Zhongdu inherits the temples of the Liao Southern Capital Yanjing and has added new ones.
The Tianning temple has the tall Liao brick pagoda of 1100 to 1119 (English Wikipedia); the old Tang temples still stand in the south-west of the city; the Qingshou temple is a Jin foundation as we recall (date not pinned). The Jin court patronised Buddhism (general knowledge), and monks and nuns lived on endowed estates in the hills round the capital (general knowledge, not checked). The great temples of the plain (Longxing at Zhending, Yunju at Fangshan, Lingyan at Jinan) are separate records.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbots of the capital's great temples, under the Jin office for Buddhist registers; none named
- Confidence
- low
No abbot is named for 1200.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong, through the Jin registers of monks and Daoists
What it holds
- Temples within the walls of Zhongdu and the old Yanjing quarter
- Temple estates in the hills west of the capital
How it was acquired
Mostly Liao and Tang foundations; some new Jin temples.
How things stand that morning
Quiet. The temples keep the capital's festival calendar; none is known to me to be in difficulty.
Wealth
Endowed estates and the court's gifts. No figure.
Places of note
- Tianning temple: The Liao brick pagoda of 1100-1119 (English Wikipedia).
Where the sources disagree
- Qingshou temple: the brief names it; we could not confirm its foundation date or its position.
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)
- 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.