The Pumo bu (普摩) is number 1 in the Chinese Wikipedia's list of the thirty-seven bu, which places it at modern Qilin district (Qujing).
Its ground is the Qujing basin, the head of the road from Shanchan to Guizhou and the Song horse market. It lies in the country of Shicheng jun. The thirty-seven bu are the tribal districts of the east and south that the Yuan and Ming writers say answered to Dali, each under its own chief; the campaign board says they paid in horses and men; English Wikipedia says the thirty-seven tribes of north-east Yunnan had been allied with the Duan since 971 and revolted early in the reign of Duan Zhengyan (1117 to 1141), and the campaign board puts the oath of 971 at Shicheng (which we could not confirm).
The list is a late compilation (Yang Shen's Dian zai ji, Ming; Wang Song's Yunnan beizheng zhi, Qing; Ni Lu's Nanzhao yeshi, Ming) and the equation of each bu with a modern county is the Chinese Wikipedia's. No chief, tribute or event is dated for this bu in 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Chief of the Pumo bu
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source we read names any bu chief for 1200.
Overlord
Dali, through its nearest fu, jun or zhen.
How things stand that morning
No event dated.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'the-thirty-seven-tribes' calls the bu 'a belt, not a province' and says they were sworn at Shicheng in 971. The list gives each bu a place, so we draw each as a unit and found no source that shows a raiding belt in 1200; an alliance since 971 and a revolt in 1117 to 1141 are English Wikipedia's, and the place of the oath, Shicheng, is the campaign board's alone. Two of the thirty-seven (Wusa at Weining and Yushi at Pu'an) lie in Guizhou, the South China map's ground, and are anchors only.
Evidence: One line in a late list, equated with a modern county by the Chinese Wikipedia; nothing else about this bu in the sources we read.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: One modern county stands for the bu; the real country of a bu had no line.
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)
- 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.