Li Dan

Biography

Titles in Youth and the First Accession

Li Dan was the eighth son of Emperor Gaozong and the youngest borne by Wu Zetian. The Old Book of Tang says that as he grew up he was modest, filial and friendly, fond of learning, skilled in cursive and clerical script and especially fond of works on philology; he was enfeoffed as Prince of Yu in 666, transferred to Prince of Ji in 669, made Prince of Xiang and senior general of the right guards in 675 and given the governorship of Luoyang in 678.

After Gaozong's death and the accession of Zhongzong, in the second month of 684 Wu Zetian assembled the officials in the Qianyuan Hall, deposed Zhongzong as Prince of Luling and led him from the hall, and on the following day installed Li Dan, then governor of Yongzhou and Prince of Yu, as emperor, this being his first accession. Affairs were decided by the empress dowager, he was lodged in a side hall and had no share in government, his consort Lady Liu was made empress and Li Chengqi, his eldest son, crown prince; the era was changed to Wenming and an amnesty proclaimed. In the same year Li Jingye rose at Yangzhou, revived the era name Sisheng, established three headquarters and styled himself general of the restoring office and grand governor of Yangzhou, gathering more than a hundred thousand men within ten days and sending proclamations through the provinces; Wu Zetian sent the senior general Li Xiaoyi as chief commander of the Yangzhou route with three hundred thousand men against him. In the course of this, Pei Yan argued that as the emperor was grown yet took no part in government the rebels had a pretext, and that if the empress dowager returned power the rebellion would collapse of itself; the censor Cui Cha presented this as evidence of designs of his own, and Pei Yan was tried by Qian Weidao and Yu Chengye, imprisoned and executed at the Pavilion of Meetings. Li Xiaoyi, setting fire to the enemy works with the wind behind him, destroyed Li Jingye's army, taking seven thousand heads, and Wang Naxiang brought the heads of Li Jingye, Li Jingyou and Luo Binwang to surrender, so that Yang, Run and Chu were pacified.

In the first month of 686 Wu Zetian issued an edict declaring her intention to return government to the emperor. Li Dan, knowing this to be a test, several times memorialised declining and asking his mother to continue to hold court; she accordingly accepted his request and went on ruling in his name. In the years that followed she moved towards founding her own dynasty and began to clear away the imperial clan: the princes of Han, Huo, Lu and Yue and their sons, all of good reputation for ability among the clansmen, were especially feared, and having secret thoughts of restoring the Tang they rose in 688 — Li Chong calling up troops and summoning the other princes, only to be killed at the gate of Bozhou after seven days, and the Prince of Yue, though he took Shangcai, killing himself with his household when defeated. The Prince of Han, the Prince of Lu, Duke Huang and the Princess of Changle were taken to the eastern capital and forced to kill themselves, their surname changed to "Hui" and their partisans executed; the Prince of Huo was banished to Qianzhou and died at Chencang on the way; the Prince of Ji, though he had taken no part in the plot, was imprisoned, moved to Bazhou with the changed surname and died at Puzhou, so that, as the history says, "the Tang imperial clan was now all but exhausted".

Preparing to take the throne, Wu Zetian had Wu Chengsi cut a white stone bearing the words "the holy mother governs men and eternally prospers the imperial work", which was presented as found in the Luo river and named the "precious chart", her title being increased to Holy Mother Divine August; in the twelfth month she worshipped at the Luo and received the chart, the emperor and crown prince attending. In the ninth month of 690 the censor Fu Youyi led more than nine hundred men of the metropolitan region to petition that the dynasty be renamed Zhou and the emperor given the surname Wu, which she refused; the officials, the imperial kin, the people near and far, the chiefs of the four quarters, monks and Daoists, more than sixty thousand in all, then petitioned as he had, and Li Dan himself petitioned for the surname Wu; she consented, took her seat at the Gate of Heaven, proclaimed an amnesty, changed Tang to Zhou and the era name, took the title Holy and Divine Emperor, made Li Dan imperial heir with the surname Wu, and the crown prince heir's son. Li Dan had thus passed from emperor to imperial heir and the Zhou had replaced the Tang.

The Struggle over the Succession and the Perils of the Imperial Heir

The contest over the heir's position followed at once. Zhang Jiafu had Wang Qingzhi and several hundred men of Luoyang petition that Wu Chengsi be made crown prince; the right chancellor of the Secretariat, Cen Changqian, held that with the imperial heir in the eastern palace no such proposal should be made, and the minister of the earthworks, Ge Fuyuan, agreed, whereupon both offended the Wu family and were imprisoned and executed. Wang Qingzhi told the empress dowager, when she asked how a son could be set aside, that "spirits do not enjoy offerings from those not of their kind, nor do the people sacrifice to those not of their clan", and that with the empire now in other hands the heir should not be of the Li house; Li Zhaode had him dragged out of the gate, shown to the court and beaten to death, and told the empress dowager that the Heavenly Emperor was her husband and the imperial heir her son, that no one had ever heard of a nephew becoming Son of Heaven and building a temple for his aunt, and that if the empire went to Wu Chengsi the Heavenly Emperor would have no offerings; she was persuaded.

