Zhao Ding

Biography

Family background and early years

Zhao Ding was born in 1085, the eighth year of Yuanfeng in the Northern Song, and was from Wenxi in Jie Prefecture. His father died when he was young, and he was raised and educated by his mother, Lady Fan. She disciplined him strictly and personally supervised his studies. Zhao Ding became familiar with the classics and histories while still young and developed a reputation for literary ability.

In 1106, the fifth year of Chongning, Zhao Ding passed the jinshi examination at the age of twenty-two. According to his biography in the History of Song, his policy response criticized current affairs and accused Zhang Dun of having harmed the state. Although this offended powerful figures, it won approval among scholars. After entering official service, Zhao Ding held a succession of local posts, including magistrate of Luoyang in Henan Prefecture and judicial staff officer in Kaifeng Prefecture. He became known for administrative competence and integrity and was attentive to hardships among the population.

Southward flight and rise to power

After the Jingkang Incident and the fall of the Northern Song, Zhao Ding followed Emperor Gaozong of Song south. During the Jianyan era he successively held censorial posts, including service in the Palace Censorate, and actively advised the throne. He once submitted a memorial setting out forty proposals concerning appointments, military administration, finance, and other matters, which drew Emperor Gaozong's attention.

In 1134, the fourth year of Shaoxing, Zhao Ding was appointed Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs and concurrently placed in charge of the Bureau of Military Affairs, bringing him into the center of government. In 1135, the fifth year of Shaoxing, he was promoted to Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs and formally became Grand Councilor. While in office, he sought recovery of the Central Plains, reorganized government, recommended capable officials, and cooperated with pro-war ministers such as Zhang Jun in planning military action to the north.

Grand councilorship and dismissal

Zhao Ding's most prominent achievement as Grand Councilor lay in personnel appointments. He recommended generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong and entrusted them with regional commands, strengthening Southern Song military capacity. Yue Fei's recovery of the six prefectures of Xiangyang in 1134 took place with Zhao Ding's support.

As the military situation between Song and Jin changed, however, Emperor Gaozong and Qin Gui increasingly favored peace. In 1138, the eighth year of Shaoxing, Zhao Ding firmly opposed negotiations that would require Song to acknowledge subordination to Jin and send tribute. He entered into direct conflict with Qin Gui and was eventually removed from office and sent to govern Shaoxing Prefecture. Qin Gui continued to suppress him. In 1139, the ninth year of Shaoxing, Zhao Ding was impeached by Xiao Zhen, demoted to Vice Director of the Palace Library, assigned nominal service at the Western Capital, and made to live in Quzhou and other places. In 1140, the tenth year of Shaoxing, he was further demoted to deputy military commissioner of Qingyuan Command and assigned to residence in Chaozhou.

Exile and death by refusing food

In 1144, the fourteenth year of Shaoxing, Zhao Ding was transferred to Jiyang Command, in the area of present-day Sanya, Hainan. In exile he lived in seclusion and refused visitors as a form of protest against Qin Gui's persecution. Qin Gui nevertheless remained suspicious and reportedly remarked that "this old man is still stubborn," continuing to have him watched.

The local prefect Wang Ti once lent Zhao Ding a sedan chair to assist his travel. When Qin Gui learned of this, Wang Ti was demoted to Jinzhou. Later Zhang Zongyuan sent a messenger with poems, books, medicine, and other supplies to comfort Zhao Ding, and soon afterward Zhang was also transferred away from Guangnan West Circuit.

In the eighth month of 1147, the seventeenth year of Shaoxing, Zhao Ding died in Jiyang Command after refusing food. Before his death he wrote on a grave stone: "Riding the Winnowing Basket and Tail constellations, I return to heaven; my spirit becomes the mountains and rivers and strengthens this dynasty," expressing his refusal to yield. After his death he was buried at Jiuxian Village in Changhua County.

Posthumous honors

In 1156, the twenty-sixth year of Shaoxing, after Qin Gui's death, the court posthumously restored Zhao Ding to the rank of Tejin and Grand Academician of the Guanwen Hall. After Emperor Xiaozong came to the throne, Zhao Ding received the posthumous name Zhongjian. His writings were later collected as the Dequan Ji, and a number of his memorials, poems, and prose works survived.

Counsel and Chancellorship in the Jianyan and Shaoxing Years

Zhao Ding, whose courtesy name was Yuanzhen and whose sobriquet was the Recluse of Dequan, was a native of Wenxi county in Xiezhou, born in 1085. After the disaster of Jingkang, when the northern army reached the river and Gaozong took refuge at Kuaiji, he summoned the censors to deliberate whether to stay or go, and Zhao Ding set out the three courses of fighting, holding and avoiding, and was made assistant censor-in-chief. He asked to have Wang Xie advance to Xuanzhou, Zhou Wang divide his troops to Guangde and Liu Guangshi cross the river to station at Qi and Huang, as a plan of intercepting attack; and he said further that the management of the central plain must begin with the passes, the management of the passes must begin with Shu, and if the emperor would go to Shu he must begin with Jing and Xiang; that Wu and Yue, being confined to a corner, were no ground from which to advance into the central plain, while Jing and Xiang looked left to Sichuan and the passes, held the lakes and Xiang on the right, and overlooked the capital and the Luo, being the ground that the Three Kingdoms must fight for, so that Gong'an should be made the travelling court and heavy troops stationed at Xiangyang, with the grain of Jiang and Zhe sent to support the armies of Sichuan and the passes, there being no better plan for the great enterprise. This argument laid down the strategic pattern by which the Southern Song held the upper waters through Jing and Xiang.

