Zhào Rǔyú 趙汝愚 (1140–1196), zì Zǐzhí 子直, posthumous Zhōngdìng 忠定, was a Southern Sòng Senior Grand Councillor and an imperial-clansman descendant of Tàizōng 太宗. From Yúgān 餘干 (modern Jiāngxī), he passed the jìnshì in Qiándào 乾道 2 (1166), placing first (zhuàngyuán) — the first imperial-clansman to do so. He rose through provincial and central appointments and became Yòu chéngxiàng 右丞相 (Right Grand Councillor) in Shàoxī 紹熙 5 (1194), holding the senior position from then through Qìngyuán 1 (1195).
Zhào’s central political act was his orchestration of the 1194 Shàoxī enthronement crisis: when Guāngzōng refused to attend the late Xiàozōng’s funeral and was thought psychologically unfit to govern, Zhào — together with the eunuch Hán Tuōzhòu 韓侂胄 — engineered the abdication and the enthronement of the Níngzōng emperor. After Níngzōng’s accession, Hán Tuōzhòu turned on Zhào and engineered his removal in Qìngyuán 1 (1195), part of Hán’s larger Qìngyuán dǎngjìn 慶元黨禁 (Qìngyuán Faction Proscription) — the persecution of the Dàoxué movement and its associates including Zhū Xī. Zhào was demoted, exiled to Héngzhōu 衡州, and died there Qìngyuán 2 / 1 (1196) under suspicious circumstances. He was posthumously rehabilitated under Lǐzōng with the Zhōngdìng posthumous title.
His enduring monument is the KR2f0038 Sòng míngchén zòuyì 宋名臣奏議 (also titled Sòngcháo zhūchén zòuyì) in 150 juàn — a comprehensive thematic anthology of 1,630 memorials by 241 Northern-Sòng officials, organized in 12 thematic divisions and 114 sub-categories. The work was begun during his Mǐnjùn (Fújiàn) tenure and presented in the Chúnxī 13 / 11 (1186) memorial preserved at the head of the work; later expansion at Jǐnchéng (Chéngdū) followed. Shǐ Jìwēn 史季溫’s preface of Chúnyòu gēngxū 淳祐庚戌 (1250) records the editorial history.
Sòng shǐ j. 392 has Zhào’s biography. CBDB id 3200; lifedates 1140–1196 from external sources.