乾 顺(1083～1139)，西夏皇帝。夏惠宗秉常与皇后梁氏的儿子。1086～1139年在位。梁氏(?～1099)，秉常朝皇后，国相梁乙埋之女，乾顺朝皇太后。乾顺在位五十三年，是西夏王朝历代皇帝在位时间仅次于他儿子的一位。但是，在他执政期间，梁氏专权就占去长达十四年时间。
西夏帝王图
Emperor ofWestern Xia
乾顺继位时，年仅三岁，由他的生母梁太后及其兄梁乞逋摄政，这就是西夏历史上第二代梁氏专政的黑暗时代。梁氏掌权之初，由于羽翼尚未丰满，采取对外称臣的韬晦策略，不断向宋朝进贡马、驼，要求归还失地。与此同时，宋朝正值哲宗赵煦继位，也因年幼，由他的祖母太皇太后高氏临朝听政。高后守旧软弱，反对王安石变法和积极的开边政策，对内搞“元祐更化” ，对外执行退让求安的消极外交与防务政策。宋元祐二年，即夏天仪治平元年 (1087)，册封乾顺为夏国主，仍兼任节度、西平王。又割让葭芦、米脂、浮图和安疆(今宁夏东部和陕西北部)四寨大片土地给西夏。但梁氏仍然不断发动战争，还要夺回西部兰州等重要堡寨的土地，并对宋朝的边境进行大肆虏掠，给宋朝边地人民带来巨大伤害，也引起宋廷群臣对高后消极退让政策的不满，变法派势力也在朝中渐渐抬头。元祐八年 (1093)，高后病故，哲宗亲政，开始扭转朝政，重新起用变法派，对外执行强硬政策，并立即停止给西夏的岁赐。同样，在西夏国内梁氏专权和不断发动战争，给西夏经济带来严重困难，各部族人们也早已不满。加之，梁乞逋的政治野心越来越膨胀，甚至要把他妹妹梁太后的权力给架空。梁太后对她弟弟的野心也早有觉察，便采取措施先夺去他的兵权，并于夏天祐民安五年 (1094)又依靠大首领嵬名阿吴、仁多保忠、撒辰等部族的力量，诛杀梁乞逋，清除了他的党羽势力，自己掌握了朝政。夏国内部的争权斗争，使国力受到严重影响，宋朝反而乘机向夏境内步步进逼，先后在宋夏边界修筑了石门寨(赐名平夏城，在今宁夏固原原州区三营镇)等五十多所新城堡，还占领了西夏天都山 (今宁夏海原南华山、西华山) 、南牟会 (今宁夏海原西安镇) 、洪州、宥州以及不少沿边城寨。夏国再也无力反攻。这是西夏建国以来，与宋战争处于最为被动的时期。夏永安二年 (1099)，梁太后去世，乾顺亲政。对此，另有史书记载认为，西夏的宗主国辽
国，对梁太后历来反感，当乾顺已经长大成人，梁太后还不准皇帝主持国事，仍然把持朝政不松手，辽帝非常气愤，便派人把她毒死。也有研究者认为，实际上是乾顺自己把母亲毒杀的。
Rulers of Western XiaBelieved in Buddhism
西夏统治者笃信佛教
乾顺亲政以后，勤奋理事，在内政与外交方面都有所建树，具体表现在以下三个方面。
第一，推行和平睦邻的外交政策。乾顺一上台就主动与宋、辽两个大国谋求和解。辽国开始并不相信反复无常的夏国，对夏国的请和置之不理。后经乾顺一再派使臣请求，辽主动摇了，便向夏国使臣了解乾顺的情况，夏使回答说： “秉常英明，处事谨慎，守成令主也。”辽国经过反复考虑之后，才同意与夏国友好，还于辽乾统五年，即夏贞观五年 (1105)，将宗室女南仙封为成安公主，下嫁给乾顺。辽夏和解之后，夏又在外交上主攻宋朝，而宋朝同样对西夏缺乏信任，双方根本谈不下去。夏国又请求辽国出面疏通，经过辽使反复做工作以后，宋朝才勉强同意与夏和解，接受了西夏的 “输诚请罪” ，但不同意归还夏国的失地。毕竟夏国与周边邻国的和平友好关系都建立起来了，给夏国经济的恢复创造了机遇，也给人民带来了休养生息的机会。