Literary Office and Two Chancellorships

In the fifth month Zhao Ding reached Jiankang, where Gaozong had arrived two days before and had ordered a report on the autumn defence; on the twenty-fifth he sent up his memorial on the advantages and disadvantages of the autumn defence, holding that the place where the six palaces halted should be called the court. In office he repeatedly memorialised, as in his argument on the imperial progress and military dress, that the emperor's escort and dress should not be too plain but should uphold the majesty of the sovereign and the ceremonies of the court; and in his argument that shrinking and drifting must give way to each taking his own responsibility, he held that the evil of the government then lay in the censors not speaking fully and the court not taking responsibility, and that those who governed should not shrink and drift, but should hold their purpose firmer and meet the moment with more vigour, so that ministers should bear the duty of ministers and officers the duty of officers, and so the realm could be ordered within and repelled without.

Afterwards he was sent out to a provincial post, and the scholars all regretted his going, some of the censors seeking to keep him. Just then frontier reports came thick, and as Zhao Ding constantly set out the great plans of war and came into the palace to take leave, Gaozong said that he could not go far, and that he would surely make him chancellor. When Zhu Shenfei left the chancellorship, Zhao Ding indeed became right vice director of the department of state affairs and joint manager of government affairs. When Jin and the puppet Qi joined forces in a great attack and the whole court was shaken, on the first day of the tenth month Zhao Ding asked Gaozong to take the field in person and set out the plan of fighting and defending; the generals each held their own view, and only Zhang Jun thought an advance should be made, with whom Zhao Ding agreed, and so Zhang Jun was ordered to lead his troops to aid Han Shizhong and Liu Guangshi to move his army to Jiankang, and Han Shizhong was pressed to advance. When some advised Gaozong to move his court elsewhere, Zhao Ding said that if the fight were lost it would not be too late to go; and Gaozong said that he would lead the six armies in person and fight a decisive battle at the river.

Dealings with Zhang Jun and Qin Hui

Zhao Ding and Zhang Jun had once contended over the command of the upper waters, and when Zhang Jun was displeased at Zhao Ding's opposition to his plan, Zhao Ding used the way of removing petty men as a figure: that from of old, if one was too hasty in removing petty men they would close ranks and do greater harm, whereas if one went slowly they could be made to push one another out. Taking the guilt of the eunuch Feng Yi as his example, he said that to put him to death would not be enough to satisfy the hearts of the realm, and that it were better to banish him far off, since this would neither go against the imperial will nor move the eunuchs to plead hard for him, so that his party might gradually come apart. Zhang Jun, hearing it, was convinced. Zhao Ding also memorialised that the matter of Feng Yi was obscure and hung between being and not being, yet touched the dignity of the state; and that if the court took no punishment at all, outsiders would certainly think that the emperor had indeed sent Feng Yi to do this, which would injure the imperial virtue, so that it were better to relieve him of office for a time and send him elsewhere to dispel the doubts of the many; and Gaozong, pleased, sent Feng Yi to eastern Zhe.

In the eighth year of Shaoxing, when Jin sent envoys to discuss peace and the opinion of the court held it untrustworthy, Gaozong was enraged. Zhao Ding said that the emperor had with the men of Jin a hatred that could not be worn in the same sky, and that in stooping to seek peace he did so because of the coffins of the two former emperors and the empress dowager; that the indignant words of the ministers sprang from love of their sovereign and could not be made a crime; and that the emperor should tell them that peace was not his own wish but was done for the sake of his kin and because he could not do otherwise. Afterwards, over the matter of Xiang Ziyin and the objection of Zhang Zhiyuan, Gaozong, having prior words in his ear, was from that time displeased with Zhao Ding; and when Qin Hui stayed behind to report and Zhao Ding asked on his way out what the emperor had said, Qin Hui answered that the emperor had said nothing, only that he feared the chancellor was displeased. After Zhao Ding became chancellor a second time, some accused him of doing nothing, and he answered that the situation was like a man gravely ill, who should be quiet and nursed, and that if he were further cut and probed his vitality would surely be injured. Through his insistence Gaozong went south from Jiankang to Lin'an, and from that time Lin'an became formally the travelling seat of the Southern Song.

Afterwards Zhao Ding was hated by Qin Hui and repeatedly banished, at last to the army of Jiyang for the south of the sea. He wrote on his funeral banner that his body would ride the Winnowing Basket and Tail to heaven and his spirit become rivers and mountains to strengthen the dynasty, and died in the place of banishment in the seventeenth year of Shaoxing, 1147.

