Yang Zhirou () (died 692?) was an official of

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

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 ...

. It is not known when Yang Zhirou was born. What is known is that his grandfather Yang Xu (), a member 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 ...

'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 ...

's imperial clan, was a brother of the early Tang chancellors

Yang Gongren Yang Guan (died 639), courtesy name Gongren, better known as Yang Gongren, formally Duke Xiao of Guan, was a Chinese military general and politician during the Sui dynasty, Sui and Tang dynasty, Tang dynasties, at one point serving as a chancello ...

and

Yang Shidao Yang Shidao (died 647), courtesy name Jingyou, posthumously known as Duke Yi of Ande, was a Chinese politician who served as a chancellor of the Tang dynasty, chancellor during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor Taizong in the Tang dyna ...

. As Wu Zetian's mother Lady Yang was a cousin of Yang Xu, she viewed him as a member of her mother's household and treated him well. As of 692, he was serving as the minister of defense , ''Xiaguan Shangsu''), when she gave him the designation of ''Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi'' (), making him a chancellor ''de facto''.Yang's biography in both ''Old Book of Tang'' and ''New Book of Tang'' indicated that he received the higher chancellor ''de facto'' designation of ''Tong Zhongshu Menxia Sanpin'' (), but this appeared to be erroneous, as it conflicts with the chronicles of her reign in both of those sources, the table of chancellors in the ''New Book of Tang'' (see ''New Book of Tang'', vol. 6

), and also did not match the chancellor titles during the times of her reign. See ''Old Book of Tang'', vol.

and ''New Book of Tang'', vol.

/ref> When doing so, she commented that she wanted the members of both her father's and mother's clans to be chancellors (and by that time, her nephews

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 ...

and

Wu Youning Wu Youning (武攸寧), formally the Duke of Jiang (江公), was an imperial prince during the reign of Wu Zetian and served as chancellor both during her regency over her son Emperor Ruizong of Tang and her own reign. It is not known when Wu Youni ...

were chancellors). Seven months later, as part of a major reorganization of her administration, he was removed from his chancellor position along with Wu Chengsi and Wu Youning, and made the minister of public works (). He appeared to have died soon thereafter.

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. 6

* ''

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. 205. Chancellors under Wu Zetian 692 deaths Year of birth unknown Wu Zetian {{China-bio-stub