Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · Great Xia, the Tangut empire · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Kuozhou (Xia)

Kuozhou is the Yellow River gorge country south of the Huangshui, round modern Hualong.

Wikipedia's Tsongkha article says Gusiluo was enthroned here as 'tsenpo' in 1008, so the prefecture is the cradle of the Tibetan theocracy that later sat at Qingtang. Wikipedia's Xia table puts the prefecture 'southwest of Hualong'; the campaign board puts it at Hualong. By 1200 it is a Xia fort-prefecture between the lower Huangshui and the Yellow River, with Tibetan villages on the slopes and, in the hills, the old teaching house of Dantig (see Dantig).

Nothing dated is known for the 1190s.

Who he is

Title
Prefect (zhizhou) and garrison commander of Kuozhou, for the Xia
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

No holder named in any source reached.

Overlord

Huanzong at Xingqing; supervisory command not pinned.

What it holds

  • The fort and market of Kuozhou
  • The slopes and side valleys between the Huangshui and the Yellow River
  • A stretch of the Yellow River gorge road above Jishi

How it was acquired

By 1136 (see the Xining card).

Allies and rivals

Lezhou and Xining on the Huangshui; Jishizhou downstream; the Tibetan farmers and herders of the hills, who keep their own headmen.

How things stand that morning

Held in peace; holder not known.

Wealth

Barley and herds, the river crossings, tolls on the gorge road.

Military

No numbers survive for 1200.

Places of note

  • Hualong (Kuozhou): The campaign board entry point for the prefecture; the real site may lie some way south-west.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry xining-xia, lezhou-xia, kuozhou-xia and jishi-xia say the four prefectures were a gift of the Jin to the Tanguts in 1136. English Wikipedia's Tsongkha article agrees (the Jin ceded the area to Xia in 1136, citing Twitchett 1994, p. 180), but its Timeline of the Tanguts says 'Western Xia conquers the Kokonor region' in 1136, and its Western Xia article says Xia took the Qingtang region in 1113 (the Song answered with the war of 1113-1119). Not pinned: we take the Xia hold as complete by 1136 and unbroken to 1200, and do not decide between gift and conquest.
  • The campaign board entry kuozhou-xia: 36.1 N, 102.27 E (Hualong). Wikipedia's table: 'southwest of Hualong'. Seat kept at the campaign board point; not pinned.

Evidence: Prefecture named in Wikipedia's table; the 1008 enthronement is from the Tsongkha article (Twitchett 1994, p. 173).

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Rough drawing; the sources give no boundary.

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. Wikipedia, Western Xia (prefecture table, wars, border markets; read this session)
  2. Wikipedia, Tsongkha (cites Twitchett 1994, Smith 2006, Tuttle 2013; read this session)
  3. Wikipedia, Hualong Hui Autonomous County (read this session)

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