In the first year of the Kaixi era, Zhao Kuo ascended the throne as Emperor Ningzong, having been a prince until then. At thirty-two, he was still full of fire.
He wanted to revive the empire, avenge the humiliation of Jingkang, and reclaim the Central Plains. But before the throne had even grown warm, he discovered that no single emperor ruled the Song realm. In court, the powerful minister Han Tuozhou controlled the government; in the military camps, the general Wu Xi harbored ambitions of his own. A northern expedition involving a million soldiers and civilians ended up achieving nothing.
Most bitterly, he could not even see his own father, the Retired Emperor. Empress Li ruled the palace with an iron hand, and when the Retired Emperor died, the news was kept from Zhao Kuo.
This was the Song dynasty’s dream of revival: How did an emperor who wanted to be a wise ruler squander a winning hand and bring national disgrace, trapped between powerful ministers, the imperial harem, and factional strife?
