Canada 加拿大

Lee Association of Calgary
132-2nd Ave SW
Calgary, Alta T2P OB8
Tel: (403)262-2247

Lee Association of Edmonton
c/o 13204 62nd Ave
Edmonton, Alta T6H 1N9

Lee Association of Montreal
94 Lagauchetiere St W.
Montreal, Que H2Z 1C2
Tel: (514)861-3762

Lee Association of Toronto
175A Dundas St W. 2nd Fl
Toronto ON M5G 1C7
Tel: (416)979-3291

Lee Association of Vancouver
313 East Pender
Vancouver BC V6A 1V1

Lee Association of Victoria
614 1/2 Fisgard St
Victoria BC V8W 1R6

Lee Association of Winnipeg
236 King St
Winnipeg, Man R3B 1J4

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In early November received an email from my friend John. It was one of those forwarded emails with a string of email addresses. That day I did something out of the ordinary, besides reading the email I browsed through the list of email addresses. In the process spotted the name Kenneth Jang. One of our Chinese school classmates from almost half-a-century was of the same name. Quickly emailed John for confirmation. The whole day went by without a word from John.

Imagine my surprise the following morning seeing in my in box an email from Kenneth. To make a long story short we exchange email and arranged a suitable time, time zone differences, for a voice connection to to some catching up.

Kenneth and I last saw each other was in the early 70′s. There were a lot of catch up to do during the ensuing phone call since our offspring are older than us when we lost contact. Eventually the topic turned to other members of our class. We went through the names of the eleven members. Kenneth said the other two Ken’s are in the same city as him and he volunteered to locate and contact them. Then I remember seeing a photo of Jim, another classmate, at a mutual friend’s place and volunteered to obtain Jim’s co-ordinates.

Thanks to the internet the other two Ken’s and I quickly established contact and updated each other on the major happenings in life. Jim was a bit difficult to get hold of but eventually we contacted. When he heard that we were trying to contact the old classmates, he said John, another classmate, is his in-law. Jim’s son married John’s daughter. Oh, this John is not same John I mentioned at the beginning. This is John Chan, the other one is John Hum. There are three Kenny and two John in the class.

Meanwhile John Hum had contacted another former classmate, Ronald. The two of them are cousins. Quickly eight of us are in contact with each other after all these years. Unfortunately the search for the remain three is more difficult. So far we have nothing but rumours of their where about.

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• Chow
• Der
• Lee
• Zhao

In most cases it extended to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, 1276AD or earlier. We have the information for the Der and Zhao families. It is a matter of finding time to translated them.

Chow family:

• Generations 1 – 5
• Generations 6 – 9
• Generations 10 – 13
• Generations 14 – 17
• Generations 18 – 21
• Generations 22 – 25

Der family:

• Wing Shui Xie (謝永述)

Lee family

• Lee On Jing (李安政)
• Generations 1-3 Lee Dong (李棟)
• Generations 2-6 Lee Hon (李侃)
• Generations 15-19 Lan Xiu Li (李蘭秀)
• Generations 19-23 Chang Yi Li (李長檽)
• Generations 23-26 On Wing Lee (李希蔭) Generations 23-26
• Generations 23-26 Hong Li (李希屏)
• Generations 23-26 Yic Wing Lee (李希亭)
• Generations 2-5 Lee Chun (李侚)

Zhao family

• Tze Cang Zhao (趙子聰)

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Philippines 菲律賓

Filipinas Civic & Fraternal Association, Inc.
5th Fkoor, 1039 Benavidez Street
Manila
Tel: 632-244-8174
Fax: 632-244-8154

Lee Lung Sai Tong
554 – 3rd Floor, Bermuda Street
STA Cruz, Manila

Cebu Long Se Temple, Inc.
Osmenas Boulevard
Cebu City
PO Box No. 452
Tel: 633-253-5665

Long Se Lee Association
Tabuco Street
Naga City

Tacloban Long See Lee Association
3rd Floor, Ocean Building
Senator Enage Street
Tacloban City

