When the Jurchen wars cut the Song off from the northern horse markets, it turned to the south-west.
Horses from Dali, Ziqi and Luodian are driven down the plateau and bought at the stockade of Hengshan on the Youjiang for silk, salt and silver. Ziqi became an important source of war horses for the Song in the twelfth century, and a Song briefing says its power had recently grown (Wikipedia, "Ziqi (kingdom)"). Dali and the Yi kingdoms compete for the trade, and the chiefs of the Youjiang country stand between.
The fair is a stockaded market, not a town, and its horses are the reason the Song takes the chiefs of this country seriously. The size of the trade in 1200 is not known.
Who he is
- Title
- Officer of the horse-purchase office (maima si) at Hengshan stockade, under the Yongzhou command
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source available to me names the holder in the winter of 1199-1200.
Overlord
The Pacification Commissioner of Guangnan West and the court
What it holds
- The licensed market and the buying office
- The road from the plateau to the Youjiang
How it was acquired
Set up in the Southern Song (the 1130s on the campaign board; not pinned in our sources).
Allies and rivals
Dali against Ziqi and Luodian for the trade; the Youjiang chiefs as hosts and middlemen.
How things stand that morning
Open. The campaign board says Ziqi and Luodian are at war with Dali over the market; no dated campaign for the winter is known to me.
Places of note
- Hengshan zhai: The horse market stockade; site approximate
Where the sources disagree
- Board "hengshan-horse-market" calls the fair "the one licensed door between the Song and the south-west" and "the reason the Guizhou kingdoms exist". That overstates: Ziqi and Luodian are Yi polities older than the market, and the Song also trades through Sichuan and Qinzhou.
Evidence: The market is firmly attested in the Song; its location is placed by the campaign board near Tiandong and we could not confirm the stockade site.
"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 the campaign board's coordinates.
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
- Wikipedia, "Ziqi (kingdom)"
- Zhou Qufei, Lingwai daida (1178), described in Wikipedia, "Lingwai Daida"
- Wikipedia, "Zhuang people" (Song-period section)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.