The Story of Zaytun

Abstract

Columbus may have ended up in a “new world” but he was seeking an ancient one. He had devoured Marco Polo’s accounts of the legendary wealth of Quanzhou, from which the Venetian vagabond sailed for home.

There are no people in the world wealthier than the Chinese.

—Ibn Battutā (Arab traveler, 1304–1358)¹

Columbus may have ended up in a “new world” but he was seeking an ancient one. He had devoured Marco Polo’s accounts of the legendary wealth of Quanzhou, from which the Venetian vagabond sailed for home.

Zaytun (the Arab’s name—a homonym for “olive”, symbol of peace) was the largest port on earth, rivaling Alexandria in Egypt. Start of the Silk Road of the Sea, this was the legendary port of call for Ibn Battuta, Sinbad, and Admiral Zheng Hé, who 70 years before Columbus sailed the seas in 440-foot treasure ships that would have dwarfed Columbus’ little Santa Maria.

Columbus never made it to Zaytun, but I have. That mystic “City of Light” is just a 90-min drive up the coast from my adopted home of Xiamen (which a few centuries ago was part of Quanzhou).

At this city (what) you must know is the Haven of Zaytun, frequented by all the ships of India, which bring thither spicery and all other kinds of costly wares. It is the port also that is frequented by all the merchants of Manzi, for hither is imported the most astonishing quantity of goods and of precious stones and pearls, and from this they are distributed all over Manzi. And I assure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere, destined for Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zaytun; for it is one of the greatest havens in the world for commerce.

—Marco Polo.²

Zaytun’s True Wealth Marco Polo was impressed by Zaytun’s gems, pearls, porcelain, and silk, but he overlooked the true wealth of this mythic port—the place and the people! Zaytun was blessed with an unparalleled natural wealth and beauty that the enlightened inhabitants maintained as meticulously as their miniature landscapes, which have been famous throughout Asia for 1,000 years.

Zaytun was a city of gardens, lakes and forests, ringed by mountains, facing the sea, and nestled between two great rivers. Zaytun, with its three great concentric city walls, had a storybook setting that has inspired Chinese poets and philosophers for over 1,000 years (Fig. 2.1).

Fig. 2.1

Zayton in 15th century Marco Polo book

It is no wonder that the great Arab traveler Ibn Battuta remarked upon Quanzhou folks’ love of gardens. The entire city was indeed like a miniature garden but on a gigantic scale, with each citizen playing their part—even as they do today.

Five Thousand Years of Balance For 1,000 years, Quanzhou folks have crafted their prize-winning miniature landscapes not to win prizes but for the sheer beauty of it. And even as they revel in the judicial juxtaposition of stone and miniature trees, so they have adapted their city to the confines of their unique topography to create not just family gardens but neighborhood gardens, public parks and city forests that reinforce rather than destroy their environment. I suspect this uniquely Chinese sense of balance and long-term perspective explains how China has survived for 5,000 years.

“Land is Life” is an old Chinese adage that proved true in Quanzhou. Both land and inhabitants thrived, and the City of Light became a global commercial and cultural crossroads—a melting pot where merchants, diplomats, philosophers and missionaries from all over the world coexisted peacefully, intermarried, and most importantly, learned from one another.

Jerusalem of Asia UNESCO dubbed Quanzhou a “World Museum of Religion”, because the city hosted every major religion, from Nestorian Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism to Islam. Quanzhou’s Muslim community supposedly dates back to the day of Mohammed himself, and the Persian Manichean religion survives today only in Quanzhou. Quanzhou people not only did not lack diversity of religion or philosophy, they were also well grounded academically. Called the “Academy Upon the Sea”, Quanzhou produced 2,454 “Jinshi”, successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations, 20 prime ministers, and 950 nationally acclaimed scholars.

World Citizens Broad exposure to world philosophies, religions and academics helped nurture the uniquely global outlook that insured Quanzhou folks’ prosperity both at home and abroad. Today, over 7.2 million overseas Chinese,³ and 40 percent of Taiwan’s Han Chinese, trace their roots to Quanzhou. But Fujianese were a force to be reckoned with long before the City of Light became a beacon for the world.

