North and west of Yongzhou, on the Youjiang that rises in the plateau, the dong are held by Zhuang houses of whom the Cen are the best known.
Wikipedia says that the Cen were a Song-allied clan which received hereditary posts after Nong Zhigao fled in about 1055, and that the Huang were left in charge of the You and Zuo rivers in the early Song, with a Huang Zhongqing receiving an official title in 1062 and a Huang Shouling refusing to aid Zhigao in 1054; the Nong reduced their rivals before that (a Cen leader was killed by Nong Quanfu in the 1030s). The Youjiang is also the horse road: the market at Hengshan lies in this country, and Dali's, Ziqi's and Luodian's horses pass through it to reach the Song buyers. For 1200 the sources give no names.
The Cen will rise to power in the later Song and Yuan; nothing of that is dated in our sources.
Who he is
- Title
- The Zhuang chiefs (zhi) of the jimi prefectures and dong of the You river
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- The Cen family held hereditary posts from the 1050s; the Huang kept the You and Zuo rivers; both named in Wikipedia, "Zhuang people"
- Confidence
- low
No chief is named for 1200 in any source we could read.
Overlord
The Song court through the Yongzhou command
What it holds
- The dong and jimi prefectures of the You river (the Tianzhou and Hengshan country, Pingguo, Debao and Jingxi)
- The road to the Hengshan market
How it was acquired
By descent, with Song recognition from the 1050s and 1060s.
Allies and rivals
Cen and Huang as the Song's men against the Nong; Ziqi and Dali as the neighbours up the road.
How things stand that morning
Quiet on the evidence available. To the west, across the Yunnan border, the ground is the Dali kingdom's (msa's sheet).
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Same single article; no name for 1200.
On the map: A zone between Yongzhou, Yizhou and the plateau.
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
- Wikipedia, "Zhuang people" (Song-period section)
- Wikipedia, "Nong Zhigao"
- Zhou Qufei, Lingwai daida (1178), described in Wikipedia, "Lingwai Daida"
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.