Duan Xiang Xing

Biography

Accession and Situation

Duan Xiangxing was a son of Duan Zhixiang. The summary of one account gives 1206 as his birth year and 1239 as the start of his reign; another account does not give a birth year and says that he acceded in 1238 or 1239. Both sources use Daolong as his era name and list no other confirmed era name. During his reign Dali faced military pressure from the Mongols, but the full texts available contain almost no concrete record of domestic measures, and no policy should be written in from the word "holding the inheritance".

Fighting the Mongols

In 1244 one account records that Mongol forces invaded Lin Pass and that Duan Xiangxing sent his senior general Gao He to fight, who was defeated and killed. Another account gives the name as Gao Taihe and records that he twice drove the Mongols back at Jiuhe with three thousand men before finally being defeated. The general's name may be treated as a variant spelling, but the sequence of initial success followed by defeat appears in only one account and is kept with its source limitation. Both sources say that the Mongol forces later withdrew, but the claim that this happened "because of Ögedei's death" does not agree with the 1241 death year recorded elsewhere, so only the withdrawal is recorded and the causal explanation is not adopted.

Death and Succession

In 1251 Duan Xiangxing died and was given the posthumous title Xiaoyi. Both sources record that his son Duan Xingzhi succeeded him and became the last ruler of Dali to reign in fact; another account also lists Duan Fu in the family column while a further account lists him as a younger brother, and the two do not agree, so the entry does not determine Duan Fu's exact relation to Duan Xiangxing.

Major Activities

Political and institutional context

The cached record places Duan Xiang Xing within the institutions and conflicts of Dali.

Source-based record

Personal Relations

• Relationships are recorded from the cached source text and should be read together with the related entries listed below.

Historical Assessment

The external military pressure of the later part of Duan Xiangxing's reign can be seen in the fighting of 1244, and the outcome of the later destruction of Dali is not enough to judge all his personal decisions. Phrases such as "the calamity of a lost state" or "a mess left behind" in the titles of another account are modern summaries, not independently verifiable historical appraisals; the entry stays within the campaigns, the succession and the divergences of the sources.