Chai Zongxun

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Chai Zongxun was the fourth son of Chai Rong, Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou. He was born on September 14, 953, the fourth day of the eighth month in the third year of the Guangshun era, in Chan Prefecture, present-day Puyang, Henan. After Chai Rong became emperor, ministers requested that his sons be enfeoffed as princes, but he initially did not do so. Only in 959, after he suddenly became ill during his northern campaign against the Khitan and was forced to return to the capital, did he decide to make Chai Zongxun Prince of Liang.

On July 17, 959, the ninth day of the sixth month, Chai Rong granted Chai Zongxun the special rank, appointed him general of the Left Guard, and enfeoffed him as Prince of Liang, with a nominal fief of 3,000 households but an actual assessed fief of only 500. Chai Zongxun was then seven years old. Ten days later, on July 27, Chai Rong died at Wansui Hall in Bianjing. The next day, July 28, Chai Zongxun ascended the throne before his father's coffin and became known as Emperor Gong of Later Zhou.

Childhood Accession and Court Arrangements

Chai Zongxun was only seven when he took the throne. Empress Dowager Fu acted as regent, while Fan Zhi, Wang Pu, and other senior officials managed military and state affairs. Chai Rong had left instructions before his death that Fan Zhi and others were to assist the government. Chai Zongxun therefore retained the senior governing team of his father's reign. Fan Zhi, serving as minister of works and chief minister, remained in office and was also appointed commissioner for the imperial mausoleum. Wang Pu remained vice director of the Chancellery, minister of rites, and chief minister, later receiving the additional title of right vice director of the Department of State Affairs and promotion to founding duke. Wei Renpu continued to head the Bureau of Military Affairs and later concurrently became minister of justice. Their continued service preserved continuity in government and helped stabilize officials at a sensitive moment.

On August 25, 959, Chai Zongxun carried out a reassignment of the capital's imperial forces. Li Chongjin, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, became military governor of Huainan; deputy commander Han Tong became military governor of Tianping; Zhao Kuangyin, acting Grand Tutor and commander-in-chief of the Palace Command, became military governor of Guide and acting Grand Commandant; Xiang Gong, military governor of Shannan East Circuit and chief minister, became western-capital defender. Zhang Yongde and others transferred to regional military governorships while retaining relevant capital military titles. Zhao Kuangyin became military governor of Song Prefecture while retaining command of the Palace forces. Murong Yanzhao and Shi Shouxin were transferred to regional commands while retaining Palace Army duties. Han Lingkun was promoted to cavalry-and-infantry disciplinary commander of the Imperial Guard, and Gao Huaide and Zhang Lingduo separately commanded its cavalry and infantry. These appointments broadly followed arrangements made under Emperor Shizong, but in practice they also created conditions favorable to Zhao Kuangyin's control of the imperial army.

Government during His Reign

During Chai Zongxun's reign, Later Zhou suffered repeated heavy rains and flooding. In the seventh month of 959, reports from multiple regions stated that prolonged rain had caused rivers and canals to overflow, destroying homes and inundating farmland. By the ninth month, rain continued in the capital and other prefectures for more than ten days, causing waterlogging and renewed flooding. In the twelfth month another heavy rainstorm lasted four days and was so intense that daylight remained dark. The court dispatched envoys to disaster-stricken prefectures to distribute relief supplies and assistance.

On October 1, 959, the twenty-sixth day of the eighth month, the Later Zhou court added the posthumous title Ruiwu Xiaowen Emperor to Chai Rong and confirmed his temple name Shizong. On October 4, the twenty-ninth day of the eighth month, envoys from Goryeo came to court and presented one juan each of the Separate Preface to the Classic of Filial Piety, New Meaning of the King of Yue's Classic of Filial Piety, and Imperial Spirit Classic of Filial Piety, together with three juan of the Female Diagram of the Classic of Filial Piety. On December 3, the first day of the eleventh month, Chai Rong was buried at Qingling. On January 2, 960, the first day of the twelfth month, Chai Zongxun, acting on a proposal from the Historiography Office, ordered the compilation of the Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong.

