Emperor Gaozong of Song (Zhao Gou): The Founding Monarch of the Southern Song and His Historical Legacy

Brief Introduction

Emperor Gaozong of Song, born Zhao Gou (1107–1187), whose courtesy name was Deji, was the ninth son of Emperor Huizong of Song. As the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, he was also the longest-reigning monarch in the Zhao imperial lineage. Following the Jingkang Incident that led to the collapse of the Northern Song, Zhao Gou ascended the throne in the first year of Jianyan (1127) in Nanjing, Yingtian Prefecture (present-day Shangqiu, Henan Province). He later relocated the capital to Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), formally establishing the Southern Song regime. His reign lasted thirty-five years. Through diplomatic negotiations and peace treaties with the Jin dynasty, he established a political landscape of North-South confrontation between the Song and Jin, profoundly influencing the trajectory of Chinese history.

Core Knowledge Points

1. Context of Ascension and Decision to Move South
Zhao Gou’s ascension was not simply a result of personal ambition but a pragmatic strategy following the Jingkang Incident. When the Jin army marched south, he was appointed as Prince Kang and entrusted with the mission of rallying support. After his senior brothers, Emperors Huizong and Qinzong, were captured, he became the only surviving senior member of the imperial line. In the early years of the Jianyan era, faced with pursuit by Jin forces, Zhao Gou adopted a strategy of "gradual retreat south." He traveled through multiple provinces from north to south, ultimately establishing Lin'an as the capital. While this move preserved the Zhao Song dynasty, it also ingrained the political DNA of "partial security" into the Southern Song, causing the North to lose strategic initiative for recovery.

2. The Shaoxing Peace Treaty and the Political Landscape
In the 11th year of Shaoxing (1141), the Song and Jin signed the Shaoxing Peace Treaty. The Southern Song accepted the status of a "vassal state" in exchange for peace, with the Huai River and the Great San Pass established as the border. Zhao Gou demonstrated significant political calculation during this period: he stripped military command from renowned anti-Jin generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, and even fabricated cases to eliminate military threats, thereby consolidating imperial power. While this action ended the war, it also suppressed the military vigor of the early Southern Song, fostering an extreme tendency to "value civil over military" (zhong wen qing wu).

3. Cultural and Economic Prosperity
During Zhao Gou’s reign, despite a defensive military posture, the social economy recovered rapidly. Lin'an City became one of the largest cities in the world at the time, characterized by highly developed handicrafts and commerce. Zhao Gou himself was a passionate patron of calligraphy and painting, promoting the "Court Style" (Yuan-ti), which had a significant impact on the establishment of Song painting styles. This coexistence of "prosperity and complacent safety" constituted a unique landscape in the cultural history of the Southern Song.

Relation to the Xu Zizhi Tongjian

As a chronological universal history covering the era from the Five Dynasties to the Yuan, the Xu Zizhi Tongjian (Continuation of the Zizhi Tongjian) provides records of the Zhao Gou era that hold immense historical value:

Continuity of Narrative Logic: The book inherits the writing style of Sima Guang’s Zizhi Tongjian*, detailing the process of Jin forces breaking into the Eastern Capital and Zhao Gou’s ascension in the first year of Jianyan. Through layers of battle descriptions (such as the conflict between the hawkish and dovish factions during the Jingkang and Jianyan eras), it objectively presents the difficulty and legitimacy controversies surrounding the establishment of the Southern Song regime.
Verification of Key Events: In the chapters concerning the Shaoxing Peace Treaty, the Xu Zizhi Tongjian* not only records the treaty terms but also analyzes the policy motivations of pro-peace figures like Qin Hui and the intense conflict in public opinion. It particularly provides a detailed account of the Yue Fei case, recording the process by which Zhao Gou concluded the case with the ambiguous charge of "Mò Xū Yǒu" (perhaps/possibly), providing a core textual basis for understanding the political ecology of the Southern Song.
Historiographical Perspective: When evaluating Zhao Gou, the book both affirms his merit in preserving the torch of Chinese civilization and severely criticizes his conservative policies of suppressing military generals and seeking partial security in the Jiangnan region. This dialectical narrative allows readers to examine this complex historical figure through the rigorous lens of the Xu Zizhi Tongjian*.

Through the records in the Xu Zizhi Tongjian, we can see that Emperor Gaozong of Song was not only the founder of the Southern Song but also a typical sample of how "partial regimes" in Chinese history handled internal and external contradictions. His successes and failures have become an important reference for later discussions on national unification and local governance.