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Zhang Yuan

Type Figure Region Western Xia Time c. 1020 Also known as Zhang Yuan (Western Xia)

Northern Song examination candidate who repeatedly failed and defected to Western Xia around the Jingyou era, offering Li Yuanhao strategy against So…

Timeline

  1. c. 1020–1034Bianjing · Kaifeng PrefectureA scholar from the Central Plains who repeatedly sat the capital examinations but failed, growing ever more resentful of the examination system and the court; around the beginning of Jingyou he resolved to leave the Song dynasty, an important background to his later defection to Xia.
  2. 1034–1040Xingqing Prefecture · Xingqing PrefectureIn the early Jingyou era he defected to Western Xia, presenting Li Yuanhao with the Essential Institutions of the Six States, detailing the situations of Song, Liao, Xia and neighboring states, and proposing alliances with Liao and the Tibetan Empire and an attack on Song; he was appointed to military deliberations, providing strategic reference for Western Xia's later war against Song.

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