Li Chongjun
Wu Zetian was overthrown in a coup in 705, and Emperor Zhongzong was restored to the throne. Soon, his cousin Wu Sansi the Prince of Dejing became powerful as his trusted advisor and lover to his powerful wife Empress Wei. Zong Chuke was initially made the minister of husbandry (太僕卿, "Taipu Qing"), and soon, under Wu Sansi's advocacy, he was made the minister of defense (兵部尚書, "Bingbu Shangshu"), and Zong Jinqing was made the imperial architect (將作大臣, "Jiangzuo Dachen"). In 707, Emperor Zhongzong's son, Li Chongjun the Crown Prince, angry at insults thrown at him by his powerful sister Li Guo'er the Princess Anle and her husband Wu Chongxun (武崇訓, Wu Sansi's son) and LI Guo'er's repeated attempts to displace him to become crown princess, started a rebellion and killed Wu Sansi and Wu Chongxun. When he next approached the palace, hoping to arrest Empress Wei, Li Guo'er, and Consort Shangguan Wan'er (Emperor Zhongzong's concubine, who was also having an affair with Wu Sansi), Zong Chuke was one of the commanders of the forces defending against Li Chongjun's forces, and subsequently, when Li Chongjun was defeated, it was Zong who sent forces after him and, after he was killed by his own guards, returned his head to the capital Chang'an. It was further at Zong's request that Li Chongrun's head be presented to the caskets of Wu Sansi and Wu Chongxun. He soon became a member of Empress Wei's faction, and later that year, he led a group of officials in presenting Empress Wei with the honorific title of Empress Shuntianyisheng (順天翊聖皇后). Further, he and LI Guo'er tried to implicate Princess Taiping and Li Dan the Prince of Xiang (the former Emperor Ruizong) in Li Chongjun's plot, but at the advice of Xiao Zhizhong, Emperor Zhongzong stopped investigations against Li Dan and Princess Taiping. He was, however, successful in getting Emperor Zhongzong to exile the chancellor Wei Yuanzhong, whose son Wei Sheng (魏升) had been forced to participate in Li Chongjun's rebellion. Later that year, he was made a commanding general of the imperial guards and given the "de facto" designation of "Tong Zhongshu Menxia Sanpin" (同中書門下三品). However, he received praise from later historians when he, in 708, supported the proposal of the general Zhang Rendan in building three forts north of the Yellow River in order to control the local Tujue population, which was effective. (Zhang's proposal was opposed by most imperial officials, but Zong supported it strenuously, stating, "This will benefit the empire for 10,000 generations.") However, he was also criticized for his flattery of Emperor Zhongzong and Empress Wei, particularly his repeated presentation, either by himself or through proxy, of various signs of fortune purportedly showing that Emperor Zhongzong's line will last for 100 generations.