2014/01/01 by Rocco Bowman · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Mathematics · #Chinese history and philosophy #Eurasian Exchange Networks #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Bounded function #Ecology #Geography #Economic geography #Biology #Mathematics
paper · pdf · doi:10.5070/h321025689
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/04
he Tangut Western Xia empire, a state built by semi-nomadic migrants, and the Northern Song (960-1127) shared a dynamic century upon the stage of northwest China.* Though major war broke out in 1038 and 1069, organized military conflict was only one way in which either side jockeyed for power, economic advantage, and loyalty; empire building resulted from carefully planned statecraft. However, both empires found expansion upon or beyond the crumbling, eroding Loess Plateau and the harsh Ordos Desert to be extremely difficult. Winning territory and subjects in the region became a quagmire, forcing the empires not only to defensively adapt internal state institutions in significant ways but to realize the bounds of their respective imperiums. 1 The politically savvy Tang Dynasty helped create the circumstances for the consolidation of nomadic power in the north, but one dynasty's successful policies are another's "nomad problem." Tang emperors ameliorated mounted incursions from the Mongolian steppe by allying with peoples who could fight on equal terms, creating a military buffer; however, the rise of the centralized, Confucian Song state engendered antagonisms between these two previously cooperative regions. Here, Sino-Tangut history enters an era of frantic activity. This dynamic interaction was not so much the result of a shared border in which culturally distinct populations vied for supremacy but quite the opposite-an unsettled, ecologically vague borderland with equally diverse populations embracing competing loyalties.