The dangers of the heir's position are most vividly recorded in the case of the two consorts. The servant girl Tuan'er, in the empress dowager's favour, bore a grudge against the heir and accused his consorts Lady Liu and Lady Dou of witchcraft; in the first month of 693 the two ladies attended the empress dowager at Jiayu Hall and were killed on leaving, buried within the palace, their resting place unknown. Li Dan, fearing to offend, said nothing and behaved as usual before his mother; Tuan'er then plotted against him in turn, and when her designs were revealed to the empress dowager she was put to death. Pei Feigong, formerly of the palace workshops, and the eunuch Fan Yunxian were executed in the market for privately visiting the heir, after which no official from the ministers downward was permitted to see him. When someone accused the heir of designs, the empress dowager had Lai Junchen question his attendants, who under torment were ready to incriminate themselves, until the imperial musician An Jincang cried out that he would cut open his own heart to prove the heir loyal, drew his sword and opened his breast so that his entrails came out and the blood covered the ground; the empress dowager, hearing of it, had him carried into the palace and his organs replaced, the wound sewn with mulberry thread and dressed, and he revived after a night, upon which she visited him and said that, having a son who could not clear himself, she had brought him to this, and ordered Lai Junchen to stop. The heir was thus spared.

In 698 Di Renjie and others urged the empress dowager to recall the Prince of Luling; when she spoke of dreaming of a great parrot with both wings broken, Di Renjie answered that Wu was her surname and the two wings her two sons, so that if she raised both sons the wings would be strong again, and she ceased to consider Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi for the succession. She summoned the Prince of Luling to the court on the pretext of illness; when he arrived Li Dan firmly asked to yield his place to him, and she agreed, making Li Xian, formerly Prince of Luling, crown prince in the ninth month. In 699 Li Dan was enfeoffed again as Prince of Xiang and his name changed back from Wu Lun to Li Dan, being given command of the crown prince's right guards and later the honorary governorship of the Anbei protectorate; to reconcile the Li and Wu families the empress dowager had the crown prince, the Prince of Xiang, Princess Taiping and Wu Youji swear an oath to heaven and earth in the Bright Hall, inscribed on an iron tablet and kept in the history office, and the Prince of Xiang was given concurrent inspection of the Anbei protectorate; when the Turks broke through at Shiling and invaded Bingzhou he was made governor of Bingzhou and commander of the Anbei route with Wei Yuanzhong as his deputy, and afterwards governor of Yongzhou.

The Zhongzong Reign and the Tanglong Coup

In 705 Zhang Jianzhi and his colleagues killed Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong in the colonnade, entered the Long Life Hall where the empress dowager lay surrounded by guards and demanded that she pass the throne to the crown prince; that day Yuan Shuqi took the southern guards under Li Dan's command as a precaution, arresting Wei Chengqing, Fang Rong and Cui Shenqing as partisans of the Zhangs; the empress dowager passed the throne to the crown prince, Zhongzong came to the throne, and Li Dan was given the title Prince of Anguo of Xiang with the offices of grand commandant and joint manager of state affairs in the Phoenix and Phoenix-Terrace bureaux.

Under Zhongzong he was a target of the empress Wei's party. In 707, after the rebellion of the crown prince Li Chongjun, a prisoner implicated him, but the censor Su Xiang quietly vindicated him and no question was asked; afterwards the Princess of Anle and Zong Chuke plotted against him day and night, and had the censor Ran Zuyong accuse him and Princess Taiping of conspiring with Li Chongjun and demand their imprisonment, until the vice minister of personnel and concurrent censor-in-chief Xiao Zhizhong wept and asked how a sovereign who possessed the four seas could not accommodate a single brother and sister, recalling that Li Dan, when imperial heir, had begged Wu Zetian to yield the empire to Zhongzong and had gone without food for days, and that the whole realm knew it; Zhongzong, whose affection for his kin was real, let the matter drop.