Early Years and the Jingkang Crisis

Zhao Ding lost his father at four and was raised and taught by his mother, of the Fan family, who was posthumously given the title of Lady of Qin. He mastered the classics, histories and the hundred schools, passed the examination as a presented scholar in the fifth year of Chongning, and in his policy answer directly denounced Zhang Dun for ruining the state. He rose to be magistrate of Luoyang in Henan, and the chancellor Wu Min, knowing his ability, promoted him to be an officer of Kaifeng; in the fifth year of Zhenghe, 1115, he was transferred to be assistant magistrate of Hedong, and later passed to the regular capital ranking and was made a revenue officer of Tongzhou. In the Jingkang years, when the men of Jin took Taiyuan and the court deliberated ceding the three garrisons to buy peace, Zhao Ding said that the land of the ancestors could not be given to others and that there was nothing to deliberate; and soon after the capital fell and Huizong and Qinzong were carried north. In the second month, when the men of Jin proposed to set up Zhang Bangchang, Zhao Ding fled with Hu Yin and Zhang Jun into the imperial academy and would not sign the memorial of assent. When Shao Zemin told him that Zhang Bangchang meant to have the Empress Dowager Meng hold the curtain and had already sent the imperial seal to her, Zhao Ding consented to be made vice director of the imperial library, judicial commissioner of the capital region and acting deputy commissioner of transport; afterwards, unwilling to hold office under the puppet Chu regime, he refused it in every way he could.

The Centre and the Reform of Military Administration in Jianyan

On the eleventh day of the second month of the third year of Jianyan, 1129, Gaozong ordered the secretaries of the several boards to recommend men of talent. On the eighteenth day of the eleventh month of that year the men of Jin came south in force, and Zhao Ding at once sent up his memorial asking the Hubei military commission to guard Wuchang and other places, saying that one should not hope the enemy will not come but should rely on having made one's own preparations. At that time the military administration of the court was divided, the office of the imperial camp and the bureau of military affairs standing side by side so that orders issued from two sources; and Zhao Ding first reformed the imperial camp, having its office merged into the bureau of military affairs as the bureau of swift measures, with the chancellor still cognisant of the bureau, and settling the system of the five imperial armies with their officers under the bureau, so that the imperial camp, which had existed four years, was abolished. He also regularised the working procedure of the great provincial officials, holding that officials had lost their functions and were legislating by precedent to great harm, and had the capital office collect the precedents of earlier and later practice, reduce them to a middle standard and fix them as standing law for the offices to keep. He further memorialised against the power of the palace attendants, reproving those who moved bamboos into the inner palace, and calling a revenue official who sent money into the palace to the chancellery for severe reproof and having him transferred to a provincial post.

Rifts with Lü Yihao and Joint Chancellorship with Zhang Jun

In the seventh month Gaozong, because Zhao Ding and Zhu Shenfei differed, sent him out to a provincial post; and Zhao Ding had once told Gaozong that the emperor had the sincerity to receive counsel while the chancellor set out the doctrine of rejecting remonstrance, and that the emperor had the will to favour the censors while the chancellor used his power to break the majesty of the remonstrating officials. He then stayed at home and did not go out, and sent up a memorial listing more than a thousand words of Lü Yihao's faults. Gaozong dismissed Lü Yihao and by edict again made Zhao Ding assistant censor-in-chief, telling him that he had always regretted not knowing the loyal remonstrating ministers of earlier reigns and now saw one in him. Gaozong said of him that as a remonstrating official he had been most fit for the office and that of the forty matters he had spoken of, thirty-six had been carried out. After Lü Yihao became chancellor a second time he disliked Zhao Ding's disagreement with him and transferred him again; yet Zhao Ding still employed the fiscal officials whom Lü Yihao had used, so that under his government the economic measures suffered no great disturbance.

The period when Zhang Jun and Zhao Ding were chancellors together is held to have been the cleanest government of the early Southern Song: Zhang Jun was right vice director of the department of state affairs, cognisant of the bureau of military affairs and superintendent of the armies of the several circuits, standing outside as a chancellor who was also a general, while the government of the court was entrusted to Zhao Ding. When Wang De put his subordinate Chen Yanzhang to death without authority, Zhao Ding judged Wang De guilty of death, and although Gaozong spared him for his military merit, Zhao Ding said that Wang De, commanding troops abroad, killed without fear and that if this were not punished none would fail to do the same; Gaozong had Wang De arrested, and Zhao Ding further asked that Han Shizhong be sharply reproved by edict and his officers and clerks handed to the offices for judgement, so that the generals were awed. Zhang Jun was able in strategy and Zhao Ding held the balance, the one within and the one without supporting each other. Later, because of Lü Zhi's mediation and the proposal to dismiss Liu Guangshi, the two grew estranged, and Zhao Ding asked to resign the chancellorship.

Banishment and After Death

After Zhao Ding left the chancellorship to govern Shaoxing prefecture, Qin Hui led the ministers of government to see him off, and Zhao Ding, treating him without courtesy, bowed once and went away, so that Qin Hui hated him the more. When Zhao Ding returned from Quanzhou and again memorialised on the government, Qin Hui, fearing he would be used again, had Wang Ciweng impeach him for having accepted the puppet mandate and embezzled a hundred and fifty thousand strings of cash from the supervisory office, and he was banished to Chaozhou. In Chaozhou for five years he shut his door and received no guests, spoke not of the times, and when asked only took the blame on himself. Afterwards, accused again of taking bribes, he was moved to the army of Jiyang, and there for three years lived deep in retreat, while the officials of his former staff dared not write to greet him and only the commander of Guangxi from time to time sent him some rice wine; and Qin Hui, learning of it, had the local army report each month whether he lived or died. Zhao Ding wrote on his funeral banner that his body would ride the Winnowing Basket and Tail to heaven and his spirit become rivers and mountains to strengthen the dynasty, and charged his son to ask that his body be brought home for burial, and so starved himself to death at the age of sixty-three. After Emperor Xiaozong came to the throne he was posthumously made grand mentor, given the posthumous name Zhongjian, the Loyal and Simple, and enfeoffed as Duke of Feng; and in the fifteenth year of Chunxi, 1188, he was granted sacrifices in the temple of Gaozong together with Lü Yihao, Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun.

