The Chinese emperor Hui-Tsung (1082-1135) was the eighth Sung emperor, an outstanding painter and calligrapher and a great patron of the arts, whose reign ended in disaster.

Son of Emperor Shen-tsung and a gifted concubine, Lady Ch'en, Hui-tsung came to the throne unexpectedly on the death of the young emperor Che-tsung, largely because he was supported by the empress dowager Hsiang. Initially Hui-tsung tried to reconcile reformers who looked back to Wang An-shih and their conservative opponents, but after the death of the empress dowager in 1101, Huitsung turned to the reform party led by Chief Minister Ts'ai Ching.

Together Hui-tsung and Ts'ai revived many of the reform programs while adding such innovations as the establishment of new charity hospitals and the extension of the educational system, but the Emperor also condoned the proscription of all opponents of the reforms and shared responsibility for the decline in political standards...