The Department of State Affairs is the Jin's civil government.
Under a Director (shangshu ling), a rank that as we recall went to senior princes or statesmen and was not always filled (not checked), come the Left and Right Chancellors, two Managers of Affairs, the Left and Right Vice Directors and two Participants, and below them the six boards: Personnel (appointments), Revenue (households, land, salt, money), Rites (examinations, religion, foreign guests), War, Justice and Works (including the Yellow River). Jurchen nobles from the great clans hold the chancellorships in most reigns, with Han and Bohai scholars lower down and in the Hanlin; the exact balance of 1200 is not pinned. The Department drafts and issues the decrees, receives memorials from the circuits and the Censorate, and carries out the policies that the emperor decides with the few ministers he trusts.
In Zhangzong's reign the Department's work is the Yellow River relief, the rating of land and the Jurchen households, the paper money, and the border works.
Who he is
- Name
- not pinned for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Left and Right Chancellors (zuo and you chengxiang), Managers of Affairs (pingzhang zhengshi), Left and Right Vice Directors, Participants (canzhi zhengshi)
- Since
- n/a
- Born
- n/a
- Family
- Senior men of these years include Tushan Yi and Wanyan Xiang (named by the regional brief), Wanyan Anguo (named on the Rise of Genghis Khan page as vanguard commander) and, from our recollection only, Jiagu Qingchen; Wanyan Kuang, Pusan Kui and Dugu Sizhong are, as we recall, men of the next decade and may not yet hold any office (not checked). Which chair each held on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
- Confidence
- low
The structure is well known (the Secretariat and Chancellery were abolished by Wanyan Liang in the 1150s, leaving the Department of State Affairs as the single civil executive). No source we could open dates the chancellors of Cheng'an 4 and 5: the Jinshi's Benji for those years is the place to settle it.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong
What it holds
- Appointments, revenue, rites, war, justice and works for the empire
- The memorials of all nineteen circuits
How things stand that morning
Staffed and working. The persons and the order of precedence on 1 January 1200 are not pinned. Tushan Yi and Wanyan Xiang are named as senior ministers of these years; we could not assign either a chair.
Places of note
- Zhongdu: The Central Capital.
Where the sources disagree
- The regional brief names Tushan Yi and Wanyan Xiang as chancellors 'to check for 1199 and 1200'; we could neither confirm nor refute their chairs.
Evidence: Structure from general knowledge of the Jin; no dated list of the chancellors for Cheng'an 4 to 5 was reachable.
On the map: A person or office with no land of its own; the drawing is a marker.
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)
- 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)
- Rise of Genghis Khan (English Wikipedia)
- Jing-shen Tao, The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China (1976); Cambridge History of China vol. 6 (1994), chapter on the Jin (recalled, not opened in this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.