The Chenqiao Mutiny and Abdication

On January 31, 960, the first day of the first month in the first year of the Jianlong era as later reckoned, urgent reports from Zhen and Ding prefectures claimed that Liao and Northern Han armies had jointly invaded Later Zhou. Chai Zongxun ordered Zhao Kuangyin and other commanders to resist them. By then Zhao had exercised major military power for six years and enjoyed great prestige among the troops. With a child emperor on the throne and the state facing internal and external uncertainty, soldiers secretly planned to raise Zhao to the throne.

On the second day of the first month, February 1, Murong Yanzhao departed with the advance force; on the third day the remainder of the army followed. Rumors spread in the capital that Zhao Kuangyin would become emperor. That night the army camped at Chenqiao Station. The troops argued that because the emperor was young, even if they risked their lives and defeated the enemy no one would recognize their merit, and that they should first make Zhao emperor before continuing north. At dawn on the fourth day, February 3, soldiers entered Zhao's quarters, placed a yellow robe over him, knelt, and cried “Long live the emperor.” Zhao told them that the empress dowager and emperor were rulers he had served and that Later Zhou officials were his former colleagues, so they were not to disturb court officials, create disorder in the palace, or plunder the treasury.

Zhao led the army back to Kaifeng. Fan Zhi and other court officials were forced to acknowledge the “new emperor.” On the twentieth day of the first month, February 19, Zhao accepted Chai Zongxun's abdication at Chongyuan Hall and formally ascended the throne as Emperor Taizu of Song, founding the Northern Song. Chai Zongxun's reign had lasted only about six months.

Life under the Song

After taking the throne, Zhao Kuangyin enfeoffed Chai Zongxun as Prince of Zheng and Empress Dowager Fu as Empress Dowager of Zhou and had them move to the Western Palace. Emperor Taizu of Song issued orders to treat mother and son favorably and granted the Chai clan a hereditary iron certificate, promising continued wealth and privilege, remission of minor offenses, and leniency for serious ones, with criminal penalties not to be imposed in the ordinary way. In 962 Chai Zongxun was moved to Fang Prefecture, present-day Fang County in Hubei. Zhao Kuangyin considered Xin Wenyue an upright and steady elder and specifically sent him to administer Fang Prefecture and look after Chai.

In the spring of 973 Chai Zongxun died at Fangling. On the first day of the third month, April 6, news of his death reached the capital. Zhao Kuangyin was deeply shocked and saddened, put on mourning dress, and suspended court audiences for ten days. Civil and military officials presented condolences. An imperial eunuch was later dispatched to handle Chai's funeral. Chai received the posthumous title Emperor Gong of Zhou and was buried beside Chai Rong's Qingling; his own tomb was known as Shunling.

Chai Zongxun was born on the fourth day of the eighth month of the third year of Guangshun (14 September 953) at Chanzhou. After his father Chai Rong took the throne the ministers asked that the imperial sons be made princes, and Chai Rong for a long time modestly declined; only when he fell ill on his northern campaign and returned to the capital did he resolve to make Chai Zongxun prince of Liang, the boy then seven years old. On the ninth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of Xiande (17 July 959) he was made a special entrant and general of the left guard, prince of Liang, with three thousand households of revenue nominal and five hundred real. Chai Rong died on the nineteenth (27 July), and the next day the palace produced the testamentary decree ordering Chai Zongxun to take the throne before the coffin; the ministers paid their respects and withdrew.

As the boy was so young, Chai Rong before his death had charged Fan Zhi and others with the government. On the nineteenth day of the seventh month of 959 the court made Li Chongjin, commander of the palace guards, commissioner of Huainan, and Han Tong, his second, commissioner of Tianping; the inspector and commander of the palace vanguard was made commissioner of Guide and acting grand commandant, and the commissioner of Shannandongdao and joint manager of state affairs was made guardian of the western capital. On the seventeenth day of the eighth month the emperor made his brother Chai Zongrang prince of Cao, renaming him Xirang, and made Xijin prince of Ji and Xihui prince of Qi. On the twenty-sixth day of that month the court gave Chai Rong the posthumous name Emperor Ruiwu Xiaowen with the temple name Shizong, and on the twenty-ninth the king of Goryeo sent envoys to court with copies of various commentaries on the Classic of Filial Piety. Chai Rong was buried at Qingling on the first day of the eleventh month. On the first day of the twelfth month, on the advice of the history office, Chai Zongxun ordered the compilation of the Veritable Records of Shizong; and from the end of that month heavy rains fell through the Zhou realm and relief was sent to the afflicted prefectures.