第二，利用大国斗争，收回失地，扩大疆土。女真族完颜部落兴起于夏雍宁二年，即辽天祚帝天庆五年 (1115)，脱离辽国自己称帝，建立金国。在金与辽、宋争夺中央统治权的战争中，夏国巧妙应对，从中渔利。乾顺刚开始的时候，对变化了的各国形势尚未认清，曾支持过辽国抗金，而当他目睹了新生强国金的实力以后，在夏元德六年、金天会二年 (1124)，即时修改外交政策，开始向金国称臣，对金国保证“永依臣事辽国旧例” 。作为回报，金国“以下塞以北，阴山以南，乙室耶剌部吐禄泺西地(今山西大同西北)与之” 。夏也在联金抗宋中得到许多好处。
第三，尊行儒教，推动国内汉文化建设。西夏王朝自元昊立国后，就开始创立蕃学，“蕃礼” 与 “汉礼”之争延续了数十年，但总的来看，在乾顺以前还是蕃礼占上风。乾顺亲政后，御史中丞薛元礼向他建议说： “文教不明，汉学不重，则民乐贪顽之习，士无砥砺之心。董子所谓 ‘不素养士而欲求贤，譬犹不琢玉而求文采也’ ，可得乎?”他非常同意薛元礼的看法，立即在国内推行“尊行儒教”和恢复 “汉礼” 的基本国策。夏贞观元年 (1101)，乾顺命令在蕃学之外，始建国学 (即汉学) ，置教授，设弟子员三百，享受官方供给。此后，西夏儒学日盛，文教繁荣，“汉礼”逐渐占了统治地位，结束了西夏王朝“蕃礼”与“汉礼” 的反复争论。乾顺本人也有较高的汉文化素养。夏大德五年(1139)，官员高守忠的家中生长出灵芝草，百官表贺，乾顺作 《灵芝歌》。近年在发掘宁夏贺兰山东麓西夏王陵时，发现刻有《灵芝歌》的残碑，碑上刻有 “俟时效祉，择地腾芳” ，“德施率土，赍及多方”等诗句。其韵律优美、词语雅正，完全是中原古体诗的格式。留存下来的西夏文韵书 《文海宝韵》、西夏文字典《音同》均刊印于乾顺朝时期。
西夏统治者笃信佛教
Rulers of Western Xia Believedin Buddhism
另外，乾顺与他的母亲梁太后都笃信佛教。现在从留下来的西夏文佛经题款中可以看出，西夏王朝将三千五百多卷汉文佛经翻译成西夏文，是从元昊朝开始的，而完成的时间是在乾顺母梁太后执政时的天祐民安元年 (1090)。从题款中也可以看出，这些佛经翻译于秉常朝的最多，其次就是乾顺与母梁太后时期。梁氏和乾顺执政时期，还大规模修建寺庙和佛塔，如重修凉州护国寺感应塔、修建甘州卧佛寺等，都规模宏大，建筑和雕塑水平很高。
夏大德五年 (1139)六月，乾顺病逝，享年五十七岁。谥“圣文皇帝” ，庙号崇宗，墓号显陵。长子仁孝继位。
Qian Shun (1083-1139)，the son of Bing Chang，Emperor Hui Zong，andQueen Liang Shi of the Kingdom of the Xia Dynasty，was the Emperor of the Western Xia. He was in power during the years 1086 to 1139. Liang Shi (?-1099)，the daughter of Prime Minister Liang Yimai，was the queen of Bing Chang age and the Mother Queen of Qian Shun age respectively. Qian Shun had been in the throne for 53 years during which Liang Shi held the power for 14 years. Of all the kings in the Western Xia Dynasty the duration in which he was in the throne was only shorter than that of his son.
