Zhongdu grain supply, Transport commissioner of the Zhongdu

Zhongdu lives on imported grain.

The grain of Hebei and Shandong comes by the canal system to the Hai river at Zhigu and up the northern river to Tongzhou, where the granaries stand; from there it goes by cart or the last short stretch of canal to the capital. A channel to bring Lugou water and cargo to the capital (the Jinkou channel) was dug in the 1170s and abandoned as unworkable; our recollection of its dates is not checked. The Yellow River's 1194 breach and the Grand Canal relief for the flooded south compete for the same barges.

Who he is

Title: Transport commissioner of the Zhongdu circuit and the officers of the Tongzhou granaries
Confidence: low

No commissioner is dated for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

Emperor Zhangzong

What it holds

The Tongzhou granaries
The canal and cart road from Zhigu to Tongzhou to the capital

How things stand that morning

The supply works. The stock in the Tongzhou granaries is not known.

Threats

Canal silting
The flood relief taking the barges

Places of note

Tongzhou: The granary suburb.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Mechanism from general knowledge; dates uncertain.

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

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.