Background
It is not known when Xiao Zhizhong was born, but it is known that his family was from Yi Prefecture (沂州, roughly modern Linyi, Shandong). His family traced its ancestry back to Xiao Zhuo (蕭卓), the father of Liu Song's Empress Dowager Xiao Wenshou (the stepmother of Liu Song's founding emperor Emperor Wu of Liu Song), whose line then served as officials for Liu Song and its succeeding Southern Dynasties Southern Qi, Liang Dynasty, and Chen Dynasty. Xiao Zhizhong's great-grandfather Xiao Deyan (蕭德言) served as the deputy head of the archival bureau during Tang Dynasty, and Xiao Zhizhong's grandfather Xiao Shen (蕭沈) and father Xiao Anjie (蕭安節) also served as officials, but in lesser positions.
In his youth, Xiao Zhizhong successively served as the sheriff of Yijue (伊闕) and Luoyang Counties—both parts of the Tang eastern capital Luoyang, which later served as the capital for Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty. On one occasion, when he was set to meet a friend at an intersection, there was a sudden snowstorm, and the people around him all scattered to look for cover, but Xiao, believing that he needed to keep his word to the friend, stayed at the intersection until the friend appeared. At one point during Wu Zetian's reign, he was made Jiancha Yushi (監察御史), a low-level imperial censor, when he became known for daring to file an indictment against the chancellor Su Weidao, on charges that Su had illegally seized land from his neighbors, and Su was removed from his position. Xiao became well known for this indictment and began to develop a reputation for being willing to indict powerful people for crimes. On an occasion, when his superior, the chief imperial censor (御史大夫, Yushi Daifu) Li Chengjia (李承嘉), stated to the censors, "How can it be that you indict people without informing me?" None of the other censors dared to respond, but Xiao responded, "In the past, there was no supervisor among censors. The censors are supposed to serve as the ears and the eyes of the Son of Heaven, and what they submit should directly reach the emperor. If we have to receive approval from the chief imperial censor, then what would happen when the chief imperial censor is the one who is to be indicted?" Li turned away, embarrassed.
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