Gao of Weichu

Who he is

Name

not known for 1 January 1200 (Gao Liangcheng, retired to Weichu in 1150, is the last name)

Title

Lord of Weichu fu for the Gao

Since

1097 for the fief

Born

not known

Family

Gao Mingliang, Gao Liangcheng and their line

Confidence

low

Chinese Wikipedia pages 高泰明, 高量成 (citing the Huofa Minggong deyun stele), 楚雄市 and 普洱市.

Overlord

the Duan king through the Gao chancellor

What it holds

• Weichu fu: the Chuxiong basin and the hills round it (Weichu belonged to Nanzhao's Nongdong command, and in early Dali to the Yunsheng command before it became a fu)
• The Heijing salt well in the Longchuan gorge (the fu's richest asset; which lord drew its revenue is not shown)
• The monasteries of Zixi mountain
• By one reading, the Simo tribal country in the south (the zh page on Pu'er)

How it was acquired

Fief of Gao Mingliang, 1097.

Allies and rivals

Kin of the chancellors; rivals of the Guanyin branch at Shanchan and of the Yucheng branch at the capital in the 1170s.

How things stand that morning

A Gao fief since 1097; its lord's name for 1200 is not known.

Wealth

Salt from Heijing, rice of the basin, the road between the capital and Shanchan.

Military

The fu's levies; Weichu was the base of Liangcheng's early military merit (the stele).

Threats

• The Luowu and other Yi bu on its east
• Gao feuds

Places of note

• Chuxiong (Weichu): Weichu.
• Heijing: Heijing salt well.

Where the sources disagree

• Board 'weichu-chuxiong' puts the town at 25.05 N 101.55 E; we keep it (Chuxiong 25.04 N 101.55 E).

Evidence: The fief of 1097 and Liangcheng from the Chinese Wikipedia; the Simo claim from one sentence on another page.

On the map: The southern claim rests on one sentence; the drawing is a claim, not a holding.

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