Li Anquan

Who he is

Name

Weiming Anquan (Li Anquan)

Title

Prince of the blood; later Prince of the Zhenyi commandery (Zhenyi junwang)

Since

title not pinned; the Zhenyi title was granted after his father's death

Born

1170

Family

Weiming imperial clan; son of the Prince of Yue Li Renyou, nephew of Renzong, first cousin of Huanzong

Confidence

medium

English Wikipedia (Xiangzong); Chinese Wikipedia (Xixia).

Overlord

The emperor.

What it holds

• A prince's household; nothing else is recorded.

How it was acquired

Not applicable.

Allies and rivals

Father the Prince of Yue; the dowager Luo; the emperor, his cousin.

How things stand that morning

A prince of about thirty, ambitious by the later sources' account; no sign of conflict yet.

Wealth

Not recorded.

Military

None recorded. He later attacks the Jin and courts the Mongols.

Threats

• None in 1200.

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)Deposes Huanzong and takes the throne as Xiangzong.Depends on: His father's death and the refusal of the title; the dowager's backing. Stopped by: A grant of the Yue title.

Where the sources disagree

• Some accounts call him Huanzong's cousin and some his nephew by seniority; the English Wikipedia page says first cousin.

Evidence: Birth and later career firm; nothing for 1199-1200.

On the map: No land.

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.