The History of China - #141 - N. Song 8: Childless Mother of the World

Episode Date: May 2, 2018

When Emperor Renzong of Song takes the throne, he's just a boy of 12 and surely in need of his mother's guidance... but how long until Mom becomes more of a hinderance than a help? ... And what if she's not really his mother? Time Period Covered: 1022-1033 CE Important Historical Figures: Emperor Renzong of Song [Zhao] (r. 1022- Empress Dowager Liu (-1033) Lady Li (-1032) Chancellor Ding Wei Chancellor Wang Zeng Assistant Minister of the Palace Library, Lu "Fish-Head" Zongdao (-1029) Sun Shi, Director of Education Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episode 141, Childless Mother of the World. When last we left off the main narrative, it was at the conclusion of the ever-hapless Emperor Zhengzong's reign in 1022, and his burial alongside his precious heavenly texts, which the Book of Song could only conclude, alas, how wise. Was it referring to the disposal of the texts, or Zhenzong's decision to finally die? Well, I'll leave that for you to decide. In any case, we pick up with the enthronement of his heir and successor, the Emperor Ren Zong, who would prove to be the Song Dynasty's longest reigning monarch, clocking in at 41 years on the throne. Ren Zong was born as Zhao Shouyi, the sixth and youngest son of Zhenzong and one of his consorts, called Lady Li, on May 30th, 1010. The familial drama

would begin very early on for young Shouyi, though, as at just three years old, he was claimed by the empress, Liu, as her own son in 1014. This was in large part because she, by this time, was already in her mid-forties and yet still remained childless. After adopting the child, she, along with her servant and close friend, the pure consort Yang, would raise Shouyi as her own. So much so that the boy who would become Ren Zong wouldn't even know that he'd been adopted at all, much less the identity of his birth mother, until the death of Empress Liu some 23 years later. And indeed, she was by all accounts a very caring and even doting mother to the boy, described throughout his life as

whenever the crown prince sighed, the empress personally nursed him, abruptly dismissing all attendance and making her inquiries of him. Even in the selection of nursemaids and servants, she always chose those who were conscientious, respectful, and older, constantly instructing them in respectfulness. The crown prince's pure and filial virtue is as if endowed by heaven and not from common feelings, end quote. This adoption helps to explain the succession question of the heir being the youngest son of Zhenzong, since he was, legally, the by heaven and not from common feelings, end quote. This adoption helps to explain the succession question of the heir being the youngest son of Zhenzong, since he was, legally, the son of the Empress, which was the equivalent of getting a fast pass to Magic Mountain. Empress Liu was an intelligent and ambitious woman of lowly origin. Hailing from rural Sichuan, Liu was orphaned at

an early age and raised by her mother's family and by adolescence had become skilled at the hand drum. She would at first marry a silversmith, and the pair made their way to Kaifeng as of 983. According to Sima Guang, her husband eventually felt compelled to sell her off in order to get himself out of poverty, and she entered the service of the Imperial Palace, likely first under the employ of the palace official Zhang Qi, where she was put to work as an entertainer in the palatial residence of the then 15-year-old Prince Zhao Heng. By this point, she was all of 14. The prince took an immediate liking to young Lady Liu, prompting the disdain of his father, Emperor Taizong, who noted that Heng was becoming listless and thinner, which is, by the way, one of the most Chinese complaints ever.

You're so skinny, eat more, eat more. This criticism was immediately seized upon by Zhao Hung's wet nurse and caretaker, who apparently also had an axe to grind against Lady Liu, probably because of her rather unrefined country bumpkin behavior and mannerisms. And she promptly reported that it was all that skinny farm girl's fault. This was enough to get Liu expelled from the palace, because we can't have our 15-year-old princess getting distracted by pretty girls all the time. That will not do. But Zhao Hung had a trick up his sleeve, and was able to convince the official who had initially

bought and brought her to the palace in the first place, Zhang Qi, to shelter the girl and construct a separate house for her, for the not inconsiderable fee of 500 ounces of silver. But Zhao Hung was glad to pay in order to get around stodgy old dad's totally, like, unreasonable demands. No price was too high to be able to continue to see her. Zhao Hung, you no doubt remember, would become none other than Emperor Zhenzong in 997, taking Lady Liu with him into the imperial limelight. Since now, there were no more pencils, no more books, no more strict imperial directives from an overbearing father. Except that there were now all these other imperial ministers surrounding the young emperor

who could and did give Lady Liu, now entitled Meiren, meaning beautiful one, those dirty looks. When Zhenzong's first wife, Empress Guo, an arranged and seemingly pretty loveless union that produced no children, died in 1007, Zhenzong wanted to make his beloved consort Liu into his next empress. But ever the shrinking violet, he backed down with his ministers strongly opposed to the decision, and so settled on further promoting her from Meiren to Shouyi, meaning one of cultivated deportment. This would all, of course, lead to the adoption of Lady Li's three-year-old son, Zhao Shouyi, which translated into further promotion in 1012 to the virtuous consort, and then a few months later, actually, finally, to being named empress. From this lofty position,

