The hill country south of the Yuan River's upper valley, round Jingzhou, Tongdao, Suining, Chengbu and Xinning, where Miao and Dong villages govern themselves under headmen and the Song hold stockades at the valley mouths.
The Song prefecture of Jingzhou (begun in the 1080s as Chengzhou) and the military prefecture of Wugang (1106) are the Song posts on its edge.
Who holds it
- Title
- Speaks for it: village headmen and the Yang and other chiefly lineages (not named for 1200)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The Yang lineage is the best attested among Jingzhou's chiefs in the Song histories; which Yang held what in 1200 is not pinned.
Overlord
Nominally the prefects of Jingzhou and Shaozhou and the commander of Wugang jun.
What it holds
- Hill villages above Jingzhou and Wugang
- Timber and tung oil
How it was acquired
The Song stockade line was pushed here in the 1080s and has not moved much since.
Allies and rivals
Neighbours of the Wuxi cave chiefs to the north and the Yao to the south-east.
How things stand that morning
Quiet in the sources we could reach; no dated rising for winter 1199 to 1200.
Wealth
Timber, tung oil, rice terraces, cloth.
Military
Village militias; Song stockade garrisons at the valley mouths. No numbers.
Threats
- Stockade disputes with the Song
- Cave feuds
Places of note
- Tongdao: A county of Jingzhou in the Songshi list (with Yongping and Huitong) at the edge of the Dong country; the Song hold the town, not the hills round it.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Evidence is thin and later than 1200 for almost everything here. The Song histories file these peoples under the Man chapters (Songshi juan 493 and 494), which we could not open in this pass; what follows is the general picture those chapters, Zhou Qufei and Fan Chengda give for the twelfth century, recalled, plus Laosicheng archaeology for the Peng seat. No chief is named for 1 January 1200.
On the map: Rough polygon; Jingzhou's seat and Wugang jun lie inside or beside it and are anchored to the Song.
Sources and studies
- Songshi juan 493 and 494 (Manyi): the south-western stream-cave peoples (zh.wikisource) - not opened in this pass; cited as where the matter is settled
- Songshi, juan 88 (Dili zhi 4): circuits and prefectures of Liangzhe, Huainan, Jiangnan and Jinghu with the Southern Song rank changes (zh.wikisource)
- 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.