The ancient Xixia people are the ancestors of which ethnic minority today?

The Xixia people are mainly Dangxiang people. According to the research of modern scholars, they should be the current Qiang people, not the Han people.

The earliest Chinese documents record that Dangxiang is a descendant of the Western Qiang of the Han Dynasty. Since ancient times, the Qiang people have occupied the grasslands around Qinghai Lake and the mountains south of Qinghai Lake and near the sources of the Yellow River, Datong River, and Huangshui River. On the edge of this area is a place in the northeast of Tubo, customarily called Amdo. The early Dangxiang and Tubo ancestors probably lived together in this area.

Research on the Dangxiang language has confirmed that in terms of classification, people who speak the Dangxiang language can be classified as ancient members of the Tibeto-Burman ethnic group. As far as their culture is concerned, the Dangxiang people have many characteristics of other Qiang ethnic groups

Extended information:

Xixia (1038-1227) was a country in Chinese history composed of Dangxiang people. A regime established in northwest China, which lasted for 189 years and lasted for 189 years. ?

The Dangxiang people, the ancestors of Xixia, originally lived on the Songpan Plateau in Sichuan and moved to northern Shaanxi during the Tang Dynasty. Because of his meritorious service in quelling the rebellion, he was granted the title of Military Envoy of Xiazhou by the Emperor of Tang Dynasty. He successively submitted to the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty.

After the Xiazhou regime was annexed by the Northern Song Dynasty, because Li Jiqian was unwilling to surrender, he established the country again and obtained the canonization of the Liao Emperor. Li Jiqian adopted the method of reaching Song Dynasty from Liao Dynasty and successively occupied Lanzhou and the Hexi Corridor area. In the first year of Baoyuan of Song Dynasty (1038), Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country, namely Xia Jingzong, and Xixia was officially founded. And because it was in the west, people in the Song Dynasty called it Xixia.

The Dangxiang ethnic group is one of the ethnic minorities in the north in ancient times and is a branch of the Western Qiang ethnic group, so it is called "Dangxiang Qiang". According to records, the Qiang people originated from "Cizhi" or "Xizhi", which is the Yellow River area in southeastern Qinghai Province today.

Reference materials: Dangxiang Clan—Baidu Encyclopedia? Xixia—Baidu Encyclopedia