Guangnan East (Guangnan dong lu, roughly the province of Guangdong) is governed like every Song circuit by several parallel commissioners who answer separately to the court: the Transport Commissioner for taxes and shipments, the Judicial Commissioner for courts and the watch on prefects, the Ever-Normal Commissioner for granaries and relief, the Commissioner of Tea and Salt, and at Guangzhou the Pacification Commissioner (jinglue anfu shi), who is also prefect of the city and holds the circuit's military authority.
The circuit is the empire's southern gate: the Pearl River delta with the sea trade and the Superintendency of Maritime Trade, the coastal salt fields, the Meiling and Dayu road north to Jiangxi, the hill belt toward Fujian and Jiangxi where salt smugglers and tea bandits hide, and the Dan and Yao and hill dong peoples whom the officials count as barbarian households. The last dated trouble is the Lantau salt rising of 1197, put down by the Pacification Commissioner with the Fuzhou water-army (see the Cuifeng record).
Who he is
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Pacification Commissioner of Guangnan East and prefect of Guangzhou (jinglue anfu shi, zhi Guangzhou)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Qian Zhiwang is named as the Guangzhou Pacification Commissioner in 1197 and Xu Anguo as the Guangdong commissioner of tea and salt in the same year
- Confidence
- low
Both names come from one Hong Kong history text that follows the Song sources (the suppression of the Lantau salt-makers in 1197). A Song post ran for about three years, so Qian Zhiwang may or may not still hold it on 1 January 1200. No source we could read names the holder that winter.
Overlord
The Song court at Lin'an
What it holds
- Supervision of the circuit's prefectures: Guangzhou, Shaozhou, Huizhou, Chaozhou, Meizhou, Nanxiong, Lianzhou, Xunzhou, Zhaoqing fu, Deqing fu, Yingde fu, Xinzhou, Nan'en and Fengzhou
- The salt fields of the coast and the Guanfu salt field on the Kowloon shore
- The circuit's tea licences
- Command of the Guangzhou garrison and the coastal posts
How it was acquired
Offices of the Song civil service, filled by appointment from Lin'an.
Allies and rivals
The Superintendent of Maritime Trade and the foreign headmen at Guangzhou; the prefects of Chaozhou and Meizhou on the Fujian line; the commissioners of Guangnan West across the Xi River; the salt smugglers of the islands and the Jiangxi border.
How things stand that morning
Quiet. The Lantau post of 1197 (the figure in the Hong Kong text is 300 men on rotation) is still held on 1 January and is to be cut and moved to Guanfu in the course of Qingyuan 6.
Wealth
The customs of the sea trade, the salt fields, the rice of the delta and the Chao-Hui coast, sugar, lychees, copper and silver from the Shaozhou mines, pearls and the incense that comes in by ship.
Military
The Guangzhou garrison, the coastal stockades (zhai) and posts, and borrowed water-army from Fuzhou. No figures except the 300 men on Lantau, which is the Hong Kong text's figure.
Threats
- Salt smuggling by sea and over the hills
- Dan and island people who resist the salt law
- Hill bandits on the Shaozhou, Meizhou and Ganzhou borders
- Typhoon and flood on the delta
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.
- Qingyuan 6 (1200), from about 18 January by our reckoningThe Lantau garrison is reduced and moved to Guanfu on the Kowloon shore.Depends on: Orders from the Guangzhou command, per the Hong Kong text Stopped by: A new rising on the islands
Places of note
- Guangzhou, the circuit capital: Seat of the Pacification Commissioner, the Superintendency of Maritime Trade and the fan quarter
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board puts Gaozhou, Huazhou and Leizhou in Guangnan East. We place them in Guangnan West, as the Songshi geography does by our recollection (not re-read); the point should be checked.
Evidence: The offices are standard Song administration; the 1197 names are from one text. The holder of 1199-1200 is not known.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A point at Guangzhou; the circuit's land is drawn by the prefecture records.
Primary sources for Southern Song
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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
12 more in the sources library for South China.
Sources and studies
- Hong Kong history text on the Song salt fields, Dayushan (Lantau) and Tuen Mun (Joint Publishing HK, ISBN 9789620448010, section on the Song Guanfu salt field)
- Wikipedia, "History of Hong Kong under Imperial China"
- Songshi (History of the Song), Dili zhi, juan 89 and 90 (Fujian, Guangnan East and West); recalled from the standard text, not re-read for this record
- Wikipedia, "Economy of the Song dynasty"
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.