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His most famous works include the handscroll paintings "Five-Colored Parakeet"[http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/five-colored-parakeet-on-a-blossoming-apricot-tree-29081] and "Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk,"[http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/court-ladies-preparing-newly-woven-silk-28127] and the hanging scroll painting "Auspicious Cranes" (below) along with a number of works of calligraphy in Huizong's distinctive "Slender Gold" style. Huizong is also known for his personal/Imperial collection of over six thousand paintings, and for his establishment of the [[Imperial Painting Academy]]. The Academy would continue on into the [[Southern Song Dynasty]], and would be revived in the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing Dynasty|Qing Dynasties]] as a body of official court painters, each of whom enjoyed formal court rank and worked producing artworks for the Court for a variety of official purposes.
His most famous works include the handscroll paintings "Five-Colored Parakeet"[http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/five-colored-parakeet-on-a-blossoming-apricot-tree-29081] and "Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk,"[http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/court-ladies-preparing-newly-woven-silk-28127] and the hanging scroll painting "Auspicious Cranes" (below) along with a number of works of calligraphy in Huizong's distinctive "Slender Gold" style. Huizong is also known for his personal/Imperial collection of over six thousand paintings, and for his establishment of the [[Imperial Painting Academy]]. The Academy would continue on into the [[Southern Song Dynasty]], and would be revived in the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing Dynasty|Qing Dynasties]] as a body of official court painters, each of whom enjoyed formal court rank and worked producing artworks for the Court for a variety of official purposes.
Huizong was also a strong supporter of [[Daoism]], giving it priority over [[Buddhism]], and working to have many Buddhist institutions and deities refigured as Daoist ones, building upon similar actions by his predecessor, [[Emperor Zhezong of Song]]. He also sponsored the first [[Printing in China|printed]] compilation of the Daoist canon.<ref>Conrad Schirokauer, et al, ''A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations'', Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 199-200.</ref>
Though a celebrated figure in the history of Chinese art, Huizong is also considered to have been a rather weak emperor in political terms, and is generally seen in rather negative terms, as his reign saw the loss of northern China (the Yellow River Valley) to the [[Jurchen]] hordes of the [[Jin Dynasty]]. The Jin captured the Northern Song capital of [[Kaifeng]], and took Huizong and much of the Imperial family prisoner. While one of his sons, who had not been present in Kaifeng at the time, continued the Song Dynasty as [[Emperor Gaozong of Song]] in a new southern capital at Lin'an ([[Hangzhou]]), Huizong spent the rest of his life, the next ten years, a captive of the Jurchens, dying in [[1135]].
Though a celebrated figure in the history of Chinese art, Huizong is also considered to have been a rather weak emperor in political terms, and is generally seen in rather negative terms, as his reign saw the loss of northern China (the Yellow River Valley) to the [[Jurchen]] hordes of the [[Jin Dynasty]]. The Jin captured the Northern Song capital of [[Kaifeng]], and took Huizong and much of the Imperial family prisoner. While one of his sons, who had not been present in Kaifeng at the time, continued the Song Dynasty as [[Emperor Gaozong of Song]] in a new southern capital at Lin'an ([[Hangzhou]]), Huizong spent the rest of his life, the next ten years, a captive of the Jurchens, dying in [[1135]].