Emperor Gong of Song
Encyclopedia
Emperor Gong of Song (1271- unknown (possibly 1323), born Zhào Xiǎn (趙顯), was the 7th Emperor of the Chinese Southern Song Dynasty. He reigned from 1274 until his abdication in 1276 CE when he was succeeded by his elder brother, Emperor Duanzong of Song
.
. The following year Gong became regent under the aegis of his grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Xie
(謝太皇太后) and his mother Empress Dowager Quan
(全太后), although real control of the army and the state remained in the hands of Jia Sidao.
At the time Gong became emperor, the army of the Mongol Empire
had already taken control of the northern and south western areas of China, crossed the Yangtze River
acquiring key strategic locations on the way including control of Xiangyang City (part of modern Xiangfan, Hubei), and were heading towards the Song capital at Lin'an (modern Hangzhou
, Zhejiang Province). Grand Empress Dowager Xie pursued a dual solution to the pending destruction of her dynasty, on the one hand ordering the people to rally behind their emperor and save the country and on the other suing for peace with the advancing Mongols. The Mongol army meanwhile swept onwards, capturing territory as they went and taking control of various prefectures along the middle stretches of the Yangtze River.
In early 1275 CE, Jia Sidao led an army of 30,000 Song troops and engaged the Mongols at Wuhu City in Anhui
. The Song army suffered defeat and not long afterward, bowing to public pressure, the empress dowager ordered Jia Sidao's execution. However, the move came too late and destruction of the Song Dynasty loomed closer.
By the middle of 1275 the Mongol army had control of most of Jiandong (江東), the southern part of modern day Jiangsu Province. On the 18th of January 1276 CE the leader of the Mongol forces, General Bayan
arrived outside Lin'an with his army. The Song court dispatched statesman Lu Xiufu
(陸秀夫) to negotiate, but the envoy was left with no option other than to surrender to the Mongols. Later the same year, Grand Empress Dowager Xie carried the five year old emperor out of Lin'an and into the Mongol camp where she too surrendered. The remnants of the Southern Song court and army who were still able to fight withdrew southwards to Fujian
and Guangdong
.
In 1279 CE after the Battle of Yamen
, Liu Xiufu took the new emperor - the barely nine year old son of former Emperor Duzong, Emperor Huaizong
- to Mount Ya (崖山) (modern day Yamen
, Guangdong) from which they both leapt into the sea. The suicide of the last emperor brought about the final destruction of the Song Dynasty and opened the way for the new Yuan Dynasty
.
or Dadu (modern day Beijing
) then later to Shangdu or Xanadu, Tibet
, (at that time called Tubo (蕃習) and afterwards to the Ganzhou District
of Gansu Province. Some sources also claim that he lived in Qianzhou (謙州) (modern day Tuva
in South Central Siberia). His sojourns make Gong the most well-travelled Han
emperor in the history of China.
Gao Yinggong (高應松) and Xie Tang (謝堂). Lin'an government representatives Weng Zhongde (翁仲德), Wang Yuang Liang (汪元量) and other officials together with a group of palace employees completed Gong's entourage. After they crossed the Yangtze River the two Song Generals in the party Li Tingzhi (李庭芝) and Miao Zaicheng (苗再成) planned to hijack some transport to carry them all but failed. The group arrived in Dadu in May then proceeded onwards to Shangdu where the Mongol leaderKublai Khan
received them in the Hall of Great Peace (大安殿). The Khan conferred the title of Duke of Ying (瀛国公/瀛國公) on Gong whilst his wife became a princess. Kublai further ordered that they be given a residence in Dadu and receive preferential treatment whilst Zhao Yurui was granted the title Duke of Pingyuan Canton (平原郡公). Later on, in 1298 CE the now Duke of Ying was given permission to move his residence to Shangdu. During his Yanyou Era (延祐年号） between 1314 and 1320, Emperor Renzong of Yuan received the Korean monarch Chungseon of Goryeo
at his court. Chungseon asked to see the former residence of Duke Ying where he composed a song about him.
