Ge Fuyuan (格輔元; died November 7, 691兩千年中西曆轉換
/ref>) was a Chinese politician of the

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 briefly 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. It is not known when Ge Fuyuan was born, but it is known that he was from Bian Prefecture (汴州, roughly modern

Kaifeng Kaifeng () is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, China. It is one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China, having been the capital eight times in history, and is best known for having been the Chinese capital during the Nort ...

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 ...

). Nothing is known about his father Ge Churen (格處仁), but his uncle Ge Deren (格德仁) was known for scholarship during Tang's predecessor

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 ...

. Ge Fuyuan's brother Ge Xiyuan (格希元) served on the staff of Wu Zetian's son Li Xian and participated in Li Xian's project to write commentaries for the '' Book of Later Han''. Ge Fuyuan passed the

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

when he was young, and served in successively higher offices. As of 691, when Wu Zetian had already claimed the title of "emperor," establishing Zhou and interrupting Tang, Ge was serving as the imperial censor in charge of reviewing central government affairs (左肅政大夫, ''Zuo Suzheng Daifu'') when Wu Zetian made him the minister of finance (地官尚書, ''Diguan Shangshu'') and gave him the designation of ''Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi'' (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor ''de facto''. Just four months later, however, Ge offended Wu Zetian, as there had been a movement led by one Wang Qingzhi (王慶之) to have Wu Zetian's nephew

Wu Chengsi Wu Chengsi ( Chinese: 武承嗣; Pinyin: Wǔ Chéngsì) (died July 22, 698), formally Prince Xuan of Wei (魏宣王), was a nephew of the Chinese sovereign Wu Zetian and an imperial prince of the Wu Zhou dynasty. He participated in her planning in ...

made crown prince, displacing Wu Zetian's son Li Dan (formerly emperor until Wu Zetian took the throne in 690). Ge's senior colleague

Cen Changqian Cen Changqian (; died November 7, 691), briefly known as Wu Changqian (武長倩) during the reign of Wu Zetian, formally the Duke of Deng (鄧公), was a Chinese military general and politician of the Tang dynasty, Tang and Zhou dynasty (690–70 ...

opposed the movement and advocated that Wang's group of petitioners be disbanded, and Ge supported Cen. In late 691, Ge, Cen, and another chancellor

Ouyang Tong Ouyang Tong (歐陽通) (died November 7, 691), formally the Viscount of Bohai (渤海子), was a Chinese calligrapher and politician of the Tang and Wu Zhou dynasties of China, serving briefly as chancellor during Wu Zetian's reign. Background ...

were arrested by Wu Zetian's secret police official

Lai Junchen Lai Junchen ( Chinese: 來俊臣) (died April 28, 697) was a Chinese politician and writer. He was a well-known secret police official during the Chinese Tang and Wu Zhou dynasties, whose ability to interrogate and falsely implicate officials of ...

and executed.

Notes and references

* '' Old Book of Tang'', vol. 7

* '' New Book of Tang'', vol. 10

* ''

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. 204. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ge, Fuyuan 691 deaths 7th-century executions by the Tang dynasty Chancellors under Wu Zetian Executed Tang dynasty people Year of birth unknown