This upright minister is Xu Gonggong. We all know that during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, the laws were very strict. The reason is simple, because as a female ruler, Empress Wu Zetian had to intimidate everyone with strict laws, otherwise no one would listen to her.
After Xu Gonggong entered the court as an official, he was able to take charge of the judiciary due to Wu Zetian’s admiration for his personality.
Xu Gonggong is different from the severe and cruel officials of the same period. He advocates that torture should not be used when adjudicating cases, but rather a gentle approach should be adopted. Due to his good reputation, Xu Gonggong worked in the judicial field for several years before being promoted to the position of Chief Justice of the Judicial Yuan.
Although Wu Zetian liked Xu Gonggong’s personality very much, her way of doing things was completely different from Xu Gonggong’s. In order to consolidate her rule, Wu Zetian promoted a large number of corrupt officials and even set up informant boxes.
Xu Gonggong was very dissatisfied with this. He not only wrote a letter to advise Wu Zetian, but also went to court to support her, which made Wu Zetian very unhappy. In a fit of anger, he dismissed him from his official position.
However, although Xu Gonggong repeatedly disagreed with Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian still valued him very much and soon promoted him to the position of Imperial Censor. Not long after Xu Gonggong took office, a major case occurred. At that time, Tang Ruizong’s mother-in-law Pang Shi was burning incense at home, but was reported as cursing Wu Zetian for premature death.
After learning the news, Wu Zetian was very angry and asked Xu Gonggong to investigate the case. Xu Gonggong visited multiple places and finally understood this matter. Originally, Pang thought that there were ghosts and monsters at home, and in a state of anxiety, he burned incense to drive away the ghosts, without any intention of cursing Wu Zetian.
After Xu Gonggong reported everything to Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian saw it as a good opportunity to scare others off, so she sentenced Ponzi to death on charges of treason.
