Zhigu is the settlement at the meeting of the canal system and the Hai river, the later Tianjin.
English Wikipedia's History of the Port of Tianjin says that after the Jin moved to Zhongdu in 1153 Zhigu became a critical grain hub and that a new main port grew up at Zhigu when the Hai's old port at Junliangcheng silted. The Tianjin literature as we recall it dates the Jin stockade (Zhigu zhai) to a good deal later (the likely course gives the year, unchecked); if that is right there is no stockade on 1 January 1200, only a landing and a hamlet of boatmen, salt-makers and fishers at the confluence, under Wuqing county. We could not open a source to check the date.
The Hai mouth beyond is a salt and fisher shore.
Who holds it
- Title
- Prefect or governor
- Confidence
- low
No holder is dated for 1 January 1200.
Lord in 1200
The magistrate of Wuqing county, not named
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong
What the town holds
Held by the Jin since the conquest of the 1120s.
How things stand that morning
A landing and river hamlet on the grain route of the capital; the stockade is probably still to come (see the likely course).
Council
Under the officers of the county.
Communities
Boatmen, salt-makers and fishers.
Militia
Not known; no stockade on 1 January 1200 (see the likely course).
Walls and castle
A landing and hamlet; no wall.
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.
- 1214 (Zhenyou 2), date recalled and not checkedThe Jin founds the Zhigu stockade at the confluence to guard the grain route to Zhongdu.Depends on: The Mongol war that begins in 1211 and the court's need for the river road. Stopped by: Peace on the northern border, which would leave the landing as it is.
Places of note
- Hai river mouth: The sea mouth and salt shore.
Where the sources disagree
- English Wikipedia's Tianjin port page says the Yellow River flowed through the Hai river 'until 1194'; its Changes-in-the-course page has the main stream south since 1128 and the northern flow sealed in 1093; the 1194 page says the flood shifted the river away from the Hai route. The Hai's water on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
Evidence: Secondary sources and general knowledge; the Jinshi's Dili zhi could not be opened in this session.
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
- 1194 Yellow River flood (English Wikipedia)
- Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
- Changes in the course of the Yellow River (English Wikipedia)
- Jinshi (History of the Jin), Benji of Zhangzong, Dili zhi, Hequ zhi, Shihuo zhi and Bing zhi (recalled from memory and the secondary literature; the text itself could not be opened in this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.