What we know about forest management in Xi Xi clearly allows us to refer it to the East Asian, and not to the Central Asian model of nature management, although the natural and climatic conditions in the Tangut state were much closer to those in Central Asia. The noted features of the exploitation of forest resources, coupled with the creation of protective forest belts, indicate a high culture of nature management in the Tangut power, which corresponded to its overall high cultural level.
Key words: forest management, forest plantations, Si Xia, tanguts.
Wood and other so-called non-wood products of the forest-mushrooms, food plants, medicinal raw materials, etc. - are important resources that meet the diverse needs of people. Despite the fact that in the Tangut state of Xi Xia (982-1227), cattle breeding and irrigated agriculture were the leading sectors of the economy, forest management played a significant role in it. The economy of this state as a whole and its individual components were analyzed by the leading Russian expert on the history of the Tanguts, E. I. Kychanov, on the basis of a thorough study of the Tangut script monuments stored in the manuscript fund of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), and highlighted by him in a number of articles. However, the issues of forest management and afforestation in Xi Xia have not yet been specifically discussed. I will try to fill in this gap as much as possible.
Materials on Tangut forest management are scattered over several preserved sources discovered by P. K. Kozlov's expedition to Khara-Khoto. Perhaps the most informative and interesting materials are contained in the original Tangut work of the second half of the XII century "The Sea of Meanings established by the Saints" (ngu wo ngôn). This essay is a kind of encyclopedia, built on the type of Chinese Lei shu and includes information about the world around us and human society. Valuable information is also ...
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