A Nanzhao city called Huili was built at Jianshui (Chinese Wikipedia, 建水县); the Yuan will make it Jianshui prefecture.
It lies on the road from Shanchan south through Tonghai to the Red River gorge and down to Dai Viet. The Hani, Yi and Nalou tribes hold the hills round it. Its Dali status is not shown in any source we read: the Dali lists name no fu or jun here, and we take it to be under Xiushan jun (Tonghai) as the nearest.
Who holds it
- Title
- Governor of the town for its lord
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
A Dali governor under Xiushan jun by one reading (not pinned)
How things stand that morning
Quiet.
Militia
levies of the fu; no figure
Walls and castle
A walled city of Nanzhao origin.
Trade and crafts
The road to the Red River; salt, silver and tea are the usual lists; none is dated.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'jianshui-huili': 'Huili cheng ... the last Dali post on the road down to Thang Long'. The name Huili for Jianshui agrees with the Chinese Wikipedia; the 'last post' is the campaign board's reading.
Evidence: One sentence on the city's origin.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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, 建水县 (history section, read this session)
- 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)
- 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.