Han Tuozhou, Junior Preceptor

The man who rules.

Han Tuozhou was the go-between of the palace coup of July 1194 who carried the plan of abdication to the Empress Dowager Wu through the palace eunuch Zhang Zongyin and so put Ningzong on the throne; the chancellor Zhao Ruyu, who had planned the coup, then treated him as a hanger-on and refused him a regional command. In 1195 he had the censors strip Zhao Ruyu of office (Zhao died in exile at Hengzhou on 20 February 1196, Julian) and made Daoxue the target: Zhu Xi and the whole school were branded 'false learning'. Since then he has climbed by honours, not by ministry: Kaifu yitong sansi (1196), Junior Tutor (1198) and on 22 September 1199 Junior Preceptor and Prince of Pingyuan, an unheard-of honour for a man outside the imperial clan.

He holds no seat in the Secretariat and makes the chancellor Jing Tang and the Privy Council do his bidding; the later histories call Chen Ziqiang his household tutor, and Chen is made censor-in-chief and then privy councillor in 1200. His weakest point is the empress's seat after Empress Han dies on 14 December 1200 (likely course).

Who he is

Name: Han Tuozhou
Title: Junior Preceptor (shaoshi), Prince of Pingyuan (Pingyuan junwang), Kaifu yitong sansi, Baoning jun jiedushi, director of the Wanshou guan
Since: Junior Preceptor and Prince of Pingyuan from 22 September 1199 (9th month, gengyin, new moon); Kaifu yitong sansi from the 7th month of 1196; Baoning jun jiedushi from 1195
Born: 6 November 1152 (en.wikipedia)
Family: Great-grandson of the chancellor Han Qi; his aunt or kinswoman was Empress Dowager Wu (zh.wikipedia on Guangzong calls him her nephew); his niece is Empress Han; his sons and his dependants are not pinned.
Confidence: high

Titles and dates from the Song shi quan wen juan 29 shang; relatives from en.wikipedia and zh.wikipedia.

Overlord

The emperor.

What it holds

Court honours (not offices): shaoshi, Prince of Pingyuan, Kaifu yitong sansi
The rank of military governor (jiedushi) of the Baoning army, an honorary command
A sinecure at the Wanshou guan, a Daoist temple in Lin'an
The favour of the emperor and the Han kin in the palace
Informal control through the censors and the Privy Council

How it was acquired

Through the 1194 coup and the next year's destruction of Zhao Ruyu.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the chancellor Jing Tang, the Privy Council men Xie Shenfu (more independent) and Xu Jiyi, the censors Hu Hong, Liu Deshou, Shen Jizu and Zhang Fu (the first two moved out in 1199), Chen Ziqiang, Deng Youlong; later Su Shidan, Zhou Jun and Cheng Song. Enemies: the Zhao Ruyu party (Zhu Xi, Peng Guinian, Liu Guangzu, Xu Yi, Chen Fuliang, Ye Shi), the gentry of Wenzhou, Mingzhou and Wuzhou, and later Shi Miyuan of Mingzhou and Empress Yang.

How things stand that morning

He is the true head of government, but one step below the chancellor in form. His grip depends on the emperor, the Han empress and the Privy Council. The ban is his creation and is beginning to cost him (the prosecutors were removed in 1199).

Wealth

Gardens at the West Lake in Lin'an (the Southern Garden, for which Lu You wrote a commemorative essay about 1202), the revenue of his honorary commands; no figures.

Military

He controls the Palace Command through loyal officers and was once Chief Secretary of the Privy Council (shumi yuan du chengzhi, 1195); the Palace Command's deputy commander Wu Xi is promoted in early 1200.

Threats

The death of Empress Han on 14 December 1200
The anger of the literati over the ban
The Yang consort
The Jin, if he seeks glory in the north

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.

In 1200

Leap 2nd month to September 1200Jing Tang left chancellor, Xie Shenfu right chancellor; Jing Tang dies on 23 September.Depends on: Han's approval.
11 November 1200Han becomes Grand Tutor.Depends on: His standing.
14 December 1200The Han empress dies.Depends on: Illness.

Later, on the likely course

March 1202The ban is lifted on his own policy.Depends on: His calculation.
July 1205Grand Preceptor and Chancellor for military and state affairs.Depends on: A string of successes at court.
24 November 1207Killed at the Yujin garden after the failed northern war of 1206-07.Depends on: The northern war and Shi Miyuan's plot with Empress Yang. Stopped by: A different war policy.

Places of note

Wanshou guan: The Daoist temple of his sinecure at Lin'an

Where the sources disagree

The campaign board and the common account call him the chancellor in 1200. On 1 January 1200 he is not a minister at all; the chronicle shows him as Junior Preceptor since the 9th month of 1199. zh.wikipedia on the Qingyuan ban says he 'received the title Kaifu yitong sansi' in 1195; the chronicle dates it to the 7th month of 1196 (Qingyuan 2).

Evidence: Titles are dated day by day in the chronicle; his household network is from the later histories.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: A court figure; no ground.

Primary sources for Southern Song

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.

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
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
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
History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. 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
History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. 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

12 more in the sources library for South China.

Sources and studies

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