The women's side of the palace on 1 January 1200 is quiet.
There is no empress: Zhangzong's first wife, of the Pucha clan, whom he married in 1183 when he was Prince of Jinyuan, bore a son Hongyu in 1186 and died between about 1186 and 1189; he made her Empress Qinhuai after his accession and left the chair empty since. There is no empress dowager: his mother, Empress Xiaoyi of the Tudan (Tushan) clan, lived 1147 to 1191, and Shizong's empresses (Mingde, of the Wulinda clan, d. 1152; Guangxian, of the Li clan, d.
1181) are long dead. Lady Liu, the mother of Yungong's son Wudubu, whom the Yungong page lists under a later, posthumous style, may be alive; her status is not pinned. The lesser consorts named in the Jinshi are a Zhaoyi of the Jiagu clan, Furen Ziming of the Lin clan, and Chengyu of the Jia and Fan clans. Zhangzong's sons by the lists in English Wikipedia: Hongyu (1186 to 25 October 1188), Hongjing and Hongxi (1192 to 1193), Hongyan (1193), Honghui (3 June to 28 November 1197): all dead.
A third daughter, the Princess of Shun, is named without a date.
Who he is
- Title
- No empress; no empress dowager
- Confidence
- low
Empress seat vacant since the Pucha consort died; Empress Xiaoyi died in 1191; no living son.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong
How things stand that morning
A palace with a favourite and no heir. No household office or officeholder is named here.
Threats
- Each new pregnancy is a political event
- The empty chair invites a claimant
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.
- 1202 to 1203A sixth son, Telin, is born and dies (English Wikipedia's lists of Zhangzong's children).Depends on: Natural events; the emperor's household and his favourite's position. Stopped by: A different birth or death, or no pregnancy.
Places of note
- Zhongdu: The Central Capital.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Names and dates from English Wikipedia (Zhangzong, Qinhuai, Yungong, Shizong), which follow the Jinshi's consort and zongshi lists; the death dates of the infants are the Wikipedia page's.
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
- Emperor Zhangzong of Jin (English Wikipedia)
- Empress Qinhuai (English Wikipedia)
- Wanyan Yungong (English Wikipedia)
- Emperor Shizong of Jin (English Wikipedia, with the list of his consorts, sons and daughters)
- 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.