Liu was able to develop the skill set she would need to assume the regency for her husband, beginning with his decline into ill health around about 1016, following the locust infestation that brought an end to that whole heavenly text affair. These skills included offering advice and reading memorials to Zhenzong, and toward the end of his life, even making policy decisions in the emperor's name. From John Chaffee, in The Rise and Regency of Empress Liu, Although it was undoubtedly her musical gifts and physical attractiveness that initially drew Prince Xiang's attentions, as Empress, she was in her 40s, and her tie to the

Emperor was based much more upon her intelligence, competency, and the trust that she inspired in him, end quote. In 1018, her and Zhenzong's son, Zhao Shouyi, was named Taizi, the imperial heir, and his given name was changed to Zhen, meaning auspicious. But the crown prince, Zhao Zhen, was of course still a minor, only eight years old, in fact, when he was made heir. And as such, Zhenzong instructed his ministers in the year 1020 that should he die, so long as the heir remained a minor, it should be Empress Liu, with their ministerial advice and counsel, of course, who should govern the realm. Upon Zhenzong's death in 1022, Empress Liu and his chief minister of the state council,

Ding Wei, drafted a formal decree reading, All important matters of state will temporarily be decided by the dowager empress, end quote. Incidentally, and as a brief aside, I know that I've used the term before without really explaining, and probably by now that ship is pretty well sailed, but if anyone is still potentially confused about just what an empress dowager or dowager empress actually means, it's just the empress of the former monarch who is the mother of the current monarch, pretty much exactly like the queen mother in England. Since an empress can't very well be demoted, unless of course she does royally screw up, the term means someone who has been effectively

promoted out of power and off the throne, but of course is still hanging around whispering in her ears. Or, as with Liu, herself ruling and telling the emperor to go play with his toys. Ding Wei initially suggested that they omit the word temporary from the decree, but was rebuked by another minister, Wang Zheng, who replied, If government were to issue from the women's quarters, it would be unfortunate for the dynasty. Anyways, as was the usual case for empresses attending court and rendering policy decisions, Liu was hidden behind a screen empresses attending court and rendering policy decisions, Liu was hidden behind a screen and for the most part exercised her authority unobtrusively

through her counselors. The death of Zhenzong was not only a major promotion for his empress, but also his chief counselor, Ding Wei, who wasted no time at all in consolidating his own hold on power over the rest of the court. His first move would be, what else, to move to eliminate his rival ministers. However, his ambitions would quickly be undercut by an up-and-coming senior minister named Wang Zheng, who was apparently unusually concerned with the welfare of the boy king, Ren Zong, and as such, saw a chance to cut off at the knees what might have been the beginnings of a puppet rule. Ding Wei, you see, had been placed in charge of the construction of Emperor Zhenzong's tomb, along with the eunuch official Lei Yungong. From Michael McGrath, quote,

As co-director of the construction for the tomb project, Lei Yungong ordered a change in the tomb's location, but this move threatened to inundate the burial vault with water. Although Ding Wei tried to cover up for Lei, other officials reported the fiasco to the Dowager Empress, who asked Wang Zheng, along with the Kaifeng Prefect Li Yijian and Hanlin academician Liu Zhongdao, to investigate. As a result, Lei Yungong was charged with unlawfully moving the site of Zhengzhong's burial vault and with stealing large quantities of silver, gold, pearls, and imperial burial accoutrement. And yep, that's a paddling. His punishment was to be beaten to death, his family's property confiscated by the

state, and his brother banished to the wilds of Hunan. Ding Wei's own involvement with trying to cover up Lei's malfeasance would give Wang Zeng the leverage he needed to unseat Ding altogether. In a private audience with the Empress Dowager, Wang laid out his accusations that Ding had in fact been conspiring with the eunuch Lei to shift the tomb of Zhenzong to a location that was, in the words of McGrath, geomantically forbidden. In other words, trying to call down evil on the deceased monarch through dark Taoist magic. Now, Ding had already gotten himself on the Empress Dowager's bad side when he'd annoyed

