The legacy of Quanzhou, Fujian province, now recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage, testifies to how authorities and society together established a commercial maritime hub, Wang Kaihao reports.

Site of Southern Clan Office, excavated in 2019. (WANG JUN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Editor's note: On Sunday, a group of monuments in Quanzhou, Fujian province, were inscribed onto UNESCO's World Heritage List, becoming China's 56th World Heritage Site. China Daily reporters traveled to this historic commercial hub to unearth an ancient maritime saga from its archaeological ruins, temples and industrial relics.

It is said that Jiuri Mountain was where the early immigrants in the third century from North China to Quanzhou, Fujian province, climbed and, facing north, were overcome by nostalgia as they gazed in the direction of their war-torn home.

But times change, and centuries later, their descendants, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), went to the mountain summit but this time their gaze was in the opposite direction.

Their focus was on the ocean and the dreams it inspired. They prayed for a propitious wind, and wished for safe passage for the merchant ships, which secured the harbor city's prosperity.

The prayers on the summit survive and can be seen in the 10 red cliff inscriptions, dating from 1174 to 1266. Many more inscriptions are believed to once have existed.

As shown by ancient documents, local governors of the Song Dynasty would lead a group of officials and members of the royal clan to make sacrificial offerings to a temple on the mountain every summer and winter. They wanted the monsoon to take the ships to their destinations safe and sound.

The Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions is one of the 22 components of "Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China", which was inscribed onto the World Heritage List on Sunday during the ongoing 44th Session of the World Heritage Committee, hosted in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province.

In the eyes of scholars, these precious stone inscriptions are not just a historical archive providing a reliable meteorological record.

"They also reflect the state power and a national-level system of the Song Dynasty to promote, manage and control maritime trade," says Fu Jing, deputy director at the Institute of Architectural History affiliated to the China Architecture Design and Research Group.

Site of Southern Clan Office, excavated in 2019. (WANG JUN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Growing ambition

As a person central to the drafting of documents for the World Heritage status bid, Fu, also a Quanzhou native, knows the importance of impressing the World Heritage Committee.

"The 22 components cannot be seen as 22 scattered spots," she explains. "They are closely linked to one another, functionally, spatially and culturally, and jointly exhibit the key attributes of Quanzhou's regional economic and social system shaped by the surging wave of world maritime trade."

The historic sites, now accorded World Heritage status, include administrative buildings, the city's infrastructure, such as city gates and walls, religious sites that marked multicultural communities, production sites for ceramics and iron, as well as a transportation network formed by bridges, docks and pagodas.

As Fu explains, a consensus was reached between the authorities and the general public during the Song Dynasty to make full use of maritime trade, because tense relations between the dynasty and its neighbors to the north made cross-border trading routes on land unstable.

"The focus of development was thus shifted toward the ocean," she says.

After the Song Dynasty lost half of its territory and entered the Southern Song period (1127-1279), maritime trade became even more crucial to prolong its rule.

A historic opportunity came upon Quanzhou. From the 10th to 14th centuries, global maritime trade experienced a remarkable period of prosperity, a golden age.

Known as Zayton overseas, the city boomed and surpassed Guangzhou, in today's Guangdong province, to become the country's biggest harbor in the early 13th century. This upward trend continued into the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) as its Mongol rulers also upheld the national policy to support thriving maritime trade.

"As the fulcrum in the East, Quanzhou functioned as an engine for trade across the Asian seas," Fu says.

A 14th-century Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta once wrote: "The harbor of Zayton is among the biggest in the world, or rather the biggest."

Past and present stand side by side. (CHEN YINGJIE / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Building of prosperity

In 1087, the Maritime Trade Office was set up by the Song Dynasty government in Quanzhou. Mixing present-day customs, administration of foreign trade licenses, exchange for imported goods, and a reception agency for foreign diplomats, the office was extraordinarily busy.

"Its establishment marked the official designation of Quanzhou as a national-level seaport for overseas trade," says Wang Bo, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "On its best days, the office alone contributed about 7 percent of the country's total annual tax revenue during the Southern Song period, which is quite remarkable."

Nevertheless, none of it remains, and only several of today's street names roughly indicate its location. To further unveil the city's historical significance, and also to prepare for the bidding for the World Heritage status, Wang led a group of archaeologists to search for its ruins in 2019.

In spite of the mission's difficulty, Wang was surprised to find that spatial patterns of ancient Quanzhou rigidly followed feng shui theory and traditional Chinese urban design. In-depth and comprehensive research of these ideas, which reflect the relationship between the city's denizens and their environment, helped him to review how the city's layout was originally planned and, in 2020, finally dig out architectural ruins of a high-level ancient office building. Bricks were later unearthed with inscriptions to further prove it was the Maritime Trade Office.

"Thanks to this office, Quanzhou maintained a stable relationship with the overseas market," Wang says. "And as a reflection of Chinese philosophy, which has lasted for millennia, it is also a reminder for today's people to better protect our cultural heritage."

The similar working process also enabled his team to find and excavate the site of the Southern Clan Office in 2019, another agency crucial for maritime trade during the Song Dynasty.

The office was set up in 1102 in present-day Henan province to take care of royal kinsmen. After the fall of Henan to the Jurchen, the office, along with some members of the royal family, relocated to South China until it was finally relocated to Quanzhou in 1130.

Zhou Zhenping, deputy mayor of Quanzhou who is in charge of culture-related work, believes that it marked a pivotal moment in the history of Quanzhou. "The Song royal clan actively participated in social and business affairs in Quanzhou," Zhou explains. "They helped the high-end markets of the city blossom, as consumers of spices and jewels, thus, greatly stimulated imports.

"Meanwhile, some became government officials, including head of the Maritime Trade Office, making great contributions to the development of the port and other infrastructure," she says.

A bridge of trade

The tide still rises and falls, day after day, in front of the Estuary and Shihu stone docks, which no longer receive sailors from afar. Liusheng and Wanshou pagodas remain, but today's cargo ships do not need them to navigate.

Still, visiting these sites is like a pilgrimage to the past and a journey to reconstruct the full picture of a trade system.

For its protection, no motor vehicle is allowed to pass over Luoyang Bridge, about 10 kilometers away from downtown Quanzhou. It is quiet now, but it is easy for today's visitors to imagine the glorious heyday of the 731-meter-long bridge with its 47 grand arches, and 968-year history.

"In its time, it was a super construction over the sea and represented the country's highest level of bridge-building techniques and wisdom," says Wu Yujuan, director of Quanzhou Cultural Heritage Conservation and Research Center.

Wu says local people invented a method to cultivate oysters on the foundations of the bridge to cement the construction as glue. Consequently, in ancient times, fishing them from water was strictly prohibited by local government.

Led by the government, construction of this transportation hub－connecting the port and hinterland－lasted six years. It involved participation of all levels of society, according to the stone steles written by great Song Dynasty calligrapher Cai Xiang, who then served as an official in Quanzhou. He recorded in minute detail how the bridge was planned and constructed, and what resources it took to finish this project.

Decades after Cai's death, a temple was erected beside the bridge to honor him, which is still a place of worship today.

Oysters still thrive under the bridge. They do not need to function as a glue like their ancestors, and people today can finally enjoy them at the dining table.

The city's lowliest living things once played a vital part in, quite literally, supporting Quanzhou's grand maritime ambitions. Now, centuries later, their descendants provide sustenance for those that help maintain that heritage.

Hu Meidong contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn