Crown Prince Yide
Li Chongrun (Chinese: 李重潤; pinyin: Lǐ Chóngrùn; c.2 March 682[1] – October 8, 701[2]), né Li Chongzhao (Chinese: 李重照; pinyin: Lǐ Chóngzhào), formally Crown Prince Yide (Chinese: 懿德太子; pinyin: Yìdé Tàizǐ ), was an imperial prince of the Tang dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou dynasty. He was the only son of Emperor Zhongzong (Li Zhe/Li Xian) and Emperor Zhongzong's second wife Empress Wei. In 701, he offended his grandmother Wu Zetian by discussing Wu Zetian's lovers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong with his sister Li Xianhui the Lady Yongtai and her husband Wu Yanji (武延基) the Prince of Wei, and he, along with Li Xianhui and Wu Yanji, were forced to commit suicide.[3][4] He was posthumously honored as crown prince after his father Emperor Zhongzong was restored to the throne in 705 and in 706, Emperor Zhongzong provided Li Chongrun with an honorable burial by interring his remains at the Qianling Mausoleum.
- ^ Emperor Gaozong's biography in Old Book of Tang indicate that a pardon was issued on 2 Apr 682 as Li Chongrun had turned a month old; the era name was also changed from Kai'yao to Yong'chun on the same day. (二月癸未，以太子诞皇孙满月，大赦。改开耀二年为永淳元年，大酺三日。) Jiu Tang Shu, vol.05. Thus by calculation, Li Chongrun's birthday should be c.2 March 682.
- ^ (太后春秋高，政事多委张易之兄弟；邵王重润与其妹永泰郡主、主婿魏王武延基窃议其事。易之诉于太后，[长安元年]九月，壬申，太后皆逼令自杀。延基，承嗣之子也。) Zizhi Tongjian, vol.207.
- ^ The Zizhi Tongjian asserted that Li Chongrun was forced to commit suicide, but the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang asserted in his biographies that he was caned to death on Wu Zetian's orders. Compare Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 207, with Old Book of Tang, vol.86 and New Book of Tang, vol.81. The Old Book of Tang, meanwhile, inconsistently asserted in the chronicles of Wu Zetian's reign that he was forced to commit suicide. See Old Book of Tang, vol.6. The chronicles of Wu Zetian's reign in the New Book of Tang merely stated that the three of them "were killed." See New Book of Tang, vol.4.
- ^ However, some modern historians, based on the text on Li Xianhui's tombstone (written after Emperor Zhongzong was restored to the throne in 705), which suggested that she died the day after her brother and her husband and that she was pregnant at death, and the fact that the skeleton believed to be hers had a small pelvis, have proposed the theory that she was not ordered to commit suicide, but had, in grief over her brother's and husband's deaths, had either a miscarriage or a difficult birth and died from that. See, e.g., illustrations preceding the Bo Yang Edition of the Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 49. It may be notable that the Chinese Wikipedia article for Li Xianhui gave the text for her tombstone, but did not give a citation corroborating the text in the article, although on the Web the text appeared to be generally accepted as true — including by Chinese government Web sites. See, e.g., Shaanxi government site.