Lai Junchen

Biography

Family Background and Early Years Lai Junchen's father, Lai Cao, was a gambler who was friendly with a fellow villager named Cai Ben. After Cai Ben lost several hundred thousand cash in gambling and could not repay the debt, Lai Cao took Cai Ben's wife in settlement. She was already pregnant when she entered Lai Cao's household, and the son she later bore was Lai Junchen, who took the surname Lai. Lai Junchen was disliked by his neighbors from an early age. The Chinese entity describes him as vicious and cruel by nature, fond of capricious behavior, and unwilling to engage in productive work. He left his home region and lived in He Prefecture, present-day He County in Anhui, where he was arrested and imprisoned for sexual misconduct and theft. While in prison, he repeatedly fabricated accusations against others. Li Xu, Prince of Dongping and prefect of He Prefecture, investigated and determined that the accusations were false. He therefore had Lai beaten one hundred strokes and returned to prison. Lai Junchen thereafter hated Li Xu deeply. ### Rise to Power and Career as a Cruel Official During the Tianshou era (690–692), Li Xu, Prince of Dongping, was convicted and executed by the court. Lai Junchen seized the opportunity to submit an accusation and was granted an audience with Wu Zetian. He told her that he had earlier attempted to report that Li Chong, Prince of Langya, was plotting rebellion, but Li Xu had given him one hundred strokes and suppressed the report. Wu Zetian regarded Lai as loyal and promoted him to Attendant Censor with the rank Chaosan Dafu. His handling of interrogations repeatedly pleased Wu Zetian. Thereafter, in order to intimidate court officials, Wu Zetian allowed Lai Junchen to persecute people at will. More than a thousand families were implicated and exterminated. Officials could be imprisoned and executed for even minor past faults. Lai later became Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Left Censorate, after which officials inside and outside the court were said to hold their breath in fear and communicate only with their eyes. Lai Junchen recommended Hou Sizhi, Wang Hongyi, Guo Hongba, Li Renjing, Kang Wei, Wei Suizhong, and others. He secretly recruited more than a hundred ruffians to spread slanders against officials and then submit secret accusations. Whenever he wanted to frame someone, he arranged for accusations to be filed from many different places at once, so that cross-checking the allegations would appear to produce consistency. This method was known at the time as “fabricating charges.” Wu Zetian ordered a separate interrogation office established at Lijing Gate specifically for Lai Junchen and his associates. They investigated hundreds of cases, and the Chinese entity states that not one suspect failed to confess. Wang Hongyi jokingly called Lijing Gate “the Gate Where the Precedent Ends,” meaning that anyone who entered it would die. Lai Junchen and associates including Zhu Nanshan and Wan Guojun composed Luozhi Jing, a text describing how to arrange allegations, conduct interrogations step by step, and force confessions. It laid out the process in detail from beginning to end and was said to work unfailingly when followed. In questioning prisoners, Lai did not distinguish between grave and minor offenses. Vinegar was poured into prisoners' noses; pits were dug in the ground as cells; some prisoners were made to lie in excrement and urine, while others were deprived of food until they chewed the cotton padding of their clothes. The Chinese entity says that prisoners generally did not leave alive. Whenever a general amnesty was announced, Lai would first have serious offenders killed and only then proclaim the edict. He also made ten grades of large cangues, each with a name: “Fixing the Hundred Pulses,” “Unable to Breathe,” “Sudden Earth Roar,” “Wear It and Submit,” “Losing Soul and Courage,” “Truly the Same as Rebellion,” “Rebellion Is Indeed True,” “Dead Pig's Sorrow,” “Beg and Die,” and “Beg and Ruin the Family.” Later an iron head cage was attached to a cangue; a prisoner wearing it would be dragged in circles on the ground and soon suffocate. During interrogations, the instruments were first displayed before the prisoner. The Chinese entity says that none failed to be terrified and that all could thereby be forced into confession. ### False Accusations Against Senior Officials and the Di Renjie Case In 692, the first year of Ruyi, Lai Junchen falsely accused the senior officials Di Renjie, Ren Linghui, Li Youdao, Yuan Zhihong, Cui Shenji, and Lu Xian and had them imprisoned. Lai treated the execution and extermination of senior officials as an achievement. He first asked Wu Zetian to issue an order and then used her edict to pressure the accused into confessing, because confession could spare other members of their families from death. Using this method, Lai threatened Di Renjie and the others into admitting rebellion. Di Renjie lamented that the Great Zhou had carried out a revolution and renewed all things, and that old ministers of the Tang house were willing to submit to execution; he then declared that the accusation of rebellion was true. Lai consequently treated him somewhat more leniently. Di Renjie and the others had already been sentenced to death and were only awaiting execution, so prison supervision became slightly less strict. Di asked a guard for brush and ink, tore a strip from his clothing, wrote a statement of injustice, concealed it inside a padded garment, and had it carried out of prison. Di Renjie's son took the statement to appeal and was received by Wu Zetian. She was astonished and asked Lai why, if Di and the others had confessed to rebellion, Di's son was now appealing their innocence. Lai replied that such men would never willingly confess; he claimed that he had allowed them to sit, lie down, and rest in complete comfort and had not even removed their headgear or belts. Wu Zetian ordered the court attendant Zhou Lin to inspect them. Lai instructed