(a) Influx of Persian Speakers from Seaborne Trade Routes

11

By the Tang 唐 period (618–907), important port cities such as Guangzhou 廣州 and Yangzhou 揚州 prospered and played major roles as commercial centers. A wide array of migrants, including Persians, were present in Guangzhou and Yangzhou.

12

Middle Eastern merchants were already traveling to East Asia by the first century (Wade 2010, 181). Antonino Forte pointed to the period between 148 and 845 as the period of greatest Iranian influence in China (1999). However, Iranians in the Tang Dynasty were more closely associated with Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism than Islam. Meanwhile, Ralph Kauz, citing an article by Rafael Israeli, emphasized the beginnings of Muslim immigration, which came mainly to southern China, and wrote that since the seventh century, Muslims have made up the majority immigrant group to China. These Muslim immigrants, mainly Arabs and Persians, first came to China by sea (Fan Ke 2001, 309–10; Israeli 2000).

13

In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Persian origin of the Liu 劉 clan of the Southern Han (Nan Han 南漢) in Guangdong 廣東 was noted, and the tombs of the Min 閩 Kingdoms of Southern Han and Fujian Persian pottery were excavated. Liu is considered a transliteration of ᶜAlī, also translated as Li 李 (Schottenhammer 2015, 3–4). “The 10th–12th centuries were to see quite intense interaction between the ports along the Maritime Silk Road, including those of Southeast Asia, and Chinese entrepôts along the coast of southern China” (Wade 2010, 181). During the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1276), the status of the most important port city on the coast of southern China shifted from Guangzhou and Yangzhou to Quanzhou in southern Fujian and continued until 1368, that is, the end of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (Fan Ke 2001, 312–14).

14

Since the early Northern Song (960–1127) period, sea traders surnamed Li and Pu were especially prominent in Chinese documents.⁵ Recently, Geoff Wade suggested that these “surnames” may refer to a specific group of Muslims, such as the Shi’ites (2010). In any case, it probably refers to the Persian-speaking people who made up the majority of Muslims traveling to and from the Indian Ocean at the time. They form category (a) for the purposes of this paper.

15

A large portion of the influx of Persian speakers to the Fujian area started during the Southern Song period, which consisted of seaborne trade route travelers. They started to settle in Quanzhou during the late Southern Song period and will form category (b) in the following section. The tide of incoming foreigners continued through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which will form category (d).

(b) Localized Persian Immigrants

16

During the Southern Song period, the immigrant population became settled and localized and they will form the second category, category (b). However, it would be simplistic to interpret them as having been completely sinicized. As an example of the category, we can discuss a figure of the late Southern Song, Pu Shougeng who controlled maritime trade at Quanzhou port in Fujian.

17

The author supports precedent studies to regard Pu Shougeng as a descendant of Persian merchants because Persian features in Islamic tombstones from Quanzhou suggest that a large part of the immigrants were Persians (Maejima 1952). Added to this, the contemporary epigraphic text of the early Yuan period written by Wang Pan 王磐 reports that Pu Shougeng was a merchant traveling along sea routes for business and was originally a Xiyu ren 西域人 (“people from the west”). Another epigraphic text by Wang Pan tells that Pu Shougeng was originally a Huihe ren 回紇人.⁶ Huihe originally meant Uighur, Turkish-speaking people from Turfan and other places in Central Asia. However, it also meant ‘Muslim’ during the Yuan period.⁷ Accordingly, the author infers that the Pu family, at least in Quanzhou, was most likely Muslim of Persian origin.⁸ Pu Shougeng gained economic and political influence at Quanzhou through his fleet and manpower for maritime trade from the late Southern Song to the early Yuan period. He was granted the title of zhaofushi 招撫使 (commander of the local militia) and shibo tiju 市舶提擧 (the head of shibosi 市舶司, maritime trade supervisorate) during the last years of the Southern Song period. Recent studies in China attested that Pu Shougeng actually bore the title zhigan 制幹, which is a substitute for yuanhai zhizhi shi 沿海制置使, the commander of the Southern Song’s Navy in the coastal provinces. Soon after his surrender to the Yuan, Pu Shougeng was appointed to be canzhi zhengshi 參知政事 (Assistant Administrator) of the Mobile Secretariat at Jiangxi 江西 in 1277 (remote appointment) and finally promoted to pingzhang zhengshi 平章政事 (governor) of the Mobile Secretariat (xingsheng 行省) at Quanzhou (see Liu 2015; Song [1369] 1978, Ch. 9:191, Ch. 10:204; Wu 1988).[^9]

18

The Pu family’s local influence seems to have lasted until the Yuan period. The old street names in Quanzhou City, which are still preserved today, are said to be related to the lost residence of Pu Shougeng, as is shown in figure 1. The fact that the Pu Shougeng’s residence was adjacent to the mosque Qingjingsi 清淨寺 (“pure and clean” temple) and occupied a large part of the foreigner’s settlement strongly suggests that taken together, the Pu family and Pu Shougeng himself were Persian Muslims.

(c) Newcomers Via Inland Routes: Muslim Elites from Central Asia and Iran

19

During the Yuan period, the population of the South China coastal region added what I categorize as (c): Newcomers via inland routes: Persian (and Turkish) elites from Central Asia and Iran. The strategy of the Mongol empire to rule Chinese society was behind the influx of category (c).

20

Soon after the Mongols conquered the Jin 金 dynasty (1115–1234), they had to build a governance and tax collecting system in Zhongyuan 中原 (the Central Plain of China). Since the size of the Mongol ruling class was too small compared to the huge population of subordinate Han 漢 Chinese, they mobilized every possible human resource in their realm and fully utilized their knowledge for the governance of agrarian society and their skill of financial management. Among them, there was a considerable number of Muslim elites from Central Asia and Iran. Their ancestors had surrendered to (and cooperated with) the Mongols during the war against the Qara Khitai Khanate and the Khwārazm Empire and they financially supported the Mongols and immigrated to China under Mongol rule (Rossabi 1981). Families from category (c) were incorporated into the Mongol ruling class through the recruiting system and continued to produce officials in Yuan China. These facts can be confirmed by Chinese and Persian historical sources and by the list of the names of Yuan officials in the Local Gazetteers of Zhenjiang 鎭江, Jinling 金陵 (present-day Nanjing) and the Fujian region (Yang 2003, 163–287; Mukai 2009).

(d) Newcomers via Seaborne Trade Routes

21

During the Yuan period, Quanzhou continued to be the most important port and prospered from maritime trade. Thus, there were maritime traders, ᶜUlamāᵓs (Arab “scholar”), and religious persons including Sūfīs who migrated to Quanzhou via sea routes. They form category (d) of this paper. As seen below, the Islamic institutions for Muslims were developed based on the contribution of this newcomer Muslim elite cluster via sea routes.

22

According to the itinerary of a Muslim traveler from Morocco, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (1304–1369), Quanzhou as well as other cities in China reserved an area for Muslims (which should be Quannan, though it was not perfectly exclusive for Muslims), who had their own religious leader, called Shaikh al-Islām, and an Islamic judge for the Muslims, called qāḍī. During his stay at Quanzhou around 1345, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa received visits from the qāḍī, Tāj al-Dīn of Ardabīl, Shaikh al-Islām Kamāl al-Dīn Abdullāh of Iṣfahān, and merchants Sharaf al-Dīn of Tabrīz, all of whom seemingly came from the cities in Iran (Ibn Baṭṭūṭa 1994, 4:894–95).

23

Ibn Baṭṭūṭa also mentioned an eminent Shaikh at Quanzhou, Burhān al-Dīn al-Kāzerūnī (of Kāzerūn), who was a representative of a Sūfī order, Kāzerūniyya established at Kāzerūn in Iran. He had a hānäqāh (hospice) outside the town to whom the merchants make the oblations made to the originator of the Sūfī order, Shaikh al-Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Shahtiyār al-Kāzerūnī (963–1033). According to Ralph Kauz, with Wittek’s addition to Köprülüzāde’s article, “the nisba al-Kāzerūnī means not only a person from or with relations to the said city but rather an adherent of the Sūfī order.” Kauz also says that the Kāzerūniyya extended a network of ḥānäqāhs in Anatolia, Iran, and the cities along the shores of the Indian Ocean such as Calicut and Quilon and never lost contact with their motherhouse in Kāzerūn (Kauz 2010, 61, 67). They give the meeting and living places of dervishes and offered accommodation and food for three days free of charge. The ḥānäqāh in Quanzhou was established after Burhān al-Dīn moved to Quanzhou on the tributary ship to the Yuan court during the Huangqing 皇慶 years (1312–1314) (Ibn Baṭṭūṭa 1994, 4:895; Huai et al.  [1763] 2000, Ch. 75: 39v–40r).¹⁰ The introduction of the ḥānäqāh would have involved the increase in the Muslim immigrant population of Quanzhou through the mid–fourteenth century, as discussed below.

Periodical Changes in the Muslim Community in Fujian during the Yuan Period

24

As seen in the former section, in Fujian during the Yuan period, both Chinese and Arabic historical sources testify to the existence of a Muslim population. Persian speakers made up a significant portion of the various types of migrants to the region corresponding to categories (a) to (d). However, there was not enough mapping and data about the spread of Islam in each region of China and about the number and periodical distribution of the migrants during this period. Accordingly, the author tried to gather some data.

