RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g
The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung

27

height. The character toi was in a variant which has been mistaken by many people for tang (). Later, a further seven characters were added, vertically, on the right side, recording that repairs had been carried out in the ting mau year of the Ch'ing Emperor Chia Ch'ing (A.D. 1807). Of course, this means the re-engravement of the three original characters, for there was otherwise nothing to be repaired. The character wang (£) "king" should be huang (§) which stands for "emperor". It was first intentionally inscribed in that erroneous form in the history of the Sung Dynasty compiled by the Yuan officials where it was recorded that there were two Sung "Kings", implying that they were not recognised as Emperors perpetuating the Sung dynastic throne. This was a grave mistake subsequently pointed out by many Chinese scholars. We should use the character huang for "Emperor" instead. The naming of the Sung Huang Tai Garden and Sung Huang Tai Road by the Hong Kong Government is therefore correct.

The precise meaning of the name Sung Wong Toi is not easily ascertained. It has been alleged that the boy Emperor Tuan Tsung used to rest in the cave beneath the great rock and sometimes played hide and seek there with his small brother. The mound has been likened to a toi, a terrace or high building. One historian has asserted that a watch tower was built on the top of the mound to look out for the advent of the enemy, hence its name. This last theory is not credible since the mound itself was already high enough for watching over the sea to the east without the superstructure. In my own research work, a line has been found in the Hsin-an Gazetteer which gives a very useful hint for the interpretation of the name. It reads: "There were three characters 'Sung Wong Toi', on the great rock which was beside the Toi".12 In reverse the last part can be read "the Toi was beside the great rock". Therefore, neither the great rock nor the hill itself can be identified as the Toi. The logical conclusion cannot be anything but that a separate toi must have been constructed near the foot by the side of the hill and the big characters were later engraved on the great rock merely as an indication of the historic spot commemorating the visit of two Emperors. It might have been a real watch tower, for the rocky hill was not easy to climb for military purposes. But where exactly was the toi or tower is a problem which remains to be solved.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g
The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung

29

Sung Wong Toi Garden was finally completed in the winter of 1957. Acting upon the suggestion of the Chiu Clansmen's Association, most of whose members are the descendants of the early emperors and princes of the Sung Dynasty, whose family name was Chiu, the Government, with the valuable assistance of the Association, provided two stone tablets commemorating the Sung Wong Toi, one in Chinese and the other in English, on each side of the entrance to the garden. On the 28th December, 1959, a simple and dignified unveiling ceremony was held in the garden. The design and craftsmanship of the tablets are of the first quality. In particular the two dragons, symbolizing two emperors, were beautifully done. It was said that only a very few craftsmen in Hong Kong could have done them and that they should be ranked as one of the Colony's works of art. I had the honour of being asked to compose the Chinese text and to assist in translating it into English. I was also asked to compile and edit a book entitled Sung Wong Toi, A Commemorative Volume which was published in Chinese in 1960 by the Chiu Clansmen's Association.

V. A FEW LEGENDS

In the text on the tablets above mentioned I stated that there existed a few historical sites connected with Tuan Tsung's stay in Kowloon. They may be of interest to you, in spite of their legendary character, if you are keen to know more of local history.

North of the Sung Wong Toi rock it is said that there was a Chin-fu-jen mu (Lady Chin's Tomb). It is recorded in the Hsin-an Gazetteer that the Princess of Tsin Kuo, younger sister of Tuan Tsung, had been drowned nearby, or en route to Kowloon, and that a golden image of her was buried in that tomb. That was why it was called Lady Chin (Gold)'s Tomb. A large stone tablet was erected there with the name Chin-fu-jen engraved on it. I consider this as sheer legend, unsupported as it is by any substantial proof.

To the northwest of the hill is the popular Temple of Hou-wang (Hou-wang miao). Ch'en P'ei-t'ao, a famous scholar of Tung-kuan District in late Ch'ing, put out the theory that Yang Liang-chieh, uncle of Tuan Tsung, had died at sea on the way here; was subsequently buried at this spot; that he was posthumously given the title of wang (king); and that the local people built the temple in memory of his loyalty. I have found
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g
The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung

31

The original site of the village is believed to have been somewhere southwest of Sung Wong Toi Hill. According to the report of Mr. Wu Pa-ling (A) who had carried out research in that area, the village situated at the foot of the northern tip of the Er-huang-tien Hill was formerly occupied by some two hundred people, mostly by the surname of Lee and living in about twenty or thirty houses. In 1927 or 1928, they were evacuated by the Government and the whole village, together with a Temple of the Northern God (Pei-ti) at the front of the village, was levelled to permit the construction of modern roads and buildings. Henceforth, there was no trace left by which to locate the original site of the village. The temple was removed to a nearby place by the side of the present Tam-kung Road where there is a street by the name of Pei-ti (Northern God),15

My own study on the subject has led me to the conclusion that it is highly probable that the royal party did visit that place or stay there in some house or houses which, in accordance with Chinese tradition, were subsequently called by the honorific name of palace (kung or tien). After their departure from Kowloon, people came in later times to settle down at the same place. More houses were built from time to time forming a village called Two Emperors' Palace Village and the hill by its side was also called Two Emperors' Palace Hill, which was really the hill on the northern tip of the eastern pincer of the Kuan-fu Mountain.