Military Measures and the Front

In the ninth month of the fourth year of Shaoxing the son of Liu Yu, the puppet emperor of Qi, joined the men of Jin in a great invasion. Zhao Ding asked Gaozong to take the field in person and to issue an edict pacifying the Huai west; and on Li Gang's earlier plan he had the generals hold the enemy by separate roads. Han Shizhong defeated the men of Jin heavily at Dayi, and for a time good news came often, though through poor communication alarms still passed back and forth between front and rear. Liu Guangshi, learning of it, sent to advise Zhao Ding that he should go into Shu himself and not take another's danger on himself; and Han Shizhong too said of him that Chancellor Zhao truly dared to act. On the twenty-first day of the twelfth month, when the men of Jin had long lain in Huainan and, knowing the Song army was prepared, were slowly minded to go north, Zhao Ding said that the men of Jin could do nothing more. Gaozong had the generals intercept them among the Huai and they were defeated again and again and fled, and Gaozong told Zhao Ding that the officers now strove to be first and the defending ministers everywhere answered to the call, which was the effect of his employment.

In the sixth year of Shaoxing, Liu Lin and Liu Ni invaded again. Zhao Ding ordered Yang Yizhong to hasten to Hefei to aid Liu Guangshi, but Liu Guangshi had already abandoned Luzhou and gone back north of the river; and Zhang Jun wrote to Zhao Ding, who had Gaozong send an edict to Zhang Jun that those who disobeyed were to be dealt with by military law. Liu Guangshi, greatly alarmed, advanced again to the Fei river and fought Liu Lin and defeated him, so that Liu Lin and Liu Ni broke camp and fled. Earlier Zhang Jun had held his troops and brought about the fall of Chuzhou, and the men of Jin remained by the Huai, whereupon Zhao Ding asked by memorial to resign. He told Gaozong that to seize Liu Yu was easy, but that if Henan were taken could it be guaranteed that the men of Jin would not invade again, and that Liu Guangshi had been a general for generations and to dismiss him without cause would, he feared, unsettle men's minds. He differed with Zhang Jun on dismissing Liu Guangshi and therefore in the twelfth month asked to resign the chancellorship. Liu Guangshi's officer Li Qiong, having an old grudge against Wang De and getting no redress from Lü Zhi, seized Lü Zhi and led his whole army over to the puppet Qi.

The Recommending of Men and the Question of the Succession

Throughout his chancellorship Zhao Ding drew in men of worth with all his strength. He praised to Gaozong the left guard commander who had done good service in intelligence, and recommended Yue Fei for the command of the upper waters; and as the three prefectures of Shu, Qi and Huang were administratively divided among several circuits and militarily bound by several authorities, he advised that they be subject to one office, and Gaozong ordered Shu and Qi subject to Yue Fei and Huang to Lü Zhi. He asked that the court give Yue Fei strong support and had Gaozong write in his own hand to the supervisory and military offices to supply Yue Fei's army, so that its reputation rose greatly and it took Xiangyang at one blow. Zhang Jun had long been out of office, and Zhao Ding said he could bear great charge, whereupon Gaozong recalled him as cognisant of the bureau of military affairs and sent him to inspect the troops on the Yangtze. The man he recommended, Xiao Zhen, once in the censorate impeached the assistant administrator Liu Dazhong and had him dismissed; and Zhao Ding said that Xiao Zhen's true aim was not Liu Dazhong, while Xiao Zhen said of him that Chancellor Zhao would leave office of himself before he was blamed.

On the succession, when Gaozong enfeoffed Zhao Yuan as Duke of Jianguo and Zhao Qu as Duke of Wu, Zhao Ding objected, saying that the state of Jianguo given to Zhao Yuan was small while the state given to Zhao Qu was great, and urging that Zhao Yuan be given a first-class small state to settle men's minds. Gaozong said they were but children and let it pass, but in the end, through the insistence of Zhao Ding and others, Gaozong had to withdraw the order giving Zhao Qu the dukedom of Wu. Qin Hui seized the chance to slander him, saying that Zhao Ding wished to set up an imperial son, which was as much as to say the emperor would never have a son of his own, and that the heir should be set up only after the emperor had a son; and so their hatred deepened.

