Huan Yanfan - During Wu Zetian's Reign

During Wu Zetian's Reign

Early in the Shengli era (697-700) -- when the ruling sovereign was Wu Zetian, the wife of Emperor Gaozong, who had seized the throne in 690 and taken the title of "emperor" of a new Zhou Dynasty, interrupting Tang -- Huan Yanfan became Sixingsi Zhubu (司刑寺主簿), the secretary general at the supreme court (司刑寺, Sixingsi). The chancellor Di Renjie was impressed by his talent and showed him respect. Huan was eventually made an imperial censor.

In 704, Huan was made the assistant chief judge of the supreme court (司刑少卿, Sixing Shaoqing). At that time, Wu Zetian's lover Zhang Changzong was accused of allowing the fortuneteller Li Hongtai (李弘泰) to prophesy that Zhang would be emperor one day. The censor Song Jing advocated that Zhang be arrested, a suggestion that Wu Zetian rejected. At Huan's further urging, Wu Zetian allowed Song to investigate, although she soon ordered the investigation terminated. Meanwhile, at that time, the chancellor Li Jiao advocated that the people who suffered at the hands of Wu Zetian's secret police officials, whom she entrusted with great power early in her reign, be restored in their reputation, a suggestion that Wu Zetian initially tabled, but after Huan suggested a compromise -- that such restoration be limited to persons other than those accused of being involved in three military rebellions against her (those started by Li Jingye the Duke of Ying, Li Chong the Prince of Langye, and Li Zhen the Prince of Yue -- Wu Zetian approved the proposal.

In spring 705, with Wu Zetian being ill, Huan entered into a plot with a number of officials and generals, including Zhang Jianzhi, Cui Xuanwei, Jing Hui, and Yuan Shuji, to kill Zhang Changzong and his brother Zhang Yizhi, also a lover of Wu Zetian's. Before proceeding, Huan reported this to his mother, and his mother, approving his involvement in the plot, told him, "Where loyalty and filial piety cannot both be satisfied, you should first be faithful to the empire before your obligations to your family." With agreement from Li Xian the Crown Prince (Wu Zetian's son and former emperor), they acted on February 20, killing Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, and then surrounding Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian ordered Li Xian to return to the crown prince's palace, stating, "It is you. Since now the hoodlums have died, you can return to the Eastern Palace." However, Huan stepped forward and spoke:

How can the Crown Prince return to the Eastern Palace? Previously, the Heavenly Emperor entrusted his beloved song to Your Imperial Majesty. Now he is mature and had long resided at the Eastern Palace. Both the heaven and the people miss the Li clan, and the officials in the government have not forgotten the grace of Emperor Taizong and the Heavenly Emperor. Therefore, we have supported the Crown Prince in the killing of the treacherous ones. We wish that Your Imperial Majesty would pass the throne to the Crown Prince to satisfy the wishes of both heaven and the people.

Wu Zetian did not speak further after that. While the coup leaders allowed her to retain the title of "emperor," they had her put under house arrest at the secondary palace Shangyang Palace (上陽宮) and forced her to yield the throne to Li Xian, who was formerly emperor, and he was restored to the throne (as Emperor Zhongzong). Two days later, Emperor Zhongzong was formally restored.