Li Renxiao

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Li Renxiao was born in the ninth lunar month of 1124, the sixth year of the Yuande era. His birth mother was Lady Cao, described in the source as Han Chinese. According to the account, “strange light filled the room” at his birth. Princess Cheng'an of Liao, a consort of Li Qianshun, was delighted by the child, asked that he be named “Renxiao,” and often had a nurse bring him to her palace. Li Renxiao's elder brother Li Ren'ai was born to Princess Cheng'an and had been made heir apparent. After Li Qianshun abandoned the Liao and submitted to the Jin, however, Princess Cheng'an and her son Li Ren'ai died in succession from grief, and Li Renxiao was subsequently made heir apparent.

Li Renxiao grew up at a court where Tangut and Han Chinese cultures interacted closely. During the reign of his father, Emperor Chongzong Li Qianshun, Western Xia had already begun to value Chinese learning and had established a “National School” to teach it. Li Renxiao was deeply influenced by this environment and developed a strong interest in Confucian culture, which the source describes as a foundation for his later policies of civil governance.

Youthful Accession and Early Government

In the sixth lunar month of 1139, the fifth year of the Dade era, Emperor Chongzong Li Qianshun died. Li Renxiao, aged sixteen, succeeded to the throne and honored both his birth mother Lady Cao and his father's consort Lady Ren as empress dowagers. The following year he changed the era name to Daqing. In the second lunar month, he made Lady Wang, a woman from a prominent Tangut clan, empress.

Soon after Li Renxiao's accession, Xiao Heda rebelled. Xiao had originally been a Liao general who accompanied Princess Cheng'an to Western Xia. Because he was brave and skilled in riding and archery, Li Qianshun retained him, and he earned repeated military merit, received the state surname, and rose to become commander of Xiazhou. After Li Qianshun abandoned the Liao and submitted to the Jin, Princess Cheng'an and the heir Li Ren'ai died one after another. Xiao Heda sent men westward to seek Yelü Dashi but failed, then angrily rebelled from Xiazhou. He contacted Khitan groups around the Yin Mountains and east of the Yellow River and sought to enthrone a descendant of the Liao imperial house in an effort to restore the Liao. In the sixth and seventh lunar months of 1140, Xiao Heda's forces besieged Xiping Prefecture, captured Yanzhou in the region of modern Yanchi, Ningxia, and advanced directly toward the Helan Mountains, causing alarm at Xingzhou. In the eighth lunar month Li Renxiao ordered the Jingzhou commander Ren Dejing to suppress the revolt. Ren's campaign went smoothly, and by the tenth lunar month the rebellion had been defeated. Xiao Heda fled north but was unable to cross the Yellow River and was captured and killed by Ren's forces. For this success, Ren Dejing was promoted to commander of the Xiangqing Army and made Duke of Xiping. In the sixth lunar month of 1141, Li Renxiao also executed the brothers Mu Wei and Mu Rong, who were plotting to defect to the Jin. In the eighth lunar month, his officials presented him with the honorific title “Zhiyi Quxie.”

Famine and Rebellions

In the ninth lunar month of 1142, Western Xia suffered a severe famine and grain prices soared, with one sheng of rice said to have cost one hundred cash. In the third lunar month of 1143, the capital Xingqing Prefecture was struck by a major earthquake. Aftershocks reportedly “continued for more than a month, destroying official and private buildings and city walls, with humans and livestock dying in the tens of thousands.” In the fourth lunar month, the ground split open in Xiazhou and black sand surged upward several zhang, swallowing trees and residences. As the disasters of earthquake and famine left Tangut commoners unable to survive, armed uprisings broke out against the government.

In the seventh lunar month, the tribes of Maiqing at Dabin in Weizhou and of Zhilang and Fuer in Dingzhou rose in revolt. Some forces numbered ten thousand, while others had five or six thousand men. They attacked prefectural seats, and local authorities repeatedly sent urgent reports. Li Renxiao adopted measures presented by his officials. On the advice of Censor-in-Chief Su Zhiyi, people in the areas most seriously affected by earthquakes and ground fissures received tax remissions: households in which two people had died were exempted for three years, those with one death for two years, and the injured for one year. The government was also ordered to help rebuild collapsed homes. In the eighth lunar month, following a proposal by Su Zhili, an executive of the Bureau of Military Affairs, Li Renxiao ordered relief measures in the worst famine areas, with prefectural officials to inspect local conditions and distribute aid according to the severity of the disaster. Against rebellious tribal groups, he relied on the Xiping commander Ren Dejing, combining armed suppression with inducements and attempts to divide the rebels. Uprisings in Weizhou and other areas gradually subsided, although the Zhilang and Fuer groups in Dingzhou held difficult terrain and resisted for two months. Ren Dejing eventually launched a night attack; outnumbered, the tribal rebels were defeated and their leader Duoe was captured and killed.