On the first day of the first month of the seventh year of Xiande (28 January 960) word came that the Khitan and the Northern Han would invade together, and the chancellors Fan Zhi and the rest sent Zhao Kuangyin, commander of the palace vanguard, north with an army. On the third day Zhao Kuangyin was acclaimed emperor by his troops at Chenqiao, and on the fourth he returned to Kaifeng, where Chai Zongxun abdicated and the Later Zhou ended. After his abdication he was made prince of Zheng by the Northern Song and moved to the region of Luoyang, and afterward lodged at Fangzhou. He died in 973 at twenty, the court suspending business for ten days and burying him as Emperor Gong. It is said that Song Taizu charged Zhao Pu and the rest that the Chai family were not to be pursued, and set up a sworn inscription to instruct his descendants — the arrangement remembered as the Song's lenient treatment of the Chais.

Chai Zongxun reigned less than a year, his decrees mostly issuing from the regents, and later discussion of the fall of the Later Zhou commonly puts it down to a young sovereign and a doubtful realm with the army's power passed into other hands. His short life stands exactly at the passage from the last of the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song: his father's achievement had come to its height in the Xiande years, and he himself yielded the throne at Chenqiao.

During his reign the government of the Later Zhou was in the hands of the chancellors Fan Zhi, Wang Pu and Wei Renpu, while the army lay with the commanders of the palace vanguard and the guards. The success of the coup at Chenqiao was directly bound up with the alienation of those commanders: Zhao Kuangyin had long led the palace vanguard and was close to Shi Shouxin, Wang Shenqi and others, while the provincial commissioners such as Li Chongjin could not react in time. After the coup Fan Zhi and the rest were forced at court to accept what had been done, and the abdication of the Later Zhou was accomplished. Once the Northern Song was founded it treated the Chai descendants with indulgence, a rare thing in the changes of regime since the Five Dynasties. Of Chai Zongxun's death the histories say little; the Song court saw to his burial under the style of Emperor Gong, and the arrangement has supplied later ages with matter for discussing the legitimacy of the early Song. The record of him is found chiefly in the annals of Emperor Gong in the two histories of the Five Dynasties and in the Later Zhou portion of the Comprehensive Mirror, the Song histories saying little of his reign and dwelling mostly on the abdication.

Major Activities

Reassignment of Imperial Army Defenses

During Chai Zongxun's reign the court followed arrangements made under Emperor Shizong to reassign capital military defenses. In the seventh month of 959, senior commanders such as Li Chongjin were transferred out of the capital, while the positions of Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin, Murong Yanzhao, Shi Shouxin, Han Lingkun, Gao Huaide, and Zhang Lingduo were adjusted. The purpose was to balance military and political power at court, but in practice the changes helped create conditions in which Zhao Kuangyin could control both the Palace Command and the Imperial Guard.

Defense against External Enemies

Soon after Chai Zongxun's accession, military reports arrived from the northern frontier. Han Lingkun, the northern-frontier commander, reported defeating a force of five hundred Khitan cavalry north of Ba Prefecture and checking a small-scale Khitan incursion. In the first month of 960, corresponding to the seventh year of the Xiande era, Zhen and Ding prefectures suddenly sent urgent reports that a major Khitan force was advancing south while Northern Han troops moved east through Tumen and joined it. The court immediately ordered Zhao Kuangyin to lead an army north against the combined force. This expedition directly triggered the Chenqiao Mutiny.

Abdication and Peaceful Transfer of Power

Chai Zongxun abdicated in favor of Zhao Kuangyin. The transition from the Five Dynasties to Northern Song was thereby completed without the kind of destructive sack of Kaifeng that often accompanied military coups in the Five Dynasties period, preserving a basis for early Song stability and state-building. After taking the throne, Zhao Kuangyin adopted a policy of preferential treatment toward the Chai imperial clan and granted it an iron certificate intended to protect its descendants.

