Li Jiqian

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

The source presents Li Jiqian as a descendant of the Xianbei imperial family of Northern Wei. The History of Song, juan 485, “Account of the Xia State, Part One,” records a later memorial from his grandson Li Yuanhao to Emperor Renzong claiming that his ancestors descended from an imperial line dating to the founding of Northern Wei. The History of Liao likewise states that Western Xia traced its origins to the Tuoba clan of Northern Wei. The History of Jin records a genealogy presented by the Western Xia official Luo Shichang that traced the dynasty's ancestors to Songzhou after the decline of the Northern Wei imperial line and said that they retained the old Tuoba clan name.

Early in the Zhenguan era of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Jiqian's ancestor Tuoba Chici submitted to the Tang and received the imperial surname Li. During the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang, the source says Li Jiqian's great-great-grandfather Li Sizhong and the latter's clansman Li Sigong died while campaigning against Huang Chao. Thereafter the Tangut Li lineage held five prefectures centered on Xiazhou under the Dingnan Army through the late Tang and Five Dynasties. His great-grandfather Li Renyan served the Later Tang as defense commissioner of Yinzhou, his grandfather Li Yijing served the Later Jin, and his father Li Guangyan served the Later Zhou.

Li Jiqian was born in 963, the fourth year of the Jianlong era, by the Wuding River at Yinzhou. The History of Song records that he was “born with teeth.” As he grew, he became known for courage, strategy, riding, archery, and cunning. In 974 Li Guangrui, military governor of Dingnan and a clansman of Li Jiqian, admired his ability and appointed the twelve-year-old Li to an office overseeing tribal forces within the command.

Resistance to the Song and the Creation of an Autonomous Base

In 982, the seventh year of the Taiping Xingguo era, Li Jipeng went to the Song court and came into conflict with Li Kewen. Li Kewen persuaded Emperor Taizong not to allow Li Jipeng to inherit the military governorship. Acting commissioner Li Jipeng therefore ceded his territory to the Song, and the emperor ordered members of the Li clan within specified degrees of kinship to move to Bianjing as hostages. Li Jiqian then learned that the five prefectures had passed to Song control.

According to History of the Western Xia, juan 3, Li Jiqian was twenty years old. Unwilling to be transferred inland, he consulted his younger brother Li Jichong and his trusted adviser Zhang Pu. He argued that his ancestors had held the territory for more than three centuries and that the removal of the clan to the capital threatened the survival of the Li house. Li Jichong urged a sudden attack on Xiazhou and seizure of Suizhou and Yinzhou, while Zhang Pu advised temporary withdrawal because the family alone could not yet raise Xiazhou, the tribal groups were waiting to see what would happen, Li Kewen held local authority, and Yin Xian had strong Song forces nearby. Li Jiqian accepted Zhang's advice. He falsely announced the death of his wet nurse, hid weapons in funeral carts, and fled with several dozen relatives to the Tangut area of Dijinze, more than three hundred li from Xiazhou. He displayed an ancestral portrait of Li Sizhong to local tribesmen, who reportedly wept and followed him in growing numbers.

In the twelfth lunar month of the same year, Li attacked Xiazhou, beginning his long confrontation with the Song.

Maneuvering against the Song

In the third lunar month of 983, after learning that Li Jipeng and others had accepted favor from Emperor Taizong, Li Jiqian sent tribute to the Song and submitted a memorial saying that he did not wish to move to Bianjing but was willing to guard the frontier permanently. Emperor Taizong replied by praising the earlier loyalty of Li's ancestors to Chinese dynasties and explaining both the benefits of submission and the consequences of continued resistance. Li nevertheless remained outside Song control.

In the fifth lunar month, Li led his followers from Zuoling to raid Song forces. The two sides fought at Jialu River, northwest of present-day Jia County in Shaanxi, and Li was badly defeated and fled. In the ninth lunar month he attacked Sancha Pass and lost again, with more than seven hundred men and horses lost. Song commanders Tian Qinzuo and Jing Si recruited fifty elite soldiers and attacked Li's main camp by night with fire, killing more than a thousand men. In the twelfth lunar month Emperor Taizong ordered officials in Suizhou, Yinzhou, Xiazhou, and other places to attract farmers who had fled beyond the frontier back to their homes and fields, undercutting Li's manpower. Seeing many followers inclined to return to the Song, Li consulted Zhang Pu, assembled Western tribal forces, and attacked Youzhou with twenty thousand men but was repelled by the Song inspector Li Xun commanding mixed tribal and Han forces.

In 984 Li remained at Dijinze after failing to take Youzhou. The area had abundant water and pasture and was suitable for livestock, allowing his following to grow. In the fifth lunar month he ordered his younger brother Li Jichong to recruit among tribal groups, and the chief Moyingren Nieya of the Miewei Tangut clan led his followers to surrender. In the seventh lunar month Li raided Wangting Town and captured people said to number in the tens of thousands.

Defeat at Dijinze and Recovery

In the ninth lunar month of 984, Yin Xian, Song administrator of Xiazhou, and Cao Guangshi, chief frontier inspector, learned where Li was camped and sent several thousand elite cavalry on a night attack. They heavily defeated his forces, cut off five hundred heads, burned 1,400 tents, and seized large quantities of cattle, sheep, and equipment. Li and his younger brother Li Jichong abandoned their troops and escaped, while Li's mother and his wife Lady Wang were captured.