Central and Northern Luzon Long Se Fraternal Association, Inc.
137 T, Alonzo Street
Baguio City

Legaspi Long Se Lee Association
Legaspi City

Ceber Long Se Temple, Inc.
Osmena Boulevard
Eru City

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Malaysia 馬來西亞

Lee Association of Johor
355, Jalan Alsagoff
82000 Pontian, Johor
Tel: 607-687-3039

Lee’s Clansmen Association of Pahang
9, Jalan Chiu Yin
28700 Bentong, Pahang
Tel: 609-222-5155

Lee Sih Chong Soo in Penang
182-A Burma Road
10050 Penang, Malaysia
Tele no. 604-229-8546

The Negeri Sembilan United Lee’s Association
83, Jalan Tuanku Munawir
70000 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan
Tel: 606-763-0145

The United Lee Association of Kuala Lumpur
No. 57 Datoh Kampong Dollah Udu
Kuala Lumpur

Lee Temple
4070 Champa Lane
Butter Worth, PW

Lee Clan Association of Perak
Erak North, Tai-Ping 0:25 A
Chinese Club Road
Taiping Perak

Lee Kinship Association Sabah
Block A, Lot 5, 3RD Floor, Bundusan Plaza
Jalan Bundusan, Kota Kinabalu
Sabah, Malaysia.

Sarawak Lung Si Association
No. 7 Second floor Ban Hock Road
Kuching, Sarawak

砂拉越馬拉端李氏公會
Persatuan Klan Lee Maradong Sarawak
Lee’s Clan Association Maradong Sarawak
No.11, Lorong Maju,
96500 Bintangor,
Sarawak, Malaysia
Tel (電話)：6084-693 314
Fax (傳真)：6084-692 155

United Lee’s Association
12-14 Soltan Street
Kuala Lumpua

Lee Si Chong Sz
3-B, Jalan Bukit Cina
75100 Melaka
Tel: 606-284-9121

Lee Sih Chong Soo
182-A Burmah Road
Penang

Parak Lee’s Ancestal Hall
5 A Jalan Toh Puan Chah
1 Poh, Rerak

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The progress is slow, even seem to be at a stand still at times. But we now have locations of Lee Association in the following countries:

• Burma 緬甸
• Canada 加拿大
• India 印度
• Indonesia 印尼
• Japan 日本
• Malaysia 馬來西亞
• Mauritius
• Mexico 墨西哥
• Philippines 菲律賓
• Singapore 新加坡
• Taiwan 臺灣
• Thailand 泰國
• United States of America 美國

Yes, still a long way to go but a start at the right direction. We hope our visitors would help us in reaching our goal of a world-wide listing of Lee Associations by emailing the address and phone number of the association in their own city. Our thanks in advance.

Kudos to Jack Lee, Chune Lee, Lawrence Jeung and Bernard Li for the information on this page. Also our thanks to Erwin Li for providing the Teochew Lee Clan in Singapore’s url. Please note the Teochew Lee Clan page will open in a secondary window of its own. Our heartful thanks to Pi Lee for providing the address and contact information for the Lee Association in Penang, Malaysia.

Burma 緬甸

Long Set Jong, The Oversea Chinese Lee Clan Association
92 Crisp Pt.

Canada 加拿大

Lee Association of Calgary
132-2nd Ave SW
Calgary, Alta T2P OB8
Tel: (403)262-2247

Lee Association of Edmonton
c/o 13204 62nd Ave
Edmonton, Alta T6H 1N9

Lee Association of Montreal
94 Lagauchetiere St W.
Montreal, Que H2Z 1C2
Tel: (514)861-3762

Lee Association of Toronto
175A Dundas St W. 2nd Fl
Toronto ON M5G 1C7
Tel: (416)979-3291