The Question of the Capital and the Terms of Peace

Zhao Ding, twice chancellor, had strong views on where the capital should be: he held Jing and Xiang to be the root of the upper waters and would have Gong'an made the travelling court and heavy troops stationed at Xiangyang; and afterwards he strongly urged the return from Jiankang to Lin'an, saying that the situation was like a man gravely ill who should be quiet and nursed and that further cutting would injure his vitality, and Gaozong followed him, so that Lin'an became formally the seat of the Southern Song. In the negotiations with Jin he gave more than twenty instructions in person, insisting that the annual tribute of silver and silk should not exceed two hundred and fifty thousand taels and bolts, demanding all the land ruled by Liu Yu and refusing to accept enfeoffment from Jin, so that though he presided over the peace he yet upheld the interest and dignity of Song. He afterwards contended hard over the terms with Jin and differed from Qin Hui; and when Gaozong was minded to banish Zhang Jun to Lingnan, Zhao Ding held back the palace order and did not send it down, and pleaded hard for Zhang Jun's error, saying that his fault was but a mistaken plan, that no man's calculations sought anything but safety, and that if one mistake were to bring death no man with a secret stratagem would dare speak again, and that this concerned the court and not his private affection for Zhang Jun; and Gaozong's anger was appeased.

Measures in a Provincial Post and the Welcoming of the Imperial Tombs

In the Jianyan years Zhao Ding went from the centre to be pacification commissioner of Jiangxi and prefect of Hongzhou. In the fourth month of the fourth year of Shaoxing, having just reached Hongzhou, he sent up a memorial asking for the grant of money and grain, and another saying that Hongzhou had suffered war and fire, that the people were deeply afflicted and that no paper households remained, and praying that their purchases be remitted. At that time Han Shizhong, pacification commissioner of the Jiangnan east and west circuits, was stationed with his army in the prefectural city and treated Zhao Ding with great courtesy; and as many of the troops in both armies were bandits taken into service, seeing Zhao Ding so upright they kept their discipline. He also sent up his memorials asking that the emperor write to Yue Fei in his own hand, seeking real support for Yue Fei's army and having the transport officials gather money and grain for five months of its expenses, which made Yue Fei very willing to follow him.

In the fourth month of the third year of Shaoxing, Zhao Ding again memorialised on the return of the imperial carriage, urging that the emperor should not go at once back to Jiankang; and afterwards, when the court welcomed the tablets of the imperial tombs and empresses to the court at Lin'an, Zhao Ding led the hundred officials and the imperial clan to receive the tablets of the ancestral temple outside the Houzhao gate. He attended also to small matters of the river defence: in the tenth month, because Yue Fei, as commissioner of the riverside command, kept a great army and had posts along the river while warships were short, Zhao Ding memorialised asking that ready money be granted to build boats; and because Tang Dongye, prefect of Jiankang, was remiss, he impeached his failure of control along with Lian Nanfu's neglect.

Recall in Later Years and Posthumous Honours

In his later years Zhao Ding was once recalled and again held the chancellorship. In court he recommended several tens of men of good repute to be distributed through the government, such as Liu Dazhong, Hu Yin, Lü Benzhong and Chang Tong; and he once sent up a memorial of thanks saying that with white hair he had nowhere to return and grieved that little life was left, but that his loyal heart was not yet dimmed and he vowed that through nine deaths he would not change. When Qin Hui saw it he said that the old man was as stubborn as ever. Thereafter Qin Hui pressed him out step by step, until he was banished far off to Chaozhou and Jiyang. After his death twelve of his sons and grandsons were given office; after Emperor Xiaozong came to the throne he was posthumously made grand mentor, given the name Zhongjian and enfeoffed as Duke of Feng; and in the fifteenth year of Chunxi, 1188, he received sacrifices in the temple of Gaozong with Lü Yihao, Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun. The shrine of the Five Lords at Haikou in Hainan was built to offer sacrifice to five famous ministers of history including Zhao Ding, and is so named because men looked up to those five lords.

Major Activities

Political activity

Zhao Ding was one of the leading pro-war figures in early Southern Song politics. He advocated active resistance against Jin and opposed repeated concessions. While Grand Councilor, he promoted measures intended to consolidate the regime and strengthen military preparedness. In 1134 he supported Yue Fei's northern operations and the recovery of the six prefectures of Xiangyang, helping to reinforce the Southern Song's western defenses. In 1138, when Jin presented demanding peace terms, Zhao Ding firmly opposed acknowledging subordination to Jin. His position brought him into sharp conflict with Qin Gui's peace policy and ultimately cost him his office.

Recommendation of talent

Zhao Ding was known for recognizing and employing capable people. While in high office he recommended Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and other generals and helped place them in independent commands. Yue Fei continued to hold Zhao Ding in high regard; the later-preserved "Letter to Zhao Zhongjian" reflects their relationship. Zhao Ding also recommended civil officials such as Wang Juzheng and contributed to the early Southern Song's pool of officials.

Travels and places of service

Zhao Ding's life took him from northern China to the far south. He served in Luoyang and Kaifeng during the Northern Song, moved south with the court after the dynasty's collapse, and was active in the Jiangnan region. After his dismissal, he successively lived in Quzhou, Chaozhou, and Jiyang Command. Although he largely withdrew from visitors during exile, poems from this period survive and record his state of mind.

Relations with contemporaries

Zhao Ding and Zhang Jun were both leaders of the pro-war faction in the early Southern Song. They worked together but later became more distant because of political differences. Qin Gui was Zhao Ding's political enemy, and Qin's persecution shaped Zhao Ding's final years. Zhao Ding also maintained close ties with Yue Fei, who respected him as a senior statesman and exchanged letters with him. In later tradition Zhao Ding was grouped with Li Gang, Hu Quan, and Li Guang as the "Four Eminent Ministers of the Southern Song," all identified with resistance to Jin.

