The Changing Landscape in Rural South Fujian 239
hulling mills became an independent industry. Gradually, this form of
production and commerce broke down the regional economic isolation.
Economically speaking, the people were more dependent on one another
than ever before.
With the combination of this national economic background and
the desperate local living conditions, it is not surprising to see a trade-
oriented development in South Fujian. Before the sixteenth century,
South Fujian had few local products for export. However, it did re-export
non-indigenous commodities, especially to Southeast Asia. The highly
celebrated porcelain from Jiangxi was one of these re-exported products.
Sometimes the Fujianese brought back raw materials including silk yarn
from Zhejiang and wove it themselves.^146
They took pains to improve their handicrafts industry to suit a wider
market. Their gauze work was excellent and was considered as valuable
as silk.^147 The silk-weaving in Quanzhou also enjoyed a βine reputation.
Even the gentry families had a taste for these products.^148 The Quanzhou
people were good at imitating all kinds of skills^149 and quick at learning all
sorts of crafts.^150 A contemporary record shows that people of Zhangzhou
and Quanzhou learned their satin-weaving skills from Japan. Although
their product was less durable compared to those from Japan, its glossy
black color entranced even the foreigners on the northern frontier.^151
Women were active in the handicraft industry. In Jinjiang, for example,
they took part in the manufacture of straw shoes.^152 Nevertheless, the most
outstanding industry of the Fujianese was probably the manufacture of
bamboo-paper. In the mid-Ming period, it had already won the reputation
for being the best in the country.^153
B esides their long-standing and famous export of fruit, including
litchi, longan, olives and oranges,^154 in the second half of the Ming period
South Fujianese people had begun to grow even more commercial crops.
Sugar-cane was one of the most popular as indicated in the following
source:
- Wang Shimao, Minbu shu, p. 17a.
- Dehua xianzhi (Jiajing [1522–66] ed.), 2: 29b.
- Wang Shengshi, Manyou jilue, juan 1.
- Quanzhou fuzhi (1870 ed.), 20: 4b.
- Jinjiang xianzhi 晉江縣志 [Gazetteer of Jinjiang District] (1765 ed.; reprint,
Taipei: Ch’eng-wen, 1967), 1: 69b. - Song Yingxing, Tiangong kaiwu, pt. I, “on clothing”, p. 12.
- Jinjiang xianzhi (1765 ed.), 1: 69b.
- Song Yingxing, Tiangong kaiwu, pt. II, “on bamboo-paper”.
- Wang Shimao, Mingbu shu, pp. 3b, 6a and 17a, mentions that the oranges from
Zhangzhou were the best in Fujian.