honoured as Empress Xianren (顯仁皇后; 1080–1159) after his ascension to the throne. Emperor Gaozong was originally a prince named Zhao Gou during the reigns of his father and brother. After Emperor Huizong abdicated, his older brother Emperor Qinzong became emperor. During this time, the capital of Bianjing was under siege by the Jurchens. He was ordered to the Jurchen camp to negotiate peace by Qinzong in an effort to end the siege early but Zhao Gou was held for ransom. He later came back after being ransomed due to the Jurchens' doubts of his identity. After his brother and father and the capital of Bianjing were captured by forces of the Jurchen-led Jin Empire in the Jingkang Incident in 1127 along with majority of the imperial clan members due to his predecessors' incompetence and the imperial court's corruption, he escaped to Southern China due to being in Cizhou for a diplomatic mission and therefore, not in Bianjing. In order to escape, Zhao Gou had to move province to province in order to escape the Jin troops. The Jurchens tried to lure him back to Bianjing where they could finally capture him, but did not succeed. Zhao Gou finally arrived in the Song Southern Capital at Jiankang, the first of many temporary capitals. Reign Enthronement After proving himself to be a more competent administrator than his predecessors, he won support from imperial court's remnants of his ascension to the throne; he reestablished the Song Empire (historically known as the Southern Song dynasty) and was proclaimed as Emperor Gaozong with the era name Jianyan in Jiankang (present Nanjing) which at the time was a temporary residence for the remnants of the Song. The new reign name Jianyan 建炎, literally meaning "Establishing the Fire," suggests the Southern Song's continuation to the Northern Song (Fire was the dynastic element of the Song as decided in the early years of the dynasty). He would later move to Yingtianfu (; modern Shangqiu) due to the historical significance to Emperor Taizu of Song. From 1127 to 1129, the Song sent thirteen embassies to the Jin to discuss peace terms and to negotiate the release of Gaozong's mother and Huizong, but the Jin court ignored them. The Da Chu, a puppet state established by the Jin Empire, was abolished in 1127 when Zhang Bangchang and the regent of Da Chu, the former Empress Meng, submitted to Emperor Gaozong,