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Xiang Li Traditional Chinese Watercolor

Southern Song · 1127 – 1279

Emperor Ningzong of Song

宋寧宗

简体 宋宁宗

“Thirty years under two chancellors, and a war that cost a head”

Placed on the throne by Han Tuozhou, who then banned Neo-Confucian learning and launched a disastrous war on the Jin in 1206. The peace terms required Han Tuozhou's head, and it was sent. His successor Shi Miyuan ran the state for the rest of the reign.

Zhu Xi's philosophy, proscribed in the middle of this reign, became the orthodoxy of the next seven centuries within a generation of it.

Empress Han and Empress Yang share a silk; Yang was a palace performer's daughter who out-manoeuvred everyone and chose the next emperor.

The empresses of this reign

Painted on silk in gemstone mineral pigments by Xiang Li.

About this page

Written for this site to place Ningzong's reign around the paintings. For the full biography, the dynastic histories and the scholarship behind them, start at Wikipedia.

Every Song emperor

Northern Song

北宋 960 – 1127

Southern Song

南宋 1127 – 1279
Reign Emperor Painted empresses
1127 – 1162 Gaozong 宋高宗 Zhao Gou 趙構 / 赵构
1162 – 1189 Xiaozong 宋孝宗 Zhao Shen 趙昚 / 赵昚
1189 – 1194 Guangzong 宋光宗 Zhao Dun 趙惇 / 赵惇
1194 – 1224 Ningzong 宋寧宗 / 宋宁宗 Zhao Kuo 趙擴 / 赵扩
1224 – 1264 Lizong 宋理宗 Zhao Yun 趙昀 / 赵昀
1264 – 1274 Duzong 宋度宗 Zhao Qi 趙禥 / 赵禥
1274 – 1276 Gong 宋恭帝 Zhao Xian 趙㬎 / 赵㬎
1276 – 1278 Duanzong 宋端宗 Zhao Shi 趙昰 / 赵昰
1278 – 1279 Bing 宋末帝 Zhao Bing 趙昺 / 赵昺