The tea mountains of Simao lie south of Jingdong in the old Yinsheng command.
The Manshu (about 863) says tea grows in the mountains round Yinsheng city and is picked by the people of the hills without any prepared method (recalled, NOT re-read). The name Pu'er for the town and its tea is of the Qing, not of 1200. Who sells the tea to Tibet, the Song or the Dali plain in 1200 is not shown by any source we read.
Who holds it
- Title
- Headman or governor of the place for its lord
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The Yinsheng command at Jingdong; the hill headmen of the tea mountains
How things stand that morning
No event dated.
Militia
not known; no figure
Walls and castle
No walls known.
Trade and crafts
Hill tea gathered by the hill people; the trade routes are a later pattern.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board says the tea of Yinsheng goes north to Tibet and the Song. The Manshu says tea was drunk at Nanzhao; the Tibet and Song tea trade is not shown for 1200.
Evidence: The Manshu line through later accounts; nothing 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 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
- Fan Chuo, Manshu (Book of the Southern Barbarians, about 863): recalled, NOT re-read (zh.wikisource and ctext were not opened)
- 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.