Jingnan command

Who he is

Title

Pacification commissioner of Jinghu North (Jinghu bei lu anfu shi), usually the prefect of Jingnan fu, with the commander-in-chief (dutongzhi) of the Jingnan Imperial Guards beside him

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 the Jinghu North circuit's garrisons
• Jingnan Imperial Guards
• The river road to Xiazhou and Guizhou
• Dike and ferry works at Shashi

How it was acquired

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

Allies and rivals

Works with the Xiangyang command to the north, the Ezhou army down river and Kuizhou's commander up the gorges (in the scc records).

How things stand that morning

The command is at peace under the Longxing settlement with the Jin (1165, the second Song-Jin peace). Nothing in our sources dates an alarm for the winter of 1199 to 1200. The army is a paid standing force fed from the Hubei and Huguang grain and the Hubei transport commission.

Wealth

Sichuan salt, rice and cloth come down the gorges to Shashi; Hunan rice crosses Dongting. River tolls and the Hubei transport grain pay the army.

Military

Standing garrison of Imperial Guards with river craft at Shashi, the prefecture's own militia and archers. No numbers; the Song figures for these armies are not in the sources we could reach.

Threats

• A Jin crossing of the Han (not expected under the 1165 peace)
• Yangtze flood and dike breaks round Jiangling
• Disorder in the Dongting and Wuling hills

Places of note

• Shashi: River port of Jiangling, loud with Sichuan boats.

Where the sources disagree

• Not part of the 1200 state, flagged so nobody back-projects it: in 1206 the court sends a Jing-Xiang pacifier to the front and the Jingxiang command becomes a war command; the Jingnan army does not have that role in 1200.

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.