Borjigin Shidibala

Biography

Crown prince and accession Shidibala was the son of Emperor Renzong and Anashshiri. In 1316 （third year of Yuan Yanyou） chose his own son as crown prince. the source describes Shidibala's education in Confucian learning and the appointment of tutors and staff to his princely household. In 1319 （sixth year of Yuan Yanyou）, government offices were instructed to present matters to the crown prince before reporting to the emperor, giving him experience in court affairs. After Renzong died in 1320 （seventh year of Yuan Yanyou）, Shidibala took the throne with the support of Dagi and Temüder. He adopted the era name Zhizhi the following year, but at first Dagi and Temüder limited his control of the government. On November 28, 1321（ninth day of the eleventh lunar month, Zhizhi 1 of Yuan）, officials conferred the honorific title Jitian Tidao Jingwen Renwu Dazhaoxiao Huangdi. ### Conflict with the grand empress dowager's circle Dagi restored Temüder to influence around the accession. Temüder retaliated against officials who had impeached him and sought to replace senior officeholders. Shidibala resisted wholesale dismissal of Renzong's officials and repeatedly opposed the execution of Zhao Shiyan, while compromising with Dagi's faction in other cases. He promoted Baiju, a descendant of Muqali, and made him left grand councilor in 1320 （seventh year of Yuan Yanyou）. Baiju became a counterweight to Temüder. This conflict concerned appointments, prosecutions, and the grand empress dowager's ability to constrain the new ruler. Temüder and Dagi died in 1322 （second year of Yuan Zhizhi）, expanding Shidibala's room to act. He made Baiju right grand councilor and left the post of left grand councilor vacant, relying on him and officials such as Zhang Gui. He stripped Temüder of honors, abolished the Huizheng Office and some institutions attached to the grand empress dowager, restored scholars and former officials, and pressed for investigations of corruption. These measures combined bureaucratic reform with the removal of his opponents' remaining influence. ### Reform, construction, and assassination Shidibala and Baiju advanced land endowments to support corvée obligations, changes in appointments, and a compilation of regulations. In 1323 （third year of Yuan Zhizhi）, the court issued Da Yuan Tongzhi, giving official status to legal materials collected since Renzong's reign. The compilation began under his father; its promulgation belongs to Shidibala's reign. ” Wang Yue opposed it, and it was never implemented, so it cannot be described as a reform he enacted. In 1320（eleventh lunar month, Yanyou 7 of Yuan）, Shidibala ordered localities to build halls for the imperial preceptor Phagspa on a scale exceeding that of Confucian temples. In 1321（fifth lunar month, Zhizhi 1 of Yuan）, he ordered the destruction of a Muslim temple in Shangdu to provide a site for such a hall. Inscriptions quoted by the source differ over whether the nationwide order began under Renzong or Shidibala. Substantial construction continued under Shidibala, consuming labor despite his calls to reduce unnecessary expenditure. the source records his trust in Tegshi, a relative by marriage, and says that Tegshi and others feared being implicated as investigations of Temüder's associates continued. On September 4, 1323 （fourth day of the eighth lunar month, third year of Yuan Zhizhi）, Shidibala stopped at Nanpo on his return from Shangdu. Tegshi's party attacked, killing Baiju first and then the emperor. The prince Yesun Temur subsequently succeeded. On March 11, 1324（sixteenth day of the second lunar month, Taiding 1 of Yuan）, the court conferred the posthumous name Emperor Ruishengwenxiao and temple name Yingzong; on May 1, 1324（eighth day of the fourth lunar month, Taiding 1 of Yuan）, it conferred the Mongolian title Gegeen Emperor. The honorific presented during his life is distinguished here from titles conferred after his death. Explanations of the coup concern the interests threatened by reform, guards near the ruler, political distrust, and Shidibala's severe application of law.

