The Jin's Lan zhou, on the south bank of the Yellow River where the Gansu corridor road crosses the river by ferry (skin rafts and boats; no bridge is known for 1200).
It is the gateway to the Xia's Liangzhou and Zhuoluo and to the Tibetan Hehuang country, a frontier fortress and a licensed Jin-Xia market town (quanchang). Walls and a citadel stand on the river terraces under the hills to the south. The place passed to the Song in 1081 and to the Jin after 1127 (Wikipedia, Lanzhou); the Jurchens closed its Xia market in 1172 and did not reopen it until 1197 (Wikipedia, Western Xia).
Who holds it
- Title
- The prefect (zhizhou) of Lan zhou under the Lintao circuit commander; name not known.
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No source consulted dates the office-holder for the winter of 1199-1200.
Lord in 1200
The prefect (zhizhou) of Lan zhou under the Lintao circuit commander; name not known.
Overlord
The Jin emperor Zhangzong, through the circuit command
What the town holds
- Lan zhou (Jincheng): the Yellow River crossing and the Xia market of the west
How things stand that morning
Frontier at peace. The Xia is a vassal of the Jin and the market, reopened in 1197, is open; no raiding is known. The prefect's name is not known.
Charter
none known: a Chinese prefectural city or county town with no municipal charter
Council
No town council. The prefect (zhizhou) or county magistrate governs with the staff of the prefecture; Jurchen military commanders hold the garrison. Names are not known.
Communities
Han townspeople, Tibetans and Tangut traders; the Jin garrison. No dated religious community is known for the town in 1200.
Fairs and markets
Markets and temple fairs on the usual Chinese pattern; none dated for this town.
Militia
No citizen militia; the garrison is the Jin's own (Jurchen meng'an and mouke households and Chinese soldiers), not numbered in any source we could read.
Walls and castle
A walled frontier city with a citadel on the river terrace. Nothing dated for 1200.
Trade and crafts
The Xia trade (horses, sheep, salt and herbs against tea, silk and ironware, as the markets of the Jin-Xia frontier ran in general), river freight on skin rafts, and the Tibetan and Han tea and horse traffic towards He zhou.
Places of note
- Lan zhou ferry: The Yellow River crossing on the road to the Xia's Liangzhou
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board (lanzhou) puts Lanzhou in Lintao lu; we agree. That a Jin-Xia market stood at Lan zhou is in Wikipedia (Western Xia): closed 1172, reopened 1197. Its place on the Jin quanchang list comes from the assignment and our notes, not checked against the Jinshi.
Evidence: Seat and general character follow the standard Jin geography and the usual accounts; we could not open the Jinshi text in this session, and no dated detail of the town in 1199-1200 was found. The description is indicative.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A seeds recipe of about 10 km round the city; the prefecture is in the province record.
Primary sources for Jin empire
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.
- 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
- 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
- Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. 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
- Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
- The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. 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
- 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
14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.
Sources and studies
- Jinshi (History of the Jin), juan 24 to 26, Dili zhi (geography); cited from the standard reference, the text itself could not be opened in this session
- Jing-shen Tao, The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China (University of Washington Press, 1976); not consulted in this session
- Wikipedia, Western Xia
- Wikipedia, Lanzhou
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.