The kingdom of Dali

Who rules

Name

Duan Zhixing (also written Duan Yichang Xingzhi), styled the Lizhen Emperor

Title

Emperor (huangdi) of Dali by his own style; the Song have called the Duan 'king of Dali' since 1117

Since

1172 by the Yuan and Ming lists (1171 in one table of the English Wikipedia)

Born

not known

Family

the Duan house of the Bai; the line was restored in 1096; his heir by the lists is Duan Zhilian (r. 1200-1204), and Duan Zhixiang (r. 1204 or 1205 to 1238) is Zhilian's younger brother

Confidence

medium

Reign and names from the Chinese Wikipedia lists (Yuan, Ming and Qing compilations); no dated inscription of his accession is known to me.

Overlord

none; the Duan send gifts to the Song court and are called kings of Dali by it (the Song have received Dali tribute only a few times, three by one count)

What the realm holds

• The royal domain of the Erhai plain: Yangjumie, the old Nanzhao capital of Taihe, the Longshou (Dragon Head) pass at the north end and the Longwei (Dragon Tail) pass at the south end
• The eastern capital Shanchan on the Dian lake, held for the Duan by a branch of the Gao
• Eight fu: Shanchan, Weichu, Tongshi (Yaozhou), Moutong (Heqing), Yongchang (Baoshan), Tengchong (Tengyue) on this ground, and Huichuan (Huili) and Jianchang (Xichang) across the Jinsha on the South China map's ground
• Four jun: Dongchuan (Huize), Shicheng (Qujing), Heyang (Chengjiang) and Xiushan (Tonghai)
• Four zhen: Chengji (Yongsheng), Menghe (Weishan), Zhenxi (Yingjiang) and Zuining (Kaiyuan)
• Thirty-seven bu, the tribes of the east and south, each under its own chief (the lists name them; see the province records)
• The salt wells of Heijing, Baiyanjing and the Yunlong (Wuliangjing) group, with the tea hills of Yinsheng
• The passes, the Lancang crossing on the Bonan road and the horse roads east to Ziqi and north to the Dadu

How it was acquired

Duan Siping overthrew the Dayining dynasty (Yang Ganzhen's line) in 937 with the Bai great families and the Yi tribes behind him (Wikipedia, Nanzhao and Dali Kingdom). The Gao interlude is 1094 to 1096; the Duan were restored in 1096 (Chinese Wikipedia, 大理国).

Allies and rivals

Allied by marriage, trade and monastic ties with the Gao house, which is also the throne's master and rival. Tributary and trading partner of the Song (tribute 982, the title 'king of Dali' in 1117; horses sold at Hengshan). Rival of Ziqi and Luodian for the horse road, and beaten by Ziqi in battles that the Lingwai daida (1178) reports without dates. Chiang Rung's tribute to Dali is Tai chronicle tradition (the Tai north map's record).

Pagan has no recorded dealings with Dali in any source we could read.

The realm that morning

At first light on 1 January 1200 Duan Zhixing is on the throne, old and devoted to the Sangha; every list gives him the year 1200 as his last, and a modern Chinese compilation puts his death in July 1200 (unsourced). The Gao civil war of 1174 to the mid-1180s is over; no war, revolt or embassy is dated for the winter of 1199-1200 in any source we could read. Across the Dadu the Song keep the road shut to Dali envoys and open to trade; the Yi kingdoms of Ziqi and Luodian sit on the horse road to Hengshan; across the Gaoligong the Dehong plain is Tai country under its own lords; down the Red River beyond Hekou lies Dai Viet; north of Weixi the Jinsha villages are Tibetan.

Nothing in 1200 hints at the Mongols, who do not reach the Jinsha until 1253.

Wealth

Salt first: the Heijing well (the richest, in Weichu fu), Baiyanjing near Yaozhou and the Yunlong wells, worked since Nanzhao and the Han. Then tea from the hills round Yinsheng, horses (the Song value them above all), gold from the Jinsha and Lancang sands, irrigated rice on the Erhai and Dian plains, and the caravan tolls of the Bonan road to Burma and the road north to Tibet. Cowrie shells served as money, on the evidence of Yuan-era texts, so for 1200 that is an inference.

Military

No figure is given by a source we could read. The army is raised by the fu and by the bu (tribal levies under their chiefs), with the four zhen as garrison commands on the margins; Nanzhao had a standing guard of picked fighters (Luojuzi), but whether Dali kept it is not shown. The Gao chancellors command the field armies in the sources that name a campaign (the Gao Zhenshou pacification of the eastern tribes about 1150).

