The Struggle Between Kou Zhun And Ding Wei And The Politics Of The Last Period Of Song Zhen Zong's Reign

In Song Dynasty, there were always party-struggles. Party-struggle, or political struggle, is an unavoidable subject in terms of researches on Song's politics. Struggles in early Song Dynasty, whose scales were relatively smaller, comparing with the party-struggles between the New and the Old, which was initiated by the Xifeng Reform and after wards affected the whole Song Dynasty, was not for political views, but for personal political powers. Meanwhile, they had great effect on the contemporary political situation. The struggle between Kou Zhun and Ding Wei did happen in such a historical background. The court of Song Zhen Zong can be divided into three periods, and the struggle between Kou Zhun and Ding Wei happened in the last one. In the Movement of Tianshu Fengsi, welcoming books from the God and sacrificing to the Mount Tai and the Fen River, Ding Wei is a main go-getter, for which he got recognition from Song Zhen Zong (the emperor) and became a vice-regent. Kou Zhun was always famous for his honesty, and after the Treaty of Chanyuan, he was once banished from the court because of Wang Qinruo's calumny, but at the last stage of Tianshu Fengsi, he regained recognition from Song Zhen Zong through offering up heaven books. In 1019, Kou Zhun and Ding Wei was respectively prime minister and vice-regent in the court, and because of some reasons, such as their thoughts and personalities, the two became exclusive political enemies though they had been good friends before, for which the struggle between them took place. In the struggle, some chancellors in the court somehow stood by one of them, which made the struggle resemble a party-struggle. During this period, the two wings were both in the fame of royal members, meanwhile, Song Zhen Zong became muddleheaded, and the Queen Liu, who in fact dealt with government affairs, wanted to further seize the power in the use of this struggle. In 1020, Kou Zhun was banished from the court, and two years later Ding Wei was also banished to Yazhou. The struggle ended by the two's being banished and Queen Liu's successfully seizing the power. The struggle mainly characterized the politics of Song Zhen Zong's last period, and was also complicated by the emperor's becoming muddleheaded, the queen's seizing power and its combination with imperial authority struggle in upper strata.