Chapter 20 Section 4 Xixia official system

Xixia is a country established by Dangxiang Qiang, and the founder is Li Yuanhao of the Tuoba tribe.Dangxiang began to "naturalize" the Central Plains Dynasty as early as the Sui Dynasty, and Li Yuanhao's ancestor was named the Jiedushi of Xiazhou Dingnan Army in the Tang Dynasty, and was given the surname Li.Yuan Hao's father, Deming, was also named King of Xiping by the Song Dynasty.Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor in 1038 AD, and his country was named Daxia. Because it was in the west of Liao and Song, it was called Xixia in history.With Xingqing Mansion (now Yinchuan City) as its capital, Xixia governed parts of Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia.Yuan Hao called himself "Wu Zu", that is, "Qing Tianzi", meaning to be juxtaposed with the "Huang Tianzi" of the Song Dynasty.In the more than ten years before and after the founding of the Western Xia Dynasty, Li Yuanhao established a bureaucratic system that imitated the official system of the Tang and Song Dynasties on the basis of the original Xiazhou regime.According to "Song History Xia Guozhuan Part 1":

Its officials are divided into civil and military classes, called Zhongshu, Privy Council, Sansi, Yushitai, Kaifeng Mansion, Yiwei Division, Official Accounting Division, Acceptance Division, Farmland Division, Qunmu Division, It is called Feilong Academy, it is called Mokansi, it is called Wensi Academy, it is called Fanxue, and it is called Sinology. Zhongshu is in charge of administration, and his subordinates include servants, Sanqi Changshi, admonishing doctors, Sheren, Sijian and other officials.The privy secretaries and the Zhongshu hold the two handles of civil and military affairs, and are in charge of the country's military and border defenses. They belong to the privy secretaries, Tongzhi, deputy envoys, Qianshu, Chengzhi and other officials.The third department is in charge of the national financial tribute, and its subordinates include the official envoy, the deputy envoy, the salt and iron envoy, and the Duzhi envoy.Yushitai is in charge of judicial supervision, and its subordinates include officials such as Yushi Dafu, Yushi Zhongcheng, Dianzhong Yushi, and Supervisory Yushi.Kaifeng Mansion is inherited from the name of the yamen that managed the affairs of the capital in the Song Dynasty. Here it refers to the yamen that manages the Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Xixia.The Yiwei Division is in charge of the Suwei Army, and its subordinates include the commander of Ma Budu, the commander of the deputy capital, and the generals and generals of the guards.The transfer and supplement of officials in charge of the Department of Public Accounting.Performance appraisal for the selection of officials in charge of the Grinding Division.Cang Yu, the head of the accepting department, saves for accepting.The Farmland Department is in charge of farmland water conservancy and commodity prices, and its subordinates include officials such as Si Nongqing, Shaoqing, Cheng, and Zhubu.The Group Animal Husbandry Department is in charge of animal husbandry, and it belongs to the system of setting envoys, deputy envoys, and capital supervisors.Feilongyuan is in charge of the imperial horses, and at the same time is in charge of "protecting Miyagi and arresting thieves".The director of Wensiyuan supplies royal clothes and clothes.Fanxue and Hanxue are responsible for teaching the children of Fan and Han bureaucrats.

In the second year of Renzong Baoyuan in the Northern Song Dynasty (1039 A.D.), Yuan Hao added the post of Shangshu Ling, who was the prime minister for all general affairs of the Xixia Kingdom.Shang Shuling is a veritable prime minister, who changed the situation of no leader in the early official system of Xixia.At the same time, the twenty-four divisions of the Song Dynasty were changed to sixteen divisions, namely, economic strategy division, orthodox division, unified military division, Dianqian division, Huangcheng division, third division, Neisu division, inspection division, Chen Gao division, and grinding Kan division. , Judgment Division, Farmland Division, Hemen Division, Group Herd Division, Acceptance Division, and Chengzhi Division.During Yizong's period, the Xixia official system was further adjusted.Zhongshu institutions set up ministers and ministers of various ministries, and added officials such as Xuanhui envoys from the north and the south, Zhongshu, and bachelors.These changes made the Xixia official system closer to the Central Plains official system.

In addition to imitating the official system of the Central Plains Dynasty, Xixia also retained the original "fan official" system, such as Ningling (big king), Mo Ningling (kings), Zuru (big leader), Lu Ze (leader), Shuming ( Deputy Chief) and other officials.The purpose of setting up the officials is to ensure the dominance of party aristocrats in the central government.According to the records of "Xixia Shushi", Fan officials also have titles such as Angnie, Angxing, Moge, Ani, Balian, Dingli, Chunyue, Yingwu, Guangle, Dingnu, etc. Due to the loss of too many Xixia documents , today it is difficult to get a full picture of it.In addition, due to the contacts between the Song Dynasty and Xixia, the relevant Song Dynasty documents still retain the names of many Tibetan officials, such as Yeling Wuyu, Linglu, Dingna, Wangjing, Lingneng, etc.Most of these titles are envoy titles, reflecting the important functions of the Fan official system in the communication between Xixia and Song Dynasty.

The official system in the later period of Xixia became more complicated, and there were five ranks: upper, second, middle, lower, and last.The upper divisions are mainly for the Zhongshu and Privy Councilors who hold both civil and military handles.The second-level divisions are mainly those in charge of supervision, religion, and the affairs of the court and the capital.The middle division is mainly the department that manages the economy and the administrative affairs agency.The lower divisions are mainly the agencies that manage the border areas.The last department is mainly an institution that manages handicraft manufacturing.In addition, there is a non-entry division.

Xixia attaches great importance to Buddhism, and the senior titles in Buddhism include emperor teacher, national teacher, mage, and Zen master.The status of the emperor's teacher is second only to the crown prince, and the status of the national teacher is also higher than that of Zhongshu and privy secretaries.The institution that manages Buddhist affairs is called the Merit Department.There are merit divisions for monks, monastic merit divisions and dharma protection merit divisions.The three meritorious departments and Yushitai are listed as inferior departments, which shows the status of Buddhism in the central government.

The local administration of Xixia is divided into two levels: prefecture and county.In addition to states and counties, there are also prefectures and counties.Counties are located in important border areas, and most of them are guarded by princes, such as Fanhe County (Suzhou), Zhenyi County (Ganzhou), Wuyuan County, and Lingwu County.There are Xingqing Mansion and Xiping Mansion, which are known as Dong and Xijing. The officials are imitated from the Song Dynasty. At the same time, there is Xuanhua Mansion in Ganzhou, which is responsible for handling matters related to the Uyghur, Tubo and other ethnic groups.Prefectures and counties are also divided into upper, second, middle, lower, and last five according to the complexity of their duties and the importance of their geographical location.

In terms of local administration, Xixia still retains strong military management characteristics. Local officials are mostly served by tribal leaders and hold military positions. Military power and administrative power are often mixed.The Xixia local army has the setting of twelve supervising army divisions, that is, the whole area is divided into left and right hatchbacks, each of which has six supervising army divisions, and twelve supervising army divisions are stationed in important state capitals, thus dividing the whole territory into two divisions. Twelfth Military Region.The Twelve Supervisory Divisions have a total of more than 500,000 soldiers.Each supervising army division has a commander, a deputy commander, and a military supervisor, for example, the party nobles.There are a number of command envoys, coach envoys, left and right guards, etc., who are mixed by party items and Han people.The chief of the Supervision Department actually became the military and political chief of a local area.The military management characteristics of Xixia were determined by the situation that Xixia was adjacent to the left and right powers.