Distinguished Lectures on Chinese Culture and Religion (2)

Abstract

As a kingdom that existed during the Song, Liao, Xia and Jin period, the history and culture of Xi Xia had its distinctive features, but at the same time, the culture of Xi Xia was also closely related to that of China proper. Following the model of Chinese characters, Xi Xia created its own script, which was used for creating a lot of documents. Xi Xia adopted Confucianism and honored Confucius as Emperor of Exalted Culture. It promoted Chinese scholarship, implemented the civil service examination system, and cultivated talents. The Xi Xia court codified legal codes by incorporating elements of Chinese legal codes, and the Xi Xia legal codes extant today are the earliest legal codes written in a minority script, thus enriching the Chinese legal system. Xi Xia also accepted the Chinese social customs and left a large number of valuable documents regarding social life. The Xi Xia technicians improved the Chinese printing technique by inventing wood movable type printing. Finally, the people of Xi Xia revered Buddhism, translated the Tripitaka brought from China proper into the Xi Xia script, and thousands of volumes of Buddhist scriptures have been unearthed. Xi Xia also borrowed cultural elements from the neighboring Tubo and Uyghur peoples. The culture of Xi Xia is an integral part of the brilliant traditional cultures of China.

Speaker's Profile：

Professor Shi Jinbo is an academician and a research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Chinese Academy of History, and deputy director of the National Committee of Experts on the Protection of Classics.

His main research fields are the culture and history of Xi Xia, Chinese national history and Chinese national ancient script. He has Presided over and completed more than 20 major and key national and provincial projects and published 36 books (including cooperation), mainly "A Brief History of Xi Xia Buddhism", "Xi Xia Cultural Relics", "Xi Xia Tiansheng Legal Codes", "Exploring the Ancient Writings of Chinese Nationalities through the Ages", "Xi Xia Society", "Xi Xia Text Tutorial", "Study of Xi Xia Economic Documents", "Outline of Chinese Ethnohistory", etc. He has been the chief editor of 25 books, including "Russian Tibetan Literature of Heishui City" (31 volumes) and "Chinese Tibetan Literature of Xi Xia" (20 volumes), and participated in writing and editing 18 dictionaries, and published more than 370 articles.