The Western Xia is a feudal dynasty established by the Dangxiang clan in Chinese history, which existed from 1038 to 1227 AD, and went through 10 generations of emperors and enjoyed the country for 190 years. The name of the country of Western Xia is Xia, because it is located in the northwest of the Song Dynasty, so the Song people call it Western Xia.
The capital of Western Xia was Xingqing Prefecture, located in present-day Yinchuan City, Ningxia. The Western Xia regime covered present-day Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places, and was an important part of the Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan kingdoms.
The main ethnic group of Western Xia is the Dangxiang people, and the Dangxiang people are an ancient people, which originated from Xirong and belonged to a branch of the Qiang people. The language of the Dangxiang ethnic group belongs to the Qiang branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and has its own script, that is, Tangut script. Tangut is a syllabic script consisting of sixty-four basic letters, each with four variants, representing four tones. Tangut is written in a right-to-left, top-to-bottom direction, similar to Arabic. The Tangut script has a large number of Chinese loanwords, reflecting the influence of the Tangut culture on the Han culture.
Other ethnic groups of Tangut include Han, Uighur, Tubo, Shatuo, etc., who occupy different positions and roles in Tangut society.
The Han Chinese were the second largest ethnic group in Western Xia, mainly engaged in agriculture, commerce, and handicrafts, with some Han Chinese serving as officials, literati, and monks.
The Uighurs were a nomadic people from Central Asia, related to the Dangxiang people, who were mainly engaged in pastoral and military affairs, and were important allies of the Western Xia.
The Tubo people were the inhabitants of the neighboring country of Western Xia, Tibet, who lived mainly in the southwestern part of Western Xia, practiced Tibetan Buddhism, and had wars and peace with Western Xia.
The Shatuo were a nomadic people from the north who had a hostile relationship with the Dangxiang tribe who had established the Liao state, a rival of the Western Xia, and was later conquered by the Mongols as part of the Mongol army.
The ethnic policy of the Western Xia was dominated by the Dangxiang clan, but it also respected and accommodated the customs and beliefs of other ethnic groups. The Western Xia practiced a system of regional ethnic autonomy, and each ethnic group enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy in the area where they lived, and could handle internal affairs in accordance with their own laws and customs. The Western Xia also practiced a system of ethnic equality, and all ethnic groups had certain opportunities to participate and develop in politics, economy, culture, religion, etc., and were not discriminated against and oppressed. The Tangut also practiced a system of ethnic integration, which encouraged exchanges and intermarriage between various ethnic groups and promoted ethnic unity and harmony.
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