Xiliang fu is the Hexi's chief city and the second city of Great Xia, at the east end of the corridor where the Shiyang river waters the Wuwei oasis under the Qilian.
It was a Tibetan tribal state (the Liugu, 906 to 1016), taken by the Tanguts in 1032 (English Wikipedia's Xiliangfu and Song-Xia wars articles). It holds the Huguo temple with its Ganying pagoda and the bilingual Tangut and Chinese stele of 1094, the Shandan and Qilian foot horse country to the west, and the Uyghur, Tibetan and Han merchants of the corridor road (board). The Tiantishan cave temples lie in the hills south of the city.
Who holds it
- Title
- Governor of Xiliang fu under the Hexi administration
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No holder is named for 1200 in the sources we could read.
Lord in 1200
The governor of Xiliang fu (name not known), under the chancellor; the Zhuoluo Henan district commands the troops to the south-east.
Overlord
The emperor Huanzong through the prefect and the military district.
What the town holds
Xia ground since the conquest of the Hexi or Ordos (1028 to 1036 for the corridor).
Allies and rivals
The district commander and the prefect; the Jin across the frontier where there is one.
How things stand that morning
Rich, busy, peaceful. The horse trade and the corridor tolls pass through it.
Wealth
Corridor tolls, horse markets, oasis taxes.
Military
the district's garrison and call-up; no numbers
Charter
Prefecture of the first rank under the Xia; no municipal charter.
Council
not known; no council, judge or headman is named in the sources we read
Communities
Tanguts, Han, Tibetans (descendants of the Liugu tribes), Uyghurs; Buddhist sangha.
Fairs and markets
not recorded
Militia
the district's garrison and call-up; no numbers
Walls and castle
Walled city; the Huguo temple, with the pagoda and the stele of 1094 (Tianyou Minan 5), found in the nineteenth century (recalled, not read).
Trade and crafts
Horses, camels, felt, wool, rhubarb and the caravan trade; irrigated wheat and millet of the Shiyang oasis.
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.
- 1226 (after 1200)Chinggis Khan takes Wuwei and Liangzhou.Depends on: His last Xia campaign. Stopped by: A different Mongol plan.
Places of note
- Huguo temple and pagoda: With the bilingual stele of 1094 (Tangut and Chinese).
Where the sources disagree
- Board (liangzhou-wuwei): 'the Zhuoluo military command sits south of it toward Lanzhou'. Chinese Wikipedia puts the Zhuoluo Henan seat at Lanzhou's north bank; agreed in direction.
Evidence: The city's role is firm; its officers and merchants in 1200 are not named.
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
- Xiliangfu (English Wikipedia)
- Hexi Corridor (English Wikipedia)
- Western Xia (English Wikipedia, article reached as Hsi_Hsia_Kingdom)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.