亚马逊丛林的考古圣地正遭破坏

全球森林观察（ Global Forest Watch）将玻利维亚列为全球第三大原始森林破坏国，排名在巴西和民主刚果之后。在天然气价格下跌，出口收益减少之后，玻利维亚的经济发展重心就不断向农业出口偏移，农业商人们也盯上更加适合大规模农业生产的平原地带，尤其是Beni 和Santa Cruz两个省。

农业生产的扩展导致大片的亚马逊丛林被砍伐，原始森林面积不断减少。毁坏自然环境造成的恶果就是2019年亚马逊丛林大火，其中玻利维亚是重灾区。大火燃烧数月，政府和社会束手无策，直至最后天公降雨才扑灭大火。大火让气候变化的议题在这个南美内陆国迅速升温，甚至引起了政治动荡，引发全国性抗议，总统莫莱利斯下台，流亡墨西哥。

在全球热议气候变化的时候，考古学家们看到的是考古圣地正被破坏。2019年，德国考古学家Heiko Prümers带领团队在Beni的亚马逊丛林中使用机载激光雷发现隐藏在地下的巨大古城遗址群。在哥伦布发现新大陆之前，这里就是曾是大型的聚居地，面积超过5万平方公里；大小聚落相连，运河和水库网络促进农业生产（Prümers et al., 2022; Lombrado et al., 2000）。这片区域被称为摩霍人平原（Llanos de Moxos）。

波恩大学的考古学家Umberto Lombardo长期在Beni进å行考古挖掘，他说Beni到处都是考古遗址，很容易就可以捡到真正的古董，“只要支起一个屋顶，就是一个博物馆”（Graham, 2022）。

然而，由于森林砍伐和农业生产的扩张，如今地表已经被完全破坏，古代陶器变成碎片。而正是到处都是真古董，当地居民见怪不怪，没有重视。即便居民发现了一些考古遗迹，也很少会立刻报告给相关部门或者考古学家。

而且，玻利维亚政府以经济发展为首任，气候变化议题可以选择性忽略，森林继续砍，考古遗址的保护就更为次要。莫莱利斯下台之后第二年，他所领导争取的社会主义运动党的另一位人物卢乔·阿尔塞在大选中获胜，担任总统。莫莱利斯也结束一年的流亡，返回玻利维亚。如今，全国有4百万公顷的耕地以及1000头牛。政府计划到2025年，这两个数字将达到1300万公顷和1800万头。

参考资料
Prümers, H., Betancourt, C.J., Iriarte, J. et al. (2022) Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature 606, 325–328.
Graham, T. (2022, Nov 22) Unchecked deforestation destroying evidence of lost Amazon civilisation. The Guardian.
Lombardo, U., Iriarte, J., Hilbert, L. et al. (2020) Early Holocene crop cultivation and landscape modification in Amazonia. Nature 581, 190–193.

Seven Star Family Residence and Urban Redevelopment

Seven Star Family Residence (七星世居) is hidden among dilapidated buildings which will be soon torn down for the urban redevelopment program. Apartments built by the locals for rent will be cleared out. Striking red banners hung on the empty buildings urge the remaining house owners to sign the housing demolition contract immediately. A poster pasted on the wall states that the new regulation has been approved by the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress. There the district government is entitled to requisition houses that do not sign the contract, on the condition that more than 95% of house owners sign the contract. 

Thereafter, the region will be transformed into a commercial neighborhood. However, Seven Star Family Residence will be preserved to respect its history (Chen, 2016). Obviously, the contract rate has not yet reached 95%, still, a few people live around. 

The residence was announced as an unmovable cultural relic of Longgang District in 2012. It was established around 1800. The exact year is uncertain on the grounds that, unlike other residences, there is no year carved with the name of the Seven Star Family Residence on the top of the entrance. 