the jailers to lend Di Renjie headgear and a belt and let him walk and stand freely on the western side of the room for Zhou to see. Zhou, afraid of Lai Junchen, did not dare look west and merely faced east while making perfunctory acknowledgments. Lai also ordered an adjudicating officer to forge a memorial of thanks for being sentenced to death in the names of Di Renjie and the others, which Zhou then presented to Wu Zetian. Earlier, Chancellor Le Sihui had had his entire family exterminated through Lai Junchen. One of Le's sons, only nine years old, was taken into service under the Court of Imperial Granaries. The boy reported that he had urgent information and was granted an audience with Wu Zetian. He said that Lai Junchen was savage and deceived the sovereign, and that if the ruler simply handed Lai any fabricated charge of rebellion, no official, high or low, would fail to confess under his interrogation exactly as alleged. The boy said that his father had already been executed and his family destroyed, so he did not seek life for himself, but he regretted that the ruler's intelligence and the law of the state were being manipulated by Lai Junchen. Wu Zetian was awakened to the problem and summoned Di Renjie and the others. She asked why they had confessed to rebellion. They answered that had they not confessed, they would already have died under the cangue and clubs. She then asked why they had written the memorial thanking her for the death sentence. They replied that they had written no such memorial. When Wu Zetian showed it to them, she realized that it had been written secretly in their names. Di Renjie and five others were consequently spared execution. ### Corruption and Demotion Later, Lai Junchen repeatedly accepted bribes and was exposed and impeached by Censor Ji Lüzhong. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death. Because Wu Zetian believed that he had previously been useful in detecting urgent threats, she spared his life and reduced him to commoner status. During the Changshou era (692–694), she recalled him and appointed him Dianzhong Cheng. He was soon again demoted for misconduct, this time to Military Adjutant of Tongzhouaffairs. Even in disgrace his violence and lawlessness did not change. In Tong Prefecture he forcibly took the wife of a fellow staff official and humiliated the man's mother. ### Return to Office and Downfall In 696, the first year of Wansui Tongtian, Wu Zetian recalled Lai Junchen as Hegong Commandant. He was promoted to Magistrate of Luoyang and then to Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Stables, and was granted ten male and female slaves from the Court of Imperial Granaries. Dissatisfied that the registered households contained no beautiful maidservants, he heard that the Western Turkic chieftain Ashina Huseluo had a maid skilled in song and dance. He ordered his associates to accuse Ashina Huseluo of preparing rebellion in order to seize the woman. Dozens of foreign chieftains came to court, cutting their ears and slashing their faces to plead Ashina's innocence; Ashina only narrowly escaped death. At the time, Qilian Yao and Liu Sili had secretly formed connections with court officials and plotted disorder. Ji Xu, then Mingtang Commandant, informed Lai Junchen, and the investigation spread through chains of implication, killing several dozen families. Afterward, Lai tried to monopolize credit for exposing the plot and fabricated charges against Ji Xu as well. Ji became terrified, obtained an audience with Wu Zetian, explained himself, and escaped disaster. Relying on his power, Lai Junchen greedily pursued women. Whenever an official or commoner had a beautiful wife or concubine, he tried by every possible means to seize her. Sometimes he ordered people to fabricate criminal accusations against a man and then falsely claimed an imperial order to take the man's wife or concubine. The number of people killed through such fabricated charges could not be counted. From chancellors downward, he reportedly registered officials' names in order and sought to take their women. He claimed that his own ability could be compared with Shi Le. Investigating Censor Li Zhaode had long hated Lai Junchen and had once humiliated Huangfu Wenbei, Vice Minister of the Autumn Office, at court. Lai Junchen and Huangfu Wenbei therefore jointly accused Li Zhaode of treason and had him arrested and imprisoned. Later, Lai Junchen coerced Wang Qingshen of Taiyuan into giving him his daughter in marriage. Lai had formerly been friendly with Wei Suizhong of Hedong. Although Wei was not especially prominent, he was well read and skilled in argument. One day, after drinking heavily, Wei went to Lai Junchen's home while Lai was holding a banquet with members of his wife's family. A gatekeeper falsely told Wei that Lai was out. Realizing the deception, Wei forced his way inside and cursed and humiliated Lai. Ashamed at being abused in front of relatives, Lai ordered men to beat Wei and bind his arms behind him, though he soon released him. From then on the two were enemies. In 697, the second year of Wansui Tongtian, Lai Junchen believed that the court officials no longer dared oppose him and conceived an even more reckless plan. He prepared to accuse Crown Prince Li Dan, Li Xian, Prince of Luling, members of the Wu imperial clan, and Princess Taiping of treason so that he could seize greater power. Wei Suizhong, because of his feud with Lai, exposed the plan. Princess Taiping also moved first and complained to Wu Zetian, saying that Lai compared himself with Shi Le and harbored improper ambitions. Wu Zetian ordered Lai Junchen executed publicly in the marketplace. He was forty-seven. After his death, his enemies fought to eat his flesh, which was soon consumed. When Wu Zetian learned of this, she also ordered Lai's entire family executed in the marketplace. During the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, an edict barred Lai Junchen's descendants from holding office as a continuing punishment.

