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Some people say that if you go to Quanzhou and don't go around Tumen Street, you don't really know the city. On the 1,005-meter-long ancient street, there are 13 relics of Song and Yuan culture, from the incense-filled Guanyue Temple to the Islamic Qingjing Temple, but in 1 minute, adjacent to the earliest surviving Arab architectural style mosque in China, is the Fuwen Temple, which represents Confucian culture. One street gathers the mosque and the Wen and Wu Er Temples, and Tumen Street is indeed very characteristic of Quanzhou's "World Multicultural Exhibition Center".
Quanzhou Qingjing Temple, one of the heritage sites of "Quanzhou: World Marine Trade Center of Song and Yuan China"
It is said that the name of Tumen Street originated from the fact that when people built the East and West Pagodas of Kaiyuan Temple, many earth and stone squares were needed, and this place was called "Tumen Street" or Tumen Street because it was used to carry and store the earthwork of the tower. In the middle of the street there is the Qingjing Temple built by the Song Dynasty, and most of the Arab merchants and descendants who came to Quanzhou to do business and believe in Islam lived near the Qingjing Temple. Among them, there is a family surnamed Pu, who built a large number of houses on the south side of Tumen Street, occupying most of the street, and Tumen Street has become "Banpu Street".
Hundreds of years later, the Pu relics on Tumen Street have long been annihilated, but they have survived in the form of place names, such as Chessboard Garden, Daowu Lane, Zaozai Lane, Donglu Lane, etc., and the stone stele at the mouth of Donglu Lane inscribed with "Pu Shou GengFu Di Ruins" also named these "place names" related to Pu Shou Geng: The Chessboard Garden was the place where Pu Shi played chess; Zao Zai Lane was named after the kitchen of Pu's barracks; Talking Wu Lane was related to the Lecture Wu Hall built by Pu Shi; and the name of Dong Lu Lane came from the "Dong Lu Shu Xuan" built by Pu Shi for his children.
The self-built academy, entertainment venues and barracks show that Pu Shougeng was by no means an idle person in Quanzhou at that time, and the Pu surname could be called a big family. However, after the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang explicitly forbade Pu Shougeng's descendants to study and enter the army, and some Pu surnames had to change their surnames, and now, the Pu surname has become a rare surname in Quanzhou. What did Pu Shou Geng do, so that a hundred years after his death, he attracted the disgust of Ming Taizu and frightened his people to change their surnames and leave Quanzhou?
This has to start with Pu Shougeng's origin.
The richest man in Quanzhou
Pu Shou Geng, who was originally an Arabic merchant whose surname is the Arabic word for Abu, went to Nanyang to trade and settled there, trafficking spices from Southeast Asia to China, and later moved their families to Guangzhou, and their business grew bigger and bigger. By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Pu family was already the largest spice merchant in Guangdong. Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke (1183-1243) accompanied his father to Guangzhou to play, followed the father of the official to visit the Pu family, and was impressed by his family: the house where the Pu family lived was not only carved with carved beams and paintings, but also a small pond in the garden was made of gold. Entering the house, I saw that there were four large pillars in the hall, supporting a huge and heavy roof, and I learned that the pillars were made of agarwood, and the construction cost of this item alone was as high as tens of thousands of taels of gold, not to mention the tableware made of gold and silver, the precious ingredients and precious spices that appeared on the banquet. No wonder yue ke, who grew up, recalled the various situations in those years and directly called Pu the surname "the most proud". However, the good times were not long, and when Yue Ke heard people talk about the Pu family in Guangzhou many years later, "its wealth is not as good as the sun", in the end, it is the family road that has fallen.
Around this time, during the Jiading period (1208-1224), a member of the Pu family, the Pu Kaizong family, moved from Guangzhou to Yunlu Village, Fashi Township, Zhugang, Quanzhou, and continued to engage in overseas trade mainly by trafficking in bulk spices. Why did Pu Kaizong leave Guangquan? On the surface, it is because of the decline of the family business, and the deeper reason is that Quanzhou Port is becoming more and more prosperous, with the intention of replacing guangzhou port, and Pu Kaizong only made a choice that is more conducive to the spice trade.
