The Founding of Fuzhou

Our next stop after Dongguan was Fuzhou, the hamlet where Gina grew up. (Fuzhou is located in Pengfang Township, in case there is any confusion here.) Here is a picture of Fuzhou from the main road, looking across the rice fields:



For those who have had the pleasure of visiting, you might be interested in knowing when Fuzhou was founded. Two years ago, Gina and I encountered the following tombstone on a hill behind the village:



The stone which actually dates to 1736 is to commemorate a certain Liu Enrong who died sometime in the Ming. The question is who was Liu Enrong. While in Fuzhou last week, I got my hands on a manuscript copy of the clan genealogy (which had been burned during the Cultural Revolution, along with all other burnable material stored in the clan ancestral hall). This particular manuscript was copied (onto an old newspaper) in 1978 (presumably from another copy that had survived the destruction):



This genealogy clarifies who Liu Enrong was. He was none other than the founder of Fuzhou hamlet, arriving in Fuzhou in the eighth month of the year 1504. According to the genealogy, he is the 13th-generation ancestor of Gina's dad's adoptive grandfather (while still very young, Gina's dad was purchased by the Liu family from an avid gambler surnamed Peng).