Emperor Huizong of Western Xia had moved to assume control of the Tangut government when he turned sixteen, but the Dowager continues to dominate until her son’s early death at twenty-six.

When his three-year-old son becomes Emperor Chongzong in 1086, his grandmother (Huizong's mother) becomes regent again and launches an invasion of the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

Again, both campaigns end in defeat.

Emperor Chongzong, orphaned at three, had taken direct control of Western Xia in 1099 after the poisoning of his grandmother by a Liao envoy.

He has ended wars with both the Liao and the Song and focused on domestic reform.

Li's reign includes further sinification and removes the power of some significant Tangut clans, which have remained a powerful political force—appointing tribal leaders as kings, forcing them under his power and influence.

The reign of Tangut Emperor Chongzong sees incursions by the surrounding Liao- and Sung-ruled nations, and a series of military defeats from 1114.

He establishes a Confucianist-led administration for several political quarters including civil and military, centralizing his power.

Buddhism is prevalent during his reign, and the scriptures are translated to the Tangut language.

The Liao emperor, eight years after the establishment of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, had fled in 1123 to Western Xia, whose Emperor Chongzong had submitted to the Jin demand of the emperor’s person.

Western Xia becomes a vassal state of Jin.

After the Jin Dynasty’s destruction of the Northern Song Dynasty in 1127, Western Xia attacks and takes several thousand square miles of land from the former territory of the Northern Song.