Emperor Duanzong of Song (10 July 1270 – 8 May 1278), personal name Zhao Shi, was the 17th emperor of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

of China, and the eighth and penultimate emperor of the

Southern Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

. He was the fifth son of Emperor Duzong and an elder brother of his predecessor, Emperor Gong and successor

Zhao Bing Zhao Bing (12 February 1272 – 19 March 1279), also known as Emperor Bing of Song or Bing, Emperor of Song (宋帝昺), was the 18th and last Emperor of China, emperor of the Song dynasty of China, who ruled as a minor between 6 and 7 years of ...

. Emperor Gong along with Grand Dowager Xie surrendered to the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

in 1276 after the fall of the Southern Song capital, Lin'an (present-day

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

). Zhao Shi and his seventh brother,

, managed to escape southward to

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

, where the new Song capital was established. On June 14, 1276, Zhao Shi was enthroned as the new Emperor Duanzong who ruled under the

era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...

"Jingyan" (; literally: "bright flame"). However, in early 1278, Yuan forces broke through the Song dynasty's last lines of defence, forcing Zhao Shi to flee again.Wintle, Justin. 002(2002). China. Accompanied by loyal ministers such as Lu Xiufu and Zhang Shijie, Zhao Shi boarded a ship and fled further south to Guangdong Province. In March 1278, while fleeing from Yuan forces led by Liu Shen, in a hurricane, Zhao Shi fell from a boat and almost drowned. Thereafter, he stayed temporarily in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

which at that time was a small fishing village. He died a few months later in Gangzhou (; present-day

Jiangmen Jiangmen ( zh, c=江门), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province in southern China. It consists of three urban distri ...

) due to illness. He was succeeded by his seventh brother,

, who was enthroned in Mui Wo, the same village where Zhao Shi nearly drowned and died. The body of Zhao Shi is buried in Yongfu Mausoleum (). The actual area of the tomb is still unknown and undiscovered. The historical relic Sung Wong Toi in present-day Hong Kong's Kowloon City commemorates Zhao Shi's escape to Hong Kong.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duanzong, Emperor 1270 births 1278 deaths Southern Song emperors 13th-century Chinese monarchs Monarchs who died as children Child monarchs from Asia People from Hangzhou

See also

References