Hakka History 

Part 6

Oliver Lee’s talk at the May 7, 2013 General Meeting

At earlier meetings, I’ve talked about the history of the Lim/Lam/Lum clan, and the Char clan.

Today I’m going to talk about the Li clan, not the whole of its history but only its role during the Tang Dynasty, in which all the emperors were Li, with the exception of one short dynasty set up by one concubine, who was ousted in her old age, and the Tang Dynasty was restored.

First I’ll mention some generalizations or special points about the Tang, and then backtrack and narrate the course of events.

The Tang Dynasty was a glorious dynasty, lasting from 618 until 906, almost 300 years.  Especially in its first half, the Tang Dynasty was economically, culturally, artistically, and technologically way ahead of anything in Europe at the time. Its first four Emperors ruled for a total of over 100 years, from the founder to his son and grandson and great grandson. But, like most other long dynasties, in its first half it was dynamic, creative, efficient, and productive, but in its second half it was going downhill until it was overthrown and replaced by a new dynasty.

The founder, Li Yuan  (李渊),  together with his son Li Shimin (李世民）had managed to overthrow the previous dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, which had lasted only 29 years. But it was very important because it had reunified China after several centuries of disunion, including the time of the famous Three Kingdoms.

Li Yuan’s mother, interestingly, was a Turk from Mongolia (The Turks had their original base in western Mongolia, and in later centuries moved west and further west until they ended up in present-day Turkey). So, Li Yuan was half Turkish, and his son one-quarter Turkish, and his grandson one-eighth Turkish, and so on.

The grandson, as Emperor Gao Zong (高宗), ruled for 34 years. Unfortunately,  his Empress brought into the palace a woman named Wu Zetian (武则天)，who had been  Gao Zong’s father’s concubine. The Empress did this to have Wu Zetian win the Emperor’s affection away from another concubine. Wu Zetian succeeded in this, but in the process won the Emperor’s affection away from the Empress as well, and then had the Empress killed.

Wu Zetian was ambitious and ruthless. In the Emperor’s later years she took total control, changed the dynastic name to Zhou, and exiled or executed members of the imperial family who dared to oppose her. But when she was 80 years old and ill, she was ousted, and the Tang Dynasty was restored.

The next Emperor was Li Longji (李隆基), whose official Imperial name was Xuan Zong  (玄宗). He ruled for an amazing 44 years. Under him the Tang Dynasty reached the pinnacle of its glory.  Among the scholars and artists and poets in his court were China’s most famous poets, Li Bo (李白) and Du Fu (杜甫).  [Li Bo’s second syllable normally is pronounced ”bai”, but not in his case].

But Xuan Zong’s wars against the Turks were costly.  And at home he fell under the influence of the most famous beauty in Chinese history, named Yang Guifei (杨贵妃)。He was infatuated with her, and she made him live a life of luxury and extravagance, while the peasant masses were impoverished.

No wonder a major rebellion broke out in 755, led by An Lushan (安禄山)。 The rebels soon controlled most of the land north of the Yellow River.  Emperor Xuan Zong fled to Sichuan with Yang Guifei. Along the way, imperial troops executed her. The rebel leader was killed by his own son in 757, and the rebellion was crushed.

But the rebellion marked the beginning of the end of the Tang Dynasty. The Li family held the throne for another 150 years, but luxury in the capital and misgovernment in the provinces led to widespread discontent and revolts. One of the rebel leaders was Zhu Wen (朱温)，who soon proclaimed himself Emperor of a new dynasty, the Liang Dynasty. And that was the end of the Tang.

The next major dynasty was Song (960-1179), but between Tang and Song there were five short-lived dynasties, namely Liang, Tang, Jin, Han, Zhou.

And this is a good time for you to learn the names, not of the short-lived dynasties but of the major ones. At the last meeting I had asked you to repeat after me, in Hakka: Tong, Soong, Nian, Min, Ts’in, which together span a big chunk of Chinese history. So would you do that again, please, slowly: Tong, Soong, Nian, Min Ts’in. . . . And again.

