Li Yuansu (李元素) (died October 26, 696兩千年中西曆轉換
/ref>) was an official of

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 ...

Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

, serving twice as

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 ...

. Li Yuansu was the younger brother of

Li Jingxuan Li Jingxuan (李敬玄) (615–682), formally Duke Wenxian of Zhao (趙文憲公), was a Chinese military general of Tang China, serving as Chancellor of the Tang dynasty during the reign of Emperor Gaozong. He was famed for his efficient organiza ...

, who served as chancellor during the reign of Wu Zetian's husband

Emperor Gaozong of Tang Emperor Gaozong of Tang (21 July 628 – 27 December 683), personal name Li Zhi, was the third emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, ruling from 649 to 683; after January 665, he handed power over the empire to his second wife Empress Wu (the f ...

. It was said that he, like Li Jingxuan, showed abilities as an official. He was, at one point, the magistrate of Wude County (武德, in modern

Jiaozuo Jiaozuo ( ; postal: Tsiaotso) is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Henan province, China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yellow River, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the south, Xinxiang to the east, Jiyuan to the ...

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 ...

), when his superior, Li Wenjian (李文暕) the prefect of Huai Prefecture (roughly modern Jiaozuo) was set to collect gold and silver from the people to make barrels to offer to the emperor, and the people resented it. Other subordinates of Li Wenjian did not dare to speak about it, but Li Yuansu opposed it vehemently. Li Wenjian stopped collecting gold and silver from the people and, as he believed that Li Yuansu needed financial support, paid Li Yuansu out of his own pocket. As of 692, during Wu Zetian's reign, Li Yuansu was acting deputy minister of treasury (地官侍郎, ''Diguan Shilang''), when she promoted him to be ''Wenchang You Cheng'' (文昌右丞), one of the secretaries general of the executive bureau of government (文昌臺, ''Wenchang Tai'') and gave him the designation ''Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi'' (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor ''de facto''. Just slightly more than a month later, however, he, along with other chancellors Li Youdao,

Wang Xuan Wang Xuan (; February 5, 1937 – February 13, 2006), born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, was a Chinese computer scientist. He was a computer application specialist and innovator of the Chinese printing industry, as well as an academician at both the Chinese ...

Yuan Zhihong Yuan Zhihong (袁智弘) was an official of Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor. Despite Yuan high status, little is firmly established about his background or career except for the time that he served as chancellor—as, unusu ...

, and

Cui Shenji Cui Shenji (崔神基), formally the Duke of Qingqiu (清丘公), was a Chinese official of the Tang dynasty and the Wu Zhou dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor during Wu Zetian's reign. It is not known when Cui was born, but it is known that h ...

, and other officials Kong Siyuan (孔思元), and Ren Linghui (任令輝), were falsely accused of crimes by Wu Zetian's secret police official

Wang Hongyi Wang Hongyi () (died 694) was a secret police official during the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty. It is not known when Wang Hongyi was born, but it is known that he was from Hengshui. He was known as a hoodlum in his y ...

. They were relieved from their posts and exiled to the

Lingnan Lingnan (; Vietnamese: Lĩnh Nam) is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as modern northe ...

region. By 694, however, Li Yuansu had been recalled from exile and was serving as ''Wenchang You Cheng'' again, when he was made ''Fengge Shilang'' (鳳閣侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau, and again given the ''de facto'' chancellor designation of ''Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi''. In late 696, there was a treasonous plot by the officials Liu Sili (劉思禮), Qilian Yao (綦連耀), and Wang Ju (王勮) -- as the conspirators believed that Qilian was fated to be emperor one day. The official

Ji Xu Ji Xu () was a Chinese politician during Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, serving briefly as chancellor. Background It is not known when Ji Xu was born, but it is known that he was from the Zhou capital Luoyang. He was said to be tall, good at hiding ...

heard of the plot and relayed it to the 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 cri ...

, who in turn reported it to Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian had Wu Yizong (武懿宗) the Prince of Henan (the grandson of her uncle Wu Shiyi (武士逸)) investigate, and Wu Yizong, promising Liu that he would be spared, had him implicate as many officials as he could, and Liu implicated some 36 officials, including Li Yuansu, fellow chancellor Sun Yuanheng, and other officials Shi Baozhong (石抱忠), Liu Qi (劉奇), Zhou Bo (周譒), and Wang Ju's brothers Wang Mian (王勔) and Wang Zhu (王助). All 36 households were slaughtered on the same day, and some 1,000 related persons were exiled. Not until Wu Zetian was overthrown in 705 were Li Yuansu's honors posthumously restored.

Notes and references

* ''

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 ...

'', vol. 8

* ''

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 ...

'', 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 ...

'', vols.

205 Year 205 ( CCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Geta (or, less frequently, year 958 '' Ab urbe condita' ...

, 206. {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Yuansu Chancellors under Wu Zetian 696 deaths Year of birth unknown