Longshou (Dragon Head) is the north end of the Erhai plain, where the Cangshan spurs come down to the lake on the road to Dengchuan, Eryuan, Heqing and the north.
Later accounts call the north gate Shangguan (the Upper Pass) and the south gate Xiaguan (the Lower Pass), and the campaign board calls this one the Nanzhao wall that closes the capital from Dengchuan and the Heqing road. We read no Dali-period description of the wall or its guard; the gate that stands today is of a later age. In 1200 it is a gate on a peaceful plain, and the road through it carries salt, tea and horses.
Who holds it
- Title
- Commander of the pass for the king
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The king's guard of the plain; the commander is not named
How things stand that morning
Quiet; no war is dated on the north road in 1199 or 1200.
Militia
not known; no figure
Walls and castle
A gate in a wall that closes the plain between the Cangshan and the lake (board; later accounts). Dali-period fabric not described.
Trade and crafts
Toll and watch on the north road; salt, tea, horses and cloth pass.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'longshou-guan' (secure): 'the Nanzhao wall'. A Nanzhao origin is the later tradition; we found no Dali-period description. The pass is real as a place, the wall's age in 1200 is not pinned.
Evidence: The existence of a north gate is the campaign board's and later accounts'; we read nothing dated for it.
"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
- Wikipedia, Nanzhao (read this session)
- 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.