page_title: Tangutology
section_title: China
hierarchical_section_title: Tangutology / The resurgence of Tangut studies (1950s through 1990s) / China
caption_attribution_description: English: Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union: Supplementary Explanations volume 3 folio 12. Folio of a 12th century Tangut translation of a Tantra printed using wooden movable type, from the Baisigou Square Pagoda in Ningxia, China.
context_page_description: Tangutology or Tangut studies is the study of the culture, history, art and language of the ancient Tangut people, especially as seen through the study of contemporary documents written by the Tangut people themselves. As the Tanguts spoke an extinct language written in a unique and complex script, the cornerstone of Tangut studies has been the study of the Tangut language and the decipherment of the Tangut script.
  The Tangut people founded the Western Xia state in northwestern China, which was eventually overthrown by the Mongols. The Tangut script, which was devised in 1036, was widely used in printed books and on monumental inscriptions during the Western Xia period, as well as during the Yuan Dynasty, but the language became extinct sometime during the Ming Dynasty. The latest known example of Tangut writing are Buddhist inscriptions dated 1502 on two dharani pillars from a temple in Baoding, Hebei. By the Qing Dynasty all knowledge of the Tangut language and script had been lost, and no examples or descriptions of the Tangut script had been preserved in any surviving Chinese books from the Song, Yuan or Ming dynasties.
context_section_description: In China, Tangut studies were slower to resume, and progress was hindered by the Cultural Revolution, so it was not until the second half of the 1970s that any significant research on Tangut was published.  One of the first of a new generation of Tangutologists was Li Fanwen, who started his career excavating fragments of Tangut epitaphs from the Western Xia imperial tombs during the early 1970s, then published a study of the Homophones in 1976, and went on to publish the first comprehensive Tangut-Chinese dictionary in 1997.  Other young scholars included Shi Jinbo, Bai Bin and Huang Zhenhua, who together produced an important study and translation of the Sea of Characters in 1983.
  In Taiwan, Gong Hwang-cherng (1934–2010), who specialized in Sino-Tibetan comparative linguistics, worked on Tangut phonology, and provided the phonetic reconstructions for Li Fanwen's 1997 dictionary.
  A number of important archaeological discoveries were made in China during this period, perhaps the most significant being the discovery of various historical and religious artefacts, as well as a number of Tangut manuscripts and printed texts, in the ruins of the Baisigou Square Pagoda in Ningxia in 1991 after it had been illegally blown up.  These included a previously unknown Tangut Buddhist text, the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union, which is thought to have been printed during the second half of the 12th century,  and is believed to be the earliest extant example of a book printed using wooden movable type.
  Tangut Buddhism has also been an important topic of study for Chinese scholars.  In 1988 Shi Jinbo produced an influential overview of Tangut Buddhism and Tangut Buddhist art.  Another scholar in this field is Xie Jisheng, who has made studies of Tangut Thangkas and has explored the influence of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism on Tangut Buddhist art.
caption: A folio from the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union
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