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57-665: The Tangut language , otherwise known as Fan , belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Like many other Sino-Tibetan languages, it is a tonal language with predominantly mono-syllabic roots, but it shares certain grammatical traits central to the Tibeto-Burman branch. It used to be debated as to whether Tangut belonged to the Yi or Qiangic subdivision of Tibeto-Burman. The Tanguts, called

114-609: A Chinese–Tangut bilingual inscription on a stele at Wuwei, Gansu , and in a copy of the Tangut translation of the Lotus Sutra . The majority of extant Tangut texts were excavated at Khara-Khoto in 1909 by Pyotr Kozlov , and the script was identified as that of the Tangut state of Xixia. Such scholars as Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov , Ishihama Juntaro ( 石濱純太郎 ), Berthold Laufer , Luo Fuchang ( 羅福萇 ), Luo Fucheng ( 羅福成 ), and Wang Jingru ( 王靜如 ) have contributed to research on

171-568: A distinction that Chinese lacked. There is no certainty that the distinction was vowel length and so other researchers have remained skeptical. Miyake reconstructs the vowels differently. In his reconstruction, the 95 vowels of Tangut formed from a six-vowel system in Pre-Tangut because of preinitial loss. (The two vowels in parentheses appeared only in loanwords from Chinese, and many of the vowels in class III were in complementary distribution with their equivalents in class IV.) The classes here

228-540: A treaty with the Song dynasty resulting in the nominal acknowledgment of Song sovereignty by the Tangut and the payment of tribute by the Song. The Emperor led to a reorganization of much of the Empire with the help of ethnic Han advisors. The empire created new departments and administrative services. The Emperor also knew Chinese and had Chinese works translated into his people's language. He accomplished this by supporting

285-528: A wound inflicted in these battles. In 1227, the capital of Western Xia was overrun by the Mongols, who devastated its buildings and written records: all was burnt to the ground except its monastery. The last emperor was killed and tens of thousands of civilians massacred. However, many Tangut families joined the Mongol Empire. Some of them led Mongol armies, e.g. Cha'an, into the conquest of China. After

342-690: Is growing a school of Tangut studies in China. Leading scholars include Shi Jinbo ( 史金波 ), Li Fanwen, Nie Hongyin ( 聶鴻音 ), Bai Bin ( 白濱 ) in mainland China, and Gong Hwang-cherng and Lin Ying-chin ( 林英津 ) in Taiwan. In other countries, leading scholars in the field include Yevgeny Kychanov and his student K. J. Solonin in Russia, Nishida Tatsuo and Shintarō Arakawa ( 荒川慎太郎 ) in Japan, and Ruth W. Dunnell in

399-469: Is related to those of Chinese rime tables . Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia (1003–1048), born Li Yuanhao ( Chinese : 李元昊 ) or Tuoba Yuanhao ( Chinese : 拓跋元昊 ), also known as Zhao Yuanhao (趙元昊), Weiming Yuanhao (嵬名元昊 ) and Weiming Nangxiao (嵬名曩霄), was the founding emperor of the Western Xia dynasty of China, reigning from 1038 to 1048. He

456-502: The Pearl in the Palm , a Tangut–Chinese bilingual glossary, permitted Ivanov (1909) and Laufer (1916) to propose initial reconstructions and to undertake the comparative study of Tangut. This glossary in effect indicates the pronunciation of each Tangut character with one or several Chinese characters, and inversely each Chinese character with one or more Tangut characters. The second source is

513-486: The Huayan - Chan tradition of Guifeng Zongmi (Chinese: 圭峰宗密, 780–841) and his master Huayan Chengguan was the most influential. A number of texts previously believed to be of native Tangut origin turned out to be translations of Khitan source texts. The degree of Tibetan impact on the formation of Tangut Buddhism still remains unexplored, especially in the light of new discoveries showing that Tangut Buddhism owed more to

570-977: The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . These survived the Siege of Leningrad , but a number of manuscripts in the possession of Nevsky at the time of his arrest by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) in 1937 went missing, and were returned, under mysterious circumstances, to the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts only in October 1991. The collections amount to about 10,000 volumes, of mostly Buddhist texts, law codes and legal documents dating from mid-11th up to early 13th centuries. Among

627-571: The Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Tanguts were valiant and had big swarthy men among them, in contrast to the Uyghurs , who were "of medium size, like us". The Tangut people I saw were tall but swarthy. The Iugurs are of medium build like our own people. The early Tanguts inhabited the steppes and mountains of southeast Qinghai and northwest Sichuan . Their home originally was in

