The Tanguts (Dangxiang) came north from the highlands of south-east Qinghai and north-west Sichuan to the eastern Ordos, where their leader Tuoba Chici is recorded in the Tang period and where the Weiming (Li) clan rose that later made the empire (English Wikipedia, Tangut people).
Their Ordos country is the steppe, sand and salt-lake belt between the Yellow River and the Hengshan: Yanzhou with its salt lakes, Youzhou in the south and the sandy upland of the Mu Us. By 1200 it is the heartland of a state rather than a frontier of tribes. The clans are enrolled in the military districts (jian jun si), pay their service by the team of three (chao) and keep their herds; the commoners of the old society are called 'Red Faced' and the other class 'Black Headed', the name taken from the black caps of the Root West shamans (English Wikipedia).
Which clan chiefs lead which pastures in 1200 is not recorded.
Who holds it
- Title
- Clan chiefs, enrolled in the Jianing, Xiangyou and Zuoxiang military 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
- Pastures and wells of the Ordos steppe
- Service in the Jianing, Xiangyou and Zuoxiang districts
- The salt of the Wuchi and Baichi lakes (Xia state revenue)
How it was acquired
The Tanguts settled the eastern Ordos in the Tang period; the Weiming clan's rise and the conquest of the Ordos prefectures belong to the 10th and 11th centuries (English Wikipedia).
Allies and rivals
The district commanders; the Jin across the Hengshan at Suide; the Mongols are not yet on the Ordos (the first raid on Xia is in 1205).
How things stand that morning
Part of the Xia heartland, ruled through the district commanders; the clans keep their herds and chiefs but no longer act as independent tribes.
Wealth
Herds, caravan hire, felt and wool, and the tolls and fairs of the nearest Xia towns; no figures.
Military
Tribal levy under the district commander; no numbers.
Threats
- Drought and sand on the pastures.
- The loss of the border markets, if the peace with the Jin broke.
Customs
The two classes, Red Faced commoners and Black Headed (named for the shamans' black caps); the Root West (Melie) shamans among the herdsmen (English Wikipedia, Tangut people). Assemblies are not recorded.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The people and their classes are described in general terms; no chief or pasture right is dated to 1200.
On the map: The range is drawn from the modern homeland and the campaign board's note; no source gives a boundary for 1200.
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
- Tangut people (English Wikipedia)
- Western Xia (English Wikipedia, article reached as Hsi_Hsia_Kingdom)
- Xixia (Chinese Wikipedia, zh-tw)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.