Emperor Shenzong of Song (25 May 1048 – 1 April 1085), personal name Zhao Xu, was the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty of China. His original personal name was Zhao Zhongzhen but he changed it to "Zhao Xu" after he acceded to the throne. He reigned from 1067 until his death in 1085 and is best known for supporting Wang Anshi's New Policies. He was a particularly active monarch concerned with expanding Song territory and solving its fiscal, bureaucratic, and military problems through major reforms, but his reign remains controversial due to military failures and the varied effects of his changes.
Contents
Reign
Personality
Emperor Shenzong disagreed with the passive stance of his predecessors and wanted to improve the Song Dynasty's prestige via conquest. This irredentist attitude also contributed towards his desire to centralize fiscal matters: he told his war minister Wen Yanbo that "if we are to raise troops for our frontier campaigns, then our treasuries must be full." Furthermore, Shenzong was dissatisfied with the growing powers of ministers such as chief councillor Han Chi. Shenzong's goals were opposed by the conservatives, particularly Fu Bi and Sima Guang, who were concerned with his expansion of monarchical power and who wanted to maintain the peaceful equilibrium with the Western Xia and the Liao Dynasty. Shenzong respected the conservative faction: he kept Fu Bi in the capital until 1072 and had close relations with Sima Guang, whom he admired for his morality and intelligence.
Muslim mercenaries
Emperor Shenzong hired Muslim warriors from Bukhara to fight against the Khitan Liao dynasty. 5,300 Muslim men from Bukhara were encouraged and invited to move to China in 1070 by Shenzong to help battle the Liao empire in the northeast and repopulate areas ravaged by fighting. The emperor hired these men as mercenaries in his campaign against the Liao dynasty. Later on, these men were settled between the Song capital of Bianliang (today Kaifeng) and Yenching (modern Beijing). The circuits (道) of the north and northeast were settled in 1080 when 10,000 more Muslims were invited into China.
Economy during the Xining-Yuanfeng period
The minting of copper coins was the main form of money since the early Song dynasty. It peaked during Emperor Shenzong's reign, with 5.06 million guan minted in 1080, over six times more than 800,000 guan at the Northern Song's start. From 1074 to 1085, an average of 4.5 million guan were minted annually, dropping to 3 million under Emperor Huizong.
Agricultural tax collected in autumn and summer made up about a third of the state’s tax revenue over the ten year-Xining period. Most taxes, including a third of the agricultural tax, were paid in cash, showing a highly monetized financial structure. Industrial and commercial taxes contributed two thirds of the tax revenue.
During his reign in 1068, Emperor Shenzong became interested in Wang Anshi's policies and appointed Wang as the Chancellor. Wang implemented his famous New Policies aimed at improving the situation for the peasantry and unemployed. These acts became the hallmark reform of Emperor Shenzong's reign.
Before Shenzong took the throne in 1067, there was pressure on the Song dynasty to make economic reforms. The Song dynasty's rigorous civil service examinations rejuvenated humanist-oriented Confucian elite culture; in particular, the literati wanted to improve the material conditions of the people. Additionally, the humiliating loss against the Western Xia in the 1040s (as well as the unfavorable terms of the Treaty of Chanyuan) created, according to Sogabe Shizuo, a "perpetual wartime fiscal regime". Shenzong was particularly driven by his irredentist determination to recover the Sixteen Prefectures.
Immediately after taking the throne in 1067, Emperor Shenzong established the Office of Expenditure Reduction with Sima Guang at its head to improve Song finances. Sima refused and instead issued a scathing report discussing the immensity of the dynasty's financial problems. Indeed, defense consumed 83% of the dynasty's cash income, while the expanding and already-large bureaucracy was very costly to maintain. In 1069, after failing again to gain support for reform from the official Fu Bi, Shenzong made Wang Anshi the head of government and supported his consolidation of power and his New Policies.
The Seedling Law, Law on the Exemption from Military Service, Market Exchange Law, and the rise of monopolies on salt, tea, and jiu helped centralize and fully monetize the Song fiscal policy. The monetary policy of the Xining-Yuanfeng period (1068-1085) strongly supported the new laws.
