City · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Jiankang

Jiankang (Nanjing, the ancient Jinling) is the Song's second city and its military hinge on the lower Yangtze: seat of the Jiankang Imperial Army, the Jiangdong pacification command, the Jiangnan East circuit offices and the Huaixi paymaster-general.

A travelling palace is kept ready for an emperor who has never come to live in it. It has walls older than the Song, a moat, the Qinhuai river and the Stone City on the river; its counties (Shangyuan, Jiangning, Jurong, Lishui, Liyang) form the near rice land. It is remembered as the capital of six dynasties, and Yue Fei's army retook it from the Jin in 1130.

Its trade is the Yangtze: grain and iron coming down, silk and salt going up.

Who holds it

Name
Not known for 1 January 1200
Title
Prefect of Jiankang, keeper of the reserve capital (liushou) and Jiangdong pacification commissioner
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

Not named in the sources we read.

Lord in 1200

The emperor through the prefect-keeper, whose name is not known.

Overlord

The emperor and the Privy Council.

What the town holds

  • The army and the Huaixi treasury
  • The travelling palace and the river wharves
  • The Qinhuai canals

How it was acquired

Restored from Jiangning fu as Jiankang fu in 1129 (the war years).

Allies and rivals

The supply base for Luzhou, Anfeng and Haozhou; partner of Zhenjiang.

How things stand that morning

Quiet garrison city.

Wealth

Grain, iron, the river trade and the paymaster's funds; no figures.

Military

The Jiankang army (see Jiankang army).

Threats

  • The Jin if the Huai front collapses (it will in the winter of 1206-07)

Charter

None known. A Song city has no charter of liberties: it is governed by the prefect (zhizhou or zhifu) and the circuit offices, with its guilds (hang) and the neighbourhood wards under official supervision.

Council

The prefect-keeper, the army commander and the circuit officials share the city.

Communities

Officials, soldiers, merchants; the monasteries of Qixia, Zhongshan and Niushou.

Fairs and markets

Daily markets and temple fairs; no dated fair known.

Militia

Garrison troops under the prefect or the army command; no figures.

Walls and castle

Walls and moat of the old Jinling, the Stone City, the travelling palace.

Trade and crafts

Grain, iron, silk, paper, boats; the Yangtze wharves.

Places of note

  • The travelling palace of Jiankang: Reserve capital palace
  • Stone City on the Yangtze: Old river fort and wharves

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The general picture is firm; no named holders for the winter.

On the map: City and near land.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. General knowledge of Song administrative and economic history (Hartwell, Von Glahn, Smith and Twitchett eds., Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2), not re-checked line by line in this pass
  2. OMNIA board, area sce notes (a lead, not a source)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.