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684-545: The Notes on Transmitting the Dharma Treasure through Generations implies that at the period of 760's some sort of Buddhism was spread in the region of Helanshan, where the Tangut were already residing.　Concerning the late 8th century Helanshan Buddhism, little can be said: the doctrines of the lu (律) school and the teaching of Sichuan Chan of Rev. Kim (金和尚) seem to be known there. Worship of Confucianism also existed in

741-754: The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) was established, the Tangut troops were incorporated into the Mongol army in their subsequent military conquests in central and southern China. The Tangut were considered Semu under the Yuan class system, thus separating them from the North Chinese. As late as the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), there was evidence of small Tangut communities in Anhui and Henan provinces. The people including members of

798-535: The Yuan dynasty . In 1038 he declared himself the emperor of the Western Xia dynasty whose capital was situated in Xingqing . Afterwards, he launched a campaign against the Song. Although the Tangut empire won a series of three large battles, the victories proved to be very costly and they found their forces depleted, due in part to a scorched earth policy by the Song. In 1044 the Western Xia dynasty signed

855-787: The Buddhist texts a number of unique compilations, not known either in Chinese or in Tibetan versions, were recently discovered. Furthermore, the Buddhist canon, the Chinese classics , and a great number of indigenous texts written in Tangut have been preserved. These other major Tangut collections, though much smaller, belong to the British Library , the French National Library (' Bibliothèque nationale de France '),

912-455: The Chinese custom of wearing hair long and knotted. Abandoning the royal Chinese surnames of "Li", previously bestowed by the Tang dynasty Li royal family, and "Zhao", subsequently bestowed by the Song dynasty Zhao royal family, he adopted a Tangut surname 𗼨𗆟 , rendered in Chinese as "Weiming" ( Chinese : 嵬名 ). He made Xingqing ( Chinese : 興慶 , modern Yinchuan ) his capital city. In

969-494: The Chinese lexicographic tradition. Although these dictionaries may differ on small details (e.g. the Tongyin categorizes the characters according to syllable initial and rime without taking any account of tone), they all adopt the same system of 105 rimes. A certain number of rimes are in complementary distribution with respect to the place of articulation of the initials, e.g. rimes 10 and 11 or rimes 36 and 37, which shows that

1026-579: The Dangxiang ( 党項 ; Dǎngxiàng ) in Chinese, are typically regarded by Chinese scholars to be synonymous with or at least related to the Qiang people. Historically, "Qiang" was a collective term for the multiple ethnic groups who lived on the western borderlands of China, including the modern Qiang people (Rma). The name Tangut first appears in the Orkhon inscriptions of 735. In their own Tangut language,

1083-672: The Mongols would later be able to conquer China. For vacillating between multiple sides, colluding with Mongols and Jurchen, and launching attacks against the Song. However, the Mongols ultimately crushed the Western Xia dynasty, destroyed nearly any vestige of the empire, and ended Jingzong's reign in Ningxia . The Mongols would then reunify China under the Yuan dynasty. In 1048, both the Prime Minister, Mozang Epang (沒藏訛龐), and Prince Ningling Ge (寧令哥) conspired to assassinate Jingzong. Prince Ningling Ge attempted to kill Jingzong with

1140-687: The National Library in Beijing, the Library of Beijing University and other libraries. The connection between the writing and the pronunciation of the Tangut language is even more tenuous than that between Chinese writing and the modern Chinese varieties . Thus although in Chinese more than 90% of the characters possess a phonetic element, this proportion is limited to about 10% in Tangut according to Sofronov. The reconstruction of Tangut pronunciation must resort to other sources. The discovery of

1197-726: The Song dynasty. At its height, he claimed an army of 500,000 men. In 1034 Jingzong attacked the Huanqing territories (環慶路). He captured Song general Qi Zongju (齊宗矩). At this point, he changed his target to the Kingdom of Qocho in the west, and his efforts against them began in 1036. From the Uyghurs, he took large portions of Gansu , and the Tangut people would control the Hexi Corridor for 191 years before being conquered by

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1254-592: The Tangut general Li Sigong the three prefectures of Xia ( Chinese : 夏州 , Tangut: 𘒂𗉔 ), Sui ( Chinese : 綏州 , Tangut: 𗉢𗉔 ), and Yin ( Chinese : 銀州 , Tangut: 𘝰𗉔 ) as hereditary titles under the Dingnan Jiedushi . After the collapse of Tang China, multiple warlords started to form new states in the former territories of Tang China. The Tanguts expanded their realm southwest towards their old homelands. In 1002 they conquered Ling Prefecture and set up their first capital there under