In the sixth month of 710 Zhongzong died in the Shenlong Hall; the coffin was moved to the Taiji Hall, the officials were assembled, the empress Wei held court as regent, proclaimed an amnesty and changed the era name to Tanglong, raising Li Dan to grand commandant; the young prince Li Chongmao came to the throne at sixteen. Zong Chuke, with Wu Yanxiu, Zhao Lüwen and Ye Jingneng and the Wei family, urged the empress to follow Wu Zetian's example, gave the guards and the key offices to Wei clansmen, gathered partisans within and without, memorialised on the omens to the effect that the Wei should change the Tang mandate, and plotted against the young emperor, especially fearing Li Dan and Princess Taiping. Initially Princess Taiping and Shangguan Wan'er had drafted the late emperor's testament making Li Chongmao crown prince with the empress to administer government and Li Dan to take part in affairs; Zong Chuke told Wei Wen that it was improper for the Prince of Xiang to take part and that, as brother-in-law to the empress, the proprieties forbade close intercourse, so that the chief councillors petitioned for the empress to hold court and for Li Dan's share in affairs to be dropped; Su Gui protested that a testament could not be altered, but yielded to their anger, and Li Dan was made grand tutor to the crown prince.

Li Longji, Li Dan's third son, formerly adjutant of Luzhou, was then in the capital secretly gathering men of ability to restore the dynasty; the vice minister of war Cui Riyong, who had attached himself to the Wei and Wu but knew Zong Chuke's designs and feared for himself, sent the monk Purun to tell Li Longji and urge him to act at once, whereupon Li Longji joined Princess Taiping, her son Xue Chongjian, the director of the park Zhong Shaojing, Wang Chongye, Liu Youqiu and Ma Sizong in a plan to strike first. According to the Comprehensive Mirror, Li Longji and his companions would not inform the Prince of Xiang beforehand, saying that they were acting for the altars of the state, that if they succeeded the benefit would go to the prince and if they failed they would die themselves without involving him. On the day of the coup Li Xianfu and others killed Wei Xuan, Wei Bo and Gao Song and proclaimed that the empress Wei had poisoned the late emperor and threatened the state, that they would kill all the Wei that night and "set up the Prince of Xiang to pacify the realm", to which the guards gladly agreed; the empress fled into the flying cavalry camp and was killed, the Princess of Anle, Wu Yanxiu and others were killed, and by dawn all was quiet. Li Longji came out and knocked his head on the ground to excuse not having informed his father, who embraced him in tears and said that the altars and the ancestral temple had been kept from ruin by his strength; the Prince of Xiang was brought in to support the young emperor and, taking him to the Anfu Gate, calmed the people, an amnesty being proclaimed that day and Li Longji made Prince of Ping with charge of the imperial stables and of the ten thousand riders. Princess Taiping then conveyed the young emperor's wish to yield the throne to the Prince of Xiang, who firmly declined; after Li Chengqi and Li Longji had pressed him, he consented. On the day of the transfer the young emperor sat facing west in the corner of the Taiji Hall, the Prince of Xiang stood by the coffin, and when Princess Taiping asked whether the emperor might yield to his uncle, Liu Youqiu knelt and answered that the state being in difficulty and the emperor humane and filial, following Yao and Shun, the Prince of Xiang taking up the burden was wholly in the public interest; the young emperor's decree transferred the throne and Ruizong ascended it at the Chengtian Gate, proclaimed an amnesty and reduced the young emperor to Prince of Wen.

On the choice of an heir, Ruizong hesitated between Li Chengqi, the eldest son by the principal consort, and Li Longji, who had great merit; Li Chengqi declined, saying that in peace the eldest should come first and in danger the meritorious, that to violate this would disappoint the realm, and that he would not presume to stand above the Prince of Ping, weeping and pressing his request for days, and since the ministers also held that the Prince of Ping's merit was great and Liu Youqiu said that whoever removed a calamity from the realm should enjoy its blessings and that no doubt remained, Li Longji was made crown prince.