Shidibala was born about 22 February 1303, a son of Ayurbarwada (Renzong), and was raised at his father's side; his education was fuller than that of most Yuan emperors, and he came to wish to accomplish much in the world. When Renzong wished to make him heir apparent, Shidibala firmly declined, saying that he was too young and too little able, that his elder brother was still living, and that the brother should be made heir while he himself assisted him; the empress dowager would not allow it. In 1316 he was made heir apparent, given the golden seal and allowed to open a household with its own officers; the investigating censor Duan Fu and the household administrator Guo Guan memorialized that a tutor should be chosen for him, which Renzong approved. In the tenth month of 1319 he received the jade patent, and the court decreed that the business of all offices should first be reported to the heir apparent and then to the emperor. Shidibala told the ministers of the secretariat that the sovereign had entrusted him with the affairs of the realm, that he trembled day and night lest he prove unequal to them, and that they should cleanse their minds, be diligent in their duties and not slacken, lest they add to the cares of their lord and father.

Ayurbarwada died on the twenty-first day of the first month of 1320. On the eleventh day of the third month Shidibala, then seventeen, was enthroned in the Daming hall at Dadu with the support of the grand empress dowager Dagi and others, taking the khan's title Gegeen Khan and the era name Zhizhi, becoming Emperor Yingzong. On Renzong's death the empress dowager Dagi, as grand empress dowager, interfered in the government and brought the dismissed chancellor Temüder back into the secretariat as chancellor of the right, and Temüder took revenge on all who had impeached him, so that the government was for a time in his hands.

In 1322 the empress dowager Dagi and Temüder died one after the other and Yingzong began to govern in his own right. He made Baiju chancellor of the right and carried out a series of new measures: superfluous offices and officials were cut back and the machinery of government simplified; Chinese Confucian officials were employed and the study of the classics encouraged; a law of assisted corvée was introduced to lighten the burden of service on the common households; the Comprehensive Institutions of the Yuan were promulgated, setting the laws in order; and the administration and the finances were reformed in an attempt to correct the abuses of the previous reign. These measures were known at the time as the new policy and were one of the more concentrated attempts at reform in the middle Yuan.

In the eighth month of 1323 Yingzong and Baiju were returning from Shangdu to Dadu and halted at Nanpo. That night Tieshi and others rose in revolt, killed Baiju and entered the imperial tent to murder Yingzong, who was but twenty-one — the coup known as the affair of Nanpo. After it Yesün Temür was set on the throne as Emperor Taiding, and Yingzong's new policy came to an end.

Yingzong was one of the few Yuan emperors who set himself seriously to reform, and though his measures lasted but two years or so they left concrete steps in cutting superfluous offices, unifying the laws and lightening corvée; his murder also broke off the movement to govern by Chinese law in the middle Yuan, after which the dynasty's politics entered another phase. In later discussions of the rise and fall of the Yuan, the Zhizhi reforms and the Nanpo coup are commonly taken as a turning point in its middle years.

In the first period of his reign the government was in fact held by the grand empress dowager Dagi and Temüder. On the third day after Ayurbarwada's death, while Yingzong was still in plain mourning and taking a single gruel a day, Dagi was beforehand in appointing Temüder chancellor of the right; the next month Temüder reached the capital and put to death the former censor-in-chief and others on the charge of defying the empress dowager's will, while officials close to Dagi's group were brought in from the provinces to the secretariat one after another. The men of the Chinese-law party who had stood against Dagi and Temüder in Ayurbarwada's reign had already been purged before Yingzong's accession, and those who escaped were mostly left isolated; the young sovereign could rely on but two men — Baiju, a young chancellor as unworldly as himself, and Tieshi, his wife's kinsman, in whom lay hidden mischief. In the fifth month of 1321 Yingzong gave Baiju a chief post in the secretariat to check the growth of the empress dowager's and Temüder's power; in the same month he ordered the mosque at Shangdu destroyed and a temple of the imperial preceptor built on its site; in the seventh month he gave the prince of Jin, Yesün Temür, a million strings of paper money; and in the eleventh month the ministers offered him the honorific title of emperor who continues the heavenly way, reveres culture and benevolence and greatly illustrates filial piety.