It was only three years old that Qian Shun succeeded to throne. His mother Liang Shi and her brother Liang Qibu were his agents in the imperial court. That was the darkest period when Liang Shi had been in the dictatorship for a second generation in Western Xia Dynasty. During the earlier period when Liang Shi was in power，she was young and inexperienced，so she adopted a low policy of submitting to the outside andpaid tributes such as horses and camels continuously to the court of the Song Dynasty so that the lost land should be reclaimed. At the same time，in the court of the SongDynasty，the emperor Zhe Zong，Zhao Xu succeeded to throne，he was also very young，so his Grandmather Gao Shi became his agent to deal with the imperial affairs.Gao Shi was a conservative and weak person who was against Wang Anshi's political reform and his active policy of developing and expanding territories. Inside the court，she carried out the policy of "Yuanyougenghua"(changing the policy which Yuanyoumade) while outside of the court she carried out the passive diplomatic policy of defense to keep safe by conceding. In the second year of Yuanyou age of the Song Dynasty(1087) and the first year of Tian Yi emperor，Zhi Ping age (1087)，Qian Shun was conferred the king of the Kingdom of the Xia，but Liang Shi still was holding a concurrent in the post of Jiedu and Xipingwang (official titles). She again ceded largepieces of land of Lu，Mizhi Futu and Anjiang ( present-day east of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and northwest of Shaanxi Province) to the Kingdom of theWestern Xia Dynasty. But Liang Shi kept starting wars in order to reclaim the land of important forts in the west of Lanzhou. Her wild plundering at the borderland of Song brought great sufferings to the people there，which caused the dissatisfaction of all the officials of the Song court with her negative and conceding policy so that the power of political reform began to form in the court. In the eighth year of Yuan You age (1093)，Queen Gao Shi died of illness. Zhe Zong took over the reins of the court and began to reverse the imperial situation. He started using the people who were for the political reform and carried out the policy of being sturdy to the outside; annual tribute to the court of the Western Xia Dynasty should be stopped immediately. Similarly in the Kingdom of the Western Xia，the chiefs of each tribe had already been not satisfied with Liang Shi's dictatorship and the wars she started which brought serious economic difficulties to the Kingdom of the Xia Dynasty. In addition，Liang Qibu became moreand more ambitious and he even wanted to take away her sister's power. But Queen Liang Shi had already noticed her brother's ambition and therefore she took measures to take away his military power in advance. In the fifth year Tian You age，Min An age of Xia Dynasty (1094)，with the help of the power of the great chiefs of Weimingawu，Renduobaozhong and Sachen tribes，Liang Shi killed Liang Qibu and cleared his henchmen and she herself controlled the imperial power. Because of the interiorstruggle for power，the national power was seriously influenced and the court of the Song Dynasty seized the opportunity to press on towards the Kingdom of Xia and Shi Menzhai which was called Ping Xia city (present-day Sanying Town in Yuanzhou District of Ningxia Autonomous Region) at the borderland of the Kingdom of Song and Xia，and other over 50 new castles were built. Tian Du Mountain of Western Xia(present-day Nan Hua Mountain，Xi Hua Mountain of Haiyuan of Ningxia)，Nan Mu Hui (Present-day Xian Township of Haiyuan of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region)，Hongzhou，Youzhou and other frontier towns and villages were captured. Under these circumustances，the Kingdom of Xia had not the strength to counterattack any more.That was the most passive war period during the Kingdon of Song and Xia Dynasty since the Kingdom of the Western Xia was founded. In the second year Yong An age of Xia Dynasty (1099) Liang Shi died and Qian Shun took over the reins of the court.In other historical books there are comments like this： The Kingdom of the Liao，themetropolitan kingdom of the Kingdom of the Western Xia，had always been very disgusted with Liang Shi，for she still wouldn't give up the power and wouldn't let her son deal with the national affairs even when he was old enough，therefore the emperor of the Kingdom of Liao was very angry and send people to poison her. Otherwise，some researchers thought that it was Qian Shun who poisoned his mother.
After Qian Shun came to power，he was hardworking and successful in dealing with both domestic and foreign affairs. His achievements embodied in the following three aspects.
His first achievement was to practice the peaceful and friendly diplomatic policy.After Qian Shun came to power，he was active to seek compromise with the two big kingdoms，Song and Liao. In the beginning The Kingdom of Liao didn't believe in the changeable Kingdom of Xia，therefore it showed an indifferent attitude toward Xia's asking for compromise. After Qian Shun sent his ambassadors to request again and again，the emperor of the Kingdom of Liao began to vacillate and inquired the officials of the Kingdom of Xia about Qian Shun. They answered： "The former emperor Bing Chang is very wise and prudent. Our emperor Qian Shun is a good emperor capable of carrying on the achievements of his father." After careful considerations，the emperor ofLiao agreed to compromise with Xia. In the fifth year of QianTong age of Liao Dynasty and the fifth year of Zhen Guan age of the Xia Dynasty (1105)，the emperor of Liao conferred the royal daughter Nan Xian the title of Cheng An princess and married her to Qian Shun. After the compromise of the two kingdoms，Xia focused its attention on the compromise with the Song court in diplomacy，whereas the court of the Song Dynasty similarly was lack of confidence in the Kingdom of Western Xia; the two parties could not agree with each other at all. In that case Xia asked Liao to mediate between the two parties. Only after the mediation of the ambassador of Liao court did Song court barely agreed to compromise with the Xia State and accepted the western Xia's "sincere request". but the Song court didn't agree to return Xia 's lost land. After all Xia developed peaceful and friendly relationship with the neighboring countries，which created the opportunities to restore the economy of Xia and the opportunities for the people to settle down for a peaceful life.
