Helan route (Tumen command)

Who he is

Title

Helan lu (Hallan) commander

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Confidence

low

The Helan route is in the Dili zhi; the seat and the commander in 1200 are not pinned.

Overlord

The Shangjing liushou at Huining

What it holds

• The Hailan and Tumen valleys round Yanji, Longjing, Hunchun and Tumen
• The sea coast to Kraskino
• Jurchen villages and headmen of the Helan basin

How it was acquired

The Wanyan took the Helan country in the 1100s; Goryeo's Nine Fortresses (1107-1109) were returned.

Allies and rivals

Goryeo's north-eastern march (Donggye) to the south; the wild Jurchens of Changbai to the west; the Xupin route to the north-east.

How things stand that morning

Quiet. Goryeo and Jin are at peace; there are no recorded border raids in the winter of 1199-1200 in what we could read.

Wealth

Horses, furs, sea products, millet.

Military

Garrison posts and Jurchen mouke; no figures.

Threats

• Raids by wild Jurchens
• A hard winter

Places of note

• Hunchun (Helan Jurchens): Border district on the lower Tumen

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Only the route's existence and rough location are certain. The Jin-Goryeo line in the north-east is on the kja sheet; we draw only the Jin side as we know it.

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.