During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hepu Commandery (present-day Xinxing and southwestern Kaiping in Guangdong, and south of Rong and Heng counties in Guangxi) was rich in pearls along its coast. The pearls produced there were round, large, and pure in color, renowned both at home and abroad, earning the name "Hepu Pearls." Local residents made a living by diving for pearls, trading them for grain with the neighboring Jiaozhi Commandery.
The pearl harvesting trade was highly profitable, so some local officials seized the opportunity to line their own pockets, inventing endless fees and taxes to squeeze the pearl divers. Greedy for more, they ignored the natural growth cycle of the pearl oysters and relentlessly ordered the divers to harvest. As a result, the oysters gradually migrated to the neighboring Jiaozhi region, and fewer and fewer could be caught in Hepu.
Fishermen along the coast of Hepu had long made their living by diving for pearls, with few bothering to grow rice. When pearls were plentiful, their earnings were high, and they didn't mind spending on grain. But now, with pearl yields plummeting, their income dried up, leaving many too poor to buy food—and countless starved to death as a result.
After Emperor Shun of Han, Liu Bao, ascended the throne, he appointed a man named Meng Chang as the Prefect of Hepu. Upon arriving, Meng Chang quickly identified why local fishermen were starving: he abolished corrupt practices, repealed exploitative regulations, and banned overfishing to protect the pearl oyster resources. Within a year, the oysters flourished again, and Hepu once became a thriving source of pearls.
"The idiom 'Pearls Return to Hepu' is a metaphor for someone returning after leaving or recovering lost items."
Source: *Book of the Later Han*, "Biography of Meng Chang"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "合浦珠还" came to describe a metaphor for someone returning after leaving or recovering lost items.