Western Xia History Painting

Author: Zhang Ling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: About 1,000 years ago, a new country emerged in western China called the Great Xia Empire. It was located in the northwest of the Song Dynasty and was therefore known as Western Xia. Western Xia was a feudal state established by the Dangxiang ethnic group. Its capital was Yinchuan, the capital of modern Ningxia, and its territory included all of modern Ningxia, most of Gansu, northern Shaanxi, eastern Qinghai, and parts of Inner Mongolia, covering an area of about 830,000 square kilometers. Western Xia had a strong military and vast territory, and it once stood in opposition to the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties in Chinese history. Western Xia ruled for 10 emperors, from the enthronement of its first emperor, Yuan Hao, in 1038, to the execution of its last emperor (Wéi Míng Xiàn), spanning 190 years. In 1227, Genghis Khan led the Mongol cavalry to attack Western Xia, and this western power was destroyed. The Dangxiang people mysteriously disappeared, leaving only nine imperial mausoleums and over 200 accompanying tombs on the eastern foothills of the Helan Mountains, standing silently in the wind and rain.