Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Li Xian was born at Chang'an on the yichou day of the eleventh lunar month of the first year of Xianqing (November 26, 656). His father was Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and his mother was Empress Wu Zetian. He ranked seventh among Gaozong's sons and was Wu Zetian's third son. The *Old Book of Tang*, vol. 7, records: “On the yichou day of the eleventh month of the first year of Xianqing, he was born at Chang'an. The following year he was enfeoffed as Prince of Zhou and appointed Governor of Luo Prefecture.”
In 657, the second year of Xianqing, Li Xian was made Prince of Zhou and Governor of Luo Prefecture. The *New Book of Tang*, vol. 4, states: “Emperor Zhongzong, Dahe Dasheng Dazhao Xiao, personal name Xian, was the seventh son of Gaozong. His mother was Empress Wu, Zetian Shunsheng.”
In 677, the second year of Yifeng, he was transferred to the title Prince of Ying, renamed Li Zhe, and appointed Governor of Yong Prefecture. In the same year, the source states that he married Lady Zhao, daughter of Princess Changle, as his princess-consort; it also states that Lady Zhao, disliked by Wu Zetian, had already died in confinement in the Palace Attendants Department in 675, the second year of Shangyuan. In his early career Li Xian also held the offices of Governor of Luo Prefecture and Supreme Pillar of State and was appointed Commissioner with Tally, Commander of the military affairs of Bing, Fen, Ji, Lan, and other prefectures, concurrently Governor of Bing Prefecture. In the third lunar month of 676, the first year of Yifeng, he was made Commissioner with Tally and Expeditionary Marshal of the Taohe Route, commanding twelve area commanders including Liu Shenli, General of the Left Guard, and was assigned with his younger brother Li Lun, Prince of Xiang, to campaign against the Tibetan Empire. Neither prince personally went on the expedition.
Crown Prince and First Accession
In 680, the first year of Yonglong, Crown Prince Zhanghuai Li Xian was deposed and Li Xian was made crown prince. That same year Lady Wei, daughter of Wei Xuanzhen, was selected as crown princess. In the first lunar month of 682, the second year of Kaiyao, Li Xian's eldest son Li Chongrun was born. Emperor Gaozong was delighted. At the child's first-month celebration, he changed the era name to Yongchun and, unusually, designated the infant as imperial grandson-heir.
In the twelfth lunar month of 683, the first year of Hongdao, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi died. On the jiazi day of that month, January 3, 684, Li Xian inherited the throne. The *Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance* states: “On the jiazi day [of the twelfth month of the first year of Hongdao], Zhongzong ascended the throne, honored the Heavenly Empress as Empress Dowager, and all governmental affairs were decided by her.”
After his accession, Li Xian attempted to build his own political group and escape his mother's control. He favored relatives of Empress Wei, promoted her father Wei Xuanzhen from an assistant post in Pu Prefecture to Inspector of Yu Prefecture, and wanted to make him *shizhong*, a chancellor-level office. Chancellor Pei Yan strongly opposed the appointment. Li Xian angrily said: “Even if I gave the empire to Wei Xuanzhen, what would be wrong with that? Would I begrudge him merely one office of *shizhong*?” Pei Yan reported the remark to Wu Zetian, who was enraged.
On the wuwu day of the second lunar month of 684, the first year of Sisheng (February 26), Li Xian was deposed after only fifty-five days on the throne and reduced to Prince of Luling. The *New Book of Tang* records: “On the wuwu day of the second month [of the first year of Sisheng], the emperor was deposed as Prince of Luling and confined.” His younger brother Li Dan was then placed on the throne as Emperor Ruizong of Tang.
Fourteen Years in Exile
After his deposition, Li Xian was successively confined in Jun Prefecture (present-day Danjiangkou, Hubei) and Fang Prefecture (present-day Fang County, Hubei) for fourteen years. Only Lady Wei remained with him, and the two depended on one another. Not long after his confinement, Wu Zetian formally proclaimed herself emperor, and large numbers of Tang imperial clansmen were killed. Xu Jingye's uprising at Yangzhou and later risings by imperial princes such as Li Chong, Prince of Langya, and Li Zhen, Prince of Yue, all invoked opposition to Wu Zetian and restoration of the Prince of Luling. Rather than giving Li Xian hope, these events intensified his fear.
For years Li Xian lived in anxiety and often woke from nightmares soon after falling asleep. Whenever he heard that Wu Zetian had sent an envoy, he became terrified and at one point wanted to take his own life. Lady Wei comforted him: “Misfortune and good fortune depend upon each other and follow no fixed rule. Who can avoid death? Why rush toward it now?” Through their years of shared hardship Li Xian and Lady Wei became deeply attached. He promised her that if they ever regained their former position, he would never fail her.
