Newsletter No. 544

the surface, bacteria-free. Professor Wong and his team, together with a research team at the Guangdong University of Technology, have now started work with a Guangzhou-based company to test the waste-water purification system on site, to see how well it works in the real world. Alex Frew McMillan 磁力排污 A Magnetic Solution material in water and reduce the amount of inorganic compounds in it. It can be activated by light, and oxidize any organic compound. The magnetic natural material, once appropriated, can collect the active agent easily with its electromagnetic field and remove it from the water. Once an electromagnet at the bottom of the water container is activated, the materials settle to the bottom of the vessel, and the treated water can easily be drained from 學 術 探 奇 / S cholarly P ursuits Scan to read the full story “Nothing grows on comfort zone...?” “Yes!” Ancestors as Legal Persons Professor Faure then went on to elaborate on his viewpoint that filial piety carries debt obligation across generations and explained how the ancients used filial piety as a moral force to establish clans with the ancestors at the core. Assets and estates were managed in the name of the ancestors, business partnerships forged, and clan members exhorted to accrue wealth for the clans. The average life expectancy at the time was around 30 years and the period shared by parents and their offspring was only about a decade. Thus filial piety was more about paying respects to deceased than to living parents. Prior to the Song dynasty, the eldest son would build a thatched hut next to his parents’ grave and keep vigil there for three years. Subsequently, as advocated by the neo-Confucians, the descendants could place ancestral tablets at home and pay their respects thereat. Clan networks and family histories developed from there. By the time of Emperor Jiajing’s reign in the Ming dynasty, it became fashionable for high-ranking officials to erect ancestral halls. Gradually, ancestral worship spread to the common people and became an important part of the clan system. ‘In China, making money for “private” gains was held in contempt. If this was so, 王教授現與廣東工業大學的研 究團隊合作，這跨院校團隊亦 與一家廣州公司展開合作，實 測上述廢水淨化系統。 Would you drink waste water? Thanks to the work of microbiologist Wong Po -keung , such an advance would be possible, by treating outflow with natural but magnetic materials to kill bacteria and remove impurities. Natural materials such as mined zinc sulphide, in the form of natural sphalerite, are cost- effective agents which photocatalytically degrade organic 你敢不敢喝廢水？微生物學家 王保強 運用 天然的磁性物料處理廢水，殺菌並去除雜 質。也許有天，廢水經處理後，我們可以一 口喝下。 王教授發現，硫化鋅等天然礦物是理想媒 介，能透過光催化作用降解水中有機物，並 減少無機化合物，成本效益極佳。開採得來 的硫化鋅，以天然閃鋅礦的形態存在，可以 由光激活，氧化各種有機化合物。 經處理的天然閃鋅礦能以磁場輕易收集活 性劑，將之從水中抽離。將電磁鐵置於水 底，一經啟動，礦物便會沉底，屆時無菌的 水便可從水面輕易抽走。 掃描閱讀全文 how do you explain the prosperity enjoyed in the Ming and Qing periods?’ asked Professor Faure. The great neo-Confucian Zhu Xi held that the pursuit of fame and fortune was perfectly legitimate since it was done for the sake of the ancestors. Professor Faure continued, ‘Zhu Xi is like China’s Bernard Mandeville. The pursuit of a clan’s own interest would end up bringing benefits to the country and society.’ Filial piety in ancient China was a religious calling, and ancestral halls were like legal persons in the West which were tasked with the management of wealth. An interesting example of this unison between the sacred and the secular was the annual ritual highlighted in the family instructions of the Ming scholar Huo Tao. During the ritual, the ancestral tablets were moved to the central hall, with the elders standing aside and the male children queuing on both sides to report, in descending order of age, on the lands and monies earned for the year. The elders would then mete out rewards. Although this ritual was later replaced by the ledger system, ancestral halls remained at the heart of wealth management. They were places where investment decisions were made and dividends distributed. To invest, clansmen formed partnerships with fellow clansmen, and took turns to manage the business at annual ancestral worships. The Coming of the West Ancestors were legal persons in southern China from the 16th to 18th centuries. Professor Faure observed, ‘Western society was built upon law which laid down the rules and regulations for its operation. But in China, rites and rituals were all that matters. People had much leeway to do what they wanted after the bowing was done.’ As a ritual, filial piety evolved with the times to become a vehicle conducive to business. But with the coming of the West to China, this vehicle became obsolete itself. Company law was introduced into the British colony of Hong Kong in 1865. Decades later in 1903, the Qing government promulgated the company law and since then, most family assets have been governed by it. ‘Up till today, clans are still around and so are the ancestral halls, only that they exist purely for ceremonial purposes and no longer manage the communal assets.’ Professor Faure concluded, ‘The story of filial piety and business has become a tale.’ Amy L. 清末以降，祭祖焚香被視為封建迷信，祠堂紛紛改為圖書館，內裏仍有族譜等資料 In the waning years of the Qing dynasty, ancestral worship and joss burning were viewed as superstitious and ancestral halls were converted to libraries where genealogical records could be found 05 # 5 4 4 | 0 4 . 1 0 . 2 0 1 9