Abstracts

The Tangut Contracts of Selling and Hiring Livestock
Shi Jinbo （ p. 1 ）
The newly discovered Tangut contracts of selling livestock which provide many details of livestock trade prove to be very valuable on the research of the commerce, the agriculture and animal husbandry economy, and the civil life in the Tangut Kingdom. Having translated 20 nearly complete contracts of selling or hiring livestock written in cursive Tangut characters into Chinese, this article exhibits the form and content of these contracts. Based on the new data provided by these contracts, an exploration of the price of livestock in the Tangut Kingdom can be carried out. After analyzing the different features of exchange of grain and money for livestock in Khara Khoto and Wuwei, the paper considers the monetary economy in Wuwei region being more developed. The soaring price of livestock in the contracts at the end of the Tangut Kingdom describes a miserable scene of unrest and inflation on the background of the Mongol invasion.