Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Massacre de Guangzhou" in French language version.
.« Tang period onwards, were strong enough to sack that city in 758-59 in an act of frustration prompted by the corruption of Chinese port officials, and escape by sea, probably to Tonkin where they could continue their trading activities.11 The sacking of Yang-chou in 760 by Chinese rebels resulted in the deaths of "several thousand of Po'ssi and Ta-shih merchants".12 and when massacres occurred in Guangzhou in 878, a contemporary Arab geographer, Abu Zaid, recorded that "Muslims, Jews, Christians and Parsees perished".13 »
.« In 760 several thousand Arab and Persian merchants were massacred at Yangchow by insurgent bands led by T'ien Shen-kung and a century later, in 879, it was also the foreign merchants who were attacked at Canton by the troops of Huang Ch'ao. »
.« The sack of the city by Huang Ch'ao's troops in 879, »
(Original from Harvard University)« The merchant Soleyman visited China around the middle of the ninth century. He went there by sea and landed at a town which he calls Kanfou, situated several days' journey from the sea. Renaudot and Deguignes believed he meant Canton, but Reinaud is of the opinion that Soleyman landed at Hang chou fu (in Chekiang). Another Arabian merchant, Ibn Vahab, visited and described China in 872 AD and was received by the Emperor. It appears from the relations given by these two travelers that the Arabs at that time carried on commerce with the Chinese by sea. The Chinese records do not mention this. Only in one instance (T'ang shu, Chap. 258b, Article Po ssii (Persia)) is it said that the Arabs and Persians together AD 758 sacked and burned the city of Kuang chou (Canton) and went back by sea. The Chinese text (1.c.) says: $£ Ttj »
« 3. Guangzhou (Canton). Toward the end of the Tang dynasty, that is, toward the end of the ninth century, Islamic traveler Aboul Zeyd al Hassan, also called Abu Zaid, visited India and China (40). He wrote: "During the Huang Chao rebellion near the end of Tang, 120,000 Muslims, Jews, Christians and Parsees in Guangfu [Chen Yuan's rendition of the French "Khanfu"] on business, were killed" (27 p. 29). Neither the New nor Old Tang History mentions this event, though they do say that Huang Chao occupied Guangzhou in 978 and that he withdrew the following year, the reason for the pull-out being that "... a great plague »
« Toward the end of Tang (618-905) Arab traveller Abu Zaid Hassan notes that during Huang Chao's attack on Khanfu (Canton) many Muslims, Jews, Christians and Mazdaists (Persian Zoroastrians) were killed. At that time people of various races from Western Asia came to China since sea trade was brisk »
« In the waning years of the T'ang Dynasty Huang Chao, a scholar who had failed repeatedly in examinations, rose furiously in revolt. It was recorded by an Arab traveler that 120,000 Arabs, Persians and Jews were killed when the rebellious army captured Canton in 879. »
« An Arabic source says that in Guangzhou Huang's followers slew 120,000 Mohammedans, Jews, Christians and Persians. This, however, is not corroborated by the Chinese writers. »
« As early as AD 840, the emperor Wuzong sought to blame foreign ideologies for China's plight. In 878, the rebel Huang Chao sacked Canton, slaughtering 120,000 Muslims (mainly Persians), Jews, and Christians living in that city's trade community. »
« They then traveled around Anhwei and Chekiang, reaching Foochow and in 879 Canton, where they massacred the rich foreign merchants. »
« 19 Not content to massacre traders, Huang Chao also tried to kill China's main export industry by destroying the mulberry groves of south China.20 »
« The Chinese and Foreigners. The position and treaty rights of foreigners in China have hitherto been maintained by military force; and though Mr. Burlingame's mission appears to be especially directed to the abolishment of the " force policy," yet without force, that is, a show of military force for protection, the position of foreigners of every class would not be tenable in China a month. Foreigners have at different periods settled in China; but after remaining for a time, they have been massacred. For instance, Mohammedans and others settled at Canton in the ninth century; and in 889, it is said that 120,000 foreign settlers were massacred. Again in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese commenced trade and formed a settlement at Ningpo; Spaniards and other foreigners also settled here. But in 1542, the whole settlement, consisting of over 3,000 persons, was destroyed, most of the settlers being put to death. Also at Cha-pu, about seventy or eighty miles north of Ningpo, on the Hangchow bay, there was a settlement of foreigners for the purposes of trade, about two hundred years since, who at length were massacred. It is often reported among the people at Ningpo, and other places in China where there are foreigners residing, that they and all the natives connected with them are to be put to death. So rife was such a report at Ningpo, two years since, and the excitement began to be so great that the foreign consuls requested the native officials to issue proclamations to quiet the people, and threaten punishment to those circulating inflammatory reports. »
