The Rise and Fall of the Emperors of the Great Song

The Song dynasty (960–1279) was a major dynasty in Chinese history, following the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and preceding the Yuan dynasty. It was renowned for its prosperous economy and flourishing culture, yet also drew controversy for its military weakness and repeated foreign threats. The Rise and Fall of the Great Song Emperors follows the eighteen emperors of the Song dynasty, presenting a sweeping account of the dynasty's splendor and decline.

The book begins with Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin founding the dynasty after the Chenqiao Mutiny. It traces the Northern Song's stability and reforms, including the reign of Emperor Renzong and Wang Anshi's reforms, and the Southern Song's retreat to the south and resistance, including Emperor Gaozong's flight south and Emperor Xiaozong's revival, through to the tragic defeat at the naval Battle of Yamen. Taking a rigorous historical approach and drawing on political, military, economic, and cultural perspectives, the author analyzes each emperor's successes and failures in governing: from Taizong's ambition to unify the Central Plains and the governing crisis beneath Huizong's artistic talent, to Renzong's benevolence, praised by Neo-Confucian scholars, and the helpless fate of the child emperor who ruled at the end of the dynasty under the Mongol invasion.

The book not only recreates palace intrigue, scholar-official politics, and foreign relations, including the power struggles involving the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia, but also examines the impact of the Song policy of favoring civil over military affairs. The policy fostered a more developed civil service examination system, the rise of an urban economy, and the peak of ci poetry and painting, yet it also weakened the frontiers, ultimately leaving the dynasty unable to escape conquest by foreign peoples.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Song Emperors is both a collection of imperial biographies and a reflection on the rise and fall of dynasties. It offers readers a vivid and profound lens through which to understand the transformations and contradictions of the middle period of imperial China.