The desert and steppe west of the Helan, between the Tengger sands and the Badain Jaran: no town and no garrison to speak of, but the camel and sheep country that supplies the transport animals of every caravan on the corridor (OMNIA board, alashan-herds).
The Qiangzhen district (the campaign board's 'Baima Qiangzhen', the White Horse command) watches the camel tribes west of the Helan, and the Zhenyan district at Khara-Khoto covers the north. Who the herders are is not recorded for 1200: the likeliest are Tangut clans of the state's own people, with Turkic and Mongolic pastoralists possible on the northern edge; we name no group the sources do not name.
Who holds it
- Title
- Clan chiefs under the Baima Qiangzhen and Heishui Zhenyan districts
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No chief or headman is named for 1200 in the sources we could read.
Overlord
The emperor Huanzong, through the military district whose ground the people range over.
What it holds
- Camel and sheep pastures
- Wells and the Etsina river water in the north
How it was acquired
Not recorded for this people in the sources we could read.
Allies and rivals
Carried the caravan traffic of the Hexi road and the road north to the steppe.
How things stand that morning
Inside the Xia military districts but out of reach of any town; the herders pay in animals, carrying service and levy.
Wealth
Camels and sheep, felt, caravan hire; no figures.
Military
Tribal levy under the district commander; no numbers.
Threats
- Drought; steppe raiders from the north (none recorded before 1205).
Customs
Not recorded.
Where the sources disagree
- Board (alashan-herds): 'Tangut camel and sheep country ... no town, no garrison'. We keep the description and the range; it is a design value, as the campaign board says.
Evidence: A geographical fact (the desert and its animals) rather than a dated record.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Indicative shading only, as the campaign board has it.
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
- Western Xia (English Wikipedia, article reached as Hsi_Hsia_Kingdom)
- Hexi Corridor (English Wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.