The eastern face of the Taihang above the piedmont road: Jingxing with the pass to Taiyuan, Pingshan, Lingshou, Zanhuang, Neiqiu.
Hill villages lie in the valleys; whether any had stockaded refuges in 1200 is not known. We found no source naming a community under its own chief here in 1199-1200. The Taihang sheltered Song loyalist bands in 1127-29 (Wang Yan's Eight-Character Army, as we recall), but that ended long ago. The Jin treats the passes as roads and posts a guard on them, not as a frontier.
Who holds it
- Title
- The county magistrates of Jingxing, Pingshan, Lingshou, Zanhuang and Neiqiu; no hill chief is known
- Confidence
- low
No source we could open names the officeholder on 1 January 1200.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong, through the Department of State Affairs and the circuit commissions
What it holds
- The passes and valleys of the eastern Taihang
How it was acquired
Taken by the Jin in the invasions of 1125 to 1129; prefectural rank as the Dili zhi gives it, not dated closer.
Allies and rivals
No quarrel is known for 1199-1200.
How things stand that morning
Quiet; county administration with the passes watched.
Wealth
Timber, coal, charcoal, iron and stone; the pass road.
Military
Posts on the passes (Jingxing above all); no figure.
Threats
- Brigands in a bad year
Where the sources disagree
- The five county seats are listed in Zhending fu, nce-p-zhaozhou and Xingzhou by the campaign board's grouping; the hill belt is our addition.
Evidence: No source consulted gives a hill community here for 1200; the record exists to show the hills as a distinct belt of country.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A rough block drawn round the seat and the counties the campaign board lists under it. The real county list of the Dili zhi was not opened; edges between neighbouring prefectures are approximate.
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
- Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
- Jin-Song wars (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)
- OMNIA board places for nch (lead only)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.