Suo Yuanli () (died 691) was a secret police official during the

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

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, who came to prominence due to his cruelty in acting against officials that Wu Zetian was suspicious toward. However, when he became increasingly hated by the people, she executed him in order to placate the people. Suo Yuanli was said to be non- Han in origin. In 684, when Wu Zetian, then

empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother; ) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a monarch, especially in regards to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese monarchs in the Chines ...

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 ...

over her son Emperor Ruizong, had just suppressed a rebellion against her led by

Li Jingye Li Jingye (; 636 – December 29, 684), also known as Xu Jingye (), was a Chinese general and politician who was a grandson of the Tang dynasty general Li Shiji who, after Emperor Gaozong's powerful wife Empress Wu (later known as Wu Zetian) ...

the Duke of Ying, she began to encourage the people to submit secret report against others. When Suo heard about this, he submitted a secret report, and when he had the chance to meet her, she was impressed by him and gave him a general title but put him in charge of investigating officials suspected of opposing her. It was said that Suo was cruel and, whenever he investigated one person, he would find ways to get that person to implicate tens or hundreds of others. It was said that thousands of people died at Suo's hands. In 691, however, it was said that he was so despised that she, deciding to placate the people, executed him.

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. 186, part

* ''

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. 20

* ''

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 ...

'', vols.

203 Year 203 ( CCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Plautianus and Geta (or, less frequently, year 956 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 203 for this ye ...

204 __NOTOC__ Year 204 ( CCIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cilo and Flavius (or, less frequently, year 957 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 204 for th ...

. Tang dynasty generals 691 deaths Year of birth unknown {{china-politician-stub