The emperor Zhao Kuo

Who he is

Name

Zhao Kuo (Ningzong)

Title

Emperor (huangdi) of the Great Song

Since

24 July 1194 (Julian)

Born

1168 (Qiandao 4)

Family

Father Guangzong (Zhao Dun); mother Empress Li Fengniang; empress Han; consorts Yang and Cao; sons Zhao Jun (d. 1196) and Zhao Tan (d. 28 September 1200); adopted boy Zhao Xun (adopted 1197, about six then).

Confidence

high

Song shi quan wen juan 29 shang; en.wikipedia on Ningzong; zh.wikipedia on Guangzong.

What it holds

• The crown: the palace and the inner treasury at Lin'an
• The Imperial Guard and Palace Command in name
• The right to appoint every office, exercised in practice through Han Tuozhou and the chancellor
• The tombs at Shaoxing and the ancestral temple at Lin'an

How it was acquired

By the Shaoxi abdication of 24 July 1194 (Julian).

Allies and rivals

Allied to Han Tuozhou (his wife's kinsman) and to the Han family; his consort Yang is the cleverer of the women of the palace; his father Guangzong is a ghost of the old reign. Rivals: none in the open; the Zhao Ruyu party is crushed and Zhao Ruyu is dead (20 February 1196, Julian, at Hengzhou in exile).

How things stand that morning

A reigning figure of thirty-one. The likely course of the year brings the deaths of his father, his father's wife, his empress and his only living son (September to December 1200), and the choice of a new empress in 1201.

Wealth

The inner treasury and the revenue of the capital region as the emperor's own; no figures.

Military

The Palace Command is his personal guard; Wu Xi, a general of the Sichuan house of Wu, is its deputy commander and is made Chaoxin jun jiedushi in the first half of 1200.

Threats

• The deaths in the palace
• No heir of his own body
• Han Tuozhou's overreach

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

1. 17 September 1200His father dies; he keeps the mourning at Shoukang and Chonghua.Depends on: Guangzong's illness.
2. 28 September 1200His son Zhao Tan, Prince of Bin, dies.Depends on: Illness.
3. 14 December 1200Empress Han dies; he will choose Consort Yang (guifei from 14 March 1200, empress on 3 January 1202).Depends on: The palace contest. Stopped by: Han Tuozhou succeeds with Consort Cao.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1 February 1201He gives the new era name Jiatai from the Jiatai 1 New Year (5 February 1201).Depends on: The decree of the 12th month.

Places of note

• Phoenix Hill palace: The southern palace city of Lin'an

Where the sources disagree

• The brief gives 'Qingyuan 5' for 1 January 1200: correct (the 12th month, day 14).

Evidence: The chronicle gives his acts day by day; his character comes from the later histories.

On the map: Drawn as the capital's near land; the emperor's real holdings are the whole realm record.

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.