In the entire history of the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Xiaozong of Song was usually considered to be the most outstanding emperor! At the beginning of his reign, he vigorously rehabilitated Yue Fei and other famous anti-Jin generals, recovered his original officials, and returned Yue Fei's original farmhouse and so on.
As the adopted son of Emperor Gaozong, he showed a completely different personality and temperament from the beginning, reusing some officials of the main battle faction and fiercely trying to recover the Central Plains, which was completely like a hot-blooded youth.
Zhao Yun personally reorganized the army and actively selected military generals, so that the combat effectiveness of the Song army could be greatly strengthened. Unfortunately, later in the longxing Northern Expedition, although it successfully recovered some cities, it was eventually counterattacked by the Jin army, resulting in the abandonment of previous achievements!
After that, Song Xiaozong began to shift his attention to the country, focusing on reducing the burden on the people, taking the economy, and building water conservancy, so that the Southern Song Dynasty appeared a peaceful scene of peace in the sea.
However, Zhao Yun did not become an emperor for a lifetime, and in his later years, he finally chose to take the initiative to give way to his son Zhao Huan, and there are very few emperors in history who are willing to take the initiative to give way, why did Song Xiaozong suddenly choose such an idea?
There is a saying that after Emperor Xiaozong of Song appointed the veteran general Zhang Jun to carry out the northern expedition and failed miserably, he had no choice but to sign a Longxing Peace Agreement with the Jin people to lose power and humiliate the country. According to the content of the peace agreement, Emperor Xiaozong of Song had to call the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty his uncle.
At that time, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty was Jin Shizong, who was about the same age as Song Xiaozong, so Emperor Xiaozong was barely able to accept it, but then Jin Shizong died first, and the successor was a Jin Zhangzong who was only in his twenties, and Song Xiaozong could not bear such humiliation, so he could only take the throne early.
However, there are many subjective speculations in this statement, and the reason for Song Xiaozong's real abdication should be related to his physical condition. At that time, he was not young, more than sixty years old, plagued by diseases, and was in a state of weakness for many major affairs of the dynasty, and even because of physical reasons, he could not even go to the funeral of Emperor Gaozong, which was undoubtedly a great blow to Song Xiaozong, who was known for his filial piety.
Moreover, in the early years, Song Xiaozong's greatest ideal was to go north to the Jin Dynasty and recover the lost land, but the failure of a Longxing Northern Expedition made all his efforts in vain, and he also signed a treaty of loss of power and humiliation. After that, Song Xiaozong once tried to make another Northern Expedition, but in the end it was not possible for some objective reasons!
Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Song Xiaozong, who was physically and mentally exhausted, had the idea of a Zen position. In addition, the discord between Song Xiaozong and the crown prince Zhao Huan in his later years also greatly exhausted his energy, which was also the reason why Emperor Xiaozong chose the Zen throne.