A Flourishing of Civil Governance

Li Renxiao admired Chinese culture. After succeeding to the throne, he sought not only to maintain good relations with the Jin but also to restore contacts with the Song. In the fifth lunar month of 1144, the first year of the Renqing era, he sent envoys to the Song court to congratulate the emperor on the Tianshen Festival, bringing pearls and jade, gold belts, silks, gauze, cloth, horses, and other gifts. This restored diplomatic exchanges with the Song after an interruption of nearly twenty years. In the twelfth lunar month he again sent envoys to congratulate the Song on the New Year, offering gold drinking vessels, silks, gauze, and other goods in an effort to strengthen relations with the Southern Song.

Song Confucian culture attracted Li Renxiao strongly. In the sixth lunar month of 1144, he ordered schools established in prefectures and counties, increasing the number of students to three thousand, ten times the number enrolled in the “National School” under Chongzong. He also established an “Elementary School” within the palace, appointed instructors, and admitted members of the Western Xia ruling house between the ages of seven and fifteen. Li Renxiao and Empress Wang personally attended and instructed them from time to time. In the seventh lunar month of 1145, following Song institutions, he established an “Imperial Academy,” personally presided over the Shidian ceremony, and bestowed rewards on teachers and students. That same year, he ordered the music official Li Yuanru to revise the national musical system using Chinese music books together with existing Western Xia institutions. The work took three years and was completed in the fifth lunar month of 1148, when it received the title New Music Regulations.

In the third lunar month of 1146, Li Renxiao honored Confucius as Emperor Wenxuan and ordered prefectures and commanderies to establish temples to Confucius. In the eighth lunar month of 1147, he introduced an examination system modeled on the Song, formally tested candidates, instituted public announcement of successful examinees, and created a “Child Prodigy Examination,” gradually improving recruitment through examinations. In the third lunar month of the following year, he established the “Inner School” and personally selected noted scholars to lead instruction.

In the twelfth lunar month of 1151, Li Renxiao appointed the scholar Wo Daochong, who came from a learned family and had written extensively in both Chinese and Western Xia script, as an instructor in Tangut and Chinese learning. In the ninth lunar month of 1154, he used diplomatic missions to the Jin to purchase Confucian and Buddhist texts. In the first lunar month of 1161, he established a Hanlin Academy in the central government and appointed Wang Qian, Jiao Jingyan, and others as academicians. In the fifth lunar month he placed Wang Qian and others in charge of state history and ordered them to compile veritable records of the Li ruling house. In the eighth lunar month of 1164, he posthumously enfeoffed Yeli Renrong, creator of the Western Xia script, as Prince Guanghui in recognition of his contribution to Western Xia culture.

The source describes Li Renxiao's reign as the cultural high point of Western Xia, with extensive literary and scholarly production and a flourishing printing industry. Surviving block-printed works attributed to his reign include the poetry collection Yueyue Yu Shi, the proverb collection Newly Compiled Brocade of Collected Sayings, Shengli Yihai, the bilingual Western Xia-Chinese dictionary Pearl in the Palm for Timely Use of Tangut and Chinese, and the rhyme book Precious Rhymes of the Sea of Characters.

Chief Minister Ren Dejing and the Partition Plot

Ren Dejing had originally served as assistant administrator of the Song's Xi'an Prefecture. When Western Xia forces captured the prefecture, he surrendered. He presented his daughter to Emperor Chongzong Li Qianshun as a consort and used gifts to cultivate powerful court figures and members of the ruling clan, eventually arranging for his daughter to be made empress. Chongzong died the following year; when Li Renxiao succeeded, Lady Ren was honored as empress dowager. Ren Dejing was militarily capable and, early in Li Renxiao's reign, suppressed both the rebellion of commander Xiao Heda and the uprisings of two groups in Dingzhou. Politically, however, the source portrays him as ambitious. He sought to turn his military success into political power and enter the central government. Li Renxiao remained wary and at one point considered stripping him of military command, but feared that because Ren controlled troops and the realm had only recently stabilized, removing him might provoke rebellion. To preserve internal stability, Li Renxiao kept him outside the central court and attempted to placate him with titles, making him a commander and Duke of Xiping.

