Lost Western Xia Kingdom

Author: Zhang Ling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Approximately 1,000 years ago, a powerful feudal kingdom emerged in the northwest of China—Daxia. Because it was located in the western part of the motherland, people called it "Western Xia." The Western Xia Kingdom was established by the Qiang ethnic group living in the western part of China. From the enthronement of its founding emperor, Yuanhao, in Xingqingfu (now Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia) in 1038, to the surrender of the last emperor, Li Xian, to Genghis Khan in Liupanshan, the Western Xia existed for 190 years, with 10 generations of emperors ruling. If counted from its Xiazhou regime, which was "not yet a kingdom but ruled the land," the Western Xia lasted for 347 years (881–1227), longer than the Liao, Song, and Jin dynasties combined. In Chinese history, the Western Xia is also the only dynasty to establish its capital in Yinchuan. Western Xia was militarily strong and had a vast territory, covering approximately all of modern-day Ningxia, most of Gansu, northern Shaanxi, eastern Qinghai, and parts of Inner Mongolia, with an area of about 830,000 square kilometers. It once formed a triangular balance with the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties, standing firmly on the land of China.