During Emperor Zhongzong's and Emperor Ruizong's First Reigns
Emperor Gaozong died in 683 and was succeeded by his son Li Zhe the Crown Prince (as Emperor Zhongzong) (Li Hong's brother, as Li Hong had predeceased Emperor Gaozong), but actual power was in the hands of Emperor Gaozong's powerful wife Empress Wu (later known as Wu Zetian), as empress dowager and regent. In 684, when Emperor Zhongzong displayed signs of independence, she deposed him and replaced him with his brother Li Dan the Prince of Yu (as Emperor Ruizong), but thereafter wielded power even more firmly. Later that year, Li Jingye the Duke of YIng started a rebellion against her with the articulated goal of restoring Emperor Zhongzong, but the rebellion was quickly defeated. As Yao Shu's cousin Yao Jingjie (姚敬節) participated in Li Jingye's rebellion, Yao Shu was demoted to be the secretary general for the commandant at Gui Prefecture (桂州, roughly modern Guilin, Guangxi). Once Yao Shu got to Gui Prefecture, he, knowing that Empress Dowager Wu favored signs of good fortune, visited the mountains and forests of the area, and collected a number of items containing the character "Wu." He then submitted them as signs of fortune, and this pleased her greatly. She recalled him to serve as the deputy minister of civil service affairs (天官侍郎, Tianguan Shilang). He was said to be good at selecting people to serve as officials and was praised for this ability.
Read more about this topic: Yao Shu
Famous quotes containing the words emperor and/or reigns:
“Even the emperor has straw-sandaled relatives.”
—Chinese proverb.
“In my Pantheon, Pan still reigns in his pristine glory, with his ruddy face, his flowing beard, and his shaggy body, his pipe and his crook, his nymph Echo, and his chosen daughter Iambe; for the great god Pan is not dead, as was rumored. No god ever dies. Perhaps of all the gods of New England and of ancient Greece, I am most constant at his shrine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)