At this time, Pu Kaizong's family looked no different from the Han people, relying on the trade network operated for many years, Pu Kaizong's spice business was doing well. He also funded the construction of two bridges in Quanzhou, the Longjin Bridge and the Changxi Bridge, to facilitate the transportation of goods. In order to encourage him to sell more foreign spices to China, first, to facilitate the use of quanzhou royal relatives, and second, to increase taxes, the Southern Song Dynasty government specially gave Pu Kaizong the official title of "Chengjielang", although it was a low-level official position that could be bought with money, but it was rewarded by the government, and the meaning was different.
Pu Kaizong had two sons, Pu ShouGong and Pu Shou Geng, the former liked to read, endowed with tranquility, "tired of copper smell and mu scoop drink", Pu Shou Geng was the opposite, "young hero rogue", is a righteous, widely traveled, occasionally play a little slippery social activist. Although the spice trade is a lucrative trade, the risk factor is extremely high, and it is obviously more suitable for the family estate to be handed over to the heavier Pu Shou Geng. With the foundation laid by his father in Quanzhou, coupled with Pu Shougeng's excellent operation and management skills, the family business quickly became bigger and stronger, and within a few years, Pu Shougeng took control of the overseas trade in Quanzhou Port (after all, spices accounted for the majority) and became the richest man in Quanzhou. He had his own fleet of seafarers and had a huge number of ships. To this end, he built the "Tianfeng Haiyun Tower" and "Yibi Wanqing Pavilion" at the exit of the Jinjiang River, looking at the sea ships coming in and out. He also possessed a powerful private maritime armed force against pirates who robbed and murdered and plundered goods.
The tombstone of the Pu family, re-engraved in the sixteenth year of Qing Guangxu (1890), is now in the Guangzhou Museum
In the era when Pu Shougeng lived, pirates were rampant in Quanzhou, they plundered ships at sea, went ashore to burn and loot, there were 8 recorded incidents of Haikou violating the spring, and the southern Song Dynasty government, which had weakened its strength, sent a regular army to the left wing army. In order to keep the trade routes open, Pu Shougeng organized his own troops, trained a large number of militias with strong combat effectiveness, and played a role in maintaining tranquility in the Quanzhou area when needed. In 1274, Haikou attacked Quanzhou again, and the officers and soldiers had no choice but to recruit civilian ships and borrow civilian forces. Pu Shou Geng, who had just retired from Zhizhou in Meizhou (about 160 kilometers from Quanzhou), stepped forward and led his private forces to help the government repel Haikou, and Pu Shou Geng, because of his merits, served as an envoy to Quanzhou, managing maritime trade, collecting customs duties, and transporting foreign envoys ("The matter of controlling the trade of goods and sea goods, from far away, through distant things"). Pu Shougong was also awarded the post of Zhizhou of Jizhou by the imperial court, and the clever him "went against the song and resigned".
At this time, only two years after the Yuan army captured Lin'an, the Southern Song Dynasty appointed a rich spice merchant to manage overseas trade at a shaky juncture, which was closely related to Pu Shougeng's possession of a large amount of seafood, wealth, and great influence in the South China Sea countries ("the barbarian states of the South China Sea are not afraid to obey"). If Pu Shougeng had previously "worked" for himself, when he was listed as an official, he "worked" for the imperial court, and his status as a "official and a businessman" allowed him to run the spice trade while "legally" scavenging for interests and increasing wealth through official means.
