Western Xia: A Visual History

The Western Xia (Xi Xia), or Tangut Empire, was founded in 1038 when Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor of a state centred on Xingqing (Yinchuan) that controlled the Hexi corridor and Ordos. Its Tangut people, of Qiangic origin, created their own complex script, adopted Buddhism and defeated Song armies repeatedly, extracting annual payments. It survived between the Liao, Song and Jin for nearly 200 years, but its refusal to help Genghis Khan against Khwarazm brought the Mongols down on it: the last emperor surrendered in 1227 as Genghis lay dying, and the population and cities were annihilated.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Western Xia. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Western Xia territory

Timeline of the Western Xia

1. 1036
   Tangut script created
2. 1038
   Li Yuanhao proclaims the Xia
3. 1044
   Peace with the Song
4. 1081
   Song five-pronged invasion repelled
5. 1124
   Xia submits to the Jin
6. 1209
   Genghis Khan besieges the capital
7. 1219
   Xia refuses troops for Khwarazm
8. 1227
   Xia destroyedGenghis dies during the siege.

Founding

The Tangut Li clan had governed the Ordos for the Tang and Song. Li Yuanhao ordered his people to shave their heads, created a Tangut script of 6,000 characters in 1036, and in 1038 declared himself emperor of Great Xia. Song attempts to crush him failed at Sanchuankou (1040) and Haoshuichuan (1041); the peace of 1044 made him nominally a Song vassal in return for large annual gifts of silk, silver and tea.

A Buddhist frontier state

Xia sat on the Silk Road and lived from horses, salt and trade. Its rulers were fervent Buddhists who translated the entire canon into Tangut and printed it; Xia texts recovered from Khara-Khoto in 1908 fill libraries in St Petersburg. It fought and negotiated with Song, Liao and Jin in turn, and repeatedly stopped Song offensives in the 1080s and 1090s.

Annihilation

Genghis Khan invaded in 1205, 1207 and 1209, forcing Xia to submit and supply troops. When Xia refused to send men against Khwarazm in 1219, Genghis vowed revenge. In 1226-1227 the Mongols destroyed the Xia cities one by one; Genghis died in August 1227 during the final siege, reportedly ordering that the Tangut be exterminated. The last emperor was executed after surrendering, the capital razed, and the Tangut people scattered; their language died out.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Northern Song dynasty (960 to 1127)
• Liao dynasty (916 to 1125)
• Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (1115 to 1234)
• Southern Song dynasty (1127 to 1279)
• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Tibetan Empire (618 to 842)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)
• Fang La rebellion (1120 to 1121)
• Song-Dai Viet War (1075 to 1077)

8 surprising things about the Western Xia

1. The Tangut script is one of the most complex ever devised, with about 6,000 characters more intricate than Chinese; it was deciphered only in the twentieth century.
2. Genghis Khan died in 1227 while besieging the Xia; some accounts blame a fall from his horse, others a Tangut princess.
3. The Xia royal tombs near Yinchuan, nine great earthen mounds, are called the 'pyramids of the East'.
4. The Xia produced the earliest known example of wooden movable-type printing, from the twelfth century.
5. The Song called the state Xi Xia (Western Xia); its own name was Great Xia or the 'Great State of White and High'.
6. The Xia army's 'iron sparrowhawks' were heavy cavalry with riders chained to their horses.
7. The lost city of Khara-Khoto in the Gobi yielded 8,000 Tangut books to the Russian explorer Kozlov in 1908.
8. The Xia was the only one of the four states of twelfth-century China that the Mongols deliberately tried to erase.

Sources

• Xi Xia Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Western Xia Wikipedia
• Western Xia World History Encyclopedia
• Ruth Dunnell, The Great State of White and High (1996) University of Hawaii Press

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