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| Emperor Gong of Song 宋恭帝 | |||||||||
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| Emperor of the Song dynasty | |||||||||
| Reign | 12 August 1274 – 4 February 1276 | ||||||||
| Coronation | 12 August 1274 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Emperor Duzong | ||||||||
| Successor | Emperor Duanzong | ||||||||
| Regent | Grand Empress Dowager Xie Empress Dowager Quan Jia Sidao | ||||||||
| Duke of Ying | |||||||||
| Reign | 4 February 1276 – 31 May 1323 | ||||||||
| Born | Zhao Xian 2 November 1271 (1271-11-02) Lin'an,Zhejiang,Song China | ||||||||
| Died | 1323(1323-00-00) (aged 51–52) Hexi,Gansu,Yuan China | ||||||||
| Consorts | |||||||||
| Issue | Zhao Wanpu | ||||||||
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| House | Zhao | ||||||||
| Dynasty | Song (Southern Song) | ||||||||
| Father | Emperor Duzong | ||||||||
| Mother | Lady Quan | ||||||||
| Emperor Gong of Song | |||||||
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| Chinese | 宋恭帝 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | "Respectful Emperor of the Song" | ||||||
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| Zhao Xian | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 趙㬎 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 赵㬎 | ||||||
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Emperor Gong of Song (2 November 1271 – 1323), personal nameZhao Xian, was the 16themperor of theSong dynasty of China and the seventh emperor of theSouthern Song dynasty. The sixth son of his predecessor,Emperor Duzong, Zhao Xian came to the throne around the age of four, and reigned for less than two years before he was forced to abdicate in 1276. He was succeeded by his fifth brother,Zhao Shi (Emperor Duanzong).
Emperor Duzong died in 1274 from overindulgence in wine.[citation needed] His sixth son, Zhao Xian, who was then about four years old, was enthroned as the new emperor with assistance from thechancellorJia Sidao. In the following year, Zhao Xian's grandmother (Grand Empress Dowager Xie) and mother (Empress Dowager Quan) became regents for the child emperor, although state and military power remained under Jia Sidao's control.[citation needed]
By the time Zhao Xian came to the throne, theMongol-ledYuan dynasty had already taken control of the northern and southwestern areas of China, crossed theYangtze River and acquired key strategic locations such asXiangyang. They were heading towards the Song capital at Lin'an (present-dayHangzhou). Grand Empress Dowager Xie pursued a dual-strategy to the pending destruction of the Song dynasty: On one hand, she ordered the people to rally behind their emperor and save the Song Empire. On the other hand, she tried to make peace with the Yuan Empire. The Yuan army advanced further and captured Song territories and took control of various prefectures along the middle stretches of the Yangtze River.
In early 1275, Jia Sidao led an army of 30,000 to engage Yuan forces atWuhu. The Song army suffered defeat and not long afterward, bowing to public pressure, Grand Empress Dowager Xie ordered Jia Sidao's execution. However, the move came too late and the fall of the Song dynasty loomed closer.
By the middle of 1275, the Yuan army had controlled most of theJiangdong region, the southern part of present-dayJiangsu Province. On 18 January 1276, the Yuan generalBayan showed up with his army outside Lin'an. The Song imperial court sentLu Xiufu to negotiate for peace with the enemy, but Lu was forced to surrender. Later that year, Grand Empress Dowager Xie brought the five-year-old Zhao Xian with her to the Yuan camp to surrender.
HistorianPatricia Buckley Ebrey notes that the Yuan dynasty treated theJurchen-ledJin dynasty'sWanyan imperial family harshly, totally butchering them by the hundreds as well as the emperor ofTangut-ledWestern Xia dynasty when they defeated him earlier. However Ebrey also says that Yuan dynasty leaders were lenient with theZhao imperial family of the Southern Song. Unlike the Jin dynasty in the Jingkang incident, they spared the lives of Southern Song royals in the capital Hangzhou like the Emperor Gong of Song and his mother as well as sparing the civilians inside it and not sacking the city, allowing them to go about their normal business, rehiring Southern Song officials. The Yuan dynasty did not take the Southern Song palace women for themselves but instead hadHan artisans in Shangdu marry the palace women.[1]
Remnants of the Song Empire fled southwards toFujian andGuangdong provinces, where they continued to resist the Mongols. Zhao Xian's fifth brother,Zhao Shi, was enthroned as the newEmperor Duanzong.Zhao Shi died of illness in 1278 after fleeing the Mongols and was succeeded by his seventh brother,Zhao Bing.
In 1279, after theBattle of Yamen, Lu Xiufu brought Zhao Bing with him to Yashan (present-dayYamen, Guangdong Province), where they committed suicide by drowning themselves at sea. The death of Zhao Bing marked the end of the Song dynasty.
After the fall of the Song dynasty, Zhao Xian was relocated to the Yuan capital atDadu (present-dayBeijing) then later toShangdu. Some sources[which?] also claim that he lived in Qianzhou (謙州; present-dayTuva, Russia). His sojourns made him one of the most well-travelledHan emperors in Chinese history.
