Reflections | China’s long and distinguished history of rule-breaking emperors

Imperial abdications are not uncommon in Japanese history, with emperors retiring or being forced to retire for various reasons. Japan’s emperors have usually been figureheads, with real power in the hands of politicians, noblemen and military commanders. More ambitious emperors would relinquish their thrones, freeing themselves from their ceremonial role to become politically active as abdicated emperors (daijo tenno) in a process unique to Japan.

There were fewer abdications among Chinese rulers, and many occurred in the states and king­doms of a divided China. Monarchs of major dynasties who abdicated include ailing 82-year-old Empress Wu Zetian, who was forced to give the throne back to her son in a palace coup in AD705.

Emperor Huizong, of the Northern Song dynasty, preferred dabbling in the arts and Taoism to dealing with the domestic strife and foreign inva­sions, and divested the title of emperor to his son in 1125.