ABSTRACT
Fukien is a mountainous province on the southeastern coast of China. The local saying that it is “80 percent mountains, 10 percent water, and 10 percent farmland” characterizes not only its geography but also its traditional sources of living. The process of opening up and commercial development was a very painful and often destructive one. It ripped Fukien apart and eventually drove many people overseas in search of a living. Both sides of the medal are part of our story of turbulent sixteenth-century Fukien. Finally, probably of a declining importance because of population growth, land reclamation, irrigation projects, and overfishing, there was fishery by nets, traps, or otherwise in the rivers, streams, ponds, and canals of Fukien. The natural processes of a slowly rising land mass and settlement of silt at the mouth of Fukien’s rivers created favorable conditions for reclamation of farmland from silt flats along the coast.
