In 692, she made Yao Shu Wenchang Zuo Cheng (文昌左丞), one of the secretaries general at the executive bureau (文昌臺, Wenchang Tai), and gave him the designation of Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor de facto.
Later in 692, however, he was accused of improprieties not recorded in historical accounts, and he was made the minister of vassal affairs (司賓卿, Sibin Qing), no longer a chancellor.
[4] In 694, Wu Zetian made Yao Shu Nayan (納言), the head of the examination bureau (鸞臺, Luantai) and a post considered one for a chancellor.
Thereafter, however, apparently by Wu Zetian's directive, the matter of having the officials give up two months of salary was no longer mentioned.
After the completion of the pillar, Wu Zetian was set to give him a greater title, when he requested that instead posthumous honors be granted on his father Yao Chuping.
In 695, Wu Zetian's lover Huaiyi, because she had another lover, Shen Nanqiu (沈南璆), was jealous, and set the imperial meeting hall (明堂, Ming Tang) on fire—an event that Wu Zetian hid the truth of and indicated was an accidental fire, but she considered stopping an imperial feast she was holding at the time to show humility in light of what might be divine disapproval.
Your Imperial Majesty should not prostrate yourself.Wu Zetian agreed, continued to feast, and further ordered that the meeting hall be rebuilt, with Yao in charge.
Yao opposed accepting the gift, stating: Lions are fierce animals that eat only meat.
After the end of the campaign against Khitan in 697, there was accusations against Yao, and she demoted him to be the secretary general at Yi Prefecture (益州, roughly modern Chengdu, Sichuan).
At the time that Yao went to Yi Prefecture, it was said that the low level officials of the region were largely corrupt and violent.
Around that same time, however, there was an incident where Zhu Daipi (朱待辟), the secretary general of Xindu County (新都, in modern Chengdu), part of Yao's responsible area, was accused of corruption and sentenced to death.
Wu Zetian further sent the secret police officials Song Yuanshuang (宋元爽) and Huo Xianke (霍獻可) to investigate, and several hundred more people were arrested and tortured.
He made Yao Shu the minister of public works again, now with the restored Tang name of Gongbu Shangshu (工部尚書).