[ 메디채널 김장윤(JASON KIM) 기자 ] Researchers piece together a fascinating tale to shed light on an exceptional saga, Wang Kaihao and Wang Ru report in Yinchuan.
BEIJING, July 14, 2025 -- A report from China Daily:
In 1227, this dynasty in Northwest China was finally defeated by the Mongol army after a prolonged and valiant resistance — a campaign led by Genghis Khan, who died in his frontline camp during the final assault. Xixia (or Western Xia, 1038-1227), a power lasting for 190 years and once spread across over 1.15 million square kilometers at its zenith, eventually fell in the Gobi Desert.
Established by Tangut people and inhabited by various ethnic groups, Xixia was not documented in a specific history book by its successors while most Chinese dynasties were.
However, on the foot of the lingering Helan Mountains, a group of earthen mounds, which marked the long resting places of Xixia rulers, seal an exceptional saga, not only as a footnote on how a united Chinese nation evolved and boomed, but also about a neglected legend on the Silk Road.
The spotlight returns onto this site on the outskirts of Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region. On Friday, Xixia Imperial Tombs achieved World Heritage site status during the ongoing 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in Paris.
Flood waters gushing from the mountains etched a fan-shaped land, dotted by desert vegetation and bathed in Gobi wilderness.
Within the 3,899 hectares of property zone, its key elements included nine imperial mausoleums, 271 subordinate tombs, 32 flood control work sites, and a 5.03-hectare architectural complex site to the north, whose nature remains subject to debate but most scholars agree that it was used for rituals.
"The combination of artificial and natural elements creates a unique and majestic landscape at the tombs," says Chen Tongbin, honorary director of the Institute of Architectural History, affiliated to the China Architecture Design and Research Group.
Chen is a main drafter of the bidding document seeking World Heritage site status. Visiting the site numerous times, she is still amazed at the breathtaking sunset vista that unrolls in front of her eyes.
"It's hard to grow crops on the landscape of proluvial fan," she explains. "The land is not suitable for massive construction. The site has thus not been much disturbed other than through natural erosion. Its integrity leaves us with a credible source to know history."
The 11th to 13th centuries, the time of Xixia, witnessed a key era of political standoff and cultural communications in China. The Song Dynasty (960-1279), celebrated for its thriving culture and art in Chinese history, ruled central and southern China. The Khitan and Jurchen peoples successively established the Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties to the north. The rise of Mongols on the grassland then further greatly changed the geopolitical environment.
"Xixia people demonstrated their perseverance and wisdom in the complicated circumstance," Chen explains. "They're adept at learning and creativity. They relied on both agriculture and nomads."
In her eyes, Xixia Imperial Tombs remain a crucial witness to such cultural fusion and innovation resulting from interactions among diverse ethnic groups, modes of livelihoods and cultures. The tombs manifest such features through site selection, spatial layout, burial system, architecture, construction techniques, funerary customs, and so on, Chen says.
Track into the past
Centuries passed. Sands and time blurred people's memory about the graves. In the 1930s, when a German pilot flew over what is now known as Mausoleum No 3 — the largest tomb among the complex — and took aerial pictures, he described it as "a huge anthill".
Its true identity as a site of imperial tombs only re-emerged in the 1970s when Chinese archaeologists first launched excavations on the site. The "anthill" is actually a circular mausoleum pagoda, though the outside layers of construction, towering via bricks and tiles, had vanished.
Half a century's continuous research has greatly cleared questions surrounding the site, according to Chai Pingping, an archaeologist with the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology who is in charge of recent research on Xixia Imperial Tombs.
Broken pieces of stele that were inscribed with Tangut scripts and Chinese characters, architectural components, gold artifacts, sandstone statues, Buddhist relics, and so on, gradually provide a panorama of Xixia imperial life despite surviving documentations on the dynasty not being as rich as its contemporaneous neighbors.
"Archaeology will also offer support when we design plans to preserve the site and explain its values to the public," he says.
In the past decade or so, archaeologists expanded the studies to subordinate tombs and water control sites, which unveil an even wider spectrum of Xixia society.
For example, Chai considers that the water control facilities, which can still function today, offer a precious glimpse into how Xixia people designed their defensive systems.
Heavy rain hit the tomb when Chai was guiding China Daily reporters to the site. An ancient Xixia proverb written on the walkway thus seems to have particular meaning.
It says: "Prepare by building canals before rainy season arrives; those without specific skills should be diligent and hardworking."
Nonetheless, as experts point out, the imperial tombs follow traditional Chinese geomancy, feng shui.
The relatively elevated proluvial fans covered with gravel and coarse sand lead to good drainage conditions. The towering Helan Mountains serve as a natural shelter for the tombs.
"Through archaeological studies, we can see the layout and design of Xixia Imperial Tombs absorb many elements from Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties,"Chai says. "It also has its own features."