The Upper Waters and the Recovery of Xiangyang

When Li Heng, commissioner for the pacification of Jingxi, wished to use troops to recover the eastern capital, Zhao Ding said that Li Heng's host was a rabble that could not stand against the enemy and that Xiangyang would probably be lost; and soon after Li Heng was defeated and fled, and Xiangyang did fall. Zhao Ding was summoned and made assistant administrator, and the chancellor Zhu Shenfei said that Xiangyang was the upper waters of the state and must be taken at once; when Gaozong asked whether Yue Fei could be used, Zhao Ding answered that no one knew the interests of the upper waters better than Yue Fei; and Xu Fu, the signatory of the bureau of military affairs, did not agree, yet Yue Fei went out with his army and did recover Xiangyang. Afterwards Zhao Ding sent spies to induce the defending commanders of Henan to submit, and between Shou, Bo, Chen and Cai whole cities and commands came over, so that he gained several tens of thousands of picked soldiers and several thousand horses.

The Root of the State and the Government of Leniency

What Zhao Ding called the art of strengthening the root of the state and the gradual way to recovery was a policy of leniency towards the people: to lighten rents and taxes in the commanderies ravaged and plundered by the men of Jin, so as to ease the people's strength and lessen disorder within, which was the art of strengthening the root, and only thus could the root be strengthened and recovery planned. In his memorials he had already obscurely pointed out that the poverty of the people was largely bound up with the weakness of the sovereign and the government in administration — that the sovereign could not protect the people and so the people were poor and wandering — and that the emperor must therefore do all he could to feel for the people and to make them easy, since only so could he strengthen the root and plan recovery. Under this principle he gave more weight to leniency in setting the economy to rights.

The ever-normal granaries had been the institution by which local government relieved famine, steadied prices and answered crisis, and governments of every age had paid them attention; but after the crossing of the river the Southern Song cut their function, first abolishing their office of management and afterwards reinstating the officials and clearing the people's arrears, so that the ever-normal administration went back and forth and could do nothing as it should, becoming instead a tool of harassment. Zhao Ding was the first to see this and set himself to remedy it. He also noted that the rural bao-zheng headmen bore the heaviest service, and that in the drafting of it the officials were covetous and impure, so that the rich escaped by bribery and the poor suffered by extortion, and one turn of service ruined a family, whence came fathers dying, mothers remarrying and brothers dividing the household to escape the service. He likewise watched the cash reserves of the court, avoiding the issue of paper money when reserve was insufficient; and in the tenth month of the seventh year of Shaoxing he proposed that the monopoly office should sell ordination certificates and that as distant places could not come to buy, they should be allotted to the several circuits. Gaozong thought this would increase the power of local government, which might use it to extort from the people, and Zhao Ding proposed a safeguard, that no quota be fixed, so that there would be no abuse of assessment.

The Salt Law and Finance

On the basis of Lü Yihao's reform of the salt law Zhao Ding fixed it for good: he asked that the law of paired conveyance be established, to which the merchants submitted, and the salt law thus became a standing institution and long-standing abuses were removed. That autumn a surplus was added and fixed as a proportion, so that the two methods of payment and of paired conveyance worked together. Thereafter the law of paired conveyance became the standing law of the Southern Song; Zhang Yi held that it was already trusted by the people and should not be changed again, and the salt revenue of the state was thereby rich, with receipts regular and unbroken, so that it was no longer at the mercy of the great profiteers. Zhang Jun wrote that the salt revenues paid in at Jiankang were very abundant, and Gaozong traced this to the law being trustworthy and therefore lasting, since the law of paired conveyance had stood unchanged for two years and the yield was greater than in ordinary years. The jingzhi, yuechun and zongzhi levies remained the chief revenues of the government while Zhao Ding was chancellor, the zongzhi deriving from an increase and division of the jingzhi quota and beginning from that time, having been created by Meng Geng.

Government of Leniency

Under his principle of leniency, a series of measures easing the people were issued by edict during Zhao Ding's chancellorship. In the fourth month of the fifth year of Shaoxing, 1135, the colonisation offices of the several circuits were ordered that where the government supplied seed grain no more than ten shi a year should be levied on each plough-ox, and that where the people had their own oxen, beyond the payment of tax they should not be compelled to farm the colonisation land. He abolished the jiaozi notes of the south-east and in the sixth year of Shaoxing, on Li Gang's advice, restored the guanzi. In years of famine he had the ever-normal offices buy grain widely to provide relief, memorialising in the fifth year of Shaoxing that Hunan and Jiangxi had suffered drought and damage in the fields and that the people were already eating netting, so that great famine was feared before spring and the ever-normal offices should buy widely against relief. On corvée he abolished the Shaosheng law in the fourth month of the fifth year of Shaoxing and had five rural bao made into one great bao, the headmen chosen generally, and the word long removed from the exemption law, providing that those serving away from their district or in cities, or who were monks or priests, might hire substitutes and that the offices should not pursue the persons themselves, and that officials who took money in the business of corvée should be heavily punished as a warning. On economy he again reduced official salaries after Li Gang, the salaries of the chancellors having been cut by a third since the crossing of the river and being cut by two further tenths at his request; and he held that the way of economy begins in the palace. At Hongzhou, where the place had suffered war and fire, the people being deeply afflicted and no paper households remaining, he asked that their purchases be remitted; and he set limits on the advance levy of the people's purchased silk, that but two tenths be paid in coin and that silver and gold not be forced, and that beyond the head-money no more than ten cash per thousand be taken as wastage.

