How King Zhao of Kang sat on the throne of the founding of the Southern Song Dynasty

Zhao Hanqing Liu Xinhua

Zhao Zhuo (21 May 1107 – 9 November 1187), the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty, namely Emperor Gaozong of Song, reigned for 35 years, the founding emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, the ninth son of Emperor Huizong of Song, the half-brother of Emperor Zhao Huan of Song Qinzong, and the mother of Empress Wei of Xianren.

In the thirty-second year of Shaoxing (1162), Zhao Zhao was honored as the Emperor of Guangyao Shou Shengxian Celestial Nature Rencheng De Jing Wu Wei Wen Shao Ye Xing Tong Ming Mo Sheng Lie Tai Shang Emperor. Chunxi died in the fourteenth year (1187) and was one of the few long-lived emperors in Chinese history, with the title of Emperor Wuwen Xianxiao of the Holy Spirit and Emperor Gaozong. In the second year of Emperor Guangzong's reign (1191), Emperor Jia was appointed Emperor Xingquan gong to the deity of the holy god Wuwen Zhaoren Xianxian.

During Zhao Shuo's reign, he was forced to use Yue Fei, Han Shizhong and other generals to resist Jin, but most of the time he still reused Huang Qianshan, Wang Boyan, Wang Lun, Qin Ju and others of the main peace faction, and later even executed Yue Fei and deposed Li Gang, Zhang Jun, Han Shizhong and other ministers of the main war faction. Zhao Zhuo is proficient in calligraphy, good at truth, line, cursive, free and graceful brushwork, natural and smooth, quite a Jin people charm. He is the author of "Han Mo Zhi", and the ink has been passed down from generation to generation, such as "Cursive Luoshen Endowment".

Looking back at the history of Zhao Shuo's origins, we must start from the "difficulty of Jingkang". At the beginning of the 12th century, the Jurchens gradually strengthened, and their leader, Wanyan Akuta, established the Jin Kingdom in 1115. Emperor Huizong of Song, who was reigning at the time, hoped to use the power of the Jin state to eliminate the old enemy Liao, so he signed an "alliance on the sea" with Jin and planned to jointly destroy the Liao and divide the territory. Later it turned out that Emperor Huizong's move was tantamount to conspiring with the tiger, and the Liao region did not take an inch, but instead achieved the Jin Kingdom and shaped another powerful opponent. In 1126, the Jurchens who annexed all the territory of the Liao State were dissatisfied with the status quo and went south with 40,000 gold soldiers, breaking 27 States of the Song Dynasty, and pointing the sword to the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Fenjing, and the Northern Song Dynasty was in an uproar. Just as Jin Guo was marching south, Emperor Huizong, aware of the crisis, hurriedly gave way to his eldest son Zhao Huan, emperor Qinzong. As a result, Emperor Qinzong fainted, even more so than Emperor Huizong. When Beijing was in danger, Emperor Qinzong gave up his resistance and went to Jinying to seek peace. Two generations of emperors, who were afraid of being the king of the subjugated country, were captured together, and together with more than 3,000 concubines, princes, clansmen, and noble relatives, they were escorted to the Jin Kingdom, known in history as the "Difficulty of Jingkang". Under normal circumstances, King Zhao of Kang had no chance to inherit the unification, but during extraordinary times, he was the only one who slipped through the net. The thing is this: When Jin Bing was committing a crime in the south, Zhao Zhao took The Edict from Emperor Qinzong and went to "Negotiate Peace," but was stopped by the governor Zong Ze, who said: "The Jin people are negotiating peace, this is a trick to deceive people, all the soldiers are coming to the city, what is the use of seeking peace, it is not a self-casting net." Therefore, King Kang was not happy to go. Although he considered himself the Grand Marshal of hebei to fight against Jin, he actually had no intention of resisting Jin, but only to protect himself. In front of Jin Bing, Zhao Zhuo retreated, but his brother retreated faster. Jing Kang's difficulties fulfilled Zhao Shuo's dream of being an emperor.

After Jing Kang's disaster, Zhao Zhuo "saved" the Great Song in his own way. On June 12, 1127, King Zhao Of Song Kang proclaimed himself emperor at Yingtianfu (present-day Shangqiu, Henan) in Nanjing, changed his era name to "Jianyan", and established the Southern Song Dynasty. This year, Zhao Zhuo had just turned 20 years old, and a heavy burden was pressed on his body.

In this way, the new emperor came to the world and was difficult to convince the people. Within a few days of Zhao Shuo taking office, there was a Mutiny of Miao Liu. The imperial generals Miao Fu and Liu Zhengyan surrounded the palace and coerced Emperor Gaozong to give way to the three-year-old crown prince Zhao Xu (赵旉), and Empress Dowager Zhezong was put under the command of Empress Meng. The mutiny was eventually countered by Han Shizhong and others, giving the new emperor a deep understanding of the high dangers of the position of head of state.