The Beginning of the Second Reign

At the beginning of his second reign Ruizong made Yao Yuanzhi (Yao Chong) minister of war and joint manager of state affairs and Song Jing acting minister of personnel and joint manager of state affairs; the two worked together to reform the abuses of Zhongzong's reign, advancing the loyal, dismissing the unworthy, making rewards and punishments public and closing the roads to intercession, so that the government was described as having recovered the spirit of Zhenguan and Yonghui. Their measures included: the abolition of the "slant-sealed" offices, by which the princesses of Anle and Changle, the empress's sister, the consort Shangguan and others had sold appointments for three hundred thousand cash sealed with the vermilion brush and passed to the Secretariat without countersignature, some thousands of supernumerary and acting posts in all, which Yao Yuanzhi, Song Jing and the censor-in-chief Bi Gou memorialised to abolish, the emperor agreeing and dismissing several thousand at once; the reform of selection, whereby under the old rules officials of the third rank and above were appointed by patent, those of the fifth and above by decree and those below by warrant, all proposed by the Department of State Affairs, and where at the end of Zhongzong's reign favourites had confused the process, Song Jing as minister of personnel with Li Yi and Lu Congyuan as vice ministers, all fearing no one, closed the way to intercession, so that of more than ten thousand candidates fewer than two thousand were kept and all acknowledged the fairness, while Yao Yuanzhi as minister of war with Lu Xiangxian and Lu Huaizhen reformed the military selection; the bringing of the guards under control, the ten thousand riders having grown violent after their part in the coup and being posted to provincial offices, the recruitment of slaves into their ranks stopped, flying riders established under the left and right guards, and a decree issued that princes and imperial sons-in-law might no longer command the guards but be transferred to other posts, with the Prince of Qi Li Longfan and the Prince of Xue Li Longye made commanders of the left and right guards' attendant troops; the demotion of Zhongzong's favourites, Xiao Zhizhong, Wei Sili, Zhao Yanzhao and Cui Shi being sent out as provincial governors, and Song Zhiwen and Ran Zuyong banished to the south for flattery; and the removal of Wu influence, the title of "Empress Zetian the Great Sage" being withdrawn in favour of "Heavenly Empress" and the Wu family's temple and the tomb of Wu Zetian's father abolished.

In learning, the shrine of Confucius was assigned thirty households nearby for its upkeep; the crown prince sacrificed at the National College, Yan Hui was honoured posthumously as grand tutor to the crown prince and Zeng Shen as junior guardian, and at the spring and autumn sacrifices the four subjects and Zeng Shen were given places above the twenty-two worthies. Abroad, the Turkish qaghan Mochuo sought peace in 711, which was granted, and a daughter of Li Chengqi, Prince of Song, was created Princess of Jinshan and betrothed to him; the censor-in-chief's assistant He Fengyao, acting as director of the court of state ceremonial, went to the Turks and persuaded Mochuo that the Chumi and Jiankun would submit once it was known that he had married into the Tang and that he should adopt Tang dress to show the other peoples, which he did, bowing south and declaring himself a subject, and sending his son Yang Wozhi and his chancellor to court, where they arrived in the eleventh month; in the first month of 712 Ruizong entertained Yang Wozhi at the Anfu Gate and showed him the Princess of Jinshan, but with the abdication the marriage never took place.

The Struggle with Princess Taiping and the Abdication

Ruizong trusted Princess Taiping deeply and often discussed great affairs with her, so that when she came to memorialise they would sit and talk for hours, and if she did not come to court the chief councillors would wait on her at home; when a chief councillor memorialised he would first ask whether it had been discussed with Taiping and then whether it had been discussed with the third son, the crown prince, before deciding, and the princess's wishes were always granted, appointments below the chancellorship depending on her word, so that she overshadowed the sovereign and suitors thronged her door.

The crown prince's growing strength alarmed her: at first she thought him young and made light of him, then fearing his martial quality she wished to install a weaker prince to prolong her power, spreading the rumour that "the crown prince is not the eldest and should not be installed", upon which Ruizong issued a decree warning the court and the realm to end loose talk. She then formed a faction with Dou Huaizhen and others to endanger the crown prince and once invited the chief councillors to the Guangfan Gate and hinted at changing the eastern palace, at which Song Jing protested that the crown prince had rendered great service to the realm and was the true lord of the altars, and asked how the princess could entertain such a proposal. Song Jing and Yao Yuanzhi secretly told the emperor that with the Princes of Song and Bin in the capital and the princess working between them the eastern palace could not be secure, and asked that the two princes be sent out as governors, that the princes of Qi and Xue be removed from the guards, and that Princess Taiping and Wu Youji be sent to the eastern capital; the princess was furious and complained to the crown prince, who in fear memorialised that Yao Yuanzhi and Song Jing had sown discord between his aunt and elder brother and asked that they be punished with death, and they were sent out as governors of Shenzhou and Chuzhou. Later, when diviners said that urgent soldiers would enter the palace within five days, Zhang Yue held it to be slander designed to divide the crown prince from the emperor and proposed that the crown prince be given the regency, and Yao Yuanzhi agreed that this was the soundest plan for the state; the emperor, pleased, ordered the crown prince to administer government, with appointments below the sixth rank and punishments below exile to be decided by him. When the princess heard of Yao Yuanzhi's and Song Jing's plan she was furious and reproached the crown prince, who in fear memorialised that they had sown discord and asked for the extreme penalty; they were demoted to governorships.

