Taihe (Taihe cheng) was the Nanzhao capital from 739 until Yangjumie replaced it in 779 (infobox, English Wikipedia Nanzhao).
It lies 4 or 5 km south of the later Dali Old Town, on the lower slope of the Cangshan above the Lower Pass. By 1200 the court has been at Yangjumie for more than four centuries and Taihe is a fortress site gone to fields and a village, not a town. The Nanzhao stele of 766, which records the alliance with the Tang and the victories over them, is said to stand at Taihe village today; we read no report of its being moved, so it probably stood in the ruin in 1200 (an inference, not a source).
Who holds it
- Title
- Headman or governor of the place for its lord
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
No lord: a ruin and a village inside the royal domain
How things stand that morning
A ruin and a village; no event.
Militia
not known; no figure
Walls and castle
Ruined Nanzhao citadel and city wall; nothing of 1200 is described in any source we read.
Where the sources disagree
- Board 'taihe-cheng' says the stele of 766 is 'still standing in its ruin'. It stands at Taihe today; whether it stood and could be read in 1200 is likely, not shown.
Evidence: The dates 739 and 779 are in English Wikipedia's infobox; the state of the site in 1200 is inferred.
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)
- Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom (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.