The residence was created by Wu Rongguo (巫榮國), son of Wu Yanyi (巫廷異). Rongguo and his brother Wu Xinguo (巫新國)Xinguo moved from the current Longxi Sub-district to Zhutoubei Village (竹頭背村).  Xingguo built another residence just next to Ronguo’s Seven Star Family Residence. I do not know the official name of Xinguo’s family residence, because there is only the name of the gate “Liang Xun Men”(涼勳門).  A striking feature of both gates is that they are concave to the wall, rather than flat. 

Tan Gong Temple in Shenzhen

Tan Gong's statue/Yongbin

Tan Gong Temple was located in Kuichong Subdistrict, Dapeng New District, east of Shenzhen. He was worshiped along with the Buddhist divinity Guanyin (The One Who Perceives the Sounds of the World or Avalokiteśvara/in Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर), to the left, and the Taoist divinity Taishang Laojun (The Supreme Venerable Sovereign), to the right.

Tan Gong Temple/Yongbin

Tan is his surname, and Gong is the honorific title, therefore, Tan Gong literally means Lord Tan. This temple was rebuilt in 2007. 

From the statue of Tan Gong in his temple, we can see that he has an image as a child. According to folk legends, he was born in Huizhou Prefecture and became immortal in heaven at the age of thirteen in Nine-dragon Mountain.  He cures patients, forecasts the weather and protects sailors in the sea. 

The existing record regarding Tan Gong was found as early as in Guangdong tongzhi chugao (廣東通志初稿), during the Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1521-1567), stating that his name was Tan Gongdao. Influenced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, another Hakka Zhai Huogu(翟火姑) led the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty in Huizhou in 1854. He was also a member of the Triad, one of the major secret societies in ancient China. Eventually, the rebellion was suppressed by the government. Three local deities were recognized by the central government for their assistance in the battle against Zhai Huogu’s troops. Tan Gong was honored with the title Xiang Ji(襄濟). 

The recognition of the state boosted the belief of Tan Gong, spreading from Huizhou to Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia along with the Hakka diaspora. 

饶宗颐先祖的商业网络和世界视野 Global Vision and Business Network of Jao Tsung-I's Ancestors

读书杂志是我从大学时代就开始喜欢看的，与自己对人文历史的兴趣比较契合。读到吴小安教授写的一篇《特殊的年代、特别的地方和特别的学人》，讲的就是熟悉的饶宗颐先生。熟悉并不是说我认识饶宗颐先生，只是因为同样是潮州人。他不仅仅是香港的文化符号，也是潮州的文化符号。

高中时代的三年，每天都徜徉在山顶的选堂书廊，那里有着饶先生各种字体的十八方书作。后来，潮州市在古城建立了饶宗颐学术馆，展出饶先生在各个学科领域的成就：敦煌学、甲骨学、词学、史学、目录学、楚辞学、考古学、中印关系史、西亚史、潮学……饶先生对改革开放后忙着做生意的潮州人来说，是一个巨大的激励。潮州人能选择很多人生道路，不仅能成为李嘉诚，也能成为饶宗颐。

潮州人实际上早已经不不仅仅广东省东部的潮州人或者潮汕人，而是离散在世界各地的一个族群。正如饶宗颐先生，在1949年之后，移居香港，学术足迹遍布全球各地。1962年新加坡建国之后，他旋即于次年被聘请到新加坡大学任教，参与到新加坡华人族群文化构建的历史进程中，这也是文中推荐的《上座传经事已微——饶宗颐新加坡大学执教考》所细致考察的。

饶宗颐先生的学术生涯看起来像是偶然，但似乎也是一种必然，这与1949年前潮州与南洋千丝万缕的联系是分不开的。我希望增补的另外一本书是饶先生父亲饶锷修的《潮安饶氏族谱》。饶锷不仅仅是金融家，也是一位修养极高的文人，甚至被称为“潮学研究的先行者和奠基人”。饶宗颐正是在这样的书香门第中耳濡目染成长起来的。潮州的饶氏是18世纪饶仕保从嘉应，也就是现在的梅州的松口镇迁移到潮州来的。先住在城东，后又移居城内。饶仕保的儿子饶显科在城里做起了生意，先后开了“源发”染坊和“顺发”豆店。

