Emperor Ruizong (First Reign)

Emperor Ruizong, Tang Dynasty: His First Reign

Li Dan (李旦, 662–716), known by his temple name Ruizong (睿宗), was the youngest son of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, the future Wu Zetian. He was emperor twice. His first reign, from 684 to 690, was a reign in name only: his mother governed as empress dowager, and he was kept apart from officials and from state business. It ended when she took the throne herself.

He was restored twenty years later, and his second rule (710–712) ended with his abdication in favour of his son, the future Emperor Xuanzong.

Over his life he bore several names. He was born Li Xulun, became Li Lun in 669 and Li Dan in 678, and during his mother's Zhou dynasty was known as Wu Lun.

Before the Throne

Li Xulun was born in 662, the eighth son of Emperor Gaozong and the fourth and youngest son of Empress Wu. Later that year he was created Prince of Yin, and in 664 he was given nominal command of Ji Prefecture and the Chanyu Protectorate, posts that carried title rather than duties for a small child.

His princely title changed several times: Prince of Yu in 666, Prince of Ji in 669, Prince of Xiang in 675, and Prince of Yu again in 678, when he took the name Li Dan. The histories describe him as modest and affectionate towards his brothers, and as a skilled calligrapher.

The Death of Emperor Gaozong

Emperor Gaozong died at the end of 683 and was succeeded by the crown prince, Li Dan's elder brother Li Zhe, as Emperor Zhongzong. Empress Wu, now empress dowager, kept control of the government. Early in 684, when Zhongzong began to act independently, she deposed him after only a few weeks on the throne and made Li Dan emperor in his place.

Ruizong was installed in a separate palace, forbidden to meet officials and given no voice in affairs of state. His wife, Consort Liu, was made empress, and their son Li Chengqi was named crown prince.

A Reign Controlled by the Empress Dowager

Empress Dowager Wu used these years to prepare the ground for a dynasty of her own. She renamed government offices and changed the colours of the imperial banners, and she raised the status of Luoyang, where she preferred to hold court, to that of a capital equal to Chang'an. At the suggestion of her nephew Wu Chengsi, she built an ancestral temple for her own Wu forebears and had them posthumously given the rank of princes.

The Rebellion of 684

In the autumn of 684 Li Jingye, Duke of Ying, raised a rebellion at Yangzhou in the name of restoring Zhongzong. The poet Luo Binwang wrote its famous proclamation against the empress dowager. Her generals crushed the rising within months.

The chancellor Pei Yan, who had urged her to return power to the emperor, was accused of complicity with the rebels and executed. Officials and generals who spoke in his defence were demoted, and some were later put to death.

The Authority of the Empress Dowager

In 686 the empress dowager offered to hand authority back to Ruizong. Understanding what was expected of him, he declined. In the same year she encouraged informers by installing copper boxes in which accusations could be posted, and a group of cruel officials, among them Suo Yuanli, Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen, carried out interrogations and torture of anyone suspected of opposing her.

Ruizong stayed out of politics. He intervened only once that the histories record in detail. In 687 Liu Yizhi, a chancellor who had served on Ruizong's staff when he was a prince, was reported to have said that the empress dowager should return power to the emperor. She had him accused of taking bribes and arrested. Ruizong petitioned for his life, but Liu was ordered to commit suicide.

The Princes' Rebellion and the End of the Reign

In 688 the empress dowager summoned the senior princes of the Li imperial clan to Luoyang for a ceremony honouring the spirit of the Luo River. Many feared that the summons was a trap. Li Zhen, Prince of Yue, a son of Emperor Taizong and so Ruizong's uncle, rose in revolt with his son Li Chong, Prince of Langye, but both risings were quickly defeated.

The empress dowager used the revolt to purge the imperial clan. Among those who died were Ruizong's grand-uncles Li Yuanjia and Li Lingkui, sons of the dynasty's founder, Emperor Gaozu.

The Empress Regnant

In 690 officials and commoners submitted petitions asking the empress dowager to take the throne, and Ruizong himself joined them. She accepted, proclaimed the Zhou dynasty and became the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own right. Ruizong was reduced to the status of heir, given the surname Wu and known as Wu Lun.

In 698 he gave up his place as heir to his brother Li Zhe, who had been recalled from exile. He returned to the throne only in 710, after Zhongzong's death, as told on the page on his second rule.

Ceramics of the Reign

Ruizong's first reign, in which his mother held all real power, is not associated with any particular ceramics, but the years 684 to 690 fall in a period of rapid growth in Tang tomb pottery. Elite burials around Chang'an and Luoyang were furnished with earthenware figures of riders, grooms and attendants, painted over a white slip. Polo, which is generally thought to have reached China from Persia by way of Central Asia, was popular with Tang aristocrats, women as well as men, and figures such as the one shown here record the game.

Lead-glazed sancai wares were made in growing numbers at Gongxian, near Luoyang, the city the empress dowager favoured, and near Chang'an. Tang regulations tied the number of such figures in a tomb to the rank of the dead.