Emperor Gong of Song

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 Empire 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 Mongols. The Mongol 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 the Mongols 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 Mongol army had controlled most of the Jiangdong region, the southern part of present-day Jiangsu Province. On 18 January 1276, the Mongol 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 Mongol camp to surrender.

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.

After the fall of the Song dynasty, Zhao Xian was relocated to the Mongol capital at Dadu (present-day Beijing) then later to Shangdu. Some sources also claim that he lived in Qianzhou (謙州; present-day Tuva in South Central Siberia). His sojourns made him one of the most well-travelled Han Chinese emperors in Chinese history.

According to Sakya's monastic succession records, in April 1323, the 52-year-old Zhao Xian received an imperial edict ordering him to commit suicide at Hexi (河西; present-day Zhangye, Gansu Province.[1] Many Ming Historians believed that this was because Zhao Xian's poetry displeased the Mongol ruler, Emperor Yingzong. Other Ming Historians believe that Yingzong feared a coup led by Zhao Xian.

Emperor Gong’s unofficial temple name is Gongzong (恭宗)

Consorts and Issue:

• Lady, of the Borjigin clan (孛兒只斤氏) [2]
  • Zhao Wanpu (趙完普), first son

Zhao Xian had one son with the Borjigin Mongol woman, Zhao Wanpu. Zhao Xian's son Zhao Wanpu was kept alive by the Mongols because of his mother's royal Mongolian Borjigin ancestry even after Zhao Xian was killed. Instead Zhao Wanpu was only moved and exiled. The outbreak of the Song loyalist Red Turban Rebellion in Henan led to a recommendation that Zhao Wanpu should be transferred somewhere else by an Imperial Censor in 1352. The Yuan did not want the Chinese rebels to get their hands on Zhao Wanpu so no one was permitted to see him and Zhao Wanpu's family and himself were exiled to Shazhou near the border by the Yuan Emperor. Paul Pelliot and John Andrew Boyle commented on Rashid-al-Din Hamadani's chapter The Successors of Genghis Khan in his work Jami' al-tawarikh, identified references by Rashid al-Din to Zhao Xian in his book where he mentions a Chinese ruler who was an "emir" and son-in-law to the Qan (Khan) after being removed from his throne by the Mongols and he is also called "Monarch of Song", or Suju (宋主 Songzhu) in the book.[3][4]

According to a Ming story Zhao Xian had an affair with Yuan Empress Mailaiti, a descendant of Arslan Khan of the Karluks, a wife of Yuan Emperor Mingzong. Zhao Xian allegedly fathered Yuan Emperor Huizong with Mailaiti.[5] The Mongols circulated a similar story about the Yongle Emperor.

• Chinese emperors family tree (middle)
• List of emperors of the Song dynasty
• Architecture of the Song dynasty
• Culture of the Song dynasty
• Economy of the Song dynasty
• History of the Song dynasty
• Society of the Song dynasty
• Technology of the Song dynasty

• (in Chinese) The Eighteen Emperors of the Song Dynasty