There is also a story of "Mud Horse Du Kang King", which has to be mentioned. It is said that King Kang Zhao Shuo went to the Jin camp as a hostage, and the Jin soldiers escorted him north, on the way Zhao Zhao escaped, and when he fled to Cizhou, he stayed overnight at the Cui Mansion Jun Temple, and the dream god told the Jin soldiers that they were coming, Zhao Zhao woke up, saw that there were horses outside the temple, and ran wildly on horses. This horse actually carried Zhao Zhao across the Yellow River, and then turned into a clay sculpture horse. The other story is based on Gangnam, and the plot is similar. Zhao Zhuo told the world this story: it turned out that the "Heavenly Destiny Heavenly Son" could also "escape". To sit firmly on the throne, it is not enough to run fast. Zhao Zhuo was fortunate that he not only had Li Gang, the prime minister who was the main leader of the battle, sitting in the center, but also escorted by the so-called "four generals of Zhongxing" Liu Guangshi, Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, Yue Fei and others. Liu Guangshi was born as a general, and his father, the official Bai Jiedushi; Zhang Jun and Han Shizhong, both of whom were born in the ranks, followed Zhao Shuo during the Jing Kang years, and made great contributions to the neutrality of the Liu Mutiny in Dingding Miao, and the Battle of Huang Tiandang fought tens of thousands of Jin troops with thousands of Song troops, making it miserable; as for Yue Fei, he was even more young and highly meritorious, and the Jin people once lamented: "It is easy to shake the mountains, and it is difficult to shake the Yue family's army."

As for the source of this domestic and foreign policy, it is even more interesting. In the early days of succession, Zhao Zhuo had to carry the banner of "anti-gold" as the foundation of his meritorious service. Zhao Zhuo also knew that he was not a rival of the Golden People, so he fought all the way and ran all the way. Only half a year after the Miao mutiny, the Jin soldiers broke through the Yangtze River defense line and pounced on the Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhao Zhuo urgently retreated to the sea for four months. In the third year of Jianyan, the commander of the Jin army sent troops to attack Yangzhou and capture Tianchang, and the forward was only tens of miles away from Yangzhou City. Zhao Zhao heard that the Jin soldiers were coming and fled in a hurry.

Frankly speaking, Zhao Shuo is not without merits. First, Zhao Zhao was filial piety. At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he made his birth mother Wei Shi Yao "Empress Xuanhe" and his maternal grandfather Wei An Dao the King of the County, and since then he has continuously sent emissaries to the Jin Kingdom to ask for peace and welcome Wei Shi back to the Southern Song Dynasty. In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Zhao Zhuo did not hesitate to kill Yue Fei and even cut off the land to show his overtures to the Jin people. In return, the Jin people were "lenient" and ordered Yan Zongxian to escort Wei Shi and Hui Zong's coffin back to Song. Second, Zhao Zhuo, like his father, was intoxicated with calligraphy, proficient in calligraphy, good at truth, line, cursive, and his brushwork was free and graceful, natural and smooth, and quite charming. Lu You once said: "SiLing mysteriously enlightened the Eight Laws, pay attention to the ancient elegance, visit the famous paintings of the Fa books, and spare no effort." The swallow of leisure, the exhibition play a lot of slack. Zhao Zhuo also said to himself: "Since the Wei and Jin dynasties and even the Six Dynasties, all the brushwork is copied, and the bodies are prepared in the pen, and the meaning is simple and still exists to choose, to the point of ruo zen thesis, the depth of the measurement, the benefit of the imitation, and even the recitation." "When Zhao Zhuo first learned Huang Tingjian, he learned the yellow characters in both the government and the public, and then learned the rice characters in both the government and the wilderness, and then learned the Sun Guoting, and the Sun characters were prosperous... Third, although Zhao Zhuo was incompetent, at least he was even more incompetent without his father and brother. Moreover, he also had self-knowledge, and knew how to emulate Emperor Huizong in the year of confusion, give way to the crown prince Zhao Xuan, and retire to the palace of De. Knowing the advance and retreat, perhaps he reigned for 31 years, the greatest wealth left to future generations.

By the standards of the founding emperor, Zhao Zhuo was obviously incompetent. But at that time, there was no choice in the local area, and Zhao Zhao, as a prince, did not become a prisoner of the Jin people and ascended to the emperor's throne. As for whether the emperor deserves well or not, this is indeed a question. Maybe he was really bad, but he was stronger than his father and brothers Huizong and Qinzong.

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Publisher: Beijing Library Press

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