Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T08:10:39.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The Reign of Li-tsung (1224–1264)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2010

By
Richard Davis
Edited by
Denis Twitchett  and
Paul Jakov Smith
Richard Davis
Affiliation:
Lingnan University
Get access

Summary

shih mi-yüan in isolation

The sudden elevation of Chao Yün (1205–64) to imperial son only five days before the death of Emperor Ning-tsung and the replacing of Chao Hung as heir to the throne might have turned the Sung court into a battlefield of warring factions. Instead, this irregular transfer of power took place initially without incident. No mutiny erupted among the guards assigned to protect Chao Hung. The guards were forcibly detained outside the palace on the night of Ning-tsung’s death and thereby denied any opportunity to interrupt the accession. Imperial clansmen living away from Lin-an raised no armies to lead against the capital with a pledge to restore the throne to its rightful occupant. The bureaucracy was also muted in its response. No one attempted to assassinate the chief councilor, Shih Mi-yüan, for his leading role in the controversial succession. There was no repeat of the Han T’o-chou incident. Students at the Imperial University proved uncharacteristically quiet. No indictments were submitted against powerful ministers exceeding their authority. The political elite, if not regarding the succession as legitimate, found it expedient to confine its suspicions and gossip to private quarters. Even the hot-tempered Chao Hung seems to have passively accepted his fate. He made no attempt to turn the bureaucracy against Shih Mi-yüan, its increasingly unpopular chief. The new emperor, known to history as Li-tsung, opted against a distant exile for his adoptive brother. Chao Hung was quickly moved to the quiet, scenic fishing town of Hu-chou, where he probably enjoyed considerable freedom of movement.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of China , pp. 839 - 912
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allsen, Thomas T. Mongol imperialism: The policies of the Grand Qan Möngke in China, Russia, and the Islamic lands, 1251–1259. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
Bodman, Richard W., and Peterson, Charles A.. “Cheng Ch’ing-chih.” In Sung biographies, ed. Franke, Herbert. 4 vols. Münchener Ostasiatische Studien 16, 1–3; 17, 4. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976.Google Scholar
Kao-hua, Ch’en. “Wang Chi shih Sung shih-shih k’ao-lüeh.” In Ryū Shiken hakuse shōju kinen: Sō-shi kenkü ronshū, ed. Tsuyoshi, Kinugawa. Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1989.Google Scholar
Ta-hsin, Ch’ien. Nien-erh shih k’ao-i. 1806. In Chia-ting Ch’ien-shih Ch’ien-yen-t’ang ch’üan-shu. 1884. Ch’ang-sha: Lung-shih chia-shu ch’ung-k’an, 1884.Google Scholar
Chaffee, John W. Branches of heaven: A history of the imperial clan of Sung China. Harvard East Asian Monographs 183. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999.CrossRef
Yin-lin, Chang. “Nan Sung wang-kuo shih pu.” In Sung-shih yen-chiu chi: ti erh chi, ed. tso-t’an-hui, Sung-shih. Chung-hua ts’ung-shu. Taipei: Chung-hua ts’ung-shu pien-shen wei-yüan-hui, 1964.Google Scholar
Chin-sheng, Chou. An economic history of China, ed. and trans. Kaplan, Edward H.. Western Washington State College, Program in East Asian Studies Occasional Papers 7. Bellingham: Western Washington State College, 1974.Google Scholar
Davis, Richard L. “Historiography as politics in Yang Wei-chen’s ‘Polemic on legitimate succession’.” T’oung Pao 69 No. 1–3 (1983).Google Scholar
Davis, Richard L. Court and family in Sung China, 960–1279: Bureaucratic success and kinship fortunes for the Shih of Ming-chou. Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1986.