For example, Xixia people used pagodas to replace the shrines, which were often seen in Tang and Song mausoleums to honor the tomb occupants' souls.
"Xixia people adopted many traditions from other Chinese dynasties," Chen agrees. "But they displayed their creativity in details."
Xixia founding ruler Yuanhao's creation of Tangut script, whose formation basically followed that of Chinese characters, is an example of Chen's views. Xixia also honored Confucius as "an emperor" and became the only dynasty known to do so in Chinese history. That move thus gave a great impetus to the development of Confucianism within its rule.
Perhaps, the design of the imperial tombs is yet another proof.
Though a tomb is basically symmetrical along an axis, sacrificial hall, the mound above the tomb passageway, the pagoda, and burial chamber are located along another skewed line.
"It may reflect the traditional Tangut beliefs: the central axis is left to pay homage to ghosts and deities," Chen explains.
Chai reveals more comparative archaeological studies surrounding Xixia Imperial Tombs and those of other Chinese dynasties will be conducted to have a bigger picture of communication.
According to Du Jianlu, a history professor on Xixia studies, the time when Song, Liao, Xixia and Jin dynasties coexisted was an important period for various ethnic groups of China to merge and form a shared community.
"Khitan, Tangut and Jurchen ethnic groups communicated and integrated with the Han people for a long time," Du says. "They gradually absorbed the traditional material and spiritual culture of the Han and, vice versa, they also spread their own customs.
"It thus enriches the connotations of Chinese civilization," he adds.
Milestone discovery
Continuous studies on Xixia Imperial Tombs may open a new horizon to gradually fit the jigsaw puzzles together and form a big picture.
In the early 20th century, a great amount of literature in Tangut scripts was discovered by foreign explorers at the Heishuicheng site in nearby Ejine Banner, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which was later identified as an ancient Xixia city.
The Heishuicheng literature, which is about various aspects of Xixia society, was regarded a milestone discovery in ancient literary artifacts.
"It provides very important basic materials for us. Without the literature, studies of Xixia would not have developed to the current level," says Shi Jinbo, a veteran historian from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences specializing in the studies of Xixia.
From Heishuicheng, people found Pearl in the Palm, a 12th-century bilingual glossary of the Chinese and Tangut languages, which has become the key for modern researchers decoding the writing system of Xixia. Scholars have recognized nearly 6,000 characters in Tangut scripts.
In its preface, Xixia scholar Gule Maocai particularly highlighted the importance of learning each other's languages for effective communication between Han people and other ethnic groups.
"The book serves as a good testimony to the frequent exchange and integration, which laid a foundation for Xixia's prosperity," Shi says. "Developing through mutual learning and communication, that is a good inspiration Xixia has left to us."
Among the Heishuicheng literature, researchers also discovered Tiansheng Gaijiu Xinding Lyuling or "The new laws in the years of Tiansheng (1149-1169) modified from the old one".
It is the longest, most detailed and best preserved code of laws, that is known of Xixia. It includes nearly 200,000 Tangut scripts.
"This is the oldest surviving comprehensive legal code left by a non-Han ethnic group in Chinese history, " Shi says.
He says the code was compiled on the basis of laws of Tang and Song dynasties, and similar physical evidences of legal codes from other Chinese dynasties of its time were rare.
The code also records Xixia exchanged with not only surrounding regimes but also Central and even West Asia through tribute, market fairs, and mutual trades along the Silk Road.
And findings on Xixia Imperial Tombs may resonate with the recordings.
On the outer wall of Mausoleum No 3, arc-shaped corner towers may tell its possible inspiration from similar battlements in West Asia while most such structures in ancient China were square-shaped.
Sculptures of Kalavinka, a fantastical immortal with a bird's torso, also rested on the roof of mausoleum structures. Colloquially known as an "exquisite sound bird" and believed to originate from India, this deity image appeared in other key Buddhist sites in the rest of China following booming trade on the Silk Road.
In 1991, a Buddhist scripture in Tangut script was unearthed from a pagoda in a valley of Helan Mountains and turned out to be the world's earliest extant wooden movable-type imprint. And on the site of Xixia Imperial Tombs, rich discoveries of porcelain, iron, and bronze objects, further showcase the dynasty's pivotal role in distribution of technology.
Thanks to continuous research, about 7,100 cultural relics excavated from the Xixia Imperial Tombs now lie in collections of museums, filling the empty spaces of documentations.
Still, a large part of Xixia history still awaits to be decoded. For example, archaeologists have attributed just one of nine imperial mausoleums to a known ruler.
Who are the others lying beneath those huge mounds?
"Gaining World Heritage site status will attract more attention to the history, not only from the scholars, but also among the public, and the younger generation in particular," says Chen, the bidding document drafter.
"Different ethnic groups have their own talents and they eventually merge into the Chinese nation," she says. "That's how we've come so far."
Hu Dongmei contributed to this story.
Contact the writers at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn
