On The Rise And Decline Of Quanzhou Port In The Song And Yuan Dynasties

Quanzhou City was an unavoidable port in the history of ancient China's "Maritime Silk Road".It is endowed with a long history.As early as the 6th Century,it began to become a port for coastal people to get involved in foreign trade.With the overall social and economic development of South China,especially the population migration of the Central Plains as well as the economic development of the local society,it stood out in the Tang Dynasty.It attracted a large number of maritime merchants in the Song Dynasty,so that the foreign trade became more and more prosperous.It reached a peak in the Yuan Dynasty.It was known as "Eastern Largest Port" and "Huge Town of Southeast China" to the world.Due to the war destruction at the end of Yuan Dynasty as well as the change of trade policies at the beginning of Ming Dynasty,it declined gradually,becoming a small port.This paper is focused on the seven hundred years of history of Quanzhou Port from the Tang Dynasty to the Mid-Ming Dynasty.The accumulation and development of Quanzhou Port in the Tang Dynasty,its brilliance in the Song and Yuan Dynasties,its depression after the war of the late Yuan Dynasty and its decline history about becoming a small port in the mid-Ming Dynasty were demonstrated systematically.It is aimed to deeply analyze the interaction of the rise and fall of Quanzhou Port with the overall process of ancient China's Maritime Silk Road and the maritime population movement and marine policy change of Tang,Song,Yuan and Ming Dynasties from various perspectives of geographical environment,industrial resource,maritime population,marine policies and foreign trade.