1.Introduction

Quanzhou was the starting point of the maritime spice route, which was a famous port that had a lot of cultural exchange [1]. The earliest documents of Quanzhou as an important port for maritime trade date back to the sixth century, corresponding to the Southern Dynasty of China. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Arabs who came to China to trade were concentrated in the two ports of Guangzhou and Quanzhou. During the Song Dynasty, China and the Arabs mainly traded with spices, which is why this trade route was later called the spice road in the Song Dynasty. From 968 to 1131, the Song Dynasty recorded that Arabia and China had 23 friendly exchanges, mainly in trade and cultural exchanges. At that time, the ports included Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou, etc. The position of Quanzhou port was increasingly important, for the Song Dynasty set up a workshop for foreigners in the south of Quanzhou, which reflected the demand of foreigners, mainly Arabs at that time [1]. It is worth noting that in the Northern Song Dynasty, the government was set up as an official organization specializing in the management of foreign trade. Its duties included respecting the customs of foreign businessmen and giving them the freedom of business and missionary education, which was very important for the construction of the Qingjing mosque because it provided the permission and support of the Chinese authorities [2]. After the historical overview of Quanzhou Port under the background of the maritime spice road, the construction analysis will be provided.

2.Construction Analysis

Through the analysis of the historical background of Quanzhou as the maritime spice road, it can be concluded that the mosque is the product of Arab trade, missionaries, and settlement in Quanzhou. Unlike Buddhist temples, which were introduced into China, mosques at that time were mainly places for living and religious functions for Muslims who settled in China and rarely served as missionary sites open to the outside world.

2.1.Brief Description of the Status Quo

The overall layout of the Qingjing mosque has not changed much since the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty. Now the layout can still be seen in the original traditional Arabic style, and the subsequent buildings are only changes in the architectural elements [3,4].

2.2.The Plan Layout and the Original Arabic Style

The mosque uses many square elements in its layout [5]. The square composition originated from the tents of nomadic ads, and at the beginning of Islam, the zenith of Mecca became the basic figure of Islamic architecture. The Qingjing mosque was first founded in a pure Arabic style [3].

2.3.The Traditional Chinese Architectural Style of Southern Fujian

The present Mingshan Hall is located in the northwest corner of Qingjing mosque. It has exquisite symmetry, red tile flying eaves, a column base, and wooden walls, which is the traditional Chinese style. The architectural form of Mingshan Hall was also pure Arabic style, but it was transformed into a traditional building in southern Fujian.

According to Quanzhou Annals of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, in the 26th year of Qianlong (1761), the roof of Typhoon Fengtian Temple was destroyed again, and the place of religious worship was moved to Mingshan Hall. After collapse for years, in Jiaxing 23 years (1818) on the site of the new Ming shan hall, Ming shan hall was build abandoned the original foreign domain building system to the Chinese traditional courtyard type building style, the one hand, is the Minnan traditional architectural shape more adapt to the local environment, especially very good deal with the typhoon environment, on the other hand, because of Quanzhou hui Chinese, people for the change of building style acceptance is higher.

At the local environment level, Quanzhou is a subtropical Marine monsoon climate with hot summer and warm winter, with an average of 3.2 times per year; the precipitation is 1000~1800mm and adopts the building mode focusing on shading, heat insulation, ventilation, and wind protection [5]. Given the hot and humid environment of Quanzhou, the small and medium scale courtyard of Mingshan Tang courtyard forms a small shadow space, which improves the ventilation in the courtyard under the action of the law of air heating. Doors are opened in the south, north, and east of the courtyard to create a permeable ventilation environment, which is conducive to air pressure ventilation to adjust the microclimate. The building of Mingshan Hall adopts the hard mountain roof and uses the eaves corridor to form a shadow space. Mingshan Hall also has strong architectural characteristics in southern Fujian in the selection of materials. The envelope wall of the building uses red bricks and raw soil materials, which have good thermal inertia, plays a role in heat insulation and moisture-proof, and promote the adjustment of the indoor thermal environment. Quanzhou summer wet and rainy, a good ventilation environment can effectively reduce indoor excess water vapor, red brick material can prevent corrosion and moisture, create a small piece of shadow design to promote airflow, reduce the temperature, the patio ground by sunlight lead to the temperature rise, produce upward hot air, the formation of hot pressure ventilation. It is conducive to indoor air circulation, due to the wind, building wind is also crucial, to reduce the influence of updrafts, and improve the wind resistance of the building, so the eaves are short. Because the large roof slope is conducive to drainage but not conducive to typhoon resistance, the roof slope of traditional buildings in many coastal areas is ordered to reduce the positive pressure thrust, and the roof slope is not more than 30. The roof of Mingshan Hall which was rebuilt after typhoon damage has a slope of 20, which is conducive to resisting typhoon damage [6]. The Mingshan Hall built in the Qing Dynasty was a more “lifestyle” structure. Considering that the mosque was not only a religious use but also a place for Muslims to live, the evolution of the architectural form was also related to the change in the Muslim lifestyle.

