Heijing (Black Well) is a brine-well and salt-boiling town in the Longchuan gorge, in Weichu fu (modern Lufeng), on the road between the Chuxiong plain and Shanchan.
Salt is the staple wealth of the plateau, and Heijing is its best-known source. The campaign board says the wells were worked since the Han and gave 'the richest salt of the kingdom, a royal revenue between Weichu and Shanchan'. None of that is in a source we could read: we found no Dali-period account of who ran the wells, what they yielded or what was taxed.
The standing houses and the salt-boiling works that tourists see are Ming and Qing.
Who holds it
- Title
- Overseer of the wells
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The Gao of Weichu in whose fu it lies, or the king; which is not known
How things stand that morning
Worked; the administration of the wells is not known.
Communities
Bai and Han salt-workers and merchants, Yi from the hills (later pattern; not shown for 1200).
Militia
not known; no figure
Trade and crafts
Brine salt boiled in pans and sent by pack animal to the Dian and Erhai plains and the hills; no figure.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'heijing' (secure): 'worked since the Han', 'the richest salt of the kingdom', 'a royal revenue'. No source we read says any of the three for the Dali period.
Evidence: The place and the importance of Yunnan salt are secure; Dali-period management is not shown.
Primary sources for Dali
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 Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. 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
- The Unofficial History of Nanzhao, Yang Shen; revised by Hu Wei (16th century, revised 1775, from Dali and Yunnan traditions and lost local histories). The kingdom of Dali has no surviving text of 1200: its own records were destroyed in the Mongol conquest and after, and the Song shi's Dali entry ends in 1175. 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
- Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
- Chinese Wikipedia, 楚雄市 (history section, read this session)
- OMNIA board, notes_msy.txt and places_msy.tsv (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.