Song Gaozong

Song Gaozong
Emperor of the Southern Song
Lived: June 12, 1107 - November 9, 1187
Gaozong, born Zhao Gou, was the tenth Emperor of the Song and the first of the Southern Song Dynasty. On one hand, he managed to save the Song dynasty for another 150 years, on the other hand, especially the Han people think of him as dubious sovereign because of his failed appeasement policy towards the Jurchen.
Gaozong was the fifth son of emperor Huizong, which made him the younger half brother of to-come emperor Qinzong. At first, he was excluded from the succession of the throne.
He was a local ruler during the northern Song, while his brother was emperor. At that time, the Jurchen people rised to power, who displaced the Liao in Northern China, becoming a vial threat for the Song. After a short period of peace, the Jurchen, now calling themselves the Jin dynasty, besieged the capital Bianjing and conquered it. By conquering the Song's capital, the Jin kidnapped most of the imperial family, including the two former emperors Qinzong and Huizong, to hold them hostage in Manchuria. All of them spendt the rest of their lifes there. Just a few of the family, one of them was Gaozong himself, managed to escape into the south to make Lin'an their new residence and capital. This incident is known in China as the "Humilation of Jingkang", while Jingkang was the era name of Qinzong.
During the beginning of his reign, the Jin kept attacking, but the Song fought them off every single time. After years of war, Gaozong suddenly went a pacifist way, knowing that a reconquest of Bianjing, or even a defeat of the Jin may have resulted in restoring his brother's reign and putting himself behind. He fired his military advisors, and even plotted with his premier against Yue Fei, who is regarded as a patriot by the Han people, to put him to death. He signed the treaty of Shaoxing, which made the Song factually a vasal state of the Jin, but kept the peace for some time.
He lost his only child, so he made his subordinates looking for relatives in southern China, and they finally found a sixth cousin, which became his sucessor, naming himself Xiaozong. Gaozong resigned in 1162, but lived until 1187.His is also known as a poet which influenced art at his times. Some of his work survived until today, for example the "Quatrain on the Heavenly Mountains".