25

Firstly, the author considered the sites of old mosques in China which, according to local tradition, originated during the Mongol period. The following map (figure 1) was created by the author based on the complete list of mosques in China by Wu Jianwei 呉建偉 (1995). We can see that the southeast coast, including Fujian, was one of the places of intensive Muslim population since early times.

26

Secondly, the prevalence of Muslim officials in Fujian province seems to have been higher than in other provinces, though there was a decreasing tendency toward the end of the Mongol period (Mukai 2010, 440, 2009, 83–84). Figure 2 shows the fluctuation of the number of officials with Islamic names (histogram).¹¹ Although not all these officials with Islamic names were necessarily Muslims, it shows that a significant number of Islamic officials had been appointed in Fujian province.

27

Simultaneously, maritime merchants and the descendants of Persians from overseas were part of a local, hereditary elite stratum. Arabic tombstones with some Persian and Turkish elements were excavated in the Fujian region, namely in Quanzhou, showing that the Yuan period was the peak of an influx of the Muslim population. Many entombed people are considered to have been Persian and Turkish speakers who were from an elite cluster in the Khwārazm empire. However, as mentioned in the former section, there were also some maritime traders, ᶜUlamāᵓs, and Sūfīs who had migrated to China via sea routes, category (d). The periodical distribution of the Arabic tombstones is shown in figure 2 (line graph) (see also Mukai 2002, 98). There were several fluctuations in the number of tombstones.

28

To conclude, seen from the three different kinds of spatial and periodical data on the spread of Islam and migrants in and into China, there was a long-term tendency of an influx of Persian speakers into Fujian, which corresponds to this article’s categories (c) and (d). Certainly, there were still examples from category (b) during this period.¹² Meanwhile, the process of the influx of Persian speakers into Fujian province during the Song and Yuan periods was not a simple, linear process; there were both short and long-term fluctuations from time to time. The fluctuation of the migration into the region, not only between the two dynastic periods but also between the reign of each of the emperors of the Yuan period, brought different patterns or different degrees of assimilation, which lead to functional differentiation among foreigners.

Geographical Analyses of the Entanglement of Religions in Quanzhou

29

During the Song and Yuan period, the quarter for foreigners in the southern quarter of Quanzhou, called Quannan (see figure 1), was where the foreign visitors and a part of the settled foreigners of categories (b) and (d) lived. Nevertheless, the intermingling of Chinese and foreigners was not forbidden.¹³ For example, a Local Gazetteer, Qianlong Quanzhou fuzhi 乾隆泉州府志 (edited in 1763), reveals that the aforementioned Shaikh at Quanzhou, Burhān al-Dīn, resided along the Shop Street (paipu jie 排舗街) in the quarter for foreigners called Quannan (Huai [1763] 2000, Ch. 75, 39v–40r.).

30

The mosque Qingjingsi was built in 1131 (or in 1009–1010) on the border of the quarter for foreigners (Z in figure 1) and the main block of the city (Y including X in figure 1); in other words, it was at the place of contact between the Muslims and Chinese. This explains why the Chinese stone stele, Chongli Qingjingsi bei ji 重立清浄寺碑記 (Stone Record of the Reconstruction of the Clear and Pure Temple), was composed by Wu Jian 呉鑑 in 1350 to commemorate the restoration of the mosque in the late Yuan period and was installed in that mosque.¹⁴ Wu introduces Islam, their country, and the culture of Muslims in a favorable tone, and it seems to have been written for Han Chinese to explain how Islam and Muslim people lived together harmoniously in Quanzhou.

31

To sum up, in Quanzhou city during the Mongol period, cross-cultural contact between Muslims and other peoples was not avoided. Rather, from the viewpoint of institutional and geographical settings, there were ample opportunities for contact between them. Actually, the old Muslim representative of category (b), the Pu family, had a connection with the Han Chinese local elite cluster, which is mentioned in previous studies (So 1991, 20–21, 2000, 108–10). As is shown on the map (figure 1), based on local tradition, Pu Shougeng’s residence occupied a large part of the foreigners’ quarter in Quannan and was also adjacent to the central part of the city where many Han Chinese lived (Mukai 2007, 96). It is clear from these geographical settings that his family definitely occupied a representative position among foreigners in Quanzhou and could have played a role as a mediator between foreigners and Han Chinese.

32

Furthermore, during the Yuan period, the government was served by many semuren 色目人 (“various kinds of people,” mainly Non-Han Chinese), and in Quanzhou Muslims were predominant among semuren.¹⁵ Officials, including Mongols, semuren, or the people of category (c), generally worked in the center of the city (X in figure 1). Accordingly, the people in categories (b) and (c) had some channels to link the host society with the Muslim community, including category (a) newcomers, who were not isolated islands in Quanzhou city.

