Southern Song founded at Nanjing

June 12, 1127

A surviving prince of the Song house, having escaped the Jurchen net, was proclaimed Emperor Gaozong and fled south. His court would eventually settle at Hangzhou on West Lake, becoming the largest and richest city on Earth, and preside over a cultural golden age under permanent northern threat. The loss of the north haunted the dynasty; loyalist generals spent decades campaigning to recover the old capital, always in vain.