accepted him back. It was decided, however, that it would be best if he returned to his home village and married the girl who had been chosen for him from childhood, even though she was not a Christian at that time. Not many months after Ho Fuk-tong had left Malacca for his home at Nam Tsuen Sha in Nam Hoi District of Kwangtung, Mr. Legge left for Hongkong. When a suitable period had elapsed after the marriage celebrations, Ho Fuk-tong and his new wife came to Hongkong. Here ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT ............. HON. TREASURER'S REPORT HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT ARTICLES: • Dian H. Murray, Pirates in the Pearl River Delta ... Dan Waters, A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong • Steven A. Leibo, Not So Calm An Administration: The Anglo-French Occupation of Canton, 1858-1861 Wei Peh T'i, Through Historical Records and Ancient Writings in search of the Giant Panada • Carl T. Smith, The First Child Labour Law in Hong Kong vii xviii xxiii • 1 10 16 • 34 44 Sung Hok-P'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories; Tai Po 70 Sung Hok-P'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories; Castle Peak 26 76 Sung Hok-P'ang, Ts'in Fuk 86 Violet Mebig Chan Lew, A Sentimental Journey into the Past of the Chan and Jong Families 94 Harold M. Otness, "The One Bright Spot in Shanghai" A History of the Library of the North China Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society NOTES AND QUERIES: • David Faure, The Man the Emperor Decapitated Carl T. Smith, The Archives of the Basel Mission 185 198 203 P. H. Hase, The Lanterns of Chuko Liang O. William Borrell FMS, A Silver Bracelet with an Ancient Greek Coin found in Wewak, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea · 207 212 James Hayes, The Tai Sheung Lo Kwan Temple, Chai Wan 217 • E. W. Wright, The Hongkong Milling Company's Failure 218 P. H. Hase, A Traditional New Territories Latrine James Hayes, A Note on Rice Hullers 222 226 James Hayes, A Glimpse of the Land Settlement at Shek Pik Village, Lantau Island, Hong Kong 228 BOOK REVIEWS 234 · vi Page & ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 89 touched anything belonging to the people, however. They then ventured up the Canton river, burning ships and attacking Canton itself. At last Chau was captured by the Ts'ing general, Cheung (), and Lei put out to sea again and kept his junks near Taai P'aang (A) now Kowloon city. In the 3rd year of Hong Hei, 1664, a battle was fought off Kowloon city between Cheung and Lei. The latter was beaten, and was forced to take refuge at Tung Ch'ung (Hafi) on Taai Ue Shaan (AMBULI), Lantau Island. There now followed a time of great distress for the unhappy country people. More villages were forced to move, and the people treated with great harshness. Many of them who refused to go or even hesitated were killed by the soldiers. At the beginning of the Ts'in Fuk the people imagined that it was only a temporary measure and they managed to keep together with their wives and children. But after three years had passed they found themselves without means of livelihood. So the husbands left their wives, the fathers left their children, and the elder brothers younger brothers, each pushing north in the hope of finding work, leaving behind them the sound of crying and sorrow. In the 8th month of the 3rd year of Hong Hei a man named Yuen Sze To (AP48), a Foo Muk (11) (an official title meaning "Head of relief and soothing of the people") disobeyed the order to move over the boundary, and collecting a crowd of discontented country people, he made a stronghold in Lik Yuen (HM) a village near Sha Tin. He had other quarters in Kwun Foo (1fif), now Kowloon city and his followers acted as bandits robbing and killing as they pleased. They gave much trouble to the Ts'ing government, as when the soldiers were sent out to search the solitary parts for people hiding in order to avoid being moved, they were often set on by Yuen's band and either robbed or killed by them. Eventually they were exterminated after a long time by an officer named Tseung Wang Yun (1479) who was sent with a large company of soldiers to Sha Tin for that purpose. The following year a system of beacons was started along the coast to be used as signals in case of attack. In the same year the retiring Viceroy Lei Sut T'aai (4) in his Wai Soh (6) a valedictory address to Emperor Hong Hei, asked him not to press too firmly the question of removing the people over the boundary. "When I was in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 206 hand in their rent. These turned into very serious conflict. The Hakkas made themselves bows and arrows and started a war with the village. They shot arrows into the village and used stones to bombard it. But the village was not easily conquered. It had a moat, four strong towers and a citizen force to defend the village, so the Hakkas could not achieve much. But then they thought of a method, a way which is still used by Chinese to get enemies into trouble. "Among the Hakkas there was an old childless couple. The husband was named Tai and his wife was of the Lo family. They were too old to work and tried to get money by begging. It was proposed to them that they take poison and die in front of the village gates, then the Puntis would be accused of their murder. The old couple were told that they would have to die anyway in the course of events and they had no descendants to sacrifice at their grave. If they accepted the plan of their fellow Hakkas, a temple would be built in their honour and every two years a theatrical performance would be held for them. The old couple were at first not willing to agree to the proposal, because they wanted to continue to live and not die so early. Repeated requests finally caused them to agree. So one evening they were given a very good meal and afterward they took poison and died before the village gate. Immediately all forty-eight Hakka men attacked the village and brought the villagers before the judge who lived at Schau Kin, accusing them of murder. "There was a long court proceeding because accusation of murder had great consequences in China. The Puntis paid over a lot of money and went to court to defend themselves. While they were there, their village was burned down by the Hakkas who took over the place. The Puntis became impoverished by the court case. They dared not return to Pu Kak. They settled in [place not given in manuscript] where their descendants again became wealthy and respectable and they produced literary graduates. Many congratulated themselves that their ancestors had been driven out of the village as they have now much better land. "The Hakkas took over the village and surrounding fields. As they had promised the old couple, they built a small temple and honoured the Fuk tei kung and Fuk tei poh, the grandfather and grandmother who give blessings. Later a new temple was built for them near the ================================================================================ 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-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 156 Tsz people controlling the pass and the Cheungs controlling the river crossing; no one group had total control of the road; but if the Luk Yeuk controlled both the pass and the bridge, then the Shap Yeuk's interests could well have been at risk. Lin Ma Hang of the Shap Yeuk actually fought alongside Wong Pui Ling; the rest of the Shap Yeuk was probably friendly to the Cheungs, or at least neutral in the dispute. The Sze Yeuk were allied with the Tangs in their opposition to the establishment of the Tai Po New Market by the Tsat Yeuk; as is to be expected, Fanling and the Luk Yeuk supported the Tsat Yeuk. 32 33 It is unclear if the inscription still survives or not. They were Man Fuk-ting (Tong Fong, Chairman); Lei Yi-wa (Lei Uk); Chan Kwok-cheung (Ping Yeung); Tang King-shiu (Au Ha or Wang Kong Ha); Law King-fan (Law Fong); To Kan-yeung (Tin). 14 Between 1911 and 1924 Chan Ping-kei (Chau ...) and Chan Tai [or Ting]-cheung ... (+ [Chinese characters unknown]) were managers, and as such appear on the Land Memorials. 35 It was put up by Lin Tong and Wang Kong Ha villages, in "The Shing Ping She Shrine of Righteousness".ĦTH, Faure, Historical Inscriptions, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 850. 