The prefect of Quanzhou governs the wealthiest port of the Song south-east: the city (Zayton to the Arabs, Citong from its coral-tree hedges), its seven counties and, through Jinjiang county, the Penghu islands.
He deals with three other great powers in the city: the Maritime Trade Superintendent (shibosi), who runs the customs; the Southern Imperial Clan Office, which looks after the Zhao relatives of the emperor; and the foreign quarter (fanfang) and its headman. The same prefect often held other posts at once; in the 1220s Zhao Rukuo, who was born in 1170 and entered the service in 1190, would be both prefect and superintendent. Who holds the prefecture on 1 January 1200 is not known.
Who he is
- Title
- Prefect of Quanzhou (zhi Quanzhou)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source available to me names the holder in the winter of 1199-1200.
Overlord
The Song court, through the Fujian circuit
What it holds
- The city and its seven counties: Jinjiang, Nan'an, Hui'an, Anxi, Yongchun, Dehua and Tong'an
- The Penghu islands, attached to Jinjiang county and visited by a summer garrison
- The prefecture's salt fields and kilns (celadon for export at Tong'an, Anxi and Jinjiang; white ware at Dehua)
How it was acquired
By appointment from Lin'an.
Allies and rivals
The clan office and the foreign merchants are sources of wealth and of friction; the Fujian commissioners above him; Fuzhou as a rival port.
How things stand that morning
Peaceful. The Pisheye raids of the 1170s and 1180s on the coast villages (Shuiao and Weitou, per Zhao Rukuo) are a living memory and the reason for the Penghu summer post.
Wealth
The customs and the licence on foreign cargoes, ceramics, sugar, salt, silk and iron-ware, ship-building; the prefecture is the point from which the Song measures distances to foreign countries (Wikipedia, "Quanzhou").
Military
The prefect's garrison, the coast patrols, the Penghu summer post. No figures.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board file has no Quanzhou (Fujian) seat for this area; only Quanzhou on the Xiang (Hunan, see the Quanzhou jun province record).
Evidence: Quanzhou is well described in later (thirteenth century) sources; the holder of 1199-1200 is not named in what we could read.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A point at Quanzhou.
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
- Wikipedia, "Quanzhou"
- Wikipedia, "Zhao Rukuo"
- Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua), Zhufan zhi (about 1225), later evidence, described in Wikipedia, "Zhu Fan Zhi"
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.