Hekou is where the Nanxi river joins the Red River at the present frontier, on the water road down to Lao Cai (the Vietnam map's ground) and Thang Long.
The Chinese Wikipedia's thirty-seven bu list puts the Wangnongshan bu here. The gazetteer sends Hekou to Shaanxi; the coordinate given is 22.54 N 104.01 E. No source we read describes Dali's officers, a market or a toll here in 1200; the Red River route to Dai Viet is known from the Tang and Nanzhao age (recalled, NOT re-read).
Who holds it
- Title
- Headman or governor of the place for its lord
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The Wangnongshan bu headman; the Dali claim is by title
How things stand that morning
Quiet as far as any source shows.
Militia
not known; no figure
Trade and crafts
River and hill-path trade down the Red River: cloth, salt, horses (a general pattern, not dated for 1200).
Where the sources disagree
- The gazetteer misplaces Hekou; the point 22.54 N 104.01 E is checked against the ownership tool and lies on the Chinese bank.
- Map ruling (sheet builder, pass 1): Hekou is drawn as the ground of the native chiefs, as this record says. The Vietnam researcher anchors it as Dali; the Yunnan researcher owns the ground and stands.
- Coordinate (sheet builder, pass 1): the point 22.54 N 104.01 E, which this record says lies on the Chinese bank, falls in the Vietnamese unit Bao Thang of the base map. The place is set at the town of Hekou, 22.51 N 103.96 E, in the Chinese unit Hekou (rural).
Evidence: One line in the bu list; the rest is the geography of the river.
Primary sources for Chiefs of the south-west
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.
- 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 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
- Miscellaneous Notes on Court and Country since the Jianyan Era, Li Xinchuan (李心傳) (first series 1202, second series 1216). A contemporary handbook of the Southern Song state, written in Sichuan by the historian Li Xinchuan and finished in its first part in 1202, two years after the start of 1200. 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, 大理国 (read this session: the eight fu, four jun, four zhen and thirty-seven bu; it cites Yang Shen's Dian zai ji, Wang Song's Yunnan beizhengzhi, Ni Lu's Nanzhao yeshi, the Baigu tongji qianshu)
- Yuanshi (History of Yuan), Dili zhi on Yunnan, and Li Jingyuan, Yunnan zhilue (1331): the Yuan sources of the Dali structure lists; recalled through the Chinese Wikipedia, NOT re-read
- Charles Backus, The Nan-chao Kingdom and T'ang China's Southwestern Frontier (Cambridge, 1981): recalled, NOT re-read
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.