Ezhou

Who holds it

Title

Prefect (zhizhou) of Ezhou

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Confidence

low

Name not known for 1 January 1200. Song prefects and magistrates rotated every two or three years, so a name from another year cannot be assumed.

Lord in 1200

The prefect of Ezhou (zhizhou), the commander-in-chief (dutongzhi) of the Ezhou Imperial Guards, and the Hubei fiscal and judicial commissioners (as recalled; where each Hubei office sat is not pinned). No names are dated for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

The court at Lin'an, through the circuit commissioners.

What the town holds

• Ezhou prefecture and its counties
• Ezhou Imperial Guards and the river fleet
• Wharves, booms and the Nanshi market

How it was acquired

Yue Fei's headquarters from the mid-1130s; the Imperial Guard form dates from the reorganisation after 1141 (recalled).

Allies and rivals

Supplied from Hunan rice and Sichuan cargo; backed by the Jiangzhou command up the lake mouth and the Jiankang command down river.

How things stand that morning

At peace under the Longxing settlement of 1165. The fleet and army are on pay and the market is busy; nothing is dated for the winter of 1199 to 1200 in the sources we could reach.

Wealth

Market and river tolls, the state wine and vinegar monopoly, salt and tea revenue, the army's farms and shops, and the Hubei grain. No figures.

Military

Ezhou Imperial Guards and the river fleet (paddle-wheel craft). No numbers.

Threats

• Summer flood on the Yangtze
• Pay arrears in the army (a standing danger to every Song garrison)
• A Jin move down the Han (not expected under the peace)

Charter

None known. A Song prefectural city had no chartered liberties: the prefect and the county magistrates governed it, and its trades were organised in guilds (hang) licensed by the state.

Council

No council of its own. The prefect (zhizhou) rules with the county magistrate, the market and tax officers and the heads of the trade guilds; the leading literati families speak for the town to the officials. No names are known for 1 January 1200. The army commander and the prefect share the city; the market guilds and the temples are the other bodies.

Communities

Buddhist and Daoist temples; the river boatmen and traders of the Nanshi, many of them from Sichuan and Hunan; the gentry of the prefecture. No foreign quarter is attested in our sources.

Fairs and markets

A permanent market in the Nanshi, busiest when the river fleets arrive; temple fairs on the great festivals. No named fair is known to me.

Militia

The prefectural garrison, county archers (gongshou) and local militia; no numbers.

Walls and castle

Walled prefectural city on the bank and the lower slope of Snake Hill, with wharves and booms for the fleet and the Yellow Crane Tower. The circuit of the 1200 walls is not pinned.

Trade and crafts

Rice, salt, tea, timber and cloth: Huainan and Zhejiang salt comes up the Yangtze, Sichuan salt, cloth and drugs come down, Hunan and Jiangxi rice crosses from Dongting and Poyang, Hubei tea goes out. The army keeps its own shops and workshops and the state sells wine and vinegar under monopoly. Iron from Daye, down river, feeds the arsenal (as we recall).

Places of note

• Yellow Crane Tower: Tower on Snake Hill above the river.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry id ezhou (30.55,114.31) is the Song seat Jiangxia. The gazetteer's Ezhou (30.40,114.83) is the modern city of that name, the Song county of Wuchang, about 55 km down river; explicit coordinates keep them apart.
• Not part of 1200: Yue Fei is made Prince of E in 1204; Wuchang becomes the city's name only after the Song.

Evidence: Background knowledge of Southern Song administration and of the travel diaries of Lu You (1170) and Fan Chengda (1177), recalled and not re-read in this pass because web access closed; the rank and circuit follow the Songshi geography (juan 85 and 88, read in this pass). No prefect or magistrate for 1 January 1200 is dated in what we could reach.

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

On the map: Seeds round Jiangxia only; Hanyang jun across the river is a separate record.

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.