Disaster Relief

In 959 Later Zhou suffered repeated heavy rains and floods. In the seventh month, prolonged rain caused rivers and canals to overflow, destroying houses and inundating farmland. In the ninth month, rain in the capital and other prefectures continued for more than ten days. In the twelfth month another major storm lasted four days. The court sent envoys to affected prefectures to distribute relief materials and assistance.

Personal Relations

• Grandfather: Guo Wei, Emperor Taizu of Later Zhou
• Father: Chai Rong, Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou
• Mother: Empress Dowager Fu, the senior Empress Fu
• Brothers: Chai Xirang, Prince of Cao; Chai Xijin, Prince of Ji; Chai Xihui, Prince of Qi
• Fan Zhi: Regent minister, minister of works and chief minister, and commissioner for the imperial mausoleum; later advised Chai to abdicate
• Wang Pu: Regent minister, vice director of the Chancellery, minister of rites, and chief minister
• Wei Renpu: Commissioner of Military Affairs
• Zhao Kuangyin: Commander-in-chief of the Palace Command; later launched the Chenqiao Mutiny, replaced Later Zhou with Song, and enfeoffed Chai as Prince of Zheng
• Empress Dowager Fu: Acted as regent
• Li Chongjin: Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard; transferred out of the capital
• Han Tong: Deputy commander of cavalry and infantry in the Imperial Guard; later killed by Zhao Kuangyin's forces
• Murong Yanzhao: Deputy commander-in-chief of the Palace Command
• Shi Shouxin: Commander of the Palace troops and sworn associate of Zhao Kuangyin
• Han Lingkun: Cavalry-and-infantry disciplinary commander of the Imperial Guard

Historical Assessment

Five Dynasties / Contemporary Views

• The Old History of the Five Dynasties tersely records that “Emperor Gong was a son of Shizong” and notes that after his abdication, when the Song emperor heard of his death, he was deeply grieved, held mourning in the inner hall, and received formal condolences from officials, conveying sympathy for the former child ruler.
• Zhao Kuangyin, after learning of Chai Zongxun's death, put on plain mourning dress and suspended court audiences for ten days, reflecting respect for the former Later Zhou imperial house.
• Northern Song historians in the New History of the Five Dynasties noted that Chai was seven years old when he ascended the throne and expressed concern over the circumstances of a child emperor.

Song and Yuan Periods

• The Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records the Chenqiao mutineers as saying that because “the ruler is young and weak, if we risk our lives and defeat the enemy, who will know of it?”, reflecting a contemporary perception of the problems of a child ruler.
• The Long Draft of the Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records Chai's post-abdication removal to Fang Prefecture and describes his life there.
• Yuan-period historians compiling the History of Song recorded the Chenqiao events and the offices held by Zhao Kuangyin under Emperor Gong without harshly blaming the young Later Zhou ruler.

Ming and Qing Periods

• Wang Fuzhi, discussing the Chenqiao Mutiny in Discussions of the Song, regarded a “young ruler and doubtful state” as an important condition that enabled Zhao Kuangyin to replace Later Zhou and expressed regret for Chai's fate.
• Qing historian Zhao Yi, in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, discussed the frequent dynastic transfers of the Five Dynasties and considered Chai's abdication as a child ruler and survival relatively peaceful compared with many deposed rulers of the period.
• Qing official histories such as the Imperially Reviewed Mirror of the Successive Dynasties often framed the abdication in terms of the “Mandate of Heaven,” while acknowledging the objective fact of Chai's extreme youth.

Modern Assessments

• Modern historians generally hold that although Chai Zongxun was a child during his reign, his abdication helped spare Kaifeng from warfare and contributed to the stability of the early Northern Song.
• Some scholars note a contradiction in Chai Rong's final arrangements: Fan Zhi and other civil officials were appointed as regents while Zhao Kuangyin retained command of the Palace Army, leaving Chai Zongxun to bear the consequences of that tension.
• Chai Zongxun's Shunling was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2001, reflecting official recognition of its historical significance.