Davis, Richard L. Wind against the mountain: The crisis of politics and culture in thirteenth-century China. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 42. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1996.CrossRef
Dunnell, Ruth W. “The Hsi Hsia.” In The Cambridge history of China, Volume 6: Alien regimes and border states, 907–1368, ed. Franke, Herbert and Twitchett, Denis C.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Franke, Herbert. “Chia Ssu-tao.” In Sung biographies, ed. Franke, Herbert. 4 vols. Münchener Ostasiatische Studien 16, 1–3; 17, 4. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976.Google Scholar
Chao-hsi, Hu. “Lüeh-lun Nan Sung mo-nien Ssu-ch’uan chün-min k’ang-chi Meng-ku kuei-tsu ti tou-cheng”. In Sung-shih yen-chiu lun-wen-chi: Chung-hua wen-shih lun-ts’ung tseng-k’an, ed. Kuang-ming, Teng and Ying-liu, Ch’eng. wen-shih, Chung-hua lun-ts’ung tseng-k’an. Shanghai: Shang-hai ku-chi ch’u-pan-she, 1982.Google Scholar
Kwanten, Luc. Imperial nomads: A history of Central Asia, 500–1500. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979.
T’ien-ming, Li. Sung Yüan chan-shih. 4 vols. Taipei: Shih-huo ch’u-pan-she, 1988.
Tzu-chien, Liu (James T. C. Liu). “Wei Liao-weng’s thwarted statecraft.” In Ordering the world: Approaches to state and society in Sung dynasty China, ed. Hymes, Robert p. and Schirokauer, Conrad. Studies on China 16. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Wen, Lo (Lo, Winston W.). “Circuits and circuit intendants in the territorial administration of Sung China.” Monumenta Serica 31 (1974–5).Google Scholar
Martin, H. Desmond. “The Mongol wars with Hsi Hsia (1205–1227).”Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland Nos. 3–4 (1942).Google Scholar
Martin, H. Desmond. The rise of Chingis Khan and his conquest of north China. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1950.
McKnight, Brian E. “Chu Hsi and his world.” In Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism, ed. Chan, Wing-tsit. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.Google Scholar
McKnight, Brian E. “T’ung Kuan.” In Sung biographies, ed. Franke, Herbert. 4 vols. Münchener Ostasiatische Studien 16, 1–3; 17, 4. Vol. 3. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976.Google Scholar
Peterson, Charles A. “Old illusions and new realities: Sung foreign policy, 1217–1234.” In China among equals: The Middle Kingdom and its neighbors, 10th–14th centuries, ed. Rossabi, Morris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Rossabi, Morris. “The reign of Khubilai khan.” In The Cambridge history of China. Volume 6: Alien regimes and border states, 907–1368, ed. Franke, Herbert and Twitchett, Denis C.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Schirokauer, Conrad. “Chu Hsi’s political career: A study in ambivalence.” In Confucian personalities, ed. Wright, Arthur F. and Twitchett, Denis C.. Stanford Studies in the Civilizations of Eastern Asia. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Smith, Paul J. “Family, landsmann, and status-group affinity in refugee mobility strategies: The Mongol invasions and the diaspora of Sichuanese elites, 1230–1330.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 52 No. 2 (1992).Google Scholar
cheng-yao, Sung-chi san-ch’ao. [Shou-shan ko ts’ung-shu n.d, ed.]. In Pai-pu ts’ung-shu chi-ch’eng. 1965–70. Vol. 54. Taipei: I-wen yin-shu-kuan, 1968.
Tillman, Hoyt C. Confucian discourse and Chu Hsi’s ascendancy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992.
Walton, Linda A. “The institutional context of Neo-Confucianism: Scholars, schools, and shu-yüan in Sung-Yüan China.” In Neo-Confucian education: The formative stage, ed. Bary, Wm. Theodore and Chaffee, John W.. Studies on China 9. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Liao-weng, Wei. Ho-shan hsien-sheng ta ch’üan-chi. 1249. [Ssu-pu ts’ung-k’an ch’u-pien 1929 ed.]. In Ssu-pu ts’ung-k’an cheng-pien. Vol. 60. Taipei: T’ai-wan shang-wu yin-shu-kuan, 1979.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×