A remarkable feature in the history of overseas Chinese in the Southeast Asian areas from the latter half of the 17th century to the latter half of the 18th century was the existence in the areas of political powers maintained and governed by local Chinese leaders or people of Chinese descent. Of these the author noticed that Ha-tien's Mac Thien-tu, Siam's Cheng Chau (Phya Tak Sin), Songkhla's Wu Yang and Lo Feng-pe of Pontianak (Borneo) were contemporaries who were respectively supported by groups of their fellow native tribesmen o,f the Cantonese, Teochiu, Hokkien and Hakka tribes. Among "these powers, the Mac of Ha-tien and the Wu of Songkhla were typical of the agricultural emigrant group; there was a close resemblance between them either in their basic character or in the form of their autonomous governments with power bestowed by the local ruling dynasty. But while the descendants of Wu Yang Were succeeding the hereditary Viceroyship of Songkhla and were being rapidly Siamized, the Mac of Ha-tien were never assimilated by the Vietnamese. As a matter of fact, Ha-tien played the role of a kind of buffer state between Siam and Quang-nam (South Vietnam), while maintaining the traditional Chinese moral and cultural conceptions for nearly 80 years. The author is of the opinion that the exodus of Chinese refugees to Vietnam in the latter half of the 17th century was chiefly due to their reluctance to accept the rule of the Manchus conquerors whom they regarded as barbarians. To be more concrete, they were resentful against the imperial decree of 1645 on "Changing the costume and shaving the head". Concequently they left their home to the south with a 'view of seeking a place where they could continue to maintain their traditional culture and way of lief. No doubt, the establishment of a Chinese colony at Ha-tien was based on such a strong feeling for preserving the Chinese tradition. The author quotes the paragraph on Kang-k'ou 港口 (Ha-tien) from the Wen-hsien T'ung-k'ao of the Ch'ing dynasty to illustrate the concrete social conditions of Ha-tien. The author also mentions the construction of Confucian Temple and free public school by Mac Thien-tu who was enthusiastic in encouraging cultural, educational and literary activities. Mac Thien-tu was himself an eminent poet of his age. He wrote excellent poems both in Chinese and in Vietnamese. The author comes to relate the process of the compilation of the work Ha-tien Thap-vinh 河仙十詠, a collection of poems admiring the ten scenic spots in Ha-tien, written by Mac Thien-tu and 31 of his Chinese and Vietnamese friends who used to exchange their poetic works with each other. The background of these poets and their relations with Mac Thin-tu have also been dealt with in the thesis. After having referred to a number of materials, the author has discovered that Ha-tien Thap-vinh and Minh-bot Di-ngu tap 明渤遺漁集 which used to have been believed to be the same collection of poems with two different titles, are two completly different works. The latter was solely written by Mac Thien-tu himself on the topic of " Fishing by the Sea-Perch Creek" 鱸渓閒釣. The part of its text which has been preserved to this day is included in the thesis. Finally, the whole text of the Ha-tien Thap-vinh is supplied by the author as appendix to this thesis.
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