The seat of the Hedong North circuit and the Jin's strongest garrison city in the north-west, on the Fen river between the Taihang and the Luliang hills.
The old Tang and Northern Han city of Jinyang was destroyed by the Song in 979 and the prefecture was rebuilt at Yangqu a few years later; the walled city that stands is that Song one. It is the muster town for the road north to the Yanmen pass and Datong, for the road south to Pingyang, and for the Taihang road east to Zhending. The state shrine of Jinci lies at its south-west edge.
Who holds it
- Title
- The fu yin of Taiyuan, who is also commander (zongguan) of the Hedong North circuit; name not known.
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No source consulted dates the office-holder for the winter of 1199-1200.
Lord in 1200
The fu yin of Taiyuan, who is also commander (zongguan) of the Hedong North circuit; name not known.
Overlord
The Jin emperor Zhangzong, through the circuit command
What the town holds
- Taiyuan fu (Yangqu): the circuit seat and arsenal city of the Fen valley
How things stand that morning
At peace. The northern campaigns of 1195-1198 are over and Taiyuan is a base, not a front. The commander's name is not known. Jurchen meng'an and mouke households are settled on the land round it.
Charter
none known: a Chinese prefectural city or county town with no municipal charter
Council
No town council. The prefect (zhizhou) or county magistrate governs with the staff of the prefecture; Jurchen military commanders hold the garrison. Names are not known.
Communities
Chinese townspeople, Jurchen soldier households, Buddhist monasteries and Daoist temples, and the state cult of Prince Tang at Jinci. No dated Muslim, Nestorian or other foreign community is known for Taiyuan.
Fairs and markets
Markets and temple fairs on the usual Chinese pattern; none dated for this town.
Militia
No citizen militia; the garrison is the Jin's own (Jurchen meng'an and mouke households and Chinese soldiers), not numbered in any source we could read.
Walls and castle
The walled Song city at Yangqu, with the circuit headquarters (yamen) and arsenals inside. We know no Jin repair dates for the walls.
Trade and crafts
Arms and armour from the northern arsenals, coal and iron of the western and eastern hills, grain of the Fen basin, cloth, and the tolls of the north-south road and the Taihang road. Jin paper money (jiaochao) circulates here as in the other Jin cities.
Places of note
- Jinci: Shrine of Prince Tang Shuyu; Holy Mother Hall of the Song (1023-1032) and, from memory, the Offering Hall of 1168
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board (taiyuan-fu) says the town is "the armoury of the north": plausible, but no source we read dates the Jin armouries.
Evidence: Seat and general character follow the standard Jin geography and the usual accounts; we could not open the Jinshi text in this session, and no dated detail of the town in 1199-1200 was found. The description is indicative.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A seeds recipe of about 12 km round the city; the prefecture itself is in the province record.
Primary sources for Jin empire
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.
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
- Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
- Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
- Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
- Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
- The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online
14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.
Sources and studies
- Jinshi (History of the Jin), juan 24 to 26, Dili zhi (geography); cited from the standard reference, the text itself could not be opened in this session
- Jing-shen Tao, The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China (University of Washington Press, 1976); not consulted in this session
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.