Ren Dejing's ambitions continued to grow. He eventually rose to the chief ministership and gained control over the court, appointing relatives and abusing his powers, which caused resentment among officials. Li Renxiao continued to tolerate him and in 1160 made him Prince of Chu. Ren's ceremonial entourage nearly equaled that of the emperor, but he remained unsatisfied. In the tenth lunar month of that year, Ren asked Li Renxiao to abolish the schools and examinations so that his own supporters could be promoted at will. Li Renxiao understood his intentions and rejected the proposal. Ren then advanced a plan to usurp the state by sending Li Renxiao to reside in Guazhou, in the area of modern Anxi, Gansu, and Shazhou, in the area of modern Dunhuang, while he himself would control the core areas of Lingzhou and Xiazhou.

In 1167, Ren Dejing fell ill. Despite their tensions, Li Renxiao sent envoys to the Jin in the twelfth lunar month asking the Jin ruler to dispatch a renowned physician to treat him. After recovering, Ren did not respond with gratitude; instead, he used his military power to coerce Li Renxiao. In the fifth lunar month of 1170, he forced the emperor to cede Western Xia's southwestern route and Lingzhou so that Ren could form a separate state. He also compelled Li Renxiao to send envoys to the Jin requesting investiture for him. Emperor Shizong of Jin refused. In the eighth lunar month, after the Jin rejected him, Ren secretly contacted the Southern Song and plotted a joint attack on the Jin and the overthrow of Li Renxiao. The Sichuan pacification commissioner Yu Yunwen sent a secret written reply, but it was intercepted by Western Xia soldiers. On learning of the correspondence, Li Renxiao concluded that he had already shown Ren every possible favor and that further indulgence would create a grave danger. He therefore decided to execute Ren. With Jin support and assistance, he destroyed Ren Dejing and his faction, crushing the plot to seize and partition the state and preserving Western Xia from the immediate threat of division.

Later Years and Death

In the fifth lunar month of 1171, Li Renxiao appointed the upright and outspoken Wo Daochong as Secretariat Director. In 1189, he invited Zonglü, Jingjie, the Imperial Preceptor Xuanmi, and others to conduct a major Buddhist assembly at Dadu Min Temple, during which 150,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures in Western Xia and Chinese scripts were distributed. Li Renxiao died on the twentieth day of the ninth lunar month in 1193, the twenty-fourth year of the Qianyou era. He had reigned for fifty-five years and was seventy years old. He received the posthumous title Emperor Shengde and the temple name Renzong.

Major Activities

Promoting Education and Civil Culture

Li Renxiao was one of the Western Xia rulers most committed to education. Early in his reign he established schools broadly in prefectures and counties, increasing student enrollment tenfold over the Chongzong period. He also founded an “Elementary School” within the palace and personally instructed children of the ruling house. In 1145 he established the Imperial Academy and personally performed the Shidian rite. In 1146 he honored Confucius as Emperor Wenxuan and ordered local governments to build Confucian temples, elevating the place of Confucian learning. In 1147 he formally introduced imperial examinations, including a public announcement procedure and a Child Prodigy Examination, establishing a system of selecting officials through examinations. In 1161 he founded the Hanlin Academy and ordered the compilation of state historical records. These measures brought Western Xia educational and cultural activity to what the source describes as its high point, producing many works in Chinese and Western Xia scripts, including Yueyue Yu Shi, Newly Compiled Brocade of Collected Sayings, Shengli Yihai, Pearl in the Palm for Timely Use of Tangut and Chinese, and Precious Rhymes of the Sea of Characters.

Legal Development

During the Tiansheng era, 1149–1169, Li Renxiao organized the compilation of a new legal code based on revisions of earlier law. The resulting twenty-juan code, Newly Revised Laws of the Tiansheng Era, was printed in the Western Xia script and promulgated throughout the state. The source describes it as a comprehensive legal code drawing on Tang and Song statutes while adapting them to Western Xia conditions, with provisions concerning civil, administrative, criminal, procedural, economic, and military law. It further states that foreign scholars have called it “a unique legal document of the Middle Ages.”

Li Renxiao also emphasized government according to law. In the ninth lunar month of 1155, while hunting in the Helan Mountains, his horse injured a leg because of a rough road. Angered, he ordered the road-maintenance officials put to death. The food-service official Ahua remonstrated that killing a person for a horse valued an animal over a human, lacked a basis in law, and was morally improper. Li Renxiao abandoned the order and rewarded Ahua with a large amount of silver to encourage frank remonstrance.