The last straw that crushed the Southern Song Dynasty
However, Pu Shougeng did not serve as a city envoy for a long time. On February 4, 1276, the Yuan army captured the Southern Song capital Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou), captured the 5-year-old Emperor Gong of Song, Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie and others to escort the Yiwang Zhao And his party to flee to Fujian, on the way Zhao Yun took the throne as emperor, changed yuan Jingyan, and Pu Shougeng was given a new post - Fujian Guangdong Zhaofu Envoy, concurrently the main city of Bao, in charge of military, civil affairs and municipal power, commanding coastal defense. In the Song Dynasty, the envoys were very military, and the recipients were usually high-ranking generals with important tasks. Under normal circumstances, Pu Shou Geng did not have the corresponding rank and could not be awarded such an important position, and only in the special situation of "knowing that it was impossible to rely on Shou Geng", the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty would do so: recognize his power in Quanzhou, and throw an olive branch at him, hoping to use his strength to resist the Yuan army in the coastal area of Fujian.
Everyone knows that Pu Shou Geng has strong financial resources, private armed forces are also very strong, and has close ties with overseas, whether it is for the small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty that hastily fled south, or the Yuan army with positive momentum, Pu Shou Geng is the object they want to actively strive for, and whoever wins Over Pu Shou Geng, the balance of victory may be tilted to which side. According to the "History of Yuan", Yuan Cheng Xiang Boyan also sent emissaries Bu Bo and Zhou Qing to Quanzhou to appease the two brothers Pu Shou Geng and Pu Shou Gong, but the results are not mentioned in the history books. Judging from Pu Shougeng's performance later, he at least did not promise the emissary to ally with the Yuan army on the spot. After Zhang Shijie escorted the little emperor to Quanzhou, Pu Shou Gengshang personally went to pay respects and asked him to stay, at that time he was still undecided and did not make up his mind to lower the yuan, but his "good intentions" were rejected by Zhang Shijie. Later, Zhang Shijie unsuccessfully demanded military food and materials from Pu ShouGeng, and snatched more than 400 Pu's ships and ships docked in the Fashi area, which greatly ignited Pu Shougeng.
Fashi was the base camp of Pu's overseas trade, where a large number of sea ships docked "like a giant chamber, the sails are like clouds in the sky, the rudder is several feet long, a boat is hundreds of people, a year of grain is accumulated, the wine is brewed, and the death is born outside the degree." In 1982, archaeologists in The Fashi test excavation of a Southern Song Dynasty sea vessel, the length of more than 23 meters, the load capacity of about 100 tons, experts speculated that the owner of the merchant ship is likely to be Pu Shou Geng, rough estimates, Zhang Shijie and others robbed the total tonnage of 400 ships at least 40,000 tons, which is equivalent to Pu Shou Geng's "life". As a businessman, Pu Shou Geng's interests are the most important in his eyes. As Pu Shougeng of Song Chen, "abandoning Song Shiyuan" is definitely not the best choice. However, from the perspective of Quanzhou Port, he did not want the well-known ports at home and abroad to be destroyed by war, both public and private. After thinking about it, he closed the city and refused to give orders, and lowered the yuan with Tian Zhenzi of Quanzhou Zhizhou. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the remnant Song. In desperation, the Song soldiers and horses had to continue to flee south and retreat to Guangdong.
The stone stele of "Pushou GengfuDi Ruins" is located at the mouth of Donglu Lane in Quanzhou.
Pu Shougeng's initiative to sacrifice the city and reduce the yuan not only represents his personal will, but also largely represents the position of Quanzhou's maritime merchants and local governments. In other words, without the support of Quanzhou Zhizhou Tian Zhenzi and the left-wing army under his direct command (leader Xia Jing), Quanzhou could not have easily surrendered to the Mongols under the leadership of Pu Shougeng. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, these three men were in charge of the finance, administration, and military administration of Quanzhou, and were all local elites who belonged to Quanzhou, and belonged to different camps from the sons of The Zhao and Song Emperors in Quanzhou. This is also easy to understand, after all, the descendants of the Zhao clan are all supported by local finances, and some of them are acting as evildoers in their own identities, and even blatantly robbing Quanzhou merchants of ships and goods that go to sea, and bullying the merchants and the people. When the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty arrived in Quanzhou, relying on local manpower, material resources, and financial resources to support the precarious regime, and vainly trying to command everything, it was bound to cause dissatisfaction among some local elites. They were disgusted by the tyrannical behavior of the clan, and were more concerned about the interests of the local and family than whether they were "loyal to the king", and the clear-eyed people could see that the Southern Song Dynasty mansion would fall.