After the defeat, Li moved constantly because he feared Song pursuit. The source says local people in the northwest remembered the Li family's earlier favors and helped him in his distress. Li appealed to local powerful families by saying that the Li house had held the western lands for generations and asking whether they would help him restore it. They agreed and gathered at Huangyang Plain north of Xiazhou, where tribal supporters joined and his military strength revived. Powerful Qiang families including the Yeli clan also married daughters to him.

Feigned Surrender and the Seizure of Yinzhou

In the second lunar month of 985, Li sent an envoy to Yinzhou and pretended to arrange surrender with the Song frontier commander Cao Guangshi. He actually placed troops in ambush at Jialu River, lured Cao and others into the trap, killed them, appropriated their banners, and seized Yinzhou. He then styled himself commander of tribal forces and acting commissioner of the Dingnan Army. Chiefs of several tribal groups were given titles equivalent to prefect.

In the third lunar month Li attacked Huizhou and burned the city, with the source reporting thousands of officials and inhabitants killed. Emperor Taizong responded by sending Tian Renlang, administrator of Qinzhou, Li Jilong, and others against him. Tangut chiefs including Zheluo Yu and his younger brother Qimai were killed, while Zheyu Nie was captured and executed by the Song.

Submission to the Liao and Investiture

To counter the Song, Li sent his adviser Zhang Pu with rich gifts to Emperor Shengzong of Liao and offered submission. The Liao, seeking to weaken Northern Song influence in the Hexi region, appointed Li military governor of Dingnan, observer over Xiazhou, Yinzhou, Suizhou, Youzhou, and Jingzhou, Specially Advanced Grand Preceptor, and military commander of Xiazhou; Li Jichong became deputy.

On April 25, 989, the seventeenth day of the third lunar month in the seventh Tonghe year, Emperor Shengzong married a woman of the imperial clan, Yelü Ting, invested as Princess Yicheng, to Li Jiqian. On December 28, 990, the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month in the eighth Tonghe year, Liao envoys invested Li as King of Xia.

Li Jipeng's earlier cession of Xiazhou, Suizhou, Yinzhou, Youzhou, and Jingzhou to the Song had not been fully voluntary. After the Song allowed him to return to Xiazhou, he outwardly complied with Song authority while secretly cooperating with Li Jiqian. In 991 he attached Xiazhou to the Liao and received the title King of Xiping. With Li Jipeng's covert assistance, Li Jiqian repeatedly sent troops to occupy Suizhou and Yinzhou and then attacked Qingzhou and Yuanzhou, in the area of modern Guyuan, Gansu. Strong Song counterattacks soon forced him to withdraw.

Establishing the Capital at Xiping Prefecture

After Emperor Zhenzong succeeded to the Song throne in 997, the Song adopted a more conciliatory policy. Li Jiqian received the titles prefect of Xiazhou, military governor of Dingnan, and supervisory and pacification authority over the prefectures of Xia, Yin, Sui, You, and Jing and their tribal forces. His power continued to grow.

In 1002 Li concentrated a large army, captured Lingzhou southwest of present-day Lingwu, Ningxia, and killed its Song prefect Pei Ji. Because his ancestors had held the title King of Xiping and he himself had received a comparable title from the Liao, he renamed Lingzhou Xiping Prefecture. Li regarded the city as strategically superior to the older Pingxia base: it controlled routes north and south, occupied the upper approaches of several roads, and guarded the western frontier. He argued that fortified walls, moats, trained troops, and stored grain there could threaten the Guanzhong region, while its population was accustomed to Chinese customs and valued ritual and learning. He therefore decided that Xiping offered greater prospects than the more remote Pingxia region. He ordered his younger brother Li Jiyuan, the officer Li Zhibai, and others to supervise construction of palaces and ancestral temples and established a temporary capital there.

Western Campaign and Death from an Arrow Wound

As Li's power expanded, the source says repeated victories made him arrogant and careless. He publicly claimed he would attack Huanzhou and Qingzhou while secretly shifting forces westward against Xiliang Prefecture, using a diversion to capture a region famed for its livestock. Pan Luozhi, a Tibetan leader aligned with the Song, then offered a false surrender. Zhang Pu suspected deception and warned Li that war required caution and accurate assessment of the enemy. Since Pan had long been resistant and had not yet suffered a decisive defeat, Zhang argued that the surrender was false and that Li should turn the ruse against him. Believing himself invincible, Li ignored the warning.

Pan Luozhi secretly assembled tens of thousands of Tibetan troops allied with the Song and defeated the Tangut army at Sanshijiu Jing. Li was struck by an arrow and escaped back to Xiping.

On the second day of the first lunar month in 1004, Li's wound worsened and he believed he would not survive. To preserve the territory already held, he instructed his son Li Deming to memorialize the Song and seek submission so as to reassure the dynasty, while privately telling Zhang Pu and other confidants that they had campaigned together for many years like brothers. He recalled growing up amid warfare and hardship and said that although the forces of Lingzhou and Xiazhou could not match the Song or Liao, careful assistance and adaptation to circumstances might preserve the inherited base and bring honor to their ancestors. Having given these instructions, he died at the age of forty-two. His eldest son Li Deming succeeded him as King of Xia.