her by repeatedly objecting to her holding court without Emperor Zhenzong in attendance. But this, this was the last straw. Enraged at the meddling with the mortal remains of her dear departed husband, she demanded Ding Wei's execution forthwith. For the ministers in attendance though, even among the many who were all too happy to see the downfall of Ding from his lofty perch, the idea of executing him was a bit much. As said by the minister, Fan Zheng, quote, Wei is surely guilty, but the emperor is newly acceded to the throne, and the sudden execution of a great minister will alarm the eyes and ears of the world. Moreover, how is this rebellion?

It is only that he failed to memorialize about the affair of the mausoleum. That is all. End quote. As such, they managed to talk the Empress down from the death penalty to merely drumming him out of the imperial service altogether, demoting him to a commoner, and publicly humiliating him for his crimes. Such would be his fate, and though he'd live a further 15 years, he would never again so much as sniff power. As it would turn out, though, the dismissal of Ding Wei was something of a double-edged sword for Empress Liu. Yes, he could no longer put his fingers into her political pies,

but neither was he around anymore to support her ambition and power plays. Instead, Liu would now have to deal with virtually the totality of the rest of the imperial court, most of whom were none too happy about the idea of a woman holding the reins of empire. Ding's replacement as chancellor, Feng Cheng, had neither the brains nor really the desire to support the Empress Dowager's initiatives, and ministers like Wang Zeng were actively hostile to the idea of her playing a direct role in the imperial government whatsoever. McGrath writes, quote, in the seventh month of 1022, he attempted to restore the previous arrangement for holding court, every five days and always in the presence of the young Ren Zong. Three times the dowage empress rejected Wang Zong's request for the change,

but when Wang submitted the request to the young emperor, she gave in and approved it, realizing that if she resisted too much, she might provoke Wang Zong and the others to push the young emperor to depose her. This is largely how the empress Dowager was forced to govern for the following seven years, through stealth, cunning, and hidden movements rather than overt displays of power and ambition. She was effectively hemmed in by men of talent, probity, and traditional views about dynastic succession and sovereignty. Yet for all of their combined efforts to convince her to withdraw from governance entirely and focus her energies where they quote-unquote

belonged, namely ceremonial matters, her strength of character, the weight of the imperial testament bestowing power unto her, and Renzong's youth caused her to shrug off the haters and doubters and remain firmly in control, albeit discreetly. For instance, she was able to have her birthday declared a national holiday, her ancestors going back three generations ennobled, and even her father's name declared taboo, granting him something approaching a ceremonial emperorship. She even assumed several of the ceremonial trappings typically reserved for the emperor alone, and all the while the ministers of the court could do little but grumble. Still, there is remarkably little written of the empress during this period, as the histories fall notably silent.

As Chaffee puts it, "...through much of the 1020s there is no dearth of government business and edicts that must have been approved by her, but only rarely are events or conversations involving her recorded. This undoubtedly reflects, in large part, the success of the Regency. The Empire was at peace, and there was unusual stability and continuity among the Grand Councillors." While Empress Liu fenced with the imperial ministers, young Ren Zong, 12 years old

in 1022, was to be educated by the finest scholars in the art of statecraft, which seems to have been just about the one thing that both the Empress Dowager and the court could agree on. The emperor must be educated. The centerpiece of the boy king's schooling was known as the Qingyan, the imperial seminar, conducted by the eminent Sun Shi, the head of the directorate of education, alongside the academician Feng Yuan. Between the two of them, they would lecture the preteen on topics such as the Confucian canonical texts, the Analects of Confucius, and the classical histories. Riveting, I'm sure.

Initially, the seminars were scheduled to be conducted every other day, on even-numbered days, mind you, but Chancellor Wang Zong wouldn't hear of such a thing. Days off? Pah! No, instead he insisted that the imperial classes be conducted with daily rigor, including reading not just the classics, but also a selection of books written specifically for Ren Zong himself. The emperor's teachers didn't tolerate any guff, even if their pupil was the divinely sanctioned absolute ruler of the entire world. Sun Shi, for instance, wouldn't even begin his lectures until the 12-year-old quit fidgeting

and squirming around. And I have to imagine, knowing my fair share of 12-year-olds, that there must have been quite a few delays in the proceedings to get the boy king to just sit still already. Sun also seemed to delight in regaling Ren Zong with the imperial equivalent of horror stories, tales of state-level disorders leading to dynastic collapse. For his part, though, Ren Zong was apparently a studious and avid learner, and was becoming an accomplished calligrapher. He was praised for listening carefully and attentively to his teachers.