Restoration as Crown Prince and the Shenlong Restoration
In her later years Wu Zetian hesitated between naming one of her sons or one of her Wu nephews as successor. Chancellor Di Renjie argued that Emperor Taizong had endured hardship and personally faced weapons to pacify the empire, that Gaozong had entrusted his sons to Wu Zetian, and that transferring the throne to another clan would violate Heaven's intent. He further asked whether nephew and aunt could be closer than mother and son: if she restored her son, she would be worshiped in the ancestral temple for generations; no one had heard of an emperor-nephew worshiping his aunt in the dynastic temple. Wu Zetian was persuaded.
In the third lunar month of 698, the first year of Shengli, Wu Zetian pretended that Li Xian required treatment in Luoyang and secretly sent Xu Yanbo, Vice Director in the Bureau of Operations, to recall Li Xian and his family. In the ninth lunar month, she restored him as crown prince. After returning to the succession, Li Xian kept a low profile and deliberately improved relations with his mother's Wu relatives, arranging marriages with them. He married his daughter Princess Yongtai to Wu Zetian's grandnephew Wu Yanji and his youngest daughter Princess Anle to another grandnephew, Wu Chongxun.
In the ninth lunar month of 701, the first year of Chang'an, Li Xian's legitimate eldest son Li Chongrun and Princess Yongtai and her husband expressed dissatisfaction with Wu Zetian's favor toward the brothers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong. Zhang Yizhi reported the matter to Wu Zetian in an aggravated form, and she forced Li Chongrun, Princess Yongtai, and Wu Yanji to commit suicide.
In 704, the fourth year of Chang'an, Wu Zetian was ill in Yingxian Palace, where Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong attended her and outsiders were not admitted. Officials including Zhang Jianzhi, Cui Xuanwei, Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, and Yuan Shuji secretly plotted to eliminate the Zhang brothers and restore Zhongzong.
In the first lunar month of 705, the first year of Shenlong, Chancellor Zhang Jianzhi, Right Yulin General Li Duozuo, Left General of the Awe-inspiring Guard Xue Sixing, and others launched the Shenlong Coup. More than five hundred Yulin troops forced their way through Xuanwu Gate and killed Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong in Yingxian Palace. Li Dan, Prince of Xiang, led troops of the southern palace guards in support. Wu Zetian had no choice but first to order the crown prince to oversee state affairs and then, the next day, to transfer the throne. One day later Li Xian formally resumed the imperial throne and proclaimed a general amnesty. The *Old Book of Tang*, vol. 7, states: “On the yisi day, Zetian transmitted the throne to the crown prince. On the bingwu day, he ascended the imperial throne in Tongtian Palace and proclaimed a general amnesty.”
Second Reign and Final Years
After his restoration, Li Xian elevated his younger brother Li Dan, Prince of Xiang, to Prince of Xiang Who Stabilizes the State and appointed him Defender-in-chief and Chancellor with the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Sanpin. He also elevated his sister Princess Taiping to Princess Taiping Who Stabilizes the State, rewarding both for their support of his restoration. In the second lunar month he restored the dynastic name Tang and reinstated the institutional forms that had existed before the Yongchun era.
Soon after returning to the throne, however, Li Xian made Lady Wei empress. Against ministerial objections, he posthumously elevated Empress Wei's father to princely rank and allowed the empress to participate in government. He distrusted the coup leaders Zhang Jianzhi and others. He married Princess Anle to Wu Chongxun, son of Wu Sansi, and appointed Shangguan Wan'er as *zhaorong*, placing her in charge of drafting imperial commands. Empress Wei maintained an intimate relationship with Wu Sansi and trusted him as the father of her son-in-law. Together they formed a powerful political group that dominated court affairs.
In 708, the second year of Jinglong, Li Xian sent Zhang Renyuan, Chief Commander of the Shuofang Route, to build the Three Surrender Fortresses in the southern steppe. The system transformed a base area of the Second Turkic Khaganate into a Tang-controlled military zone along the northern frontier. Qapaghan Qaghan could no longer return to the south of the desert and had to withdraw northward, greatly weakening his power.
On the renwu day of the sixth lunar month of the fourth year of Jinglong (July 3, 710), Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian died suddenly in Shenlong Hall at the age of fifty-five. The *Old Book of Tang*, vol. 7, records: “In the sixth month, on the renwu day, the emperor encountered poison and died in Shenlong Hall, aged fifty-five.”
