HIST/SISRE 225

Inner Asia before Chingis Khan: the Tanguts (Xia)

A Chronology

Date	Event
6-7th c. CE	Tangut ancestors in western Sichuan (SW of X'ian).
2nd half 9th c.	Tangut chief rewarded by T'ang emperor for helping defeat An Lu-Shan.
916-1125	Khitan (Qidan)/Liao Dynasty in Inner Mongolia/NE China.
982	Tangut leader Li Jiqian, with support of Qidan to the east, asserts independence from Chinese (Song Dynasty) suzerainty.
1002	Lingzhou (in Ordos region in northern bend of Yellow River) made Tangut capital.
1006	Song recognition of de facto Tangut independence.
1020	Tangut capital moved across Yellow River to Xingzhou.
1028-1039	Tangut conquests in Hexi Corridor, culminating with letter sent by Tangut ruler Yuanhao to Song proclaiming Tangut equality with Chinese and superiority to Qidans. Under Yuanhao, Tanguts begin to use own script and undertake first of a series of major projects to translate Buddhist scriptures and publish them in Tangut. Ca. 1035, Tanguts take control of Kara Khoto.
1044	Tangut-Song treaty, by which annual Song tribute to Tangut would consist of 152,000 bolts of silk, 72,000 taels of silver, 30,000 jin of tea, and 1000 bolts of cloth, although status of Tangut diminished by treaty terminology. For all practical purposes, Tangut independent both of Song and Qidans.
1070s	Tangut patronage of Buddhist caves at Yulin, east of Dunhuang.
1080s	Tangut wars with Song leading to former's cession of Lanzhou.
1125	Qidan (Liao) state in NE China replaced by that of Jürchen (Jin Dynasty), which survives down to destruction by Mongols in 1234.
1205	First attack by Temüjin (the future Chingis Khan) on Hexi.
1206	Temüjin proclaimed Chingis Khan.
1209-1210	Tanguts forced to recognize Mongol suzerainty.
1226-1227	Mongols destroy Tangut state.
Late 13th c.	Marco Polo in Kara Khoto.
ca. 1380	Kara Khoto abandoned.
1908	Russian Capt. Pyotr Kozlov "discovers" Kara Khoto.

Recommended reading:

Mikhail Piotrovsky, ed., Lost Empire of the Silk Road: Buddhist Art from Khara Khoto (X-XIIIth Century) (Milan: Electa, 1993).

Adam T. Kessler, Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan (LA: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1993), esp. chs. 4 (on Liao), 5 (on Tanguts and others), and 6 (on Mongols).

Ruth W. Dunnell, The Great State of White and High: Buddhism and State Formation in Eleventh-Century Xia (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Press, 1996).