Imperial survivors

This 12th century Chinese handscroll painting, commonly known as Auspicious Cranes, is attributed to Huizong, eighth emperor of the Song dynasty. It claims to depict a real-life incident when a flock of cranes (believed to bring good fortune) descended on the imperial palace in 1112.

That an emperor could paint as well as this may be surprising, but Huizong was a member of possibly the most cultured and accomplished dynasty ever to rule China. Unlike the more famous Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties, the Song were always a bit of a mystery to me, and I found their tale compelling.

The Northern Song ruled China from the 10th to the 12th centuries before being displaced, later morphing into the Southern Song (explained below). They were great patrons of art and culture, building massive libraries, becoming expert calligraphers and collecting art on a grand scale. Huizong typified these traits, even creating his own flowery calligraphic style known as “slender gold” (shoujing, below). What he lacked, though, were the leadership skills of his more illustrious ancestors.

China had long been threatened by two aggressive northern neighbours: the Khitan Liao and the Jurchen Jin. Huizong’s government tried ineptly to form an alliance with one against the other, annoying both in the process. Eventually, the Jin launched an invasion in the winter of 1125, and proceeded to pillage and destroy on a scale that I’d thought only existed in lurid historical movies.

Patricia Ebrey gives a gripping account of this in her book, Accumulating Culture. Two particular anecdotes stand out for me. First, having taken the capital Kaifeng after a brutal siege, the Jin began to hunt down and capture every member of the imperial family. They were so thorough that, among the dozens of children and grandchildren, they noticed that one baby prince was missing, hidden by his nursemaid. They were, of course, hunted down too.

The Jin toyed with the Song by making an endless series of demands. The hapless Huizong had abdicated by then, so it was his heir Qinzong who was subjected to this cat-and-mouse game. The Jin simply raised their demands each time (“Thanks for the silk. Now we’d like all your horses too.”) The amounts were staggering: millions of bars of gold and silver, and when this could not be met, women were accepted at a pre-agreed rate (1 princess = 1000 gold bars). When Qinzong tried to negotiate, the Jin general Nianhan said smoothly: “Is there anything here that is not already mine?” 

Finally, the Jin sent all their spoils back to the north, together with the imperial family and clansmen as prisoners. Of this 5000-strong prison convoy, most died en-route from hunger or exhaustion. Huizong and Qinzong survived but later died in captivity.

But this was not the end of the Song, for one of the princes managed to flee to the south where he founded what became known as the Southern Song. Like his ancestors, Emperor Gaozong (as he became) was a great patron of art but he was also a canny operator - he managed to negotiate a workable truce with the Jin, albeit on onerous terms. And he declined to ransom his older brother Qinzong, as this would have displaced him from the throne. The Southern Song lasted a further 150 years.

Studying the Song helped me to appreciate the ceramics from their period, which have a subtler beauty than the more famous Ming or Qing. One might argue that the difference between Huizong and Gaozong is reflected in two famous ceramics created under their respective reigns. On the upper left is an example of Ru ware: a dreamily beautiful blue-glazed Northern Song ceramic, said to resemble “the colour of sky after rain”. Below that is an example of the equally beautiful Guan ware, a Southern Song ceramic with a more pronounced crackle effect which suggests (to me) toughness, endurance and survival.