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

Jiangxi command

At Longxing fu (Hongzhou) the pacification commissioner of Jiangnan West sits over the Jiangxi prefectures.

Jiangxi has no regional field army of its own except the Jiangzhou command at the lake mouth, so order rests on prefectural garrisons, militias and county archers, which are what the Song use against smugglers and hill bands. The circuit is the richest rice, porcelain, paper and tea country in the middle south, and its governing class is the literati families of Ji'an, Fuzhou and Raozhou.

Who he is

Title
Prefect of Longxing fu and pacification commissioner of Jiangnan West (Jiangnan xi lu anfu shi)
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Name not known for 1 January 1200. Song officials rotated every two or three years, so a name from another year cannot be assumed.

Overlord

The court at Lin'an (the Privy Council for the armies, the Department of State Affairs for the civil posts).

What it holds

  • Command of Jiangxi prefectural garrisons
  • Seat of the Jiangxi pacification, transport and judicial offices (as recalled; where each office sat is not pinned)

How it was acquired

Created in the reorganisation of the regional armies after 1141 and kept since (recalled).

Allies and rivals

Linked by the Gan to Ganzhou in the south and by Poyang to Jiangzhou and the Yangtze.

How things stand that morning

At peace. The ban on false learning is in force; Jiangxi is where many of the banned come from (Zhou Bida, Peng Guinian) and where the Lu school of the mind flourishes, but we found no dated local enforcement.

Wealth

Rice, tea, paper, porcelain, copper and silver, and the Gan river trade.

Military

Prefectural garrisons, militia and archers. No numbers.

Threats

  • Hill smugglers of the south (Ganzhou, Ji'an)
  • Flood on Poyang and the Gan

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The existence and shape of these commands are well known from the Southern Song military system (Imperial Guard armies stationed at Ezhou, Jingnan, Xiangyang and Jiangzhou, each under a dutongzhi, with a civil pacification commissioner in each circuit), recalled, not re-read in this pass because web access closed. The commanders on 1 January 1200 are not named in anything we could reach; we give the post and say "not known".

On the map: Garrison cities drawn as seeds; the real authority runs over the whole circuit.

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. Background knowledge of Southern Song administration and the middle Yangtze (Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2; Hymes; Clark; Von Glahn; Bol; the travel diaries of Lu You, 1170, and Fan Chengda, 1177), recalled and not re-read in this pass

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