Home » Images » 0012 Pictures From History » CPA0005670

China: Emperor Taizong (Zhao Kuangyi), 2nd ruler of the (Northern) Song Dynasty (r. 987-997).

Emperor Taizong is remembered as a hardworking and diligent emperor. His most notable achievement was the reunification of China through the conquest of Northern Han. He paid great attention to the welfare of his people and made his empire more prosperous. He adopted the policies previously enacted by Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, which include increasing agricultural production, broadening the imperial examination system, compiling encyclopedias, expanding the civil service and further limiting the power of regional military governors.

The Song Dynasty (960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–960) and preceded the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), which conquered the Song in 1279. Its conventional division into the Northern Song (960–1127) and Southern Song (1127–1279) periods marks the conquest of northern China by the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234) in 1127. It also distinguishes the subsequent shift of the Song's capital city from Bianjing (modern Kaifeng) in the north to Lin'an (modern Hangzhou) in the south.