Enfeoffments, the Crown, and His First Accession
The New History's annals record that "the Zhongzong emperor, posthumously Great Harmony, Great Sage, Great Bright and Filial, was named Xian and was the seventh son of Gaozong, his mother being the empress Wu, the Shunsheng of Zetian." Born at Chang'an on the yichou day of the eleventh month of 656, he was made prince of Zhou the next year and given Luozhou as his fief; in 677 he was moved to be prince of Ying, changed his name to Zhe and was given Yongzhou. After one of his elder brothers died and another was deposed, he was made crown prince in 680, the year the Zhanghuai crown prince was deposed. In the first month of 682 his eldest son Li Chongrun was born, and Gaozong, to show his joy, changed the era name at the child's full-month and, "breaking all precedent," made the infant grand imperial grandson — an arrangement which for a while made his own position look secure.
On Gaozong's death in the twelfth month of 683 he took the throne on the jiazi day of that month (3 January 684), "honouring the empress as empress dowager, and all government was decided by her," changing the era name to Sisheng the next year. But the Old History's annals call him "mediocre and weak": once on the throne he honoured Wu Zetian as empress dowager and left all government to her, while favouring the kin of Empress Wei to build a faction of his own, raising Wei's father from a mere military adviser in Puzhou to governor of Yuzhou and wishing to make him a chancellor. Pei Yan objected at once, and Li Xian, in a rage, said: "If I gave the empire to (Wei Xuanzhen), it would not be impossible — should I grudge a chancellor's post?" Pei Yan reported it to Wu Zetian, who was greatly angered, and on the wuwu day of the second month "deposed the emperor as prince of Luling and confined him" — fifty-five days after his accession. Wu Zetian then set up Ruizong as a puppet.
Fourteen Years of Exile and His Restoration as Heir
After his deposition he spent fourteen years of exile at Junzhou and Fangzhou, "with only Consort Wei for company, the two depending on one another and knowing every hardship of the world." In those years news from outside only deepened his fear: as Wu Zetian took the throne, "of the sons of the Li house beyond counting were slain," and he was terrified to hear it; Xu Jingye and others rose at Yangzhou, and presently the prince of Langya, Li Chong, and others rose too, "all of them raising the banner of opposing Wu Zetian and restoring the prince of Luling," which "not only gave the deposed emperor little light of hope, but on the contrary deepened his inward fear." He "lived in constant dread for years, often waking from nightmares soon after lying down," and when he heard that Wu Zetian had sent (an envoy) he was once so frightened that he wished to kill himself, until Wei consoled him that "fortune and calamity have no constancy, and such is the order of things — every man must die, so why die at once?" Thereafter the two shared hardship for years with the deepest affection, and Li Xian vowed that if he ever saw daylight again he would "never (fail her)."
After Wu Zetian took the throne, whether to name a son or a nephew troubled her. Di Renjie remonstrated that "(Taizong) faced swords and arrows and pacified the empire; Gaozong entrusted his two sons to Your Majesty, and would you now yield to another clan, against the will of heaven? And which is nearer, aunt and nephew, or mother and son? If Your Majesty sets up a son, then after ten thousand years he will be offered sacrifice in the ancestral temple and the line will continue without end; set up a nephew, and we have never heard of a nephew (offering sacrifice to his aunt in the ancestral temple)." Wu Zetian was at once enlightened; and when she told Di Renjie that day of a dream in which a parrot's two wings were broken, he turned it to his purpose, saying that "Wu is Your Majesty's surname, and the two wings are the two sons; if Your Majesty employs the two sons, the bird may spread its wings and fly high." Afterwards she pretended that Li Xian was ill and needed treatment at Luoyang, and sent an official of the bureau of operations secretly to recall him and his household, and he ended his exile and came back to Luoyang; in the ninth month of 698 she restored him as crown prince, "keeping his name Xian." Once restored he "kept himself hidden and cultivated relations with his mother's Wu kin," and decided to marry into the Wu: his daughter (the princess Yongtai) becoming the daughter-in-law of Wu (Chengsi) and his youngest, the princess Anle, marrying another of Wu Zetian's grand-nephews (Wu Chongxun) — "by marrying into the Wu house Zhongzong undoubtedly hoped to secure his position by ties of marriage." His children paid for this too: Li Chongrun and others (having spoken of the two Zhangs) displeased the (Zhang) brothers, who embroidered the matter for Wu Zetian, saying they slandered the court, so that she forced Li Chongrun, the princess Yongtai and her husband to kill themselves, "though as the matter reached no further she did not press it."