The Fujian Flame As we’ll see in China’s best maritime museum (see this chapter), China’s great maritime tradition was born right here in Fujian over 2,000 years ago, when King Fuchai built a shipyard near Fuzhou. Our province is named after King Fuchai, as are the great Fujian boats (“Fuchuan”), with their prows’ painted “dragon eyes” that enabled boats to see where they were going—which too often was straight into the mouth of a watery hell. And a few thousand years before that, the Minyue people of Fujian were the world’s first truly ocean-going explorers. The ancestors of the Austronesians, they crossed from Pingtan Island to Taiwan, and from there settled the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans, from Hawaii and Easter Island in the east to New Zealand in the south.

The full extent of their bravery is seen when you read that Guang Sima claimed that during the 10th century, fully 40 percent to 50 percent of ships traveling from Fujian to north China were lost at sea! Even in the 19th century, many were lost simply sailing the coast between Hong Kong and Xiamen. So, it was with some awe that Koreans recorded the arrival of Quanzhou merchants as early as 1017. Quanzhou traders also visited Manchuria and Japan. Su Shi wrote:

Only the crafty merchants of Fujian dare to travel to Koryo where the kingdom urges them to seek profits. Men such as Xu Jian of Quanzhou are legion.⁴

But if men such as Xu Jian were legion, it was partly because they had so little flat land back home to hang onto.

“Eight parts mountain, one part water, one part field” (八山一水一分田) Fujian is blessed with everything but flat land. So much of Fujian is vertical that we could easily have the biggest province in China if someone flattened it. A millennium ago, Fujianese sought more farm land with massive land reclamation projects, but even after draining the malarial marshes and pushing back the sea, farm land was still inadequate, so the intrepid Fujianese took to commerce—and here they found their calling.

Fujianese Integrity Over the centuries, Fujianese developed a reputation not only for business prowess but also for unimpeachable integrity. In 1912, Reverend Pitcher wrote in In and About Amoy:

...what shall we say of them (Fujianese)? They are a part of a wonderful people...

One hears all kinds of comment upon the deceptiveness of the Chinese and yet in business circles, the commercial world, they have the reputation of being the most straightforward and conscientious merchants in the whole Eastern hemisphere. This holds true here in Amoy...You may always depend upon the man with whom you may be dealing to deliver the goods. No matter how much they may lose in the transaction the Chinese have the reputation of fulfilling their contracts every time to the letter.⁵

It was the people, as much as the place, which made Zaytun the natural start of the Silk Road of the Sea. And, of course, there was also Zaytun’s silk…

The first city which we reached after our sea voyage was the city of Zaytun... Zaytun is an immense city. In it are woven the damask silk and satin fabrics which go by its name, and which are superior to the fabrics of Khansa and Khan-Baliq. The port of Zaytun is one of the largest in the world, or perhaps the very largest. I saw in it about a hundred large junks; as for small junks, they could not be counted for multitude.

—Ibn Battuta, Arab Traveler (1304–1358).⁶

Silk Road of the Sea “Silk Road” evokes images of deserts and camels, but the Maritime Silk Road accounted for much of the trade because one ship carried as much as 700 camels (and ships didn’t spit at you). While Fujianese sailed the seven seas, the rest of the world sailed to Zaytun for Chinese medicines, tropical fruits, agricultural products such as Quanzhou’s Anxi tea, the famed white porcelain of Quanzhou’s Dehua (one of China’s four great porcelain centers), and of course Fujian’s famous silks—the best of which Ibn Battuta claimed were produced in Zaytun (from which we get the English word “satin”).

Over 3,000 years ago, silk was worth its weight in gold in the West. The Roman poet Horace (65–8 B.C.) wrote about silk, and Lucan (39–65) wrote of “Cleopatra’s white breasts…revealed by the fabric… close-woven by the shuttle of the Seres (Chinese).”

The Secret of Silk For centuries, Westerners beguiled by visions of Cleopatra’s silky undies sought to discover silk’s origin. Pliny (23–79), in Natural History, wrote that silk grew on trees.

