Xuzhou (Pengcheng)

Who holds it

Title

Military governor (jiedushi) of the Wuning army at Xuzhou

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Not known. The Jinshi names prefects only inside individual biographies, which we could not reach; the office, not the man, is what the map can show.

Lord in 1200

The Jin emperor Zhangzong, through the prefect (name not known).

Overlord

the Jin emperor Zhangzong (Wanyan Jing), Cheng'an 4, through the Department of State Affairs at Zhongdu

What the town holds

• Xuzhou (Pengcheng) with Xiao and Feng counties
• The Liguo ironworks and the Lüliang rapids
• The crossing of the Si

How it was acquired

Taken by the Jin in 1129 and held since (recalled); the 1141 line left it on the Jin side.

Allies and rivals

Answers to the Southern Capital's governor and the circuit commissions; no feud is recorded in anything we could reach.

How things stand that morning

The strongest Jin garrison between the new river bed and the Huai, at peace; the river and the Si trade are its business.

Wealth

Iron, coal, canal and river tolls, grain.

Military

The Wuning army's garrison; no numbers.

Charter

None. A Jin prefectural seat has no charter of liberties; the prefect, the county magistrates and the commissions of the circuit govern it.

Council

The prefect (name not known) and the magistrates of the seat counties govern; ward and tithing heads and the heads of the merchants' and craftsmen's guilds (hang) speak for the townsmen. No faction or quarrel is recorded in anything we could reach.

Communities

A Chinese majority; ironworkers and boatmen; Jurchen officers and garrison.

Fairs and markets

Not known for 1200.

Militia

The prefectural garrison under the prefect or military governor, with Jurchen meng'an and mouke households in the district. No numbers are given in the sources we could reach.

Walls and castle

A walled city on the Si. Su Shi led its defence against the Yellow River flood of 1077 and built the Yellow Tower there in 1078 (recalled).

Trade and crafts

Iron and coal of Liguo, boatmen and carriers on the Si, grain and salt.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1215 (Zhenyou 3, ninth month)Xuzhou passes from Shandong West to the Henan circuit (Dili zhi, read).Depends on: The Jin's reorganisation under Mongol pressure. Stopped by: No Mongol war.

Places of note

• Liguo: The ironworks town (Dili zhi, read); location approximate.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The prefecture's rank, counties and towns are from the Jinshi Dili zhi (read through a summariser). The city's earlier history is recalled from standard works and not re-read. No source we could reach describes the city in the winter of 1199 to 1200.

On the map: The near land is drawn as a ring of 8 to 12 km round the modern city, shared out by the nearest-seed rule; the Jin city can lie some kilometres from the modern one and the prefecture's land 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.