Chiang Rung, the Tai Lue muang of Sipsong Panna

Who rules

Title

Lord of Chiang Rung (Dai title zhao pianling, "lord of the land")

Since

The line is dated from Dai year 542 (1180) in the Le Shi

Born

not known

Family

Founder: Phaya Chen (Chinese Pa Zhen, Phaya Coeng in the brief). The Le Shi lists as second lord Sang Kai Leng, a fourth son of Phaya Chen, and as third Dao Ai Gong, eldest son of Sang Kai Leng; the Chinese Wikipedia gives the years of the first only (founding 1180; life 1125 to 1192). Who sat on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Confidence

low

Chinese Wikipedia (Zhao Pianling, Pa Zhen, Le Shi), which cite the Le Shi in the 1989 translation of Dao Shuren and others.

Overlord

Dali, by the campaign board and by Dai tradition (nominal); not shown by any Dali-period document we could reach

What the realm holds

• Chiang Rung (Jinghong) on the Lancang, with the chronicle's golden-hall palace
• Muang Hai (Menghai) and its western basins and tea hills
• Muang La (Mengla) and the eastern basins on the road to the Nam Ou and the Lao muang
• The rice basins (bazi) that each carry a muang, and the river tolls and caravan roads of the Lancang
• Customary dues from the hill peoples around the basins (Blang, Hani, Wa, Jinuo, Yi and others), not recorded for 1200

How it was acquired

By the Le Shi, founded in Dai year 542 (1180) by Phaya Chen, who gathered the muang of the basins. The Chinese Wikipedia (Jinghong) says he left Dali and set up the Jinglong kingdom; the campaign board says the muang sends tribute to Dali. Not reconciled.

Allies and rivals

Dali: overlord by Dai and board tradition, "left Dali" in the Chinese Wikipedia; no document. Dali's Yinsheng country (the Nanzhao-Dali prefecture whose hills the Man Shu of 862 already names for tea) lies to the north. Ngoenyang: a marriage tie (Mangrai's mother) is told by the Chiang Mai Chronicle but belongs to the 1230s. Kengtung, the Lawa and the Shan valleys lie across the Mekong to the west; the Lao muang of the Nam Ou to the south-east (Khmer and Lao).

The Mongols do not come to Chiang Rung until 1296.

The realm that morning

A Tai Lue state about twenty years old by its own chronicle, ruled from Chiang Rung by the founder's line. The founder is said to have died in 1192 (Chinese Wikipedia, no source named), so the lord on 1 January 1200 is a son or grandson; his name is not pinned. Muang Hai and Muang La are the two other principal muang in the tradition. Nothing dated in the winter of 1199-1200 touches the muang; the only dated event nearby is the death or abdication of Duan Zhixing of Dali during 1200.

Wealth

Rice of the basins and the river; tea (the Man Shu of 862 names tea in the Yinsheng hills; we cite it from memory); cowries and silver on the caravan roads, salt, iron and cloth brought in; tolls on the Lancang; forest goods from the hills.

Military

No numbers; the Le Shi tradition has the founder's sons posted to the muang. Defence is the stockaded town and the hill refuges.

Threats

• Dali's weight, if its king chooses to press tribute (and a change of Dali king in 1200)
• Raids from the Wa and Lawa hills and from Kengtung
• The Mongols: they do not reach Dali until 1253 and Chiang Rung until 1296, and that belongs to the future

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.

In 1200

1. 1200 (month not known)Duan Zhixing of Dali dies or abdicates; Duan Zhilian follows (1200 to 1204 on the usual list).Depends on: The Yuan and Ming lists being right; many Dali kings ended as monks. Stopped by: A different succession at Dali.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1253 to 1254The Mongols take Dali; the tributary chain of Yunnan is broken.Depends on: Mongol arms reaching Yunnan. Stopped by: A Song or Dali victory in the field.
2. 1296 (Yuan Yuanzhen 2; Dai year 658)The Yuan set up the Cheli military-and-civil superintendency at Chiang Rung and its lord submits.Depends on: The Yuan reaching the Lancang. Stopped by: Revolt of the Dai chiefs or a Pagan or Lan Na counterweight.
3. 1382 and 1384The ninth lord, Zhao Kanmeng, submits to the Ming (1382); he is made xuanweishi (1384).Depends on: Ming arms in Yunnan. Stopped by: Ming withdrawal.

Places of note

• Chiang Rung (Jinghong): seat of the lord, on the Lancang
• Muang Hai (Menghai): western basins and tea hills
• Muang La (Mengla): eastern basins and the road south-east

Where the sources disagree

• Board (chiang-rung): "founded by Phaya Coeng about 1180 ... sends tribute up to the Duan kings at Dali and to nobody else". The Le Shi date 1180 is a chronicle date; the tribute is not in any source we could reach, and the Chinese Wikipedia (Jinghong) says the founder left Dali. The Chinese Wikipedia (Pa Zhen) also gives his life as 1125 to 1192 with no source.
• "Phaya Coeng" of the brief and the Dai "Phaya Chen" are, in the northern chronicles, the epic hero Phaya Chueang (Choeng, Chuang). His dates vary by tradition: about 1128 to 1169 in the Muang Sua article, death at 79 in 1192 in the Chronicle of Chiang Saen, 1125 to 1192 in the Chinese Wikipedia. A hero of an epic cycle, not a datable man.
• The Chinese Wikipedia (Pa Zhen) has the founder dying in 1192 in a fight with the army of Khun Lo of Muang Sua; Khun Lo is legend. Not used as an event.
• The Dai era (Dai year 542 for 1180) is the same as the Burmese Era (CE minus 638). The Dai list is of 41, 42 or 44 lords in different readings (Chinese Wikipedia).

Evidence: The Le Shi (Ming-period compilation in Dai script, three chapters, printed in the 1989 translation of Dao Shuren and others) is later than 1200 by two centuries or more; the Chinese Wikipedia pages repeat it with no sources of their own. Dated Chinese notice starts with the Yuan (1296). Dali-period evidence for the muang is not known to me. Mangrai's mother as a Lue princess is from the Chiang Mai Chronicle and is later.

On the map: Drawn on today's Xishuangbanna as the best proxy; the chronicle gives no boundary, and the hills between the basins belonged to the hill peoples.

Primary sources for this realm

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.

• The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.