Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Quanzhou shibosi

The superintendency was set up at Quanzhou in 1087 (Wikipedia gives 1079 or 1087) and made it the second legal port of the south after Guangzhou.

It inspects every ship, licenses Chinese ships for overseas voyages, takes the in-kind levy on cargoes, buys the finer goods (incense above all) at fixed prices for the court, and houses the foreign envoys and merchants. Frankincense was so valuable that officials' promotions at Quanzhou and Guangzhou depended on the quantity they brought in. A tablet of 1095 records two convoys of twenty ships a year from the Southern Seas.

By the end of the twelfth century Quanzhou rivals Guangzhou; where the balance stands on 1 January 1200 is not pinned, though by Zhao Rukuo's time (1225) Quanzhou is the first port.

Who he is

Title
Maritime Trade Superintendent (tiju shibo) of Quanzhou
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Not known. Over the twelfth century the office was held now by a separate superintendent, now by the Fujian transport commissioner or the prefect on top of his own post; which arrangement stood on 1 January 1200 we could not establish.

Overlord

The Song court (the The campaign board entry of Revenue) and the Fujian circuit

What it holds

  • The customs levy and purchase of foreign cargoes
  • The licensing of outbound Chinese junks
  • The foreign merchants' lodging and the fanfang headman's appointment

How it was acquired

Founded 1087 (or 1079).

Allies and rivals

The prefect; the Imperial Clan Office, whose members invest in ships; the foreign headmen; the Guangzhou superintendency as the older rival.

How things stand that morning

Open and busy. Copper cash is forbidden to leave the empire but leaves all the same in the holds of ships; the court's repeated bans are the sign.

Wealth

The levy on cargoes of incense, pearls, ivory, spices and cloth, and the court's purchases; paid in kind and cash. No figures.

Threats

  • The copper-cash drain and the court's bans
  • Sea raiders and wreck
  • Corrupt buying prices

Where the sources disagree

  • Wikipedia, "Islam during the Song dynasty", says the Quanzhou superintendent was "consistently held by a Muslim" in the Song. We could not support that for 1200; Pu Shougeng, the best-known Muslim head of the Quanzhou trade, belongs to the last years of the Song (he went over to the Mongols in 1276, by our recollection). Treat the claim as unproven.

Evidence: Founding, duties and the 1095 tablet are well attested; the 1200 holder is not.

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

  1. Wikipedia, "Quanzhou"
  2. Wikipedia, "Islam during the Song dynasty"
  3. 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.