In 1279, the Mongols marched south, and the Song army was defeated and fled. In early February, the remnants of the Song army protected the emperor and retreated to Kowloon in southern China.
At night, the emperor dreamed of the gods and said that the dynasty would fight back in a place where there were ten dragons. The next day, he ordered the whole army to set out to find the place where the Ten Dragons were entrenched. A few days later, at Yashan, the two armies met, the emperor was martyred, and the Southern Song Dynasty died.
Later generations lamented that there was one less minister who could guess riddles around the emperor, and the Nine Dragons plus the emperor were the Ten Dragons.
More than 700 years later, people who can guess riddles appeared in Kowloon.
Newly entered the world
In 1921, Zeng Zaocai was born in a farming family in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. This year, born in this place, Zeng Zaocai's fate does not look good. Since he was a child, his hometown has been disturbed many times by the Protectorate War, the Whampoa Eastern Crusade, and the Northern Expedition, which made him bent on finding a quiet place to live a peaceful life.
In 1937, seeing that China and Japan were at war in North China and Shanghai, Zeng Zaocai made up his mind to leave his hometown and join his uncle in Hong Kong. At that time, Hong Kong was a British concession, and in comparison, it seemed relatively peaceful.
The warlords could not enter Hong Kong, and Japan had not yet declared war with the British, so it would not enter the concession. For a time, there was a lot of people from South China pouring into Hong Kong.
Zeng Zaocai has not read any books and has no skills, such a person catches a lot in Hong Kong. So, in order to survive, he had to move from construction sites to various garbage dumps, barely surviving by doing odd jobs.
One day, when he was working on the construction site, he was unguarded and accidentally attacked by a falling object from a high altitude, injuring his legs and feet. Because of the suddenness of the incident, he was left with a lifelong disability and could only walk on crutches.
His uncle saved him, not only provided for him to recuperate, but also taught him to read, write, and write. A few years later, his uncle helped him set up a family affair. Zeng Zaocai married his wife who was fifteen years younger than him, and not long after, the children came to this world one after another.
The nephew is scattered, and there are many people in the family. The uncle did everything he could to squeeze out a house for him to live in for his nephew's family.
I have a wife and children, and my uncle is also doing his best to help him, so it stands to reason that he can live a peaceful life. However, the attributes of the guesser will eventually appear, and there is only one chance missing.
Genealogy of the Mystery
In 1953, Hong Kong Ying carried out urban planning and needed to demolish the house where Tsang Cho Choi lived. After learning the news, he said that he would have to wait a few more days because there are many things at home that need to be organized. A few days later, he announced that he had found a genealogy while sorting through the relics left by his ancestors.
The British government in Hong Kong thinks: A genealogy is found when it is found, and it is not next to urban planning. But Zeng Zaocai seemed to have picked up a treasure: Listen, my family tree says that Jiulong is the food of my ancestors. I want to take back the land of my ancestors and at the same time accept the offerings of the people who live on it.
"Good fellow!" Hong Kong Ying was stunned, "I remember that the last person who was so crazy appeared a hundred years ago, and that man recognized Jesus as his eldest brother." ”
Soon, many people said that they had heard his statement: during the Zhou Dynasty, the ancestor was deeply appreciated by the emperor, became a concubine, and was also named prime minister. The emperor bestowed a fief on his ancestors, allowing those who lived there to provide for their descendants for generations. Zeng Zaocai swore that when I dismantled the riddle, I found that the fiefdom of my ancestors was Kowloon.
This makes people who know a little bit of history very embarrassed: The Zhou Dynasty's sphere of influence never left the Central Plains, so how did it divide the land in South China to the ministers? Does the earliest term "concubine" refer to the emperor's son-in-law? Did the Zhou Dynasty have the title of emperor and prime minister?
Hearing such an unreliable claim, Hong Kong Ying was angry: The Zhou Dynasty has long since died, and you have no legitimacy. This land was brought by the British to the Qing Dynasty concession.
Reply to Hong Kong Ying. Zeng Zaocai seemed to be fully prepared: The Zhou Dynasty is dead, and the Qing Dynasty is also dead, why don't I inherit power. You have a concession agreement with the Qing Dynasty, and my ancestors and the Zhou Dynasty also have a feudal agreement. Tenant to landlord, you have to give me all the rent of the concession in the future. My genealogy is hidden, how did I hear that your concession contract in Kaohsiung, Taiwan was also hidden.
After a few rounds of ruffling, Hong Kong Ying said that he would no longer pay attention to Zeng Zaocai. What do you love, I want this land. Hong Kong Ying thought that if there was no result, the other party would give up. To their surprise, a protest that lasted more than 50 years was staged on the opposite side, and it did not end until the British government left Hong Kong.
