The chancellor of Dali is the real head of the government.
The Gao family took the post to itself after Gao Zhisheng forced a king into a monastery in the 1080s; Gao Shengtai took the throne in 1094 and died in 1096, and his son Gao Taiming put the Duan back and kept the chancellorship for his house (Yuan and Ming sources, through Wikipedia). Taiming was made Zhongguo gong (duke of the Middle Kingdom) in 1116 and died that year; his younger brother Gao Taiyun succeeded him. Later chancellors named by the sources: Gao Shunzhen, Zhongguo gong, who died about 1141; Gao Liangcheng, set up by the officials in 1141 and retired to Weichu in 1150 under pressure from Shunzhen's son Gao Zhenshou, who had pacified the thirty-seven eastern tribes; and Gao Zhenming, whom the Guanyin (Shanchan) branch put in place in 1174 after deposing the Yucheng minister.
The two branches fought until the mid-1180s. Who holds the post on 1 January 1200 is not known.
Who he is
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200 (last dated name: Gao Zhenming, set up in 1174)
- Title
- Chancellor (xiangguo) of Dali
- Since
- 1174 for Gao Zhenming
- Born
- not known
- Family
- the Gao house of Dali; descendants of Gao Zhisheng and Gao Shengtai; branches at Yucheng (the western line of Gao Taiming) and Guanyin (Shanchan and Baiya)
- Confidence
- low
The Wikipedia summary of Yuan and Ming sources (English Dali Kingdom; Chinese pages on Gao Taiming and Gao Liangcheng, which cite a stele and Yi Mouyuan 2000).
Overlord
Duan Zhixing, in form
What it holds
- The chancellery and the right to name the governors of the fu and zhen
- Command of the field armies when a campaign is named
- The Gao fiefs: Weichu, Tongshi (Yaozhou), Shanchan, and the Yongchang and Tengchong governorships (see the Gao records)
How it was acquired
By the settlement of 1096 (Gao Taiming returned the throne to the Duan on condition that the Gao keep the chancellorship); the later sources call it hereditary.
Allies and rivals
The Duan kings (to whom he is minister and master); the Guanyin and Yucheng branches of his own house; the Azhali clergy, whom the Gao patronise by building temples on the scenic mountains (English Wikipedia).
How things stand that morning
The post exists, the chancellor's name for that morning does not. The feud of 1174 to the mid-1180s is over.
Wealth
The Gao fief revenues (Weichu, the Heijing salt in its territory, Tongshi, Shanchan) and the chancellery's share of the kingdom's taxes.
Military
The field commands of the kingdom; no number is known.
Threats
- A new feud between the two branches when the king dies
- A second Gao seizure of the throne (the precedent of 1094 to 1096)
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.
- 1200, month not pinnedThe chancellor carries the kingdom through the change of king from Zhixing to Zhilian.Depends on: The Gao house staying united. Stopped by: A Gao quarrel; a Duan prince with his own party.
Places of note
- Yangjumie (Dali Old Town area): The chancellor's house in the capital.
- Shanchan (Kunming): Shanchan, where the Guanyin branch sits.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'dali-yangjumie': 'real power lies with the Gao chancellors'. The structure is of Yuan and Ming date; the assignment says to name a chancellor only where a dated source does, and we could not.
- English Wikipedia says the Yucheng branch descends from Gao Taiming and the Guanyin branch from Gao Guanyin; the Chinese pages do not mention these branches. We use the English wording.
Evidence: Dated names exist only for 1094 to 1096, 1111, 1116, 1141, 1150 and 1174, and none for 1199 to 1200.
On the map: Person record; the fiefs are drawn in the Gao records.
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
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom (read this session)
- Chinese Wikipedia, 大理国 (read this session: the eight fu, four jun, four zhen and thirty-seven bu; it cites Yang Shen's Dian zai ji, Wang Song's Yunnan beizhengzhi, Ni Lu's Nanzhao yeshi, the Baigu tongji qianshu)
- Chinese Wikipedia, 高泰明 (read this session; cites Yi Mouyuan 2000)
- Chinese Wikipedia, 高量成 (read this session; cites the Huofa Minggong deyun stele)
- Yuanshi (History of Yuan), Dili zhi on Yunnan, and Li Jingyuan, Yunnan zhilue (1331): the Yuan sources of the Dali structure lists; recalled through the Chinese Wikipedia, NOT re-read
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.