Lee Association of Vancouver
313 East Pender
Vancouver BC V6A 1V1

Lee Association of Victoria
614 1/2 Fisgard St
Victoria BC V8W 1R6

Lee Association of Winnipeg
236 King St
Winnipeg, Man R3B 1J4

India 印度

Mr. Lee Yun Tin Lee’s Association
South Tangra Road
Calecuta-47

Indonesia 印尼

Lie Yen Hoo
Ji, Kapuk Muara No. 24
Jakarta, 14460

Lie Sie Jyoe Hwie Indonesia
V/H Lie Lung Sie
Jalan Pinangsia 11, 15
Jakarta

Japan 日本

日本東京李氏宗親會
日本東京都新宿區
下落合四一九三之四

日本名古屋李氏宗親會
名古屋千種區山門丁之一番轉

Click here for listing of Lee Association locations in Malaysia 馬來西亞

Mauritius

Lee Ka Kwon (Lee Clan Society)
Cnr Leoville L’Homme and Jummah Mosque Streets
Port Louis, Mauritius
Indian Ocean

Mexico 墨西哥

Lee Association
Calle Rep. Bel Peru No. 102
Mexico, D.F.

Lung Sai Tong
Av. Jvarez No. 150 Apdo No. 5
Mexicali, B.C.

Lee Lun Say Tong
Calle Aquilles Serdab
501 Norte Apdo, Pastal No. 787
Tampico, Tam

Click here for listing of Lee Association locations in the Philippines 菲律賓

Singapore 新加坡

Singapore Lee Clan General Association
363-A Jalan Besar
Singapore, 208994
Tel: 02-296-7388
Fax: 02-264-5057

Singapore Teochew Lee Clan Association
新加坡潮州隴西李氏公會
39 Tessensohn Road
Singapore, 217659
Tel: 02-297-2051
Please click here to email.

Taiwan 臺灣

Lee Association locations in Taiwan
嘉義縣李氏宗親會
中埔鄉和睦村一一鄰永樂
新村一七二號
Taiwan, ROC

Lee Association locations in Taiwan (Taipei)
台北市萬華區李氏親睦會
廣州街一五四號
Taiwam, ROC

Thailand 泰國

Lee Association of Thailand
No. 342/90-91-92
Behind Trok Phut Road
Wangmai, Pathumw. An
Bangkok
Tel: 662-214-0144
Fax: 662-216-8288

United States of America 美國

Lee On Dong Association Headquarters
915 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108

Lee Family Association in Seattle
414 1/2 – 8th Ave. So
Seattle, WA

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Lee Yun was born into royalty, one with a silver spoon in his mouth. Both his father and grandfather held high ranks in the royal court. In addition, his mother was the sister of the Emperor’s wife, Dugu Shi (隋文帝獨孤皇后). Thus at the age of seven he inherited his father’s title of Tang Guogong (唐國公). As a young man, he became one of Sui Yangdi’s (隋煬帝), the emperor, body guards. Yes, he was trusted.

In 617 (大業十三年) he was appointed Governor of Tai Yuen (太原留守). It was there and at the urging of his son, Lee Simin, he joined the general suprise against the Sui Dynasty (隋朝). With Tai Yuen (太原) as his base, his army moved swiftly. In October of the same year they laid siege to the Sui capital, Ch’ang-an (長安), and captured it a month later.

At this point Lee Yun proved he wasn’t exactly a bumbling fool. Quickly he established a twelve points accord with the people and repealed the harsh and unpopular laws of the Sui Dynasty (約法十二條，悉除隋苛禁). Feeling the time wasn’t right yet, he crowned the 13-year old Yang Yu (代王楊栯) as emperor and honoured the reigning emperor, Sui Yangdi (隋煬帝) who at the time was vacationing in Southern China (江都), as the Supreme Emperor (太上皇).

As expected the new emperor appointed Lee Yun as prime minister (大丞相) and supreme commander of the army (大都督). The emperor also bestowed upon Lee Yun the title of Tang Huang (唐王). Lee Yun in turn appointed his faithful followers to key posts within the new government.

In March of the following year, 618 (大業十四年) Sui Yangdi was killed. However, words didn’t arrived at Changon till a month later. In May Lee Yun disposed the puppet Sui emperor and ascended the dragon throne himself. From his family title Tang Guogong and the more recent Tang Huang, it was decided the new regime shall be known as Tang. The capital remained at Ch’ang-an (長安).