His Family and Early Years

Li Jiqian, whose surname was originally Tuoba and who was once renamed Zhao Baoji, was a man of Yinzhou and the son of Li Guangyan, defence commissioner of Yinzhou, and the founder of the Western Xia dynasty. By the annals of the Xia state in the History of Song, his house claimed that "our ancestors were of imperial blood, and at the end of the Eastern Jin founded the beginnings of the Later Wei," that is, they traced the Xia line to the decay of the Northern Wei imperial line; and so the ancestors of the Xia emperors lived at Songzhou and kept the old imperial surname of Tuoba. After the death in battle of his ancestor Tuoba Sigong at the end of the Tang, the Li of the Dangxiang held by inheritance the five prefectures centred on Xiazhou through the succession of the Tang and the Five Dynasties; his great-grandfather Li Renyan served the Later Tang as defence commissioner of Yinzhou and his grandfather Li Yijing served likewise. In the fourth year of Jianlong, 963, Li Jiqian was born on the Wuding river at Yinzhou, and by the History of Song "was born with teeth." A kinsman of his father's generation, admiring his ability, made him at twelve supervisor of the household of the Dangxiang tribes.

Flight to Dijing Marsh and His Rising against the Song

In the seventh year of Taiping Xingguo, 982, Li Jipeng came to court and surrendered the five prefectures, and Li Jiqian was then twenty. Having fallen out with Li Kewen after his elder brother's submission, he led his old troops to live at Yinzhou; and when the imperial envoy came to escort all kinsmen of the Li within the fifth degree to the capital, he learned that the five prefectures were all to pass to the court. Unwilling to move inland, he took counsel with his brother Li Jichong and his confidant Zhang Pu, saying that his ancestors had fed on this land for over three hundred years, that fathers and sons and brothers had held the prefectures and looked proudly on their quarter, and that with the whole clan now summoned to the capital and their lives bound, the Li would have no sacrifices — what was to be done? Li Jichong said that a tiger must not leave the mountain nor a fish the deep, and proposed to take advantage of Xiazhou's unpreparedness to kill the envoy and seize Sui and Yin; but Zhang Pu said otherwise, that trouble in Xiazhou would start within the household, that the tribes were watching, that Li Kewen was acting prefect and Yin Xian lay on the border with a heavy force, so that news of an uprising would travel by dawn, and that the Qiang of Yinzhou were unused to war and could not resist — better, he said, to withdraw beyond the desert, settle their families, join with the great families and come back under arms, which would not be too late. Li Jiqian approved, and pretending that his nurse had died and was to be buried in the country, he hid armour and weapons in the funeral cart and fled with several dozen of his household to Dijing marsh among the Dangxiang, three hundred li from Xiazhou. There he brought out the portrait of his ancestor Li Sizhong to show the Rong, who bowed and wept, and his followers grew daily. In the third month of the eighth year of Taiping Xingguo, hearing that Li Jipeng and the rest had all received the emperor's grace, he sent envoys with tribute, memorialising that the family's grace endured and its ancestors' merit was not extinguished, that men's hearts turned to the old and the tribes gladly raised him up, and that he did not seek advancement at court but only to live out his days among the Rong and be ever a subject neither aggressive nor rebellious. Taizong sent the palace attendant Qin Han with an edict to summon him, and he would not obey; and the edict said that the Li of Hexi had for generations held the battle-axe and long served the frontier, that the clan being now all listed in the dynasty he should not remain alone among the wild peoples, and that presuming to resist he could not escape heaven's punishment. Li Jiqian lodged Qin Han in his tent with no suspicion, and Qin Han, wishing to cut him down with his own hand, could not, and returned. In the fifth month he attacked the Song troops from Zuo ridge and fought at Jialu river, where he was heavily defeated and fled without his armour; in the ninth month he raided Sancha pass and was beaten again, withdrawing into the Huhu valley, whence Tian Qinkuo and others pursued him from the Wanjing mouth, and Li Jiqian offering battle, he surrounded a thousand men of the Xiongwu army in the rear, and Yuan Jizhong sending the dragon-guard commander Jing Si to their relief, Li Jiqian yielded and lost seven hundred men and horses; and afterwards, when Tian Qinkuo's army returned and camped against the hill, Li Jiqian camped below, and Tian Qinkuo with Jing Si chose fifty strong men and attacked by night with fire, so that Li Jiqian was unprepared, his stockades all burned and more than a thousand of his men killed. In the twelfth month Taizong decreed that the officers of Sui, Yin and Xia should call back the peasants who had fled beyond the border, which in truth was to draw away the peasants of Li Jiqian's land; and Li Jiqian, seeing his men waver, told Zhang Pu that the Chinese were calling back the refugees with wealth and grain and that his own people were leaving him and he could hardly hold; and Zhang Pu answered that the Song troops were stationed everywhere in Yin and Xia and could not be contested, but that Youzhou was rich, sheltered behind the Hengshan, and that if they lured the tribes to attack it with united strength and held the passes to watch events, that too was a plan of recovery. Li Jiqian approved, and luring the western Rong gathered twenty thousand men against Youzhou, but the inspector Li Xun led his Dangxiang and Chinese troops and drove them off.

