Notes :

In 1877 the Huangs moved from where their forefathers had settled in 鹿谷 (Log-gog, which was known as 內寮 (Nei-liao) in 大坪頂 (Da ping ding), to 林圯埔街 (Lin-yipu jie), or what is now 竹山鎮 (the township of Zhu-shan or Teg-sua).

In 1895 the Qing Empire and Japan signed Treaty of Ma-guan (馬關條約) or Shimonoseki Treaty. It was one of the humiliating unequal treaties that Qing was made to sign.

Treaty of Maguan cut Taiwan from China (Qing Empire), making the island part of the Japanese colony.

In 1896 the Huangs moved back to Log-gog*, which was more quiet and safer than the town. They built the Huang Duan Ben House (黃端本堂) here.

* The name of the place that they settled was changed a few times: Log-gog is the Taiwanese pronunciation of the place that I have heard most often among my relatives when they mention our ancestors' hometown.

In the old days, the region was called 沙連堡大坪頂內寮 (Shalian-bao Da ping ding Nei-liao) or 大坪頂 (Da ping ding). Later, the name 內寮 (Nei-liao) was changed to 羗仔藔(Qiang-zi liao). These days it is officially known as 鹿谷鄉 (the township of Lu-gu xiang or Log-gog). The house is in 彰雅村和興巷 (Heh-shing Lane, Zhang-ya Village. ).

It will be too long to put down why and how the place or each place in Taiwan was named and how they were changed in the course of history...

The abbreviations, etc., in the table below: Please see my explanations in The Timeline Part One.

My Thoughts (1) :
In the past, parents always hoped that their male children could study hard and pass various levels of the Imperial Exams. The students had to study the Chinese classics.

At some level when one finally passed the high level exam and became a 秀才 ("xiu-cai" – something like a "scholar"), one brought tremendous wealth and fame and honor to the parents and the clan.

A xiu-cai had certain social status and privileges. He was exempt from labor conscription, no more crawling, kneeling, bowing, or kowtowing to the authority. And unlike other ordinary subjects, he should not be tortured unscrupulously by the powers that be.

"Privileges"?

I am so glad I was born in the modern time when these have already been part of our BASIC HUMAN RIGHT !

My Afterthoughts :
Please allow me to ramble and rant for a little while... Thanks!

To this day, relatives on my mother's side still mention that we had a xiu-cai ancestor.

Obviously it was something we should be very proud of - although I had not really known which ancestor this was until I took up this Family History Book and had a serious study of it.

This xiu-cai could not have been others but Xi-san ghong.

I say, we could have been more proud if there had been no Ma-guan treaty that gave our ancestors and their land to the Japanese Empire.

With the treaty, everyone on the island immediately became nothing but a "pawn" for the Japanese authority to exploit.

Needless to say, there were no more Imperial Exams. It must have been hard for the males in those days as they had been expected to study hard so that they could pass the Imperial Exams, so that they could eventually bring wealth and better status to their families, especially their parents.

I wonder how they coped with the loss of their purpose or mission in life. What was the use of studying those archaic texts if there were no way out. To make the matters worse, they had to take up a new language that they and their forefathers had regarded as inferior to their own.

It must have been difficult for Xi-san ghong. He was in his early thirties when he realized that all his efforts came to nil. His being a xiu-cai could not get him to a better status. No allowances of any kind from the Qing government. The country had abandoned every subject on the island including him.

From the Timeline we could see that he also lost his beloved ones in the family: his mother, wife, and his first child.

But this was not the end. On the contrary, for Xi-san ghong it was just another beginning.

After the house-move he set up a private school to teach the children. The purpose was to preserve the cultural heritage, to let the children understand the superiority of the traditional Chinese culture. The study was not for passing the exams anymore.

This is getting too long... I might write about the women in another page

Notes :

Chapter One was the origin of the Huangs starting from the ancient time. But we could not see how those were passed down to the First Generation that came to Taiwan so I am not including it in this page.

Chapter Two (see scanned pages below) was about the generations in Taiwan. It mentioned in great details the locations and the directions of the tombs and what happened (if any) after the initial burial. Unfortunately I could not understand much at the moment so I mentioned nothing about these in the tables above.

Chapter Three will be included in my next part.

Chapter Four has family charts and the pages could be seen in my previous page: Mom's Ancestors

To be continued in the next table :

•   Other children born to Generation 3, 仁哲公 (Ren-zhe ghong) and 惠質媽 (Hui-zhi mah).

•   Other children born to Generation 4, 敦厚公 (Dun-hou ghong) and his second wife, 芳淑媽 (Fang-shu mah).
    My Great grandfather 廷琪公 (Ting-qi ghong) was among them.

•   Generation 5, including my Grandfather, 伯虎公 (Bo-hu ghong).
    All of this generation were born after the house-move in 1896.

•   We all knew that Grandfather was adopted. This is not a secret.

•   However, there is a big secret that is still a secret till this day
    and might remain unknown eternally:

    – The Huangs requested the biological parents of my grandfather
       never to reveal the truth of where he was from.

    – They were ordered never to come close
       or speak to anyone from the Huangs FOREVER.

    – This above was not from the Book but was told by my mom,
       who is daughter number 5 of my Grandfather.

    – We only knew that Grandfather was brought to the family
       right after he was born... before he had his first baby wash!

    – His biological mother and her family must have had
       some great difficulty that made them give up a baby that way....!!!

Comments from my MTP (journal item no. 344)