The most difficult problem in this study, however, is to know where exactly the original site of the village was, as every written record has omitted the location and no one who has visited it could tell precisely. After many years of painstaking and unsuccessful research, I finally found the right solution as late as 1962 when I was able to obtain some old maps of Kowloon Peninsula through the kind co-operation and assistance of officers of the Crown Lands and Survey division of the Public Works Department, Hong Kong Government. On one of them prepared in 1903—Sheet 6 in Number 2 Survey District—the exact location of the village is indicated and the name is given below. It is, however, misspelt "Un Wan Tun" probably due to linguistic difficulty on the part of the foreign surveyor. It is on the eastern side of the northern part of the Kuan-fu Mountain to which the colloquial name of Two Emperors' Palace Hill is also not given.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g
32 

JEN YU-WEN 

Comparing this map with two others (Military Survey Map 1902-03, GS3749, and Map of Kowloon, 1960, Sheet 2) and checking it with my personal observation in the old and new roads around that area, I found that the original site of the village was directly west of the southern foot of the former Sacred Hill, about 1,200 ft. distant from it (see map). The northern tip of the Two Emperors' Palace Hill has been levelled leaving a high cliff there.16 As to the precise boundaries, population and number of houses in the former village, there is no way to ascertain this, although the military map of 1902-03 shows only a very small number of houses in comparison with other villages in Kowloon.

VII, THE MA-TAU-WEI TEMPLE 

We should note one more, the last, historical site in this area. It is the Ancient Temple of Shang-ti (Shang-ti Ku-miao1) situated on the western side of the present Lomond Road, behind the St. Theresa Hospital (see map). The original temple was near the former Ma-tau-wei Village directly east of the present site. When the villagers were evacuated by the government and the whole village was levelled to construct new roads and buildings in 1927-28, the temple was destroyed and a new temple was constructed at the present site.17 Later on, the new temple was also demolished but the stone gate was preserved, the name of the temple remaining.

The idol worshipped there represents the God of the Black (Northern) Heaven (Hsuan-t'ien Shang-ti✯AL) which is identical with the Northern God (Pei-ti). According to Chinese ancient mythology, North has been considered as the centre of water, symbolized by the colour black. Hence, it became the patron deity of the people living along the seacoast, and almost every coastal village had such a temple wherever there were fishermen or seafarers. There are still some temples of the Northern God in Kowloon and elsewhere. Some years ago the Hong Kong Government accepted my suggestion and preserved this stone gate. Moreover, the piece of ground was converted into a small garden. Mr. Jao Tsung-i of the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong was asked to prepare the Chinese text which is engraved on a tablet erected by the side of the gate. Work was completed in 1962.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d
FURTHER NOTES ON THE SUNG WONG T'OI

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evidently of later date. The sherds with partially preserved glaze appear to represent a local attempt to imitate Yüeh ware, while one or two of the smaller glazed fragments are of better quality and may be imported from kilns further north and are definitely of T'ang date.

It need only be added that one fragment, of soft pinkish earthenware, is certainly proto-historic; and that the attribution of the whole of the fragments to the T'ang Dynasty or earlier raises the question whether the earthwork, or at least that part where the cutting was, may not date to the troubled period at the fall of that dynasty. If so, it might be that the Sung army re-used and strengthened an old fortification, very likely adding the high rampart with its ditch, counterscarp, and glacis at the north end, where an attack was evidently expected. The total absence of Sung pottery is certainly an unexpected feature, and if any part of these earthworks still survives, a few trenches dug across them would reveal enough pottery to prove or disprove this view. The turf and spoil removed could easily be put back, as is done in most modern excavations.

One thing is certain: the work at the north end faces Kowloon City, so cannot be a defence work for the salt depot there, as the wall on the Kowloon T'ong gap west of the city was. There was Sung pottery on the hill when the writer saw it, so that an earthwork thrown up in 1276 should contain some pieces of it. The small number of 13 pieces found may well be not enough to yield a satisfactory basis for a conclusion: yet the total absence of both Sung and later porcelain among them points at least to the extreme scarcity of such porcelain at the time the earthwork was thrown up. As the evidence now stands, it is reasonably likely that the earthwork is connected, like the watch-tower recorded as erected on the summit rock, with the defence of the palace of the last Sung emperors.

