Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Henan tongjun si

A field-army headquarters for the south.

The Dili zhi (read) records that a tongjun si, a commission for leading the armies, was set up at Kaifeng in Tiande 2 (1150), under the prince of Hailing. From what we recall of the Jin offices it commands the armies stationed in Henan, watches the Song frontier, and carries out the court's orders for mobilisation; the Dili zhi gives no officers, troops or later history for it, and does not say whether it still sat at Kaifeng in 1200. In military matters it stands above the prefects and military governors of the frontier prefectures, as we understand the system (not confirmed); the liushou holds the civil command of the city.

Who he is

Title
Military commissioner (tongjun shi) of the Henan commission
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

No holder is named for 1 January 1200 in anything we could reach. The Jinshi names officers only inside individual biographies (zh.wikisource, ctext, Baidu Baike and CBDB were all unreachable from here), so the office, not the man, is what this record gives.

Overlord

the Jin emperor Zhangzong (Wanyan Jing), Cheng'an 4, through the Department of State Affairs at Zhongdu

What it holds

  • The armies stationed in Henan and on the Huai line
  • Supervision of the frontier commands at Xuzhou, Sizhou, Suzhou, Caizhou, Tangzhou and Dengzhou (separate records)
  • Seat at Kaifeng

How it was acquired

Set up in 1150 (Tiande 2) at Kaifeng (Dili zhi, read), in the reign of the prince of Hailing and some years before his war of 1161.

Allies and rivals

Works beside the liushou, the circuit commissions and the prefects of the frontier. Its rival, if it has one, is the Song army across the Huai, which has not fought the Jin since 1165.

How things stand that morning

Quiet. Peace with the Song has held since 1165 and the court's attention in 1199 and 1200 is on the northern steppe and on the river. The commissioner's name is not known to me.

Wealth

Pay and supplies from the circuit's fiscal commission; the frontier prefectures' own revenues.

Military

Jurchen meng'an and mouke units of the south, Han garrison troops and the army titles of the prefectures (Wusheng, Huaikang, Changwu, Baojing and others in the province records). No numbers.

Threats

  • A Song war party that has not yet formed
  • Unrest among the poorest Jurchen households

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. 1206 to 1207In the war with the Song the Jin appoint field commanders for Henan; Chinese accounts name Pusan Kui (died 1207) as one of them (recalled; the Wikipedia pages we read name no Jin commander).Depends on: The Song declaration of June 1206. Stopped by: No war.

Places of note

  • Kaifeng: Seat of the commission since 1150 (Dili zhi, read); not pinned for 1200.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The existence and date of the commission are from the Dili zhi (read). Its powers, rank and the 1206 appointments are recalled.

On the map: An office record draws the ground the office directly works, not the whole circuit; the prefectures themselves are in the province records. Edges follow modern county seats and the nearest-unit rule.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Jinshi, juan 25, Dili zhi 2 (the Nanjing lu, Shandong East and West and Hebei West sections), text hosted at donglishuzhai.net; read through a page summariser, the Nanjing lu section read entry by entry (read this session)
  2. Recalled from standard works and NOT re-read this session: Tao Jing-shen, The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China (1976); Franke and Twitchett (eds.), Cambridge History of China 6 (1994), the Jin chapter; Jinshi Hequ zhi, Bing zhi, Baiguan zhi, Shihuo zhi; the Song envoys' diaries (Lou Yue, Beixing rilu, 1169; Fan Chengda, Lanpei lu, 1170)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.