HSI HSIA

Pinyin Xi Xia, kingdom of the Tibetan-speaking Tangut tribes that was established in the 11th century and flourished through the early 13th century. It was located in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Kansu and Shensi. Occupying the area along the trade route between Central Asia and the West, the Tangut were content with being a tributary state of the Chinese Sung dynasty (9601279) until 1038, when a new leader, Li Yan-hao, assumed the title of emperor as Chao Yan-hao. Naming his new dynasty after the ancient Chinese state of Hsia, Chao embarked on a campaign to conquer all of China. But in 1044 he abandoned this attempt after the Chinese agreed to pay him an annual tribute. For the next two centuries the Hsi Hsia, or Western Hsia, as the dynasty became known to distinguish it from its ancient Chinese namesake, maintained an uneasy three-way truce with the Sung and with the Liao dynasty (9071125), established by the Inner Asian Juchen (or Jurchen) tribes in North China. Modeling their government after that of the Sung, the Hsi Hsia rulers adopted a new writing system for their people. Unlike the Chinese, they were ardent devotees of Buddhism and departed from the Chinese model in making Buddhism the state religion. The Hsi Hsia dynasty was finally conquered by the Mongol troops of Genghis Khan in 1227.