Ge Fuyuan (格輔元; died November 7, 691兩千年中西曆轉換
/ref>) was a Chinese politician of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

and

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was List of rulers of China#Tang dynasty, Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as queen consort , empress consort th ...

's Zhou dynasty, serving briefly as a

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

during Wu Zetian's reign. It is not known when Ge Fuyuan was born, but it is known that he was from Bian Prefecture (汴州, roughly modern

Kaifeng Kaifeng ( zh, s=开封, p=Kāifēng) is a prefecture-level city in east-Zhongyuan, central Henan province, China. It is one of the Historical capitals of China, Eight Ancient Capitals of China, having been the capital eight times in history, and ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

). Nothing is known about his father Ge Churen (格處仁), but his uncle Ge Deren (格德仁) was known for scholarship during Tang's predecessor

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

. Ge Fuyuan's brother Ge Xiyuan (格希元) served on the staff of Wu Zetian's son Li Xian and participated in Li Xian's project to write commentaries for the ''

Book of Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Late ...

''. Ge Fuyuan passed the

imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

when he was young, and served in successively higher offices. As of 691, when Wu Zetian had already claimed the title of "emperor," establishing Zhou and interrupting Tang, Ge was serving as the imperial censor in charge of reviewing central government affairs (左肅政大夫, ''Zuo Suzheng Daifu'') when Wu Zetian made him the minister of finance (地官尚書, ''Diguan Shangshu'') and gave him the designation of ''Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi'' (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor ''de facto''. Just four months later, however, Ge offended Wu Zetian, as there had been a movement led by one Wang Qingzhi (王慶之) to have Wu Zetian's nephew

Wu Chengsi Wu Chengsi (; 649-July 22, 698), courtesy name Fengxian, formally Prince Xuan of Wei (魏宣王), was a nephew of the Chinese sovereign Wu Zetian and an imperial prince of the Zhou dynasty (690–705), Wu Zhou dynasty. He participated in her planni ...

made crown prince, displacing Wu Zetian's son Li Dan (formerly emperor until Wu Zetian took the throne in 690). Ge's senior colleague Cen Changqian opposed the movement and advocated that Wang's group of petitioners be disbanded, and Ge supported Cen. In late 691, Ge, Cen, and another chancellor Ouyang Tong were arrested by Wu Zetian's secret police official Lai Junchen and executed.

Notes and references

* ''

Old Book of Tang 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 Kingdo ...

'', vol. 7

* ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "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 So ...

'', vol. 10

* ''

Zizhi Tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

'', vol. 204. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ge, Fuyuan 691 deaths 7th-century executions by the Tang dynasty Chancellors under Wu Zetian People executed by the Tang dynasty Year of birth unknown