Border markets

Who he is

Title

Superintendents of the licensed markets (quanchang) at the frontier prefectures

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No holder is named for 1 January 1200 in anything we could reach. The Jinshi names officers only inside individual biographies (zh.wikisource, ctext, Baidu Baike and CBDB were all unreachable from here), so the office, not the man, is what this record gives.

Overlord

the Jin emperor Zhangzong (Wanyan Jing), Cheng'an 4, through the Department of State Affairs at Zhongdu

What it holds

• Sizhou (Linhuai): the main market and the place of the yearly payment
• Haizhou (named by the brief only)
• Yingzhou (Fuyang; closed 1159) and Shouzhou (not in the Dili zhi's list), on sch ground
• Caizhou, Tangzhou, Dengzhou (each once had one; closed 1159)

How it was acquired

First opened after the treaty of 1141 to 1142 (recalled); the first month of Zhenglong 4 (1159) closed those named above and set one at Sizhou (Dili zhi, read); restored after 1165 (recalled, not confirmed).

Allies and rivals

Each Jin market has a Song twin across the river: Xuyi, Chuzhou, Anfeng, Guangzhou, Xiangyang and others, the South China sheet's.

How things stand that morning

Trade at peace. The Jin charge duty and stop the export of copper cash, iron and strategic goods; the Song stop the export of books and arms (recalled).

Wealth

Duties on cloth, tea, salt, horses, books, silver; the Song pay at Sizhou (the yearly payment is not trade).

Military

A small guard at each market under the local garrison; no numbers.

Threats

• Smuggling
• Closure of the markets if the peace breaks (the likely course puts border incidents from 1204 and war in 1206; neither has happened)

Places of note

• Sizhou (Linhuai): Sizhou market
• Haizhou: Haizhou market (named by the brief only; the Dili zhi gives Haizhou none)
• Runan: Caizhou market (once held, Dili zhi)
• Biyang (Tangzhou): Tangzhou market (once held)
• Dengzhou (Rangcheng): Dengzhou market (once held)
• Fuyang (Yingzhou): Yingzhou market (closed 1159; on sch ground)
• Xiacai (Fengtai, Shouzhou): Shouzhou (Xiacai) market (brief; on sch ground)

Where the sources disagree

• The brief lists markets at Sizhou, Haizhou, Yingzhou, Cai, Tang, Deng and Fengxiang. The Dili zhi (the whole page searched for the word) names the markets closed in 1159 as Fengxiang, Tang, Deng, Ying, Cai, Gong, Tao and Jiaoxi, with a market set at Sizhou alone; Haizhou has none in its entry. The brief's list therefore looks like the market list of the 1140s and 1150s with Haizhou added, not a list of what stood in 1200.

Evidence: Closures and survivals are from the Dili zhi (read); the reopening after 1165 and the list in the brief are not confirmed.

On the map: An office record draws the ground the office directly works, not the whole circuit; the prefectures themselves are in the province records. Edges follow modern county seats and the nearest-unit rule.

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.