At the level of cultural identity, some scholars believe that the change from “Muslim identity” to “hui hui” recognition with the characteristics of Chinese Confucianism [7]. The Muslims in Quanzhou are different from other parts of China in terms of origin. Today, the ancestors of the nation we call “Hui” in Quanzhou came to China by sea. These people are different from the Central Asian and Western Asian Muslims who came to China from other parts of China with the Yuan Dynasty expeditionary force through Eurasia. The Muslim ancestors of Quanzhou were mainly merchants engaged in trade. The basic occupation of foreign Muslims who came by land to China were soldiers or craftsmen, who were the ancestors of most of the Hui population in China today [8]. The trade profession of the Muslim ancestors in Quanzhou makes their activities more independent, which is different from the more collective activities of the migrants in other areas.

The Muslim ancestors of Quanzhou were mainly merchants engaged in trade. The basic occupation of foreign Muslims who came by land to China were soldiers or craftsmen, who were the ancestors of most of the Hui population in China today [6]. The trade profession of the Muslim ancestors in Quanzhou makes their activities more independent, which is different from the more collective activities of the migrants in other areas. In the Song Dynasty, Quanzhou set up a fang, and most of the Muslims lived in the fang. Song dynasty neo-confucianism in the Minnan region frequently activity led to the persuasion of the Minnan region, song dynasty the whole promoting Confucian culture, in Quanzhou Muslim clan was also influenced by the Confucian culture, many settled in Quanzhou, intermarry with the local clan encourage people to learn Confucian doctrine, to participate in the imperial examinations, into the officer, this is considered to be the beginning of Quanzhou Muslim “Chinese”.

But in the Yuan dynasty’s last years a decade in history known as the “Yisibaxi” war, the Quanzhou area has also been affected, former established for foreigners living in Fang were completely damaged, originally living in Quanzhou Muslims mostly left Quanzhou to escape from the war, and some of them cannot leave because marrying with local people or other reasons and part of them move nearby to avoid the war, their descendants constitute today is known as the “hui” nation. The disappearance of a large way of life promotes the Quanzhou originally Muslim Muslim way of life, in this time after the war there is still a small part of the original large-scale Muslim clan still retains the Muslim life habits, now the more complete record is “ding family”, and after the war still retains the Muslim life one of the two big clan family, related research shows that ding family of the main reasons is influenced by the local culture, and Quanzhou indigenous intermarriage and to the imperial officials, this is also much another hui clan in miniature [9]. In the Jiaqing period of the Ming Dynasty, influenced by the Japanese rebellion, the lifestyle of the Muslim clan, which still retained the Muslim lifestyle, was destroyed again, and the Hui people came to live in Quanzhou city. This war directly led to the complete Sinicization of the Hui clan, which had been deeply influenced by the local culture before.

3.Combination of the Chinese Caisson and the Mosque Dome

Looking through the bird’s eye view, the gatehouse is located on the central axis of the whole Qing Temple, which is very rare in the mosque building. The Arab mosque does not require a central symmetrical layout. But traditional Chinese architecture is very particular about central axial symmetry [10]. Although the Qingjing mosque is in the Arabic style of stone structure, the gate building is an axisymmetric composition form. In addition, the decoration of the dome of the gate building is somewhat similar to the caisson of traditional Chinese architecture, and the gate building reflects the fusion of Arabic style and southern Fujian style [11].

