The Tianchang guan in the north-west quarter of Zhongdu is, as we recall, a major Daoist house of the capital, with imperial patronage and the Daoist canon: the Jin court ordered the canon to be cut in blocks and printed here in the Mingchang years (1190 to 1196), as we recall.
The temple is not yet called the Baiyun guan: that name belongs to a later century. In the likely course (below) Qiu Chuji is installed in it long afterwards.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbot (guan zhu) of the Tianchang guan
- Confidence
- low
The monk-official who directed the Daoist canon is recalled as Sun Mingdao; we could not check it and give no name.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong, through the Jin registers of monks and Daoists
What it holds
- The Tianchang guan and its precinct
- The printing blocks of the Daoist canon
- Estates round the capital (extent not known)
How it was acquired
A Tang foundation, rebuilt and enlarged under the Jin (not checked in detail).
How things stand that morning
A house with imperial patronage at the capital; the blocks of the canon are, as we recall, stored here.
Wealth
Imperial gifts and endowments. No figure.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1202, as we recallFire destroys the Tianchang guan and it is rebuilt as the Taiji palace; later it becomes the Changchun palace and, under the Ming, the Baiyun guan.Depends on: An accidental fire, which we recall but could not check. Stopped by: No fire.
- 1224 to 1227Qiu Chuji is installed in the house after his return from the Khan's camp and dies there in 1227.Depends on: The Mongol empire and the Khan's summons. Stopped by: No Mongol empire.
Places of note
- Tianchang guan: The Daoist house in the north-west quarter of the capital.
Where the sources disagree
- The brief asks whether the Baiyun guan existed under that name: it did not; the Tianchang guan is the name in 1200.
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.
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
- Zhongdu (English Wikipedia)
- History of Beijing (English Wikipedia)
- Qiu Chuji (English Wikipedia)
- Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
- 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)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.