thers enticed more immigrants from the north, though their kingdom only survived until 945. In 978, Fuzhou was incorporated into the newly founded Song Dynasty, though their control of the mountainous regions was tenuous.
Fuzhou prospered greatly during the Tang Dynasty. Buddhism was quickly adopted by the citizens who quickly built many Buddhist temples in the area. The Hualin Temple founded in 964, is one of the oldest surviving wooden structures in China. New city walls were built in 282, 901, 905, and 974, so the city had many layers of walls — more so than the Chinese capital. Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty ordered the destruction of all the walls in Fuzhou in 978 but new walls were rebuilt later. The latest was built in 1371. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Fuzhou became more prosperous; many scholars came to live and work. Among them were Zhu Xi, the most celebrated Chinese philosopher after Confucius, and Xin Qiji, the greatest composer of the ci form of poetry.
Marco Polo, an Italian guest of the Emperor Kubilai, transcribed, after the conventions of Italian orthography, the place name as Fugiu. This was not the local Min pronunciation but that of the Mandarin administrative class.
Ming Dynasty
Between 1405 and 1433, a fleet of the Ming Imperial navy under Admiral Zheng He sailed from Fuzhou to the Indian Ocean seven times; on three occasions the fleet landed on the east coast of Africa. Before the last sailing, Zheng erected a stele dedicated to the goddess Tian-Fei (Matsu) near the seaport.
The Ming government gave a monopoly over Phillipine trade to Fuzhou, which at times was shared with Quanzhou.
Galeote Pereira, a Portuguese soldier and trader, was taken prisoner during the pirate extermination campaign of 1549 and imprisoned in Fuzhou. Later transferred to a form of internal exile elsewhere in the province, Pereira escaped to Macau in 1553. The record of