The first race encountered is the Seres, so famous for the fleecy product of their forests. This pale floss, which they find growing on the leaves, they wet with water, and then comb out, furnishing thus a double task to our womankind in first dressing the threads, and then again of weaving them into silk fabrics. So has toil to be multiplied; so have the ends of the earth to be traversed: and all that a Roman dame may exhibit her charms in transparent gauze.

To safeguard silk’s secret, China forbade the export of raw silk. Silk fabric was sent through Constantinople to the Island of Cos, where it was unwoven and used to produce Roman nobility’s ethereal garments. Silk’s secret was discovered only in 550, when Nestorian monks secreted silkworms in bamboo tubes and smuggled them out of China. But the production of porcelain was a tougher nut to crack.

Zaytun Porcelain Even more desirable than Zaytun’s silk was her porcelain. One of China’s top porcelain centers, Quanzhou’s delicate wares so bewitched Western rulers that some monarchs bankrupted national treasuries to amass their vast collections (see Chap. 13).

Fujian—Established Happiness With her silk, porcelain, tea and other treasures, this province well deserved the name of “Fujian (福建, Fukien in old Romanization):”

The name Fukien, which means ‘established happiness’, in a large measure characterizes the people of this district. I think we may safely go further and say that this is true of the whole province. What we mean is this: They are not antagonistic to foreigners... With the exception of a few occasions, the Chinese in these parts have never exhibited any opposition to the stranger within their gates.

—Pitcher, In and About Amoy, 1912, p. 96

Unfortunately, that happiness was soon to be disestablished…

Rise and Fall Zaytun was bustling by the early seventh century when Mohammed’s two disciples supposedly arrived, followed closely by Nestorian Christians, Manicheans, and adherents of virtually every other religion and philosophy. By the thirteenth century, Quanzhou was a magnificent city with three concentric walls encircling the central government area, inner city, and foreigner’s quarters.

China and India together accounted for over half of the world’s GNP. In March 2014, a Harvard Business Review article noted that before the First Opium War, China’s economy was more open and market-driven than the economies of Europe. Angus Madison, a British economic historian, claimed that China accounted for 29 percent of the globe’s GNP as late as 1820. But within a century of Zheng Hé’s day the legendary City of Light had been extinguished.

Before his seventh voyage in 1432, Zheng Hé erected a tablet in Changle (near Fuzhou), in which he claimed to have “unified seas and continents” and “the countries beyond the horizons from the ends of the earth have all become subjects”. But his great expeditions had taken a heavy toll on the land—especially on the common folk, who received nothing in return for their sacrifices to build the fleets.

While Westerners made a killing at commerce (Magellan’s crew once sold 26 tons of cloves for 10,000 times the cost), the imperial fleet was built primarily to impress the world with the glories of China and, of course, her emperor. And the ships returned to China loaded down not with practical commodities but cargoes of exotic gifts and luxuries for the imperial court (primarily the corrupt eunuchs).

The emperor decried the waste, saying, “I do not care for foreign things. I accept them because they come from far away and show the sincerity of distant peoples, but we should not celebrate this.” His sentiments echoed those of Chinese 1,500 years earlier, whom Pliny wrote were:

...inoffensive in their manners indeed; but, like the beasts of the forest, they eschew the contact of mankind; and, though ready to engage in trade, wait for it to come to them instead of seeking it out.

Dousing the City of Light Not long after Zheng Hé’s death, China closed her doors and destroyed the greatest navy the world had ever seen. Whereas the Ming Dynasty navy had thousands of ships in the early 1400s, within decades it was a capital offense to build boats with more than two masts.

In 1525, the Ming emperor ordered the destruction of all seafaring ships, and the arrest of the merchants who sailed them. By 1551, it was a crime to sail the seas in a ship with more than one mast.

Rekindling the City of Light Zaytun had so captured the imagination of foreigners that some thought it was China’s capital! In 1515, Giovanni d’Empoli wrote: “The Grand Can [Khan] is the King of China, and he dwells at Zaytun.” But trade ceased, the ports silted up, and that mystic City of Light was snuffed out. Thanks to a couple of decades of dramatic reform and opening up, however, Quanzhou’s new generation is as excited about their future as they are proud of their past, and Quanzhou is becoming once again a global commercial and cultural crossroads.

