Zhǎngsūn Wújì 長孫無忌
Zì Fǔjī 輔機; posthumous title Wénxiàn 文獻 (eventually withdrawn after his political destruction). Native of Luòyáng. Lifedates 594–659. Brother of Empress Zhǎngsūn 長孫皇后, the wife of Tang Tàizōng; uncle of Tang Gāozōng.
The principal early-Tang minister and one of the most powerful court figures of the seventh century. A leader of the Xuánwǔmén zhī biàn 玄武門之變 of 626 alongside Lǐ Shìmín; in Zhēnguān held Shàngshū yòu pǔshè 尚書右僕射 and Sīkōng 司空; under Gāozōng Tàifǔ 太傅 and chief executor of the Zhēnguān settlement. Drove the demotion of Lǐ Tài 李泰 in favour of Lǐ Zhì 李治 (Gāozōng) as Crown Prince. Implacably opposed to Wǔ Zétiān’s elevation as empress in 655; in 659 falsely accused of treason by Wǔ’s faction, exiled to Qiánzhōu, and forced to suicide. Posthumously rehabilitated under Tang Zhōngzōng.
Scholarly contributions: chief presenter (in his role as supervising editor) of the Wǔdài shǐ zhì 五代史志 — the ten zhì attached to the Suí shū (KR2a0023) — submitted to Tang Gāozōng in Xiǎnqìng 1 (656). Co-compiler with Lǐ Jī 李勣 of the Tang lǜ shūyì 唐律疏議 (the Yǒnghuī lǜ shū 永徽律疏 of 653, the great Tang law code with annotation), the foundational document of Tang and East Asian law. Also chief compiler of various imperial shíǔ and zhì compilations of the early Yǒnghuī era.
His biographies are in Jiù Tángshū 65 and Xīn Tángshū 105 (KR2a0026, KR2a0027).