Zeng Zaocai, who failed for the time being, thought for a long time, and he must take back the fief of his ancestors. In any case, you have to give Hong Kong Ying a little color to see. Color in the truest sense of the word.
Demonstrate appeals
On the streets of Hong Kong, a graffiti man appeared everywhere, holding a brush dipped in ink, and writing on public property such as telephone poles, light boxes, walls, and floors on the streets and alleys that the legend is the words recorded in the genealogy: "I ancestor...... The ...... of the second ancestor
His characters are of different sizes and have a somewhat strange structure. From a distance, there is a feeling of "looking horizontally at the side of the ridge into a peak", which is very visually impactful, and has become the talk of the Kowloon area and even the whole of Hong Kong for a while.
Some people scribble and destroy the city's appearance, and the police can't ignore it. But after catching someone, he advertised for him in disguise. There is no law to deal with graffiti in Hong Kong, so people can only be released after a penalty of cleaning fees. The more times it is caught and released, the higher its value in the gossip world. Gradually, a group of reporters blocked the entrance of the police station, waiting to interview the legend.
With such a good publicity opportunity, Zeng Zaocai naturally couldn't let it go. Regarding the legendary genealogy, he talked eloquently, and repeatedly said: Although the Great Zhou is gone, I am willing to ascend to the throne and command the world. Soon, he became the "Nine Dragons Emperor" in everyone's mouth.
The Zeng family's life is mainly supported by receiving government relief funds, which is already very stretched. His graffiti behavior continued to attract fines, which made the already poor family even worse.
Finally, the wife chose to divorce after a long period of patience. The two daughters, when they became adults, also chose to marry far away in England and the Netherlands. The house is no longer crowded, but it looks a little deserted. Zeng Zaocai insisted on his behavior, even if it was a fine, he had to express his demands. Such days, over and over again, are half a century in the blink of an eye.
Reduced to a laughing stock
In 1997, Hong Kong fashion designer Tang Tat Chi found some very characteristic graffiti on the street, and he integrated these graffiti into his fashion works and published them, causing a sensation for a while. Citizens have accused him of plagiarizing Zeng Zaocai's work and infringing on the author's intellectual property rights. Not long after, Deng Dazhi announced the withdrawal of the work.
Although in the 80s, there was a TV series "Rogue Emperor" in Hong Kong based on the story of Zeng Zaocai, but it has been tepid since its release. After the infringement of fashion design, Zeng Zaocai's reputation rose sharply.
Many film and television songs are based on him, and what's more, the name of the protagonist in it is directly taken from the homonym of the three words "Zeng Zaocai". For example, after the Beyond band wrote the song "Glory Years" for Mandela in South Africa, they also wrote a song "Destiny is Your Home" specifically for Zeng Zaocai.
In 2001, he got his first job in decades – shooting a commercial for cleaning supplies. Afterwards, a small amount of remuneration is paid. The Social Welfare Department deducted the advertising remuneration from the benefit. This drew accusations from a group of people who called it "taking food from a beggar's bowl."
In June 2003, Zeng Zaocai's residence was stolen through the iron gate. He was overjoyed, and directly claimed that he had lost a few hundred Hong Kong dollars, and then said that he had been stolen 50,000 yuan, which seemed to be incompatible.
He was furious at the police station, shouting the words "Arrest him and put him in prison" and "Arrest him and cut him off". When recording the confession, he performed performance art in the signature bar, signing not only his own name, but also the names of his two sons, who did not live with him. The police were speechless.
As the top performer in Kowloon, Zeng Zaocai is very happy to be interviewed. Every time a reporter came to his home for a report, he would ask the reporters for tips. If he doesn't tip, he will behave very uncooperatively. For example, he randomly flipped through a few newspapers and disgusted reporters with cockroaches underneath the newspapers.
In such cases, journalists usually buy a few breads or snacks as gifts, and sometimes give him a barbecued pork rice. Under normal circumstances, after getting the items, Zeng Zaocai will seem to be in a good mood, and then he will be able to accept the interview relatively smoothly.
In 2004, Tsang was admitted to the hospital with a foot disease, and was later admitted to a nursing home with the help of social workers and friends. In the same year, his graffiti was framed and auctioned at Sotheby's.
The work sold for HK$55,000 and was acquired by a Mrs. Kang. Half of the proceeds went to Tsang's wealth, and the other half was used to organize art exhibitions. Afterwards, he asked the reporter with great interest: "Mrs. Kang, is she a descendant of Kangxi?"
In 2007, Zeng Zaocai died of a heart attack. Throughout his life, it can be summarized as the "human atmosphere group". He has the aura of a little person, but he does not have the quality of hard work, and some are just asking for and touching porcelain over and over again, and in the end what is left to the world is just a laughing stock.