33

The author believes that the people in category (b) were in a situation where their religious traditions were compromised as a result of long-term cultural contacts. Meanwhile, categories (c) and (d) immigrants had solid relations with their religious traditions. In the following section of this article, the relationship between the different levels of assimilation and the culture of tolerance will be analyzed.

Arabic Tombstones of “Exile Martyr” from Lingshan

34

It should be noted that the first example of the word “exile martyr” can be found on the tombstone of Muḥammad Shāh b. Khwārazm Shāh (Khwārazm Shāh’s son, Muḥammad Shāh), excavated at the old Muslim cemetery in the Linshan Islamic Cemetery in the Eastern suburb of Quanzhou, where the legendary Islamic evangelists were buried and worshiped (Chen 1991, 193–94, no. 114). It is said to be the word of the prophet Muḥammad. Two variants, “He who dies an exile dies a martyr,” as well as its shortened form, “The death of the exile is martyrdom,” are frequently seen in the Arabic inscriptions on graves found in Quanzhou. And Arabic tombstones excavated near China’s coastal region provide data as to the place of origin of the deceased and their date of death (primarily during the Yuan period), which tells us that a significant part of immigrants came from the former Khwārazm Empire in China’s coastal region. These facts suggest that immigrants from the former Khwārazm Empire preserved a ‘solid identity’ as foreign Muslims. Additionally, the exclusive usage of the Arabic language on their tombstones connects their identity to their homeland’s Islamic tradition.

Chinese Inscription of the Old Mosque Qingjingsi in Quanzhou

35

Another example can be observed in a Chinese inscription preserved in an old mosque (Qingjingsi) in Quanzhou. The stone stele was erected in 1345 to commemorate the restoration of the mosque and a member of the local elite, Wu Jian, wrote the monumental inscription for it. The inscription recorded the history of Muslim immigrants in Quanzhou, with a detailed introduction of Islam and its culture:

36

For more than 800 years until now, the Arabs have strictly adhered to this faith. Though living in a foreign country, they passed it on to their children and grandchildren, extending through the generations they did not dare to change it. … I have heard the following words of the elders: when Arabia (T’ieh-chih-shih 帖直氏) first entered into the official picture, its local customs and doctrines were quite different from other countries. On the basis of the Western Envoys and Records of the Barbarian Islands and such records, I attach more belief to those words. On that basis, it is said: ‘It is Heaven’s wish to give equal shares to the entire world,’ but it has not become so in just one day. (Vermeer 1991, 124)

37

In my opinion, the Muslim population experienced fluctuations throughout the Mongol period. Some of the Muslim population assimilated into Chinese culture after the decline in the number of Muslim newcomers. However, according to this stone inscription, Muslims in Quanzhou adhered to the Islamic tradition and preserved their own culture until as late as the 1350s in the late Yuan period.

Basic Data and Previous Studies on the Inscription

40

The Chinese stone inscription is titled “Zhong jian Qingyuan Chunyang dong ji” 重建清源純陽洞記 (Record of Reconstruction of the Chunyang Cave in Qingyuan Mountain) and dated to the fourth year of Hou-Zhiyuan 後至元 (1338) during the Yuan period. The inscription is carved into the inclined plane of a steep slope behind the Taoist and Buddhist temple complex at Chunyangcave on Qingyuan mountain located in the northeast suburb of the old city of Quanzhou (see figure 1).¹⁶

41

The year 1281 is suggestive because Pu Shougeng dispatched his fleet to overseas countries to expand trade relations under the order of Mongol emperor Khubilai. As mentioned above, Pu Shougeng and Pu Shoucheng are considered to have been Sino-Persian. However, it would have been reasonable for him to do a religious deed for his subordinates, who were mostly Chinese, seemingly practicing Taoism, Buddhism, and worshiping a variety of local deities.

42

At a first glance, it can be seen as evidence of the intermingling of Taoism and Buddhism in Fujian, and it is well known, however, that there is more to it than that. The origin of worshiping at the Chunyang cave was related to the emergence of new cult religion in that urban area. It was initiated by a charismatic person during the Shaoxing 紹興 years (1131– 1162) of the Song period, though the cult was merged into traditional religions such as Taoism and Buddhism after his death. So, in a sense, the inscription depicted a process of religious integration. As far as I know, this is the first attempt to translate the whole text into English. It is worthy of further research because of its historical value as evidence of religious coexistence and its peculiarity, as mentioned above.

Summary of the Text

43

First, this section summarizes the contents of the inscription with paragraph numbers 1)-10) attached by the author (see Appendix for the full translation):

1. 44

   “Every beautiful and quiet site such as mountains, rivers, rocks, and caves under heaven is the residence of immortal wizards and Buddhist saints. The former exist relying on the latter and the latter manifest depending on the former. They are collaborating with each other in making a mysterious landscape.”

