The Tibetan and Qiang villages of the Qingyi headwaters, in the mountains above Lushan and Tianquan, who bring horses down to Yazhou and carry tea back up the mountain roads towards Kangding and Tibet.
The tea-horse trade is their living and the Song's lever on them.
Who he is
- Title
- Tribal headmen of the Qingyi valley
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No headman is named in any source we have.
Overlord
The Song at Yazhou give them titles and buy their horses; they pay no tax.
What it holds
- The Qingyi headwaters
- The mountain roads to the Dadu
How it was acquired
Hereditary.
Allies and rivals
Trade with Yazhou; feuds with the Dadu tribes.
How things stand that morning
No revolt or campaign is known for the winter. The Diaomen stockade is a later name on this road and we do not place it in 1200.
Wealth
Horses, herbs, furs.
Military
Mounted fighters; no numbers.
Threats
- A tea embargo.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The Songshi's Manyi chapters (recalled, not re-read) name the Qiang, Tibetan and Man groups of the Sichuan edge, but no chief of 1200 is known to me. The record says what kind of power it is and where, and nothing more.
On the map: Rough.
Primary sources for Chiefs of the south-west
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.
- 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 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
- Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
- Miscellaneous Notes on Court and Country since the Jianyan Era, Li Xinchuan (李心傳) (first series 1202, second series 1216). A contemporary handbook of the Southern Song state, written in Sichuan by the historian Li Xinchuan and finished in its first part in 1202, two years after the start of 1200. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
- Songshi juan 496-497 (Manyi 4-5), the Lizhou, Yazhou, Maozhou, Weizhou and Luzhou peoples: recalled, NOT re-read
- Paul J. Smith, Taxing Heaven's Storehouse: Horses, Bureaucrats and the Destruction of the Sichuan Tea Industry, 1074-1224 (1991): recalled, NOT re-read
- 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.