到了19世纪后期，饶氏已经成为潮州知名的富商大贾，他们眼里就不只是小小的潮州府了。他们带着雄厚的资本，整合潮州、梅州以及东南亚华人网络，在金融业取得成功，网点包括第二次鸦片战争后开埠的汕头，客家人下南洋第一站的松口，并且延伸至印尼雅加达、日惹、望加锡。致富的同时，家族积极获取政治和社会地位。饶宗颐先生的曾祖父饶良洵修建了祠堂，捐官封爵；祖父饶兴桐于1914年当选潮州府商会总理；父亲饶锷在1924年当选为潮安县商会公断处长。

拥有雄厚资本的饶家并不要求族人一定要走科举的“独木桥”。潮州位于帝国南疆边陲，在历史上科举成绩也并不突出，官场上更无势力，只出过一位状元林大钦。他在京城为官两年，无法适应官场，就辞官回家了。1545年，最终年仅34岁就病逝了。与此同时，世界已经进入大航海时代，荷兰人、葡萄牙人、西班牙人、法国人、英国人纷纷在东南亚占领港口城市、建立贸易据点，大规模的跨国贸易开始出现。中国的南疆边陲靠近东南亚，在贸易时代潮州的位置就变成了优势。

潮州人出海贸易，掀起了第一次移民潮，就连朝廷的海禁政策也无法阻挡。第二次鸦片战争后汕头开埠，又掀起了第二次移民潮。潮州已经深深卷入世界贸易体系之中。潮州人、华人在世界上许多地方已经站稳脚跟，甚至诞生了新加坡这样以华人为主体、包容多元文化的全新国家。所以，饶氏的先祖早已明白商业的重要性，通过构建跨区域、跨国界的贸易网络，与在中央集权下僵化的官场中谋取地位相比，有更多的可能性，且更加自由、安全。

做生意也离不开教育。接受更高的教育，提高修养，更能够适应多变的世界。饶氏在祠堂边开设书塾，同时又建了粤东最大的藏书楼天啸楼，藏书数以万计。饶家为子孙提供教育，考不考科举不重要，强调在读书后要学习一技之长。至民国，为能考上大学的族人提供学费补贴，让他们专心学习。饶宗颐先生的几位叔伯也都是潮州知名的学者和收藏家。在这样的时代背景和家庭环境下长大的饶宗颐，从小就拥有深厚的人文修养，以及辽阔的世界视野，也在情理之中。

在先人世界性的商业网络的基础上，饶宗颐在1949年之后移居香港，开启了自己世界性的学术网络。如若当年留在大陆，恐怕在49年后的历次政治运动中，饶先生也难以幸存，即便幸存，也将和其他大陆的知识分子一样，切断与世界的连结，中断学术研究。大陆的学术在改革开放后才重启与世界的连结。近年来不仅引进国外汉学家对中国、对华人的研究，大陆的学者也开始走进海外的田野，进行海外华人的研究。

诚如人类学家项飙所说，流动是对人发展抽象而又实证的理论化能力的一个很重要的推进。在读书杂志中，我们也能看到各种有着更广阔视野的文章。尤其是在当代交通便利、网络发达的年代，在全世界流动，接受不同文化的洗礼和碰撞，不管是商业、学术，还是对自己的人生，都大有裨益。在身体上、精神上身处充满可能性的更大的世界，我们也不会再纠结是要“内卷”，还是“躺平”了。

Huilong Family Residence and Its Renovation

Coffee with Hakka tofu (Yongbin)

Huilong Family Residence (迴龍世居) is undergoing a revamp funded by the government of Pingshan District. I was drinking coffee in the nearby fully renovated mansion. 