There is an orientation consciousness in Chinese culture which could be interpreted as humanism consciousness. The Chinese traditional architectural culture follows the obvious rules of the central axis. From the temple to dwellings, the main houses strictly follow the principle of axial symmetry. China’s living environment is according to the requirements of the Confucian culture patriarchal system to create a hierarchical, constant and orderly artificial environment [12]. The gatehouse of the Qingjing mosque reflects Confucianism in the Quanzhou area. The gate building of qing jing mosque is divided into three doors, the first into the door of the dome, and the top of the dome is carved with a lotus overhanging. Generally speaking, it is a two-Asian building, but the specific masonry method is reflected in the construction method. That method is called the caisson which is used to set the lotus or cloud in the center of the dome [13]. By observing the masonry method of the first dome, people can find that the dome of the building is similar to the masonry method of the Islamic temple gate in northwest China, and also similar to the masonry method of the pointed arch gate of some quiet temples in West Asia. It also has the architectural characteristics of southern Fujian. Most of the Muslims in northwest China came to China by land from West Asia, and most of them were soldiers and craftsmen. So their activities are more collective. Therefore, compared with the Hui people of Quanzhou, their Islamic culture can be better preserved. The mosque buildings in northwest China will have more characteristics of West Asia. Quanzhou Clean temple and West mosque buildings have different masonry way in the west some Qing temple gate arches, is with brick after laying bricks or stones, coated with ash, and then decorated with various patterns and patterns. In Quanzhou Qingjing mosque gate dome, each piece of curved stone carvings, are Seiko carving in advance for the dome. This is a typical practice of minnan architecture [14]. Therefore, from the perspective of the construction method and the dome, the cave is a variant of the caisson style of Chinese architectural form, but overall it is still a West Asian style building.

The third floor of the temple is more special, for the stone square [14]. The masonry method is different from the concentric overlapping method in West Asia and Northwest China. Instead, it sets four inclined beams on the four corners near the square and then covers the dome. This method is similar to the traditional Chinese architectural construction technique, and the masonry method is also influenced by the traditional Chinese technique.

4.Main Argument and Analysis

Before the stone inscriptions on the back wall of the gate building of the Qing Temple were translated and circulated, people believed the temple was built in the first year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1131), as the records in the Qingjing mosque and Li Guangjin’s Reconstruction of the qing jing mosque indicate. However, after translation, the stone carvings found that they were recorded 400 years (1009), more than 100 years earlier than the Chinese stone carvings, which attracted the attention of many Chinese and foreign scholars and put forward different opinions [15]. Among them, three views are “built in the Northern Song Dynasty”, “built in the Southern Song Dynasty” and “built before the Song Dynasty”. Since then, the translation of wen stone carvings began to get wide attention. By 1940,3 Arabic Islamic stone tablets and stone carvings, including mosque entrance hall and niche stone carvings, and tombstones, were found in Quanzhou. Mr.Wu Wenliang took the lead in collecting these stales and proposed for the first time that the two Chinese stales belonged to another Islamic temple. From 1950 to 1970, after many discussions and arguments by Wu Wenliang, Zhuang Weiqi, and other scholars, most scholars began to agree with the saying “the Southern Song Dynasty was founded” was not true. Finally, most scholars believe that the Qingjing mosque was first built during the Northern Song Dynasty [16].

From AD 968 to AD 1131, the Song dynasty for Arab and Chinese trade and cultural exchanges clear record [17]. During this period Quanzhou became a very important sea spice road starting port in China, by comparing the clear temple construction time and the long history of the sea spice road prosperous period can be seen, the clear temple is in the Song dynasty frequent trade between China and Arab, the period of cultural exchanges [18]. Due to the road of sea spices, the Song dynasty government support foreign businessmen who came to China to trade and respect their cultural customs, officially allow missionaries and settlement, Arabs came to Quanzhou to live, for the demand of religious activities, in Quanzhou with local materials according to the style of the hometown to build qing jing mosque, and in the later hundreds of years of qing temple damaged and constantly repair, in the process into the style of Chinese traditional Minnan style, so qing jing mosque became what we see now.

5.Conclusion

After the investigation and analysis of the history of Quanzhou Port and the architectural shape of qing jing mosque under the background of maritime spices, the evolution process of the transformation of Quanzhou qing jing mosque from the original Arabic style to the integration of Minnan Dacuo style and Arabic style is summarized. Maritime trade will bring new culture and architectural forms to the local area, and this architectural form gradually be influenced by local architecture over the long years, thus transforming into a unique architectural form of cultural mix. Architecture is a solidified art, and the Qingjing mosque is not only a treasure of Arab culture but also a treasure of Chinese culture. Quanzhou Qingjing mosque is well preserved at present, which is of great significance to the study of the development history of Quanzhou Hui and Muslim culture. At the same time, it also has a unique cultural value and artistic value under the integration of West Asian Muslim culture and Chinese Confucian culture. However, for most people, the Qingjing mosque is not famous for its characteristics of cultural integration. In terms of the publicity of Qingjing mosque, cultural publicity can be strengthened by highlighting the unique historical and cultural background of Qingxin Temple to strengthen its attraction to tourists and strengthen its competitiveness in the local cultural tourism market.