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

Yuezhou

The prefecture at the outlet of Dongting Lake into the Yangtze, where the Yueyang Tower stands on the city gate.

Fan Zhongyan's essay on the tower (1046) gave the officials their creed, first in worry and last in joy. The lake mouth is the fleet's and the fishermen's water, and Hunan rice crosses here for the Jingxiang armies. The great memory of the country is the Dongting rebellion of 1130 to 1135 (Zhong Xiang and then Yang Yao, whose water stockades Yue Fei broke in 1135), which taught the Song how much the lake can hide.

Who holds it

Title
Prefect (zhizhou) of Yuezhou
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Name not known for 1 January 1200. Song prefects and magistrates rotated every two or three years, so a name from another year cannot be assumed.

Lord in 1200

The prefect of Yuezhou; no name is dated for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

The court at Lin'an, through the circuit commissioners.

How things stand that morning

At peace; the lake is quiet.

Wealth

Lake tolls and fishing; no figures.

Military

The prefectural garrison, county archers (gongshou) and local militia; no numbers.

Threats

  • Flood of the lake
  • Pirates on the water (none dated)

Charter

None known. A Song prefectural city had no chartered liberties: the prefect and the county magistrates governed it, and its trades were organised in guilds (hang) licensed by the state.

Council

No council of its own. The prefect (zhizhou) rules with the county magistrate, the market and tax officers and the heads of the trade guilds; the leading literati families speak for the town to the officials. No names are known for 1 January 1200.

Communities

Buddhist and Daoist temples, the examination-class families and the trade guilds; no foreign or ethnic quarter is attested in our sources.

Fairs and markets

Regular market days in the city and the county seats and temple fairs on the great festivals; no named fair is known to me.

Militia

The prefectural garrison, county archers (gongshou) and local militia; no numbers.

Walls and castle

Walled prefectural city with a prefect's yamen and granaries; the circuit of the 1200 walls is not pinned.

Trade and crafts

Lake fishing, rice shipment, reed and timber rafts, the lake-mouth tolls.

Places of note

  • Yueyang Tower: Tower on the city gate over Dongting.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Background knowledge of Southern Song administration and of the travel diaries of Lu You (1170) and Fan Chengda (1177), recalled and not re-read in this pass because web access closed; the rank and circuit follow the Songshi geography (juan 85 and 88, read in this pass). No prefect or magistrate for 1 January 1200 is dated in what we could reach.

On the map: Point only.

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. Background knowledge of Southern Song administration and the middle Yangtze (Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2; Hymes; Clark; Von Glahn; Bol; the travel diaries of Lu You, 1170, and Fan Chengda, 1177), recalled and not re-read in this pass
  2. Songshi, juan 88 (Dili zhi 4): circuits and prefectures of Liangzhe, Huainan, Jiangnan and Jinghu with the Southern Song rank changes (zh.wikisource)

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