Zong Qinke (宗秦客) (died 691?) 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 ...

dynasty

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

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. Among other things, he is particularly noted for his role in developing certain innovative

Chinese characters of Empress Wu The Chinese characters of Empress Wu, or the Zetian characters (), are Chinese characters introduced by Empress Wu Zetian, the only empress regnant in the history of China, in order to demonstrate her power. The characters were not created by th ...

; that is, as part of

's acquisition and consolidation of power by means of literature and religious practices, Zong Qinke worked on developing modified characters to replace the regular forms of characters with particular symbolic importance with newly invented characters intended to support this process, such as the characters for her personal name (Zhao) and the characters for "Heaven" (

tian ''Tiān'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, Chinese philosophy, philosophy, and Chinese folk religion, religion. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to ...

) and "Earth" ( dì). It is not known when Zong Qinke was born, but it is known that he was from Hedong (河東, in 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 ...

), and that his mother was a cousin of Wu Zetian's. As of 689, when Wu Zetian was

empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother) () is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultural sphere. The title was also g ...

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, Zong was ''Fengge Shilang'' (鳳閣侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣, ''Fengge''), and he submitted 12 new characters to substitute for common characters such as ''Tian'' (天, heaven) and ''Di'' (

地 ''Di'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the earth and a key concept or figure in Chinese philosophy and religion, being one of three powers (', ) which are Heaven, Earth, and Humanity (, ), a phrase which originates from the Yijing. Ety ...

, earth). Around the new year 690, she adopted and promulgated the new characters, which were used until at least 705. Later in 690, Empress Dowager Wu had Emperor Ruizong yield the throne to her, establishing Zhou as its "emperor" and interrupting Tang. She made Zong acting ''Neishi'' (內史) -- the head of the legislative bureau and a post considered one for a chancellor. About a month later, however, on September 28, 690,兩千年中西曆轉換
/ref> Zong was accused of corruption, and his younger brother

Zong Chuke Zong Chuke (宗楚客) (died July 24, 710), courtesy name Shu'ao (叔敖), was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, serving as chancellor during the reigns of Wu Zetian, her son Emperor Zhongzong, and he ...

was accused of rape and corruption as well. Wu Zetian stripped Zong Qinke of his chancellor authorities and demoted him to be the sheriff of Zunhua County (遵化, in modern

Qinzhou Qinzhou ( postal: Yamchow, , Jyutping: ''Jam1 zau1'' (Canton) /''Ham1 zau1'' ( Local) ) is a prefecture-level city in south-central Guangxi, southern China, lying on the Gulf of Tonkin and having a total population of 3,302,238 as of the 2020 c ...

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

), and Zong Chuke and another brother, Zong Jinqing (宗晉卿), were also exiled to the same region. Zong Qinke died about a year after his exile.

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. 9

* ''

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 ...

'', vol. 204. Chancellors under Wu Zetian 691 deaths Year of birth unknown