In 1127, during the second year of the Jingkang era under Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty, the Jin army breached the Northern Song capital of Kaifeng, plundering the city for several consecutive days before abducting thousands of imperial family members, including Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong, back to the Jin state, thus marking the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty—this is the historically renowned "Jingkang Incident."
During Emperor Huizong's reign, Wanyan Aguda established the Jin Dynasty and achieved successive victories in battles against the Liao Dynasty. Concluding that the Liao Dynasty would inevitably fall to the Jin, Huizong formed an alliance with the Jin to jointly attack the Liao. Because the envoys of both Song and Jin negotiated through maritime routes during the alliance's formation, this pact became known as the "Maritime Alliance."
The Song and Jin dynasties agreed that the Jin army would be responsible for attacking the Liao central capital, while the Song army would attack the Liao Yanjing. After the Liao state was destroyed, the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun would belong to the Northern Song, and the remaining Liao territory would go to the Jin. In addition, the Northern Song would transfer the annual tribute it had paid to the Liao to the Jin instead.
Later, the Jin army breached the Liao central capital, but the Song army suffered a crushing defeat and retreated. Pressing their advantage, the Jin forces also captured the Liao Yanjing, then took the Liao Emperor Tianzuo prisoner and wiped out the Liao state. Despite the Song army's defeat, Emperor Huizong still wanted to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. He sent envoys to negotiate with the Jin state, ultimately buying back Yanjing with three hundred thousand bolts of silk, two hundred thousand taels of silver, and one million strings of cash. However, by then, Yanjing had already been completely looted by the Jin army.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, successive military defeats in foreign campaigns and weak performance in peace negotiations did not go unnoticed by the rulers of the Jin Kingdom. After destroying the Liao Kingdom and subjugating the Western Xia, the Jin Kingdom set its sights on the Northern Song as its next target.
In 1125, Wanyan Zongwang led the Jin army directly toward the Song Dynasty's capital, Kaifeng. Emperor Huizong, following Li Gang's advice, abdicated the throne to his son Zhao Huan, who became Emperor Qinzong. Under Li Gang's command, the Song forces achieved victory in the Defense of Dongjing (Kaifeng), forcing the Jin army to withdraw. After the war, Li Gang, who had contributed greatly to resisting the Jin, was immediately sidelined by the appeasement faction at court and later exiled to a remote region by Emperor Qinzong.
After only a few months, the Jin army returned and camped outside Kaifeng. By then, Li Gang had already left the capital, and Emperor Qinzong, not knowing who to turn to for help, was frantic and at a loss. The Jin commander Wanyan Zonghan proactively proposed peace negotiations, and the overjoyed emperor hastily dispatched envoys to the Jin military camp.
However, Wanyan Zonghan demanded to negotiate with the retired Emperor Huizong of Song. Emperor Qinzong was weak-willed, and his father Huizong was even more so, refusing to put himself in danger at all costs. Left with no choice, Qinzong could only claim that the retired emperor was too frightened and unwell, then personally led a group of court officials to the Jin army camp. What Qinzong did not expect was that this peace talk was merely a trap set by Wanyan Zonghan, whose goal was to detain him and blackmail the Northern Song court. During his captivity, Qinzong suffered immense humiliation, losing his personal freedom and enduring constant hunger and cold, weeping endlessly. Meanwhile, the Jin army stormed into Kaifeng city, looting wildly. The once grand city of Kaifeng fell into chaos, with countless civilians dying of starvation. At that time, an epidemic swept through Kaifeng, and the situation was utterly horrific.
In the second year of the Jingkang era, Emperor Taizong of the Jin Dynasty ordered that Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty be demoted to commoners. Jin soldiers forcibly stripped Qinzong of his dragon robe, but Li Ruoshui, a loyal Song official, protected his emperor and denounced the Jin troops. Wanyan Zonghan, enraged, ordered Li Ruoshui to be brutally killed.