Patronage of Buddhism

Li Renxiao was a devout patron of Buddhism. In 1159 he sent envoys to Tibet to invite Düsum Khyenpa, founder of the Karma Kagyu school. Düsum Khyenpa sent his senior disciple Geshe Zangsuobu with scriptures and images to Liangzhou. Li Renxiao honored the disciple as a religious preceptor and organized large-scale translation of the Buddhist works he brought. Li Renxiao also presented gold necklaces, banners, canopies, and other stupa ornaments to Cubu Temple in Tibet. The source describes his reign as a period of large-scale Buddhist textual collation. Numerous surviving Western Xia Buddhist scriptures are said to have been collated during his reign, including the Karunapundarika Sutra, Ratnamegha Sutra, Sutra of the Names of the Thousand Buddhas of the Present Auspicious Kalpa, Avatamsaka Sutra, Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, Maharatnakuta Sutra, and Suvarnaprabhasa Sutra. In 1189 he held a great Buddhist assembly at Dadu Min Temple and distributed 150,000 volumes of Buddhist texts in Western Xia and Chinese scripts.

Foreign Relations

Li Renxiao's reign came after the fall of the Liao and the rise of the Jin, while the Song court had moved south. Western Xia was surrounded by Jin power, and Li Renxiao pursued a policy of accommodating both Jin and Song. Diplomatic exchanges between Western Xia and the Jin were frequent. While dependent on the Jin, Li Renxiao also sought to assert the status of an independent sovereign. In the sixth lunar month of 1141, the source states that brothers Mu Jun and Mu Wei, including a Western Xia military official, plotted to defect to the Jin and were arrested and killed on Li Renxiao's orders. He then memorialized Emperor Xizong of Jin to report the matter; the Jin emperor reproached him for acting without authorization, and Li Renxiao issued the customary expression of apology. In 1149, after Prince Hailing of Jin killed Emperor Xizong and took the throne, a Jin envoy came to announce the death. Li Renxiao refused to receive him and asked, “Why was the Shengde Emperor deposed?” During the reign of Emperor Shizong, the Jin closed border markets at Bao'an, Lanzhou, Suide, and elsewhere. To restore trade, Li Renxiao sought to conciliate the Jin and selected craftsmen to make a “hundred-headed tent” for presentation to Emperor Shizong.

In the first lunar month of 1146, the Jin ceded Dewei City, in the area west of modern Jingyuan, Gansu, Dingbian Army, and other frontier territories to Western Xia. The source states that Western Xia's territory included all of present-day Ningxia, most of Gansu, northern Shaanxi, southwestern Inner Mongolia, northeastern Qinghai, and part of Xinjiang, and that Li Renxiao's reign represented the state's widest territorial extent.

Suppressing Rebellion and Defeating the Partition Plot

At the beginning of his reign, Li Renxiao faced Xiao Heda's rebellion and appointed Ren Dejing to suppress it successfully. In 1141 he also executed the brothers Mu Wei and Mu Rong, who were accused of planning to defect to the Jin. In 1170, when chief minister Ren Dejing sought to divide the state, Li Renxiao initially endured his pressure but ultimately acted decisively with Jin support, eliminating Ren and his faction and averting the immediate danger of political division.

Reorganization of Official Administration

Li Renxiao paid close attention to official conduct. Prince Chage of Jin, an important minister from the previous reign, relied on his military accomplishments to behave arbitrarily. Even in his seventies he had many wives and concubines and seized private residences and gardens. Li Renxiao was unable to restrain him while he lived, but after Chage's death he immediately ordered the properties returned to their original owners. Ren Decong and Ren Degong, younger brothers of chief minister Ren Dejing, served as Palace Commandant and governor of Xingqing Prefecture respectively and used their brother's influence to manipulate power and take bribes. When Li Renxiao received accusations against them, he dismissed them from office. He promoted and protected officials known for uprightness and incorruptibility. Hanlin academician Jiao Jingyan openly denounced misconduct by Ren Chunzhong, a younger brother of Ren Dejing and vice executive of a central bureau. Li Renxiao supported Jiao and promoted him to serve concurrently as executive of the Bureau of Military Affairs. When Censor-in-Chief Relagongji memorialized that Ren Dejing was increasingly abusing his status as imperial father-in-law and should be removed, Ren sought an excuse to kill him. Li Renxiao feared for Relagongji's safety and ordered him to retire and return home.

