Jia Sidao (August 25, 1213 – October 1275),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Shixian, was a Chinese government official who served as

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

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 ...

of China. He was the younger brother of a concubine of Emperor Lizong, who had the special favor of

Emperor Duzong Emperor Duzong of Song (2 May 1240 – 12 August 1274), personal name Zhao Qi, was the 15th Emperor of China, emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty#Southern Song, 1127–1279, Southern Song dynasty. He ...

. Jia Sidao took part in a land nationalization program in the 1260s and was involved during the

Mongol conquest The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

, especially during the Battle of Xiangyang and the siege of

Ezhou Ezhou ( zh, s= ) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Hubei Province, China. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 1,079,353, of which 695,697 lived in the core Echeng District. The Ezhou - Huanggang built-up (''or metro'') area w ...

. He was assassinated by a Song dynasty court-designated sheriff charged with his custody in 1275.

Early life

Jia Sidao was born in 1213, to Jia She and Lady Hu; Hu was a renounced concubine of Jia She. Jia She died when Jia Sidao was 11. By the time he earned his '' jinshi'' at the age of 25 in 1238 AD, his elder sister was already a concubine of the Emperor Lizong with the rank of ''guifei''.

Career

Jia Sidao was a

from 1260 to 1273 during the late

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. According to '' History of Song'', he is reported to have risen to the rank of chancellor because his sister, Lady Jia, was a favored concubine of the Emperor Lizong. Jia is best known for his intervention in the Battle of Xiangyang, where he hid the true situation (Xiangyang was under heavy attack from the Mongols and would almost certainly fall without reinforcements) from the Song court. During the Mongol invasion, there was intense political infighting among Song generals, with Jia Sidao and members of the Lü Wenhuan's family actively opposing the Song general Li Tingzhi. Jia enjoyed the special favor of the

. Being Jia's junior by 27 years, the Emperor used to stand up upon his entrance, called him "teacher" (though Jia was not an imperial degree holder, and never held such a formal post), and is said to have knelt in tears on one occasion, begging Jia Sidao to remain in office. Jia pioneered a policy of land nationalization highly unpopular among the Confucians, who favored low taxes and a small role for the state. The land survey, endorsed by several other officials, was undertaken ca. 1262. It was driven by pressing military needs, and by rampant concentration of land in the hands of powerful landlords, who were often high-ranking court officials. In 1263, the (公田, "public field," a northern Song feature) system was re-introduced, whereby the amount of land held by individuals was restricted, and the excess land being classified as . The income from was then used to supplement military expenditure; this system functioned for the next 12 years. Jia's land reform activities went even further than those undertaken by

Wang Mang Wang Mang (45 BCE6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun, officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor (), was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the ...

during the Han dynasty, as under Wang Mang, the state monopolized only 1/3 of the excess land holdings, and at least provided some minimal compensation. In contrast, Jia's reforms offered no compensation; another of Jia's aims was to abolish the ''hedi'' policy, and reduce the amount of paper money in circulation, as under the ''hedi'' policy, with the government purchasing more grain, they had to issue more paper money, resulting in rising

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

. During the siege of

, Jia Sidao's offer to

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

to partition China was rejected, however due to Mongke's failure of the Yunnan campaign, and a redirection of massive troops to the Ezhou frontier, Kublai decided to offer Jia Sidao a deal that he would return to

Karakorum Karakorum (Khalkha Mongolian: Хархорум, ''Kharkhorum''; Mongolian script:, ''Qaraqorum'') was the capital city, capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan, Northern Yuan dynasty in the late 14th and 1 ...

for his

kurultai A kurultai (, ),Derived from Russian language, Russian , ultimately from Middle Mongol ( ), whence Chinese language, Chinese 忽里勒台 ''Hūlǐlēitái'' (); ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (). also called a qurultai, was a political and military counc ...

due to the succession dispute with

Ariq Böke Ariq Böke (after 1219–1266), the components of his name also spelled Arigh, Arik and Bukha, Buka (, ; ), was the seventh and youngest son of Tolui and a grandson of Genghis Khan. After the death of his brother the Great Khan Möngke, Ariq Bök ...

. Later, at the Battle of Yihu, Jia Sidao, while leading an army of 130,000, panicked and escaped the battlefield in a small boat. The troops, seeing that their commander had abandoned them, retreated hastily; the result was a defeat whereby the remnants of the Song army were routed, allowing the Mongols to advance on the capital, Lin'an. As a result of this defeat, Jia Sidao was demoted from the post of chancellor.

Death

The possibility of executing Jia Sidao for his court failures was hotly debated in Lin'an (now

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 ...

) on the verge of its fall. Dowager Empress Xie objected to this as a cruelty, but issued progressively severe decrees of banishment and property confiscation that included Jia Sidao and his family under the pressure of the public. Ultimately, in 1275, Jia Sidao was assassinated by a court-designated sheriff, Zheng Huchen (郑虎臣), who had been charged with his custody. Whether the execution was court-sanctioned remains unclear.Cambridge History of China, 5.1:936

Early life

Career

Death

See also

References

Further reading