Emperor Huizong by Patricia Buckley Ebrey (review)

Emperor Huizong 徽宗 (r. 1100–1126), traditionally viewed as a fatuous and incompetent ruler who brought a tragic end to the Northern Song dynasty, becomes the only Song emperor who has a biography in English. In this wellresearched and highly readable book, Patricia Ebrey aims to rescue Huizong from Chinese morality-based accounts and to understand him as a real person. This is not Ebrey's first study of this figure. In 2006, she coedited a collection of essays, Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, with Maggie Bickford.¹ Two years later, she published a monograph, titled Accumulating Culture, on Huizong's art collections and his building of cultural authority in the empire.² In both of these books, Ebrey questions the established view of Huizong in Chinese historiography and reexamines him through new cultural, political, and linguistic readings. The current work is the third in this series, summarizing the author's twenty years of endeavor by providing a comprehensive account of this controversial ruler.

The main thesis of this book is that Huizong was not worse than other emperors in Chinese history. An outstanding and talented artist and poet, pious Daoist, and avid cultural patron, Huizong paid great attention to cultural and religious activities and constantly sought splendor and magnificence in his life. The failure of the Northern Song had multiple causes, and Huizong need not bear all of the blame. Even in the years when he was a captive of the Jurchen Jin, he could still maintain certain levels of humanity and dignity, struggling to lead or at least help his imperial family members when they were relocated to northeast Asia. Ebrey disagrees with the mainstream view of Chinese historians as they often portray this ruler as inept and condemn him and his policies without sound reasoning. She reminds readers that official histories and surviving scholarly accounts are often influenced by a morally centered agenda, shaped by anti-reformists and Neo-Confucian thinkers of the Southern Song period. Thus, it is necessary to have a more neutral reading of the sources in order to construct a balanced view of Huizong and his policies.

The book is divided into four parts, each of which has either four or five chapters. The first part, titled "Learning to rule, 1082–1108," introduces Huizong as a young man and a novice ruler. Ebrey starts from the death of Emperor Zhezong 哲宗 (r. 1085–1100) and discusses how Huizong, the younger brother of Zhezong, was chosen by the senior empress and councilors in the first month of 1100. Although Huizong was already an adult when he ascended to the throne, court officials still made Empress Dowager Xiang 向, wife of Emperor Shenzong 神宗 (r. 1067–1085) and Huizong's stepmother, the regent of the regime. Here Ebrey disagrees with the interpretation common in Chinese historiography and argues that Xiang was only a nominal regent and did not participate in decision-making. It was Huizong who suspended the New Policies in 1101 and promoted conservatives to the court because he was eager to see a functional coalition government made up of officials from both factions. Yet one year later, Huizong was deeply disappointed with the results and removed all of the conservatives from the capital. Cai Jing 蔡京 became chief councilor and revived the New Policies throughout the empire. The last chapter of Part I concentrates on these reforms, including the nationwide school system and social welfare programs.

The next two parts, "Striving for Magnificence, 1102–1112" and "Anticipating Great Things, 1107–1120," can be viewed as the core of the book. Ebrey surveys Huizong's extensive interests in Daoism, music, calligraphy, painting, ritual codes, auspicious signs, medical education, and architecture. These activities reveal more details of his personality and ruling ideology. Compared to other rulers in Chinese history, Huizong was probably one of the most talented artists and most pious Daoist believers. He was ambitious to be a cultural sage, and he wanted to create new, innovative, and grand projects to demonstrate his cultural and...