Li Ke - During Emperor Gaozong's Reign

During Emperor Gaozong's Reign

Emperor Taizong died in 649 and was succeeded by Li Zhi (as Emperor Gaozong). As the emperor's older brother, Li Ke was given the highly honored, although without actual power, position of Sikong (司空), and made the commandant at Liang Prefecture (梁州, roughly modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi).

In 652, Emperor Gaozong's sister Princess Gaoyang, Princess Gaoyang's husband Fang Yi'ai (son of the deceased chancellor Fang Xuanling), the general Xue Wanche (薛萬徹), Emperor Gaozong's uncle Li Yuanjing (李元景) the Prince of Jing, and another brother-in-law Chai Lingwu (柴令武), were accused of a treasonous plot to overthrow Emperor Gaozong and make Li Yuanjing emperor. Fang Yi'ai knew that Zhangsun feared and was jealous of Li Ke and had long wanted to find a way to kill Li Ke to remove any hopes from the people that Li Ke would become emperor. He therefore claimed that Li Ke was part of the plot as well, hoping to ingratiate Zhangsun sufficiently to be spared. In spring 653, Emperor Gaozong, at Zhangsun's urging, issued an edict to execute Fang Yi'ai, Xue, and Chai, while ordering Li Yuanjing, Li Ke, and Princesses Gaoyang and Baling (Chai's wife) to commit suicide. (Emperor Gaozong initially wanted to spare Li Yuanjing and Li Ke, but did not do so when Cui Dunli the minister of defense opposed it.) When Li Ke was about to do so, he cursed Zhangsun, stating:

Zhangsun Wuji has stolen imperial power and falsely accused the faithful. The imperial ancestral spirits are watching. Soon your own clan will be slaughtered.

Zhangsun also had Consort Yang and Li Yin reduced to commoner rank and exiled to Ba Prefecture (巴州, roughly modern Bazhong, Sichuan), and Li Ke's four sons, Li Ren (李仁), Li Wei (李瑋), Li Kun (李琨), and Li Jing (李璄) were exiled to the modern Guangdong region. In 660, after Zhangsun's own downfall (at the hands of Emperor Gaozong's wife Empress Wu and her associates), Li Ke was posthumously created the Prince of Yulin, but was not given a posthumous name, nor was his son permitted to inherit the title; rather, Li Rong (李榮), the grandson of Li Xiaogong the Prince of Hejian, was adopted into Li Ke's line and took the title of Marquess of Yulin. Eventually, however, after Li Rong was deposed for an unrelated reason, Li Ren (later known as Li Qianli (李千里)) was permitted to inherit the title, and around 705, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong's son Emperor Zhongzong, Li Ke was posthumously honored again with the title of Sikong and reburied with honor.