(ancient Hindu texts) and the classic books of the territory. Other sources claim that whilst in Tubo the Duke of Ying decided to study Buddhism
instead. Kublai's motive for this edict is unclear, as is whether such a relocation constituted a banishment. The Mongol chieftain may have acted out of genuine concern for the former emperor or he may have wished to remove the last surviving male member of the former Song Dynasty from China proper
. In December of 1288 the Duke of Ying departed from Duǒsīmá ( ; Wylie
: mdo smad) in today's Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
, for Wūsīzàng ( ; Wylie
:dbus gtsang) within the borders of modern day Tibet. He became resident at the Sakya Monastery
and was given the honorific title Mubo Jiangshi (木波講師). Later on, Gong took over as head monk at the monastery, translating Buddhist texts between the Chinese and Tibetan language
s under the name Hezun (合尊).
in Gansu Province. Many later Ming Dynasty historians believe that this was because Gong's poetry displeased the emperor and incurred a literary inquisition
.
This article is based on a translation of 宋恭帝 in Chinese Wikipedia.
Emperor Duanzong of Song
Emperor Duānzōng was the eighth and penultimate emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty of China who reigned from 1276 to 1278 and died at the early age of ten. He was also known as the "Nation Establishing Duke " ....
.
Early ascension to the throne
In 1274, the tenth and final year of his Xianchun Era (咸淳), Emperor Duzong died. His four year old son Zhao Xian was enthroned as Emperor Gong of Song with the assistance of the powerful chancellor Jia SidaoJia Sidao
Jia Sidao was a chancellor during the late Song Dynasty of China. He dominated the Song court from 1260 to 1273, after rising to the rank of chancellor due to his sister being a concubine of the Emperor Lizong...
. The following year Gong became regent under the aegis of his grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Xie
Empress Xie Daoqing
Empress Xie Daoqing was a Chinese Empress consort of the Song Dynasty, married to Emperor Lizong of Song. She was the regent of Southern Song China in 1264 and in 1274–1276.-Family:* Grandfather: Xie Xinfu, Prince Huizhen of Lü...
(謝太皇太后) and his mother Empress Dowager Quan
Empress Quan (Duzong)
Empress Quan was a Chinese Empress consort of the Song Dynasty, married to Emperor Duzong of Song.- Sources :...
(全太后), although real control of the army and the state remained in the hands of Jia Sidao.
At the time Gong became emperor, the army of the Mongol Empire
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
had already taken control of the northern and south western areas of China, crossed the Yangtze River
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
acquiring key strategic locations on the way including control of Xiangyang City (part of modern Xiangfan, Hubei), and were heading towards the Song capital at Lin'an (modern Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, Zhejiang Province). Grand Empress Dowager Xie pursued a dual solution to the pending destruction of her dynasty, on the one hand ordering the people to rally behind their emperor and save the country and on the other suing for peace with the advancing Mongols. The Mongol army meanwhile swept onwards, capturing territory as they went and taking control of various prefectures along the middle stretches of the Yangtze River.
In early 1275 CE, Jia Sidao led an army of 30,000 Song troops and engaged the Mongols at Wuhu City in Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
. The Song army suffered defeat and not long afterward, bowing to public pressure, the empress dowager ordered Jia Sidao's execution. However, the move came too late and destruction of the Song Dynasty loomed closer.
By the middle of 1275 the Mongol army had control of most of Jiandong (江東), the southern part of modern day Jiangsu Province. On the 18th of January 1276 CE the leader of the Mongol forces, General Bayan
Bayan of the Baarin
Bayan of the Baarin , also known as "Bayan chingsang" or, to Marco Polo, as "Bayan Hundred Eyes" , was a Mongol general...
arrived outside Lin'an with his army. The Song court dispatched statesman Lu Xiufu
Lu Xiufu
Lù Xiùfū , courtesy title Junshi , was a statesman and military commander during the final years of the Chinese Song Dynasty...
