Dongbei lu zhaotao shi

Who he is

Title

Dongbei lu zhaotao shi (commissioner for suppression and pacification of the north-east route)

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Confidence

low

The commission is one of three frontier commissions of the Jin; its seat at Taizhou is from the Dili zhi as we remember it. No holder is dated for the winter of 1199-1200.

Overlord

The Jin emperor through the Privy Council (shumi yuan)

What it holds

• The Nonni, Taoer and upper Liao frontier garrisons
• The north-east end of the boundary trench in the commission's area
• Taizhou and Changchun zhou (the Liao Changchun, same place)
• Jiu frontier units of Khitan, Xi and local horsemen

How it was acquired

Jin frontier system built from the 1160s to the 1190s.

Allies and rivals

Across the trench: the Onggirat, who were fought in 1195-1196 and invaded the Jin on 4 February 1196 (English Wikipedia, Jin dynasty); the Tatars, who submitted in 1198; the Kereyit and Temujin, who helped the Jin against the Tatars in 1196; the Ongud (another sheet). The Daur and Evenk behind the Khingan are not under him.

How things stand that morning

Aftermath of the 1195-1198 war: the Tatars have submitted (1198), the Onggirat raid of 1196 was answered, and the trench works are in hand. The commissioner keeps patrols out and the markets open. Whether any truce with the Onggirat is in force is not pinned.

Wealth

Frontier markets in horses, cattle, furs; pay and land for the garrisons.

Military

Frontier garrisons and jiu horse (no figures). A Jurchen cavalry army can be assembled in the north-east for a campaign (as in 1196).

Threats

• Renewed Tatar or Onggirat raids
• Mongol (Temujin) power growing behind them

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. 1200 (not pinned)Trench work, patrols and market regulation; no campaign recorded in what we could read.Depends on: Quiet steppe after the Tatar submission of 1198 Stopped by: A raid or a Mongol-Tatar move

Later, on the likely course

1. 1211 (later than the start of play)The Mongol invasion of the Jin breaks the north-east frontier.Depends on: Mongol unity under Temujin from 1206 Stopped by: Nothing in play before 1206

Where the sources disagree

• Where the Dongbei commission sat is disputed: the Jin city Taizhou is placed by some at Tahu city in Qian Gorlos (the Liao Changchun zhou) and by others at Tazicheng in Tailai. We follow Tahu city, low confidence.

Evidence: Three frontier commissions are well attested in the Jin; this one's seat and holder are from memory, the page was blocked.

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.