36 37 Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 104-105. Chau Tin village owned a small temple, or San Teng (神廳), as did Kan Tau Wai and Law Fong. Kan Tau Wai in addition owned a small house as a meeting place for its elders. None of these communal facilities had any income-producing land attached to them, except for the Law Fong and Kan Tau Wai temples, which owned 0.05 and 0.12 acres respectively. The Ping Yuen temple manager was registered only for the single temple building, but not for any income-producing land, although the temple did buy a piece of land (0.72 acres) from a Ping Che villager in 1906. See DD82, houselot CT20; lot 759; DD78, lot 1158; DD82, houselot KTW13; houselots PC1-3; Memorial 2744. Memorials 24058 (20 April 1913), 27471 (4 June 1914), 45919 (7 December 1920); see also Memorial 17779 (17 October 1911) for the succession of the She to a house at Tong Fong. 19 For the Po Tak Old Alliance, see Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 128-140. 40 41 See R.G. Groves, "The Origins of Two Market Towns'', loc.cit. For the Tung Ping Kuk and the Tung Wo Kuk, see Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op. cit., pp. 128-140. 42 (唔出嫁嘅女) 43 44 Sung Hok-p'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories: Kam Tin, op. cit. It should be noted that these nunneries are often called Tsz (寺) in ordinary speech and documents. This character strictly means "monastery", but, in this area, this does not necessarily imply that the religious living there were men. Thus the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz is almost always so called, as in the document printed in the Appendix. The use of the more correct character Am (庵, 'nunnery') is almost entirely limited to Ch'ing official documents (especially the County Gazetteer) and, sometimes, on bells. 45 46 loc.cit. See Faure, Luk and Ng, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 669. It is called Miu (廟, "temple") in Hsin An County Gazetteer, 1922, ch'uan 4 and 7, pages 49-50 and 82 of the Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, and in the 1688 Gazetteer. 47 Ling To is called Tsz (寺) in the Hsin An County Gazetteer, 1819, at ch'uan 18 and 21, pages 148 and 174 of the Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, and, given the care with which... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 335 A. Places of worship The gods worshipped in Kam Tin can be divided into four categories. They are gods housed in temples, localized gods in outdoor space, gods on family altars, and the general gods of Heaven. The gods of heaven (Tin-San) are worshipped outside the house door, often with a tablet saying "Blessings from the Gods of Heaven" (Tin-Gwun Chi-Fuk). More important for the community as a whole are temple gods and localized gods. Firstly there are the Ling-Wan Monastery and the Jau and Wong temple, which were important to the Dangs of Kam Tin as a whole. Stone inscriptions show that villagers of Kam Tin as a whole contributed money for rebuilding or repair, doing so on the basis of villages and higher order lineage estates, notably Ching-Lok Jou and Naam-Kai Jou. According to Sung (1973 and 1974) and the Si Kim Tong genealogy the Ling-Wan Ji was established by the Dangs of Kam Tin for the second wife of their founding ancestor Hung-Yi. But it is probable that Sung's source for this information was the author of the Si Gim Tong genealogy himself, and other villages seemed less aware of the connection of the monastery with their ancestor. Perhaps even more important is the idea that Ling-Wan Ji was the jyu-lou, or “head” of Kam Tin. That is why, a Mr. Dang explained to me, all the village gates should face Kwun Yam Shan, where Ling-Wan Ji is, and there is no need for a tall san-teng. Ko Po and Wing Lung Wai are exceptions to this rule. He knew that the position of the gate in Wing Lung Wai had been altered. He thought that the direction of the Ko Po one had been altered too. Interestingly the Xin'an gazetteer has no entry for the Ling-Wan Monastery under that name, but records the existence of a Gwun-Yam Temple on Kwun Yam Shan at the foot of Tai Po Shan, which matches the location of the monastery. The Xin'an gazetteer of 1688 is probably the earliest document mentioning the temple. Under the entry for the temple it mentioned a man of Dongguan county in the Ming dynasty who had lived there. It is not completely clear if this man was a Daoist. When Dang Si-daan's uncle donated the bell now at the monastery in 1755, the inscription referred to the place as the nunnery at Kwun Yam Shan. No one had heard about the temple named in the gazetteer, but Gwun-Yam is worshipped in the monastery, with various other gods such as Gwaan-Dai, and it is the goddess who has a central position, with Page 360 Page 361 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 374 which has been copied in an untitled manuscript in the possession of Mr. Dang Yu-Hing).36 Dang Kei-faan Genealogy in the Baker Collection of New Territories genealogies in the British Library. 37 The elder was Dang Wing-Sau, the head of the lineage. I do not know which generation he was in. See Taga (1982:92). 38 Translated in Sung (1974:177-179). 39 40 See table above and the genealogy in Kam Tin Historical Documents, vol. 1. Probably Dang Hei-Seui. See Sung (1974:166-168) and a genealogy of his segment included in Hugh Baker's Collection of Genealogies. 41 Patrick Hase has drawn my attention to the importance of the monastery as central to the establishment Hung-Yi's descendants in Kam Tin, just as Ling To nunnery is to the Dangs of Ha Tsuen. The monastery and the earlier temple are a major element in the fung-seui of the Pat Heung valley and Kam Tin. The rivers important to irrigation in the area all flow from the mountain on which the monastery stands. 42 41 44 I have not tried to find further information on this man in gazetteers. See Sung (1973:112-113) for the Hung Sing Temple. This was one of two stories. They were thought of as alternatives although there is no contradiction between them. I shall relate the other one later. 45 I was told that the Juk-Yun Am used to be at the present site of the Gwaan-Dai Temple of Shing Mun San Tsuen, and San-Sin Fu near Shui Mei. 46 Two items in Kam Tin Historical Documents vol. 2 were probably intended for this very grave. These were among the papers of Dang Ting-sam from the year 1873. The first was a request for donations towards the establishment of a charitable grave. The second was intended for a stone inscription. There is strong evidence that the charitable grave was established before the British came, although many present-day Dangs believe that those buried in the grave were those who died fighting against the British. The jiu festival record for 1895 included the Dei-Jong Wong of Tung-Fuk Tong among the gods to be invited, and an elder in his nineties remembered seeing gam-taap jars for bones when he was very small. He deduced that those must have been the remains of people who died before 1898, because one had to wait for many years he suggested ten — until the bones could be extracted after a first burial. 47 A bin-ngaak (horizontal inscribed board) presented to the Buddhist altar at its completion included ten names who were believed to be the share-holders of the Tong. They were three Wan-Guk jiu descendants of Shui Mei: Baak-Cheung, Daat-Hung, and Jik-Hing; three brothers Yat-Wa, Seui-Chuen, Gam-Wa and two of their nephews, and Baak-Yi, all descendants of Wan-Gaan; and a Hin-Yiu of Kam Tin Shi. 48 Plus a inscribed stone on the ground saying Naam-mo O-Mei-To-Fat, set up to offset the bad influences that caused traffic accidents near the stone. 49 Hoi-dang for a village did not always take place at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. In the Shui Mei case it took place at the Tin-Hau Temple. 50 The elders made it clear that gu here does not mean “shares". 51 The subjects for these paper images were specified in the contract made with the craftsmen. The contract was included in the general record for the festival and was copied from the previous ones. But neither the organizers nor the contractor seem to have paid much attention to the details of the prescription. 