The spacious mansion became a fancy brand-new café with idyllic design and delicacies and attracted a bunch of young people to drop by and take photos for their social media. It can accommodate roughly 100 persons as I observed. On the ground floor, a playground for kids was designed so that mothers could leave their children to play while enjoying gossiping and relaxing from stress.

The owner named the café Hakka in English and 'ke ka' in Chinese, namely a café of Hakka. I ordered a tofu coffee which creatively combined the western beverage with tofu, a traditional Hakka aliment. When coming out of the café, I realized that its neighbor, a larger complex Huilong Family Residence was also given a makeover.

A kid is enjoying the café (Yongbin)

Fancy Hakka café (Yongbin)

Entrance of the café (Yongbin)

The residence was established by Huang Yaoqing (黃耀青) in 1848 as shown on the top of the entrance. 

I happened to meet the project director, a young man around 30 years old standing in front of the complex and discussing details with the construction company. He was also the owner of the café. His surname was Xue, not Huang the predominant clan in this area. Xue clan resides in Xuewu Village nearby. His great-grandmother is from the Huang clan and used to live in this residence. Eight years ago, ironically Xue’s ancestral hall was ravaged without any agreement with the village in an operation of land requisition for constructing the hospital, led by the government of Pingshan District. Nonetheless, the government claimed that it was a mistake. 

Entrance of Huilong Family Residence

In reality, at that time, a range of conflicts rose in urban housing demolition in China due to its hectic urbanization and soaring real estate development. Local Hakka began to organize themselves and promoted cultural and commercial values of traditional architecture. Several ancient Hakka residences in Pingshan, for instance, Dawan Family Residence, Hehu New Residence and Longtian Family Residence, have been revamped since then. At this moment, Huilong Family Residence is under restoration. 

I asked what it will be used for when the restoration project is finished. "I am not sure about the future plan," said the young project director, "yet probably it will be utilized as a commercial space."

Story Heard from an Old Gentlemen in Chengnei Village

Devastated entrance of Chengnei Village (Yongbin)

In Shenzhen, it is fairly rare to meet a real local since it is a migration city. Chengnei Village (城內村) is situated in Kengzi Subdistrict, the east corner of Shenzhen city. Last month, Kengzi Metro Station was open and the 14th metro line finally reached the city's east end. Huiyang District of Huizhou City is adjacent to the Kengzi Subdistrict to the east. The subdistrict was historically a Hakka area of Huizhou, but it was annexed to Bao'an Country in 1958 and administrated under Shenzhen City from 1979 onward. 

The village used to be a walled village called Xiushan Family Residence. It was constructed in 1794 by four brothers Huang Weiqiu(维球), Huang Weizhen(维珍), Huang Weilian(维琏) and Huang Weijin(维瑾). It was a huge residence covering 15000 square meters and a fortress, but only two gates, and some dilapidated walls made by rammed earth survive. Most of the ancient houses have been supplanted by modern buildings. Obviously, the ancestral hall of the Huang clan used to lie on the axis of the village since it still faced the crescent-shaped pond.

Huang Clan Ancestral Hall in Chengnei Village (Yongbin)

When exploring the village, a well-carved wooden beam on the top of a gate drew my attention among the decaying houses. Moreover, right in front of the gate was a wall, on which some elaborate patterns with birds and flowers remained. 

Unexpectedly, an old gentleman with an irate look came out of the house and yelled at me. He spoke Mandarin with a strong Hakka accent. After I explained my interest in ancient architecture and history, he showed me a smiling face and welcomed me to visit his house. He told me that he was a local Hakka, the owner of this house. Then he narrated his family histroy to me. 

Huang Xinquan with a smiling face(Yongbin)

Huang Xinquan is 70 years ago this year. He retired from the Kengzi subdistrict office, where he worked for the social affair department. His father Huang Guang was born in the Dutch colony Batavia, present-day Jakarta in Indonesia. The family was doing business in the colony and made a fortune. When Huang Guang was seven years old, he returned to Guangdong from Batavia. 

