Li Zhi

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Li Zhi was born on July 21, 628, the fifteenth day of the sixth lunar month in the second year of Zhenguan, in Lizheng Hall of the Eastern Palace at Chang'an. He was the ninth son of Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang, and Empress Wende, Lady Zhangsun, and was a full brother of Crown Prince Li Chengqian and Prince Li Tai of Wei. In 631 he was enfeoffed as Prince of Jin. In 633 he received the nominal post of governor of Bingzhou but did not proceed to the province.

Li Zhi was described as intelligent, dignified, broad-minded, and humane as a child. The court scholar Xiao Deyan taught him the Classic of Filial Piety. When Taizong asked what the central teaching of the work was, Li Zhi answered that filial piety begins with serving one's parents, continues with serving one's ruler, and culminates in establishing oneself, while a gentleman serving his ruler should advance with loyalty, withdraw to correct faults, support what is good, and rectify what is wrong. Taizong was delighted and said that anyone who acted on these principles would be able to serve father, elder brothers, ruler, and family properly.

In the sixth lunar month of 636 Empress Zhangsun died. The nine-year-old Li Zhi mourned her so intensely that those around him were moved. Taizong repeatedly comforted him and thereafter showed him particular affection; not long afterward he appointed him Grand General of the Right Martial Guard. Li Zhi and his full younger sister, Princess Jinyang Li Mingda, were the only children Taizong personally raised to adulthood in the palace, an indication of the emperor's special affection for them.

Succession Struggle and Appointment as Crown Prince

In Taizong's later years, Crown Prince Li Chengqian and Prince Li Tai of Wei competed for the succession. Li Chengqian gradually lost favor because of his conduct and, fearing Li Tai's increasing influence, conspired with Prince Li Yuanchang of Han, Du He, Hou Junji, and others to launch an armed palace coup. The conspiracy failed in 643 and Li Chengqian was deposed.

Taizong initially considered making Li Tai crown prince. Li Tai promised to kill his own son and pass the succession to his younger brother Li Zhi, but he also intimidated Li Zhi by invoking the case of Li Yuanchang. Li Zhi reported this to Taizong. The deposed Li Chengqian likewise confessed that his own rebellion had been driven by Li Tai's ambitions for the succession. Taizong became disappointed in Li Tai. In Liangyi Hall he retained Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, and Li Ji and declared his intention to choose the Prince of Jin. They supported the decision, and on the seventh day of the fourth lunar month Li Zhi was formally established as crown prince.

Even after making him heir, Taizong worried that Li Zhi was too mild. He privately told Changsun Wuji that Zhinu was weak and might not be able to preserve the state, while Prince Li Ke of Wu was decisive and resembled him. Changsun Wuji firmly opposed another change, arguing that the crown prince was humane and was suitable as a ruler who would preserve established institutions. Taizong therefore abandoned the idea and Li Zhi's succession became secure.

Thereafter Taizong often kept Li Zhi beside him during audiences so that he could observe the handling of state business or take part in deliberations. Taizong repeatedly praised his performance. In 644, when Taizong campaigned against Goguryeo, Li Zhi remained at Dingzhou. At the time of departure he wept for days and requested that reports on Taizong's health be transmitted by fast relay couriers, beginning the practice known as “flying memorials.” After the army returned, Taizong developed a severe abscess at Bingzhou; Li Zhi personally sucked out the pus and walked beside his father's carriage for several days.

Accession and the Yonghui Governance

On the twenty-sixth day of the fifth lunar month in 649, the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong died at Cuiwei Palace in the Zhongnan Mountains. On his deathbed he entrusted his “filial son and daughter-in-law” to Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang. On the first day of the sixth lunar month Li Zhi ascended the throne at the age of twenty-two.

At the beginning of his reign, Li Zhi made his maternal uncle Changsun Wuji Grand Commandant and concurrently acting Director of the Secretariat, and he governed with Chu Suiliang as a principal adviser. He treated both men with great respect and listened deferentially to their advice. Contemporary and later historians therefore described the Yonghui government as prosperous and peaceful, preserving the spirit of Zhenguan. Changsun Wuji, as imperial maternal uncle and senior minister, exercised great influence, and Li Zhi initially accepted nearly all of his recommendations.

In 650 Li Zhi made Lady Wang empress and appointed his eldest son Li Zhong governor of Yongzhou. That same year Gao Kan captured the Turkic leader Chebi Khan, and the Tang established the Chanyu and Hanhai protectorates. In 651 the Western Turk Ashina Helu proclaimed himself Shabolüe Qaghan and attacked Tingzhou; Li Zhi sent Liang Jianfang against him.

