Huanzong

Who he is

Name

Weiming Chunyou (Li Chunyou), temple name Huanzong

Title

Emperor (huangdi) of Great Xia, King of Xia in Jin eyes

Since

16 October 1193 (Julian)

Born

1177

Family

Weiming (Li) imperial clan; eldest son of Renzong and the Empress Luo

Confidence

high

English and Chinese Wikipedia (Huanzong), Western Xia mausoleums.

Overlord

The Jin emperor Zhangzong, in form only.

What it holds

• The imperial demesne and palace at Xingqing fu
• The royal farms and canals of the capital plain (the Han and Tang canals, kept up by the state)
• The palace guard and the capital garrison
• The mint (Tongji jian), printing houses and the court workshops
• The tombs under the Helan (nine imperial mausolea)

How it was acquired

By inheritance, 16 October 1193 (Julian). The Jin invested him as King of Xia; the date of that investiture was not read.

Allies and rivals

Mother: the dowager Luo (will side with Anquan in 1206). Cousin: Li Anquan, son of Renzong's brother the Prince of Yue; Huanzong will refuse him his father's title. Court: the unnamed chancellor and ministers, the imperial preceptors.

How things stand that morning

A settled young emperor at the centre of a quiet state. Nothing in the sources puts him in any crisis in 1199-1200. He is the fount of office, the Jin's tributary and the patron of the Buddhist state church.

Wealth

The crown demesne of the canal plain, a share of the corridor tolls and the salt revenue through the finance office; no figures.

Military

Commander of the palace guard and of the twelve districts through the military bureau; no figures. He has no recorded military record.

Threats

• Anquan and the dowager (1206).
• A court ready to be bought by a stronger prince.
• The army's decline.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1 March 1206 (after 1200)Deposed by Li Anquan and the dowager Luo; dies soon after (Chinese Wikipedia gives March 1206, aged 29 or about 30).Depends on: The quarrel over the Prince of Yue's title. Stopped by: A settlement of the princely succession before 1206.

Places of note

• Palace of Xingqing: The imperial palace inside the capital walls (exact site not located by me).

Where the sources disagree

• English Wikipedia's Timeline of the Tanguts writes 'Chunyu'; usual form Chunyou. Chinese Wikipedia has 'Chunyou' with a variant character.
• Death: Chinese Wikipedia infobox gives age 29 but the text says about thirty.

Evidence: Dates and family of the emperor are firm; his actions in 1199-1200 are not recorded.

On the map: The demesne is the capital plain; the emperor's wider authority is the whole realm.

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.