In the seventh month of 712 a comet appeared in the west, passing through Xuanyuan into the Great Tenuity and on to Dajiao; the princess had astrologers tell the emperor that comets swept away the old to make way for the new and that the throne and the forward star of the heart were changed, which meant that the crown prince would become Son of Heaven — intending to sow suspicion between father and son — but Ruizong took it as heaven's will that he should yield the throne, saying that he was resolved to pass on virtue and avoid calamity. When the princess and her party, seeing the plan backfire, urged him not to abdicate, he answered that in Zhongzong's reign wicked favourites had held power and heaven had warned repeatedly, that he had then asked Zhongzong to choose a worthy son to avoid disaster, which had angered him, and that he had been anxious for days on end; if he could urge another to abdicate, could he fail to do so himself? He then asked the ministers of the third rank and above what they thought of his passing the throne to the crown prince, to which none replied; the crown prince sent Li Jingbo to decline firmly, which was not permitted; and when the censor He Fengyao, who leaned to the princess, said that the emperor was not yet old and was the reliance of the realm, he stopped, and instead decreed that all government business should be decided by the crown prince, and that military affairs, capital punishments and appointments of the fifth rank and above should first be discussed with him. Later the decree of abdication was issued, the crown prince declining firmly; in the eighth month of 712 Xuanzong came to the throne and honoured Ruizong as retired emperor, who called himself "We" and his orders "gao", holding court in the Taiji Hall once every five days, while the emperor called himself "yu" and his orders decrees, holding court daily in the Wude Hall; appointments of the third rank and above and great penal and political matters were decided by the retired emperor, all else by the emperor.

In the retired emperor's time Princess Taiping, relying on his favour, wielded power at odds with the emperor, five of the seven chief councillors coming from her household and most of the officials attaching themselves to her; she plotted to depose and install with Dou Huaizhen, Xiao Zhizhong, Cen Xi and Cui Shi, only Lu Xiangxian objecting. The retired emperor issued an order sending the emperor on a tour of the frontier from the He and Long regions in the west to Yan and Ji in the east to choose commanders and train troops, but the date was changed and the tour never took place. In the seventh month of 713 Xuanzong, taking horses from the imperial stables and more than three hundred soldiers through Wang Maozhong, entered the Qianhua Gate from the Wude Hall with a dozen conspirators, killed Chang Yuankai and Li Ci, seized Xiao Yingfu and Li You, and executed Xiao Zhizhong and Cen Xi in the court hall; Dou Huaizhen fled into a ditch and hanged himself, his corpse being mutilated and his surname changed to "Poison". The retired emperor, hearing of the coup, went up on the Chengtian Gate tower, where Guo Yuanzhen reported that the emperor had acted on his decree against Dou Huaizhen and no more; Ruizong then issued a decree listing the crimes of Dou Huaizhen and others, proclaiming an amnesty except for their kin and partisans, and the next day decreed that from then on all military, state, penal and political matters should be decided by the emperor, that he himself would cultivate his aims in quiet, and moved the same day to the Baifu Hall; Princess Taiping fled into a mountain temple, came out after three days and was ordered to die at home. Xuanzong thus held all power, and the disorders of the Zhongzong and Ruizong reigns gave way to the Kaiyuan era.

Frontier and Foreign Affairs

A few frontier matters belong to his reign. Xue Ne, who had governed Youzhou for more than twenty years and kept the people at peace without leading troops beyond the passes, was replaced after a quarrel with the governor of Yanzhou, Li Jin, on whose denunciation Liu Youqiu recommended the left guard general Sun Quan, who became grand governor of Youzhou while Xue Ne was moved to Bingzhou. In 712 Sun Quan was destroyed at Lengxing by Li Dapu, chief of the Xi: with twenty thousand foot and eight thousand horse in three columns against the Xi and Khitan, he rejected the advice of the general Wu Keli that a long raid over difficult ground in hot weather must fail, sent Li Kailuo ahead with four thousand horse against eight thousand Xi cavalry, and, too timid to rescue him, tried to withdraw, whereupon the enemy fell upon the Tang army and broke it; hemmed in on a hill and asked by Li Dapu why the army had come when the court had made peace, he answered that he had come on orders to conciliate and that Li Kailuo had attacked against orders, then collected more than ten thousand lengths of silk with robes, belts and insignia as gifts and asked to withdraw, but the troops scattered and he and Zhou Yiti were taken and handed to the Turks, whose qaghan Mochuo killed them, Li Kailuo and Wu Keli escaping.

