The most famous living scholar of the Southern Song is sixty-nine, ill, and under ban.
His enemies at court, led by Han Tuozhou, had him impeached in 1196, stripped of rank and branded a teacher of false learning; his friend and disciple Cai Yuanding was sent into exile at Daozhou and died there in 1198 (the usual account). He keeps teaching at Kaoting, his study hall near Jianyang, where students still come in defiance of the ban, and he goes on revising his commentaries, including the "Great Learning" (Daxue) chapter on sincerity of thought, which he is said to have been correcting days before his death, and the Chuci and Yili commentaries he will leave unfinished. The likely course below has him dying on 23 April 1200 (Julian: the jiazi day of the third month of Qingyuan 6) and a burial at Dalin valley in Jianyang later in the year, in the eleventh lunar month by our recollection of the Chinese sources (the campaign board says November; on our count that month begins about 8 December 1200 in the Julian calendar), at which, Wikipedia says, almost a thousand "brave people" appeared despite the ban.
Who he is
- Name
- Zhu Xi (Zhu Hui'an, courtesy names Yuanhui and Zhonghui)
- Title
- Scholar, former Hall-Academician, under the Qingyuan ban on the "false learning" (weixue)
- Since
- At Kaoting from 1192; the study hall there is renamed Cangzhou jingshe in 1194
- Born
- 18 October 1130 (Julian), Youxi, Fujian
- Family
- Zhu; his son-in-law Huang Gan; pupils Cai Chen, Chen Chun, Zhan Tiren and many others
- Confidence
- high
Wikipedia, "Zhu Xi". Death: the Songshi records the day jiazi of the third month of Qingyuan 6; we count jiazi as 23 April 1200 (Julian), the 9th day of the third month in a year with a leap second month (our own reckoning, in agreement with Wikipedia's 23 April).
Overlord
None; he holds no office (by our recollection he had held only temple sinecures, and lost his in 1196)
What it holds
- The study hall at Kaoting (Cangzhou jingshe) in Jianyang
- The older retreat at Mount Wuyi (Wuyi jingshe, built in 1183)
- His pupils across Fujian, Jiangxi and Zhejiang
- The Bailudong academy at Lushan is in Jiangxi and not this area
How it was acquired
Kaoting from 1192.
Allies and rivals
Allies: Huang Gan, Cai Chen, Chen Chun and the Fujian pupils. Rival and persecutor: Han Tuozhou and the censors who drew up the list of the "false learning" (the ban, Qingyuan dangjin).
How things stand that morning
Alive on 1 January, ailing; the ban in force; students still at Kaoting.
Wealth
None to speak of: a study hall, a library, the fees and gifts of pupils; by our recollection he lost his temple sinecure in 1196 (not on the Wikipedia page we read).
Threats
- The ban and its informers
- His own failing health
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.
In 1200
- 23 April 1200 (Julian), the jiazi day of the third month of Qingyuan 6Zhu Xi dies at Kaoting, aged sixty-nine.Depends on: The state of his health on 1 January, which we cannot judge Stopped by: Nothing a player can do except by medical aid or exile
- Eleventh lunar month of Qingyuan 6 (about 8 December 1200 to 5 January 1201 by our count; the campaign board says November)He is buried at Tangshi village, Dalin valley, Jianyang, before a crowd that defies the ban.Depends on: The local officials choosing not to disperse the mourners Stopped by: A harsher prefect
Later, on the likely course
- 1208Ningzong rehabilitates him after Han Tuozhou's fall.Depends on: Han Tuozhou's fall in 1207 Stopped by: A longer survival of Han Tuozhou
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board gives his death as 23 April at Kaoting: agreed. The campaign board says "thousands" came to the funeral; the sources Wikipedia follows say almost a thousand.
- Calendar: Qingyuan 6 begins about 18 January 1200 (Julian) by our computation of the new moons; 1 January 1200 is therefore about the 14th day of the twelfth month of Qingyuan 5. The Songshi date (the jiazi day of the third month) is 23 April only if the third month began about 15 April, which implies a leap second month in the Song calendar of 1200; we could not check this against a concordance. A modern astronomical count would instead put the leap month after the fourth month and call 23 April the ninth day of the fourth month, so lunar-month names for March to June 1200 differ between the two reckonings, while the jiazi day and the Julian date do not. On the same count the eleventh month begins about 8 December 1200 (Julian) and ends about 5 January 1201, so the campaign board's "in November" for the burial looks a month early; we recall the eleventh lunar month from the Chinese sources but did not re-read them.
Evidence: Zhu Xi's life and death are among the best documented of the age; the funeral crowd and the burial date are less firm.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Two small discs.
Primary sources for Southern Song
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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. 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
- 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
- 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
12 more in the sources library for South China.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.