In 653 the Fang Yi'ai treason case implicated Fang Yi'ai, Princess Gaoyang, Princess Baling, Xue Wanche, Chai Lingwu, and others in a plot to enthrone Prince Li Yuanjing of Jing. Fang Yi'ai, Xue Wanche, and Chai Lingwu were executed, while Li Yuanjing and the two princesses were ordered to commit suicide. Prince Li Ke of Wu, Prince Li Daozong of Jiangxia, Prince Li Yin of Shu, and others were killed or exiled because of alleged involvement or because they had offended Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang. The case eliminated several figures regarded as major political threats to Li Zhi's throne.

Deposing Empress Wang and Elevating Wu Zetian

While still crown prince, Li Zhi had formed a relationship with Wu, a concubine of Taizong who was four years older than he was. After Taizong's death, Wu entered Ganye Temple as a Buddhist nun according to court practice. In the fifth lunar month of 650, on the first anniversary of Taizong's death, Li Zhi visited the temple, met Wu again, and the two expressed their continuing attachment. In the fifth lunar month of 651, after the mourning period had ended, Wu returned to the palace.

After returning, Wu behaved with extreme deference toward Empress Wang and complied with her wishes. Empress Wang repeatedly praised Wu before Gaozong, strengthening the emperor's affection for her, while both Empress Wang and Consort Xiao fell from favor. In 652 Wu was appointed Zhaoyi, a high-ranking imperial consort.

Li Zhi eventually resolved to depose Empress Wang and replace her with Wu. He personally visited Changsun Wuji's residence to test his reaction and also had Wu's mother, Lady Yang, approach him, but Changsun refused to support the change. In 654 Li Zhi summoned Changsun Wuji, Li Ji, Yu Zhining, and Chu Suiliang for discussion. Chu vehemently opposed the proposal, arguing that Empress Wang came from a distinguished family and had been chosen for Li Zhi by Taizong; he even threatened resignation. Li Ji excused himself from the meeting on grounds of illness, but privately told Li Zhi that it was the emperor's family matter and did not require consultation with outsiders. This strengthened Li Zhi's resolve.

In the tenth lunar month of 655, Li Zhi deposed Empress Wang to commoner status and made Wu Zetian empress. In the following month he proclaimed a general amnesty. From this point Empress Wu increasingly took part in political affairs.

Personal Rule and the Eastern Capital at Luoyang

In 657, the second year of Xianqing, Li Zhi elevated Luoyang as the Eastern Capital, in part using its access to transport grain and thereby easing chronic supply difficulties in the Guanzhong region. The senior regents Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang subsequently lost influence. In 659 Xu Jingzong, acting in accordance with Empress Wu's wishes, accused Changsun Wuji of treason. Li Zhi stripped him of office and title and exiled him to Qianzhou, where he was soon forced to commit suicide. Chu Suiliang had already been demoted first to governor of Tanzhou and then to prefect of Aizhou, where he died.

After the old regency group disappeared, Li Zhi exercised authority more independently. The Chinese source characterizes this phase as one in which he rejected frank criticism and in which officials increasingly avoided direct remonstrance. It also records major building projects and heavy labor demands that produced widespread dissatisfaction.

From 660 onward Li Zhi suffered from repeated episodes described as “wind dizziness,” with heaviness of the head and impaired eyesight. Government affairs increasingly passed to Empress Wu. In 664 Chancellor Shangguan Yi was involved in an attempt to remove the empress; the plan failed and he was executed. Thereafter Li Zhi and Wu were increasingly described as the “Two Sages.” In 674 Li Zhi adopted the title Tianhuang and Wu the title Tianhou, formalizing the unusual imperial partnership.

Later Years and Death

In 678 Li Zhi's dizziness worsened until he could not see. The court physician Qin Minghe proposed acupuncture at the Baihui point on the top of the head. Empress Wu angrily objected that a man who dared to pierce the emperor's head should be executed, but Li Zhi believed the treatment might help and approved it. After the needling he was temporarily able to see again, although the effect did not last.

On the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month in 683, the first year of Hongdao, Li Zhi died in Zhenguan Hall of Ziwei Palace at Luoyang at the age of fifty-five. He was given the posthumous title Tianhuang Dadi, the temple name Gaozong, and was buried at Qianling. In 749, the eighth year of Tianbao, the posthumous title was expanded to Tianhuang Dasheng Huangdi, and in 754, the thirteenth year of Tianbao, to Tianhuang Dasheng Dahongxiao Huangdi.