In Yaozhou in 710 Ruizong followed the acting censor Li Zhigu in building a city, establishing prefectures and counties and levying heavy taxes; Li Zhigu called out the militia of Jiannan to build the walls and meant to take the opportunity to kill the chiefs of the barbarian tribes and carry off their children as slaves, which provoked their anger; the chief Bangming brought the Tibetans in, killed Li Zhigu and offered his body to heaven, after which the road from Yaozhou and Suizhou to the interior was cut and remained so for years. He also summoned the Daoist priest Sima Chengzhen of Mount Tiantai to ask about the arts of Yin and Yang, and was told that the Way meant reducing and reducing again until one reached non-action and that governing a state was like governing the body, so that if one followed the nature of things without private thoughts the realm would be ordered, at which he sighed that no words of Guangcheng could surpass these; and when the censor Yang Fu impeached without sparing the powerful and was maligned by them, he said that when a hawk strikes a hare one must go to its aid at once or it will be bitten, and that the same held for a censor checking wickedness, who unless the sovereign protects him will be devoured by it.

Ranks, Last Years and Burial

Li Dan was first named Li Xulun and then Li Lun, was given the surname Wu and the name Wu Lun in the Zhou period, and took back the name Li Dan when he was again enfeoffed as Prince of Xiang in 699, the changes of name reflecting the passage from Tang to Zhou and back. His temple name is Ruizong and his first posthumous title Emperor Dashengzhen, with further titles added later; his tomb is the Qiao Mausoleum. He died at the Baifu Hall on the twentieth day of the sixth month of 716, at the age of fifty-four, four years after his abdication and three after the death of Princess Taiping, when the government lay wholly with Xuanzong; for a sovereign who had been emperor, imperial heir, Prince of Xiang and retired emperor, his last years at the Baifu Hall answer to the advances and retreats of his whole life.

Positions in the Politics of the Tang

His life ran almost the whole length of the most turbulent half-century between the early Tang and its height. Raised as emperor by his mother, made imperial heir when the Zhou were founded, then Prince of Xiang through Zhongzong's reign and finally emperor again after the Tanglong coup, his several changes of status were all set in motion by others while he responded, a passivity borne out by his caution before Wu Zetian, his silence during the troubles under the empress Wei and his balancing between Princess Taiping and the crown prince. Institutionally, the abolition of the slant-sealed offices, the reform of selection, the ban on princes and imperial sons-in-law commanding the guards and the establishment of ten circuit surveillance commissions in his second reign prepared the way for the institutional order of the Kaiyuan period; and the arrangement by which he kept great matters in his own hands after abdicating became the condition for Princess Taiping's ascendancy, until Xuanzong destroyed her party in 713 and the Tang entered the Kaiyuan era.

Family and Sons

His sons were central to the politics of the time. Li Chengqi, his eldest son, who declined the succession in favour of Li Longji, saying that in peace the eldest should come first and in danger the meritorious, and that he would not presume to stand above the Prince of Ping; Li Longji, his third son, who as Prince of Linzi made the Tanglong coup, became Prince of Ping commanding the ten thousand riders, then crown prince and then Xuanzong; a daughter of Li Chengqi was created Princess of Jinshan and betrothed to the Turkish qaghan; the Princes of Qi and Xue, Li Longfan and Li Longye, were moved to the guards' attendant commands when the princes were barred from the guards; and the princesses Jinshan and Yuzhen, formerly of Xicheng and Longchang, each had a Daoist abbey built in his reign, with the seizure of much private housing and expenditure of millions. To reconcile the Li and the Wu he had the crown prince, the Prince of Xiang, Princess Taiping and Wu Youji swear an oath inscribed on an iron tablet and kept in the history office, while his sister Princess Taiping, claiming the merit of the coup, meddled in government until Xuanzong destroyed her in 713. These arrangements and conflicts within the family were among the chief motors of politics in both his reigns.

A Comparison of the Two Reigns

His two accessions differed greatly in the structure of power. In the first (684–690) he was a nominal emperor under his mother's regency, with affairs decided by the empress dowager, lodged in a side hall and taking no part, his empress and crown prince chosen for him, and he was afterwards reduced to imperial heir with the surname Wu; his concern in that phase was to preserve himself and his title as heir, and his course was not to contend with his mother for power. In the second (710–712) he was raised after the Tanglong coup by Li Longji and Princess Taiping, so that his authority derived from those two and he had throughout to balance them, relying on the princess in council while making Li Longji crown prince and giving him the regency; only after the comet and the abdication, and indeed only after the destruction of the princess's party in 713, did he issue the decree returning government to the emperor. The difference between the two reigns, with the years as imperial heir, Prince of Xiang and grand commandant between them, is the basic thread of his life.

