A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Chao Yüan-hao
195 Chao Yüan-hao 趙元昊. A.D. 1003—1048. The founder of the Hsia State. He was the son of 趙德明 Chao Tê-ming, who had been Governor of Hsia-chou in Kansuh, and had been posthumously ennobled as King of Hsia. The family was descended from the Tobas. Under the T'ang dynasty the surname 李 Li had been bestowed upon them for services rendered; and this again had been similarly changed under the Sung dynasty to Chao. Chao Yüan-hao succeeded his father in 1032 as Governor of Hsia-chou. He was of a fierce and suspicious nature, a student of Buddhism, and well acquainted with the Chinese people. In 1034 he invaded Chinese territory, and having seized all the country west of the Yellow River, he attacked 蘭 Lan-chou Fu. In 1038 he proclaimed himself independent as Emperor of Hsia. In 1041, after three years' successful warfare, he offered peace, and in 1042 he was formally recognised as King of Hsia. He was killed by a son whose wife he had appropriated. For nearly two hundred years after his death the State he had founded continued to exist, always more or less in antagonism to the Imperial House, until at length it was finally overthrown by the Mongols in 1227.