Li Chengqi - During Emperor Ruizong's Second Reign

During Emperor Ruizong's Second Reign

Emperor Ruizong was immediately faced with the issue of whom to make crown prince—as Li Chengqi, as the oldest son overall and the oldest son of his wife, was the appropriate heir under Confucian principles of succession, but Li Longji had been the one whose accomplishments had allowed him to retake the throne. He hesitated. Li Chengqi declined consideration to be crown prince—stating to his father:

If the state were secure, then consideration should be first given to the oldest son of the wife. If the state were in danger, then consideration should be first given for achievement. If you did not follow this principle, the people of the entire empire will be disappointed. I would rather die than to be placed above the Prince of Ping .

Li Chengqi wept and begged to yield for several days, and after further persuasion by the chancellor Liu Youqiu -- who had been part of Li Longji's coup plans—Emperor Ruizong agreed, and created Li Longji crown prince. Li Longji submitted a petition offering to yield to Li Chengqi, but Emperor Ruizong rejected it. Li Chengqi was subsequently made a senior advisor to Li Longji, the prefect of the capital prefecture Yong Prefecture (雍州, roughly modern Xi'an, Shaanxi), and nominal commandant at Yang Prefecture (揚州, roughly modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu). Later that year, he was briefly made Shangshu Pushe (尚書僕射) -- one of the heads of the executive bureau of government (尚書省, Shangshu Sheng), before he was further given the honorific title Sikong (司空), one of the Three Excellencies.

Princess Taiping, who had already been powerful during Emperor Zhongzong's reign and grew even more powerful after Emperor Ruizong's return to the throne, had initially acquiesced to Li Longji's ascension as crown prince, believing that given his youth (25 at that time) he would be easy to control. However, she soon found him to be strong-willed and difficult to control, and she secretly considered finding some way to replace him with Li Chengqi or Li Shouli (who also could potentially have a legitimate claim to be crown prince given that he was the oldest son of Li Xian's wife). In 711, under the suggestion of the chancellors Song Jing and Yao Yuanzhi, who supported Li Longji and wanted to eliminate doubt in people's minds about who would succeed Emperor Ruizong, Emperor Ruizong made Li Chengqi the prefect of Tong Prefecture (同州, roughly modern Weinan, Shaanxi) and Li Shouli the prefect of Bin Prefecture (豳州, roughly modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), while sending Princess Taiping and her husband Wu Youji the Duke of Chu to Pu Prefecture (蒲州, roughly modern Yuncheng, Shanxi). However, after Princess Taiping found out and objected, the plan was cancelled, and Song and Yao were demoted out of the capital Chang'an. Later in 711, Emperor Ruizong created a daughter of Li Chengqi the Princess Jinshan and offered to marry her to the khan of Eastern Tujue, Ashina Mochuo, or Ashina Mochuo's son Ashina Yangwozhi (阿史那楊我支) (although Princess Jinshan would ultimately not be married to either). Soon thereafter, Li Chengqi resigned the honorific title of Sikong and again served as Li Longji's advisor. In turn, Li Longji offered to yield the crown prince position to Li Chengqi, an offer that Emperor Ruizong again declined. In 712, Emperor Ruizong passed the throne to Li Longji, who took the throne as Emperor Xuanzong, although Emperor Ruizong continued to retain actual power, as Taishang Huang (retired emperor).