Records of Ancient Zaytun

Abstract

Quanzhou Shaolin Temple (泉州少林寺) It seems every Fujian village lays claim to: (1) tastiest food, (2) prettiest girls, and (3) deadliest Kungfu (not always in that order).

Quanzhou Shaolin Temple (泉州少林寺) It seems every Fujian village lays claim to: (1) tastiest food, (2) prettiest girls, and (3) deadliest Kungfu (not always in that order).

Each village has its own martial arts traditions, passed down only to those of the same surname. Many claim that all Southern Shaolin Kungfu originated right here in Quanzhou’s Shaolin Temple (Fujian’s Putian and Fuqing make the same claim, but 1,000 years ago Putian was part of Quanzhou anyway).

Fly or Drive? The Shaolin Temple is behind the Sports Stadium at the top of Zaytun Street (刺桐路), on Dongyue Hill (东岳山). It is exactly 1.1 km past the sign that says you only have 600 m to go. I asked the abbot about the discrepancy and he said: “It is 1.1 km if you drive, but Kungfu monks fly.”

Quanzhou Southern Shaolin Temple was built in the early Tang Dynasty by Zhikong, a monk from the Songshan Shaolin Temple up north. After the temple was destroyed in 1763, the Shaolin tradition continued to be taught in Congfu Temple (see below), but now that so many folks around the world are getting their kicks out of Kungfu, the Shaolin Temple was recently rebuilt. Each year, thousands of Kungfu enthusiasts make pilgrimages to this Mecca for martial arts enthusiasts (and also visit the two local martial arts schools).

Kungfu Architecture Notice the trimmings and carvings under the temple eaves. Unlike other temples, they all depict Southern Shaolin monks in different fighting postures (Fig. 7.1).

Fig. 7.1

Quanzhou Kung Fu Temple Architecture

Abbot Shi Changding I’d have never imagined a 30-year-old like Master Shi Changding (释常定) could be abbot of a Southern Shaolin Temple! Since he began Kungfu at age 13, Master Shi has made a name for himself, and helped put Quanzhou’s Southern Shaolin Temple back on the map. The young abbot is also a “Wushu” (martial arts) Colonel, assistant secretary-general of Quanzhou Martial Arts Association, adviser to the France-Fujian Martial Arts Association, and deputy to the NPC. He has also helped initiate many international exchange programs with martial arts groups and organizations throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Now Master Shi has set his sights on expanding the Southern Shaolin Complex (Fig. 7.2).

Fig. 7.2

Quanzhou Kung Fu Temple Abbott

Southern Shaolin Kungfu Museum

You’ll get lots of kicks out of the Martial Arts Hall of Quanzhou Sports Center. The four key exhibits are:

• 1. “Shaolin Martial Arts Handed on From Ancient Times and Developed in Quanzhou”.

• 2. “Heyday of Shaolin Giving Birth to a Multitude of Heroes”.

• 3. “Carry Forth the Good Tradition and Let 100 Flowers Blossom”.

• 4. “Make Friends with Martial Arts and Let the Seeds of Friendship Spread All Over the World”.

Stone Bamboo (石笋) Just outside the city’s western wall, sometime before 1011, someone erected the 4.18 m high “stone bamboo shoot”. But given the totem was the object of fertility worship (“shengzhi chongbai”, 生殖崇拜), I suspect that “bamboo shoot” is just a euphemism for the biological appendage that it closely resembles (though a bit big, granted). To make sure I did not miss the allusion, my companion exclaimed: “The shoot is aligned with those two hills. See? They’re the breasts! Can you tell?”

Fertility totems are still used in Thailand, where new brides rub against them to make sure that they have a baby boy. I don’t know if it works or not, but given China’s 1.413 billion population, I think they should erect a barricade around this shoot (Fig. 7.3).

Fig. 7.3

Stone Bamboo Shoot

After some personal problem, the prefectural magistrate, Gao Huilian, had the Stone Bamboo split in two; it was reassembled in the 15th century. Since this is the only fertility totem in the region, scholars assume it was erected by Indian traders (probably Shivaites).

Qingyuan Mountain (清源山) After the Maritime Museum, Ashab Mosque and Kaiyuan Temple (and Quanzhou’s world-famous puppets), my favorite Quanzhou site is Qingyuan Mountain, which was first mentioned in ancient texts around 2,200 years ago and has been famous for well over 1,000 years. Just three km north of the city, this 62-square-km national 5A-level tourist attraction is not only beautiful (“Fujian’s Fairy Land”) but also a holy site for many religions, including Buddhism, Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism. Even the founder of the Cao’an Manichaean Temple is said to have been buried there, though no one is sure where.