1311-500: The Tangut language. The most significant contribution was made by the Russian scholar Nikolai Aleksandrovich Nevsky (1892–1937), who compiled the first Tangut dictionary and reconstructed the meaning of a number of Tangut grammatical particles, thus making it possible to actually read and understand Tangut texts. His scholarly achievements were published posthumously in 1960 under the title Tangutskaya Filologiya (Tangut Philology), and

1368-526: The Tangut state itself. The Western Xia founder Li Deming's son, Li Yuanhao, enthroned as Emperor Jingzong , sought to differentiate the Tangut state from that of its rival Han-led Song China and started to nurture a national Tangut identity by ordering the creation of an official Tangut script and by instituting laws that reinforced traditional Tangut customs. One of the laws he mandated called for citizens to wear traditional ethnic apparel and another required men to wear their hair short or shaved as opposed to

1425-463: The Tangut state strictly forbade religious teachers from accepting compensation or reward for their teaching services. Although the state did not support an official school of Buddhism, it did protect all religious sites and objects within the country's boundaries. As in China, becoming a Buddhist monk required government approval and anyone found to have taken the vows of a monk without such government oversight faced severe punishment. Remarkably for

1482-515: The Tanguts called themselves Mi-niah (Miñak). Until the 19th century, the term Minjak was still used to refer to the area inhabited by Qiang people in today's Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. Speakers of the Qiangic Muya language in western Kangding calls themselves Minyak. Geographic names such as Min river and Min county (Gansu) are pointed to this root. According to William of Rubruck , who travelled to various parts of

1539-556: The Tanguts to migrate north from their homelands in northeastern Tibet to the eastern Ordos region . By the time of the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763), the Tanguts were the predominant local power in what is now eastern Gansu , Ningxia , and northern Shaanxi . In 881 the Tanguts, who were subjects of Tang China, assisted Tang in suppressing the Huang Chao rebellion. As a reward the Tang central government granted

1596-620: The United States. The Tangut syllable has a CV structure and carries one of two distinctive tones, flat or rising. Following the tradition of Chinese phonological analysis the Tangut syllable is divided into initial ( 聲母 ) and rhyme ( 韻母 ) (i.e. the remaining syllable minus the initial). The consonants are divided into the following categories: The rhyme books distinguish 105 rhyme classes, which are, in turn, classified in several ways:/grade ( 等 ), type ( 環 ), and class ( 攝 ). Tangut rhymes occur in three types ( 環 ). They are seen in

1653-527: The Western Xia, which has led to some claims that the Tangut religion was rooted in Confucianism, but this was incomparable with the degree of popularity of Buddhism. Tangut literature is dominated by Buddhist scriptures while secular teachings including the Chinese classics were rarely available in the Tangut language. The Tangut state enforced strict laws pertaining to the teaching of religious beliefs and rigorously screened potential teachers. Before he

1710-537: The Yuan and Ming courts of China where they served as the spiritual guides to princes and emperors. Their influence also extended to the court of the Tangut Xia Kingdom where a disciple of Dusum Khyenpa was given the title "Supreme Teacher" by a Tangut Xixia King[.] After the fall of the Western Xia, the influx of refugees into Tibet led to the adoption of the Pehar deity into Tibetan Buddhism , eventually in

1767-428: The basis of both morphological and lexical evidence, Lai et al. (2020) classify Tangut as a West Gyalrongic language, and Beaudouin (2023) as a Horpa language . Modern research into the Tangut languages began in the late 19th century and early 20th century when S. W. Bushell , Gabriel Devéria , and Georges Morisse separately published decipherments of a number of Tangut characters found on Western Xia coins , in

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1824-420: The corpus of Tibetan transcriptions of Tangut. These data were studied for the first time by Nevsky (Nevskij) (1925). Nonetheless, these two sources were not in themselves sufficient for a systematic reconstruction of Tangut. In effect, these transcriptions were not written with the intention of representing with precision the pronunciation of Tangut, but instead simply to help foreigners to pronounce and memorize

1881-423: The development of a written language for the Tangut people. However the Tangut script eventually went extinct after the Yuan conquest. Nevertheless, Emperor Jingzong had strong opposition to the people imitating the Song dynasty too closely. He emphasized the value of their traditional nomadic way of life and discouraged any dependence on Song luxury items. Trade with the Song was minimized or cut off before

1938-610: The elite priestly caste . Although Buddhism was extremely popular among the Tangut people, many Tangut herdsmen continued to practice a kind of shamanism known as Root West (Melie). The black caps worn by Root West shamans give the Black Headed caste its name. According to Tangut myth, the ancestor of the Black Headed Tanguts was a heavenly white crane , while the ancestor of the Red Faced Tanguts

