Five Dynasties · Ruler

Shizong 世宗

Died AD 959

Passages
80
Chapters
4
Histories
2

Overview

The translated histories identify Shizong as a ruler. This record brings together 80 passages from 4 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Shizong 世宗 Shizong
Surname Chai Chai
Title Emperor
Posthumous Emperor Ruiwu Xiaowen 睿武孝文皇帝
Temple name Emperor Shizong 世宗
Temple name Emperor Shizong of Zhou 周世宗
Posthumous Rui Wu Xiao Wen Emperor 睿武孝文皇帝
Temple Shizong 世宗 Shizong
Temple name Shizong 世宗 Shìzōng
Title Zhou Shizong 周世宗

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • Ruler

Life and dates

Death

  • Place: Wansui Hall / 萬歲殿 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 顯德六年六月癸巳 · Western Year: AD 959

Age

  • Value: 39 · Reckoning: sui · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 顯德六年 · Western Year: AD 959

Attested activity

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

  • Parent of Emperor Gongdi (恭帝)
    Kinship Term: eldest imperial son / 皇長子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Birth Order: 1
    Kinship Term: eldest imperial son / 皇長子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Subject Birth Order: 1
  • Spouse of Later Empress Fu (後符後)
    Kinship Term: empress / 皇后 · Union Category: primary-marriage
    Kinship Term: empress / 皇后 · Union Category: primary-marriage · Relationship State: formed
  • Parent of Imperial Daughter of Shizong (皇女)
    Kinship Term: imperial daughter / 皇女 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: daughter
  • Kin of Daughter of Zhou Taizu (周太祖之女)
    Kinship Term: kinship / 親
  • Parent of Zongrang (宗讓)
    Kinship Term: second son / 第二子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Subject Birth Order: 2
    Kinship Term: second son / 第二子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Birth Order: 2
  • Child of Guo Wei (郭威)
    Kinship Term: Shizong / 世宗 · Parentage: adoptive · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father
  • Kin of Guo Wei (郭威)
    Kinship Term: succeeded the Guo house / 承郭氏之後

Origins and identity

Career and standing

  • Date Context: Source Date: Text: 承郭氏之後踐祚 · Western Interval: Start: AD 954 · End: AD 954

Places and affiliations

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

Assessments and attributes

  • Assessment: excessive keenness and severity in punishment · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
  • Assessment: heroic ruler of his age · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 119Volume 119 Book of Later Zhou 21: Shizong Annals 6 · 59 passages
未幾,賜之書:「敕陳摶,朕以汝高謝人寰,棲心物外,養太浩自然之氣,應少微處士之星,既不屈於王侯,遂甘隱於巖壑,樂我中和之化,慶乎下武之期,而能遠涉山塗,暫來城闕,浹旬延遇,宏益居多,白雲暫駐於帝鄉,好爵難縻於達士。 Before long he granted him a letter: "To Chen Tuan: You have loftily withdrawn from the world and dwell beyond things, nurturing primordial breath and answering to the star of the recluse. Refusing princes, you hide in cliffs and ravines, delighting in our culture of harmony and rejoicing in this age of martial virtue; yet you crossed mountain paths to visit the capital. For more than ten days we received you, and the benefit was mostly ours. White clouds briefly rested at court; fine rank cannot bind the man of attainment.
史臣曰:世宗頃在仄微,尤務韜晦,及天命有屬,嗣守鴻業,不日破高平之陣,逾年復秦、鳳之封,江北、燕南,取之如拾芥,神武雄略,乃一代之英主也。 The historian writes: Shizong was lately in obscurity and practiced concealment; when Heaven's mandate fell to him, he inherited the great enterprise. Within days he broke the Gaoping line; within a year he recovered Qin and Feng. North of the Yangzi and south of Yan he took territory as one picks up mustard seeds. Divine in martial prowess and heroic in strategy, he was the heroic ruler of his age.
臣下有過,必面折之,常言太祖養成二王之惡,以致君臣之義,不保其終,故帝駕馭豪傑,失則明言之,功則厚賞之,文武參用,莫不服其明而懷其恩也。 When subordinates erred, he rebuked them to their faces. He often said that Taizu had nurtured the wickedness of the two princes, so that the bond between ruler and minister could not be preserved to the end. Therefore he controlled bold spirits: faults he named plainly, merit he rewarded richly; civil and military alike he employed, and all submitted to his clarity and cherished his grace.
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 144Volume 144: Treatises 6 Music 1 · 5 passages
New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 50Volume 50 Miscellaneous Biographies 30: Wang Jun, Wang Yin, Liu Ci, Wang Huan, Zhe Congruan · 10 passages
New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 69Volume 69: Hereditary House of Nanping · 6 passages