Study Of Articles Of Tangut Military Law

There are a lot of documents in the Heishuicheng Manuscripts,which proved that Xixia had made great achievements in the construction of its legal system.In the country's more than one hundred and ninety years since its founding,Xixia had revised four laws:“Zhenguan Yujing Jiang”,“Tianshenggai jiuxinding laws”,“Rule”and “The New Law”,each of which contained rich military articles.In the construction of its legal system,Xixia's military law,whether its content and articles or the legislative idea and technology,all changed with the variable situations and backgrounds both inside and outside the country.This paper is based on the sorting and research of the existing literature of Xixia's military law.First,it gives a brief introduction to the various versions of Xixia's legal documents which contains military articles from the perspective of historical literature study,providing a comprehensive understanding of the current situation.Second,utilizing the Chinese translations of Xixia's legal documents,the thesis puts together existing military articles in Xixia's legal documents and divides them into six categories,including army fabric management,soldier registration,military garrison,military logistics management,wartime military articles and military reward.Then by analyzing the great variations of Xixia's military law,it tries to explore the key points and outline for Xixia's military legal construction.Third,after sorting out the basic content of Xixia's military law,this paper puts forward its main characteristics which are concise in form,universal in application and easy in operation.As a national regime established by the nomadic Tangut with strong feudal patriarchal system,Xixia's military law is deeply affected by Dangxiang's tribal leader system in its continuous revised process,especially for the military organization articles.But as time went by,Xixia's central government gradually strengthened itself by withdrawing the power over personnel and supervision in its legislation.Besides,in Xixia's military law some other principles can also be summed up like “the penalty is common,the prize is rare”.Punishments such as “fine horse”,“labor penalty” and “Na money condonable” formed an effective supplement of national financial resource and labor,while military rewards like silk,tea,gold and silver could boost morale and improve combat effectiveness.The divination,no profit closely related to war and other military philosophies also affects Xixia's mititary andits military law construction.In conclusion,by the study of these above-mentioned issues,this paper tries to ger an overall grasp of Xixia's military law.