Thank you. Now you know how to sum up Chinese historty from 618 to 1911 all in one breath.

Part 5

Oliver Lee’s talk at the Feb. 17, 2013 General Meeting

Today I’ll talk about the history of the Char Clan (谢), which goes back some 2600 years. This involves mentioning the Zhou Dynasty, before the time of Confucius, and the Shang Dynasty, when Confucius lived.

But before talking about the Chars, I want to recite for you the sequence of China’s numerous major dynasties from the beginning to the time of Sun Yat-sen’s overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. I’ll omit the first three dynasties which are mythological because there’s no written record of them, though some archeological artifacts remain.

Starting with the time when writing was invented and recorded on scratches on bones and tortoise shells, the sequence of dynasties is: Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, San Guo (the Three Kingdoms), Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing (商，周，秦，汉， 三国，晋，隋, 唐，宋，元，明，清). Most of them lasted about 250 to 300 years.

The last five dynasties deserve special attention because during most of them Chinese culture, technology, national wealth, and military power was superior to anything in Europe at the time, though in the latter half of the Qing or Manchu Dynasty China was in decline. So I want to take a minute to lead you in repeating the names of the last five dynasties so you have a thumbnail sketch of China’s history from 618 A.D. to the time of Sun Yat-sen. Here it goes in Hakka pronunciation, and please repeat after me one name at a time: Tong, Soong, Nian, Min, Ts’in. (and people in the audience did repeat).

To go on with the history: In about 900 B.C. the Shang Dynasty was overthrown by the Zhou Dynasty. A man named Jiang Taigong was active in the overthrow. Ten generations later, a descendant named Jiang Shenbo became Mayor of a County called Xie (谢) or Ts’ia in Hakka.In those days emperors often would bestow family names upon meritorious officials, so Jiang Shenbo got a new surname and that was the beginning of the Ts’ia clan. Thirty-six generations later, about 300 A.D., one of Shenbo’s descendants, named Ts’ia Fen (谢衡), led a migration to Zhejiang (浙江), near present-day Shanghai, where he became founder of the East Mountain branch of the Ts’ia clan.

About 400 A.D. a descendant, Ts’ia On (谢安), was Prime Minister of the Jin Dynasty (晋). Whether he led a migration to escape turmoil I don’t know  but in an earlier talk I mentioned that in times of nomadic invasions or defeat in civil war, high officials had more reason to flee than ordinary peasants.

Many centuries later, during the 37th generation of the East Mountain branch of the Ts’ia clan, two cousins led the clan to escape the Mongol invasion and settled in southwestern Fujian Province in the county of Nen Fa (宁化). This was the time of the Southern Song Dynasty. When it succumbed to the Mongol invaders in 1279 A.D., the Ts’ia clan and many others fled further south from Fujian across the border with Guangdong Province and settled in Tai Pu (太埔) and Moy Yan (梅县）.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, another wave of migrants , including Ts’ia people, fled from the Manchu invasion to Guangdong Province. And from there, in the past 150 years, many Ts’ia folk migrated to Taiwan and Southeast Asia and many other parts of the world, including Hawaii .

In closing, I’d like to mention some notable members of the Ts’ia or Char clan in Hawaii (the spelling by some Immigration Officers as “Char” makes no sense at all). One of them is a friend of mine: There are four Char brothers: Walter (psychiatrist), Kenneth (President of Aloha Airline), my friend Don (medical doctor), and Vernon (attorney). (Here followed a lively discussion in the audience about other “Char” persons, including Tin-Yuke Char, insurance executive and historian).

Part 4

Dr. Oliver Lee's short history talk November 18

The 3000-year history of the Lim/Lum clan

Three thousand years ago in North China there was a Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty （商朝) , which lasted about 200 years. It was coming to an end. Under it there were a dozen more or less independent kingdoms. One of them was the Zhou Kingdom （周国) .  Its ruler was Wen Wang, which means “Literary King”.