From the first month of 1320, when Ayurbarwada died, until the autumn of 1322, the decrees of the central government show plainly two parties with different policies in conflict: one led by Dagi and Temüder and representing the Mongol and Central Asian nobility, the other the party of Chinese law, which urged the employment of Confucian officials. Only when Dagi and Temüder died one after the other in 1322 could Yingzong and Baiju carry out their measures within a short time; but the enmity of the two parties did not disappear, and the resentment of Tieshi and others was gathering.

The new policy of Zhizhi included the abolition of such offices as the Huizheng yuan, the reduction of superfluous officials, attention to famine relief, the lightening of corvée on common households, the reform of judicial procedure and the encouragement of Confucian learning. In the second month of 1323 the court promulgated the Comprehensive Institutions of the Yuan, the dynasty's first fairly systematic code, divided into imperial ordinances, regulations and decided cases and running to more than two thousand articles covering administration, crime, civil matters and taxes and services — important material for the legal history of the period. Most of these measures could not be carried on for long, but they show that a part of the court and government in the middle Yuan leaned toward the Chinese-law position in governing the state.

In the eighth month of 1323 Yingzong and Baiju were returning from Shangdu to Dadu and halted at Nanpo. That night Tieshi, then censor-in-chief and holding troops in his hand, rose in revolt, killed Baiju first and then entered the imperial tent and murdered Yingzong, who was but twenty-one — the affair of Nanpo. Yesün Temür was then set on the throne as Emperor Taiding, who put Tieshi and his fellows to death but modified and adjusted Yingzong's policy, and the impetus of reform by Chinese law in the Yuan was broken off.

Yingzong reigned less than four years, of which little more than one was government in his own hand. He was one of the few Yuan emperors who set himself seriously to reform along Chinese lines, and his measures left concrete steps in cutting superfluous offices, unifying the laws and lightening corvée; the coup at Nanpo ended his life and with it a concentrated attempt at reform in the middle Yuan. In later discussions of the dynasty's fortunes the Zhizhi reforms and the Nanpo coup are commonly taken as the mark of a turning point in its middle years.

Baiju, whom Yingzong chiefly employed, came of an old Mongol family of meritorious service and was one of the few Mongol ministers inclined to Chinese law; the cooperation of the two was the condition on which the new policy could be carried out, and Baiju's family kept considerable influence in the later Yuan. The emperor's burial followed the old Yuan practice, and the sources say little of the site.

Major Activities

Zhizhi reforms and official administration After placing Baiju in sole charge of the central administration, Shidibala recalled excluded officials, abolished redundant offices, investigated Temüder's associates, and tried to use income from certain fields to help meet labor-service obligations. The source describes an arrangement in the Suzhou-Huzhou area that assigned three mu out of every hundred mu of private land to support those liable for corvée, with officials excluded from sharing the income. Later Yuan accounts of these fields report problems when ownership changed but service liabilities remained. The government also issued an order to strengthen censorial administration and recommend capable personnel, reduced redundant posts, and relieved some service and tax burdens. These policies sought to reduce private influence on appointments and make administrative orders more consistent. His reign after Dagi's death was brief; later institutional changes cannot all be credited to it. ### Da Yuan Tongzhi Da Yuan Tongzhi brought together edicts, regulations, precedents, and other orders from several Yuan reigns. Collection had begun under Renzong, but the compilation was approved and promulgated under Shidibala in 1323 （third year of Yuan Zhizhi）. It gave officials a written basis for comparable cases and reflected an attempt to regularize government. Both encyclopedias give 2,539 provisions: 717 precedents, 1,151 regulations, 94 edicts and amnesties, and 577 orders. These are the figures reported by the sources and do not by themselves establish the code's completeness. ### The Yuan dianzhang and the posthumous veritable records another account places the compilation of the Da Yuan Shengzheng Guochao Dianzhang, commonly called Yuan dianzhang, in the later part of Shidibala’s reign. It collected official materials concerning politics, the economy, military affairs, and law from 1234（Year 6 of Ögedei’s reign）through 1322（Zhizhi 2 of Yuan）, a span of about ninety years. This compilation of documents from successive reigns should not be treated as a collection of reforms all enacted by Shidibala. On December 30, 1324（fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Taiding 1 of Yuan）, Emperor Taiding ordered the Hanlin historiographical institution to compile the veritable records of Yingzong and Xianzong. The Veritable Records of Emperor Yingzong were completed and presented to Emperor Wenzong on June 3, 1330（seventeenth day of the fifth lunar month, Zhishun 1 of Yuan）: forty volumes of annals, eight of matters recorded, and two of edicts, totaling fifty. The original work is lost; early Ming compilers used it for the two-volume Annals of Yingzong in the History of Yuan. This belongs to his posthumous historiography and does not extend his life timeline. ### Contradictions in government Shidibala insisted that justice and appointments follow public rules, and he resisted Temüder's demand that Zhao Shiyan be executed. Yet his purge of political enemies could be severe, and religious construction consumed labor and resources. Historians therefore describe both an intention to reform and shortcomings in his judgment of powerful associates and threats near the throne.