In the first year of Yongxi, 984, having failed before Youzhou, Li Jiqian remained at Dijing marsh, where the water and grass were good for grazing, so that his people and cattle increased; in the fifth month he sent his brother Li Jichong to stir the tribes of Hexi, and the chief of the Miewu clan of the Dangxiang, the madman Yeya, brought his people to submit, Li Jiqian sending Zhang Pu to receive them. Wangting town lying northwest of Xiazhou and being where the tribes gathered, in the seventh month Li Jiqian raided it with a great force and took prisoners by the ten thousand, and the Song general Yin Xian came from Xiazhou too late. In the ninth month the prefect of Xiazhou Yin Xian and the inspector Cao Guangshi, learning where Li Jiqian was encamped, sent several thousand picked horse by night against Dijing marsh, taking five hundred heads, burning fourteen hundred tents and seizing cattle, sheep and weapons by the ten thousand, and Li Jiqian fleeing with his brother, while his mother lady Wang and his wife were taken. Fearing pursuit, he wandered from place to place; and the people of the northwest, because the Li were long known for their kindness, pitied his distress and gave him some relief, so that he said to the great families that the Li had held the western land for generations and it was now cut off at one stroke, and asked whether, not forgetting his forefathers' grace, they would rise with him to restore it; and all saying yes, they camped together at Huangyang plain, drew in the tribes and his power revived, and the Qiang chiefs of the Yeli clan and others gave him their daughters.

The Killing of Cao Guangshi, the Seizure of Yinzhou and the Defeat at Zhuolun River

In the second month of the second year of Yongxi, 985, Li Jiqian pretended to surrender and killed Cao Guangshi and others at Jialu river, and using their banners seized Yinzhou, afterwards calling himself supervisor of the Dangxiang tribes and acting administrator of Dingnan army, and giving the tribal chiefs Zhe Bajun, Zhe Luoyu, Weiximie and Zhe Yenie the title of prefect. In the third month of that year he attacked Huizhou, burning the walls, so that officers and people died by the thousand and Huizhou fell. Taizong sent the prefect of Qinzhou Tian Renlang, the master of the palace gate Wang Shen, his deputy Dong Yuan and the master of the palace gardens Li Jilong with troops against him, and granted edicts to the clans of Lin, Fu, Yin, Xia, Feng and the Rili and Yueli, bidding them join forces. Tian Renlang, halting at Suizhou, asked for more troops and stayed over a month; and hearing that Li Jiqian was attacking Fuyang he rejoiced, saying that the Rong came as a flock to raid the border and advanced when they won and fled when they lost, so that their lairs could not be reached, but that Li Jiqian having gathered tens of thousands and spent his best on a single small stronghold which, small though it was, was firm and could not be taken in less than ten days, he would wait until they were spent, come upon them with a great force and send three hundred strong crossbows to cut their retreat, and so they must be taken. His dispositions made, he deliberately showed leisure, drinking and gambling, but his deputy Wang Shen worked against him, and Taizong, hearing that the Three Clans stockade had fallen, recalled Tian Renlang and put him in the censor's prison, where he answered that he had already fixed the plan for taking Li Jiqian and that the edict had come before it could be carried out, adding that Li Jiqian had the hearts of the Qiang and Rong, so that it would be well to summon him with generous terms, or to buy the tribal chiefs with rich profit to take him, for otherwise he would one day be a great trouble on the frontier. Taizong specially spared him death and banished him to Shangzhou, and ordered Wang Shen to advance: Wang Shen led his troops from Suizhou to Zhuolun river, and Li Jiqian raising the siege of Fuyang gave battle and lost more than five thousand, his subordinate clans of Mo Shaolang, Xie and the eastern and western Tutou river all being broken, so that he abandoned Yinzhou with his tribes and fled. Wang Shen then recovered Yinzhou and, marching north of it to the Xili clans, defeated and killed the acting prefect of Daizhou Zhe Luoyu and his brother Maiqi; and going west by the Kaiguang valley to Xingzi plain he defeated the chiefs of the Baosi and Baoxian clans and killed fifty-seven, broke the Bao and Xi clans, taking three thousand prisoners and receiving the submission of fifty-five clans, and took and executed the traitor Zhe Yenie of the Three Clans stockade; whereupon the great chiefs of the three clans, Zhe Bajun and others, more than three thousand strong, sent envoys with horses to confess and offer to serve. Yet after his defeat at Zhuolun, though the tribes were broken, his own base was not destroyed: the fourteen clans of Jijialuoni at the salt town of Xiazhou being of the same Dangxiang stock, Li Jiqian lured them into union and so joined with the Wuyi and Yueyi clans in support; and the Song general Shouwen, ordered from Sanjiao by post to Xiazhou, joined Yin Xian with troops at the salt town, and the four clans of Wuyi and Yueyi submitting while Jijia and the rest would not, Yin Xian and Shouwen attacked together, taking and killing a thousand and burning more than a thousand tents, so that a hundred and twenty-five clans of the prefectures of Yin and Lin, sixteen thousand one hundred and eighty-nine households in all, came over, and the chief Zhe Yuyie of the Three Clans stockade, driven to extremity, left Li Jiqian and submitted.

