Qinling passes garrisons

Who he is

Title

Commanders of the Wu Pass post and of the Jin watch on the Dasan road

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No source consulted dates the office-holder for the winter of 1199-1200.

Overlord

The Jin emperor Zhangzong at Zhongdu, through the Department of State Affairs

What it holds

• The Wu Pass post
• The Jin watch on the Baoji side of the Dasan road

How it was acquired

By appointment of the Jin court; the date of the present appointment is not known.

Allies and rivals

Works with the neighbouring circuit commands; no quarrel is known to me.

How things stand that morning

Posts manned in peace. Names not known; which posts stand where on the Baoji road is not pinned.

Wealth

The revenue of the office comes from the circuit's taxes in kind and the frontier tolls; no figures are given by any source we could read.

Military

Pass garrisons; no numbers.

Threats

• None specific known for the winter of 1199-1200.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 14 June 1206 (Kaixi 2)The Song formally declares war on the Jin (14 June in Wikipedia, Jin-Song wars; the Timeline of the Jurchens gives 20 June). The sources we read do not say that the Qinling passes were fought over.Depends on: The Song war party under Han Tuozhou keeping power Stopped by: A settlement before then, or a change of ministry at Lin'an
2. Late 1217The Jin captures the Dasan Pass (Wikipedia, Jin-Song wars).Depends on: The Jin opening a southern war in 1217 and the Song still holding the pass Stopped by: A settlement between the courts, or the Jin held down in the north

Places of note

• Wu Pass: Qinling pass on the Dan river road
• Dasan Pass: Qinling pass above Baoji, the western end of the line; most probably Song-held

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment names the Jin garrison commanders at the Qinling passes and puts the Jin side of the frontier 'to the Dasan pass'. We find the Dasan pass itself most probably Song-held (Song generals were stationed there in 1131 and the Jin captured it only in late 1217: Wikipedia, Dasan Pass and Jin-Song wars), so the Jin watch is placed below it; the assignment's words can be read either way.

Evidence: The existence and general role of this office follow the standard Jin administrative accounts (the Jinshi Baiguan zhi and Dili zhi, via the secondary literature). We could not open the Jinshi text in this session. No source we could read names the holder in the winter of 1199-1200, so the holder is "not known".

On the map: A disc round the Wu Pass only; the watch on the Dasan road has no known site and is not drawn.

Primary sources for Jin empire

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.

• 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
• 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
• Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. 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
• Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
• The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. 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
• 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

14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.