Li Renxiao (1124---1193), the eldest son of Emperor Chongzong Li Qianshun, was born to the Han Chinese Cao clan, who succeeded to the throne in the same month after Chongzong's death, and changed his era name to "Daqing" the following year. He reigned for 54 years.
Li Renxiao admired Han culture, and after he succeeded to the throne, in addition to maintaining friendly relations with the Jin Dynasty, he still did not forget his interaction with the Song Dynasty. In May of the first year of Renqing (1144), Li Renxiao sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to celebrate the Tianshen Festival, and donated pearls, jade, golden belts, ayaluo, gauze, horses and other items to the Song Dynasty, resuming the exchange of envoys with the Song Dynasty that had been interrupted for nearly twenty years. In December of the same year, he also sent envoys to the Song Dynasty He Zhengdan to contribute ginware, aya luo, yarn and other items, with the intention of further close exchanges with the Southern Song Dynasty. The Confucian culture of the Song Dynasty appealed to Li Renxiao. Schools were set up in various states and counties, and the number of children entering the school increased to 3,000, an increase of ten times compared with the number of "guoxue" in the Chongzong Dynasty. Li Renxiao also set up a "primary school" in the imperial palace, and the descendants of the Fanxia Sect were allowed to enroll from the ages of 7 to 15. Li Renxiao and Empress Dowager Yi also often came to the teachings in person, and personally selected mingru to preside over the lectures. The Li Renxiao period was the heyday of Western Xia culture, a large number of cultural and academic works came out, and the printing and publishing industry was very developed. The engraved and printed books of the Li Renxiao period that have been discovered include the poetry collection "YueYue Entertainment Poems", the proverb collection "New Collection of Jinhe Ci", "Shengli Yihai", the Xixia and Han chinese double interpretation dictionaries "The Pearl in the Palm of the Hand", the rhyme book "Wenhai Baoyun" and so on.
While advocating ruling the country with Confucianism, Li Renxiao paid great attention to strengthening the building of the legal system. During the Tiansheng period (1149-1169), Li Renxiao specially organized personnel to compile the code, and on the basis of revising the old laws, the new revised code was named "Tiansheng Reform of the Old Law Order", a total of 20 volumes, and was engraved and promulgated in Western Xia script. This is a comprehensive code of laws with reference to the laws of the Tang and Song Dynasties, combined with the actual situation of the Western Xia, including civil law, administrative law, criminal law, procedural law, economic law, military law and so on. This is the most complete code of the Western Xia Dynasty, and has been called "a unique legal document of the Middle Ages" by foreign scholars. During Li Renxiao's reign, in order to meet the needs of rapid economic and cultural development, he further improved the official system institutions and the construction of official governance in the imperial court and localities. He also set up a branch to take the scholars, and formally accepted the imperial examination system in the Central Plains, further pushing the Confucian education in Western Xia to a period of unprecedented prosperity.
The house of the aristocratic landlord Doshilu often compared themselves with luxury. Socio-economic development is hampered. In May of the fifteenth year of Tiansheng (1163), Li Renxiao ordered the prohibition of luxury in order to save state financial expenditure. After the death of King Cha Ge of Jin, Ren Xiao distributed the land occupied by Cha Ge to the people for farming. In addition, Li Renxiao also took some corresponding measures to timely change the part of the superstructure that was incompatible with the economic situation in order to promote the rapid development of the economy. For example, to consolidate feudal land ownership relations, to reduce land rent and taxes, and so on. All this played a role in promoting the development of Western Xia society.
In May 1170, Ren Dejing, the minister of state who had commanded the army for 20 years and had monopoly power, forced Li Renxiao to "divide the country" and put half of the land under his rule, calling it the State of Chu. Later, Lai Jinguo supported Li Renxiao's design to hunt down Ren Dejing and avoid a split.
Li Renxiao was friendly with Jin and recognized his suzerainty status. In order to establish good relations with Jin and seek his own independent development, Renxiao sent many emissaries to the Jin Dynasty every year to pay tribute. In Li Renxiao's generation, there were about one hundred and forty emissaries sent by the Western Xia to the Jin Dynasty, and such frequent diplomatic activities were precisely to establish good relations with Jin, seek peaceful coexistence, seek Jin's understanding and support, and provide a more stable environment for the economic development of the country. During the reign of Kim Sejong, Jin found that in the bilateral trade between Jinxia and Xia, the Western Xia people always exchanged jewelry for silk cotton, which they believed was exchanging useless things for their useful things. Therefore, the security and Lanzhou farms were immediately closed, which brought difficulties to the trade of the Xia Kingdom. When Li Renxiao learned of this, he immediately ordered his emissaries to present the "Hundred Heads Of Tent" to the whole country to show his sincerity to Jin, thereby requesting the restoration of the closed field. After much negotiation, Kim's consent was finally obtained. From this incident, RenXiao's flexible diplomatic strategy was demonstrated. Throughout Li Renxiao I, although he sent troops to Jin and Song to plunder the land when Jin invaded the Song Dynasty, it was all small frictions, most of which were friendly with Jin, which also provided a stable environment for the economic development of the country.
On September 20, 1198, Li Renxiao fell ill and died. After Li Renxiao's death, his posthumous title was Renzong.