Chengdu

Who holds it

Title

Prefect (zhifu) of Chengdu fu and Pacification and Control Commissioner of Sichuan (anfu zhizhi shi)

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No source we have names him for 1 January 1200; see the record of the Zhizhi commissioner.

Lord in 1200

The prefect of Chengdu fu, who is also the Zhizhi commissioner of Sichuan (name not known for 1200); beside him the transport, judicial and market commissioners of the Chengdufu circuit.

Overlord

The emperor Ningzong, through the circuit commissioners and the Sichuan Zhizhi commissioner at Chengdu.

What the town holds

• The city and its near plain (the tierra)
• Seat of the Zhizhi commissioner, the circuit commissioners, the note office and the tea and horse office

How it was acquired

Not applicable: an ordinary prefecture town of the Song.

Allies and rivals

The Zhizhi commissioner against the generals of the northern armies over the revenue and the pay; the tea and horse office against the Xingzhou command over the horse quota.

How things stand that morning

Quiet. The prefect and Zhizhi commissioner is a civil official whom the court changes every few years; his name for 1200 is not known. The court keeps the heirs of the Wu family away from Sichuan, so no general sits in the city. The year opens with the new year of Qingyuan 6 (about 18 January, Julian, by our count) and the lantern fair of the first month.

Wealth

The plain's irrigated grain and silk, the tea, salt and wine monopolies, and the printing of the note. No figures.

Military

The prefecture's garrison and the commissioner's guard; no numbers. The Imperial Guards commands are far away at the front.

Threats

• Over-issue of the note.
• A failed weir or a flood on the Min.
• A general who would march on Chengdu, the court's old fear of Sichuan.
• Tribal trouble on the Maozhou and Yazhou roads.

Charter

None. A Song prefectural town has no charter; the prefect and his clerks rule it.

Council

No council. The prefect, the magistrates of the city's counties and the state's clerks run the city; the guilds of the silk, brocade, book and medicine trades deal with the offices. No headman, judge or leading family is named in any source we have.

Communities

Buddhist houses (Wenshu yuan and Zhaojue si), the Daoist Qingyang Gong, and the shrines of Zhuge Liang and of Du Fu, which visitors seek out. Many officials, students and exiles from the east pass through. No foreign merchants' quarter is known.

Fairs and markets

A calendar of monthly fairs is remembered in Song writing: the lantern fair of the first month, the silkworm fair of the third and the medicine fair of the ninth are the best known (recalled, not re-read). The lantern fair of the new year falls about 1 February 1200 (Julian), the 15th of the first month by our count.

Militia

Not known. The prefecture's garrison and the city watch; no figure in any source we have.

Walls and castle

A walled city of old foundation. The great circuit wall is traced to Gao Pian's work of the 860s (recalled); the prefect's offices and the commissioners' yamens lie inside. Later repairs are not dated here.

Trade and crafts

Silk and brocade, books printed in the Shu style, paper, medicine and tea, and the market for the grain of the irrigated plain. The note (qianyin) is printed here (see the note office record). Iron cash, not copper, is the coin of the west.

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.

1. about 1 February 1200 (Julian)The lantern fair of the first month of Qingyuan 6.Depends on: Our count that Qingyuan 6 begins about 18 January 1200 (Julian). Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The city's character and offices are well known; the 1200 office-holders, the wall and the fairs' exact form are not pinned, and the fairs are recalled from Song writing we did not re-read.

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.