During Empress Dowager Wu's Regency
Emperor Gaozong died in 683, and Empress Wu, as empress dowager, subsequently served as regent over Emperor Zhongzong (Li Zhe), whom she deposed in 684 due to his disobedience to her, and created Emperor Ruizong, both her sons. Early on Emperor Ruizong's Chuigong era (685-689), a recall of Li Yiyan was made, asking him to serve as the prefect of Huai Prefecture (懷州, roughly modern Jiaozuo, Henan), but Li, knowing that he had previously offended Empress Dowager Wu by opposing her regency, was apprehensive and did not accept the recall. He died in 688.
Read more about this topic: Li Yiyan
Famous quotes containing the word empress:
“We never really are the adults we pretend to be. We wear the mask and perhaps the clothes and posture of grown-ups, but inside our skin we are never as wise or as sure or as strong as we want to convince ourselves and others we are. We may fool all the rest of the people all of the time, but we never fool our parents. They can see behind the mask of adulthood. To her mommy and daddy, the empress never has on any clothes—and knows it.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)