A History of the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia Dynasties (Chinese Dynastic History Series)

History of the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia is divided into two parts: the first, History of the Liao and Jin, and the second, History of Western Xia. In more than 500,000 Chinese characters, it presents the history of three northern minority regimes that coexisted with the Song Dynasty from the 10th to the 13th centuries. It systematically examines the founding, rise, decline, and fall of the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia dynasties, along with the lessons to be learned from their histories, and provides detailed discussions of their political, economic, and military systems, as well as their cultures and societies. Its organization and analysis of unearthed documents have advanced and broadened the available historical sources. For example, the first part cites the Liao stele Inscription on the Marriage Alliance of the Great Prince to illustrate private ownership in the early Liao period, and draws on the Inscription on the Longshan Temple in Dongzhou West to explain the ethnic composition of residents in Liao military settlements.