Other religious houses · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Dai Temple, Mount Tai

Mount Tai is the Eastern Peak, the first of the sacred mountains.

The Dai Temple at its foot is the temple of the Eastern Peak god, where the court's sacrifices are held, and the Bixia shrine at the summit is the shrine of the Lady of the Azure Clouds, to whom the pilgrims climb, above all in spring. The imperial feng and shan sacrifices on the summit were last performed by the Song emperor Zhenzong in 1008, as we recall. The pilgrim road is its market.

Who holds it

Title
Temple wardens and Daoist clergy of the Eastern Peak, under the Jin court's sacrificial officers
Confidence
low

No warden or abbot is named for 1200.

Overlord

Emperor Zhangzong, through the Jin registers of monks and Daoists

What it holds

  • The Dai Temple and its precinct
  • The summit shrine of Bixia
  • The pilgrim road and the market at the foot

How it was acquired

Imperial temple for centuries; the Song gave titles to the god in the 1000s and the Jin kept the cult (not checked in detail).

How things stand that morning

Probably quiet in winter, the pilgrim season being the spring (general knowledge). We could not confirm any Jin work on the buildings in the 1190s.

Wealth

Pilgrim gifts and incense; a share of the market tolls at the foot. No figure.

Threats

  • Fire in the wooden halls
  • A bad spring for pilgrims

Places of note

  • Dai Temple: The temple of the Eastern Peak at the foot of the mountain.
  • Bixia shrine: The summit shrine of the goddess Bixia.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board gives Tai'an as 'zhou'; see Tai'an zhou for the rank.

Evidence: The Jinshi text could not be opened in this session; the dates below come from the English Wikipedia pages named in the sources and from memory, marked where unchecked.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: A marker or a small disc: the house's lands and boundaries are not known.

Primary sources for Jin empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
  • Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
  • Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
  • Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
  • Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
  • The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
  • History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.

Sources and studies

  1. Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
  2. Jinshi (History of the Jin), Benji of Zhangzong, Dili zhi, Hequ zhi, Shihuo zhi and Bing zhi (recalled from memory and the secondary literature; the text itself could not be opened in this session)
  3. OMNIA board places for nch (lead only)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.