Mǐnnán

The Minnan, or Hokkien, are Han Chinese of southern Fujian around Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, speaking Southern Min. Their Min speech grew from the Old Chinese of refugees who entered Minyue after the early-fourth-century Disaster of Yongjia; migrant armies under Chen Yuanguang in 677 and the Wang brothers in 885 added Middle Chinese layers.

Quanzhou, founded in 718, won a maritime trade bureau in 1087 and became an emporium of the Maritime Silk Road. Under the Yuan Muslim superintendent Pu Shougeng restored its fortunes, Marco Polo hailed it as Alexandria of the East, and the Persian Ispah rebellion of 1357 to 1367 ended in massacre, shattering its foreign communities.

Ming sea bans made smugglers kingmakers: in 1567 Yuegang in Zhangzhou became the single legal overseas port, feeding the Manila galleon trade, while Zheng Zhilong and his son Zheng Chenggong, Koxinga, ruled the Taiwan Strait until Koxinga took Taiwan from the Dutch in 1662. Qing evacuation orders emptied the coast; after 1684 Xiamen became a gateway for settlers sailing to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.