1995-577: The highlands of western Sichuan. These regions correspond to the Amdo and Kham regions of the Tibetan plateau. At some point their leader Tuoba Chici, who was likely of mixed Xianbei and Qiang heritage, submitted to Tang China rule and was bestowed the title of Captain General of Western-Rong and the surname "Li". In the early 8th century, increasing pressure from the Tibetan Empire had forced

2052-479: The important role as the state oracle, the Nechung Oracle . Tangut language Tangut (Tangut: 𗼇𗟲 ; Chinese : 西夏語 ; pinyin : Xī Xiàyǔ ; lit. 'Western Xia language') is an extinct language in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty , founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia

2109-424: The initial. Consequently, the reconstructions of Arakawa and Gong do not account for this distinction. Gong represents these three grades as V, iV, and jV. Arakawa accounts for them as V, iV, and V. In general rhyme class ( 攝 ) corresponds to the set of all rhymes under the same rhyme type which have the same main vowel. Gong further posits phonemic vowel length and points to evidence that indicates that Tangut had

2166-664: The local culture in North China than to pure Tibetan or Chinese influences. Texts belonging to the Tibetan Mahamudra tradition demonstrate that Tangut Buddhism initially evolved along the Karma Kagyu rather than Sakya lines of Buddhist transmission. A number of Tangut Buddhist institutions, such as "Imperial Preceptor" survived the Tangut State itself and could be found during the Yuan dynasty . One of

2223-793: The more definite sources of Tangut Buddhism was Mount Wutai , where both Huayan and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism flourished from the late Tang dynasty up to the time of the Mongol conquest . Solonin (2005: unpaginated) links the Tanguts, the Helan Mountains and the Chan teachings of both Kim Hwasang and Baotang Wuzhu: The origins of the Tangut Chan can also be traced deeper than previously believed: information on Bao-tang Wu-zhu (保唐无住720～794) travels in North-Western China from

2280-562: The name of Xiping. By 1036 they had annexed the Guiyi Circuit and the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom , even pushing into Tibetan territory and conquering Xining . The state of Western Xia was proclaimed in 1038. Being subjects of Tang China previously for two centuries, the Tangut people adopted many Han/Tang Chinese culture, but also maintained their own customs, as is proven by the vast amount of literature which survived

2337-457: The peace treaty that came four years before his death. Although Jingzong used talented Song workers, to retain his own power and dynasty, he did not want to be conquered by the Song dynasty. Later on the Western Xia emperors would switch between multiple sides, Liao , Song, Jin , and the Mongols, in order to retain their power. Jingzong's attacks weakened the Jin and Song dynasties to the extent that

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2394-406: The phonological system of the dictionaries with the other sources in order to "fill in" the categories with a phonetic value. N. A. Nevsky reconstructed Tangut grammar and provided the first Tangut–Chinese–English–Russian dictionary, which together with the collection of his papers was published posthumously in 1960 under the title Tangut Philology (Moscow: 1960). Later, substantial contribution to

2451-410: The region the Tanguts controlled ( Chinese : 河西 ). The Tanguts were primarily Buddhists. Tangut Buddhism was influenced by external elements. The entire Chinese Buddhist canon was translated into the Tangut language over a span of 50 years and published around 1090 in about 3700 fascicles. Buddhism in the Tangut state is believed to be an amalgamation of Tibetan and Chinese traditions, among which

2508-447: The research of Tangut language was done by Tatsuo Nishida ( 西田龍雄 ) , Ksenia Kepping , Gong Hwang-cherng ( 龔煌城 ), M.V. Sofronov and Li Fanwen ( 李範文 ). Marc Miyake has published on Tangut phonology and diachronics. There are four Tangut dictionaries available: the one composed by N.A. Nevsky, one composed by Nishida (1966), one composed by Li Fanwen (1997, revised edition 2008) and one composed by Yevgeny Kychanov (2006). There

2565-466: The royal clan emigrated to western Sichuan, northern Tibet, even possibly northeast India, in some instances becoming local rulers. The Tangut people living in Central China preserved their language until at least the 16th century. Tangut society was divided into two classes: the "Red Faced" and the "Black Headed". The Red Faced Tanguts were seen as commoners while the Black Headed Tanguts made up

2622-605: The scholar was eventually (and posthumously) awarded the Soviet Lenin Prize for his work. The understanding of the Tangut language is far from perfect: although certain aspects of the morphology ( Ksenia Kepping , The Morphology of the Tangut Language , Moscow: Nauka, 1985) and grammar ( Tatsuo Nishida , Seika go no kenkyū , etc.) are understood, the syntactic structure of Tangut remains largely unexplored. The Khara-Khoto documents are at present preserved in

