New Peace County
New Peace County: A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong Region
Peter Y.L. Ng
prepared for press and with additional material by Hugh D.R. Baker
Copyright Date: 1983
Published by: Hong Kong University Press
Pages: 162
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc4wk
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New Peace County
Book Description:

In 1573 the Guangdong Province county of Dongguan was divided into two arts, one of which was named Xin'an Xi an (New Peace County). Its 600 square miles of territory included all of what is now Hong Kong and the New territories. The new county was poor, sparsely populated and harassed by marauding bands of pirates and land-based ruffians. The Xin'an Xianzhi (Gazetteer of Xin'an County) was the combined work of local people and officials posted to the county. It dealt with the geography, history, economy, traditions and literature of the area and remains today the fullest source of information on pre-twentieth century Xin'an. This book looks at the 1819 edition of the gazetteer, the last revision of it to be made. The contents of its twenty-five chapters are analysed and discuessed under the four main headings History, Geography, Economy and Government, and a translation section samples the rich material found there. Old maps of the county have been specially redrawn to accompany the text. For the student of Chinese history, for those interested in pre-British Hong Kong and for the layman alike this is a fascinating and enjoyable book which while satisfying in itself will also serve as a guide to further research.

eISBN: 978-988-220-230-6
Subjects: History
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. PREFACE
    PREFACE (pp. ix-x)
    Peter Y.L. Ng
  4. INTRODUCTION
    INTRODUCTION (pp. 1-16)

    In 1841 the British Superintendent of Trade at Canton, Captain Charles Elliot, negotiated the cession of the island of Hong Kong as one of the terms of the Convention which was to end the Opium War between China and Britain. Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary in London, greeted the news with disgust and the much-quoted description of the place as ‘a barren island with hardly a house upon it’. The Convention was not signed and Elliot was recalled from his post, but the cession of Hong Kong was retained as one of the terms of the Treaty of Nanking which...

  5. Part One
    • 1. HISTORY
      1. HISTORY (pp. 19-28)

      Chinese civilization developed in the basin of the Yellow River and spread only slowly to fill the enormous area of more than 3,600,000 square miles which is present-day China. Long before it reached as far south as Hong Kong the area was inhabited by other peoples. Present evidence points to coastal settlements dating back to about 3000 BC,¹ but archaeological research in Hong Kong has been gaining momentum in recent years and the picture may change as more discoveries are made.²

      In the 13th year of King Wu of Zhou 周武王 south China was proclaimed a tributary state 僠服 ³ from...

    • 2. GEOGRAPHY
      2. GEOGRAPHY (pp. 29-36)

      The county of Xin’an as it stood before the cession of territory to the British Crown had a total area of something under 600 square miles. To the west of it is the wide estuary of the Pearl River which brings down mud from Guangdong Province and by depositing it along the coast creates a good deal of flat plain; to its south and south-east is the sea, with a long fringe of islands off the coast; and to its north is the prosperous Dongguan County.

      In terms of China’s long history, in terms of wealth of local products, and...

    • [Maps]
      [Maps] (pp. None)
    • 3. ECONOMY
      3. ECONOMY (pp. 37-49)

      The economy of Xin’an was different from the simple agricultural economy of most of the other regions of the Chinese Empire. Farming, it is true, played the leading role in the county’s economic life, and land-tax was the main source of official revenue as it was elsewhere; but the geographical conditions of Xin’an made possible the development of two other industries which were tapped by the government for revenue — fishing and salt production.

      The gazetteer does not set aside a chapter exclusively for discussion of the occupations of the people. In Chapter Three a list of agricultural products is...

    • 4. GOVERNMENT
      4. GOVERNMENT (pp. 50-66)

      The gazetteer is concerned above all, of course, with the administration of Xin’an County. The founding of the county, the centres of government, the ceremonies which aimed to strengthen and give colour to the authority of the officials, the qualifications and achievements of those officials and of those natives of the county who entered officialdom, the problems of administration which exercised the magistrate and his staff peculiarly in this county — on all these the gazetteer is strong.

      Yet at the same time it is in this very field of administration that the gazetteer is weak. The inadequacy of the...

  6. Part Two
    • TRANSLATED PASSAGES
      TRANSLATED PASSAGES (pp. 69-126)

      The following fifty passages of translation from the 1819 gazetteer vary in length: some are complete sections from the original, but many are excerpts only. Where brackets are used it indicates that the original text is in a smaller typeface. Page number references are to the 1974 Taiwan reprint edition....

  7. APPENDIX: TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE 1688 EDITION OF THE GAZETTEER
    APPENDIX: TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE 1688 EDITION OF THE GAZETTEER (pp. 127-130)
  8. GLOSSARY OF HONG KONG PLACE NAMES
    GLOSSARY OF HONG KONG PLACE NAMES (pp. 131-131)
  9. NOTES
    NOTES (pp. 132-143)
  10. BIBLIOGRAPHY
    BIBLIOGRAPHY (pp. 144-148)
  11. INDEX
    INDEX (pp. 149-151)
  12. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
    WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (pp. 152-152)
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