Song dynasty ends at the Battle of Yamen
March 19, 1279
Cornered against a Guangdong cliff, the remnant Song fleet was smashed by Yuan ships. Loyalist minister Lu Xiufu, holding the seven-year-old emperor Bing, leapt from a ship into the sea. Three centuries of Song rule ended in the South China Sea's warm surf. The mass suicide of loyalist officials who followed Lu into the waves became one of the most mourned episodes in Chinese historical memory.
In context
Also in 1279 (2 other events on record)
- Yuan dynasty census counts vast Chinese population · East Asia · Politics
- Su Song's clock tower continues functioning · East Asia · Technology
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in War
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources