Lang chau (Lang Son)

Who holds it

Name

not known for 1200 (the Thân family held it earlier)

Title

Hereditary chiefs of Lạng châu holding a Ly title

Confidence

low

The campaign board entry notes; Chinese Wikipedia (Shen Li, 1141)

Lord in 1200

The Thân house or its successor; name not known.

What the town holds

• The valley of the Kỳ Cùng and the road through the Chi Lăng defile to the delta
• Tolls on the northern road
• The right to receive Song envoys at Pha Lũy on the king's behalf

How things stand that morning

Quiet under dual allegiance: a Ly title and a Song market. No rising dated to the 1190s in what we read.

Wealth

Road tolls, the market, rice floors in the valleys.

Military

The chief's kin and followers; no numbers. The Chi Lăng defile is the Ly army's gate.

Threats

• A Song push to close or tax the road
• A Ly court that squeezes the chiefs

Charter

No charter. The chief holds by a royal title and by marriage ties with the Ly house (board, for the Thân).

Council

The chief's kin; Tai-speaking village headmen. Not recorded.

Communities

Tai-speaking hill folk (the later Tày and Nùng); Viet officers and merchants; Chinese merchants at the border market.

Fairs and markets

A border market; the licensed Song market across the line at Yongping.

Militia

The chief's followers; not counted.

Walls and castle

A chief's seat and a market town; no wall known. The great defile of Chi Lăng is to the south.

Trade and crafts

Silk, salt and metal going north and south; forest goods; horses are bought by the Song at Hengshan from Dali, not here.

Places of note

• Lang chau: Seat

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry says the Than 'fought the Song here in 1075 and 1076'; the English Wikipedia names Than Canh Phuc among Ly commanders but does not say where he fought.

Evidence: Earlier members and risings are dated; none for 1200.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

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