Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Chai Zongxun
Last emperor of the Later Zhou, enthroned at six, who yielded the throne to Zhao Kuangyin after the Chenqiao mutiny in 960 and died in exile at Fangzhou
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 Houzhou Gongdi · Liang Wang
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Chai Zongxun, fourth son of Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou, was born in 953. When Shizong fell ill after returning from his northern campaign in 959, he made the boy Prince of Liang, and on Shizong's death the six-year-old took the throne, with Empress Dowager Fu presiding at court and Fan Zhi and Wang Pu as chief ministers. Early in 960 reports arrived that the Khitan and the Northern Han were invading together; the palace army commander Zhao Kuangyin marched out, was acclaimed emperor by his officers at Chenqiao, and returned to Kaifeng, whereupon the young emperor abdicated. The new Song dynasty made him Duke of Zheng and moved him with the empress dowager to Luoyang and later to Fangzhou. He died there in 973, aged twenty-one by Chinese reckoning; Emperor Taizu put on mourning white and suspended court for ten days, and he was buried beside Shizong's tomb with the posthumous title Emperor Gong.
Life and times
Dates 953 CE–973 CE