Yao Chong - During Wu Zetian's Reign

During Wu Zetian's Reign

During the Khitan invasion of 696-697, Yao Chong was serving at the ministry of defense, when there was much emergency paperwork due to the Khitan invasion. Yao conducted the official business with efficiency and gave much useful comments when he processed the paperwork. This impressed Emperor Gaozong's wife Wu Zetian, then "emperor" (the only woman with that title in Chinese history) of her Zhou Dynasty, and she gave him an unusually steep promotion to be the deputy minister of defense (夏官侍郎, Xiaguan Shilang).

In 697, after Wu Zetian's secret police official Lai Junchen, who had been responsible for falsely implicating many officials in treason accusations and executing them, was himself executed, Wu Zetian made a comment that after Lai's death, she had not heard of any accusations of treason. Yao pointed out that Lai, along with other secret police officials, had been making false accusations, and that he believed that in the future there would not be any treason accusations at all. Pleased with Yao's comment, she awarded him money.

In 698, Wu Zetian gave Yao the designation Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor de facto, probably at the recommendation of the senior chancellor Di Renjie.

In 702, Wu Zetian considered launching a campaign against Eastern Tujue, and she put her son Li Dan the Prince of Xiang in command of the army, assisted by her family members Wu Sansi the Prince of Liang, Wu Youning the Prince of Jianchang, and the chancellor Wei Yuanzhong. Yao Yuanchong was to serve as secretary general for Li Dan on this campaign, but eventually the campaign was not launched. Around this time, there was an ethnic Tujue chieftain named Zhali Yuanchong (吒利元崇) who rebelled against Zhou. Wu Zetian did not want Yao to share a name with Zhali, and therefore had him use his courtesy name of Yuanzhi.

In 704, Yao, who was by that point Fengge Shilang (鳳閣侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣, Fengge), citing the fact that his mother was old, requested to be relieved of his office so that he could attend to his mother. In summer 704, Wu Zetian made him Li Dan's secretary general, but allowed him to have the salary and prestige as officials of the third rank (i.e., chancellors—while the secretary general for an imperial prince was only ordinarily fourth rank, second division, first class). Less than a month later, she made him also the minister of defense (夏官尚書, Xiaguan Shangshu) and chancellor de facto again, with the greater designation of Tong Fengge Luantai Sanpin (同鳳閣鸞臺三品). However, he declined the post of minister of defense, explaining that while he was serving Li Dan, for him to be in command of the army would hurt Li Dan (i.e., possibly bring suspicions on Li Dan). Therefore, Wu Zetian instead made him the minister of rites (春官尚書, Chunguan Shangshu). Around this time, Wu Zetian's lover Zhang Yizhi wanted to move 10 senior Buddhist monks from the capital Luoyang to a temple that he had built in Ding Prefecture (定州, roughly modern Baoding, Hebei). These monks did not wish to go and petitioned Yao, who ruled that the monks did not have to go, despite repeated requests by Zhang. Zhang therefore spoke to Wu Zetian against Yao, and Yao was demoted to be the minister of husbandry (司僕卿, Sipu Qing), although he remained chancellor. Soon, Wu Zetian, while letting Yao remain chancellor, made him the commanding general of the army at Lingwu, apparently again contemplating a campaign against Eastern Tujue. Before Yao departed for Lingwu, Wu Zetian met him personally and asked him to recommend someone who is suitable for being chancellor, and Yao recommended Zhang Jianzhi. She then made Zhang Jianzhi chancellor.

In spring 705, while Yao was still away from Luoyang, Wu Zetian was ill, and the affairs of state were largely decided by Zhang Yizhi and his brother Zhang Changzong, also Wu Zetian's lover, and there were rumors that Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were planning on formally seizing power. Zhang Jianzhi, distressed over the situation, entered into a plot with other officials Cui Xuanwei, Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, and Yuan Shuji, as well as the generals Li Duozuo and Li Dan (李湛, note different character than the Prince of Xiang), to carry out a coup. Once Yao returned from Lingwu, Zhang Jianzhi and Huan discussed the plot with him, and he joined the plot. Soon, the coup was carried out, and Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were killed. Wu Zetian, while still carrying the title of emperor, was forced to yield the throne to her son Li Xian the Crown Prince (formerly emperor), and Li Xian was restored to the throne as Emperor Zhongzong. For his participation in the coup, Yao was created the Marquess of Liang.