In 1942, he joined the anti-Japanese guerrilla force East River Column, which was organized by the China Communist Party.  In 1964, he joined the People’s Liberation Army when the East River Column was eventually annexed into the Communist army due to the agreement signed between the CCP and the Kuomingtang after World War II.  In 1954, he came back to the village and lived off farming after retiring from the army.

Mao and Huang Guang's photo (Yongbin)

The family that used to reside in front of Huang Xinqiong’s house was a landlord. Fortunately, they made the decision to flee to Hong Kong on the eve of the Communist takeover in 1949. Otherwise, they would hardly survive the political movements coming afterward. 

Delicate plaster carvings of the landlord's house (Yongbin)

Huang Xinquan studied at Guangzu School during the cultural revolution. The school was established in 1906 by Ou Jujia (歐榘甲), its first head teacher. At that time, he was a disciple and follower of Kang Youwei, the prominent political thinker and reformer in the late Qing dynasty. Meanwhile, he raised funds from overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and introduce modern education to China at Guangzu School. In order to save the nation from a miserable fate, he also promoted the concept of the "Glory of Family and Nation" in his education. 

Although they had relatives in Indonesia, they could not contact them because having foreign contacts would be tantamount to counter-revolutionary and lead to a disastrous ending. Still and all, they managed to receive some amount of funds from overseas relatives in secret. 

Nonetheless, the school did not operate as it used to after the Communist takeover. Huang Xinquan remembered that he merely learned any knowledge there. Instead, he was educated to work in agriculture for most of his time. 

Guangzu Middle School (Yongbin)

At present, he actually lived in another new mansion in a nearby new neighborhood. He gave the old house a makeover in order not to be treated as a run-down house and torn down by the government. And he frequently came to the house to enjoy the tranquility and a comfortable milieu. Overall, for him, this house has lots of vivid memories of his family's history.

Xuanqing New Residence, an Exotic Architecture in the Urban Village

Xuanqing New Residence (璇庆新居) is situated in the Shabeili Village (沙背坜) in Longgang District, 40 kilometers to the northeast of Shenzhen city center. Notwithstanding the name of the village, due to the hectic urbanization of Shenzhen after the opening-up of China, most of the rural areas have been transformed into industrial areas incorporated into the fabric of the metropolis. Likewise, Shabeili Village is predominated by modern buildings and factories. 

The mansion stands out for its elegant outlook combining traditional Chinese architecture and western architecture features. It was built by Qiu Man, a Malaysian Chinese who migrated from the village to British Malaya in the early nineteenth century. He worked hard as a coolie in a tin mine and was fortunately appreciated by the owner. The owner betrothed his daughter to Qiu Man. 

The couple inherited the tin mine after their father passed away. Being rich, Qiu Man was not satisfied with only one spouse. Afterward, he married more concubines. The youngest concubine pleased the new mine owner the most, however, she could not get along with his other wives. 

Qiu Man decided to send the youngest concubine back to his home village and build a residence to accommodate her and his extended family. The construction of the residence was completed in 1936 and was named after his courtesy name Xuanqing. 

Nonetheless, after the communist took over China, Qiu Man and his youngest concubine were separated permanently in a miserable manner. Qiu Man was stranded away from home in Malaysia and all connection with China was cut off. 

Surprisingly, despite some damages caused by political movements, the residence is better preserved, compared to the other traditional architectures in the metropolis, we can still observe many traces of its elegant past. 

A three-arched portal demonstrates its adoption of western style, while two side arches with the Islamic pattern further extend its cultural diversity and artistic creativity. The long gable on the top is carved with passion fruit patterns and traditional Chinese natural landscape painting. Two fortified four-story corner towers on both sides, as auxiliary buildings, defend the building from external threats. On the top, lovely carp-shaped plaster scuppers build the drainage system.  

