Emperor Yü the Great about four thousand years ago. The "Qiang" referred to Western Xia as their "Gao (or ‘Mighty’) Mi Yao" Kingdom. When "Mi Yao" is pronounced together, it is similar to "Miao." Since the autonyms of the Miao/Hmong include "Guoxiong", "Gaoxiong," and "Gouxiong," the character "Gao" (or "Mighty") in the Xia national title could have derived as a variant abbreviation. "Bai Gao" in the national title was in turn used it to refer to the Yellow River, which had traditionally been referred to as the "Mother River" of China, known as "Mu Qin He," that has nurtured their homeland. Current status The Flemish Catholic missionary, Schram, who wrote about the Monguor based on residence in the current Qinghai Province in the early twentieth century, cited Comte de Lesdain, who characterized the Monguor as "the most authentic reminder of the primitive race from which the Chinese sprung." This characterization reflected that the Monguor culture under their observation has embodied "a high civilization fortified by its own history and distinctive social structure" developed by the Xianbei forefathers from their extensive rulings over China and preserved by the "Monguor"/"Tu". As early as the Tuyühu period, Confucianism served as the core ideology to govern the country, and the Chinese Buddhism and Shamanism functioned as the principle religions. In Western Xia, Confucianism was further strengthened, and Taoism was made into the national religion along with Buddhism. As the Yellow Sect of Buddhism, also known as the Tibetan Buddhism, became prevalent in the northwest, their religious lives shifted from the Chinese toward Tibetan Buddhism. After Western Xia fell, its territory centered in Ningxia was fragmented by the successive establishments of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces, which increasingly weakened the political and military powers of the Monguor. Through the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, the Monguor continued to play important roles in the national defense, and political and religious affairs of China. Starting in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the ranches of the Monguor were taken into the state possession, and their horses became the subject of being drafted into the national army and looted by the Mongols from the north, resulting in the eventual shift of their lifestyles toward sedentary agriculture, supplemented by minimum animal husbandry, as the original Monguor groups became settled into the form of different villages. In the last two centuries, the areas formerly occupied by the Monguor were