The southern anchor of Shandong West.
Xuzhou (Pengcheng) stands where the roads between the Yellow River plain, the Huai and the sea cross the Si river; it was the Song's iron town (Liguo ironworks) and is the Jin's military governorship over Xiao and Feng counties. The military governor holds the army title Wuning and the prefecture; he reports through Shandong West and to the Henan commission on the frontier. The Yellow River's southern arm of 1194 is thought to have come down to the Si at or near the city (not pinned), so his first care is the river.
The Dili zhi (read) lists towns of the prefecture that include Lüliang (the rapids), Liguo (the ironworks) and Biantang.
Who he is
- Title
- Military governor (jiedushi) of the Wuning army at Xuzhou (Pengcheng)
- 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
- Xuzhou (Pengcheng) with Xiao and Feng counties (province record)
- Liguo ironworks and Lüliang rapids
- The crossing of the Si
How it was acquired
Taken by the Jin in 1129 and held since (recalled); the 1141 line left it on the Jin side.
Allies and rivals
Answers to the Shandong West commissions and the emperor; works with the Henan commission. Faces no Song force nearby: the Song's nearest garrison is at Chuzhou on the Huai, a long way south.
How things stand that morning
Not known for the winter. The river is the problem, not the Song.
Wealth
Iron and coal of Liguo, the Si and canal tolls, grain land.
Military
The Wuning army's garrison and the prefectural force; no numbers.
Threats
- The river's southern arm
- Iron-works workers' unrest (not recorded)
Places of note
- Liguo: Liguo, the ironworks town (location approximate).
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Prefecture, army title and towns are from the Dili zhi (read); the iron and the 1129 conquest are 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. The atlas draws this territory itself: the ground nearer to the seats of this record than to the seats of any other record of the same kind, out to about 30 km of travel from a seat (less in hills and marsh, where travel is slow). The edges are the atlas's own drawing, not a boundary from a source.
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
- 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)
- 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.