Stepping into the residence, a fully Chinese tradition-style mansion brings us back to the ancient world. Crossing two inner halls, the ancestral hall is located right in the middle, though no memorial tablet is placed. Above the first inner hall door, an inscribed plaque "ju ren you yi" （居仁由义）is placed; above the second inner hall door, "fu qing kao xiang" is placed, though the color fell off a lot. Architraves, lintel and beams are well carved and decorated with ancient Chinese stories, letters, follower patterns and auspicious animals.

At present, the residence is inhabited by domestic migrant families who rent side houses inside the residence, rather than the clansmen of Qiu. The rent is much lower than the average inasmuch as the lack of modern amenities such as private toilets and gas. 

There used to be a crescent pond in front of the residence. However, the pond was filled and a factory was built on it. The actual owner is advertising on the poster that the residence, together with the factory building, is for lease. 

Several-minute walk from the residence, Qiu Clan Ancestral hall is located but remains closed. The antithetical couplet in the gate indicates a wedding of a couple with Qiu surname and Zhang surname was held recently. 

However, where are the locals? I can not hear anyone speaking the local Hakka dialect. Probably no one would know the story of Qiu Man. Instead, Hunan and Sichuan restaurants are everywhere around the village. After the opening-up, people from less developed provinces flocked to Guangdong Province in search of better jobs and became migrant workers. Shenzhen is the most popular destination for them. The majority of them reside in urban villages in considering the low rent. At this moment, these migrant workers have been new locals in the village.

Conflicts between Clans in Chi Village before 1949

The conflict between clans was common in southern China. The possibility of battle was ever present in a clan-dominated area, and a permanent state of preparedness was maintained through village watches and strong walls around the clan’s territory (Baker, 1979:149). 

John Scarth(1860: 63-67), a British merchant traveling in Chaozhou in the late 1850s recorded that the villages were surrounded by distinct walls about sixteen to twenty feet high, and each seemed prepared to fight with its neighbor.

Thomas Buoye(2000:143) also states that violence is prevalent in Chaozhou’s rural area and the overall number of homicides was much greater than in any other prefecture in Guangdong Province in the 18th century. 

As the two influential clans in Chi village, the relationship between Chen and Xie was hostile. Before 1949, they banned inter-clan marriage. Moreover, battles often broke out due to some disputes including deity procession. The elders in Chi village told me about a brutal battle that happened between them before 1949. 

Xie’s members attacked Chen’s third division living in Yueyingku, which was located close to Xie’s territory. The third division had fewer people to fight. Eventually, they were defeated in a miserable manner. Thirteen clansmen of Chen were decapitated and their heads were placed on the ground. Members from the first division and the second division of the Chen clan arrived late. They did not manage to help their clansmen but witnessed the horrible scene of the heads dripping in blood.

Upper Yang and Down Yang did not have a good relationship. Although they shared the same family name, they originally came from different places as stated previously. Before 1949, Upper Yang was more powerful than Down Yang. Many members from Upper Yang went to the city center to do trading and thus became businessmen. They were called “those wearing long shirts (Changshan)”. They even built a temple to worship their community god called Lord Shengzu. 

The majority of Down Yang were farmers and had less power than Upper Yang. Even though they built the ancestral hall together, they still had a lot of conflicts. Upper Yang allied with the Chen clan, while Down Yang allied to the Xie clan. When conducting the procession of gods during the spring festival, Upper Yang borrowed the Second Lady from the second division of Chen, while down Yang borrowed the Second King from the Xie clan.  

Bibliography

Baker, H. (1979). Chinese Family and Kinship. Columbia University Press
Buoye, T. M. (2000). Manslaughter, Markets, and Moral Economy: Violent Disputes over Property Rights in Eighteenth-Century China. Cambridge University Press
Scarth, J. (1860). Twelve Years in China: The People, the Rebels, and the Mandarins. T. Constable and Company.

Three Mountain Kings in the Chi Village before 1949

All clans in Chi Village worship a group of community deities called Three Mountain Kings. They are a group of community deities widely believed in the east of Guangdong Province. Chi Village has formed its own sacrificial circle based on the folk religion of the Three Mountain Kings.  

