City · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Yangzhou

Yangzhou lies where the Grand Canal meets the Yangtze at the lower reach of Huainan; it is the seat of the Huaidong pacification commissioner (see Huaidong command) and of the Huainan salt administration (see Huainan salt and tea).

The Jin sacked it in 1129 and again in 1161-62; the Jin emperor Wanyan Liang was killed by his own officers across the river in December 1161. It was rebuilt as a smaller walled town with the old great city partly empty, a poet's ruin and a fort. Its wealth is salt vouchers, the canal tolls and the rice of the Huai; the poet Jiang Kui's song 'Yangzhou man' (1176) is the word for its ruin and its glamour.

Who holds it

Name
Not known for 1 January 1200 (the 1198 list of the proscribed names Zhao Gong as prefect of Yangzhou; probably replaced)
Title
Prefect of Yangzhou and Huaidong pacification commissioner
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin.

Lord in 1200

The emperor through the Huaidong commissioner, whose name is not known.

Overlord

The emperor and the Privy Council.

What the town holds

  • The Huaidong command office
  • The Huainan salt office
  • The canal and the Yangtze ferry at Guazhou

How it was acquired

Ancient commandery; the Huai command seat since the 1130s.

Allies and rivals

Reserve at Zhenjiang across the river; the Jin command at Sizhou and Haizhou beyond the Huai.

How things stand that morning

Frontier command city in peace; walls kept up.

Wealth

Salt vouchers, canal tolls, rice; no figures.

Military

Garrison troops and the pacification command.

Threats

  • The Jin if the peace breaks: the city is the first prize (it will be threatened in December 1206)

Charter

None known. A Song city has no charter of liberties: it is governed by the prefect (zhizhou or zhifu) and the circuit offices, with its guilds (hang) and the neighbourhood wards under official supervision.

Council

The prefect-commissioner; the salt-and-tea officials; the garrison commander.

Communities

Salt merchants, soldiers, officials, the Daming temple monks.

Fairs and markets

Daily markets and temple fairs; no dated fair known.

Militia

Garrison troops under the prefect or the army command; no figures.

Walls and castle

A rebuilt, reduced walled city (the Song 'Baocheng'); the older great city is partly open ground.

Trade and crafts

Salt vouchers, rice, silk, the canal trade, boat-building.

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. December 1206 to January 1207Guo Ni's army is routed at the Xupu bridge near Yangzhou and the Jin raiders reach the Yangzhou country (Song shi quan wen; the extent is not re-checked).Depends on: The northern war. Stopped by: Peace holds.

Places of note

  • Daming si (Dongming): Monastery on Shugang, linked to the monk Jianzhen
  • Guazhou ferry: Yangtze crossing from Zhenjiang

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board's Yangzhou 'twice burned by the Jin' is right in outline (1129-30 and 1161-62); we did not re-read the sources.

Evidence: Firm institutional picture; no holders.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: City and near land.

Primary sources for Southern Song

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.

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

12 more in the sources library for South China.

Sources and studies

  1. General knowledge of Song administrative and economic history (Hartwell, Von Glahn, Smith and Twitchett eds., Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2), not re-checked line by line in this pass
  2. OMNIA board, area sce notes (a lead, not a source)
  3. zh.wikipedia, Qingyuan dangjin (the list of the proscribed)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.