Ministers › Statesman / Official
Lai Junchen
Cruel official of Empress Wu's reign who rose through denunciations, co-wrote a manual on framing charges, and was executed in 697 after turning on the Wu princes
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Lai Junchen came from Wannian near the capital. Jailed in Hezhou for theft and adultery, he sent denunciations from prison, won an audience with Empress Wu, and rose to censor and then vice censor-in-chief. With Hou Sizhi and others he kept several hundred informers on hire, and with Wan Guojun he wrote the Luozhi jing, a manual on how to frame the innocent; he designed ten great cangues with names such as Stopping the Pulse and Howling from the Ground, so that prisoners confessed before questioning. More than a thousand families were wiped out on his charges, and even Di Renjie was once thrown into prison through him. In 697 he plotted to accuse the Wu princes and Princess Taiping, and even the heir Li Dan, but Wei Suizhong exposed him and the Wu princes and the princess denounced him together. He was beheaded in the western market that summer at forty-six, and his enemies tore his flesh from the corpse until nothing remained.
Life and times
Dates 651 CE–697 CE