Acknowledgement

My thanks are owing to the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, for their expert advice on the pottery from the beach and the earthwork cutting, to which this paper owes much of its value.

Biographical Note

Mr. Schofield served in Hong Kong as a Cadet (Administrative) Officer in the Civil Service between 1911-38. He is well-known for his published articles on the archaeology and geology of the Colony in pre-war years, and is M.A. (Liv. and Oxon).
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
53

derstood that all twenty-eight of the deities in the hall were followers or disciples of the Kuan Yin with the Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes.

The twenty-eight images in the Bodhisattva Hall of second temple, the Pi-yun Ssu, (apart from the main deity Kuan Yin), fall into three categories: four bodhisattvas [P'u Hsien, Wen Shu, Ta Shih Chih and Ti-tsang Wang - but not including the main deity, the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin]; seventeen deities with Sanskrit titles [including four T’ien-wang Guardians] and three Chinese native folk religion deities.

The monks also explained that a stream which ran through the area had attracted imperial favour and several temples had been sited and built by palace eunuchs to enable the emperors to relax during the summer heat or visit the nearby shrines of deities of longevity and prosperity. Amongst these were the Ta Pei Ssu and the Pi-yün Ssu. They also understood that when the decision was taken to set up the images in the Hall each image was specially constructed and given a name or title all in accordance with Buddhist sacred writings.

However, these two temples in the Western Hills are not quite unique in that a further 28 deities can be seen in a cave-tunnel in a comparatively modern temple near Taipei in Taiwan, each labelled with a Sinicised Sanskrit or pseudo-Sanskrit name, similar to the deities in the two temples in the Western Hills. Such alien names mean nothing to most Chinese.

In the Ta Hui Ssu X, a third temple, within the city of Peking, statues referred to in the temple as the Twenty-eight Protectors of the Buddhist Law line the flanking walls of the main hall. These too are very similar in style and appearance to the Twenty-eight Deva in the Ta Pei Ssu in the Eight Great Places and though not individually identified as such in the Ta Hui Ssu they are probably similar Deva.

According to Soothill's Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms Deva is a general designation of the gods of Brahmanism, celestial beings whom he lists as the Twenty Deva [+]. The Sinicised Sanskrit titles of the deities seen in the two temples in the Western Hills, compared with the list of twenty in Soothill's dictionary, con-

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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
139

Three of the four lesser halls, though as large as the Jade Emperor Hall and Xu Hall or nearly so, are dedicated one to the Three Matrons of fertility and childcare; one hall to the wife of Xu, whose personal names were Heshi, known as the Palace of the Consort - Furen Gong - in which her image stands on the uppermost tier of three with the Lord of Time and his sixty minions, the Tai Sui, occupying the lower two tiers; a third hall to Guan Gong, the patron deity of loyalty and honour, and patron of soldiers; whilst the fourth hall, much smaller, is virtually empty apart from a single, small pottery image of a wealth god. This spread of cults within one temple is typical of the majority of the larger temples throughout Chinese communities.

All of the images within the temple complex are of comparatively recent manufacture, certainly since the early 1980s. The original images were destroyed during the years 1949-1976, during one or more of the political campaigns against superstition or social reform, mostly during the first days of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 when the temple was gutted. Some of the new images have been well made, artistically finished in paint on plaster and concrete. Others are crude, poorly finished and eyesores for posterity. The image of Xu, however, is one of the better ones and far from crude workmanship.

The grounds and halls on the day we were there in the Autumn of 1998 were seething with devotees, many of whom had travelled some distance to pay their respects to the deities. Long strings of firecrackers were being let off and amidst the deafening racket and the palls of smoke from these and burning offerings, the whole area was what Chinese know as re'nao, excitement and noise.

Across the road, however, in the comparatively small, enclosed and dilapidated garden, silence reigned and not a soul was to be seen. On the far side of the square artificial lake in the centre of the garden is a lengthy row of small, weathered and battered modern images, all unnamed, which on closer examination appeared to be many of the emperors of China since time immemorial. A Nine Dragon Spirit Screen stretches out behind them. Of greater interest were the half a dozen small rooms, similar to horse boxes with half-doors, which lined the rest of the far side, each containing a small tableau of life-size simple and gaudily painted plaster and cement figures. These were identified as episodic scenes from the life of Xu, ranging from his miraculous birth,
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