The various uprises against the Sui Dynasty remained active despite the ending of the dynasty. According to the numerous popular novels on this particular time period there were 36 rebel forces in the country. Each had its own territory. Some of them were bigger, better equipped and more powerful than Lee Yun. More than one of them had proclaimed and crowned themselves emperors. The quest was far from over.

Lee Yun bestowed the title Qin Huang (秦王) on his second son, Lee Simin and appointed him minister of defence (尚書令). Lee Simin then began the task of conquering and/or pacifying the various rebels. In a four year campaign, 618 – 622 (武德元年 – 四年), Lee Simin and his followers defeated the Tang Dynasty’s major rivals and laid the foundation for the unification of China.

In naming the heir to the throne, Lee Yun made a fatal blunder. He went along with tradition and named his eldest son, Lee Jiancheng (李建成), as crowned prince despite the fact that Lee Simin was more capable of the two. Plus it was Lee Simin and his followers who were the driving force in establishing the Dynasty. Lee Jiancheng realized the superior capability of his younger sibling. He tried his best to discredit him and his followers. To this end he formed an alliance with Lee Yuanji (李元吉), his third brother.

Over the next five years, a struggle for power took place involved the three siblings, their followers and two of Lee Yun’s most favorite concubines who sided with the crowned prince. Poison and false accusations were employed on a regular basis. Many times Lee Simin escaped death by the skin of his teeth. While this was going on, Lee Yun kept his head in the sand either because he didn’t know what to do or he truly was clueless of the deadly contest.

Lee Shimin was always on the receiving end until one day in June 627AD. Lee Shimin was informed that Lee Jiancheng and Lee Yuanji planned to ambush him during his daily morning visit to the palace. Faced with a life and death situation, Lee Simin and his followers decided to strike first. Thus in the morning hours of June 4, 627 (武德九年) a showdown took place just outside the palace gate, Xuan Wumen (玄武門). The combined force of Lee Jiancheng and Lee Yuanji was no match against Lee Simin’s force led by battle-hardened generals. Lee Jiancheng and Lee Yuanji were killed in the ensuing battle. This is known as Xuan Wumen Zhibian (玄武門之變). Subsequently Lee Yun decided to abdicate the throne and lived out his life as the honourary Supreme Emperor (太上皇).

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We have very little, if not no, information on his life prior to 166BC (漢文帝十四年). Thanks to the great historian Sema Qian (司馬遷) we have a good account of his life and the fate of his family from that point on.

Sema Qian began by saying Lee Guang was from Xingji, Longxie (隴西成紀). The family had a long and distinguished military history. One of the ancestors was Lee Xin (李信), the Qin general (秦將) best known for capturing Prince Dan (太子丹). The family was known for its excellent archery and horsemanship.

In 166BC (漢文帝十四年) the nomadic Xiongnus (匈奴) invaded China. Lee Guang and his adopted brother, Lee Tsoi (李蔡), took part in the defence effort by joining the army. Because of their exceptional skills in archery and horsemanship, they quickly attained the rank of Zhonglang (中郎) with an annual remuneration of 800 bushels and served as the emperor’s guards. The emperor, Han Wendi (漢文帝), lamented that Lee Guang wasn’t living at the time of Liu Pang (劉邦) because with his abilities he would’ve easily become a feudal lord of an area with ten thousand households (萬戶侯).

By 156BC (景帝初) Lee Guang was responsible for the defence of Longxie. In all Battles he showed exceptional courage and bravery. An example was the campaign against the Wu and Chu (吳、楚) under the command of Zhou Ahfu (周亞夫). He attacked the Wu forces and captured the enemy’s banner. However, his bravery had many feared he would eventually be killed during a scrimmage.

