Lai Junchen

A cruel official under Wu Zetian and the central figure of "Please step into the urn."

Life

Rose through informing

Lai Junchen was a ne'er-do-well who won Wu Zetian's favor through informing on others and became an attendant censor, specializing in trying cases of treason.

Classic of Entrapment

With his accomplices he wrote the Classic of Entrapment, teaching how to fabricate charges and extract confessions under torture, and created a great many unjust cases; court officials would often bid their families farewell before going to court.

"Please step into the urn"

Ordered to interrogate another cruel official, Zhou Xing, he asked Zhou Xing how to make a prisoner confess. Zhou Xing said to put the prisoner in a large heated urn, whereupon Lai Junchen had a large urn brought in and said, "Please, brother, step into this urn." In 697 he planned to falsely accuse the princes of the Wu clan and Princess Taiping, but was exposed instead and executed in the marketplace, where people scrambled to cut off his flesh.

Legacy

Lai Junchen was one of the most notorious cruel officials in Chinese history, and his end shows that power gained by fabricating charges and framing others will eventually turn back on its holder.

Major works & achievements

• Classic of Entrapment

Did you know? The idiom "Please step into the urn" comes from the story of his interrogation of Zhou Xing.

Key dates

• 686Rose to favor through informing
• 690Interrogated Zhou Xing: "Please step into the urn" (approx.)
• 697Executed