Zheng Yin

Zheng Yin (鄭愔) (died 710), courtesy name Wenjing (文靖), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou dynasty, briefly serving as chancellor during the reign of Emperor Zhongzong.

Background Despite Zheng Yin's high status, little is firmly established about his career except for the 705 to 710 time period—as, unusual for a chancellor, he did not have a biography in either the Old Book of Tang or the New Book of Tang. It is known that he was not a member of the more prominent branches of the Zheng family that had served as officials since Northern Wei, but was from Cang Prefecture (滄州, roughly modern Cangzhou, Hebei). His father Zheng Xuansheng (鄭玄昇) served as a prefectural prefect. He passed the imperial examinations. Sometime thereafter, Zheng was recalled to the capital to serve as Mishu Shaojian (秘書少監), the deputy director of the Palace Library.

Less than a month after Emperor Zhongzong's death, a coup led by Emperor Zhongzong's sister Princess Taiping and nephew Li Longji the Prince of Linzi killed Empress Dowager Wei and Li Guo'er. Subsequently, Li Longji's father Li Dan the Prince of Xiang, himself a former emperor, returned to the throne (as Emperor Ruizong), displacing Emperor Shang. Zheng was demoted to be the prefect of Yuan Prefecture (沅州, roughly modern Huaihua, Hunan). He intentionally stopped over in Luoyang, knowing that Li Chongfu, under Zhang's instigation, would soon rebel. He prepared the mansion of Li Chongfu's brother-in-law Pei Sun (裴巽, the husband of LI Chongfu's sister Princess Yicheng), and also drafted two edicts—one purportedly from Emperor Zhongzong, ordering Li Chongfu to take the throne, and one for Li Chongfu, declaring himself emperor.

On September 9, 710, Li Chongfu arrived at Luoyang and took over Pei's mansion, and the officials at Luoyang, surprised, largely began to flee. Li Chongfu began to try to take command of the imperial troops in Luoyang, but the official Li Yong (李邕) persuaded the imperial guards to reject Li Chongfu, and when Li Chongfu arrived at imperial guards' camps, they fired arrows at him. His attacks on the governmental offices were also repelled. He thereafter fled and tried to hide, but the next day, with troops closing in on his position, he jumped into a canal and drowned. Zheng tried to flee by putting on women's clothes and changing his hair style into a woman's hairstyle, but was nevertheless captured. When both he and Zhang were interrogated, he was so fearful that he was shivering and unable to answer any questions. Zhang, who answered questions normally, commented as he looked on Zheng, "I deserve defeat for starting a rebellion with this kind of a man." Both Zheng and Zhang were taken to a busy marketplace and beheaded in public.

Notes and references

Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 208, 209, 210.