Circuit, prefecture or people · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Zhongdu circuit

The Zhongdu circuit is the ground round the working capital.

Daxing fu itself sits in the middle of the fan of the Lugou (Yongding) river; to the north the Yan hills close the plain, with the passes of Juyongguan and Gubeikou held by garrisons; to the east the Chaobai, Ju and Luan rivers lead to Pingzhou, Luanzhou and the Yu pass at the sea; to the south-east the Hai marshes hold Tongzhou with its granaries and the river landing at Zhigu; to the south-west Zhuozhou and Yizhou stand on the Taihang foot, with the Jin tombs at Fangshan above Zhuozhou. It was the Liao's Southern Capital circuit (Yanjing) before the Jin took it, and has carried the capital's name since 1153. It exists to feed, guard and supply the court.

The campaign board's 'staple' mark falls on Zhongdu, Tongzhou and the Lugou bridge.

Who holds it

Title
Circuit officers: the Transport commissioner, the Provincial Surveillance commissioner, and the yin of Daxing fu, who also carries the military command of the circuit
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

  • Daxing fu (Zhongdu) with its counties
  • Tongzhou, Jizhou, Shunzhou, Tanzhou, Zhuozhou, Yizhou, Pingzhou, Luanzhou (prefectures, as the campaign board groups them)
  • The passes of Juyongguan, Gubeikou and Yuguan
  • The Lugou bridge and the Tongzhou granaries
  • The imperial tombs at Fangshan

How it was acquired

The Liao's Southern Capital circuit (Yanjing), taken by the Jin in 1122-23, handed to the Song under the 1123 bargain and retaken in 1125-26 (dates of prefecture-level changes not pinned); renamed Zhongdu lu in 1153 when Wanyan Liang moved the court here.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: Xijing circuit to the north-west (Fengsheng, Xuande: see the Xijing frontier records), Beijing circuit to the north-east (ncm), Hebei East and West to the south and south-west.

How things stand that morning

Peace. The court is probably in residence for the New Year; the winter works of the capital and the northern passes are in hand. Nothing known to me threatens the circuit in the winter of 1199-1200 from outside: the steppe beyond the trench is quiet after the campaigns of 1195-1198, and the Song is at peace.

Wealth

The capital's markets and the court's spending; the Tongzhou granaries; the Baodi salt shore (see Salt commissions); the orchards, fisheries and tolls of the rivers. No figure.

Military

The Imperial Guard Army, the palace guards and the Jurchen colonies near the capital (see Capital guards and Jurchen colonies of the plain); garrisons at the passes; the northern boundary trench is far beyond, on the steppe edge. No figure.

Threats

  • Raiders through the passes if the northern line fails
  • Floods of the Lugou river
  • Competition for barges between the capital's grain and the Yellow River relief

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.

In 1200

  1. 18 January 1200 (Julian; Cheng'an 5 begins, by our own computation, about 25 January Gregorian)New Year audiences at Zhongdu: the envoys of the Song, Xia and Goryeo come to congratulate the emperor.Depends on: The court being at Zhongdu and the calendar as computed (one day either way). Stopped by: A death in the imperial house, which would put the court in mourning.

Later, on the likely course

  1. 1211 to June 1215, dates looseMongol invasions: Juyongguan falls in 1213, Zhongdu is besieged, the court leaves for Kaifeng in 1214 and the city falls in the summer of 1215.Depends on: Temujin being made Chinggis Khan in 1206 and choosing war with the Jin. Stopped by: A Mongol defeat or a Jin-Mongol settlement before 1211; the Mongols are not yet one people on 1 January 1200.

Places of note

  • Fangshan imperial tombs: The Jin imperial tombs in the hills above Zhuozhou (see Fangshan tombs).

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board lists Sanhe under Daxing fu; we take it for Jizhou (Yuyang) as we recall the Dili zhi, at medium confidence. Neither choice leaves Zhongdu circuit.

Evidence: The seat, rank and county names are the OMNIA board's, checked against general knowledge of the Jin Dili zhi. The Jinshi text could not be opened in this session, so county lists, ranks and promotions are not verified, and no prefect or commissioner is dated for 1 January 1200. The circuit's outline and its role are well known from the general histories of Beijing.

"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 outline traced from the Taihang foot, the Yan hills and the coast; it is snapped to modern districts, so the northern and western edges 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

  1. History of Beijing (English Wikipedia)
  2. Zhongdu (English Wikipedia)
  3. Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
  4. 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)
  5. OMNIA board places for nch (lead only)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.