His Marriage Alliance with Liao and His Shifting Allegiance

In the third year of Yongxi, 986, seeing his tribes broken and the Song strong, Li Jiqian attached himself to Liao to resist the Song, and Liao made him defence commissioner of Dingnan army and afterwards gave him the princess Yicheng in marriage and enfeoffed him as king of Xia. In the second month of the fourth year of Yongxi he raided Xiazhou, and the prefect An Shouzhong leading thirty thousand against him, Li Jiqian laid an ambush at Wangting town and heavily defeated him, pursuing him to the city gate before turning back; in the fourth month he besieged Xiazhou for more than two months, withdrawing only when the prefect of Linzhou Han Chongxun came with a great force; and in the eighth month, camping by the Black Water river and holding the strongpoints, he intercepted the inspector of Yin, Xia, Sui and Fu, Shi Baoxing, and seeing his force to be but two thousand crossed the river to give battle, whereupon Shi Baoxing, his hidden troops on the bank, struck them half across, and Li Jiqian's men broke in confusion and were heavily defeated. In the eleventh month the chiefs of the Miewu clans of the Dangxiang, the commander Yu Yebu and eight others plotted to kill him; and as Li Jiqian was about to attack Yinzhou by a fixed day and assembled the clans by the Wuding river, Yu Yebu shot him with a secret arrow and struck his nose, the wound long refusing to heal, so that the attack was delayed; and Yu Yebu reporting it, Taizong sent an edict of comfort. In the first month of the second year of Duangong, 989, Li Jiqian memorialised to the Khitan, saying that he had a quarrel with his brother Li Jipeng and asking for peace with him, and the Khitan ruler, knowing he was not sincere, refused; in the third month the Khitan ruler made the daughter of the prince's household commissioner Yelü Xiang the princess Yicheng and married her to Li Jiqian with three thousand horses; after which Li Jiqian was wounded by a stray arrow and withdrew. In the tenth month he sent Pochou Chongyugui to Xiazhou to pretend to surrender to Li Jipeng, and Li Jiqian leading his tribes to attack the city with Pochou Chongyugui working within, Li Jipeng was heavily defeated; and in the twelfth month Liao raised Li Jiqian to king of Xia. In the twelfth month of the first year of Chunhua, 990, Li Jipeng, to claim credit with Taizong, falsely reported that Li Jiqian had submitted, and Taizong made him prefect of Yinzhou and master of the park of Luo, which Li Jiqian refused. In the seventh month of the second year of Chunhua he submitted at Li Jipeng's request and was made observation commissioner of Yinzhou with the name Baoji; but having held the desert north for decades, oppressive and fond of killing, the tribes he had subjected all resented him, and hearing that Zhai Shousu had come to Xiazhou and fearing he could not match him in strength, he sent men through Li Jipeng to memorialise an apology, and the court believing it gave him office. In the ninth month he occupied the old site of Wangting town to spy on Xiazhou, and Li Jipeng attacking him by night, the settled households of Maonu and Weicai cut him off and took more than twenty thousand head of cattle, so that he abandoned Yinzhou again and fled to Tiejin marsh. In the first month of the third year of Chunhua he lured Li Jipeng into the Khitan allegiance, again led troops to occupy Yinzhou, and sent envoys through Li Jipeng to ask leave to bring tribute; and the Khitan ruler, hearing he was of two minds, sent the southwestern commissioner Han Dewei with troops and an edict to question him, and Li Jiqian making the excuse of a western campaign would not see him, so that Han Dewei in anger plundered Yinzhou and returned. In the fourth month, because since his marriage with the Khitan his yearly tribute had all been levied among the tribes so that his resources were failing, and because Shaanxi still kept the frontier closed so that no merchants passed beyond the sands, he memorialised Taizong that "the king has no outside," and that the Rong and Yi were all his children, begging for trade; and Taizong assented. In the tenth month, complaining to the Khitan of Han Dewei's plundering, he was graciously reassured by edict and sent tribute again. In the fourth month of the fourth year of Chunhua, having recovered Sui and Yin but not yet You and Xia, he sent envoys to Song asking for their return, and Taizong refusing, he said in anger that the five prefectures were the legacy of his ancestors and that to extend the territory and recover the old land was his own task; and making Li Daxin commander of the Dangxiang tribes he attacked Qingzhou. North of Qingzhou lay the desert, level and without defensible ground, and because Li Jiqian had professed submission there was no preparation; and when the army came the people were terrified, but the prefect Liu Wenzhi gave two million cash of his own to reward the troops, so that they fought hard and Li Daxin could not prevail. In the fifth year of Chunhua Li Jiqian raided Lingzhou and carried off its people, and attacked Li Jipeng at Xiazhou, who fled defeated, Li Jiqian taking his baggage; and in the fourth month, the Song having razed the walls of Xiazhou, Li Jiqian failed before it and withdrew into the desert.