The Contests over the Succession and the Accession

In his last years Taizong wished to make the Prince of Jin heir but, "being bound by the order of precedence, wavered and could not decide". He held court in the Liangyi Hall, dismissed all the ministers but Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling and Li Ji, and said that "my three sons and one brother have behaved so that my heart is utterly weary", then threw himself on the couch and drew his dagger to stab himself. Zhangsun Wuji and the others, in alarm, rushed to hold him and took the dagger and gave it to the Prince of Jin, asking what he wished; the emperor said that he wished to make the Prince of Jin heir, and Wuji answered that he received the decree and would behead any who dissented, whereupon the emperor had the prince bow and thank his uncle, and Wuji added that "the Prince of Jin is humane and filial, and the realm has long set its heart on him", so that the succession was settled. Afterwards the emperor, doubting that the heir was too mild, told Wuji privately that "you urged me to make Zhinu heir, but Zhinu is weak and may not hold the altars; the Prince of Wu is brave and resolute like me, and I wish to make him heir", and Wuji firmly opposed it, asking whether it was because the Prince of Wu was not his own nephew; Wuji answered that the heir was humane and generous, a true sovereign for keeping the realm in order, and that the succession was too weighty to be changed lightly, so the emperor desisted and Li Zhi's position was secured. The emperor, at court, often had him stand by to watch the settlement of affairs or to take part in discussion, and praised his ability more than once; in 644, going against Goguryeo, he left the heir at Dingzhou, and Li Zhi, grieving for days, asked leave to send his own memorials and border reports by post-horse, which the emperor granted, "the flying memorial beginning here". Returning, when the emperor suffered an abscess, the heir sucked it himself and walked supporting the carriage for days. In the fifth month of 649 the emperor died, entrusting his affairs to Zhangsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang; on the first day of the sixth month the heir took the throne before the coffin at twenty-two, proclaiming a general amnesty, a rank of merit to all officials, grain and silk to those over eighty, and one year's remission in Yongzhou and in the prefectures most burdened by military supply. He changed the ministry of population to the ministry of revenue, made Li Ji a special entrant, acting governor of Luozhou and keeper of the Luoyang palace, and Zhangsun Wuji grand commandant and acting chief of the secretariat, knowing the affairs of the secretariat and chancellery, with three thousand bolts of silk, while Li Ji became a director with the third rank of the secretariat and chancellery, so that "the directors first bore the title of the chancellery". He also made the Prince of Jing, Li Yuanjing, a minister of state, and the Prince of Wu, Li Ke, a censor-general and governor of Liangzhou, and gave Fang Xuanling, Gao Shilian and Qutu Tong places in the sacrifices to Taizong. In the seventh month, when the offices asked that the titles of investigating censor, the prefectural assistants and the masters of rites be changed to avoid his name, he refused because the two characters of the late emperor's name had not been avoided in the Zhenguan era; the offices replied that "the late emperor bore two names, and the rites do not require partial avoidance; Your Majesty bears a single name, and subjects should not speak it", and he agreed. In the eighth month an earthquake in Hedong, worst at Jinzhou, threw down houses and crushed more than five thousand people; he sent envoys to comfort the survivors, remitted taxes for two years, and gave three bolts of silk to the families of the dead.

The Yonghui Court and the Fang Ai'ai Case

In 650 his consort Wang became empress and his eldest son Li Zhong governor of Yongzhou; that year Gao Kan captured the Turkish Chebi qaghan and the two protectorates of Chanyu and Hanhai were established. In 651 the western Turk Ashina Helu made himself qaghan and invaded Tingzhou, and he sent Liang Jianfang against him. In 653 Fang Ai'ai, the Princess Gao yang, the Princess Baling, Xue Wanche and Chai Lingwu plotted to make the Prince of Jing, Li Yuanjing, emperor; the plot failed, and on the third day of the second month Fang Ai'ai, Xue Wanche and Chai Lingwu were executed and Li Yuanjing, the Princess Baling and the Princess Gaoyang were ordered to take their own lives; the Prince of Wu Li Ke, the Prince of Jiangxia Li Daozong and the Prince of Shu Li Yin were killed or demoted for their involvement or for offending Zhangsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang. With this the threats to Li Zhi's throne were removed. His guardian ministers then successively fell: in 659 Xu Jingzong, at Empress Wu's wish, contrived a charge of treason against Zhangsun Wuji, and Li Zhi had his titles stripped and sent him to Qianzhou, soon forcing him to take his own life; Chu Suiliang had been demoted to Tanzhou and then to Aizhou, where he died.

