Shanchan is the eastern capital and the seat of Shanchan fu, outside the south gate of the old city of Kunming (Chinese Wikipedia on the fu), on the north shore of the Dian lake.
It succeeds the Nanzhao city of Tuodong, founded in 765 as the eastern command. In the Dali kingdom it is the base of the Gao Guanyin branch, the market of the thirty-seven bu and the head of the roads to the Song, to Guizhou and down the Red River. A Gao official was killed here by rebels in 1147. The Yuan will rename it Zhongqing; the name Kunming is later still.
Who holds it
- Title
- Governor of the town for its lord
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The Gao of Shanchan (the Guanyin branch)
How things stand that morning
Quiet since the Gao feud ended.
Council
The Gao governor and the fu officers; the Yi chiefs come to the market.
Communities
Bai and Han settlers, Yi bu people, monks of the Azhali.
Militia
levies of the fu; no figure
Walls and castle
A walled city on the Tuodong site (765); the Yuan will build Zhongqing on it.
Trade and crafts
Salt (Heijing), rice, fish of the Dian lake, horses and cloth; the eastern roads.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'shanchan-kunming' calls it 'the seat of a branch of the Gao'. That agrees with English Wikipedia (the Guanyin branch).
Evidence: The existence and rank from Wikipedia; details of the city are thin.
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, 善阐府 (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Kunming (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom (read this session)
- Chinese Wikipedia, 高泰明 (read this session; cites Yi Mouyuan 2000)
- 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.