Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Huaidong command

The eastern Huai front.

The Song holds the south bank of the Huai and the canal head at Chuzhou (Huai'an), the crossing at Xuyi, the Tianchang road and the rice-and-salt prefectures behind them; the Jin hold Sizhou, Haizhou and Xuzhou across the water. The commander is the pacification commissioner at Yangzhou, with the prefects of Chuzhou, Xuyi jun, Tianchang jun, Gaoyou jun and Zhenzhou under him; the Zhenjiang army is his reserve. Since the Yellow River turned into the Huai bed in 1194 the Huai itself is changing: more water, more silt and more flood on the Song bank.

The licensed border markets (quechang) on the Huai are open or shut as the diplomatic weather allows; we found nothing for the winter of 1199-1200. A military examination for the frontier prefectures was set up in the 8th month of 1199.

Who he is

Name
Not known for 1 January 1200 (the 1198 list names Zhao Gong as prefect of Yangzhou, a listed man who was probably removed)
Title
Pacification commissioner of Huainan East (Huaidong anfu shi), usually the prefect of Yangzhou; the prefects of the frontier prefectures as garrison commanders
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin (Zhao Gong, prefect of Yangzhou, early 1198); Song shi quan wen (the frontier orders of 1197 and 1199).

Overlord

The Privy Council and the emperor.

What it holds

  • The Huai garrisons of Chuzhou (Huai'an), Xuyi, Tianchang and Gaoyou
  • Yangzhou's walls and the Huaidong command office
  • The canal along the Huai to the Yangtze

How it was acquired

Standing since the 1140s; the 1165 treaty fixed the line.

Allies and rivals

Faces the Jin commands at Sizhou, Haizhou and Xuzhou; backed by Zhenjiang.

How things stand that morning

Quiet, with embassies passing.

Wealth

Salt of the Huainan coast; canal tolls; no figures.

Military

Garrison troops and local levies (not numbered). The Jiang-Huai zhizhi shi, the emergency commissioner, is not in post.

Threats

  • A Jin offensive if the peace breaks: the line collapses at Chuzhou, Yangzhou and Xuyi (as it will in the winter of 1206-07)

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. October to December 1206The Jin cross the Huai at Qinghe kou, besiege Chuzhou, take Haozhou and Anfeng and threaten Yangzhou.Depends on: The northern war. Stopped by: Peace holds.

Places of note

  • Yangzhou command: Huaidong anfu si

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Institutions and the 1206 events are firm; the winter of 1199-1200 is blank.

On the map: Drawn as the garrison belt behind the Huai.

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

  1. zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin (the list of the proscribed)
  2. Songshi quanwen (Song shi quan wen), juan 29 shang, Ningzong annals Qingyuan 1 to 6 (zh.wikisource, Siku edition)
  3. Songshi quanwen, juan 29 xia, Ningzong annals Jiatai 1 to Kaixi 3 (zh.wikisource, Siku edition)
  4. zh.wikipedia, Huainan East circuit

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