Making Wu Empress and the Two Sages

While still heir, Li Zhi had had relations with the consort Wu of the late emperor, four years his senior; after Taizong's death she entered the Ganye nunnery. On the anniversary in the fifth month of 650 he offered incense there and met her, and when mourning ended she entered the palace again. Knowing the empress's mind, Wu was servile to her, and the empress, praising her to the emperor, deepened his favour; in 652 she was made a consort of the second rank. He then resolved to depose the empress and make Wu empress, going first in person to Wuji's house and then sending Wu's mother Lady Yang to plead, but Wuji would not consent. In 654 he summoned Wuji, Li Ji, Yu Zhining and Chu Suiliang to an inner hall, where Chu Suiliang opposed strongly, saying that "the empress is of a great house and was taken by the late emperor for Your Majesty", and even threatening to resign; Li Ji pleaded illness and stayed away, telling him privately that "this is Your Majesty's family matter, and why ask outsiders", which decided him. In the tenth month of 655 he deposed the empress to commoner and in the eleventh month made Wu empress, proclaiming an amnesty, and she took part in government. Behind the dispute lay the conflict between the aristocratic and the lesser bureaucratic lineages — the empress being of a great house and Wu of humble birth — and the decline of the one and rise of the other, a current since the later Northern and Southern Dynasties; some scholars suggest that his willingness to defy "the command of the late emperor" shows he was not a man to be managed by others. In the tenth month of 660 he "first suffered from dizziness, heaviness in the head and inability to see, and in some memorials of the hundred offices had the empress decide", and Wu, being clever and versed in letters and history, decided them to his satisfaction, "and from this he began to entrust her with government, her power equalling the sovereign's". Early in Linde the empress summoned the adept Guo Xingzhen into the palace for sorcery, and the eunuch Wang Fusheng informed on her; he was enraged and summoned the vice-minister of the western terrace Shangguan Yi, who said she was arbitrary and had lost the realm's confidence and could not continue the ancestral line, matching his own mind, so he had a decree of deposition drafted; those about him hurried to tell the empress, who came to plead, and he, abashed, treated her as before and said that "it was all Shangguan Yi who taught me", whereupon she had Xu Jingzong contrive a charge and kill him. Thereafter they were called the "two sages", and in 674 he took the title Heavenly Emperor and she that of Heavenly Empress, changing the era and proclaiming an amnesty. In 678, when dizziness worsened and his head ached unbearably, the physician Qin Minghe proposed letting a little blood from the head; the empress from behind the curtains cried that he should be beheaded for daring to pierce the sovereign's head, but Li Zhi said that his head ached and bleeding might do good, and after the needle was inserted at the crown he said his sight was clear.

His Last Years, Famine and Death

In 682, with Guanzhong famine-stricken and grain at three hundred cash a picul, he was to go to the eastern capital; the departure was so hurried that some of the escort starved on the road, and the region, after flood, drought and locusts, was visited by plague, "grain at four hundred cash a picul, the dead lying on the roads between the two capitals, men eating one another". The censor Li Shangan remonstrated that after the sacrifice at Mount Tai the emperor had been compared with the Three August Ones and Five Emperors, yet "for years the grain has not ripened, the starving lie everywhere, the four barbarians press in and war-chariots are driven every year", so that he should sit in silence and cultivate the Way, whereas he was building palaces and sparing no labour, to the realm's disappointment; the emperor, though not accepting it, treated him leniently — and since the deaths of Chu Suiliang and Han Yuan the court had for nearly twenty years taken speech as a taboo and none dared remonstrate, so that men rejoiced and called it "the phoenix crying in the morning sun". In the twelfth month of 683 he changed the era to Hongdao; wishing to proclaim the amnesty himself from the Tianze Gate tower, he was "so short of breath that he could not mount his horse", and had the people summoned before the hall instead. When it was done he asked whether the people rejoiced, and being told that they were all grateful for the amnesty, he said that "though the people rejoice, my life is in peril; if Heaven and Earth would grant me a month or two more, to return to Chang'an, I should die without regret". That evening he died at the Zhenguan Hall at fifty-six, leaving word that he be coffined in seven days, that the heir succeed before the coffin, that the tomb be frugal, and that any weighty affairs undecided should be settled by the Heavenly Empress. He was given the posthumous name Heavenly Emperor, the temple name Gaozong, and buried at Qianling in the eighth month of the first year of Wenming, his name being further honoured in the Tianbao era.

