RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN the Emperor Sung Kwong Tsung (***). After her death her eldest son Lam (†) took a letter that she left behind to Sung Kwong Tsung, who ordered that honours should be paid to the dead princess, the name of Wong Kwu bestowed on her, and a thousand Chinese acres of cultivated land given to Lam, the income from which to be spent on her grave for customary rites and worship. The To Shue Tsaap Shing which was written in the 4th year of Yung Ching (£) of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1726, mentions the fields as being still used for this purpose. The princess was very famous for her humility. When she first came to Kam T'in she willingly helped to do the servants' work in the house, and showed no pride in her high birth. There are two sentences referring to her in a poem written by the poet Kan Sz Leung (MA) which run:— 1. 金枝玉葉無人偶, 2. 凄絕農家執箕帚。 which roughly translated read: 1. Gold branch jade leaves no one dare to make a pair with. 2. Sad utmost farmer family hold dustpan and broom. When the princess became very old a site for her grave was chosen by a famous "fung shui" man named Lai Paak Shiu (16 #). He selected a hill called Sz Tsz Shaan (#) in Shek Tseng (#) near Shek Lung, which was supposed to resemble a lion, but he first asked her if she would prefer to be buried on the lion's head or its tail. She asked what difference it would make, and she was told that if her grave was on the head her descendants would be very great men; but if on the tail they would be more humble people, perhaps officers of low degree, and, although prosperous, none would succeed to high rank. The princess at once said, “I do not want my descendants to become great. They could never be as high as an Emperor's daughter, and yet even I was in danger of my life. I wish them to enjoy the red rice and the shiny scale fish (the unhusked rice and herrings, farmers' food). If they have that they should be content." So she was buried on the lion's tail, and two more sentences were written about her, 1. 紅米之飯錦鰍魚, 2. 田家風味甘有餘。 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 126 SUNG HOK-P’ANG The history of the three younger sons is not known, but of Lam, who was born some time during the reign of Shun Hei (FR) A.D. 1174-1189, it is recorded that he held the office of Ts'im P'oon (僉判) and received honour as Tik Kung Long (迪功郎). He was rich and very charitable and he contributed a lot of money towards the building of T’ung Tsai (通濟) and Tak Shaang (得勝) bridges. He also built a pagoda called Ngaan Taap (雁塔) for the public; a house called Ling Yuen Kok (靈隱閣) and gave liberally towards the repairing of a main road which was formerly the haunt of robbers. The Tung Tsai bridge is still in use in Tung Kwun (東莞) and is at Woo Sha (烏沙) in the South-west part of the district. Though the record stone of the Tak Shaang bridge is lost, fortunately there is a copy of it written by Leung Koi (梁楷) the district magistrate of Lai Ling Yuen (東莞縣), a famous scholar and “Tsun Sz” (進士) of the 7th year of Ka Ting (嘉定) A.D. 1214, of Sung dynasty. He knew so much that his nickname was Shue Sz (書廚) "book case"! Tak Shaang bridge was a very old bridge over the stream Foong Shaang K'iu Ho (放生橋河). This stream was originally called Chaak Mut (釋物) “kindness to creatures". It was the custom on the birthday of the Emperor for the magistrate and elders to come to the bridge and there set free birds from cages and put living fish in the stream. This was to show the Emperor's love for living things, and the name of the ceremony was Foong Shaang (放生), "to set free living creatures". The bridge was situated at the South gate of the district city of Tung Kwun, and there were many well-built houses by it. The date of when it was originally built is not known, but it was first repaired by Cheung Fan (張範) the district magistrate of Tung Kwun in the 2nd year of Shui Hei (紹熙) A.D. 1191, of Sung dynasty. This repair was done in wood, but later, in the 2nd year of Shiu Ting (淳祐) A.D. 1229 of Sung dynasty, it was rebuilt in stone. This was carried out by Chiu Yue Hon (趙與諴) the district magistrate, who did his best to meet the expenses incurred with money from his government funds. This he found impossible to do, so he appealed to Tang Lam and another wealthy man named Ng Hak Foon (吳學文) who between them promised to pay all the expenses themselves. It is still the most famous bridge in Tung Kwun district. The Ngaan Taap or “wild goose" pagoda was built on To Ka Shaan (道家山) in FL on the western side of Tung Kwun city. The original Ngaan Taap pagoda was built in A.D. 652, the Wing Fai (永徽)... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 127 ) 3rd year of T'ong (統) dynasty, by a Buddhist priest named Yuen Chong (圓聰) in the Ts'z Yun monastery (慈雲寺) in Ch'eung On (昌安) city, Shensi (陝西) province, near the Great Wall. This monastery had been built about fifty years previously by the Emperor T'ong Ko Tsung (唐玄宗) for his mother. When the pagoda was being built a wild goose flew against it and was killed, and the monks buried the bird underneath the pagoda and in this way it received its name. It became the custom ever since Shan Lung (神龍) years A.D. 705 & 706 of T'ong dynasty for the Emperor to give a banquet in the monastery called the Kuk Kong Yin (曲江宴) “winding river banquet,” to all the new "Tsun Sz” (進士). Their names were carved on a stone tablet in the pagoda, and it became customary to use the expression “Ngaan T'aap T'ai Ming (雁塔題名) when congratulating successful candidates for the highest government examination. In Tang Lam's time the Tung Kwun people wished to have their own Ngaan Taap pagoda, and Tang Lam provided the money for them to do it. It was built some time during the ten years of Shun Yau (淳祐) A.D. 1241-1251 of Sung dynasty, and it was repaired in the 40th year of Shung Ching (崇禎) A.D. 1637 of Ming dynasty by a Tung Kwun "Tsun Sz” named Kwok Kau Ting (郭九錠). Lam's grave is still to be found in Hon Yee Haang (巷義行) in Tung Kwun district. The children of the four sons of Tang Tsz Ming