Early Chinese Music Resources: Western Xia

Early Chinese Music Resources: Western Xia

compiled by David Badagnani (rev. 2 April 2022)

Drawing of two cave paintings from the Western Xia Dynasty, the left showing a drummer and the right showing a player of the jiqin (嵇琴); the latter may be the earliest known depiction of a Chinese vertical fiddle.  These paintings are part of the story of Bhaisajyaguru Vaidūrya Prabhāsa on the East Wall of Cave 7 of the Eastern Thousand Buddhas Caves in Guazhou County (瓜州县), near Dunhuang, Jiuquan, northwestern Gansu province, northwest China.  Guazhou County was formerly (until 2006) called Anxi County (安西县).

In an effort to make it more accessible, this document contains resources related to the musical heritage of the Western Xia Dynasty (Chinese: Xi Xia, 西夏), also known as the Tangut Empire, a Buddhist state that existed from 1038 to 1227 in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, southwestern Inner Mongolia, and southernmost Outer Mongolia, measuring about 800,000 square km (310,000 square miles). Its capital was Xingqing (modern Yinchuan), until its destruction by the Mongols in 1227.

The Western Xia Dynasty was ruled by Tangut people, who spoke a language in the Qiangic or Gyalrongic language group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The state, which existed alongside the Liao, Song, and Jin dynasties, suffered from devastating destruction by the Mongols who founded the Mongol Empire, including most of its written records and architecture. The empire occupied the area of important trade route between northern China and Central Asia, the Hexi Corridor. The Western Xia made significant achievements in literature, art, music, and architecture, which have been characterized as "shining and sparkling."

Links to textual sources are highlighted in green.

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Historical reference works about the music of the Liao Dynasty

● Fan Han Heshi Zhangzhong Zhu《番汉合时掌中珠》(Simultaneous Tangut-Chinese Pearls-in-the-Hand)

This work is a Tangut-Chinese dictionary, completed in 1190, written by a person whose name is transliterated as "Gule Maocai (骨勒茂才), who was a Tangutan historian at the court of emperor Renzong (西夏仁宗, r. 1139-1193) of the Western Xia Dynasty.  The work features a preface in two languages (Tangut and Chinese), stressing the importance of learning two languages in administering an empire governed by a Tangut dynasty and inhabited by Chinese subjects.  It also contains annotated entries for 15 different musical instruments used in the dynasty's court music.

More information:
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/fanhanheshizhangzhongzhu.html

https://www.academia.edu/28263127/Orchestra_tangutica_musical_instruments_in_Tangut_Chinese_glossary_The_Timely_Pearl_in_the_Palm_1190_

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Thanks to Patrick Huang for assistance with this page.

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