KAO-TSUNG

born 628, Ch'ang-an, China died 683, Ch'ang-an Pinyin Gao Zong (temple name, or miao-hao), personal name (hsing-ming) Li Chih third emperor of the T'ang dynasty and husband of the empress Wu Hou (625705). He expanded the T'ang empire into Korea. In 649 Kao-tsung succeeded his father, T'ai-tsung. He continued his father's foreign campaigns, conquering the Korean peninsula and making Korea a vassal state in 668. In domestic affairs he ended the lavish expenditure on palace construction carried out by his father. But he proved to be a weak ruler and in his later years was dominated by his consort, the empress Wu, a former concubine of his father. Kao-tsung had rescued her from the convent to which she had been sent upon T'ai-tsung's death. After Kao-tsung's death, Wu attempted to rule through a series of puppets until 690, when she usurped the throne herself. born 1107, China died 1187, China Pinyin Gao Zong (temple name, or miao-hao), personal name (hsing-ming) Chao Kou first emperor of the Southern Sung dynasty (11271279). He fled to the South when the nomadic Juchen tribesmen overran North China and captured Kao-tsung's father, the abdicated emperor Hui-tsung (reigned 110025/26), and Kao-tsung's brother, the emperor Ch'in-tsung (1125/2627). Kao-tsung reestablished the dynasty in the South with greatly reduced territory in 1127. The Juchen had pursued him, but the great general Yeh Fei held off the invaders, who in any case were having difficulty using their cavalry in the rivers and hills of South and Central China. The war caused great hardship, and a debate arose within the Cabinet over the value of continuing it. The peace faction prevailed, Yeh Fei was executed, and in 1141 a peace treaty was signed. In 1162 the war again erupted for a short period. After a new peace treaty was signed in that same year, Kao-tsung abdicated. Despite its reduced size, the Southern Sung became in many ways a wealthier country than the combined Sung empire had been.