Tangut - Tangut (English spelling)

A tribe active mainly in northwestern China from the 6th to the 14th century. A branch of the Tibetan Qiang clan, they split into various tribes and lived in the area between Tubo (Tibet) and the powerful Tuyuhun state of the Qinghai region from the beginning of the 7th century. When Tuoba Chici, leader of the Tuoba tribe, married into the royal family of Tuyuhun, they became the most powerful tribe and took control of the Tanguts. Thanks to the appeasement measures of Emperor Taizong of Tang (reigned 626-649), the Tanguts submitted to the Tang Dynasty, and Chici was given the surname Li by the Tang Dynasty. Later, when the Tubo rose to power, defeated the Tuyuhun, and took possession of the Qinghai region, the Tanguts were absorbed into the Tubo and came under their control, but some Tanguts who did not want to be subordinate to the Tubo left Qinghai in the second half of the 8th century and moved north-northeast to Gyeongju on the eastern edge of Gansu. These tribes were called the Dongshan tribe, and those who moved to the southern mountainous areas of Lingzhou and Yanzhou in the mid-9th century were called the Namshan tribe. The Tuoba tribe also entered Gyeongju, but from the mid-8th century they moved further to Xiazhou in the southern part of Ordos. These people are called the Pyeonghwa tribe.

The Tanguts at the end of the Tang Dynasty are roughly divided into three tribes: Dongshan, Nanshan, and Pingxia. In the second half of the 9th century, Tuoba Sigong, the leader of the Pingxia tribe, was appointed as a military governor by the Tang Dynasty for his achievements in suppressing the Huang Chao Rebellion, and was given the surname Li. His descendants continued to hold the position of military governor of the Dingnan Army of Xia Province for generations. In the ninth generation after Sigong, a dispute arose over the succession between his elder brother Ji Fang, who submitted to the Song Dynasty, and his younger brother Ji Qian, who completely rebelled against the Song Dynasty and paid tribute to the Khitan. Ji Qian's son De Ming eventually succeeded him, made peace with the Song Dynasty, and De Ming's son Yuan Hao was born, creating the independent kingdom of the Western Xia. After the fall of the Western Xia state by Genghis Khan in 1227, the Tanguts gradually merged with the Han people and other neighboring tribes.

[Tatsuo Nishida]

"Studies on the Ancient History of the Tanguts" by Seiro Okazaki (1972, Kyoto University Oriental History Research Group)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の西北部を中心に6世紀から14世紀ごろまで活躍した民族。チベット系羌(きょう)の一族であり、諸部族に分かれ、7世紀の初めごろから、吐蕃(とばん)（チベット）と青海地方の強国吐谷渾(とよくこん)に挟まれた地域に居住した。拓跋(たくばつ)部の首領拓跋赤辞(せきじ)が、吐谷渾の王家と通婚するに及んで最強の部族となり、タングートの指導権を握った。唐の太宗（在位626～649）の懐柔策によって、タングートは唐に服属し、赤辞は唐朝から李(り)姓を賜った。その後、吐蕃が興隆して吐谷渾を破り、青海地方を領有すると、タンダートも吐蕃に吸収され、その支配下に入ったが、吐蕃への隷属を好まなかった一部のタングート人は、8世紀の後半から青海の地を離れて、北北東に向かい、甘粛(かんしゅく)の東端の慶州に移動。その部族を東山部といい9世紀の中ごろから霊州、塩州の南方山地に移った部族を南山部と称した。拓跋部も慶州に入ったが、8世紀中ごろからさらにオルドスの南部の夏州に移動した。これを平夏部という。

　唐末のタングートは、東山、南山、平夏の3部族に大別される。9世紀の後半、平夏部の首領拓跋思恭(しきょう)が、黄巣(こうそう)の乱を鎮めた功績で唐朝から節度使に任ぜられ、李姓を賜り、その子孫は代々夏州定難軍節度使を世襲した。思恭から9代目に、その承襲をめぐって、宋(そう)に服従した兄の継捧(けいほう)と、全面的に宋に反抗し契丹(きったん)に臣属の礼をとった弟の継遷(けいせん)との間に紛争が起きた。やがて継遷の子徳明(とくめい)が後を継ぎ宋と和解し、徳明の子元昊(げんこう)になって、独立王国西夏(せいか)国が誕生する。1227年チンギス・ハンによって西夏国が滅亡してのち、タングート人は漸次漢族はじめ近隣諸族と融合した。

［西田龍雄］

『岡崎精郎著『タングート古代史研究』（1972・京都大学東洋史研究会）』

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