Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Salt, pearl, incense

Three goods the state keeps to itself make Lingnan valuable.

Salt is a monopoly: the coastal salt fields (Guanfu on the Kowloon shore is one of the named Song fields in the Hong Kong text, with others at Tuen Mun and Dayushan or Lantau) deliver to the state, which sells it on the Xi river and over the Meiling pass into Jiangxi; the islanders who make and sell salt outside the law are the standing quarrel (the 1197 Lantau rising). Pearls are fished by Dan divers at the pools of Lianzhou (Hepu) under an inspector's seal; pearl fishing in Hong Kong waters is attested for the Tang and the Southern Han but we have no source for it in 1200. Incense (aloeswood of Hainan and of Qinzhou, and the foreign frankincense and sandalwood landed at Guangzhou and Quanzhou) is bought by the Superintendents for the court and the rest sold under licence.

Copper (the vitriol process at the Shaozhou mines, by our recollection), tin and silver also pass through the state's hands. Every one of these is smuggled.

Who he is

Title
The Commissioners of Tea and Salt of Guangnan East and Guangnan West, and the inspectors of the pearl pools
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Not known by name for the winter of 1199-1200. Xu Anguo is named as the Guangdong commissioner of tea and salt in 1197.

Overlord

The Song court and the two Guangnan circuits

What it holds

  • The salt fields of Guangdong and Guangxi and their sale
  • The pearl pools of Lianzhou (Hepu)
  • The incense levy and purchases at Guangzhou, Qinzhou and Qiongzhou
  • The Shaozhou copper and the Hezhou tin (recollection)

How it was acquired

State monopolies since the early Song, with the ordinary Song reforms.

Allies and rivals

The smugglers of the islands, the Jiangxi-Guangdong border and the Fujian border; the Dan divers; the foreign merchants.

How things stand that morning

In force. The most recent dated trouble is the Lantau salt rising of 1197.

Wealth

These are the revenue of the circuits; no figures.

Threats

  • Salt smuggling
  • Illegal pearl fishing
  • Diversion of incense

Places of note

  • Guanfu salt field: Named Song salt field of the Kowloon shore
  • Dayushan (Lantau): Salt makers rising of 1197
  • Pearl pools of Lianzhou: Pearl divers under the inspector's seal

Where the sources disagree

  • The brief lists "Hong Kong Tai Po pearl fisheries" among the towns; the text we could read ties Hong Kong pearl-fishing to the Tang and the Southern Han, not to 1200. We have written Tai Po as a minor place of thin evidence.

Evidence: The monopolies are standard Song institutions; the named fields and the 1197 event come from the Hong Kong text; the pearl and incense arrangements of 1200 are inferred from the general Song system.

On the map: Points only.

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

  1. Hong Kong history text on the Song salt fields, Dayushan (Lantau) and Tuen Mun (Joint Publishing HK, ISBN 9789620448010, section on the Song Guanfu salt field)
  2. Wikipedia, "History of Hong Kong under Imperial China"
  3. Wikipedia, "Boat Dwellers"
  4. Zhou Qufei, Lingwai daida (1178), described in Wikipedia, "Lingwai Daida"
  5. Wikipedia, "She people"

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.