This article analyzed the current trends of research of history of Xixia(西夏) in Korean academia and suggested several options for future development. I believe that if attempts are made to broaden the scope of Xixia studies and secure new perspectives, the foundation can be laid. In this regard, I would like to mention two main directions.
One of the most prominent features of Korean scholarship on the history of northern and nomadic peoples is the critical view of ‘Sinicization’. Criticizing the existing arguments that various ethnic groups such as the Khitan, Jurchen, Mongol, and Manchu were eventually forced to become Han, and the political logic of Chinese studies that considers all northern and nomadic peoples as ‘Chinese’ in order to maintain a ‘unified multi-ethnic state’, it is an important perspective of Korean studies to explore various historical phenomena that can confirm the unique identities of various ethnic groups. This perspective can be applied to the Tangut-Xixia as well. Although Chinese scholars, in accordance with their political logic, view the war between the Xixia and Northern Song as a ‘conflict within the Chinese nation’, it is questionable whether the long-term conflict that began in the 980s and continued until the early 1100s and its aftermath can be interpreted in that way. It needs to be closely linked to the important issue of the internal strategies of the Xixia state and the maintenance of their identity. Is the Xixia a Sinicized state? Or did it retain its Tangut identity until the end? Scholars use terms such as ‘pluralistic international system’ or ‘multi-state system’ to describe the situation in East Asia during the 10th to early 13th centuries. This is because it has been recognized that the period cannot be explained by ‘Chinese World Order’, or by the term ‘tribute system’ alone. Another country that played a decisive role in the ‘pluralistic international system’ was the Xixia. Xixia had tribute-vassalage relations with both the Northern Song and the Khitan-Liao, but these were superficial, Xixia was in constant military conflict with the Northern Song, best representing the reality of a multi-national system that was far removed from the ideal of a Chinese world order. The study of the historical status of Xixia and the resulting understanding of the dynamics of the international order in the 10th to 13th centuries will further broaden the perspective, and it will be possible to increase the importance of the Xixia in future textbooks and other introductions.