Han, having forced the northern invaders to retire behind the Great Wall, pushes Chinese political influence westward into Central Asia.

Han also takes control of the Fujian (Fukien) state of Yue.

A new city is constructed in Fuzhou slightly south of the original city, Ye, under the Jin Dynasty (the main street of the city has remained unchanged since this time).

West Lake, East Lake (now silted up) and numerous canals in the city of Fuzhou are constructed.

…via a mountainous route, Fujian Circuit (headquartered in modern Fuzhou, Fujian).

However, during this march, he is attacked by the Tang officers Zhang Lin and Liang Zuan, who are subordinates of Gao Pian the military governor of Zhenhai Circuit (headquartered in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and defeated several times.

As a result of these battles, a number of Huang's followers, including Qin Yan, Bi Shiduo, Li Hanzhi, and Xu Qing, surrender to the Zhenhai troops.

As a result, Huang decides to turn further south, toward the Lingnan region.

Fuzhou's economic and cultural institutions have grown and developed throughout the mid-Tang Dynasty.

The later years of the Tang have seen a number of political upheavals in the Chinese heartland, prompting another wave of Chinese to immigrate to the modern-day Fujian and Guangdong areas.

In 879, a large part of the city had been captured by the army of Huang Chao during their rebellion against the Tang government.

In 893, the warlord brothers Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi had captured Fuzhou in a rebellion against the Tang Dynasty, successfully gaining control of the entire Fujian Province.

Fuzhou City is expanded in 901 with construction of a new city wall ("Luo City").

Wang Shenzhi establishes the Min Kingdom in today's Fujian Province, with Fuzhou (known at this time as Changle) as its capital, in 909.

When the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) forced Emperor Zhaozong's son and successor Emperor Ai to yield the throne to him, ending Tang and starting a new Later Liang Dynasty with him as its Emperor Taizu, Wang Shenzhi had recognized the new emperor, and had subsequently been given the greater chancellor title of Shizhong.

In 909, Emperor Taizu creates him the Prince of Min, and also gives him the chancellor title of Zhongshu Ling.

Also in 909, after Wang Shenzhi feels slighted by Zhang Zhiyuan, the emissary from Hongnong (the predecessor state to Wu, ruled at this time by Yang Wo the Prince of Hongnong, who does not recognize the Later Liang emperor), Wang decapitates Zhang and breaks off diplomatic relations with Hongnong.

The Min Kingdom is taken over by the Southern Tang Kingdom.

…Fujian, where hopes of resistance center on two young princes, Emperor Gong's brothers.

The older boy, Zhao Shi, who is nine years old, is declared Emperor Duanzong of Song.

A community for Ryukyuan envoys and scholars has been similarly established in Fukien in China, and the first Ryukyuans to study in China's capital do so at this time as well, again establishing precedents for developments that will continue for centuries.

The Yongle emperor, intent on reasserting Chinese supremacy, expands overland trade with Central Asia, and sponsors ambitious maritime expeditions to the West.

His fleet admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho), a eunuch of Semu/Khwarezmian descent, embarks on a voyage to what the Chinese call "the Western Ocean" (Indian Ocean).

aimed at establishing tributary relations with Japan and several Southeast Asian kingdoms.

Over the next twenty-eight years, he will make the seven voyages collectively referred to as the travels of "Eunuch Sanbao to the Western Ocean" or "Zheng He to the Western Ocean.".

Zheng He's first voyage consists of a fleet of three hundred and seventeen ships holding almost twenty-eight thousand armed troops.

Many of these ships are mammoth nine-masted "treasure ships" which are by far the largest marine craft the world had yet seen.

His first voyage, from 1405 to 1407, will take his fleet to Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Lambri, Ceylon, Kollam, Cochin, and Calicut.

(Gavin Menzies's book, 1421, asserts that Zheng He circumnavigated the globe and arrived in America in the fifteenth century before Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus.

His 1421 hypothesis is highly controversial and not accepted by mainstream scholars.)

...Fujian, ...