The Tangut state's great work is books.
Under the imperial preceptors the Buddhist canons were revised in Tangut and Chinese (Columbia blog). The last decades of Renzong's reign give a run of dated Tangut printings: the Forest of Categories (1181), the Sea of Meanings (1182), the Newly Assembled Precious Dual Maxims (1187) and, from State Preceptor Tangchang, the Twenty-Five Answers on Buddhist Principles (1189) (List of Tangut books). In 1189 100,000 copies of a Maitreya sutra were printed in Chinese and Tangut for the assembly of Renzong's fiftieth year (English Wikipedia).
Woodblock printing is general; the Baisigou pagoda in the Helan yielded a nine-volume Tangut translation of a Tibetan tantra described as the earliest known book printed with wooden movable type (English Wikipedia, Baisigou Square Pagoda), so movable type was in use in the Tangut state. What survives of the Tangut libraries was dug out of the sand at Khara-Khoto in 1908 and 1909 (English Wikipedia), where none of the Tangut texts is later than 1212.
Who holds it
- Title
- The printing and translation offices of the capital, under the imperial preceptor; the engraving office (kezi si) is recalled from colophons, not read
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No head or abbot is named for 1200 in the sources we could read.
Overlord
The emperor Huanzong, as patron and protector (the state protects all religious sites, English Wikipedia).
What it holds
- The workshops, printing houses and the stock of blocks and type (not documented in detail)
- The patronage of the throne
How it was acquired
The translation of the Tangut canon begins with the state's foundation; the great printings of the 1180s and 1190s are documented.
Allies and rivals
The throne, the imperial preceptors and the district officials; no quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
At full work: the canon is being revised and printed on a large scale under the preceptors, and the Tangut and Chinese Academies supply the translators.
Wealth
Not recorded in the sources we could read: no estate, toll or revenue is given for this house in 1200.
Military
None. A house of prayer; the state's garrisons protect it.
Patron
The emperor and the imperial preceptors.
Places of note
- Baisigou pagoda (movable-type find): Source of the earliest known wooden movable-type book.
Where the sources disagree
- Brief: 'the great printing of the 1180s to 1190s'. The dated printings we could verify run from 1181 to 1189 (List of Tangut books); we found no dated printing of the 1190s.
Evidence: The books themselves are evidence; the workshops' staff and sites are not named.
On the map: A point at the capital; the workshops have no ground of their own.
Primary sources for Great Xia
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
- Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
- Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
- The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
5 more in the sources library for The Tarim, the Uyghurs and Xia.
Sources and studies
- List of Tangut books (English Wikipedia)
- Imperial Preceptor, Columbia course blog citing Dunnell 1992 and Sperling 1987
- Baisigou Square Pagoda (English Wikipedia)
- Khara-Khoto (English Wikipedia)
- Xixia (Chinese Wikipedia, zh-tw)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.