Duan Zhixing

Who he is

Name

Duan Zhixing (also Duan Yichang Xingzhi), the Lizhen Emperor

Title

King and emperor (huangdi) of Dali

Since

1172 by the Yuan and Ming lists (1171 in the text of English Wikipedia)

Born

not known

Family

the Duan house; his sons by the lists are Duan Zhilian (heir, king 1200 to 1204) and Duan Zhixiang (king from 1204 or 1205); wives and daughters not known; his father is not checked

Confidence

medium

Name, reign and sons from the Chinese Wikipedia pages on Zhixing, Zhilian and Zhixiang (which rest on Ming and Qing compilations); the temple building from English and Chinese Wikipedia, which disagree on the number.

What it holds

• The royal domain of the Erhai plain: Yangjumie, Taihe, the two passes
• The royal temples, above all Chongsheng below the Cangshan
• The right to name chancellors' successors in form, to give titles and fiefs to the Duan, Gao, Yang and Dong houses, and to receive the Song's envoys

How it was acquired

Succeeded in 1172 (the lists); the reign names recorded are Shengde 1176-1180, Jiahui 1181-1184 and Yuanheng 1185-1195 (Chinese Wikipedia), and none is known after 1195.

Allies and rivals

His chancellors the Gao (master and rival at once); the Azhali clergy and the monks Miaoguan and others; the Song court, to which he sends gifts for books and sells horses; Ziqi, which has beaten Dali in battle at some date before 1178.

How things stand that morning

Alive and reigning on 1 January 1200 on every list that names a year of his end; he is old, and by one modern compilation he dies in July 1200. Nothing is dated for him in the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

The royal share of the salt and tea revenues, the royal domain's rice, the offerings of the Sangha; spent on monasteries and on the Buddhist works of his court.

Military

He commands no army in his own person; the Gao chancellors and the governors of the fu and zhen raise the forces.

Threats

• His own death or abdication in 1200
• A Gao regency over a new king
• The Yi tribes of the east, who rose in 1117 to 1141 and about 1150

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.

1. 1200, month not pinned (July 1200 in one modern Chinese compilation)His reign ends by death or abdication into a monastery; his son Duan Zhilian is king (era names Fengli and Yuanshou on the Chinese Wikipedia).Depends on: His health and the Gao chancellors' consent. The sources we could read do not say whether it was death or abdication. Stopped by: An earlier death; a Gao choice of another prince.

Places of note

• Yangjumie (Dali Old Town area): The palace and the court, below the Cangshan.
• Chongsheng Three Pagodas: Chongsheng, the royal temple.

Where the sources disagree

• Temples: English Wikipedia (after Daniels 2023) has sixteen temples in 1190; Chinese Wikipedia says he built sixty monasteries, with no source. We give both.
• Reign: 1171 or 1172 to 1200; month of the end unknown; the Chinese 段智廉 page says he died in July 1200 but also names an accession of 'Duan Zhengxing' in August, so it is internally inconsistent and we use it only as a lead.
• Board 'dali-yangjumie' says he 'dies within the year' and 'has reigned since 1172, patron of the Long Roll'. The first is the lists' end of reign; the second is fair.

Evidence: Reign and succession rest on Yuan to Qing compilations as summarised on Wikipedia; the Long Roll and the Xingbao stele of 1186 are contemporary but we did not read them.

On the map: The royal domain is drawn as the Dali and Eryuan units; the king's real income was a share of the whole realm.

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