After several considerations, Pu Shougeng and others abandoned the Song Dynasty and surrendered to the Yuan, and in the process of leading Quanzhou Port to attach themselves to the new dynasty, they did something that made Zhu Yuanzhang resentful -- thousands of descendants of the Zhao clan were exterminated by Pu Shougeng, and they had planned to cooperate with Zhang Shijie, who returned to the division to attack quanquan, and the result was devastating. After eliminating the anti-Yuan forces in Quanzhou, Pu Shougeng assisted the Yuan army in participating in the suppression of the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty, including the southeast coast and overseas areas. Although he saved the port of Quanzhou, enabling it to make a smooth transition at the time of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and reached unprecedented prosperity in the Yuan Dynasty, he sacrificed the last straw that crushed the Southern Song Dynasty and accelerated the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty.
For a time, the nobility crowned the world
After the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1276, Pu Shougeng was successively appointed as the governor of Fujian, the envoy of the Terracotta Army, the envoy of Quanzhou City, the Zhongshu Zuo Cheng of Fujian Province, and the political affairs of Pingzhang of Quanzhou Province, and the official ranks rose higher and higher, which shows the importance that the Yuan court attaches to it. Although Pu ShouGeng mainly relied on the strength of the local elite of the Han nationality in the process of changing the ownership of Quanzhou, due to the racial policy implemented by the Yuan Dynasty, the Pu family, as the Semites, enjoyed a broader political future than the Han and Nan people, and Pu Shou Geng was the only one among many yuan descendants who enjoyed a lasting and dazzling political career in the new dynasty, which almost lasted until the end of his life. The Pu Shou Geng family has benefited greatly, and the port of Quanzhou has been revitalized because of his presence.
Quanzhou's municipal revenue is an important source of finance in the Southern Song Dynasty, which Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, will not be unaware, he naturally will not throw away the "fragrant food" in his hand, in the second year after the return of Quanzhou Port to the Yuan, he set up a municipal shipping department, announced the resumption of overseas trade activities, at this time there are still many areas in the country in the midst of war. In 1278, Kublai Khan ordered Pu Shou Geng and Instigated Du to issue an edict overseas: "Those who live in the southeastern islands of the various kingdoms have the heart of righteousness, and they can declare their intentions because of the people of The Kingdom." If they can come to the dynasty, they will be pampered, and their exchanges will be mutually marketed, and each will do as he pleases. "Instigating a warrior, Xiao Yong is good at war, lacks experience in overseas trade, and the heavy responsibility of attracting merchants from all over the world naturally falls on Pu Shou Geng, who is "a vegetarian lord" and has a reputation in overseas markets. In addition, before the Yuan Dynasty Municipal Shipping Regulations were formulated and promulgated in 1293, the operation of the Yuan Chengsong system and the Quanzhou Municipal Shipping System had to rely on Pu Shougeng and his cronies who were familiar with the Song system and experienced. In public and private, Pu Shou Geng was willing to do it, and did his best to "lure the barbarians to submit." There is no documentation on whether Pu Shougeng personally went to sea to attract business, but his eldest son Pu Shiwen took Pu Shougeng's cronies to the South China Sea when he was serving as an envoy to the overseas clans, and used Pu Shougeng's connections and prestige to mobilize them. Since then, several major solicitation activities of the Yuan government have set sail from Quanzhou Port, mainly under the responsibility of the Quanzhou authorities and with the participation of Pu's cronies.
