Jingzong gave Xia a Chinese-style central government: a secretariat, a military affairs bureau, a finance office, a censorate and sixteen bureaus under a chancellor (English Wikipedia, Western Xia).
The secretariat drafts and issues the emperor's orders and handles the Tangut and Chinese chanceries; the military bureau musters the twelve districts and the tribal levies and oversees frontier posts. Wo Daochong became chief minister after the 1170 purge of Ren Dejing and translated the Analects into Tangut; after him the chief minister is not named in the sources we read. A later 'Weiming Linggong' (Lord Chancellor of the Weiming house) commands the Keyi Gate in 1209; whether he already held office in 1200 is not known.
The chancellor is the practical head of government while the emperor is young, in tension with the dowager's family.
Who he is
- Title
- Chief ministers: the chancellor (zhongshu ling, honorific 'linggong') and the head of the military bureau (shumi shi)
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Tangut and Han officials; the Weiming princes hold the top ranks
- Confidence
- low
No chancellor of 1200 is named in the English or Chinese Wikipedia pages we could read. The chronicle (Xi Xia shu shi), the Jin shi chapter on Xia and the Song shi chapter would carry names; we could not reach them.
Overlord
The emperor.
What it holds
- The chanceries at Xingqing (Tangut and Chinese)
- The call-up registers of the twelve districts and the tribal levies
- Appointment of the district commanders and prefects
How it was acquired
By appointment of the throne.
Allies and rivals
The dowager Luo and the Luo kin; the Weiming princes; the academies' scholars.
How things stand that morning
Holders not pinned. Treat the chancellor as a senior Tangut or Han official trusted by both emperor and dowager, and the military bureau as headed by a prince or a trusted old soldier (the sources say generals have been kept from the top since 1170).
Wealth
No revenue of its own; it directs the finance office and the military households.
Military
The muster registers (chao teams of three) of the twelve districts; no numbers.
Threats
- Court factions; a strong chancellor against the dowager's kin.
Where the sources disagree
- The brief asks for 'the ministers of the six boards'. The sources we read do not describe six boards for Xia; they describe a secretariat, military bureau, finance office, censorate and sixteen bureaus (English Wikipedia). We have written the offices that are attested.
Evidence: Structure fair, names absent for 1200.
On the map: No land drawn.
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
- Western Xia (English Wikipedia, article reached as Hsi_Hsia_Kingdom)
- Emperor Renzong of Western Xia (English Wikipedia)
- Mongol conquest of Western Xia (English Wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.