The Wa Villagers
In the area of Yuanguping Town, Yongding District, the Gong surname is most numerous. But the Gong families traditionally could not get along internally. They even had two ancestral halls—one at Langmu Ridge, one at Matan River. The Langmu Ridge Gongs looked down on the Matan River Gong hall, saying: "You call it an oil press, yet I hear no pounding rod; you call it a cattle pen, yet I hear no yellow ox lowing."
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The People of Wa Township
In the area of Yuanguping Town, Yongding District, people surnamed Gong are the most numerous. But in the past, the Gong family members could never get along among themselves. There were even two ancestral halls—one at Langmu Ridge and one at Matan River. The Gong family of Langmu Ridge looked down on the Gong ancestral hall at Matan River, saying: "You say it's an oil press, but I don't hear the pestle pounding; you say it's a cattle pen, but I don't hear the yellow ox lowing." This meant that their ancestral hall was built in a sorry state. They also mocked the Matan River Gong family as their "black ears" (traitors). This, as it happens, is related to the Gong family's ethnic origins.
According to the elders, the Gong family's ancestor was Gonggongshi, who lived in the area of Bohai in Hebei, hence "Bohai Hall." Later, Gong Jin, the nineteenth-generation descendant of Gonggongshi's son Julong, violated the law and was exiled to Gongming Mountain in Cangyuan, Yunnan, for several years. Afterwards, he was sent back to the Wuling area (Wuling Commandery, with its seat in present-day Changde). The Cangyuan area was inhabited by the Wa Yi people. When Gong Jin left Cangyuan, he took a Wa woman of the Zhu surname as his wife, and gradually multiplied and prospered. Gong Jin's branch of the family managed to survive. He compiled a genealogy, established an ancestral hall, declared himself "Gonggong Wuling Hall," and honored the Wa ancestral deity "Zhu Wa Xianjie" as the ancestral god. The Langmu Ridge ancestral hall belonged to Gong Jin's Wuling Hall. Thus, the Gong family split into two major factions.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youliang contended with Zhu Yuanzhang for the empire. Chen could not win, so he led his remnant troops from Jiangxi toward Hunan. At that time, a military officer named Gong Zengjing was responsible for escorting Chen Youliang's family and the people of nine surnames and ten branches (namely: Ou, Zhang, Zhou, Li, Qin, Gong, Sun, Jin, Quan, and Zhao) as they migrated toward the Yuan River and Li River areas. This was at midnight on the eighteenth day of the second month in the second year of Hongwu (1369 AD). By then Zhu Yuanzhang had already established his dynasty and led troops in pursuit of Gong Zengjing's group, while also suppressing the Wuling barbarians. The people of the nine surnames could not gain a foothold and in a panic blundered into Wuling Hall. This branch of the Cangyuan Wa Yi people thought the Jiangxi folk were coming to seize their territory, so they took up weapons and fought. Just as both sides were fighting fiercely, the government troops suppressing the barbarians arrived, and in the chaos of indiscriminate killing, both sides suffered. Gong Zengjing was a sensible man and went alone to Wuling Hall to negotiate peace. The Wa people asked, "You say your surname is Gong, but which hall are you from?" Gong Zengjing answered, "We are Gonggongshi of Bohai Hall. And you?" "We are Gonggongshi of Wuling Hall." Gong Zengjing said, "We are all descendants of the same Gonggongshi lineage. Four thousand years ago we were one family. If we fight among ourselves instead of fighting outsiders, the Gong family will likely be wiped out!" When the Wuling Hall people heard this, they saw reason and stopped fighting. Thereupon, the combined forces of the nine surnames and ten branches banded together to fight the government troops, and in the end drove them off. From then on, the nine surnames and ten branches lived together with the Wuling Hall Gong clan of the Wa Yi people, on good terms for generations. However, the Gong family of Jiangxi Bohai Hall and the Gong family of Wuling Hall had incompatible customs, so they each built their own ancestral halls and compiled their own genealogies.
Because the Gong clan of Yuanguping honored the Wa Yi ancestral deity "Zhu Wa Xianjie," they were historically called "the people of Wa Township."