Emperor Huizong of Song: SEI

For Emperor Huizong of Song (Zhao Ji, 1082–1135) the type accounts for the refined sensory aestheticism, the temperament that contemporaries recognized as "soft," the delegation of political-administrative work to whoever was willing to do it (albeit being more friendly towards the reformists), the conflict-aversion at every crisis, and the abdication when the Jurchen Jin actually appeared at the gates. The cultural reign of 1100–1126 is one of the high points of Chinese aesthetic history; the political reign is one of the low points of Chinese dynastic timeline. 

The clearest single SEI trait is the aesthetic orientation. What differs here from an IEI reading is the absence of narrative or mythic content in his work. Ludwig II of Bavaria, the cleanest IEI ruler in modern European history, built castles that narrate the Wagner operas room by room and organized his entire inner life around the inhabitation of fantasy identities (Lonhegrin, the "Moon King"). Huizong's famous bird-and-flower paintings are pure sensory observation — the five-colored parakeet on the apricot tree, the gentle naturalism of small beautiful creatures observed with delicate precision, with the pleasure being the immediate perceptual experience. His "Slender Gold" calligraphy is a pure stylistic aesthetic.

The bird-and-flower painting tradition Huizong cultivated became one of the major genres of Chinese art and has continued to be one of the central registers of East Asian visual aesthetics for nine hundred years. 

The 6,000-painting imperial collection, the Wanqin Tang ("10,000 Qin Hall") full of musical instruments, the cataloguing of artists' biographies and works from the third century onward, the antiques from previous dynasties, the rare plants and exotic animals  are not SEE-style "look how awesome I am" status displays or systematic theoretical projects of an LII. They are the connoisseur's accumulation and curation of beautiful things for the pleasure of having them accessible. The Painting Academy, founded by him, with its entrance examinations was institutional infrastructure for producing more beautiful objects of the kind he liked, not an architectonic intellectual project.

The "I would like the role of a rich spendthrift" cluster has SEE first, SEI second, and IEI third in Talanov's questionnaire data, and Huizong's pattern fits the SEI version specifically. Not SEE display-for-status (Huizong did not throw the spectacular public banquets and impressive courts that SEE rulers characteristically organize). Not IEI mythic fantasy (the garden was beautiful but it was a garden of beautiful objects, not Ludwig-style externalization of a private mythological world). Even the Daoist theology the priest Lin Lingsu constructed for him, with the Emperor as an incarnation of the divine King of Jade Clarity, was specifically the kind of religion an SEI emperor would find compatible, promising divine harmony, and the emperor's personal cosmic wellbeing.

The contemporary and modern sources converge on the same observation: Huizong "sought escape from affairs of state through the pleasures of arts and letters" (Britannica), "busied himself with requisitioning colourful stones, rare plants, and exotic pets for this garden, while leaving the administration of the state to others." The type prefers comfort, ease, harmony, and refined pleasure over conflict and harsh political reforms. 

Huizong's government, dominated by Cai Jing and the Reformist faction with the emperor's distant approval, entered into the "Alliance Conducted at Sea" with the rising Jurchen Jin dynasty, agreeing to coordinate attacks on the long-time Song adversary the Khitan Liao. The Jin destroyed the Liao easily; the Song forces performed poorly; the Jin observed Song military weakness and turned on the Song in 1125–1126. While the Song was never a particularly militarized state (one of the least militaristic pre-modern states, probably), it was certainly not up to Huizong to fix what ended up a glaring flaw. The emperor passed the throne to his son Qinzong, and tried to retreat from the situation entirely. The Jin responded by taking Kaifeng in 1127 and captured both emperors along with the imperial family (except an another son of his that re-established the Song in the south) treasuries, and library. Huizong was deported to Manchuria, held in captivity for nine years, and died there in 1135 at fifty-three.

Huizong continued writing poetry through his nine years of Jurchen captivity in Wuguo. The poems lament specific lost things — the palace, the gardens, the collections, the comforts of his previous life — rather than working the captivity into the broader mythic or emotional register, like an IEI of poetic talent would have done.

Chinese historians have always been divided on Huizong, and recent revisionist work (Patricia Ebrey's 2014 biography) has argued that he was "genuinely ambitious — if too much so — in pursuing glory for his flourishing realm" rather than simply decadent and negligent. Both readings are accurate descriptions of the same SEI temperament: the type that, given imperial resources, will produce both refined cultural achievement and political failure when external conditions become too harsh.