52 The object is probably more commonly known by the name dong 'an and is more often installed over the central area of the Taoist altar rather than in the backstage room. See ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 397 the Yuen Ka Walled Village E, Mui Wo, Shek Pik, Tong Fuk 塘福,Shek Mun Kap 石門甲,Shui Hau 水口, Shek Lau Hang 石榴坑, Ngau Au 牛凹, Sha Lo Wan, Shek Tau Po石頭莆,Yi O 二澳 and Yau Ku Long. Also, Hakka villages were found at Tai Ho, Pak Mong, Wang Long and Ling Pei Walled Village at Tung Chung." The population on the island increased, and they depended on fishing and farming. Nowadays, Mui Wo, Pui O, Shui Hau, Tai O and Tung Chung have developed into towns; Shek Pik Village has been removed, and a reservoir built on that site. However, many villages founded in the Ching Dynasty still remain with little development. NOTES ANTHONY SIU KWOK-KIN 1 The inscription of the 42nd year of Chien Lung (1777) on the stone tablet in the Hau Wong Temple of Tung Chung bears the name "Tai Hai Shan". 1 See Chapter 19 of Kwong Yu Kei, Ming edition. 1 1 See Chapter 2 of Yuet Man Chuen See Kei Leuk, 1684 edition. See Chapter 7 of Lin Tien-wai and the writer's Essays on the History of Hong Kong Prior to British Colonisation, Commercial Press, 1984. It is now known as Lantau Island, and in some newly published maps of Hong Kong, it is also known as Tai Ho Island. + See S. G. Davis and May Tregear's Man Kok Tsui, Archaeological Site 30, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Univ. Press 1961; and “An Archaeological Site at Shek Pik”, Journal Monograph I, Hong Kong Archaeological Society 1975. 7 See Chapter 29 of the Tung Kwun Yuen Chi 8 See Chapter 1 of the Tung Kwun Yuen Chi, 1464 edition. 非 See Tsang Yat Man's "Hai Nam Chaak, an old Salt Pan on Lantau Island" 大嶼山鹽田學, No. 284, Cosmorama Pictorial, Hong Kong. 9 As Note 8. See Tsang Yat Man's "A Textual Research on the Ins and Outs of the Rebellion of the Natives of Tai Hsi Shan – Now Tai Yu Shan of Hong Kong - in the third year of Ching Yuan of Emperor Ning Tsung of South Sung Dynasty" 南宋寧宗慶元三年, Chu Hai Journal No. 11, October, 1980. 12 See Chapter 67 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1558 edition. 13 See Tai Hai Shan 大箂山 in Ng Loi 吳榮's Nam Hoi Ku Chik Kei 南海古鏞記, Chapter 61-1 of Su Fu, Shun Chih edition. 14 See Chapter 12 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1697 edition. + 15 As Note 4. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 266 about a mile below the Sha Wan River, and finally the Ching Shui River which drains the northern part of the valley from Po Kat (Buji) down, and which enters about half-a-mile below the Sheung Yue River. The main river is navigable for small skiffs as far as Kim Hau, but for junks only as far as the confluence of the main river and the Ching Shui River. However, the river at the mouth of the Ching Shui River is not navigable for junks at low tide. Furthermore, the navigable part of the river is not wide enough for a junk to turn around in easily when under sail. The Ching Shui River, at the junction with the main river, splits into two branches, with a low, marshy island between them and the main river.* Junks could come up the main river, enter the Ching Shui River, pass behind the marshy island, and back into the main river via the second branch of the stream, thus turning round without cutting across the channel, using a "one-way" system. The landing place used by the cargo junks and ferry boats, therefore, was the channel of the Ching Shui River behind the island. Junks would come up the river with the tide, and would load and unload while at rest on the mud at low tide, and would cast off and go down the river with the next high tide. Three significant roads pass through the valley, crossing at Sham Chun: the Yuen Long to Wai Chow (Huichou), Nam Tau (Nantou) to Sha Tau Kok, and Po Kat to Kowloon roads. In the Ming, this valley had a number of markets, of which Sham Chun was only one. There was another at Kim Hau, and others to the west, including one at Lung Tsun Hui (Longjinxu), which was part of the Fuk Tin (Futian) village cluster. By the nineteenth century, however, all these other markets had either become extinct, or else survived only in a very small way as satellites of Sham Chun. Sham Chun had developed until it had become a very large market, with probably 500 and more shops. The market was ringed by large villages of rich clans—the Cheungs at Wong Pui Ling (Huangbeiling) about a mile to the east, the Tsois at Tsoi Uk Wai (Caiwuwei) about half a mile to the south-west, the Wongs at Fuk Tin about a mile to the south-west, the Yuens at Lo Wu (Lohu) about half a mile to the south and the Hos at Sun Kong (Sungang) about half a mile to the north. These rich and ancient clans were almost perennially in dispute, as they jostled for power and position in the district. * See Map. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 Lectures: 1993 16 April 14 May 11 June 9 July 15 October 30 October 19 November 26 November 9 December 1994 21 January 18 February 11 March 21 March Chinese Opera Di S.Y Chan Growing Up in China Mr Denis Bray New Territories Poetry and Song Di Patrick Hase The Li Family of Hong Kong Mr Frank Ching Chinese Festivals in Hong Kong. Dr Patrick Hase based on video taken by Mr. Peter Lee Mult-culturalism and Asia Asian Arts Society of Australia Dr. James Hayes Emigration from Hong Kong Dr. Elizabeth Sinn Law as a Foreign Language Professor Derek Roebuck Triad Societies in Hong Kong Mr. Ip Pau-fuk William Mesney. Mr Keith Stevens Chinese Clothing An Illustrated Guide Mis Valery Garrett Eternal Serenity Meaning of Architecture of the Chinese Buddhist Monastery Di Puay-peng Ho Ancient Chinese Gold Dr Simon Kwan Crossing the Taklamakan Desert Mr Charles Blackmore Visits: 1993 3 April 2 May 22 May 5 June/September 25 June 3 July 30 September Exhibition of paintings by Nancy Woo - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University Jewish Cemetery Mer Yung Tang Collection of Paintings by Chan Dai Chien Chinese University Art Gallery Marine Police Headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui (two visits) Japanese Tea Ceremony - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University Picnic and outing to Yuen Tun Village Civil Aid Services Camp, Tar Lam Chung Wo Hang Village to see making and letting off of paper balloons (Moon Festival) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 189 APPENDIX 2 Shops in Sha Tau Kok Market. 1925 = (WTS = Wang Tau Shek), UP = Upper Street, LS = Lower Street, OS = Old Street, SLH = Sha Lan Heung (= Fish Laans) TYK = Tai Yuen Kok, SH = Sam Heung LH = Luk Heung, WH = Wo Hang, YT = Yim Tin, YSQ = Yung Shue O, FH = Fung Hang, TT = Tong To, ST = Shan Tsui, HL = Hoklo, KLH = Kwun Lo Ha, LK = Luk Keng, JMK = Jat Muk Kiu, LL = Lai Long, AH = Au Ha, SNT = San Tsuen, NC = Nun Chung, SC = Sham Chun, STK = Sha Tau Kok A = in 1894 Shan Tsui Tablet, B = Cheung Shan Kwu Liu Tablet, C = in Oral Evidence, D = in 1906 Budd's Pool Tablet * = The largest shops) = in 1920 No. Name of Shop Address of Shop Name of Owner Village of Owner Source Comments General Stores 1 WTS Sold saws, bowls, plates, pottery, ropes, nails etc 4 LA ABC JAWN MHL WTS C C YSO BCD Donated Bell to Wu Shek Kok Temple, 1922 PL Pottery Basel missionaries, 1853 (A)BCD Occupied lower floor of gun lower Probably donated to 1898 Tai Po YSO TH BC BC Kwong Fuk Bridge sold gram, pig slaughterer, winemaker etc Pawnshop fli THI PS H YT 7 Growery X* W WTS WTS 12 I WTS China BCD sugar dealer, etc WTS + WH BC r 1 WTS $1. TTC) ABCD IS ST BC IS 7 WH AC pig slaughterer, winemaker etc 1HI WTS ΥΠ BC [4* Other Goods 15 16 FEE # WTS China BC THI IS THE C 20 AC winemaker. grocer. etc Basel missionaries, 1853 winemaker baker, probably connected with ↑ FI 21 22 ze aza夤èsa a 4 WH C dogmeal WTS SIK BCD baker Lishmongers 20 FHC WTS THE BC WTS BC ƒ SLET SI BC נו 23* SLET YT BC main donor, 1894 واع 24 26* Aumal 01 临 WTS China вс THI SETI LA BC SLEE SIK ABCD SLET! BC IS IT C = WIL C ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 No. Name of Shop 191 Address of Shop Name of Owner Village of Owner Source Comments Tobacco 67 Guesthouses 68-71. WIS C C '3 or 4" guesthouses See below under "Others" Basel missionaries. 