Concise History of the Xixia Dynasty

Author: Li Wei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-10-01
Features: China is a unified multi-ethnic country, and the history of China is a common creation of the people of all ethnic groups in the Chinese nation. As Mao Zedong pointed out in his article "On the Ten Major Relationships": "Each ethnic minority has made contributions to the history of China." During the 10th to 13th centuries, the Western Xia Dynasty, which stood in alliance with the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties and ruled for nearly 200 years, once organized and led the people of various ethnic groups within its borders, primarily the Dangxiang ethnic group, to demonstrate patriotism. Under extremely harsh conditions, they engaged in productive and military struggles, carried out economic and cultural exchanges with neighboring countries, developed the social economy and culture, and made indelible contributions to the development of the vast northwest of the motherland. The history of its rise, development, and decline is an integral and organic part of Chinese history.
History is a mirror. Studying and researching the history of the Western Xia not only allows us to comprehensively understand and grasp the development patterns of ancient Chinese history but also provides valuable lessons for today's reform and opening-up and the construction of a socialist strong nation with four modernizations. The historical and practical significance of this is self-evident.
My study and research on the history of the Western Xia began in 1981. That August, I went to Yinchuan, the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, to attend the academic symposium on Western Xia studies. At the conference, I listened to insightful discussions by experts, visited the Western Xia Imperial Tombs, and viewed the Western Xia artifacts preserved in the Ningxia Museum, which sparked a strong interest in the history of the Western Xia. After that, while learning the Western Xia script, collecting relevant historical materials, and teaching Western Xia history and the historical source studies of the Liao, Song, Western Xia, Jin, and Yuan dynasties to undergraduate and graduate students, I also conducted research on some issues in Western Xia history. Through more than ten years of effort, I not only published over 20 articles but also compiled a textbook on Western Xia history. It can be said that teaching and research complement each other, achieving mutual benefits. This book is based on this foundation and incorporates the research achievements of relevant experts.
As is well known, because the Yuan Dynasty historians did not allocate significant space for the Western Xia in their chronicles of the Liao, Song, Western Xia, and Jin dynasties, the public and private historical materials of the Western Xia were lost or destroyed. The existing key historical materials that can serve as evidence are not only scarce but also scattered, which has made writing the history of this dynasty challenging. Moreover, due to my location on the remote western frontier and the limited access to academic information, my expertise is limited, and my level is not high. It is inevitable that there will be errors, and I sincerely ask experts and readers for their guidance and corrections.
During the writing process, to gain a relatively comprehensive understanding of the research on Western Xia studies both domestically and internationally, Comrade Gao Shirong of the Gansu Provincial Library compiled the "Bibliography of Western Xia Historical Documents" according to the book classification system in his busy schedule. Comrades Meng Fanyou, Cai Hua, and others promptly hand-copied the manuscript. Comrade Zhang Xiuping of the People's Publishing House proposed many valuable suggestions for revision. Leaders in the school and department offered much enthusiastic encouragement and assistance. Here, I express my heartfelt gratitude to them!
Li Wei
May 1994, Department of History, Lanzhou University