His Position as Imperial Heir and His Response

The ten years as imperial heir were the most dangerous of his life. His consorts were killed while he behaved as usual before his mother; Pei Feigong and Fan Yunxian were cut in two for visiting him and no official might see him; and when Lai Junchen questioned his attendants and they were ready to incriminate themselves, only An Jincang's opening of his own breast stayed the inquiry. Such events show that his safety depended wholly on the empress dowager's attitude and the political climate of the court, while his own response was consistently deference and silence. Compared with his brother Zhongzong, his position in the Zhou court was the more delicate — that of imperial heir rather than a deposed prince of Luling — and his choice of non-contention and self-preservation correspondingly more complete; and when Di Renjie and others urged the recall of the Prince of Luling and the empress dowager gave up the idea of Wu Chengsi, he at once memorialised asking to yield his place, withdrawing from the contest for the succession and taking part in government as Prince of Xiang. This handling was both the product of his temperament and the only workable strategy for a member of the Li imperial house in the Zhou court.

Consequences of Abdicating Without Handing Over Government

By keeping the decision of appointments of the third rank and above and of great penal and political matters after his abdication, Ruizong may have meant to preserve a balance, but the arrangement in fact gave Princess Taiping the means to go on meddling: relying on the retired emperor she wielded power, five of the seven chief councillors coming from her household, most officials attaching themselves to her, and she plotted deposition and installation with Dou Huaizhen, Xiao Zhizhong, Cen Xi and Cui Shi; the retired emperor also ordered the emperor's frontier tour, which selected commanders and trained troops and then never took place. Only in the seventh month of 713, when Xuanzong struck first and destroyed Dou Huaizhen's party, did Ruizong decree that all military, state, penal and political matters should pass to the emperor and move to the Baifu Hall, Princess Taiping being ordered to die three days later. The course shows that, sincere as his wish to "pass on virtue and avoid calamity" may have been, the incompleteness of the transfer and his indulgence of the princess brought the Tang through one more coup, which is the chief ground on which later writers criticised him for lacking decisiveness.

The Last Years with His Son

After the coup of 713 Li Dan moved to the Baifu Hall, took no further part in affairs and died in the sixth month of 716 at the age of fifty-four, being buried in the Qiao Mausoleum. His last years were thus spent in retirement after the return of government. His temple name was Ruizong and his first posthumous title Emperor Dashengzhen, with further titles added afterwards. His life passed through the reigns of five sovereigns, Gaozong, Wu Zetian, Zhongzong, the young emperor and Xuanzong, in the successive capacities of prince, emperor, imperial heir, Prince of Xiang, grand commandant and retired emperor, a succession of roles rare among the emperors of the Tang.

Major Activities

Two Sides of His Government

The government of Ruizong's second reign falls into two clearly marked phases. In the first years he relied on Yao Yuanzhi and Song Jing to clear away the abuses of Zhongzong's reign, abolishing the slant-sealed offices, reforming selection, taking the guards out of the hands of favourites, demoting the powerful and removing the influence of the Wu, so that the government was said to have recovered the spirit of Zhenguan and Yonghui. In the second, relying on Princess Taiping, he restored the slant-sealed appointments and made Dou Huaizhen and Cui Shi chief councillors, so that discipline again broke down as in the Jinglong years. The turn came in the second year of his reign, when the censor Cui Li and the crown prince's aide Xue Zhaosu argued that the slant-sealed appointments had been made by the late emperor and that to abolish them at once would advertise his faults and invite resentment, and when Princess Taiping added her voice, the emperor, persuaded, decreed that those already dismissed should be employed again according to their abilities. He also restored the tombs of Wu Zetian's parents as the Hao and Shun mausoleums at Wu Youji's request, and had abbeys built for the princesses Jinshan and Yuzhen at the cost of much private housing and millions of labour; and he established twenty-four commands of inspection over the prefectures, abolished them when the officials objected that their powers were too great, setting up ten circuit surveillance commissions instead and abolishing the right censorate.

The Consequences of Abdication Without Handing Over Government

After abdicating, Ruizong kept in his own hands appointments of the third rank and above and great penal and political decisions, calling himself "We" and his orders "gao", holding court every five days, while the emperor called himself "yu", issued decrees and held court daily; appointments of the third rank and above and great penal and political matters were decided by the retired emperor. The arrangement allowed Princess Taiping to go on wielding power in reliance on him, five of the seven chief councillors coming from her household, and her plot to depose and install the emperor grew out of it; only when Xuanzong destroyed Dou Huaizhen, Xiao Zhizhong and Cen Xi in the seventh month of 713 did Ruizong decree that all military, state, penal and political matters should pass to the emperor, moving to the Baifu Hall, with Princess Taiping ordered to die three days later. Governing without handing over the government is the main ground on which later writers said of him that "though he had a mind for the public good, his decisiveness fell short".