The Siege of Lingzhou, the Recovery of the Five Prefectures and the Founding of Xiping

Early in the Zhidao period Li Jiqian sent the left commander Zhang Pu with camels and fine horses as tribute, and Taizong had the guards perform feats of strength and horsemanship in the rear garden for Zhang Pu to see, ordering the soldiers to bend two-bushel bows, and asked him laughing whether the Qiang dared to fight; and Zhang Pu answered that the Qiang bows were weak and their arrows short and that at the sight of such tall men they fled, much less fought. Li Jiqian begged that raiding on the border be forbidden, and an edict ordered him to keep the frontier and restore what he had taken. The court sent the deputy master of the palace gate Feng Ne with an edict making him commissioner of Fuzhou, which he refused, whereupon Zhang Pu was made training commissioner of Zhengzhou and kept in the capital. Li Jiqian then attacked Qingyuan army with a thousand horse, and the governor Zhang Yan drove him off. In the third month of the second year of Zhidao the court had the master of the palace gardens Bai Shourong escort four hundred thousand shi of fodder to Lingzhou, with orders that the wagons go in three parties, the labourers armed with bows and arrows, and the soldiers in square formation to guard them, fighting if they met the enemy, with the observation commissioner of Huizhou Tian Shaobin in support; but Bai Shourong made one convoy of them, and Li Jiqian fell on him at the Puluo river, Tian Shaobin did not come to his help, the column broke and all the transport fell to Li Jiqian. In the fourth month he raided the Zheping clan of the Tibetans, whose chief Wosan memorialised asking to join forces against him; and in the fifth month, gathering the Dangxiang clans, he besieged Lingzhou, demanding the return of the detained Zhang Pu. Taizong sent edicts to summon the clans, and ordered the commissioner of ten prefectures Li Jilong out by Huanzhou, the observation commissioner of Rongzhou Ding Han by Qingzhou, the commander Fan Tingzhao by Yanzhou, the commander Wang Chao by Xiazhou and the master of the western capital workshops Zhang Shouen by Linzhou, five columns to relieve Lingwu; and in the eighth month Li Jiqian turned back to relieve Pingxia and was heavily defeated by the Song at Wubaichi. In the twelfth month of the third year of Zhidao he again memorialised his submission and was made prefect of Xiazhou and defence commissioner of Dingnan army; but in office he still plundered the frontier, keeping up local war with the Song. He then raided Dingzhou and Huaiyuan town, where the commander Li Zan, with fewer than a hundred men, held out for days and then, his strength gone, heaped straw and burned himself; and he took Baojing and Yongzhou in succession and broke Qingyuan army, which lay at Jishi ridge in the desert, remote on every side: the commandant Liu Yin and the guard Ding Zan holding it in two parts and sending a messenger by side roads to Qingzhou for help, the commissioner Yang Qiong sent his deputy Pan Lin and the inspector Liu Wenzhi with six thousand men, delaying and not advancing; and Li Jiqian beating the drums against the south gate himself and sending his son with picked armour against the north gate, filling the moat and breaking the bridge, after seven days the city's strength was spent and the inspector of horse and foot Duan Yi opened the gate and surrendered, so that Li Jiqian's power blazed the higher and passing Zhizi plain he came to the walls of Qinggang. In the third month of the fifth year of Xianping, 1002, he gathered the Dangxiang tribes in great numbers and took Lingzhou, making it the western capital Xiping; and in the first month of the sixth year of Xianping he made his capital at Xiping, the beginning of Western Xia's capital. The Song sending Zhang Chonggui and Wang She to negotiate, Emperor Zhenzong yielded, making Li Jiqian prefect of Xiazhou, defence commissioner of Dingnan army and observation commissioner of Xia, Yin, Sui, You and Jing with the Dangxiang in charge, and ceding to him all the lands of Dingnan army, so that he took in the seven frontier towns, twenty-five post stations east and west and more than ten north and south; and he then buried his ancestors at the Red Stone gorge, diverting the water and cutting stone chambers, and after the burial led the water over them, "so that later men knew not the place." The Song, having lost Lingwu, abandoned Sui and You as well, and Li Jiqian from this held Shuofang and annexed Xiliang, his foundation thus laid wide.

