The corridor is governed by prefects alongside the military districts: Xiliang fu (Liangzhou) is the second city of the state, and Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou and Shazhou are its oases.
Chinese Wikipedia counts nine prefectures in the Hexi under Renzong; the others are smaller seats such as Yongchang. The prefects tax the oases, keep the canals, license the caravans and judge the settled peoples; the tribes (Tibetan, Sari Uyghur) answer through their own chiefs and the district commanders.
Who he is
- Title
- Governors of Xiliang fu and prefects of Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou and Shazhou
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Tangut officials, with Han, Uyghur and Tibetan staff
- Confidence
- low
No governor of any Hexi prefecture is named for 1200 in the sources we could read. Chinese Wikipedia counts nine prefectures in the Hexi under Renzong.
Overlord
The chancellor; the military districts of Gansu and Xiping watch the troops.
What it holds
- The oases and canals of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Guazhou and Dunhuang
- The caravan halts and the customs on the Hexi road
- Temples and monasteries under the state's licence
How it was acquired
Conquered 1028 to 1036; ruled by Xia since.
Allies and rivals
The district commanders; the sangha; the corridor merchants.
How things stand that morning
Quiet; the corridor is Xia's richest and most Chinese-Uyghur-Tibetan country.
Wealth
Tolls, oasis taxes, horses, temple economy.
Military
Through the Gansu and Xiping districts.
Threats
- Tribal unrest (none recorded).
Places of note
- Xiliang fu: Second city of the state.
- Ganzhou: Seat of the Gansu district.
- Suzhou: The Wine Spring prefecture.
- Guazhou: Seat of the Xiping district.
- Shazhou: The town of the Dunhuang oasis.
Where the sources disagree
- Brief: 'commanders of the Hexi prefectures'. None named; see the Gansu, Xiping and Zhenyan district records.
Evidence: No names.
On the map: Land is drawn on the town records.
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
- Xixia xingzheng quhua (Chinese Wikipedia)
- Xixia (Chinese Wikipedia, zh-tw)
- Hexi Corridor (English Wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.