Yuan Zai (元載) (713 – May 11, 777[1]), courtesy name Gongfu (公輔), formally Duke Huang of Yingchuan (潁川荒公) and then Duke Chengzong of Yingchuan (潁川成縱公), Duke Zhong of Yingchuan (潁川忠公), was a Chinese economist, historian, judge, and politician during the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Suzong and Emperor Daizong, becoming particularly powerful during the middle of Emperor Daizong's reign.
Jing Sheng became the property manager for Princess Yuan, the wife of Li Ming (李明) the Prince of Cao, a son of Emperor Taizong of Tang.
Yuan Zai lost his father early in life, and it was said that in his youth, he was studious and intelligent, and particularly well-studied in Taoist writings.
Yuan Zai did well on this special examination and was made the sheriff of Xinping County (新平, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi).
When the imperial censor Wei Yi (韋縊) was put in charge of selecting officials from Qianzhong Circuit (黔中, roughly modern Guizhou and western Hunan), he invited Yuan to serve as his assistant.
After that term of service, Yuan became Dali Sizhi (大理司直), a junior judge at the supreme court.
Li Xiyan (李希言), the surveyor of Jiangdong Circuit (江東, i.e., the region southeast of the Yangtze) commissioned Yuan as his deputy and the prefect of Hong Prefecture (洪州, in modern Nanchang, Jiangxi).
When he met Emperor Suzong, Emperor Suzong was impressed by his quick thinking, and gave him several responsibilities—deputy minister of census (戶部侍郎, Hubu Shilang), deputy chief imperial censor (御史中丞, Yushi Zhongcheng), and the director of financial matters of the Yangtze-Huai River region.
Meanwhile, when Emperor Daizong removed Miao Jinqing and Pei Zunqing from their chancellor posts after returning to Chang'an, it was said that Yuan became even more powerful.
Meanwhile, though, with Li Fuguo (who was assassinated late in 762 by Emperor Daizong's orders, probably with Yuan's assistance) and Cheng Yuanzhen having successively been removed, Yu Chao'en had become a powerful eunuch, and he and Yuan did not get along with each other, and while the two did not openly dispute with each other, for the next several years, the power struggle between them would be a strong undercurrent in Tang court politics.
Yan, then the minister of justice, vehemently opposed, pointing out that this would lead to the rise of another Li Linfu—who used similar methods to block off criticism against him during his service as Emperor Xuanzong's chancellor.
Later that year, when Yu, during a lecture on the I Ching, tried to satirize the chancellors by talking about how a ding (a large cooking vessel often used to symbolize chancellorship) would overturn if imbalanced, Yuan's fellow chancellor Wang Jin, was visibly incensed, but Yuan remained calm and pleasant, leading Yu to comment, "It is common for the target to get angry, but one who remains smiling needs to be paid attention to even more carefully.
With the emperor and the chancellors leading the way, the populace was also largely devoutly Buddhist—so much so that the energy of the government and the people were spent on worshiping, not on affairs of the state.
Yuan bribed two close associates of Yu's—the guard commander Zhou Hao (周皓) and the general Huangfu Wen (皇甫溫)—and was able to get full grasp of Yu's activities.
In spring 770, at Yuan's suggestion, Emperor Daizong carried out several moves that were intending to be preludes to eliminating Yu—moving the general Li Baoyu from being the military governor (jiedushi) of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji) to Shannan West Circuit (山南西道, headquartered in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi, to the southwest of Chang'an), while moving Huangfu, then the military governor of Shan Circuit (headquartered in modern Sanmenxia) to Fengxiang—while allaying Yu's suspicions by transferring control of four counties near Chang'an to the imperial guards, under Yu's command.
Indeed, in 773, after Li Qiyun indicted several of Yuan's associates—Xu Hao, Xue Yong (薛邕), Du Ji (杜濟), and Yu Shao (于劭) -- causing them to be demoted out of the capital, it was said that corruption became somewhat curbed at court.
He then had Liu Yan, then the minister of civil service affairs, and Li Han (李涵) the chief imperial censor interrogate them.
Only his daughter Yuan Zhenyi (元真一), then already a Buddhist nun, was spared, but she was confiscated to be a servant inside the palace.