2679-404: The scholars who composed these dictionaries had made a very precise phonetic analysis of their language. In distinction to the transcription in foreign languages, the Tangut fanqie makes distinctions among the rhymes in a systematic and very precise manner. Due to the fǎnqiè , we now have a good understanding of the phonological categories of the language. Nonetheless, it is necessary to compare

2736-422: The surname Weiming (Chinese: 嵬名, Tangut: 𗼨𗆟 ). He had also started a revolution, changing the lifestyles of the Tangut people. He ordered Tangut men to shave their heads or they would face public execution. He also ordered a change of clothing and writing. With the help of Chinese traitors Zhang Yuan  [ zh ] (張元) and Wu Hao  [ zh ] (吳昊), Jingzong took an aggressive stance with

2793-421: The thirteenth century, Genghis Khan unified the northern grasslands of Mongolia and led his troops in six rounds of attacks against the Western Xia over a period of twenty-two years (1205, 1207, 1209–10, 1211–13, 1214–19, 1225–27). During the last spate of the Mongol attacks, Genghis died in Western Xia territory. The official Mongol history attributes his death to illness, whereas legends claim that he died from

2850-433: The time, women played a role in Tangut religious practices by serving as nuns , a position that could only be held by a woman who had been widowed or who was an unmarried virgin. Suchan (1998) traces the influence of the first several Karmapas upon the Yuan and Ming courts as well as the Western Xia, and mentions Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama : The first several Karmapas are distinguished by their important status at

2907-535: The tradition of Nishida, followed by both Arakawa and Gong as 'normal' ( 普通母音 ), 'tense' ( 緊喉母音 ), and 'retroflex' ( 捲舌母音 ). Gong leaves normal vowels unmarked and places a dot under tense vowels and an -r after retroflex vowels. Arakawa differs only by indicating tense vowels with a final -q. The rhyme books distinguish four vowel grades ( 等 ). In early phonetic reconstructions, all four were separately accounted for, but it has since been realized that grades three and four are in complementary distribution, depending on

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2964-486: The words of one language with the words of another which they could understand. The third source, which constitutes the basis of the modern reconstructions, consists of monolingual Tangut dictionaries: the Wenhai ( 文海 ), two editions of the Tongyin ( 同音 ), the Wenhai zalei ( 文海雜類 ) and an untitled dictionary. The record of the pronunciation in these dictionaries is made using the principle of fǎnqiè , borrowed from

3021-399: Was a monkey. Tangut kings went by the title of Wuzu. According to sources in the Tangut language, the Tangut state known now as the Western Xia was named 𗴂𗹭𗂧𘜶 translated as "Great State of White and Lofty" ( phôn¹ mbın² lhi̯ə tha² ). Although the Chinese translation of this name ( Chinese : 白高大國 ; pinyin : Báigāo Dàguó ) was occasionally used in Tangut sources, the state

3078-404: Was allowed to teach, a newcomer entering the state from Tibet or India first had to seek the approval of local authorities. Doctrines taught and methods used were carefully supervised to ensure there was no possibility that the Tangut people might misunderstand the teachings. Anyone found to be a fortune-teller or charlatan faced immediate persecution. Deeming it contrary to Buddhist ethical beliefs,

3135-431: Was annihilated by the Mongol Empire in 1227. The Tangut language has its own script, the Tangut script . The latest known text written in the Tangut language, the Tangut dharani pillars , dates to 1502, suggesting that the language was still in use nearly three hundred years after the collapse of Western Xia. Since the 2010s, Tangutologists have commonly classified Tangut as a Qiangic or Gyalrongic language. On

3192-549: Was most commonly referred to as the "Great Xia" (大夏) in Chinese-language sources of the Tangut or as the "Xia State" ( Chinese : 夏國 ) to the Song. In later historiography and in modern Chinese the Tangut state is referred to as the "Western Xia" ( Xī Xià 西夏). The Mongols and other steppe tribes referred to the Tangut kingdom as "Qashi" or "Qashin", which was derived from the Middle Chinese name for Hexi ,

3249-479: Was the eldest son of the Tangut ruler Li Deming . Yuanhao was born to Tuoba Weiming's consort, lady Weimu as "Weimai" (嵬埋 ). After his father died in 1032, he became the leader of the Tangut. He was described as a talented army general and had always wanted to establish a country for the Tanguts. Early in his leadership, Jingzong abolished the surname Zhao which had been given by the Song dynasty , replacing it with

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