No. 3 in GDP Growth In spite of a few centuries of obscurity, modern Quanzhou people still possess their ancestors’ age-old knack for business. In the decade before Quanzhou won double gold medals in the international competition for livable communities, this resurrected city’s annual GDP grew an average of 26 percent—the third fastest amongst China’s top 212 cities. And Quanzhou is using this newfound wealth to make itself a better place to live.

Return to the Garden City Quanzhou people are once again managing their city with the same meticulous care as they lavish upon their gardens and miniature landscapes. And Quanzhou gardening is grassroots, not a top-down affair begun by bureaucrats spouting “One Earth” slogans. In just a four-year period, for example, Quanzhou youth spent 1.3 million man-hours planting over 6 million trees, with the total afforestation area reaching 71,600 ha in 2021.

From family gardens to neighborhood gardens, city parks, forests, and lakes, Quanzhou people are again molding their city to their unique environment, rather than wrecking that environment to accommodate urban sprawl.

Off the Wall Quanzhou, once famous for its city walls, now has a new wall. This 1 billion-yuan project, with its grand battlements, towers and gates, recaptures the feel of old Zaytun—but it has many practical uses. The wall shields the city from floods, offers beautiful roadside gardens and forests for recreation, and the parallel ring road deflects traffic around the city and lessens congestion and pollution. Even the wall’s interior is put to use. The endless row of rooms will accommodate Quanzhou folks’ entrepreneurial bent as they rent them out for shops, work areas, cafes.

Endless Cultural Traditions Quanzhou is also resurrecting and breathing new life into its numerous cultural sites and traditions. This ancient city of traders, educators, philosophers, and adherents of virtually all major religions, also gave birth to Chinese marionettes, Southern Shaolin Kungfu, and Southern Chinese music and opera. Quanzhou produced the prized blanc de Chine porcelain proudly displayed to this day in museums around the world. Hui’an’s 17,000-year tradition of stonework attracts admirers and buyers from all over the planet.

Dozens of architectural relics include one of Islam’s top 10 mosques, the last temple to the Persian Mani, and engineering marvels like the ancient Luoyang and Anping stone bridges (longest in the world). Quanzhou is also famous for its unique cuisines, and, of course, the Anxi tea that sparked the Boston Tea Party.

Above Ground, Not Below Some experts claim that modern Quanzhou has more archaeological artifacts than any Chinese city but Beijing or Xi’an,⁷ but as Quanzhou people quickly point out, “Xi’an’s heritage is below ground—ours is above!”.

Marco Polo Describes the Great Haven of Zaytun

By Marco Polo (Yule-Cordier Edition, Volume II, 1903 edition and 1920 addenda).

Now when you quit Fuju (Fuzhou) and cross the River, you travel for five days south-east through a fine country, meeting with a constant succession of flourishing cities, towns, and villages, rich in every product. You travel by mountains and valleys and plains, and in some places by great forests in which are many of the trees which give Camphor. There is plenty of game on the road, both of bird and beast. The people are all traders and craftsmen of Fuju. When you have accomplished those five days journey you arrive at Zaytun, which is also subject to Fuju.

At this city you must know is the Haven of Zaytun, frequented by all the ships of India, which bring thither spicery and all other kinds of costly wares. It is the port also that is frequented by all the merchants of Manzi, for hither is imported the most astonishing quantity of goods and of precious stones and pearls, and from this they are distributed all over Manzi. And I assure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere, destined for Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zaytun; for it is one of the greatest havens in the world for commerce.

The Great Kaan derives a very large revenue from the duties paid in this city and haven; for you must know that on all the merchandise imported, including precious stones and pearls, he levies a duty of 10 percent, or in other words takes tithe of everything. Then again the ship’s charge for freight on small wares is 30 percent, on pepper 44 percent, and on lignaloes, sandalwood, and other bulky goods 40 percent, so that between freight and the Kaan’s duties the merchant has to pay a good half the value of his investment (though on the other half he makes such a profit that he is always glad to come back with a new supply of merchandise). But you may well believe from what I have said that the Kaan hath a vast revenue from this city.