The Sacrifice, Daoism and the Death of the Heir

At the sacrifice to Heaven and Earth in the Linde era the empress memorialised that the old rite had the chancellors perform the sacrifice to the Earth while the empress dowager was merely its consort, and asked to lead the noblewomen in the offering; it was decreed that at the altar of the Earth the empress should make the second offering and the Consort Dowager of Yue the third, that the seats of the supreme deity and the Earth should have mattresses, cups and vessels in place of straw and earthenware, and that the civil dance use the Music of Achieved Goodness and the military the Music of the Divine Achievement of Breaking the Ranks. He favoured Daoism: in 662 he decreed that the governor of Luozhou build the Shangqing Temple at Mount Mang, where an old stone table was found, and when rites were held the Laozi was said to appear in the light, so that the hundred offices sent up congratulations; in 679 he had the Daoist Zheng Yuanyin and twenty-four others hold a great rite at the Shangqing Temple and attended it in person, afterwards decreeing that the Daoists be attached to the Court of the Imperial Clan and rank next to the princes. Scholars note that the increase of Daoist temples began only under Gaozong, since Gaozu and Taizong honoured Daoism without adding temples. His heir Li Hong, accompanying him to the Hebi Palace in 675, was poisoned and died at twenty-four, to the grief of the realm; he exceptionally honoured him as emperor with the posthumous title Xiaojing, buried him at Gongling in Goushi with the full imperial rites, ordered the officials to mourn thirty-six days as for an emperor, and wrote the Record of Sagely Virtue himself for the stone beside the tomb — the work, it is said, costing millions and wearying the people, who threw down their tiles and bricks and dispersed. In 676, suffering from a rash, he wished to abdicate and have the empress hold the government, and consulted the chancellors; the vice-minister Hao Chujun remonstrated that "the realm is the realm of Gaozu and Taizong, not Your Majesty's own", and that he should keep the ancestral temple and pass it to his sons rather than hand the state to another or favour the empress's kin, and Li Yiyan concurred, so he desisted. Meanwhile the empress gathered literary men such as Yuan Wanqing and Liu Yizhi to compile the Biographies of Virtuous Women, the Mirror for Ministers, the New Admonitions for the Hundred Offices and the Book of Music, several thousand chapters, and secretly had them decide memorials and the deliberations of the offices, dividing the chancellors' power, so that men called them the "northern gate scholars".

Palaces and the Eastern Capital

The building works of his reign were on a great scale. In 656 he ordered the deputy director of agriculture Tian Renwang to rebuild the Qian-yuan Hall on the site of the old one, a hundred and twenty feet high, three hundred and forty-five feet from east to west and a hundred and seventy-six from north to south, finished by the report of the offices on the twelfth day of the second month of 665; the Yingtian Gate of the Luoyang palace, which had also burned, was rebuilt and called the Zetian Gate. From 663 the Daming Palace was extensively rebuilt as the Penglai Palace, called the Hanyuan Palace in 670 and again the Daming Palace in 701 — the histories saying that the emperor, "troubled by rheumatism, disliked the damp of the western palace" and moved there. In 675, strolling north of the Luo river where the height gave a fine view, he ordered Wei Ji to build a lofty lodge, and when it was done had galleries built along the bank for a whole li, "so that all the quarters paying court saw it". In 682, having sacrificed at Mount Tai and wishing to sacrifice at all the Five Peaks, he built the Fengtian Palace south of Mount Song in the seventh month, which was among the grounds of Li Shangan's remonstrance. In 660 he had Tian Renwang and Xu Gan build the eight-gate cool palace, renamed the Hebi Palace, its central hall the Lianbi, with the Qisheng Hall on the northern height, very grand, and it was in its Qiyun Hall that the heir Li Hong died. The decree establishing the eastern capital declared that "the splendour of two capitals comes from of old... therefore the Luoyang palace is changed into the Eastern Capital", and the practice of moving to eat the grain of the east was thus fixed.

His Children and Daughters

He had many children. His full sister, the Princess Jinyang, Li Mingda, styled Douzi from childhood, was the daughter of the Empress Wende and "was never seen to show joy or anger"; when Taizong was angry and reproved anyone she would wait on his mood and gently explain, so that many in the palace benefited and all praised and loved her. At the queen's death she was still an infant, and at five, passing a place the queen had frequented, she grieved uncontrollably; of Taizong's children the Prince of Jin and she were the youngest and he raised them himself, the prince on leaving the palace gate seeing her weep; she could copy the emperor's flying-white script so that others could not tell the difference; she died at twelve, and Taizong for a month would not eat properly and grieved many times a day, growing thin, and when the ministers urged him he said that he knew well that grief availed nothing and could not stop, and did not know why; he had the offices record her remaining toilet funds and build a Buddhist shrine by her grave. The Princess Xincheng, her full sister, married first Zhangsun Quan, exiled to Suizhou for a crime, and then Wei Zhengju, who treated her without respect; she died suddenly, and Gaozong had the three courts try the case together, whereupon Wei Zhengju, unable to clear himself, was executed, and the princess was buried beside Zhaoling with imperial rites. The Princess Taiping, daughter of the Empress Wu, was loved by her above all her daughters; on the death of the Lady of Rongguo the empress had her made a Daoist for her soul's benefit; and when the Tibetans sought her in marriage in the Yifeng years the empress, unwilling to send her to the barbarians, had a real palace built with a female adept's austerities to refuse the match. Among the children recorded are Li Zhong, Prince of Yan; Li Xiao, Prince of Yuan; Li Shangjin, Prince of Ze; Li Sujie, Prince of Xu; the heir Li Hong; Li Xian, Prince Zhanghuai; Li Xian, Emperor Zhongzong; Li Dan, Emperor Ruizong; and the princesses Yi yang, Gao'an and Anding. The heir Li Hong, after his death, was honoured as Emperor Xiaojing; Li Xian became Prince Zhanghuai; and Li Xian and Li Dan both came to the throne in turn.