Soon after Zhao Xian surrendered, the Yuan generalBayan urged him to travel north for an audience with the Yuan founding emperor,Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu). As a result, in March 1276, Zhao Xian left Lin'an (present-dayHangzhou) and proceeded towards Shangdu.Grand Empress Dowager Xie remained behind due to illness so he was accompanied northwards byEmpress Dowager Quan, the Lady of Long (隆國夫人; Emperor Duzong's mother),Zhao Yurui (趙與芮;Emperor Lizong's younger brother and Zhao Xian’s grandfather),Zhao Naiyou (趙乃猷), and members of theprivy councilGao Yinggong (高應松) andXie Tang (謝堂). The former emperor's entourage also includedWeng Zhongde (翁仲德),Wang Yuanliang (汪元量), and other palace officials.
After they crossed the Yangtze River, two former generals,Li Tingzhi (李庭芝) andMiao Zaicheng (苗再成), planned to hijack a transport to carry them all but failed. The group arrived in Dadu in May, and then proceeded to Shangdu, where Kublai Khan received them in the Hall of Great Peace (大安殿). Kublai conferred the noble title "Duke of Ying" (瀛國公) on Zhao Xian and a princess title on Zhao Xian's ethnic Mongol wife, Lady Borjigin. Kublai Khan further ordered that Zhao Xian and Lady Borjigin be given a residence in Dadu and receive preferential treatment. In 1298, Zhao Xian was given permission to move his residence to Shangdu. Between 1314 and 1320, the Yuan rulerEmperor Renzong received theGoryeo rulerChungseon at his court. Chungseon asked to see visit Zhao Xian's residence and composed a song about him.
Kublai Khan wanted to preserve some vestiges of theSong imperial clan and in October 1288 issued an edict ordering Zhao Xian to relocate toTibet. There, Zhao Xian was to study theBrahmana and Tibetan classics. Other sources claim that while in Tibet, Zhao Xian decided to studyBuddhism instead.[citation needed] Kublai Khan's motive for this edict is unclear, as is whether such a relocation constituted a banishment. The Khan may have acted out of genuine concern for the former emperor or he may have wished to remove the Song heir to the throne out ofChina proper.[note 1] In December 1288, Zhao Xian departed fromAmdo (Standard Tibetan:མདོ་སྨད,Wylie:mdo smad; Chinese: 朵思麻) in present-dayHainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, forÜ-Tsang (Standard Tibetan:དབུས་གཙང,Wylie:dbus gtsang; Chinese: 烏思藏) within the borders of present-day Tibet. He became a resident at theSakya Monastery and was given thedharma name "Chos kyi Rin chen" (Standard Tibetan:ཆོས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་). Later on, Zhao Xian took over as the head monk at the monastery, translating Buddhist texts between the Chinese andTibetan languages under the name "Sman rce Lha btsun" (Standard Tibetan:སྨན་རྩེ་ལྷ་བཙུན་, Chinese: 蠻子合尊Mánzi Hézūn), which means "royalty ofMangi" (southern barbarian) in Tibetan language.
According to Sakya's monastic succession records, in 1323, the 52-year-old Zhao Xian received an imperial edict ordering him to commit suicide at Hexi (河西; present-dayZhangye,Gansu Province).[2] Many Ming Historians[who?] believed that this was because Zhao Xian's poetry displeased the Yuan ruler,Emperor Yingzong. Other Ming historians believe that Emperor Yingzong feared a coup led by Zhao Xian. The renowned SinologistAnn Paludan has written, "[His] unexplained suicide in 1323 led to curious rumours, including the suggestion that he was the real father of the future Mongol emperor Shundi [Toghon Temür] (1333–1368), born to a Turkish woman in 1320."[3]
Emperor Gong’s unofficial temple name is Gongzong (恭宗)
Zhao Xian had one son with the Borjigin Mongol woman, Zhao Wanpu (趙完普). Zhao Xian's son Zhao Wanpu was kept alive by the Yuan dynasty because of his mother's imperial Mongol Borjigin ancestry even after Zhao Xian was killed. Instead Zhao Wanpu was only moved and exiled. The outbreak of the Song loyalistRed Turban Rebellion in Henan led to a recommendation that Zhao Wanpu should be transferred somewhere else by an Imperial Censor in 1352. The Yuan did not want the ethnic Han rebels to get their hands on Zhao Wanpu so no one was permitted to see him and Zhao Wanpu's family and himself were exiled toShazhou near the border by the Yuan emperor.Paul Pelliot andJohn Andrew Boyle commented onRashid-al-Din Hamadani's chapterThe Successors of Genghis Khan in his workJami' al-tawarikh, identified references by Rashid al-Din to Zhao Xian in his book where he mentions a Chinese ruler who was an "emir" and son-in-law to the Qan (Khan) after being removed from his throne by the Yuan Empire and he is also called "Monarch of Song", or Suju (宋主 Songzhu) in the book.[4][5]
According to a Ming story Zhao Xian had an affair with Yuan empressMailaiti, a descendant ofArslan Khan of theKarluks, a wife of YuanEmperor Mingzong. Zhao Xian allegedly fathered YuanEmperor Huizong with Mailaiti.[6] The Mongols circulated a similar story about theYongle Emperor.
Emperor Gong of Song Born: 1271 Died: unknown (possibly 1323) | ||
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| Preceded by | Emperor of the Song dynasty 1274–1276 | Succeeded by |
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