Threats

• The death or abdication of Duan Zhixing in 1200 and a contested succession between Duan sons and Gao regents
• A renewal of the Gao feud between the western (Yucheng) and eastern (Guanyin, Shanchan) branches, which ran from 1174 to the mid-1180s
• Revolt among the thirty-seven bu (they rose in the reign of Duan Zhengyan, 1117 to 1141, and again about 1150)
• Ziqi and Luodian, who control the horse road
• Overspending on monasteries (a claim of the Chinese Wikipedia, 60 monasteries, with no source; the English Wikipedia says 16 temples in 1190 after Daniels 2023)

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 pinned (July 1200 in one modern Chinese compilation)Duan Zhixing dies, or abdicates into a monastery as many Dali kings did; his son Duan Zhilian takes the throne (reign 1200 to 1204 on the lists; era names Fengli and Yuanshou).Depends on: The king's health and the Gao chancellors' consent. The sources do not say whether this was a death or an abdication. Stopped by: An earlier death, or a Gao choice of a different Duan prince.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1204 or 1205Duan Zhilian's reign ends and his younger brother Duan Zhixiang succeeds (the Chinese Wikipedia gives 1205 to 1238; the usual list 1204).Depends on: The lists being right; Zhilian's death or abdication. Stopped by: A different succession; the dates are reconstructions.
2. Summer 1252 to January 1254Mongke puts Kublai in charge of the invasion in the summer of 1252; Kublai sets up on the Jinsha in September 1253 and marches on Dali in three columns; the kingdom is conquered about January 1254 and Duan Xingzhi is later made Maharaja (Wikipedia, Timeline of Yunnan-Guizhou and Dali Kingdom).Depends on: A Mongol empire that does not yet exist: Temujin takes the title Chinggis Khan only in 1206, and the conquest of the Jin, the Xia and Sichuan has to come first. Stopped by: A Mongol failure to cross the Jinsha or to take Sichuan; a united Gao and Duan defence.

Places of note

• Yangjumie (Dali Old Town area): The royal city below the Cangshan; the Duan palace and the Gao chancellor's house stand here (the Dali Old Town of today is a Ming walled city of the 1380s, near but not on the old site).
• Taihe village (Taihe city): Taihe, the Nanzhao capital of 739 and the stone stele of 766 (the Dehua stele); a fortress site and ruin in 1200, not a town.
• Shanchan (Kunming): Shanchan, the eastern capital, seat of a branch of the Gao.
• Shangguan (Longshou pass): Longshou, the Dragon Head pass at the north end of the plain (board coordinates, about).
• Xiaguan (Longwei pass): Longwei, the Dragon Tail pass at the south end where the Xi'er river leaves the lake.

Where the sources disagree

• Board 'dali-yangjumie': 'governed since 1096 by the Gao chancellors'. That is the Yuan and Ming view; we could name no Gao chancellor for 1 January 1200 (the last dated name is Gao Zhenming, set up in 1174).
• Board 'chongsheng-three-pagodas': eight kings abdicated into the house. The sources we read disagree: English Wikipedia says ten of 22 kings became monks, Chinese Wikipedia (大理国) says seven of 22 gave up the throne for the Sangha, and the Chinese page on the Three Pagodas says nine of 22 became monks at Chongsheng. We give a range and not a count.
• Board: 'Duan Zhixing dies during 1200'. The lists say his reign ends in 1200; death or abdication, and the month, are not pinned.
• The English Wikipedia gives Zhixing 1171 to 1200 in its text and 1172 to 1200 in its infobox; the Chinese Wikipedia gives era names Shengde 1176-1180, Jiahui 1181-1184, Yuanheng 1185-1195 and none after, so the era of January 1200 is not known.

Evidence: The existence, the capitals, the Gao settlement and the king list rest on Yuan, Ming and Qing compilations (the Yunnan zhilue of 1331, the Yuan shi, Yang Shen's Dian zai ji and Nanzhao yeshi), which the Wikipedia pages summarise; dated contemporary evidence is thin: Song notices (Fan Chengda 1175, Zhou Qufei 1178), a few steles (Xingbao temple 1186, the Zixi mountain stele), the painted Long Roll of Buddhist Images and the Three Pagodas finds. The structure lists (eight fu, four jun, four zhen, thirty-seven bu) and the Gao chancellorship come from Yuan and Ming sources, and we say so wherever we use them.

On the map: The core is drawn from modern county units. Large parts of the hills are the chiefs' and peoples' ground (see the province records for the thirty-seven bu, the Hani, Wa, Pu and Jinchi) and are Dali's only by title. Huili and Xichang, Dali's fu across the Jinsha, are on the South China map's ground (records Huichuan fu and Jianchang fu).

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 Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. 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
• The Unofficial History of Nanzhao, Yang Shen; revised by Hu Wei (16th century, revised 1775, from Dali and Yunnan traditions and lost local histories). The kingdom of Dali has no surviving text of 1200: its own records were destroyed in the Mongol conquest and after, and the Song shi's Dali entry ends in 1175. 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
• Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
• Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online