Yuan Qianyao
Chinese chancellor
Yuan Qianyao (源乾曜; died December 22, 731), formally the Duke of Anyang (安陽公), was a Chinese politician during the Tang dynasty, twice serving as chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong.
Background
Yuan Qianyao was from Xiang Prefecture (相州, in modern Handan, Hebei). His family traced its ancestry to the Northern Wei official Yuan He, who was a prince of the Xianbei state Southern Liang. His ancestors later served as officials of Northern Zhou and Sui dynasty. Yuan Qianyao's grandfather Yuan Shimin (源師民) served as deputy minister of justice during Sui, while his father Yuan Zhixin (源直心) served as the minister of justice under Emperor Gaozong of Tang, but was, for offenses lost to history, exiled to the Lingnan region and died there. Yuan Qianyao passed the imperial examinations, although it is not known when that occurred.
During Emperor Zhongzong's and Emperor Ruizong's second reigns
During the second reign of Emperor Gaozong's son Emperor Zhongzong (who reigned twice and whose second reign was from 705 to 710), Yuan Qianyao served as Dianzhong Shi Yushi (殿中侍御史), a low-level imperial censor, and his responsibility was to examine the matters of the Jiangdong region (江東, i.e., modern southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, south of the Yangtze River). He was considered capable in his duties, and was eventually promoted to the higher office of Jianyi Daifu (諫議大夫). After Emperor Zhongzong's brother Li Dan the Prince of Xiang, himself a former emperor, took the throne again (as Emperor Ruizong) in 710, there was an occasion when it was proposed that the shooting ceremony—a traditional ceremony in which the emperor led the officials in firing arrows from bows—be abolished. Yuan opposed the abolition, arguing that it was a traditional ceremony required by Confucian regulations.
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