At that time, the trade of all countries in the world was in a period of prosperity and development, merchants from Asian and African countries were looking for their own ideal markets, and the Yuan Dynasty constantly sent envoys to the countries of the South China Sea, which aroused the attention and interest of foreign businessmen in Quanzhou Port, and it was not long before foreign envoys and merchants came to Quanzhou. The busy scene returned after a brief period of war, and the port of Quanzhou was more likely than ever, as Marco Polo put it: "It is almost unbelievable that so many merchants and commodities are gathered in this city." ”
Interestingly, in order to make overseas trade more smooth, Pu ShouGeng asked Kublai Khan to add Mazu to the throne, which contributed to the officialization of the Mazu faith in the Yuan Dynasty. He was also ordered to build 200 warships for the Yuan conquest of Japan, and later complained that "the people were really hard" and only 50 were built, but the matter was not resolved, basically because Pu Shou Geng, out of the instinct of the merchants, did not approve of the Yuan Dynasty's overseas. While holding a high position and contributing to the country, he continued to run the family business and monopolize the spice trade in the South China Sea.
In Quanzhou, no one knows Pu ShouGeng, "to the sea with good deeds, to produce tens of thousands, and to have thousands of family servants" is the evaluation of the people of the times, and his descendants also follow the light, "for a while the noble crown the world". Even Pu Shou Geng's son-in-law, Fo Lian, had a fleet of 80 merchant ships under his command, and his family had a collection of "one hundred and thirty stones of pearls" and strong financial resources. This big son lived in Pushou Gengfudi, which covers an area of 300 acres in the south of Quanzhou City, which has gardens, chessboard gardens, post offices, private schools, and military training grounds. It is said that Pu ShouGeng played chess in a different way from others, he took 32 beautiful women as pawns, and opened a chessboard garden on the north side of the garden, so that they wore red and black dresses, and the words "general", "soldier", "elephant" and "horse" were written on the top of their heads, and when playing chess, he and his opponent played against each other upstairs, and every step of the two sides had a loud order from the staff on the stage to let the beautiful women move in the chessboard garden according to the order. He arranged a dormitory for each "chess piece", a total of 32 rooms, and the place where they lived was still named "Thirty-two Alleys". In the gorgeous inn built by Pu Shou Geng, I don't know how many foreigners were received.
Quanzhou Chessboard Park
Pu Shou Geng's glorious life record came to an abrupt end in the twenty-second year of the Yuan Dynasty (1285), and no traces of his deeds can be found in the historical records after that, and some scholars speculate that Pu Shou Geng died in 1284. Of his three sons, only the eldest son, Pu Shiwen, is still running overseas trade and managing municipal affairs. In the 26th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1289), the Municipal Shipping Department handed over to the government 400 jin of beads and 3400 taels of gold, most of which came from Quanzhou, and the income of a single gold item was equivalent to 1/6 of the total amount of gold earned by the imperial court. Under the efforts of the Pu family, there were nearly 100 countries and regions that traded and exchanged with Quanzhou in the Yuan Dynasty, twice as many as the Song Dynasty, and its "circle of friends" included many countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. It is no wonder that in 1297, when the Yuan court "opened Pinghai Province in Quanzhou", Pu Shiwen was appointed as the political secretary of Pingzhang and continued to play a role in the overseas transportation affairs of Quanzhou Port.
Source/ Tan Qijun's Historical Atlas of China
The clans changed their surnames and took refuge
If it were not for the outbreak in Quanzhou in 1357, which was dominated by foreigners (with the participation of the Pu clan) and the decade-long Yisi Bashi (transliteration of the Persian civil army), which dragged the prosperous port of Quanzhou into the abyss of turmoil, the pu clan's days of calling for wind and rain in Quanzhou would not have ended. Counting from Pu Kaizong's foothold in Yunlu Village, Fashi Township, Quanzhou, Pu's life in Quanzhou for more than 100 years, a family of maritime merchants engaged in spices can have such a strong connection with the fate of Quanzhou Port at the time of the Song and Yuan Ding Revolution, and even dominate the rise and fall of a port (mainly Xing), which is rare in the history of Quanzhou and even China's overseas transportation.
