Buddhist monasteries · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Huangmei Chan houses

Huangmei in Qizhou is the country of the Fourth and Fifth Chan patriarchs, Daoxin (580 to 651) and Hongren (601 to 674), whose temples (Sizu and Wuzu) are the sacred places of Chan.

Wuzu on Dongshan was served in the late eleventh century by Wuzu Fayan (died 1104), the teacher of Yuanwu Keqin (recalled). In 1200 they are Chan public monasteries of the Linji school with mountain estates. No abbot is named for 1200.

Who holds it

Title
Abbots of Wuzu and Sizu; names not known
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Name not known for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

The Song court by title; locally the prefect of the prefecture it stands in.

What it holds

  • Mountain estates (extent not pinned)
  • The patriarchs' shrines

How it was acquired

Tang foundations; Song public monasteries (recalled).

Allies and rivals

Under the prefect of Qizhou.

How things stand that morning

At peace; no event dated.

Wealth

Estates and pilgrim gifts. No figures.

Military

No armed force: tenants, lay servants and students. No numbers.

Threats

  • Fire

Where the sources disagree

  • Huangmei is a county of Qizhou in the Huainan West circuit.

Evidence: Background knowledge of the Song religious and academic houses, recalled and not re-read in this pass because web access closed, except where a source is named in the record. No abbot, master or academy head is named for 1 January 1200 in anything we could reach.

On the map: A disc; Sizu (on Pohu hill) lies some miles away and is not drawn.

Primary sources for Southern Song

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.

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
  • History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. 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
  • History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. 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

12 more in the sources library for South China.

Sources and studies

  1. Background knowledge of Southern Song administration and the middle Yangtze (Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2; Hymes; Clark; Von Glahn; Bol; the travel diaries of Lu You, 1170, and Fan Chengda, 1177), recalled and not re-read in this pass

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