2. 45

   During the period of Shaoxing of the Southern Song, an exile practitioner with the surname Pei 裴 came from Jiangdong 江東 (around present-day Nanjing 南京) and lived in a cave in Qingyuan Mountain. He walked around the market every day, wearing a flower made of rice paper pith in his hair and singing a song. Suddenly, he disappeared for several months and nobody knew where he was and later his skeleton was found in the cave. Local people built a shrine to worship him with other deities and hang a tablet saying “chunyang (pure and sunny).”

3. 46

   Local people distorted his original teaching and gave wine and food as an offering. They also gathered there to play music and were noisy. Places of lascivious entertainment and bars were even built there. Intellectuals discussed how to stop these practices and decided to build a shrine to Putuo dashi 普陀大士 (Great Master of Potalaka, i.e., Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva) beside the original one to break the evil customs. Following the Shengshan Chan Buddhist temple (Shengshan chan si 昇山禪寺) in Fuzhou 福州, the shrine became the site of Zhenqun’s眞君 (a Taoist deity’s) ascension to heaven.

4. 47

   The shrines in Qingyuan Mountain totally burned down during the last years of Southern Song period. In the eighteenth year of Zhiyuan 至元 (1281), a Buddhist monk from Sisong 四松, Fa Tan 法曇, visited the site, swore to restore it, and started the project. Xinquan Pugong 心泉蒲公 (PuShoucheng) and Haiyun pingzhang 海雲平章 (Pu Shougeng)¹⁷ provided funds for it and architectural plans were drawn up for a bigger shrine complex than the original one.

5. 48

   Twenty-one years later, Tan ordered his leading disciple, Yicong 一聰, to take his place and complete the restoration of the shrine. Stone signboards were erected at thirty points. Several tens of thousands of cedars and pine trees were planted.

6. 49

   The restoration project was completed. This could happen because Myriarch Sun Xinzhai (孫信齋) and a grandson of Pu Shoucheng, Pu Yiqing (蒲一卿), had risen in society and got involved in the project.

7. 50

   Yicong from Yaolin 瑶林 in Jin yi 晋邑 (Jinjiang 晋江 district) had learned sutras at Sisong and titled himself as Shimen 石門 (“stone gate”). In the fifth month, in the summer of 1333 (the fourth year of Zhishun 至順), Yicong passed away and his whole body was buried at the side of the mountain. When the year 1334 (the second year of Yuantong 元統) passed, the roofs of the Buddhist and Taoist shrines had not been repaired for a long time. Accordingly, it has finally been repaired and the gatehouse was also renewed because it deteriorated and had rain leakage.

8. 51

   Lord Sun, who had been preached to by Yicong, possessed an old weir in the Jinjiang district and had it repaired. He spent 220 ding 錠 by Zhongtong chao 中統鈔 (paper money) and built a granary to stock the harvest. He also donated clothes and property for preaching far and wide and bought land and reclaimed it to create new rice fields. He said his good deeds were done following Yicong’s teaching so the credit should go to Yicong. Accordingly, Song required the author Ping Zhitai 平智泰 to compose a full account of the circumstances.

9. 52

   Ping Zhitai firmly refused Sun’s request but Sun had never given up and pleaded with Ping again and again. So finally Ping relented.

10. 53

    In the tenth month of the fourth year of (Hou-) Zhiyuan (後) 至元 (1338), Wan’an Chan Buddhist temple (Wan’an chan si 萬安禪寺) asked Ping Zhitai to compose this article, and Sun Yanfang 孫彦方 and Sun Chang’an 孫長安 to write (the title of the inscription) in seal script.

The Social Network of Pu Shougeng

54

The fact that Pu Shougeng undertook the construction of a Taoist-Buddhist temple with his brother is an indirect clue to infer their faith. If it was their religious motivation that led them to renovate that temple, it is not impossible that it could manifest a plurality of religious beliefs. However, that is extremely difficult to prove. In addition, external factors must also be considered. One possibility is to win the popularity of the Han Chinese crew (of the diplomatic mission ships sent by Pu) and the local people. Additionally, in the context of the inscription, one suspects that the Pu brothers’ social relations with the local elite cluster may be partly related to their religious activities. In other words, such acts may be required as a part of the duties expected of members of the local elite cluster in Quanzhou. To verify this, it will be necessary to delve into the social network of the Pu brothers behind the construction of the temple.

55

In these remarks, this inscription is worthy of attention because we can see personal names relating to the reconstruction. Thus, the inscription would be a precious source not only for the analysis of Pu Shougeng’s religious situation but also for the social network of the Pu family and elites in the region.

