Xingqing

Who holds it

Title

Governor of Xingqing fu under the emperor; the emperor himself resides here

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 emperor Huanzong, through the governor of Xingqing fu (name not known) and the palace guard.

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

The capital on the morning of 1 January 1200: calm, in the last month of Tianqing 6. The court is at the palace; the dowager Luo is at her son's side; the Tibetan lamas and the Tangut scholars are at work on the canon and the schools. The Jin envoys are expected for the New Year exchange.

Wealth

The canal grain of the plain, the court and temple economy, the corridor and market revenue passed through the finance office.

Military

The palace guard and the capital garrison; no numbers (the large totals that Mongol-era accounts give for the siege of 1209 belong to a later date and are not repeated).

Threats

• A palace coup (1206).

Charter

Imperial capital under the throne; no municipal charter known.

Council

The governor of Xingqing fu and the censors; no municipal elders, judge or guild heads are named.

Communities

Tanguts, Han, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Khitan remnants; the Buddhist sangha, Confucian schools; Muslim and Nestorian merchants are possible but not attested for 1200.

Fairs and markets

Not recorded.

Militia

The palace guard and the capital garrison; no numbers (the large totals that Mongol-era accounts give for the siege of 1209 belong to a later date and are not repeated).

Walls and castle

Walled capital with palace precinct; the Chengtian pagoda (64.5 m in its present form), the Haibao pagoda in the north suburb, the satellite prefectures on the plain.

Trade and crafts

Printing (Tangut and Chinese; wooden movable type is known from the Xia), tile and glaze kilns, canal agriculture, the mint (Tongji jian, founded 1158), caravan trade, temple workshops.

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 (after 1200)The city is renamed Zhongxing fu, the 'revival'.Depends on: Xia's reaction to the first Mongol raids. Stopped by: Nothing identified.

Places of note

• The Chengtian pagoda ('Western Pagoda'): Imperial temple of 1050; the standing tower is of 1820.
• The Haibao pagoda ('Northern Pagoda'): Pagoda on the northern plain; its Xia date is not fixed.
• Dingzhou (Pingluo), board's northern satellite prefecture: At the head of the canals; placed approximately by the campaign board.
• Huaizhou, board's satellite prefecture east of the city: On the Yellow River bank; placed approximately by the campaign board.
• Jingzhou, board's satellite prefecture south of the city: On the canal plain; placed approximately by the campaign board.
• Shunzhou, board's southern satellite prefecture: Towards Lingzhou; placed approximately by the campaign board.
• The canals of the Xingqing plain: The Han and Tang canals leave the Yellow River near the gorge; the plain cannot be starved except by the river.

Where the sources disagree

• Board (zhongxing-yinchuan): Castle at 38.487, 106.231; we use the Yinchuan gazetteer point (38.468, 106.273) and the Chengtian pagoda's coordinates (38.463, 106.265).
• Board (dingzhou-xia, huaizhou-xia, jingzhou-xia, shunzhou-xia): four satellite prefectures of the capital, 'placed approximately'. We could not verify the names or sites in any source we read; we carry them as the campaign board's points.

Evidence: The capital is well attested; its people and offices in 1200 are not.

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

On the map: The tierra is the whole capital plain from Qingtongxia to Pingluo; the satellite prefectures' own districts are not separated.

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.