Qingyuan Mountain is the perfect destination when someone tells you to go take a hike, and the humble 498-m elevation offers a bit of respite from sweltering summer days. Secluded and silent, save for the sound of waterfalls and gurgling brooks, the densely wooded trails wind past pagodas, temples, and 36 caves. Pilgrims used to worship the caves’ hundreds of statues until they were destroyed by Red Guards during the “Cultural Revolution”.

Qingyuan’s vast collection of relics ranges from Old Stone Saint (老君岩), China’s largest Taoist statue, to the statues of the Three Tibetan Buddhist Lamas (三世佛) in Bixiao Cave (long thought to be Buddhas until the outer layer of concrete was removed to reveal they are Tibetan lamas). The Manichaean who founded Cao’an Temple, the planet’s last Manichaean temple, is buried on Qingyuan, though no one knows where.

Other popular Qingyuan Mountain sites include the statue of a seated Avalokitesvara, beside the Thousand-Hand Rocks, a statue of Sakyamuni inside Niche Cavern (on the left peak), and the tomb of Hong Yi. One of the best views of Quanzhou is from South Platform Rock. And you can reach all of these sites easily and safely, thanks to endless trails laid out by centuries of nature lovers and devotees of various religions who have laid out paths and steps—lots of steps!

Hours: 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Steps On his last trip to Quanzhou, Alan Smith, founder of LivCom, mopped his perspiring brow and said: “Chinese steps only go up—never down!”

Over the past few thousand years, Chinese have built steps up every hillside and mountain in China. No doubt, even Mount Everest has steps on the Chinese side, and Tibetans at the top sell mineral water, roasted water melon seeds, and peanuts.

Many is the time I’ve imagined myself to be the first to hike some remote hill, only to stumble across granite steps worn smooth by time and tourists. But on the bright side—it is not likely that hikers in China can ever get lost.

Old Stone Saint (老君岩) The Song Dynasty Old Stone Saint (“No. 1 Lao Tzu Under Heaven”) is China’s oldest Taoist sculpture, and the largest (5.63 m high by 8.01 m wide). Legend claims that if you rub his nose, you’ll live 120 years; rub his eye and you’ll reach 160. Folks used to say you’d die early if you rubbed his mouth, but such down-in-the mouth talk didn’t bolster tourism, so now locals brightly mouth off, “Rub mouth and get good luck!” Alas, 1,000 years of rubbing Lao Tzu the wrong way was rubbing his nose away, so a few years back they fenced him off and hired a guard (Fig. 7.4).

Fig. 7.4

China’s Largest Statue of Laozi

FormalPara Zaytun in the Eyes of Ibn Battuta

“The Muslims live in a town apart from the others…On the day that I reached Zaytun I saw there the amir who had come to India as an envoy with the present (to the sultan), and who afterward traveled with our party and was shipwrecked on the junk. He greeted me, and introduced me to the controller of the douane and saw that I was given good apartments (there). I received visits from the qadi of the Muslims, the shaykh al-Islam, and the principal merchants. Amongst the latter was Sharaf ad-Din of Tabriz, one of the merchants from whom I had borrowed at the time of my arrival in India, and the one who had treated me most fairly. He knew The Koran by heart and used to recite it constantly. These merchants, living as they do in a land of infidels, are overjoyed when a Muslim comes to them. They say “He has come from the land of Islam,” and they make him the recipient of the tithes on their properties, so that he becomes as rich as themselves. There was living at Zaytun, amongst other eminent shaykhs, Burhan ad-Din of Kazarun, who has a hermitage outside the town, and it is to him that the merchants pay the sums they vow to Shaykh Abu Ishaq of Kazarun.”

Holy Tombs (灵山伊斯兰教圣墓) A Ming Dynasty Stele in the Fuzhou Mosque’s courtyard claims Mohammed sent four disciples to China between 618 and 626.¹ One went to Guangzhou, one to Yangzhou, and two settled in Quanzhou. Sashye (Sa-ke-zu-the 3rd Saint) and Gaoshi (Wu-ko-su-the 4th Saint) were buried on the hill on the east edge of town, past the Maritime Museum, on the Holy Hill. This very grave site was so called because after the disciples were buried, villagers encountered supernatural signs on the hill (the hillside glowed at night, for instance).

Some say China’s first Muslims were not in Quanzhou but Chang’an, the ancient capital, in 650. But the tombs’ spindle-shaped granite columns are Tang Dynasty—at least 1,000 years old, so they’re ancient, regardless of who rests there, and they have been revered for a millennium. Furthermore, Mohammed is reputed to have said: “Seek knowledge, as far as China”, so when his persecuted followers fled to Africa, it is likely some came to China as well (along with the Manicheans and Nestorians).

The 1322 Renovation. An Arabic inscription on a granite stele records the tombs’ restoration in 1322. Part of it says, in effect, that Quanzhou Muslims.

