His
Capital Was Hia Chau, Now Ning Hia, On The Yellow River.
Chinghiz invaded
Tangut three times, in 1206, 1217, and at last in 1225; the final struggle
took place the following year, when Kanchau, Liangchau, and Suhchau fell
into the hands of the Mongols.
After the death of Chinghiz (1227), the last
ruler of Tangut, Li H'ien, who surrendered the same year to Okkodai, son of
the conqueror, was killed. The dominions of Tangut in the middle of the
11th century, according to the Si Hia Chi Shih Pen Mo, quoted by Dr.
Bushell, "were bounded, according to the map, by the Sung Empire on the
south and east, by the Liao (Khitan) on the north-east, the Tartars (Tata)
on the north, the Uighur Turks (Hui-hu) on the west, and the Tibetans on
the south-west. The Alashan Mountains stretch along the northern frontier,
and the western extends to the Jade Gate (Yue Men Kwan) on the border of the
Desert of Gobi." Under the Mongol Dynasty, Kan Suh was the official name of
one of the twelve provinces of the Empire, and the popular name was Tangut.
(Dr. S. W. Bushell: Inscriptions in the Juchen and Allied Scripts and
The Hsi Hsia Dynasty of Tangut. See above, p. 29.)
"The word Tangutan applied by the Chinese and by Colonel Prjevalsky to a
Tibetan-speaking people around the Koko-nor has been explained to me in a
variety of ways by native Tangutans. A very learned lama from the Gserdkog
monastery, south-east of the Koko-nor, told me that Tangutan, Amdoans, and
Sifan were interchangeable terms, but I fear his geographical knowledge
was a little vague. The following explanation of the term Tangut is taken
from the Hsi-tsang-fu. 'The Tangutans are descendants of the
Tang-tu-chueeh. The origin of this name is as follows: In early days, the
Tangutans lived in the Central Asian Chin-shan, where they were workers of
iron. They made a model of the Chin-shan, which, in shape, resembled an
iron helmet. Now, in their language, "iron helmet" is Tang-kueeh, hence
the name of the country. To the present day, the Tangutans of the Koko-nor
wear a hat shaped like a pot, high crowned and narrow, rimmed with red
fringe sewn on it, so that it looks like an iron helmet, and this is a
proof of [the accuracy of the derivation].' Although the proof is not very
satisfactory, it is as good as we are often offered by authors with greater
pretension to learning.
"If I remember rightly, Prjevalsky derives the name from two words meaning
'black tents.'" (W. W. Rockhill, China Br. R. As. Soc., XX. pp.
278-279.)
"Chinese authorities tell us that the name [Tangut] was originally borne
by a people living in the Altai', and that the word is Turkish.... The
population of Tangut was a mixture of Tibetans, Turks, Uighurs, Tukuhuns,
Chinese, etc." (Rockhill, Rubruck, p. 150, note.
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