1859 Opium Divan 72 WIS Lunie-burners 73-74 Yin Lou C C Ft.L Oilers 75 = } WH C groceries 76 77 仙 78 利 79 SE B 1 or 2 limekilns Lockhart's Report, 1899 sweets and small ) these may be two of B ) the guesthouses B J B ) HO ... B ) nothing is now 18 W B } remembered about 82 87 K 4 B > these shops B } #4 ¥ } Prostitutes 85-96 Row neat City C LS Saltworks 97-115 - Yon In EL C Hawken C WIS Punti girls from City Offered opium to clients HL workers from Swabue, sold salt retail Detail of works in Block Crown Lease Fish, meat, vegetables, cooked food (including noodles), handicrafts fuel. Also at Yim Liu Ha E NOTES See G A C Herklots, The Hong Kong Countryside, Hong Kong, 1951, pp 86-89 for tigers and leopard on Ng Tung Shan, and the Hsin An County Gazetteer (1819 Gazetteer, ch 3. Chung Lap Pao Edition, 1979, p. 45) for tiger, wild boar, and deer in the area 2 1688 Hsin An County Gazetteer, ch 3, 127 A salt commission was established at Nam Tau (Nantou) just outside the present borders of Hong Kong, probably in the Nan Yueh period, in the second century BC This was later divided into 4 commissions, probably during the Nan Han period (tenth century A.D) Of the 4 Nan Han commissions, the Kwun Fu commission certainly covered the Mirs Bay area in the Sung; the headquarters of the commission were moved temporarily from Kowloon City to Tip Fuk (Deep Fuk) on the east coast of the Bay in 1163; and probably did so from the establishment of the commission The borders of Tung Kuan County and its predecessors bent round to include just the coastal strip of Mirs Bay. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 1=1 Extel, Ernest I, Feng-Shui, Graham Brash, 1984 (Just published 1882) Fan Wei, 'Village Feng Shui Principles', Chinese Landscapes: the Village as a Place, ed. Ronald G. Knapp, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1992, pp. 35-45 Feuchtwang, Stephen, An Anthropological Analysis of Chinese Geomancy, Vantage, Southern Materials Centre Inc., Taipei, 1974 Fong, Gordon, An Introduction to Chinese Geomancy, privately published, Australia, 1980 Freedman, Maurice, 'Chinese Geomancy: Some Observations in Hong Kong', The Study of Chinese Society: Essays by Maurice Freedman, Stanford University Press, 1979 — 'A Report on Social Research in the New Territories at Hong Kong, 1963', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 16, 1976 Groot, J.J. de, The Religion of the Chinese, Macmillan, 1912 Groves, Derham, Feng Shui and Western Building Ceremonies, Graham Brash, Singapore, 1991 2 Gwee, Peter Kim Woon, Fengshui: The Geomancy and Economy of Singapore, 1991 Hase, Patrick H., and Lee Man-yip, 'Sheung Wo Hang Village, Hong Kong: a Village Shaped by Feng Shui', Chinese Landscapes: the Village as a Place, ed. Ronald G. Knapp, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1992, pp. 79-94 Hayes, James, 'A Ceremony to Propitiate the Gods at Tong Fuk, Lantau, 1958', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 5, 1965 — 'Geomancy and the Village', Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today, week-end symposium, October 1966, Brochure of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society — 'Local Reaction to the Disturbances of "Fung Shui" on Tsing Yi Island, Hong Kong, September 1977-March 1978', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 19, 1979 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 167 Kong, HIIKBRAS, vol. 14 (1974) pp 12-27 and his Facilities for Research on the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, in Alan Birch, Y C Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds) Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies, (Hong Kong Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1984) pp 153-192 16 In 1994, the Executive Council instructed that all records over thirty years old should be reviewed, this does not automatically mean opening the files to the public, and some materials are re-classified. Applications for use still have to go to the generating agent (department) for approval. But it is now much easier to get access to records over 30 years old. 17 Peter Young, The Hung On-Lo Memorial Library, the Hong Kong Collection, in Alan Birch, Y C Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds), pp. 137-152 IX The most current project is an index to CO129, the Colonial Office Original Correspondence series on Hong Kong, from 1841-1926, containing about 45,000 despatches. The index, put on CD-Rom, operates on the basis of search by keywords. The chief investigator of the project is Elizabeth Sinn who currently runs the Hong Kong History Workshop. Her major works include Power and Charity. The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989) and Growing with Hong Kong: The Bank of East Asia 1919-1994 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1994). 19 Peter Y L. Ng. The 1819 Edition of the Hsin-an Hsien-chih a critical examination with translation and notes. Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, 1644-1842 (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1961). The work was published many years later as New Peace County: A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong region, prepared for press and with additional materials by Hugh D.R. Baker, (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1983). 20 Ng Lun Ngai-ha, Interaction of East and West: Developments of Public Education in Early Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1984). 21 Other scholars include L.Y. Chiu, K.C. Chan, K.C. Fok, Ming K. Chan, Elizabeth Sinn and Steve Tsang at the HKU, David Faure and Bernard Luk at the Chinese University, John Young, Fung Pui-wing and Chung Po Yin (much later) at the Baptist University, and later Choi Chi-cheong and Liu Dik Sang at the University of Science and Technology - although not all of them are, or would agree to being labelled as, practitioners of local history. 22 Patrick Hase, Research Materials for Village Studies, in Alan Birch, Y C Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds) Research Material for Hong Kong Studies (Ibid) pp. 31-46 23 David Faure, Bernard H.K. Luk and Alice Ngai-ha Lun Ng (comp.) Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, 3 volumes (Hong Kong Museum of History, 1986). 24 David Faure, Bernard H.K. Luk and Alice Ngan-ha Lun Ng, The Hong Kong Region According to Historical Inscriptions, in David Faure, James Hayes and Alan Birch (eds). From Village to City: Studies in the Traditional Roots of Hong Kong Society (Hong Kong Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1984) pp 43-54 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g YET MORE ON THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED WONG WING-HO 179 I was interested to read, in Volumes 28 and 29 of the Journal, material on folk-tales from the New Territories relating to Ho Chan, the late Yuan Guangdong Warlord, and early Ming Minister of the Left, collected by Dr. D. Faure, Dr. J.W. Hayes and Dr. P.H. Hase. In 1991, while working as a Research Assistant in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I collected a further folk-tale of a similar character, very similar, in fact, to the ones collected by Dr. D. Faure at Kat O and by Dr. J.W. Hayes at Kei Ling Ha. Because of the interest of these folk-tales, this version is printed here. Translation of Notes of an Interview with Mr. Yeung Fuk-sham (楊福杉) of Ha Ling Pei Village, Tung Chung, Lantau, 5th July, 1991. Fuk-sham is of the Yeung surname, of Ngau Hom Village in Tung Chung. She is now 65 years of age. At age 24, she married Lei Fuk-hei (李福喜), of Ha Ling Pei Village. Fuk-sham said that her husband's grandmother frequently told her this tale. The Ho family was originally very wealthy. When the old city was built (the fort at Tung Chung), the imperial court called on Ho, the Minister of the Left, to provide the funds. However, Ho was unwilling to provide them - if he had been willing, the old city would have been big enough to take in the sites of Upper and Lower Ling Pei Villages. It is because Ho, the Minister of the Left, was unwilling to provide the funds that the old city is its present size. It is also because of this that the Fung Shui and gravesites of the Hos lost their effectiveness, though the influence of the city. If the site of the city had been able to include Upper and Lower Ling Pei Villages, then the Fung Shui of the Hos would still be extremely good. Because the city is small, when the cannon fired, the explosive power was very great, and the ancestral tablets of Minister Ho were toppled over by the blast. Ho, the Minister of the Left, was executed by beheading at the orders of the Emperor. The Minister was accustomed to go each morning to Court, and to return home every evening. However, his mother was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 189 court robes and glided along the path only to disappear into the base of a tree once he drew parallel to the watcher. Villagers