GaozongWade-Giles romanization Kao-tsungPinyin Gao Zong (temple name, or miao-hao), personal name (hsing-ming) Chao Kou xingming) Zhao Gou  ( born 1107 , China—died 1187 , China )  temple name (miaohao) of the first emperor of the Nan (Southern Sung ) Song dynasty (1127–1279). He fled to the South China when the nomadic Juchen tribesmen overran North China and captured Kao-tsung’s Gaozong’s father, the abdicated emperor Hui-tsung Bei (Northern) Song emperor Huizong (reigned 1100–251100–1125/26), and Kao-tsung’s Gaozong’s brother, the emperor Ch’in-tsung Qinzong (1125/26–27). Kao-tsung Gaozong reestablished the dynasty in the South with greatly reduced territory in 1127. The Juchen had pursued him, but the great general Yüeh Yue Fei held off the invaders, who in any case were having difficulty using their cavalry in the rivers and hills of South southern and Central central China.

The war caused great hardship, and a debate arose within the Cabinet cabinet over the value of continuing it. The peace faction prevailed, Yüeh Yue Fei was executed, and in 1141 a peace treaty was signed. In 1162 the war again erupted for a short period. After a new peace treaty was signed in that same year, Kao-tsung Gaozong abdicated. Despite its reduced size, the Southern Sung Nan Song became in many ways a wealthier country than the combined Sung Song empire had been.