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Zhang Shijie
Southern Song commander who fought on after the fall of Lin'an, raised two boy emperors to the throne and led the fleet at Yashan before drowning in a typhoon
Mural of the event “Battle of Yamen”, which this person took part in.
After Mongol cavalry annexed Lin'an, Southern Song court ministers Lu Xiufu and Zhang Shijie raised the small emperor and fled at sea, building the last exile court defensive base at Yamen in Guangdong.
Also known as Yueguo Gong
Zhang Shijie of Fanyang served as a youth under the Mongol commander Zhang Rou, fled south to the Song after committing an offence and rose in the Huai armies to command at Huangzhou. In the seventh month of 1275 he met the Yuan fleet at Jiaoshan with his ships anchored in squares of ten; fire arrows set them ablaze and more than ten thousand men died. After Lin'an surrendered he and Lu Xiufu enthroned the boy Zhao Shi at Fuzhou, and when Zhao Shi died in 1278 they raised his brother Zhao Bing and moved the court to Yashan, where Zhang was made Duke of Yue. In the second month of 1279 Zhang Hongfan broke the Song fleet; Lu Xiufu leapt into the sea with the child emperor, and Zhang cut his cables and escaped with a dozen ships. Soon afterwards a typhoon wrecked them and he drowned off Pingzhang Shan. Later writers grouped him with Wen Tianxiang and Lu Xiufu as the three paragons of the end of Song.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–1279 CE
- c. 1278Wen Tianxiang Writes Lingding Sea Ode
- 1279Battle of YamenTook part