In 696 the empress recalled Lai Junchen and made him commandant of the Hegong gate, then prefect of Luoyang and vice-minister of the imperial stud, granting him ten slaves from the Court of Agriculture. Finding no beauty among them, and hearing that the Western Turkic chief Ashina Huseluo kept a slave girl skilled in song and dance, he had his followers accuse Huseluo of rebellion in order to obtain her; several dozen chiefs of the subject peoples came to court, cutting their ears and scoring their faces to plead his innocence, and only so did Huseluo escape the destruction of his clan. When Qilian Yao and Liu Sili plotted treason, the Mingtang commandant Ji Xu informed Lai Junchen, who used it to make accusations and saw several dozen families destroyed by association. Wishing to keep the credit for the exposure to himself, he then wove charges against Ji Xu, who obtained an audience with the empress and set out his case, barely escaping harm.

Relying on his power, Lai Junchen lusted without restraint: whenever a wife or concubine of official or commoner was beautiful he took her by every means, sometimes having the husband accused of a crime and then using a forged decree to seize the woman, so that those destroyed by his nets could not be counted; from the chancellor down he recorded names and took in order. He also forced a marriage with the daughter of Wang Qingshen of Taiyuan. He had long been acquainted with Wei Suizhong of Hedong. Wei's reputation was slight, but he was studious and ready of speech. One day, bringing wine, Wei came to the house while Lai was feasting with his wife's kin; the gatekeeper said his master was out, but Wei knew it for a lie, went straight in and abused him roundly. Ashamed before his wife's family, Lai had him beaten and bound, then released him, and from that time the two were enemies.

Lai Junchen thought himself a man of talent and often likened himself to Shi Le of the Sixteen Kingdoms. The men he employed were often raised above their proper grade by the Ministry of Personnel: some two hundred appointments were made at his instance. His Manual of Weaving Nets ran to twelve chapters — Reading Men, Serving the Ruler, Governing Subordinates, Holding Power, Defeating Rivals, Securing Favour, Preserving Oneself, Detecting Treachery, Planning, Interrogation, Punishment and Vine-Trailing — a handbook for divining a ruler's wishes, weaving charges and extracting confessions by torture. In 725 the censor-in-chief Cheng Xingchen memorialized to list the harsh officials of the Wu Zhou — Lai Zixun, Wan Guojun, Wang Hongyi, Hou Sizhi, Lai Junchen, Zhou Xing, Suo Yuanli and others, twenty-three in all — as the worst offenders against the imperial clan and the innocent, whose descendants were to be barred from office; Lai Junchen's name stood among them.

Under Empress Wu the denunciation of others flourished: a bronze chest was set up to receive petitions, and informers were given post-horses and fed at the fifth rank. It was on this system that Lai Junchen rose. His agents were mostly ruffians of the market, and those who gained office through him were mostly cruel officials; for a time no one at court felt safe, and ministers going to audience often took leave of their families as if for death. The rise and fall of such men answered to the empress's changing need for the informer's trade.

After his fall the harsh officials he had employed were mostly degraded and driven out, and the denunciation politics of the early Wu Zhou came to an end. The Manual of Weaving Nets is lost, but its title survived through him as a byword for the weaving of false charges.

