Zhending

Who holds it

Title

Prefect or governor

Confidence

low

No holder is dated for 1 January 1200.

Lord in 1200

The commandery of Hebei West (not named)

Overlord

Emperor Zhangzong

What the town holds

• The circuit seat of Hebei West and the commandery
• The Jingxing pass road
• The Hutuo crossings

How it was acquired

Held by the Jin since the conquest of the 1120s.

How things stand that morning

A strong garrison city; no disturbance known.

Council

The prefect and the county magistrate, with the military commandery's officers; no town council known.

Communities

Han townspeople; Jurchen households; the Longxing monks.

Militia

The prefectural garrison; no numbers known.

Walls and castle

Walled prefectural city (details not known).

Trade and crafts

Grain, cloth, ironware, the Ding ware of the next prefecture, the produce of the hills. Not dated.

Places of note

• Longxing temple: The great Buddhist house of Zhending, with the bronze Guanyin (recalled).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Secondary sources and general knowledge; the Jinshi's Dili zhi could not be opened in this session.

On the map: Near land of ten kilometres.

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.