Suo Yuanli () (died 691) was a secret police official during 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 ...

dynasty

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

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, who came to prominence due to his cruelty in acting against officials that Wu Zetian was suspicious toward. However, when he became increasingly hated by the people, she executed him in order to placate the people. Suo Yuanli was said to be non-

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

in origin. In 684, when Wu Zetian, then empress dowager and

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

over her son Emperor Ruizong, had just suppressed a rebellion against her led by

Li Jingye Li Jingye (李敬業) (died December 29, 684), also known as Xu Jingye (徐敬業), was a Chinese military general and politician who was a grandson of the Tang Dynasty general Li Shiji who, after Emperor Gaozong's powerful wife Empress Wu (late ...

the Duke of Ying, she began to encourage the people to submit secret report against others. When Suo heard about this, he submitted a secret report, and when he had the chance to meet her, she was impressed by him and gave him a general title, but put him in charge of investigating officials suspected of opposing her. It was said that Suo was cruel and, whenever he investigated one person, he would find ways to get that person to implicate tens or hundreds of others. It was said that thousands of people died at Suo's hands. In 691, however, it was said that he was so despised that she, deciding to placate the people, executed him.

References

* '' Old Book of Tang'', vol. 186, part

* '' New Book of Tang'', vol. 20

* ''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song (960–1127), Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959&n ...

'', vols. 203, 204. Tang dynasty politicians Tang dynasty generals 691 deaths Year of birth unknown {{china-politician-stub