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China: Emperor Huaizong (Zhao Bing), 18th and last ruler of the Song Dynasty and 9th and last ruler of the Southern Song (r. 1278-1279).

China: Emperor Huaizong (Zhao Bing), 18th and last ruler of the Song Dynasty and 9th and last ruler of the Southern Song (r. 1278-1279).

Emperor Huaizong of Song (1271 – March 19, 1279 CE) was the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty of China. Born Zhao Bing to Emperor Duzong of Song, he was the younger brother of his predecessor, Emperor Duanzong of Song. According to the History of Song compiled under the Mongol Prime Minister Toktoghan, Emperor Huaizong is reported to have died at the Battle of Yamen on March 19, 1279. An official, Lu Xiufu who realized that all was lost, carried him and jumped into the sea in an act of defiance to the Mongol invaders near Mount Ya at the mouth of the West River in Guangdong.

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.

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