Wikipedia's Quanzhou article says that Tamil merchants carved idols of Vishnu and Shiva and built Hindu temples in the city and gives no dates.
We recall that the surviving Tamil inscription from Quanzhou, about a Shiva temple, is of the Yuan period, long after our date. So I can show that there is a Tamil merchant community in the port in the 1190s (the nearest dated list of foreign merchants, of 1206, includes the Indian subcontinent) but we cannot show that a Hindu temple stood on 1 January 1200. Treat a shrine or small temple as possible and a great temple as not shown.
For Guangzhou I found no Hindu temple in any source we read.
Who holds it
- Title
- Headmen of the Tamil merchants of Quanzhou
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Not known. No source we read names them.
Overlord
The foreign headman under the Quanzhou Superintendent of Maritime Trade and the prefect
What it holds
- A shrine or temples for the merchants' worship, undated
Allies and rivals
The Superintendency, which taxes their trade; the other foreign merchants of the quarter.
How things stand that morning
Not known; the community is likely, the temples are not dated.
Wealth
The trade of the Tamil guild, not described in the pages we read.
Places of note
- The Tamil quarter: Site not located
Where the sources disagree
- Wikipedia gives no date for the temples; the stones now shown in Quanzhou are not shown to be of the Song.
Evidence: One undated sentence in a Wikipedia article and an unchecked recollection of a Yuan inscription.
On the map: A point at the town only. No temple site is located.
Primary sources for Southern Song
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
- Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online
12 more in the sources library for South China.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.