Cui Youfu

Cui Youfu (崔祐甫) (721 – July 7, 780 ), courtesy name Yisun (貽孫), was a Chinese politician. He served as a chancellor briefly early during the reign of Emperor Dezong. He was credited for governing in an effective manner and guiding Emperor Dezong to correct decisions that, for some time, evoked comparisons between Emperor Dezong and his well-regarded ancestors Emperor Taizong and Emperor Xuanzong.

Background Cui Youfu was born in 721, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. His family was from "the second house of Boling" of the prominent Cui clan of Boling. His grandfather, whose name was either Cui Zhi (崔晊) or Cui Hao (崔皓), was a prefectural secretary general and carried the title of Duke of Anping.

During Emperor Dezong's reign Emperor Daizong died in 779 and was succeeded by his son Emperor Dezong. During Emperor Daizong's mourning period, Chang Gun and Cui Youfu got into a serious conflict over how many days the officials should wear mourning clothes. Chang advocated that because, by custom, Emperor Dezong was to wear mourning clothes for 27 days, so should the officials. Cui advocated that, because Emperor Daizong's will specified three days, the officials should wear the mourning clothes for three days. Chang got sufficiently angry over the argument that he submitted an accusation against Cui, stating that Cui had frivolously changed the proper regulation of the rites and requesting that Cui be demoted to be the prefect of Chao Prefecture (潮州, in modern Chaozhou, Guangdong). Emperor Dezong, believing the demotion to be too severe, only ordered that Cui be demoted to be the deputy mayor of Henan Municipality (河南), encompassing the eastern capital Luoyang. Meanwhile, he and Yang disagreed as to whether a high-level official who had been in charge of economic matters, Liu Yan, should be investigated for having supported making Emperor Daizong's favorite concubine Consort Dugu empress during Emperor Daizong's reign. (As Consort Dugu was not Emperor Dezong's mother and had her own son, Li Jiong (李迥) the Prince of Han, it was believed that such a move would have potentially endangered Emperor Dezong's position. ) Yang, who was an associate of Yuan's and who believed that Liu was responsible for Yuan's fall from grace and death, wanted to investigate Liu to avenge Yuan, but Cui rebuffed him.