10%

Ancestral Trip

Chaoshan

By Mundane Babble

November 10^th, 2024

My dad used to make trips to our ancestral home with my grandmother, uncles and aunties. Ever since the passing of my grandmother about 20 years ago, the trips came to a halt.

Recently, my dad mentioned that he was keen to go to Chaoshan again to have a visit. I have heard of all the stories of the places from him and thought it was an opportune time for my family and me to accompany him.

We flew into Hong Kong and took the high speed rail from Shenzhen to Chaoshan. On hindsight, it was a bad choice because we had to clear inward HK immigration, leave HK and clear inward China immigration. We booked our rail tickets with a 4 hour buffer from our flight arrival time in HK. We missed the trains because our flight was delayed for an hour and there was a massive queue for the inward China immigration at the rail station. We should have flown into Shenzhen or Guangzhou to take the rail. There is no direct flight from Singapore to Chaoshan.

The dropped pin on the map below shows the location of my grandfather's village.

You Hang Cun

The name of the village is 柚杭村 (You Hang Cun).

It is the village where my grandfather was born. His surname (last name) is Xiao hence the whole village is made up of Xiaos. There are descendants of my grandfather's brothers who are still living in the village.

My grandfather passed away rather young but my grandmother never lost touched with my grandfather's family. This tree on the left was planted by her over 20 years ago. In a major project undertaken, she donated money to have the road to the village repaired. This is amongst many projects she has contributed money to improve the village.

Village Guardian

This is the village guardian who watches over every member of the village who leaves and enters the village. In a daily ritual, villagers who leave the village will ask for a safe return and upon returning to the village, a small prayer of thanks is offered.

We were 'returnees' and of course we had to make our prayers at this first stop.

Lao Ko Po Temple

Lao Ko Po is the Patron Saint of the Village. She is a Xiao by surname.

Legend has it that she was forced to marry a man in the adjacent village across the river. Everyday she would travel via a little boat across the river to her husband's house and carry out her household duties as a wife. She would return home daily to her paternal home. The marriage was never consummated. One stormy day, when she was on the boat, lightning struck her and all that was left was her braid of hair. In her honour, the villagers began worshipping her as a Patron Saint.

Till this day, she is worshipped by many descendants of the Xiao Clan in different parts of the world including Singapore and Indonesia.

Prayers and offerings at the temple.

Firecrackers was lit as a welcome to us as overseas visitors to the village.

The Village Temple

My Grandfather's House

Walking through some narrow alleys, we reached the little matrimonial room of my grandfather and grandmother before they left for Singapore. They stayed in this room for 2-3 years before setting sail to Singapore to start life afresh. The village was poor in those days and many Chinese migrated overseas in search of a better life. The place is a little dilapidated and run down because nobody is living in the houses. The younger generation has either moved to other larger cities for work or moved in to the newer parts of the village where newer apartment blocks have been built.

From left: Grandfather, Great grandfather Grandmother and a Grand Uncle.

Burning offerings to the ancestors.

The village is largely abandoned except for a few houses where the older generation has chosen to stay behind. Foreseeably, the village will be demolished and rebuilt in a few more years when these older folks disappear.

My Grandmother's House

We visited the house where my grandmother was born. As much as she sent money back to my grandfather's village to upgrade the place, she never forgot her own home as well. She sent money back to her own home to have the house upgraded from wood to concrete. Sadly, the place now is largely empty as most of the relatives have gone on to build their own houses in the nearby vicinity.

Tomb of Xiao Zhaoyuan (Second Generation of the Xiao Clan in Chaoyang)

We visited the tomb of Xiao Zhaoyuan who was the son of Xiao Xun, the Magistrate of Chaoyang. He is the second generation of the Xiao Clan in Chao Yang.

Xiao 箫 Ye 葉 Zhong 锺

This is the story of how the Xiao, Ye, and Zhong descendants are actually related by blood.

According to historical records: Magistrate Xiao Xun was busy with official duties in Chaozhou, so he sent his son Zhaoyuan back to Zhangzhou to visit his grandfather.

The son of an honest official went on the road alone and the journey was quite difficult. Passing through Fenshuiguan in Zhi'an, Fujian, he stayed in a guest house. Unfortunately, he fell ill and was on the verge of dying in the remote mountain inn. Fortunately, the inn owner Mr. Ye and his daughter looked after him diligently day and night and sought doctors to treat him. Zhaoyuan was grateful for the attentive care of Mr. Ye's daughter and fell in love with her over time. They lived together in a poor villager's house in the mountains. He had three sons: Rigui, Rizhen, and Rizhi. After only a few years, Zhaoyuan died of illness. Because his family was poor, he was buried in the garden behind the inn, but left three sons.

When Xiao Xun's term of office was over, he found out that his son had not returned to Zhangzhou to look after his grandfather. He was shocked, so he and his family went to look for him along the route he took. When they passed by Fenshui Pass and stayed overnight, they were trapped by the rain and saw three children playing in a shop who looked like Zhaoyuan. One of the children took out a fan to play with. When he looked at it, he found that there was a poem written by him on the fan and it belonged to Zhaoyuan.

He took the fan to ask the shop owner Mr. Ye and then he learned the truth. Mr. Ye said, "This house was originally the property of Mr. Zhong. Mr. Zhong had no son and I married his daughter, so I inherited it from the Zhong family." Mr. Ye made a promise to Mr. Zhong to name one of his child Zhong but unfortunately, he and his wife had no son as well. Zhaoyuan made a promise to Mr Ye. to name his children with the surnames Zhong and Ye besides his own Xiao surname when he married Mr. Ye's daughter.

Xiao Xun was very sad about the loss of his son but he found that the burial site of his son was an auspicious place given by the heavens, the place was called Wu Ya Luo Yang, so he erected a tombstone for his son on the original burial site.

Later, Xiao Xun brought his three grandsons back to Chaozhou and raised them. The eldest grandson, Rigui, stayed in Chaoyang, the second grandson, Rizhen, inherited the surname Ye, and the third grandson, Rizhi, inherited the surname Zhong. The three clans of Xiao, Ye, and Zhong, they all became great clans. The descendants have become many famous and talented people all over the world.

Tomb of Xiao Xun (Founder of the Xiao Clan in Chaoyang)

This is the tomb of the first Xiao in Chaoyang. His name was Xiao Yun. He is the founding father of the Xiao Clan in Chaoyang and we are the direct descendants of him.

The tomb is huge and befitting of his stature. We were dwarfed by the tomb.

Right beside the Tomb of Xiao Xun is a smaller tomb. This is the tomb of the geomancer who helped to select this auspicious burial site for Xiao Xun based on fengshui. Xiao Xun is married to the sister of the geomancer and the geomancer is married to the sister of Xiao Xun.

The story goes that he knew he would turn blind by revealing the burial site. His only request to Xiao Xun was to be buried next to him on the same burial site and every person who wanted to pay their respects to Xiao Xun would have to first pay their respects to him first.