Emperor Qinzong Of Song
Emperor Qinzong (23 May 1100 – 14 June 1161) was the ninth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the last emperor of the Northern Song. His personal name was Zhao Huan. He reigned from January 1126 to January 1127.
Qinzong was the eldest son of Emperor Huizong. His mother was the empress consort, from the Wang (王) family, known posthumously as Empress Xiangong (顯恭皇后) (1084–1108).
He ascended the throne in dramatic circumstances following his father's abdication. As the Song empire was faced with invasion by the Jurchen of the Jin Dynasty, Qinzong's father Emperor Huizong quickly abdicated in Qinzong's favour. Left to deal with the Jurchens, Qinzong appointed Li Gang (李綱) to fend off the Jurchens. However Qinzong was not a determined leader. He made poor judgements and eventually removed Li Gang from his post in hopes of peaceful negotiation. Uninterested in peace, the Jurchens invaded Kaifeng in January 1127 and captured 26 year old Qinzong, Grand-Emperor Huizong and the entire Song imperial family including dozens of government officials in the Jingkang Incident, thus ending the Northern Song dynasty.
Qinzong, along with his father, was demoted to the rank of commoner on 20 March 1127, and on 13 May 1127 he was deported to faraway and bitter cold Northern Manchuria where he was to spend the last 34 years of his life in confinement.
In 1128, Qinzong, along with his father, had to pay homage to the ancestors of the Jin emperor at their ancestral temple in Shangjing (near today's Harbin), wearing mourning dress. He was then granted the title of Marquess of Chonghun (重昏, "Doubly muddled"); his father received a similarly derogatary-sounding title.
In 1141, as the Jin relations with the Song were about to normalized, Qinzong's captors granted him a neutrally-sounding title of the Duke (公, gong) of Tianshui Jun, after a commandery in the upper reaches of the Wei River (now in Gansu), while his father (who had died in 1135) was posthumously styled the Prince of Tianshui Jun; a few months later he started receiving a stipend due to his rank. Until his death in 1156 he was kept by the Jin in a role akin to that of a hostage, as a tool to bring pressure on the Song.
Qinzong died as a sick and broken man in 1161. He was 61. His temple name means "Esteemed Ancestor".
Read more about Emperor Qinzong Of Song: Titles From Birth
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“Even the emperor has poor relations.”
—Chinese proverb.
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—Bible: Hebrew, Song of Solomon 2:10-13.