Emperor Zhangzong, Emperor

Zhangzong is about thirty-one and in the eleventh year of his reign.

He is a cultivated emperor, remembered for Chinese learning and poetry (the Jinshi's verdict, not re-checked here), who nevertheless keeps his grandfather Shizong's Jurchen policy: he forbids Han dress to the Jurchen, requires the Jurchen kowtow, and makes meng'an and mouke nobles pass an archery test before they may sit the jinshi examination (English Wikipedia). He has founded Confucian temples in every prefecture and county (same source). The same article says that in his later years he spoiled Li Shi'er, gave her kin posts and neglected his duties, which is a later historian's verdict.

All his sons have died before the age of three; nobody stands behind him in the line.

Who he is

Name: Zhangzong, Wanyan Jing (Jurchen name Madage)
Title: Emperor (huangdi) of the Great Jin; reign era Cheng'an
Since: January 1189
Born: 1168
Family: Grandson of Shizong, son of the Crown Prince Yungong and of Lady Tudan (Empress Xiaoyi after death; the Zhangzong page names both parents); no living wife of rank, no living son.
Confidence: high

English Wikipedia (Zhangzong, Shizong, Yungong, Empress Qinhuai).

Overlord

Emperor Zhangzong

What it holds

The palace city of Zhongdu (Daxing fu) and its parks
The Taiye lake and the Daning palace on Qionghua island, north-east of the palace (Shizong's villa of 1179, kept up by his heir)
The imperial tombs in the Dafangshan hills at Fangshan, where Shizong lies in the Xing mausoleum
The stone Lugou bridge (begun 1189, finished 1192) and the road to the south-west
The imperial pastures and hunting grounds on the northern uplands

How it was acquired

Succeeded his grandfather Shizong in January 1189; his father the Crown Prince Yungong had died in 1185 (English Wikipedia).

Allies and rivals

Allies: the consort clans (Tudan/Tushan, Pucha, Tangkuo, Wulinda, Wugulun, Heshilie, Pusan) whose men marry the princesses of his house; the Jiagu family (a Jiagu lady is his Zhaoyi). Watchers: his half-brothers (the sons of Yungong) and his uncles, Shizong's surviving sons, each of whom could be named his heir.

How things stand that morning

Probably at Zhongdu for the New Year. The first light of the year finds him with a favourite, a vacant empress's chair, five dead sons and a court that wants an heir. He has not yet named a successor and has no son to name. He rules through the Department of State Affairs and the Privy Council, over an empire at peace on every border. The Jin court's yearly round of spring and autumn hunts and summer retreats is general knowledge and is not dated for him.

Wealth

The privy purse of the emperor: the imperial estates and pastures, the state monopolies, tribute and the Song payment. No figure.

Military

Commander of all armies in name; in practice through the Privy Council. His own guard (huwei) of Jurchen sons and the Imperial Guard Army stand at Zhongdu.

Threats

No son and no empress
A quarrel between the ministers and Li Shi'er's kin, if it has begun
The Yellow River
A steppe that does not stay bought

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

29 December 1208Zhangzong dies without a surviving son; the ministers choose his uncle Wanyan Yongji, Prince of Wei, as emperor (English Wikipedia).Depends on: No son born to him surviving him; the ministers' preference for an uncle over his half-brothers. Stopped by: A living son, or a decision for Wudubu or another brother.

Places of note

Daning palace and Taiye lake: The imperial villa north-east of the palace city, now Beihai.
Fangshan imperial tombs: Shizong's Xing mausoleum and the transferred tombs of the earlier emperors.
Lugou bridge: The new eleven-arch stone bridge on the south-west road.

Where the sources disagree

English Wikipedia's Beihai Park and History of Beijing articles give 1179 for Zhangzong's lake and palace; 1179 is Shizong's reign (Zhangzong was a boy of eleven).

Evidence: Secondary sources only; the Jinshi text could not be opened in this session.

On the map: Marker-level: the tomb circle is at a checked-by-eye position in the Dafangshan hills, within a few kilometres.

Primary sources for Jin empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.