Campaign against Vietnam
Emperor Shenzong sent campaigns against the Vietnamese ruler Lý Nhân Tông of the Lý dynasty in 1076.
Embassy from the Byzantine Empire
Aside from the ancient Roman embassies to Han and Three-Kingdoms era China, contact with Europe remained sparse if not nonexistent before the 13th century. However, from Chinese records it is known that Michael VII Doukas (Mie li yi ling kai sa 滅力伊靈改撒) of Fo lin (i.e. the Byzantine Empire) dispatched a diplomatic mission to China's Song dynasty that arrived in 1081, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong.
Campaign against the Western Xia dynasty
Emperor Shenzong's other notable act as emperor was his attempt to weaken the Tangut-led Western Xia state by invading and expelling the Western Xia forces from Qing prefecture (庆州, today Qingyang, Gansu Province). The Song army was initially quite successful in these campaigns, but during the battle for the city of Yongle (永乐城), in 1082, Song forces were defeated. As a result, Western Xia grew more powerful and subsequently continued to be a thorn in the side of the Song Empire over the ensuing decades.
Zizhi Tongjian and other literary works
Sima Guang, a minister interested in the history of the previous 1000 years, published the Zizhi Tongjian or A Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government in 1084. This book records historical events from the Zhou dynasty to the Song dynasty. Another notable literary achievement that occurred during his reign was the compilation of the Seven Military Classics, including the alleged forgery of the Questions and Replies between Tang Taizong and Li Weigong.
Death and legacy
The disastrous defeat at the battle of Yongle City in 1082 during the Song invasion of Western Xia completely broke Shenzong’s spirit. In tears, he berated his councillors and said “Not a single one of you said that the [Yongle City] campaign was wrong.” He was crushed by the realization that his reforms, into which he had poured immense amounts of time and energy, had failed. Accordingly, his reformist zeal slowed down and he increasingly favored the conservatives, particularly Sima Guang. In Autumn 1084, Shenzong sensed he was dying and entrusted the heir to Sima Guang and Lü Gongzhu.
Emperor Shenzong died in early 1085 at the age of 36 from an unspecified illness and was succeeded by his son, Zhao Xu who took the throne as Emperor Zhezong. Emperor Zhezong was underage and so Shenzong’s mother Empress Gao ruled as regent until her death. A political struggled ensued following Shenzong’s death. The Empress Dowager’s conservative faction (which included Sima Guang, Lü Gongzhu, the famous poet Su Shi, and the co-founder of Neo-confucianism, Cheng Hao) defeated Cai Jue’s faction. The conservatives went on to repeal the New Polices and purge the court of remaining reformers.
Family
Empress Qinsheng, of the Xiang clan (欽聖皇后 向氏; 1046–1101)
Princess Shuhuai (淑懷帝姬; 1067–1078), 1st daughter
Empress Qincheng, of the Zhu clan (欽成皇后 朱氏; 1052–1102)
Princess Xianmu (賢穆帝姬; d. 1111), 3rd daughter
Married Han Jiayan (韓嘉彥; d. 1129)
Zhao Xu, Zhezong (哲宗 趙煦; 1077–1100), 6th son
Princess Xiankang (賢康帝姬; d. 1085), 5th daughter
Princess of Lu (潞国长公主, d.1084), 6th daughter
Princess Xianyi (賢宜帝姬; d. 1085), 8th daughter
Zhao Shi, Prince Rongxian of Chu (楚榮憲王 趙似; 1083–1106), 13th son
Princess Xianjing (賢靜帝姬; 1085–1115), 10th daughter
Married Pan Yi (潘意) in 1104, and had issue (two sons)
Empress Qinci, of the Chen clan (欽慈皇后 陳氏; 1058–1089)
Zhao Ji, Huizong (徽宗 趙佶; 1082–1135), 11th son
Noble Consort Yimu, of the Xing clan (懿穆貴妃 邢氏; d. 1103)
Zhao Jin, Prince of Hui (惠王 趙僅; 1071), 2nd son
Zhao Xian, Prince of Ji (冀王 趙僩; 1074–1076), 5th son
Zhao Jia, Prince Daohui of Yu (豫悼惠王 趙價; 1077–1078), 7th son