(陸秀夫) to negotiate, but the envoy was left with no option other than to surrender to the Mongols. Later the same year, Grand Empress Dowager Xie carried the five year old emperor out of Lin'an and into the Mongol camp where she too surrendered. The remnants of the Southern Song court and army who were still able to fight withdrew southwards to Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
and Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
.
In 1279 CE after the Battle of Yamen
Battle of Yamen
The naval Battle of Yamen took place on 19 March 1279 and is considered to be the last stand of the Song Dynasty against the invading Mongol-controlled Yuan Dynasty...
, Liu Xiufu took the new emperor - the barely nine year old son of former Emperor Duzong, Emperor Huaizong
Emperor Bing of Song
Emperor Bing of Song was the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty of China. He was also known as Lord Perpetual-Nation ....
- to Mount Ya (崖山) (modern day Yamen
Yamen (town)
Yámén is a town lying in the south of Xinhui District of Jiangmen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China. It covers an area of 281 square kilometers and has a population of 40,000....
, Guangdong) from which they both leapt into the sea. The suicide of the last emperor brought about the final destruction of the Song Dynasty and opened the way for the new Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
.
Gong's ennoblement by the Yuan Dynasty
After the overthrow of the Song Dynasty, former Emperor Gong relocated to the Mongol capital at KhanbaliqKhanbaliq
Khanbaliq or Dadu refers to a city which is now Beijing, the current capital of the People's Republic of China...
or Dadu (modern day Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
) then later to Shangdu or Xanadu, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, (at that time called Tubo (蕃習) and afterwards to the Ganzhou District
Ganzhou District
The Ganzhou District is one of 58 County-level divisions of Gansu Province. It is the seat of the Municipal region of Zhangye , whose executive, legislature and judiciary are here, together with the CPC and Public Security bureaux.-References:...
of Gansu Province. Some sources also claim that he lived in Qianzhou (謙州) (modern day Tuva
Tuva
The Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...
in South Central Siberia). His sojourns make Gong the most well-travelled Han
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
emperor in the history of China.
Expedition to the Mongol capital
Soon after Gong surrendered, General Bayan urged him to travel north for an audience with the Mongol ruler. As a result, in March 1276 CE, Gong left Lin'an and proceeded towards Shangdu. Grand Empress Dowager Xie remained behind due to illness so he was accompanied northwards by Empress Dowager Quan, Madam Longguo of the Huang family (隆國夫人黃氏) (mother of Emperor Duzong), Zhao Yurui (趙與芮) (younger brother of former Emperor Lizong, father of Emperor Duzong and Gong's grandfather), Zhao Naiyou (趙乃猷) and members of the Song Privy CouncilPrivy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
Gao Yinggong (高應松) and Xie Tang (謝堂). Lin'an government representatives Weng Zhongde (翁仲德), Wang Yuang Liang (汪元量) and other officials together with a group of palace employees completed Gong's entourage. After they crossed the Yangtze River the two Song Generals in the party Li Tingzhi (李庭芝) and Miao Zaicheng (苗再成) planned to hijack some transport to carry them all but failed. The group arrived in Dadu in May then proceeded onwards to Shangdu where the Mongol leaderKublai Khan
Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...
received them in the Hall of Great Peace (大安殿). The Khan conferred the title of Duke of Ying (瀛国公/瀛國公) on Gong whilst his wife became a princess. Kublai further ordered that they be given a residence in Dadu and receive preferential treatment whilst Zhao Yurui was granted the title Duke of Pingyuan Canton (平原郡公). Later on, in 1298 CE the now Duke of Ying was given permission to move his residence to Shangdu. During his Yanyou Era (延祐年号） between 1314 and 1320, Emperor Renzong of Yuan received the Korean monarch Chungseon of Goryeo
Chungseon of Goryeo
Chungseon of Goryeo was the 26th king of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. He is sometimes known by his Mongolian name, Ijirbuga. Adept at calligraphy and painting, rather than politics, he generally preferred the life of the Yuan capital Beijing to that of the Goryeo capital Kaesong...
at his court. Chungseon asked to see the former residence of Duke Ying where he composed a song about him.
