Zhao Xu

Also known as Song Zhezong · Zhao Yong

Zhao Xu, the sixth son of Emperor Shenzong, was first named Yong and was born in the twelfth month of the ninth Xining year, which fell in January 1077. Named heir as his father lay dying in 1085, he was renamed Xu and came to the throne at nine, while his grandmother Empress Dowager Gao ruled for him, brought back Sima Guang and, in the Yuanyou era, scrapped Wang Anshi's New Policies. After her death in 1093 he took power himself, proclaimed the Shaosheng era, made Zhang Dun chief minister, revived the green-sprouts loans and hired-service system, and banished the Yuanyou ministers. In the Shaosheng and Yuanfu years Song forces crushed a Western Xia army at Pingxia and seized Qingtang and Miaochuan in the Hehuang region. He died of illness in February 1100 without a son and was succeeded by his brother Zhao Ji, Prince of Duan; his temple name is Zhezong.