The Years Hangzhou Served as Capital

The Years Hangzhou Served as Capital

In 138, the Southern Song court worked in Hangzhou—yet always told the outside world that this was merely a "temporary residence."

Most people come to Hangzhou to see {{西湖|West Lake|Xī Hú}}. They walk along {{苏堤|Su Causeway|Sū Dī}}, drink tea, take a boat, and leave with the impression that this is a city built for pleasure. That impression is not wrong, but it is incomplete. For 138 years, Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song, the political and cultural center of southern China, and one of the largest cities in the world at the time. The court called it {{临安|Lin'an|Lín'ān}}, and also called it "xingzai"—the place where the emperor temporarily stayed.

This very phrasing is the core of the story.

{{德寿宫|Deshou Palace|Déshòu Gōng}}, a modern reconstruction built on the site of the Southern Song palace. Photo: Takashishin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A Court That Fled South

In 1127, the Jurchen Jin dynasty captured {{开封|Kaifeng|Kāifēng}}, the capital of the Northern Song, and took two emperors prisoner. The Song court fled south in panic. For the next ten years, the court moved from place to place while the Jin army pursued it. In 1138, it finally settled in Hangzhou and designated it as the "xingzai."

But the official wording was very particular: Hangzhou was not called the "capital" but the "xingzai," meaning the emperor's temporary residence. The court built palaces, performed sacrifices to heaven and earth, and held imperial examinations here, yet always maintained the rhetoric that "one day we will retake the north." Because once it admitted that the north was lost, the legitimacy of the regime would be gone.

This "temporary capital" remained temporary for 138 years. It lasted longer than the capitals of many dynasties.

The Imperial City on Phoenix Hill

The Southern Song built its imperial city on {{凤凰山|Phoenix Hill|Fènghuáng Shān}} in the south of the city, close to West Lake and also close to the {{钱塘江|Qiantang River|Qiántáng Jiāng}}. The imperial city had its own walls and gates; the outer city had walls, moats, and a grid of streets and alleys. The city's central axis was the {{御街|Imperial Street|Yù Jiē}}, which ran from the imperial city all the way north to the city gate. By day it was a ceremonial route; by night it was a commercial street.

Before the court arrived, Hangzhou was already an important commercial city. The court did not make it rich; rather, it layered power on top of wealth. This is rare in Chinese urban history: it was both a capital and a market; it emphasized ritual propriety and also did business.

Beyond the imperial city was {{德寿宫|Deshou Palace|Déshòu Gōng}}. It was a palace built for an abdicated emperor, with gardens, halls, and ponds—a private world for a retired emperor. Today, a museum and a reconstructed main hall have been built on the site of Deshou Palace, making it the most direct memory of the Southern Song in Hangzhou.

The {{南宋御街|Southern Song Imperial Street|Nánsòng Yù Jiē}}, still the central axis of the old city today. Photo: Dingding / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A City Both Wealthy and Interesting

Lin'an during the Southern Song was bustling. It had night markets, food stalls, teahouses, taverns, pawnshops, bookshops, temples, and stages. Its population may have exceeded one million. Its consumer culture was mature enough to support luxury goods, popular fiction, guidebooks, and "restaurant rankings." Outsiders poured in, and the city learned how to entertain them.

West Lake was the center of this culture. The "Ten Scenes of West Lake" took shape during the Southern Song: {{苏堤春晓|Dawn on the Su Causeway in Spring|Sū Dī Chūn Xiǎo}}, {{曲院风荷|Lotus in the Breeze at Quyuan|Qūyuàn Fēng Hé}}, {{平湖秋月|Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake|Píng Hú Qiū Yuè}}, {{断桥残雪|Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge|Duàn Qiáo Cán Xuě}}. These were not randomly selected beautiful views but carefully arranged images: each name has four characters, corresponding to a season, a time of day, and a kind of weather. The lake was edited into a set of images for people to tour, paint, and inscribe poems about.

The city was also productive: printing books, firing porcelain, weaving silk, making tea, brewing wine, and building ships. Hangzhou was not just a court; it also had industry.

The Aesthetics of a Small Court

The Southern Song had a smaller territory than the Northern Song, yet produced some of the most refined art in Chinese history. Painting, poetry, and porcelain all turned toward a restrained beauty: monochrome glazes, empty space, fine crackles, and quiet proportions.

The official kilns near Phoenix Hill fired {{官窑|guan ware|guān yáo}} for the court, with crackled glazes like jade under water. Further south, the {{龙泉窑|Longquan kilns|Lóngquán yáo}} produced deep, soft celadon. These objects bore no slogans and no wars; they spoke only of proportion, surface, and silence. A court that had lost the north seemed to place its confidence in a tea bowl.

Southern Song Longquan celadon. Photo: Gary Todd / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

The Curtain Falls

In 1276, Yuan troops stood at the city gates, and the Southern Song court surrendered in Lin'an. Resistance continued for another three years, ending only with the naval battle at {{崖山|Yamen|Yá Shān}} in 1279. That "temporary capital" ultimately remained in memory in a permanent way.

What survived was not the dynasty but the city. Through the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Hangzhou remained a major center of commerce, printing, and culture. The court left, but the urban habits it had fostered did not.

Dusk at West Lake. Photo: Yinweichen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What Remains

The Southern Song is buried beneath modern Hangzhou, but it has not disappeared. The Imperial Street is still in the old city; the plane trees, shops, and old lines of the road surface still point to the central axis of that time. Deshou Palace has become a museum. The {{南宋官窑博物馆|Southern Song Official Kiln Museum|Nánsòng Guān Yáo Bówùguǎn}} preserves the official kiln site. West Lake still retains the "Ten Scenes" named in the Southern Song.

A suitable one-day route is: in the morning go to Deshou Palace, walk north along the Imperial Street, in the afternoon visit the Southern Song Official Kiln Museum, and return to West Lake in the evening. The route is not long, but the layers are deep.

Why It Matters

Hangzhou's reputation for being "livable" was not invented by the tourism industry. It comes from a court that lost a war: since it could not return to the north, it made life good. The Southern Song gave Hangzhou a dual identity—capital and market, elegance and business—and the city has not lost it to this day.

West Lake is the scenery; the Imperial Street is the story.