Abstract:

Emperor Zhezong in the Song Dynasty smiled a lot, with 41 cases of smiles in the historical records during his 15-year-reign. Moreover, all the cases were recorded in his six years of independent rule during Shaosheng and Yuanfu periods, with an average of 6.8 cases per year, which was the highest among the emperors in the Song Dynasty. Zhezong was unsmiling by nature, but he smiled more at the ministers around him, which was obviously required by “ruling the world with scholar-officials”. The emperor’s smiles can be roughly divided into approval smiles, refusal smiles, appeasement smiles, compound smiles, confident and proud smiles, ambiguous smiles, joyful smiles and sarcastic smiles. Among them, the smiles of approval are the most, followed by the smiles of refusal, which shows that the growth process of the young emperor is highly dependent on the assistance of ministers. Emperor Zhezong got along with his ministers with smiles, endorsed or rejected the ministers’ opinions with smiles, which was actually the expression embodiment and proof of the Emperor’s belief of “ruling the world with scholar-officials” in the Song Dynasty. This shows the wisdom of the flexible operation of monarchical power, and to some extent, it could be regarded as the soft power of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, providing an interesting reference sample for examining the diversity of ancient political culture in China.

Key words: Emperor Zhezong in the Song Dynasty, smiles, “ruling the world with scholar-officials”, emotional politics