Di Renjie

Life

He passed the mingjing examination and began his career as judicial assistant at Bianzhou, later serving as legal officer (facao canjun) in the Bingzhou commandery office. In the Yifeng era he became assistant director of the Court of Judicial Review, where he cleared 17,000 backlogged cases and was praised for his fairness; he was promoted to attending censor and director of the Revenue Bureau, and went out as prefect of Ningzhou. Wherever he served he was credited with good administration.

Under Empress Wu he was brought into the central government as vice minister of the Winter Office and sent as commissioner to the Jiangnan circuit; he was transferred to right assistant director of the Department of State Affairs, went out as prefect of Yuzhou, was demoted to prefect of Fuzhou and moved to adjutant of Luozhou. In the second year of Tianshou (691) he was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, acting head of the Department of State Affairs and chancellor (tong fengge luantai pingzhangshi). He was later imprisoned on the false accusation of Lai Junchen and, spared death, was demoted to magistrate of Pengze.

Empress Wu held him in high esteem; she once praised his good administration at Runan and offered to reveal the names of those who had slandered him, but he declined to learn them, and she admired him deeply.

He was recalled as prefect of Weizhou and transferred as military governor of Youzhou. In the first year of Shengong (697) he entered the government as vice minister of the Chancellery and chancellor, and was soon made director of the Chancellery concurrently chief censor of the Right Bureau of Censors, receiving the honorary rank of Yinqing Guanglu Dafu. Early in the Shengli era he was deputy commander and pacification commissioner (anfu dashi) of the Hebei circuit army, pursuing the Turks; on his return he was given the office of director of the Secretariat and enfeoffed as Duke of Yan.

Empress Wu wished to make Wu Sansi crown prince; Di Renjie remonstrated sharply and urged the installation of the Prince of Luling, and the empress, moved, restored the Tang line. He died in the third year of Shengli (700) and was posthumously granted the office of right chancellor of the Department of State Affairs and the posthumous name Wenhui. After Emperor Zhongzong's restoration he was posthumously granted the office of Minister of Works, and in Emperor Ruizong's reign he was posthumously enfeoffed as Duke of Liang.

Works

Di Renjie was known for recommending worthy men and for his poetry and prose; he was also a calligrapher, and in the first year of Jiushi (700) he composed and wrote out the epitaph of Yuan Gongyu. The Jiafan in one juan and his collected works in ten juan are lost; one of his poems survives in the Quan Tangshi, and a work entitled Liang Gong Jiu Jian is also associated with his name.

Family

His father was Di Zhixun, and his nephew was Di Jiao; his sons were Di Guangsi (the eldest), Di Guangyuan and Di Guangzhao, and his grandson was Di Huan. Di Fei and Di Guobin were recorded as his fourteenth-generation descendants.