...renovated this blessed Tomb, with the purpose of pleasing the most noble and majestic Allah and obtaining rich rewards from him... the two saints came to China in the time of Faghfur. They were reported to be men of high virtue. After their deaths, they passed from this incorruptible world into everlasting eternity. People believe in them in the hope of obtaining their benediction. Once in trouble or caught between two fires, they approach the Tomb begging for enlightenment by offering sacrifice. In so doing, they always obtain what they come for and return home in peace.²

Admiral Zheng Hé’s Pilgrimage Another slab records the visit of the great Muslim Chinese mariner Zheng Hé, who visited the tombs in 1417 before his 5th voyage, in which he also visited Mecca. After Zheng Hé departed, the local magistrate erected a monument to mark the event. It read:

The imperial envoy, commander-in-chief and eunuch Zheng Hé, is going to the country Hormuz and other countries across the sea, and made a pilgrimage to this Holy Tomb to crave the blessings and protection of the saints on the 16^th of the 5^th month in the 15^th year of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Yongle’s Period.¹

Zheng Hé offered sacrifices and prayed for safety (a common practice even with Muslims then). Whether prayers helped or not, Zheng Hé sailed most of the known world—and, incidentally, helped spread Islam throughout Southeast Asia.

Muslims don’t monopolize the Holy Hill, which also has Buddhist tombs scattered about, but the Muslims are taking back the territory. An army of stone masons, directed by architects armed with intricate sketches, is building dozens of new Muslim tombs (most for the Ding Clan—the primary clan in Chendai Village).

Windrocking Stone (风动石) As your guide leads you down the garden path to the tombs, on the right is the famous “Windrocking Stone”, inscribed with large Chinese characters meaning “wonder of nature”. Zhou Daoguang, a Ming Dynasty official, visited the stone, dubbed it “Jasper Ball”, and carved an inscription on the rock. Considered one of Quanzhou’s “Top Eight Spectacular Sights”, its claim to fame is that it “sways gently with the wind and moves with a mere touch of the hand”. My hosts said it was a “gift of Allah”, rivaling the “Swaying Tower of Esfahan”.²

Chinese have even written poems about the great wonder of nature:

The ball of a stone sways and sways above the lake,

and was christened the Purple Platform by Prefect the late.

The wintry moon from celestial palace gate emerges,

Shooting stars shower like beads on the bronze plate of earth.

A flowing stream swift as an arrow turns the sakya wheel,

Which looks the look of a mirror round from the Far Ball Hill.

Oft-time hear the shrill cries of cranes pass the sky;

Leisurely the fairies dawdle away their time and tide.

“It is good luck to move this stone!” a Muslim said. “It moves easily for the pure of heart.” Well, that’s me! So I placed a fingertip on it, and then a palm, an arm, my entire body—it did not budge. We finally wedged a stick under it, balanced a cell phone on the stick, and in unison three of us shoved—and the cell phone shook a little.

“See! See!”.

Blessed are the pure in heart.

There is also supposed to be a sweet spring trickling from beneath the stone, but it must have dried up at my approach. This infidel didn’t even see mud.

Water God Temple (Zhenwu Temple at Fashi, 法石镇武寺) Since the Song Dynasty, locals have worshipped Xianwu, the Water God, as well as offered sacrifices to the sea god, in this Shitou Street Temple. Even with rivers on both sides of the city, water has not always been easy to come by, as evident from a local legend.

Traveling out of Town

After the next part, we head for Quanzhou’s rural counties. Fortunately, roads are better than Beaton’s “new roads” in 1945. They’re even better than 1995, when it took me over 30 h to drive from Xiamen to Wuyi Mountain. Today, it is seven hours. Rev. Pitcher wrote in 1912:

Traveling in the Amoy district is a slow process, more often wearisome than otherwise—a peculiar wearisomeness of its own.

So far as south China is concerned there are no roads. The nearest approach to a road, generally speaking, is a narrow footpath, something like the cow paths that lead to our meadows, winding and twisting like some serpent among the paddy (rice fields). These paths are raised about a foot above the fields, and were originally made so as to mark the divisional lines between the property of different owners.

The only commissioner of these highways is the tramp of ceaseless thousands bearing their heavy burdens over them, from one generation to another. One never expects them to be kept in good order. No fences mark their boundary, no sign-posts point their direction. The stranger easily becomes confused and lost among boundless fields covered with a network of paths that seem to run in every direction but the right one.

FormalPara Notes

• 1. Hum Sin Hoon (2012) “Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration: Understanding the Legendary Chinese Admiral,” Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, p. 253.

• 2. In Esfahan, Iran, if either of the minarets flanking the tomb of Amu Abdollah (died in 1316) is shaken, the other minaret shakes as well.