Wen Wang was overthrown by a rival, Zhou Xin（纣辛) , an evil and cruel tyrant. His uncle Bi Gan （比干）was an honest adviser but the king didn’t like his advice and had him executed -- by means of tearing out his heart while he was still alive.

Bi Gan’s son, named Gian （坚)，feared for his life and fled with his family to a forest called  Tsong Lim (长林), which means “Long Forest”.  So Gian, who had no surname, took the word Lim from the forest and made it his family name. So he became Lim Gian (林坚). I have good reason to believe that in North China at that time that’s how his name was pronounced.

Meanwhile, the evil tyrant Zhou Xin was overthrown. When he was losing out, he set fire to his own palace and perished in the flames. Good riddance.

The overthrowing was done by the Literary King’s son, Wu Wang （武王）which means “Military King”. This king, in honor of the honest adviser who had been executed, officially bestowed the surname “Lim” on Lim Gian and his family. Kings in those days, when not everybody had a surname, often bestowed surnames on deserving families. Over the centuries, Lim Gian’s descendants spread among the dozen kingdoms under the Zhou Dynasty.

One of the descendants was Prime Minister Lim Gao (林皋) of the Zhao kingdom (赵国)，north of the Yellow River. He had nine sons, all smart and able and ambitious. The king was jealous and planned to kill all of them. So Lim Gao led his nine sons to hide in the Bai Yu Mountains （白于山), west of the Yellow River, near a small tributary called See Ho (西河). So the Lims in that branch set up an establishment called See Ho Lim Tong（西河林堂), and our President Keith Lim knows about a building with almost the same name, Lum Sai Ho Tong, on River Street, just beyond the Cultural Plaza.

About 300 A.D., during the Jin Dynasty （晋朝), branches of the Lim clan  in East China escaped from the warfare and turmoil in East China and migrated southward to what is today Fu Zhou City  （福州市). Other Lim descendants settled in other parts of Fujian Province, including the part near Guangdong Province, where later the Hakka people set up the core region of the Hakka people.

A thousand years later, in the Song Dynasty, a man named Lim Pin Szi (林评市) was an official in that core region, namely in Moy Yan（梅县). After retirement, he settled in a nearby county called Tai Poo（大埔), where our Vice President Ben Duong’s grandfather came from, as he told me. (Ben is from Vietnam, but his grandfather was from Tai Poo). Lim Pin Szi founded his branch of the Lims in Tai Poo; and when a branch of the clan is formed in a new area, the founder is counted as of the first generation, his children the second generation, and so forth. In my own case, I am of the 26th generation in my village, which was settled some 300 years ago. One of Lim Pin Szi’s descendants founded the Lim branch in Ziao Liang （蕉岭), which is also in the Hakka core region.

In recent centuries the Lims or Lums of Fujian became major settlers in Canton’s Red River Delta, and Hong Kong and Taiwan, and in the past 20 years were among the huge number of Fujian people immigrating illegally to the U.S. in rickety boats, settling mainly in New York’s Chinatown. New York’s Chinatown used to be controlled by people from Toi San and Zhung San, but now it is controlled by the recent immigrants from Fujian or Fukkien.

Coming to the end of my story: In 1881, a man named Bung Yun Lum migrated from Guangdong to Hawaii. Married a Chung girl, and they had 13 children. I brought this book, "Sailing for the Sun: The Chinese in Hawaii, 1789 to 1989", published by Arlene Lum, who used to write for the Star-Bulletin. The great grandchildren of BugnYun Lum are now senior citizens. Arlene tells of a reunion of the Lum clan in 1996, attended by 500 Lums, and another reunion in 2012, attended by 200.

And that’s the end of my story.

Please view the map below of Guangdong Province, showing all the Hakka Counties mentioned above, plus Zhongshan County, which was populated by both Punti and Hakka people.