I Am the Shizu of Song

It is said that Emperor Zhezong, though a descendant of Taizong, possessed the very bearing of Taizu. Yet Heaven granted him no long life; he died in his prime, paving the way for Huizong’s ascension and the eventual shame of the Jingkang catastrophe. In the seventh year of Yuanyou (1092), the Empress Dowager Gao Taotao ruled from behind the curtain, while the young emperor Zhao Xu sat upon the throne as little more than a wooden puppet. By this time, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang had long since passed, yet the factional strife between their followers burned unabated, as irreconcilable as fire and water. In the wider world, Li Qingzhao and Zhao Ji were still children with twin topknots; the Western Xia, Tibet, Liao, and Great Song stood as four rival powers, with the Jin kingdom still only a sprout on the horizon. That spring, Su Shi was transferred from Yingzhou to Yangzhou, and Cheng Yi emerged from his period of mourning. That same spring, the young Son of Heaven was to select his empress. But it was also the spring when Zhao Xu—a mind from a later age having crossed into his body—overturned the chessboard entirely.