Yuan Zhihong (袁智弘) was an official of Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor.
Wu Zetian, alternatively named Wu Zhao, Wu Hou, during the later Tang dynasty as Tian Hou, in English as Empress Consort Wu or by the deprecated term "Empress Wu", was a Chinese sovereign who ruled unofficially as empress consort and empress dowager and officially as empress regnant (皇帝) during the brief Zhou dynasty, which interrupted the Tang dynasty. Wu was the sole officially recognized empress regnant of China in more than two millennia.
Despite Yuan high status, little is firmly established about his background or career except for the time that he served as chancellor—as, unusual for a chancellor, he did not have a biography in either the Old Book of Tang or the New Book of Tang.[1] It is also known that his family was from Hedong (河東, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), but nothing else is known about his ancestors.[2]
The Old Book of Tang, or simply the Book of Tang, is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it was superseded by the New Book of Tang which was compiled in the Song dynasty, but later regained acceptance.
The New Book of Tang, generally translated as "New History of the Tang", or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the Song dynasty, led by Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi.
Shanxi is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋", after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn period.
As of 692, Yuan was serving as the minister of justice (秋官尚書, Qiuguan Shangshu), when Wu Zetian gave him the designation Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor de facto. Seven months later, however, he, along with other chancellors Li Youdao, Wang Xuan, Cui Shenji, Li Yuansu, and other officials Kong Siyuan (孔思元), and Ren Linghui (任令輝), were falsely accused of crimes by Wu Zetian's secret police official Wang Hongyi. They were relieved from their posts and exiled to the Lingnan region. That was the last historical reference to Yuan, and it is not known when he died, although it is known that his grandson Yuan Huan (袁澣) later served as a prefectural prefect.[2]
Li Youdao (李游道) was an official of Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor.
Wang Xuan (王璿) was an official of Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor.
Cui Shenji (崔神基), formally the Duke of Qingqiu (清丘公), was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor during Wu Zetian's reign.
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