Wei Yuanzhong
In 703, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were apprehensive that if Wu Zetian, who was ill at the time, died, they would be killed by the senior chancellor Wei Yuanzhong. They therefore falsely accused Wei and the official Gao Jian () of having said that Wu Zetian was too old and that it was better to support her son and crown prince, Li Xian. Wu Zetian, in anger, arrested Wei and Gao, who proclaimed their innocence. Zhang Changzong promised Zhang Yue a promotion if he would corroborate the accusations against Wei, who was Zhang Yue's superior. Zhang Yue initially agreed, but as he entered the palace, several fellow junior officials, Song Jing, Zhang Tinggui (), and Liu Zhiji, pointed out to him that it was important for him to leave a clean name in history. After he entered Wu Zetian's presence, instead of corroborating Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong's accusations against Wei, he proclaimed Wei's innocence and accused Zhang Changzong of suborning perjury. Wu Zetian, while angry at Zhang Yue, spared Wei and Gao as a result, exiling them and Zhang Yue instead to the Lingnan region—in Zhang Yue's case, to Qin Prefecture (欽州, roughly modern Qinzhou, Guangdong). Zhang Yue would remain there for the rest of Wu Zetian's reign.