Personal Relations

• Borjigin Ayurbarwada: father, Emperor Renzong of Yuan, and predecessor.
• Anashshiri: mother and empress of Renzong.
• the empress recorded as Suge Bal: empress; posthumously titled Zhuangjing Yisheng Huanghou in 1327（Taiding 4 of Yuan）.
• the empress recorded as Yaba Hudulu: empress listed in the family sections of both encyclopedias.
• the empress recorded as Duo'er Zhiban: empress listed in the family sections of both encyclopedias; - Dagi: paternal grandmother and grand empress dowager, dominant in court politics at the beginning of his reign.
• Baiju: chief grand councilor and principal adviser, killed alongside Shidibala at Nanpo.
• Temüder: right grand councilor under Renzong and in Shidibala's early reign, central to Dagi's political circle.
• Tegshi: relative by marriage and powerful commander of imperial guards, a leading organizer of the Nanpo coup.
• Wang Yue: Confucian official who opposed a direct conversion of Goryeo into a “Three Han Province.”
• Borjigin Yesun Temur: imperial kinsman who succeeded Shidibala after his death.

Historical Assessment

The History of Yuan describes Shidibala as intelligent and resolute and records his concern for law, while also criticizing harsh punishments that exposed him to a palace coup. In his New Compilation of Yuan History, Wei Yuan rejected an explanation based solely on Shidibala's severity and criticized his uncertain treatment of Temüder and Tegshi. Both interpretations address the same political situation: Shidibala sought reform with Baiju but was attacked at close quarters before the old networks of power and the imperial guards were secure. His legal and administrative measures should be weighed against the brevity of their implementation. Other named assessments emphasize different issues. Zhu Yuanzhang’s Huangming Zuxun explains the assassination in terms of attendants keeping too far away and the consorts being absent from the bedchamber. Shao Yuanping’s Yuan Shi Leibian praises the initial effort at government but criticizes failure to perceive danger close at hand. Bi Yuan’s Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance repeats examples of resolute legal decisions and connects the coup with conspirators’ fear of punishment. These resemble the themes in the History of Yuan, but guard arrangements and political judgment remain distinct concerns. Zeng Lian’s Yuan Shu compares the situation with Emperor Zhao of Han and Huo Guang, arguing that Shidibala and Baiju failed to eliminate powerful favorites and restore discipline. Tu Ji’s Historical Records of the Mongols praises his reforming intent and awareness of his ancestors’ difficult beginnings, but also criticizes trust in lamas, temple construction, rejection of advice, and excessive drinking. Ke Shaomin’s New History of Yuan argues that failure to recognize Temüder’s activities and the retention of his associates nearby caused the catastrophe through insufficient punishment rather than excessive severity. These are later historiographical explanations; their moral judgments do not replace established facts about actions and institutions.