Pu Shougeng (; fl. c. 1250–1284) was a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

merchant and administrator of China's

Southern Song The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending ...

and Yuan dynasties. The surname Pu was likely derived from

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

'' Abū'' (father). Pu's family background is unknown. According to one theory, his family came from

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

during the early Song and later emigrated to

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

. According to another, they arrived in the Southern Song from

Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...

. The most likely scenario is that his family was of

South Arabia South Arabia (), or Greater Yemen, is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jazan, ...

n or Central Asian Persian origin and settled in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

. Pu was one of the wealthiest merchants in

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

when, around 1250, he was appointed Superintendent of Maritime Trade in Quanzhou. He held the post for almost thirty years, using it to amass great wealth. When the Southern Song court fled to Quanzhou, Pu claimed that there were many royal clan members in Quanzhou waiting to welcome the emperor; these clansmen, Pu alleged, wished to make Quanzhou the new Song capital. However, Pu Shougeng’s loyalty was already doubted when he boarded the emperor’s ship in Quanzhou Harbor. In fact, some Song officers "openly hinted that Pu’s purpose was to entice the emperor hen docked offshore, in Quanzhou Harborto go ashore so as to detain him, then use him as a pawn to improve his own bargaining position with the Mongols." Thus, "Song admiral Zhang Shijie politely declined, having received intelligence reports that Pu Shougeng was secretly negotiating with Yuan agents." By that time, "the Mongols thought uthe ideal person to help them build up their navy." The Mongol general Bayan (伯顏) had already sent a lieutenant to Quanzhou to negotiate a secret agreement with Pu, but "rumors and spy reports of

aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...

secret agreement reached dmiralZhang," who confiscated Pu's fortune to finance the Song defense against the Yuan. The Yuan dynasty made him Defender-General of the State (鎭國將軍) and later Assistant Civil Administrator (參知政事) of

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. In 1281, he was appointed one of two executive assistants to the provincial secretariat of Fujian. Thereafter he fades from view, but his family remained prominent under the Yuan. Many members of his family were tortured and slaughtered in the Ispah rebellion. The survivors remained devout Muslims and were prohibited from holding public office under the Ming on account of their defection from the Song.

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