Wénchāng

Wénchāng lies on the northeastern corner of Hainan, a low coast of coconut palms, sandbars and lagoons facing the open sea. The county takes its place among the three oldest on the island, traced back to the Han county of Zǐbèi, renamed Wǔdé under the Sui and Píngchāng under the Tang before settling on the name Wénchāng in 627. Its people spoke the Hainanese form of Min, brought by settlers from Fujian. Offshore ran the Seven Islands passage, the stretch of water that pilots bound for Annam and the Southern Sea feared above all others.

Under the Ming the county belonged to Qióngzhōu Prefecture, the island's seat of government. Its Confucian school, founded in the Northern Song, was moved to a new site in 1375 and repaired again and again, and a line of Wenchang scholars passed the examinations and went north to hold office, among them Xíng Yòu (1416–1481), a native of the county who took the jinshi degree. The county's harbours and fishing villages sent boats along the Hainan coast, while rice, coconuts and sweet potatoes fed a crowded countryside. Typhoons were the lasting hazard: the same sea that carried trade swept over the low shore.