The
Singapore Seu Teck Sean Tong Charitable Association and its six sub-branches
worship Reverend Song Ta-Fung from Teochew Ho-Ping Village. In fact,
there was a story as to how the village derived its name. Ho-Ping
village was close to the seaside that abounded with oysters. The original
name of the place was called 'Hao Dun' (the place where oysters were
found). There was this man by the name of Master Wen Xin Guo whose
soldiers, after being defeated in Teochew, travelled via the road
passing through 'Hao Dun'. They rested in an eating house to have
some food. Afraid that the soldiers of Yuan rule would catch up with
them, they hurriedly continue their journey. In a haste, they dropped
a fan. Later on, they realized that they have lost the fan with the
name Wen Tian Shian inscribed on it. They turned back the way they
had come to find it for fear that the soldiers would find them easily
if they happen to pick up the fan. When they went to the eating house,
the inn keeper returned the fan to them. Wen was impressed by the
village people's honesty and friendliness that he named the village
'PEACE VILLAGE'. He even wrote these 3 words '???'' (meaning peace)
to honour them. The village people immediately took the words and
made a memorial signboard to display in the street and build a memorial
archway as remembrance. Up to today, the public stand in awe of the
remains of such works.
There was another
story about the village change of name, owing to the followings:
Reverend Song
belonged to the period of the end of Song dynasty rule. Not many people
knew about his nickname and life, not even the old village folks.
Based on records, Reverend Song was not a member of the village but
an outsider from some other places. I think the reason was at that
time, the North China people could not withstand the pressures of
the 'Jin' wanderer that many of them fled to the South, and Reverend
Song was probably one of them. When he reached the village, he settled
at the Pao Te Temple located at Shang Zhai. He became a monk to learn
all about Buddhist scriptures and lead a clean and disciplined life.
But 'Pao Te' Temple was not a wealthy place. As a result the monks
had to go out to beg for alms, Reverend Song was no exception. Every
morning he would go to the village opposite the 'Lian' River and returned
by evening. For the village people to go across the river, they had
to depend on one boat that was available to bring them over to the
other side. The fare was cheap, about 1 to 2 cents. As Reverend Song
was a monk, the boatman did not wish to collect the boat fare from
him. At the same time he was not happy about this as the former worked
diligently till evening and only one boat plyed on the river. If the
boatman did not wait for him, then he would not be able to go over.
Once, the boatman was unhappy with the monk for not rewarding him
and kept him waiting for him.
Eventually,
he was so impatient that he steered the boat away. Whilst travelling
midway, Ta-Fung shouted very loudly on the opposite shore. He begged
the boatman to come back. However, the later pretended not to hear
him at all and Ta-Fung continued yelling at him, but to no avail.
There was a rumour that Ta-Fung was a gifted person. As last resort,
he displayed his skills by opening an umbrella and placed it on the
river. He then sat on it and sailed across the river. The above was
just an anecdote. It's up to you whether or not to believe it.
Reverend Song
was provoked by the incident with the boatman to build a bridge to
enable convenient travelling and serve as an alternative to communication
by boat. However, to build a gigantic bridge, it must stand on a firm
foundation, or else it would collapse and that would be disastrous!
Hence careful and detailed planning was required. Alas, in the neighbouring
village called Qi Bei Xu, there was a old woman surnamed Hong, who
possessed some very huge rocks, Reverend Song went to her house to
inspect them and found that they were fit to be the foundation. The
old woman was touched by the monk's sincerity to build a bridge and
consented to Ta-Fung bringing the rocks back to the villate. At the
same time, he went to other places to gather some more rocks. Eventually
he had gathered enough to start the project. But the people of the
village were superstitious and narrow minded. Whenever anybody wants
to organize any big event, he had to pick an auspicious day let alone
building a gigantic bridge. Thus this has led to another of Ta-Fung's
anecdote. At that time, there was a scholar called Pan Su. Before
he left for the Capital to take his examination, he went to seek Ta-Fung
to read his fortune that is whether he would pass his examination.
The former looked at his face carefully and affirmed it. He then took
out a red card from the drawer and requested him to bring it to the
eight fairies of Lok Yang Bridge that they may choose a date to build
the bridge. When he reached Lok Yang Bridge, he saw instead eight
leprosy beggars sitting on the bridge, nothing like fairies at all!
He acted according to Ta-Fung's order and left the card with them
even though they refused to accept it. When he had passed his examination,
he returned to his place via Lok Yang Bridge. He went to the hotel
and asked for the red card. The inn keeper disclosed that the 8 leprosy
beggars came to return the card. Pan Su was so surprised of the miracle.
The word written on the outside of the card was __ and inside the
word •×. He did not understand the meaning of the two words at all.
So he went back to the village to return the card to Ta-Fung. The
latter laughed and said the day and time chosen were the 21st day
of twelveth month at 5p.m. to 7p.m. Pan Su then realized the word
Çà when broken up implied the twelveth month (Ê®¶þÔ) and the word
´× was further splitted into sub-elements. Îô implied 21st day (Ø¥Ò»ÈÕ)
and ÓÏ the period 5p.m. to 7p.m. Since Ta-Fung had this auspicious
day, he began to build the bridge and completed the project. With
regard to the construction of the bridge, it was also recorded in
the books of Teochew, as follows: Before Reverend Song Ta-Fung built
the bridge, he had notified the Water God and others to bless it.
There was no tide for 7 days then. Before the constructed the bridge,
he had collected enough offerings. One year later, he had built 19
arch holes leaving two more uncompleted. Unfortunately he passed away
and Cai Gong Yuan took over the project and completed it. After looking
at the episode above, we believed that Ta-Fung's story of building
the bridge was true. Unfortunately he did not completed it but Cai
Gong Yuan finished the whole project. The rest of the stories like
sailing across the river on an umbrella, 8 fairies picking an auspicious
day and sending letters to the Water Gods were all fairy tales.
Note: Per 'Hao
Dun' change of name, according to the books of Teochew recorded as
follows:
When Wen Xin
Guo was serving in the army, he would not sleep until he suppressed
Liu Xing and arrived at the place 'Hao Dun'. Later he settled down
there. He enquired the name of this place, and suggested to change
the name to 'Ho-Ping' village since the place had a peaceful environment.
Thus the change of name from Hao Dun to Ho-Ping. Since then there
was no more production of oysters. Under the Ming Dynasty rule, culture
florished and prosperity prevailed.
One can see
the difference as per the above recorded story and the other folk
lores for your reference.