So alright, maybe I'm being a bit too hard on the kid. Were that my own students so respectful and attentive? Kids these days, hmm, get off my lawn. The emperor's lessons didn't only consist of ancient texts and historical lessons, though. After all, there were more than enough contemporary problems and issues to expound upon in class. Many concerned that eternal bugaboo of the imperium, financial strains and stresses. One of the most pertinent examples of them working contemporary events into the emperor's classes was between 1026 and 1027, when torrential rains had resulted in the breaching of the long-neglected dikes along the Yellow River outside of Kaifeng.

Though these dams had previously been repaired in 1018, evidently they were done pretty shoddily since now both the floodplains around the city as well as parts of the capital itself were inundated by floodwaters. So I rather like to imagine these lessons taking place in a palace room in which both teacher and imperial people are doing their level best to ignore the six inches of water sloshing around their feet. McGrath writes, quote, in Kaifeng, soldiers were set to work reinforcing the dike walls. Officials were also sent out to coordinate relief efforts in the southern portions of the flood area. By late spring, corvée laborers were drafted from the eastern and western circuits of Jingdong, Hebei, and Huanan to transport fascines of straw and sticks to fill in the break at Huazhou, end quote. Ah, I see,

the Song Empire must have contracted out the services of the Three Little Pigs Repair Company. In all, the repairs wouldn't be completed until the 10th month of 1027, requiring some 38,000 corvée laborers and 21,000 soldiers to hem the Yellow River back in, and costing the Song half a million strings of cash. No paltry sum, though, to be fair, nothing even approaching crippling the empire. You may recall back in episode 138 that we estimated the average annual foreign trade profits the Song government made at about just this amount, 500,000 strings of cash, in all totaling just 0.3 to 0.5% of its total yearly estate expenditures, which works out to

something on the order of 100 million strings of cash, or the rough equivalent of 3,800 metric tons of silver per year. Of course, such a number is pretty meaningless without any broader context to put it in the grand scale of the global economy of the 11th century, such as it was. But round about this time, or to be more specific, during the reign of Zhenzong's first cousin twice removed, Emperor Shenzong, in the latter half of the 11th century, the Song controlled somewhere on the order of 22-30% of the global GDP, as per the study by British economist and professor Agnes Madison in his 2007 publication Contours of the World Economy, 1-2030 AD, meaning that valued in today's money, China would have been worth about $20-30 trillion, as compared to the modern US GDP of $18.5 trillion.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, the vast majority of such value wouldn't have been an actual specie, but rather in goods such as salt, tea, and, of course, silk. But in any case, suffice it to say that the Song were not hurting for the cash to pay for the dam reconstruction. It is not for nothing that the decade between 1023 and 1032 was dubbed the Era of Celestial Sagacity. The devastation was made evident by the fact that across the affected regions, in the summer of 1027 and on the occasion of him officially assuming the age of majority, 17, Ren Zong issued a grand act of grace that forgave the populaces of all back taxes owed,

which would in fact set a precedent for future Song emperors upon reaching adulthood. And yet a curious thing happened upon the emperor's 17th birthday, or rather, did not happen. And that is that the Empress Dowager Liu did not give up command of the empire to the now legally of age emperor.

Instead, she'd begun asking some rather unsettling questions. In particular, Liu seemed to have taken a peculiar fascination in learning more about the Tang Dynasty, and specifically about the second half of the 7th century. And that period, you may remember, just so happened to coincide with the rise and reign of one Wu Zhao, aka Empress Regnant Wu Zetian. Hmm, what a coincidence. Well, you can be sure that the court ministers sensed exactly what direction this was all headed, but none felt that they could speak out against the innocent curiosity of the reigning empress. None except, that is, one of her staunchest Confucian opponents in the court and the assistant minister of the palace library, Liu Zongdao, who back in 1017

had been so bold when the ailing emperor Zhenzong had grown annoyed with his frequent memorials and requests for audiences that he had tried to brush the minister off. Liu had replied, quote, Did your majesty appoint me only to pretend to take my advice? Personally, I feel ashamed if I After thinking on it for a while, Zheng Zong had instead dubbed the bold minister Lu Zhi, meaning Honest Lu, and rather than firing him, promoted him to the directory of the Bureau of Revenue. So no, Lu was not one to hold his tongue.