Personal Relations

• Father: Emperor Chongzong of Western Xia, Li Qianshun
• Mother: Consort Cao
• Stepmother: Empress Dowager Ren, daughter of Ren Dejing
• Elder brother: Heir Li Ren'ai, son of Princess Cheng'an of Liao, died young
• Younger brother: Li Renyou, Prince of Yue
• Empresses: Empress Wang, from a prominent Tangut clan; Empress Luo
• Son: Emperor Huanzong Li Chunyou, born to Empress Luo
• Wo Daochong: instructor in Tangut and Chinese learning and later Secretariat Director; came from a learned family and wrote extensively in Chinese and Western Xia script
• Jiao Jingyan: Hanlin academician, noted for uprightness, later concurrently an executive of the Bureau of Military Affairs
• Relagongji: Censor-in-Chief, forced into retirement after impeaching Ren Dejing
• Su Zhiyi: Censor-in-Chief, proposed tax relief after disaster
• Su Zhili: executive of the Bureau of Military Affairs, proposed famine-relief measures
• Wang Qian: Hanlin academician and official in charge of state history
• Li Yuanru: music official who revised the New Music Regulations
• Ahua: food-service official who remonstrated against executing people over the emperor's injured horse
• Ren Dejing: powerful chief minister; successful in suppressing rebellions but later sought to partition the state and was executed
• Ren Decong and Ren Degong: Ren Dejing's younger brothers, dismissed for abuse of power and bribery
• Ren Chunzhong: Ren Dejing's younger brother and vice executive, denounced by Jiao Jingyan
• Chage: Prince of Jin; relied on his military achievements to behave arbitrarily, and properties he had seized were returned after his death
• Xiao Heda: commander of Xiazhou who rebelled and was captured and killed by Ren Dejing
• Mu Wei and Mu Rong: plotted to defect to the Jin and were executed by Li Renxiao
• Duoe: rebel leader captured and killed by Ren Dejing
• Emperor Shizong of Jin: refused to recognize Ren Dejing and helped Li Renxiao defeat the partition plot
• Prince Hailing of Jin: killed Emperor Xizong and seized the throne; Li Renxiao refused to receive his death-announcement envoy
• Düsum Khyenpa: founder of the Karma Kagyu school in Tibet, whom Li Renxiao invited by envoy
• Geshe Zangsuobu: senior disciple of Düsum Khyenpa, honored by Li Renxiao as a religious preceptor
• Yu Yunwen: Southern Song Sichuan pacification commissioner, secretly contacted by Ren Dejing before the plot was exposed

Historical Assessment

Western Xia and Contemporary Views

• After Li Renxiao's death, Western Xia officials bestowed the posthumous title Emperor Shengde and the temple name Renzong, strongly affirming his rule.
• In later Western Xia memory, the Renzong and Chongzong reigns were jointly called the “Chong-Ren Governance” and regarded as the state's most prosperous period.
• The Jin court maintained a generally favorable stance toward Li Renxiao. Emperor Shizong's assistance in crushing Ren Dejing's partition plot demonstrated support for Li Renxiao's political legitimacy.

Song and Yuan Periods

• The History of Song: Account of the Xia State records Li Renxiao's reign in considerable detail, including his establishment of schools and an imperial academy, honoring of Confucius, and implementation of examinations. Although it gives no single explicit appraisal, its record preserves many aspects of his cultural and educational policies.
• Southern Song writers paid relatively little attention to Western Xia, but the source states that Li Renxiao's restoration of diplomatic exchanges with the Southern Song and his promotion of Confucian learning could be viewed by Southern Song literati as signs of “transformation toward civilization.”
• Yuan historians compiling the History of Song included Li Renxiao's deeds in the account of Western Xia and recorded cultural development during his reign.

Ming-Qing Period

• Ming scholars largely followed the History of Song and tended to focus on Li Renxiao's promotion of Confucianism, education, and Sinicizing institutions, regarding him as one of the Western Xia rulers most strongly associated with civil governance.
• Qing scholar Wu Guangcheng systematically arranged events from Li Renxiao's reign in History of the Western Xia, recording his civil policies in detail while also criticizing the weakening of military preparedness attributed to an excessive emphasis on civil affairs.
• Qing evidential scholars showed interest in Western Xia legal texts such as the Newly Revised Laws of the Tiansheng Era, considering them evidence of the completeness of Western Xia legal institutions.

Modern Scholarship

• Modern Western Xia scholar Li Fanwen regards Li Renxiao's reign as the cultural high point of Western Xia, with his promotion of Confucianism, schools, examinations, and legal revision bringing Western Xia culture to an unprecedented level.
• The source states that foreign scholars have called the Newly Revised Laws of the Tiansheng Era “a unique legal document of the Middle Ages,” praising the completeness of Western Xia legal development.
• Contemporary scholarship generally regards the “Chong-Ren Governance” as a golden age of Western Xia while also arguing that an excessive emphasis on civil affairs weakened the military and contributed to later decline.
• Some scholars cited by the source argue that Western Xia reached its greatest territorial extent during Li Renxiao's reign and that a tripolar balance among Western Xia, Jin, and Southern Song, with relatively little warfare among the three, provided a stable external environment for development.