Fujian In The Tang Studied

Fujian province in Tang Dynasty had comparable geographical area as nowadays, governing the Fu, Jian, Quan, Ting and Zhang five prefectures. After the An Shih rebellion, Fujian received less impact from the wars due to its remote location in southeast China. Its economic had rapid development thanks to the relatively stable political environment. Since mid-late Tang Dynasty, Fujian had gradually become one of the important tax sources of the Tang Empire. Hence,this article aims to discuss the development of economic and imperial examinations of Fujian after the An Shih rebellion,this work also explores some academically debatable topics, such as Fujian’s first trade port, the first successful candidate in highest imperial examinations, etc. the full details are as follows:The rapid economic development of Fujian in mid-late Tang Dynasty is closely related to the immigration from north to south. Since An Shih rebellion, central China was frequently disrupted by wars. And a great deal of north population immigrated towards south to Fujian. This brought adequate labor as well as the advanced production technologies, which provided the necessary conditions for the prosperity of Fujian economics in the mid-late Tang Dynasty. Based on this, the first section of this work analyzes the characteristics and structures of the prefectures of Fujian province during Tang Dynasty. Further on, we will explore the population distribution and growth of Fujian, in order to understand more clearly the development of Fujian economics during Tang Dynasty.Surrounded by mountains on three sides and ocean on the fourth side, its unique geographical environment promoted Fujian to focus its economic development on the exploration of mountain area, land reclamation and foreign trades. Based on this, the second section of this work we explore the Fujian economic development by exploring the causes and rise of the mountain area economic development, plain area economic development and foreign trades, as well as the development of the commodity economic.There is close relationship between economic development and the booming of imperial examination. In early Tang Dynasty, Fujian economic was not well developed. This had great negative impact on the progress of the imperial examinations in Fujian. As far as record concerned, there was only one successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations from Fujian in early Tang Dynasty whose name was XUE Lingzhi. In mid-late Tang Dynasty, the rapid economic development brought the booming of imperial examinations in Fujian. The number of successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations increased from1to57. The growth of this number and the culture development of the imperial examinations were very impressive, hence the author devotes the last section of this work to study the characteristics and geographical distribution of the examinees. The author will try to explore the causes of the imperial examinations booming from economic, political, personal relation, immigration of north to south and educational point of views.