ESTUDOS SOBRE A LENDA DAS ALDEIAS NA PENÍNSULA DE MACAU ANTES DA SUA FUNDAÇÃO
This study proposes a reassessment of the idea of Macao as an administrative entity prior to its official founding, by investigating the so-called "Legend of the Villages" on the Macao Peninsula before the establishment of the territory under Ming/Qing governance. The research utilizes primary Ming...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
January 2002
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40001/2184 |
| Summary: | This study proposes a reassessment of the idea of Macao as an administrative entity prior to its official founding, by investigating the so-called "Legend of the Villages" on the Macao Peninsula before the establishment of the territory under Ming/Qing governance. The research utilizes primary Ming and early-imperial sources, with emphasis on the Chronicle of Xiangshan District (Deng's Register) and the Ka Tcheng (26th year, 1547), cross-referenced with district maps, especially the perception of the Macao area in earlier cartography, and with relevant materials such as the Monograph of Macao (Ou Mun Kei Leok) and the Aomen Ji Lue. The approach is historical-documentary, involving critical textual analysis, toponymic reading, and spatial location of the "Macao area" and its surrounding hills.
The results indicate that the Macao area did not appear on the map of Heong San District (1547) and that the subprefecture of Gong Chang administered 22 villages entirely outside what is today designated as the Macao area. District mapping, on the other hand, excluded the Macao region, treating it as unincluded islands. It is concluded that, until the Qing unification, the Macao Peninsula and nearby islands already appeared on maps as part of local governance, but they exerted no stable economic, cultural, or population influence on Chinese administration; rather, they were associated with various forces that rejected central/local authority, leading to temporary exclusions from maps. Based on this evidence, the legend of the villages remains as cultural memory, not as a pre-existing administrative entity, offering a critical reading of the historiography on the founding of Macao. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |