Chiang Rung

Who holds it

Title

Zhao pianling (lord of the land) of Chiang Rung

Since

The line is dated from Dai year 542 (1180)

Born

not known

Family

Phaya Chen (Pa Zhen, the brief's Phaya Coeng), founder; second Sang Kai Leng, a fourth son; third Dao Ai Gong, eldest son of Sang Kai Leng (Le Shi, via the Chinese Wikipedia). Who sat on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Confidence

low

Chinese Wikipedia (Zhao Pianling, Pa Zhen, Le Shi); English Wikipedia (Jinghong).

Lord in 1200

The zhao pianling (name not pinned).

Overlord

Dali, by the campaign board and Dai tradition (nominal); not shown by a dated document

What the town holds

• The town and the Jinghong basin on the Lancang
• The overlordship of the other basin muang (Muang Hai, Muang La)
• River tolls and the caravan roads north to Dali, west to Kengtung and south-east to the Nam Ou

How it was acquired

By the founder's unification, 1180 in the chronicle.

Allies and rivals

Dali north (tribute or independence: disputed); Ngoenyang and Kengtung west; the Lao muang of the Nam Ou south-east (Khmer and Lao).

How things stand that morning

A Tai Lue seat about twenty years old by its own chronicle, ruled by the founder's line; the lord is not named. No event is dated in the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Rice of the basin, tea from the hills, river tolls, cowries, silver, salt, iron and cloth on the caravan roads.

Military

No numbers; stockade and hill refuges.

Threats

• Dali pressing or weak
• Raids from the Wa and Lawa hills and from Kengtung

Council

The lord and his kin; the Dai tradition posts the founder's sons to the basins.

Communities

Tai Lue, with Blang, Hani, Wa and other hill villagers around the basins.

Walls and castle

Not recorded; a stockaded town is the regional type.

Trade and crafts

Rice, tea, river trade; no craft is dated.

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. 1296 (Yuan Yuanzhen 2; Dai year 658)The Yuan set up the Cheli military-and-civil superintendency at Chiang Rung and its lord submits.Depends on: Yuan arms reaching the Lancang. Stopped by: Revolt of the Dai chiefs or a counterweight from Pagan or Lan Na.

Places of note

• Chiang Rung (Jinghong): the lord's seat on the Lancang

Where the sources disagree

• Board (chiang-rung): "twenty years old on this morning and the first Tai state of the upper river", tribute "to the Duan kings at Dali and to nobody else". The 1180 date is a chronicle date; the tribute and the "first Tai state" are not in any source we could read, and the Chinese Wikipedia (Jinghong) says the founder left Dali.
• English Wikipedia (Jinghong): Mangrai's maternal grandfather was King Rung Kaen Chai of Jinghong, unsourced. The Chiang Mai Chronicle's marriage belongs to the 1230s, so he is not shown to be the lord of 1200.
• The gazetteer's Jinghong point is 21.991 N, 100.734 E, about 6 km west of the town; the record uses 22.002 N, 100.797 E. Do not confuse with Wiang Chiang Rung, a district of Chiang Rai province (20.01 N, 100.06 E): a different place.

Evidence: The Le Shi (Ming-period compilation) via the Chinese Wikipedia, and an uncited line in the English Wikipedia; later than 1200 by two centuries or more.

On the map: Near land by the tierra.

Primary sources for Chiang Rung

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.

• The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.