The salt of Hangzhou Bay and the Liangzhe coast is a state monopoly: the saltmakers (zao hu) boil it at government yards and deliver it to the yard store; merchants buy vouchers (yan chao) and collect salt against them, and the commissioners police the yards, the roads and the smugglers.
The yards lie on the bay shore from Yanguan (Haining) and Ganpu through Huating and Xiuzhou's coast to Mingzhou's Cixi, Dinghai and the Zhoushan islands and down to Taizhou and Wenzhou. Tea of the circuits (Huzhou, Shaoxing and the hills) is taxed and licensed in the same office. Smuggling along the shore is a constant police problem. No figures.
Who he is
- Name
- Huang Hao was the Zhexi (Liangzhe West) superintendent of granaries, tea and salt when listed among the proscribed (about 1197-98; checked on zh.wikipedia); not pinned for 1200
- Title
- Commissioners for salt and tea (tiju chayan gongshi) of Liangzhe West and East, with the granary office (tiju changping)
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin (Huang Hao on the list); institutional knowledge.
Overlord
The Ministry of Revenue.
What it holds
- The salt yards of the bay shore and the sea-wall works at Yanguan
- The tea licences of the Liangzhe circuits
How it was acquired
Standing.
Allies and rivals
Smugglers and the saltmakers' households.
How things stand that morning
Normal.
Wealth
One of the state's chief revenues.
Military
Salt-police detachments.
Threats
- Smugglers
- Storm tides and sea-wall failures
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Structure certain; people and figures unknown.
On the map: Drawn as a coastal strip of the yards.
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
- zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin (the list of the proscribed)
- Songshi quanwen (Song shi quan wen), juan 29 shang, Ningzong annals Qingyuan 1 to 6 (zh.wikisource, Siku edition)
- General knowledge of Song administrative and economic history (Hartwell, Von Glahn, Smith and Twitchett eds., Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2), not re-checked line by line in this pass
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.