His Dealings with the Tibetans, the Ambush at Xiliang and His Death

In the second month of the sixth year of Xianping, Pan Luozhi sent the Tibetan official Cheng Bu of the Miebu clan to the Zhenrong army asking to join forces against Li Jiqian, and the frontier officers, suspecting fraud because he had no official document, escorted him to the commissioner's office, at which Cheng Bu fled in fear, his horse stumbled and he fell to his death from a cliff; and Li Jiqian hearing of it led his troops out from Lingzhou to camp at Aozi mountain, released the surrendered tribes of the six valleys, and sent a second iron arrow to Pan Luozhi, saying that he had submitted to the court and wished for friendship, to which Pan Luozhi made no answer. In the third month Pan Luozhi fought Li Jiqian several times and took many people and cattle, and sent Wu Fushenglai with tribute, saying that he had gathered sixty thousand horse and asking the court to send troops to recover Lingzhou with him; and Zhenzong approving, made Pan Luozhi commissioner of Shuofang army and inspector of the west of Lingzhou, and Wu Fushenglai general of Annyuan and seven lesser chiefs generals of Huaihua, to lead troops against Li Jiqian. On Wu Fushenglai's return he passed Xiping, and Li Jiqian sending men to intercept his train took from him all the tablets, warrants and gifts of clothing and weapons the court had given Pan Luozhi, Wu Fushenglai himself barely escaping. At the end of the sixth year of Xianping Li Jiqian took Xiliang and accepted the false surrender of Pan Luozhi, who had fled into the city, and was ambushed by the Tibetans; and on the second day of the first month of the first year of Jingde, 1004, he died of his wound at forty-two, his son Li Deming succeeding. In the fifth year of Dazhong Xiangfu, 1012, Li Deming conferred on him the posthumous title of the emperor who responds to fate, and the temple name Wuzong; and his grandson Li Yuanhao gave him the posthumous name Shenwu, the temple name Taizu and the tomb name Yuling. The Yuling of Western Xia is called tomb 1 in archaeological surveys, at the southernmost end of the Xia tomb district, commonly known as the eastern of the twin tombs; and each Xia imperial tomb is a complete architectural complex covering more than a hundred thousand square metres, built from level ground facing south, with tall gate towers at the southern end and the stele pavilion behind them.

Major Activities

Resistance to the Song and Foundations of Western Xia

Li Jiqian's central historical role was his resistance to Song incorporation of Tangut lands and his creation of an autonomous military base. In 982 he refused removal to Bianjing, fled to Dijinze, and rallied Tangut groups under the call to recover lost territory and resist the Song. Over the following two decades he operated across Yinzhou, Xiazhou, Suizhou, Youzhou, Lingzhou, and neighboring regions. His eventual capture of Lingzhou, renamed Xiping Prefecture and used as a capital, established a territorial and political foundation for the later Western Xia state. After Li Yuanhao founded Western Xia, he posthumously honored Li Jiqian as Taizu, reflecting Li's foundational place in the dynasty's history.

Alliance with the Liao against the Song

Li assessed the balance of power and submitted to the Liao as part of a strategy of alliance against the Song. He sent Zhang Pu to the Liao, received appointment as military governor of Dingnan, married Yelü Ting, Princess Yicheng of the Liao imperial clan, and in 990 was invested as King of Xia. Liao support gave him an important external base in his struggle with the Song, and the source presents this strategy as one later inherited by Western Xia rulers.

Military Campaigns

Li spent much of his life in warfare. Major campaigns included fighting at Jialu River and Sancha Pass in 983; suffering a night attack at Dijinze in 984; using a feigned surrender to kill Cao Guangshi, seize Yinzhou, and burn Huizhou in 985; occupying Suizhou and Yinzhou in 991; capturing Lingzhou in 1002; and taking Xiliang Prefecture in 1003. The source emphasizes his flexible use of deception, surprise attacks, and diversionary tactics.

Development of Xiping Prefecture

After capturing Lingzhou, Li renamed it Xiping Prefecture and made it his capital. He regarded it as controlling routes toward the northern plains and the Qing-Liang region, occupying the upper reaches of multiple strategic approaches, and guarding a crucial western frontier point. He also valued its population for familiarity with Chinese customs and appreciation of ritual and learning. He ordered Li Jiyuan, Li Zhibai, and others to supervise construction of palaces and ancestral temples, thereby establishing an early political center for the later Western Xia state.

The Union of the Dangxiang Clans and His Marriage Policy

In the struggles of the Dangxiang against the oppressive rule of the Song frontier officers, Li Jiqian made his own clan their protector and at the same time formed marriage ties with the clans, using power and plunder as bait to secure their subjection: after Yin Xian and Cao Guangshi broke Dijing marsh he "again married into the great clans one after another, moving from place to place without fixed abode, and grew gradually strong, while the people of the west, because the Li were long known for their kindness, often came over to him"; and his power reviving, the Qiang chiefs of the Yeli clan and others gave him their daughters, so that the Yeli became one of the early superior "inner" clans of Western Xia, the empress of that house and her clan being for a time conspicuous in Xia history. He also coerced those who would not submit: Anbu, chief of the Shuini clan of Lingzhou, refusing his rule, Li Jiqian "took more than seven hundred of his tents with troops"; and the Nizhong clan south of the Yellow river, "long since submitted, Li Jiqian lured them to rebel, and they would not, so that he raided them repeatedly with troops," their chiefs being forced by the repeated destruction of their tents to move north of the river to escape. Thus marriage and coercion together drew the great clans of the Dangxiang into one body and laid the ground for further expansion.

The Struggle for the Salt Trade and the Opening of Markets

In the Xia territory about Yanzhou and Lingzhou, white and blue salt was abundant and of better quality than the salt the Song sold, so that the people along the Shaanxi frontier vied to buy it. After Li Jiqian renounced the Song, the Song government, to strangle him economically, decreed that no grain might cross to the west of the river and no blue salt from the west be sold beyond the border, on pain of execution however little; and Li Jiqian, to force the ban to be lifted, stirred up forty-four tribal chiefs with thirteen thousand horse to raid Shichang town in Huanzhou, and the prefect Cheng Deyuan being unable to drive them off by force, "the ban on salt was therefore relaxed, and from this the tribes were quiet." In the third year of Chunhua he further asked, on the ground that "the king has no outside" and that the Rong and Yi were all the emperor's children, for trade with Shaanxi to supply his needs, and Taizong assented, so that merchants passed both ways and the poverty of his treasury from the yearly tribute was eased.

