Quanzhou in 1200, Southern Song

Quanzhou stands near the mouth of the Jin river on a deep bay facing Taiwan and the strait.

It has a superintendency of maritime trade (1079 or 1087 on Wikipedia, "Quanzhou"), a foreign quarter with a mosque of 1009 (the Qingjing mosque), Tamil Hindu temples and, by later evidence, a Nestorian church, a southern branch of the Imperial Clan Office whose Zhao members invest in ships, and kilns in its counties that make celadon for export. A tablet of 1095 records two convoys of twenty ships a year from the Southern Seas, and a report of 1206 lists merchants from Arabia, Iran, India, Sumatra, Cambodia, Brunei, Java, Champa, Burma and the Philippine kingdoms, as well as Anatolia, Korea and Japan (Wikipedia, citing Von Glahn). The city is the starting point from which the Song measures the distances to foreign countries.

Ships come in with the south-west monsoon of summer and the Chinese junks leave on the north-east monsoon of winter, so on 1 January the outward fleet of 1200 is fitting out (our general knowledge of the monsoon, not a fetched source). Zhao Rukuo, born 1170 of the clan, will write the Zhufan zhi in about 1225 as superintendent: nothing of his is for this date. Two stone pagodas of Kaiyuan Temple are of the thirteenth century, so on 1 January 1200 the temple has its older pagodas, not these; the Luoyang Bridge (of the eleventh century) and the Anping Bridge (of the twelfth) are standing.

Who holds it

Title: Prefect of Quanzhou (zhi Quanzhou), with the Maritime Trade Superintendent and the head of the Southern Clan Office beside him
Since: not pinned
Born: not known
Confidence: low

No source available to me names the holder in the winter of 1199-1200.

Lord in 1200

The prefect of Quanzhou, not named for that winter; the Superintendent of Maritime Trade, not named.

How things stand that morning

Prosperous and growing; the contest with Guangzhou for first place is not settled. The Penghu patrol is not yet at sea. No rising or siege is dated.

Threats

Sea raiders (the Pisheye of the 1170s)
The copper-cash ban and corruption at the customs

Charter

None known. The Superintendency grants the foreign merchants their quarter and the right to settle their own quarrels; we could not read the text of any rule.

Council

The prefect, the Superintendent, the head of the Southern Clan Office and the foreign headman; no council of citizens is recorded. A later head of the foreigners, Pu Shougeng, belongs to the last years of the Song and is not for this date.

Communities

Han townspeople; the Zhao clan households; foreign Muslim, Tamil Hindu and South-Seas merchants; Buddhist and Daoist clergy; later a Nestorian church (no Song date).

Fairs and markets

Not known. The year is set by the monsoon, not by fairs.

Militia

The prefect's garrison and the coast patrols; the summer post on Penghu. No figures.

Walls and castle

A walled city with an outer wall planted with coral trees (citong), which gave it its Chinese by-name (our recollection). The Kaiyuan Temple lies in the west of the city; the Luoyang Bridge (1053 to 1059 under the prefect Cai Xiang, by recollection) and Anping Bridge are outside it.

Trade and crafts

Export: celadon of Tong'an, Anxi and Jinjiang (the Wikipedia page says about nine tenths of Fujian's ceramics were jade-green celadon made for export), white ware of Dehua, silk, iron, sugar, and ships built in the yards. Import: incense (frankincense above all), pepper, ivory, pearls and cloth.

Where the sources disagree

The campaign board has no Quanzhou (Fujian) seat in this area file: only the county seats of the prefecture and Quanzhou on the Xiang (Hunan). Quanzhou is written here from the brief.

Evidence: The port's role and the Qingjing date are in Wikipedia's Quanzhou and Islam pages; the 1206 list is six years later; all details of walls and the holders are recollection.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

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.