After travelling for ten days we reached the city of Qanjanfū, which is a big and handsome city in an extensive plain.³⁴[…] ³⁴Gibb argues that, because of its size, the fact that it was evidently accessible to ships, and its position on the way to Hang-chou, Fu-chou is 'the most natural identification' (Selections, p. 371, n. 19).
All the cases I will examine come from P'u-t'ien district. Until the early Sung, P'u-t'ien was part of Ch'üan-chou prefecture; in 983 a new prefecture, Hsing-hua Commandery (Hsing-hua chün), was established with P'u-t'ien as the prefectural capital. The district is located on the lower reaches of the Mu-lan River, the principle river system between the Chin River of Ch'üan-chou to the south and the Min River of Fu-chou to the north. No doubt because of their proximity to the latter, which had been the social, cultural, and political heart of Fu-chien for many centuries, most of the elite kin groups in P'u-t'ien claimed to be collateral branches of prominent Fu-chou kin groups who had settled in P'u-t'ien no later than the early T'ang. Collectively the P'u-t'ien elite claimed the most ancient pedigree among the Min-nan elite. It is, therefore, not surprising that they claim the oldest genealogical tradition as well.