Xining (Xia)

Who he is

Title

Prefect (zhizhou) and garrison commander of Xiningzhou, for the Xia

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No Xia, Song or Jin source we could reach names a holder of Xiningzhou in the 1190s. The Xia law code and Chinese Wikipedia's lists of Xia offices were not reached (zh.wikipedia refused the fetch).

Overlord

Huanzong (Li Chunyou, reigned 1193-1206) at Xingqing. Which of the Xia's twelve supervisory military commands (jian jun si) covered the Huangshui is not pinned; the nearest by seat is the Zhuoluo Henan command on the Yellow River north of Lanzhou (see Zhuoluo Henan (Xia)).

What it holds

• The walled town of Xining (old Qingtang) with its market and tolls
• The lower Huangshui valley and the Beichuan and Datong side valleys round it (barley, peas and rape on irrigated terraces; general pattern)
• The roads: east down the Huangshui to Ledu and the Yellow River; west over the Sun and Moon pass (Riyue Shan) to the lake, the Gonghe basin and the Tsaidam; north-east to Zhuoluo and Liangzhou
• The call on Tibetan tribal levies and tribute horses (general Xia practice, not documented for these tribes)

How it was acquired

By 1136 (gift of the Jin or conquest: see notes). Before that: Qingtang of the Tsongkha house to 1103; Song Xining 1104 to the 1130s; Jin occupation (date not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Jin garrisons at Lanzhou and Hezhou across the Yellow River (peace; Jin-Xia markets shut 1172 and open again since 1197); the Tibetan tribes of the lake (tributary, not pinned); the Zhuoluo Henan command to the east; the prefect of Liangzhou to the north.

How things stand that morning

Held by Xia in peace. No revolt, raid or garrison change is known for the winter of 1199-1200: that is an absence of evidence in the sources we could reach, not evidence of calm. The Xia is a Jin vassal since 1124 and its last attack on the Jin was in 1178 (Timeline of the Tanguts).

Wealth

Tolls and horses. The town sits where the lake road, the Hexi road and the Yellow River road meet. Tibetan ponies and mules, wool, hides, musk, medicinal herbs and salt from the Chaka lake come in; tea, cloth, grain and iron go out. The Song-era road to Khotan through the Qingtang country is recalled, not read.

Military

A Tangut garrison with the call-up of local farmers and Tibetan tribesmen (general Xia pattern). No numbers survive for 1200.

Threats

• A Tibetan tribal quarrel on the lake side (nothing dated)
• Jin pressure over the Yellow River crossing (nothing dated for 1199-1200)

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. 1205 spring to 1210Temujin's Mongols raid the Xia (1205, 1207) and invade the Hexi corridor in autumn 1209; Xia submits in 1210 (Timeline of the Tanguts).Depends on: Temujin's rise on the steppe; he is not Chinggis Khan until 1206. Stopped by: A Mongol defeat on the steppe; none foreseeable on 1 January 1200.
2. 1217-1225The Xia invades the Jin in 1217 and hostilities end in 1225 (Timeline of the Tanguts, as cited by the North China sheet, ncw_REPORT).Depends on: The Xia and Jin staying vassal and suzerain until then, with the Mongol pressure on both; the sources we read give no cause. Stopped by: A settlement between Xia and Jin before 1217, a Mongol demand that stops either side, or a player's act that keeps the peace.
3. 1226-1227The Mongol conquest of the Hexi and of the Xia capital; the Xia state ends in 1227 (Tarim sheet, txi_REPORT section 9).Depends on: The Mongol empire, founded 1206, and its war on Xia. Stopped by: Xia surviving through a Jin alliance or a Mongol turn elsewhere.
4. by 1240The Mongols hold eastern Amdo (Wikipedia, Amdo).Depends on: The Xia and Jin collapses. Stopped by: A Mongol defeat in the west.

Places of note

• Xining (old Qingtang): Prefecture seat and walled town.
• Sun and Moon pass (Riyue Shan), approximate: The pass on the road west to the lake; the practical edge of the Xia prefecture towards the lake tribes (not pinned).

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 says the Song held Xining from 1104: confirmed (Wikipedia, Xining: the Song recovered the city in 1104 and named it Xining).
• The North China sheet (Tibetan chiefs of Lintao) says the Jin occupied the Huangshui basin in 1134 and that the last Qingtang lord, Zhao Huai'en, fled to the Southern Song then. We could not read the article it cites; treated as a lead.

Evidence: Xia hold of the four prefectures: the prefecture table in Wikipedia's Western Xia, the Tsongkha article and the Timeline of the Tanguts all agree on Xia hold from 1136. Holder, garrison, trade and customs: not documented for 1200.

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

On the map: The prefecture's real extent is not given by any source; the polygon follows the Huangshui basin and the Tarim sheet's anchors.

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.