And now in 1027, he certainly didn't mean to begin, not after nearly a decade of repeatedly memorializing the Empress and asking her to cede power to her son already. When Empress Liu began inquiring into the infamous reign of Wu Zetian, only Liu dared voice a reply, stating simply, she was a criminal whose actions endangered the entire imperial house. History isn't black and white, yet too often it's presented as such. Grey History, The French Revolution is a long-form history podcast dedicated to exploring the ambiguities and nuances of the past. By contrasting both the experiences of contemporaries and the conclusions of historians, Grey History dives into the detail and unpacks one of the most important and disputed events in human history.

From a revolution based on hope and liberty, to its descent into the infamous Reign of Terror, there's plenty to discuss and plenty of grey to explore. One can't understand the modern world without understanding the French Revolution. So if you're looking for your next long-form, binge-worthy history podcast, one recommended by universities and loved by enthusiasts, then check out Grey History, The French Revolution today. Or simply search for the French Revolution. Such a blunt characterization of Wu stunned Empress Liu into silence, and then and there fundamentally undermined any ideas she might have been harboring to use Wu's reign as a precedent

for her own ambitions to further power. On another occasion, as a low-ranking official and known sycophant of Empress Liu, presented a memorial to the throne requesting that the Empress Dowager establish seven ancestral temples to the Liu clan, a practice only reserved for the imperial household. Liu again stepped in to pour cold water on the scheme, pointing out that should the Liu family have seven temples dedicated to them, what would be left for the Zhao clan? Empress Liu was once again forced to back down from establishing her own imperial prerogative. Possibly the most embarrassing, or at least most annoying, incident though, was when preparing to set out for a journey to Zixiao Temple,

the Empress Dowager had arranged for her own carers to precede that of her son, another major faux pas. Once again, Liu spoke out, reminding the Emperor and his no doubt incensed mother that Empress Dowager or not, Liu was still a woman and remained subject to the three Confucian obediences, the Sanzong. Her obedience to her father, to her husband, and to her son. Liu said, quote, Following the son after the father's death, that is the way of the wife, end quote. Once again, the empress was forced to swallow her pride and agree through

gritted teeth, surely, that yes, of course Ranzong's carriage should precede hers. Should it be any surprise, then, that Lu was given another nickname apart from Honest Lu, but instead, as McGrath puts it, the, quote, fish head minister, as a pun on the Chinese character for his surname, Lu, and as a reference to one who gives advice that sticks in one's throat like a fishbone. End quote. Yet in spite of the Empress's wrath, it seems that Empress Ranzong came to appreciate Lu's efforts on his behalf, demonstrated near the end of the minister's life

when the Emperor personally visited Lu's house and gifted his servant with 3,000 ounces of silver. When Lu died in the second month of 1029, Ranzong ordered court business suspended for a day of mourning, and such was in the second month of 1029, Ren Zong ordered court business suspended for a day of mourning, and such was his gravitas that, tellingly, even Empress Liu attended his funeral. But now Liu Zhongdao was dead and buried, with no more advice to stick in the Empress's craw, meaning that it would now be left to the other ministers to check her unceasing desire for political power in her own right, at least as they saw it. This would take the form of fairly naked obstructionism, such as when lightning struck the

Yuching Zhaoying Palace in the summer of 1029 during a heavy storm and burned virtually the entire complex to the ground. Anticipating that Empress Liu would seek to rebuild the palace, and thereby burnish her own image, a cabal of ministers banded together to oppose the plan before the idea had even so much as left her lips. They went before the throne and informed both the emperor and his mother that actually we can't rebuild the palace. Drawing arguments from the ancient Book of Documents, they said that since the burning of the palace had been an act of nature rather than of man, rebuilding it would be in contravention of heaven's design. Empress Leia was forced to scrap

her plan, but did take the opportunity to at least remove yet another thorn in her side, the last of the senior ministers appointed by her late husband, that is Wang Zeng, who as caretaker of the destroyed palace was forced to accept responsibility for his destruction and was removed from office. Tension between the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Court would come to another head the following New Year, when the Emperor insisted in leading his ministers in facing north and wishing the Empress Dowager a long life. This raised objections from both the ministers

and even the Empress herself as improper. This time it would be rising star Fan Zhongyan, a sub-editor within the Imperial Archives, who said, Whoa, hold the phone. No, that's not cool at all. In a memorial to the throne, Fan had the temerity to point out that there was no precedent for any ritual whatsoever in which the emperor faced north, and that any such thing should be immediately stricken from the books and never repeated again. Though it was all well and proper that the emperor should perform

obeisance to his mother in private and as a family matter, doing so at the head of an official ceremony was completely inappropriate. He stated, quote, So what was the big deal with facing north? Well, it all goes back to the ancient cosmology and the Confucian-Daoist worldview of the literal place of the emperor in relationship to the realm. As per the Analects of Confucius, the emperor, as sage-king of the realm, sat as the North Star itself, and when ruling virtuously, as per the Eno translation, The Master said,

