Shangjing liushou

Who he is

Title

Shangjing liushou (resident governor of the Supreme Capital), who in Jin practice also commands the troops of the Shangjing circuit

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Confidence

low

The office is in the Jinshi's Baiguan zhi; no holder is dated for the winter of 1199-1200 in anything we could read.

Overlord

The Jin emperor Zhangzong, through the Department of State Affairs (shangshu sheng) at Zhongdu

What it holds

• Huining fu and its counties on the Anchuhu, Sungari and Lalin rivers
• Supervision of the Shangjing circuit's other prefectures and routes: Long'an fu, Zhaozhou, and the routes of Puyu, Hulihai, Xupin and Helan (chain of command not pinned)
• The palace platform, the Taizu temple and the princely tombs of the homeland
• The meng'an and mouke of the Shangjing circuit

How it was acquired

Capital of the Jin 1124-1153; reduced 1153-1157; restored by Shizong (1173, medium confidence).

Allies and rivals

Works with the great Jurchen houses of the homeland (Wanyan, Pucha, Tushan and others) and the circuit's military commanders; quarrels over land with Han tenants and Jurchen debtors.

How things stand that morning

A ritual, military and tax centre, not a court. No emperor is in residence, no royal progress to Huining is known for 1200 (not pinned). The poverty of the Jurchen households and their land sales to Han tenants are the standing worry of the whole homeland.

Wealth

Millet, wheat and soybean from the Sungari plain, horses and cattle, the gold-bearing Anchuhu and its name Jin (gold), hunting and falconry, ginseng and furs by tribute and trade, tax in kind.

Military

The Huining garrison and the circuit's meng'an and mouke households under Jurchen commanders (no figures). Frontier routes have their own commanders.

Threats

• Land survey and sale of Jurchen mouke lands to Han tenants
• A hard winter on the Sungari plain
• Unrest among the tribute peoples of the lower river

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. 1200 (not pinned)Routine: seasonal hunts, tribute reception, and the ancestral rites at the Taizu temple.Depends on: No court visit or emergency Stopped by: A summons to the capital or an imperial progress

Places of note

• Huining fu (Shangjing) ruins: Walled city on the Anchuhu, southern and northern wards, palace platform
• Tomb of Wanyan Xiyin, Prince of Qi (d. 1137): Excavated tomb with stone figures, close to the town (medium confidence)

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board says Shangjing is 'razed by Hailing, rebuilt in honour by Shizong; the tombs and the memory of Aguda keep it holy'. Aguda's body lies at Fangshan near Zhongdu (moved 1155), not at Huining. At Huining remain the temple, palace platform and some princely tombs (the tomb of Wanyan Xiyin, Prince of Qi, d. 1137, found at Acheng in 1979, medium confidence).

Evidence: The history of Huining is well known (English Wikipedia on the Jin read this session: Liang reduced it 1157, Shizong restored it). Dates of restoration and the 1155 reburial are from memory. The holder in 1200 is not known.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The prefecture outline is rough; the Supreme Capital's lordship over the other routes is by chain of command, not by land.

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.