FUKIEN

Wade-Giles romanization Fu-chien, Pinyin Fujian, sheng (province), in the People's Republic of China. It is located along China's southeast coast, northwest of the island of Taiwan. Fukien is bordered by the provinces of Chekiang to the north, Kiangsi to the west, and Kwangtung to the southwest and by the East China Sea to the northeast, the Taiwan Strait to the east, and the South China Sea to the southeast. The province's capital is Fu-chou, which means happy city. During the Southern Sung dynasty (11271279), Fukien became an important shipbuilding and commercial centre for overseas and coastal trade. Since that time Fukienese have settled in great numbers in Southeast Asia. The province declined when the Ming dynasty (13681644) banned maritime commerce and when the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911/12) pursued a policy of isolation. In 1842, after the first Opium War, the cities of Fu-chou and Amoy were opened to international trade. The province's coastal cities were occupied by the Japanese in World War II. The Fukien region is one of the most picturesque in Asia, with wooded hills and winding streams, orchards, tea gardens, and terraced rice fields on the gentler slopes. About 95 percent of the province is mountainous. Fukien is crossed by several ranges of moderate elevation that run roughly parallel to the coast. The Wu-i Mountains, which form a formidable natural barrier between Fukien and the interior of China, reach a height of about 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in western Fukien. The province's rivers have for centuries provided the major means of transport. They flow into estuaries that form natural harbours, and their abundant water supplies are used for domestic consumption as well as for irrigation. The climate along the coastal area of the province is semitropicalvery hot in summer, cool in winter. Typhoons visit the coast during the late summer and early autumn. The Han (Chinese) make up 99 percent of the population. Only about one-fifth of the population of Fukien is urban. The province has four large cities: Fu-chou and Amoy, both important seaports, Ch'an-chou, and Chang-chou. Fukien is a net importer of food grains. Its chief crops are sugarcane (among the highest yields in China), peanuts (groundnuts), citrus, rice, and tea. Noncrop agricultural output comes from fisheries, animal husbandry, and forestry. Fukien also has considerable mineral wealth, including coal, iron, copper, gold, graphite, and kaolin (China clay) for making porcelain. The province's traditional isolation has been breached by the construction of modern roads and railways linking its cities to those of neighbouring provinces. A rail line tying Fu-chou and Amoy to the Chekiang-Kiangsi main line stimulated the growth of regional industrial centres in Fukien, such as Nan-p'ing (pulp and paper), San-ming (iron and steel), and Lung-yen (coal). Beginning in 1979 Fukien was empowered to establish special economic zones in specific parts of the province to attract foreign investment. Area 47,500 square miles (123,100 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 31,160,000. Chinese (Wade-Giles) Fu-chien, (Pinyin) Fujian, sheng (province) on the southeastern coast of China to the northwest of the island of Taiwan. It is bordered by the provinces of Chekiang to the north, Kiangsi to the west, and Kwangtung to the southwest; and by the East China Sea to the northeast, the Taiwan Strait to the east, and the South China Sea to the southeast. It occupies a strategic maritime position linking the two sections of the China Sea. One of the smaller Chinese provinces, Fukien has an area of 47,500 square miles (123,100 square kilometres). Its capital and largest city is Fu-chou (Happy City). The name of the province, Fukien, means Happy Establishment. The province is also known as Min Sheng (Min Province), after the seven Min tribes that inhabited the area during the Chou dynasty (1111255 BC). It was, however, during the Sung dynasty (AD 9601279) that the name Fukien was adopted and the basic geographical boundaries of the province were established. The region is one of the most picturesque in Asia, with wooded hills and winding streams, orchards, tea gardens, and terraced rice fields on the gentler slopes. History The area now called Fukien was first referred to in the Chou li, a classic that may date to the 12th century BC, although modern scholars believe it to have been written at a much later date. In this classic the seven Min tribes are mentioned together with eight barbarian peoples in the south. During the latter part of the Ch'un-ch'iu (Spring and Autumn period; 770476 BC) one of the feudal states within the China area was the kingdom of Yeh, located south of Hang-chou Bay; it included what is now Fukien Province. The lord of Yeh was nominally a vassal (viscount) of the Chinese king. The Yeh and their culture are considered by some to have constituted one of the principal elements that merged to form the contemporary Chinese ethnic and cultural complex. During the last quarter of the 5th century BC, Yeh became a powerful kingdom after its conquest of the state of Wu (473 BC) to its north. During the era known as the Chan-kuo (Warring States) period, Yeh was, in turn, conquered by the kingdom of Ch'u (c. 334 BC) to the northwest. Wu-chu, one of the sons of the vanquished Yeh king, fled by sea and landed near Fu-chou to establish himself as the king of Min-yeh. When the first emperor of the Ch'in dynasty conquered the kingdom of Ch'u in 223 BC, the Chinese domain was finally unified within the bounds of a monolithic state. Li Ssu, the famous prime minister of Ch'in, deposed the king of Min-yeh, establishing instead a paramilitary province there called Min-chung Chn. The collapse of the Ch'in dynasty (206 BC) was followed by the war between the famous general Hsiang Y and the crafty Kao-tsu, the founder of the Han dynasty. Wu-chu, the deposed king of Min-yeh, sided with Kao-tsu, who defeated his rival and became emperor of China; he reestablished Wu-chu as the king of Min-yeh, which consisted roughly of the present area of Fukien. During the reign of the emperor Wu-ti (141/14087/86 BC) a rebellion by the Min-yeh tribes was put down, and the tribes were resettled in the inland region far to the north between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. During the Six Dynasties period (AD 220589) the region remained in the Chinese domain, but true Sinicization did not come about until the T'ang dynasty (618907), when intermarriage between the T'ang settlers from the north and the local people became common. After the fall of the T'ang, the territory of Fukien reemerged as the kingdom of Min, with its capital in Fu-chou. In the mid-10th century it was subdivided into the state of Yin, controlling the Min-pei, and the state of Min, controlling southern Fukien from Chang-chou. The province grew rapidly in importance as the economic hinterland of the Nan (Southern) Sung capital, Lin-an (modern Hang-chou). The province became a key supplier of rice to the region following the introduction of a fast-ripening variety called Champa rice from Southeast Asia. It also became the major producer of sugar, fruit, and tea. Because of the importance of trade to the Nan Sung, the province also was important as a shipbuilding and commercial centre for both overseas and coastal trade. The port of Ch'an-chou, known to Marco Polo as Zaitun, was one of the world's great ports in this period, with more than 100,000 Arab traders living in the area. The province's decline began with the Ming dynasty ban on maritime commerce in 1433 and was reinforced by the Ch'ing dynasty's policy of isolation, which particularly affected the province in the late 17th century, when Ming dynasty loyalists occupied Taiwan and the islands off Fukien. There was some revival of the economy in the mid-19th century with the opening of Fu-chou and Amoy as treaty port cities, but the modern shipbuilding industry established at Ma-wei by the Ch'ing was destroyed by a French fleet during the Sino-French War of 188385. In the aftermath of the revolution of 191112, Fukien was a pawn in local warlord struggles and was divided into political and military fiefdoms. In the early 1930s part of western Fukien was incorporated into the Communist-controlled territory of the Kiangsi Soviet. In 1933 a revolt of government troops stationed in the province against the Nanking government led to assertion of Nanking government control over the province and to the expulsion of Communist forces. After 1938 the Japanese occupied the coastal centres of the province, while the provincial government retreated inland to Yung-an in central Fukien, where it administered the interior of the province for the remainder of the war. In 1949 the Communist-led 3rd Field Army took control of the province. Frederick Fu Hung Victor C. Falkenheim