have also seen fires at the Paak Kung shrines even during rain The village with the greatest number of shrines, out of the 20 villages examined in detail in the study, is Sheung Tsuen (Pat Heung). The more important Tai Wong shrine is housed in the 200 year old temple and is the governor of the village. There are also ten other Paak Kung and earth god shrines located around the village. Six of the Paak Kung protect the village at night while four earth gods of a lower rank are located in each of the four directions and are 'on duty' for twenty four hours a day as general security guards and to prevent people from becoming lost. All the shrines are worshiped on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month and on major festivals Worship at the shrines varies from village to village, although it is common that worship is carried out on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar new year. Seven of the villages performed rites at their shrines at this time. Offerings may also be made with prayers at the main Chinese festivals, particularly during Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Harvest festival, as well as at weddings, births and the birthdays of elders and ancestors and for general thanksgiving. Some villages have their own special ceremonies. At Ma Mat Wai, the Paak Kung shrine to the earth god 'Hin Tan' is worshipped on 'farmer's day' on July 14th and at the harvest festival on August 15th. The shrine at Pak Kong is worshipped on the birthday of the popular sea-goddess Tin Hay. The Hei Shą Fuk festival is only carried out at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, at the end of the last month of the lunar year and at the end of the first month of the lunar calendar. Each family in the village contributes $30 to buy pork which is cooked with vegetables on stoves built into the Tai Wong shrine. February 13th of the lunar calendar is the god Hung Shing's birthday in Ho Sheung Heung, which is even more important for the village than Lunar New Year. For three days before the god's birthday, an opera is held in front of the Tze Tong while a feast and dragon dance takes place on the day itself. In June a feast day is also held to commemorate two officials, Chou and Wong, sent by the Emperor to save the village from pirates. This may represent those officials who came to rescind the Imperial evacuation order in 1669. The festivals in Ho Sheung Heung are organized by the master of the temple but in other ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 151 THE HOUWANG CULT AND TUNG CHUNG'S COMMUNAL CULTURE HON-MING YIP AND WAI-YEE HO' While the ancestral hall often serves as the socio-political centre of a single-surname village, a temple of folk religion always stands out as the focal point of local people's social and cultural life in such a multi-lineage rural community as Tung Chung. For the dozen or so villages in the Tung Chung valley, the Houwang has long been their principal deity and the Houwang Temple, their main local shrine. For years, the popular worship of the Houwang has functioned as a cultural and social binding force to hold this secluded community together. In what follows, the development of Tung Chung's Houwang cult is traced, and details of the area's religious and social activities and their cultural as well as political significance for the locality are expounded. Tung Chung as a Secluded Community of Multi-Surname Villages Situated on the north shore of Lantau Island, Tung Chung used to be a strategic port for maritime defence and trade during the early Ch'ing period. The area's economic development was also facilitated by its favourable position in sea transportation at a time when the northwestern New Territories were Hong Kong's economic centre of gravity. With the British occupation after the Opium War, however, the north end of Lantau suffered gradual marginalization and isolation as the colony's economic core shifted eastward to Hong Kong Island. The decline of ocean transport to north Lantau and underdeveloped overland communication with the southern part of the Island, in effect, kept Tung Chung in a state of seclusion. Hills to the east, south, and west separated this valley from other parts of Lantau. Between Tung Chung and Bak Mong in the east, Mu Wo and Tong Fuk in the south, and Tai O in the west, there were only muddy paths over the mountain or along the shore. Before transportation improved in the 1960s, travel between Tung Chung and these districts on Lantau required two to three hours by foot, roundtrip. Communication was even more difficult with regions outside of Lantau. Beginning from the 1920s, a few ferries carrying goods sailed on Pl ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x SPECIAL FEATURE Papers on the Conference Held on 9 December, 2000 to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Reconstitution of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (HKBRAS) - Hong Kong: Forty Years of a Growing City NOTES AND QUERIES 235 James Hayes - Feng Shui and Roadworks at Tong Fuk Village, 1958 255 James Hayes - A Torn Scrap of Paper: Relating to a Money Loan Association, Small Loans, or What? 261 P.H. Hase - Further Tales of the Man the Emperor Decapitated 269 Photograph Taken on the Occasion of the HKBRAS Visit to the Public Records Office in January, 2000 ... 273 D.D. Waters - One of Hong Kong's Many Hillside Temples 275 Crystal Tang - The HKBRAS trip to Vietnam between 30 September and 6 October, 2000 283 James Hayes - Translations from the Russian, HKBRAS Journal. No 38 291 BOOK REVIEW Gillian Bickley - Hong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare 293 viii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 2 of the lower Pearl River Estuary. By AD 331, when the County of Tung Kuan was established, the then Salt Intendant certainly had his yamen (official residence and office) at Nam Tau. Nam Tau became the new county seat in that year, and the then Salt Intendant was promoted to County Magistrate, and the old Salt Monopoly yamen was upgraded to become the new County Magistrate's yamen, with a new yamen thereafter built for the incoming Salt Intendant. These early references also do not speak of Kowloon City specifically, but it is very likely that, with the Salt Intendancy headquarters so close, the salt-fields at Kowloon City were already then in full operation, probably with a Sub-Intendant in charge there, and it is likely that this was so from Nanyueh times. At some date between 331 and 1163 the Tung Kuan Salt Intendancy at Nam Tau was split into four, with one of the new Salt Intendants stationed at Kowloon City (then called Kwun Fu Cheung, "Rich Official Salt-fields"). The most likely period for this development (which was associated with an attempt to increase revenue from the Salt Monopoly in Kwangtung) is the tenth century, when again Kwangtung formed a separate Empire, that of the Nanhan (907-979); considerable amounts of Nanhan pottery have been found in the general Kowloon City area, suggesting that this was a place of some significance then. By the date of this split of the Salt Intendancy there can be no doubt that Kowloon City was an important Salt Monopoly centre. In 1163 the Kwun Fu Cheung Salt Intendancy yamen was moved to Tip Fuk (Tiefu) on Mirs Bay, where it stayed for a few decades — perhaps a hundred years — before returning to Kowloon City. In or shortly before 1293, the Kwun Fu Salt Intendancy was amalgamated with the Salt Intendancy headquartered at Wong Tin outside Sai Heung (Xixiang), a little to the north of Nam Tau, and the old Kowloon City Salt Intendant's yamen (which was a walled compound) became the yamen for a new County Sub-Magistracy then formed. This Sub-Magistracy was upgraded in 1370, and moved to Chek Mei Village outside Sham Chun (Shenzhen) in that year; it was moved back to Kowloon City in 1841, together with the yamen of the local Military Commander, which had previously been at Tai Pang (Dapeng) on Mirs Bay, to bring the Sub-Magistrate and Commander closer to the anticipated problems arising from the British occupation of Hong Kong. The walls of Kowloon City, which ================================================================================ 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 14 to Tip Fuk in 1163. The Ngs joined the Chans here about 1350: the foundation date for the temple of 1354 is probably connected with this. Possibly the Lis settled here at about