Xiangyang command

Who he is

Title

Prefect of Xiangyang and pacification commissioner of Jingxi South (Jingxi nan lu anfu shi), with the commander-in-chief (dutongzhi) of the Xiangyang Imperial Guards

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Confidence

low

Name not known for 1 January 1200. Song officials rotated every two or three years, so a name from another year cannot be assumed.

Overlord

The court at Lin'an (the Privy Council for the armies, the Department of State Affairs for the civil posts).

What it holds

• Xiangyang and Fancheng
• Command of the Han river garrisons: Guanghua jun, Junzhou, Zaoyang, Suizhou, Yingzhou
• Border markets at the frontier (as recalled: Zaoyang and Xinyang among them)

How it was acquired

Created in the reorganisation of the regional armies after 1141 and kept since (recalled).

Allies and rivals

Linked by the Han to Jiangling and Ezhou; rivals across the line are the Jin prefects of Dengzhou and Tangzhou (in the nch records).

How things stand that morning

Peace under the Longxing settlement of 1165 (Song pays yearly silver and silk, no figures; the Song address the Jin as an elder relation). The Jin hold Dengzhou and Tangzhou immediately north. No alarm is dated for the winter of 1199 to 1200 in our sources.

Wealth

Han river tolls, border-market duties, the frontier grain farms (tuntian) and army grain from Hubei and Hunan.

Military

Standing Imperial Guard garrison of Xiangyang; county militias and archers; frontier stockades and watch posts. No numbers.

Threats

• Jin attack (none expected while the peace of 1165 holds)
• Famine on the Han plain
• Smuggling across the line

Places of note

• Fancheng: Twin city across the Han from Xiangyang.
• Zaoyang: Frontier county and market facing the Jin's Tangzhou.

Where the sources disagree

• After 1 Jan 1200 and not part of the 1200 state: the Kaixi northern war (from 1206) turns this command into the front; the siege of Xiangyang is of the 1260s.

Evidence: The existence and shape of these commands are well known from the Southern Song military system (Imperial Guard armies stationed at Ezhou, Jingnan, Xiangyang and Jiangzhou, each under a dutongzhi, with a civil pacification commissioner in each circuit), recalled, not re-read in this pass because web access closed. The commanders on 1 January 1200 are not named in anything we could reach; we give the post and say "not known".

On the map: Garrison cities drawn as seeds; the real authority runs over the whole circuit.

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.