History and Letters

Zhao Ding also supervised the compilation of the national history. In the Shaoxing years, on the fifteenth day of the ninth month, he presented to the court the revised fifty fascicles of the Veritable Records of Shenzong with a memorial of presentation, saying that the record from the time Wang Anshi held power down to the change of Jingkang had been taken in hand, the officials ordered to revise it, so that the virtue of the two former emperors might be made manifest. He was skilled in prose, poetry and ci; his writings were mostly memorials, vigorous and naturally formed; his poems plain and simple yet not without richness and roundness; his ci restrained and suggestive, with much of the manner of the Huajian school. He wrote the Zhongzheng Dewen collection and the Dequan Jushi ci, the latter in three fascicles, recorded in the Zhizhai catalogue of books, afterwards partly lost. Some of his running-script calligraphy also survives, of a mild and lovely brushwork and free and easy arrangement; and Gaozong, who especially loved his writing, had him draft many edicts and proclamations even in matters of state and war.

Command of Generals, Army Reform and Intelligence

In commanding his generals Zhao Ding put weight on clear rewards and punishments and on correct name and station. Over Wang De's unauthorised killing of his officer Chen Yanzhang he insisted on punishment by law and asked that Han Shizhong be sharply reproved by edict and his officers and clerks handed to the offices, so that the generals were awed. When Tang Dongye, prefect of Jiankang, was remiss in his control and Lian Nanfu neglected his duty, Zhao Ding at once impeached them and asked Gaozong to reprove Han Shizhong. Outside the imperial camp army he established the imperial front armies, not subject to the office of the imperial camp, providing that their officers should belong to the bureau of military affairs, which was the first step by which the court took back the appointment of officers. He valued intelligence, and once called Wei Liangchen to ask the numbers of the Jin armies, and sent Hu Songnian to inspect the military situation, who on returning from the upper Yangtze reported that the men of Jin were gathering in great numbers, so that men then knew Zhao Ding had foreseen it. After the men of Jin deposed Liu Yu, he sent spies to induce the defending commanders of Henan to submit, and between Shou, Bo, Chen and Cai whole cities and commands came over, so that the court gained several tens of thousands of picked troops and several thousand horses. From the puppet Qi, too, men kept coming over, and Zhao Ding from the reports estimated forty to fifty thousand for the year, and Gaozong said he had long feared the hundreds of li between Jiang and Chi lay open, and that with these troops he might have no fear.

Ordering the Government and Clarifying Discipline

In his chancellorship Zhao Ding sought fixed and keepable rules in all he set up. He asked that the capital office collect the precedents of earlier and later practice, reduce them to a middle standard and fix them as standing law; and against the evil that the hundred offices memorialised daily and all was decided ad hoc with no fixed rule, the three departments and the bureau of military affairs being especially cumbrous, he urged order. In the staffing of the censorate he held that only the subordinate offices of the censors might be discussed and recommended, and that the censors should not recommend others themselves. Against the palace attendants he struck further: reproving those who moved bamboos into the palace and memorialising the matter, so that Gaozong changed countenance and apologised; and when a revenue official sent money into the palace he called him to the chancellery for severe reproof and asked Gaozong the next day whether the man had brought money, and when Gaozong said he had asked for it, Zhao Ding said the man should not have brought it and the emperor should not have asked, and had him transferred to a provincial post. When Gaozong once noted in the palace that two men should be given promotion by the court, Zhao Ding asked how the emperor knew the names of distant petty officials, and Gaozong answered that Chang Tong had praised them; and Zhao Ding said that if Chang Tong knew them to be worthy, why did he not recommend them openly in a memorial.

Edicts and Letters

Zhao Ding was widely learned, and Gaozong especially loved his writing, so that even in matters of state and war and in the issuing of proclamations Zhao Ding often drafted them first. His running script survives with a steady and varied brush, sincere and reserved, restrained and graceful, the arrangement free and easy; it is the only surviving running-script autograph of Zhao Ding and is said to be one of the inscriptions in praise of the worthy Cai Junshan, written by Zhao Ding and others at the request of the Cai family of Song. In it he wrote that the mountains and rivers bred this man, that his merit preserved the altars of the state and his bounty reached the people, that he was a lone phoenix of the morning sun and an auspicious unicorn of a prosperous age, and that though he was no more his fame lay heavy among the gentry. He was also skilled in poetry and ci: in his Zhegu Tian, written at the Lantern Festival at Jiankang, he asked where his home was, north and south lost in the vastness of cloud and water, mourning his native place held by the men of Jin and anxious for the future of the state; and in his poems on current affairs, as in his lines on meeting Zheng Yougong about the river turned to blood and fire and the world's first business being to keep oneself, he satirised those who in the hour of the country's peril sought only to withdraw from the world.

