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[Yoon-Ngan Chung <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

   The earliest Hakka settlers in Malacca Malaysia

   In 1278AD Genghis Khan and his Mongolian hordes swept down from the
North and forced the Song Dynasty (960AD to 1279AD) to fled to the South. 
The Song Emperor was Zhao Bing, an eight year old boy and with him the
Song Court took refuge in Xin Hui district in Guangdong province. But the 
Mongolian troops had got up with them. In front of them was the South
Chian Sea and behind them were the Mongolian armies. In a situation of
between the devil and the deep blue sea, the Prime Minister of the Song
Court carried the young Emperor on his back and walked right into the sea.
Both of them were drowned. That was the end of the Song Dynasty which had
existed for 320 years.

   The Mongolians founded their own Dynasty called Yuan (1280AD to 1368AD)
and established their capital in Da Du (present day Beijing city in Hebei
province). According to the Mongolian Laws, Northern Han Chinese were
treated as second class citizens whereas Southern Han Chinese as third
class citizens. They treated the Han Chinese with contempt. Eventually 
the Han Chinese rebelled against them and anti Mongolian armed
organizations were set-up every where all over China.  

   Zhu Yuan-Zhang, the leader of a very powerful armed organization,
amalgamated other armed groups either by force or subjection. He captured
a large territory from the Mongol Authority and established his own
Dynasty called Ming (1368AD to 1644AD) with its capital in Ying Tian Fu
(present day Nanjing city in Zhejiang province). He installed hmself as
Emperor Tai Zu. In the eighth moon of that year he mobilized all his armed
forces and attacked the Mongolian armies who were driven back to the
desert where they belonged.     

   Zhu Yuan-Zhang had twenty nine sons and he installed his elder son Zhu
Piao, as the crown prince. In the fourth moon in 1392AD the crown prince
died. Zhu Yuan-Zhang installed a new crown prince, Zhu Yun-Pu, the elder
son of the desceased crown prince. The new crown prince was only a young
lad. In order to facilitate the succession of the young crown prince to be
the next Emperor after his death, Zhu Yuan-Zhang wanted all his other
sons to be far away from the capital. So he delegated authority to them
to rule the various parts of the Ming Empire.

   Zhu Yuan-Zhang died in 1398AD and his grandson, Zhu Yun-Pu succeeded
him as the new Emperor. Zhu Yun-Pu saw some of his uncles were the thread
to his throne. So he stripped off the power of some of them and even sent
out punitive forces to crush those who did not carry out his orders. 

   His fourth uncle, Zhu Di, who stationed in Shun Tian Fu (present day
Bejing city in Hebei province) rebelled against him. The new Emperor
dispatched a punitive force to quell the fourth uncle. But Zhu Di
was the most powerful uncle of them all.

  The Emperor's troops were beaten in many battles by Zhu Di and the
conflict lasted for three years. Finally in the sixth moon of 1402AD 
Zhu Di captured the capital of Ying Tian Fu. The victors could not find 
the Emperor as he had disappeared in the turmoil. Zhu Di and his generals
believed that the Emperor had escaped to Nanyang (Southeast Asia). 

   Zhu Di became the third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and was crowned as
Emperor Cheng Zu (reigned 1403AD to 1424AD). At the beginning of his
reign he established his capital in Shun Tian Fu. But, later he moved
his capital to Shun Tian Fu (Beijing). 

  In 1404 Emperor Cheng Zu appointed Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch from Yunnan
province, as an admiral. Originally, Zheng He's surname was Ma which was 
also the same surname as that of the Empress who disliked Zheng He sharing
her surname. So she told Emperor Cheng Zu to issue edict forcing Zheng He
to change his surname. Zheng He obliged and adopted his mother's surname
Zheng as his surname. 

  In the sixth moon of that year Emperor Cheng Zu sent Zheng He to Nanyang
in search of his nephew, Zhu Yun-Pu the disappeared Emperor. A large fleet
of sixty two ships with over twenty seven thousand sailors were under the
command of Zheng He. They sailed to Charapa (in present day Vietnam), Java
Polembang, Acheh and Sumatra (present day Indonesia) and Ceylon. He 
returned to Beijing in the ninth moon of 1407AD without finding the lost
Emperor. 
 
   His second trip was in 1408AD, the third in 1412AD, the fourth in
1416AD, the fifth in 1421AD, the sixth in 1424Ad and the seventh in
1430AD. He failed to find the lost Emperor in all these trips.

  On his second trip he stopped in Malacca (in Malaysia) which was a
Kingdom in the Malay peninsular. He met the ruler of Malacca, Paramaswara
who had an agreement with Zheng He in which the Kingdom of Malacca was to
become a protectorate Kingdom of the Great Ming Dynasty. On his way home
Zheng He took Paramaswara with him and pressented him to Emperor Cheng Zu 
who married one of his daughters to Paramaswara. He returned to Malacca
with the Chinese princess and her Chinese entourage of over two hundred.
Some of these Chinese entourage were Hakka.

   Paramaswara ceded to his Chinese guests a small hill not far from
his palace. The locals named this hill as Bukit China.    

  The Chinese guests, some of them were Hakka, did not return to China
but lived in Bukit China permanently. After their deaths they were all
buried in this hill which was later became a Chinese cemetary which is
still being used as a burial place by the local Chinese. 

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.   chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au