Background
It is not known when Zong Chuke was born, but it is known that his family was from Pu Prefecture (蒲州, roughly modern Yuncheng, Shanxi). His ancestors were originally from Nanyang, and his great-grandfather Zong Pi (宗丕) had served as an official during late Liang Dynasty (a period sometimes known as Western Liang). After Liang, then a vassal of Sui Dynasty, was terminated in 587 by Sui, which directly took control of its territory, Zong Pi resettled in what would eventually become Pu Prefecture. Zong Chuke's father Zong Ji (宗岌) served on the staff of Emperor Taizong's favorite son Li Tai the Prince of Wei and participated in a project that Li Tai commissioned—the writing of a work known as the Journal of Geography (括地志, Kuodi Zhi). Zhong Chuke's mother was a cousin of Empress Wu (later known as Wu Zetian), the second wife of Emperor Taizong's son and successor Emperor Gaozong. Zong Chuke had at least two brothers—an older brother named Zong Qinke, and a younger brother named Zong Jinqing (宗晉卿). Zong Chuke himself was described as tall, with a handsome beard. After passing the imperial examination, he served as an official, eventually serving as the deputy minister of census (戶部侍郎, Hubu Shilang) late in Emperor Gaozong's reign.
After Emperor Gaozong's death in 683, his son Li Zhe the Crown Prince succeeded him (as Emperor Zhongzong), but Empress Wu retained actual power as empress dowager and regent. In 684, after he showed signs of independence, she deposed him and replaced him with brother Li Dan the Prince of Yu (as Emperor Ruizong), but wielded power even more firmly thereafter, and as the years went by, she showed signs that she wanted to be "emperor" herself rather than just empress dowager. Zong Chuke's brother Zong Qinke encouraged her, and in 690 created a number of modified Chinese characters as signs of good fortune.
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