Emperor Taizu

Zhao Kuangyin (927–976), known by his temple name Taizu, founded the Song dynasty in 960 and ruled as its first emperor until his death in 976. A professional soldier, he took the throne of the Later Zhou in a military coup and went on to bring most of China back under one government, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period that had followed the fall of the Tang.

His lasting achievement was to put the army firmly under civilian control. The Song dynasty he founded lasted until 1279 and became one of the most prosperous and culturally productive in Chinese history.

Early Life and Military Career

Zhao Kuangyin was born in Luoyang in 927, the son of Zhao Hongyin, an army officer. He trained as a soldier from youth and became known as a skilled horseman and archer. A story preserved in the official history of the Song tells how he once rode an unbroken horse that carried him into the lintel of a city gate. He was thrown, got up unhurt, chased the horse down and mastered it.

Rise to Command

In 949 he joined the army of Guo Wei, a military governor (jiedushi) of the Later Han, and served in the campaign against the rebel Li Shouzhen. When Guo Wei seized power and founded the Later Zhou in 951, Zhao rose with him. Under Guo Wei's successor, Chai Rong, he distinguished himself at the Battle of Gaoping in 954 against the Northern Han and their Liao allies, and he was later given command of the palace army.

Chai Rong died in 959, leaving a young son on the throne. Early in 960, at Chenqiao, Zhao's officers dressed him in a yellow imperial robe and proclaimed him emperor. The boy emperor abdicated, and Zhao declared the new Song dynasty.

Governing the New Dynasty

Taizu had come to power through an army coup, as several rulers had done in the half century before him, and his first concern was to make sure no general could do the same to him. According to a famous account, in 961 he invited his senior commanders to a banquet and persuaded them over wine to give up their commands in exchange for generous honours and pensions. Commanders were thereafter rotated regularly so that they could not build personal followings, and the best troops were concentrated in the palace army at the capital, Kaifeng.

Civil officials took over the administration of the provinces from the military governors, and civilian bodies were given oversight of the army. Taizu enlarged the civil service examinations and in 973 introduced the palace examination, in which the emperor himself examined the final candidates, so that successful officials owed their careers to the throne rather than to patrons. He also kept a close hold on state finances and set severe penalties for corruption in office.

Reunification and Wars

With the army secure, Taizu turned to the independent states of the south. The Song absorbed Jingnan in 963 and conquered Later Shu in 965, Southern Han in 971 and Southern Tang in 975, bringing most of China under one government again.

The north proved harder. The Northern Han, based at Taiyuan, was backed by the Khitan Liao dynasty, and Taizu's campaigns against it failed; a siege of Taiyuan that he led in person had to be abandoned. The Northern Han was finally conquered by his successor in 979.

Death and Succession

Taizu died suddenly in 976, at the age of 49, after a reign of sixteen years. Although he had two sons, Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Defang, he was succeeded by his younger brother, Zhao Guangyi, who reigned as Emperor Taizong. The circumstances of that succession have been debated ever since.

For collectors, the dynasty Taizu founded is above all the age of Song ceramics: celadons, Ding white wares and the other classic wares that later emperors admired and potters copied for centuries. Examples can be seen in our Song dynasty porcelain collection.