Hong Kong Annual Report, 1955/Chapter 19

Early in August workmen employed on the levelling of a low hill at the end of Tonkin Street, Shamshuipo, unearthed a tomb of considerable size and historical importance, the discovery of which, as soon as it became known, aroused considerable public interest.

The area, known generally as Li Cheng Uk Village, was in the process of being cleared of squatters in order to make way for a large planned settlement. The hill concerned was being levelled for part of the development, and construction of resettlement blocks of flats had already begun nearby.

Fortunately the discovery was reported almost at once, and effective measures were taken by the Government to prevent the tomb being tampered with or its contents disposed of privately. Professor F. S. Drake, Head of the Department of Chinese in the University of Hong Kong, was notified and came at once to the site, where, after discussion with members of the Public Works Department and the Police, it was decided that the interior of the tomb should be photographed, accurately mapped, and cleared under supervision. Thereafter all concerned cooperated with united enthusiasm to make sure that the fullest benefit, from the point of view of history and research, should be obtained from this important find. Government surveyors undertook the mapping, and Public Works Department workmen, under the supervision of Professor Drake, and with the help of a group of University staff and students, carefully removed the fine earth which partially filled the tomb.

The following description of the tomb is an abstract of a Preliminary Report by Professor Drake, incorporating some of his subsequent revisions.

"The tomb is situated on the fringe of the urban area, in that part of the New Territories known as New Kowloon. The site was once close to the sea, although now, due to reclamations made in this century, it is several hundred yards from it. The land originally rose on a fairly sharp incline from the sea, to a marine terrace, beyond which it rises again sharply to become part of the Kowloon range of hills.

"The tomb consists of three chambers, varying in length between 12 and 13½ ft., 5 ft. wide, and roofed with a barrel vault 5 ft. high. The three chambers are set in the form of the letter T, the two arms and the body of which meet on the three sides of a square chamber 7½ ft. wide, covered by a domed vault, like a beehive, 9 ft. high. On the fourth side of the square chamber is an entrance, also roofed with a barrel vault, and facing a little to the east of due south.

"The interior of the tomb is lined with bricks, laid without mortar, and measuring about 16" by 18" by 2". The exposed edges of a large proportion of the bricks show moulded designs, sometimes including short inscriptions. In some places, however, the decoration is very faint. It has partly been destroyed by time, and in places may have been absent altogether due to carelessness in the making.

"At the time of discovery the floor of the central chamber was piled with loose earth to a depth of two or three feet, upon which pottery vessels were lying in some disorder. The top of the domed vault had been damaged. Due to the hill having been partially levelled for squatter cultivation, and having later been built on by squatters, the top of the tomb was, in fact, only a foot or so under the soil, and at one place bricks were actually visible. The top of the dome had been repaired at some time with broken brick and a block of granite, but the aperture thus repaired seems too small to have admitted a person.

"The earth within the tomb was of very fine texture, unlike the gritty soil outside, and one of the unsolved problems is to explain how it accumulated within a closed tomb. It has been suggested that it may have been carried by water percolating between the bricks of the walls closing the ends of the chambers, where the bricks, not being under pressure, appear to be more loosely set.

"A total of sixty-one pieces of pottery was found, including four models of houses, twenty-one jars, two bowls, three stem-cups, a toilet jar (lien), a tripod with cover, and eight pieces of bronze in a very fragile condition. Some of the scattered pieces bear the marks of ancient fractures, suggesting that the tomb may have been entered at some time in the past. Lower down in the earth deposit, however, were found a number of important pieces obviously in their original position.

"The pottery is all of the funerary type (ming ch'i) found in tombs of the Han and Six Dynasties. The designs on the edges of the bricks are mostly geometrical, and a few present stylized outlines of fishes, and some of dragons, again reminiscent of the Han and Six Dynasties. Among the bronze objects, a Han dynasty mirror is important for purposes of dating. Two short inscriptions, represented several times in the designs on the bricks, include reference to Punyü, the district in which Canton is situated, and a term which once included this particular region. The style of writing is li-shu, prevalent in the Han and Six Dynasties, but more accurate dating by means of style can only be determined after careful comparison with extant inscriptions of these periods.

"One of the principal problems is that no signs of human remains or of a coffin were found. It is true that the excessive dampness of the soil, and the fact that the tomb may for long periods have been full of water, would have been sufficient to cause bones or wood to disintegrate entirely; but one might have expected to find teeth, or, if the burial was of the Han dynasty, jade amulets and metal belt-hooks. Another possibility is that the tomb was a cenotaph, perhaps of a military officer whose body could not be recovered from the battlefield.

"In any event, the tomb is an important discovery. Detailed study of it and its contents is now taking place in the University, and until these studies are completed it would be unwise to draw more precise conclusions about its date and purpose."

The probability, however, that it is at least as old as the Later Han (A.D. 25-220) or Six Dynasties (220-589) is of great interest and throws a new hight on what is at present known of local history.

Prior to permanent Chinese settlement in this area, which is continuous from about the year 1100, it is known that there was at least one earlier period of settlement (on the island of Tung Lung and in the neighbourhood of Joss-House Bay), evidence of which survives in the inscription on a stone situated behind the Tai Miu on the shores of Joss-House Bay. The tomb at Li Cheng Uk suggests that there may have been other attempts at settlement of an even earlier date, and that Chinese connexions with this particular part of the Kwangtung region prior to 1100 were by no means as scanty as, with our present knowledge, we are apt to presuppose.

The original intention of the Government was to demolish the tomb, after the details of it had been fully recorded. In view of the great public interest shown in it, however, the Government reversed this decision, and the area will now be retained as a small public park for recreation in the middle of the Li Cheng Uk Resettlement Area.