56

The text of this inscription mentions and suggests the contribution of members of the Sun family three times. The first one is Myriarch Sun Xinzhai 孫信齋, who helped with the reconstruction of the temple with the Pu brothers in 1281, supposedly providing manpower because he controlled the army. This person may be identified to be the son of a subordinate of Pu Shougeng named Sun Shengfu 孫勝夫, who fought against Southern Song royalists in Quanzhou around 1276 and surrendered to the Yuan dynasty together with Pu. Later, he conducted a diplomatic mission to overseas countries with Pu’s fleet under Pu’s order.¹⁸ The fact that he also bore the title Myriarch in 1279 and 1281 supports this hypothesis of identification (see Song [1369] 1978, Ch. 12, 244, 4660).

57

There is another recorded person surnamed Sun 孫 who directed the Myriarch around Quanzhou during the Yuan period other than Sun Shengfu and Sun Xinzhai. This is Sun Tian 孫天 (or Sun Tianyou 孫天有), who was appointed as Daruγachi (Daluhuachi 達魯花赤) of Huzhou wanhufu 湖州萬戸府 (Miriarch), stationed around Quanzhou during the Dade 大徳 years (1297–1307).¹⁹ The relationship between this person and the others are unknown. However, since the Yuan dynasty generally appointed Myriarchs by succession, and Myriarch is a high-ranking title so that the number of families bearing this title was extremely small, the possibility of the succession of this military title by the same Sun lineage is high enough.

58

The second appearance of the Sun family in this inscription is about the person who asked the composer of the inscription, Ping Zhitai, to write an article to praise the achievement of master Yicong because he had once been preached to by him. The name of this person from the Sun family is unknown but in the last part of the inscription, there appears the lord of Zhuangmin 壯敏侯, Sun Yanfang, and Sun Chang’an, who wrote the title of the inscription in seal script.

59

There is not enough evidence to prove that all of these persons surnamed Sun are from the same lineage. However, the particular intention of this inscription, which was ordered by a member of the Sun family and mentions not only Pu Shougeng but also Sun Xinzhai (probably the son of Sun Shengfu), may indicate a successive commitment by the Sun lineage to the reconstruction of the temples at Chunyang cave. So, the author tentatively concludes, the same Sun lineage consistently contributed to the project of reconstructions recorded in this inscription. The relationships between the people mentioned in this inscription are tentatively reconstructed in the following figure 2.

Aims and Background of the Individuals

65

As for the personal aims and background behind one’s religious activities and attitudes toward religion, we can imagine the following: (i) to pray for the safety of a voyage, to win peoples’ trust (ensure the religion which is popular among subordinates, crew members, and the local population), and (ii) to be a responsible local governor or member of the elite class.

66

As mentioned above, Pu Shougeng’s maritime trade under Khubilai’s order is related to the restoration of the Taoist-Buddhist temple complex at Chunyang cave in Qingyuan mountain and it relates to aim (i). In conducting this enterprise, Pu Shougeng utilized his network in a local elite cluster in Quanzhou, in which Han elite Sun Shengfu and his family were included. As shown in the inscription, the relationship between the Sun family and the Pu family lasted for the next two generations. The Sino-Persian Pu family’s commitment to the restoration of the temple complex at Chunyang cave relates to aim (ii) and continued for generations.

The Social Environment of the Region

67

The second point concerns the cosmopolitan nature of the port cities that were open to the outer world. Actually, in the inscription, as mentioned in the former section, the harmonious coexistence was repeatedly expressed. It is unusual if we consider the keen confrontation between Buddhism and Taoism during the early Yuan period.

68

Here, let us consider an example of the above-mentioned stone tablet from the mosque at Quanzhou during the late Yuan period. In 1353, on a stone tablet, Chongli Qingjingsi bei ji (Stone Record of the Reconstruction of the Clear and Pure Temple), Wu Jian inscribed the details of the reconstruction of the mosque known as the Qingjingsi, the “clear and pure” temple in Quanzhou. Wu translated the concept of Islam using Confucian terminology. God was interpreted as ‘Heaven’ and the prophet Muḥammad was identified by a Western saint appearing in the Confucian text Zhuangzi 莊子 and in Buddhist sutras (Vermeer 1991, 124). Relating to this, it is worth noticing that the term qingjing 清浄 (“clear and pure”) was adopted by Muslims in Quanzhou as the name of their mosque. As mentioned in the inscription discussed above in this paper, “Zhong jian Qingyuan Chunyang dong ji (Record of Reconstruction of the Chunyang Cave in Qingyuan Mountain), Buddhist monk Yicong (Shimen 石門) shared the concept, qingjing, as the essence of his teaching (Paragraph 9). Needless to say, both wuwei (“what is so of itself”) and qingjing were the core concepts of Taoism.

69

These examples show us that the long tradition of coexistence developed by people in Fujian fully functioned to cooperate with traditional cultures from overseas.

