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 The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

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, who ruled as a minor between 6 and 7 years of age. He was also the ninth and last 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 reigned for around 313 days in 1278 and 1279. His reign, and the Song dynasty, ended with the Song's total defeat by the Mongol-led

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 ...

at the naval Battle of Yamen. Zhao Bing and his entourage had been observing the naval combat from some coastal cliffs nearby. As the victorious enemy approached, the young emperor's advisor,

Lu Xiufu Lu Xiufu (8 November 1236 – 19 March 1279), courtesy name Junshi (), was a Chinese statesman and military commander who lived in the final years of the Song dynasty. Originally from Yancheng (present-day Jianhu County) in Jiangsu Province, al ...

, held the boy in his arms as the two of them leapt from the clifftops, killing them both.

Early life

Zhao Bing was the seventh son of Zhao Qi (Emperor Duzong). His mother was Lady Yu (俞氏), a concubine of Emperor Duzong who held the rank of ''xiurong'' (修容). He was a younger half-brother of his predecessors, Zhao Xian (Emperor Gong) (r. 1275–1276) and Zhao Shi (Emperor Duanzong) (r. 1276–1278). He was enfeoffed as the "Prince of Xin" (信王) in 1274. His title was later changed to "Prince of Guang" (廣王). On 4 February 1276, the Song capital, Lin'an (臨安; 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 ...

), was conquered by forces of the

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

-led Yuan regime commanded by the general

Bayan Bayan may refer to: Educational institutions * Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Chicago, IL Places *Bayan-Aul, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan *Bayan Mountain, an ancient mountain name for part of Tarbagatai Mountains at Kazakhstan in Qing Dynasty period *B ...

. Emperor Gong surrendered to the Mongols, but his two brothers, Zhao Shi and Zhao Bing, managed to escape to Southern China with the help of officials such as (楊亮節),

Zhang Shijie Zhang Shijie () was a Chinese admiral, military general, and politician during the Mongol invasion of China. Zhang was born to a prosperous family in present-day Hebei (part of the Liao empire, then Jin empire). After the fall of the Jin to ...

Chen Yizhong Chén Yízhōng ({{zh, t=陳宜中, s=陈宜中) (dates of birth and death unknown), was a chancellor of the Chinese Empire during the final years of the Song Dynasty. Life Raised in a poor family in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Chen was neve ...

and

Wen Tianxiang Wen Tianxiang (; June 6, 1236 – January 9, 1283), noble title Duke of Xin (), was a Chinese statesman, poet and politician in the last years of the Song dynasty#Southern Song, 1127–1279, Southern Song dynasty. For his resistance to Kublai K ...

. They arrived in

Jinhua Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxin ...

, where Zhao Shi was appointed as Grand Marshal (天下兵馬都元帥) and Zhao Bing was appointed as Vice Grand Marshal (副元帥). Zhao Bing's title was also changed to "Prince of Wei" (衛王). On 14 June 1276, a seven-year-old Zhao Shi was enthroned in

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

as the new emperor; he is historically known as Emperor Duanzong. The Mongol general Bayan was bent on eliminating the threat posed by Song remnants, so he led his troops in pursuit and attacked southern China. After Emperor Duanzong died of illness in 1278, the Song forces' morale started to dwindle and soldiers began to desert the army. Lu Xiufu brought Zhao Bing to Meiwei (梅蔚), Gangzhou (碙州), which is in present-day

Mui Wo Mui Wo is a rural town on the eastern coast of Lantau Island in British Hong Kong, Hong Kong. The 2011 Census recorded 5,485 people living in Mui Wo and its environs. Mui Wo (English: Mui Wo), formerly known as Mei Wo or Mei Wei (Cantonese: ...

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao or Lan Tau) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located west of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the ...

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 ...

. There, Zhao Bing was enthroned as the new emperor 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 ...

"Xiangxing" (祥興); Gangzhou was also renamed "Xianglong County" (祥龍縣). They moved to

Yamen A ''yamen'' (''ya-men''; ; Manchu: ''yamun'') was the administrative office or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in imperial China, Korea, and Vietnam. In some places, such as Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, it was named as ''al ...

(in present-day

Xinhui District Xinhui, alternately romanized as Sunwui and also known as Kuixiang, is an urban district of Jiangmen in Guangdong, China. It grew from a separate city founded at the confluence of the Tan and West Rivers. It has a population of about 735,500 ...

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 ...

Guangdong Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

) to evade the Mongols.

Reign

The Mongols sent the general

Zhang Hongfan Zhang Hongfan (; 1238–1280) was a Chinese military general of the Mongol Empire and the Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan ...

to lead troops to attack Zhao Bing and the Song remnants, leading to the Battle of Yamen. The Song forces, led by

, put up fierce resistance against the Mongols in a naval battle but were eventually all wiped out by the enemy. On 19 March 1279, after realising all was lost, Lu Xiufu carried the seven-year-old Emperor Zhao Bing to a cliff, where they committed suicide by throwing themselves into the sea. Zhao Bing's death marked the end of the Song dynasty. Zhao Bing's tomb is located in present-day Chiwan, Nanshan District,

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. The grave was rediscovered in the 1960s, and despite the identity of the body interred within not being authenticated, in 1984 a joint Hong Kong-Shenzhen effort was made to restore and expand the modest gravesite.

Patriotic soup

According to the locals at the

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

Province, prior to the final battle with the Yuan forces at Yamen, Zhao Bing and the Song remnants sought shelter in a monastery at

Chaozhou Chaozhou ( zh, t=潮州), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, ...

. The monastery's monks served an impromptu leafy greens soup made of

leaf vegetable Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by their petioles and shoots, if tender. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad gre ...

edible mushroom Edible mushrooms are the fleshy fruit bodies of numerous species of macrofungi (fungi that bear fruiting structures large enough to be seen with the naked eye). Edibility may be defined by criteria including the absence of poisonous effect ...

s, and vegetable broth. The emperor loved the soup and named it "Protect the Country Dish" (護國菜). A later generation named it in English "patriotic soup". After Zhao Bing died, the preparation of the soup became a way to honor the last Song emperor.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Bing 1272 births 1279 deaths Deaths by drowning Southern Song emperors 13th-century Chinese monarchs Monarchs who died as children Child monarchs from Asia People from Hangzhou Murdered emperors of China Child murder in China