Frontier Memorials and the Office of a Literary Minister

In provincial posts Zhao Ding kept the frontier in mind, and wherever he went he set out the interests at stake in memorials. In the eleventh month of the third year of Jianyan, when the men of Jin came south in force, he sent up his memorial asking the Hubei military commission to guard against the enemy horse, saying that one should not hope the enemy would not come but should rely on one's own preparation; and another asking it to guard Wuchang and other places. In the early Shaoxing years he memorialised on the imperial progress west, repeating that the management of the central plain must begin with the passes and the way to Shu must begin with Jing and Xiang. In his memorial on the enemy's withdrawal he set out the three courses of fighting, holding and avoiding and asked that the generals be pressed to intercept the men of Jin as they went north. In the third year of Shaoxing he memorialised on the imperial return and again on the imperial expedition in person, holding that no rash move should be made; and when the good news came and Gaozong at Pingjiang sent down an edict condemning Liu Yu as a rebel and wished himself to lead troops across the river to fight a decisive battle, Zhao Ding said that the enemy had come far and profited by quick battle, so that to cross swords with them was a mistaken plan, and that as Liu Yu had sent only his son there was no cause to trouble the emperor; and Gaozong gave it up.

The Conduct of Counselling and the Use of Men

In counselling Zhao Ding gave special weight to name and responsibility. In his memorial that shrinking and drifting must give way to each bearing his own responsibility he held that those who governed should not shrink and drift but should hold their purpose firmer and meet the moment with more vigour, so that ministers should bear the duty of ministers and officers the duty of officers, and so the realm could be ordered within and repelled without. On the staffing of the censorate he held that only the subordinate offices might be discussed and recommended; and on the laws of the ancestors, because the people had grown poor since Wang Anshi's changes and later men had used the pretext of following the ancestors to carry out his policy, he asked that Wang Anshi be deprived of the sacrifices in the temple, saying that the troubles of the present all began with Wang Anshi and were formed by Cai Jing, whereupon Gaozong removed Wang Anshi from the sacrifices. In matters of insufficient provincial tribute and delayed transport he too sent up many memorials; as on the first day of the tenth month, when he asked that an edict be sent to pacify the Huai west, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, when he took charge also of supervising the national history, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, when he thanked the emperor for the gift of the Book of Documents. Gaozong wrote for him in his own hand the four characters of loyal, upright, virtuous and cultured, and gave him also a copy of the Book of Documents written with his own hand, saying that what the Book of Documents contains is the words of mutual admonition between sovereign and minister, and that in giving it to him he meant to keep that way with him.

Personal Relations

• Mother: Lady Fan, widowed early and personally responsible for Zhao Ding's education.
• Li Gang: prominent Southern Song minister and representative of the pro-war position.
• Hu Quan: Southern Song minister known for outspoken remonstrance.
• Li Guang: Southern Song minister and pro-war figure.
• Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of Song: Zhao Ding served as his Grand Councilor and was later dismissed because of political differences.
• Qin Gui: political rival who directed Zhao Ding's demotions and persecution.
• Zhang Jun: fellow Grand Councilor and pro-war minister; cooperated with Zhao Ding but also differed with him.
• Yue Fei: general recommended by Zhao Ding who continued to respect him.
• Wang Ti: prefect of Jiyang Command who was demoted by Qin Gui for treating Zhao Ding kindly.
• Zhang Zongyuan: sent a messenger to comfort Zhao Ding and was later transferred away.

Historical Assessment

Song period and contemporaries

• Emperor Gaozong of Song was said to have described Zhao Ding as "upright and uncompromising," though he ultimately removed him over the peace issue (History of Song, "Biography of Zhao Ding").
• Qin Gui called Zhao Ding "still stubborn," illustrating Zhao Ding's unyielding character (History of Song, "Biography of Zhao Ding").
• In the "Letter to Zhao Zhongjian," Yue Fei expressed his respect for Zhao Ding and referred to him as Duke Zhongjian.

Song and Yuan periods

• The compilers of the History of Song wrote that Zhao Ding's "loyalty and righteousness sprang from his natural character" and judged that "although dead, he yet lived" (History of Song, "Biography of Zhao Ding").
• The late Southern Song scholar Wang Yinglin mentioned Zhao Ding in Kunxue Jiwen and approved of his position on resistance to Jin.
• The Yuan scholar Hu Sansheng, in his annotations to the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, cited Zhao Ding's statements and regarded him as a perceptive minister.

Ming and Qing periods

• The Ming thinker Li Zhi listed Zhao Ding among "loyal ministers" in Cangshu and praised him for "dying for the state."
• The late-Ming and early-Qing thinker Wang Fuzhi, in Song Lun, wrote that Zhao Ding "possessed the bearing of a great minister" but criticized him for being unable to remove Qin Gui.
• The Qing historian Quan Zuwang mentioned Zhao Ding in Records of Song-Yuan Scholars and praised his achievements in recommending talent.

Modern period

• The modern scholar Qian Mu, in Outline of National History, discussed early Southern Song politics and described Zhao Ding as "a leader of the pro-war faction."
• In his research on Southern Song history, Deng Guangming regarded Zhao Ding as "one of the most popular grand councilors of the early Southern Song."
• Contemporary scholarship generally regards Zhao Ding's tragedy as arising from advocating resistance at a time when the court favored accommodation, leaving his political aims fundamentally at odds with the regime's policy of seeking security through compromise.