Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Shanzhou gorge command

The Jin's western gate on the Yellow River.

Shanzhou lies at the Sanmen gorge where the river breaks out of the loess hills, and holds the road between the Henan plain and Shaanxi: Lingbao (the old Hangu pass), Hucheng, Wenxiang and the town of Shan itself. The Dili zhi (read) lists the passes of the prefecture (Tong Pass and Taigu in Wenxiang, Hangu in Lingbao) and its towns Shihao, Qianhao, Guandong, Sanmen, Jijin, Zhangdian and Guzhen. The Hulao pass is the other gate, in Fanshui county of Zhengzhou.

Who he is

Title
Defence commissioner (fangyushi) of Shanzhou
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

  • Shanzhou with Lingbao, Hucheng and Wenxiang
  • Tong Pass, Taigu and Hangu
  • The gorge ports of Sanmen and Jijin

How it was acquired

Taken by the Jin in the late 1120s and 1130s; lowered to a defence prefecture in 1142 (recalled).

Allies and rivals

Under the Nanjing liushou; neighbour to the Shaanxi circuits (Jingzhao, the ncw sheet's) beyond Tong Pass.

How things stand that morning

A quiet frontier of roads, not of enemies. The commissioner's name is not known to me.

Wealth

Road and river tolls, timber and the trade between the plain and Shaanxi.

Military

A garrison at the passes; no numbers.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Dili zhi lists Tong Pass under Wenxiang county of Shanzhou; modern Tongguan is in Shaanxi, the ncw sheet. Tell that researcher.

Evidence: Towns and passes from the Dili zhi (read); the rank and date recalled.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Jinshi, juan 25, Dili zhi 2 (the Nanjing lu, Shandong East and West and Hebei West sections), text hosted at donglishuzhai.net; read through a page summariser, the Nanjing lu section read entry by entry (read this session)
  2. Recalled from standard works and NOT re-read this session: Tao Jing-shen, The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China (1976); Franke and Twitchett (eds.), Cambridge History of China 6 (1994), the Jin chapter; Jinshi Hequ zhi, Bing zhi, Baiguan zhi, Shihuo zhi; the Song envoys' diaries (Lou Yue, Beixing rilu, 1169; Fan Chengda, Lanpei lu, 1170)

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