The belief originated from Jinshan, Mingshan and Dushan mountains in Jiexi County, a Hakka ethnic area in Chaozhou. They were originally the mountain deities of these three mountains. According to the legend, in 677, General Chen Yunguang wrote the Inscriptions on the Temple of Chaozhou Three Mountain Kings (si Chaozhou sanshan shen ti bi 祀潮州三山神题壁) when he stationed his troop in Jiexi County. 

Moreover, another historical celebrity Han Yu is also related to Three Mountain Kings. Han Yu was a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty. In 819 AD, he was demoted and exiled to Chaozhou because of his strong protest again Emperor Xianzong’s support of Buddhism. The biggest river in Chaozhou was renamed Han River for honoring him. In 819, during his stay in Chaozhou, Han Yu went to Jiexi County to pay homage to Three Mountain Kings and wrote the "Text to Worship the Boarder God" (ji jie shi shen wen 祭界石神文). In general, articles of General Chen Yunguang and Han Yu praised the three mountain gods' effectiveness in bringing rain. 

During the 14th century, Three Mountain Deities were upgraded to the rank of the king (Wang 王), and thus became Three Mountain Kings. Because Three Mountain Kings appeared on the battlefield and assisted Song Taizong, the second emperor of the Song Dynasty, to win the victory, they were promoted to King of the Country (Guo Wang 国王). Mingshan was granted the title De Hua Xian De Bao Guo Wang (清化咸德报国王), Jinshan was granted the title Zhu Zheng Ming Su Ning Guo Wang (助政明肃宁国王) and Dushan was granted the title Hui Gan Hong Ying Feng Guo Wang (惠感宏应丰国王). 

Regardless of whether the story of the Three Mountain Kings helping to win the battle is true or not, it objectively demonstrates that the authority of the Three Mountain Kings is recognized by the state. Moreover, it promoted the worship of the Three Mountain King among the people in Chaozhou at a large scale, making Three Mountain Kings superior to other community deities. Many villages worship the Three Mountain Kings as the main protector. Temples for Three Mountain Kings predominated in most of the villages in Chaozhou.

Since Three Mountain Kings became the village's protector, the village generally only allowed their people to enter the temple to worship. According to the tradition of Chaozhou, there is an unwritten rule that when it rains, they can go to the Tudigong (Lord of the Soil and the Ground) Temple to take shelter from the rain, but they cannot go to the Temple of Three Mountain Kings in other villages to take shelter from the rain. They believe that this is because Tudigong protects the whole world, while Three Mountain Kings in each village only protect the people of their villages. It states that Three Mountain Kings, as tutelary deities, have exclusiveness, indicating the boundary between inside and outside the village.

Chi Village worshiped Three Mountain Kings as the main deity of the village. They built the West Lake Temple, commonly known as Da Gong (Grand Palace), to worship Three Mountain Kings. Apart from being worshiped in the temple, the statues of the deities were also carried out for a deity procession in the Spring Festival every year. 

Stone Tablet of West Lake Temple

Nonetheless, due to the importance of Three Mountain Kings, how to allocate their statues to each clan in the village became a dispute. Finally, it was decided by Poe divination. People drop two little wooden pieces of a crescent shape on the floor and get the divine answer by the positions of the pieces. Each cup has two sides, one flat and one curved. If one piece has its flat side facing up and the other has its curved side facing down, it is called Winning Poe (Sheng Bei, 胜桮), representing the god's agreement with the devotee's wish; if both pieces have their flat sides facing up, it is called Laughing Poe (Xiao Bei, 笑桮), meaning that the god is laughing and the devotee has another chance to drop again; if both pieces have their curved side facing up, it is called Unfortunate Poe, meaning that the god's disagreement with the devotee's wish. 

