Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Zhenjin
Kublai Khan's son and crown prince, schooled by Confucian tutors and hostile to the finance minister Ahmad, who died before his father; his son Temur later honoured him as Emperor Yuzong
In a side chamber of a palace, a yellow ceremonial robe embroidered with a dragon hangs on a wooden stand, its hem worked with waves and rocks, before a carved folding screen, while a black lacquer chest sits on a low table by a lattice window and no person is in view.
Also known as Yuan Yuzong
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Zhenjin was a son of Kublai Khan and Empress Chabi; an elder brother had died young. Born in 1243, he is said to have been named by the Chan master Haiyun. As a boy he read the Classic of Filial Piety with the Confucian scholars Yao Shu and Dou Mo, with Wang Xun as his study companion. He was made crown prince in 1273 and from 1279 took part in state business, opposing the finance minister Ahmad and favouring Confucian officials. In 1285 a censor of the southern branch censorate memorialised that Kublai should abdicate in his favour; the emperor's fury left Zhenjin ill with fear, and he died in January 1286, aged forty-three. When his son Temur took the throne as Emperor Chengzong in 1294, he named his father emperor posthumously, with the temple name Yuzong.
Life and times
Dates 1243 CE–1286 CE