Other religious houses · Great Xia, the Tangut empire · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Confucian schools

Renzong 'respected Confucianism, and built many temples worshipping Confucius', created many schools and used examinations to choose his officials (English Wikipedia).

Dates from the Renzong article we read for the schools: schools in every prefecture (1144), a Chinese school (1145), examinations (1147), an Inner Academy (1148); the Hanlin Academy dates from 1161 or 1163. From memory (not read): in 1146 the throne honoured Confucius as Emperor Wenxuan and ordered temples in the prefectures. Two Great Academies, Chinese (Han) and Tangut (Fan), train the officials.

Cao Daole, a professor of the Tangut Great Academy, wrote the Dexing ji for Huanzong's accession.

Who holds it

Title
Teachers of the Han and Fan Great Academies; Cao Daole, professor of the Tangut Great Academy, is the one named teacher
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 Confucian temples and the prefecture schools
  • The Han and Fan Great Academies and the Hanlin Academy

How it was acquired

Developed under Renzong (1139 to 1193).

Allies and rivals

The throne and the ministers; no rivalry with the sangha is recorded.

How things stand that morning

A learned body of the court and of every prefecture: scribes and officials trained in the temple schools and the Academies. No quarrel with the sangha is recorded.

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; the officials of each prefecture.

Places of note

  • The Academies at Xingqing: Site not known.

Where the sources disagree

  • The assignment asks for Confucian temples and schools as records. No temple site is named in the sources we read, so the record is a point at the capital.

Evidence: Renzong's policy is firm; the persons and sites of 1200 are not.

On the map: A point at the capital.

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

  1. Emperor Renzong of Western Xia (English Wikipedia)
  2. Tangut people (English Wikipedia)
  3. Western Xia (English Wikipedia, article reached as Hsi_Hsia_Kingdom)
  4. List of Tangut books (English Wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.