Wang Hongyi

Who was Wang Hongyi?

Wang Hongyi was a secret police official during the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty.

It is not known when Wang Hongyi was born, but it is known that he was from Hengshui. He was known as a hoodlum in his youth, and on one occasion, when he begged for melons from a farmer but the farmer refused, he falsely reported to the county magistrate that there was a white rabbit -- then considered a sign of good virtue for the emperor -- in the melon field; the magistrate sent soldiers into the field to hunt try to find the white rabbit, and the melon field was destroyed. On another occasion, when he went through the region of Zhao and Bei, he happened to see the country people putting on a vegetarian feast for Buddhist monks, and he falsely reported that they were plotting a rebellion. More than 200 people were killed.

As of 690, Wu Zetian, then empress dowager and regent over her son Emperor Ruizong, was poised to take the throne herself, and by that point, she had given Wang a general title, and then made him an assistant censor.