How serious was the Quanzhou offshore earthquake?

On the night of December 29, 1604 (October 9, the 32nd year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty), people in the ancient city of Quanzhou were just about to fall asleep when suddenly there were bursts of thunderous loud noises that woke them up. In an instant, the mountains shook and the ground shook, houses collapsed, and the whole ancient city was bumping like a boat in the sea. People in Suixi, Guangxi, Zhongxiang, Hubei, Hanchuan, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places more than 1,000 kilometers away from the epicenter were all shaken. The shock was felt, and more than 120 counties in 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in southeastern my country recorded the earthquake. The magnitude of this earthquake was 8. It was located at 25.0 degrees north latitude and 119.5 degrees east longitude. It was the largest earthquake in the southeastern coast of my country. The ancient city of Quanzhou and adjacent areas suffered serious damage.

According to historical records, the mountains, rocks and seawater were shaken when the earthquake occurred; all the buildings and shops inside and outside Quanzhou City collapsed; two rafters were damaged in the south of the east tower of Kaiyuan Temple and eight in the southeast corner; Luoyang The bridge was damaged; ground cracks appeared in many places; in Qingyuan Mountain, sand and water gushed out from the cracked ground cracks, and the gas was like sulfur; many boats capsized along the coast of Quanzhou; several Kamata city walls collapsed, and many tall buildings in the city collapsed , countless houses in the countryside fell to the ground; the fields were cracked, with black sand and a smell of sulfur, and the water in the pond dried up due to the cracks in the ground; the field outside the south gate of Zhangpu sunk into a cave, which was more than five feet wide and about two feet deep, and water gushed out. There were black sand and mud in the ground; many houses in Nan'an collapsed; many houses in Tong'an collapsed; mountains and rivers in Anxi collapsed; thunderous noises were heard during the Funing earthquake, etc. Because the earthquake occurred in the evening, there were human and animal casualties in most coastal areas of southern Fujian. In addition, the Luoyang Bridge, the famous beam-type stone bridge across the bay in history (built in the Tang Dynasty and repaired during the Huangyou period of the Song Dynasty, with a total length of 834 meters and a total of 58 piers), was damaged during the earthquake and the strong During the aftershock, "the bridge collapsed, the large stone beam folded into the sea, and the former site in the north of the bridge collapsed."

Despite the violent earthquake and serious disaster, there are still many temples, temples, pagodas and other ancient buildings that have withstood the test of the earthquake and have survived to this day. The famous Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou is one of the ancient buildings that has been basically preserved intact. In addition, a large number of Ming Dynasty residential buildings in southern Fujian have survived to this day. They not only withstood the shaking of the 1604 earthquake, but also survived more than 300 years of ups and downs.