this date as well. Chan Mung-lung, BH, was the first Chan to settle in the Nga Tsin Wai area, and Ng Chung-tak was the first of his clan. Chan Chiu-yin was not the first Chan to settle in the area, but he was the clan head when the village was walled about 1570. Ng Shing-tak was the second generation of his family to live in the area, about 1350: he lived two hundred years before Chan Chiu-yin, and two hundred years after Chan Mang-lung. The date of 1724 given by the villagers for the walling of the village must be a mistake. The village would have been in ruins after the Coastal Evacuation, and the 1724 date must represent the successful repair and rehabilitation of the village. The villagers on their return to the village after the Evacuation must have lived in temporary huts for some time before they could gather the funds needed for the repair of their walls, temple, and permanent houses. The Tsuk Po give a little information as to the settlement of those branches of the Ng and Chan clans to leave Nga Tsin Wai and settle elsewhere. The Chans of Nga Tsin Long settled there about 1550-1570 - the Founding Ancestor of Nga Tsin Long, Chan Kwok-yin, RTY, was the younger brother of Chan Chiu-yin. The Ngs of Siu Lek Yuen in Sha Tin split off from the Nga Tsin Wai stock in the generation immediately after the Coastal Evacuation - probably before 1680 (the Siu Lek Yuen Ngs comprise the third Fourth Fong descent line). Another branch of the Ngs moved to Pok Liu (Lamma Island) in about 1820-1850. A branch of the Ngs moved to Tseung Kwan O somewhen in the early eighteenth century, probably about 1720, at the same time as a branch of the Chan clan moved there as well. Probably most of the other branches which split off from the Nga Tsin Wai clans did so in this same period, i.e. the fifty years after the ending of the Coastal Evacuation - this was a period when clans tried to occupy as much space as possible, with a view to giving later generations plenty of living space. Some of the branches, however, may have moved out much earlier. Several Chan clans resident in the villages around Kowloon City claim a relationship with the Chans of Nga Tsin Wai, but do not descend from Chan Chiu-yin or Chan Kwok-yin. These may well be groups already distinct before Chan Chiu-yin moved within the new walls at Nga Tsin Wai. There are such Chan clans at Ta Kwu ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 34 The 1902 Lease does record a number of apparently very poor households, as for instance Ng Fuk and Ng Ki-san, who held between them a mere 0.05 acre of arable land, Ng Shing-po who held just 0.04 acres, plus a further 0.08 held jointly with Ng Loi, Ng Tso-kwai who held 0.04 acre, Ng Ying-shan who held 0.06 acre, Li Yung-wun who held 0.04 acre, and Ng Ping-fuk with 0.04 acres. Ng Chan Shi, Ng A Hing, Ng Lam-hing jointly with Ng Tso-hing, and Ng Tsun-ming are all recorded as owning only houses, with no agricultural land, although there can be no question that these were genuinely resident villagers in every respect. These areas of agricultural land are far too low to support a household. In these instances, however, we are probably seeing men whose fathers were still alive, and where the bulk of the family land was recorded under the father's name. In such circumstances, where an adult son had himself bought a piece of land with money he had saved from his own labour, then this small piece of land was often regarded as the son's alone, and would have been so recorded. This cannot be proved at Nga Tsin Wai, since the Tsuk Po in most cases records the posthumous Tong names rather than the names recorded in the Lease, but it is extremely likely for Li Kam-tak, for instance. This man held 0.1 acres, of which 0.06 acres were held jointly with two others - but Kam-tak was an important Ng clan elder in 1902, the trustee of the moderately significant Ting Fuk Tso, with its holdings of a house in Sha Po and 0.37 acres. Similarly, Ng Loi, with his 0.08 acres, was nonetheless a significant elder, the trustee of two trusts, including the important Chiu Pak Tso. Ng Ping-fuk, too, may have had only 0.04 acres of agricultural land, but he also owned two very large houses outside the village, as large between them as six standard houses, and was one of the trustees of the small King Tai Tso. Another reason for these tiny estates may have been that families were unsure whether it would later on prove to be advantageous to have a name entered on the Lease (as was definitely the case with the Ch'ing Imperial Land Registers), and so some families allowed adult sons to enter themselves as the owner of some small plot in case this later proved of value. In none of these cases should the small estates recorded be taken as the household's sole economic resource. Few households in Nga Tsin Wai (other than the remnant Chans, and the Yungs) seem to have held less than 0.4 acres of arable land. In many cases, households would have extended their land holdings ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 39 and Li Kun-fuk, 2 houses within the walls, and then with these two brothers or cousins holding 0.17 acres of land jointly, and Kun-sang in addition a further 0.01 individually; Li Tin-hi, 2 houses within the walls and 0.18 acres; Li Tin-yau, 1 house within the walls and 0.11 acres). The reasons for these households with far less arable land than could possibly allow for subsistence are likely to be the same as in the case of the Ngs, although, in this case, some of the Li households may have been in the process of moving out of the village. In the case for Li Kun-fuk and Li Kun-sang, however, who were important elders of the clan (Kun-fuk was the trustee of three trusts, and Kun-sang of two), the tiny-recorded individually owned areas of agricultural land must hide far more substantial areas actually under their control.. Of those households of the Li clan which recorded their land-holdings under the family head's name, the holdings varied from 0.31 acres (Kun-tai), and then through 0.45 acres (Yung-tai), 0.67 acres (Yung Wa and Yung Fat jointly), 0.89 acres (Yuk-hing), 0.93 acres (Kam Tak), 1.15 acres (Lai-ting, the dominant elder), 1.5 acres (Ping-shan, part of this was held jointly with Tak-hing and Chiu-hing, and another tiny part jointly with Ip Shi); to 3.81 acres (Loi: he also owned 0.86 acres jointly with Li Hau-fuk). Kun-tai, who held no less than 5 houses within the walls, must have been wealthier than his 0.31 acres of agricultural land-holding would suggest: he was also one of the trustees of the Luk Wa Tso. He probably had access to a significant amount of trust property. Yung-tai also had a significant amount of house property - three houses within the walls. Relatively wealthy villages like Nga Tsin Wai were usually marked by an interest in education. The village had a fine school, which was held in the Ng clan Ancestral Hall. Villages like Nga Tsin Wai often also had "literary clubs", where the more scholarly and better educated of the villagers would meet to write poetry together, and drink wine in the light of the moon. The Sub-Magistrate in Kowloon City encouraged such literary groups, in particular by sponsoring poetry competitions and so forth. Nga Tsin Wai villagers had access to such a club (probably in the Market), and the Li clan had a small trust to support it, the Man Lau Tong ("Association for the Literature House"). This owned only 0.05 acres, the income of which probably supported the costs of tea and wine for the Li clan members of the club, but it demonstrates the scholarly ambitions of the village. Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x Sham Sam, Shan] Yarn Tso, tr. Ng Tsuk [Tseuk] Ming, Tso Sang 1/1 0.55 Some lots have one of the trustees, others the other, or both. Tso Sang holds no individual land Shi Tsun Tso, tr. Ng Yuk Tsun Shing Pak Tso, tr. Kun Po with Tsing Yam Tso & Chau Yam Tso 0.60 0.54 Tr. holds no individual land 0.12 Tr. holds no individual land Shing Tat Tso, tr. Shui Po (1{Anc.Hall}) (6 sites) KC2/8 0.78 With Li Shing Kwai Tso and Chan Chiu In Tso (1(Tin Hau Temple & Vill.Office)) (2 sites) Shing Un Tso Sz Ko Tso, tr. Chuk [Tseuk] Ming Tak ko Tso, tr. Ng Fuk with Hon Ko Tso, Fung Ko Tso Ting Fuk Tso, tr. Ng Kam Tak Tsak Tai Tso, tr. Ng Tsun San Tseuk Lai Tso, tr. Ng Shing Hi Tsing Yam Tso KCL1/2 SP1/3 8.73 See Yat Un Tso. Some lots show Tsun Shau or Kun Shau or Tak Lap us trustee. Some agric land is in Po Kong village area. 0.68 1 lot has Man Hi as trustee. I has Yuk Sing [0.46] SP1/3 0.37 Tr. holds no individual land 0.07 1/1 KC1/9 0.56 See Sham Yam Tso 99 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x Wai Wing Tso, ir. Ng Shui Yat Un Tso, tr. Ng Tseuk [Cheuk] Hin, Tseuk (Cheuk] Ming Yan Tak Tso, tr. Ng Fo Yan, Yeung Fat TOTAL with Shing Un Tso 1.09 KC26 0.48 KC1/2 0.31 Fo Yan holds no individual land Hau Temple (2 sites) I(Anc. hall) (6 sites) KC11/54 SP2/4 16.50 2. Li Clan Trusts Ching Wan Tso, tr. Li Lai Ting Hi San Tso, tr. Li Kun Fuk, Kun Sang Kai Tsoi Tso, tr. Li Kam Tak Kwan Fong Tso, tr. Li Lai Ting Luk Wa Tso, tr. Li Lai Ting, Kun Tai 0.93 One lot has Li Tsol as trustee 0.11 0.17 0.24 1.43 Trustee prob.changed in 1902.1 lot in Po Kong village area Man Lau Tong, tr.Hau Fu Shing Kwai Tso,tr.Li Lai Ting with Ng Shing Tat [1(Tin Hau Tso and Chan Chiu In Tso Temple & Vill.Office)] Si Fo Tso,tr.Li loi Sin Leuk Tso,tr.Li Kun Fuk, Kun Sang Si Cheung Tso,tr. Li Hau Fu 0.05 1.09 0.43 0.26 0.09 Sz Kwong Tso, tr.Li Hau Fuk with Sz Pin Tso Sz Pin Tso, tr. Li Lai Ting, Li Tsoi 0.19 0.13 0.30 Trustee prob. changed in 1902 67 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 103 1997, Introduction, the Anthropology of Contemporary Hong Kong.' Hong Kong: The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis, eds. Grant Evans and Maria Tam, Curzon Freedman, Maurice 1979, 'Chinese Geomancy: Some Observations in Hong Kong', The Study of Chinese Society, Stamford University Press Grout, GCW and James Hayes 1971, 'Ceremonies of Propitiation Carried Out in Connection with Road Works in the New Territories, in 1960', JHKBRAS, vol. 11 Hayes, James 1965, 'A Ceremony to Propitiate the Gods at Tong Fuk, Lantau, 1958', JHKBRAS, Vol. 5, Notes and Queries 1983, The Rural Committees of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes, Oxford University Press 1998, February 26, letter to the Author Hong Kong Government 1960, A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories Hong Kong Standard 1990, March 23, ‘A Million to Bury Village Ghosts' Leung, Chor-on 1992, 'Blessings Are Not For All', The Hong Kong Anthropologist Lo, Raymond 1992, Feng Shui and Destiny, Tynron Press, England Myers, John T 1975, 'A Hong Kong Spirit-Medium Temple', JHKBRAS, vol. 15 Phillips, David P, Todd E., Ruth and Lisa M Wagner 1993, November 6, 'Psychology and Survival', The Lancet, vol. 342, Britain ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 255 NOTES AND QUERIES FENGSHUI AND ROAD WORKS AT TONG FUK VILLAGE, SOUTH LANTAU, IN 1958 JAMES HAYES In my memoir of government service, Friends and Teachers, Hong Kong and its People 1953-1987 (Hong Kong University Press, 1996), one of the opening chapters was devoted to my duties in connection with the Shek Pik Water Scheme on Lantau Island to the west of Hong Kong in the late 1950s. In it, I recounted the periodic confrontations with the villagers of that then remote place over the drillings and soil excavations needed to establish the viability of the proposed design for the dam, along with the similar difficulties experienced later on, during construction work on the reservoir, its access roads and catch waters. Bringing obstruction and delays, the local people's opposition stemmed from their strongly rooted belief in geomancy (fengshui) and in the adverse effects for man and beast certain in their minds to follow any tampering with the landscape, especially when its orange-red coloured soil was exposed to view. Similar problems were also being encountered in adjoining old villages during the extension of the only recently completed South Lantau Road to the reservoir site. Five miles of new motor road were required, and the line passed through several settlements. There were difficulties with the villagers at each of these places, particularly at Tong Fuk Village, to which at one point I and my land staff had to make frequent visits because of the villagers' continual interference with the contractor's workmen on site, regardless of promises made and assurances given. Needless to say, the appearance of Tong Fuk village today, with its array of smart "Spanish Villa" type houses, restaurants and shops bears no resemblance to its former self. In 1958, every house was old and built in the traditional architectural style, occupied by humans or livestock, or used for storage, and all its inhabitants were engaged in agricultural work, mainly in raising the two annual rice crops on which they depended for a subsistence livelihood. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 257 As I reported to Mr. (later Sir Ronald) Holmes, the villagers had changed their minds about letting the work proceed "a further three times" in the four days that had elapsed since my first visit to the village to deal with the difficulty. Enquiring into the reason for the renewed stoppage of work, I was told by the village representative and elders that the deities in the two local temples had had to be consulted, and that the propitious day for resuming work would be a day or two later. Frustration and annoyance are writ large in my report on these events: I replied that I certainly hoped that this would be the case since I was not possessed of second sight sufficient to enable me to know what they had not said to me on my first visit [about the need to consult the deities]. Nor could I be expected to understand their frequent changes of mind during the past two weeks when they would say one thing to Mr. Abbas [the land bailiff], quite another to the contractor and the Roads Engineers when they wished to resume work, and yet another to myself; not once but several times all round. Masters indeed in the art of creating confusion and uncertainty! On this visit, it had soon appeared that the villagers had thought up extra reasons for causing us delays. On our way to Tong Fuk, passing by the South Lantau Rural Committee office at Pui O, we had been given letters from the Village Representatives of Tong Fuk and the adjoining village of Shui Hau, making some additional points in the ongoing dialogue with the District Office. These concerned what I described as "an entirely new series of complaints" about the crop compensation to be paid in connection with the engineering works, the villagers professing themselves worried about the compensation schedules and about rates of compensation: ... "All this, mark you," [as I told the Commissioner], “though in their large-scale airing of perplexities on the Monday not one word of these matters had been breathed, saving only their concern about [the date of] payment." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 258 Viewed in retrospect, my report is rather ponderously expressed. My prose tended to be "turgid," the boss once told me, and I resolved to do better! However, turgidity could not disguise my exasperation, which still shines through the contents of the report, loud and clear, 39 years on. Looking back on that period, my exasperation was increased by the fact that I had to put up with (and more to the point, get over) similar difficulties with village communities in other parts of a far-flung District, from Sai Kung in the east to Lantau in the west. With road works going on at each extremity, I was sometimes rushing here and there, backwards and forwards, dealing with problems of this kind. There were special difficulties in getting the new extension to the Sai Kung road past Tso Wo Hang Village in regard to the road line, and also with cutting stone at a certain spot where, my notebook says, "the Village Representative was to say when work could start”. It sticks in my memory that none of the other villages affected by construction work for the new road were as temperamental or difficult as this one, and certainly this seems to be borne out by my notes. See my chapter "The Traditional Background: Hong Kong Villages in the 1950s” in Elizabeth Sinn and Patrick Hase (eds) Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, Joint Publishing (HK) Company Limited. As I have written elsewhere, patience and resolution, leavened with an essential saving dash of humour, were qualities in demand on these occasions. The Tong Fuk episode was certainly one of those in which all of these had to be deployed by my land staff and myself during that period. Mercifully, an antidote was sometimes supplied by the villagers themselves, since their ill humour could be turned to laughter by themselves or even by one of us, and lead