There is a great abundance here of all provision for every necessity of man’s life. (It is a charming country, and the people are very quiet, and fond of an easy life. Many come hither from Upper India to have their bodies painted with the needle in the way we have elsewhere described, there being many adepts at this craft in the city.)

Let me tell you, and also that in this province there is a town called TYUNJU where they make vessels of porcelain of all sizes, the finest that can be imagined. They make it nowhere but in that city, and thence it is exported all over the world. Here is abundant and very cheap, insomuch that for a Venice groat you can buy three dishes so fine that you could not imagine better.

I should tell you that in this city (i.e. of Zaytun) they have a peculiar language. (For you must know that throughout all Manzi they employ one speech and one kind of writing only, but yet there are local differences of dialect, as you might say of Genoese, Milanese, Florentines, and Neapolitans, who though they speak different dialects can understand one another.)

And I assure you that the Great Kaan has as large customs and revenues from this kingdom of Chonka (Fujian?) as from Kinsay, aye and more too.

We have now spoken of but three out of the nine kingdoms of Manzi, to wit Yanju and Kinsay and Fuju. We could tell you about the other six, but it would be too long a business; so we will say no more about them.

And now you have heard all the truth about Cathay and Manzi and many other countries, as has been set down in this book....

Touring Zaytun—A Sample Itinerary

An official Quanzhou brochure boasts “2,000 tourist sites famous at home and abroad”, so where on earth (or China) do you start? With a few dozen trips to Quanzhou under my belt (eat your heart out, Columbus), I suggest the following simple itinerary.

• 1. Maritime Museum The first stop in Zaytun should be the UNESCO-sponsored Maritime Museum—China’s biggest and best! After enjoying these eye-opening bilingual exhibits you’ll have a better handle on not only ancient China’s marvelous maritime achievements but also ancient Quanzhou’s pivotal role in both domestic and international affairs. And after the museum, head downtown.

• 2. Zhongshan Road Historic District was so abuzz with activity 1,000 years ago that one visitor said it was “intoxicating”. Treasure Street had more gems, jewels, and gold than any place on the planet.

The Zhongshan Road restoration and preservation project was awarded the “Excellent Relic Protection in Asian-Pacific Area” in UNESCO’s Relic Protection Campaign. After a stroll along this delightfully shaded street, enjoy a dozen major sites all within walking distance (or catch a pedicab if you can wake the operator). With a good three dozen tours of Quanzhou under my belt (and excellent Quanzhou cuisine hanging over it!), I suggest this simple itinerary:

Downtown Sites

• 1. Ashab Mosque One of Islam’s top 10 holy sites. Next door is…

• 2. Sri Lankan Prince’s Home, tourist shopping mall behind it.

• 3. Guandi Temple adjoins the Sri Lankan Prince’s Home.

• 4. Old Chinese Architecture, beautifully rebuilt as shops.

• 5. Confucius Temple is only a 10-min walk west of Ashab. Nice literary museum.

• 6. Copper Buddha Temple, park, lake and pavilion.

• 7. At Historic Zhongshan Road—the restoration project won a UNESCO award! As you stroll, sample local snacks, and exotic west China delicacies pedaled by Xinjiang Muslim vendors.

• 8. Side Streets lead to hidden treasures like ancient officials’ homes.

• 9. Quannan Protestant Church Quanzhou has over 170 Protestant churches.

• 10. Dr Sun Yat-sen left an inscription in, of all places, a dentist office! It is near the intersection clock tower, on the left.

• 11. Clock Tower—a timely landmark to get your bearings.

• 12. Kaiyuan Temple Complex (includes Twin Pagodas, Buddhist Museum, and Song Dynasty Ship Exhibition) is just west of the Clock Tower.

• 13. Peiyuan High School (培元中学), started 100 years ago by a missionary with the London Presbyterian Mission, has inscriptions by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his wife Soong Ling Qing.

