Song Dynasty Emperors

Northern Song (960–1127)

Zhao Kuangyin was proclaimed emperor by his own troops in 960, reigning as Emperor Taizu. He and his brother and successor, Taizong, reunited most of China under the new dynasty, with its capital at Kaifeng.

Wary of the generals who had toppled so many dynasties before him, Taizu placed the army firmly under civilian control. The policy gave the Song a long period of stable civil government, but it is often blamed for the dynasty's military weakness. In 1127 the Jurchen Jin captured Kaifeng, along with the retired emperor Huizong and his son Qinzong, and the Northern Song came to an end.

Southern Song (1127–1279)

Huizong's son Zhao Gou escaped the fall of Kaifeng and re-established the dynasty in the south as Emperor Gaozong, eventually settling the court at Hangzhou, then called Lin'an. To secure peace, the Southern Song agreed to pay the Jin a large annual tribute of silver and silk.

In the thirteenth century the Song allied with the Mongols against the Jin, and in 1234 the Jin state was destroyed. The alliance soon turned against the Song: the Mongols invaded, and the armies of Kublai Khan, who had proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271, captured Hangzhou in 1276. The last Song emperor, the child Emperor Bing, died at the naval Battle of Yamen in 1279.

For collectors the Song is one of the great periods of Chinese ceramics, and the Song dynasty page describes its principal wares in more detail.

Customs and People of the Song Dynasty

The Song period saw the spread of foot-binding among women, a custom that would persist for centuries. It is also the age of Yue Fei, the general celebrated for his campaigns against the Jin.

At the height of his success, Yue Fei was recalled while the court, led by the chancellor Qin Hui, pursued peace with the Jin. He was imprisoned on charges now regarded as false and put to death in 1142, and he has been honoured ever since as a model of loyalty.