Tangut people in the context of "History of the Song dynasty"

The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (Chinese: 西夏; pinyin: Xī Xià; Wade–Giles: Hsi Hsia), officially the Great Xia (大夏; Dà Xià; Ta Hsia), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as Mi-nyak to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led imperial dynasty of China that existed from 1038 to 1227. At its peak, the dynasty ruled over modern-day north-central China, including parts of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, Northern Shaanxi, North Eastern Xinjiang, and Southwest Inner Mongolia, and Southernmost Outer Mongolia, measuring about 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 square miles).

The capital of Western Xia was Xingqing (modern Yinchuan); another major Xia city and archaeological site is Khara-Khoto. Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongols in 1227. Most of its written records and architecture were destroyed, so the founders and history of the empire remained obscure until 20th-century research in China and the West. Today the Tangut language and its unique script are extinct, only fragments of Tangut literature remain.

Between 1205 and 1210, and again in 1225-1227, the Mongol Empire embarked on a series of military campaigns that ultimately led to the destruction of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty in northwestern China. Hoping to both to plunder and acquire vassalage, Genghis Khan commanded some initial raids against the Western Xia before launching a full-scale invasion in 1209. This was the first major invasion conducted by Genghis, and his first major incursion into China.

The Mongols began a siege of the Western Xia capital Yinchuan that lasted nearly a year, during which the Mongols tried to divert a river to flood the city, but accidentally flooded their own camp instead. Ultimately, Emperor Xiangzong of Western Xia surrendered to the Mongols in January 1210, marking the beginning of a decade of Western Xia vassalage under the Mongols, where they provided support for the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty. However, when Genghis invaded the Islamic Khwarazmian Empire in 1219, the Western Xia attempted to break away from Mongol vassalage and form alliances with the Jin and Song dynasties. Angered by the betrayal of the Western Xia, Genghis Khan began a second campaign against them, sending a punitive expedition into Western Xia in 1225. Genghis intended to annihilate the entire Western Xia culture: he methodically destroyed their cities and countryside, and began besieging Yinchuan in 1227. In December, near the end of the siege, Genghis Khan died of unknown causes, which has been presented by some accounts as being the result of wounds he had suffered against the Western Xia. Following Genghis's death, Yinchuan fell to the Mongols, and most of its population was massacred.

Khara-Khoto (Chinese: 哈拉浩特 or 哈日浩特; Mongolian: Хар хот (Khar Khot); 'black city'), also known as Qara-Qoto, Heicheng (Chinese: 黑城), Heishuicheng or Heishui City (Chinese: 黑水城), is an abandoned city in the Ejin Banner of Alxa League in western Inner Mongolia, China, near the Juyan Lake Basin. Built in 1032, the city thrived under the rule of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has been identified as the city of Etzina, which appears in The Travels of Marco Polo, and Ejin Banner is named after this city.

Tangut (Tangut: 𗼇𗟲; Chinese: 西夏語; pinyin: Xīxià yǔ; lit. 'Western Xia language') is an extinct Sino‑Tibetan language, now argued to belong within the Horpa subgroup of West Gyalrongic.

Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty, founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia 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.

The Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom (traditional Chinese: 甘州回鶻; simplified Chinese: 甘州回鹘; pinyin: Gānzhōu Huíhú), also referred to as the Hexi Uyghurs (traditional Chinese: 河西回鶻; simplified Chinese: 河西回鹘; pinyin: Héxī Huíhú), was a Turkic dynastic state ruled by the Uyghur Yaglakar clan. It was established in 894 around Ganzhou in modern-day Zhangye, and lasted until 1036. During that time, many of Ganzhou's residents converted to Buddhism.

The Hexi Corridor, located within modern Gansu, was traditionally a Chinese inroad into Central Asia. From the 9th to 11th centuries this area was shared between the Ganzhou Uyghurs and the Guiyi Circuit. By the early 11th century both the Uyghurs and Guiyi Circuit were conquered by the Tangut people of the Western Xia dynasty.

Qiang (Chinese: 羌; pinyin: Qiāng; Wade–Giles: Ch'iang) was a name given to various groups of people at different periods in ancient China. The Qiang people are generally thought to have been of Tibeto-Burman origin, though there are other theories.

The Tangut people of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties may be of Qiang descent. The modern Qiang people as well as Tibetans may also have been descended in part from the ancient Qiang.

A number of ethnic groups of the People's Republic of China are not officially recognized. Taken together, these groups (simplified Chinese: 未识别民族; traditional Chinese: 未識別民族; pinyin: wèi shíbié mínzú) would constitute the twentieth most populous ethnic group of China. Some scholars have estimated that there are over 200 distinct ethnic groups that inhabit China, compared to 56 groups that are officially recognized. There are in addition small distinct ethnic groups that have been classified as part of larger ethnic groups that are officially recognized. Some groups, like the Hui of Xinjiang with the Hui of Fujian, are geographically and culturally separate, except for the shared belief of Islam. Han Chinese, being the world's largest ethnic group, has a large diversity within it, such as in Gansu, whose Han individuals may have genetic traits from the assimilated Tangut civilization. Although they are indigenous to Hainan island and do not speak a Chinese language, the Lingao (Ong-Be) people near the capital (8% of the population) are counted as Han Chinese.

Emperor Xiangzong of Western Xia (1170–1211), born Li Anquan (Chinese: 李安全), was the seventh emperor of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty of China, reigning from 1206 to 1211. He launched attacks on the Jin dynasty, but eventually surrendered to the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan.