Abstract
Prominent in the Northwestern region of present-day China, the Tangut-ruled Xixia kindgom reigned between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Beginning with the late Tang and the Five Dynasties, this northwestern regime exerted significant political influence in the central plains, affecting the Liao, Jin and Song dynasties. Owing to the lack of available historical evidence and the reliance on state-produced documents produced by hostile witnesses such as the Liao, Jin and Yuan, previous research on the Xixia primarily situated the empire as a subsidiary state or external threat to the aforementioned dynasties, without discussing the regime as a political entity with its own developments. Nevertheless representing the greatest threat to the western borders of the Liao, Jin and Northern Song, the Tangut empire would engage in warfare with the Song from its early beginnings to the first year of Emperior Huizong’s reign, 1119. Initially enjoying peaceful relations with the Song for an extended period of time, the Liao would eventually be drawn into war and conflict with Xixia forces due to the ongoing confrontation between the Xixia and the Song. As for the the Jin, by the time of its domination in northern China, the dynasty had already endured persistently fraught relations with the Xixia. Severely compromising the strength of the Jin and the Northern Song, Xixia presence in the region indirectly led to the respective demises of these states. By interrogating political and military engagement between the Xixia and neighbouring empires, this dissertation uncovers previously understudied historical developments in East Asia.Traditional scholarship on the relationship between the Xixia and neighbouring states in the central plains primarily centred the perspectives of the latter. Overlooking characteristics of the Xixia as an independent state and failing to recognize its importance as a participant in regional politics, such studies positioned the empire as inferior to neighbouring states and thus do not properly account for the wide-ranging influence that each state had on each other. Building on recent developments in Tangut studies, I emphasise the perspective of the Xixia to reexamine how its interactions with neighbouring states, especially pertaining to warfare, affected the empire’s internal development. Highlighting exchanges between states in the central plains and the western frontier area, this dissertation contends that warfare served as the most crucial component for state formation in the Xixia kingdom. Willingly serving as a vassal state for dynasties in the central plains, the Tangut empire subsequently established its strength and territory through acts of war, compelling neighbouring states to recognise its independent status. To deal with external and internal threats, the Xixia pursued a range of cultural policies to build strength and power at the state level. Integrating different ethnic groups within its territory, the Xixia thus sought to develop a single ethnic consciousness—the Tangut. I assert that the Tangut empire pursued military success by utilizing this construction of ethnicity to complement military policies and vice versa. While the Xixia kingdom flourished for almost two hundred years, Tangut culture endured even longer and only disappeared in the middle Ming period, therefore reflecting the success of the Xixia’s cultural policies.
| Date of Award | 10 Feb 2022 |
|---|---|
| Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| Supervisor | Ka Wai FAN (Supervisor) |