Di Renjie

Also known as Zi Huaiying · Diliang Gong · Wen Hui

Di Renjie, courtesy name Huaiying, came from Taiyuan and entered office through the classics examination; in Bianzhou the inspector Yan Liben called him a pearl of the river bend. As a judge of the Court of Judicial Review he cleared cases involving seventeen thousand people in one year without a complaint. Made a chief minister in 691, he was soon accused of treason by Lai Junchen; he confessed to escape death, smuggled out an appeal sewn into a padded jacket, and was cleared but demoted to magistrate of Pengze. Back in the chief ministry from 697, he appealed to the bond of mother and son until Empress Wu recalled her son Li Xian, the Prince of Luling, as heir, and he recommended dozens of officials, Zhang Jianzhi and Yao Yuanchong among them. He died in 700 with the posthumous name Wenhui and was later made Duke of Liang. The Dutch sinologist Robert van Gulik made him the hero of the Judge Dee detective novels.