An imperial temple of the capital, finished in 1050 (the 25th day of the 3rd month of the first year of Tianyou Chuisheng) when the empress dowager had a pagoda built 'to protect the reign of her infant son', Yizong (r.
1048 to 1068), and as a reliquary for pieces of the Buddha's head bone (English Wikipedia). In 1055 a set of the Tripitaka sent by Renzong of Song was deposited at the temple (same page). The tower standing today, 64.5 m high, was built in 1820 on the old site after the earthquake of 3 January 1739 destroyed the original; so the Xia form of the pagoda is not known from the standing building.
The campaign board names the empress dowager as Mocang.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbot of the Chengtian temple (name not known)
- 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 pagoda and temple precinct
- The Song-gift Tripitaka of 1055 (if it survives in 1200; not documented)
How it was acquired
Founded 1050 by the empress dowager Mocang for the infant Yizong.
Allies and rivals
The throne, the imperial preceptors and the district officials; no quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
An imperial temple of the capital; the sources we read say nothing of its condition or its rites in 1200.
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 throne; founded by the dowager Mocang.
Places of note
- The pagoda (rebuilt 1820): Standing tower of 1820 on the Xia site.
Where the sources disagree
- Board (chengtian-pagoda): the temple is 'the place where the Tangut scriptures were consecrated'. English Wikipedia says only that the Song Tripitaka was deposited there in 1055; it mentions no Tangut consecration and no Xia-period ceremony. Not confirmed.
- The campaign board entry coordinates 38.47, 106.262; Wikipedia gives 38.46306, 106.26528. We use the latter.
Evidence: Foundation and later history are well attested; the temple's life in 1200 is not.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A point or a small disc at the site; no estate is drawn because none is documented.
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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.