「香港」與「香山」名稱的衍承

不才早前幾篇拙文闡述「香港」的名稱和鴨脷洲的「玉桂山」密不可分，而「玉桂山」和「香港」兩名稱又與中山的「五桂山」同中山的原名「香山」一脈相承。
「香山」一名由來古遠，本為一座島，北宋《太平寰宇記》有記載晉代裴淵《廣州記》中稱：「香山在縣隔海三百哩地多神仙花卉故曰香山」。香山在秦漢時期屬於南海郡，三國時為吳國領地，西晉末年「八王之亂」，中原人口大量移居嶺南，部分落戶香山島上。東晉咸和六年（公元331）南海郡分出東官郡。南北朝劉宋永初元年（公元420）東官郡改名東莞。隋開皇十年（公元590），香山歸為寶安縣，到唐至德二年（公元757），寶安縣更名東莞。南宋末年端宗曾躲避香山，又一波中原權貴文人南遷至此。明代時香山島北部淤泥成陸，與大陸連在一起，萬曆元年（公元1573）以東莞守御千戶所編戶五十六里立新安縣。

端宗不久再從香山南逃至大嶼山梅窩（或者新界西，有爭議），不久病死。南宋幼帝昺繼位，翌年在崖山海域戰敗，全軍覆沒後跳海殉難於香港西部海域。可以想像，其部分隨行主要來自江浙一帶的官民為逃避蒙軍的追捕，沿海向東南撤退，有些人暫時避難落腳相對隱蔽的香港仔，見其環境類似香山而雅稱鴨脷洲為玉（五）桂山，即香山，其附近航道碼頭為「香港」。周壽臣祖先（與周潤發同族）定居香港仔，1792年偶遇並提供木材幫助避颱風到此的美國船長修船。美國船長對香港仔的航道特別有興趣，返澳門大修後歸美前再次造訪香港仔，將「香港」一名賦予整個香港島，並詳細介紹給資助他的英國商人暨東印度公司孟買海軍間諜，從而「香港」一名出現並定型於英帝國的航海指南和地圖中。

2021年4月10日 廣東順德「容桂街道」介紹指其名字「桂」源於「桂洲鎮」：南宋末年，南雄珠磯巷人逃難至扶寧岡定居，因岡上有三株較大的桂花樹，故改稱為桂花洲，後來簡稱為「桂洲」，而其處陳姓據傳來自浙江寧波。「香港」和「香洲」及其源頭「玉（五）桂山」名稱之間的關聯和演變，很可能同出一轍。

香港和香港仔名稱起源的謬論

今日（8月8日、鬼月初八）《香港仔》報內插《港紙》報增版一篇「香港仔避風塘故事」文章起頭稱：「因當時一帶以轉運東莞運來的香木而聞名，故原名「香港」。據說1841年一批英軍登陸香港仔，誤把香港當成是全島的名字，後來他們發現這錯誤，但又不便把島名更改，只好把原來的「香港」改稱香港仔。」全部子烏虛有，無稽之談。

關於香港和香港仔名稱的起源，不才在之前有文章在《香港仔》貴報闡述過。查閱史料和地圖等，可以證明昔日被英國人佔領之前以及在佔領後的十多年內，香港仔海灣從來沒有建過像樣的碼頭，而被稱為轉運香木的石排灣主要是沙灘，不適合灣泊大船；鴨脷洲北岸和部分深灣處天然水位較深，可以灣泊大船，但在當時極不方便，又常有海盜之患；把貴重的香木從尖沙嘴再轉運到此，不合乎邏輯。

英國人早在1790年代獲得美國船長對香港仔港的描述後，已經關注這裡，並在1810年代已經勘測這裡的海域，在其發佈的航海指南已經開始正式稱整個島為「香港」。1816英國特使船隊在北上赴北京之前在香港仔停留三晚，之後有多篇有關香港的回憶錄和文章發表。另外，在正式佔領香港島之前，英國人已經在香港仔港設立基地，進行鴉片走私活動和時而對大清南部海岸採取軍事的侵襲。所謂誤稱香港為全島的名稱是不可能的。

香港仔的中文名稱是後期才出現的，敝人研究認為應該是在日軍戰敗、光復香港之後。英國人佔領香港後不久，就開始各處取英文名稱，約1842/3年，命名此區域為Aberdeen，廣義為南部包括黃竹坑、香港仔、鴨脷洲、田灣、華富和部分薄扶林的市鎮，但後來英國人的主要精力放在開發北岸的「女皇鎮」，Aberdeen鎮的計畫被放棄，而Aberdeen漸漸縮減範圍，狹義指當時的石排灣和鴨脷洲村落（開始實施人口普查的一個結果），但是一直沒有相應的中文名。淪陷後，日本人稱此區為「元香港」，而後來光復後再被改為香港仔。60年代政府在石排灣東境山丘興建公屋，取名為石排灣邨。70年代末，李嘉誠改建石排灣船塢，取名香港仔中心。如今，香港仔已經取替了原來的石排灣名稱，而石排灣邨反倒成了新的石排灣。現在很少有人還記得舊日的石排灣，唯一斷斷續續被延留至今的只有西境的石排灣道了。

British Not First To Name Hong Kong 最先命名香港的不是英國

Contrary to the popular belief, it was not the British but a man from Boston first named the island Hong Kong on record. 

