History of Hong Kong/Imperial years/Qin to Southern Dynasty

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• About
• Introduction
• Prehistoric times
  • Stone Age
  • Bronze Age
• Imperial years
  • →Qin to Southern Dynasty ←
  • Tang and Southern Han
  • Song and Yuan
  • Ming and Qing
• Colonial days
  • Early days
  • 1860–1898
  • New Territories taken
  • The Revolution
• Modern age
  • Educational reforms
  • Political reforms
• Epilogue

• Appendices
  • Index
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography

From the Qin Dynasty to the Southern Dynasty, there were very few historical records to verify stories passed down by word of mouth. In fact, historians' knowledge of the Qin and Han Dynasties in Hong Kong is very limited, and studying artifacts is the only way of finding solid historical facts from these two periods. There are lots of stories about Hong Kong during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, but those could not be confirmed by any solid historical evidence.

Qin to Western Jin

During the Qin Dynasty, Hong Kong belonged to Panyu Commandery, Nanhai County. In the Han Dynasty, this was changed to Boluo County.

In 1955, an Eastern tomb was found in Lei Cheng Uk, Sham Shui Po, verifying the existence of people in Hong Kong during the Han Dynasty. Many artiefacts were found, including the model of a house.

Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasty

During the Northern Jin Dynasty, barbarians invaded the north. A powerful barbarian tribe invaded China. The emperor was kidnapped, and all the royals and nobles moved to the South, along with servants and slaves. A royal was crowned the Emperor, restarting the Jin Dynasty. This period is known as the Jin Dynasty, and the Chinese ruled southern China while the barbarians ruled the north. The Jin Dynasty was overthrown and became the Song state, which later turned into Qi, Liang and Chen. This is why there were lots of stories going on about Hong Kong during the period: the people moved south.

During the Longan period, a Yue person surnamed Zheng became a monk, and built Po To temple in Tuen Mun.

By the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Hong Kong was more developed than before. Many famous monks passed by Hong Kong before going to the Jiaoguang region, which refers to Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Yuenan. The most famous of these monks was called Pui To. Nobody knows his real name or where he came from. He went to Po To temple above.

During the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sun En and Lu Xun started a rebellion. After failing, Sun committed suicide but Lu Xun continued the rebellion. Lu was defeated by Du Huidu, and his remaining troops escaped to the south. The place where they stayed was called Lo Ting and is believed to be around Lantau Island.