The Xi were the neighbours and kin of the Khitan on the Laoha, Daling and Luan hills.
The Turks called them Tatabi in the eighth century, a name long out of use by 1200. The Liao held them under their own king and tribes. Under the Jin they are enrolled, as far as we can tell, in the same kinds of unit as the Khitan (meng'an, mouke and the frontier jiu), but we could not confirm any Xi unit by name. By 1200 a separate Xi voice is hard to find: they are households of the Beijing circuit, mixed with Khitan, Han and Jurchen settlers, and the sources name them as Xi mostly in lists of frontier horse.
The GM can treat them as a pool of horsemen and hill farmers without a chief, and can give them a chief only by invention.
Who he is
- Title
- Xi unit commanders and clan elders; no Xi chief or 'Xi king' is named for 1200
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source we could read names a Xi chief after the fall of the Liao. The Liao had a Xi king and Xi tribal offices. A Xi general, Xiao Gan, is said to have proclaimed a Xi state in 1122 and to have been killed in 1123 (from memory of the Liaoshi and Jinshi, low confidence).
Overlord
The Jin throne, through the Beijing liushou
What it holds
- Farm and pasture households in the hills of the upper Laoha and the Daling headwaters (Chifeng, Aohan, Jianping; not located by unit)
- Places in the frontier jiu units (see Jiu frontier units)
How it was acquired
Subjects of the Khitan from the tenth century; of the Jin from 1122 to 1125.
Allies and rivals
Khitan neighbours on the same ground; the Jurchen commanders of the Beijing circuit; no feud or alliance of their own is recorded.
How things stand that morning
No Xi chief, rising or raid is recorded for 1200; the Xi look merged into the Beijing circuit's Khitan and Han population.
Wealth
Hill farms, sheep and horses; no revenue of their own.
Military
Horsemen in the jiu and in mouke units under Jurchen or Khitan officers (no figures).
Threats
- Jin land survey and seizure for Jurchen households
- A dzud on the hill pastures
- A levy for the trench line
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.
- 1200, all year (not pinned)The Xi serve in their units and pay as other Jin subjects; nothing is recorded.Depends on: Quiet harvests and no new levy Stopped by: A dzud, or a new order to move or disarm the Khitan and Xi households
Where the sources disagree
- The brief calls the Xi 'Tatabi' and asks for their chiefs. 'Tatabi' is the Turkic name of the eighth century (the Orkhon inscriptions) and is not used for the Xi in 1200. No Xi chief of 1200 is named in anything we could read, so this record holds a people, not a person.
- Xiao Gan's Xi state of 1122-1123 is from memory (low confidence) and is background only.
Evidence: No text of the age that we could read names a Xi chief or unit for 1200.
On the map: A range, not a territory the Xi governed.
Primary sources for Khitan and Xi
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.
- 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
- Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. 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 Liao, chapter 30, on the Western Liao, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1344). The only Chinese official notice of the Qara Khitai, a few pages at the end of juan 30. Read online
- History of the Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online
- Brief Account of the Black Tatars, Peng Daya (彭大雅) with notes by Xu Ting (徐霆) (1237 (Peng Daya's text from a 1232 to 1233 embassy, Xu Ting's notes from a 1235 to 1236 embassy)). Two Song envoys' notes on the Mongols under Ogodei: the steppe, climate, herds, hunting, the ruler's tent and court, the army, taxes, trade, the postal relay, the Uyghur and Khitan clerks, and the subject peoples. Read online
- Full Record of the Mongol Tatars, Zhao Gong (趙珙), formerly attributed to Meng Gong (孟珙) (1221). The earliest outside description of the Mongols, by a Song envoy sent to the Mongol commander Muqali at Yanjing (Beijing) in 1221. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia: Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (read this session)
- Jinshi (History of the Jin) ch. 24, Dili zhi 1 (Shangjing, Xianping, Dongjing, Beijing circuits): used from memory, the page was blocked this session and must be checked
- Article on the Khitan under the Jin dynasty, gjrwls.com (read this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.