There are few who recognize virtue. A virtuous ruler did nothing, and all was well ordered. This would describe the Sage-King, Shun, would it not? What did he do? He simply composed himself with reverence and sat facing due south. In the millennium and a half that followed, the throne, in whichever city it might have been He simply composed himself with reverence and sat facing due south. End quote. In the millennium and a half that followed, the throne, in whichever city it might have been located, always faced due south, while his subjects faced due north. This was nothing less than a symbol of the ruler versus the ruled,

and tied to the conception of the very ordering of the cosmos itself. To have the emperor, in the course of a ceremony, face north to anyone was anathema to the very foundation and structure of the universe. From McGrath, quote, that the Emperor would face north, an act symbolizing subordination, was an invitation for other irregularities, including the deliberate withholding of memorials from imperial scrutiny. Such violations had not yet occurred in the Song, end quote. Oh yeah, and I should mention that all such missives to the emperor about this issue, as well as others sent in the spring of 1030 by Fan and other ministers asking the empress dowager once again to relinquish control of the government to Zhenzong, went entirely unanswered. Presumably because the empress and her agents never allowed them to reach the emperor at all.

The only response Fan did receive for his trouble was an official demotion for raising such a fuss, though it did also earn him a huge amount of admiration from his fellow officials. Moving temporarily to the realm of international events, though, the following year, in mid-1031, the Liao dynasty to China's north lost its own emperor of 50 years, Shengzong, who was succeeded by Xingzong of Liao. As per the Chang'an Treaty of 1005 between the two East Asian imperial powers, the Song court was suspended for seven days along with the forbidding of music in the territory's neighboring Liao lands. In a case of interesting coincidence that pops up from time to time

throughout history, Liao Xingzong, himself only 14 or 15 at the time of his secession, would be dominated by a dowager empress all his own, his mother, Xiao Nojin, posthumously known as Empress Qinai. And their story is just so great that I'm going to derail this whole episode and lay it out before launching back into the song. So just like Song Renzong, the heir of the Liao was not born to the empress of his father, but rather one of his lesser consorts. In this case, it was Nojin herself. And just like Renzong, Xiaozong was adopted by the reigning empress, Qitian, very early in life, as her own.

Upon Liao Shengzong's death, his last will and testament stipulated that Empress Qitian was not to be harmed, a concern that was quickly proven correct by Nogin's actions shortly thereafter. Not willing to play second fiddle to anyone, especially the woman who had, in effect, stolen her son away from her. Accordingly, she acted swiftly and had the Empress falsely implicated in a plot to rebel against the new emperor, to whom she now acted as regent, along with two of her most powerful supporters, Xingzong's uncle and her own son-in-law, the Prime Minister of the North. These two were quickly arrested by the court, dragged to the Supreme Capital, and put to death along with many of their family members and supporters. The purges against these groups is said to have gone on for months thereafter.

The Empress herself was banished into exile, which was, as we've often seen, just a thinly veiled pretext to get her out of the capital and its prying eyes long enough for Nogin to dispatch agents of her own to murder her. Knowing what was inevitably to come, Empress Chitian committed suicide before her assassins could finish the job. With that dirty business concluded, Nogin had herself installed as the Empress Dowager Chinai and assumed the regency over her blood son Xingzong. Two things quickly became clear though. One, that she desired more than the regency, but to rule outright. And two, that there was no group of ministers within the Liao court capable of checking Qinai's ambitions,

as the officials of Song had been able to do with the Empress Liu so far. But all that is still ahead in the Liao history. Back in Kaifeng, this shared sense of purpose between the dowager empresses of Song and Liao made the pair very much simpatico with each other, and Liao was quick to formally recognize the reign of Chen Ayat in the north, even going so far as to reach out in a formal fashion to her sister empress, an action usually reserved for the monarchs themselves. But hey, in this story, what else is new? In Kaifeng, with the likes of ministers like

