Frontier town · Great Xia, the Tangut empire · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Jishi

The Xia's south-eastern fort at the Yellow River gorge, a crossing on the road between the Hehuang country and the Jin town of Hezhou (Linxia).

Wikipedia's Xunhua page has no history for the period; the Salars come with the Mongol army in the 13th or 14th century, which is later. The Xia-Jin line near here is a treaty frontier. Nothing dated survives for this place in 1199-1200 in the sources we could reach (Wikipedia, the Tarim and North China sheets). What follows is the pattern of a Xia frontier prefecture, marked as such.

Who holds it

Title
The Xia prefect of Jishizhou, name not known (see Jishizhou (Xia)).
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

Prefecture named in Wikipedia's Western Xia table; coordinates from Wikipedia's Xunhua page.

Lord in 1200

The Xia prefect of Jishizhou, name not known (see Jishizhou (Xia)).

How things stand that morning

Quiet treaty frontier; holder not known.

Military

No numbers survive for 1200.

Militia

No numbers survive for 1200.

Trade and crafts

River tolls and the crossing (general).

Places of note

  • Jishi: The place.

Where the sources disagree

  • Wikipedia's Xunhua page: Salars arrive in the 13th or 14th century as part of the Mongol army (later than 1200); the Ming control dates from 1370.

Evidence: Prefecture named in Wikipedia's Western Xia table; coordinates from Wikipedia's Xunhua page.

On the map: Marker only; a place, not a district.

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, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County (read this session)

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