Daming fu was the Northern Capital of the Song from 1042 and is now the seat of the Jin's Daming circuit and its military commandery.
It stands on the Wei river and the old Yongji canal, a market of the lower plain at the point where Hebei, the Yellow River country and Shandong meet. The English Wikipedia Jin page lists Daming among the southern routes where poor Jurchen households were selling daughters and renting land to Han tenants in the early 1180s, which suggests a district with many Jurchen households.
Who holds it
- Title
- Prefect or governor
- Confidence
- low
No holder is dated for 1 January 1200.
Lord in 1200
The commandery of Daming fu lu (not named)
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong
What the town holds
- The circuit seat of Daming fu lu and the commandery
- Garrison of Jurchen meng'an and mouke colonies in the circuit
- Grain and cloth collection point on the canal
How it was acquired
Held by the Jin since the conquest of the 1120s.
How things stand that morning
A great administrative and garrison town of the plain, close to the Yellow River's old lower channels. As I read the pages, the 1194 breach was at Yangwu, in Henan, and the water went east; no source we opened puts the flood at Daming. The river works at Puyang and Yangwu are ncn's.
Threats
- Flood-spill from the Yellow River
- Poverty of the Jurchen households
Council
The prefect and the county magistrate, with the military commandery's officers; no town council known.
Communities
Han townspeople; Jurchen military households; the clergy of the Song-era temples.
Militia
The prefectural garrison; no numbers known.
Walls and castle
Large walled city of Song foundation (details not known).
Trade and crafts
Cloth, grain, salt, ironware; the canal market. Not dated.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Secondary sources and general knowledge; the Jinshi's Dili zhi could not be opened in this session.
On the map: Near land of ten kilometres.
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
- Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
- Military of the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
- 1194 Yellow River flood (English Wikipedia)
- 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.