Major Activities

Fabricated Charges and Torture Lai Junchen and his associates Zhu Nanshan, Wan Guojun, and others composed Luozhi Jing, which taught methods for fabricating accusations, arranging circumstances, conducting interrogations step by step, and forcing confessions. He devised ten grades of large cangues, each bearing a name: “Fixing the Hundred Pulses,” “Unable to Breathe,” “Sudden Earth Roar,” “Wear It and Submit,” “Losing Soul and Courage,” “Truly the Same as Rebellion,” “Rebellion Is Indeed True,” “Dead Pig's Sorrow,” “Beg and Die,” and “Beg and Ruin the Family.” An iron head cage could also be attached to the cangue; a prisoner wearing it was made to twist about on the ground and would soon die. During interrogation, vinegar was poured into prisoners' noses regardless of the seriousness of the charge; underground cells were dug; some prisoners were made to lie in excrement and urine; others were deprived of food until they bit and swallowed the cotton padding of their clothing. The Chinese entity says that prisoners generally could not leave alive. Whenever an amnesty was announced, Lai first killed serious prisoners before proclaiming the edict. It also lists dozens of other tortures with names such as “Phoenix Spreads Its Wings,” “Donkey and Dog Kick,” “Immortal Presents Fruit,” and “Jade Maiden Climbs the Ladder,” describing his methods as exceptionally cruel. ### Creating Wrongful Cases During Lai Junchen's tenure, more than a thousand families were implicated and exterminated. He falsely accused General Zhang Qianxu. Unable to bear the injustice, Zhang appealed to Xu Yougong; Lai sent guards who hacked him to death. The palace attendant and general Fan Yunxian said that he had once served a former emperor, whereupon Lai ordered his tongue cut out; Fan died immediately. Lai framed Fan Jian, an officer of Sixing Shi, and had him sentenced to death for treason. Fan Jian's son went to court to appeal, but no office dared accept the case, so the son cut open his own abdomen at court to demonstrate his sincerity. Liu Ruirui, Vice Minister of the Autumn Office, wept in sympathy; Lai then memorialized that Liu was Fan Jian's accomplice. Liu pleaded that his tears were due to an eye disorder caused by old age, but he was interrogated and sentenced to strangulation. The Goguryeo man Quan Xiancheng was favored by Wu Zetian; when he refused Lai's demand for a bribe, Lai fabricated charges and had him strangled. Lai also accused Qilian Yao, Liu Sili, and others of rebellion, implicating dozens of families. ### False Accusations Against Imperial Clansmen and Senior Officials Lai Junchen falsely accused Di Renjie, Ren Linghui, Li Youdao, Yuan Zhihong, Cui Shenji, Lu Xian, and other senior officials, sending them to prison. Di Renjie and five others escaped execution after Le Sihui's son exposed Lai's methods. Wu Chengsi accused Prince Yu Li Dan of rebellion, and Wu Zetian ordered Lai Junchen to investigate. Lai arrested and interrogated all servants in Li Dan's residence and used severe torture to force confessions. An Jinzhang, a musician of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, risked his life to proclaim Li Dan's innocence by stabbing open his own chest and abdomen. When Wu Zetian learned of this, she stopped the investigation. Lai also joined Huangfu Wenbei in falsely accusing Investigating Censor Li Zhaode of treason and having him imprisoned. ### Sexual Predation and Seizure of Wives and Concubines Relying on his power, Lai Junchen pursued women greedily. Whenever officials or commoners had beautiful wives or concubines, he tried by every means to seize them. At times he ordered others to fabricate accusations, falsely invoked imperial commands, and took the accused men's wives. The people killed through such fabricated cases were beyond counting. From chancellors downward, he reportedly kept a list of names and took women from their households. Hearing that the Western Turkic chieftain Ashina Huseluo had a maid skilled in singing and dancing, Lai ordered associates to accuse Ashina of plotting rebellion so that he could take the maid. Dozens of foreign chieftains came to court and mutilated themselves to plead Ashina's innocence, and Ashina narrowly escaped death. While demoted in Tong Prefecture, Lai forcibly took the wife of a fellow staff official and humiliated the man's mother. Later he coerced Wang Qingshen of Taiyuan into giving him his daughter in marriage. ### “Please Enter the Jar” After Zhou Xing was reported for harming innocent people, Wu Zetian ordered Lai Junchen to investigate him. Lai invited Zhou to a meal and asked, “If a prisoner stubbornly refuses to confess, what should be done?” Zhou Xing laughed and said it was easy: put the prisoner inside a large jar and light charcoal around it. Lai had a large jar brought in and surrounded with fire according to Zhou's own suggestion. He then stood and said that he had received the empress's command to investigate Zhou and invited him to enter the jar. Realizing the danger, Zhou kowtowed and begged for mercy, saying he would confess. The Chinese entity identifies this story as the origin of the idiom “please enter the jar,” literally “please enter the jar.”

