Dongchuan is one of the four jun and is placed at modern Huize, on the road from Shanchan to the Jinsha and Sichuan; a Bipan bu is placed at modern Dongchuan district.
The people are Wuman (Yi). The copper that will make Dongchuan famous belongs to a later age. 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 of Dongchuan jun, or the Yi chief of the Bipan bu; 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
Dali by title; the Yi chiefs hold the country.
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
- Map ruling (sheet builder, pass 1): Huize and the Dongchuan country are drawn as the ground of the native chiefs, as this record says; the South China researcher's anchor for Huize says Dali. See the record of Zhuti.
Evidence: The jun's name and place.
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 Chiefs of the south-west
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.
- 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 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
- Miscellaneous Notes on Court and Country since the Jianyan Era, Li Xinchuan (李心傳) (first series 1202, second series 1216). A contemporary handbook of the Southern Song state, written in Sichuan by the historian Li Xinchuan and finished in its first part in 1202, two years after the start of 1200. 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)
- OMNIA board, notes_msy.txt and places_msy.tsv (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.