The Tushan (Tudan) are the emperor's maternal clan and, by English Wikipedia (Empress Qinhuai page), one of the clans that supplied earlier empresses.
Men of such a clan are likely to hold places in the Department of State Affairs, the Hanlin and the guard commands, but no officeholder of the clan is dated here. Tushan Yi is, as we recall, a learned Jurchen minister who stood for proper rules of rank (Jinshi biography, not re-read); if the ministers were already refusing Li Shi'er the empress's rank, he and his clan would belong to that party, but that is our inference and its timing is not pinned. No records of the clan's estates or households are consulted here.
Who he is
- Name
- Tushan Yi (office on 1 January 1200 not pinned)
- Title
- Scholar-minister of the clan and its senior voice at court
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- The Tushan (Tudan) clan is one of the great Jurchen consort clans: Empress Xiaoyi (1147-1191), Zhangzong's mother, was a Tudan; Shizong's Virtuous Consort was a Tushan; his Princess of Xi married Tushan Gongbi; Wanyan Yongji's wife (b. 1168) was a Tudan.
- Confidence
- low
The marriages from English Wikipedia (Yungong, Shizong, Yongji). Tushan Yi is the best-known minister of the clan in this reign; his chair in the Department of State Affairs on 1 January 1200 is not pinned, and our recollection that he opposed raising Li Shi'er to empress (Jinshi biography) was not re-read.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong
Allies and rivals
Tied by marriage to the emperor (his mother) and to Yongji (his wife). Whether it is set against the Li kin on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
How things stand that morning
Strong at court by marriage, not pinned to a chair; a natural protector of the Tudan wife of Prince Yongji.
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.
- 1208 to 1209The ministers of this circle favour Yongji, whose wife is a Tudan, on Zhangzong's death.Depends on: No son of Zhangzong. Stopped by: A son of Zhangzong.
Places of note
- Zhongdu: The Central Capital.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Marriages from Wikipedia; Tushan Yi's career from memory.
On the map: A person or office with no land of its own; the drawing is a marker.
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
- Wanyan Yungong (English Wikipedia)
- Emperor Shizong of Jin (English Wikipedia, with the list of his consorts, sons and daughters)
- Wanyan Yongji (English Wikipedia)
- Empress Qinhuai (English Wikipedia)
- Jinshi (History of the Jin), Benji of Zhangzong, Dili zhi, Hequ zhi, Shihuo zhi and Bing zhi (recalled from memory and the secondary literature; the text itself could not be opened in this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.