Historical Sources and Later Judgements

The principal records are the annals of Ruizong in the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang and chapters nineteen to twenty-six of the Tang annals in the Comprehensive Mirror, which preserves many details of the Zhou revolution, the risings of the princes, the perils of the imperial heir, the Tanglong coup, the reforms of Yao and Song and the troubles of Princess Taiping, while the Old Book of Tang gives the more concise record of his titles, offices and cultural measures. Later judgements fall into several groups: some criticise his weakness and indulgence, saying that he had a mind for the public good but fell short in decisiveness, that he gave Princess Taiping her head so that she disturbed the government and disappointed the realm, and classing Zhongzong and Ruizong together as mediocre rulers; some credit the sincerity of his abdication, noting that he alone of the Tang retired emperors did so from reverence for heaven's warnings and of his own will, while observing that even after abdicating he held court every five days and decided great appointments and punishments himself, returning government only after the princess was destroyed, so that he was in part constrained; and some criticise the alternation of his court's policies on the slant-sealed appointments and selection, arguing that where laws are not uniform deceit arises and where government is not uniform factions grow. These are the judgements of later historians, made from differing standpoints and materials, and the entry sets them side by side.

Personal Relations

• Father: Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi.
• Mother: Wu Zetian.
• Full brothers: Li Hong, Li Xian, and Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian.
• Full sister: Princess Taiping.
• Empress: Empress Liu, executed by Wu Zetian; Consort Dou, also executed by Wu Zetian.
• Sons: Li Xian, posthumously honored as the Yielding Emperor; Crown Prince Huizhuang Li Hui; Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji; Crown Prince Huiwen Li Fan; Crown Prince Huixuan Li Ye; and Prince Sui Li Longti.
• Daughters: Princess Shouchang, Princess Anxing Zhaohuai, Princess Jingshan, Princess Huaiyang, Princess Dai, Princess Liang, Princess Xue, Princess Xi, Princess Jinxian, Princess Yuzhen, and Princess Huo.
• An Jinzang: musician who cut open his abdomen to prove Li Dan was not plotting rebellion.
• Li Zhaode: official who killed Wang Qingzhi and defended Li Dan's position as Imperial Heir.
• Xiao Zhizhong: Censor-in-Chief who remonstrated against the treason accusation against Li Dan.
• Yuan Shuji: senior official in the Prince of Anguo and Xiang's household.
• Doulu Qinwang: senior official in the same household.
• Pei Yaoqing: official in the same household.
• Wu Zetian: both mother and sovereign; Li Dan yielded the throne to her.
• Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian: full elder brother; Li Dan yielded the succession to him.
• Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji: son; Li Dan abdicated in his favor.
• Wu Chengsi: rival over the position of imperial heir.
• Wei Tuan'er: accused Lady Liu and Consort Dou and harmed Li Dan.
• Lai Junchen: investigated the treason case against Li Dan.
• Princess Anle and Zong Chuke: accused Li Dan of treason.
• Princess Taiping: later struggled with Li Longji for power, with Li Dan caught between them.

Historical Assessment

Tang and Contemporary Assessments

• Old Book of Tang states that Ruizong abdicated to the crown prince before completing three years after his restoration and therefore left relatively little record of independent government.
• Zizhi Tongjian records Wu Zetian as saying to Li Dan, in response to An Jinzang's act, that she had a son who could not clear himself and had allowed matters to come to this.
• Emperor Gaozong described Li Dan as his youngest son and especially beloved.

Song and Yuan Assessments

• Fan Zuyu, in Tangjian, considered Ruizong wise in preserving himself through modesty and yielding.
• Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian records Li Dan's acts of yielding the throne and treats them as evidence that he understood the political situation.
• Hu Sanxing, commenting on Zizhi Tongjian, argued that Ruizong's abdication was driven by circumstances rather than entirely by his own preference.

Ming and Qing Assessments

• Wang Fuzhi, in Du Tongjian Lun, argued that Ruizong did not obtain the throne through merit to the realm, but that his accession allowed the realm to escape the danger posed by the Wei clan.
• Zhao Yi, in Nian'ershi Zhaji, discussed Li Dan's two abdications and regarded his yielding as a strategy of self-preservation.
• Wang Mingsheng, in Shiqishi Shangque, emphasized the extraordinary restraint Li Dan displayed while serving as Imperial Heir.

Modern Assessments

• Lü Simian, in History of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, regarded Ruizong as weak and without major achievements, while acknowledging his unusual ability to judge circumstances and abdicate twice.
• Cen Zhongmian, in History of the Sui and Tang, interpreted Li Dan's life as one in which retreat and yielding served survival.
• Huang Yongnian, in Twelve Lectures on Tang History, analyzed his abdication as motivated both by self-preservation and by a desire to avoid political turmoil.