When the Xiongnus invaded Shangjun (上郡) the emperor sent one of his servants with the title Chonggui Ren (中貴人) to serve under Lee Guang. One day the Chonggui Ren with a small group of calvary encountered three Xiongnus and attacked. The Xiongnus fought back, wounded the Chonggui Ren and slaughtered the rest. Chonggui Ren escaped and reported to Lee Guang who concluded the three must be condor hunters, the best of archers.

Lee Guang decided to track them down with a force of one hundred calvary. By now the three had lost their and were on foot. After his troops surrounding them Lee Guang challenged them to an archery duo. He killed two and captured the other whom confirmed they were indeed condor hunters.

Just as they were about to return with their captive, they were approached by a Xiongnu force of several thousand. Upon seeing Lee Guang’s small force they thought they had encountered the Han (漢) army’s decoy or bait for an ambush. With great precaution, they lined up on top of a hill. Upon seeing this display of force struck fear in Lee Guang’s calvary who wanted nothing more than a panic retreat.

But Lee Guang said, “We are far from our base if we retreat the enemy with its superior number would crush us. But if we stay they’ll think we are here to bait them and wouldn’t dare to attack.”

He order his troops forward till they were within the enemy’s range of fire. Then he ordered them to dismount and unsaddle their horses. These action further confirmed the Xiongnus’ suspicion of a trick and refrained from attacking. Later, Lee Guang saw a Xiongnu general on a white horse drifted apart from the rest of his troops. There upon Lee Guang and ten odd soldiers mounted, charges and killed the white horse general with their arrows. At nightfall the Xiongnus now fully convinced of a Hans ambush which would take place under the cover darkness decided to withdraw.

The Xiongnus admired Lee Guang so much that there was a standing order in battle he was to be captured only. Thus later during the reign of Emperor Wu, Lee Guang went on an expedition against the Xiongnus. Being badly outnumbered, he was wounded and captured. His captors placed him in a hammock between two horses. Lee Guang faked unconscious to lower his captors’ guards and to bid his time. After travelling a distance, an opportunity presented itself when a rider on a fast horse came by. Guang leaped onto the horse, pushed the rider off and took his bow. He headed back and rejoined the Han forces. Along the way he killed a number of his pursuers with the stolen bow and arrows. According to the Han Dynasty law Guang was held accountable for the heavy lost and his brief POW status. Capital punishment was the prescribed sentence. Because of his past heroic deeds, Guang was stripped of his ranks and booted out of the royal court instead.

Several years later the Xiongnus started to make forays into China again. The Chinese court finally realized Lee Guang’s value to the defense against these forays and pardoned him. The Xiongnus’s respect for Guang was so great they called him Han’s Flying General (漢之飛將軍) and avoided the area he was stationed.

Legend has it that one evening Lee Guang was out patrolling. From the corner of his eyes he saw movements in the tall grass and a tiger-like form. Guang drew his bow and fired an arrow. All was quiet. In the morning, Guang and his troops returned to investigate. In the tall grass was a large rock pierced by Guang’s arrow.

In 121BC Guang took part in one of Emperor Wu’s campaigns against the Xiongnus. Guang and his four thousand cavalry were assigned to the flank. After foraying into enemy territory they encountered the enemy, a force of forty thousand. In face of such overwhelming odd many of Guang’s troop showed fear. In an effort to settle his troops down Guang ordered one of his sons and a small group to charge the enemy. The troops settled down after seeing this small group not only charged through the enemy line but was able to do a reversal and rejoined them.

In preparation for the pending attack, Guang ordered his troops into a circular formation. In the ensuing attack Guang lost more than half of his troops. They had just about fired all their arrows. Guang’s next order was to cease firing. He used his extra strong long bow to pick off several of the enemy’s generals which stemmed the on slaughter for the day.

The next day the battle started again. However, at this critical moment Han reinforcement arrived. The Xiongnus retreated. Again Guang’s bravery and merits were cancelled by the heavy casualties.

Two years later, 119BC, Emperor Wu embarked on another campaign against the Xiongnus. Guang asked to be included but was refused due to advanced age. Guang persisted and Emperor Wu finally relented. However, the supreme commander, General Wei Qing (衛青), believing Guang was old and his luck bad assigned him to the right flank and attacked from the eastern route (東道) which was much more round about.

