Yongfeng Polder Granted to the Dutongsi, 1165 CE

Date and content

In the eighth month of 1165 CE, the first year of the Qiandao era, the Yongfeng Polder was granted to the Dutongsi, the commandant's office. The gazetteer records:

孝宗乾道元年乙酉，八月以永丰圩田赐都统司。

Translated: In the first year of the Qiandao era, in the eighth month, the Yongfeng Polder was granted to the commandant's office. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The gazetteer names only the office. It gives no commander and no station.

The compilations for the same year

The Wenxian Tongkao, juan 6, and the Song Huiyao Jigao, "Food and Money 8", record for the first year of Qiandao the disposal of the polder's rents and its holding, and do not contain the words "granted to the commandant's office":

乾道元年，诏令淮西总领所拨付建康中收到子粒令项桩管，非诏旨毋得擅用。

Translated: In the first year of Qiandao, an edict ordered the Huai-west general accounting office to take over and hold separately the grain received from the Jiankang side, not to be used at will without an edict. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

臣僚言：秦桧既得永丰圩，竭江东漕计修筑堤岸，自此水患及于宣、池、太平、建康。昨据总领所申：通管田七百三十顷，共理租二十一万一千余秤……

Translated: Officials said: once Qin Hui had the Yongfeng Polder, he exhausted the resources of the Jiangdong grain-transport office in building its embankments, and from then on the damage from floods reached Xuan, Chi, Taiping and Jiankang. Lately, according to a report of the general accounting office, the polder had 730 qing of land under management, with a rent of more than 211,000 cheng. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

It follows from the compilations that the court did take measures on the Yongfeng Polder in the first year of Qiandao — its rents were taken over by the Huai-west general accounting office — and that the polder still belonged to the general accounting office (Han Yuanji says it was assigned first to the imperial household and "now belongs to the general accounting office"). This is not the same text as the gazetteer's "granted to the commandant's office". A search of the Wenxian Tongkao, the Song Huiyao Jigao and the food-and-money treatises of the History of Song found no text of a grant of the Yongfeng Polder to the commandant's office, and this entry leaves the point open rather than supplying it.

Its relation to the entry for 1153

In its note under 1153 the gazetteer says that "the later grant to the commandant's office under Emperor Xiaozong is treated in the same way". The ground for including this entry is therefore the same as for the grant to Qin Hui: the commandery and prefectural gazetteers record the affair without speaking of Lishui in particular, and the entry is taken in because Lishui has a polder of that name, for detailed examination.

Consequences

According to the gazetteer, the Yongfeng Polder passed from Qin Hui to the commandant's office; according to the compilations, its rents were taken over by the Huai-west general accounting office in the first year of Qiandao. The gazetteer records no acreage, no term, and nothing of how the office used the land.

Uncertainties

First, the words "granted to the commandant's office" appear only in the gazetteer; a search of the Wenxian Tongkao, the Song Huiyao Jigao and the History of Song found no corresponding text, and the compilations for the same year record no more than the taking over of the Jiankang grain by the Huai-west general accounting office. The two are set out side by side and this entry does not identify them.

Second, as with the entry for 1153, the affair is not tied to Lishui in the commandery and prefectural gazetteers. This entry follows the gazetteer's own practice of including it for further examination, on the single ground that a polder of the name lay in Lishui, and the confidence level is set to medium.

Third, the station and commander of the commandant's office (the Jiankang garrison command of the imperial armies) are recorded elsewhere, but no source in this library connects them directly with this grant, and this entry does not supply them.