River works

Who he is

Title

Directors of the river works (Du shuijian and the river-bank superintendents)

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No holder is named for 1 January 1200 in anything we could reach. The Jinshi names officers only inside individual biographies (zh.wikisource, ctext, Baidu Baike and CBDB were all unreachable from here), so the office, not the man, is what this record gives.

Overlord

the Jin emperor Zhangzong (Wanyan Jing), Cheng'an 4, through the Department of State Affairs at Zhongdu

What it holds

• Dikes and fascine stations on the river from Heyang down to the Si (as the brief has it)
• The breach at Yangwu and the new bed (province record Flood land of 1194)
• River corvee levied on the counties by the bank

How it was acquired

The bureau is older than 1200; the breach it now works against opened in 1194 (Wikipedia, read, for the year; the autumn is from our recall of the Jinshi).

Allies and rivals

Works with the liushou, the fiscal commission and the county magistrates, who supply the labour. Quarrels with the people of the downstream counties over where the river should be let go are likely but not recorded in what we read.

How things stand that morning

Not known for the winter of 1199 to 1200. The river is low and cold; spring and the summer floods are the danger. The 1194 flood is said to have left thousands of refugees and wrecked the regional economy (Wikipedia, read).

Wealth

Corvee labour, dike grass and timber, and a share of the circuit's taxes.

Military

None of its own; guards from the counties.

Threats

• The next summer flood
• A new break nearer Kaifeng
• Silting that blocks the Huai mouth

Places of note

• Heyang (Mengzhou): Named in the brief as a seat of the river works; not confirmed. Heyang (Mengzhou) is a river crossing on the north bank, counted to Hedong South.
• Yangwu: The breach of 1194.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The year of the break is from Wikipedia (read); the place and autumn season are recalled from the Jinshi. The office, its seats and its holders are not confirmed.

On the map: An office record draws the ground the office directly works, not the whole circuit; the prefectures themselves are in the province records. Edges follow modern county seats and the nearest-unit rule.

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.