City · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Cangzhou

Cangzhou is the Jin's greatest seat of the salt monopoly of the Hebei East shore, the 'Cang salt' of the Jinshi's Shihuo zhi (recalled).

The flat country between the Hai river and the Bohai is a belt of salt pans, marsh and fisher villages. The town itself is the old Tang city whose iron lion was cast in 953 (recalled). The Dadao sect's founder Liu Deren came from Cangzhou, by the account we recall. The prefecture has also the Changlu salt station (the Changlu name is later famous), Nanpi and Yanshan counties.

Who holds it

Title
Prefect or governor
Confidence
low

No holder is dated for 1 January 1200.

Lord in 1200

The salt commissioner (yanshi shi) of Cangzhou and the prefect, not named

Overlord

Emperor Zhangzong

What the town holds

  • The Cang salt commission and its pans
  • Counties of Qingchi, Changlu, Nanpi, Yanshan and neighbours (the Jinshi's list was not opened)

How it was acquired

Held by the Jin since the conquest of the 1120s.

How things stand that morning

Running the salt pans; no disturbance known.

Threats

  • Smuggling
  • Floods on the low coast
  • Silting of the Hai river

Council

The prefect and the county magistrate, with the military commandery's officers; no town council known.

Communities

Han townspeople under Jurchen and Han officers, as in the usual pattern; nothing specific is known for this town.

Militia

The prefectural garrison; no numbers known.

Walls and castle

Probably walled, like most prefectural seats; no source we opened describes the walls.

Trade and crafts

Salt (the monopoly), fish, reed matting. Smuggling is the chief problem (assumed from the monopoly's nature).

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry id cangzhou gives 38.24, 117.13; we place the Jin prefecture's seat at the old city in Cang county (about 38.15, 117.10, not pinned).

Evidence: Secondary sources and general knowledge; the Jinshi's Dili zhi could not be opened in this session.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Seat set at the old Cangzhou city in Cang county; the campaign board's coordinates are 14 km north of it.

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

  1. Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
  2. 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.