Luodian (Luodian guo) was a Yi (Wuman) kingdom of the Guizhou plateau.
Wikipedia's article on the neighbouring Luoshi kingdom says a Black Mywa called Tuoazhe, of the Mo clan, settled in a district his descendants called Luodian, that the Luodian king withdrew from Shuixi in the north-west in the early Song, and that scholars cannot easily separate the Luoshi from Luodian: on the general view the earlier Luodian kingdom split into several small states during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, one of which was Luoshi, and the two states alternately led the tribes of Guizhou and Yunnan and often fought each other. The article on Ziqi says Luodian sold horses to the Song and rivalled Ziqi, and that Ziqi beat it in battle. The campaign board places it round Anshun and notes that this is approximate.
That is all we can say with a source.
Who he is
- Title
- Ruler of Luodian (Luodian guo), of the Luo clan
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Not known. Wikipedia names no ruler of Luodian and dates nothing for it.
Overlord
None; a tributary of the Song in name
What it holds
- A range of the central plateau (Anshun, Guiyang and the Hongshui side), not located by any source we could read
- The horse trade of its own range
How it was acquired
By descent from Tuoazhe's settlement (Wikipedia, on Luoshi).
Allies and rivals
Rival of Ziqi (beaten by it) and of Luoshi; sells horses at Hengshan.
How things stand that morning
Weaker than Ziqi on the evidence of 1178; no dated action for the winter.
Military
Mounted levies; no figures.
Threats
- Ziqi
- Luoshi
Where the sources disagree
- Board "luodian" is placed at Anshun (26.25, 105.9) and described as "the other horse-selling state on the Song road, whose king the Song address by title". The modern county named Luodian lies far to the south on the Hongshui (about 25.4, 106.75); a modern county name does not prove the 1200 seat. The polygon is a zone over the central plateau.
Evidence: Three sentences in two Wikipedia articles; no named ruler, no date.
On the map: A zone only: scholars disagree where Luodian lay and we found no Song source that fixes it.
Primary sources for Chiefs of the south-west
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.
- 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 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
- Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
- Miscellaneous Notes on Court and Country since the Jianyan Era, Li Xinchuan (李心傳) (first series 1202, second series 1216). A contemporary handbook of the Southern Song state, written in Sichuan by the historian Li Xinchuan and finished in its first part in 1202, two years after the start of 1200. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.