Yao Shu (姚璹) (632–705), courtesy name Lingzhang (
He is not to be confused with Yao Shu (姚樞) (1203–1280), a Confucian adviser to Kublai Khan.
Background
editYao Shu was born in 632, during the reign of Emperor Taizong. His grandfather was the historian Yao Silian, the lead author of the Book of Liang and Book of Chen, the official histories of Liang dynasty and Chen dynasty. His father Yao Chuping (姚處
During Emperor Gaozong's reign
editDuring the middle part of the Yonghui era of Emperor Taizong's son and successor Emperor Gaozong (650-656), Yao Shu passed the imperial examination and was made a secretary at the mansion of Emperor Gaozong's crown prince Li Hong. While serving there, he participated in a compilation work commissioned by Li Hong, the Yaoshan Yucai (
During Emperor Zhongzong's and Emperor Ruizong's first reigns
editEmperor 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
During Wu Zetian's reign
editIn 690, Empress Dowager Wu had Emperor Ruizong yield the throne to her, and she took the throne as "emperor," establishing Zhou and interrupting Tang. In 692, she made Yao Shu Wenchang Zuo Cheng (
In 694, Wu Zetian made Yao Shu Nayan (
In 695, Wu Zetian's lover Huaiyi, because she had another lover, Shen Nanqiu (沈南璆), was jealous, and set the imperial meeting hall (
In the past, when Xuanxie Hall [(
宣 榭殿, a palace of the first Zhou Dynasty, destroyed by fire in 593 BC)] was burned, the Zhou Dynasty nevertheless became stronger generation by generation. When Jiangzhang Palace [(建 章 宮 , a palace Emperor Wu of Han built after Boliang Tower (柏 梁 臺 ) was destroyed by fire)] was built, the great imperial grace was extended far and wide. The imperial meeting hall is where imperial edicts are promulgated, and it is not the imperial ancestral temple. Your Imperial Majesty should not prostrate yourself.
Wu Zetian agreed, continued to feast, and further ordered that the meeting hall be rebuilt, with Yao in charge. After it was rebuilt, she gave him the honorific title Yinqing Guanglu Daifu (
In 696, the Umayyad Caliphate offered to give Wu Zetian a lion as a gift. Yao opposed accepting the gift, stating:
Lions are fierce animals that eat only meat. Transporting it from Suiye to the Divine Capital [(i.e., Luoyang)] requires transporting through regions where meat is difficult to find, and it will be very costly to do so. Your Imperial Majesty cares for the people and worries about hurting any animals. Because of this, you do not keep hunting eagles or dogs, and you have banned fishing and hunting. You stopped killing to show great grace, and you allowed living to show great virtue. Even all that fly and crawl thank you for your mercy. How can you be so exacting on yourself but yet so generous to a beast?
Wu Zetian agreed and declined the lion. Also at Yao's suggestion, she stopped a proposal to coat with gold nine ding that she had built as symbols of her governance. Later in 696, when Khitan's khan Li Jinzhong attacked, she commissioned Wu Sansi to serve as the commander of an army to defend against Khitan attacks and had Yao serve as Wu Sansi's assistant. During the campaign, Eastern Tujue's khan Ashina Mochuo indicated that he was willing to be aligned with Zhou against Khitan and made a number of requests for return of Tujue people who had surrendered to Zhou, various treasures, and food supplies, which, after Yao and fellow chancellor Yang Zaisi argued were necessary to maintain an alliance with Eastern Tujue, Wu Zetian agreed to give Ashina Mochuo, allowing him to become even stronger than before. After the end of the campaign against Khitan in 697, there was accusations against Yao, and she demoted him to be the secretary general at Yi Prefecture (
At the time that Yao went to Yi Prefecture, it was said that the low level officials of the region were largely corrupt and violent. Yao made thorough examinations and removed many of them. Wu Zetian appreciated his efforts and wrote him a letter to thank him, and further commented, "It is easy for a superior official to be clean himself, but it is difficult for him to make his subordinates clean. Yao Shu is able to do both."
Around that same time, however, there was an incident where Zhu Daipi (
During Emperor Zhongzong's second reign
editIn 705, Wu Zetian was overthrown in a coup, and Emperor Zhongzong was restored. He made Yao Shu the minister of public works again, now with the restored Tang name of Gongbu Shangshu (
Notes and references
edit- ^ Chuping apparently was a courtesy name that Yao Shu's father generally used in lieu of his formal name, but his formal name, while rendered in the table of chancellors' family trees in the New Book of Tang, is not in Unicode and therefore not available online. See New Book of Tang, vol. 74, part 2.[1]
- ^ The Zizhi Tongjian dated his removal from chancellor position as in 693, but this conflicts with his biography in the Old Book of Tang and the table of chancellors in the New Book of Tang. Compare Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 205, with Old Book of Tang, vol. 89 [2] and New Book of Tang, vol. 61.[3]
- Old Book of Tang, vol. 89.[4]
- New Book of Tang, vol. 102.[5]
- Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 205, 206.