Peng of Xizhou

Who he is

Title

Hereditary prefect (zhizhou) of Xizhou

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Peng

Confidence

low

The family and the 940 treaty are well attested; the head of the family on 1 January 1200 is not known to me. Laosicheng is dated by archaeology and later tradition (the date usually given is 1135), not by a 1200 source.

Overlord

The Song court by title, through the Jinghu North pacification commissioner and the prefect of Lizhou.

What it holds

• Xizhou and the districts round Yongshun
• Laosicheng, the chief's town
• Right to name kin to subordinate districts

How it was acquired

Hereditary since the tenth century; the 940 pillar fixed the family's rank toward Chu and, after it, the Song.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: the Tian and Xiang lineages and the Yang of Jingzhou; the Song prefects of Lizhou and Chenzhou.

How things stand that morning

A settled native prefecture that the Song count as theirs; the Peng rule it. No quarrel with the Song is dated for winter 1199 to 1200.

Wealth

Cinnabar, timber, tung oil and the salt the Song pay out.

Military

Cave fighters under the chief; no numbers.

Threats

• Disputed succession within the family (possible but not dated)

Places of note

• Laosicheng: Chief's town; coordinates approximate (+/- 10 km).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Evidence is thin and later than 1200 for almost everything here. The Song histories file these peoples under the Man chapters (Songshi juan 493 and 494), which we could not open in this pass; what follows is the general picture those chapters, Zhou Qufei and Fan Chengda give for the twelfth century, recalled, plus Laosicheng archaeology for the Peng seat. No chief is named for 1 January 1200.

On the map: Rough; the real extent of Xizhou is not pinned.

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