seem to have left Kam T'in, and their descendants founded families in other villages. Those of Lam are to be found in the village of Lung Kwat Tau (龍骨頭) near Fanling (粉嶺); those of Waai still live in Tai Po Tau (大埔頭) near Tai Po market and Lai Tung (黎洞) near Sha Tau Kok (沙頭角), while Kei's descendants settled in Tung Kwun. But the great grandson of Tsz came back to Kam T'in. His name was Shau Tso (秀祖), he held the military rank of Chung Mo Kau Wai (忠武校尉) and in the Yuen (元) dynasty A.D. 1277 he received the honour of Hin Mo Tsueng Kwan (顯武將軍). He had two great-grandsons, brothers, named Hung Yee (鴻義) and Hung Chi (鴻志). The latter was a son-in-law of Hoh Tik (何狄) the younger brother of Hoh Chan (何真) who ruled Kwangtung (廣東) and Kwangsi (廣西) provinces at the end of the Yuen dynasty. When the Ming dynasty started Hoh Chan gave up his territory to the first Emperor, but later on he became involved in the case of General Leung Kwok Kung (梁國公) Laam Yuk (濫獄)... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 388 goods- true and absolute proof. I now repent. If my own personal appeal that I escape being sent to the Magistrate for formal examination is accepted I will with sincerity go through the punishment imposed publicly by the community. Afterwards I will always obey the advice and rules of the Yeuk. Should there ever be a time when I again do anything improper, then let the community send me to the Magistrate to face trial. I request this. Furthermore, I shall follow the rules of the Yeuk, and shall never dare to be overcome by shame and harm people or do anything of the sort. Because we fear verbal agreements, we have put this in writing, and have also kept several copies as evidence. P.H. HASE NOTES Faure, in his The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 100-127. has discussed these arrangements in detail. The documents from the Yung Sze-chiu collection are now held in the Sha Tin Public Library, Regional Council. The documents are to be found in two volumes, both with the number R802.79 4431, both with the title ([D] (A Collection of Exemplars of Documents and Couplets]). Accession numbers of the two volumes are 622670 and 622679. My thanks are due to Dr. David Faure and Mrs. Nga-ching Miller for assistance with the translation. The two versions show minor variations in wording: these are not noted here. MORE ON THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED In Volume 28 of the Journal, David Faure printed various folktales from the Eastern New Territories relating to the history of Ho Chan, in a Note headed "The Man the Emperor Decapitated".' Recently, a further story of the same sort was given to me by Tsim Foh-sang, a village elder of Tsap Wai Kon village in Sha Tin. Mr. Tsim was born about 1918, and was educated in his village. This story was written down by Mr. Tsim in 1981 as an interesting note on the history of Kau Sai. Mr. Tsim's story shows that stories about Ho Chan were current in Sha Tin as well as Kat O and Sai Kung, and were probably current throughout the Eastern New Territories. Tsim Foh-sang's note reads: I was told that there is a Fung Shui site in the sea near Kau Sai. The name of this site is "A Golden Bell Hanging on a Silk Thread" (金鐘絲線) (#Bâ£), and it belonged to Ho, the Minister of the Left (左相). It was one of the ninety- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 214 BANDITS IN THE SIU LEK YUEN YEUK P. H. HASE The operation and functioning of the New Territories Yeuk (Village Mutual Defence Alliance) is a particularly fascinating subject, since the Yeuk seem to have been the dominant political feature of the eastern New Territories area in the nineteenth century. For this reason, I felt it might be of interest to provide a translation here of a note received from the village headman of Tsap Wai Kon village, Mr Tsim Fo-sang (?) on an incident in the Siu Lek Yuen area, probably from the mid or late nineteenth century, as he remembers being told it by the elders of his village in his youth. The note illustrates a number of interesting points about the Yeuk. The incident is likely to be factual, since the heroes of the incident were Tsap Wai Kon men, and so the incident is likely to have been frequently spoken about there. At that time there were bandits in the area. Most of these bandits came from Kiangsi. They came in bands of ten or twenty or more. Some were extremely skilled in martial arts, but, in addition to their strength, they had weapons and weighted chains (?). Wherever they went they caused great sorrow to the residents. They forced the residents to give them food or money, and so forth. Of these bandit incursions, the worst was at Siu Lek Yuen. The Siu Lek Yuen Yeuk was formed by uniting together many villages, such as Tsap Wai Kon, Kin Tsui, Ngau Pei Sha, Siu Lek Yuen, Nam Shan, Shek Kwu Lung, Tai Lam Liu, Wong Nai Tau, Fa Sam Hang, Tai Che, Kwun Yam Shan, Mau Tso Ngam, Fu Yung Pit, Lo Shue Tin, and other villages. Since they had to oppose the vexations and attacks of the bandits, the villagers of the Yeuk agreed to meet once a year in a meeting called the 'Everyone Together' meeting (?). This arrangement was instituted solely because of the bandits. At the meeting everyone brought food piled up on wooden dishes. The dishes from every village were taken to a matshed, where everyone sat ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x down. Songs were sung to enliven the occasion, and the atmosphere was very happy. Once, more than ten bandits had been demanding money in the area for some time. They decided at the 'Everyone Together' meeting to unite together and to go out to do battle with the bandits. The best at martial arts of the people of the villages at that time were Tsim Ah-fu (###), and Tsim Ah-kei (##) of Tsap Wai Kon village. They drove the bandits out, chasing them all the way to Chuk Yuen in Kowloon [about seven miles away across the mountains]. The end result was that the great majority of the bandits fled the area. 215 ================================================================================