Cui Yuanzong (崔元綜) was an official of the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

and

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...

's Zhou dynasty, serving as a

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

during Wu Zetian's reign.

Background

It is not known when Cui Yuanzong was born, but it is known that his family was from Zheng Prefecture (鄭州, roughly modern

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou (; ), also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the National ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

), and that his clan had produced many officials throughout the

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Northern dynasties ...

, the

Northern Zhou Zhou (), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (), was a Xianbei-led dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to 581. One of the Northern dynasties of China's Northern and Southern dynasties period, it succeeded the Western Wei dynasty and ...

, and the Tang's predecessor, the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and layi ...

. His grandfather Cui Junsu (崔君肅) as a mid-level official under the

's founder Emperor Gaozu.That Cui Yuanzong's grandfather was Cui Junsu was per his biographies in the ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

'' and the ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

''. See ''Old Book of Tang'', vol. 90 and ''New Book of Tang'', vol. 114. However, the table of chancellors' family trees in the ''

'' listed Cui Yuanzong's grandfather as Cui Junsu's brother Cui Junzhou (崔君宙), and neither Cui Junzhou nor Cui Yuanzong's father Cui Qianli (崔千里) was listed with any offices or titles. See ''New Book of Tang'', vol. 72, part 2.

During Wu Zetian's reign

As of Wu Zetian's ''Tianshou'' era (690-692), Cui Yuanzong was serving as the minister of justice (秋官尚書, ''Qiuguan Shangshu''). In 692, Wu Zetian made him ''Luantai Shilang'' (鸞臺侍郎), the deputy head of the examination bureau of government (鸞臺, ''Luantai''), and gave him the designation ''Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi'' (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a

''de facto''. It was said that Cui was diligent while serving in office, and whenever he was on duty, he would stay late and take few breaks. He was also said to be careful in his actions and did not have any gourmet foods for over 20 years. However, he was also said to be, while appearing to be lenient on the outside, actually very harsh as a judge, and he picked faults with people and gave them heavy punishments, and therefore was feared. In 694, he was accused of crimes and exiled to Zhen Prefecture (振州, roughly modern

Sanya Sanya (; also spelled Samah) is the southernmost city on Hainan Island, and one of the four prefecture-level cities of Hainan Province in South China. According to the 2020 census, the total population of Sanya was 1,031,396 inhabitants, li ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

), and it was said that there was much rejoicing among other officials of his exile. At a later point, after a general pardon, he was recalled and served as imperial censor (監察御史, ''Jiancha Yushi'').

During Emperor Zhongzong's reign

Wu Zetian was overthrown in a coup in 705, and her son Li Xian, formerly emperor, was restored to the throne (as Emperor Zhongzong). During Emperor Zhongzong's reign, Cui successively served as ''Shangshu Zuo Cheng'' (尚書左丞) -- a secretary general of the executive bureau (尚書省, ''Shangshu Sheng''), and as the prefect of Pu Prefecture (蒲州, roughly modern

Yuncheng Yuncheng is the southernmost prefecture-level city in Shanxi province, People's Republic of China. It borders Linfen and Jincheng municipalities to the north and east, and Henan (Luoyang and Jiyuan to the east, Sanmenxia to the south) and Shaan ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

), before retiring on account of age and illness. After retirement, he was said to be much involved in

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

practices to try to prolong life. He lived to his 90s, but the date of his death is not known.

Notes and references

* ''

'', vol. 9

* ''

'', vol. 11

* ''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

'', vol. 205. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cui, Yuanzong Chancellors under Wu Zetian Chinese judges