A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Chao Hsü (趙頊)
157 Chao Hsü 趙頊. A.D. 1048-1085. Eldest son of Chao Shu, whom he succeeded in 1067 as sixth Emperor of the Sung dynasty. He possessed many virtues, but was cursed with an ambition to recover from the Liaos all the territory that had once belonged to the empire. Han Ch'i and other experienced men warned him in vain; and he found an ally in Wang An-shih, whose projects for increasing China's wealth and power resulted, owing to his own undue haste and the indiscriminating opposition of all the conservative officials, only in discontent and official persecution. Petty wars followed: with Hsia (1067 and 1082—83); with the Turfan (1072); with the aborigines of the south-west (1074); and with Cochin-China (1075—76). Intended as preparatory to a war with Liao, these wars cost vast sums and ended in no substantial gain; while the Emperor's evident ambition opened the way to power for intriguing flatterers. Id 1076 a eunuch, 李憲 Li Hsien, was put in supreme command on the north-western frontier, and did much mischief; but in his last years the Emperor came to realise the vanity of his ambitious schemes, and sought peace. The reign was made glorious by the works of Ch'êng Hao, Ch'êng I, Chou Tun-i, and Chang Tsai; and in 1084 Ssŭ-ma Guang finished his great history. Honours were paid to Mencius and other worthies, though public opinion was shocked by the admission of Yang Hsiung and Hsün K'uang to the Confucian Temple. Canonised as 英文烈武聖孝皇帝, with the temple name of 神宗.