Tang Siu For v Tao Chi Shing (陶枝盛) & Others
(29 January 2007)
The modern Judge Pao (包青天), deputy high court judge Chan, settled a dispute between the occupants of a "tong" （堂） or community (大?). called To Fuk Tak Kung (陶福德公) in a New Territories village called Nai Wai (泥圍, or "mud village") even handedly and in the process, set out some interesting village custom and history in Hong Kong.
The majority (125 out of 131, excluding tenants) of the village are households with the surname "To" (陶) (and hence the name of the Tong) and the dispute arose when the plaintiff (together with certain minority non-To households) were excluded from the certain distributions made to the households the Tong. The defendants were managers of the Tong (the judge accepted that the decision to exclude the plaintiff was a result of pressure from some of the To households).
The defendants argued that only those indigenous villagers of Nai Wai who are surnamed To are members and entitled to acquire the household status of the Tong (and distributions).
Judgment
The judge ruled that, on the evidence, the Tong was set up to organise religious and communal activities for the village and not to venerate any ancestor of the Tos and the plaintiff (and other non-To households) have been accepted into and have made contributions to the Tong for decades if not a century and should not have been excluded.
The judge said that there was no evidence that the Tong was set up with property contributed by ancestors of the To solely for the benefit of the Tos. If the Tong were a mere family tong and had nothing to do with religious worship, it is hard to imagine why it should bear the name of a Taoist god (福德公 or, as it is more commonly known, 土地公 or 土地神, the earth god in charge of farms and vegetation). The judge explained that the Taoist god
"occupies a relatively low position in the hierarchy of gods. His jurisdiction is of a local nature. It covers a specific area or village. He is the guardian god of his own area or village. There are therefore different Toe Tei Kungs for different villages or areas. In a big city like Hong Kong, there should be many Toe Tei Kungs though there is never any demarcation of jurisdiction for each of them. In a small village like Nai Wai, the common belief is that there is only one Toe Tei Kung for it."
The plaintiff put forward evidence that he became a member of the Tong through a "lantern lighting ceremony" (點燈) but was not entitled to benefit of the Tong until his marriage whereupon he was given the status of a “household” (門口).
The non-To households also made contributions to the Tong like other households including contribution of grains to the night patrol guards (更練穀) (which contribution could also be used to compensate those whose grains had been stolen but apparently was never so used).
Not every To of the Tong wished to exclude the non-To households. In fact, several witnesses for the plaintiff were elders with the surname of To including PW2, To Sau Lam, who was 84 years old and praised by the judge:
"The evidence of PW2 was clear and straight forward. For a person of his age, he has demonstrated an exceptionally good memory of things that happened in the past. He was able to recount the names of the heads of households in each of the houses in Nai Wai in the 1930s. He also appeared to have no axe to grind in giving evidence for the Plaintiff. He appeared to have a strong desire to ventilate what he believed to be the truth. He has since his twenties been involved in the communal affairs of Nai Wai and is concerned about the well being of his fellow villagers. He is an upright person."
PW2 gave heart-warming evidence how all the households contributed to the building of a community house used as a school named Hall of Five Willows (五柳堂) to venerate the poet To Yuen Ming (陶淵明).
The plaintiff also referred to other evidence such as the clay port feast which took place on the 16th day of the 1st lunar month (正月十六食盤菜) participated by all the households. All the households also received money such as fruit expenses (生果金 for those who are 60 years old and above) and funeral gift (帛金或奠儀). The judge also referred to some of the happy customs:
"Whenever the eldest son of a household gets married, the head of the house would send out household invitations (門頭帖) to all other households inviting them to have a feast of delicacies served in a clay pot. When a household marries a daughter away, this household would, in addition to hosting the clay pot feast, also give each of the other households two Chinese wedding cakes. When a male baby is born to a household, all other households would receive two Chinese fried dumplings. "
The judge ended his judgment with the following postscript:
Postscript: Now that the position of the Tangs and Yuens in the Tong is clear, I sincerely hope the different factions of the villagers in Nai Wai can mend their relationship and restore the harmony to this village. This dispute should be buried and forgotten. The Chinese New Year is approaching. It is the custom to paste antithetical couplet scrolls on both sides of the doorway for its celebration. May I suggest the following antithetical couplet for the residents of Nai Wai to ponder and chew over:
苟非孝悌友恭更有何事可樂
惟此謙和雍睦自然到處皆春
