Sung Wong Toi is an important historic relic in Ma Tau Chung,

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. While its remaining portion is now located in the Sung Wong Toi Garden () at the junction of Ma Tau Chung Road and Sung Wong Toi Road, it was originally a 45-metre-tall

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

standing on the top of Sacred Hill () in Ma Tau Chung above

Kowloon Bay Kowloon Bay is a body of water within Victoria Harbour and an area within Kowloon, Hong Kong. The bay is located at the east of the Kowloon Peninsula and north of Hong Kong Island. It is the eastern portion of Victoria Harbour, between ...

Etymology

The name ''Sung Wong Toi'' literally means ''Terrace of the Sung kings''. The stone is believed to have been a memorial to the last two boy emperors of the

Southern Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

, Zhao Shi and

Zhao Bing Zhao Bing (12 February 1272 – 19 March 1279), also known as Emperor Bing of Song or Bing, Emperor of Song (宋帝昺), was the 18th and last emperor of the Song dynasty of China, who ruled as a minor between 6 and 7 years of age. He was a ...

, who temporarily lived in Hong Kong from 1277 to 1279. In historical maps and documents, Sung Wong Toi is also known as Hill of the King of the Sung and Song Wong Toi in some occasions.

History

Sung Wong Toi Hill, Kowloon City, Kowloon, c

Song dynasty

According to historical records, when the child emperors Zhao Shi and

of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

were fleeing south when the Song Empire was gradually being conquered by the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...

in the late 13th century, they took refuge at the Sacred Hill along the seashore. Zhao Shi died of illness in Hong Kong, while Zhao Bing died when the Song loyalist

Lu Xiufu Lu Xiufu (8 November 1236 – 19 March 1279), courtesy name Junshi (), was a Chinese statesman and military commander who lived in the final years of the Song dynasty. Originally from Yancheng (present-day Jianhu County) in Jiangsu Province, alo ...

put him on his shoulders and jumped off a cliff following the defeat of Song by the Yuan at the naval

Battle of Yamen The naval Battle of Yamen () (also known as the Naval Battle of Mount Ya; ) took place on 19 March 1279 and is considered to be the last stand of the Song dynasty against the invading Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. Although outnumbered 10:1, the Yua ...

Yuan dynasty

After the Song dynasty was overthrown by the Yuan dynasty in 1279, local residents inscribed the words "Sung Wong Toi" on this large rock that was on the Sacred Hill at that time. Note that the Chinese character 王 (

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

wáng, meaning ''king'') is carved in the stone instead of the conventional character 皇 (

huáng, meaning ''

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

''). Both 王 and 皇 are pronounced as "Wong" in Cantonese. This may have been done by the locals to avoid angering the Yuan emperors. The Hong Kong government (while under British rule) in 1959 recognized the nature of this intentional word choice, preferred using the character for "emperor" (皇) to name the surrounding locations associated with Sung Wong Toi, namely the park built for settling the trimmed monolith, the nearby road and the metro station.

Qing dynasty

In 1807, seven smaller characters were added on the right side of the stone to record the renovation work during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor.

Japanese occupation

During the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce ...

in 1941–1945, the boulder was dislodged from its place when the Sacred Hill was levelled for an extension of the

Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Ka ...

. A portion of the rock inscribed with Chinese characters survived the blasting operation. That part of the boulder, about one-third of its original size, displays the Chinese name of the stone, "Sung Wong Toi".

Post-World War II

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, this portion of the stone was shaped into a rectangular block and moved to the Sung Wong Toi Garden, a small park especially constructed for it. This park is located in the present-day

Kowloon City District Kowloon City District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the city of Kowloon. It had a population of 381,352 in 2001, and increased to 418,732 in 2016. The district has the third most educated residents while its resi ...

, at the junction of Sung Wong Toi Road and Ma Tau Chung Road, which is close to the stone's original site. The construction work of the park was completed in the winter of 1945. The park was planned be relocated to nearby Kai Tak Development as Sung Wong Toi Park.

References

*''In search of the past: a guide to the antiquities of Hong Kong'' 香港文物志, The

Urban Council of Hong Kong The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Services ...

, 1988.

External links

An account about the boulderFilm Services OfficeMaps by Centamap
* ttp://www.greatarchaeology.com/Archa_monument_review.php?archaeological_monument=Sung_Wong_Toi Description and History {{Commons category, Sung Wong Toi History of Hong Kong Song dynasty Urban public parks and gardens in Hong Kong Monuments and memorials in Hong Kong Ma Tau Chung