The Yinsheng command was set up east of the Lancang under Nanzhao in 765 and governed from Yinsheng city (modern Jingdong); the Chinese Wikipedia says it was kept in the early Dali kingdom.
The Manshu (about 863, recalled) praises its tea. By 1200 no source we read says who holds the country: Dali by title, with Yi, Hani, Pu and Tai villages in the hills and basins. The Gao of Weichu hold it only on one reading (see Gao of Weichu). The ethnic names are modern groupings; the Tang Manshu and the Yuan texts use other names (Wuman, Baiman, Pu, Wang, Moxie, Mang) and the match is the scholars', not proved for 1200.
The sources for these hills are Tang and Yuan notices, Chinese Wikipedia pages on the counties and ethnography of much later centuries; none is dated to 1199 or 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- The Yinsheng command's officer at Jingdong, or the hill headmen; not named
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- village headmen and ritual specialists
- Confidence
- low
Nothing described for 1200.
Overlord
Dali by title; the claim is by the old Nanzhao command and nothing shows what is collected.
How things stand that morning
Dali by title; no event dated.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: General statements and the geography only.
On the map: Drawn from the modern counties where these peoples live; the real range of 1200 had no line and 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
- Fan Chuo, Manshu (Book of the Southern Barbarians, about 863): recalled, NOT re-read (zh.wikisource and ctext were not opened)
- 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)
- 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.