Editing Western Xia (section)

== Culture ==
[[File:Xixia Museum stele fragment C.jpg|thumb|Fragment of a [[stele]] with Tangut script]]
[[File:Hongfo Pagoda woodblock B.jpg|thumb|Tangut printing block]]

===Language===
The kingdom developed a Tangut script to write its own Tangut language, a now extinct [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman language]]<ref name="Stein 1972, pp. 70–71" /><ref>Leffman, et al. (2005), p. 988.</ref> probably related to the [[Horpa language|Horpa taxon]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beaudouin |first=Mathieu |title=Tangut and Horpa languages: some shared morphosyntactic features |url=https://www.academia.edu/49603286 |journal=Language and Linguistics |publication-date=2023 |volume=24 |issue=4}}</ref>

Tibetans, Uyghurs, Han, and Tanguts served as officials in Western Xia.<ref>{{cite book|title=Political Strategies of Identity Building in Non-Han Empires in China|editor-last1=Fiaschetti|editor-first1=Francesca|editor-last2=Schneider|editor-first2=Julia|chapter=Fan and Han: The Origins and Uses of a Conceptual Dichotomy in Mid-Imperial China, ca. 500-1200|last=Yang|first=Shao-yun|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/4886627|year=2014|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|location=Wiesbaden|page=24}}</ref> It is unclear how distinct the different ethnic groups were in the Xia state as intermarriage was never prohibited. Tangut, Chinese and Tibetan were all official languages.<ref name=cam>{{cite book|author1=Denis C. Twitchett|author2=Herbert Franke|author3=John King Fairbank|title=The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iN9Tdfdap5MC&pg=PA818|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24331-5|pages=154–155}}</ref>

{{blockquote|A system of writing its language, based on Chinese and Khitan, was created in 1036, and many Chinese books were translated and then printed in this script. Gifts and exchanges of books were arranged with the Sung court from time
to time; Buddhist ''sutras'' were donated no fewer than six times and some of them were translated and printed. After the Mongol conquest of Tangut and China, a Tangut edition of the Tripitaka in the Hsi-hsia script, in more than 3620 ''chüan'', was printed in Hangchow and completed in 1302, and about a hundred copies were distributed to monasteries in the former Tangut region. Many fragments of books in Tangut and Chinese were discovered at the beginning of this century, including two editions of the Diamond sutra printed in 1016 and 1189, and two bilingual glossaries, the ''Hsi-Hsia Tzu Shu Yun Thung'' (+ 1132), and the ''Fan Han Ho Shih Chang Chung Chu'' (+ 1190). Apparently many books in their native tongue were also printed under the Tangut rulers.{{sfn|Tsien|1985|p=169}}|Tsien Tsuen-hsuin}}

===Dress===
{{See also|Fashion in Western Xia}}In 1034 Li Yuanhao (Emperor Jingzong) introduced and decreed a new custom for Western Xia subjects to shave their heads, leaving a fringe covering the forehead and temples, ostensibly to distinguish them from neighbouring countries. Clothing was regulated for different classes of official and commoners. Dress seemed to be influenced by Tibetan and Uighur clothing.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Denis C. Twitchett|author2=Herbert Franke|author3=John King Fairbank|title=The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iN9Tdfdap5MC&pg=PA818|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24331-5|pages=181–182}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
The government-sponsored state religion was a blend of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and Chinese Mahayana Buddhism with a Sino-Nepalese artistic style. The scholar-official class engaged in the study of Confucian classics, Taoist texts, and Buddhist sermons, while the Emperor portrayed himself as a Buddhist king and patron of Lamas.<ref name=cam/>
Early in the kingdom's history, [[Chinese Buddhism]] was the most widespread form of Buddhism practiced. However, around the mid-twelfth century [[Tibetan Buddhism]] gained prominence as rulers invited Tibetan monks to hold the distinctive office of state preceptor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Atwood|first=Christopher Pratt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9dzQgAACAAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire|publisher=Facts On File|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8160-4671-3|pages=590}}</ref> The practice of [[Tantric Buddhism]] in Western Xia led to the spread of some sexually related customs. Before they could marry men of their own ethnicity when they reached 30 years old, Uighur women in Shaanxi in the 12th century had children after having relations with multiple ethnic Han men, with her desirability as a wife enhancing if she had been with a large number of men.<ref name="Biran2005">{{cite book|author=Michal Biran|title=The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B934LaVBaz8C&pg=PA164|date=15 September 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-84226-6|pages=164–}}</ref><ref name="Dunnell1983">{{cite book|last=Dunnell|first=Ruth W.|title=Tanguts and the Tangut State of Ta Hsia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3AhAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Princeton University}}, page 228</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=洪 |first=皓 |title=松漠紀聞 |url=https://zh.wikisource.org/zh/%E6%9D%BE%E6%BC%A0%E7%B4%80%E8%81%9E }}</ref>

===Economy===
The economy of the empire mainly consisted of agriculture, pastoralism, and trade (especially with Central Asia).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VA5tKw11K8YC|title=China: A Cultural and Historical Dictionary|publisher=Curzon Press|year=1998|isbn=0-7007-0439-6|editor-last=Dillon|editor-first=Michael|location=London|pages=351}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Rossabi|first=Morris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oflvAAAAQBAJ&q=xia+and+jin:+two+foreign+dynasties+rossabi|title=A History of China|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2014|isbn=978-1-57718-113-2|pages=195}}</ref>