Full Translation of “Zhong jian Qingyuan Chunyang dong ji (The Record of Reconstruction of the Chunyang Cave in Qingyuan Mountain, written in the fourth year of Hou-Zhiyuan 後至元 [1338] during the Yuan period)

1. 76

   Every beautiful and quiet site, such as mountains, rivers, rocks, and caves, under heaven is the residence of immortal wizards and Buddhist saints. The former exists relying on the latter and the latter manifests depending on the former. They are collaborating with each other to make a mysterious landscape.

2. 77

   During the Shaoxing 紹興 years (1131–1162), a practitioner Pei 裴 who came from Jiangdong 江東 province (around Nanjing 南京) stayed in a cave in Qingyuan清源 Mountain. Every day, he wore a flower made of tongcao 通草 (rice paper pith. The scientific name is tetrapanax. It is still used to make artificial flowers in Taiwan today) in his hair and walked around the market while singing a song “Drink three small cups of delicious wine and wear a pretty flower in your hair. Think about things in the past and present (and you know that) to live in peace and joy is better.” Suddenly, Pei disappeared for several months and nobody knew where he was and later a woodcutter found his skeleton in the cave in Qingyuan Mountain. Local people made a statue from his skeleton and established a shrine, hung a tablet saying “Chunyang 純陽 (pure and sunny),” and worshiped it with other deities.

3. 78

   People misunderstood Pei’s real intention and gave wine and food as offering, played flute (xiao簫) and five-string lute (zhu 筑) and made loud sounds. Intellectuals sighed and said, “even the seasons and fortune of the mountains and rivers have not yet cycled (i.e. it is not yet time to celebrate and make offerings to the gods of mountains and rivers); they drove the holy ghost to the interior by pressure. How can these acts like building fleshpots (huaguang 花館) and bars (jiutai 酒臺) on the cliff match the teaching of practitioner Pei who emphasized on ‘purity and cleanness (qingjing清浄)’ and the principle of ‘inaction and nature (wuwei無爲)’?” Intellectuals discussed how to stop these practices and decided to build a shrine to worship Putuo dashi 普陀大士 (Great Master of Potalaka, i.e., Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva) beside the original shrine to break the evil customs. Following the Shengshan 昇山chan 禪 Buddhist temple in Fuzhou 福州, the shrine became the site of Zhenqun’s 眞君 (a Taoist deity’s) ascension to heaven.

4. 79

   The Qingyuan Mountain totally burned during the last years of Southern Song period and became a habitat of wild monkeys. In the eighteenth year of Zhiyuan 至元 (1281), a Buddhist monk from Sisong 四松 (unknown place name), Fa Tan 法曇, visited the site, swore to restore it. Xinquan Pu gong 心泉蒲公 (Pu Shoucheng 蒲壽宬) and Haiyun pingzhang 海雲平章 (Pu Shougeng 蒲壽庚) provided funds for it and architectural plan was enlarged to ten or hundred times the original one.

5. 80

   Twenty-one years later, Tan ordered his leading disciple Yicong 一聰 to succeed his master’s position and complete the restoration of the shrine. Soon after the restoration project started, a typhoon came and timber supply dried up. However, Cong encouraged himself to carry out the task of his master’s wish. He stayed diligent to the will and was never indolent. Therefore, some years later, very quickly, the building was completely renovated. To house four devas (sidabu 四大部), they have got a pavilion (ge 閣). To contain…(blank)…, it has got a hall (tang 堂). Subsequently, Yingzhen 應眞 (“respond the truth”) pavilion and Guangkong 觀空 (“see the śūnya”) skyscraper (lou 樓) were built. Stone signboards (shiji 石記) were erected at thirty points. Several tens of thousands of cedars (shan 杉) and pine trees (song 松) were planted and a surrounding stone wall (shiyong 石墉) of two thousand zhang 丈 (6,144m) was built to prevent a forest fire. Further, he reclaimed more than twenty columns (duan 段) of new rice field and performed a ritual of agriculture in spring (zhengchang 蒸嘗, ancient Chinese ceremony to pray for the good crop). Total (area?) of rice field for lent within the area circled by the stone signboards does not differ from those of other temples.