Major Activities

Political Governance

In the early part of his reign Li Zhi continued the political style of Zhenguan and worked closely with Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, a period later known as the “Yonghui Governance.” He treated senior ministers respectfully and listened to their counsel, and the population was described as secure and prosperous. Institutionally, his reign further developed the Three Departments and Six Ministries, expanded recruitment through the imperial examination system, and produced the Yonghui Code and its commentary, later known collectively as the Tang Code with Commentary, an important achievement in Tang legal history. After the Fang Yi'ai treason case of 653, leading perceived threats to the throne were removed. Li Zhi thereafter recovered greater control, although after 660 his illness increasingly shifted authority toward Empress Wu.

Military Expansion and Territorial Reach

Tang territory reached a very broad extent during Li Zhi's reign. In 650 Gao Kan captured Chebi Khan, after which the Chanyu and Hanhai protectorates were established. In 657 Su Dingfang destroyed the Western Turkic Khaganate and the Kunling and Mengchi protectorates were created. In 660 Su Dingfang conquered Baekje. In 668 Li Ji destroyed Goguryeo and the Andong Protectorate was established. The Chinese source describes Tang territory at its height as extending east into the Korean Peninsula, west toward the Aral Sea, north to Lake Baikal, and south to central Vietnam, with an estimated area of about 12.37 million square kilometers.

Luoyang as the Eastern Capital

In 657 Li Zhi established Luoyang as the Eastern Capital. The Guanzhong region had long faced grain-supply problems, and residence at Luoyang provided easier access to transported grain. Thereafter Li Zhi moved repeatedly between Chang'an and Luoyang, and Luoyang gradually became a major practical center of government.

Formation of the “Two Sages” Arrangement

Li Zhi's elevation of Wu Zetian as empress in 655 was a major political turning point. Wu increasingly participated in government. After Shangguan Yi's failed attempt to remove her in 664, the Chinese source states that court authority came increasingly under her control. In 674 Li Zhi took the title Tianhuang and Wu the title Tianhou, and the pair became known as the “Two Sages,” forming an unusual arrangement of imperial co-governance.

Literary and Cultural Contacts

Li Zhi was not primarily known as a literary figure, but many important early Tang writers were active during his reign, including the “Four Paragons of the Early Tang”: Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin, and Luo Binwang. Li Zhi showed favor toward literary talent and at one point summoned Wang Bo to serve as a court official, although Wang was later expelled from a princely household after composing the satirical Declaration against the Prince of Ying's Cock. Li Zhi also ordered the compilation of large literary collections such as Yaoshan Yucai and Wenguan Cilin, contributing to cultural preservation.

Law, Confucian Learning and the Examinations

The Yonghui years were decisive for Tang law: the Yonghui Code and its commentary, later known as the Tang Code with Sub-commentary, were completed then, a representative Tang code that deeply influenced later ages and the neighbouring states. The enforcement of the period was relatively lenient and even, with little crime — the chief justice Tang Lin once reported to him that there were only some fifty prisoners in the gaol, of whom only two deserved death. In Confucian learning, the Correct Meaning of the Five Classics had been left unfinished under Taizong, and in 651 he ordered the scholars to continue revising it; completed in 653, it was promulgated and made the textbook for the classics examination, unifying Confucian learning and turning the promotion of Confucian officials into an institution. In 650 he had ordered the appointment of Confucian officials to relieve the shortage of teachers, and in ritual he had the Zhenguan Rites supplemented, promulgating the new Xianqing Rites in the first month of 658 with a preface of his own, and decreeing in 677 that "the five rites be performed according to the Rites of Zhou". In the examinations he adopted Liu Sili's proposal in 680 to add a paper on miscellaneous letters and on the memorising of texts, from which poetry, prose and office were linked, turning men's minds to letters and preparing the way for the flourishing of High Tang literature. Soon after his accession he ordered an end to "the Korean campaign and all building works", and changed the three-day audience of Taizong's time to a daily audience, governing diligently — whence the small number of prisoners in the gaol.

