A contemporary handbook of the Southern Song state, written in Sichuan by the historian Li Xinchuan and finished in its first part in 1202, two years after the start of 1200. It gives, by topic, the court, the ministries, the examinations, the revenues of the regions, the paper money and salt and tea monopolies, the size and pay of the armies on the Sichuan, Jing-Hu and Huai frontiers, the Jin and Xia embassies and the border markets, with figures as they stood in the 1190s and 1200. It is the best quantitative witness to the Song in 1200 and is contemporary; its second part (1216) adds the Kaixi war of 1206 to 1208.
About this source
- Title
- Jianyan yilai chaoye zaji (建炎以來朝野雜記)
- Author
- Li Xinchuan (李心傳)
- Author's dates
- 1167 to 1244
- Written
- first series 1202, second series 1216
- Language
- Chinese
- Covers
- the Southern Song from 1127 to about 1216, by topic
- Kind
- Administrative records
No translation. Li Xinchuan's chronicle Jianyan yilai xinian yaolu stops in 1162 and is not useful for 1200 except as background.
Where to read it
Editions
- Xu Gui (ed.), Zhonghua Shuju punctuated edition, 2 vols (2000) (not freely online)