Emperor Huizong of Song: Emperor, Artist, Captive

He welcomed talented men into his service, listened readily to advice, and did everything he could to achieve political balance and unity. He fulfilled the long-held wish of generations of Northern Song emperors by bringing the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun into the empire. Yet he was also a decadent, extravagant pleasure-seeking emperor who indulged his desires and drained the people dry, losing himself in a life of splendor and excess. He was also an immature and inept ruler who governed through his own petty schemes, drove the empire to the brink of ruin, and ended up a prisoner in the northern lands. He was an unfit emperor, but a first-rate artist, accomplished in poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal carving. The collapse of his empire is heartbreaking, the twists of his life are poignant, and his artistic mastery is astonishing. He was Song Huizong: an artist constrained by the throne, and an emperor held back by his art. This book explores Song Huizong through politics, art, military affairs, economics, and more. Rejecting one-dimensional portrayals, emotional bias, and prejudiced assumptions, it offers an objective account of the tragic and triumphant life of a failed emperor, a life of both fire and water.