The Study Of Shi Songzhi And The History Of Southern Song China(1234—1244)

Song lizong(Zhao Yun)ascended the throne in 1234 when the Jin collapsed.He was an ambitious emperor who wanted to finish the uncompleted task that retake the loss territory taken by the Jin dynasty following by the collapse of the Northern Song.Although rejected by all but a few bureaucrats,Zhao Yun,who believed that the central plain was an easy prey,initiated the war to retake three capitals of Norther Song dynasty against the Mongol that ended in Song defeat.This miserable decision was actually decided by Zhao Yun himself rather than dominated by the controversial person Zheng Qingzhi,who was the only chief councilor at that time.After the war,Zhen Dexiu,one of the most famous Neo-Confucian thinkers at the time,who was not only against the war with Mongol but also against peace agreement with Mongol,was appointed into government position at the court in September,1234.He initiated a plan of border defense and proposed an outline of how to overcome domestic problems.However,Zhen Dexiu died immediately and his schedule was not put into practice.Qiao Xingjian became the chief councilor in June,1235.He was a supporter of peace agreement and argued that Song government should establish diplomatic relations with the invaders.He was the winner of the factional strife at the court in 1236,and continued to hold the position of chief councilor until 1240,except for some days in 1236.But the course of peace never established until the Xangyang rebellion broke up.Xiangyang,the most fortressed city in Song’s northern border,was pillaged by the defected Norther Army(北军)in March,1236,and Song dynasty lost control with it.This accident was a military disaster from the Song perspective.After that,Zhao Yun resorted to a course of peace and the peace faction regained the emperor’s attention.Shi Songzhi was also a proponent of peace and became chief councilor in 1239.Although Shi Songzhi tried to reach a peace accord with Mongol,the boarder conflict never stopped.Because from the perspective of Mongol’s leader,he argued that Song be the vassal of Mongol,which was unacceptable for Southern Song.So when Shi Songzhi came back from the front line and wielded power as a chief councilor at court in 1240,he had to give up peace negotiations and pay attention to the national defense.Shi Songzhi employed good commanders who had close relation with him to the front line from Sichuan area down to the Huai River region.Many commanders such as Zhao Kui(赵葵)and Du Gao(杜杲)were driven from the position of commander because of disagreement with Shi Songzhi.But at court,Shi Songzhi lacked broad-based support at the beginning of his chief councilor tenure.On the one hand,Shi Songzhi did not finish the task of deploying his confidant on important positions such as vice chief councilor,censors,and other pragmatic bureaucrats at court.On the contrary,Shi Songzhi was impeached by a lot of enfant terrible Neo-Confucian scholar-officials.The dispute at court never stopped.On the other hand,few scholar-officials from Siming,Shi Songzhi’ hometown,tended to support him,which was obviously different from that in the tenure of Shi Miyuan.There were many opponents holding high level position at the court when Shi Songzhi held the position of chief councilor,most of whom were Neo-Confucian thinkers.Shi Songzhi never built a solid base of support within the bureaucracy.In 1242,Du Fan was appointed to an executive post at the bureau of Military Affairs.He proposed a memorial that recommended several scholar-officials to Zhao Yun,almost every member of whom was either Neo-Confucian thinkers or the opponents of Shi Songzhi.This action could be regarded as the overture of the political battle aimed at dismissing Shi Songzhi in 1244.In the autumn of 1244,Shi Songzhi’s father died,and the opposition believed that Shi Songzhi should step down and observe the traditional three years mourning expected of a son.But Zhao Yun wanted to retain Shi Songzhi in office because he needed Shi Songzhi to complete the task of border defense.Memorials of protest flooded the court,and Shi Songzhi’s narrow political base could not compare with the opposition’s large numbers and cogent argument.Xu Yuanjie and Liu Hanbi were the most important persons in this political battle and they finally changed lizong’s decision.In Decemher 1244,Zhao Yun accepted the resignation of shi songzhi.