Guang’s request for reassignment to the advance striking force was rejected. Reluctantly, Guang set out on the east route. As luck would have it, Guang and his troops lost their way and failed to join up with the rest of the Han army. Guang took full responsibility for the mishap. Rather than allowing himself to be humiliated again by the unfair Han regulation and petty bureaucrats, he drew his sword and committed suicide.

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It is unclear when he left this post. Legend has it that after leaving he decided to travel westward riding an oxen. At this time a purple cloud started to hover over him. Thus this journey is generally referred to as the Purple Cloud from the East (紫氣東來). One day he came to China’s westmost outpost (函谷關). The guardian of this outpost had heard of Lao Tze, his learning and his westward journey. He specially ordered his underlings to keep their eyes open for Lao Tze and when spotted should reported to him immediately. Upon meeting Lao Tze, he accorded Lao Tze the respects of a student to a teacher and asked Lao Tze to leave some of his wisdom in the form of writing behind. At this point Lao Tze wrote a 5,000 word essay titled Tao Te Ching (道德經). After he finished the essay, Lao Tze continued his westward journey and not to be heard from again.

Here is a brief listing of some of the ideas and concepts in the Tao Te Ching:

• Tao (道) is the invisible, intangible, and indescribable force which created the universe.
• Ideas and matters exist in pairs and are relative in that the pairs are always opposite yet depending on the other for its own existence. An example is good and evil. We know good when we encounter it only because we have known or encountered evil.
• Strength of the weak or soft is greater than the forceful or hard because the hard will break while the soft will bend and rebound.
• Advocated a return to the simple life of bygone days when people were self-sufficient and uneducated.
• For government he advocated sparsely populated small states where people have very little contact with each other.
• Most important of all is the concept which can loosely translated as let it be (無為).

The philosophy as outlined in Tao Te Ching (道德經) became popular during the early part of the Han Dynasty (漢朝). It is credited with calming the country and settling the population after the turmoil of the Warring States (戰國), the harsh Qin Dynasty (秦朝) and the ensuing civil war (楚漢相爭). From this base Wu Emperor (漢武帝) was able to launch his successful campaigns of driving the Northern nomads, Xiongnus (匈奴), far into the desert.

Hundreds of years later, the Taoists (道教) while battling Buddhism (佛教) for followers adapted Tao Te Ching as their religion’s dogma. In turn they honoured Lao Tze as the founder of their religion. However, honours didn’t really started to pour in until the Tang Dynasty (唐朝).

Keep in mind that since the latter part of the Han Dynasty, bloodline and ranked clans (門第望族) were of utmost important. At one point clan membership was the only requirement for high ranking positions in government (上品無寒門，下品無望族). Capability and learning played no part whatsoever. Yes, this is a caste system. Its meridian was during the North-south period (南北朝). The two most powerful clans were Wang (王) and Xie (謝). Stories had it that during the early Tang dynasty the emperor had trouble finding a spouse for one his daughters as the royal family was ranked six on list of desired matches. <> Then it is understandable for the royal family of the Tang Dynasty who was very conscientious of its somewhat mixed bloodline to seek direct linkage to a historical Han figure. That figure happened to be Lao Tze. Taoism in turn became the national religion during the Tang Dynasty.

It all started in May 620AD (武德三年) when Ji Shan (吉善) of Jinzhou (晉州) walking along Sheep Horn Mountain (羊角山) met a very dignify-looking old gentleman on a white horse with red mane.

The elderly man said, “Go and inform the Tang Emperor that I am his ancestor. At the end of the year there will be peace and his descendants will be on the throne for a thousand years.”

Lee Yun was amazed by this and decided to build a temple where the alleged meeting took place. This was the first step in solidifying the link between the Tang Emperor and Lao Tze. Later a royal edict officially ranked Taoism ahead of all religions.

A stone statue of Lao Tze at Quanzhou, Fujian, China. Photo credit: Ronald Lee

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