Emperor Gong of Song family House of Zhao
Emperor Gong of Song (2 November 1271 – 1323), personal name Zhao Xian, was the 16th emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the seventh emperor of the Southern Song dynasty. The sixth son of his predecessor, Emperor Duzong, Zhao Xian came to the throne around the age of four, and reigned for less than two years before he was forced to abdicate in 1276. He was succeeded by his fifth brother, Zhao Shi, enthroned as Emperor Duanzong.Reign
Emperor Duzong died in 1274 from overindulgence in wine. His sixth son, Zhao Xian, who was then about four years old, was enthroned as the new emperor with assistance from the chancellor Jia Sidao. In the following year, Zhao Xian's grandmother (Grand Empress Dowager Xie) and mother (Empress Dowager Quan) became regents for the child emperor, although state and military power remained under Jia Sidao's control.By the time Zhao Xian came to the throne, the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty had already taken control of the northern and southwestern areas of China, crossed the Yangtze River and acquired key strategic locations such as Xiangyang. They were heading towards the Song capital at Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou). Grand Empress Dowager Xie pursued a dual-strategy to the pending destruction of the Song dynasty: On one hand, she ordered the people to rally behind their emperor and save the Song Empire. On the other hand, she tried to make peace with the Yuan Empire. The Yuan army advanced further and captured Song territories and took control of various prefectures along the middle stretches of the Yangtze River.
In early 1275, Jia Sidao led an army of 30,000 to engage Yuan forces at Wuhu. The Song army suffered defeat and not long afterward, bowing to public pressure, Grand Empress Dowager Xie ordered Jia Sidao's execution. However, the move came too late and the fall of the Song dynasty loomed closer.
By the middle of 1275, the Yuan army had controlled most of the Jiangdong region, the southern part of present-day Jiangsu Province. On 18 January 1276, the Yuan general Bayan showed up with his army outside Lin'an. The Song imperial court sent Lu Xiufu to negotiate for peace with the enemy, but Lu was forced to surrender. Later that year, Grand Empress Dowager Xie brought the five-year-old Zhao Xian with her to the Yuan camp to surrender.
Historian Patricia Buckley Ebrey noted that the Yuan dynasty treated the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty's Wanyan imperial family harshly, totally butchering them by the hundreds as well as the emperor of Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty when they defeated him earlier. However Patricia also noted the Yuan dynasty were totally lenient on the Zhao imperial family of the Southern Song explicitly unlike the Jin dynasty in the Jingkang incident, sparing both the Southern Song royals in the capital Hangzhou like the Emperor Gong of Song and his mother as well as sparing the civilians inside it and not sacking the city, allowing them to go about their normal business, rehiring Southern Song officials. The Yuan dynasty did not take the Southern Song palace women for themselves but instead had Han artisans in Shangdu marry the palace women.Remnants of the Song Empire fled southwards to Fujian and Guangdong provinces, where they continued to resist the Mongols. Zhao Xian's fifth brother, Zhao Shi, was enthroned as the new Emperor Duanzong. Zhao Shi died of illness in 1278 after fleeing the Mongols and was succeeded by his seventh brother, Zhao Bing.
In 1279, after the Battle of Yamen, Lu Xiufu brought Zhao Bing with him to Yashan (present-day Yamen, Guangdong Province), where they committed suicide by drowning themselves at sea. The death of Zhao Bing marked the end of the Song dynasty.
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