Over 20 academic units including National Library of China and Ningxia University, are jointly working on the compilation of 17-volume historical documents of Xixia kingdom.

    Xixia (1032-1227), or Western Xia, was a feudal kingdom established by the Tangut ethnic group at the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road. Its territory largely overlapped today's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China.

    Hand-written copies, stele inscriptions, manuscripts and xylographic literature, photographs of relics and calligraphy featuring Xixia characters will be arranged and eventually compiled into the 17 volumes.

    All the works covering politics, economy, military, nationality,culture and religion are the first-hand materials for research on Xixia society.

    The Xixia characters, created in the 11th century based on traditional Chinese characters, became a dead language with the downfall of the kingdom and Tangut. But its civilization came to light again when discovered by the Russian in the 20th century.

    The first eight volumes of Xixia documents from Beijing collection were already published in August last year. The rest volumes from the collection of Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Shaanxi and Taiwan are expected to be published before June 2006, according to Chen Yuning, president of Ningxia University.

    "It will be the first time for over 95 percent of the documents featuring Xixia, Tibetan or Chinese characters to be open to the public," said the expert.