6. 81

   One day, when light clouds were in the sky, I wandered on the balcony along the handrail, reciting a poem and expressing emotion and when I swept the landscape a thousand miles from there, I could see the mountains lying on top of one another and looking like big and small banners. Fogs were curling up and floating like a man bowing and creeping. Rivers joined together and flowed into the sea and brought a high tide looking like a blue gem (tiqingbao 帝青寶, Indranilamuktā) or a glass (liuli 琉璃). Vessels and seagulls appeared and disappeared in the wide ocean and in the empty sky. Likewise, distant view and foreground, high view and low view all mingled to create thousands of different sceneries. Men like Wang Mojie 王摩詰 (Wang Wei 王維, Tang period poet) and Guo Xi 郭熙 (Song period painter) had had emotional strain and shoulder dislocation from their busy writings and paintings though they are edited and compiled but not rewarded. Seeing fine monasteries clustered in this mountain, their clean, bright, and magnificent sight was never inferior to that of the Imperial capital (jing 京). Oh, did not what Cong 聰 (Yicong) accomplished add much to that of his master? It mostly depends on the cycle of fortune being favorable to him. Because the timing was ideal at that time, Taoism manifested more and more power depending on the aid of Buddhism. In addition, this could happen because Xinzhai wanhu (Myriarch) Sun gong 信齋萬戸孫公 (SunXinzhai 孫信齋) and a grandson of Pu Shoucheng, Yiqing Pu gong 一卿蒲公 (Pu Yiqing蒲一卿), had risen in society and got involved in the project.

7. 82

   Cong (Yicong) was from Yaolin 瑶林 (“limestone cave”) in Jin yi 晋邑 (probably Jinjiang 晋江 district, Quanzhou). He had learned sutras at Sisong and titled himself as Shimen 石門 (“stone gate”). He had lived in the mountain for more than thirty years and knew his limit and was content with it. He practiced asceticism and did a good deed and the people of the day regard him as an enlightened. In the year of gengwu 庚午 (1330, the third year of Tianli 天暦), Cong told his adherent Qi Yin to manage the cave. On the fifth month, in the summer of the year of guiyou 癸酉 (1333, the fourth year of Zhishun 至順), Cong passed away and his whole body was buried in the side of the mountain. When the year of jiaxu 甲戌 (1334, the second year of Yuantong 元統) passed, the roofs of Buddhist and Taoist shrine had not been repaired for a long time. Accordingly, it was finally repaired, and the gate house was also renewed because it had deteriorated and had rain leakage.

8. 83

   There was Sun fu 孫府 (lord Sun) who had been preached to by Cong (Yicong). He possessed an old weir (dai 埭) at Dongshan 東山 (“east hill”) du 渡 (ferry) in the thirtieth du 都 (ward) of Jinjiang晋江 xian 縣 district and he repaired it and was provided twenty dan 石 (1,898 l) of seed. He spent 220 ding 錠 (a unit of money originated from a unit of weight, corresponding to about 2 kg [of silver]) by Zhongtong chao 中統鈔 (paper money) and built a granary to stock the harvest. He also donated clothes and property for preaching in all directions and bought more than 450 mu 畝 (2,548 a) of land in the thirty ninth, forty first, and forty second du (ward), which were reclaimed to be new rice fields. The good deeds were done following Cong’s teaching, so the credit should go to Cong. Accordingly, Sun required me (Ping Zhitai 平智泰) to compose a full account of the circumstances.

9. 84

   I firmly refused Sun’s request and said, “Sir Fu (Fu gong 傅公), teacher Youxiang (Youxiang xiansheng 有郷先生), previously wrote the account of the meritorious deed of master Tang 曇 (Tang shi 曇師, i.e. Fatang 法曇). Now you asked me instead of the famed writer of the day to write about the achievement of your master. How can I demonstrate my writing skills and make people believe in my qualifications for this task?” Nevertheless, Sun had never relented and pleaded with me again and again. So that finally I told him, “This mountain of rocks and caves is the home of wizards and it is a calm and scenic place. I would not mention every detail because local people know that this is the top of scenic sites in the city of Quanzhou. If one would live a carefree life out of this world, declining offers from royalty, being mingled with birds and beasts, and farming for enjoying self-sufficiency, this is the ideal place for retirement at leisure. We have originally taken this as the ultimate law? Proclaiming new land is to clarify the profound truth of ancestors. Planting pine trees is to shine master Shimen’s deep intention: that is, awakening the theory of “qingjing (purity and cleanness),” “‘wuwei (what is so of itself)” and understanding that Taoism and Buddhism are the branches stretched from the same stem. If I correctly got your master’s thought, it can be said that every single bamboo tree, wood, hand of water, stone, all these eternal things of nature are need not be inscribed. This is why I omit superficial, shallow words, and let them be handed down to the future forever.

10. 85

    In the tenth month in autumn of the year of wuyan 戊寅, the fourth year of (Hou-)Zhiyuan (後) 至元 of Dayuan 大元 dynasty (1338), Wan’an Chan temple (Wan’an chan si萬安禪寺) used the article composed by Ping Zhitai, the lord of Zhuangmin (Zhuangmin hou 壯敏侯), Sun Yanfang 孫彦方 and Sun Chang’an 孫長安 wrote (the title) in seal script.