to an amicable compromise. When all is said and done, it was fun! What was equally important for me as a young D.O. was that in Ronnie Holmes I had an ideal boss, someone who was immensely able, perceptive and compassionate, and a good Chinese linguist, a man who could see both sides of any situation. Also, he would welcome me home for a drink, listen and laugh at my predicaments, and (usually) endorse my solutions to them. By way of a postscript to the above, we were by no means ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 259 finished with Tong Fuk. A year or two later, there were similar difficulties over blasting during construction of the access road to the new catch waters above the village. This time, perhaps owing to location, the position must have been deemed more serious for the villagers, and at their request expenditure for a protective ritual was approved to take care of village concerns. This ritual action was described in the Notes and Queries section of this Journal not long after the event (JHKBRAS 5(1965), pp. 122-4). A year or two after the events I am describing here, the catch waters for the new reservoir were under construction behind Tong Fuk village. Mindful of the need to provide water for irrigation, pipes and taps were installed to ensure this supply before any flow from the stream courses was taken for the reservoir. However, displeased with the whole business, some villagers sawed off the heads of the water taps, so as to maintain a continuous flow of water to their fields, as hitherto, freeing themselves from irksome constraints and engineers' decisions as to what constituted "enough". ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 APPENDIX ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY ACTIVITIES FOR 2002/2003 Date 2002 April 12 May 3 June 7 June 7 June 14 August 10 September 20 October 4 October 18 November 23 November 29 December 6 2003 January 3 January 10 January 24 February 14 February 21 March 28 Lectures Dr Patrick H. Hase on Some Smaller Market Towns of the New Territories Dr Dan Waters & Fr Louis Ha on Hong Kong's Lighthouses and the Men who Manned Them Dr Ian Nish on Anglo-Japanese Relations in the Twentieth Century (Joint Lecture) Dr Lindsay Porter on The Pink Dolphins of Hong Kong. Jason Wordie on Streets; Exploring Hong Kong Island Dr Martin Palmer on Da Qin - An Imperial Christian Site of the Tang Dynasty (with a visit to the exhibition on this subject) Tim Ko on The Development of Cemeteries in Hong Kong; 1841-1941 Christopher Munn on People and Government in Early Colonial Hong Kong Dr Janet Lee Scott on Up in Smoke: Offerings for the Ancestors Stella Ma on Cha Duk Chang: The Appreciation of Chinese Opera William Lindesay on The Great Wall: Research and Impressions Valerie Garrett on Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away: Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton Dr Solomon Bard on Voices from the Past: Hong Kong 1842-1918 Dr Christina Miu Bing Cheng on Macau: The Farming of Friendship Dr Lawrence Lai & Dr Daniel Bo on Devil's Peak Ruins: A Glimpse of a British Stronghold Dr Elizabeth Sinn on Ultimate Return: Transhipment of Chinese Migrants' Bones to the Native Village and Hong Kong's Role in the Chinese Diaspora Anthony Lawrence on Hong Kong: Growing Old Dr Graeme Lang on The Return of the Refugee God: Wong Tai Sin in China XXXI ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 396 In Chapter 3, 'The Confucian Imprint,' I omitted to mention Rev. Joseph Edkins' statement of the enormous influence of Confucius on education, and the reason for its universal pervasiveness. The second such omission relates to Chapter 4, 'Non-Confucian Belief and Practice,' when, in describing the depopulation experienced at Shek Pik, Lantau Island, between around 1870-1930, I had forgotten to add that a similar depopulation had featured in the memories of old men in the nearby village of Tong Fuk. Some details are provided here: but first to Edkins: = Joseph Edkins (1823-1905) was a notable missionary-sinologue, translator and philologist. His Views on Confucianism can be found at pp.120-122 of the revised edition of his Religion in China (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, & Co. Ltd., 1893), partly as follows: The tendencies of the Confucian morality are seen in the national system of education even if they could not afford the expense and had to borrow cash or mortgage land, in which the moral training of the child's mind is always put forward as the chief element. There is a universal system of self-supporting day-school education in that country. Every parent who has a few pence to spare in the month will educate his child. Teaching is the regular profession of the literati, that is, of the class who study for academical degrees. The highest character known in that country is that of an instructor. When the boy goes to school, he becomes a disciple of Confucius. If he is not educated, his nature will go wrong, and he will be a lawless subject and a disobedient son. The end of his education is to show him what virtue is, and to lead him to it. The true disciple of Confucius is the filial son, the loyal subject, and the kind and faithful husband. The Government regards the education of the people as essential to the welfare of the State. But it does not itself educate them by supplying free instruction to the poor. It appoints public examiners to confer degrees and other rewards on successful candidates for such distinctions, and in this way it stimulates and influences voluntary education. The Government decides what books shall form the subject of examination, and what school in philosophy and morals shall be counted orthodox. Its influence on the state of opinion in the country is therefore very great. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 397 The result of the Confucian education is supposed to be the formation of a highly virtuous character....The chief energy of those who have taught it has been expended in the endeavour to give it practical effect on the individual, the family, and the nation.1 In regard to the depopulation at Shek Pik, it is curious how this was repeated at Tong Fuk, another old village four miles to the east, where the 198 persons recorded at the Colony Census of 1911 were survivors of the much larger population of some 700 persons claimed before the onset of disease sometime in the second half of the 19th century. Interviewed in 1971, the elders had been most emphatic about this, on the basis of information handed down by their fathers' generation... 'There was not a single empty or ruined house [before the epidemics struck],' or so they claimed. Later on, in the 1910s, when my oldest informants were then in their teens, the situation worsened again, with two persons dying every day. 'No sooner had we taken out one body for burial, than we had to start all over again.' As at Shek Pik, altered, meaning adverse, fung-shui was blamed for these disasters. 'For we Cantonese, fung-shui is vital,' stressed one of their number. The caption to Plate 25, the rebuilt Tianhou Temple at Chiwan, Shenzhen, can be extended here. I omitted to mention the famous well, prominent in the foreground, with adjoining plaque, As mentioned in the related text, the temple's long history and cultural importance had not saved it from destruction. By the end of the ten-year period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) only the foundations survived, and what remained of its historic buildings had been reduced in height and roofed over to provide barrack accommodation for a unit of the People's Liberation Army, still in occupation at the time of my first visit in 1983. The temple's fine stone and wood carvings had gone, along with the many donated fittings and repair tablets that would have been kept within its walls. However, one tradition had survived the decades of Communist ideology. 'This was both the theory and the aim. However, Edkins concluded that despite the intention, 'it has not made them (the Chinese) a moral people. Many of the social virtues are extensively practised among them, but they exhibit to the observer a lamentable want of moral strength. Commercial integrity and speaking the truth are far less common among them than in Christian countries. The standard of principle among them is kept low by the habits of the people.' ================================================================================