After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin army installed the pro-peace faction leader Zhang Bangchang as emperor, establishing the state known as "Great Chu." During this period, the Jin army continued to plunder Kaifeng City, extracting tens of thousands of gold and silver until nothing of value remained. Only then did they withdraw in two groups: one group, supervised by Wanyan Zongwang, escorted Emperor Huizong, Empress Zheng, princes, imperial grandsons, princesses, imperial sons-in-law, and concubines northward along Huazhou; three days later, another group, supervised by Wanyan Zonghan, escorted Emperor Qinzong, Empress Zhu, and the crown prince northward along Zhengzhou. Additionally, thousands of musicians and craftsmen, over a hundred thousand innocent civilians, and countless rare treasures were all taken to the Jin state. This event is known in the history of the Song Dynasty as the "Jingkang Incident."
Emperor Huizong's ninth son, Prince Kang Zhao Gou, was serving as the Grand Marshal of the military in Hebei at the time. Later, Zhao Gou established a regime at Yingtian Prefecture in Nanjing, and subsequently moved the capital to Lin'an, restoring the dynastic name of Song, which history records as the Southern Song Dynasty, with Zhao Gou becoming Emperor Gaozong of Song.
During their retreat, the Jin soldiers continuously harassed the local populace along the way, sparking widespread resentment wherever they went. The captured imperial clan members also endured relentless suffering throughout the journey; of the original group of over three thousand people, only a little more than a thousand remained by the time they reached Yanjing, with the rest having died from illness, starvation, or torture along the route.
More than three months later, the two armies converged at Yanjing, where Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong, father and son, were reunited and wept uncontrollably in each other's arms. Two months after that, they were escorted to the Jin capital, Shangjing. There, they were forced to wear mourning garments and pay respects at the temple of Wanyan Aguda, the deceased founding emperor of the Jin state.
After only a few years in Wuguocheng, Emperor Huizong died of illness. More than twenty years later, Emperor Qinzong also succumbed to illness in a foreign land. In fact, seven years after Huizong's death, relations between the Southern Song and the Jin Dynasty had already eased somewhat, and the Jin Dynasty even sent Emperor Gaozong's mother, Consort Wei, back to the Southern Song. Before her departure, Qinzong earnestly begged her to ask Gaozong to bring him back as well, insisting that he had no intention of contending for the throne and that Gaozong need not worry. However, Gaozong always harbored suspicions toward his elder brother, fearing that his return would threaten his own rule, and thus refused to bring him back under any circumstances. Qinzong awaited the end of his life in despair.
After Emperor Qinzong's death, Emperor Gaozong hypocritically feigned overwhelming grief and bestowed upon him the posthumous title "Gongwen Shunde Renxiao Emperor," but in his heart, Gaozong secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as both Emperors Huizong and Qinzong had died in foreign lands, meaning no one would ever again be qualified to contend for the throne.
Although Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong, father and son, were weak and incompetent, they were quite talented, especially Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. He created the Slender Gold calligraphy style and left behind famous works like the "Thousand Character Classic in Slender Gold Style," whose quality is unmatched, making him the foremost calligrapher in history. Beyond calligraphy, Huizong was also highly accomplished in painting and poetry. He established the Hanlin Painting Academy and added painting to the imperial examinations. During his reign, the status of painters rose to unprecedented heights. Huizong also ordered the compilation of art history books such as the "Xuanhe Calligraphy Manual," "Xuanhe Painting Manual," and "Xuanhe Antiquities Catalog," which became important references for later studies of Chinese art history. It is said that when the Jin army invaded Kaifeng and plundered the city, what pained Huizong most was not the gold and silver treasures taken by the Jin forces, but the looting of the imperial palace's library collection. During his stay in Wuguo City, Huizong spent his days reading to pass the time. To express his grief over the fall of his kingdom, he wrote the famous lines: "All night the west wind shakes the broken door, in the desolate lone inn a single lamp dims. My homeland lies three thousand miles away, my gaze ends at the southern sky with no wild geese in flight."
Emperor Huizong was a successful artist but a failed monarch, and his incompetence, along with that of Emperor Qinzong, directly led to the most humiliating event in Northern Song history—the Jingkang Incident—which ultimately caused the dynasty's collapse. The Southern Song general Yue Fei once wrote: "The shame of Jingkang remains unavenged; when will the subjects' hatred ever end?" The disgrace brought by the Jingkang Incident to the people of both the Northern and Southern Song dynasties could never be washed away, and Emperors Huizong and Qinzong became eternal sinners in the history of the Song Dynasty.