Huaiyi - Death

Death

In late 694, Wu Zetian held a grand Buddhist gathering at the imperial meeting hall, and she commissioned a giant painting of Buddha drawn with cattle blood, but claimed that it was miraculous drawn with just the blood from Huaiyi's knee, and she hung the portrait at one of the bridges entering Luoyang, Tianjin Bridge (天津橋). However, at that time, she had another lover, the imperial physician Shen Nanqiu (沈南璆), and this drew jealousy from Huaiyi. Huaiyi secretly set fire to the Heavenly Hall (天堂), north of the imperial meeting hall, and the fire burned both halls to the ground. However, when Wu Zetian subsequently ordered the reconstruction of both halls, she still put Huaiyi in charge of the construction.

After this incident, however, Huaiyi grew increasingly arrogant and unreasonable, and Wu Zetian began to despise him. To guard herself, she selected a group of strong ladies in waiting. She then had Wu Youning the Prince of Jianchang (the grandson of her uncle Wu Shirang (武士讓)) lead a group of strong soldiers to set an ambush at Yaoguang Hall (瑤光殿), and when Huaiyi went to Yaoguang Hall, Wu Youning and his soldiers overpowered him and battered him to death. Huaiyi's body was taken to White Horse Temple and cremated, and then mixed into mud that was set to be used to construct a pagoda.