Tangut People - History

History

The founder of the Tangut, the Tuoba Xianbei, was a famous prince of the Tuyuhun Empire (284–670), Tuoba Chici. In the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tuoba brought troops to suppress the Huangchao Rebellion on behalf of the Tang court and took control of the Xia State, or Xia Zhou, in northern Shaanxi in 881. After the Tang fell in 907, the Tuoba descendants formally declared resistance against the expanding Northern Song in 982 by Li Deming (李德明) and proclaimed independence to establish the Tangut Empire by his son, Li Yuanhao (李元昊) in 1038.

In Tangut-language sources the Tangut state was called the "Great State of White and Lofty" (phôn¹ mbın² lhi̯ə tha²). Although the Chinese translation of this name (Báigāo dàguó 白高大國) was occasionally used in Tangut sources, the state was most commonly referred to as the "Great Xia" (大夏) in Western Xia Chinese-language sources or as the "Xia State" (夏國) in Song dynasty sources. In later historiography and in modern Chinese the Tangut state is referred to as the "Western Xia" (Xī Xià 西夏).

Since the Tangut's founding father, Li Deming, was not a very conservative ruler, the Tangut people began to absorb more and more of the Chinese culture that surrounded them, but never lost their actual identity, as is proven by the vast amount of literature which survived the Tangut state itself.

Li Deming's more conservative son, Li Yuanhao, (李元昊) sought to restore and strengthen the Tangut people's identity by ordering the creation of an official Tangut script and by instituting laws that reinforced traditional cultural customs. One of the laws he mandated called for citizens to wear traditional ethnic apparel, and another required wearing hair short or shaving the head, as opposed to the Chinese custom at the time of wearing hair long and knotted. Rejecting the common Chinese surname of "Li" (given to the Xixia by the Tang Dynasty court) and "Zhao" (given to the Xixia by the Song Dynasty court) he adopted the Tangut surname "Weiming" (嵬名). He made "Xingqing" (興慶)(present day Yinchuan (銀川)) his capital city.

Beckwith (2009) describes the Tangut as a people that primarily lived in the Ordos, the bend of the Yellow River. (p. 171) Under T'o-pa Ssu-kung they conquered Ch'ang-an (Xian) between 881 and 895 and expanded their reign southward and westward until they reached their original homeland in Tibet and Central Asia.(ibid p. 172).

In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan unified the northern grasslands of Mongolia and led the Mongol troops to carry out six rounds of attacks against Tangut over a period of twenty-two years (1202, 1207, 1209–10, 1211–13, 1214–19, 1225–26). During the last round of the Mongol attacks, Genghis died in Western Xia. The official account of the Mongol history attributed his death to an illness, whereas legends accounted that he died from a wound inflicted in the battles. In 1227 the capital of Western Xia was overrun by the Mongols, who devastated its buildings and written records: all was burnt to the ground except its monastery. The last emperor was killed and tens of thousands of civilians massacred. However, many Tangut families joined the Mongol Empire. Some of them led Mongol armies, e.g. Cha'an, into the conquest of China. After the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) was established, the Tangut troops were incorporated into the Mongol army in their subsequent military conquests in central and southern China. The Tangut were considered Semu under the Yuan class system, thus separating them from the North Chinese. As late as the Ming dynasty, there was evidence of small Tangut communities in Anhui and Henan provinces. The people including members of the royal clan emigrated to western Sichuan, northern Tibet, even possibly northeast India, in some instances becoming local rulers. The Tangut people lived in Central China preserved their language until at least the 16th century.