Chengji is the first of the four zhen in the lists and is placed at modern Yongsheng, north-west of the Dian plain on the high ground west of the Jinsha, with Naxi, Yi and Pumi-side villages round it.
The zhen are frontier commands. The eight fu, four jun, four zhen and thirty-seven bu are the structure that Yuan and Ming writers give the kingdom (the Yuan Yunnan zhilue and Dili zhi; Yang Shen's Dian zai ji, Ming; repeated by the Chinese Wikipedia, 大理国). No contemporary Dali document lists them, and we found no governor named for 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Commander (zhen) of Chengji; not named
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source we read names the holder for 1 January 1200.
Overlord
The Gao chancellor.
How things stand that morning
No event dated.
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.
- 1253 to 1254The Mongol army under Kublai and Uriyangqadai comes over the Jinsha and takes Dali; Duan Xingzhi is captured at Shanchan (the Chinese Wikipedia gives 1252, 1253 or 2 January 1254 in different places). The Yuan then reorganise the country into routes and prefectures in the 1270s.Depends on: A Mongol decision to attack Dali by the western road, which needs Mongke's accession (1251) and a campaign in Sichuan first; the Song staying shut behind the Dadu. Stopped by: A Song-Mongol settlement in the 1240s, or a Dali submission before the Jinsha is crossed; none of it is in play in January 1200.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: One line in the lists.
On the map: Drawn from modern counties that the Chinese Wikipedia equates with the unit; the lists give a place, not a boundary, and the real extent in 1200 is not known.
Primary sources for Dali
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.
- The Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. 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
- The Unofficial History of Nanzhao, Yang Shen; revised by Hu Wei (16th century, revised 1775, from Dali and Yunnan traditions and lost local histories). The kingdom of Dali has no surviving text of 1200: its own records were destroyed in the Mongol conquest and after, and the Song shi's Dali entry ends in 1175. 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
- Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
- Chinese Wikipedia, 大理国 (read this session: the eight fu, four jun, four zhen and thirty-seven bu; it cites Yang Shen's Dian zai ji, Wang Song's Yunnan beizhengzhi, Ni Lu's Nanzhao yeshi, the Baigu tongji qianshu)
- Yuanshi (History of Yuan), Dili zhi on Yunnan, and Li Jingyuan, Yunnan zhilue (1331): the Yuan sources of the Dali structure lists; recalled through the Chinese Wikipedia, NOT re-read
- Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom (read this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.