Relocation to Tubo
Kublai Khan wanted to preserve some vestiges of the Song imperial clan and in October 1288 issued an edict ordering the Duke of Ying to relocate to Tubo. There he was to study the BrahmanaBrahmana
The Brāhmaṇas are part of the Hindu śruti literature. They are commentaries on the four Vedas, detailing the proper performance of rituals....
(ancient Hindu texts) and the classic books of the territory. Other sources claim that whilst in Tubo the Duke of Ying decided to study Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
instead. Kublai's motive for this edict is unclear, as is whether such a relocation constituted a banishment. The Mongol chieftain may have acted out of genuine concern for the former emperor or he may have wished to remove the last surviving male member of the former Song Dynasty from China proper
China proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
. In December of 1288 the Duke of Ying departed from Duǒsīmá ( ; Wylie
Wylie transliteration
The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959...
: mdo smad) in today's Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture of northeastern Qinghai Province in Western China. The prefecture has an area of and its seat is located in Gonghe County...
, for Wūsīzàng ( ; Wylie
Wylie transliteration
The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959...
:dbus gtsang) within the borders of modern day Tibet. He became resident at the Sakya Monastery
Sakya Monastery
Sakya Monastery, also known as dPal Sa skya or Pel Sakya is a Buddhist monastery situated 25 km southeast of a bridge which is about 127 km west of Shigatse on the road to Tingri in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.The seat of the Sakya or Sakyapa school of Tibetan Buddhism, it was founded in...
and was given the honorific title Mubo Jiangshi (木波講師). Later on, Gong took over as head monk at the monastery, translating Buddhist texts between the Chinese and Tibetan language
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
s under the name Hezun (合尊).
Ordered to commit suicide
According to Sakya's monastic succession records, in April 1323, the third year of the Zhizhi (至治) era in the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Yuan, 52 year old Duke Ying received an imperial command to commit suicide at Hexi (河西) (modern day ZhangyeZhangye
-Administration:Zhangye has 1 urban district, 4 counties, 1 autonomous county, 97 towns, and 977 villages.-Demographics:Zhangye has a total population of 1,260,000, only 260,000 being urban residents...
in Gansu Province. Many later Ming Dynasty historians believe that this was because Gong's poetry displeased the emperor and incurred a literary inquisition
Literary Inquisition
Literary Inquisition refers to official persecution of intellectuals for their writings in Imperial China. Wénzìyù took place under each of the dynasties ruling China, although the Qing was particularly notorious for the practise. Such persecutions could owe even to a single phrase or word which...
.
Prime Ministers
The following individuals held the office of Prime Minister during the reign of Emperor Gong:- Chen YizhongChen YizhongChén Yízhōng , was a Prime Minister of the Chinese Empire during the final years of the Song Dynasty.-Life:...
(陈宜中/陳宜中) - Wang Yue (王爚)
- Liu Mengyan (留梦炎/留夢炎)
- Chen Wenlong (陈文龙/陳文龍)
- Wu Jian (吴坚/吳堅)
- Wen TianxiangWen TianxiangWen Tianxiang , Duke of Xinguo, was a scholar-general in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty. For his resistance to Kublai Khan's invasion of the Song, and for his refusal to yield to the Yuan Dynasty despite being captured and tortured, he is a popular symbol of patriotism and...
(文天祥)
Ancestry
See also
External links
(In Chinese) The Eighteen Emperors of the Song DynastyThis article is based on a translation of 宋恭帝 in Chinese Wikipedia.