As Chen Ziqiang, an expert in the history of southern Fujian, said:
"The reason why the Pu family can play a long-term and significant influence in the overseas transportation and trade industry of Quanzhou Port is, of course, due to its own internal factors: it has been engaged in overseas trade for generations, has rich experience in operating overseas trade, is familiar with the customs of overseas countries, and has constructed a network of internal and external, government and non-governmental relations in the long process. But more importantly, the historical era in which it is located provides a broad space for development and creates the glory of the Pu family. ”
Every choice they made, whether they moved here during the prosperous period of Quanzhou Port, or joined Kublai Khan's camp and became the latter's right hand in opening up overseas trade, adapted to the needs of history, and the historical revolution at the time of the Song and Yuan Dynasties provided them with favorable opportunities and a stage for the use of force.
In 1366, the Yisi Baxi Rebellion ended with the success of the Yuan dynasty government forces in suppressing the rebels and regaining control of Quanzhou. The devastating blow to the port of Quanzhou was devastating, with a large number of merchants fleeing, both Chinese and foreigners, who emigrated to other parts of China with money, trade relations, and resources. For example, the Quanzhou maritime merchants represented by Zhu Daoshan first defected to Zhang Shicheng, engaged in overseas trade in the port of Loujiang in Taicang, and then took the lead in leading the first foreign trading group to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, and received courtesy and preferential treatment from Zhu Yuanzhang.
In contrast, the situation of the Pu family is much more tragic. For example, Ming Chen Maoren wrote the "Quannan Magazine" and said: "My Emperor Taizu forbade the descendants of Pu Shou Geng and Sun Shengfu (a close confidant of Pu Shou Geng) in Quanzhou, and they must not be despised by Shi, and the crime of guiding the Yuan and Song dynasty in their ancestors should be punished, so they will eventually be destroyed." Pu Shougeng's great-grandson Pu Benchu was able to read and enter the army only after his mother's surname was Yang. Among the descendants of the Pu surname, there are also those who do not change their surnames, who have lived on boats for generations and are engaged in fishing, and there are also those who change their surnames to Wu (close to Pu Yin), Huang and Bu. Quanzhou Overseas Transportation History Museum in the late 1950s to do a survey in Fashi, found that "the surname Bu accounts for more than half of the population of the village, it is said that there are descendants of Pu ShouGeng here, there was an anti-Pu movement in Quanzhou at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and the pu surname was afraid of being linked, so the phase rate was changed to the bu surname." Some descendants of the Pu surname simply left Quanzhou and lived in Yongchun, Dehua, Zhao'an and other places to continue the spice business. To this day, among the descendants of Pu ShouGeng, there are still people who are engaged in the spice industry and operate incense factories in Yongchun, Dehua and other places in the "Xiangdu".
Resources:
Su Jilang," On the Relationship between Pu Shou Geng's Yuan Yuan and the Local Forces in Quanzhou
Zhuang Weijie and Zhuang Jinghui, "Quanzhou Song Ship Spices and Pujia Incense Industry"
Mao Jiajia"Pu Shou Geng Deeds Examination"
Chen Ziqiang, "On the Contribution of the Pu Shou Geng Family to the Overseas Trade of Quanzhou Port" and so on
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* This article is excerpted from the "National Humanistic History" october 2021, the original title is "also official and business, the unity of officials and businessmen: The Quanzhou Pu family at the time of the Song and Yuan Ding Revolution", with abridgements, this article is an exclusive manuscript of "National Humanistic History", readers are welcome to forward the circle of friends.