Stone Inscription Commemorating Zhao Shu’s Campaign Against the Red-Haired Barbarians

Stone Inscription Commemorating Zhao Shu’s Campaign Against the Red-Haired Barbarians

The Stone Inscription Commemorating Zhao Shu’s Campaign Against the Red-Haired Barbarians is a cultural relic protection unit of Fujian Province.

The Stone Inscription Commemorating Zhao Shu’s Campaign Against the Red-Haired Barbarians is located on the rock face of the hill behind Huxi Rock in Siming District. It is a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit dating back to the Ming Dynasty.

In the late Ming period, Western colonizers began expanding eastward. In the second year of the Tianqi era (1622), Dutch colonizers occupied Penghu and subsequently repeatedly invaded the coastal areas of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, burning civilian ships and forcibly demanding trade rights. From the third to the fourth year of Tianqi (1623–1624), the Ming government successively deployed various naval forces to be stationed in Xiamen, achieving multiple major victories against the Dutch army, and completely driving the Dutch out of Penghu in July 1624. This inscription was carved by Zhao Shu, the Coastal Defense Administrator of Zhangzhou Prefecture who participated in the campaign, during his time leading the fight against the foreigners. He inscribed it while visiting Huxi Rock. The inscription, measuring 1.7 meters in height and 0.6 meters in width, is written in running regular script that reads: “In the winter of Tianqi guihai, Zhao Shu of Jinyang supervised the campaign and came here.” Tianqi guihai refers to the year 1623.

In 1982, it was designated as part of the second batch of municipal-level cultural relic protection units by the Xiamen Municipal Government.

In 1985, it was designated as part of the second batch of provincial-level cultural relic protection units by the Fujian Provincial Government.

Protected area: the entire rock where the inscription is located.