Cui Qun

Cui Qun (崔群) (772 – August 30, 832 ), courtesy name Dunshi (敦詩), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.

Background Cui Qun was born in 772, during the reign of Emperor Daizong. His family was from Bei Prefecture (貝州, in modern Xingtai, Hebei) and traced its ancestry to a line of officials of Cao Wei, Liu Song, Northern Wei, and Tang dynasty. His grandfather Cui Chao served as a prefectural prefect, while his father Cui Ji served as a supervisorial official in the central government. His family was a cadet branch of the Cui clan of Qinghe.

In 790, during the reign of Emperor Daizong's son Emperor Dezong, when Cui Qun was 18, he passed the imperial examinations in the class of those with policy proposals. He was initially made Xiaoshu Lang , a copyeditor at the Palace Library, and later was made You Bujue , a consultant at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng).

After Emperor Xianzong's first crown prince Li Ning died in 812, Emperor Xianzong was set to create his son Li You the Prince of Sui, a son of his wife Consort Guo crown prince, but as another son born of a concubine, Li Kuan the Prince of Li, was older and had his own supporters among the eunuchs, he had Cui draft a petition in Li Kuan's name offering to yield the crown prince position to Li You. Cui pointed out that to "yield" a position implied an otherwise-entitlement to the position and that, Li You, as the son of a wife, had precedence over a son of a concubine by Confucian principles. Emperor Xianzong agreed and did not have Cui draft such a petition for Li Kuan before creating Li You crown prince (and changing Li You's name to Li Heng).

In 818, by which time the campaign against Wu had been concluded successfully, Emperor Xianzong made Huangfu and Cheng Yi, both of whom had received favor from him for extracting wealth from the people, chancellors, over the strenuous objections of both Cui and Pei (who was back in Chang'an by this point to serve as chancellor again). Later in the year, when the eunuch Yang Chaowen arrested over 1,000 people for owing money to the imperial palace, the deputy chief imperial censor Xiao Mian accused Yang for false arrests, and with Pei and Cui supporting Xiao in his accusation, Emperor Xianzong ordered Yang to commit suicide and released the people Yang arrested. In 819, when the deputy minister of justice Han Yu submitted a fervently-worded petition urging Emperor Xianzong not to carry out a grand ceremony to receive a bone, purportedly of a finger of Gautama Buddha, into the palace, and Emperor Xianzong, in anger, wanted to put Han to death, it was Pei's and Cui's intercession that Han was merely exiled to serve as a prefectural prefect. Around that time, after the warlord Li Shidao was killed after an imperial campaign against him, Emperor Xianzong asked for opinions on how to deal with Li Shidao's sister-in-law Lady Pei (the wife of Li Shidao's brother and predecessor Li Shigu), as well as the wife and children of another previously killed rebel, Li Zongshi . Cui advocated lenience, and as a result, Emperor Xianzong released Lady Pei and her daughter Li Yiniang as well as Li Zongshi's wife Lady Wei and children. Also at Cui's urging, the official Quan Changru , who had been sentenced to death after receiving bribes but whose mother Lady Liu had made earnest pleas to the chancellors for his life, was exiled and not executed. It was said in the Old Book of Tang that Cui's nature was merciful and that these actions were in accordance. The imperial government, blaming Cui for losing the circuit to Wang Zhixing, gave Cui the office of Mishu Jian , the deputy director of the archival bureau, but had him report to the eastern capital Luoyang rather than Chang'an. He was later made the prefect of Hua Prefecture (華州, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), and yet later made the governor of Xuanshe Circuit (宣歙, headquartered in modern Xuancheng, Anhui) as well as the prefect of its capital Xuan Prefecture . In 830, he was recalled to Chang'an to serve as acting You Pushe , one of the heads of the executive bureau (尚書省, Shangshu Sheng), as well as the minister of worship (太常卿, Taichang Qing). In 833, he was made acting Zuo Pushe , the other head of the executive bureau, as well as the minister of civil service affairs (吏部尚書, Lìbu Shangshu). He died in 834 and was given posthumous honors.