• 14. Zhongshan Park is nice for a break; great shops in vicinity, including an extensive art supply shop by the South Gate.

• 15. Food! I moved to China primarily because Chinese food is too expensive in America—and Quanzhou cuisine fits the bill perfectly. Review the chapter on Quanzhou cuisine, then try any of the hundreds of fine restaurants, or try out the “Delicacy Street” just east of the puppet store about a 15-min walk.

• 16. Goddess Mazu Temple, very south of town.

• 17. Quanzhou Angel Sculpture/dancing fountain (in intersection).

City Outskirts

• 1. Muslim Holy Tombs (just east of the Maritime Museum).

• 2. Overseas Chinese Museum. Most overseas Chinese are from Fujian, and most of them from Quanzhou (especially Jinjiang), hence the museum.

• 3. Qingyuan Mountain to the north (many sites, including China’s largest Taoist statues, and carvings of the three Tibetan lamas).

• 4. Southern Shaolin Temple—home of Southern Shaolin Kungfu, the young abbot Master Shi is putting Quanzhou’s martial arts back on the map.

• 5. Luoyang Bridge, one of my favorite sites, is just to the north.

• 6. Jiuri Mountain, official start of the Silk Road, is a few kilometers west of the city.

• 7. Stone Bamboo Shoot—a fertility totem (we’ll leave that for later)

• 8. Wenling Delicacy Street—a lane dedicated to fine local cuisine.

• 9. Parks and Gardens—endless parks and gardens.

Also note the famous miniature landscapes.

Hit the Road! Quanzhou’s Counties

• 1. Hui’an (ancient walled city, Hui’an girls, extraterrestrial beaches, and China’s best stone masons).

• 2. Nan’an (birthplace of Koxinga, Cai’s Minnan Village, and Anping Bridge—our planet’s longest stone bridge).

• 3. Jinjiang (our planet’s last Manichaean temple, Muslim Ancestral Hall of Chendai, ancient kilns).

• 4. Anxi (home of the tea that sparked the Boston Tea Party).

• 5. Dehua (ancient porcelain center, and origin of the blanc de Chine porcelain coveted by collectors and museums worldwide).

• 6. Yongchun (incense capital, and Dongguan Bridge).

• 7. Shishi (garment capital of China, Sisters-in-Law Tower, and China’s largest ocean theme park).

Whether ancient Zaytun or modern Quanzhou, there’s plenty to see, but to appreciate both, start your visit with China’s best Maritime Museum (Fig. 2.2).

Fig. 2.2

Quanzhou Scenic Areas

FormalPara Notes

• 1. “Muslim Journeys | Item #84: Ibn Battuta Describes Chinese Ships on the Indian Coast”, September 14, 2022 http://bridgingcultures-muslimjourneys.org/items/show/84.

• 2. Polo, Marco (1920) The Travels of Marco Polo, translated by Henry Yule, edited and annotated by Henri Cordier. John Murray: London.

• 3. Quanzhou China, Overview (2020) http://www.enquanzhou.com/2020-05/11/c_424045_2.htm.

• 4. Clark, Hugh R (2019) “Frontier Discourse and China’s Maritime Frontier: China’s Frontiers and the Encounter with the Sea through Early Imperial History.” Journal of World History, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 1–33.

• 5. Pitcher, Philip Wilson (1912) “In and about Amoy: some historical and other facts connected with one of the first open ports in China,” Methodist Publishing House, Shanghai.

• 6. 1. Ibn Battuta, the “Prince of Travelers”, was born in Tangier on 24 February, 1304, and after a stay in India was dispatched by the Sultan Muhammad Thugluq to China. After many adventures, he returned home in 1349, having traveled, according to Yule’s estimate, over 75,000 miles by land and sea. “The Traveler of Islam” died 20 years later—but fortunately not before dictating his travels (which many disbelieved at the time) to a royal secretary, Ibn Juzayyat Fes.

• 7. Pearson Richard, Min, Li and Guo, Li (2002), “Learning about Quanzhou; the Archaeology of a Medieval Port in Fujian, China”, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 6, No. 1 (March 2002), pp. 23–59. Published by Springer.