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I became fascinated with the traditional Land Law of the New Territories thirty years ago. Utter chance led me, with Dr David Faure, to discover the books and papers of Yung Sze-chiu (翁仕朝, 1874–1944) in his house just outside Hoi Ha (海 下) village, in North Sai Kung.* Eventually, I was able to convince Yung Sze-chiu’s descendants to place these papers on permanent deposit in the Central Library of the then Regional Council. As part of the negotiations with the Yung family, I prepared a catalogue of all Yung Sze-chiu’s loose papers, and among them his land deeds, of which there were several dozen. These brief, succinct, but clearly carefully written documents immediately started ideas about the Land Law which they reÁected. Yung Sze-chiu’s handwritten exemplaries, several of which contained exemplars of land deeds also fascinated me. Even then, I felt an edition and translation of these deeds was desirable. Ten years later, in the context of my work on the history of Sheung Wo Hang (上 禾坑) village, my wife and I stumbled upon two further collections of land deeds, again entirely by chance. One, indeed, was found as a set of screwed up papers in a waste-paper bin, awaiting collection by refuse collectors. These two collections provided me with access to several dozen more deeds, and Àred my interest yet more. Both sets, with the Hoi Ha papers, are today in the Central Library of the Cultural Services Department, either as originals or copies. I came to realise how central the Customary Land Law had been to the life of the villagers of the New Territories, and how much light the deeds could throw on this vital subject. An edition and translation seemed more and more essential. Preface and Acknowledgements * Placenames in Hong Kong are given as in the Gazetteer of Placenames in Hong Kong, Kowloon, and the New Territories (Hong Kong Government, 1960), with characters on Àrst appearance. Placenames outside Hong Kong are given in the same Cantonese transliteration as in the Gazetteer, with pinyin and characters on Àrst appearance. See Map 1 for places mentioned in the text. x Preface and Acknowledgements For a number of years, I merely turned the idea of an edition and translation of the deeds over in my mind. I could not help but feel that other hands would do the job better than mine: scholars with a legal background, and whose Chinese was better than mine. Many discussions with Dr James Hayes, who consistently urged me to do the job, led me, however, to decide that I would see if I was capable of it. Dr Hayes gave me copies of a substantial number of deeds from his own collection , to add to those I already had copies of. Five years ago, I started on the task in earnest – this book is the result. Even the most cursory glance at the book will show that it could not have been written, and would never have been completed, without the constant advice, help, and encouragement of Dr Hayes. Without his sympathetic and encouraging support, I would have abandoned the project long since. My thanks to him cannot be adequately expressed, and the dedication of the book to him is merely a slight acknowledgement of my indebtedness. Many others have also been of the greatest assistance. Dr Rubie Watson and Dr Kentaro Matsubara, as well as Dr Hayes, read the text in draft and gave me most helpful and enlightening comments. Both Rubie and Kentaro urged me to carry on with the book when I felt like abandoning things. All their views have been incorporated into the text as far as possible, but the errors and infelicities which remain are entirely mine. I would like to thank Dr Thomas Hase, my son, for going beyond the call of duty and reading the text twice, to give me the views of an educated but non-specialist reader (he is a scholar of pure physics). I am very grateful for his comments, many of which were of the greatest help. Ms Eva Kwok, who gave me very substantial help in the translations, transcription , and punctuation of the deeds, provided assistance which I could not have done without. The staff of the Central Library of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Government of Hong Kong have also been most helpful in providing me with scanned copies of deeds and in many other ways. Many other people are owed...

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