Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Zhao Gou
First Southern Song emperor, Gaozong, who took the throne after the Jurchen sack of Kaifeng, settled the court at Lin'an, and made peace with the Jin in 1141
Mural of the event “Founding of Southern Song”, which this person took part in.
After Northern Song collapsed in the Central Plains, Jin cavalry searched widely in the Central Plains for the Han royal blood. Prince Kang Zhao Gou, who had fled in time, became the only surviving pillar of the Northern Song royal family and had to rapidly rebuild the central authority.
Also known as Song Gaozong · Zhaofu Zhifu
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Zhao Gou, courtesy name Deji, was the ninth son of Emperor Huizong and became Prince of Kang in 1121. After a spell as a hostage in the Jurchen camp in 1126, he stayed in Hebei as marshal of the armies. After the Jin carried off Huizong and Qinzong in 1127, he took the throne at Yingtian with the reign title Jianyan, later changed to Shaoxing. In 1129 the officers Miao Fu and Liu Zhengyan briefly forced him to abdicate, and in 1138 Lin'an became the temporary capital. With Qin Gui directing negotiations he took command away from Yue Fei and Han Shizhong in 1141; Yue Fei was then killed, and the peace fixed the border on the Huai River and Dasan Pass, with Song a vassal paying 250,000 taels of silver and of silk a year. He passed the throne to his adopted son Zhao Shen in 1162 and died in 1187 with the temple name Gaozong. A calligrapher, he wrote the Treatise on Brush and Ink (Hanmo zhi).
Life and times
- 1107 CEBorn
Song - 1127Founding of Southern Song
Took partage 20The definitive shift of Chinese cultural and economic centers to the south.- Emperor Gaozong's Southern Flight to HangzhouZhao Gou Establishing Southern Song Dynasty at Lin'an (Hangzhou)
- Emperor Gaozong's Southern Flight to Hangzhou
- 1130Yue Fei's Campaigns
Took partage 23Yue Fei's army defeated Jin forces and recovered territory around Yancheng, but he was recalled during the northern advance and later executed. - 1141Treaty of Shaoxing
Took partage 34Fixing the Huai River boundary between Song and Jin, establishing a century of Southern prosperity. - 1187 CEDied
Works
Treasures · Brushwork1- Emperor Gaozong of Song, Edict to Yue FeiSouthern Song dynasty, 1137An emperor's own letter to Yue Fei
Family tree
- Direct kin
