Shengzhou Renamed Jiangning Prefecture, 1018 CE

Date and content

In 1018 CE, the second year of the Tianxi era, Shengzhou was renamed Jiangning Prefecture and Lishui passed under it. The gazetteer's entry for the year is a single sentence:

改昇州为江宁府，溧水隶之。

Translated: Shengzhou was renamed Jiangning Prefecture, and Lishui was placed under it. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The Southern Song Jingding Jiankang Zhi, in its juan 15, "Treatise on Territories, Part One", gives the change twice in tracing the administrative history of Jiankang Prefecture: once as "in the Kaibao era's eighth year [the prefecture] reverted to Shengzhou, and in the second year of Tianxi was raised to Jiangning Prefecture and the Jiankang command", and again as "Shengzhou … was re-established in the eighth year of Kaibao, and in the second year of Tianxi was changed to Jiangning Prefecture". The Southern Song prefectural gazetteer, then, agrees with the county gazetteer that the change was a renaming to Jiangning Prefecture.

A variant in the dynastic history

The History of Song, juan 88, "Treatise on Geography IV", under Jiangning Prefecture, reads:

江宁府，上，开宝八年，平江南，复为升州节度。天禧二年，升为建康军节度。……县五：上元〔次赤〕、江宁〔次赤〕、句容〔次畿。天禧四年，改名常宁〕、溧水〔次畿〕、溧阳〔次畿〕。

Translated: Jiangning Prefecture, upper. In the eighth year of Kaibao, after Jiangnan was pacified, it reverted to Shengzhou and the command; in the second year of Tianxi it was raised to the Jiankang command. … Five counties: Shangyuan, Jiangning, Jurong (secondary metropolitan; renamed Changning in the fourth year of Tianxi), Lishui (secondary metropolitan) and Liyang (secondary metropolitan). This is a translation, not the words of the original.

Two points follow. First, the dynastic history records the change of 1018 as an elevation to the Jiankang command, stressing the military governorship, whereas the two gazetteers record it as a renaming of the prefecture to Jiangning. The two readings are set out side by side and neither is preferred. Second, the dynastic history lists Lishui among the counties of Jiangning Prefecture with the rank of ciji, a secondary metropolitan county: this is the dynastic record that Lishui belonged to Jiangning Prefecture with that rank. The same passage adds that Jurong was renamed Changning in the fourth year of Tianxi, a contemporary indication that the counties of Jiangning Prefecture were being adjusted in that period.

The sequence of affiliations

Between the Five Dynasties and the early Song, Lishui was at different times under Jiangning Prefecture and under Shengzhou. In 937, the third year of the Tianzuo era, Xu Zhigao founded the state of Qi at Jinling and established Jiangning Prefecture there, with Lishui under it. In 975, when Li Yu of Jiangnan surrendered, Jiangning reverted to the name Shengzhou and Lishui passed under Shengzhou. In 1018 Shengzhou became Jiangning Prefecture once more.

Consequences

Lishui belonged to Jiangning Prefecture with the rank of a secondary metropolitan county until 1129, the third year of the Jianyan era, when the emperor's stay there caused the prefecture to be renamed Jiankang Prefecture; Lishui then passed under Jiankang. Its affiliation did not change again in the Song period until the county surrendered to the Yuan at the end of the dynasty.

Uncertainties

First, the reason for the renaming is given neither by the gazetteer nor by the History of Song, and this entry does not supply one.

Second, the wording of the change differs: the county gazetteer and the Jingding Jiankang Zhi write of a renaming to Jiangning Prefecture, while the History of Song's Treatise on Geography writes of an elevation to the Jiankang command. The two are set out side by side.

Third, the seat of Jiangning Prefecture is not recorded in the gazetteer entry. Contemporary sources place it at the two counties of Shangyuan and Jiangning (present-day central Nanjing); this entry does not use them to supply a distance between Lishui and the prefectural seat.