Di Renjie
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Di Renjie (狄仁傑) (630 - 700) was a Chinese official famous for opposing corruption who twice served as the Chancellor of Tang China. He was born in Taiyuan in a family that formerly produced eunuchs (Di Renjie was not a eunuch). His grandfather, Di Shaoshu, was the vice-chancellor during the Emperor Taizong period.
In 686, when he was a mayor in the city of Gansu, he was a very popular government official as he was good at handling the relationship with the non-Han Chinese, winning the heart of many non-Han Chinese people.
In 688, because of his criticisms on Zhang Guangsun, he was dismissed but then re-appointed as mayor of Fuzhou. He was appointed as chancellor in September and was responsible for regional affairs. In February 693, he was imprisoned because of the slander of Wu Chengyi (武承嗣).
In 696, forces of Khitan occupied an important city of Hubei. In order to set up a stable political environment, Empress Wu appointed him as mayor of Weizhou (Daming).
In October 697, he was re-invited back to the court and was appointed as chancellor for the second time. He held this post until his death. He suggested Empress Wu to make the formerly and later Emperor Zhongzong of Tang China crown prince, to gain the support of people, Empress Wu accepted. In 698, he was appointed as the vice-commander against foreign invasions while the crown prince was the commander. After his death in 700, the court gave him very high evaluations. When the ministers asked for the feeling of the empress about the death of Di, Wu cried and used four Chinese characters (朝堂空也) to express her feelings, meaning that she thought the court became blank without him. He was even given higher appreciation after the death of Empress Wu as he indirectly helped to overthrow the Zhou Dynasty and restore the Tang Dynasty due to suggesting the appointment of Zhang Jianzhi, who served as chancellor in 705 and started a coup d'état to restore Zhongzong in power.
In a loose sense, the protagonist of the Judge Dee detective novels are based on Di Renjie.
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