Cui Xuanwei
Liu Youqiu was born in 655, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong. His family was from Ji Prefecture (冀州, roughly modern Hengshui, Hebei). During the "Shengli" era (697–701) of Emperor Gaozong's wife Wu Zetian, Liu passed the imperial examinations and made the sheriff of Langzhong County (閬中, in modern Bazhong, Sichuan). The prefect of the prefecture Langzhong was in, however, did not respect him, and he, in frustration, left his post. Some time later, he was made the sheriff of Chaoyi County (朝邑, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), a post that he was serving at as of 705, when Wu Zetian was overthrown in a coup and her son, Li Xian the Crown Prince, a former emperor, was restored to the throne (as Emperor Zhongzong). For some time, the key officials in power were the coup leaders Zhang Jianzhi, Cui Xuanwei, Huan Yanfan, Jing Hui, and Yuan Shuji. Liu tried to warn Huan and Jing that Wu Zetian's nephew Wu Sansi the Prince of Liang posed a threat to the coup leaders and should be killed, but they did not listen to him. Soon thereafter, Wu Sansi, who carried on an affair with Emperor Zhongzong's powerful wife Empress Wei, became a trusted advisor to Emperor Zhongzong, and the coup leaders were exiled and eventually died or killed in exile.