His Foreign Alignments and the Scale of His State

When weak, Li Jiqian attached himself to Liao to resist the Song, receiving from Liao first the commission of Dingnan army and then the princess Yicheng in marriage and the title of king of Xia, while he shifted back and forth between Song and Liao, accepting from Song the observation commission of Yinzhou and the name Baoji and from Liao the crown of Xia; he also lured Li Jipeng into the Khitan allegiance, and when Han Dewei plundered Yinzhou he complained to the Khitan ruler and sent tribute again. In the fifth year of Xianping he took Lingzhou and made it the western capital Xiping, and in the following year made his seat there, the beginning of the Xia capital; and when Lingzhou fell the Song ceded to him all the lands of Dingnan army, so that he took in the seven frontier towns with their twenty-five post stations east and west and more than ten north and south. On this base the Dangxiang rapidly advanced, and though he suffered reverses he at last "restored a foundation of ten thousand li and founded an inheritance for generations."

Personal Relations

• Distant ancestor: Tuoba Sizhong, described as having died in late Tang warfare and later honored by the Tanguts
• Great-great-grandfather: Li Sizhong, killed during campaigns against Huang Chao under Emperor Xizong of Tang
• Great-grandfather: Li Renyan, defense commissioner of Yinzhou under the Later Tang
• Grandfather: Li Yijing, served the Later Jin
• Father: Li Guangyan, served the Later Zhou and held the Yinzhou defense commission
• Mother: Lady Wang
• Younger brother: Li Jichong
• Clansman: Li Jipeng, ceded territory to the Song but later secretly cooperated with Li Jiqian
• Clan uncle: Li Guangrui, military governor of Dingnan who gave Li his early tribal command
• Wives: Lady Wang, captured by Song forces; a woman of the Yeli clan; Yelü Ting, Princess Yicheng of Liao
• Son: Li Deming, succeeded as King of Xia
• Grandson: Li Yuanhao, founder of Western Xia who posthumously honored Li Jiqian as Taizu
• Zhang Pu: principal strategist and trusted adviser
• Li Jiyuan: younger brother ordered to supervise palace and temple construction at Xiping
• Li Zhibai: officer involved in building Xiping
• Li Daxin: military subordinate
• Pochou Chongyugui: military subordinate
• Emperor Taizong of Song: adversary who repeatedly sent armies against him
• Emperor Zhenzong of Song: pursued conciliation and granted him frontier offices
• Emperor Shengzong of Liao: overlord in formal terms; invested him as King of Xia and arranged marriage with a Liao imperial clanswoman
• Cao Guangshi: Song commander lured to his death through Li's false surrender
• Yin Xian: Song administrator of Xiazhou who launched the night attack on Dijinze
• Tian Renlang: Song administrator of Qinzhou sent against Li
• Li Jilong: Song general involved in campaigns against him
• Pan Luozhi: Tibetan leader whose false surrender and ambush caused Li's fatal wound

Historical Assessment

Song and Contemporary Accounts

• The History of Song: Account of the Xia State describes Li as “born with teeth” and later brave, formidable, strategic, skilled at riding and archery, and rich in cunning, thus acknowledging his individual abilities.
• An edict of Emperor Taizong recognized that the Li lineage had long held military authority on the frontier and had shown loyalty and merit under earlier dynasties, acknowledging the family's deep roots in the northwest.
• The Liao invested Li as King of Xia and treated him as an important ally for balancing Song power.

Yuan, Ming, and Qing Periods

• Yuan compilers of the History of Song, History of Liao, and History of Jin recorded Western Xia as a separate dynasty and recognized Li as its founder. The source cites the History of Jin as stating that the founding of the Western Xia state began with Li Jiqian.
• Qing historian Wu Guangcheng, in History of the Western Xia, systematically described Li's resistance to the Song, Liao alliance and investiture, and seizure of Lingzhou, praising his ability to rise from near destruction and establish a western power that endured for generations.
• Qing scholar Zhang Jian, in Events of Western Xia Arranged by Topic, praised Li's heroic energy, perseverance despite repeated setbacks, and role in founding the Western Xia base.

Modern Scholarship

• Modern Western Xia historian Li Fanwen, in A General History of Western Xia, regards Li Jiqian as the practical founder of the Western Xia dynasty who established its territorial foundation, political direction, and foreign policy.
• Shi Jinbo, in Western Xia Society, argues that Li's policy of alliance with the Liao against the Song gave the Tangut polity room for survival between two larger powers and became a diplomatic approach inherited by later Western Xia rulers.
• Wu Tianchi, in Draft History of Western Xia, treats Li's persistence and tactical flexibility as crucial to the Tangut transition from a tribal confederation to an independent polity.