Legendary Port of the Maritime Silk Routes

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

Legendary Port of the Maritime Silk Routes:
Zayton (Quanzhou)

“[This book] presents a panorama of maritime Quanzhou of coastal China between the tenth and fourteenth centuries and its trans-cultural character of this legendary port. The author applies a maritime paradigm and a diachronic approach to relating the maritime past of Quanzhou with its modern revival in the globalization context.”

—Dr. Doudou Diene, Chair of the Board of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, Former Director of the UNESCO Division of Intercultural and Inter-Religious Dialogue and Coordinator of the UNESCO Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue

“Instead of addressing Chinese history through the usual land-based perspective, the city of Quanzhou is envisioned as a space where trade and cultures have created a specific blend that can showcase Quanzhou as a city open to diversities. In this construction, the link between geography, anthropology, economics and history is carefully chartered, allowing us to grasp how this specific blend of Chinese culture, influenced by sea trade and cultural exchanges through oceanic commerce, has been able to develop through centuries. A work one cannot miss when exploring Chinese history and the past and present silk routes narrative.”

—Dr. Khal Torabully, Franco-Mauritian semiologist, poet, founder of the House of Wisdom (Fez-Granada) and co-author of academic bestseller Coolitude

“The author’s insightful exploration of the Maritime Silk Route is much more than just an account of the ancient world’s greatest global trade network. Much more importantly, it sheds light on the values and priorities that, from time immemorial, have led Chinese to emphasize peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial trade—values that are more important than ever in today’s every shrinking global community.”

—Dr. Bill Brown, Academic Director, OneMBA, School of Management, Xiamen University

Names: Wang, Qiang (College teacher), author.
Title: Legendary port of the maritime silk routes: Zayton (Quanzhou) / Qiang Wang.
Other titles: Zayton (Quanzhou), legendary port of the maritime silk routes
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2020.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019018531 | ISBN 978-1-4331-7037-9 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-7039-3 (ebook pdf)
ISBN 978-1-4331-7040-9 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-7041-6 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Quanzhou Harbor (Quanzhou Shi, China)—History. | Quanzhou
Shi (China)—Commerce—History. | Trade routes—China--History. |
Quanzhou Shi (China)—History.
Classification: LCC DS797.26.Q34 W36 | DDC 387.1095124/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019018531
DOI 10.3726/b15743

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2020 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

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About the author

Qiang Wang (PhD candidate, City University of Macau) is currently Associate Professor of Liming University/Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai and formerly Research Associate in the English Department, University of California, Irvine (2013–2014).

About the book

Legendary Port of the Maritime Silk Routes: Zayton (Quanzhou) is a book of Asian premodern maritime history from global perspectives. The book is targeted at learners and students of China study in the fi eld of literature relating to the knowledge of premodern maritime history and cultural exchange among South Fujian in coastal China, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and beyond connected with Maritime Silk Trade Routes. The maritime paradigm is therefore central to the understanding of the transcultural character of this legendary port and its enlightenment to the win-win cooperative solution to the bottleneck of globalization.

“The author applies a maritime paradigm and a diachronic approach to relating the maritime past of Quanzhou with its modern revival in the globalization context.”

—Doudou Diene, Chair, Board of the International
Coalition of Sites of Conscience

“A work one cannot miss when exploring Chinese history and the past and present silk routes narrative.”

—Khal Torabully, Franco-Mauritian semiologist,
poet and co-author Coolitude

“The author’s insightful exploration of the Maritime Silk Route...sheds light on the values and priorities that, from time immemorial, have led Chinese to emphasize peaceful coexistence and mutually benefi cial trade—values that are more important than ever in today’s every shrinking global community.”

—Bill Brown, Academic Director, OneMBA,
School of Management, Xiamen University

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Foreword: Zayton/Quanzhou—Ground Zero of the Maritime Silk Roads by Dr. Doudou Diene

Preface

Chapter 1. Zayton as a Crucial Harbor and World Emporium in Maritime Trade

Chapter 2. Historic Relics Witnessed the Prosperity of Maritime Trade (1000–1400)

Chapter 3. The Diversity of Maritime Culture in Quanzhou

Chapter 4. Historical Records About Quanzhou and Maritime Exchange

Chapter 5. Trade and Immigration Along Maritime Trade Routes

Chapter 6. The Prosperity of Ancient Maritime Quanzhou and Its Enlightenment

Chapter 7. Quanzhou and Ibn Battuta—The Living Testimony of the Silk Routes

Khal Torabully

Appendix: A Brief Introduction to Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China

FIGURES

Figure 1.1. The East and West Sea Chart of the Ming Dynasty (Partial)

Source: © Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Figure 2.1. Shipwreck Discovered in Quanzhou Bay in 1973

Source: © Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Figure 3.1. Old Town of Quanzhou

Source: © Photo by Pan Deng, Quanzhou Evening Post

Figure 4.1. Wind Payer Inscription on Mount Jiurishan

Source: © Quanzhou Maritime Museum & Heritage Center

Figure 5.1. Luoyang Bridge: A Symbol of Home for Overseas Chinese Diaspora

Source: © Wu Yunxuan

Figure 6.1. An Aerial View of the Old Town of Quanzhou

Source: © Wu Yunxuan

Figure 7.1. The Site of the Qingjing Mosque

Source: © Photo by the Author, Qiang Wang