The state buys the tea of Yazhou, Mingshan, Pengzhou and other prefectures and sells it, on its permits, to merchants and to the Tibetan and Qiang tribes against horses.
The markets are at Yazhou, at Lizhou on the Dadu, and in the north-west at Xihe and Danchang for the Xingzhou command. The system dates from 1074 (Paul Smith's account runs 1074 to 1224). Around 1175 the tea-horse official Li Fan fought Wu Ting's attempt to buy horses for the Xingzhou army directly, and the army's quota was fixed at 605 horses a year (Chen Xifeng 2024).
The tea-for-horse trade with Dali is smaller than the trade through Yongzhou and Hengshan in Guangxi, which is the scs sheet's.
Who he is
- Title
- Commissioner of tea and horse (dudai tiju chama)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No holder found.
Overlord
The court and the Zhizhi commissioner.
What it holds
- Tea gardens and the licences
- Horse markets at Yazhou, Lizhou, Xihe and Danchang
How it was acquired
Set up in 1074.
Allies and rivals
The army wants horses; the tea growers want a fair price; the tribes want tea and salt.
How things stand that morning
Running. The 1200 prices and the holder are not known.
Wealth
The tea monopoly is one of the largest revenues of Sichuan; no figures.
Threats
- Smuggling and the tribes' choice of buyers.
- The poor quality of border tea.
Places of note
- Yazhou: The main tea and horse market.
- Lizhou: The Dadu market.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The office and its long history are from Smith (recalled) and Chen Xifeng 2024; nothing was found for 1200 itself.
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
- Paul J. Smith, Taxing Heaven's Storehouse: Horses, Bureaucrats and the Destruction of the Sichuan Tea Industry, 1074-1224 (1991): recalled, NOT re-read
- Chen Xifeng, Wu Ting gui Shu yu Nan Song zhongqi Sichuan de bianbei tiaozheng (Sichuan University Institute of Ancient Books, 2024, no. 6)
- OMNIA board, notes_scc.txt (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.