Huizong, the next-to-last emperor of the Northern Song, is one of the most interesting and least understood figures of the Song period. Patricia Ebrey's gripping account of the fall of the Northern Song, which opens the introduction to this book, begins to show us why...The image of Huizong that emerges from this volume is both remarkably consistent and strikingly different from the image portrayed in the conventional histories. In place of the superficial aesthete manipulated by his ministers, Huizong appears here as a talented and ambitious ruler for whom politics, art, religion, and public policy were all aspects of a seamless vision of perfect imperial influence.
   --Beverly Bossler, Études chinoises

This collection provides fresh insights into late Northern Song historiography and the Huizong period. Its multiperspective analysis makes it an attractive reference source for specialists in Song history.
   --Daniel J. Meissner, The Historian

Patricia Ebrey is Professor of History and Chinese Studies, University of Washington.

Maggie Bickford is Professor and Chair of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University.

Read More by Patricia Buckley Ebrey:

• Culture and Power in the Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm, 200-600