Wang Deng and Lu Zhongdao out of the way and no longer checking her ambition, Empress Liu began acting more overtly. Again from McGrath, quote, Late in the year, she had the minister Song Shou dismissed for reminding her of the original limits of Zhenzong's testamentary orders. Those orders allowed the regent to decide on major policy and promotions, but these meetings were to be held in one of the smaller pavilions and with very few officials present. Song Shou proposed that Ren Zong hold a separate court where he might rule on less important matters, end quote. But that was a no-go for Empress Liu, and it was her way or the highway, and along with Shou,

three other censors and a staff officer were sent packing from the palace. Her most overt act would come in the late winter or early spring of 1033, when the Empress Dowager was to officiate the imperial clan sacrifice in the Zhao family temple. She decided that she would do so wearing the full imperial ritual regalia, robe and crown, an act which had only ever been done before by a woman, by that's right, Wu Zetian. Yet for all that, McGrath writes that she seems to have not wanted to follow through on full usurpation from her son in the style of Wu, saying, quote, When Cheng Lin presented her with a painting entitled Empress Wu Serves as Regent, she threw it on the ground, saying that she could never do what Empress Wu Zetian had done.

Indeed, when she was confronted on this decision by a senior statesman who approached her imperial veil and asked her whether she planned to be acting as a son or a daughter when she visited the temple, this actually gave her such pause that she cancelled the plan entirely. Though she seems to have indeed visited the imperial temple, she did so in the garb of an empress rather than the emperor. But again, and confusingly enough, apparently the following day when the sacrifices were actually to be conducted,

she did switch over to the male garments once again. This kind of inner conflict is one of the details that makes Empress Leo so interesting. Nevertheless, it was fortunate for the realm, or at least it was so in the eyes of the deeply troubled Confucian officials, that the sacrifice ritual would be one of her last acts. Now 64 years old, the Empress Dowager died in the third month of that year. She would be buried at Yongding Mausoleum, bedecked in the full imperial garb. And this is where it gets really fascinating, because all this time, all of his 23 years and the past 11 spent under Liu's thumb,

no one had ever told Emperor Ren Zong that, oh, by the way, the Empress isn't actually a real mom. His birth mother, Lady Li, had actually died the year prior, which Empress Liu had tried to keep as quiet as possible. She'd wanted to just ignore the consort's death entirely, but was convinced by her ally at court, Liu Yijian, that she really, really ought to give the woman a proper burial befitting her station and rank. Liu had listened, which as we'll see soon, likely saved her whole family from the imperial wrath upon her passing. Because when Empress Liu died, the cat was finally let out of the bag to Ranzong, who, understandably, was more than a little miff that he'd basically been

lied to about his mother for his entire life. The person who most likely broke the news to the 23-year-old emperor was his paternal uncle, the Prince of Chang, Zhao Yanyan. And to say that Ren Zong took it hard was something of an understatement. Again from McGrath, quote, For days, Ren Zong wept for the mother who had been hidden from him. Recovering somewhat, he had Lady Li posthumously promoted to Dowager Empress and ordered that she be exhumed and buried with Ren Zong. To put his mind at rest, Zhenzong sent his maternal uncle, Li Yonghe, to examine the corpse to see if she had died naturally and would verify that she had been given the proper honors. That is certainly not a job that I would want. Please go inspect your sister's year-old corpse

for any signs of foul play. But Li carried out the task to completion and confirmed that all was as it should have been. Lady Li had died of natural causes and had been buried consistent with her station in life, with all the honors due an imperial consort. Content that Empress Liu had at least been that considerate to his real mother, he ordered that the surviving relatives of Liu were to be treated generously. Even so, they did one and all receive demotions in the months to follow, a marker of what might have befell them had Lady Li been treated with less than her full due. But the fireworks of Empress Liu's extended regency still weren't over, because the Empress Dowager had, of course, left a will of her own.

