Li Xian

Biography

Succession and appeal to Jin

The History of Song identifies Li as the son of the Prince of Qingping and as the former Prince of Nanping. Li Dewang died in the seventh lunar month of 1226 (fourth year of Qianding). Li succeeded him and adopted Baoyi as his era name. He sent envoys to Jin to announce the death. Jin sent a delegation of condolence and returned Western Xia people previously taken during fighting, but this exchange did not reverse the Mongol advance.

Defense, surrender, and death

Mongol forces advanced along separate routes during Li's reign. Once Lingzhou fell, Zhongxing Prefecture came under siege. other accounts's full article records that the Western Xia general Weiming Linggong unsuccessfully led a relief force toward Lingzhou and that the right chancellor Gao Lianghui helped defend the capital. By the summer of 1227 (second year of Baoyi), food was scarce, disease had spread, and an earthquake had struck the besieged city. Li offered to submit and asked for a month to prepare tribute and relocate households. Both encyclopedias state that Genghis Khan died after Li's request and that the news was initially withheld. Li was killed after leaving the city; Western Xia ceased to exist. Accounts in the encyclopedias and the History of Yuan credit the Mongol commander Chaghan with arguing against a massacre and pacifying the city. The request to surrender in the sixth lunar month and the later act of leaving the city were separate events.

Major Activities

Li's reign lasted about a year. His recorded actions center on defending the capital, maintaining contact with Jin, and seeking terms from the Mongols. His condolence mission to Jin shows an attempt to preserve diplomatic ties. After Lingzhou fell, he relied on Gao Lianghui and others to hold Zhongxing Prefecture. Hunger, illness, and the earthquake made further defense unsustainable. The requested delay did not alter the outcome. The surviving sources provide little detail about his personal administration; policies of earlier Western Xia rulers cannot simply be attributed to him.

His accession and capture came close together, the destruction of Western Xia running parallel with his own fate.

As the last ruler of Western Xia, he reigned while the Mongol armies besieged Zhongxing; on his surrender Western Xia came to an end, his own fate and that of the state falling in the same period.

As the last ruler of Western Xia he came to the throne when the Mongol armies had already penetrated the country and were besieging the capital, his reign was very short and the state ended with his surrender; the destruction of Western Xia forms a continuous process of alternations of war and peace under his predecessors, the siege of the capital and the final surrender, with few verifiable acts of his own, so that the entry keeps to years and events.

The era names and the instrument of surrender of his reign appear in the relevant parts of the History of Jin and the History of Yuan.

His surrender and the destruction of Western Xia are recorded both in Western Xia and in Mongol sources.

His instrument of surrender and its aftermath are the last step in the Mongol conquest of Western Xia.

The era names of his reign appear in Western Xia sources, and his end is the terminus of the Mongol conquest.

He reigned little more than a year, and the Western Xia state ended with him.

After his surrender he was sent to the Mongol army.

The position of Western Xia in his reign is bound up with Mongol strategy: over more than a decade the Mongols attacked it several times, gradually taking the Hexi and Ordos regions, so that by his accession the capital was already besieged; his surrender, killing and the fate of the Western Xia imperial clan appear in both Mongol and Western Xia sources, which do not fully agree in detail, so the entry keeps to years and principal events.

The military situation at the end of Western Xia centred on the siege of the capital Zhongxing, and the treatment after his surrender was decided by the Mongol side; after the state's end its former lands were organised under Yuan provinces and princely appanages.

His era names and the circumstances of his surrender appear in the sources of the last years of Western Xia.

After his surrender the Western Xia imperial clan and officials were mostly moved to the Mongol army and resettled.

After his killing the former Western Xia lands came under Mongol rule.

The military and political events of his reign all concern the Mongol siege.

At his accession the territory of Western Xia had already been greatly reduced.

With his surrender the Western Xia ancestral temples and records were dispersed.

The state ended under the successive Mongol attacks.

The capital had been besieged for more than a year during his reign, and surrender was the only course left to him.

The year of his surrender is the year of the Western Xia's end.

As to the politics of Western Xia in its last years, the choices of war and peace around his accession are closely tied to the rhythm of the Mongol advance: the Mongols first took Hexi and then besieged the capital, and after his surrender the soldiers, people and imperial clan were dealt with separately by the Mongols, the dynastic title being abolished. What is verifiable of him concerns his accession, the siege and his surrender.

During the siege the city's provisions ran out and many of the defenders surrendered.

His titles and the chronology of the last Western Xia years appear in both histories.

Neither his age at surrender nor the length of his reign is precisely recorded.

After his surrender the people of Western Xia remained in their homeland.

After the dynastic title was abolished, offices were established in the former Western Xia lands.

Personal Relations

• Li Zunxu: His grandfather, Emperor Shenzong of Western Xia.
• Prince of Qingping: His father; neither encyclopedia gives the father's personal name.
• Li Dewang: His uncle, Emperor Xianzong, and immediate predecessor.
• Gao Lianghui: Western Xia right chancellor who helped defend Zhongxing Prefecture.
• Weiming Linggong: Western Xia commander who led a relief force toward Lingzhou.
• Genghis Khan: Mongol ruler who directed the final campaign; Li was killed under his final orders.
• Chaghan: Mongol commander credited in the encyclopedias and the History of Yuan with arguing against a massacre.

Historical Assessment

The History of Song summarizes the end of Li's reign by saying that the state was taken by the Mongols and thereafter ceased to exist. It gives no extensive judgment of Li's abilities. other accounts documents the multiple Mongol offensives and the long siege, showing the grave military crisis he inherited. The two encyclopedias and the local histories do not support a confident overall judgment of his personal decision making.