The Shi of Ming county (Yin xian, the city of Mingzhou, now Qingyuan fu in 1200) are the great court family of the east coast.
Shi Hao (1106-1194) was twice chancellor under Xiaozong; the family turns office into estates, merit cloisters, schools and marriages, and has sons and nephews placed in the civil service by the examinations and the yin privilege. Their city is the Japan run's port, where the maritime trade superintendency sits. In 1200 the Shi are not on Han Tuozhou's list; their strongest man, Shi Miyuan (36), is a rising official who will in 1207 plan Han's death with Empress Yang and the Palace Command; at the date of play he has no known quarrel with Han.
The family's ties to the Lu mind-school scholars of Mingzhou (the Four Masters) and to the Chan houses of Tiantong and Ayuwang make Mingzhou a gentry city the court cannot treat as an enemy.
Who he is
- Name
- Shi Miyuan (born 1164), third son of Shi Hao; the head of the house is not pinned
- Title
- Head of the Shi lineage of Yin county; the best-known member at court is Shi Miyuan
- Since
- Shi Hao died in 1194
- Born
- Shi Hao 1106, Shi Miyuan 1164
- Family
- Shi Hao (1106-1194, chancellor under Xiaozong), his sons and nephews, many of them officials; Shi Miyuan, in office at court
- Confidence
- low
Richard Davis, Court and Family in Sung China (the Shi of Mingzhou) as the brief names it; the posts of Shi Miyuan in 1200 are not pinned.
Overlord
The emperor through the examinations and the privilege of inheritance (yin); Han Tuozhou is the family's present rival.
What it holds
- Estates and merit cloisters in Yin county (not itemised in the sources we could read)
- Patronage of the Mingzhou schools and of Tiantong and Ayuwang
- A seat in every ministry's gossip
How it was acquired
Rose with Shi Hao in the 1160s; Shi Hao's tenure as chancellor under Xiaozong made the family.
Allies and rivals
Rival of Han Tuozhou in the long run; patron of the Mingzhou teachers; connected by marriage to other court families (not itemised).
How things stand that morning
Quiet and prospering. The family does not need to fight the ban; no Shi is named on the list of the proscribed that we read.
Wealth
Estates, office, the port's gentry business; no figures.
Threats
- Han Tuozhou if he decides to turn on the Mingzhou gentry
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.
- 24 November 1207Shi Miyuan's plot kills Han Tuozhou with the Palace Command (Xia Zhen); Shi becomes the new strongman for twenty-five years.Depends on: The failure of the northern war of 1206 and the court's need for peace. Stopped by: No war in 1206, or Han's own fall by another hand.
Places of note
- Yin county (Mingzhou) seat of the Shi: The family's city; estates round it
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Davis's study is the source and we did not re-read it; Shi Miyuan's career for the winter of 1199-1200 is not pinned.
On the map: Drawn as the city's near land: only the family's influence, not title to it.
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
- General knowledge of Song administrative and economic history (Hartwell, Von Glahn, Smith and Twitchett eds., Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2), not re-checked line by line in this pass
- OMNIA board, area sce notes (a lead, not a source)
- zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin (the list of the proscribed)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.