Lai Junchen
Chinese politician
Lai Junchen (Chinese: 來俊臣) (died 26 June 697) was a Chinese politician and writer. He was a well-known secret police official during the Chinese Tang and Wu Zhou dynasties, whose ability to interrogate and falsely implicate officials of crimes made him a subject of fear and hatred. In 697, he was accused of plotting to falsely accuse Wu Zetian's sons and other family members of treason, and he was executed.
Background
It is not known when Lai Junchen was born, but it is known that he was from Wannian County (萬年), one of the two counties making up the Tang dynasty capital Chang'an. His father was one Lai Cao (來操) -- who was said to have won Lai Junchen's mother, then the wife of his friend Cai Ben (蔡本), after winning in gambling with Cai. Lai Junchen was said to be a thug who did not work, who was investigated for thievery while he was at He Prefecture (和州, roughly modern Chaohu, Anhui) and who then made false accusations against others to the prefect, Li Xu (李續) the Prince of Dongping, a cousin of then-reigning Emperor Ruizong. Li Xu had him caned 100 times and thrown out.
In 689, in the aftermath of rebellions against Emperor Ruizong's mother and regent Empress Dowager Wu (later known as Wu Zetian) by Emperor Ruizong's uncle Li Zhen the Prince of Yue and Li Chong the Prince of Langye, Li Xu, along with many other imperial Li clan members, was executed by Empress Dowager Wu. Lai again made a secret report, this time directly to Empress Dowager Wu, who encouraged such reports from anyone. When she met with him, he claimed that what he was reporting earlier dealt with Li Zhen's and Li Chong's rebellions, and that Li Xu had improperly suppressed them.
The public source identifies “Lai Junchen” as chinese politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Junchen, Chinese and politician.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6473612. VIAF identifies the subject as 67145541717796600881. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lai Junchen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.