Personal Relations

• Cai Ben's wife, mother: already pregnant when she entered Lai Cao's household and later gave birth to Lai Junchen. ### Associates - Hou Sizhi, Wang Hongyi, Guo Hongba, Li Renjing, Kang Wei, and Wei Suizhong: cruel officials associated with Lai Junchen.
• Zhu Nanshan and Wan Guojun: co-authors with Lai of Luozhi Jing.
• Huangfu Wenbei: joined Lai in accusing Li Zhaode of treason. ### Ruler–Subject Relationships - Wu Zetian: Lai Junchen's patron and ultimately the ruler who ordered his execution.
• Li Xu, Prince of Dongping: had Lai beaten in his early years; after Li Xu was later executed, Lai used the case to advance his own career. ### Conflicts - Di Renjie: falsely accused and imprisoned by Lai, later spared execution.
• Le Sihui: his family was exterminated through Lai; his nine-year-old son exposed Lai's methods.
• Wei Suizhong: became Lai's enemy after being humiliated and ultimately denounced him.
• Princess Taiping: Lai planned to accuse her; she moved first and denounced him.
• Li Zhaode: falsely accused of treason by Lai and Huangfu Wenbei.
• Zhang Qianxu and Fan Yunxian: killed through Lai's brutality.
• Fan Jian and Liu Ruirui: framed by Lai.
• Quan Xiancheng: strangled after refusing Lai's demand for a bribe.
• Ji Xu: after informing on Qilian Yao and Liu Sili, was himself framed by Lai but escaped by obtaining an audience with Wu Zetian.

Historical Assessment

Tang Period / Contemporary - Wu Zetian regarded Lai Junchen as a loyal official who could detect sudden threats and therefore repeatedly pardoned his crimes. (New Book of Tang, vol. 209)

• Le Sihui's son said that Lai was savage, deceived the sovereign, and could force officials of any rank to confess to whatever rebellion charge the ruler handed him; he lamented that the ruler's law was being manipulated by Lai. (New Book of Tang, vol. 209)
• Di Renjie and the others stated that had they not confessed to rebellion, they would already have died under the cangue and clubs. (Old Book of Tang, vol. 186A)
• Court officials reportedly said farewell to their families before attending court, unsure whether they would see them again. (Old Book of Tang, vol. 186A) ### Song and Yuan Periods - Liu Xu and the compilers of the Old Book of Tang placed Lai in the “Biographies of Cruel Officials,” describing him as vicious, unproductive, capricious, and unmatched in cruelty. (Old Book of Tang, vol. 186A)
• Ouyang Xiu, Song Qi, and the compilers of the New Book of Tang also placed him in the “Biographies of Cruel Officials,” recorded his tortures and wrongful cases in detail, and described him as specializing in exterminating senior officials as a form of merit. (New Book of Tang, vol. 209)
• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records that Lai used his power to seize beautiful wives and concubines of officials and commoners and that the number of people killed through his fabricated cases was beyond counting. (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, vol. 204) ### Ming and Qing Periods - Wang Fuzhi, discussing the harm caused by cruel officials under Wu Zhou in Du Tongjian Lun, treated Lai Junchen and his associates as tools used by Wu Zetian to intimidate court officials, men who made fabrication and killing into their business.
• Qing scholar Zhao Yi, in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, discussed the politics of Wu Zetian and argued that the prevalence of cruel officials was an important means by which she consolidated rule, with Lai Junchen the most notorious example. ### Modern Period - Modern historian Cen Zhongmian, in 《History of the Sui and Tang》, discusses Wu Zhou's cruel officials and treats Lai Junchen and others as instruments in Wu Zetian's struggle against the Li-Tang imperial clan and political opponents, while emphasizing the exceptional severity of their violence.
• Works including Huang Yongnian's 《The Truth about Wu Zetian》 argue that although Wu Zetian employed Lai Junchen and other cruel officials for political purposes, their indiscriminate killing and fabricated accusations went beyond the needs of political conflict and became sheer brutality.
• The Chinese entity states that modern scholarship generally regards Lai Junchen as a representative figure of the cruel-official politics of Wu Zhou and sees Luozhi Jing and his methods of torture as having a deeply negative influence on later legal and political culture.