His second achievement was to make use of the wars between the big kingdoms to take back the lost land and expand the territories. In the second year Yong Ning age of Xia Dynasty，namely the fifth year of Emperor Tian Zuo，Tian Qing age of Liao Dynasty (1115)，Wan Yan Tribe rose and Nv Zhen nationality separated herself fromthe Kingdom of Liao and set up her own empire，hence the foundation of Kingdom of Jin. In the wars of fighting for the power of central ruling between Jin and Liao together with Song，Xia coped with each country skillfully and took advantages to make profits.In the beginning Qian Shun didn't have a clear awareness of the changed affairs of all nations，so he had ever supported Liao to fight against Jin. But after he witnessed the power of the newly-founded powerful Kindom of Jin，In the sixth year Yuan De age of Xia Dynasty，namely the second year Tian Hui age of Jin Dynasty，he corrected the diplomatic policy timely and began to submit to the Kingdom of Jin，he also assured to the Jin Kindom that he would forever submit to it as he did to the Liao Kindom according to the former principles. As a reward，the Jin Kingdom gave the Xia Kingdom the land to the north of the Great Wall and the south of Yinshan，Tululuoxidi which was attached to Yishiyelabu (present-day north of Datong in Shanxi Province)，therefore Xia benefited a lot from joining hands with the Jin Kingdom against the Song Kingdom.
The third achievement of Qian Shun was to promote the development of Han culture by carrying out the Confucianism. Since the foundation of the Western Xia Kingdom by Yuan Hao，it began to set up Fanxue (the culture of the Western Xia) and the struggle between "Fanli" and "Hanli" (the national culture) lasted for several decades.But Generally speaking，before Qian Shun was in power，Fanli was more prevailingthan Hanli. After Qian Shun came to power，Yushizhongcheng (official title)，Xue Yuanli suggested to him "The culture and education is not emphasized and Hanxue etiquette was not paid attention，so people are stupid and ignorant; the intellectuals are lack of the enterprise". Dong Zhongshu has ever said 'Pursuing the paragon of virtue and talent without cultivating is just like seeking brilliance without carving the crude jade'，how can it be possible?" He appreciated Xue Yuanli's ideas so much that he immediately implemented the policy of respecting Confucianism and restoring Hanli which was considered the radical national policy throughout the Kingdom. In the first year Zhen Guan age of the Xia Dynasty (1101) Qian Shun ordered in addition to Fanxue to set up Guoxue (namely Hanxue) Teachers were arranged and 300 students were enrolled who enjoyed the official supplies. Since then，there was a Confucianism boom and prosperity in culture and education. "Hanli" gradually came to be in the ruling position which ended the repeated debate of "Fanli and Hanli" in the Western Xia Dynasty. Qian Shun himself also had a higher attainment in Han culture. In the fifth year Da De age of Xia Dynasty (1139)，the glossy ganoderma (traditional Chinese herb) grew in an official Gao Dezhong's home，all the officials came for congratulations.Qian Shun composed a poem "The Song of Glossy Ganoderma". In recent years when the emperor's tombs of the Western Xia Dynasty were dug in the east of Helan Mountain in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region，the incomplete stone stele on whichthe "Song of Glossy Ganoderma" was carved was found. On the stele there are the verses like "Happiness and Fortune was given at the best time，fragrance was donated in the mysterious place"，"Magnanimity was given all over the world，the charity was spread in all directions" The poem of which the rhyme is beautiful and the terms are graceful is entirely in the style of ancient poetry of Zhongyuan. The remained Western Xia rhyme book Wen Hai Bao Yun and the dictionary Yin Tong in the Western Xia language were all published in Qian Shun's time.
In addition，Qian Shun and his Mother had a strong belief in Buddhism. The fact can be seen from the remained inscriptions of the Buddhist scripture in the western Xia language that in the Western Xia Dynasty the translation of over 3500 volumes of Buddhist scripture in Han language into the Western Xia language began from Yuan Hao Dynasty and completed in the first year of Emperor Tian You Min An age (1090) when Qian Shun's mother，MotherQueen Liang was in power. From the inscriptions the fact can be seen that most of the Buddhist scriptures were translated in Bing Chang Dynasty. The rest were translated in the time of Qian Shun and his Mother Queen Liang. During the period when Liang Shi and Qian Shun were in power temples and pagodas were built in a large scale，for example Huguo temple and Ganying Pagoda in Liangzhou，Wofo temple in Ganzhou，whose scales were magnificent with very high level in construction and sculpture.
In June of the fifth year Da De age of the Xia Dynasty (1139)，Qian Shun died of illness when he was 57 years old. He was posthumorously admitted as "Sheng Wen Emperor"(an emperor who govern the county with culture.) The assumed name of the Temple in his honor was" Chong Zong" and the tomb，"Xian Ling". His eldest sonRen Xiao succeeded to the throne after his death.Ⓔ
西夏王陵 侯志刚\摄
Xixia Mausoleums Photo by Hou Zhigang
古冢斜阳 吴衡\摄
Ancient Tombs with the Setting Son Photo by Wu Heng
