Floating Pavilions

[Vsg] Floating Pavilions & the Seven Cities

vsg-list-archive

Mike High <mike.high@earthlink.net>

Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 1:42 PM

Dear list,

During my visits to Chinese association halls and temples in Chợ Lớn and Miền Tây, I’ve been intrigued by these wooden panels that are frequently found hanging above the front entrance (see attachment).

They give the overall impression of a vessel, perhaps also with the sense of “three realms of existence.” 

When I asked at one of the Chợ Lớn temples, I was told that it only represented “palaces,” but this did not seem adequate to me. Later, I found in an extensive book prepared by the committee for the large temple to Quan Đế in Biên Hòa (Thất Phủ Miếu), the phrase “lâu thuyền” in a caption for the attached example (my photo). 

I am wondering if any list members have seen similar panels in the Chinese temples of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Djakarta, Bangkok, or Manila (or, for that matter, Hong Kong, Taiwan).  Or is this a feature that is unique to the Chinese temples of Nam Bo? (I have not seen them in the Chinese huiguan of Hoi An)

Having mentioned the Thất Phủ (Seven Cities, Qi Fu), I also wonder if the Chinese communities in these other SE Asian ports have the same concept of the Qi Fu “Seven Cities,” referring their ancestral homeland. 

Note: In Vietnam, the Thất Phủ are sometimes confused with the bang associations (which are said to have been based more on dialect) that the Nguyễn created as a way to govern the peripatetic Chinese. However, after comparing the listings given by Tsai Mau Kuey, Trần Hồng Liên, etc., I think the Thất Phủ are not the same. Qi Fu/Thất Phủ seems to have an earlier origin, and but since the term was used for some of the Chinese temple buildings in the south—probably the ones that conducted official business with the Nguyễn and then the French—the two terms have sometimes been conflated. 

Any comparative observations, suggestions, or referrals to knowledgable persons in distant ports would be most welcome.

:: Mike High

Khuê văn các 

Independent Research Facility

Great Falls, VA

USA

PS. According to Trần Hồng Liên, the Qi fu or “seven townships” were Ninh Ba (I take this to be Ningbo in Zhejiang Province), Phúc Châu (Fuzhou in Fujian), Chương Châu (Zhangzhou in Fujian), Tuyền Châu (Quanzhou in Fujian), Quảng Châu (Guangzhou in Guangdong), Triều Châu (Chaozhou in Guangdong), and Quỳnh Châu (Qiongzhou in Guangdong - today Hainan).