In 1787, a group of wealthy Bostonian merchants, who owned the ship Columbia Rediviva and consort Lady Washington, financed an expedition for a new trading route with China through the Pacific. John Kendrick, a former privateer and revolutionary war veteran was hired as the overall commander of the expedition and captain of Columbia Rediviva, and Robert Gray as the subordinate captain of Lady Washington. The scheme was to first sail to the Northwest Coast to collect sea otter skins with metals, particularly copper which was highly valued by the native Indians, then sail through the Pacific to Canton to sell the otter skins, which were prized by wealthy Chinese, for a potential profit of several hundred times. The proceed would then be used to buy and ship back to Boston lucrative Chinese products such as tea, porcelain, silk and nankeen cloth.  On 1 October 1787, they left Boston and took almost two years to cultivate the fur trade along the Northwest Coast. The two captains exchanged vessels in Clayoquot Sound before Gray set sail with Columbia Rediviva for China. Kendrick, with Lady Washington, continued to trade for furs and did not set sail for China until two months later.  

On a returning trip in September 1792, Lady Washington met a terrifying typhoon in the South China Sea and was badly damaged with her masts cut off. With no choice but returning to Macao, which she left four days prior, Captain Kendrick led the crew limping northward. On the way, they rescued dozens of Chinese fishermen whose boats were wrecked by the typhoon. It is most likely this kind gesture saved the sailors too as the fishermen led them into a sacred fishing harbour on the south side of Hong Kong Island. There they found pine trees to fix the masts. The harbour must have left a strong impression on Kendrick; after Lady Washington was fully refitted in Macao, he stopped at the island again and spent weeks studying the harbour as well as visiting the interior of the island.  There he met again the villagers, who told him that they called the habour "Hong Kong" and the island "Kong Kong Island". In a letter to then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson dated 1 March 1793, Captain Kendrick put down his address as “Port of Independence, the Island of Heong-Kong.”  In the book “Observation on the South Coast of China and Island of Hainan” published in 1806 by A. Dalrymple, there was a detailed description of the harbour by Kendrick provided in a letter from Mr. Howel to Mr. Gordon and remarked “the above-described harbour appears to have been unknown until Captain Kendrick entered it in September 1792; he revisited it in February 1793 and named it Port Independence.”  Kendrick met his untimely death in December 1794, Lady Washington fell into British hands with navigation records, which unveiled to the British in Hong Kong not only was there a deep sea port with fresh water supply, but also “almost every kind of refreshment, especially fish, hogs, beef and poultry”. In 1806 the East India Company commissioned captain Daniel Ross of Bombay Marine for a detail survey of Cochin China islands, including Hong Kong.  Around 1810, the British changed in their published navigation guides and charts the spelling of Heong-Kong to Hongkong (and later Hong Kong).  

Over time, few paid attention to Captain Kendrick’s initial role in naming Hong Kong, but his pioneering spirit and legacy lived on.  In 1845, an American merchant proposed and arranged to ship ice from Boston to Hong Kong for the first time, a luxury for hot summers. In 1874, a young boy named Chow Cheong-Ling, direct descendant of the village clan leader who provided Kendrick crew with pine trees and fresh supplies over 80 years earlier, was sent by the Tsing Empire to study in the Boston area and attended Phillips Academy at Andover between 1875 and 1881.  Better known as Sir Shouson Chow, he later returned and became an influential politician in Hong Kong.  The government renamed an area near the village as Shouson Hill, thus completing a circle of “naming and being named” started by a man from Boston over two hundred years ago.  

Note: 

In “Observation on the South Coast of China and Island of Hainan” in 1806 A. Dalrymple also wrote: “captain Walter Alves, Ship London. 12 February 1765 East end of Lantao —> Cowhee Passage —> 5pm SW Point of Chinfalo —> Northward of the island Heong-Kong ...... on the whole, this last strait is a passage I’d not recommend, if there had not been a Pilot on board for there is a very clear open passage out to the sea, about two miles westward of this.” It is not clear whether captain Alves called the island Heong-Kong or Dalrymple changed the same, but it appears in 1765 Alves might be the first European to have sailed through the northern Victoria Harbour, and already recognised the island name as Heong-Kong. However, as he did not recommend this passage, nor did he point out any significance of the Hong Kong island or its harbours, Alves did not get any credit for naming the island. 
There was claim that by 1760s, Portugese traders, Sr. Felis Mendoca, called a place on the island Heung Kong O, but could not be independently verified.
廣州一口通商約1762年開始。