Zhao Ji

Also known as Song Huizong · Daojun Huangdi · Tai Shanghuang

Zhao Ji, the eleventh son of Emperor Shenzong, was Prince of Duan when his brother Zhezong died without a son in 1100, and Empress Dowager Xiang chose him as successor; his reign titles ran from Jianzhong Jingguo to Xuanhe. He made Cai Jing chief minister, set up the Yuanyou faction stele against his opponents, and opened a supply bureau at Suzhou to ship rare plants and stones for his Genyue garden. He styled himself the Daoist Sovereign, and in 1120 he made the Alliance Conducted at Sea with the Jin against the Liao. When the Jin invaded late in 1125 he abdicated to his son Zhao Huan; captured with him at the fall of Kaifeng in 1127, he died at Wuguocheng in 1135 and was given the temple name Huizong. A painter and calligrapher, he devised the slender-gold script and had the palace collection catalogued. The *History of Song* (*Songshi*) blamed his loss of the realm on overconfidence in his own cleverness.