Chapter 317 Chapter 316 Renzong Li Renxiao

Li Renxiao, Emperor Renzong of Xixia, was the son of Emperor Chongzong and his mother was Cao.Born in the sixth year of Yuande (the sixth year of Song Xuanhe), and died in the twenty-fourth year of Qianyou (the fourth year of Song Shaoxi).70 years old.Reigned for 55 years. As soon as Li Renxiao came to the throne, Xiao Heda launched a rebellion.Xiao Heda was originally a general of the Liao Dynasty. Princess Cheng'an of the Liao Dynasty married Xia Chongzong Qianshun.After the fall of the Liao Dynasty, Princess Cheng'an died of a hunger strike. Xiao Heda was not satisfied, and when the new emperor was established, he occupied Xiazhou and raised troops.He contacted the Khitan people in Yinshan and Hedong in an attempt to support the descendants of the royal family of the Liao Dynasty and restore the Liao Dynasty.Renzong heard the news and ordered Ren Dejing, the capital of Jingzhou, to send troops to suppress the rebellion.Ren Dejing left the army smoothly, and soon regained Xiazhou, Xiao Heda was defeated and died.Because of his meritorious service in suppressing the rebellion, Ren Dejing was promoted to the commander of the capital of the Xiangqing Army, and he was granted the title of Duke Ping of Xi.Renxiao still handed over the military affairs of the court to Jin Wang Chage, and Zhongshu ordered Pu Wang Renzhong and other royal nobles to maintain the absolute advantage of imperial power.

In the third year of Renxiao's succession to the throne, there was a famine in the Xia Kingdom, and the price of food was extremely expensive.In March of the fourth year of Daqing (AD 1143), a strong earthquake occurred in Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of the country, and the aftershocks lasted for a month.The city wall collapsed, the palaces and private houses were destroyed, tens of thousands of people and animals died, and it was a tragic scene.In April, a ground fissure occurred in Xiazhou, and black sand gushed out, piled up to several feet high, and thousands of residents were submerged.After the earthquake, the famine became even worse, and the people of the Dangxiang Ministry could not live on, so they had to hold an uprising.

Party aristocrats and ministers plundered a lot of wealth in constant foreign wars, and they cruelly squeezed the people of the party. While accepting Han culture, they imitated the lifestyle of Han nobles and enjoyed themselves.The Han people were already tired of suffering, and with the addition of earthquake disasters and frequent famines, an uprising was imperative. The Fan uprising broke out simultaneously in Dabin, Weizhou, Buqing, Dingzhou, etc., with tens of thousands of people and five or six thousand people.The uprising masses attacked the state city, and the officers and soldiers of Xia State were unable to resist for a while.

Renxiao was very alarmed by the uprising of the tribe, and hurriedly ordered Ren Dejing, who was leading the army abroad, to suppress it.Ren Dejing used a combination of massacre and disintegration to suppress the uprising teams in various states one after another. The uprising of the Tibetan tribes dealt a heavy blow to the rule of the Xixia nobles, so Renzong had to take some measures to ease social conflicts and adapt to social development. Renzong formulated the "New Law" and "Tiansheng Law Order" (that is, the "Tiansheng Year Reform Law Order" revised during the Tiansheng period) as the legal basis for the establishment of the feudal system.

In terms of land ownership relations, three forms of land occupation have been formed in Xixia territory: the royal family occupies the land, the aristocratic landlord occupies the land, and the peasants' small private land.In terms of land rent and taxation, the "New Law" also stipulates that land grants should be collected on the basis of mu, and land owners must pay taxes to the state.Landowners must report to the government when buying and selling land, and check off the seller's name on the tax book and fill in the buyer instead.This is no different from the approach of the Han feudal regime in the Central Plains.

In terms of politics, Ren Xiao first established a vast territory, dividing the directly ruled area into 27 states.Including most of today's Ningxia and Gansu, the northern part of Shaanxi, the southwestern part of Inner Mongolia, the northeastern part of Qinghai, and parts of Xinjiang and the People's Republic of Mongolia.Secondly, benevolence and filial piety further improved the central government system and local government system.In the central official system, he gradually replaced the Tibetan system with the Han system.In the local official system, benevolence and filial piety adopt a two-level system of state (prefecture, army) and county (city, fort, village). The "Tiansheng Law Order" stipulates the ranks of the Xixia government offices and prefectures and counties.Renxiao also attaches great importance to the construction of the legal system.He specially organized personnel to compile the "Tianshengnian Reform Laws and Decree" written in Xixia, referring to the style of Song Dynasty political documents, and adding and revising it according to the previous laws and regulations, and it is popular all over the country.The book consists of 20 volumes, and the names of the editors and Chinese translators are listed at the beginning of the volume.Later, the "New Law" was compiled and added.

In terms of culture, a major reform of Renxiao is to imitate the Song system and implement imperial examinations.In the fourth year of Daqing (1147 A.D.), Renxiao formally selected talents through the imperial examination.Renxiao also further expanded the "national learning" of Chongzong's time. Renxiao is an emperor who is good at accepting advice, so he also encourages his officials to speak out.In the 14th year of Tiansheng (AD 1162), Renxiao moved the Zhongshu and the Privy Council to the inner gate of the imperial palace for the convenience of counseling, and always attached great importance to the ministers who dared to speak directly, such as Wu Daochong and Relai Gongji. .

In the fifteenth year of Tiansheng, Renzong ordered the prohibition of extravagance in order to save the country's financial expenditure.The ban on extravagance restrained the nobles and bureaucrats to a certain extent. Although Renxiao's empress Wang was born in a powerful party family, she is an admirer of Han culture, which is very helpful for Renxiao's governance.Renxiao himself believed in Buddhism very much. At the age of 66, he sent people to invite Zonglu, Jingjie, Xuanmi Tushi, etc. to hold a grand puja in Dadumin Temple, and distributed 150,000 volumes of Sanxia and Han Buddhist scriptures.

Renxiao paid great attention to the compilation of national history, and Wu Daochong's family was once in charge of the history of the Xia Kingdom and became a special official position.In the thirteenth year of Tiansheng, Ren Xiao established the Hanlin Academy, with Wang Qian and Jiao Jingyan as the bachelors, and Wang Qian became the chief editor of the historical record of the Xia Dynasty.Luo Shichang stayed at home after he was dismissed from office, and once "composed the history" for Xia Guo.In the 14th year of Qianyou (1183 A.D.), people sent by Renxiao sent people to compile and print "Shengli Yihai". The whole book follows the style of Chinese books, adopts the form of poetry notes, and is compiled from short aphorisms.

The more than half a century of Renxiao's rule was the heyday in the history of Xixia. In the twenty-fourth year of Qianyou, Li Renxiao, the longest reigning and longest-lived emperor in Western Xia history, passed away.He was buried in Shouling after his death.Posthumous title "Emperor Renzong Shengde".