Periodization of the Northern Song Emperor Huizong’s Reign (1100–1126)

This article is devoted to the reign of the de facto last Emperor of the Northern Song, Huizong. In particular, it deals with the question of how the periodization of the reign, based on mottos that were declared during the reign of the Emperor coincides with the theoretical periodization, based on the model of political struggle, as well as the question of whether the mottos of the reign can be considered as political institutions that include an official announcement of a change of political course. The dynamics of internal political processes, based on the analysis of the corresponding chapters of the historical chronicle of Song Shi, is demonstrated. As a result of the research, some discrepancies were revealed between the periodization based on the dynamics of internal political processes and the periodization using mottos, in particular, there were more mottos than the stages outlined during the research — 6 and 5, respectively, a brief description of each stage is given.