https://oleracea.neocities.org/blog/history/ Recent content in History on The wild broccoli 🥦 Hugo en-US Copyright © 2025, Veronica G---. Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oleracea.neocities.org/the-emperor/ Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oleracea.neocities.org/the-emperor/ <h1 id="introduction">Introduction</h1> <p>Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty is generally remembered in popular history as a comically tragic (or tragically comic) figure: the emperor who disappeared into a fantasy world of fine art while his empire crumbled around him, ultimately losing the northern half of the empire to barbarian conquest by the Jurchens. However, this is a flattening of a complicated and sophisticated ruler, one which serves more as a convenient and simple morality tale like one of Aesop&rsquo;s fables than an accurate portrayal of the real historical figure. In this way, we can compare the moralistic mythology around Huizong to that of the Roman emperor Nero, who similarly championed arts and culture during his rule only to eventually be overthrown and later be conflated in popular culture with the Antichrist, labeled a profligate who fiddled while Rome burned.</p>