Foreign Wars and the Extent of the Realm

At the outset he kept to Taizong's rules, so that "the government of Yonghui was said to rival Zhenguan", while in foreign affairs the Tang reached its height under him. In 657 Su Dingfang destroyed the western Turks and took Ashina Helu, establishing the two protectorates of Kunling and Mengchi; in 660 Su Dingfang destroyed Baekje; and in 668 Li Ji stormed Pyongyang, taking King Bojang and the minister Namgon, so that the whole country submitted — a hundred and seventy cities and six hundred and ninety-seven thousand households — and it was made the An-dong protectorate with forty-two prefectures. The protectorates and dependent prefectures extended west to Persia, and the extent of the realm in the second year of Zongzhang was the greatest of the Tang. Yet the west also declined under pressure from the Tibetans and Turks: Taizong had moved the Anxi protectorate into Kucha and joined to it Khotan, Kashgar and Suyab, the "four garrisons", but Li Zhi, "not wishing to widen territory at the people's cost", had the four garrisons abandoned and Anxi returned to Xizhou, after which the Tibetans penetrated deeply and the garrisons west of Karashahr fell; in 670 the Tibetans raided eighteen dependent prefectures, took the Bawuan castle through Khotan, and the four garrisons were abolished, while Xue Rengui's army was defeated at Dafeichuan by Lun Qinling and the Tuyuhun were destroyed. In 662 Su Haizheng, sent against Kucha, was misled into killing the western Turk Ashina Mishe by forged decree, and at Kashgar, facing a Tibetan host and fearing to fight, bribed them with military stores and made peace, so that "all the tribes thought Ashina Mishe wronged and each grew estranged", and Ashina Duzhi and Li Zhefu gathered the remnant and attached themselves to the Tibetans. In 678 Li Jingxuan, with a hundred and eighty thousand men, was defeated by the Tibetan Lun Qinling at Qinghai, the minister of works Liu Shenli being captured; Li Jingxuan, cowardly, failed to relieve him and fled, and only Heichi Changzhi's five hundred death-defying men, attacking the Tibetan camp by night, saved the army. Being "Confucian and benevolent without far-reaching plans", he asked his ministers how to resist the Tibetans, saying that he had never worn armour, that the campaigns against Goguryeo and Baekje had thrown China into disorder and that he repented, and though some urged marriage alliance, some defence and some immediate attack, the discussion came to nothing. Against the Turks he also erred: in 681, when Ashina Funian again made himself qaghan, Pei Xingjian induced his surrender by promising his life, but Pei Yan, envying the merit, reported that Funian had surrendered only because pressed by subordinates, and Li Zhi, believing it, executed Ashina Funian, Ashina Wengfu and fifty-two others in the market; Pei Xingjian, sighing that "I fear that when the surrendered are killed none will come again", pleaded illness and stayed at home. So wholesale an execution of tribal chiefs was a first in Tang history, and it gave the Turkish nobles a pretext for secession; afterwards Ashina Guduolu and Ashina Yuanzhen gathered the remnants, rose at Heisha city, raided Bingzhou and the northern frontier of the Chanyu protectorate, and killed Wang Demao, governor of Lanzhou.

The Eastern Capital and the Grain Supply

Because the grain supply of the passes was chronically short, in 657 he made Luoyang an eastern capital, going there to eat the grain. Throughout his reign he did so seven times, and in the twenty-six and a half years from the first such visit in 657 to his death at Luoyang in 683 he spent half the time there. In 670 the scarcity was so severe that brewing was forbidden; in the later seventies and eighties dearth, flood, drought, locusts and famine followed one another to the point of crisis, and in 680 grain prices were higher than ever, the government attributing it to an excess of coin, so that it minted far less and punished private coining more severely. At the same time refugees from the registered districts, becoming unregistered and untaxed squatters, reached alarming proportions, and he died with the economic and financial crisis still unsolved. Yet his government introduced price controls that partly succeeded and were used throughout the Tang: grain was periodically sold cheap from the central granaries; goods were bought above market price when they were plentiful and sold below it when scarce, keeping prices within bounds, and in time every prefecture had such a granary.

Religious Policy and Cultural Works

He maintained the traditional honouring of Daoism while checking Buddhism: in 657 he forbade monks and nuns to receive the reverence of their parents and elders, and in 662 ordered all monks and Daoists to bow to their parents. He also gave Buddhism powerful support — the great Vairocana niche at the Fengxian Temple in Longmen was "built by the great Heavenly Emperor Gaozong", the empress contributing twenty thousand strings of her own money in 672, the work finished in 675, with the Buddha's haloed seat eighty-five feet high, the two bodhisattvas seventy feet and the guardians fifty. Xuanzang's translation work was likewise supported: in 657, when the emperor went to the Luoyang palace, Xuanzang attended with five translating monks and a disciple each, all supplied from public funds, and took the chance to sweep his parents' graves and ask to rebury them, which the emperor granted, ordering all expenses paid from the treasury, when more than ten thousand people of Luoyang attended. In letters, the Four Talents of the early Tang were active in his reign; he treated literary men with courtesy, made Wang Bo a court gentleman and later dismissed him from the princely household for his joking "Proclamation Against the Prince's Fighting Cock", and had the anthologies Yaoshan Yucai and Casket of Literary Gems compiled, contributing to Tang cultural accumulation. His own decrees — on seeking worthies while holding the government, on establishing the eastern capital, on the mat for the acting grand tutor, on gaining merit for the Empress Wende, on building the Great Ci'en Temple and on fixing the music and dances — survive as direct records of his acts.

Personal Relations

• Father: Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang
• Mother: Empress Wende, Lady Zhangsun
• Full brothers: Crown Prince Li Chengqian; Prince Li Tai of Wei
• Full sister: Princess Jinyang Li Mingda
• Empresses: Empress Wang (deposed); Wu Zetian
• Consorts: Consort Xiao, Lady Xu, Lady Zheng, palace woman Liu, palace woman Yang
• Children: Prince Li Zhong of Yan, Prince Li Xiao of Yuandao, Prince Li Shangjin of Ze, Prince Li Sujie of Xu, Crown Prince Li Hong, Crown Prince Zhanghuai Li Xian, Li Xian (later Emperor Zhongzong), Li Dan (later Emperor Ruizong), Princess Yiyang, Princess Gao'an, Princess Anding, Princess Taiping
• Teacher: court scholar Xiao Deyan
• Regents entrusted by Taizong: Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang
• Major ministers: Li Ji, Yu Zhining, Xu Jingzong, Li Yifu, Liu Rengui, Zhang Wenguan, Hao Chujun
• Changsun Wuji: maternal uncle and regent; highly respected early in the reign, later fell out with Li Zhi over the change of empress and was forced to commit suicide in 659
• Chu Suiliang: regent; demoted after opposing the deposition of Empress Wang and died in Aizhou in 658
• Li Ji: founding general; supported Li Zhi's freedom to decide the empress question and later commanded the final campaign against Goguryeo
• Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu: members of Empress Wu's political group who supported the replacement of Empress Wang and the destruction of the Changsun faction
• Shangguan Yi: chancellor involved in the failed 664 attempt to remove Empress Wu; executed afterward
• Crown Prince Li Chengqian and Prince Li Tai of Wei: rivals in the broader succession struggle from which Li Zhi ultimately benefited
• Prince Li Ke of Wu: Taizong once considered replacing Li Zhi with him; executed in 653 after being implicated in the treason case
• Wu Zetian: initially spouse and political partner; in later years the two ruled in the “Two Sages” arrangement

Historical Assessment

Tang Period / Contemporary

• The Old Book of Tang states that in Gaozong's later years “government came from the women's quarters,” presenting the rise of Empress Wu's authority as a danger to the Tang ruling house.
• The New Book of Tang criticized Gaozong for excessive attachment to his consort and for failing to recognize the danger represented by the gradual rise of Empress Wu.
• The minister Hao Chujun is recorded as urging that the sovereign's authority belonged to the realm as a whole and should not be treated as private property, reflecting contemporary concern over Empress Wu's political role.

Song and Yuan Periods

• Sima Guang, in the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, connected the elevation of Empress Wu not only to Li Ji's famous comment but also to problems inherited from Taizong's handling of the succession.
• Fan Zuyu's Tang Jian criticized Gaozong as weak and linked Wu's later violence to what he regarded as Taizong's political legacy.
• Zhu Xi's Outline of the Comprehensive Mirror characterized Gaozong as mediocre and weak and treated Wu's rise as a major turning point in the Tang political order.

Ming and Qing Periods

• Wang Fuzhi argued in Du Tongjian Lun that Gaozong's inability to preserve Taizong's legacy could not be blamed entirely on Wu; in his view, Li Zhi's failure to assert himself and his delegation of government were fundamental.
• Zhao Yi noted that Gaozong reigned for thirty-four years and that the realm did not collapse even while Wu became powerful, attributing this in part to the institutional and political legacy left by Taizong.
• Li Zhi, in Cangshu, acknowledged Gaozong's weakness but argued that the Yonghui government retained the spirit of Zhenguan and should not be dismissed entirely.

Modern Period

• Cen Zhongmian judged that the early reign continued Zhenguan's relatively effective government and achieved major military expansion; although power later shifted toward Wu, the realm remained comparatively stable.
• Lü Simian regarded Gaozong's reign as one of the high points of Tang power, especially in military expansion, while noting that later criticism centered heavily on the replacement of Empress Wang.
• Huang Yongnian argued that Li Zhi should not simply be characterized as a weak and incapable ruler, emphasizing his early achievements and the importance of ill health in the later transfer of authority to Wu Zetian.
• Modern scholarship broadly recognizes both the territorial and legal achievements of his reign and the increasing role of Wu Zetian in his later years, which helped create the political conditions for the later Zhou interlude.