Li Jingchen (李景諶) was briefly 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 ...

of the Chinese

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 ...

, during the first reign of Emperor Ruizong. Little is known about Li Jingchen's career before or after his brief stint as chancellor, as, atypical for a chancellor, he did not have a biography in either the ''

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 ...

'' or the ''

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 ...

''.See the Table of Contents for the ''Old Book of Tang'' and the Table of Contents for the ''New Book of Tang''. As of 684, he was serving as ''Fengge Sheren'' (鳳閣舍人), a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣, ''Fengge''), when the head of the legislative bureau, the chancellor Pei Yan, was accused of treason after angering Emperor Ruizong's powerful mother and

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

Empress Dowager Wu (later known as Wu Zetian) by suggesting that she return imperial authorities to Emperor Ruizong. Many imperial officials spoke in Pei's defense, but Li Jingchen was said to be one of the officials who testified that Pei was planning treason. Empress Dowager Wu arrested and demoted many officials who defended Pei, while promoting Li and the official who investigated Pei,

Qian Weidao Qian Weidao (騫味道) (died January 11, 689) was a Chinese politician who served twice as a chancellor of the Chinese Tang dynasty, during the first reign of Emperor Ruizong. Little is known about Qian Weidao's career before his first stint as ...

, to chancellor positions—in Li's case, with the designation of ''Tong Fenge Luantai Pingchangshi'' (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), signifying a lesser designation than the ''Tong Fenge Luantai Sanpin'' (同鳳閣鸞臺三品) designation that Qian received. However, the day after Pei was executed—just 10 days after Li was made chancellor—Empress Dowager Wu removed the chancellor designation from Li, making him the deputy minister of vassal affairs (司賓少卿, ''Sibin Shaoqing'') instead. There was no further record about Li in official histories, and there appears to be no historical record of his death.

Notes and references

* ''

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. 203. Chancellors under Emperor Ruizong of Tang