Tapestry

A ceremonial banner for the Liverpool Chee Kung Tong, likely commissioned for a major milestone. One side strip reads "Grand ceremony for the restoration of the Chee Kung Tong" (致公堂重光大典), while the opposite strip lists the donors or sponsors associated with its presentation.

This textile entrance hanging features the workshop mark "Made by Lixin, Wenchang Lane, Guangzhou" (廣州文昌巷麗新造) and central roundels identifying the associated society, "Yingxian She" (鶯閒社). Its form suggests it served as a ceremonial interior furnishing, marking a symbolic threshold within the Tong house.

This yellow ritual cloth features the slogan "Overthrow the Qing, restore the Ming" (反清復明) in its four corners. At the center is an oath: "孝悌忠信 仁義禮智 節戎勤儉 安份守己 順時聽天 毋遺訓教 三十六誓 一件不從 萬棍亡？" The inscription combines moral injunctions—filiality, loyalty, righteousness, and self-discipline—with references to the "Thirty-Six Oaths" (三十六誓), a cornerstone of the Hung Mun initiation ritual. This cloth functioned as a sacred instrument in the creation of sworn brotherhood, binding initiates to a code of loyalty and discipline. It merges anti-Qing loyalist symbolism with the performative language of secret society oath-taking.

This red ritual scroll is a recruitment proclamation (招軍牌) used in Hung Mun initiation rites. The text reads: "堂堂中國，蕩蕩天朝，浩浩蕩蕩，猛勇剛強；千邦進貢，萬國來朝；胡人佔奪，此恨難消；招兵買馬，高搭花亭；木楊起議，誅滅列強。" The inscription praises a lost imperial order while calling for mobilization against foreign usurpation, framing initiation as a symbolic enlistment into a militant brotherhood. The scroll links new membership to loyalist memory and the society’s imagined political mission.

This pair of red hanging strips is a ritual couplet (對聯) inscribed with: "汨月是吾家" and "㳉風作我願." The use of the non-standard characters 汨 and 㳉 is significant; in Hung Mun and Triad culture, these functioned as esoteric substitutes for Ming (明) and Qing (清). This recalls the coded slogan "Overthrow the Qing, restore the Ming" (反㳉復汨). The couplets embed loyalist symbolism within the ceremonial space of the Tong house through sectarian vocabulary.

This set comprises two pairs of red ritual couplets. The first reads: "花有半朝含宿雨，亭無終日隔重雲." In Hung Mun culture, "Flower" and "Pavilion" refer to the Honghuating (紅花亭), the symbolic site of the society's origin. The second couplet, "非親有義須當敬，是友無情慎莫交," echoes the core Hung Mun tenet that the brotherhood is bound not by blood, but by righteousness (義) and sworn commitment.

A Hung Mun ceremonial doorway ensemble consisting of a central horizontal banner and a pair of couplets. The banner reads 洪花亭 (Red Flower Pavilion), a key symbolic site in the society’s mythology. The couplets read: "地鎮高崗，一派江山千古秀" and "門朝大海，三河合水萬年流." These invoke enduring landscape imagery to frame the ritual space in terms of cosmological order and permanence, marking the entrance as a symbolically charged threshold.

This red ritual scroll, headed 洪家祠 (“Ancestral Hall of the Hong Clan/Brotherhood”), serves as a Hung Mun ancestral commemorative piece. The central inscription invokes the Ming imperial house using sectarian orthography, while the surrounding columns list Hung Mun patriarchs, founders, and exemplary predecessors rather than individual dedicants. The names correspond to the brotherhood’s ritual genealogy, linking the Tong house altar to a sacralized lineage of loyalist memory, anti-Qing resistance, and the transmission of sworn brotherhood.

This large red textile banner bears the inscription “垂裕先傳”, a phrase of ancestral commendation that signifies the transmission of enduring prosperity and inherited virtue. A dedicatory ribbon attached to the reverse indicates it was presented as a congratulatory gift, linking the item to networks of patronage, friendship, and public recognition. As such, the object reflects not only ritual culture but also the Tong’s role within a broader social world of exchange and commemoration.