However, according to my observation in the village, even if the devotee gets an unfortunate Poe, normally they will drop it again to get a winning Poe to satisfy themselves. David Jordan (1982) argues that the results of Poe divination are known and deliberately manipulated by the people while they simultaneously believe the fall of Poe is governed by divine will. 

As long as humans can manipulate the result, the distribution of Three Mountain Kings was not simply decided by the random result of the Poe divination either. Notwithstanding the form of Poe divination adopted in the procedure, It was in fact determined by the power of different clans. The temple has six deities: the First King, the Second King, and the Third King, along with their consorts, the First Lady, the Second Lady, and the Third Lady. As a result, their distribution is as below.

Table. Clan and Distribution of the Deities in Chi Village

Deity	Clan or division
The First King	Ke
The Second King	Xie and Down Yang
The Third King	Hong
The First Lady	Chen’s first division and Upper Yang
The Second Lady	Chen’s second division
Third Lady	Chen’s third division

Consequently, the Chen clan actually got three ladies, while the Xie clan only got the Second King. It is indicated that Chen is much more influential than Xie. Before 1949, Chen’s population in three villages Buding Zhuang, Tianqian Zhuang and Yueyingku reached 315 households and 1425 people. Xiecuo Village was dominated by Xie’s clan, yet there were only 248 households and 976 people. 

When the Japanese army invaded Chaozhou in 1939, they came to Chi Village and tore down the Temple of Three Mountain Kings. Villagers saved the statues of the deities and hid them in ancestral halls. The villagers had not rebuilt the temple since the Japanese invasion. Unfortunately, the statues did not survive afterward. They were demolished in the communist political movement after 1949. 

Bibliography

Jordan, D. K. (1982). Taiwanese Poe Divination: Statistical Awareness and Religious Belief, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 1982), pp. 114-118

Meatier China and Vegetarian India

I witness the change in meat consumption after the economic reform in China in the late 1970s. When I was a child, my family could only afford meat once per week. 

Nevertheless, from the 1990s onward, with the rapid economic development of China and the wealth growth of the Chinese middle class, meat became more affordable, and meat consumption rocketed. The chart presents information about changes in meat consumption in China over the period 1991 to 2026. Overall, there is a dramatic surge in meat consumption from around 20 kilograms per capita to 50 kilograms per capita, showing a noticeable increase of 150 percent. At the same time, it is predicted to increase modestly up to 55 kilograms by the end of 2026. Moreover, the variety of meat markedly expanded. At the beginning of 1991, pork was predominant with more than three-quarters. Nonetheless, its percentage inclined to three-fifths in 2017. There is a significant upward trend in poultry, beef and sheep.

Frozen meat is common in supermarkets, while in tradition people only preferred fresh meat in the market. Nowadays, China has become the second-largest meat market in the world in terms of revenues, only second to the United States. 

On the other hand, considering the per capita consumption of meat, China still lags behind most of the developed countries, with only half of the per consumption of meat in the United States. As a matter of fact, like economic inequality is large in China, the meat consumption difference between the rich and the poor is huge. 

Notwithstanding the tantamount population of China, India is a country where the per capita consumption is the lowest in the world, possibly due to its strong religious tradition. Meat consumption in China is in fact fifteen times as much as in India. 

The map below illustrates the percentage of the vegetarian population in India. In stark contrast to China and the United States, 29 percent of Indian citizens are vegetarians. In particular, Rajasthan has the largest number of vegetarians, which account for three-quarters of its population. More than 2 in 5 persons in nine states do not consume meat. Lakshadweep is the only state where no one is vegetarian. In eight states, the vegetarian population is less than three percent. Overall, northwestern states have a higher percentage of the vegetarian population than southeastern states.

Meat consumption in China is in the “middle” of the world and is expected to continue to rise, notwithstanding the interruption of Covid-19. However, it is undeniable that excessive meat consumption still causes environmental problems and contributes to global climate change. Overall, how to balance meat consumption between "too much" and "too little" is an interesting topic to research in the future.