Wu Chengsi
By spring 690, Empress Dowager Wu's nephews Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi had become very powerful, and even the chancellors had to bow to them. When Wei Fangzhi suffered an illness that year, Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi went to visit him, but Wei lay on his bed and did not answer their greetings. When someone warned him that not doing so risked offending them, he responded, "Life and death are all determined by heaven. How can a real man prostrate himself to flatter imperial relatives just to avoid disaster?" Soon, Wei was falsely accused by Empress Dowager Wu's trusted secret police official Zhou Xing, and he was exiled to Dan Prefecture (儋州, roughly modern Danzhou, Hainan), and his assets were seized. Later that year, after Empress Dowager Wu had taken the throne from Emperor Ruizong and become "emperor" of her own Zhou Dynasty, Wei was executed in exile. Only after Wu Zetian herself was overthrown in 710 and replaced by Emperor Ruizong's brother Emperor Zhongzong were Wei's honors posthumously restored.