The document stipulated that political power should pass not to Zhenzong, but instead to her longtime partner in crime, the Dowager Consort Yang, who should continue the regency over the emperor. Again, Ranzong was at this time 23, and you'd think that he'd be the first to say, yeah, no, that ain't happening. But apparently he was willing to accept the idea of a continued regency, as was the chancellor, Liu Yijian, who seemed to like the idea of a weak monarchy with his own office making most of the important decisions. Thus it would be left to the senior imperial censor, Cai Qi, to step in and say, wait, what? And to object to this ludicrous

situation, persuading them that, guys, the emperor is twenty freaking three, and unless we're planning on starting a matriarchy here, it's time for him to put on the big boy robes. The ministers who had been content to go along with the ascent of Consort Yong all gazed at the floor, shuffled their feet, and quietly suppressed the document. Ranzong would begin his personal rule over the Song dynasty, and tellingly, Ranzong personally ensured that the ceremonies of regency were burned to ash. So with Empress Dowager Liu now dead and buried, what did it all mean? What can we make of her regency? Well, in spite of it drawing the ire of many officials at the time, it was actually summarized in largely positive terms by the contemporary historian Sima Guang, who wrote in a memorial to Ren Zong's own eventual widow,

Empress Cao, who was herself preparing to assume a regency over his successor, the mentally disturbed Ying Zong, Sima wrote, quote, In the past, when the emperor had just succeeded to the throne, the Zhang Xian Ming Su Empress Dowager Liu protected the emperor's body, gave laws to the realm, advanced the worthy, and expelled the disloyal, and pacified core and periphery. In this, she truly made great contributions to the house of Zhao. But the rituals associated with her person at times involved excessive veneration. Some among her vulgar relatives disgraced their official posts, and there were those among the flattering ministers who usurped

and abused their power. In these matters, she can be faulted to the world." There can be little doubt that Empress Liu was one of the most important occupants of the position in Chinese history. As Sima lays out, and as we've discussed here today, she was certainly no paragon, and many of her actions were questionable within the context of the time and place she made such decisions. But at the same time, she showed a remarkable amount of restraint, wisdom, and good governance. To me, she seems like a person very conflicted between the knowledge that she had every qualification to rule in her own right except for what happened to be between her legs, and on the other hand, a deep and abiding desire to behave in the correct

and proper way in accordance with her society. For instance, though her asking Li Zhongdao about the rule of Empress Wu is often taken as her expressing imperial ambitions, only to be stunned into silence by Liu's rebuke of Wu as a criminal, historian Zhang Bangwei argues that her silence at Liu's answer could just as well have indicated her agreement with his assessment. This is furthered by her literally casting down the image of Wu and saying that she could never do what her predecessor had done. John Chafee expands on this assessment, saying, quote, Empress Liu's regency was not fundamentally a struggle for power between her and ministers who were determined to constrain her, as some have argued. At no point

do we see Empress Liu working to build up the kind of political and military networks that would have enabled her to try seizing the throne for herself, as Empress Wu certainly did. The contrast between Wu and Liu is made even more evident by the nature of how they were viewed at the time, which we can see in the titles by which each was referred. Four centuries earlier, Wu Zetian had ultimately stopped at nothing short of being called the Child of Heaven slash Emperor itself, and briefly assumed even the trappings of a goddess in the form of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guan Ying Pusa. Liu, on the other hand, had much softer titles, rarely if ever even being called the Emperor's W or the emperor's mother, but rather had titles such as 天下之母, mother of the world, and 母后, mother empress. And within the society of Northern

Song, there was a real and ongoing strain between understanding the role of the mother as respected dowager capable of managing and even governing, versus the ancient Confucian ideal of the san zhong, the three obediences that women must pay to the father, husband, and son. In the tug-of-war between the two views of women and their roles within society, Empress Liu paved the way forward in beginning to divest the office of the Empress Regent from the stain of infamy that Wu Zetian had left on it. Chafee writes that her greatest significance lay in the role that she played, in part inadvertently, in establishing a new model of regency, one that contrasted sharply with its Han and Tong predecessors. And in time, though many of her innovations were either

abandoned or scaled back in their scope, it was largely the success of Empress Liu's regency that untethered the idea of an Empress Regent from the political poison that was the memory of Wu Zetian, and seeing it for the first time in some 800 years once again become a common feature of dynastic China. Next time, Emperor Ranzong is at long last his own man, though he will prove to be everything his mother and ministers had feared, weak-willed, indecisive, and just rather meh. But when the peace of the Chanyuan Treaty is once again shattered in 1038, the Song Empire will once again be compelled to fight off a foreign power. But this time, not the Khitan, but instead,

the rising power to the northwest, the Tangut nation of Western Xia. Thanks for listening. empire which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set. I'm Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast Pax Britannica follows the people and events that built that empire into a global superpower. Learn the history of the British Empire by listening to Pax Britannica everywhere you find your podcasts, or go to pod.link slash pax.