Emperor Huizong / / Patricia Buckley Ebrey.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE Complete Package 2014
• VerfasserIn: Ebrey, Patricia Buckley,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (712 p.) :; 15 color illustrations, 23 halftones, 2 line illustrations, 3 maps, 11 tables
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Tables, Maps, and Illustrations --; Preface --; Note on Ages, Dates, and Other Conventions --; Chronology --; Cast of Characters --; Genealogy of the Song Emperors and Empresses --; I Learning to Rule, 1082-1108 --; 1 Growing Up in the Palace, 1082-1099 --; 2 Taking the Throne, 1100 --; 3 Trying for Balance, 1101-1102 --; 4 Choosing the Reformers, 1102-1108 --; II Striving for Magnificence, 1102-1112 --; 5 Placing Faith in Daoism, 1100-1110 --; 6 Embracing and Revitalizing Tradition --; 7 Welcoming Masters and Experts --; 8 Crafting an Image as an Artist --; III Anticipating Great Things, 1107-1120 --; 9 Pursuing the Monumental --; 10 Finding Plea sure in Court and Palace Life --; 11 Working with Councilors --; 12 Accepting Divine Revelations, 1110-1119 --; 13 Allying with Jin --; IV Confronting Failure, 1121-1135 --; 14 Adjusting to Military Setbacks, 1121-1125 --; 15 Abdicating the Throne, 1125-1126 --; 16 Losing Everything, 1126-1127 --; 17 Enduring Captivity, 1127-1135 --; Afterword --; Appendix A: Reasons for Rejecting Some Common Stories about Huizong and His Court --; Appendix B: Huizong's Consorts and Their Children --; Timeline --; Notes --; References --; Chinese Character Glossary --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780674726420; 9783110369526; 9783110370225; 9783110665901
• DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674726420
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Patricia Buckley Ebrey.

China was the most advanced country in the world when Huizong ascended the throne in 1100 CE. Artistically gifted, he guided the Song Dynasty toward cultural greatness but is known to posterity as a political failure who lost the throne to Jurchen invaders and died their prisoner. In this comprehensive biography, Patricia Ebrey corrects the prevailing view of Huizong as decadent and negligent, recasting him as a ruler ambitious in pursuing glory for his flourishing realm. After a rocky start trying to overcome political animosities at court, Huizong turned his attention to the good he could do. He greatly expanded the court's charitable ventures, founding schools, hospitals, orphanages, and paupers' cemeteries. Surrounding himself with poets, painters, and musicians, he built palaces, temples, and gardens of unsurpassed splendor. Often overlooked, however, is the importance of Daoism in Huizong's life. He treated spiritual masters with great deference, wrote scriptural commentaries, and urged his subjects to adopt his beliefs and practices. This devotion to the Daoist vision of sacred kingship eventually alienated the Confucian mainstream and compromised Huizong's ability to govern. Ebrey's lively biography adds new dimensions of understanding to a passionate, paradoxical ruler who, many centuries later, inspires both admiration and disapproval.