The Fall from Grace: Exile to Fangling

In the fifth month of 684 AD, a somber procession moved slowly along the rural road from Junzhou (modern Jun County, Hubei) to Fangling (modern Fang County, Hubei). The lead carriage carried a gaunt young man with hollow eyes – Li Xian, the deposed Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. Following his mother Wu Zetian’s ascension as China’s only female emperor, Li Xian had been stripped of his throne, demoted to Prince of Luling, and confined to a desolate palace courtyard before this final humiliation: exile to the distant south.

Behind him rode his wife, Empress Wei, who had recently given birth to a daughter during their arduous journey. With no proper swaddling clothes available, the infant had been wrapped in her parents’ garments, earning her the poignant nickname “Guo’er” (Wrapped Child). This journey marked the beginning of a fourteen-year exile that would fundamentally reshape both the deposed emperor and his ambitious consort.

The Long Exile: Survival and Solidarity

Life in Fangling proved harsh for the imperial couple. Each arrival of Wu Zetian’s envoys sent Li Xian into paroxysms of fear, convinced they came with orders for his execution. It was Empress Wei who provided emotional ballast during these dark years, counseling her husband with philosophical resilience: “Fortune and misfortune alternate like the tides. Why speak of death?” Their shared adversity forged an unbreakable bond between them, with Li Xian promising that should he ever regain the throne, Wei would know nothing but happiness.

The political winds began shifting in 698 AD. As Wu Zetian entered her seventies, influential ministers like the renowned statesman Di Renjie appealed to her maternal instincts, arguing for Li Xian’s restoration as heir. In a dramatic audience, the aging empress suddenly revealed Li Xian from behind a curtain, declaring to the astonished Di Renjie: “I return to you the crown prince.” This theatrical moment marked Li Xian’s return from political oblivion.

The Second Reign: Decadence and Decline

The 705 coup that restored Li Xian to power should have inaugurated a period of stability. Instead, it unleashed a cascade of political intrigue and personal indulgence. The emperor and empress, perhaps compensating for their years of deprivation, plunged into extravagant entertainments – watching barbarian water dances in freezing weather, organizing宫女 (palace women) brawls for amusement, and even disguising themselves to mingle with commoners during lantern festivals.

Meanwhile, Empress Wei consolidated power with alarming speed. She convinced Li Xian to posthumously ennoble her father as a prince – breaching dynastic protocol that reserved such honors for imperial clansmen. More dangerously, she forged an alliance with Wu Zetian’s nephew Wu Sansi, whose daughter married Wei and Li Xian’s daughter, Princess Anle. This created a toxic triumvirate that dominated court politics.

The Rise of Princess Anle and the Downfall of Reformers

Princess Anle emerged as a particularly destabilizing force. Imbued with her grandmother Wu Zetian’s ambition but none of her political acumen, Anle made outrageous demands – including a petition to be named crown princess instead of her half-brother Li Chongjun. When officials protested, she sneered: “If that old woman Wu could rule, why not the emperor’s own daughter?”

The princess’s excesses knew no bounds: she commandeered land for a private lake (creating the infamous “Dingkun Pond” when denied access to Kunming Pond), abducted common women as servants, and even drafted imperial edicts for her father to rubber-stamp. Meanwhile, Wu Sansi systematically eliminated the reformist ministers who had restored Li Xian, exiling and executing them under false pretenses.

The Final Betrayal: Poison and the End of an Era

By 710 AD, the court had become a pressure cooker of resentment. When official Yan Qinrong dared memorialize against Wei and Anle’s excesses, he was brutally murdered before the emperor’s eyes – a crime Wu Sansi openly admitted was done at Wei’s behest. Li Xian’s impotent protest – “You only recognize the empress!” – sealed his fate.

On June 7, 710, the unthinkable occurred: Empress Wei and Princess Anle, coveting absolute power, poisoned the emperor they had ostensibly fought to restore. The act shocked even this jaded court, precipitating a new coup that would sweep Wei and Anle from power. In their ruthless pursuit of personal ambition, they had destroyed the very man whose restoration had enabled their rise – a tragic epitaph for one of Tang’s most turbulent reigns.

Legacy of a Flawed Restoration

Li Xian’s reign represents a cautionary tale about the perils of political restoration without reform. His traumatic exile left him psychologically ill-equipped to govern, while Empress Wei and Princess Anle’s unchecked ambitions exposed the fragility of Tang institutions after Wu Zetian’s revolutionary reign. The episode also highlights the persistent tension in Chinese political philosophy between hereditary right and meritocratic governance – a tension Wu Zetian had temporarily resolved through sheer force of personality, but which rebounded violently after her death.

Modern historians see in Li Xian’s reign an early warning of the An Lushan rebellion to come – a demonstration of how court intrigues could undermine even China’s most glorious dynasty. The poignant image of the exiled emperor wrapping his newborn in court robes became, for later generations, a symbol of the Tang’s lost nobility – a nobility that would never fully recover from these years of poison and betrayal.